Spoilers Star Trek: Discovery 1x02 - "Battle at the Binary Stars"

I like how T'Kuvma especially hated the Andorians. He saved them for last and added an adjective.

 

Shran must have given T'Kuvma's grandfather one helluva spatial wedgie.

 

Shran owed him one, laughed about it in his old age, and walked away forever.

 

"At least the Pinkskins could laugh at it. Klingons have no sense of humor."

 

Finally seen both episodes. I thought it was a strong start, it was great to have a Trek series back after all these years.

 

I remain confused about why the writers were so keen on building this season around Klingons. They're a species of insecure bar drunks with daddy issues, and thanks to Ron D Moore's malign influence I've seen more than enough. Rewriting them from an ancient warrior spiritual mystique bent doesn't really seem credible at this point, but maybe I'm in the minority on this.

 

Kai Opaka died early in DS9 but she resurfaced more than once in the form of a Wormhole alien communicating with Sisko. It's possible Obi filmed more scenes as T'Kuvma but those are slated to air in later episodes as flashback sequences. Trek does love to resurrect dead characters.

 

*There are spoilers in my post.*

My first thing out the gate... They should not have split these two up. They so painfully supposed to be one big story. They work much better when you watch them back to back and allow the threads setup in Episode 1 to through-line into episode 2.

I want to touch on the Klingons first because I've been reading a lot, lot, lot of complaints about them...

...I like the Klingon stuff. I actually applaud the producers for doing all their scenes in Klingon. That was really cool. I also think the take on the Klingon society depicted here is very interesting. It has hints of the original and the TNG Klingons, but it's at a different angle. They're no longer the Rock-Opera Space Vikings always yelling "ARGH!! FOH AHHNAHHH!!! YESSS BLOOD WIIIINE!" I'm glad of that. There's room for subtlety here. Instead of the often blunt "yes... a warrior is honorable when glory and courage are in his heart! .... BLOOD WINE!!!" I'm curious to see where Voq goes.

The Klingons I loved used to be brutal, cunning, smart. They strategised and attacked with unwavering ferocity. Kang, Kor, Koloth, Kruge. Though, again, I think these Klingons are being misunderstood. There's a lot going on in these scenes, they are not just filler or padding as some have said. They're building up a lot of ideas there. We're going to get a lot of internal struggle with the Klingons going forward. Which will probably lead us to the "hot" cease-fire we see in TOS.

The only real issue I had with the Klingon's was

Spoiler

collecting their dead. Maybe for this particular house the dead do have meaning, but to my knowledge the Klingons regard their dead as empty shells.

Very Viking, I guess?

Just as Kruge was often considered nothing more than a bad guy doing bad guy things, even though he really did believe he was acting to preserve his species, I think the same will be revealed in more detail of T'kuvma and his group. This has always been at least sub-textual to the Klingon species. They fear the Federation, not because they can't outfight them, but because they are seen as subversive in nature. It was at the heart of a number of the Klingon stories in TNG. I don't know, I just think It's too soon to judge the Klingon stuff as merely filler. It's building something. There's a lot of information being dolled out.

...And no, I don't think the Klingonese will make a general audience turn anyway anymore than those same general audiences sat through German and French subtitles in a movie like Inglorious Basterds. The problem here is selling audiences short. People are smarter than they are often given credit for.

There are however a few pieces of information that should have been reintroduced to the general audience that were not. It's just assumed that people will know what Michael is doing when she

Spoiler

neck pinches her captain.

Phasers, transporters, all the technology and the base-line of Trek should have been given a little more time to breath in the first part. Re-establish the Trek world for the new decade, and the new audience. I don't much care for Enterprise as a whole, or it's Pilot, but they did at least try to establish the crew, the technology, and the ship in the early portions of the pilot, and they at least tried to engender some of that "Wow! Look at all this cool stuff?" Vibe that one should feel when being "transported" to a FTL space ship in the future.

As to why we're not getting more character with these background characters. They're not important to the story? Right now we have Sarek, Saru, Georgou, Michael and T'kuvma, and that other Klingon Voq. Those are our primary and secondary leads for the first and second episode. The rest of the bridge crew, the doctor, etc... None of those folks are likely to be important by episode 3, so there's no point in giving them much character beyond a little wink and a nod. If they're just to be all but discarded two episodes in to the series, why would you bother to build up their character? They have a pulse, and a little personality, and that's all they need. If, for some reason, they get more character in flashbacks, so be it, but there's no need to flesh everyone out in the first two episodes.

I'm glad they gave lip service to exploration. I'm glad that the series trailer at the end of episode two also gave us

Spoiler

more Lorca to look forward to. His line about "yes we have to win the war, but what comes next is more important." (I'm paraphrasing) was great.

Yes. That's the sparkle of hope we need. This series can evolve.

I liked the fleet engagement between the Klingons and Starfleet. It was actually cool to see some tactics at work there with the

Spoiler

Shenzou manuvering to defend the T'Plana Hath, and giving the klingon ships "broadside fire."

Something I had hoped we might have gotten to see on the big screen with Into Darkness or Beyond.

My only real gripes there are very small... I wish the old style D7 had been given a face-lift and put in the fleet... And I wish the Europa had been a reworked Connie. Oh I know, fan service up the wazoo, but

Spoiler

just look at the way that tractor beam shot is shown. It's given such drama as we crane up to reveal the Europa... and it's just another kitbashy ship design.

I really enjoyed Saru and I think Green is doing a great job as Michael. I look forward to seeing where the show goes from here.

*There are spoilers in my post.*

 

Average episode. And sorry, but I have to come back to the Burnham-Sarek-connection which is shown as rather more deep than just your everyday protege/ward. Burnham holds his katra (and if that isn't serious...), and they apparently share a telepathic link/bond. So Burnham is quite a bit closer to Sarek than Spock has ever been who never shared a mindmeld with his father. Again, couldn't they have used another Vulcan?

The plot itself moved too slowly for my taste, and all those cultish fanaticism... urgh. And the last will be the first (and most fanatic ones) in outcast Voq.

So what kind of ship is the Discovery going to be? Have to say I didn't quite like the preview of what's to come... looked kind of like a mercenary, intelligence gathering (we take everyone on board as long as they have their uses, never mind criminals etc), misfits, criminal transport like ship.

I'll give the series a chance, but my enthusiasm has certainly waned.

 

I'm not entirely convinced that having Burnham's adopted father be Sarek was a good idea, but I do think it adds an interesting layer to Spock's resentment of Sarek. As you say, he never got to meld with Sarek and he never had Sarek's approval as a child because he was so Human (even though his parents bloody well knew he'd be a hybrid growing up, since ENT established they would have needed to genetically engineer a Vulcan/Human hybrid) -- and yet apparently Sarek allowed himself to be closer in some ways, and more approving of in some ways, an actual Human.

So it certainly adds a layer of complication to both Sarek and Spock as characters. I'm not convinced it was the right or necessary choice yet, but I'm not convinced it was a bad idea, either.

 

Wasn't at all impressed with Episode 1, should I even bother wasting another 45 minutes of my life with Episode 2?

 

Episodes 1 and 2 really ought to have aired as one 80 minute prologue. I would definitely give it a shot.

 

Gave both a 6. Still trying to digest things though. I wouldn't go lower, but I might go higher with more time to sort out my thoughts.

It looks good. My only visual complaint (apart from the apparently required blinding lens flare) is that the weapons fire during the battle was underwhelming. It just seemed to lack impact. Another thing I noticed was how massive the spaces on the Federation ship was. The brig and bridge just seemed oversized. Lots of just empty space that seemed weird. Maybe I'm just more used to sci-fi having ship be more 'intimate' in a way.

Can't not talk about the Klingons appearance. They just look like Remans to me. But I knew that was coming going in. What I was a bit disappointed with is that when the Klingon holograms appeared I was hoping we'd see a mix of Klingons including TOS looking ones. In fact, that could have adding an interesting aspect to the show regarding T'Kuvma's "remain Klingon" firebranding.

Burnham is an interesting character. I liked her on first impression during the desert planet outing. Didn't think they did a great job with how they initially dealt with her and Saru though. It could have do with a bit more subtly. Don't mind her losing her calm once Klingons got involved. A bit iffy on her decision to kill T'Kuvma. Rolled my eyes at the hyper-mind meld though. Since it was his katra would have preferred a John-Harvey deal from Farscape. In fact that Sarek would mind meld with an injured and unconscious child at all I thought was off-putting. Overall she's a character I could watch the show for.

Probably what the biggest negative right out of watching the two eps is that they opted to get rid of two of the more interesting characters immediately. Probably would have rated it 1+ more if a certain someone survived.

 

I swear I heard the name T'Plana Hath before somewhere else in Trek...but I can´t remember where...

 

Yes, that's it exactly... just couldn't put my finger on why they look so familiar. Not all of them, but those with less of the ridges did look like the Remans.

 

Before Discovery, what was the longest scene in Klingon language? I can only think of TMP.

 

It was the name of the Vulcan ship that landed in First Contact.

Edit: What cultcross said...

There is a list of the ship names on MA. Apparently the subtitles listed the USS Sioux as the Sue. I don't know if we should discount that. Mary's awesomeness transcends time.