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

The first two eps were much better than I had feared they might be
(Its already 100 times better than Enterprise)

Things I liked: In general I found our heroine to be a pretty cool and watchable character

Things I didn't like: feckin Klingons bored the arse off me.....

It felt to me that it was a double episode to just introduce one character and episode 3 will be where it might start the rest of the story.

8.2 million viewers for episode 1 on CBS with a 1.6 demo.


I'd guess CBS All Access like all streaming platforms including Netflix it's partner for this at the moment won't release how many viewers they get for episode 2 and all following episodes following to come.

Kinda sucks that this has to go through CBS. I think they're even showing ads on their subscription service?

Watching on Netflix you could still feel those hard breaks for adverts, and that second episode wasn't even 40 minutes long with the ads stripped out.

Afraid I've just gotten used to not having to put up with that.

Agent Coulson wrote: »

I have CBS All Aceess and find it great value for money at $5.99 a month.


Limited ads are grand.

I really can't stand ads.

But.. anyone remember when we use to buy magazines? There were at least a couple of film magazines I'd buy every month for around €6 or €7. And occasionally I'd get something weekly. Didn't even think about the cost.

It's amazing how averse we've become to paying anything at all for the content we consume.

Enjoyed both eps a lot actually. I think Michael, especially considering we're at Encounter at Farpoint stage of development, is very good, with a lot of potential. I was engaged in the opening ep within about ten mins, and the second one took me in straight away. I really enjoyed the Klingons I have to say. They're very different, but also quite warrior-like in a theistic/cultural way, not just angry Klingon bad guys we've seen done to death. I did think the other house leaders were very quick to acquiesce to T'Kumva though.

Pro's:
Almost everything. It's what Enterprise could, and should, have been. Yes, there's some minor inconsistencies, but they can be overlooked if the quality and rationale is good enough.

Cons:
The holo-comms thing, big no no for me. I instantly thought of the big deal made of those on the Defiant circa 150 years later! Very jarring, and a definite break in continuity. I also think the ship to ship phasers look awful! Also, the opening scene is cringey bad (walking in the shape of the starfleet emblem)

As said already, it's pretty jarring to consider this is set a decade before Kirk took command of the Enterprise, the tone, the tech, everything is radically different. I maintain the show would have been ever better had it been set 100 years after Voyager. The story didn't need to change at all, 100 years without contact with Klingons, sorted.

For an opener however though, it blows Enterprise away.

Just finished watching the 2nd episode there. As two opening two parters go it was better then TNG's Encounter at Farpoints, Voyagers Caretaker , Enterprise's Broken Bow and about on par with DS9's Emissary.

As to the issues people have with it thus far on here and otherplaces, here are my thoughts

The theme music/credits: Not as catchy or as long as I'd like, but I found the more it was reprised during the episodes the more I liked it. The credit sequence was very Marvel Netflix/Bondian so zero credits for originality but bonus credits for not being a Faith of the Heart abomination.

The tech looking too advanced: Everybody has their tolerance for these things but Star treks future has to look more advanced then our present so if that means floaty touchscreens and holograms I can live it so long as I'm enjoying the show overall. Like all things I'll overlook a multitude of sins so long as I'm enjoying a show/film, if I'm not, I'm as nitpicky as the next guy.

The Klingons new look : While the changes to their look (and possibly their culture) did give them a refreshing sense of otherness compared to how familiar they had become over the course of so many seasons of TNG & DS9(and lets face it they had almost become a parody of themselves) , the same effect could have been achieved by setting Discovery in a post Nemesis era and having them being an entirely new race. But we have what we have, they are apparently Klingons, so what the show(or its showrunners) has to do before this season is out is make it clear whether this is a complete ret-con like the one made between the TOS and TMP or are these Klingons merely a subset of a greater, more genetically diverse Klingon culture, one that gets marginalised and driven to extinction by the more numourous TNG Klingons by the late 23/24th century(Think what the Romulans did to the Remans). Personally I'm leaning towards it being a complete retcon and TOS or TNG style klingons will never be referenced. The Beacon called what was meant to be every Klingon house and they all looked pretty similar when they showed up. One thing I do hope is that they continue to work on the prosthetics/dentures as they seemed to inhibit some actors performances more then others.

The Acting: I feel like some people are confusing difficulty in delivering clunky dialogue with bad acting. Other then the exposition dump that was the desert prologue like this "I can't believe you've been under my command for 7 years Michael, you should be commanding your own ship by now" I can't think of any other examples of bad acting.

The Bloody lense flare : They need to **** right off with this. Surely its possible to establish everything is shiny, new and futuristic without endless lense flare.

I actually didn't really notice the lens flair. Not to any excessive or annoying amount anyway.

I did notice the constantly crooked and kinetic camera work though. I wouldn't mind at all if they cut down on that. I really want to see these sets and characters and enjoy the world they've built. Difficult when you're constantly zipping around between close ups and different angles every cut.

The idiotic writing ruined this for me.

- Michael didn't notice that the Captain was walking them in the shape of a Star Fleet insignia including sharp corners? The ship can't detect them through a storm but it will be able to see a symbol drawn in footsteps?
- Assaulting your commanding officer over a hunch and trying to commandeer the ship wtf.
- Everyone arguing over who gets to go on the entirely unnecessary suicide mission.
- Bombs on corpse is literally a war crime.
- Her entire plan was to capture him and then she just executes him in the back? What are we supposed to believe in going on with this character development? "Argh I just hate Klingons so much" is not an interesting trait. We saw enough of that explored with O'Brien and the Cardassians, and it was done a hell of a lot better then.
- Sarek able to do a mind meld across the galaxy, and does so just say hi go get 'em tiger?
- The Klingons were a mess. The high council goes from "lol fck off" to "hail our new emperor" in seconds, for almost no reason.
- HEY I KNOW let's send the Captain and the first officer on an assault onto an enemy ship. Two women with no back will go into melee with Klingon warriors. Great fckin plan. Will we bring a security team? Naaaaah. Remember in the other Star Treks where there were actual security personnel and officers commanding them? And then the Captain gets killed and I practically shouted at the screen "OH IT'S ALMOST LIKE SENDING HER IN THERE WAS DANGEROUS".

I should have kept a list but I lost track of all the times the writing was just stupid. The writers are stupid people. They're focussed on artificial drama and aping other shows and movies without bothering to create a coherent world of their own.

I couldn't care less about the theme tune or the Klingons' new look in the face of all that. It's a dumb show and I'm angry at how bad it is, because they obviously spent so much money on it and it could have been so much better.