I struggled with Star Trek Discovery. It seemed like at least once in every episode they ramped up the tension with life-or-death-every-second-counts emergencies and then slammed on the brakes to stop so characters could share and respect each others' feelings for several minutes.
I do appreciate entertainment that's 'inclusive' and not afraid to seem 'woke', but this series handled it so awkwardly that it made both look more like liabilities instead of benefits.
For me TOS given in its original time was really, really inclusive: it had the first kiss on American television shown between a white man - Shatner - and black woman - Uhura. It clearly had a Russian on board, during cold war, as well Japanese.
What really makes STD for me a bad series is that
a) they are celebrating their embracement of LGBT+ way too much while
b) delivering a real bad story and screen writing for 5 fucking seasons!
Its just like some kind of fairy came around, waved her wand and made the screenwriters think that having a vast, diverse cast alone is already enough to carry a whole series, and that having a good story doesn't matter any longer.
And this is what we got then: Burnham crying in every episode at least once, and since all other people are always just incompetent to do anything by themselves, Burnham saving the day in every goddamn single episode. Again and again and again. It's just like she's the Star Trek messiah incarnate. Also it doesn't help that she just seems to have two emotions she can display.
Also the idea that Burnham was pardoned after her little mutiny is just bonkers. The first season was also biblical, Burnham on her way from Saulus to becoming Paulus, and getting pardoned and finally finding absolution. But that nasty streak to disbehave is always in herself, but most people in Starfleet just don't mind or h ave given up trying to reform her, instead think its a great benefit. Crazy.
And if - how dare they - somebody has an idea on how to solve something, this is only allowed to contribute to Burnham's glory. No side character is allowed there to shine, ever. It's also astonishing how even in season 3 none of the bridge members mattered to most, they are just bland replacable people doing their stuff there, while SNW managed to achieve that within a few episodes.
Of course some good things came from that series, like Saru or Anson Mount as Christopher Pike. Aside that, STD is just a PITA and waste of time and money with little reason to ever rewatch it.
It's no wonder that at the same time "The Orville" became the series real trekkies flocked around.
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