12 Monkeys s2e5 "Bodies of Water"
After finishing Fringe, decided to watch 12 Monkeys, since writer/director Terry Matalas wrote season 3 of Picard. Not to mention cramming the 3 male leads into various parts. Most notably Todd Stashwick (Deacon) as Captain Shaw. Unsurprisingly, Matalas is doing similar with his work on VisionQuest. Better than expected so far.
My old man Hot Take: New trek (with the exception of Lower Decks) has damaged the chances of more Trek.
People just wanted a solid TNG/VOY/DS9 era type show, focused on single episode arcs that were thinly vieled philosophy discussions/elements from old sci-fi pulp transposed into the Trek world.
They didn't want Netflix slow burners that deal with gritty personal issues like rape, and torture. Don't get me wrong those things were mentioned in other shows, but in the safety of strength, group processing, metaphor, and 1990s carpetted sets. Not in disorienting darkness with someone portraying complex trauama whilst still a captive victim for multiple episodes.
Trek is supposed to help people process modernity. Not hold them under by re-traumatising them with a gritty real Netflix takes.
WHEN Miles O'Brien is tortured it happens on a bright set and we all joke about it because it's an impossible kind of sci-fi torture. When discovery does it, it's a guy in a dark cell confessing the Klingons raped him repeatedly.
We needed good guys, not good guys who tortured a slug whilst being victims themselves and it's all a mirrror universe episode - because god everyone loved those right? \s
It was the classic "We don't want to listen to fans, we want to break the limits and leave a mark"... Well good fucking job. Literally if they made Star Trek, only the ships were tank shaped, and the Klingons were suddendly going by the name "Iraqis" I don't think I'd even notice. The concepts/franchises are just damaged now. They Trumped it up into something it's not.