Apologies if much of this has been said already - I don’t want to retread worn out paths (nor do I want to flog a dead horse), so please forgive me if little of this is in any way innovative. So I finally watched season 2. I wasn’t going to originally, having been put well off by season 1. But I kept up to date with episode reviews by various people on YouTube, etc. so I knew what was going to happen over the course of the series, and I knew how it was going to end. Plus I wanted to make up my own mind, rather than rely only on what I’d heard/read. Now, I’m a huge discoskeptic, but I was pleasantly surprised by this season. It was indeed an improvement on season 1. I don’t want to get into things I didn’t like here as that would be unnecessarily negative (and likely said before, more eloquently, by others), so I’ll focus on what I did like. I liked how they toned down some of Michael’s “Burnhamness” in this season. Burnham often reminded me of season 1 Riker from time to time - inflexible and kinda unlikeable. I still don’t like Michael very much, but I feel like I understand her better - insofar as many of her interactions with other people appear to be her constantly trying to get one over on Spock. This is evident from seeing Michael’s interactions with Spock. And I think Michael’s feelings towards Spock are strongly influenced by her connection with Sarek’s katra. I think Michael is what Sarek would be like if Sarek didn’t have all that Vulcan emotional control. What I’d like to see with Michael going forward is for the writers to essentially do what they did with Riker - give Micheal more of a sense of humour and make her relax a little bit (I don’t think that’s going to happen, mind you, but I’ll come back to that below). But I’m encouraged by the fact that Michael did show some more personal growth this season - there was a glimmer of this in s1 - and I’m glad that she seems to be evolving as a character. I really liked Spock. I thought Ethan Peck did a great job portraying a much calmer Spock than we ever saw in Quinto’s interpretation. And his interactions with Michael were fantastic. Some have suggested that Michael made Spock into the Spock we see in the canon universe. I don’t think that’s the case here - I think Spock helps Michael more to become a more centred person this season - Spock helps her deal with some heavy emotional stuff - and it’s dealt with quite well. I think the Klingons were handled much better this season too. They felt much more like Klingons than they did in season 1. I liked Captain Pike for the most part as well. He seemed somewhat insecure at times - but that’s consistent with what we know about him from the Cage (c.f. Dr Boyce scene in Pike’s quarters). I don’t think I want a Pike series though - there is too much potential for repetition of what’s been done before (which could kill the franchise again like last time). I feel Star Trek needs to go forward, not dwell on nostalgia - although the Talos IV episode was kinda cool so maybe some nostalgia is ok (also the inclusion of a Barzan was a nice “deep cut” species). Everything else was about as I expected it to be this season - which was basically like season 1 (i.e. a reboot - I know, I know, it’s not “officially” a reboot but we’re not going to get anywhere with that debate so please ignore it), but I did see a marked improvement in season 2 relative to season 1. And the Discovery seems to run on steam, so numerous were the vents spewing steam onto the ship in various places, particularly Stamets’s lab (or was that engineering?). Ultimately, as a reinvention of Star Trek and the creation of the “Prime universe* ” season 2 had potential. *which I interpret as the unaltered Kelvin Timeline, not the canon universe from TOS to VOY - debating that with me here is irrelevant to any of my points by the way. Worf visited plenty of quantum realities that looked very similar to the canon reality where events were the same but visuals were different, so the Prime reality might as well be one of them for me. If you think it’s the same as the original canon universe, fine. I don’t, so let’s leave it at that (don’t yell at me lol). I’m cautiously optimistic for season 3 in the 33rd. The potential to define and explore the whole astropolitical landscape of the alpha quadrant nearly a millennium into the future is an exciting prospect. I got distinct “Battlestar Galactica” vibes from season 2 of DSC (c.f. The fight between Culber and AshVoq in the mess hall) and I think that’s the direction they’ll take in season 3. I view Burnham as basically a combination of Starbuck and Baltar from the RDM 2004 reboot. I predict Michael and Saru yelling at each other every week vying for command of the discovery, since there’ll be no official command structure to keep either of them in line. My caution comes from the fact that I seriously doubt the Disco will stay in the 33rd and will travel back to the 23rd around halfway through season 3 (like the side quest into the mirrored universe in s1, although I hope I’m wrong). But, S3 is the most interested I’ve been in DSC since it started. Onwards and upwards mayhap.
I'm genuinely glad you enjoyed it. I agreed with a lot of what you said here, excepting that I enjoyed S1 a great deal as well. Only point I'd disagree with is that, with the time jump, the thing I'm LEAST interested in is the "astropolitial landscape of the alpha quadrant." It's amazing how uninterested in that story I am. Like, to the point that they will likely lose me if that's what they chose to focus on. I'd rather the stories veer back more toward solving mysteries and facing the unknown (TOS, TNG to some extent) and less about the future society and the interstellar relations with other powers, etc (DS9). That was done really well in DS9, and I really liked that show...but I'm happy to leave it to DS9. I'd rather DSC get to other business.
I thought season two's highs were much higher than season one's, and that its lows were not nearly as low. Still stumbled in places, but, overall, I found it a big improvement. I'm sorry to lose Pike and to see the show leave the 23rd century. I'm skeptical of the trip into the far future, but I'm hoping the new setting will give the show some of TOS' "alone on the frontier" spirit.
I thought the season started really strong, hit its high point with "Project Daedalus", then was down hill from there. By the time they got to the end of season two, I was just shocked how quickly it went from potentially great to just grating.
Admittedly, the latter half of the season worried me, especially considering it saw the arrival of the new showrunner. But, at this point, I'm kinda willing to accept that the blockbuster approach they're using is going to end in disappointment. At least season two's finale didn't leave a foul taste in my mouth, even if it didn't make a lot of sense.
It did for me. Because it felt like that final episode was more about Pike, Spock and the Enterprise than the cast of Discovery. It really was "These are the Voyages" all over.
I can see why people felt that way, but since it wasn't the finale (in other words, we know the Discovery and her crew will be featured again) it's a much different animal than the tough-to-swallow ENT finale. I interpreted it more as a definitive "goodbye, until next time" salute to the Enterprise crew rather than a slight to the Discover and the primary characters. Of course, to those still stinging over the way ENT ended, I can see how some leftover feelings might still be there!
Honestly, I thought DSC S1 felt more like BSG. This season, much less so. Culber vs. Tyler felt like BSG but, to me, that was the exception. I don't even call him AshVoq anymore. Culber wanted to see him as AshVoq, but he's really just Tyler now.
When you're dealing with 13 or so episodes a year, I'd rather those episodes actually focus on the people who the story is supposed to be about.
Yeah, that was weird. But season two didn't have Starfleet trying to commit genocide combined with the appalling idiocy of the hydro-bomb resolution. That was a one-two punch that still has me reeling. (Also, I guess I'm willing to cut them some slack because I liked Disco Pike more than any of the Disco-native characters. Let's hope that ending was the Pike-series pilot it felt like.)
This is how I see it: the first season had sharp, rough edges. The second season filed those edges and gave the show a manicure. Now Disco is heading out tonight into the future.
Apologies I didn’t express myself very well in my original post. I totally agree with you on this. My point about the astropolitical landscape is that they can turn it on its head now. No longer are the Klingons there and the romulans there etc. We can have new mysteries to solve when we don’t know where all the pieces fit - or even where they are. Personally I’d like to see more of the old ethical dilemma in DSC. My favourite episode (and possibly the best episode of Trek ever to me) is “who watches the watchers”. Something like that would be awesome. Definitely Same. Maybe friends become enemies? The Andorians were always aggressive - maybe they will become anti-Federation in a thousand years’ time? I see what you mean. I don’t think it went *as* downhill as the second half of s1, though. For me, the whole mirror universe thing was just schlock. But I want to stay positive about s2 - I liked the time travel thing (I like that sort of linear story where things you’ve already seen have to be set up etc.) so the ending worked out ok for me. The control story was a little weak but I suppose it held much of the red angel stuff together. Would actually have preferred the Borg (controversial...) A lot of Burnham’s behaviour reminds me of later BSG when everyone started shouting more regularly and they dialled the angst up to 11 (I still enjoyed later BSG though...!). The ripples of insubordination from Saru when he loses his ganglia remind me of Gaeta when he gives up hope later on in the show. Granted BSG was executed more to my liking, but the emotional tone of DSC feels more like Galactica rather than Trek at the moment (to me at least) I’ve been off the radar for a while - I need to update my Universal Translator...
“Baltar”? How? Also, Burnham and Saru might do some yelling at each other in season 3, but it is not likely to be about who is in command.
I do think we will see some sabre-rattling in Season 3 myself, but I think it will be between Saru and Georgiou. Not necessarily about the captain's chair either, but I guess Georgiou will have serious qualms if Saru decides to take the Janeway route and cling to Starfleet's protocols, practices and other trappings as well as its ideals. I'd think she'd be much more vehement in advocating for a more pragmatic/ruthless course of action than Burnham would. Of course, she isn't officially part of the command structure, so who knows how it would turn out for her.
Baltar because Burnham is clever and she knows it and is not afraid to rub it in peoples faces. Much like the good Doctor/President of New Caprica. Who will be in command in s3 though? It should be Saru, but I fear Michael’s mutinous tendencies will resurface with no Starfleet to keep her in check.
This is really how I took the very end of the finale. It was closing out that era, maybe only temporarily, but really closing out our time with Pike's Enterprise crew. It was a bookend with the start of the season. Actually a bookend with The Cage as well and that Enterprise's crews official send off because how the final scene was shot and that they never got one. We know where Pike and Spock are headed and that was our goodbye to them. Next time we pick up with Michael and the rest of the Discovery crew.