Just finished both episodes on CBS all access. 

Highly agree with the New Klingons being "Why did you change them again" Also if this is taking place ten years prior to ST TOS then we should not be seeing these Klingons we should be seeing the hybrid Klingons. Maybe this will be explained later but it is still very annoying.

More annoying is the way the Klingons speak. It's like listening to the news broadcast in Slow Latin (yes that's a thing) Guess they are trying to appeal to all the fans who learned Klingon at Klingon summer camp.

Still more annoying is why is the star Spock's adopted sister? This is completely uncallled for as she could have been adopted by any Vulcan family and makes little sense if you consider she is supposed to have been raised on Vulcan to be very Vulcan but had a Human adopted mother.

If you consider that this show was supposed to air 9 months ago and was pulled because they thought it was not polished enough to satisfy the fans I think they went to far.

Still there is alot I like about it. The updating of the technology on the bridge is good. The minor characters seem to be getting some play (at least in the coming attractions). They are going with a big story arc (maybe two or three) instead of individual episodes so we are encouraged to watch.

Like that the main character has to start at nothing and redeem herself. Should be good.

FYI would not call myself a huge Star Trek fan but did meet my wife of 23 years at a Star Trek Fan Club we both belonged to.

Now the Orville is a great laugh... watching that tonight.

Good points but there is another reason a Blink drive would unbalance the game and that is communications. Dark Matter has better comms across light years than AT&T has in my neighborhood. They are also instant with no delays. Meanwhile SF subspace radios require careful aligning of dishes and take 1 hour per light year. Add that to the days or weeks it takes to travel and A blink drive ship would respond so much faster that they could take over the frontier.

If I were to use this in the game I would increase the size of the drive from a circuit card you can hide in your bra to an entire ship. The drive cannot be removed from the ship nor can it be easily copied. Still think it is a little too much for SF especially the time travel part.

For SF the ship might have an advanced drive and nav system that speeds up navigation, maybe it can jump just a bit farther safely.

Example I am playing through the older pre SF TSR space games to better grasp some ideas... the ship I am using is massive, can only jump 15 ly max at a time like SF ships, but it takes  1 month to calculate each jump and prep for the next jump... so the ship is stuck out on the no where between jumps, each jump has a malfunction chance, and during that calculation time or exiting the jump Space Hazards (many of which reappear in SF story lines) are a serious problem too. Needless to say the exploration goes slow... plus you got to get back home before your supplies run out... just saying when comparing the Jump tech in many ways the SF ships though limited (SP and SE ships can ultimently be improved to jump further) have faster computer systems allowing for quicker calculation to travel the same distances also smaller more effecient systems and tech in general... it takes 1000 naval crew to keep the T'tet running safely, less than that and oh dear the % chance for disaster starts climbing and the T'tet is no war ship. 

The T'tet's computer system is the old school giant tape reel type computers that takes up huge amounts of space and lots of operators to monitor. So tech level can make a huge difference in what a ship needs crew wise to do the same task and how long that takes.

Happy Sci Fi folks.

Ever since AT&T got out of the telephone business and started dipping their destructive fingers into...well, everything else, yeah --- anything up to and including the telegraph is light years better than AT&T communications. 

Okay had a Sci Fi night and caught Discovery and Orville last night. Some Spoilers maybe.

DISCOVERY

Discovery did the fake out with not having the Discovery in the first two episodes and we finally got to see the ship, last night but really seemed to be more of an introduction show then getting into the main story. Lots of new characters and background introduced and catching up with some of the old ones.

Good-they seem to be going with alot of action and a deep mystery or two. I want to come back and see where this is going.

Bad-well not so bad. If you ever thought of updating your SF campaign to have technology today then watch this show. They have gone with alot of things not seen in ST TOS but you would expect to see if you're a twentysomething watching a show about the 23rd Century.

Really Really Bad-The Shhhishing Klingon. He made no sense and was totally out of character. Klingons do not Shhhish.

ORVILLE

I am not a fan of Seth MacFarlane. Family Guy and American Dad are examples of what is wrong with American TV. But he is winning me over a little with this show. While there is alot of language and jokes that make these Starship Officers look like Idiots in Space. The show deals with social issues in a way you expect Sci Fi to do it and I am pretty amazed at the Guest Stars they get for this show. For last night it was Charlize Theron. So last night:

Good-covered alot of that and last night they worked what might be some of the long story plot and did some good character development. The android cutting off the navigator's leg joke was very well worked into the plot.

Bad-somethings are not explained but just accepted because you know this is a ST clone. These are the bad guys and you know what they are like cause they are like Klingons type stuff. 

Anyone else have opinions on these shows.

Guest stars are what Seth is best at (well, second best...after inappropriate humor that is  ). He went out of his way to get the actual people to do the voices whenever he featured them in his animated shows. Naturally not everyone went for it, but his guest cast is a regular Who's Who list with the late Adam West as a regular (who coincidentally enough had another Who's Who of guests in his Batman serial).

Live action requires an actor to be present with the rest of the cast at the same time for line reading, rehearsals, costume fitting, make up and actual shooting plus maybe some post work and reshoots. Remembering ST TNG and the poker game scenes which were only created because Whoopi Goldberg could not make every shoot they wanted her for.

Way more impressed with the Orville's guests. Word is Patrick Stewart will be on the show soon.

FYI --- Patrick Stewart was a regular on American Dad (Stan's boss) and made numerous appearances in Family Guy. He has a working relationship with Seth so it's no surprise Seth was able to get him for the new show.

Okay been kicking around the web and found an interesting fan theory about what is really going on on STD (yes that is the abbreviation) that makes alot of what is happening and how it is happening make sense. The fan thoery is that this show is about the beginning of Section 31.

For those who are not ST fans, Section 31 is an ultra secret, CIA type organization dedicated to protecting the Federation. They present alot of little clues, the most obvious is the Dicovery is numbered NCC 1031.

For SF, has anyone ever tried an to create a Star Law Section 31? Really advanced characters who think the law is a good suggestion but will do whatever is necessary to protect the Frontier from ALL enemies.

Well still plodding along with STD. They have taken a few things from other shows. No real spoilers but cannabilistic Klingons who betray each other over food and not fist fighting for supremacy still begs the question why the hell didn't they use another race instead of revamping the Klingons. Oh and they are going with the let's kill a speaking multi episode character every other episode like the Walking Dead.

Oh and the guy you thought was gay is so we got the progressive thing going one. They are also embracing the all access thing and let one of the characters say the f word.

Meanwhile all episodes of Dark Matter are available on Netflix and SyFy will you can only catch Killjoys on SyFy.

Any other sci fi shows I should be thinking of?

Orville: Love the Orville. We have a Captain who is good at his job, but he's not perfect, just a normal guy that we can understand at the end of the day. "It's an anti-banana ray. We no longer have to fear the banana." He doesn't have every answer so he's not as smug as Kirk. He's not flying around in a top of the line ship like Picard. I think this show has alot of potential. They could screw it up easy, but time will tell.

Dark Matter got cancelled? Where's Rattraveller? I'm feeling it's a shoot the messenger day today. :) At least they kept Killjoys. Hopefully the Expanse gets renewed as well.

-LZ

No Orviller this week, Oh well. STD continues down the path of more fantasy and less sci fi and action action action.

Was going to give STD props for going the extra mile with so many extras put into Klingon and Vulcan make up. Then I saw the Elders at the end of the episode and wondered what elementary school art class got that contract. Oh did I mention another Vulcan terrorist group got introduced? What is it with Vulcans being terrorists?

Hadn't heard of the Expanse before. Looks interesting and the official site says season 3 "takes flight in 2018" so that will be back.

Don't think my wife would think I am the voice of reason but thanks.

Tried to check out the Expanse. While there are full episode recaps I don't have time to read two seasons worth right now. The last five episodes are available but since I do not have a "major" cable/internet provider I am locked out of them also.

Anyone watch this and can give some idea of the overall plot and SF tie ins?