Writer & Producer Gail Chord Schuler's Review of Star Trek Discovery Episode 1
https://gostream.is/film/star-trek-discovery-season-1-21925/watching.html?ep=1043058
Writing: F
Cinematography: A
Costume Design: F
Acting: F
Special Effects: A
Direction: C
Music Score: D-
Make-up: B
As a writer, I found it extremely boring. There was no real conflict until about 20 minutes in. But then the conflict didn’t seem related to the theme and there was no theme. And the conflict seemed caked on, as an effect, and not as the main concern of the show. And the characters never really showed us anything to make us like them or want to spend time with them. As every writer knows, a good opening needs to introduce an intriguing character and the conflict. This show did neither. We learned nothing significant about the characters through the entire episode. The leads seem like shallow ghosts parading through beautiful cinematography. The Klingon costumes look downright silly on a Klingon. Characterization sucked, with all characters like shallow ghosts parading through beautiful cinematography. They don’t seem to deeply care about anything, and because they don’t care, neither do we. As any screenwriter knows, you can’t make a good film or production out of a sorry screenplay. The show seemed like an expensive extravaganza trying to make up for having nothing significant to say or do. The only people who’d enjoy watching this would be those who don’t care about anything that matters in life, and, therefore would not mind watching characters, who are like pretty pictures with no soul. The writing gets a little preachy at times, which is typical of sorry writing. Rather than show the theme (while we are searching for the theme) the show just preaches at the audience with epithets that don’t seem at all related to what’s going on.
How in the world this got renews for a second season is beyond me. I hear that Loree McBride was the executive producer, which explains the sorry writing. Loree McBride does no deep thinking and is only good at using photo shop to create photos of herself with Brent Spiner for events that never happened. This may explain the beautiful cinematography and special effects. Loree is good at creating fake photos and using effects. Though, even in this, some of her fake photos have some slopping editing.
I think Loree probably had to pay people to write good reviews for this, and even to watch this very, very boring show. It opens up like a Star Wars movie with the cinematography, but lacks the acting, writing and directing of a Star Wars movie.
The fact that sorry productions like this go mainstream and that Steven Spielberg’s Silver Skies and other productions based on my writing are banned from mainstream production, shows that when evil terrorists like Loree McBride control Hollywood, the whole world suffers from a lack of great art on the screen. Though this review is not about Loree McBride as a terrorist, her terrorism is not limited to destroying human life, but also to terrorizing and destroying great art, and depriving the world of truly great cinema that the world will remember 100 years from now as having made earth a better and more thoughtful place.
It’s obvious this only made it to the screen, cuz Loree spent a fortune on it, not cuz it’s any good. For the same reasons, Loree pays people to write reviews, which explains the sorry reviews of truly great writing, like some of my writings, and the sorry reviews that praise a production like this that never should have gone to the screen. Watching this does nothing for the viewer, does not make the world a better place, does not make you think more deeply about life and does not inspire you to reach for greatness or to grow as a person in any way.
Even if you are a person who does not care about a thoughtful screenplay, the writing is so sorry it is not good in any way. Some people don’t care about character stories, like I do, but can get into a movie if it has lots of action and suspense. This does not even have that. It fails as a character story. It fails as a story about interesting events. It fails as a story that is all about an interesting place. It fails as a mystery. There is no mystery here. There is NOTHING here but pretty pictures! No story – PERIOD. No beginning, middle and end. So cuz the screenplay sucks, the episode is a total FLOP. It fails in the action/suspense department. The opening is slow and boring, just two characters talking to each other about nothing important. A bunch of small talk. By the time some action kicks in I predict the non-Star Trek fans have already turned off their television sets. The conflict does not seem related to anything the main characters care about, and it seems like they go into battle with half their souls and seem lost and in another world while in battle. So the battle is anemic and boring and the main characters could die and we wouldn’t care because there is nothing to make us care. They don’t seem to stand for anything other than to be alive and make a presence. But why? We don’t know. We are asking ourselves “Why are we even watching this?”
The screenwriters haven’t taken the time to learn how to craft an engaging story and seem to think they can dupe the public into watching it with expensive cameras, angle shots and special effects and great publicity alone. They just want to create the impression of a great film, but leave out all the matters, the soul of a film, which is its writing and acting. This was obviously not a passion for them. It was obvious the production was all about making money, not about anything the writers or producers deeply cared about.
Sorry, I’m a writer and perhaps I’m prejudiced, but I can’t bear to watch such sorry writing. I think this is a disgrace to cinema and a waste of everyone’s time, and Loree sure wasted a lot of money on garbage. But then, that’s her specialty. She has stolen the real Brent Spiner’s identity and bankrupted him, spending all his money on sex toys, rape fests, going on shopping sprees at the malls, new cars, sex gadgets and knows nothing of moderation in anything she does. She is a fanatical sex terrorist and her outward appearance (and false presentation to the world) as the glamour princess is like a porcelain doll with an ice-like stare parading through a hall of pretty pictures. So it makes sense that anything she produces would be the same.
From a science-fiction perspective, the science in the script is not much and not enough to intrigue a hard-core science fiction fan who likes to go deep into science and technology. It’s mostly a show with lots of good cinematography which is not enough to maintain interest, except unless someone paid you to watch the show, which is probably the ONLY reason this has gone into a second season!
I will admit I’m not a Star Trek fan and the only Star Trek I really liked was the first three seasons of Star Trek: The Next Generation when Melinda Snodgrass was a screenwriter there. Her scripts were my favorites. But I don’t even think Star Trek fans would like this.
I remember when Legally Blonde came out. I wasn’t too impressed with it, believing the Jesuits put that out to make the lead a parody of Loree McBride, cuz at the time they made Legally Blonde I told Brent I planned to go to law school to help him with all the Jesuit trouble he had in his life. But though I’d give the script for Legally Blonde a “C”. The acting was very good. In fact, Reese Witherspoon really brought something into the character. But this Star Trek Discovery‘s only redeeming quality is the cinematography, and most folks could just as easily go online and watch beautiful pictures in a slideshow and get the same effect.
It also appears that Loree McBride used her Jew clones to produce this. Jew clones are a real tragedy, only obsessed with money and greed and all they do is without heart and soul.
I’m not going to be as hard on the actors as some have been, cuz I know as a voice actor that if you have a sorry script it’s hard to make your dialogue work. But the actors seemed to have only learned how to memorize lines and not much else. Since it’s obvious this was only made to try and get rich quick, it makes sense that the actors didn’t bring anything into their performances and their dialogue seemed stiff, formal and lacking any feeling or genuineness. Like any good actor, they failed to dig deep into their souls to “find” their character’s heart and soul before saying their lines. Perhaps because there was nothing there to find? Loree could only get her clones or newbies to say these lines, cuz I’m sure any reputable actor would have balked at the script and refused the roles. Their lackluster performances won’t do much to advance their careers, unless of course all their fans are paid to show up and watch the production to keep it going. Those who aren’t bribed into supporting this production would find other, more interesting things to do. This begs the question, “How did Loree find the money to keep this thing going, if she had to pay people to watch it?” Perhaps we better not go there or this will get X-rated quick! Apparently, being a brain control rapist is a profitable venture. Ten years from now, no one will care about Star Trek Discovery, except those who are PAID TO CARE.