Discovering Star Trek: Discovery
I just began watching Star Trek: Discovery. Yes, I know, for a guy touting himself as a Geek, to just now start watching what is turning out to be a very interesting, very geek-worthy Star Trek show is scandalous.
Before you start slinging bat’leths at me, let me hasten to explain…
You see, I am rather stodgy and old-fashioned when it comes to certain things. When I first heard that CBS All Access was a paid subscription for the new STAR TREK series, my proletarian sensibilities were upset. In the old days (and, as you all know, “in the old days” is grumpy old man talk), we could watch Star Trek with only an antenna…and then with a cable hookup…and then through Netflix, and so on. You see, it took me a while to decide that it was ok, that the Alpha Quadrant would not collapse into a tizzy if I actually subscribed (with money) to the new CBS access to see my new Star Trek show.
Plus, from talking with fellow Trekker fans at the recent Emerald City Comic-Con, and getting-first hand reviews from real people who also shelled out good money to meet George Takei, well, that helped convince me. I had heard bits and pieces over time from fellow geeks at work, and, frankly, the news that Sir Patrick Stewart himself is getting a new show titled “Picard,” well, that sealed the deal for this geek!
So now, I have duly subscribed to the Old Gods of CBS All Access, and am now five episodes into the first season. My thoughts on what I have taken in so far? Well, WOW!
I had heard that CBS was putting a lot of money into the production values for the show, based on the idea that a lot of Trek fans would pony up money to see it, and you can really see the quality in the props and special effects. Top notch! Each episode looks like a mini-movie, and the acting is also quite good.
I’m going to give my first impressions here without spoiling much, I hope. The first two episodes had me scratching my head a bit, since I knew the show is named after a Federation vessel (Discovery-named, as I later learned, from the ship in 2001: Space Odyssey), yet the main ship in the opening episodes is the USS Shenzhou, captained by Michelle Yeoh (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, and Crazy Rich Asians) as Captain Philippa Georgiou. First Officer is a woman named Micheal Burnham, played by Sonequa Martin-Green (Walking Dead). While this show, now that I am into it by five episodes, plays homage to all of the previous Star Trek shows, is unique in several ways. Our main character, Burnham, is not a starship captain. The show opens with a ship that is not the ship of the show’s name, and the show leaves a few questions in my mind.
Among those questions (again, trying to not spoil things here): What is up with how the Klingons look? This is at least the third iteration of the physical appearance of Klingons across the various shows and movies. Will ST: Discovery eventually explain this? Also, we see a lot of advanced tech on board Discovery that was not seen on Kirk’s Enterprise. Now, obviously, the special effects of the mid-late 1960s were inferior to what we have today, but if this new show is supposed to hold onto the continuity and the canon of the overall Trek Universe, we will need to have some explanations. From some brief readings online (https://www.ign.com/articles/2017/10/23/star-trek-discoverys-holodeck-has-fans-freaking-out and https://www.polygon.com/2017/5/18/15658904/star-trek-discovery-klingon) some of my questions and concerns have been alleviated, but I am a continuity and canon geek for my fictional universes, and I want clarity!
Before I go away to watch the next episode, I will say, that the references to historical figures (like Jonathan Archer) and “current” people like Christopher Pike and certain Vulcans and their family members do send the true Trek fan in to fits of geeky ecstasy. If you are a Trek fan, then this is a series worth checking out. More reports on the show as I progress through the episodes.
Live Long and Prosper!