Two Things I Was Wrong about When It Came to Star Trek: Discovery

Just over two years ago now, I reacted to the news about the new Star Trek tv show in development by writing a post informing you (yes, you) of six things you were wrong about. But now that the first "chapter" (half a season) is over, it turns out that I was wrong about a couple things, so I'm going to revisit that old post and eat my hat.

Things I claimed:

1. It Was Going to Be Set in the "Abramsverse." While I was correct that the new show would not follow up any of the myriad things fans remembered from latter-day Deep Space Nine and Voyager episodes (it actually was not Captain Worf), I went on to claim, "New Star Trek should take advantage of the relatively blank canvas offered by a reality with only six hours of content to do something bold, new, and interesting that still feels like Star Trek. [...] Sure, in theory you could do this in the old universe, but there's a perception of baggage that the show is just better off without." Well, it turns out that the show was set in the old "Prime" universe after all! How did it deal with the baggage? Well, just by ignoring it! The aesthetics of Discovery hew pretty closely to those of what we now call the "Kelvin timeline" films (we did not have that convenient term in 2015, reader), and they certainly haven't felt restricted by small bits of canon: Klingon cloaking devices in 2255, why not!? I remain a little surprised by this. Other than the fact that the planet Vulcan still exists, I feel like this show hasn't done anything that wouldn't have fit in the Kelvin timeline, yet here we are.
   
   It turns out, though... that I actually kind of like that it's in the "old" universe. When this show reintroduces Harry Mudd, it's the "same" Harry Mudd I grew up watching, and that makes me smile. Maybe you can go home again.
   
   MY PREDICTION: WRONG.
    
2. It Was Not Going to Be Terrible Despite Being Set In the Abramsverse. Basically this was a long argument about how being set in the same continuity as Abrams' films didn't mean it would have the same quality as them. (This was directed at Abrams haters.) So I guess technically this one ought to be rated "NOT APPLICABLE" since it wasn't set in that reality. If you read my full thing, though, it turns out that I was wrong anyway, because I said, "being set in the same continuity doesn't mean it'll have the same aesthetic, either. If you dislike the movies for being zippy action flicks, the television series is probably not going to be quite like that. (If nothing else, I bet they don't have the money.)"
   
   
   
   It turns out that 1) they weren't set in the same continuity but did have the same aesthetic, and 2) they did have the money because CBS is going all out on this thing. Thus arguably I still ended up wrong, but I refuse to ding up two misses already, so I'll stick with my technicality.
   
   MY PREDICTION: NOT APPLICABLE.
    
3. It Was Going to Not Be Like Your Favorite Fanfilm. Finally one I definitely got right. No fanfilm I have watched has managed to play with the classic tropes and ideas of Star Trek like Discovery has. It did initially seem like it was going to be a grimdark war show with the Whole Federation At Stake (like a lot of fanfilms), and it's even plumbing the depths of the Federation-Klingon War (like a certain fanfilm in particular), but though that's definitely a major part of the show's background, it soon established itself to be a lot more varied, and more inventive, and less fannish than any fanfilm I have watched.
   
   MY PREDICTION: RIGHT.
    
4. Alex Kurtzman Not Being a Star Trek Fan Was Not Terrible. Well, I stand by this one. He's the credited co-creator, but my impression is that his involvement isn't that big. He has a co-story credit on the pilot, and that's it. I mean, he's executive producer so I'm sure everything passes through him at some point, but is he even in the writers' room breaking episodes? If the show is terrible, it's not because of Kurtzman's lack of fan credentials. (And it's not terrible.)
   
   MY PREDICTION: RIGHT.
    

5. They Should Not Bring Back Someone Who Worked on Old, "Real" Star Trek. Okay, I don't know if they should have, but they did. They brought back Bryan Fuller, who was a story editor, later executive story editor, later later co-producer on Voyager back in the day; he has story or script credits on twenty-two various episodes of Deep Space Nine and Voyager, including triumphs like "Spirit Folk" (a holosimulation of Irish stereotypes takes over the ship) and "Fury" (Kes comes back... and she's pissed!). So I guess I was wrong.
   
   But I actually was excited, because in the two decades (what the heck!) between Voyager and Discovery, he went on to create Wonderfalls, one of my favorite tv shows, and also Pushing Daisies is pretty good. He may have cut his teeth on 1990s Star Trek, but I knew he would produce something utterly unlike it.
   
   But but despite being co-creator, he quit after three episodes: he's credited with co-story and co-script on the pilot, story on the second episode, and co-story on the third, and that's it because he's busy doing wacky Gaiman shit on American Gods. He still left his mark, though. Mainly in that the main character is a woman with a male name.
   
   MY PREDICTION: WRONG.
    
6. You Would Be Able to Watch It Despite It Being on a Streaming Service. Um, okay, I'm technically wrong about this one too because there are good odds you aren't watching it because it's on a streaming service. And let's be honest, paying for ads is kind of dumb, but paying for that goddamn Xeljanz ad again and again is particularly dumb. (Xeljanz is an arthritis medication; I assume they're advertising it on Discovery because it sounds like a leftover Star Trek alien.) But the show has been good enough to be worth it, and let's be honest, my real reason for this entry in my original post was to go on a long rant about how watching Star Trek on CBS All Access couldn't be worse than watching Star Trek on UPN, and I was right about that, so I'm calling this one a win anyway.
   
   MY PREDICTION: RIGHT.

Also Discovery is actually pretty good and pretty clever, but that's a different blog post.