Spoilers Star Trek Discovery Season 1: Overall Review Thread

[Lord Garth]

i keep seeing reviewers online praising discovery's first season by comparing it to TNG's dreadful first year. the thing is, i can name half a dozen worthwhile (if not spectacular) entries from TNG season 1: where no one has gone before, 11001001, datalore, the big goodbye, skin of evil, the neutral zone.

now tell me which episodes of star trek: discovery you throw on while you're folding the laundry, cooking dinner, bored on a sunday afternoon, or are just bummed out and needing a pick me up.

discovery has numerous flaws in writing, structure, tone, character development, even in its fundamental concept. but i think the fatal flaw in star trek: discovery is its total lack of value as a show that you can rewatch.

So, for the heck of it, I rated all the episodes of the first season of TNG. Wow, yes, there were some great episodes but it was all over the place.

Encounter at Farpoint – 6 (counted twice)
The Naked Now – 8
Code of Honor – 3
Haven – 7
Where No One Has Gone Before – 9
The Last Outpost – 4
Lonely Among Us – 6
Justice – 2
The Battle – 8
Hide and Q – 3
Too Short a Season – 4
The Big Goodbye – 7
Datalore – 10
Angel One – 5
11001001 – 10
Home Soil – 3
When the Bough Breaks – 3
Coming of Age – 8
Heart of Glory – 10
The Arsenal of Freedom – 8
Skin of Evil – 5
Symbiosis – 4
We’ll Only Have Paris – 6
Conspiracy – 10
The Neutral Zone – 7

TNG Season 1 Average: 6.23

Eesh. That 6.23 means almost nothing because of all the variance. I gave the first season of Discovery an 8.43 and the range wasn't anywhere near that all over the map. I'm assuming even with people who didn't like or didn't care for DSC, what they thought of the individual episodes themselves didn't vary as wildly as first season TNG.

 

[ralfy]

Around 6 because of lots of writing problems, ranging from plot holes to lack of character development to clunky or sophomoric dialogue.

 

[pst]

Eesh. That 6.23 means almost nothing because of all the variance. I gave the first season of Discovery an 8.43 and the range wasn't anywhere near that all over the map. I'm assuming even with people who didn't like or didn't care for DSC, what they thought of the individual episodes themselves didn't vary as wildly as first season TNG.

i appreciate your highly subjective/scientific method in responding to my point. i'm with you on your ratings of these episodes, except for the naked now... i just... i can't.

but anyway, as someone who did not think discovery qualifies as "good" (but i do like and care for it, mixed emotions), you are correct, its first season is much more solid than TNG's first season. if only discovery managed an episode as good as the naked now...

 

[cooleddie74]

The best first seasons of Trek (not counting TAS):

1. TOS
2. ENT
3. VOY
4. DS9
5. DSC
6. TNG

 

[CorporalCaptain]

4.

The cast was excellent and unfortunately wasted on some pretty poor material.

Same, but I give it a 3.

Part of what made the material poor were too many cooks and the evident and improperly thought out tinkering with the original premise.

 

[Mirror Tuvix]

Wow, I feel like this is the show I have always been waiting for. For many years I have longed for a serial drama about using tardigrade DNA and fungus to talk to one's dead boyfriend while a trip to Bizarro World teaches the importance of always following the rules and that love is the only weapon against brain-scrambled moles.

 

[JohnR]

Strange show. I've watched the first seasons of all Treks except TOS as they have occurred, and I knew what the writers were doing. I will grant, DS9 threw me for a bit at first, because it was so different -- station-bound, and with several unfamiliar species playing a big role. But once I sorted things out, about one third of the way into the season, I said, "Aha, OK, I see where this is going."

I have no idea about this series. I feel like I'm watching an updated Flash Gordon, a serial with great action, great fun, and riddled with plot holes & inconsistencies (of tone, of pacing, of everything). In my head, I think this show is pretty bad. But I keep looking forward to Sunday nights, so there you go.

 

[Shinzonfan]

So, for the heck of it, I rated all the episodes of the first season of TNG. Wow, yes, there were some great episodes but it was all over the place.

Encounter at Farpoint – 6 (counted twice)
The Naked Now – 8
Code of Honor – 3
Haven – 7
Where No One Has Gone Before – 9
The Last Outpost – 4
Lonely Among Us – 6
Justice – 2
The Battle – 8
Hide and Q – 3
Too Short a Season – 4
The Big Goodbye – 7
Datalore – 10
Angel One – 5
11001001 – 10
Home Soil – 3
When the Bough Breaks – 3
Coming of Age – 8
Heart of Glory – 10
The Arsenal of Freedom – 8
Skin of Evil – 5
Symbiosis – 4
We’ll Only Have Paris – 6
Conspiracy – 10
The Neutral Zone – 7

TNG Season 1 Average: 6.23

Eesh. That 6.23 means almost nothing because of all the variance. I gave the first season of Discovery an 8.43 and the range wasn't anywhere near that all over the map. I'm assuming even with people who didn't like or didn't care for DSC, what they thought of the individual episodes themselves didn't vary as wildly as first season TNG.

What really jumps out at me from that list of episodes isn't the score. It's the number of episodes. 26 episodes, the good old days. Just out of curiosity I looked up the numbers for the other Treks.

Season #1
TOS 29 episodes
TNG 26 episodes
DS9 20 episodes (26 in the second season)
Voy 16 episodes (26 in the second season)
Ent 26 episodes
Dsc 15 episodes (it would have been 13 but they gave us 2 extras, how generous)

Maybe the short season has been the real problem with Discovery all along. The lack of character development, the rushed feel to it all, and what appears to be poor writing, maybe you just can't do it right with such a short season.

The only Trek I ever got into right from the first episode was TOS, but then I had nothing to compare it to and I was only 8 years old so not really into critical thinking.

The Treks with shorter seasons I've always had issues with. TNG didn't grab me right away, but by half way into season #1 I totally embraced it. DS9 I don't think I fully accepted it until the end of season #1 or the beginning of season #2. Voyager I was not a fan the first season, by the end of the second season I loved it. Enterprise took me about half way through season #1 before I fully accepted it (and it's the only Trek I own the entire Blu-ray collection so I must have really liked, TOS I've only got on VHS)

Maybe if they had an actual full season to do a full season they would have given us something more substantial. I also wonder if the breakdown of age groups between those who love it and those who don't love it might reveal something interesting. Could it be that we have different expectations of what they should be giving us in a season. Just to put that into perspective from my own point of view, when I heard last year that Game of Thrones was only going to have 7 episodes in season 7 I cancelled HBO, and that's after investing 6 years into watching it faithfully, that's what I think of short seasons.

 

[Ovation]

I prefer fewer higher quality episodes over more of lower quality (applies to any show).

Moreover, with my life schedule these days, 10-15 episodes are just the right length. As ever, YMMV.

 

[MarsWeeps]

Without going back and averaging each of my individual episode ratings, I'll give the season a 7.

In hindsight, I'm disappointed that they chose a war arc to start the series with. Please, no more of that. Get back to the exploration side and the threats that come with new discoveries. While I had no problem with the new look of the Klingons, I won't shed a tear if I never saw them again.

Never cared that much for Lorca. At least there was a good explanation for him being a douchebag. I hope season 2 gives more of the back stories of characters like Detmer and Airiam. If Burnham takes a back seat to give others more screen time, that's even better.

I already cancelled my subscription to CBS All Access until 2019. Hope season 2 improves, including new footage and a new theme song for the opening credits.

 

[marsh8472]

I gave it a 4. To the people who said give Star Trek Discovery a chance or felt people were being too judgemental about the series mid-way through saying there had only been 4, 5, 6 episodes etc.. so far and too early to compare it to any other star trek series at that time: Now that the whole season is over it's safe to say that anyone who's watched them all to this point has given the series enough of a chance.

My thoughts are that I'll still watch it. But I'm not jumping up and down in excitement to watch it. It started out as okay but not good. It improved slightly mid-way through to somewhere between okay and good and then fell back down to okay at the end. It felt more like a long movie than a star trek series. The CGI was good but makes all the technology appear ahead of its time where things don't fit in with the original series era. There was nothing very thought provoking. I don't care about the characters either.

 

[fireproof78]

I gave it a 4. To the people who said give Star Trek Discovery a chance or felt people were being too judgemental about the series mid-way through saying there had only been 4, 5, 6 episodes etc.. so far and too early to compare it to any other star trek series at that time: Now that the whole season is over it's safe to say that anyone who's watched them all to this point has given the series enough of a chance.

My thoughts are that I'll still watch it. But I'm not jumping up and down in excitement to watch it. It started out as okay but not good. It improved slightly mid-way through to somewhere between okay and good and then fell back down to okay at the end. It felt more like a long movie than a star trek series. The CGI was good but makes all the technology appear ahead of its time where things don't fit in with the original series era. There was nothing very thought provoking. I don't care about the characters either.

As a genuine curiosity-why watch it? Seriously, I do not understand this attitude. If you are not excited for something, rating it a "4," and stating that it's been given enough of a chance, why watch it?

 

[marsh8472]

As a genuine curiosity-why watch it? Seriously, I do not understand this attitude. If you are not excited for something, rating it a "4," and stating that it's been given enough of a chance, why watch it?

It's only once a week, I get bored on Sunday night. I've been watching the Expanse. I like that one better.

 

[fireproof78]

It's only once a week, I get bored on Sunday night. I've been watching the Expanse. I like that one better.

Yeah, I'll not understand this. I could be trying to avoid homework and wouldn't watch a show I didn't enjoy.

 

[marsh8472]

Yeah, I'll not understand this. I could be trying to avoid homework and wouldn't watch a show I didn't enjoy.

I like to stay informed about star trek even if it sucks. Kinda like watching the news. Its what forced me to sit through the animated series.

 

[fireproof78]

I like to stay informed about star trek even if it sucks. Kinda like watching the news. Its what forced me to sit through the animated series.

Good on you, I guess.

I can stay up on Star Trek without watching ENT and VOY.

 

[Phaser Two]

I'd give it a 4. One of the things I treasure in TV and movies is dialogue. TOS had simply superb dialogue throughout its run; even in the weaker episodes, there are almost always memorable lines. DISC had utterly forgettable dialogue. I can only remember about ten lines verbatim despite having a good memory for that sort of thing, and most of those were comic relief. If this cast had better dialogue, to say nothing of better plots, things would have been markedly better.

Speaking of plotting, only the Muddhog Day ep was cleverly plotted. Everything else seemed to revolve around CAN YOU BELIEVE THIS, MOFOS???? twists that seemingly everyone guessed.

The uniforms were really bad. I can't get past them.

The decision to have Burnham be a Vulcan adoptee boggles the mind.

Holograms everywhere. Just stop already. They didn't even use those to communicate in Voyager, for crying out loud. Wrong franchise, guys and gals.

The L'Rell-can-haz-bom? resolution to the war was insulting to the audience.

Oh, and stop with the theme of eating sentient people and beings. It's not edgy; it's gross and stupid.

Good to okay were Tilly, the unfortunately limited space scenes, the phasers and communicators (the tricorders were inexplicably terrible), and Isaacs. I was rolling with him until he became a caricature in yet another colossal writing fail.

Now, they did get three things really damn right and one thing pretty close, namely James Frain's portrayal of Sarek. I didn't want them to use Sarek, but since they did, I have to say he did a terrific job and was quite likable.

As for the three home runs, Shazad Latif was fantastic. He acted the heck out of being evil and was awesome in all of his post-deVoqization scenes. And he totally freaked me out in a good way every time he suddenly switched to that high, guttural Klingon voice. Outstanding. Naturally, they shipped him off. Sigh.

Jayne Brook was also great. She projected competence, bravery and authority in a way that many other characters did not. She needs to be a regular next season.

Finally, Mia Kirshner was *perfect* as Amanda. Best casting move of the entire series. She was elegant, sweet, kind, and beautiful. And she sported the same twinkling smile as Jane Wyatt. Just utterly fantastic. Talk about figuring out how to echo TOS! If only they had put as much thought and effort into the set design, conformance to canon, etc. as Mia infused into her version of Amanda.

Onward. And hopefully upward.

 

[fireproof78]

The L'Rell-can-haz-bom? resolution to the war was insulting to the audience.

Which audience? And why don't I feel insulted?

 

[Ovation]

Which audience? And why don't I feel insulted?

Clearly you’re not doing it right.

 

[Phaser Two]

Which audience? And why don't I feel insulted?

Honestly, I have no idea. But if that worked for you, I'm glad.