I've been a Star Trek fan practically my whole life, so it's one of those things I'm pretty peculiar about. Most franchises that I enjoy, I don't really get hostile or fanboyish about, but when it comes to the Trek canon, I can slip into some rabid behavior.
I was really prepared to hate Star Trek: Discovery. I loved the premise, and think the choice of casting is pretty great, but it's evident that Bryan Fuller was really trying to put his own twist on Star Trek with the vastly different visual aesthetic he chose for the starships, uniforms, and Klingons.
I don't think that the series got a particularly good start. "The Vulcan Hello" and "Battle at the Binary Stars" were decent but didn't serve as a particularly good introduction for the show. Particularly, Burnham's line to Captain Georgiou, about the "Vulcan Hello," was hokey and stupid sounding. "Context is for Kings," was an excellent episode, as was episode seven "Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad," if only for the return of Harry Mudd (played by Rainn Wilson) to the franchise, this time as a much more conniving and sociopathic figure than Roger C. Carmel's Mudd who was mostly bumbling, comedic relief (in a very effective and well-acted way.)
I think the rest of the season was bad, or at best forgettable, until the eighth episode, "Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum." Starting with this episode, it seemed like the writing shifted to a more traditional Trek style. Instead of the show focusing almost completely on Burnham (though she's still very much the center of attention), the camera was pulled back, and other characters started to be allowed to have plot development. In "Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum," we start seeing a lot more from Commander Saru, a character I hated for the first half of the first season, and who is now one of my favorites. His dilemma in this episode opened up a lot about his character, and made him more empathetic, as opposed to the bitter alien dude whose purpose was to obstruct Burnham and remind her of how much she sucks for committing mutiny.
From that episode on, the series has felt a lot tighter, in all aspects. The writing we saw during the Mirror Universe episodes was a lot better than the first part of the season, and the camera work, effects, and acting have all flourished. I feel like the further away from Fuller's material they get, the better off the show is for it.
There are only a few big issues I have with the series after the Mirror Universe arc. First and foremost, is that there's still numerous violations of canon going on, and while some of the small ones can slide, there's one that still bugs the hell out of me. Something is going to have to be done about the Klingons. They look like turds and are completely uninteresting as villains. We need to see the return of the complicated and proud race that saw so much development in The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine. Of all the alien species to retcon, I'm not sure why the Klingons got this treatment, but if the show doesn't reconcile it in some way, I'll continue to have at least a little disappointment in it.
I'm excited to see the conclusion of the first season over the next couple weeks and how the Klingon War wraps up. I don't feel like it will carry into the next season, so there's a lot to fit into the next two episodes.
I was really prepared to hate Star Trek: Discovery. I loved the premise, and think the choice of casting is pretty great, but it's evident that Bryan Fuller was really trying to put his own twist on Star Trek with the vastly different visual aesthetic he chose for the starships, uniforms, and Klingons.
I don't think that the series got a particularly good start. "The Vulcan Hello" and "Battle at the Binary Stars" were decent but didn't serve as a particularly good introduction for the show. Particularly, Burnham's line to Captain Georgiou, about the "Vulcan Hello," was hokey and stupid sounding. "Context is for Kings," was an excellent episode, as was episode seven "Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad," if only for the return of Harry Mudd (played by Rainn Wilson) to the franchise, this time as a much more conniving and sociopathic figure than Roger C. Carmel's Mudd who was mostly bumbling, comedic relief (in a very effective and well-acted way.)
I think the rest of the season was bad, or at best forgettable, until the eighth episode, "Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum." Starting with this episode, it seemed like the writing shifted to a more traditional Trek style. Instead of the show focusing almost completely on Burnham (though she's still very much the center of attention), the camera was pulled back, and other characters started to be allowed to have plot development. In "Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum," we start seeing a lot more from Commander Saru, a character I hated for the first half of the first season, and who is now one of my favorites. His dilemma in this episode opened up a lot about his character, and made him more empathetic, as opposed to the bitter alien dude whose purpose was to obstruct Burnham and remind her of how much she sucks for committing mutiny.
From that episode on, the series has felt a lot tighter, in all aspects. The writing we saw during the Mirror Universe episodes was a lot better than the first part of the season, and the camera work, effects, and acting have all flourished. I feel like the further away from Fuller's material they get, the better off the show is for it.
There are only a few big issues I have with the series after the Mirror Universe arc. First and foremost, is that there's still numerous violations of canon going on, and while some of the small ones can slide, there's one that still bugs the hell out of me. Something is going to have to be done about the Klingons. They look like turds and are completely uninteresting as villains. We need to see the return of the complicated and proud race that saw so much development in The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine. Of all the alien species to retcon, I'm not sure why the Klingons got this treatment, but if the show doesn't reconcile it in some way, I'll continue to have at least a little disappointment in it.
I'm excited to see the conclusion of the first season over the next couple weeks and how the Klingon War wraps up. I don't feel like it will carry into the next season, so there's a lot to fit into the next two episodes.
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