Star Trek: Discovery - Episodes 1 & 2 Review
As for my thoughts on the whole thing, I personally find Star Trek such a dense franchise to get into that I'm really not sure it's worth my while. There's several different series' and a total of thirteen feature films (that I've counted), and my interest in it is just very little to begin with. Star Trek (2009) was the potential jumping-on point for new fans, but there was so much mythology to unpack and with two very unlikable leads I just wasn't interested in pursuing the series further. Star Trek Into Darkness saw Zachary Quinto radically improve as Spock, but even with Benedict Cumberbatch the whole thing just fell apart. Star Trek Beyond, however, was a really fun and engaging blockbuster. Chris Pine was actually good in the film for once, and despite needing about ten minutes of breathing room, I really did enjoy it. Other than that, I've seen glimpses of the original series (which looks quite charming and entertaining, I must admit), the first episode of Enterprise, and Star Trek II, III, IV and whatever number First Contact is. Why do I mention all this? Just to put into context my experience with the franchise, and to give you my opinion as someone familiar, if not really a fan.
Star Trek: Discovery though is actually what I probably needed from day one if I'm perfectly honest. A fifteen episode series focusing on a set of new characters that wasn't a sequel to the original series, hopefully requiring less lore to soak-up in order to understand everything. So how are the first couple of episodes? Pretty good actually.
The series very much opens with everything already in-place, allowing for the action to kick-off as quickly as possible. We're introduced to the warrior race the Klingons (who I mostly know about from Simpsons jokes), who are our main antagonists this season, and then a slam cut to our two leads Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) and Captain Georgiou (Michelle Yeoh) in the midst of a mission on a very well-realized alien world as they are rescued by the USS Shenzhou. And this first impression is very important to both this two-part pilot and my view on the show as a whole: this stuff is legitimately great, and this is the stuff that works in the episodes. As for, say, the rest of the crew on the Shenzhou...they're really poorly-handled.
The crew aren't really given any definable personalities, beyond perhaps the alien science officer who's special power is being really pessimistic...or something along those lines. He gets plenty if not too much screen-time, but everyone else just seems like blank faces pushing buttons and doing ship-things as opposed to actual characters in their own right. One of the things that JJ Abrams' first two Trek movies did really well was the handling of the supporting characters - they are felt like actual characters, even if their drama wasn't important to the story. All had clear roles on the ship, and their own definable personality traits. In Discovery, they're just...people, doing things. Focusing on Michael and the Captain is a very good idea, but we needed at least one or two supporting characters other than the science officer to give an idea of the crew dynamic here.
Why is is this so important? Because the whole two-part pilot is based around this crew getting attacked by the Klingons. This crew won't necessarily last the entire season (as the ending proves), but every single character's potential demise doesn't really hold much dramatic weight when you can't actually care. When there are only three defined characters on this huge ship, they are the only ones we can possibly care about as an audience.
That being said, James Frain is very good as Michael's Vulcan adopted father Sarek (?) in a small guest role - although this is partly because he serves as a means of getting us to know and understand Michael herself. In fact, Michael Burnham is the most developed character in this whole pilot, which works brilliantly for the rest of this pilot and hopefully the season as a whole. She's a legitimately interesting character with interesting dynamics with the Captain and Sarek, and is played brilliantly by Martin-Green, balancing both a calm collective nature but also an emotional vulnerability that makes her both a relatable and competent protagonist. While we as an audience might not think to make the decisions she does, she always justifies herself to us - even if not necessarily to everyone else on board.
As for our villains, the Klingons are surprisingly actually given characterization, whether it be the rather desperate Captain striving to make a name for himself among the 24 Klingon families, the torchbearer's son who distrusts the old legends they follow or the discriminated "pale" Klingon who is willing to follow his Captain to the ends of the universe. Such development and focus is rarely spent on villains, especially alien villains, so is much appreciated here.
But a show like Star Trek: Discovery does somewhat depend on its production values to get by, and production values this show certainly has. The $8 million spent is all up on-screen with an excellent production design, very good creature work, some stellar space back-drops, a really awesome space-walk sequence and a terrifically-realized battle between the Federation and the Klingons. The show never feels cheap, and balances this strong effects work with a nicely simplistic title sequence which may not work out of context, but serves as a nice visual break from the show's usual (amazing) aesthetic. I can't really fault the production at all here, it's pretty stellar.
Jeff Russo composes the original score, and while it does sound like Star Trek very much, I can't say it really stood-out to me. It almost sounded so much like Star Trek that it forgot to forge its own identity. The score is good, but in comparison to Michael Giacchino's stellar work on Star Trek, Into Darkness and Beyond, it just doesn't compare for me.
Overall, Star Trek: Discovery makes for a strong start with these first two episodes. While the crew lacks development, the slightly formulaic story introduces us to a new corner of the Trek Universe that I, for one, would like to see more of. The villains are great, our main protagonist is great and the cliff-hanger leaves me very intrigued for what comes next. If there is a legitimate problem, it's the fact that Michelle Yeoh is only in these first two episodes, as opposed to a main role. I think it was a bit of a waste for her character, but oh well. The whole thing is just far too strong for me to not want to see more. Plus, with a series like this, I'm sure lack of character development will be fixed over time. If you haven't already, give it a watch.
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