Star Trek: Discovery (2017-?)

Network:

CBS

Starring:

Jason Isaacs

Sonequa Martin-Green

Doug Jones

Plot:

Ten years before Kirk, Spock and the Enterprise, the USS Discovery discovers new worlds and lifeforms as one Starfleet officer learns to understand all things alien.

Review:

I really like Star Trek, specifically Star Trek: The Next Generation. Currently, I’m in the middle of a re-watch with a bunch of friends so it’s also fresh in my mind. Big reveal, I’ve never watched Star Trek: The Original Series. I’ve seen episodes and what I’ve seen has not been my cup of Earl Grey tea. Also, as I’ve mentioned before, I am not a fan of prequels. The fact that this show happens before TOS is not a bonus to me.

I went in with very low expectations. The trailers did nothing for me, the articles I read about the story did nothing either. All they showed me was that this was not going to be the diplomatic, thinking Star Trek with hope that I love so much.

First, the positives. I liked the interior design of the ship. It was interesting and looked different from the other ships, but still modern. I liked the little rivalry between the first officer and the science officer. I liked the different species, though I didn’t know what any of them were. I also really liked that the captain and first officer were women, even though I’m pretty sure TOS had an entire episode about how that wasn’t possible.

As far as positives go, that’s it. There was so much changed and I felt like there was very little respect for the source material. I get wanting to do your own spin to things, but when you’re dealing with something that’s got so much lore and cannon material already you can’t just reboot and expect people to fall in line.

They completely changed the design of Klingons, fine, they looked too much like Lord of the Rings orcs for my taste but whatever. However, why did they have to go and change the bat’leth? Why did they have to completely focus on one side of the Klingons and forget all the development that was done on their species? Yes they’re a warrior race, but they also have traditions and honor and diplomacy. It also felt like Klingon sounded different and I wondered if they had someone who spoke it on staff, but I could be wrong on that front.

I disliked the fact that the captain of the ship loses control on the first episode, that the first officer, who was raised by Vulcans, loses her emotional shit on the first episode as well. There was hardly any introduction to characters and you were just thrown into action. Where is the camaraderie? Where is the competence? I have no faith in this crew at all.

The first episode ended on a cliff hanger because CBS wants you to subscribe to their All Access streaming service, however they’re not uploading all episodes at once they’re releasing them weekly. My original plan was to wait until either the midway point or the end of the season to subscribe and binge, but the more I think about the episode the more I disliked it so I’m not sure what I’ll do.

I want more Star Trek, but I want the Star Trek I love. I’m tired of the grim dark, hopeless, action packed Star Trek. That’s fine for a Sci-Fi action series, just not Trek, not my Trek at least.

2/5