Spoilers Star Trek: Discovery 1x02 - "Battle at the Binary Stars"

[Guy Gardener]

Seriously wtf, there's an admiral morrow in Star Trek III?

Obvious time traveler being a smart ass.

Hmm.

I always just assumed that the unnamed priestess in Search for Spock was T'Pau.

The original T'Pau actress died n 1979.

 

[Guy Gardener]

I think that's kind of lame. Not only is it unfair to you guys, it's unfair to Netflix. They're paying for the damn thing. It's like buying your buddy a nice meal and then he makes you sit and watch him eat before you can.

There's no overlap.

Netflix everywhere except Canada and the States gets Discovery.

Netflix in America (and Canada) Gets NOTHING!

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[Rahul]

I really friggin' loved the first episode.

I really fuckin' hated the second one.

I really like the dialogue, the little bickering, the jokes. The trip to the alien planet in the first episode, and the whole procedure on the starship was amazing. It felt like Star Trek. Explorers. But this is an ugly show. Despite the budget, it doesn't look good. The sets are clunky and way too dark, and I think they overestimated what kind of vfx they were able to pull off on a tv budget. They clearly aimed for a movie experience. The episodes are chock-full of CGI. And it looks bad. They should have relied more on props and practical sets, and put more effort into less screentime of CGI but make that look more finished. I loved all the characters, until the bridge drama at the end of ep. 1.

I really HATE the klingon story line. It's the most clichéd, re-used collection of tropes I have seen in a long time. And I hate the war arc, what we've seen of it yet. I can't say how much I'm annoyed at it. Every second of it felt like a second season Enterprise klingon episode. In fact, I'd argue the depiction of klingons is even more clichéd than it had ever been before, even during TNG, VOY or ENT. They lost all their subtleties. In fact, if it weren't for the visual re-design, I'd be annoyed how stereotypical barbarian-klingon they are. With the visual reboot, I wonder what the fuck they were doing?

I'm not a fan of the war arc. The second episode already felt like one of the "bad" episodes of DS9. The ones that used war as a "filler" to move on to the more interesting character stuff. I take umbradge at that portrayal of conflict. The saddest thing is, I can't see them going an interesting route for it that would make the voyage worthwile - it has been SO clichéd, I fear it's going to be the exact by-the-numbers Trek plot - making peace, crazy Starfleet Captain (Lorca) trying to sabotage it by "winning" via unethical methods - then defeating the klingon end boss - then doing peace. I have no interest in that.

Which is a shame. Because, in the beginning, when they were on their voyage, it felt like Trek! It felt like great Trek! Not great looking Trek, but the content was great! I'm looking much more forward to the second season, when the klingon arc is finished, in the hope for an exploration/adventure storyline, than I am looking dforward for the next episode. Which is a shame.

 

[Rahul]

I was not a fan of the holo-communicator, the klingon cloaking device, or the look of the klingon fleet (shouldn't there be a few D7 out there? With them being "all" the houses and stuff? I hate the klingon re-design, but even more that, despite the redesign, the klingons are more clichéd than ever.

However, all of that concerns only canon. Which is secondary to the plot and characters in my book. It is there where they did an extremely mixed job. I thought the introduction was great. But it was WAY too dependend on previous Trek lore - I'm NOT going to recommend that to my non-Trek friends! They won't get much out of it. And while I'm a big fan of how they began their story, I'm not a fan of the direction they're taking it - Trek had enough war stories. This is one isn't bringing anything new, or frankly interesting to the table.

 

[Ridcully]

That is a great many words to use...for: I don't like it

 

[F. King Daniel]

Just saw both parts. It's a little bit more pretentious than I'd like (I prefer my characters more Kelvin timeline than Next Gen), but otherwise I loved it, and can't wait to see what comes next.

And it's about time roomfuls of Klingons spoke to each other in Klingon!

Oh, and there's no way this is the same universe as the original - but that's okay. The Kelvin universe was awesome and it looks like the Discovery universe will be too!

 

[Tuskin38]

I think Michael’s plan would have worked, the rest of the Klingons didn’t care about T’Kumva and his gang of misfits until after he made the long speech

 

[AvBaur]

Just finished watching both parts on Netflix. First off: Visually, this isn't just the best-looking Trek, but probably the most impressive sci-fi tv ever. It really looks & feels like a big movie.

Other than that, this new kind of Trek will take some getting used to for me. It's very dark & serious & so far doesn't show much of the hopeful future we love. Nor does it give us a lot of time to really get to know these new characters and the world they live in before getting to the conflicts and the action. Not a fan of the new Klingons, either. They really don't seem interesting enough to justify the massive redesign. Their sets & costumes look cool, but other than that, the Klingon scenes were my least favorite parts.

I quite like Michael Burnham, though, and feel that these episodes are really just a small part of a much larger story. I don't mean to sound too negative! It's absolutely impressive and huge and exciting, and I want to see what's next.

I suspect that next week's episode's going to be the *real* pilot in a way, since we haven't even met a lot of the main cast yet.

 

[F. King Daniel]

I loved the sentencing at the end. The way that room was lit, with everyone's faces concealed, was the darkest that Starfeet has ever seemed. I loved it.

 

[cultcross]

I loved the sentencing at the end. The way that room was lit, with everyone's faces concealed, was the darkest that Starfeet has ever seemed. I loved it.

I assumed that scene was thematically, rather than literally, lit like that. I can't see any reason for a courtroom to actually be lit like that, I just thought we were meant to be inside the traumatised head of Michael as she was 'sent down'. I loved it, as long as I read it that way

 

[Krandor]

Biggest problem with this episode is the ending. It ended on a dud with the court scene. It wasn't much of a cliffhanger to keep you interested in tuning in next week. It seemed like the story just ended. They should have dropped a tease of what to expect from the '2nd pilot'

I felt it was the end of one chapter and the start of the next.

 

[Retu]

I loved the sentencing at the end. The way that room was lit, with everyone's faces concealed, was the darkest that Starfeet has ever seemed. I loved it.

I was half expecting Burnham to say: "Show me your faces. I want to see the people judging me."

 

[Arlo]

I loved the sentencing at the end. The way that room was lit, with everyone's faces concealed, was the darkest that Starfeet has ever seemed. I loved it.

I hated it. It was stagey and forced, as if they wanted some big reveal of the man in the middle. I kept thinking the light would come up and he would be revealed as a TOS character.

 

[spinagogue]

Nope, it was [comedic actor] Rainn Wilson. He's Harry Mudd.

Even better!

 

[cultcross]

I hated it. It was stagey and forced, as if they wanted some big reveal of the man in the middle. I kept thinking the light would come up and he would be revealed as a TOS character.

Headcanon: it was Q.

 

[Tuskin38]

I noticed a lot of reused sound FX from previous series/movies in both parts.

The ambient bridge noises were right out of TOS.

 

[Mr Awe]

As many speculated, Georgiou is dead. Do you think we'll keep seeing her in flashbacks? I hope so, I thought Michelle Yeoh did a great job. Sad to see her go.

I was sad to see her go even though it was expected. She portrayed a character with real depth of experience.

 

[Rahul]

That is a great many words to use...for: I don't like it

That's many words for: I have mixed feelings on it.
There are things I like, things I LOVE, things I don't like, and some things I almost hate. And the things I love/hate are not necessary the things I expected to feel that way for.

I think it has the same troubled start as any of the Berman-era shows, with surprisingly many of the same faults but also strenghts. At the moment I think it has serious problems, but is overall good enough. But it also has almost unlimited potential. It will be interesting to see in which direction it will develop.

 

[Mr Awe]

I gave both parts an 8, but in reality, part two is a bit better. I didn't buy Burham's betrayal. That felt pretty forced. They seemed to bend over backward to make a good person look bad and not all steps of that process were believable.

Having the tribunal in shadows was a bit hokey. I mean really?

Outside of that, this episode is pretty solid. I'm looking forward to seeing what happens next.

 

[Mr Awe]

Yup.

Which is reason enough to mark it a failure. It's one thing to have a prologue episode to start a TV show. It's quite another thing for it be the episode a company is using to sell the series and the service that hosts it to a new audience.

No, that's not correct. Being a prologue is not sufficient to mark it as a failure by itself. If a prologue hooks viewers so they come back for more, it's a success. End of story.

However, I do agree that this specific prologue wasn't executed perfectly. Splitting it into two episodes and make only the first part free was a mistake. The first episode was not a great way to draw in new viewers because it was more talky, clunky, and slow. Too many flashbacks and slow talking Klingons. Etc.

Agree that it didn't work as planned, but not because it was a prologue but because it was not executed perfectly.