• Welcome! The TrekBBS is the number one place to chat about Star Trek with like-minded fans.
    If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

Spoilers Star Trek: Discovery 1x01 - "The Vulcan Hello"

Rate the episode...


  • Total voters
    400
Reading is for losers.
levar.jpg
 
Overall, my opinion, I give it a mixed bag. I didn't hate it, I don't love it. Your mileage may vary.

Pretty much my feelings at this point. I'm not going to give up on it though until I've seen the Discovery and Lorca in action. I hope once the real series starts going it's better than this prequel opening to a prequel series.
 
I liked it a lot better than Encounter, or any of the other series' openers for that matter. That doesn't mean I think its 'great', just that I will keep watching. For now.
 
...It was the creation of the well. That in itself was a breach of the prime directive. Little things like that are what make my think the show won't have the intelligence of previous Treks at their best.

The whole point of this scene per General Order #1, is to show that this pre-TOS version is more flexible than the Prime Directive in TNG. Here, it is acceptable to minimally interfere provided (presumably) you don't change their culture. Burnham even indicates that it would be permissible to reveal herself to the natives for her survival. The writers aren't ignorant of the PD, they are just showing the differences that will allow for more/different conflict than in TNG.

Not impressed at all.
A Second Officer/Science Officer whose major character trait is that he's a coward/chicken. Doesn't belong on the bridge of any starship let alone in Starfleet.
The Klingons have been changed to the point that they are impossibly clunky and can't possibly move.
The opening sequence was just silly. The First Officer doesn't notice that they have been changing directions during their walk? Stupid. Oh...but it looks cool from an aerial shot. Still stupid.
The First Officer goes on a extremely dangerous spacewalk that may kill her the longer she stays out. And the ship doesn't close the distance to the asteroid field to shorten her travel distance/time.
Windows on a starship bridge. Still a bad idea.
Camera shots that are crooked like they hired the old guy that did the badguy scenes for the old "Batman" TV series.
The overall pacing was painfully slow.
And the Sarek bit was stupid. A Galaxy of trillions if not hundreds of trillions of sentient lifeforms. and everyone still seems to know each other. W.T.F.?
Don't even expect me to pay to watch any more of this.
Star Trek in name only.
- So anyone who is anti-violence/a pacifist is barred from Starfleet? An organization whose primary mission is exploration and who "never fires first". Seems like he fits in perfectly. Also, he is science division, not command. He provides his recommendations and the command officers decide.
- Agreed: the Klingons talk too stiffly. But the few shots of them walking around and moving they seemed fine.They just need to write more action and less standing around into the other episodes.
- Ever walked a switchback trail? Or walked down a ridge and needed to change direction at the bottom? There are many good reasons for a change in direction. And she wasn't surprised that they changed direction, just that they walked in a complete circle.
- Asteroid field: it only makes sense they would do what they could to minimize her exposure time, but they also have to worry about collisions with asteroids. Plus we don't see their rescue efforts. To say they don't close the distance is your own unfounded speculation not based on what is presented in the episode.
- Windows: Windows in Trek are at the very least an improved version of transparent aluminum, so you are basically saying "a metal hull around the bridge? Still a bad idea."
- Pacing: yeah, the Klingon bits were slow.
- Sarek: so one of our characters knows a previously known character. So what? That is this story. That is her background. If everyone and his brother start stopping by, then we might have something problematic.

...and it looks like a cheap webseries. The CGI reminds me of video games, not very impressive...

This kind of "opinion" still baffles me, makes me frustrated, and makes me laugh. I think this just reveals pre-existing bias against the show and not an objective look at the graphics.

...The Superfans 100 year Klingon absence is directly contradicted by Spock in The Undiscovered Country "seventy years of unremitting hostilities". Then there's the Battle of Donatu V from "The Trouble with Tribbles" which is twenty-five years before the episode. Even the attack that orphans Burnham takes place during that period. There's an awful lot of contact for the Klingons to have been in hiding for a century...

"unremitting hostility" doesn't preclude few contacts. It just means that each and every contact we have had with them, however frequent or scarce, have been hostile. Seems to fit with Donatu V and Burnham's childhood. No problem there.

I must not be a real fan, because watching this I didn't think for a second about canon, continuity, rebooting universes and visual continuity. I'm just watching this as its own thing. “But why didn't they call it something different then?” — Well, why should they? It's obviously a Star Trek show and (at least for me) it's obviously set in the established Star Trek universe and fits there nicely. Minor details be damned.

I agree 100%.

I really liked that bit, actually. Finally someone in Star Trek just looked out the bloody window.

Just a note, Geordi does it in "Justice" too. To see the Edo god ship.
 
"Massive photonic activity."

Bright light. The Beacon of Kahless, or whatever.

Has anyone told the Klingons that it will be hundreds of years before most if their brethren see it?

What? You expect nuTrek to take science into consideration when a bright light is so much more dramatic? ;)

Weak writing and poor pacing in the first episode. Sadly, with part 2 only available on CBS All Access, the first part had to come out swinging HARD in order to convince folks that they needed to see part two. Instead, we got a slow plodding story with an over abundance of subtitles and an XO that didn't once display that she should have really had the job.

Also, sand that doesn't blow in a sand storm. Seriously?
 
The look and style of the episode was fantastic. The premise of the story is very good as well. I though the execution was a little clunky though. So, a good episode that was definitely entertaining. It wasn't dull or a home run.

On the plus side, it was very easy to believe that this was taking place 10 years before TOS. It just felt like it fit right in timeline properly despite the improved SFx. The series clearly is not a reboot. So, that was cool.

I agree with the comments that starting with a long Klingon speech was odd. Not the most interesting way to suck in new viewers.
 
I agree...and it wasn't the ship appearing that bothered me about that scene. It was the creation of the well. That in itself was a breach of the prime directive. Little things like that are what make my think the show won't have the intelligence of previous Treks at their best.
Presumably they're coming back to this planet. You noticed the creature that came out of the well? I wouldn't be surprised if it ate the eggs that we saw. This incident might be what leads to the Prime Directive as we know it.

You've probably got it all backwards. They've got their Trek knowledge and they're showing how we got to a point that has already been established--the Prime Directive. Remember the producer guy saying, it might look like they're violating canon but it'll be explained.

Patience! I'm virtually certain this is an example of that.
 
"
If that's what was intended, that's how it should have been presented. For free, not a teaser and then expecting $$ to see the actual meat of the story.

I disagree with the entirety of your post, except for the bit above. I agree that CBS should've just showed the first two episodes as a two hour movie on their free broadcast channels. The first episode along wasn't much of a teaser to draw people in.
 
"We're beaming the Captain and Exec down to the planet to fix a well, despite an approaching dust storm, and despite the fact that we have no technological capability of communicating with them or locating them in the event of a dust storm."
 
I liked Sarek. And I like the degree of Vulcan-ness (I think McCoy would say Vulcanosity) Burnham displays.

But on reflection the subtitled Klingons bug me more - I think the episode would have worked much better not showing the Klingons until Burnham and Shenzou discovered them.

Still, the main disappointment was the failure to sell Burnham's big decision, despite focusing the ep so much on her.

Initial rating: 6. I'm going to rewatch and then watch the second ep, if they recorded correctly after the last minute shenanigans from CBS (which CTV and Space went along with).
 
The desert scene dialogue was almost as rough as its weird mix version in the trailer where Yeoh's line is clearly from two or three different moments smacked together. The only real difference here tonight is that it was all one take. "It's hard to imagine you've been serving under me for seven years." Why is that hard to imagine? I presume it's because you, like us, are only just meeting your First Officer? :lol:
It does take you out of the episode. "You've served under me for seven years and now it's time for you to get your own command." Something like that would've been more natural.
 
I enjoyed the episode, I thought it did a good job setting up Michael and had some great visuals. The desert scene was a bit clunky though (is that really the best time to talk about Michael getting her own ship???). Also I've never been particularly interested in the Klingons and this episode did nothing to change that.
 
If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

Sign up / Register


Back
Top