Brother

Turbolift in Aperture Science? Check. Space suits like Power Rangers? Check. Landing pods the likes of Oblivion? Check. Helmets that deploy like Lost in Space (1998)? Check. Season premiere checklist complete.

If you like all sorts of modern action movie camera angles and cuts and cliches crammed in as if someone made their first movie straight out of film school, this episode is excellent for you. If you enjoy over the top CGI like a high schooler just got his hands on 3DS Max or Maya, this episode is perfect for you. If you love overly coincidental flashbacks written by a screenwriter with writer's block, this show will greatly inspire you.

Sarcasm aside, we all know this isn't gonna be the good ol' Star Trek we all know and love. You go to Orville for some real Star Trek. But putting your logic behind, this season premiere is definitely exciting to watch. If only the series isn't titled "Star Trek" with the burden of the franchise and audience expectation, but a brand new IP, I would have given it a 9/10.

Jett Reno is exactly what this show needed. A perfect balance of urgency and humor, and hit the notes that made this episode I stand out in the series. Please let's see more of this character!

Nutshell: A visually stunning action romp with dashes of humanity and fun for the first time on Discovery. Hopefully a harbinger of good things to come.

Well that's more like it. Watching the first season of Star Trek: Discovery was an arduous undertaking for me. I love Star Trek. It's been apart of my life as long as I can remember. When a new series was announced, I of course wanted it succeed. I want everything Star Trek to succeed. As happy as I was that Discovery found an audience and was a huge success for CBS, I knew in my heart of hearts that I couldn't stand it. I liked most of the characters, but they were surrounded by a murky, shapeless Klingon War story arc. The Mirror Universe quadrilogy was fun, if not a little too convenient. A season that ended less satisfying and more cutting it's losses.

But that was then. Season 2 right out of the gate is a return to a more grounded and traditional form of Star Trek. The only real difference being a clear elevation in special effects. And I mean wow! The production is practically Game of Thrones in space.

So the Enterprise is disabled after scanning one of seven red bursts spread throughout several light years. Pike comes aboard to take command of Discovery while the Enterprise is down. A rather advantageous plot point, but Anson Mount is so ridiculously like-able that you don't really give a damn. Pike is the shot of personality that this show has so desperately needed. I must confess I wasn't standing up and applauding with tears in my eyes when the Enterprise pulled up at the end of 'Will You Take My Hand?', but bringing in Pike to take command is a dramatic step in the right direction.

So they follow one of the bursts and it leads to a wrecked federation ship with survivors. They must be saved before they are destroyed by an asteroid.

This red bursts or red angel story arc is immediately more engaging and enjoyable than last Klingon War. I'm on the fence on whether this Burnham/Spock story will be very satisfying. At least it's more convincing than Sybok (Spock's unheard of half brother until Star Trek 5). Mary Wiseman's Tilly continues to be loveable. Anthony Rapp continues his fluent Trek-bable skills, but also brings a lot of heart and feeling to Stamets. Doug Jones as Saru is still the best casting since Michael Dorn's Worf. Yeah I said it. Sonequa Martin-Green is beyond words committed to this character. Burnham is the most three dimensional character of them all. It's solely the pure humanity that Martin-Green brings to one of the most complex Trek main characters.

Plenty of fan service in this episode which attempts to address fan complaints of the first season. First of all regular cast members who were overlooked in the first season get more screen time. As we all know Star Trek is an ensemble show about varied groups of people coming together to address problems. This aspect was seriously missing from the first season. Not so in this episode. I hope the show continues in this vane as it's an essential part of what makes Star Trek what it is. The special effects were top notch. They also appear to have tried to address some of the fantasy science problems of season one but yet again there's a problem here that involves Saru's eyes that I wont go into so as to avoid spoilers. Another issue is pace and cutting, a shuttle rescue scene serves no purpose and seems to have been added just to ramp up the action. Which leads to the pacing this is basically an action episode but it jumps between action and melodrama snappily. This weakens the overall effect of either the action or drama creating uneven pacing. A solid effort but nowhere near the best Trek or Discovery so far.

Started off fine then spiralled into a CGI mess, bad humour and annoying cocky characters. Looked great at times just wished they didn't have to throw things at the screen to make it look exciting.