The long wait for more Star Trek episodes has paid off. After the Star Trek of the 60s, 80s and the new century, we have a space adventure again.
The CBS television network has once again ventured into the unexplored reaches of space, taking us back to a time several years before Kirk.
I personally wouldn't take this as a disappointment, but rather a reboot that began with the J.J. Abrams. It's just from a different universe than the original movies and TV shows, which have already had their couple of decades. The new Star Trek is simply already modern. It's full of computers, modern technology, and of course, full of aliens that we don't even know yet.
In the first two episodes, the creators bring us the Federation's greatest enemies, the – Klingons, who once again flood the Federation space vessels. It also brings a mutiny, a few famous deaths, and an initial introduction to some of the crew who survived their first episodes.
As most series pilots do, there's an acting megastar who dies a heroic death. In Stargate Atlantis, it was Robert Patrick. In Star Trek Discovery, it's Michelle Yeoh, who is a megastar in her native Asia.
The main character in future series is sure to be Michael Burnham, a young woman from Earth who was raised on the planet Vulcan. This is another variant of an important character from another planet who will not behave humanely. In the original series it was Spock, in the New Generation it was Data, here we are treated to a tale of human misfortune about what can happen when a human offspring is raised by Vulcans.
We must also mention Doug Jones, for whom we really don't know his real face. As in his previous films, he's again a work of make-up art, with an uneasy role at the start as crew member Lt. Saru. Knowing the actor, I'm sure he'll make his mark amongst the other actors who aren't as well masked.
The whole series is already modern, this isn't a story that fits in the studios at all, the computers have really gone out of their way to create a workable world in a mysterious universe. Gone are the days when all movement was so slow and people mostly just ran down corridors.
The modern era that began with the J. J. Abrams, has now come to the series. The pilot was good, but the permanent crew hasn't formed yet. The main crew includes Jason Isaacs, who will appear in the next episode, and other actors who have not yet appeared in the two-part pilot.
We're definitely going to see a lot of space battles, but in my experience with the Star Trek series, we're also going to learn a lot of things about the crew, what trauma they have, what history they have, and we're definitely going to learn information in flashbacks , so that we can love or hate the whole crew, just depending on how we like modern Star Trek.
I hope it succeeds in becoming a better series than the last Enterprise. It certainly won't be better than The Next Generation, but it could be better than Voyager or DS9.
Rating: S01E01 (80%) & S01E02 (70%)
Photo © Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS)
Original Article 1. April 2020 – Criticism.com
