The Butcher's Knife Cares Not for the Lamb's Cry

I fairly enjoyed this one for the intrigue around the captive life form aboard the Discovery, the Klingon scenes and some of the character moments for Burnham.

The plot generates most of its interest through Burnham's interaction with the creature and the treatment it receives aboard the Discovery, which isn't good. This situation is compelling because it feels totally alien to Star Trek. How it plays out in the overarching series narrative will be key to whether it will be fondly remembered as something that fits into the Trek vision of the future, but for me currently it is a bit early to tell.

I enjoyed the Klingon scenes and have somewhat got over the shock of how different they look as the scenes with the house politics are getting quite compelling.

Burnham as a main character is fairly understated, but you can see quite a bit of feeling in her eyes and facial expressions. This works well for the character as a human raised by Vulcans.

I struggled with some of the dialogue, particularly some of the humour which fell a bit flat for me and one scene towards the end which is a fairly emotional moment done in a quite cheesy way. There was also one sequence where someone does something so stupid it isn't even remotely plausible. You kind of get the impression it was contrived just for the shock value of what happens to the character.

All performances were to a high standard and the visuals/effects were excellent as always.

I am willing to view the whole series before passing too much negative judgement on how this fits into the franchise. Yes, it continues to be way out of sync with established canon but if at the end of it all we have a story that was enjoyable and doesn't completely contradict of Roddenberry's vision, I'll have no real problems with it.

For any hardcore Trek canon purists watching I see why it is so universally despised by you because it just totally disregards what came before it. As annoying as it might feel, you need to just live with it or stop watching, because it's only likely to cause you more frustration the more it goes on.

Honestly, I almost gave up after the first episode. I've never been a Klingon fan and so it was a chore to sit through all that screen time...

The good things: highly polished visuals and opening production. Casting is also good, with some interesting twists and back stories. Love the theme music!

After episode four, i'm in for the long haul. This is Trek universe with new elements and some from the past.

Watch at least the first 2 or 3 episodes before you cast this one aside. In my mind, It's one of the top 3 productions for TV this fall.

JD

This show is losing cohesion really fast. First, in the last episode, we find out that the show we watched a pilot for isn't really going to be the show we would be watching for the rest of the Season. I'm still on the fence about the Discovery crew. To this point, they have been all really annoying, moody, hostile and pouty. At some point, I felt like I was watching the "So Cosmo" reality. I guess on all the other Star Trek series they've been really lucky to find such a nice crew, especially Voyager. If I had to travel with these people through the whole galaxy to get home I would kill myself. But wait...I wouldn't have to because I'd have spore drive to get me home. That's one of the things that is starting to bother me more and more with this show, the lack of continuity. I am really friendly towards the idea of revamping the show and changing the style to fit current times, but why does it have to include changing the cannon and messing with the continuity. Star Trek movies did the same thing with introducing time traveling and ridiculous teleportation capabilities. If they wanted to do their own thing why didn't they just start a new franchise, why mess with the legacy of Star Trek? This episode also didn't shed light on the Klingon situation. I keep waiting for some more explanations because I really, up to this point, don't understand what these Klingons are on about. WHat is a Torchbearer? Why is he so important? Why is T'Kuvma so bent on war with the Federation? Did they do something to him? And why does he get to be the messiah? He is just a person who flashed all the Klingons and they met him for 5 seconds and now he has the status of Kahless. How did he pass his teachings, telepathically? Episode 4 and they keep talking about him like he died years ago. And what is with this purity??? Klingons disappear for 200 years and suddenly they return to wage war with Federation because they want to remain pure? And they speak about it in such a boring way with those stiff masks that don't allow them to make any facial expressions.

It was decent, not a patch on the previous episode. The problem for me here, is that Michael is turning into some sort of oracle, they are guilty of lazy writing here, whatever the problem or scenario, clever clogs is right, and everyone around her is wrong, it's starting to become a little annoying, surely for her to develop she must get things wrong at some point?

The good stuff, I am liking The Klingons, I am finding them very interesting, Jason Isaacs continues to be great, and I quite liked the monster on board.

There are one, and ten star reviews for this one, I don't understand either extreme point of view, it doesn't bring out such extreme views in me, it was just ok, 6/10.

Once again, all this whining about TOL, STNG, and Voyager and so on. It's a new series. Quit living in the past. This has intriguing characters who are just developing their roles. There has been considerable action and an intriguing plot. No, Picard is not there. No, Kirk is not there. No, Scott Bakula is not there. And on and on. So, there is some Star Trek trademark. Perhaps someone should sue. Oh, and the it's too dark. And it's too light. And people are stupid. It has great special effects, lots of cool technology, Klingons being Klingons, and much more. I would suggest that one stop watching and quit throwing tantrums.