I must admit that the only woman named Michael I otherwise know about is the real-life actress Michael Learned whom those of us of a certain age know as Olivia Walton (John Boy’s mom) in the 1970’s TV series.
In other Treks we’ve often seen multiple uniforms on screen when there’s a transition of some kind. Maybe they’re “phasing out” the blue ones?
Who knows, so far we do not even know how discovery fits into the official timeline. They said this should be answered in season two as well. I am excited.
I’m not sure I understand what you mean by this. Discovery starts just before the OST, no? Somewhere in between TOS and Enterprise.
That is the theory, but the tech used and uniforms don’t really mesh with that so I am wondering how this really meshes with Canon. I probably should have said canon not timeline
Also, this sounds fun:
Supposed to start 10 years before TOS.
If memory serves, Tilly makes a similar comment when she first meets Burnham. Something about how the only female Michael she knows of is the mutineer and then there’s an awkward exchange where she realizes who Burnham is. So I think it’s meant to be unusual, even in the future.
So I started watching this, finally. Since I hadn’t seen the pilot since it aired on CBS, I started with the pilot again. Man, even though it was less intense the second time around, it was still pretty damn intense. And then the second part of that episode is also really good. That’s just a really good pilot.
And then, surprisingly, the episode after that was pretty significant too. As was the episode after that. And even the 5th episode, to a lesser extent. So 5 episodes down, and there’s a LOT that has happened. This is not just a weekly episodic show. It’s interesting how this is taking a completely different approach to Star Trek. The Orville is pretty much trying to recreate TNG, and this one is trying to do something completely unique that hasn’t really been done before in Trek. I appreciate that. It might not work out, if their story doesn’t go somewhere satisfying. That’s what you get when each episode feels part of a bigger story, that bigger story is going to matter a lot. So even though I might not like it in the end, I still really appreciate what they’re trying to do.
We really are spoiled to have two Star Trek shows going at the same time these days, after being starved of any Trek shows for so long.
Hopefully I can get through all these episodes within a weeklong free trial of CBS. If not, I wouldn’t mind paying for a month of CBS for this show. It’s really well made. The lighting, the special effects, the acting, the sound effects, the music, it’s all quality stuff.
I personally found the show to be quite a rollercoaster in terms of perceived quality and consistency in the writing and character development. Production values were generally very high.
Something that speaks strongly for this show is that non trekkie people can connect with the setting, the characters and to some extent, the plot. Appealing to a broader audience without compromising the core of what makes Star Trek special was quite an achievement and the original showrunners and writers deserve kudos for it.
After six episodes, I am starting to be less enthused about some things. They killed a kick ass crew member, which was interesting, but then a random uninteresting guest star played by a poor actor in another episode is now a permanent part of the crew. I’m not sure how I feel about that. Hopefully he’ll die sooner than his much cooler predecessor, I guess.
Also, the show feels really sparse. There’s not enough of a big cast maybe, or perhaps not enough extras. The Discovery just feels too dark and empty. It would be depressing to serve on that ship. Of course, they are in a time of war, and it is a war ship. So I guess that jibes.
Stay the course to the end. The last few episodes really take the show up a notch and make it worth it.
Isn’t episode 5 the awful filler one where they land on a planet that’s sentient and makes Saru angry, and then he hammerfists the important mission computer thing?
Complete waste of time, that episode.
No, such an episode hasn’t come up yet. I’m looking forward to it!
The debut of the mighty hammerfist for a given Trek series makes an episode worthy for that reason alone.
I looked it up and it’s episode 8!
It’s such a buzz-kill filler episode. It’s a vague attempt at TNG style proceduralism. The only bits involving the main arc bookend the episode.
But, like @Stepsongrapes says, it’s noteworthy for Saru’s deployment of the Federation’s deadliest martial arts move: The hammerfist. (I think one was seen earlier? Doesn’t Burnham hammerfist a Klingon in the pilot?)
I think the one with the dude that could rewind time was the worst. That ending with the phaser wedding was first Voyager season kind of bad.
I watched episodes 7,8,9 last night. I didn’t think the planet episode was that bad. The planet was at best a B-plot. The A-plot was the fact that they were down in an attempt to use the planet’s beacon to try to detect cloaked Klingon ships. This included a fight with the Klingons vs Discovery while the away team was on the planet. And then the aliens calling the Klingons to the planet in order to resolve their dispute with the Federation. The C-plot was Michael and Tyler kissing.
But anyway, my point being the B-plot tied nicely with the A plot with the Klingons.
Episode 9 was really great. It was apparently the mid-season finale.
I started Episode 10 this morning. I just looked ahead and discovered the season has only 15 episodes.
Almost all of the episodes that I thought were “meh” the first time around turned out to have enough significance in the final story arc that in retrospect I liked them much better.
It’ll be interesting to binge-watch it the second time around. The first time the weekly anticipation was fun, but things unfold so much between episodes I feel like it’ll be a different experience watching the whole season over the course of a few days.
Is this available anywhere besides CBS’s proprietary online service yet? I do want to watch the rest of it but I’m just not feeling like coughing up for yet another streaming service, especially for just one show.
You can always sign up for the free trial and binge it during that one week.
Or go watch it in Europe on Netflix. :)
I signed up for a free week of commercial free. Even if I can’t watch all 15 episodes in 7 days, I get the month for $9.99, which isn’t bad. It’s looking like I’ll make it though. I watched Episode 10 today, and have started Episode 11. I’ll try to get through Episode 11 and maybe 12 tonight.