Star Trek: Discovery - spoilery thoughts?

[MissKittyFantastico]

Finally caught the first two episodes, and I liked it, a lot.

I'm on the fence about the Klingons - I like that the new design makes them seem unfamiliar and alien again, and aside from the lack of hair I really don't find it that much of a departure from 'real' Klingons, it's more just exaggeration, but nevertheless I keep getting distracted trying to plot out how the species gets from Uruk-hai to TOS in just a few years. Darn Enterprise for trying to explain the foreheads literally; I really feel like if they'd just left it at "We do not discuss it with outsiders!" I'd be fine. The language didn't seem very fluid though - I get that 'barking every syllable independently' kind of is the Klingon accent, but it just didn't seem like these guys were fluent speakers, compared to things like the Dothraki and Valyrian, or even Belter creole or whatever it's called in Expanse. Like, I feel like even if they're speaking an unfamiliar language, it'd be nice for the dialogue to be delivered in a way that still conveys the gist of what they're feeling as they speak - like the border guards in Undiscovered Country, their Klingon sounded genuinely bored. I felt like these guys' internal monologue was entirely I! AM! HAVING! TROUBLE! WITH! MY! WARRIOR! TEETH! But that's something that could be improved in a bunch of Klingons that, otherwise, I can get on board with.

Speaking of Expanse, man the theme music sounded like that's what they were going for - even the visuals in an odd way, it wasn't copying the Expanse intro, but I felt like it was trying to convey exactly the same mood to me. Didn't mind it though. I wish the music had been melded better between the classic Trek theme and the new music though - like how the Kelvinverse theme morphs pretty elegantly between TOS and JJ. This felt like just swapping between tracks, and I maybe would've preferred if they'd done something more like using the classic TMP/TNG as the main tune but had the Expanse violins of technological progress running underneath it.

Eveyrthing else, pretty much, I liked - I was on board with the tension as the situation escalated, and immersed in it and thinking from the crew's point of view rather than stepping back as a viewer and thinking in episode plot terms, and that's always good. What the Klingon-hai were up to seemed convincing to me - I could even kind of put myself in their place and think, yeah, I get how they're being convinced by what they're hearing. I liked Georgiou as the 'pure Starfleet' point of view of things, and I hope that doesn't get put aside - but even though Burnham's obviously trending a bit more towards a 'dark and gritty' theme, I feel like that's a starting position for her, not necessarily the course she's going to be stuck in for the entire show. I'm definitely looking forward to more Saru, and the late lamented other bridge bunnies really shone in their limited time - I never felt 'just a redshirt' with any of them. The concussed guy really nailed his scene. The tech was just ridiculously prettier than anything Kirk ever had, but honestly, that didn't bother me a bit, even the robot on the bridge. All in all I'm feeling pretty good about this.

[Fixer]

Interesting anecdote, apparently every other actor on the prison shuttle was in The Expanse.

[King of the owls]

Yeah I definitely got some "The Expanse" vibes in certain parts of episode three but eh I didn't mind it.

Regarding Lorca, I honestly feel like he's either connected to section 31 in some way(an agent or someone who agrees with Section 31's principals.) or is being used by Section 31.
We'll see of course but I won't be surprised if Section 31 becomes involved with the plot.

Anyways this episode was decent.

[Xaios]

I like Lorca. He's like a combination of Sisko and Psycho Janeway. He also reminds me a great deal of Rush from Stargate Universe.

I also enjoyed episode 3 significantly more than the pilots.

[technobabbler]

Lorca's "context is king" speech reminded me of Chuck's "Prime Directive" video essay---Where Chuck's premise is: for Prime Directive issues, context is king.

[Fixer]

I like Lorca. He's like a combination of Sisko and Psycho Janeway. He also reminds me a great deal of Rush from Stargate Universe.

I also enjoyed episode 3 significantly more than the pilots.

I'd go as far as recommending people don't even watch the pilot episodes.

Captain Lorca is interesting. He has shades of the Pegasus's Admiral Erik Pressman, who had worked in illegal military research. Though Pressman's crime was to develop a defensive military technology banned only for the federation by a treaty, Lorca has an entire ethically questionable evil science lab and has apparently made several black ops style orders. It's suggested at the end of the Episode that the criminals on the shuttle are sent to their deaths.

Arguably some shades of Captain Ransom but lacking the sympathetic backstory in justifying their actions or Leyton who justified a coup to protect against the Dominion.

Either way, the Discovery and her crew are more like the characters that pose a threat to the Federation's principles that the main cast of another Trek series would have to deal with.

[FakeGeekGirl]

My only big problem is what other people have said here: Why does this have to be a prequel? So far nothing that has happened other than Sarek implies it has to be the past, and several elements would work better in a sequel. How cool would it have been if when Lorca was showing her the magic transport fairy dust they took her to the Great Link or Cardassia or something?

The magic science seems like it's going to be pretty extreme but let's be honest. TOS had them run into freaking literal Apollo, TNG and Voyager had Q, and DS9 had the Prophets. Star Trek has never been the hard sci-fi Trekkies like to pretend it is.

[Durandal_1707]

My only big problem is what other people have said here: Why does this have to be a prequel? So far nothing that has happened other than Sarek implies it has to be the past, and several elements would work better in a sequel. How cool would it have been if when Lorca was showing her the magic transport fairy dust they took her to the Great Link or Cardassia or something?

Who knows? We're only three episodes in. It's too early to say.

If it's still unclear why it's a prequel by the time the series is over, that's a different problem. But right now, I'm willing to give the benefit of the doubt.

The magic science seems like it's going to be pretty extreme but let's be honest. TOS had them run into freaking literal Apollo, TNG and Voyager had Q, and DS9 had the Prophets. Star Trek has never been the hard sci-fi Trekkies like to pretend it is.

Apollo was only one of the many god-like aliens that the original Enterprise seemed to run into every other week. Not to mention other weird stuff like the Enterprise becoming able in one episode to travel faster than what later installments would establish as infinite velocity (with this ability, naturally, never being mentioned again), there being a giant energy barrier surrounding the galaxy for no good reason, Uhura getting her memory erased to the extent that she has to relearn how to talk but is perfectly 100% normal by the next episode, the crazy no-women-captains rule, Hodgkins' Law of Parallel Planet Development, and a whole host of other insane things.

[technobabbler]

It's suggested at the end of the Episode that the criminals on the shuttle are sent to their deaths....

Interesting. I interpreted that scene as Burnham is the harbinger of death (like the Galactica went-nowhere plot thread w/Kara Thrace).

As the cameras cut from Saru's tea break directly to Burnham moving in w/Tilly, who I predict is getting the "red shirt treatment".

Red shirt/engineering + red hair + "I know I'll be captain some day." Yikes.

if you ever wake up in the Trek Universe, never tempt the showrunners like that. They'll give you a gruesome death or a Voyager-Engineer Carey death---where you die right before everyone else reaches the finish line.

[technobabbler]

It's suggested at the end of the Episode that the criminals on the shuttle are sent to their deaths....

Interesting. I interpreted that scene as Burnham is the harbinger of death (like the Galactica went-nowhere plot thread w/Kara Thrace).

As the cameras cut from Saru's tea break directly to Burnham moving in w/Tilly. And sadly I predict Tilly is getting the "red shirt treatment".

Red shirt/engineering + red hair + "I know I'll be captain some day." Yikes.

if you ever wake up in the Trek Universe, never tempt the showrunners like that. They'll give you a gruesome death or a Voyager-Engineer Carey death---where you die right before everyone else reaches the finish line.