So, I watched the premiere of Star Trek: Discovery. I wrote a chunk of this before watching the
second half, but I have edited it to reflect what I saw.
BEWARE: SPOILERY SPOILERS ARE CONTAINED WITHIN.
Disclaimer: I am a huge Trekkie, I was born into it and am
one of those who have been affectionately referred to as “canonistas.” Meaning
I love to nitpick timeline continuity, technology capabilities, dates of
invention, starship launch dates. Places of construction, battles, uniform
insignias, etc. etc. etc. So, of course there are things I am going to
absolutely loath about the new show with its new aesthetic. I have attempted to
put that aside (although it will still have some bearing), and look at the show
as a Star Trek dealing with the principles of the show, with character
portrayals, and with the story.
First: I’ll try to be nice: I loved the music. The theme was
great and the music reminded me of the normal Star Trek music style as has been
in place for a long time. It didn’t really use motifs I recognized, but that’s
not a problem. Every show has its own motifs and style, but they tend to fit
within a Star Trek soundscape. This did and I liked it for it. I liked the
science officer, Lt. Saru. His character, while different from anything else
we’ve seen, was both entertaining and well-acted. I appreciated that the
Klingons spoke in Klingon; this is some dedication that we rarely see as most
of the time Klingon will be spoken briefly before moving to English so that the
Earth audience can understand them. “Lock phase cannons”: well, if this is an
older ship and they haven’t been outfitted with the “lasers” of the Cage era
Enterprise, then this would make sense as we are not told when these came into
service.
Next: what I didn’t like/have concerns about. This is a
longer list, so I’ll try to categorize it.
Main titles: Ok. This is a nitpicky preference. I didn’t
care for the artsy title sequence. I would have preferred it better if they had
had at least some space shots with
stars and the ship going to warp. That would have at least been consistent with
what has come before. It doesn’t mean this is bad. It’s just not a direction
that I would have gone had I been in charge. It’s more in line with the modern
shows like Game of Thrones of Westworld,
which have great opening titles, but that sort of thing just feels a little out
of place here. While the disassembling of the Type II TOS phaser and reassembly
into the new Discovery phaser was kinda cool, for me it had a sort of Orwellian
hint of history being re-written…. But I’m a cynic, so take that as it is. (see it for yourself: Here)
Aesthetics: I’m going to join the many out there: I loathe
the look that they decided to go with in the show. The uniforms while snazzy
and still in Enterprise blue with the Cage department colors, just look out of
place on a ship in a fleet that has apparently been in war (due to Captain
Georgiou’s comments). That and Deltas on everything? Really? That’s a
J.J.-verse (excuse me) Kelvin-verse thing that was blissfully absent in the
third incarnation of that series. Ranks are also next to impossible to figure
out. TOS and TNG had an easily understandable rank system, glance at the
collar, look at the sleeve and voila, you’ve got a basic idea of who outranks
whom (granted, the TOS films are harder, but there’s a system [and I like it]).
Rank in pip form on the delta badge is a terrible idea. You have to squint to
see who is in charge. Even the Admirals only have a wreath around their badge….
The weapons? Meh. The phaser looks phasery, so that’s not bad. I don’t see a
great need to redesign it, but there are reasons they did. The rifle has a
certain throwback look to the phase pistols, so that was nice. Basically: the
hand-held devices, while different, weren’t so different that they raised my
hackles (timeline continuity me is still miffed, but not as bad as with, say
Kelvin-verse hand-helds). The Shenzou’s bridge was not bad, it had some knobs
and manual controls (like joysticks!), but there were a few too many
holographic displays and Kelvin-ish controls for my liking. The ships are not
ugly, per se, but they aren’t great…. Not enough smooth lines that even
Enterprise had. Too many angles… And the Klingons ships? Just. No. They don’t
fit in the iconography of what we understand to be Klingon in shape or color. While
there can be a variety of ships, I didn’t see anything resembling a Klingon
ship from Enterprise in the fleet that showed up at the end of part one. The
sound design was also rather annoying. The phasers had the distinctive
“pew-pew” of the Kelvin-timeline and while there were some sounds that were
appropriately placed (the viewscreen scanner and photon torpedo launcher) all
the button and alert sounds, though from the Star Trek database (which is huge)
were terribly out of place and took me out of the story as I heard a warp
containment alarm used for a different sensor alert. Klingon alerts being used
for Starfleet red alerts and so on. While sounds can be multi-purpose, it just
threw me off when so many were used for things that weren’t even close to their
original purpose (and they were TNG LCARS, not the right time period)
Klingons: Yes, I’m putting this in its own category. While
this is part aesthetic, it has to do with portrayal as well. First: Why do
people insist on making aliens, especially bad guys, hairless? While some
Klingons have been bald (notably Chang in Star Trek VI), it wasn’t a
species-wide trait until Into Darkness
(which is in an alternate timeline). If they are trying to say that there are a
variety of Klingons… Sure, that can happen, look at the spectrum of humanity.
However, if all the Klingons are supposed to look like this, then we’ve got
another reprehensible act of Orwellian whitewashing.
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| Kahless the Unfogettable - Ancient times |
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| TOS - Motion Picture - TNG |
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| Into Darkness Blingon - STVI General Chang |
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| Discovery's T'Kuvma |
As a side note: someone has suggested that these may actually be the Hur'q or Fehk'lihri. Maybe. It would explain their "trollish" look.
Aside from the Klingon
symbol (logo? Emblem?), nothing was recognizably Klingon. The armor didn’t have
elements (if you recall, some stylistic choices and elements [such as belt
buckles]) carried over from show to show), that were recognizable. The Bat’leth
didn’t look like a bat’leth, nor did it look anything like a utilitarian blade
made primarily for decapitations and the spilling of entrails.
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| Kahless' Bat'leth (the very first one) |
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| Traditional Bat'leth |
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| Discovery's Bat'leth |
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| Even Into Darkness' Bat'leth was better! |
While I greatly
appreciated the Klingons speaking Klingon (and accurately from what I could
tell), they had a sort of muffled way of speaking; a manner that sounded much
more like mouths impeded by prosthetics than the Klingons in the post Motion
Picture era. The language lost its harsh sound and became softer and more mushy
sounding. Not as aggressive as I am used to. While I have since been informed
that the time line does allow for 100 years of lack of Klingon/Federation
interaction, I personally find it a bit out of character. Klingons are more
like Vikings, they don’t usually stay and hide for an extended period of time.
It sounded more like someone saw the Tomed incident from TNG or the lack of Romulan
interaction in TOS and were like, “let’s do that! But with Klingons! It will be
more exciting!” That and these Klingons lacked a joyful warrior spirit.
Klingons revel in battle, exult in the ability to fight. They don’t see
aggressors as threatening their very existence (unless it’s the Borg, but
that’s different), they see it as a challenge, something that they can fight
and kill with abandon. These Klingons have nothing of the Viking warrior ready
to celebrate a battle well fought as they honor those who went to Valhalla
after an honorable death (er, I mean Klingon warriors and Sto-vo-kor). That and
there seemed to be some sort of ham-fisted attempt to insert some President
Trump digs; whichever side of *that* fence you fall on, I’m just getting sick of
the focus on that and nothing else. While the Klingons did fights in the second
part, there was no joy in battle, it was just a thing that they did to show
themselves that they were united under T’Kuvma. Also, we have had some decent
representations of Klingon religion in the past (how many Worf-centric episodes
were there?), so this whole thing of preserving the dead and the “light of
Kahless” felt somewhat contrived. I think they are trying to make the Klingons
into a more sympathetic race which…. Feels more like they are hijacking the
name and some elements in order to make some sort of point rather than using
what was already there to make a point consistent with the race as it has
existed. The Klingons were originally viewed as the Russians or the “bad guys”
who then became our allies, but were still the same sort of people. These are
not the same sort; While we are dealing with a period of Klingon history that
we don’t know very much about, it seems ridiculous to say that they would have
changed so much for a very short period of time (even Enterprise explained the
Vulcans acting weird better). Perhaps they will explain the discrepancies other
than saying “it fit the character” or “it helped the story.” Drastic design
choices in-universe need to be explained with an in-universe explanation; we
got to it eventually with the move from smooth forehead to bumpy forehead. They
made the change now, they can make the explanation now, I don’t need to wait 40
years for that.
Characters: You heard me right. I didn’t like the
characters. This does not mean I think it was poorly acted. I was impressed
with the actor’s ability and range, but I did not like the characters as they
were written. Captain Georgiou was a decent character, I had little problem
with her. She was a Starfleet captain who was cautious after the last few
battles she has been in and reveled in being able to be an explorer and
do-gooder (from the first part of the episode). She is also willing to
sacrifice herself, another Starfleet great. I like Lt. Saru, he added a sort of
humor to the show and his banter with Burnham was great. The other bridge crew
didn’t have much to distinguish them (I’m not sure their names were spoken on
screen), other than Lobot man and an android (maybe? She went to sickbay though...). The Klingons were
unremarkable characters in the first episode, more one-dimensional and just
standing around talking rather than planning their next move or challenging
honor or something. There was that bit with Voq, son of none, which was
interesting, but not in a particularly engaging sort of way. T’Kuvma felt more
like a whiner than a Klingon leader. None of the fire and his voice just wasn’t
powerful. He felt like the poor man’s version of Gorkon mixed with a religious
fanatic.
The main person I want to talk about is Commander Burnham….
To be perfectly frank… her character was unlikable and inconsistent. She’s
arrogant and presumptuous (and not in that Kirk swagger sort of way, or even in
the Messiah-complex Sisko manner either), is led by her emotions (for reasons that
will likely be made clear at a later point [although I can hazard a guess it
has to do with that colony attack we heard about]).
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| My logic "informs" my emotions. Emphasis on the "". |
She talks about trust and
having logic and then proceeds to fail to give a logical explanation to her
captain and then doesn’t trust Georgiou when she makes her decision, preferring
to mutiny instead. Her sarcasm and banter and the beginning of the first
episode were fine (almost great), but I think the attempt to make this
character the main focus and give her some sort of depth backfired and made her
more annoying. In the second episode, she didn’t do all that much; we see how
much she has changed via the numerous flashbacks, but they didn’t give us more
reasons to like the character. In fact, it just put in sharp relief how much of
her training she had abandoned. Becoming more human, yes, but she seemed to
have put all the logic of her Vulcan upbringing aside. That and it made it seem
like her being put on the Shenzou was more an act of nepotism than actual merit
in Starfleet (say her record is spotless and intellect is fantastic, great; but
she clearly hadn’t risen up through the ranks).
She did have a mildly good idea
to capture T’Kuvma, but then when the captain is killed, she seems to toss
logic out the window and proceeds to set her phaser on kill in a clearly
emotional reaction to seeing her friend and mentor killed rather than
completing the mission to prevent more deaths. The only thing that she did that
was respectful of the rank she had and the system she worked in was when she
pleaded guilty to all the charges leveled against her, even then she had a
plaintive comment at the end, that just took her from arrogant and pretentious
to just plain pathetic. There’s a plan for a character arc, no doubt… But based
on what I’ve seen, it’s going to take a lot of work to salvage this character.
We are also going to get some sort of Tom Paris moment when she is taken out of
prison in the next episode; it does explain why she is going to be bunked with
a cadet (to some extent); she’s a prisoner and has no rank, but still the whole
thing feels forced.
Minor point: Sarek’s portrayal (while well-acted) did not
feel like Sarek. There was too much humor (in the form of sarcasm) and too much
sympathy for Burnham. While some may say that this makes sense due to Sarek
having a human wife, Sarek caring for a full human with a clear push towards
her being more human (by his leaving her with Captain Georgiou). He never did this with his own half-human
son and so it feels inconsistent to have Sarek be willingly close to someone
while pushing his own blood away. And the katra part…. I do not think it means
what you think it means.
Cinematography: I really didn’t like the weird angles and
the lens-flares. For heaven’s sake, this is a TV show, not an Abrams film! Give
me straight, level shots except for the dramatic moments and drop the lens
flares. I like to be able to see what I’m looking at in a way that I might
actually look at it, rather than guessing at more elements.
Story: The story felt a bit disjointed to me, especially in
the first episode. While pilot tend to suffer from this issue, after all the
time that they’ve had to work on it, I was expecting more polish. It jumped
around a bit and the flashbacks didn’t help that at all (that and they didn’t
really add to the story). It felt like one of my attempts to write a script
where I wanted to flesh out characters on both sides but then was stuck with
time constraints and so left it with those elements in, but shortened and cut
so that they will fit. Some of that may have had to do with the attempt to make
this show have a primary character, which I think is a poor choice as Star Trek has always leaned in the
ensemble direction and got progressively more so as time went on (I think Enterprise was very much an ensemble
show towards the end). The second half was a little better as it had something
that it was focusing on: the immediate Klingon threat. But even then, the jumps
between the Klingons and Starfleet emphasized that there wasn’t all that much
going on and that we were just getting the view from two different sides. This
can work in some situations, but it really didn’t here…. This may be more of an
editing thing, but it made it less enjoyable to watch. The plot wasn’t bad, but
it just did not engage me as other stories have in the past. The tone is darker
than most other Star Trek shows, which is fine, but I’m a little tired of the
dystopia trend in modern science-fiction (well, not a little tired… I hate it).
The conflict between the characters, though I knew it was coming, felt forced.
Conflict for conflict’s sake is just as bad as not having conflict for the sake
of not having conflict; it needs to make sense in the story and with the
characters. It didn’t seem to fit here, so I wonder if this jettisoning of the
“Roddenberry principle” will work out for them in the long run. It remains to
be seen if it fits the ideals of Star Trek, so I can’t comment on that other
than that there was talk of hope and optimism (from Captain Georgiou), but none
shown. So, there was lip-service to the ideals of Star Trek and a better
humanity, but I didn’t see it exercised.
Continuity, technology, and other smaller things: A lot of
this has been mentioned in previous sections, but some of it is worth touching
on again in the context of the larger Star Trek universe, especially as this is
supposed to take place within the prime (not Kelvin) timeline. So, some first
points. As I said before, my initial gut reaction that the Klingons being in
isolation for about 100 years was absolutely wrong. I checked my dates and the
last canonical appearance of the Klingons in Enterprise was just about exactly
100 years before Discovery takes place. Therefore, it is plausible. Next (and
yes, everyone will hate me bringing this up), the ships, uniforms, and weapons
do not fit with everything else that exists around this same time period. The
year is 2256. The original starship Enterprise, however, is supposed to have
launched in the year 2245, and the first TOS pilot is supposed to have taken
place around the year 2254. Based on this, we should be seeing TOS style ships,
weapons and uniforms. Even if Starfleet had special uniforms for different
groups (which is possible), the fact that this takes place directly within
established canon events makes things a bit frustrating. True: Kirk doesn’t
take command of the Enterprise until 2265, however, it doesn’t mean that The Cage
didn’t happen. It was re-canonized (after just being a dropped pilot) in the
episode The Menagerie. I won’t go into more nit-picky details. Just suffice it
to say, the technology and look does not fit with what exists canonically at
the time. Of course, some will point out that things needed to be changed to
make it more relevant. Sure, but not if you’re trying to set it in the prime
timeline. Then consistency needs to come into play. There is a Department of
Temporal Investigations in Starfleet, after all, whose only job is to make sure
the timeline doesn’t get changed (to say nothing of the 29th and 31st
century temporal police). Get is right!
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| Enterprise era - 22nd Century |
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| Discovery - 2256 |
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| Star Trek - "The Cage" - 2254 |
I’ll leave continuity there as the
dates make my case for me. I have also seen that they may be following the idea
that elements from Star Trek 2009 fall into the prime timeline. I am familiar
with the theory, but as I’ve pointed out before, there are far too many
inconsistencies for that to work. There was also a moment where the beacon
blinded the ship. I distinctly heard that the light was overloading the
photonic sensors so they couldn’t get any readings. If I may be slightly
condescending: a starship has more than one type of sensor. This would not
prevent them from detecting what was going on. And where was the whole idea of
submarine warfare that has been in place since Star Trek II? In submarine
warfare, you don’t rely on what you can see, you rely on what you can hear and
what your instruments can tell you. This was sadly dropped for this episode to
add a tension that simply didn’t need to be there. There seemed to be a huge
point made that Starfleet doesn’t fire first. That is generally true, but
Starfleet is willing to give warning shots. Also, there was a moment in the
brig where an ensign was saying “we shouldn’t be fighting, we’re explorers, not
soldiers.” Forgive me for belaboring the point, but Starfleet has always had
some military aspects and so, while they prefer to not fight, they are always
prepared to fight as you never know what kind of hostile alien you may
encounter, regardless of your intentions (i.e. the Borg). The Warp core
explosion of the Europa also didn’t
seem to be as violent as it should have been; meaning it should have damaged or
destroyed the Shenzhou, based on its proximity.
Short caveat: some of the design and timeline issues have to
do with the fact that this show is being made under the license that Paramount
has with CBS to make the Kelvin timeline films. So, they cannot use prime
timeline material (ships, uniforms, weapons, characters, likenesses, etc.
without permission). Why they did that? I have no idea. It seems rather stupid
to me, but that may explain some of the reasons why things don’t look right.
Overall verdict: I will wait (like Q) to see whether or not Discovery earns its place among the
stars. As of right now, it has not given itself any help to prove to me that it
will. However, Enterprise had a rough
start as well; that managed to get great later on and even assuaged my timeline
concerns (though I still complain about them from time to time). Is it possible
for Discovery to redeem itself and
its main character? Yes. Is it likely? Not based on what I’ve seen… Will it
live up to the ideals of Star Trek?
That remains to be seen. If the writing gets a bit better, if it focuses on
telling good stories rather than focusing on the fact that it has a “diverse”
cast, and if it can reconcile some design choices with canon material, then it
will move from “meh” to “good” in my book. But until then…. The trial has only
begun.
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| We shall see if you are worthy to join us amongst the stars. |
