Captain's Log - Star Trek Discovery
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Star Trek Discovery
Captain’s Log – Stardate 71559
This week I’d like to talk about Star Trek Discovery.
If you haven’t seen all thirteen episodes, then stop reading now as I’m going to cover the last reveals of episode 13. So, spoiler alert (big time!).
One thing I’d like to point out about the show is its aesthetics. They’re incredible, and they feel and look as polished as the last 3 Star Trek reboot feature films, which for a show that is on TV (CBS All Access) is quite remarkable.
Now let’s address the elephant in the room. This incarnation of Star Trek is VERY different than the Gene Roddenberry stuff. Here we have the federation in a war with the Klingons (would also like it if Klingon’s look and makeup didn’t change every single Star Trek movie/series instance, that would be nice to just settle on a look and keep it). There are many parts in Klingons, so unless you’re fluent in it, you’ll have to read some subtitles, especially more so in the first few episodes.
In the premiere, we lose a major character, Captain Philippa Georgiou (played by the excellent Michelle Yeoh), which was kind of a shock. Then we’re presented with a morally ambiguous Captain, a one of a kind for the franchise, who seems to have his agenda and very grey morals. I, personally, found it refreshing, and since I adore Jason Isaacs, I was more than pleased with both the casting and the change of direction.
One thing this incarnation of Star Trek doesn’t lack is pace and action. Where many other series have been more mental and less action/epic scenes, Discoveries makes sure the new generations of viewer get their thrills, and it does it in a very effective way. This is also the very first Star Trek to be that heavily serialized. I love serialized shows and always preferred shows like Babylon 5 or Stargate SG-1 for their ability to keep the main story going via the “problem of the week” episode format. But in Discoveries, the serialization is more aching to my books, where you can’t just pick up any episode and hope to fully understand all the ramifications. You have to watch it from the first to the last, in order otherwise you’ll miss critical storytelling information.
Tin thirteen episodes we’ve had the main character sentenced to prison for treason, then saved from that by the morally ambiguous Captain Lorca (Isaacs), and a spore drive that allows the Discovery, a one of a kind ship, to teleport in any point in space. By the mid-season finale, Discovery jumps universe, and we get to see dead characters (Philippa as well as a security officer that was killed early on) in an alternate reality where the Federation doesn’t exist and in its stead with have a Terran Empire that is both ruthless and diametrically different from the Federation.
What is sad is that Captain Lorca, which we later learn is from that parallel universe meets his end so early in the show. He was hands down my favorite character, so I’m a little worried as to what the show has in store for the future. Especially with the show’s creators announcing that season 2 might be more traditional Trek. Which has me worried since I think this fresh new take on the franchise was a welcomed one. Don’t get me wrong I still love TNG, DS9, Voyager, and Enterprise just fine, but having a show change the tone of the universe wasn’t a bad idea in my view. I know not all Trekkies (I consider myself one) will agree with that statement though.
And then there’s the issue of continuity. Since this show is set before Kirk, and the Discovery uses a technology that seems far superior to anything we’ve seen on the show’s timeline, will it disturb the timeline? That’s a valid worry to have, but since the Discovery itself can jump universes, we could just assume that this is an alternate timeline. I’m not worried about continuity that much as long as they don’t do drastic changes that would render the next series impossible in the timeline.
For the time being, Discovery is a thrilling series, one I hope we’ll keep getting for years to come as we’ve had very little Trek on TV in the past decade.
What are your thoughts? Have you seen Star Trek Discovery? And are you enjoying it? Make sure to go to my Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/ChristianKallias) where this blog post is announced and let me know your thoughts.
Next week I’d like to talk about another franchise I simply adore, and that is Stargate. MGM will premiere its new prequel show called Stargate Origins on February 15th. I won’t go into details until next week, but the trailer has me stifled as to why they would consider doing this show in that timeline (in the 30-40s) as it seems to me that the show runners will have SERIOUS limitation doing a prequel show. Then again Discovery is one, and they did a fantastic job with it as far as I’m concerned, so I’ll reserve judgment on the show itself after having seen the premiere and a few episodes. I miss Stargate immensely, and while Stargate Universe took a very long time to find its place, it ended up being cancelled just when it started to be interesting (that’s why I prefer Discovery’s approach of going full-on action and thrills from day one, immediately announcing its intentions on being a heavily serialized show from the beginning).
I wish you all a fantastic weekend.
Until next time,
Cheers
Christian
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