There's much to like about both seasons. i think they both have their own merits. Season 1 was interesting. I strongly disliked most of the characters at first but grew to loving them as the season progressed. Although some big twists were a bit too obvious I really enjoyed the sudden trip to the mirror universe. I think the smaller arcs served the show well. Lorca is probably one of the best Trek villains since DS9 thanks to Jason Isaacs' performance and the large amount of development his character got. Season 2 had better effects, the production quality was solid. I liked that we got to explore Pike and see him in action and represent the best side of Trek captains. Returning to elements from the pilot episode was a gift to fandom and a joy to behold. I liked that some discovery characters were a little more fleshed out. The final battle of the season was unique and fresh to Star Trek. But overall I prefer wacky season 1. Season 2 spent too long on the red angel and the signals, I felt it was dragged out too long and wrapped up with a lot of Bill & Ted time travel logic.
Season one has Jason Isaacs. Season two went flat with “The Red Angel” and too much focus on Pike and Spock. By the end, it felt like it was more their show than Discovery.
I'll have to give the ever-so-slight edge to Season 1. I don't have the same issues with Season 2 that others have, but I feel points need to be taken off for the following reasons... 1. Burnham's more reactive than proactive during the first half of the season. 2. I wanted to smack Tyler upside the head too many times. 3. Everything with Kaminar was too fast. Their entire society is transformed in one episode (okay, this hearkens back to Old Trek, no big deal), but then they're space-fairing and coming to the rescue in "Such Sweet Sorrow". Forget low-tech. The Kelpians went from no-tech to warp-capable in half a season, which might've spanned a few weeks at most. No one gets caught up that fast, technologically. This is an entirely different scale from Commodore Perry visiting Japan in 1853. 4. Then there's the end of the season where Spock says, "I recommend we never speak of Discovery, Micheal Burnham, or the Spore Drive again, under the Penalty of Treason, because STD sucks." Talk about bending over. You'd think the show dropped the soap and Canonistas were looking for a new punk. If you cave in to them once, they'll think they can make you cave in again.
Season 1. Burnham has command waived in her face, and then commits mutiny, a by-product of her growing into that role. She tries to abandon Starfleet principles to save her crew, and by the end of the season, comes full circle, embracing that we must keep our convictions, even when tested. In a literal sense, that is when she becomes a Starfleet officer, again. Her redemption involves pain over the loss of her Captain, spending six months in Federation prison, as its only-ever mutineer. She is recruited by her surrogate--Captain Lorca--another ends-justifies-the-means leader. She wanders through Discovery like Alice, a reference to a fairy tale read to her. No one, but Tilly, scared, shows her any respect. Lorca orders her to use a giant Tardigrade to kill Klingons. She heals herself by relating to the Tardigrade, an animal that is deeply misunderstood. It is not a weapon, but a navigator for a new propulsion system. Indirectly, this helps kill Klingons. So, she loses the Tardigrade, Stamets replaces it as navigator, he becomes overburdened, and they become lost through the looking glass, again--in the mirror universe. Before that, as the war rages, she falls for Ash Tyler. He was tortured by Klingons, freed, and suffers from PTSD as the Security Chief on Discovery. Ash and Michael are licking the opposite's wounds. As the Xenoanthropolgist, she must study the Terran Empire. Ash embraces his dark half, in a complicated backstory, while Burnham fights hers as she is forced into the role of her counter-part. Soon, it is revealed this is where Lorca originates and She must kill him. She saves her former Captain's counterpart before returning to find the Federation devastated in this war. This is where she is redeemed. I love these episodes. As time moves forward, they become more friends. But, this season is perhaps the best first season since TOS. It is highly serialized. I didn't even mention any other characters not related to Burnham. The Kelpian who always has felt fear, and has a day off, Sarek's loss of Spock to Starfleet deepened. The Staments/Hugh relationship. Tilly being groomed by Burnham to be Captain. The performances are amazing. So is the production value. Give me season 1, all day. Season 2 was good, but too much softball stuff for the fans. Season 1 was pure storytelling.
I thought Isaacs was great, shame he was wasted on an MU plotline, perhaps he didn't want anything more. Would have been better if his big secret had been that he was a member of S31 and avoided the MU completely. That's because it was Pike and Spocks show whenever they were on screen, it can't have been a surprise that they would somewhat overshadow the rest of the cast. At the end of the day it did help the show a lot, what S3 will be without them remains to be seen.
It's really hard for me to say, because there were very clear biases at work. So, for example, I had low expectations going in for S1 because I had very little interest in a "Klingon War" story, and yet I ended up really enjoying the season in spite of that. With S2, I had very high expectations because S1 had been surprisingly great, and S2 looked more like a dream premise for me, and yet I believe that season came up a little short. S2 I enjoyed immensely, but I find it very difficult to get past my disappointment of "what could have / should have been" vs. what the actual product is. I loved the including of Spock, Pike, Number One and the Enterprise. As a hardcore TOS fan, this was a great treat. But, I also felt a lot of that was to the detriment of several of the main characters. They made some odd choices with regard to the characters as well, choosing to give each of them a bit of a mini-arc (2 to 3 episodes AT MOST) in a concentrated burst and then would virtually ignore their existence after that, rather than spreading out meaningful things for them to do over the course of the season. I also am really mixed about the way they chose to end the season. It's not to say that the finale itself was not good (it was frigging epic), but viewing it in larger context, and looking at the "jump ahead" as basically a massive cop-out, I'm not exactly pleased. So, S1 gets the nod for me. I loved the tone of it, and I enjoyed getting to know all the characters. I thought it was sufficiently different from what had come before so many many other times that it sufficiently held my interest. It was tense, the MU arc was very good, and I liked most of the plot twists and surprises. The ending was a little bit of a let-down, but hey, it was still fun. Lorca was a great character / villain, and even though I was disappointed in him turning out to be a killed off bad guy, I have a feeling that's the only reason Jason Isaacs agreed to do it in the first place. Also, I rewatched S1 several times. I have yet to revisit S2. It's not that I didn't like it (I most certainly did)...but for whatever reason, I don't have an urge to re-watch it. I'm sure I will before Picard premiers. So yeah, Season 1 gets my vote. I'm pretty sure I could have written something almost identical.
Could’ve just been he wasn’t on the same exact ideological footing as the time period’s Federation/Starfleet.
Everyone replying here so far liked season 1 better yet season 2 is 10 votes ahead. Any Season 2 fans want to chime in on what you liked about Season 2? Was it Burnham's Iron Man suit or the storyline etc? Hello Bryan Fuller?
Lol. No. Just a kid who grew up idolizing Star Trek in Suburban Detroit. When he was 13, after seven years learning the rules of sentence structure, he was given his first creative writing assignment, an assignment that garnered him an 11/10, written in six minutes between classes. In his twenties, he tried his hand at writing, and learned about the process, even if he knew it wasn't his calling; life's work. One of the lessons was to choose every word. To engage his creativity, he is drawn to character, theme, and symbolism more than plot. Star Trek is a universe studied, with fits and starts, since he was six-years-old. In the second grade, he wrote "The kid Generation," a ship full of 8-year-olds running the Enterprise. It was not an assignment; just a fun activity to do between classes, in grade school. That said, I am drawn to telling my version of season 2, as well. And may do it, soon. But, thank for the compliment.
Both seasons had bad serial storytelling across the season, but season 2 had more individual episodes I really liked and Captain Pike made it to the end of the season just as interesting and engaging (or moreso, really) as when he started, whereas Lorca's final episode totally ruined that character. Therefore I take season 2 over 1, but I'm still waiting for the show to really find its feet.
I'd concur with this. Though i'd also say that Season 2 paid more attention to character development as well. Michael was more consistently characterized throughout, and the season was much clearer that some of her personality traits first introduced in the initial season were indeed intended as flaws. And there was a bit more effort made to flesh out other characters like Saru, Pike, Spock, and Culber. Not enough mind you, but more.
I thought season one's tedious Klingon stuff was almost unwatchable, and the magic Tardigrade was silly nonsense. And there was a lot of ugliness I did not like, especially the way they toyed with rape when they had nothing to say about it. So more than half the season I'd call awful. The MU stuff was mostly campy fun, even if I thought it was a bizarre, inside-baseball creative choice so early in a relaunch. But then that ending. That ending. Everything from the Lorca reveal to the hydro-bomb conclusion to the Klingon War was just wholly unsatisfying. I reel even now. Season two started off stronger than anything from season one. Pike was likable. Saru got an interesting storyline. The show seemed less ugly. Burnham's interactions with Spock were well done, even after the Red Angel plotline fell off a cliff. The season ended with the pew pew I expected, so, while I was disappointed, I wasn't surprised. The interesting character drama largely gave way to a stock sci-fi runaround, but even then, it was an inoffensive runaround. So while season two failed to stick the landing, I still thought it was a big improvement overall.
Season Two continues Burnham's ascent, her best moment as a Starfleet officer, and the descent, her relationship with Spock forcing a confrontation with what she did, by the Enterprise appearing. The seven unique signals disrupt the Enterprise's investigation of them, forcing Pike to take command of Discovery. They search for Spock, who has had visions of the Red Angel since Burnham tried running from their home, in their youth, to get away from Vulcan extremists, feeling she endangered the whole family. Spock has been committed, voluntarily, for what are essentially psychotic visions of the Red Angel. Before they appear in the universe to Starfleet, Spock knows these signals, maps them, which Burnham finds in a computer in Spock's quarters, aboard the Enterprise. She carries guilt over calling Spock a half-breed and weird when she was attempting to run away. Spock is damaged and never trusts her again. While searching the remnants of the seven signals they discover a lost dying computer in space that has 100,000 years of data to share with Discovery. This data is then the catch that eventually ends Discovery's time in the 23rd century as Starfleet's AI, Control, can gain sentience by this data. It searches for how. With sentience, control destroys all life in the Galaxy, so Control can rule with other AI. Both Burnham and her birth Mother are Spock's Red Angel, and to prevent control from ever receiving the sphere data, after a showdown where control has manipulated 31 to fight Discovery and all the red signals unite with the Enterprise to send Discovery 950 years into the future. The end. Spock and Burnham have an intense relationship and its best moments were rediscovering each other, the love between brother and sister.
I prefer S1 over S2. S1 felt more focused and better structured, which is odd given the behind-the-scenes issues. S2 felt a bit wayward, and the Control thing in particular seemed to come out of nowhere. I preferred the characterisation in S1 as well. Burnham's monologues and screen presence got a bit out of hand in S2, and Tilly was turned up way too high. The most similar aspect about them is that I disliked the ending to each, feeling they both pandered to haters - S1 with its mawkish speech about Starfleet ("See, we're not so dark!") and S2 with its time leap ("See, we're not breaking canon!"). Still, I liked both more than the first two seasons of any other Trek series aside from TOS.
Ahhh yes... season 1: The Klingon War. A war we saw almost nothing of. Great work guys. 4 pointless episodes in the mirror universe was obviously far more important.
I preferred season 2 to season 1 - I think it's mostly that it took me a long time to really get into season 1 - the characters were largely unlikeable (to me). Other than Saru, Stammets, and (mostly) Tilly, I really couldn't develop any liking for any of the characters. Jason Isaacs was brilliant as Lorca, but as a villain he wasn't supposed to be likeable and prior to the mirror universe twist I struggled with his character a lot. I suspect a rewatch, knowing the mirror universe twist will make those earlier episodes more understandable. Season 2 took some time to develop more of the crew - I was surprised when Pike asked the crew to introduce themselves that I knew almost none of them by name, so a bit more development helped significantly. The major factor for me in season 2 was Pike, who for me has entered my top 3 Starfleet captains. I'd watch a show about Pike's Enterprise in a heartbeat.
I think a lot of season 2 were better than season 1, but it was more uneven. Season 1 was more consistently good. The Klingon war and mirror universe stories were more interesting than the Red Angel or Control.