Star Trek Discovery episodes 1-4

Yes, I am a Star Trek fan.

I’ve seen all the movies. I’ve seen most if not all the episodes of all the flavors of the show. Therefore, when CBS decided to launch the latest edition of Star Trek on their streaming service, I signed up.

My impressions thus far after 4 episodes: production values are very high, characterizations show great potential, story line is wait and see what they will make of it since it is serialized storytelling.

(spoilers ahead) 

Episode 1 begins with the “4th act” of a previous episode that has Burnham and Georgiou bantering while going about saving an indigenous species by restoring their water supply. Hard core Trek fans might cry foul as it would be a violation of the Prime Directive. However, in various flavors of the show, the Prime Directive rule was often set aside in these kinds of situations. Clearly, the writers wanted to establish a mentor/mother figure in Georgiou which they did well.

Enjoyed the opening title sequence and music!

In the episode 1-2 story package, they also introduced us to the lively relationship between Burnham, Georgiou and Saru. I think they did a fine job here as well and sadly I wonder if this is a missed opportunity to have built the show around that relationship?

Burnham’s crisis quickly arrives as she makes the decision to take matters into her own hands in trying to get the first shot at the Klingons. Some critics have felt this was way too abrupt. She is human trained in the way of Vulcans so she may have in some ways the best of both worlds and the worst of both worlds. Nonetheless, we have to recall Vulcan’s can be very determined about a course of action once they are convinced of its correctness. Think of Spock’s actions in TOS episodes: The Menagerie, The Galileo Seven, Paradise Syndrome, and The Tholian Web and in TNG episode Unification. Also, recall Tuvok in Prime Factors. Lastly, in the entire series run of Enterprise, we find the Vulcans quite pragmatic in their diplomatic relations. As such, I’m willing to grant this premise to set in motion Burnham’s story journey into episodes 3 and beyond.

The attempt to capture T’Kuvma was not consistent with what we know about the Klingon warrior ethos. They believe dying in battle is honorable and to be captured a dishonor. Thus, the rationale used for this ill-fated mission to use his capture as a bargaining chip would not be sufficient grounds to get the Klingon’s to negotiate.

In episode 3 we are introduced to the Discovery and a new set of characters. We shall see if the triangle of Lorca, Saru, and Burnham will be a good one. Certainly, as I had mentioned, the Burnham, Georgiou and Saru could have been good to build a show upon.

Tilly as a character has great potential though I thought they may have overplayed her wide-eyed enthusiasm a bit too much.

The “spore drive” concept seems a bit much. Science fiction by nature has to resort to deus ex machina to some extent. But this new way to travel in this episode was invoked in rapid succession (1) spores as tying into the fabric of the universe allowing near instantaneous travel (2) the unusual tardigrade that can interact with the spore/network and (3) the invention of a device that can tap into the mind of the tardigrade and control its actions and (4) that this could be connected to the Discover and Glenn starships.

The plot point of having T’Kuvma ship be stalled out and needing to steal the Shenzou’s dilithium converter to get repaired was sloppy plot planning by the writers. The writers had established that the Federation does destroy its technology to avoid losing it by destroying the Glenn (episode 3) when it had its malfunction. The Federation would have scuttled any and all of the abandoned vessels lost in the Battle of the Binary Stars (episode 2).

The killing off of Landry was another sloppy plot twist by the writers. Yes, you want to establish that major (or potentially major) characters can get killed off but these should happen within the plausible structure of the characters and the plot line. Landry is a high ranking officer and would probably not act in such an ill considered manner.

Anyway, we shall see what future episodes bring! Perhaps, more commentary is ahead?