Season 1 makes for an excellent rewatch. Like most of these streaming shows, it works to watch several in a row and the season in a binge.
Understanding there was turmoil behind the scenes in season 1 (what else is new on Trek), it also seems to me there was a lot of creativity and willingness to modernize.
The Klingons gained inspiration from Trek novels (helpful to have Beyer on board) for a more complex society. There are 24 houses (and behind the scenes we were told there were even more), made up of species from nearby star systems that were annexed or subjugated. When people say "Discovery's Klingons", they really are saying a whole new range of species and they are often not under the same banner.
Also, their development is not linear. Occasionally they are united, and other times extremely fragmented. Their technology develops but then slips backwards as factions fight for supremacy. This is where we find them as the pilot begins. T'Kumva gas recovered lost technology from his house's previous height, including the cleave ship and cloaking device.
Burnham is one of the most developed characters in Trek. Looking back on the pilot she seems like a cocky Starfleet officer, but emotionally she's a lost child. Her dual heritage means she comes off as straight laced and curt. Every season has seen her lose this early stiffness more and more. Her abilities--which are significant--make her successful, but she also is overconfident at times and and needs to be the savior. This complex is mentioned in later seasons. In this episode, it's her undoing.
The mutiny is a result of 80% logic, 20% emotion. Any full human would not have gone this route. She concludes this will save her crew and the captain she idolizes. This completes the circle of her dual rationale...
The Klingons were going to start a war anyway but starfleet didn't realize this. Burnham supplied the provocation by killing one of them but she may have also had part of the right idea. Starfleet should have been more ready.
The production of this episode gets a mixed reaction. It's hard to see why, it's beautiful and eschews the dingy, tinted modern look of most modern scifi, including Star Wars. Mass Effect might be a good analog, and as that was inspired by Syd Mead, it's hard to have a better pedigree than this show.
The camera work is also a marvel. The last we saw our intrepid TV Trek heroes, they were in a very old fashioned Berman production, with 80s TV show blocking in Enterprise. Dutch angles and spinning camera abound. The camera was set free! Trek advances to the modern age.
So in conclusion, in some ways it is easy to see why it throws people off. Berman Trek was watched over and over for 12+ years in the absence of new product, and this on top of 18 years of post-Tng series. It's like throwing cold water on the sleeping Trekkies.
I for one am glad it woke them up.
Understanding there was turmoil behind the scenes in season 1 (what else is new on Trek), it also seems to me there was a lot of creativity and willingness to modernize.
The Klingons gained inspiration from Trek novels (helpful to have Beyer on board) for a more complex society. There are 24 houses (and behind the scenes we were told there were even more), made up of species from nearby star systems that were annexed or subjugated. When people say "Discovery's Klingons", they really are saying a whole new range of species and they are often not under the same banner.
Also, their development is not linear. Occasionally they are united, and other times extremely fragmented. Their technology develops but then slips backwards as factions fight for supremacy. This is where we find them as the pilot begins. T'Kumva gas recovered lost technology from his house's previous height, including the cleave ship and cloaking device.
Burnham is one of the most developed characters in Trek. Looking back on the pilot she seems like a cocky Starfleet officer, but emotionally she's a lost child. Her dual heritage means she comes off as straight laced and curt. Every season has seen her lose this early stiffness more and more. Her abilities--which are significant--make her successful, but she also is overconfident at times and and needs to be the savior. This complex is mentioned in later seasons. In this episode, it's her undoing.
The mutiny is a result of 80% logic, 20% emotion. Any full human would not have gone this route. She concludes this will save her crew and the captain she idolizes. This completes the circle of her dual rationale...
The Klingons were going to start a war anyway but starfleet didn't realize this. Burnham supplied the provocation by killing one of them but she may have also had part of the right idea. Starfleet should have been more ready.
The production of this episode gets a mixed reaction. It's hard to see why, it's beautiful and eschews the dingy, tinted modern look of most modern scifi, including Star Wars. Mass Effect might be a good analog, and as that was inspired by Syd Mead, it's hard to have a better pedigree than this show.
The camera work is also a marvel. The last we saw our intrepid TV Trek heroes, they were in a very old fashioned Berman production, with 80s TV show blocking in Enterprise. Dutch angles and spinning camera abound. The camera was set free! Trek advances to the modern age.
So in conclusion, in some ways it is easy to see why it throws people off. Berman Trek was watched over and over for 12+ years in the absence of new product, and this on top of 18 years of post-Tng series. It's like throwing cold water on the sleeping Trekkies.
I for one am glad it woke them up.
