Discovery 1x01 & 1x02 – 2-part premiere [** SPOILERS WITHIN **]

[Deleted User]

degrassinoel wrote: »

don't like michael

Hope it's not all about her, she's a crap actor by trek standards.

Ha. Sorry, but Trek has some notoriously bad actors throughout the various franchises.

_Kaiser_

boneyarsebogman wrote: »

Ha. Sorry, but Trek has some notoriously bad actors throughout the various franchises.

Usually not as the lead though.

Although I can't say I saw the big fuss over Michelle Yeoh either. Best one really was the guy playing Saru

Sad Professor

I'm too tired to offer any detailed thoughts, but I really liked it, especially the new Klingons, Yeoh, and the fresh visual approach. Very solid start. The question now is whether they can deliver on the promise they've made. I'd feel a lot better if Fuller was still involved.

LeBash

Yggr of Asgard wrote: »

I also wonder, is this really Star Trek?

If I look at this separate from any expectation I have to a Star Trek show (and what makes Star Trek Star Trek), than this show is not really bad and an interesting war in space show (too bad that space above and beyond never took off).

I agree with that. The uniform, insignia, some terminology link it to star trek but it hasn't followed what has made us all gobble up about 20 movies and the guts of 40 seasons.

pinkypinky

I was hooked by it but knowing that she ends up on a different ship didn't help me engage with this crew. It's an extended origin story for Michael and now we see how she goes from here.

There's always going to be a tech looking better problem. I agree with some of the other posters: why not just set it after Voyager and have 2 separate Star Trek timelines (films and tv)? Retconning that Spock has an adopted sister is just a way of making fans care.

I'll keep watching so I can say hello to Jason Isaacs.

All that said, I still enjoyed the episode of TNG today more where Mrs Troi tries to get off with Capt Picard and he hides in the holodeck. I reckon I've seen it about 8 times before.

[Deleted User]

LeBash wrote: »

I agree with that. The uniform, insignia, some terminology link it to star trek but it hasn't followed what has made us all gobble up about 20 movies and the guts of 40 seasons.

Well... last time they did that was Enterprise ... and we know how that turned out.

Trek needed an overhaul. Only way it could have survived.

stevenmu

I'm in the "liked it a lot" camp.

I think they had to break continuity with some of the technology, holographic comms in particular. We've had smart phones for 15 years now, even mid-90s era mobile phones were way more advance than TOS communicators. Holographic communication is probably 10 years away, 20 at most, and certainly much closer than warp drive or even just common place space travel.

I like the new style and tone. It's very different to anything that was Star Trek in the past, but TV has changed a lot since the last series, doubly so if you discount Enterprise. Star Trek had to change too.

I don't know why they had to change the Klingons yet again, but there's plenty of precedent for it, and they could work out ok. One positive was that they did come across as very alien.

Cantstandsya

Hated it. Thought the acting was rubbish and the dialogue was crap. It looks terrible, the aesthetic was far more like Andromeda or one of those crappy 90s sci fi shows than any of the old Star Trek series.

Not gonna pick it apart beyond that. I was sad when Enterprise was cancelled and remember many a conversation with friends wondering if Trek would ever return to the small screen. Feel a bit depressed tonight that this is what it's come to.

AMKC

Sad Professor wrote: »

I'm too tired to offer any detailed thoughts, but I really liked it, especially the new Klingons, Yeoh, and the fresh visual approach. Very solid start. The question now is whether they can deliver on the promise they've made. I'd feel a lot better if Fuller was still involved.

I'd feel a lot better if Fuller was still involved.

I think most of us would. Then maybe all the inconsistency's might not be there and it might have been a better show. Maybe he was trying to tell them and they were not listening. I also might actual want to watch it too as well.

silverharp

its like dumbed down Star Trek for the movie going masses except no sense of humor. I could have got behind behind a sun tsu quoting captain , a pity they killed her off. They seem to be going with op females that can attack klingons head on, I dont remember Janeway or Beverly dropping aliens twice as strong as them.
The sets are great but they have unnecessarily added technology which clearly wasnt part of any prior series. See where it goes, its not "Star Trek" yet

DMcL1971

I thought it was fantastic! The visual effects were excellent. The Klingon uniforms were beautiful and their prosthetics were great. I reckon Saru is going to be a lot of fun. I will definitely be watching this.

The season preview gave away way too much though.

Goodshape

Thought it was really good! Potentially great but it all felt like too much of a prologue to make that call just yet.

The two episodes flew by. Hope the pace settles down a bit from here on, give us a chance to soak it in, because mostly it looks like it could be the modernised Trek I'd hoped for.

pixelburp

I've only watched the first episode so I've been a bit circumspect in reading this thread,but I think that opener was solid, but nothing groundbreaking just yet; and that's fine, I think theres a danger in expecting too much from any pilot (crashes and burnings straight out the gate notwithstanding ), and 45 minutes isn't near enough to do anything but lay the groundwork. I've watched plenty of pilots that led to garbage seasons, and terrible pilots that grew into favourite shows - it's too early to tell.

Yes, the technological gap is a big misstep, and the klingons are incredibly jarring - BUT - the Federation was there, all the concepts and layers that inform the ships of starfleet were present in postage stamp moments; I think there's a danger in losing sight of what is there, in favour of what isn't

Admldj

I watched the first two episodes and somewhat enjoyed them, visually they look well and I think there is a lot of room for this show to develop into something good.

Unfortunately, every so often I sighed to myself "why is this a prequel?" From what I can see if they changed sarek to some other Vulcan and that's it, this could have been set 100 years after nemesis! they could even have the whole Klingon thing being that they have never regained their empire since the Dominion war and have become xenophobic and nationalistic, you know do what star trek has always done and echo the times we live in with aliens!

degrassinoel

boneyarsebogman wrote: »

Ha. Sorry, but Trek has some notoriously bad actors throughout the various franchises.

as a lead?

Kirk, Picard, Sisko, Janeway, Archer, they were all likeable from the first episode, Michael is a load of me hole - whether its the vulcan aspect of her character or the fact that she's just not that good an actor remains to be seen.
Personally, i think she's ****e, didn't like her in this and she was as unlikable in TWD too.

AtomicHorror

Liked it a lot. Burnham is a very unusual lead for Star Trek- a character in need of serious redemption, whose failings have been shown to us in much more frank and visceral terms than we're used to. That flawed character seems to have been a problem for most here, which I think is a shame.

The Klingons would have been easier to accept if some effort were made to explain their difference. Most seem fixated on the prosthetics- my issue is their reverence for the bodies of the dead. That is not in line with Klingon culture of the 24th century. Cultures change, of course.

I think though that all of this can fit in the canon- two episodes is not much time to do the work required for that.

squonk

I have to say I like it based on what I’ve seen so far. Really though we’ve just got a prologue and I feel that the real story will begin next week.

I think it’s what I expected really. It was never going to be like TNG Or TOS Or any other trek that has gone before. Since enterprise finished we’ve had BSG Which redefined the genre And we had those awful JJ movies which redefined the look of Trek.

I think they did well. Yes, I’m not sure about the Klingons and I too thought that the holograms were out of place But we moved on a lot technology wise since trek last aired so I’m willing to give them that leeway if it helps them tell the story they want to tell. I just hope that there is a compelling story there. I think Burnham could be a grower. Yes, she is a loose cannon and not very likeable yet it’s early days and I think we need to get to know her better.

I think it’s an interesting calling card and I am willing to see where it goes. At the end of the day we’ve got trek back on our TV and, unlike the recent films, we don’t have to be embarrassed about it.

Pelvis

It was alright, I probably liked it more than expected. I thought Michelle Yeoh was pretty poor and agree with others that the actor playing Burnham is not very good, I also didn't think much of her in TWD.

The Klingon dialogue is painful. I'd rather they just stick to English tbh.

TheIrishGrover

Overall I liked it. For a pilot it was VERY strong: Just look at every other Trek pilot/first episode for comparison. I like Michelle Yeoh as an actress but I was a bit disappointed with her performance in this. Not really at her best in English.

I actually really liked Burnham. Thought she was an interesting character. Very interesting to see a flawed main character in trek for once. And she is flawed - She done f*cked up. Not the epitome of Federation values like Picard or Kirk (Well, epitome of 60's Federation ). Not the arrogant and rigid Janeway or bland Archer. More like the anger of Sisko but without the experience.

I also really liked Sarek. Thought the actor played him well and had the right level of gravitas. I mean, if you want to nitpick, he ages badly in 10 years (when he appears in TOS) for such a long lived species. But, hey ho.

I liked Doug Jones' character too. Thought initially that he was going to be very annoying but by the end of the first episode, when he confronts Burnham, I was growing to like him. And let's face it: Jones is the best prosthetic actor in the business.

The stilted delivery of the main Klingon was quite annoying (I NEVER liked the usual stilted delivery of Klingon whenever spoken in the movies or series). But I did like Kor's more fluid delivery: It was spoken as a language as opposed to just a series of words read off one-by-one.

I didn't like the informal, paly nature of the crew at the start. Reminded me of The Orville. But that toned down a bit when it got series and I presume a few of those will be gone or toned down now they are at war.

Thought it looked very nice. There was obviously a lot of money put into it. But it was a very limited range of sets and locations. Will be interesting to see how that fares though when they start going to different locations/sets.

Could have lightened up a little bit though. Just a wee bit.

Wasn't gone on the music/credit sequence. Trying to pull off a "Westworld" vibe. Liked the initial call back and the end of course. But the rest was quite forgettable. Even Enterprise had a hummable tune.

tldr: Overall I liked it. Strong pilot. Liked main character. Little bit serious but certainly has me interested. The story could be interesting as long is it's not the only story. I know they are aking a big deal about

Mudd

being in it but I hope there's more than that.

Jmccoy1

Absolutely loved it, can’t wait for the next episode.

[Deleted User]

Complete casual star trek fan and loved it. Glad its serial rather than episodic. Needs more lense flare though.

Marje

You can have the subtitles in Klingon



I enjoyed both episodes. Had to endure watching After Trek (the presenter is awful) to see a clip of the next episode which didn't show much.

H3llR4iser

"Meh" at best. I would have said "decent Sci-Fi space opera" if it didn't have the "Star Trek" moniker attached to it.

Beside a "choosen one" main character approach which I seriously hope will get toned down in future episodes (Trek series, except maybe TOS, didn't have an absolute domineering lead - it's not all about Picard, Sisko or Janeway, we got to see plenty of Riker, Worf, Data, Tom Paris, Bashir, Garak and so on; Hell, even Wesley!); Discovery seems to be all about this "Michael" character.

Probably the visuals are the worst part of it all. Seriously, turn some damn lights on; Everything from interior scenes to space battles is dark as it gets. The ship interior was horrible, with the "20th century submarine look" that might have been justified in Enterprise being it the first ship and whatnot, but has no place 10 years before TOS; A HUGE part of that "Trek feel" lays on the ship's interior - the way even in TOS, but especially in TNG and VOY, the ships looked thoughtfully laid out and designed to accommodate an comfort humanoids for years long missions; This also made different kinds of ships contrast starkly - think the Defiant, a warship in every sense of the term and looked the part with exposed bulkheads, bunk beds and whatnot.

There was no reason to completely remodel the Klingons once again - I dread seeing what they might have done to other canon races. We get "pew pew" straight away, in the face of "Starfleet stands for exploration!".

Lastly, yet another prequel which, inherently, closes the door to many possible storylines and even access to races - watching the first two episodes, for example, it occurred to me that the time setting intrinsically cuts the Romulans out of the show, given that the first "Federation personnel seeing a Romulan's face" event is depicted in TOS, when it's also stated that the Federation didn't have any contact with them since the Earth-Romulan wars. Just set the friggin' thing 100 years after TNG and be open to any possibilities, FFS...unless they come out with the "alternate timeline" cr@p again - which I fear they will.

Guffy

OSI wrote: »

But then they were perfectly able to transport an inanimate torpedo warhead inside of a dead body, so you do have a point.

They had the coordinates for the body. The science officer couldn't lock on to the captain in the blind without a life sign

Also Starring LeVar Burton

I really liked it. I liked the direction it took for the pilot, introducing Michael and Saru first before we even see the Discovery or the rest of the crew. Early days of course, but for me it was a solid start to the series.

[Deleted User]

The long distance mind meld is straight out of beta canon.

Why can people not just get over the Klingons and tech, it's ****ing tiring at this stage.

Klingons look like a heterogenous alien race now
The tech of shoestring budget 1960s has moved on, wow shokka there.

Tell me how the can move forward after Voyager completely ****ing everything up; with quantum slipstream, transphasic torpedoes, mega armour. The galaxy can be traversed in months and Federation is unbeatable. Far too much of the galaxy is known for there the be YET another big bad in hiding (or Mass Effect it with antagonists from outside galaxy nonsense).


It does what it needs to do, wipe away the deadwood of 1960s (and even 90s) vision of future tech

jacksie66

This post has been deleted.

heebusjeebus

I really enjoyed it. It's a great attempt at updating Star Trek using long form tv arcs and is less star wars than the JJ movies.
There was some good bridge banter that I appreciated. At one stage they had to transfer ops to a secondary display as the primary had been destroyed. I like this attention to detail in my star trek.
There was some nonsense that I can get over (why not send a probe to investigate the cloaked ship initially) and I'm really looking forward to seeing where this story goes.

[Deleted User]

The one thing I found a bit unfortunate was the fact that this, I believe, was the first ever Trek franchise not to have Majel Barrett as the voice of the computer. Understandable, given that she's dead, but it just hit me when I was watching it.

helimachoptor

I enjoyed it, but **** me the klingon ships were like something out of a space invaders game