Happy 17-01 trekkies! (It's like May the 4th, but for real nerds). And this year's 17-01 brings us a new season of Star Trek Discovery! Even if the movies have essentially stalled, Star Trek is alive and kicking on TV. With a a blog called Captain's Blog, you better believe I was going to review the new season. If you missed 'em last year, check out my reviews of Season One here! Then hit subscribe to keep up with each new episode, because I doubt any of you have CBS All Access to see for yourself and that's pretty much the only way to watch it in the US (legally). Last Year's Cliffhanger left us with the USS Enterprise under distress as the Discovery arrives to the rescue. It was a beautiful culmination to the season, succinctly executed to send a message that though Discovery may have taken us down some dark, unexpected, and unfamiliar paths, those paths finally led us back to the essence of Star Trek. That first season opened with mutiny when Michael Burnham insisted on pre-emptive aggression against the Klingons, and it ended under threat of mutiny again when she insisted on peace. The first mutiny caused the war, the second ended it. That's where we begin. Peak Serious. Instead of jumping right back to that moment, though, the writers can't help but indulge in Discovery's patented self-seriousness, as Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) narrates a montage of some real-life Cassini space-probe images of Saturn while finally getting to utter those classic opening lines: "Space, the final frontier..." She goes on to tell an African creation myth about a girl who created the Milky Way by tossing wood ash into the night sky. We're told there is a message hidden within this story, within the Milky Way as a whole perhaps, visible only to those whose hearts are open enough to receive it. I have no idea what any of this means. But we get a glimpse of the seven lights (signals) which we know from trailers will be the MacGuffin of the season, the dire mystery which will drive the plot. So I guess... Pay attention! They're trying to tell us something! The Enterprise is out of commission after investigating these lights (it's unclear how but it's pretty bad). Captain Pike arrives to take command of the Discovery, continue his investigation, and issue lots of dire warnings. Did I mention the situation is dire? Dire enough to incapacitate the Enterprise for the foreseeable. Dire on a galactic scale. Or is it? Maybe not, because no one actually knows. That's why literally no other ship is involved and nobody else knows about it, but I guess they did just narrowly survive a war with the Klingons, so... sure. Pike, you recall was the captain of the Enterprise in the sixties for a single pilot episode of The Original Series ("The Cage") that never aired until the 80s, and let's just say, he was no Shatner! He was flat, cerebral and subtle, and quickly replaced, the only surviving crewmember of that episode: Mr. Spock (we'll get to him later). Bruce Greenwood portrayed Pike as a mentor and father-figure to Kirk in the 2009 JJ Abrams reboot. Anson Mount plays the new Pike here with a charismatic wry grin, that bares little resemblance to prior iterations of the character but largely stands in contract to Jason Isaac's dark-mirror Lorca villain from last season. I loved Lorca, but I love Pike. And damn, doesn't he look good? In another nod to OG continuity, the Enterprise crew all wear colorful "new" uniforms with slick off-center zippers and holy hell I need to get me one of these! (Why don't I cosplay more?) I thought last season's uniforms were among the worst in all of ST history but with little more than a color change, these just plain work. And Anson Mount just plain works 'em. It's hard to believe this guy helmed the dismal Inhumans flop from Marvel last year, arguably their greatest failure in a decade or more (no surprise you haven't heard of it!). He's sharp, professional, intelligent and friendly, and full of that good old fashioned moral fortitude so famous in characters like Picard or Janeway. And he's willing to have a little fun for a change, a welcome addition to Discovery's recipe. I mean, have you seen the Trailer? No really, click that link. Star Trek hasn't been this unabashedly fun since Abrams first took over. And he's not the only one enjoying himself in this debut episode. Tilly, Stamets, Cyborg-face girl at the helm (she has a name now, Detmer or something. They all have names now, apparently!), even the super-serious, know-it-all Michael Burnham cracks a few smiles when she's not agonizing. They stumble across a crashed ship, on the way to investigate those lights and decide to make an adventurous detour. I mean, it's not a detour to the crash, the crash happens to be exactly where they were going but under mysteriously coincidental circumstances. The detour is the tone. Suddenly it's a fun idea to put the show's star protagonist (Burnham) in with the new Captain (Pike), the chief scientist researching the anomaly, and a literal red-shirt with almost no dialogue, to carry out the rescue. They laugh while they shoot themselves like missiles into an asteroid shower. Why are any of them doing this? Firstly: Don't they have security personnel or medics or engineers they should send? Obviously the red-shirt is gonna die (they even refer to her as a redshirt, like it's a nickname!) except BANG! they kill the scientist instead. Gotcha! And then Pike almost dies, too, and it's amazing anyone thought this was a good idea. It sorta takes you out of the moment to watch them whizzing through a gratuitous action movie scene which leads to the second problem.... Secondly: This is the fourth version of this scene, first portrayed in the 09 reboot, then again in Into Darkness, then again in Discovery Season 1, and now again here. There is nothing inherently Star Trek about these high speed set pieces and they're way too similar. Knock it off! At least the special effects look good and the sound effects were absolutely amazing. Except for how dark they insist on making everything, the show looks as good as any of the movies. Probably just as expensive. But seriously, can we brighten it up? I want to see the ships! When they finally land and pose with their phasers out, the lone survivor is comedian Tig Notaro, a brilliant played for dry laughs despite spending the last ten months keeping her crewmates on life support. Burnham pushes some buttons and fixes the teleporter (she's so smart!). They all go home but not before she has an ambiguous vision of the red angel and decides to sneak into Spock's old room and spy on his browser history. Seems that before he disappeared, he maybe was also having visions of these red angels. And suddenly it's not just dire anymore, it's personal! Mr. Spock. After name dropping Spock last season, we continue to tease him by his absence. The episode is called "Brother" and Sarek (played by James Frain but not nearly as well as the original Mark Leonard) asks Burnham what she did to ruin her relationship with the step brother but instead of answering we get pained soap-opera glances and little more than snapshots of young Spock in flashback. Despite some online complaining, this is very in keeping with his past behavior toward family, going back to the movies (Star Trek V) and even TOS ("Journey to Babel") where he casually forgets to tell anyone about his family even when they're standing right next to him. I think Zachary Quinto proved in the reboot films that Leonard Nimoy -- as awesome as he was -- is not so sacrosanct that he can't be replaced. I'm looking forward to finally seeing the new Spock. But this episode is not about Spock, and it's not even about the mystery of the lights just yet. That was all just setup for later. What it's really about is Pike joining the team and taking them in a new direction. It might be an allegory for the whole show, but either way, it makes for a good episode. Every scene where Pike interacts with the new crew is so good, from his first handshake with Saru, his practical joke on Tilly, his instant memorization of the bridge crew names, to his speeches, disarming smiles and supernaturally tight uniform (seriously, how does he reach for anything?).
Conclusion: If you liked last season, you'll love this one. If you didn't so much, you might be pleased with the subtle new shifts in direction. But if you hated Discovery last time, odds are it's not different enough yet. The special effects are awesome, as always, but as always, still a bit too dark. I still wish there was less of a large-scale story arc across the the whole season because I miss throwaway episodes that focused on random crew members. I miss low-stakes episodes about small things. I miss weird ideas that take risks and don't outstay their welcome. Discovery takes the gamble that one big idea can be good enough to carry the whole season, but they leave themselves little room to botch the execution, which is tough when they keep changing showrunners! So good luck to Alex Kurtzman (of Lost fame) who got off on the right foot this season and leaves me optimistic for the future. The humor and adventure are the right idea, but I'm worried they're trying to have it both ways by refusing to let go of the grim drama and prestige TV format they established last season. I think it's probably the smart play in the long run: sustain the style you established last season, and salvage it with small shifts in the right direction. Afterall, you don't want it to feel like a different show. If they overcompensate too much, it could backfire. I think these are the right fixes in the right quantities. But I still think they're too self-serious, especially Burnham. Hopefully they can balance this out and go a little further than lip service when it comes to the fun. But besides all that, I think I liked it. Is it okay if I like it? I'm just going to go ahead and like it, because Anson Mount killed it as Pike, and there is still just so much awesome about this show that everything else is just nitpicking. So there. I like it. It's done. I get that it's not perfect and they're still finding their footing on tone and clunky dialogue, but I couldn't stop thinking about it until I watched it a second time, and now I kinda feel like rewatching all of last season too, so... I must like it, right? Yeah. I like it. Captain's Blog Supplemental: When Pike rattles off orders to the bridgecrew and says to Detmer at the helm, "...And Detmer, fly... good," and he shrugs. She'll always be Cyborg-face girl to me! The interior shot of the turbolifts was a cool idea but dumb if you think about it. Is the whole ship hollow? How big can it possibly be on the inside? There was nothing but empty space in there and rollercoaster rails. Have the writers never looked inside an elevator shaft? Meet our newest nameless cast member: bald Proto-visor guy in the transporter room, who wears an early cyborg-looking version of Geordi's visor from The Next Generation. Redshirt girl had headgear. Combine that with Cyborg-face girl and I get the impression that everyone in the late 2200's is either prone to disabilities or just really into body augmentations. I still can't tell if Robot-head girl is an alien, a robot, or another cyborg... (is she even a girl?) Saru mentions his sister from the Short Treks. I understood that reference! Tilly namedrops the Tribbles again. Did everyone know about Tribbles but Kirk's crew in TOS? More cheap fan service I guess. Pike is pretty upbeat after losing his science officer. The guy was smug but still, show some respect! He died so Michael Burnham could look smarter. Next Week's Episode Check out my Season One Discovery Posts Here! Don't forget to Like and Subscribe!
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