First Impressions?

[Tirius]

Mixed bag here, but good enough to stick with it for the moment. Pilots always struggle to find time for character dynamics, so I'm not going to judge it too harshly for that. The story has potential, but I do hope we're not getting a "war" theme for the entire season. I liked Georgiou and Saru, Burnham has potential but I don't think we're supposed to like her yet. The odd blend of human/Vulcan personality is clearly there, interested to see where it's going. The Sarek relationship has yet to sell itself to me, however.

Updated effects... mostly I like them. I understand the desire for these, and so long as they don't disrupt the story, I can accept a lot here. I think I enjoyed the EVA sequence most, though the interior of the Shenzhou felt nicely familiar as well. I also liked the title sequence - it wasn't at all what I expected, but I have a feeling it might grow on me.

Least favorite aspect... the redesign of the Klingons. I like neither their look nor the way they sounded, the language felt more choppy and forced than we were used to in other series; the excessive makeup also made it difficult for me to tell characters apart. I like the aspect of a charismatic leader trying to unite a broken empire, but the execution failed to really sell the characters to me.

 

[Scotty's Scotch Bottle]

She went to speak to someone with very relevant and critical tactical information. That's a very sensible thing to do.
She has disagreements with the science officer, but human adults do that in a workplace.
She did commit mutiny, and was charged, convicted and imprisoned for it.

I guess it's my military experience coloring my opinion. Any one of these, maybe OK, but all three in one episode just says to me "this is not a very good officer" so I struggle to see her as someone I am sympathic towards going foreward.

 

[Bry_Sinclair]

I really, REALLY hate the Klingoids, which look even worse in large numbers. Add to that really tedious Klingon religion and I've already lost interest.

 

[Blamo]

I like it, but it's hard to say really what I think about it. Given the preview of the next episode, it feels like we're 2 episodes into a 3-part pilot.

 

[MadeIndescribable]

Having thought about it for a while, I think the biggest problem (IMO) is that throughout both episodes we knew that the Shenzhou was going to be destroyed/abandoned, and especially with having Michelle Yeoh credited as "special guest star", we knew that regardless of her fate she wasn't going to stick around very long.

There was no tension, and I was just sat waiting for the inevitable.

 

[tomalak301]

I'm still floored over how insanely good Sonequa Martin-Green is. She's perfect, absolutely perfect. What a performance. No one I talked to who had seen The Walking Dead thought she was this good. That casting could make or break a tv show and it's going to be the making of Discovery. Having finally seen her I get exactly what Bryan Fuller meant when he said that they were willing to wait on her schedule to clear up no matter how long it took.

I'm kind of glad I didn't see Walking Dead because of all the criticisms about SM-G in that show. I thought she was the best part of the first two episodes here and I can't wait to see how she develops as the lead characters. I just hope she has some actors around her to make scenes that much better. For all the talk about Michelle Yeoh being good, I thought she was just as stilted as the Klingons were. This is also why I'm looking forward to seeing what the chemistry between Green and Issacs will be.

 

[Scotty's Scotch Bottle]

Third Impression - 20 Producers in the opening credits! Yes, I rewound and counted. That seemed kind of odd to me, but then I know nothing about TV Land.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

20 Producers in the opening credits! Yes, I rewound and counted.

Oh, my god.

 

[MadeIndescribable]

Third Impression - 20 Producers in the opening credits! Yes, I rewound and counted. That seemed kind of odd to me, but then I know nothing about TV Land.

I have to admit I was tempted to count myself.

The thing with (executive) producer credit, it can mean anything from "I made this whole thing myself" to "Daddy gave them lots of money to put my name on this", so it could all just mean anything.

 

[CorporalClegg]

It's still cause for concern.

 

[BillJ]

It's still cause for concern.

A lot of cooks in the kitchen, and none of them seemed to have a vision. Who is actually the person in charge of the show? (I imagine Kurtzman?) Of the writers room?

 

[CorporalClegg]

A lot of cooks in the kitchen, and none of them seemed to have a vision. Who is actually the person in charge of the show? (I imagine Kurtzman?) Of the writers room?

Like I told @cultcross, I'm running on the assumption that this TV movie (Because that's what it was.) was the best attempt to scrape together the remnants of the Fuller project, and Kurtzman's series starts next week.

 

[Shalashaska]

A lot of cooks in the kitchen, and none of them seemed to have a vision. Who is actually the person in charge of the show? (I imagine Kurtzman?) Of the writers room?

Berg and Harberts are showrunners from everything I've read. They wrote the teleplay for the second episode.

 

[MadeIndescribable]

A lot of cooks in the kitchen, and none of them seemed to have a vision. Who is actually the person in charge of the show? (I imagine Kurtzman?) Of the writers room?

Dammit, there's a perfect sketch (starring Simon Pegg) about too many cooks, but no-ones uploaded it to the internet.

 

[Dr. Bashirs protege]

*THIS IS DIRECTED AT NO ONE. GENERAL RANT*

Oh dear GOD. Can we not just accept that maybe it's a good show thus far? First it was "well fuller left! It's going to be crap!". Then the first two episodes to RAVE reviews, how does 90% rotten tomatoes sound? So then how do the goal posts move now? "Wellllll, they probably just scrapped together whatever fuller had and the rest is crap". I genuinely believe it's the "trekkies" (oh I know the difference between the term trekker and trekkies) at this point that want this to fail. Like GENUINLY fail because it's not exactly what they want. Gene Roddenberry is spinning in his grave. The man who spouted open mindedness and progress having so called "fans" shit all over something just because it's not EXACTLY the same as what came before. You know the man who HELPED REDESIGN THE KLINGONS FOR TMP and then when confronted with canon basically shrugged and said "they've always had ridges". This is getting sad and pathetic. Their are many wonderful fans of trek out there, many of them on these very boards. But the dregs of the fandom many times make me embarrassed to even be part of the fandom.

 

[CorporalClegg]

And this:

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[ialfan]

I enjoyed it a lot more than any of the Reboot movies and I will stick with it but this isn't my Star Trek. Growing up in the 90s/2000s during TNG-ENT I find the charm those series had is gone. I imagine it's a similar feeling that those who grew up with TOS/TAS felt when TNG premiered. The series gave me some BSG vibes but that's mostly the look and "modern" style. It's nice that Star Trek is finally back though in some form.

Second episode was definitely better than the first. I really liked the Captain (more than the main character) so it's a shame she's dead already. Burnham is alright but hasn't particularly impressed me yet. Still don't get giving her the name Michael. Just seems odd enough to throw me off thinking about it.

I enjoyed the way the Vulcans seemed to be treated as slightly separate from Starfleet like in TOS but this Sarek seemed a bit off.

Don't like the Klingons at all. Mostly the look I'll admit although none of them seemed to do much acting beyond speaking in Klingon.

 

[Shalashaska]

They should get this woman to play a Klingon.

 

[EnderAKH]

And this:

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NO! NO! DO NOT GET THAT EARWORM TRAPPED IN MY NOGGIN AGAIN!!

 

[GulBahana]

I'm kinda in the middle on it. I wanted to watch more but not sure if I'll have the urge to start paying after the free trial ends. The new Klingon look is still hard to get used to.