I wanted to like STAR TREK DISCOVERY. I really, really wanted to. But, alas, dear Yorick…
STAR TREK DISCOVERY tries really hard to fit snuggly into the STAR TREK universe. Well, perhaps on the outer edges, ten years before the timeline of the original series. And when I began thinking about how I was going to write about this new series, I thought about comparing the two. But that would be unfair, because looking at the two side by side, there is no comparison. The first STAR TREK, the original, looks clunky. Digital technology and film design have advanced infinitely far since the 1960’s. One of the greater things about DISCOVERY are its superb special effects and those fantastic opening credit graphics.
DISCOVERY really compares more favorably technologically with STAR TREK NEXT GENERATION or STAR TREK VOYAGER. The special effects on those shows were high class and fit seamlessly into the fabric of the show, as do the special effects of DISCOVERY.
The problem DISCOVERY has in presenting itself in the STAR TREK universe ten years before the original series is that the technology they present is far superior to that of the original. They didn’t tech down. Not only in the ship’s design of the two Federation starships I saw in the three episodes that I watched, but in all the starships. For me, as an original Trekker, that’s a huge flaw. Now, I’m all for updating with the times, but if you want to be consistent with the STAR TREK universe, you need to make the effort to keep the timeline consistent.
But that’s not the worst of it. Where STAR TREK DISCOVERY falls short is in the writing.
Not to be too quickly swayed, I watched three episodes. And I’ll agree that the series grew on me a little by the time I had finished the third episode. But things kept eating away at my confidence in the show.
The first two episodes didn’t occur on the starship USS Discovery at all. They were a setup that gets you to the Discovery in episode three. The main character of the series is First Officer Michael Burnham serving under Captain Georgiou on the starship USS Shenzhou. They discover a Klingon vessel hidden in a dust cloud near a damaged Federation communications satellite. She kills a Klingon on the vessel and ignites a battle on the edges of Federation-Klingon territory. Georgiou doesn’t want to escalate the tensions and refuses to take aggressive actions. Burnham, who has been trained by the Vulcans, uses a Vulcan nerve pinch to disable Georgiou and attempts to act against the Klingons, but Georgiou revives in time to save her ship and accuses Burnham of mutiny.
To me, the act of mutiny is counter intuitive not only to military protocol for a first officer, but also to the ideals of the STAR TREK universe. I instantly reacted to this plot twist. It made me immediately suspend my “suspension of disbelief”, a chief tenet of quality science fiction.
The second episode picks up where the first leaves off. Burnham is arrested for mutiny and Georgiou tries to hold off the Klingons until Star Fleet reinforcements can arrive. Multiple Klingon forces arrive meanwhile to back up their vessel and it’s impending full-out war as Georgiou tries to sue for peace. In the end, with Burnham escaping the brig and at Georgiou’s side, they decide to try to board the lead Klingon ship and capture its leader. But the Klingon leader kills Georgiou and Burnham kills the Klingon leader, and she is once again put in the brig, sentenced to life in prison. A war is narrowly averted, but it sets up the coming conflict between the Federation and the Klingons.
In episode three, Burnham is shuttled off to prison and her flight is diverted to the Discovery. There, she meets Captain Lorca, who commands a deep-space science research vessel. He has total discretion in running his starship and decides to sign Burnham on to the crew, despite her notoriety among the crew as a mutineer, to their disdain. Burnham discovers the ship and its captain aren’t quite what she thinks. Burnham is given a chance to work on an assignment, to prove to Lorca that she can perform as her profile says she is capable of, and when she meets his expectations, he offers her a permanent assignment. And with that, he announces the starship Discovery changes from a science vessel to a military vessel.
All this, as I say, is to lead us into the STAR TREK universe of the original series. And with that, you should expect the outlook, the themes, and the missions to begin to look a lot alike. And STAR TREK DISCOVERY makes an attempt. But often their attempt is ham-handed.
For instance, in the first episode there is a reference to not basing impressions on race. It’s in the dialogue, but that’s as far as it goes. It’s as if the writers were paying homage to the original series’ affinity for addressing current social and cultural issues in an episode. But in the original series, they would carry it through the episode as part of the action. Here, it was merely part of the dialogue. And that happened in another episode, too.
In another instance, First Officer Burnham, a human, has been mentored by Spock’s father, Sarek. You are given the impression she has almost been raised by him. During the third episode there is literary reference to Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland, and Burnham mentions that Sarek’s wife Amanda used to read from it to Burnahm and Sarek’s son when they were children. But Spock never mentioned another human child in his life as he was growing up, and it was never shown in any of the films or TV shows.
Speaking of literary references, they were sometimes a metaphorical device used in STAR TREK episodes during the various series. In episode three, as Burnham is trying to escape from a tunnel she quotes verbatim a passage from Alice in Wonderland, but it seems unnatural, forced, as if to fit into some kind of STAR TREK format. Awkward!
Also forced seems Burnham’s mentoring by Sarek. Burnham comes off as a pissed off student instead of a mentally disciplined disciple. And Sarek comes off as an over-concerned father figure instead of a logic-based Vulcan. Those are acting challenges I suppose, instead of a writing problem, but the whole idea emerges as trying too hard to make connections between the series or stumbling to connect with Trekkies.
This all smacks of trying too hard and landing too softly.
Now, that’s not to say that the show is a total failure. There are some fine acting performances. As always, the captains are commanding and capable, played by Michelle Yeoh and Jason Isaacs. There are amazing aliens aboard, including a seeming Vulcan-Data hybrid science officer named Saru played by Doug Jones. They have also opened their sliding doors to atypical crew including a science cadet named Tilly who has a personality disorder, played by Mary Wiseman, and an openly gay science officer named Stamets played by Anthony Rapp. That is totally STAR TREK. I suppose letting a mutineer join the crew is atypical, too.
But here is where I totally transport off the DISCOVERY ride.
STAR TREK DISCOVERY airs new episodes on CBS All Access Sundays at 8:30 p.m. ET and all episodes are available 24/7 after airing. New episodes will appear into November, then there will be a hiatus until new episodes resume in January, for a total of 15 episodes.