• 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!

First Impressions?

My impressions were I didn't hate the first two eps but I'm not in love with it like the Expanse. I guess I'll have to get used to the series like I did with Enterprise and JJ Trek.
 
John M. Ford's classic Trek novel The Final Reflection had some influence on the writers of Discovery, from what I've read... and although not strictly consistent with later Klingon continuity, it still offers some fascinating insight into the culture. In particular I remember its use of the Klingon proverb "komerex tel khesterex" as describing the only two options for a culture — "expansion or death." Klingons do not have the concept of a stable mutually beneficial equilibrium. If the Empire is not conquering, it is decaying, inviting subjugation.

(I really liked Ford's version of the Klingons. It's a shame so much of it was disregarded by the way the culture was later developed during the TNG years.)
http://memory-beta.wikia.com/wiki/Komerex

"Expand or die"-- I can't recall what episode exactly it's in, but I believe during the Klingon War arch on DS9, this philosophy does come up, somewhat indirectly.

EDIT: It's "The Way of the Warrior"...

WORF: There are many Klingons who say we have been at peace too long, that the Empire must expand in order to survive. Fear of the Dominion has given my people an excuse to do what they were born to do: to fight-- and to conquer.
 
I watched both episodes again and I did like it better the second time. I still found Michelle Yeoh’s acting wooden and the Klingons took me out of what was happening. When you have to read subtitles for a long period of time,it does slow down the story unless the conversation is snappy like maybe Run Lola Run. The thing about the Klingons is they speak more in segments then conversationally and all that stuff about Kahless nearly ruined them in TNG. I am intrigued about the 24 houses reunifying though so hopefully the Klingon political structure might be interesting. Also it was hard to follow along the battles. I still couldn’t get a clear picture of the Klingon ships. They looked like a cross of the old Romulan ships and maybe the Scemitar from Nemesis.

I still think that trailer gives this series a lot of promise so I’m still cautiously optimistic.
 
I liked the first two episodes. As a long time Trek fan after watching this, I felt compelled to join this forum to discuss it.

There is so much negativity from fellow Trek fans. I recall watching the first TNG episodes in grade school, and the first few episodes were horrible and the first season didn't give me a good first impression. But over time, the show got better, and made me a fan.

Take Encounter at Far Point. Bad acting, silly script with a god like creature Q (it's sci fi, not mythology). Bad dialogues, like Troi's "so much pain! so much happiness etc". Bad cheap make up on Worf, Troi, and Data, whistling Pop goes the weasel was silly, and cheap special effects like those jellyfish aliens. Leforge's visor was a cheap prop, looked like 80's robot band sunglasses (WTF). See this youtube video at the 50 second mark for an example:
To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

TNG music sucked too. The theme was totally ripped off from the Star Trek Motion Picture. They over played the theme in wrong places, like during the docking of the saucer section. Picard basically said the same thing as Kirk in the opening credits. Talk about zero originality. I'm surprised it lasted over a season, and thank goodness it did. TNG is still my favorite Trek show.

Give it a chance. For a pilot, ST:D sure looked like a high budget show and very cinematic. It is far better than the pilot from Voyger, TNG, DS9, TOS etc. It is setting the stage for their time period. It is not episodic like the other series, so the arc will be through the entire season. Plenty of time to develop the characters (how does a disgraced Michael become a Captain?) and allow time for discovery and exploration rather than just war. Utopian society on earth may started with First Contact, but interstellar peace doesn't happen over night. There is a story there to tell. I didn't hesitate to sign for All Access. Price of a coffee I spend every day. I just don't get all the complaints.
 
I will say this much...after nearly 24 hours...I'm still thinking that Captain Phillipa Georgiou (spelling?) may be my second-favorite Starfleet captain ever. I was NOT expecting that...but I was thrilled by Michelle Yeoh's performance and the character in general. Kept me absolutely captivated and bought in for the whole 2-hours.

You nailed the spelling on the first try! Good job! :) I imagine some of us have trouble with that without Googling her name.
 
I really liked it, 8/10 for me. Most Trek pilots are pretty crap and not indicative of the rest of the series, so this is good surprise.

Michelle Yeoh was really really good too, wouldn't have minded if she was the permanent captain.

I liked her too. Perhaps it was too expensive to hire her for the whole season. But she made a strong impression, and I think her relationship with Michael and the betrayal will become a huge part of Michael's grow as the season progresses. Maybe they will have her back for some episodes to do a flashback, which this show seems to do very frequently.
 
Here's one thing that I don't get: how would peaceful coexistence with the Federation and respecting each other's borders cause the Federation to "take all that we are" and not allow them to remain Klingon?
T'Kuvma seemed quite upset at the thought of Federation races coexisting on planets. It was a racial purity thing.

Like those people in Charlottesville a few weeks ago.
 
I liked her too. Perhaps it was too expensive to hire her for the whole season. But she made a strong impression, and I think her relationship with Michael and the betrayal will become a huge part of Michael's grow as the season progresses. Maybe they will have her back for some episodes to do a flashback, which this show seems to do very frequently.
I doubt Yeoh would be more expensive than Issacs, and that's even before Hollywoods attitudes to gender/race come into it.

And I hadn't considered her being back in flashbacks but definitely reckon you've got a point there.
 
I'm not entirely disagreeing with the idea that there will be more flashbacks - it's obvious there's still a lot of ground to cover with Burnham's character development, and flashbacks are a logical way to get there. But it's a bit early to be judging whether this show 'does flashbacks very frequently' or not. 'The Emissary' did not lead to a long running series of flashback stories on DS9.
 
And what was this Kafkaesque court martial thing at the end?
Why put shadows and hide the faces of the Judges? of Federation Judges?
To make it grim? Who wrote this stuff?
I'm not nearly as down on the whole thing as you are, but this bit — you nailed it. It was a conspicuously obvious, and conspicuously weird, production decision, coming right in the final moments of the episode, and it left me shaking my head.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Bgt
I'm not nearly as down on the whole thing as you are, but this bit — you nailed it. It was a conspicuously obvious, and conspicuously weird, production decision, coming right in the final moments of the episode, and it left me shaking my head.

It was a creative choice to emphasize the seriousness of the charges and consequences. I also felt it was less a faithful representation of the actual scene, and more an allegory for how Burnham was viewing the proceedings psychologically, as her whole world faded away around her.

I thought it was well done.
 
Yeah I really liked that, as the latest Trek spinoff series. The problem, creatively, is that it doesn’t work as a *new* iteration of Trek for people who’ve not watched before. To grab a new audience it needed to be fresher with just the core values being front and centre, not have all the Klingon stuff filling in a middle bit of their history. And that’s somewhat magnified by the error of splitting the pilot into two episodes instead of having it be one movie - newbies are going to be put off by the Klingon subtitles in the first episode….

As a longtime fan, though, yeah, it feels like… Enterprise: The Next Generation - or, perhaps, to Enterprise what DS9 was to TNG.

Visually it’s great - not mad about the camera-tilted bridge scenes - the music was good, it fits well enough with continuity (when it really doesn’t have to) - but I really wish we could have kept Michelle Yeoh, who was great in it. I could go on about little neat touches and continuity and stuff, (they’ve changed some Klingon words, the actors can’t seem to speak it either) but can’t be bothered right now.

The trailer for the season as a whole looks great too. But please give us on-screen episode titles, OK? It’s the Trek way.
 
have tp say I haven't seen all of it yet but going by what i've seen so far I have to say that I really, really like what I'm seeing thus far. Hope it continues in this vain.
 
Like it, not worth the CBS asking price.

Really? Star Trek isn't worth $6?

If you're not willing to pay $6 for Star Trek, you'd ,better not go out and buy any Star Trek novels or comics, or buy any of the series or movies on Blu-ray or DVD or Netflix or Amazon Video because all of those things cost far more than $6 a month.
 
If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

Sign up / Register


Back
Top