It could have been a cool TV show, but it’s not Star Trek. Let’s say Star Trek is a cheeseburger. Next Gen, DS9, Voyager, Enterprise were all variations on cheeseburgers. Add some toppings, use the fancy mustard, I feel like Enterprise added kale.
Now Discovery wanted to make major changes. They switched the ketchup to a much sweeter sauce, and added a bunch more cheese; then they got rid of the top bun, and made the bottom one wider… they made a pizza. Maybe it’s a good pizza. It’s not a cheeseburger.
Those aliens are not Klingons! You can do all kinds of creative things with the culture, or the costume of the time, but the basic biology of the species is established*. We know that Kahless the Unforgettable looked like (Remember him?). It’s not like you can’t find bands of Klingons who already have the makeup and costume at any convention.
What the hell is with the mushroom drive? I grew up with a schematic of the 1701-D on my wall. I have read every technical manual for the Galaxy and Constitution class star ships. Nowhere do they mention having fungus in the engines. I can;t care about it, because we all know it fails. Like how nobody got too attached to the Jedi in Phantom Menace through Revenge of the Sith.
Prequels are a terrible idea. You can’t really get any kind of dramatic investment when the audience knows how it ends. The warp-mushrooms fail. The Klingons don’t overrun the Federation. And it looks like the Star Fleet uniform designers all get replaced real soon. Just put it in the 25th century when we don’t know that it’s all ok in ten years.
I really want to like Discovery. I’ve been a fan of Star Trek since 1987, but it’s not star trek. It’s a good pizza, but I wanted a cheeseburger.
*You even have two basic templates to choose from.
The Adventures of Vindalf 