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I fell asleep twice and once while I was awake, I heard snoring from elsewhere in the theater. You know what I didn't hear? Laughter.

It kind of loosely hangs together as a story, but only by leveraging the most rudimentary story beats and ideas. Otherwise, just a shaggy dog story which winds up with bog-standard "family matters to me" messages as well as not-really-jokes Family Matters jokes. It's not funny and it's not emotionally moving.

There are a couple of redeeming features. Mark Hamill does what he can to bring some energy to the scenes he's in, and when he's not in them, you wish he was. Some of the directing choices for the transitions from the flashback to the present day are quite well executed via old-fashioned "Texas switch" techniques.

Most of the supporting actors are fine and the cinematography is pleasing enough, so it looks like a real movie, but it just isn't. It's let down by a pointless story and a lead who can't make us care about him or his relationships with his family and who might just have some kind of charisma that the camera can't capture.

This series is everything we ever wanted from Star Trek. Fun, with good character stories (A, B and C plots!), while also being respectful of the history of the franchise. Get in, tell stories we care about, and get out in one episode.

This series answers the question: What if Star Trek, but filmed today?