Hi there! Before we get into the main topic of today's Tuesday TV Touchbase, a quick shout out to Jeopardy champ Amy Schneider who won her 4th game last night.
Amy is not Jeopardy's first trans gender champion but she's certainly making a big impression, crossing over $155,000 in total winnings in 4 days.
By the way, Ken Jennings is doing a very good job holding down the fort. As much as I like Mayim for the gig, I still hold on to hope than Ken can get the Jeopardy hosting job on the regular.
Season 4 of Star Trek Discovery premiered last week but I won't be writing about it here. Andrea and I have a few more episodes to complete season 3 first.
Season 3 catapulted the starship Discovery 900 years into it's future to the 32nd century which is probably the best thing to happen to this show. No longer bound by the restrictions of being a prequel show, Star Trek Discovery is free to explore a completely new part of the Star Trek universe.
Life in the 32 century has a many steps back as it has steps forward. An event known as "the Burn" decimated Starfleet and virtually all supplies of dilithium. Warp travel is no longer an abundant luxury.
The Earth has turned isolationist. The Federation exists but far from the power and influence it had in centuries past. It's hard to be of service to a collection of worlds that are too far to reach in any short period of time. Resources are limited and must be marshaled carefully. Sadly not all cries for help can be answered.
Enter Discovery with a cargo hold full of dilithium AND a spore drive that doesn't need it.
Season 3 presents an interesting challenge to the idealism of Gene Roddenberry's original concept. The crew of the Discovery have the ideals of a Federation that was strong and growing in influence; they have to interact with a Federation that is weak and losing influence. The Federation of the 32nd century has not given up on it's ideals and it's mission but it's hard to hold on.
Saru, now captain of the Discovery (and about damn time, too!) is determined to have his ship and crew be of help where they can but in deference to the Federation they have found in the future, not the one they left in the past.
For the 32nd century Federation, Discovery represent hope that had been lost. Hope can be a wonderful thing and it can also be a dangerous thing as well.
Joining the gang in the their new future home is David Ajala as Cleveland "Book" Booker, a freelance courier who partners up with Michael Burnham after she fell through time and spent a year waiting for Discovery to catch up to her. Ajala was Manchester Black in Supergirl.
Also on board now is Blu del Barrio as Adira Tal, A human bonded with a Trill symbiont. Adira is the first non-binary character in a Star Trek series. Stamets keeps referring to them with she/her pronouns. Adira sets him straight and Stamets gets the they/them correct from there.
Among the returning cast, we're spending more time with Paul Stamets & Hugh Culber (who make such a great couple and looking after Adira is prompting some urges to parent) as well as Detmer. Detmer has grown into more than just the woman with cyber thing in her head who pilots the ship. Her storyline of her PTSD after the ship crashed into the 32nd centruy was well handled.
With time spent wandering with Book, Michael Burnham considerably more mellow. She can be has intense as ever but she also allows her to relax and smile. Still after nearly 3 seasons, it still irks me that Sonequa Martin-Green whispers half her dialogue.
There were a lot of things about Star Trek Discovery that I found to be more than a little frustrating from it's first season. But show has built itself into more of an ensemble, not just a starring vehicles for the adventures of Michael Burnham. The new status quo with the ship in 32nd century is the best thing to happen to this series.
Also in the Star Trek universe, Andres and I have been following Star Trek Prodigy. An animated series created for the Nickelodeon network, the series is set in the year 2383, five years after the USS Voyager returned to Earth.
In the Delta Quandrant, young aliens are working as slave labor on a dark and forbidding mining planet ruled by a ruthless and ominous being known as the Diviner.
A small ragtag group of them find an abandoned Starfleet ship, the USS Protostar. Taking control of the ship, they must learn to work together as they make their way towards the Alpha Quadrant.
A couple of things right off the bat about Prodigy. The theme by Academy Award winner Michael Giacchino is I think the best Star Trek theme ever.
And the animation for this series is gorgeous, lots of imaginative detail and great use of color.
So Star Trek Prodigy looks good and sounds good. But is it good?
Well, yes. Kind of. Sort of.
OK, Star Trek Prodigy wasn't built for me. There is a definite appeal to a younger demographic which is admittedly the show's mission. Where is the next generation of Trekkers coming from?
This show is a great introduction for younger viewers to the Star Trek universe. Because the principals are young and being introduced to the concepts of the Federation and Starfleet. The characters and the target audience are both on the same journey.
As for those characters, to be honest, Dal is still getting on my nerves. A 17 year old maverick who fancies himself as the captain of the Protostar, he has until been broadly drawn as just wanting to have fun and avoiding responsibility. Well, who can blame him after spending his childhood as slave labor on a bleak mining planet? His fading memories of his parents and his lack of knowledge of his own species lends him some emotional weight lends him some emotional depth but he thinks he's going to be the leader of his crew, he needs to start earning that title of "captain".
Rok-Tahk is a big hulking brick monster, the crew's muscle. Rok-Tahk is also an 8 year old girl who feels left out and yearns for connection and companionship. Rok-Tahk is a sweet, sympathetic character.
My favorite character of the crew is Zero, a Medusan.
Meduans were introduced back in the original series as noncorporeal, genderless, energy-based lifeforms whose very appearance can drive others to madness. Zero wears a containment suit. Zero is super smart and capable of withering snarky comments but lacking in wisdom and experience.
Zero is not the only energy-based character on the show. There is also Janeway, the Protostar's Emergency Training Holographic Advisor. The ETHA is based on Kathryn Janeway, captain of the USS Voyager who the hologram describes as one of the most decorated and accomplished officers in Starfleet history.
Hey, Hologram Janeway, I've seen the season 2 finale of Star Trek Voyager and I take exception to that description.
Anyway...
ETHA Janeway provides a practical plot device to info dump some Star Trek knowledge on the new kids but there are hints of some character development. Hologram Janeway is seen frequently drinking coffee like her human counterpoint. The sly look on ETHA Janeway's face when Dal thinks he doesn't need help running the Protostar when he's on the verge of destroying the ship or the slight look of worry when the kids go out on their first away mission and she can't accompany them because she's a hologram.
Like the EMH Doctor on Voyager, it will be interesting to see if ETHA Janeway has to evolve her programming to do things that maybe a little differently than her human template, Kathryn Janeway, one of the most decorated and accomplished officers in Starfleet history.
While Star Trek Prodigy has a first season order of 20 episodes, we're not getting much time to settle in with the crew of the Protostar. After 5 episodes, the next batch of new episodes will not land until 2022.
Well, that is that for today's post. I watch a lot of TV what will I write about next? Find out in next week's Tuesday TV Touchbase.
Tomorrow, it's Doctor Who Is NEW! as I post about this past Sunday's episode.
Until next time, remember to be good to one another and try to keep it down in there, would ya? I'm trying to watch TV over here.
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