Star Trek: Discovery, Episode 1: "The Vulcan Hello"
As nerds, geeks, dorks, whatever term you choose, I feel like when it comes to certain fandoms we all have our blind spots. I'll admit that I have two big ones. The first being "Doctor Who." I promise Doctor loving friends who may read this, I will get through Christopher Eccleston's season sometime before I die. Maybe. Actually, scratch that. No promises.
The other was "Star Trek." When I was younger, I definitely gravitated towards the other sci-fi franchise with "Star" in the name. There was just something about a farm boy with a destiny, James Earl Jones, a scoundrel and a princess that really appealed to me. I didn't have anything against "Star Trek" but I just never got into it and when I have tried to step into it, the amount of material just feels really overwhelming.
I'm not totally ignorant to the world of the Trek. It has become so immersed in our popular culture that even people who haven't followed it are familiar. I know about Vulcans and Tribbles and the Federation. I can name most of the cast of TNG and the OG. I know about Spock. I've seen all of the rebooted movies and enjoyed them for the most part. The less said about "Into Darkness" the better. I've even seen a few of the original movies and the ones featuring the TNG cast. Although, "Star Trek: Insurrection" is the first movie I remember walking out during the middle of, so maybe the less said about those the better.
When I heard that CBS was bringing the Star Trek franchise back to television with involvement from Bryan Fuller (Hannibal, Pushing Daisies, American Gods) one of my favorite writer/producers, I thought that this was the perfect time to jump in. Fuller ended up leaving the project after clashing with CBS, but his broad story outline remained. After hearing more about the diverse cast, I decided that I was still going to give it a go and now the time has come. I thought it would be fun to write about the show from the perspective of someone new to the series, so here we go. The first episode of "Star Trek: Discovery."
(Note: I know that technically this is the first part of a two-part prologue, but I want to go through each episode one by one so I make sure I'm catching everything.)
There is a ton to really enjoy in this premiere and it kept my attention the whole time, which can be difficult. I will say, right at the start, I had no clue the guy talking was a Klingon until he said something. I'm also not sure why these Klingons look like orcs from "Lord of the Rings," but I will go with it.
The best thing that the show has going for it right now is it's POV character, First officer soon to be captain? Michael Burnham played by Sonequa Martin-Green. There is a lived in quality to Burnham that I love. A lot of times in pilots, characters are just vague sketches to be filled in during later episodes, but she is immediately three dimensional. You get such a great sense of who she is during the walk and talk with Michelle Yeoh's Captain Phillipa Georgiou. This is an interesting way to open a pilot, especially a sci-fi pilot and I love how the show trusts the actors to make it engaging and trusts it's audience to go with it. At times, it does veer a bit into cheese and over earnestness, but I feel like cheese and over earnestness are par for the course for "Star Trek" so I feel like I should probably just get on board.
I can't say enough good things about Martin-Green's performance as Burnham. She is so engaging and you wonder why at this point she doesn't already have her own command. It makes total sense that she would be getting one when Georgiou mentions it. She has great rapport with the other main crew member whose name we learn, Science Officer Saru, played by Abe Sapien himself, Doug Jones! Saru is a Kelpien, a new addition to the Star Trek universe, and the differences between himself and Burnham are immediately apparent. Burnham seems to embrace the Federation mandate of exploration and is excited about what she might find, while Saru seems to take pragmatism right to the edge of cowardice. I love that they gave Jones not only a new character but a whole new race of alien to play and he really makes the most of it. You see where he's coming from. You empathize with him and he isn't one note. I got chills when he told Burnham that he sensed death.
The plot of this first episode is pretty standard. The crew of the USS Shenzhou is dispatched to the edge of Federation space to check out a damaged relay. Of course, it was not a natural occurrence. Of course, it was done by the Klingons that we saw at the top of the hour. The episode ends with a standoff between the Shenzhou and the Klingon fleet with Burnham urging Georgiou to give the Klingons the Vulcan Hello of the episode title.
What elevates the episode is the writing and the strong performances from the principal cast members. The small glimpses we see of Burnham's past, her parents were killed by Kingons and she was raised by Vulcan's help inform her performance and once she realizes that it is Klingons that they are dealing with her entire demeanor shifts. It makes Burnham an even more interesting character. It paints her in shades of gray and changes her relationship with Georgiou. It's a tense, interesting ending that leaves you pumped for the next episode.
My main issue with this prologue premiere is I'm curious how necessary this really was. Do we need to spend two whole episodes on this before the actual premiere or thrust of the story. You have 15 episodes, should you spend 2 of them on something that could probably have been handled in a few flashbacks as the main season progresses? Also, what is up with the tech on the Shenzhou? It looks like the display room of an Apple Store. And this is ten years prior to the 60's series? I guess this is where the suspension of disbelief comes in.
I'm going to be watching the second part of the premiere/prologue tonight or tomorrow so I'll be back with my thoughts on that soon. I am pretty excited to become a Trekkie? Does this mean I'm a Trekkie? No?
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