Star Trek: Discovery - Episode 3 Review

Here we are already at episode 3 of Star Trek: Discovery and this Netflix Original Series is wowing me every minute. It's a spectacularly well-made and well-written series, and I'm just blown away by the whole production. Speaking as a non-Trekkie, this is the Star Trek for me. Not the JJ Abrams flicks, or arguably the original shows, but Discovery.
So, following on from last week, Michael Burnham is now a prisoner of Starfleet, infamous for her insubordination aboard the Shenzhou, when she is picked-up by the USS Discovery and its captain, played by none other than Jason Isaacs. Thus, we have what appears to be our actual set-up for the rest of the series: Burnham working for Isaacs' Captain aboard the Discovery, trying to make up for her past mistakes. Along the way of course, not all is at it seems and ideas surrounding special particles and strange monsters appear to be building some kind of mystery arc for the rest of this season.
This episode in particular - 'Context is for Kings' - reminded me a lot of the Firefly episode Bushwhacked, with the crew investigating a desecrated ship, only to find a sinister creature has picked-off all of the members. There's the main character being pushed into the situation by the authority, and the attacked ship is even blown up at the end! However, these are very surface-level similarities, as the way this episode plays out is completely different to Firefly, even if it did make me think of the latter (being one of my favourite shows). If I had a genuine flaw with this episode, that would be it.
The new crew members introduced with Michael's roommate and the Lieutenant are quite fun, new distinctive characters, alongside Isaacs' chillingly charismatic performance as the Captain. Granted, I can't remember any names, but I could tell you personality traits of each, which is definite improvement over last week's entries.
I suppose I'm left with surprisingly little to say about this episode. I like the characters, the story engaged me, the visuals were stunning (lighting, CG, cinematography, direction, etc.) and I found myself taken aback by the sheer quality of the production. Usually shows like this are style over substance or vice-versa, but Star Trek: Discovery has both - and plenty of them! I'm really enjoying this series so far, and definitely look forward to the next twelve episodes! If you haven't already, definitely give this series a watch - it's started off brilliantly.

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