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

[Mr Awe]

I respect her for her contributions to Trek (she has a few good, and a couple of great, episodes to her credit), and she makes a couple of good points (Klingons and their prosthetics), but the rest of it I disagree with almost totally.

Yes, she was definitely reaching. Agreed that there are things to improve and not everything worked. But, it's not nearly as dire as she makes it seem. Definitely on par with most of the other Trek premieres.

 

[Mr Awe]

The Original Series has a ton of faults, but there is a sense of brashness and optimism that is sorely lacking in this show.

Yep, I love that show to pieces. Still my favorite Trek! I'd say that the brashness and optimism you praise it for has been missing from the Berman era shows as well. Ditto with forgettable musical scores in those series.

 

[Guy Gardener]

Who is so dumb that they think that calling out binariness seems rare enough to single out a star system?

In fact, 85% of the stars in the Milky Way galaxy are not single stars, like the Sun, but multiple star systems, binaries or triplets. If two stars orbit each other at large separations, they evolve independently and are called a wide pair.

 

[Mr. Adventure]

I really didn't like TNG Klingons. They were the worst thing ever. But DIS Klingons somehow managed to be even worse, which is quite an achievement in a negative way. They speak sooooo slowly and monotone gibberish all the time that their scenes are just unbearable boring. Their looks don't help. I guess because of the masks and heavy makeup the actors are unable to properly emote. They totally lack charisma and all their scenes are just dragging down the show. It is really bad that we will see them all the time now thanks to the started war. They are definitely not in the same league as the Goa'uld or the Wraiths from Stargate. Now those were entertaining recurring villains. DIS Klingons are the opposite.

I was just thinking that TOS Klingons have been given a bit of a short shrift over the years. It'd be kind of fun to see those snarky, weaselly bastards again. They weren't always raving about honor and actually wore practical uniforms and even smiled from time to time while sticking it to Kirk and the Federation.

 

[KirkusOveractus]

I was just thinking that TOS Klingons have been given a bit of a short shrift over the years. It'd be kind of fun to see those snarky, weaselly bastards again. They weren't always raving about honor and actually wore practical uniforms and even smiled from time to time while sticking it to Kirk and the Federation.

That's what I wanted here. Personally, the TOS Klingons (as well as TUC's Klingons) had that extra degree of menace to them because they were so well-read, spoke articulately and smiled as they plunged a dagger into you.

It was an art form, and was beautiful to watch. When Kor tells Kirk it was a pity they didn't meet in battle as it would have been glorious, it is actually a battle I would have loved to have seen. It wouldn't have just been weapons, but verbal jabs and mental strength.

 

[Guy Gardener]

Read some hard syfy by Larry Niven once, that used RNA programing, where knowledge and skills was put inside anyone with a syringe.

Um.

Augments are obnoxious eggheads.

What if they all have the complete works of Shakespeare programmed into their brains, at the point of augmentation?

Maybe that explains why Klingons think that Shakespeare is Klingon?

 

[Ometiklan]

Who is so dumb that they think that calling out binariness seems rare enough to single out a star system?

Are you trying to say that Burnham is dumb for calling out the binaries as special?

If so, she is actually calling out the binaries not as rare and thus special, but rather as beautiful and the potential home for living species in the distant future.

 

[BillJ]

The biggest thing they could do right now to make it feel like Trek? Hire Ron Jones and turn him loose scoring episodes.

 

[Guy Gardener]

Are you trying to say that Burnham is dumb for calling out the binaries as special?

If so, she is actually calling out the binaries not as rare and thus special, but rather as beautiful and the potential home for living species in the distant future.

It's the name of the episode.

"Battle at the Binary Stars"

By this reasoning, Waterloo might as well have been called Punch Up in the Paddock, or the Battle of Britain could have been called "Dogfight by the Clouds".

 

[dahj]

It does sound nicer that Siege of AR5580118999881999119725 3 though

 

[BillJ]

It does sound nicer that Siege of AR5580118999881999119725 3 though

"The Vulcan Nervous Breakdown"

 

[Noname Given]

I did have a problem with Burnham. I expected her to be much more Vulcan-like in her behavior/tone than she was. I can't believe 7 years (or whatever it was after she first came aboard Shenzhou) corrupted her that much! I mean you can say "logic" every other sentence (she did make reference to it more than once) but her behaviors and emotions were all human.

And the mutiny. Really? A Vulcan would do that? Over advice given about an incident that happened what, a century or two ago? There's no guarantee that current Klingons would act like ones of a century or two ago.

Yep and Sarek even mentionerd that to her - that said for me it worked BECAUSE it's clear she has PTSD from the (I assume) Klingon attack on the Vulcan learning center that almost killed her when she was a child and also the Klingon attack on the Vulcan Science station that killed her parents (Maybe it was the same attack and the Vulcan outpost had a learning center on it she was attending?). She effectively panicked and honestly thought the "Vulcan Hello" was then ONLY way to avoid losing the ship and everyone on it she cared about - and she was determined to do that (save the ship).

The big things that stuck out? I can't remember any of the actual music from the Discovery episode[s. I can't even remember if there was any music. The Original Series has a ton of faults, but there is a sense of brashness and optimism that is sorely lacking in this show.

^^^
Unfortunately I agree with you there. This time I don't think it's an executive producer edict - BUT (unfortunately) they have a Composer who seems to like a 'sonic wallpaper ' motif. Unlike TOS - the music (what there is of it I could make out) for ST: D is so far low key and unremarkable in contrast to the many themes employed over the 3 seasons of TOS.

 

[gblews]

Stop with the presumptuousness. I was making a judgement about the episode, not establishing a general principle. And no, I did not say that they could have action until they had worked some predetermined amount on the characters.

If you had read my post a bit more carefully, you might have noted that I indicated why I thought you were wrong in general, and wrong specifically about the episode in question re: the assertion that the characters in the episode needed to be established prior to putting them in battle scenes.

As to what you may or may not have said this in your original post on the subject, I think I'v made my point.

I'm saying that the character work sucked after the first half.

Perhaps this is what you should have posted from the beginning.

 

[Cyrus]

I like the 2nd episode better than the first, though the Klingon scenes were still a drag. CBS should have broadcast both parts.

Did they really name a ship after Shran? Is the crew Andorian?

 

[JRTStarlight]

I Remember When I Was A Younger Man, How Much I Hated Flashbacks.

Uggh. Flashbacks Are Stupid.

Yep. Things Haven't Much Changed.

 

[Samuel]

How many ships did Starfleet lose in the battle?

 

[johnjm22]

So are we supposed to like Burnham? As the main protagonist of the show I would assume so.

Based on these two episodes I don't see much to like in her. She's smug and incompetent.

She botches the space suit mission. She tries to take over the ship and fails. She devises a plan specifically to prevent T'Kuvma from being martyred, then she proceeds to kill him anyways defeating the purpose of the mission.

Also didn't help that her dialog was poorly written.

Why should I like this character? Or am I not supposed to like her?

 

[BillJ]

Why should I like this character? Or am I not supposed to like her?

I like what Martin-Green brings to the screen, she did the best she could with what she had. But she was more erratic than Janeway ever was.

 

[Timo]

Is liking the characters still a thing? BSG didn't need any of that.

Then again, I come from the corner of the world that put the noir back in crime fiction. A likeable character would stick out like a sore thumb there.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[BillJ]

I do have to say that I really like the Shenzhou bridge station chairs. They are a pretty sweet update to the original.