Something has been nagging at me about Star Trek: Discovery ever since I finished season 3, and I finally figured out what it is

Like a lot of modern Trek it really wants to be a big action show

But its action scenes are often weak because they’re under-conceived

THREAD

1/25

In many ways Discovery gets action right

There’s no frantic cutting or excessive shaky-cam to stop us seeing what’s happening

Instead each shot is clear, and often dynamic

But the situation and stakes are always so vague

2/25

Let’s take the multiple battles in the season 3 finale

Full spoilers from here, stop reading if you don’t want to know, etc

The first battle comes when Discovery is confronted by Osyraa’s massive ship while they’re parked outside the nebula where the Burn started

3/25

We don’t understand the relative capabilities of the ships

Osyraa has been built up as head of a scary big criminal organisation, but the one previous time we saw her ship, Detmer shot the shit out of it while flying Book’s not-exactly-military-grade ship

4/25

Meanwhile Discovery is 900 years out of date technologically, because time travel, but it’s also had some futuristic upgrades

Who has the upper hand in terms of weapons, shields etc? No idea

Then Osyraa bullies acting captain Tilly for a bit...

5/25

... and her ship extends some tentacle-y things that ensnare Discovery, and her troops teleport aboard

This is sort of OK. Osyraa has surprise technologies that overwhelm Discovery’s defences, and the ship gets taken over. For me it needed more buildup, but it’s fine.

6/25

But compare <gasp> Star Trek: Nemesis

I know, it sucks

But one thing it does right is it properly introduces the baddies’ ship

The thing decloaks in front of the Enterprise and we are clearly shown that it’s much bigger, Worf reads off the list of weapons it has...

7/25

... and when the battle starts we realise that it can fire weapons while cloaked

We know upfront: this thing can kick the Enterprise’s arse

It doesn’t have to be like that: in Wrath of Khan, Enterprise and Reliant are evenly matched, so it’s a battle of wits. Also fine!

8/25

But Discovery forgets this

It gets way worse when Osyraa takes the captured ship to Federation headquarters

I could use more information about the barrier around HQ and in particular whether it could be breached by weapons fire, but meh

9/25

The real issue comes when Starfleet lets the ship in and the fleet surrounds it

As discussed Discovery is 900 years out of date, so surely this is like a wooden galleon being surrounded by aircraft carriers?

Or, post-Burn, are Starfleet ships crappy? *We don’t know*

10/25

The show forgot to show us how well the modern Starfleet ships perform, or whether Discovery’s upgrades put in on par with them

So we know it’s a tense stand-off, but mostly because the acting and music tell us it is

11/25

At this point I’ll step briefly away from the specifics of the space combat and just briefly mention the fight in the turbolift chasm

I’m not going to point out how stupid it is, because everyone’s done that - I just want to say that Monsters Inc did it better

12/25

Anyway a whole bunch of stuff happens and Osyraa takes Discovery out of Starfleet headquarters again

Her aim is to steal the ship’s unique go-anywhere-instantly drive

Starfleet can’t let that happen

This is all solid although I’m unclear why they let the ship out...

13/25

The Vulcans arrive to help but this does not affect what happens so who cares

Instead the crew sabotages the ship so it drops out of warp

I guess this stops or at least delays the theft, so, fine (although it does involve a too-late reveal about an underused character)

14/25

But Osyraa’s ship turns up and it turns out it has a kind of mouth so can swallow Discovery

It’s a bit late for surprises like that

Once this has happened, Osyraa’s ship starts firing what I guess are internal weapons?

15/25

I’m unclear why these weapons don’t trash Discovery instantly, because, again, it’s 900 years old and Osyraa’s ship is like a Star Destroyer

I also don’t know why they’re firing at all if the aim was to take the ship

Surely overwhelming boarding parties are in order?

16/25

What happens though is that the baddies’ sudden stupidity allows Michael to enact her plan of jettisoning Discovery’s warp core and blowing it up, destroying Osyraa’s ship, while Discovery teleports away

This only works because the baddies are suddenly stupid

17/25

If this all sounds like nitpicking, I guess it is

But the thing is, what the show is guilty of more than anything is rushing from one cool/dramatic moment to another, without doing the work of setting them up so they make sense

18/25

The result is, we as viewers don’t really understand what’s going on

More specific, detailed versions of these situations would be more effective

19/25

Take, for contrast, one of Trek’s best battles: the finale of Yesterday’s Enterprise

The setup is that the Enterprise-C, a ship from decades in the past, has come through a time portal and this has changed history so the Federation is losing a war against the Klingons

20/25

The Enterprise-C is trying to go back through the portal and restore history

But three Klingon warships arrive, so the Enterprise-D (Picard’s ship) has to hold them off while the older ship sloooowly trundles to the portal

21/25

We know the Enterprise-D is at a disadvantage, simply because it’s 1 versus 3 (the Enterprise-C is crippled and old)

The whole thing is spatially clear: we see the Enterprise-D put itself between the Klingons and the Enterprise-C

It’s all very precise and we get it

22/25

Similarly, Star Trek VI has a really specific situation for its final battle

They have to stop an assassination on a nearby planet, but they’re attacked by a ship that can fire while cloaked, so they can’t beam down or (at first) even usefully shoot back

23/25

And finally, Deep Space Nine takes the cake

The show broke new ground with its huge fleet battles, but they’re not just special effects bonanzas

Instead Starfleet has actual strategies, as does the other side, and we see how the two collide and cause complications

24/25

TL:DR I do like Discovery now, and it’s on a steep upswing, but it has a way to go before it pulls off a space battle on a par with what DS9 did 20-odd years ago

Here’s hoping for a more thought-out season 4!

ENDS

25/25