Spoilers Star Trek: Discovery 1x01 - "The Vulcan Hello"

[Rahul]

Interesting. I occasionally got that feeling from TNG, more often from TOS... but I really didn't get it here. The Shinzou was on the "edge" of Federation space, near disputed territory... yet they had no problem consulting in real time with an Admiral, or even with someone on Vulcan in the heart of the Federation. What's more, when trouble arose, a dozen or so other starships were mere hours away, and even capable of timing their arrival to warp in simultaneously for maximum dramatic effect.

None of this adds up to the impression that was so commonplace in the TOS era — that starships are few and far between out there, and the captain and crew of any one of them are usually on their own, responsible for resolving the situations they encounter without backup.

Instead this episode left me with an impression that I also got from the JJA films, and it bothers me here as it did there — that the writers have forgotten that space is really, really BIG.

I think TOS pulled that feeling off by really being FAR off in unknown space. This episodes (and the JJmovies) take place on or near home turf. As did many episodes of TNG, but even some TOS ones.

Considering the type of story (war arc), I'm not betting on getting that "out there in the wild"-feeling anytime during the first season. I hope that once this klingon story arc is finished, the Discovery will also fly far out into the unknown, without backup. Akin to what ENT did during season 3, but hopefully with a more optimistic mission statement.

 

[Seven of Five]

Well I voted a big fat 9. I managed to squeeze the first episode in before I went to work this morning and I had such a huge smile on my face all the way there.

Burnham has already grown on me. They seem to have gone a Tom Paris route with her, and I wasn't expecting this from the promos. I'm enjoying it and look forward to seeing where they go with her anyway.

Loving the whole new visual style and how big everything seems.

 

[Shalashaska]

I enjoyed watching it, though I'm not sure how appealing it'll be to those outside of the fandom.

I originally thought the first two hours would premiere together as one long episode, the same way every Trek after TOS has done it. I thought the first hour would end with the Shenzhou's destruction/Burnham getting imprisoned, and the second hour being the introduction to Lorca/the Discovery, ending with Burnham joining the crew of the Discovery. All part of the same episode.

The premiere we got feels like more of a prologue to the real story.

 

[Ovation]

None of this adds up to the impression that was so commonplace in the TOS era — that starships are few and far between out there, and the captain and crew of any one of them are usually on their own, responsible for resolving the situations they encounter without backup.

In the time honoured tradition of a fan "filling in the blanks", here's my 2 cents worth of speculation.

In the war, many more comm sats are destroyed (making communications more problematic in Kirk's time), coupled with massive infrastructure/ship losses, and the result is a diminished fleet, where scarce resources leave the fleet more thinly scattered. As such, some design choices focus on "making do" with fewer frivolous things like holographic comms while also incorporating control interfaces that mix and match earlier "tried and true" tech with some borrowed from Federation societies with different aesthetics than much of Starfleet. The Enterprise and its class could be a testbed for this approach and one that proves hardier than the rest (not unlike my SUV--hardly changed from its first iteration and more robust than designs that have come and gone in the interim).

Of course, next week the above will be rendered absurd, but that's a risk all fanon runs.

 

[Seven of Five]

Yeah I thought we'd see Discovery in part 2 as well, but it's kinda fun not seeing the ship yet. Maybe we'll go full Netflix-Marvel and not have the ship until the season one finale?

 

[CorporalClegg]

Well Star Trek really isn't back on tv. For one episode but that's it...

You're making a semantic distinction that doesn't really hold water in 2017.

 

[Ovation]

You're making a semantic distinction that doesn't really hold water in 2017.

True. I do 80% of my Netflix watching on a TV.

 

[Mr Awe]

This show is never going to please everyone.

Name one show that has ever pleased everyone!
Shoot, name anything that has please everyone!

 

[Jackson_Roykirk]

Name one show that has ever pleased everyone!
Shoot, name anything that has please everyone!

Believe it or not, my dog doesn't like bacon.

That just goes to show that no matter how awesome something is to many (such as bacon is to dogs), there will be some who find it far from awesome.

 

[JD]

Yeah I thought we'd see Discovery in part 2 as well, but it's kinda fun not seeing the ship yet. Maybe we'll go full Netflix-Marvel and not have the ship until the season one finale?

From the looks of things, we'll be seeing next week. I've seen several people say that the producers have called the next episode a "second pilot", which seems to mean that this is the episode that will be introducing the rest of the cast and the main focus of the story arc. These first two episodes were the prologue, next week we get chapter 1.

 

[BillJ]

"We're beaming the Captain and Exec down to the planet to fix a well, despite an approaching dust storm, and despite the fact that we have no technological capability of communicating with them or locating them in the event of a dust storm."

The Shenzou must not have shuttlecraft.

Imagine how much easier a time Kirk would have had in "The Galileo Seven", if the Enterprise could have just swooped down and checked the planet itself for the crashed shuttle...

 

[CorporalClegg]

Even the NX class had shuttlepods.

 

[Nyotarules]

Watching again at home on my large screen tv. I like it even more the 2nd time around, including the corny start with the footprints in the sand and the ship bursting through the clouds. I expect plotholes with this show, after all its a Star Trek tradition.
Sadly the tv creators once again deny that most humans of African origin do not have naturally straight hair, that wig on mini Michael was awful.

 

[Michael]

Even the NX class had shuttlepods.

Or, even smaller, the Franklin.

 

[BillJ]

Or, even smaller, the Franklin.

Which is odd, because it had no shuttle bay.

 

[lawman]

The two answers that came to mind from the question "Why I took you?"...

The whole flashback of Georgiou taking her on struck me as odd, actually. It was stated that Michael had just left the Vulcan Science Academy, and implied pretty clearly that she has not spent any time at Starfleet Academy along the way. Since when does someone with that background get to step into a command-line position on a Federation startship?

That scene serves the important role of being the 'save the cat' moment... As big time fans, we take it as a given that Starfleet is a noble, benevolent institution and its officers likewise, but other viewers won't be going in with that assumption.

It clearly is that kind of moment, but it doesn't seem necessary. Star Trek is a fifty-year-old cultural phenomenon. You don't have to be a big-time fan (or a fan at all) to know that the Federation = the Good Guys.

In the time honoured tradition of a fan "filling in the blanks", here's my 2 cents worth of speculation... In the war, many more comm sats are destroyed (making communications more problematic in Kirk's time), coupled with massive infrastructure/ship losses, and the result is a diminished fleet, where scarce resources leave the fleet more thinly scattered. As such, some design choices focus on "making do" with fewer frivolous things like holographic comms while also incorporating control interfaces that mix and match earlier "tried and true" tech with some borrowed from Federation societies with different aesthetics than much of Starfleet.

Interesting exercise in fanwank, but if they actually went that direction it wouldn't really ring true to me. There was nothing about TOS that ever gave off a vibe of post-war reconstruction and scarcity. On the contrary, it was depicting an optimistic civilization in its prime, bold going forward to explore new frontiers. The Enterprise was meant to be understood as one of the top ships in Starfleet — "only twelve like her in the fleet" — with the best and the brightest in terms of crew and technology. (What's more, canonically, the original Ent-1701 is already out there in 2256 when STD is set, and has been for a decade, under April and Pike.)

 

[Bry_Sinclair]

Oh dear...

I can't even bring myself to watch episode 2.

 

[Jedi_Master]

The Shenzou must not have shuttlecraft.

Imagine how much easier a time Kirk would have had in "The Galileo Seven", if the Enterprise could have just swooped down and checked the planet itself for the crashed shuttle...

It certainly would have looked cooler....
Of course the same storm that threatened the lives of Burnham and Gorgiou (sp? I want to call her Captain Gorgeous but I digress) could have prevented the shuttles from being able to land on the planet.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

A lot of things, some little some not, are bothering me the more I think about them.

Like sending no one to accompany Burnham, which is frankly an even larger problem than forgetting about how the ship's and possibly shuttles' navigational deflectors* should have made it easier to get a shuttle at least part of the way into the debris, thus making it easier to get the space-walkers in and out.

But the biggest problem is Burnham's mutiny. Sarek's account of Klingon behavior was from centuries ago, and none of the Starfleet crew, including Burnham, is given any reason to assume that the Vulcan Hello is the appropriate course of action now. Burnham is given the character of someone unfit to serve. It was her duty to clench her teeth and accept the captain's decision not to fire. It's a lot to swallow.

* - Definitely if their shuttles can go to warp.

 

[BillJ]

But the biggest problem is Burnham's mutiny. Sarek's account of Klingon behavior was from centuries ago, and none of the Starfleet crew, including Burnham, is given any reason to assume that the Vulcan Hello is the appropriate course of action now. Burnham is given the character of someone unfit to serve. It was her duty to clench her teeth and accept the captain's decision not to fire. It's a lot to swallow.

I think my bigger problem was how easily Georgiou brushed her off. She was just talking five minutes earlier of Burnham being ready for her own command.