TenForward: Where Every Vulcan Knows Your Name

cross-posted from: https://startrek.website/post/19356345

I finally got around to watching some Discovery (though I'm only through the first few episodes of season 4). My thoughts:

• First three are a moderately enjoyable sci-fi drama
• I have to admit, season 3 just presented enough interesting ideas and mystery I was able to ignore most of its flaws
• I've really started to notice death by subplots, though. It feels like they try to do 4 different plots in an episode, 2 which they do okay and 2 which are way weaker than they should be. I would have rather they done 2 subplots really well.
• I felt season 4's conflict was really contrived. The plot could have almost written itself with what happened in season 3. Osyra died and we don't even talk about the aftermath in the Chain - the slavery isn't just going to magically disappear, and there's sure to be a power struggle. Also, killing Book's family was kind of idiotic - talking about grief and obsession again is like beating a dead horse. Heck, if you'd let his family live but still destroyed the planet, we could have had an interesting story on diasporas instead.
• Also, background character development feels a bit weak. I spent half the first couple seasons wondering who the heck Ariam was, and just when I did, they killed her before the audience could develop much of an attachment. They could have at least thrown in a few more crew barbecue scenes.
• I am now more impressed at what Lower Decks did with fewer, shorter episodes a season than Discovery. They really managed to create a sense that we'd been with these characters a long time and that they were growing despite the entire show being shorter than 1 TNG season. I do have a few gripes about season 5 (my main one being how does Ma'ah go from "Beckett is honorable" like, a few hours after meeting her to immediately distrusting her in the finale), but my respect for LD has only grown.