I became a "Trekker" in the Summer of 1992 when I'd stay up late watching TV, I came across an episode of "The Next Generation" that pulled me into it. I believe this episode was "Disaster" but it may have been some other 5th Season episode. Before then, I'd only seen fragments of episodes of both TNG and TOS here and there but never a complete episode.
Before that night, in my mind, all Sci-Fi was "the same" and about space ships doing space battles with funny looking aliens and little more than that, it didn't appeal to me. But watching that episode of TNG and then watching other episodes the following nights and still others in syndication I learned what Star Trek was about:
The evolution and achievements of the human spirit. Humans exploring, working together and working together with aliens in a community. It was a positive look at the future for human achievement not a grim one as is often the case in Sci-Fi.
That's what appealed to the most in Star Trek and why I became a fan. It's also why I wasn't that big a fan of Deep Space Nine (it times its style was too "dark" and "grim" and then when the war arc started, forget about it.)
I just finished watching Discovery's first episode on my DVR and it left me unimpressed and unmoved. I can quibble all day long about the different look of the show vs. the time-line it's in and all of that but even ignoring the geek-heavy stuff... Nothing grabbed me here. I don't have a feel for any of these characters, we're not on the titular ship, and do we even have a full grasp of this show's direction and focus? It was an hour of dutch angles, lens flares and angsty actions.
I liked that in Trek's concept of the time humanity had grown the fuck up and decided to get along, work together, and do better. I liked the idea that Starfleet was mostly only "military" in ceremony than it was in any action or capacity. But here, we just get a very "military" feel. Humans aren't working together, in the other series performing a mutiny like "Michael" does here was unthinkable. Think of all of the other mutinies that've occurred in the various series and they usually happen after great hand wringing, debate, and usually in circumstances where the Captain is corrupted in some manner as to make mutiny inevitable. Here? The first officer disagrees with her captain's decision.
Why does our main character have to be a ward of Sarek, making her a defacto adopted sister of Spock? Couldn't her father have literally just been *any* Vulcan?
Why the radical and, frankly, disgusting in appearance change to the Klingons? TOS didn't use makeup on the Klingons not because of the idea that "Klingons look like humans" but because it was just impossible for the make up to be done on the budget they had. With "The Motion Picture" Klingons are fully realized and have been that way for 40 years. Why the fucking change to this heavy make-up, disgusting-looking, creatures? Shit. why do every fucking scene with them speaking Klingon? More "realistic"? Sure, but some dramatic and emotional connection is lost when your actors are speaking gibberish and you have to read what they're saying.
Why all the fucking dutch angles?!
Who are any of these characters?! You get something from the captain and first officer and fraidy-cat second officer but for all of them little beyond the roles they're filling in this segment of the story.
The other guys are seat fillers spouting off out dialogue. Then the show "tries too hard" with the present-day references. Does it make any sense for a man operating a lift to an exterior hatch on a spaceship dozens of light years away, 250 years in the future to imitate the announcement of a 21st century airline flight attendant as her plane approaches the arrival gate?
I just.... Ugh. This didn't work for me. I've zero interest to see the second part of this pilot because so little happened in the first part that made me curious on what's going to happen next. Nothing interesting happened for me. Ooohh! Tensions and potential space battle with Klingons! Yawn. Mutinies! Drama! Dim lighting! Lens Flares! Dutch Fucking Angles! What's there to be interested in here?
If people like this show, fine. Whatever. If you want to pay for another streaming service to view it, fine. Your money.
But, for me, there's nothing here to like. Nothing here to pull me in and latch me on and remind me of why I'm a Star Trek fan. I got pulled into the series by watching an episode with a ship going through an frickin' "Earthquake/Disaster Strike" television trope. I got sustained as a fan by watching characters working together, getting along, and exploring. Being a team and a family.
There's a lot that could have been done for a new Trek show to make it feel more realistic, dramatic and.... "Ground based." I think it be great if a series felt like, looked like, and behaved like a TV series set in a hospital or a business. Where the interactions, interplay and overall look of things just feels realistic and life-like, it's just an unfamiliar setting. It doesn't need to have the episodic camp, cheap or just corniness feel that could be argued all of the previous series had on some level or another, but what happens here is too far in another direction. It doesn't feel "real", it doesn't feel different, fresh or new, it feels like... Well, generic Sci-Fi TV.
I don't see or feel Star Trek in this. Sorry.
Maybe somewhere down the road I'll see/watch more of it but I'm not paying for another streaming service to be able to watch it and this first episode did nothing to sway me.
