The Vulcan Hello
- Episode aired Sep 24, 2017
- TV-14
- 42m
While patrolling Federation space, the U.S.S. Shenzhou encounters an object of unknown origin, putting First Officer Michael Burnham to her greatest test yet.While patrolling Federation space, the U.S.S. Shenzhou encounters an object of unknown origin, putting First Officer Michael Burnham to her greatest test yet.While patrolling Federation space, the U.S.S. Shenzhou encounters an object of unknown origin, putting First Officer Michael Burnham to her greatest test yet.
- Ash Tyler
- (as Javid Iqbal)
- (credit only)
- …
- Paul Stamets
- (credit only)
- Sylvia Tilly
- (credit only)
- Captain Gabriel Lorca
- (credit only)
Featured reviews
And to make matters worse, the main character (Sonequa Martin-Green) won't stop talking-- ever!!! And no military, on Earth or in space, would ever run a crew like this.
The producers of this series act as if they're totally unaware of the new age of quality science fiction and fantasy television and its style: Syfy's Battle Star Galactica, Game of Thrones, Westworld, Humans, the Man in the High Castle, The Walking Dead, the Handmaid's Tale.
They really need to end this mess and start all over, IMO.
This is going to be another war and explosions Trek.
It is tailored for fans of the movie reboot time line. A real letdown.
The story is not very Trek-oriented.
Read the critical review posted here. It sums it up well.
These Klingons are Klingons. When One of them Dies, they all do the Klingon Death Ritual which Worf demonstrated in "Heart of Glory".
And these Klingons may look slightly different, but they are Klingons. Just missing some hair and a bit meaner looking.
The Story is what makes this Trek. It's not just the gadgets or the ships, or the aliens, it's the social commentary.
Imagine, a White Klingon. Who has no Family Name. Imagine an androgynous person who was raised by Sarek to think critically? These are very relevant things, relevant to us. In all of these years, nobody ever considered that Klingons also have Races.
The Klingons here, react as to "The Other", as "Us vs Them", in fear of losing their culture. Because Michael, our main character, happened to accidentally kill their Torchbearer.
That's another concept, "The Light of Kahless", it's as if this is something Holy to the Klingons, and Michael inadvertently contaminated it. It's like one of us, touching a Muslim's Quran. We can't make any progress until we start respecting other people's belief systems, and that includes Atheism as well as our 3 world religions and the many others.
That's what Trek really IS, it's not how their Communicators and Tricorders look, or how their uniforms look, or how their ships look. It's all about a different way of thinking. And that was why Michael failed to convince her Captain to dole out the Vulcan Hello, because The Prime Directive was being treated as an Absolute.
Additionally, the Klingon internal politics is weak. Their arguments against each other boil down to very simple sentences that came straight out of a Hollywood textbook. The Klingon design looks pretty bad too, like they're made of plastic, as does their ship. None of it is convincing, which is weird because apart from that the visuals of Discovery are stunning.
Not that there isn't anything to enjoy here. The way the plot thickens and the arguments between Michael and the Captain about how to tackle the Klingon threat add complexity, as well as Michael's perceptive comments about race not being the same as culture (something EU politicians need reminding of regarding the migrant crisis)...
But overall, it feels like they were trying to cram a season's worth of story into one episode. There's a reason why there wasn't a battle in episode one of Game of Thrones, maybe the creators of Star Trek Discovery should learn from that.
Did you know
- TriviaThe cabinets in Captain Georgiou's ready room are filled with props that contain Easter eggs, but most are too difficult to make out in during the show. Behind the scenes photos reveal a bottle of 2249 Château Picard wine, Starfleet medals previously awarded to Jonathan Archer and James T. Kirk and a diploma from an Andorian military academy. The books on these shelves all feature Star Trek (1966) episode titles including The Cage (1966), Balance of Terror (1966), The City on the Edge of Forever (1967), Amok Time (1967), Mirror, Mirror (1967), Metamorphosis (1967), The Deadly Years (1967), The Trouble with Tribbles (1967), Return to Tomorrow (1968), Patterns of Force (1968), By Any Other Name (1968), The Omega Glory (1968), Plato's Stepchildren (1968), The Empath (1968), Whom Gods Destroy (1969), The Mark of Gideon (1969), That Which Survives (1969), The Way to Eden (1969) and All Our Yesterdays (1969).
- GoofsDespite a claim that Michael Burnham cannot be a mutineer, since the rest of the USS Shenzhou crew never disobeyed the captain's orders, Michael did knowingly attack the captain and tried to take over the ship, which is the definition of a mutiny, so Michael is in fact a mutineer, even if the rest of the crew is not.
- Quotes
Saru: Their hull is covered in hollow, ornamental metallic pods, thousands of them, tightly interlocked, forming a kind of... armor.
Michael Burnham: Not the most efficent defense.
Saru: I suspect its purpose is more symbolic than practical. They contain Klingon biological material in various states of decay. Remote dating is wildly divergent. Some bones date back thousands of years, others only hours old.
Michael Burnham: Their entire ship is covered with coffins.
Saru: Commander, the captain listens to you. Tell her. We must withdraw.
Michael Burnham: I'm afraid that's no longer possible.
Saru: Your world has food chains. Mine does not. Our species map is binary. We are either predator or prey. My people were hunted. Bred. Farmed. We are your livestock of old. We were biologically determined for one purpose and one purpose alone: to sense the coming of death. I sense it coming now.
- ConnectionsFeatured in After Trek: O Discovery, Where for Art Thou? (2017)
Details
- Runtime
- 42m
- Color
- Aspect ratio
- 2.00 : 1