This I did have a problem with. They have, what, ten episodes or so to show us they understand Trek. Right now they showed us they understand the general audiance who lined up for JJ Trek.
I don't think that's a reasonable thing to say. The entire premise of Season One's arc is that it is about a
war, and about a woman who helped start that war and her journey towards redemption. You don't do a war story without, y'know, combat.
I didn't mention this in my comment above, but while I like Burnham, the mutiny bothered me to no end. In Trek of old there would be dialogue, set up and lots of wrestling with such a choice.
You mean like when Spock hijacked the
Enterprise to return Captain Pike to Talos IV?
But here she's just like "fuck it, I'm doing this". A reflection of the state of the ADHD style modern audiences who care not for nuance.
I think that's a really elitist argument to make. There is
plenty of nuance to Burnham's character already, and the fact that the character chose to
act instead of giving a hackneyed fifteen-minute speech does not mean that this is bad writing.
Let's be real here: This is the era of prestigue television whose quality far surpasses what used to be accomplished on TV. To say that "modern audiences don't care for nuance" is to totally ignore the impact of such complicated, nuanced, thoughtful programs as
The Sopranos, Mad Men, Breaking Bad, The Handmaid's Tale, Downton Abby, or
Game of Thrones.
My biggest fear is that Trek, starting with the JJ movies and continuing her, is "just another franchise" now, not unlike what Star Wars has become. Trek lasted as long as it did (like Star Wars as well) because it has that element to it that set it apart from all the rest. So far this show lacks it.
Name me another show where the central emotional conflict of the very first episode is between a jingoist and a diplomat, and the jingoist is depicted as being in the wrong.
Star Trek: Discovery is living up to
Star Trek’s progressive legacy just fine.
I can't help but feel that an Starfleet First Officer of 7 years experience wouldn't switch her phaser to kill in anger. That and her mutiny undermined the character for me.
Burnham is not a perfect person, and her lasting emotional trauma over what Klingon raiders did to her family has a very real impact on who she is and what choices she makes—and comes to regret.
Jail makes sense. Life imprisonment is a step too far. Even Sweden doesn't usually do life imprisonment. Drum her out of the service (of course) and send her to prison for a decade or two.
It does seem excessive. On the other hand, so does sentencing someone to death for going to Talos IV. On the other hand, maybe if the Federation is facing a war that could kill billions of people because of Burnham’s actions, to them it feels proportionate.
The issue with the end wasn't just that she was given life, but that, in an a supposed enlightened society, her rights of due process where thinly adhered to--even for a military. [Serious this time.]
She had no JAG representative when she offered her plea. And she gave it to a judicial bored of flag officers and not in front of a proper court and panel of members.
I don’t think we know enough to say that she didn’t have due process or counsel. We only saw the very end of the hearing; it is entirely possible that she had counsel and chose to waive most of the hearing and go straight to sentencing after pleading guilty.
I’m curious about your remark re: a board of flag officers vs. proper court and panel of members. Isn’t the use of a board of flag officers consistent with what TOS, TNG, and DS9 all depicted of Federation Starfleet courts-martial?
And let's not forget, saying her actions started a war is BS. The only thing she did was defend herself.
Targeting weapons and getting ready to fire may well have been what set T’Kuvma off and made him decide to fire first. We (and the characters) will probably never know.
The only thing Burnham was guilty of was attacking a senior officer. (Even mutiny is a hard sell.)
Mutiny is a perfectly reasonable charge; she attempted to usurp control of the ship from its commanding officer and to issue orders directly in conflict with the standing orders the captain had given.
The first two episodes just upended canon.
CHEKOV: Has there ever been a mutiny on a starship before?
SPOCK: Absolutely no record of such an occurrence, Ensign.
-"The Tholian Web"
Others have pointed out the numerous times TOS had already depicted mutiny before that episode. I’ll just add that this is an
incredibly minor continuity violation that really doesn’t matter.
And, I learned from an interview, that the third episode can be seen as a second pilot for the series, with us being introduced to the Discovery. Couldn't we have started with this episode, with us getting a summary of what transpired in the first two episodes?
I mean, we
could have started
Game of Thrones with Joffrey already on the Iron Throne and the War of the Five Kings already underway. That’s not the story they wanted to tell. And I suspect that the story we see unfolding in episodes 3 through 15 will be far more meaningful for having learned so much about Burnham and Georgiou and life aboard the
Shenzhou.
Yup. I had a real problem as well with the idea that her example from Vulcan history was a viable reason to disobey orders. It was 100 years since the Klingons were last encountered. What makes her think they still act the same way as then?
The fact that she has unresolved trauma from losing her family to Klingon raiders, obviously. She’s not being rational; she’s just pretending she is.
Star Fleet is at war now, so they're conserving power everywhere?
Yeah, the lighting scheme in the court-martial sequence makes no sense if we take it as a Realistic/Naturalistic depiction of what that courtroom looked like.
I don’t. I take it as symbolic of Burnham’s internal emotional state. She’s all alone, the harsh light of judgment cast upon her by shadowy and unsympathetic strangers.
I agree that, upon a re-watch, I liked it much better (even though I enjoyed it the first time).
Now that I was just focused on the characters and the story...and not trying to absorb every little detail, it was a much smoother, easier experience.
I think that’s generally the best way to watch any work of televisual or filmatic art.
