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

[Cake]

I just finished watching the second episode. A bit more action than in the first episode, but still kind of boring.

I really didn't like TNG Klingons. They were the worst thing ever. But DIS Klingons somehow managed to be even worse, which is quite an achievement in a negative way. They speak sooooo slowly and monotone gibberish all the time that their scenes are just unbearable boring. Their looks don't help. I guess because of the masks and heavy makeup the actors are unable to properly emote. They totally lack charisma and all their scenes are just dragging down the show. It is really bad that we will see them all the time now thanks to the started war. They are definitely not in the same league as the Goa'uld or the Wraiths from Stargate. Now those were entertaining recurring villains. DIS Klingons are the opposite.

And they killed off Georgiou, which likely came as a surprise to no one. Although that death wasn't surprising at all, it is still a shame. She was the best character in the first two episodes. Burnham is just unlikeable so far. She might have gotten that from Sarek, who I also don't like. Other than Georgiou only Saru was okay. I really missed the camaraderie of past Star Trek crews. There hardly was anything of it. Maybe on the Discovery we will get some of it.

The series looks optically nice enough. You can see their high budget. The space shots look really great. Although I would prefer more light on the Starfleet ships. But the pacing is just not so great. So many long dragging talking scenes, especially those involving the Klingons. It is just not working so well. Based on the trailers I expected more action and a faster pace. It is really not that I want explosions all the time, but talk, talk, talk is also kind of boring. It didn't help of course that there was practically zero comedic relief. It was practically all "serious talk", which isn't particular entertaining after a while.

I hope future episodes will be more entertaining.

 

[Dr. Bashirs protege]

Nah. I already have him pegged as Garth of Izar.

Why not both? A double....triple agent? So a Klingon pretending to be a human who pretends to be a Klingon pretending to be a human......?....trek does love their shakespeare

 

[JirinPanthosa]

I will say, Discovery Klingons remind me just a little too much of 24 villains which makes me very worried the series is going to move way too much into 24 territory.

 

[Ometiklan]

Melinda Snodgrass has nailed this show to the wall....

I respect her for her contributions to Trek (she has a few good, and a couple of great, episodes to her credit), and she makes a couple of good points (Klingons and their prosthetics), but the rest of it I disagree with almost totally.
- I think the writing was good for the most part.
- I felt Burnham was a good hybrid of Human and Vulcan, and that the only time she wasn't logical was in response to the Klingon attack. She wasn't hysterical, she was just suffering.
- The desert sequence - it is standard TOS to have the two senior staff go on missions, and there was no hostility in the environment, unless you think a lack of communication is a hostile act by the approaching storm.
- She is not getting a sense of family. But the only three characters we are really shown, I felt they were all very good, and two of them will continue on and join the "family" of the Discovery (and Georgiou might keep showing up somehow). The Discovery is where she will probably find her family feel; its just premature to cast that criticism.

I don't think we have any cause to say that her review was informed by sour grapes, but it does seem like she had a vision of what this new series should be and because the real thing is different, her perspective is hypercritical.

But then again, everyone has stuff they like and don't like. Just because I like Discovery, doesn't mean I am right and she is wrong.

 

[DarthPipes]

I found the performances to be poor as the show went on (though I like Doug Jones's character). I found the story to be nothing special and the heavy use of the Klingon language and subtitles to be laborious. They talk in Klingon too much and they talk VERY slowly and drawn out. Yeoh and Burman beaming over to the Klingon ship reminded me Kirk and Spock beaming over to Nero's ship (and Burman on the prison barge reminded me of Rogue One). The Zod-like tribunal was over the top for Star Trek. Finally, I hate the fact that they think being darker also means that everything has to LOOK dark. In this episode and in the previews, this looks like a show where many of the scenes will take place in dimly lit starships. Not appealing. Say what you will about JJ but his Star Trek was colorful and brightly lit.

 

[Ovation]

Didn't someone on Shenzhou say there was a sub-space element to the burst?

Don't know, but I can check my PVR. Still haven't erased it. Probably won't get to it until tomorrow (getting late and I've got a lot of reading to prep my lectures on Thursday).

I expect someone else will come along soon and answer this question in great detail (this is a Star Trek board, after all).

 

[donners22]

I realize this might be a nitpick but why do shows always have trials in poorly lit rooms where the judges are hidden in darkness and only the accused is lit up? This episode did this trope too. It reminds me of spy movies where the evil organization has the chamber where the council members are hidden in darkness too. It makes for a cool visual but it is completely unrealistic. No trial chamber would be set up that way. Why not just use a normally lit room?

An entirely valid criticism.

I managed to rope a lawyer colleague into watching, and while we both enjoyed it, that scene stuck out to us as bad.

The cursory nature of the hearing, the gloomy lighting, the massive penalty - stylising a scene is one thing, but it just came off as ridiculous in both presentation and substance.

 

[Kelthaz]

The first episode sucked, but the second was awesome. It's still a little clunky and rough around the edges, but that's standard for pilots. I just love how ambitious the pilot was and I'm very excited to see what happens when Michael gets to the Discovery and the show starts for real. It's not old school Trek, but for that I have The Orville. I'm glad to see such an old franchise try something new.

 

[Ovation]

Didn't someone on Shenzhou say there was a sub-space element to the burst?

Random crewman:

That noise [accompanying the light] is some kind of electromagnetic subspace waveform.

Hadn't heard it originally but there it is.

(Decided to check it out after all--Colonial New England can wait until tomorrow).

 

[Lakenheath 72]

About the board hearing, it reminded me of a video I had seen - Olivia Newton John's "Twist of Fate". This is from 1984.

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Then, there is this poster from 1983, for the movie "Star Chamber".

Star chamber is defined as, "a group of powerful people who make decisions without caring whether they are fair or harmful to other people". http://www.macmillandictionary.com/us/dictionary/american/star-chamber

I would never think I would make an association between a star chamber and the Federation. Yet, this episode has made this association for me, based on the visual iconography.

 

[Nerys Myk]

(Decided to check it out after all--Colonial New England can wait until tomorrow).

Time traveler!!!! Someone call the DTI!

 

[Mr. Adventure]

About the board hearing, it reminded me of a video I had seen - Olivia Newton John's "Twist of Fate". This is from 1984.

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Don't know if I agree but I love the deep cut.

 

[cooleddie74]

Time traveler!!!! Someone call the DTI!

The Dallas Transportation Institute? What does a public bus schedule have to do with any of this?

 

[Nerys Myk]

The Dallas Transportation Institute? What does a public bus schedule have to do with any of this?

I could tell you, but then I'd have to erase you from the time line.

 

[cooleddie74]

You'd be doing me a favor, bro. This homemade pizza is not sitting well.

 

[T'Bonz]

I did have a problem with Burnham. I expected her to be much more Vulcan-like in her behavior/tone than she was. I can't believe 7 years (or whatever it was after she first came aboard Shenzhou) corrupted her that much! I mean you can say "logic" every other sentence (she did make reference to it more than once) but her behaviors and emotions were all human.

And the mutiny. Really? A Vulcan would do that? Over advice given about an incident that happened what, a century or two ago? There's no guarantee that current Klingons would act like ones of a century or two ago.

 

[gblews]

I didn't say they needed to delay action until the character was established. That said, they didn't do it through the action either.

Actually, you did. See below. In retrospect, that may not have been what you meant, but it certainly was what you said (wrote):

I found the "battle of the Binary Star" to have far too much pew-pew for a show that had not really established its characters.

BTW, I think the scenes on the planet with Georgiou and Burnham along with Burnham's flashbacks on Vulcan, her interaction with Sarek's katra on the ship, her conduct before, during, and after, the battle, and Georgiou's conduct before, during, and after the battle, helped "establish" those two characters pretty well. We also got a pretty good idea of who Saru was as well, prior to, during, and after, the battle, IMO. I know you may disagree.

 

[Nerys Myk]

And the mutiny. Really? A Vulcan would do that? Over advice given about an incident that happened what, a century or two ago? There's no guarantee that current Klingons would act like ones of a century or two ago.

Spock did, twice.
Since the Klingons and Vulcans had been interacting from that moment on. And the Federation and Klingons since 2150's. (if only occasionally) I'm sure it made sense for the current situation.

 

[cooleddie74]

Klingons have basically behaved the same since first contact with humans in 2151. A few warriors, lawyers and scientists here and there who eschewed their Empire's savage warmaking traditions and pursued more peaceful and honorable careers, but for the most part the human experience with Klingons since the crash landing outside Broken Bow had been a violent and even tragic one replete with tension and threats of open warfare. From the human point of view there was no reason to expect Klingons to be anything but aggressive.

 

[JRTStarlight]

I didn't much care for Burnham when she said how quickly they storm would arrive to the nearest second. That doesn't really make one sound smart, but like they have data they realistically shouldn't, or don't know enough not to use more significant digits than they have a right to. And minutes later, she said the storm was moving faster than she thought? It made her look like an idiot to me.

Of course even Spock had that problem to a degree, though he didn't often back off his numbers so quickly.