By M. Pilon
I can relate…
I’m fortunate that, as a Canadian, Star Trek Discovery is part of my cable package. So I should feel a little less put upon than my American counterparts. But I too am frustrated with how this story is told and I’m wondering if I should just drop it and pick it up again later when the whole story’s in one piece. Most of my family and friends have already drifted away from it. Frankly, so far, it’s not that interesting or compelling if you’re not a committed fan. But as bad, awkward and misleading as the unveiling of each chapter of the story has been, the real damage for me, and what is causing me to rethink my allegiance and forbearance, is the outside stuff.
Stuff like this:

That was a legitimate question and I can relate to the frustration with which it was asked. And I can also understand how much fun it can be, and how irresistible it is to our basic human nature, to stand up on the parapet of the castle, once one has discovered all the secrets within, and shoot stinging arrows of just-wait-and-see and buckets of burning oil of ridicule at the assembled masses below who have grown frustrated at the lack of development and have started to demand to be let in on the joke.
But how worthwhile is it in the long run? How is that helping us to understanding each other so we can work towards peace and unity in every sphere of our lives? We’re told that, in the end, it’s not the big things that count but the countless little things along the way. Random acts of kindness have far-reaching consequences, even if those are never reported. The consequences of random acts of belittling are just as far-reaching if not more.
Let’s be kinder with and more understanding of each other. Some cast members were told what the story was before they signed on. How unbecoming then for them to ridicule viewers, who were not only kept in the dark and told to trust in TPTB that they are telling them the truth, when everything they have seen so far speaks to the contrary. These same viewers are now effectively expected, sight unseen, to reimburse CBS for this trademark owner’s little broadcast toy and for what they paid in production costs and salaries.
I’m one of those frustrated viewers who asked the same question and a lot more. I wish this series had been done with as little fanfare as possible and released in it entirety like any good streaming series would have been. It would have lived or died on the merit of its story without the drip-drip of a weekly installment that is turning into some sort of water torture. I don’t want to feel “reeeaaaally silly” when all is finally revealed. I’m not a pawn in a game of “let’s see if anyone can guess” or the butt of an inside joke for someone’s cheap thrills. This should have been a journey we all took together without anyone feeling used, lied to, strung along, manipulated, ridiculed for asking a question or otherwise kept in the dark – we’re not mushrooms after all.
If we can’t raise the bar on the storytelling with this one, at least let’s raise the bar on the discourse surrounding it. And those in the know should know better and lead the way. Please. We all want the same thing in the end – a good, believable iteration of Star Trek, true to its original values and current marketing and promotion. It’s not like there’s a shortage of real things to tackle out there, so we don’t have to start in on each other.