Spoilers Discovery (Season 1): Late To The Party

Finally making my way through season 1 of Star Trek: Discovery. Just finished the 7th episode ("Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad"). Halfway through it's freshman year and I've got to say it is a mixed bag. Mostly good and definitely better than Star Trek: Enterprise right out of the gate. At this point I would even dare to say it has the potential to become my second favorite Trek series (behind Star Trek: The Original Series of course).

Once again Star Trek does an outstanding job in casting. It shouldn't have been a surprise considering the only time they stumbled in this regard was with the aforementioned ST: Enterprise but recent history has worked hard to teach the wisdom in hoping for the best while preparing for the worst.

Michelle Yeoh was terrific and it was a shame her character died, however, it was done purposefully and well. I like they went with a shrewd (ruthless?) captain in Lorca. Jason Isaacs is fantastic. As menacing as he is heroic. Reminds me of George C. Scott in "Patton." Saru (Doug Jones) is absolutely brilliant. Thoughtful and deliberate. His tendency to err on the side of caution is the most realistic and relatable. I believe the character of Saru out McCoy's Dr. McCoy in terms of his structural purpose within the series' dynamic. That is to make the point he is far less irritating and far more likeable than Leonard McCoy was at times in The Original Series while fulfilling the same dramatic need.

Things may change as I witness the rest of season 1 play out, but a problem I have with series' lead Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) is that so far it strikes me gimmicky. The whole Vulcan and Sarek bit strikes me as unnecessary. Sonequa is a great actress, but I don't see why it was necessity to have her so tied to Vulcan (especially Spock's father).

Which brings me to a negative: their use of The Original Series as a crutch. I realize they were looking to hedge their bets and provide a bridge. I just feel they could have been smarter about it. A bit subtler as the unintended consequence is they are retconning the shine off of Spock, Sarek and TOS in general. Intra-ship beaming, for example, was problematic in TOS yet not so in Discovery. It was, in fact, a dramatic point in TOS (Day of the Dove?). Now, thanks to DISCO, within that episode it is retroactively neutered.

I will say, in defense of their use of Sarek, they do introduce the possibility of an interesting insight in that Sarek did not get along with either Sybok or Spock because he felt they rebelled against the Vulcan way. Yet we see here (and in TOS and TNG) that Sarek himself was hardly a conventional Vulcan himself. His sons may have pushed boundaries more boldly and forcefully than he, however, that spark was absolutely from his side of the family tree. So if that is intentional then I like it.

I am a big fan of Rainn Wilson. He is excellent as Harry Mudd, however, by making him so murderous they again have retconned the bloom off the rose that was Harcourt Fenton Mudd. Neither in Mudd's Women nor I, Mudd did Harry come off as a stone cold killer. His character would never have worked or been in anyway as endearing if they had.

Surprisingly (to myself anyway) I like the Klingons and the War aspect of the series. I don't get how they had cloaking technology when , once again, TOS specifically stated the Klingons got it from the Romulans during the TOS years.

Critical Reception (Source: Rotten Tomatoes via Wikipedia)



Well, up to and including Episode 7, I agree with the chart. As the series starts out strong then indulges in some hokiness here and there.

All in all, I should add, not only is it better than Enterprise, Discovery would be a greater, more rewarding, source for theatrical movies than Jar-Jar Abrams Kelvin Universe.

 

That was never said on screen.

 

No more so than Balance of Terror is neutered by the appearance of the Romulans being changed in every other series, having been a key plot point in that episode.

I don't know about you, but that hasn't affected my enjoyment of the episode at all.

 

I will look into it however I strongly recall it was mentioned as was the Romulans and Klingons sharing ship designs. Perhaps the Enterprise Incident? Perhaps I am mistaken?

 

Yeah Romulans are said to be using Klingon designs (and you see D7s on screen), but there's no dialogue saying they shared the cloak.

 

Well, overall, I am rather high on Discovery so I cannot say it has soured me on it. As I said they could have been smarter about things, however, the good definitely outweighs the bad. I have also stated how on one hand I am not thrilled with their use of Sarek (or even the wisdom of it so far), however, I still see a certain positive to it. And design differences, in my mind, are different than anomalous and anachronistic technology. Discovery's mode of getting about is smartly done because while we can see it is technologically out of sync with the franchise future history they have implicitly foreshadowed why it doesn't become the standard or accepted method of galactic travel.

 

As I said, I will go back to source it (if it's possible). As I get on in age I find that sometimes I reference things that turn out to be in the novelizations (in this case probably the James Blish ones). Then again, as you say, I could be mistaken. We shall see.

I also promise to start using multi-quotes again.

 

The Cloak trade is mentioned in novelizations and other side stuff.

 

The Discovery was designed as and is, a Huge Test-bed for 300 or more scientific experiments, including the Spore Drive.
Therefore one can speculate without too much trouble, that Intra-ship Beaming is one of the experiments installed and that MU Lorca saw great advantages in using it to his benefit.

The fact that MU Lorca managed to get the one ship in Star Fleet with hundreds of mostly working advanced technologies on board, probably had him giddy for the first few weeks of his Captaincy.

Remember Scotty said that beaming between decks was problematic, not impossible, and that could be because the Enterprise at that point didn't have either the hardware or correct software to make it an everyday event.

 

Intraship beaming being difficult is one of those odd things that doesnt make much sense, since it should be easier to beam to a known location that isnt moving relative to the transporter than from orbit to the interior of a building on a planetary surface. Really, the way it should have been argued is that the transporter emitters are on the outside of the ship, but then we runn into the problem that the TNG era models actually have the emitters on the outside of the ship but intraship beaming isnt an issue.

 

A key difference however is we can reasonably foresee why the spore drive was not adopted technology keeping established canon intact. The intra-ship beaming, as they so freely use it in Discovery (which predates TOS) does the opposite of preserving the dramatic integrity of what we know is yet to come.

In the days of TOS transporting itself, especially within the Enterprise, is treated as a source of dramatic tension and risk. Discovery displays none of that. They appear to take transporters for granted and not, as you say, an experimental practice (as they do with the spore drive) therefore their attitude is an incongruous one.

 

Better than Enterprise? What madness is this?

 

Your forgetting who it was that found Intra-ship beaming to be very convenient...

The MU Guy who thinks nothing of spending hours if not days in an Agony Booth to achieve his ultimate goal.

Why would an experimental transporter tech already shown to be viable, cause him pause?

He may have also purposely left out of any of his reports that the Tech reliably works.
And since he was the Captain, perhaps nobody has caught it yet.

And we haven't seen the tech used on any other ship in this series.

 

That is the incongruity. It makes no sense. If it's proven to be considered viable to the point of nonchalance in Lorca's day then why is it not standard practice and treated at least with the same casualness during the time of TOS (which is decades later)?

 

Interesting discussion about the transporters. Might they have problems over time? Was what happened in TMP an isolated incident, or is McCoy wise to be wary of them?

The question I've always had is, why no ability to beam with shields up? Sure, you can't beam through, but what about a very small opening somewhere very briefly....or does the shield tech only work as completely up or completely down?

 

It's only nonchalant for Lorca.
Just because he has no qualms about using it, doesn't mean that it's completely safe.
(I did say viable, not infallible)
Again, I think you're forgetting the character aspect of who were talking about.
He's not going to let the odds of the transporter malfunctioning, stop him.

Scotty and Spock obviously know of between-deck-beaming, but essentially state that it's not something known to be completely reliable.

 

Fellas, the OP said he has only seen the first 7 episodes. I see some mega spoilers for later episodes in some posts. I think it's best not to spoil anything for him.

 

WOW!

Just finished the 4 episode Mirror Universe arc (S1 E10-13). Very impressed. When they first arrived I thought it was going to be a gimmicky cash-in on TOS. So far this series has done some truly bold things only to then follow up with something, uhm, more "conventional" and disappointing (I wouldn't be a true Star Trek fan if I was a pushover to please and couldn't find a few nits to pick ). At least now I get what the "MU" before Lorca's name meant (not "Mentally Unstable"). I really liked Captain Lorca and thought finally a Starfleet officer willing to do what it takes (Boy is my face red!). I truly did not see his heel turn coming - all he needed was a red MEGA (Make Empire Great Again) hat. For that I applaud the makers of this fine series.

To be honest, I still find the Klingon arc somewhat convoluted and confusing at this point. Considering only 2 episodes left in season one has me worried.

Thank you for that. I am catching up quickly though. It is interesting, to me, how my first impressions can get turned on their ear as things unfold. My impression of Lorca for example.

No one in Discovery has expressed any trepidation regarding intra ship beaming. It's not just Lorca.

You understate the misgivings Scotty and Spock expressed. Intra ship beaming was very definitely used as an element of drama when done in TOS. It wasn't until TNG that it was common place and used to illustrate how technology had advanced between the TOS and TNG eras therefore it is a non sequitur so to speak in terms of the progression of technology that has previously been established in the various Star Trek series.

 

The Discovery is a newer ship with cutting edge tech that won’t necessarily become common fleet-wide for quite some time. Problem solved.

 

What did you think of the story arc for the Voq character? I am surprised you didn’t comment on that as that was probably the most talked about part of the first season in this forum.