A new Trek series

[Nate the Great]

Maybe, maybe, I could be convinced that at the time there was...

1. The 12 emblems for the Constitution class ships.
2. A generic Starfleet emblem for everyone else.

Too bad Discovery blows that out of the water, because they're still using the Enterprise delta.

It's not like Discovery could take place during the Monster Maroon era, where the uniforms looked good, the ships looked good, the emblems really were Cochrane deltas and made of metal...

[Nate the Great]

A closeup of the new uniforms.

Note the 24th century pip-style rank markings. In NO form of the 23rd century seen before were ranks marked by the gold/black pip system! Even the Kelvinverse had TOS-style stripes and dashes on the sleeve cuffs!

So...

Wrong overall uniform design.
Wrong division colors.
Wrong rank markings.
Wrong emblem material and symbol.

First look at the transporter room

Huh? Are those supposed to be transporter mechanisms on the back wall?

A comment on that page:

"This should be taking place right around (even a bit after) the events of "The Cage"... I haven't heard it officially announced either way but it seems pretty definite this must be the Kelvin timeline since uniforms and tech don't even try to resemble the look of Captain Pike's Enterprise, theoretically flying around out there (with Spock on board even)"

I emphasize the "don't even try to resemble" part.

[Nate the Great]

Discovery will dispense with Roddenberry's rule that humans have no conflicts or other base flaws.

I kinda thought that this rule had been thrown away the minute Gene died. It really does seem like some members of the press who are covering Discovery have seen nothing except TOS and the Kelvinverse. Ugh. And if the showrunners feel like they have to explain this, I wonder if they have seen any Trek other than TOS and the Kelvinverse. Ugh again.

Another article extrapolates "more conflict allowed" to mean "more yelling."

Conflict=/=yelling. And if the showrunners feel that they are equivalent, that's another thing to get worried about.

More details about the first two episodes, and another reiteration that Discovery is stepping away from Roddenberry's no conflict rule.

I'm the first to admit that Roddenberry was overly idealistic and that conflict (note: not just yelling and fighting) is needed for drama, but there's a point where "stepping away from Roddenberry" means "this isn't Star Trek anymore."

[Nate the Great]

The first Discovery novel will be released the Monday after the premiere.

I wish them luck. Thinking about it, I wonder if it wouldn't have been a good idea to make a prequel novel and release it a few weeks before. Don't make it required to understand the show, but a helpful supplement.

The silly thing is, Discovery is supposed to appeal to a wider audience, and let me tell you, the wider audience doesn't know that Trek novels even exist. So why are they bothering with tieins so soon? Wouldn't it have made more sense to channel the novel money into filming vignettes exploring the characters, post it on YouTube, and then put commercials on CBS to direct people toward them?

[Nate the Great]

Main characters could die in Discovery.

It's sort of an odd thing to reveal now, isn't it? After all, we don't care about any of the characters at this point, do we? Maybe this post could've been postponed until a month or so after the premiere, right?

[Nate the Great]

Another recap of recently revealed information.

What Discovery can learn from previous shows.

The lesson from NextGen was apparently "don't rely too heavily on previous continuity."

Rebuttal: Yes, but there's a BIG difference between "don't make watching a previous show required viewing, but don't conflict with it" and "totally ignore previous continuity." For example, we know what the uniforms and ships look like in this time period, and Discovery ain't it.

The lesson from DS9 was apparently "don't be afraid of interpersonal conflict."

Rebuttal: We'll see how they handle this one. Of course, to do interpersonal conflict right you need an ensemble cast of likeable characters. Have we seen evidence of this from Discovery? Just cause we have characters named Sarek and Harry Mudd hanging around doesn't mean that we'll like them or care about their conflicts.

The lesson from VOY was apparently "change up the visual aesthetic."

Rebuttal: Oh, so that's why the transporter was embedded in the back wall like an eyesore; just to shake things up. It's not like we know what ships looked like in this time period, or uniforms...yeah, I've harped on this one before, even in this very post!

The lesson from ENT was apparently "explore other genres."

Rebuttal: Fair enough. I can't really complain about that one. Too bad they outright admit that TNG was doing it first. So what was so revolutionary about ENT again?

Key comment from the article:

"If Discovery should take anything anyway from Enterprise it should be that they need to stick with the familiar. Inventing your own alien conflict and continuity in season one is a terrible idea."

[Nate the Great]

9th episode now filming.

Repeat previous queries about last January here.

The link also reiterates the first half/second half explanation. Eight episodes from September 24th to November 5th, the rest starting in January.

Why Discovery is so important