Really liked the first episode. The best production values the show has had yet. A definite change in tone. Not all the comedy hit but liked most of it. Anson Mount is great as Pike.
Just keep the same people making the show now and let them build it into own thing CBS.
We must have been watching different Short Treks:
The Brightest Star / Saru
1. We’re meant to believe that the Kirk-era Federation is Ok with having a race of sentient cows, and the Federation definitely know about, and that no one is going to hammer-fist any aliens about it to rescue them, because they’re pre-warp?
2. We’re also meant to believe that one of these stone-age sentient cows can cobble together a communicator from random bits of tech that’s “fallen” off a ship?
3. And also believe that Saru is such a genius that he can learn enough tech stuff to be able to enlist into Star Fleet, and. by the time Gerogiou becomes a Captain, he’s able to speak enough technobabble to become the ships Science Officer?
4. Though I kind of suspect that Georgiou planted the tech there in the hope of rescuing some space Cow?
Calypso
This was just awful. The ship is “alone” for 1000 years in a space cloud, and manages to grow sentient, somehow still “obeys” the captains stagnant order, and the thing it wants most is to dance? I was kind of hoping the apparition would have been the Discovery “standing” on it’s two warp nacelles.
Still, Episode 1 was highly entertaining, but I have some nerdy points to raise about that as well:
1. So the Enterprise investigates the red blobs and is taken out by one of them. OK, fine. So even thought the Enterprise is offline Pike manages to “request” permission from Starfleet to take over the Discovery? Err, what? I hope Saru dialled up HQ to confirm this was ok, and not just Pike making it up as he goes along.
2. If the Enterprise’s communications were offline how could Morse code work? Visual?
3. Oh look, the Science officer is a massive jerk (even though he managed to become a Lieutenant), so of course he’s going to die!
4. Why does Saru, which his better vision, have to look at the same 2d image as everyone else to make out the digits? Why not just ENHANCE the image a bit so everyone can see and the ship can OCR it?
5. Those landing pods are the stupidest thing I’ve ever seen. Why not take a shuttle with some shields and phasers? Instead we take the spinny racing pods. They’re as bad as the Delta Flyer.
6. I like that we continue to see the Trek tradition of “sending the entire senior staff into danger at the same time” being kept alive.
7. What’s the logic behind the colour of the Space Longjohns? The 3 Enterprise crew were in matching colours, but Burnham was in silver?
According to this they’ve switched the actor of the robot-headed crew member. I don’t know if that’s because the new actor is a “better” actor, in line with your thoughts about more screen time? I hope so.
Is the CBS premium streaming channel still the only way to watch this show?
In the United States, yes. Apparently in other countries, it’s shown on Netflix.
So far, I’ve signed up last year for a 2 week free trial of CBS All Access, and used that time to binge-watch Season 1. Then they offered everyone one free month around Christmas time, so I had it for the free month.
I plan on getting another month once Season 2 is over. Or, if I’m feeling particularly poor that month, I can use another email to get a free trial again.
1. Ha! Saru at least had the good sense of running a DNA test of Pike… which produced Pike’s Starfleet grades on the bridge screen for everyone to see an F in astrophysics. Good ironic moment, but sure that calling Starfleet HQ would have been far more straightforward.
2. https://youtu.be/0p_1QSUsbsM
3. I was watching this with my partner and her reckoning was that mansplaining while piloting a spaceship do not mix well. It was funny to see how nobody cared or was sad about it, either.
4. He came across as a jerk last season, I guess the writers felt important to make him appear as useful, beyond the crotchety nitpicking which surely keeps suicidal green ensigns in line.
5. My partner, an awesome sci fi bullshit detector, pointed out too that was reckless.
6. See 5
7. There was a joke made out of it but I can’t recall what it was (I am ESL and miss quick jokes like that all the time).
It was a fun episode, but I am guarded. In my opnion, the end of the first season was clunky and rushed, probably because the writers were still figuring out what kind of show they wanted to make.
As others have pointed above, Trek first season tend to be all over the place… this one had memorable moments. In comparison, TNG Season 1 is a complete blank for me other than Q’s episode.
Yeah, I only really remember a few key moments from Season 1. The first episode where Q puts them on trial, then another Q episode where he comes back for Riker and tempts him by giving him powers. Then another Riker episode where the Bynars keep Riker distracted with a hot lady in the holodeck while trying to steal the Enterprise. And then there was the episode where Tasha Yar dies to the black tar alien. And finally that Conspiracy episode where Starfleet admirals are aliens in disguise, and they’re heading toward Earth (and still haven’t arrived yet by the end of the series).
I would take S1 TNG over the following any day of the week:
I remember that too (not sure it was season 1 though).
Cheers, unironically, for the reminder @Rock8man, Yar’s demise was quite a shocker for the 12 year old I was. Funnily, I was under the impression that came from a different show.
Haha that’s a better one indeed.
Is there a good Season 1 recap of this somewhere? I remember some stuff but not a lot of it.
The first episode of Season 2 has a nice brief recap before the episode starts.
Thanks, I watched said recap, but I’m gonna need a lot more than that! :-)
There used to be sites that had great fan-written episode recaps. Televisionwithoutpity.com was a good one. I guess I’ll see if there’s a subreddit.
I like Jammer’s Reviews. He’s been reviewing Star Trek shows since forever, I started reading him back in the Deep Space Nine days as it aired, when the reviews were a lot more detailed. But his little smaller reviews now are pretty good too for reminding you what happened.
Thanks! That’s just the kind of thing I was looking for.
I thought Episode 1 was pretty good. I liked that it was a self-contained story, almost seems like a breath of fresh air with almost all TV shows serialized these days. Also seemed very Trek to me.
I couldn’t make much sense out of the plot though. Why would they send four pods to go through an extremely hazardous environment to check out the medical ship? They couldn’t even confirm if there were any life signs, and the ship isn’t big to begin with. I can stretch belief to have top officers going on away missions, but this pod asteroid thing was crazy risky (looked good though).
One other random annoyance, can someone explain why Tilly talked about dark matter? This red glowing stuff obviously isn’t dark matter. Also, I thought the premise of Trek was that they already had an extremely efficient almost unlimited energy source? Not sure why they’re excited about another one.
Perhaps the Federation answered our looming “automation” problem by outlawing robots for every task, including extremely hazardous asteroid dodging?
I wondered about this – if the asteroid “was” dark matter, wouldn’t it obliterate them when they touch it? As for the unlimited energy source – I think that’s only in TNG? But even in TNG ships are often running at “max power” – though I guess that’s instantaneous power output, rather than over time? In TOS they’re still churning through (di)lithium crystals and they need to be frequently replaced. That thing the from Tilly’s Short Trek hinted at being able to make dilithium crystals a lot less limiting, like they are in TNG.
Dark matter is not antimatter.
Oops, it seems I’m about 100 years behind in my Physics education :)
Oh the asteroid was thought of as dark matter, oops I thought it was the red stuff.
