Light and Shadows

When I began watching the original series back in my college days, I never dreamed that people would carry it around in their heads for fifty years. That they would look at every new incarnation and spend their time longing for the old show. Do any of you realize how lame some of those episodes were. There's the whole "canon" thing that seems to get people upset. As cinema evolves so do the story lines and the characters. There are new challenges with sophisticated science. Granted, I find this new show to have some real flaws, but it isn't that they aren't trying. There are too many subplots and there is the tiresome Tilly, but I still love to see what a new angle can do. I'm sure when TNG came along, the same naysayers were whining. A canon is generally written by one writer or poet. If cinema had followed what you want, we would still be watching silent films.

I just like how the writers are crafting complicated stories into complicated and weird science. This episode builds up to a lot of stuff and it feels as if the season is just about to begin. The nuances are ever present: not everything is clear cut or black and white like: logical and illogical- or past present and future- or murderer or innocent- or .... And Michael Burnham is just electrifying to watch. Passionate, present, nuanced too. One more thing, in this episodes, like in many others, the show-runners show a rich and creative plethora of imagined worlds and civilizations and they are not lazy about it. This show is pretty smart and I like it.

Burnham goes back to Vulcan whilst Discovery encounters a temporal anomaly.

This is a pretty good episode, especially the visuals, with a strong plot that is unfortunately let down by the exposition.

I enjoyed the story, which I found to be quite compelling and the final reveal works not only as great fan service but as hook to find out what happens next. I hope the writers have something in mind for preserving the legacy of the Trek canon as they write this story, but if it turns out to be something special I will forgive the franchise inconsistency. The sub-plot involves great sci-fi, but probably could have done without the similarity in tech design to The Matrix.

Generally in the episode the visuals are brilliant. The cinematography is excellent and works well for the visual storytelling. Some of the editing is also superb. One of my favourite parts is a transition between one Discovery character's eye to a light aboard another ship.

Where I struggle, as usual with Discovery, is the dialogue. I find the exposition to be so deliberate and obvious that it feels unnatural. Pretty much all of the intro sequence is a big information dump and the episode is littered with other similar moments. I don't mind it so much during the technobabble sequences, because these things need explanations but they do drag on a bit in this show. The worst line in the episode for me was one character reveal about Burnham that was unimaginatively spoken between two Section 31 characters.

Performances from all cast are solid with nobody especially standing out except Sonequa Martin-Green who leads her scenes well and possibly Mary Wiseman who continues to entertain.

Omg this episode was beyond brilliant So much happened I feel like I need to watch this 20 more times Just epic !! Ethan was amazing as Spock Michele Yeoh is so bad ass Sonequa is so beautiful and the chemistry between Spock and her is electric Special effects spectacular as always I cannot fault this episode I just cannot wait a week for the next instalment Well done writers..this show is just perfection

An action-packed episode, we watch Captain Pike struggling to survive as his shuttle goes up against a Time Rift in space, the only drawback being use of a ripoff monster: a probe transformed into an unsubtle version of those metallic monsters used in "The Matrix".

Meanwhile Commander Burnham is doing her darnedest to protect her brother Spock, Ethan Peck sporting a beard and babbling quotes from Lewi Carroll - a nice touch. Michelle Yeoh figures prominently here, throwing a martial arts fight with Burnham and skilfully maintaining her ambiguous stance between being a hero and a villain.

It's enjoyable here to see the direct predecessor for "Strange New Worlds", as the actors playing Spock, his mom and Captain Pike are all on screen.