Dear CBS, since you may have placed this video on YouTube to gauge honest public reaction to Star Trek Discovery, I would like to offer an important observation. Michael Okuda, a chief graphic designer for Star Trek since the 1980s, noted some years ago in an interview that Star Trek is actually a "period piece" — it's a period piece set in the future, but it has a

continuity, both of "historical" events and most especially of tone. Take a popular period piece show like Downton Abbey. Unimaginable effort was put into every historical detail of that show, and the result is twofold that fans with passing or high knowledge of the early 20th century are able to appreciate how the context of the world at that time affects nearly every

aspect of the show. Our human drama is essentially the same story in every TV show or movie or myth, but the context of the period forces the characters to make certain decisions based on their condition; e.g. in Downton Abbey, upper class young women are expected to marry wealthy young men, but they've mostly been wiped out by World War I, so are

constrained; this creates drama for our main characters. Sometimes a period piece is executed extremely poorly, and the movie Troy comes to mind. In that film, the continuity of the myths and legends of the Greeks is carelessly discarded, ostensibly to make a better movie. Sadly, poor writing makes that film hard to watch. Some of us are intimately familiar with

these ancient stories, so when the character of Menelaus is killed in the movie Troy, I balked, commenting to my friend in the theater, “but then how will Menelaus meet Odysseus’s son Telemachus in The Odyssey?!” and we laughed at the poor script. Obviously the writers of the movie Troy only had the most basic understanding of The Iliad and The Odyssey,

and missed important plot points that could have greatly improved their script. I grant that many people are not terribly familiar with The Iliad and The Odyssey today, which is a shame since they are the foundation of all Western literature and have had profound influence on all the literature of the world. The Marvel Cinematic Universe does an excellent job of creating

a contemporary period piece with impeccable continuity. Its movies, stories, and characters are all linked, which adds greatly to the enjoyment of these films for those of us who have seen more than one. Simultaneously, each movie stands on its own as a well written, coherent story, not dependent on the other movies, but supported by them. Each subsequent

movie or TV show spinoff adds to that tapestry. It does not unravel it. Interestingly, this is not a modern phenomenon. The Ancient Greeks continued to write plays about the characters and events in The Iliad and its sequel The Odyssey, plays that were prequels, sequels, and interwoven stories dealing with the established continuity. A hundred of these works survive,

and form the base of all Western literature. Many different authors wrote these works, but they always understood the importance of maintaining continuity. The Hollywood execs who made Troy were interested only in invoking a famous story in order to attract people to the theater. Thus the artistic result is hollow. Making money is great, and I approve of funding

cinematic artists. Think of the original Lord of the Rings trilogy, Mad Men, the 1990s Star Trek series; you’ll find these shows do well because of their excellent attention to detail of continuity. CBS, your Star Trek Discovery reeks of the same foul mistake made in the movie Troy. Rather than respect continuity, Alex Kurtzman has said that a franchise with 50+

years of TV shows and movies is impossible to add to without disregarding continuity. Considering that the Ancient Greek epic poems and plays comprise some 300 years of continuity from Homer ot the Athenian playwrights, and truly a thousand years to include the subsequent Roman literature based on the same complicated, interwoven stories (see

Ovid’s Metamorphoses), this is false. It would seem that it is impossible for Alex Kurtzman, because he has not seen all the TV shows or movies (I would doubt he has viewed even 10% of the source material, based on his productions so far). Yet I have seen all the Star Trek movien and TV series, some of them multiple times, and so have many fans of Star Trek

seen most of this material. So when we say that Star Trek Discovery is lacking, take our word for it. Or, watch all these episodes and movies, see what was done well and what was done poorly, and learn from the mistakes and successes of the past. I really don’t think it’s too much to ask for the current show runners of Star Trek to be very familiar with the source

material. While they make changes for the sake of cinema, was Peter Jackson not intimately familiar with the Lord of the Rings books? What about the makers of Game of Thrones? CBS, the Star Trek franchise is a golden goose, and it will keep laying golden eggs, but only if you treat the animal with respect. So here is my solution: have every writer watch every

episode of TOS, TNG, DS9, VOY, and ENT, as well as the original ten movies. Then they can absolutely be original and craft stories that fit into this contuity. Otherwise, what’s the point? Ah yes, to usurp the Star Trek brand name to try to draw and audience. But then you won’t expand the fan base, and the show will fail. You see how important this is for your

business to make money? At the bear minimum, get a few consultants who are well acquainted with the Star Trek TV shows and movies, so they can filter out bizarre mistakes in continuity. Don’t make us scratch our heads wondering how the proverbial Telemachus will meet the dead Menelaus.