If you watch Star Trek Discovery, don’t forget to see the Short Treks while you wait for S2! The first one guest stars Yadira Guevara-Prip from Supernaturaland its (sadly not happening) spinoff series Wayward Sisters. Yadira really rocks her character!
Ah, fall has returned, and with it, a bevy of new programming to take a look at. This season is really going to be heating up in the streaming world with the entry of Disney+, but CBS All Access isn’t just waiting idly by either. Wisely, they put off the premiere of ‘Star Trek: Picard’ so as to not directly go against the premieres of several new Marvel series and ‘Star Wars: The Mandalorian’ on Disney+, but to tide us over in the meantime we’ve got a new set of ‘Star Trek: Short Treks’.
‘Short Treks’ were introduced last season as a way to deepen the story of ‘Star Trek: Discovery.’ Most of the episodes would figure into the plotline of season 2 of ‘Discovery’ though it may not have been readily apparent at the time. One outing, ‘Calypso,’ would appear to tie into the upcoming third season of the show, so ‘Short Treks’ episodes would appear to have some reach.
That is what makes the first two episodes of the new batch so intriguing. Last season on ‘Discovery’ we were introduced not only to a younger Spock, but also some of his shipmates from his very early days aboard the Enterprise. While Captain Pike (Anson Mount) got plenty of screen time in the regular season, Number One (Rebecca Romijn) was effectively missing in action all season. ‘Q&A’ finally gives her a bit more to do as we travel backward in time to Spock’s first arrival on the Enterprise. We are given some insight into his path from the expressive and loud science officer we see in ‘The Cage’ to the logical and collected Vulcan we all know and love. Bonus knowledge - we also learn that Number One’s first name is Una.
'The Trouble With Edward’ tells the tale of the introduction of the Tribbles to the Klingon Empire. There are a few continuity issues with this episode, which some fans will find hard to overlook. I noticed said canon error but decided to overlook (mostly because I never really watched 'Enterprise’) and enjoy the episode. This episode could have benefited from a bit more time to work out the dynamic between Captain Lynne Lucero (Rosa Salazar) and Edward Larkin (H. Jon Benjamin). Granted, Larkin does come across a little creepy immediately, but Lucero’s move to transfer him off-ship strikes me as somewhat premature. Imagine if Picard had transferred Barclay off the Enterprise after his first unfortunate run-in.
What both of these episodes deliver is hope that we’ll be spending some more time in this era of 'Star Trek’ history. Especially with the crew of the Enterprise, pre-Kirk days. Captain Pike and his bridge crew deserve more screen time that we’ve been allowed, and these 'Short Trek’ moments only serve to prove that point. Hopefully, by the end of the run of the upcoming 'Star Trek: Picard’, CBS All Access will finally give Pike and company a chance.
This fall will see the launch of Disney+ and Apple TV+, widening the ever-expanding playing field of streaming service choices. It’s a far cry from the days when all you had to do is pick between Netflix and Hulu or just stick with your existing cable provider. But with so many new choices we’ve arrived right back to what gave birth to the cord-cutting revolution in the first place. To have access to all the programming you want, you need to subscribe to quite a few different services and those prices add up.
The benefit of a lot of streaming choice is a wealth of programming. I know I’m excited for Disney+ and its lot of new ‘Star Wars’ series and access to the existing ‘Star Wars’ movies on demand. Of course, I also have to have access to CBS All Access for ‘Star Trek Discovery’ and the upcoming ‘Star Trek Picard.’. ‘Game of Thrones’ may have come to a conclusion, but it is a good bet HBO will have more programming that is nerd-worthy soon. Throw-in Hulu and Netflix because they always have some buzz-worthy shows, and you start to get close to what your old cable subscription cost.
The looming potential of all this is a return to illegal downloading. I know, piracy never really went away. But the increased ticket price of getting all the programming you are looking for is bound to drive more people to find ways to avoid those costs. As more people begin to head that direction, the studios behind the services may start to cut back their programming to make up for the lack of assumed subscriptions materializing. The season 8 premiere of 'Game of Thrones’ received 17.4 million legal viewers according to Nielsen ratings. Online piracy data firm Muso says that the same episode was watched illegally 54 million times within 24 hours of broadcast[1]. Not a small difference to be sure and that number was before the on-coming launch of new services.
The other downside of this much choice in the streaming world is that shows will struggle to find their audiences. Hopefully, streaming providers will learn to adjust their ‘viewers’ data to reflect how their programming is doing compared to other shows on the same service. That doesn’t seem to be the case, and a lot of potentially great shows end up canceled after one season. Maybe we’re lucky that we are at least getting the entire first season, versus the days of network television where we might only see a few episodes. With all the choice out there now how can smaller programs develop an audience?
It’s too early to tell what all the new streaming options will do to the industry. We should, as viewers, at least be prepared for the onslaught of new shows to watch (get ready for even less sleep!). One can only watch so many hours of television, though. Can streaming services adapt to the challenges they create? Or will shows suffer from a perceived lack of viewership due to an out-dated ratings system and piracy? It remains to be seen, but I wouldn’t commit too profoundly to any show, at least at first.
I haven’t been able to find anything online to corroborate the idea that Musk paid The Simpsons to say he’s cool and good, but I did find more info on the Musk namedrop in Star Trek: Discovery.
Turns out it wasn’t scripted. Jason Isaacs dropped Musk’s name in the middle of other revolutionary inventors of his own accord, apparently in the hopes that doing so might score him a free Tesla.
I forgot to post this here! I wrote a Piler AU, because ALL pairings deserve proper AU love!
This grew from a scene that didn’t even end up in the fic, and it was so much fun to write a fic where they’re pretty much just two ordinary modern day guys, falling into each other through happenstance. I still managed to nudge some seriousness in there, like hinting at Ash’s previous relationship, but it was a treat to write their rapport with each other, it just flows so naturally when writing them. They find each other so much fun to be around, it’s sickening :)
Who doesn’t like characters being stuck together and being forced to know each other? This is mostly set in San Francisco and I realized that having an elevator stop due to a quake isn’t completely outside the realm of plausability, so I went with it. But I apologize to anyone who has been in a quake, no matter the size of it, if it looks like I treat it too callously. I tried to be respectful of what is a serious situation, even if for this fic it serves mostly as backdrop.
Anyway, hope you like. IDK why the word count doesn’t show up on AO3, but it’s around 8k words. And the title is from that song, ‘cos it felt too on the nose to go with the song title.
it’s a pity Discovery doesn’t let Philippa dress slutty. I’m all for practical female costuming but I think of you are or ever have been an evil space emperor or empress you are contractually obligated to dress like you’re going to the evil space club.
This is what the gratiuitous undercover party episode trope is for– badass folk can dress sensibly all the other episodes, but for one glorious episode they are fab to the max for ~*plot reasons*~
But that’s also what the evil parallel universe doppleganger episodes are for!
(I haven’t actually watched Discovery yet I’m just assuming it’s evil mirrorverse Philippa who should be dressed sexy)
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