Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 3

[lizbee]

So I've been a SNW skeptic since it was first announced, and have never been impressed by the show. But I've gotta say, I've seen six episodes of the third season, thanks to screeners, and we are so far yet to hit a good episode. We have, however, hit several repetitive m/f relationships, multiple love triangles, weirdly a lot of antisemitic subtext, and the decidedly bad look of Pike trying to stop his girlfriend from consenting to life-saving medical treatment.

Mostly I think this is because Akiva Goldsman is a hack who doesn't understand Star Trek or subtext, but also I wonder how much is because the seasons are being filmed back-to-back, and so there's no opportunity to see and respond to criticism. Ironically I think part of Discovery's problem was that it was too responsive to fandom, but Goldsman can't be left alone to pursue his creative vision because he doesn't really have one. 

Anyway, at this point I'm only watching because I have a podcast, and also out of a sick eagerness to see if Pike will have to murder his girlfriend and have manpain about it, or if she'll sacrifice her life to save him. 

(I've seen people theorise that the problems this season are due to the show pivoting in a more conservative direction to appease Skydance, and I am sorry to say that these scripts predate the 2023 strikes. Like, there was time for the writers to go back and think, "Oh, there's some dodgy stuff here, we should fix that!")

Comments

[starlady]

I keep thinking, if they wanted to give Spock drama why didn't they just make Sybok and his hot non-binary partner recurring guests, but then I think, I don't want to see the writers make a hash of them.

[lizbee]

It feels like the writers have a very limited pool of ideas for interpersonal/emotional drama, and most of them are romance.

It's giving late season ER, which is not idea when you're less than 30 episodes into a series!

[netgirl_y2k]

Yeah, SNW has been a weirdly conservative, not to mention offensively heterosexual, show since day one.

[susanreads]

I haven't seen any SNW and I won't unless/until it hits Freeview here; you're not making me regret that (unlike all but the first season of Discovery. Will we ever get the rest?).

What is Skydance?

[ase]

I just watched 3x01 and 3x02. The 3x02 gimmick could be mined to ask what is love, is friendship love, can you love more than one person, etc. Annnnnnnd we got... what we got.

...and the decidedly bad look of Pike trying to stop his girlfriend from consenting to life-saving medical treatment.

I am queuing up 3x03 and getting popcorn.

[aurumcalendula]

I keep meaning to check out SNW, but it's sounding less and less relevent to my interests (not to mention less queer than I'd hoped).