The Vulcan Hello

Sorry but this first episode of the new Star Trek series was absolutely unwatchable. As bad as the J. J. Abrams Star Trek universe already is on the big screen, this episode was like J. J. Abrams on steroids:-) Star Trek is an intellectual chess game-- not a shoot em up action series.

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.

I give it a 4 based entirely on the CGI.

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.

They should have been One Ep anyway, not broken up into two. Because its basically setting up who is to be a Main Character, a girl raised by Sarek, and her unusual outlook on things. So it all happens on a ship that's not discovery, with a bean counting Captain whose religious adherence to the Prime Directive ends up starting a war.

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.

Never watched Star Trek before, so I can't comment on whether this is or isn't Star Trek. However, I found it pretty weak. It's lavishly produced, with convincing effects, but for a pilot episode it starts in a weird place, thrusting the characters into the thick of the action before we've even got to know them. The only characters we get to know at all are Michael, Saru and the Captain. None of the other characters get any screentime at all, not even a chance for us to find out who they are. It's like there are only three characters. If the episode had just taken care to set the scene, develop the characters and gently set up the plot it would have been much better. Instead, we're thrust into a dramatic plot with no reason to care. As someone who's never watched Star Trek, I know very little of its universe. A little bit of an introduction would provide some context to all of this. As it is, I don't even know what exactly is at stake, which robs it of suspense.

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.

I absolutely love Star Trek Discovery, yes things may have changed, ideas updated, modernised, but it is all so exciting and uplifting especially in this present time so I keep going back to re watch. I am a serious trekkie, have been all my life, this new take is refreshing and awe inspiring, it feels like family right from the start and I am totally addicted and cannot wait for the new season.