So some friends and I are watching through “Star Trek Discovery.” We’re Trek fans from *decades* back, so it might surprise some that it’s taken us this long to get around to wading through all of STD. We’re well into season three… and we’ve made an important decision.
Star Trek, whether the episode was good or bad, was always pretty much *fun.* But STD is *not* fun. A lot of it is downright painful. So while we’re generally interested to see where the plot goes, the characters themselves are often just nightmarish. So the decision was made to stand by on the Fast Forward button. Someone starts crying? Fast forward. Someone starts a monologue about how awesome someone else is, or any form of emotional validation? Fast forward. That cringy Trill/human “couple?” They show up… fast forward.
We’re getting through episodes *really* fast now. More than anything, this cringe-edited version of STD reminds me of those Super 8 versions of sci-fi movies that were available in the late 1970s.
I remember seeing, circa 1979-1981 or so, a desktop “unit” that had a film cartridge that showed Star Wars boiled down to maybe five minute on a display just a few inches across. Until VHS, that sort of thing was the only way to watch Star Wars on demand. And fast forwarding is the only way to watch STD *at* *all.*