Star Trek – Discovery
As a longtime Trek fan, I wanted to review my thoughts, and writing them out helps me do so. If anyone actually reads this, well… it’s just my thoughts… feel free to comment. Or not. Just FYI: There isn’t a moment of Star Trek, TV or Movie, that I’ve not seen, several times over. I’m a fan, not one so engrossed that I dressed my kids up as ST characters for Halloween, but a fan.
On the network: CBS, beginning this series after a football game, starting late, in an era of DVR… great idea. Not since the opening of Firefly has a TV premier been so badly screwed up. Forcing people to watch 15 minutes of Opra talking politics before we can enjoy a brand new SciFi series, and then cutting off the end... Stupidity? Or simply a badly designed ploy to get folks to subscribe to CBS All Access?
Carrying that thought a bit further, making episode 2 available immediately, on said subscription service… That was probably a much better method of attracting attention to your streaming service. Doesn’t piss people off near as much. Worked for me… I subscribed, though I still intend to unsubscribe before I get charged. I doubt I’m going to find enough of interest to me to keep paying $6, or $10… since if I did keep the service, I’d likely take the commercial free option.
Pre-title Klingon sequence… having to read, and read quickly (I missed a few words), every word uttered by a Klingon during this show stinks. The well-used method of ‘fading’ Klingonese into English works… let’s take advantage of that, please. Klingon makeup rework… well, it’s not the first time, is it 😊 Not sure if I like it, or not. Heavy enough to make facial expressions impossible to read. Still, it’s a cool look. Need some time to decide on this one.
Title sequence: Awful. Hate the animated sketch board theme. Worst effort in a ST series yet (my previous worst was Enterprise’s CGI expose, flybys from every angle they could imagine). Maybe they intend to change it to past episode scenes as they move along? We can only hope.
Music: Pretty good. Reminiscent of many prior efforts. Not obtrusive, anyway. Beat the heck out of Enterprise, with its ‘guaranteed to make you reach for the fast forward button’ theme song.
Characters: So far so good. Love the Capitan… you know, the one they’ve killed off already? I know, the story isn’t about her, but I’m hoping for some flashbacks featuring her in the future. A seven-foot-tall science officer that appears to be afraid of his own shadow? Him I won’t miss. I’m assuming, from what I’ve seen so far, Michael Burnham is about the only character we’ve seen so far that is going to be featured throughout the show. I wouldn’t have picked Sasha as Trek material, but hey, pretty girl, did a good job in a difficult opener… I’m looking forward to seeing more.
Story: Klingons making war. An argument can be made for beating a dead horse, but hey, with substantial changes to the species, some surprises may be in order. I’m game. Mutiny. Not exactly unexplored territory on this one either. Hasn’t every captain that has yet sat in the chair has tried that one, at some point in their career? Not in episode one, I suppose, and up till now, it’s generally been rapidly forgiven, what with saving the universe and everything, but it seems as if this one is going to follow Michael around for a while. I’m in on this one too.
Graphics, direction, writing, special effects, etc: Right in line with what I was expecting, what with the reboot of Kirk in the movies (which I love, by the way). Bright shiny reflective surfaces to excess, good use of CGI, storytelling has been excellent, through what, an hour and a half? Keep it up… and avoid the cliché time traveling and alternate universe storylines… we’ll all thank you.
Looking forward to Episode 3 😊