Character - It’s extremely useful to have the scene depicting Burnham meeting Georgiou for the first time and, since the first two episodes can be taken as an extended pilot (or prologue), it provides the right context to give the mutiny that Burnham is currently committing some real context. Most Star Trek shows see a crew coming together in their first episode and so the relationships grow organically but Discovery bucked that trend and opened on existing relationships that we had to get up to speed with pretty quick sharpish. Whilst that was fine and dandy, asking us to invest in a betrayal when have only just started to understand these relationships was pretty hollow. With this scene we can see how aloof (well, Vulcan) Burnham was when she was first invited to join Georgiou’s crew and given the difference in her performance in the scenes in the current day you can really see how her life on the Shenzhou has changed her and tapped into her humanity. It’s probably the most vital scene in the opening episodes, if it’s Burnham’s journey we are charting. Sarek communicating across light years to consul Burnham is something quite unusual for Trek, it strikes me more as Star Wars (Luke/Obi Wan) but it does stress the closeness between the two characters. Burnham is no slouch when it comes to getting herself out of a tight spot, thinking her way out of an impossibly dangerous situation involving a forcefield and a room that is open to space. Georgiou was worried that one day Burnham’s Vulcan side might trump her humanity. She’s a contradiction of logic and emotion these days, a true hybrid of her mixed race. Her breakdown on the transporter pad following Georgiou’s death and abandonment shows that her humanity can burst like a dam. Voq and Burnham scrapping is very interesting, given later developments in the season. She pleads guilty of treason and mutiny, to starting the war but I still think she is someone it is easy to point the finger at than anything. Starfleet is angry and it needs someone to blame. Unfortunately, because of her questionable conduct around the beginning of this conflict, Burnham is arrested and charged with penal servitude. Who knows what is going to become of her? Let’s find out… Martin-Green is stunning during the trial scene, delivering a powerful speech that is just about as downbeat as I can imagine this show getting. Amazing how good the actors can be seen to be when the pace slackens and the camera stops moving.
Amazing how much more comfortable Yeoh seems during a simple intimate dialogue scene at the beginning of the episode in the way that she is so unpersuasive during her big hitter sequences like squaring up to Burnham with a phaser on the bridge (listen to how she says ‘you violated the chain of command’ like you or I would say ‘you forgot to get the milk’). Georgiou does her utmost to avoid war with the Klingons and strikes me as a believable advocate for peace. Unfortunately, her tagline (‘we come in peace’) taps into T’Kuvma’s paranoia about the Federation. Yeoh’s most impressive moment comes with a silent reaction to the destruction of the Europa. ‘Make it hurt, Saru’ she says of his plan to destroy the Klingon ship. All that diplomacy goes out the window when one of their own is killed.
The look that Saru and Burnham share when they first clap eyes on each other is priceless. His tactics are devious, which Georgiou approves of.
Great Dialogue - ‘T’Kuvma lured Starfleet to a massacre. It’s time I repaid him.’
Production - The Klingon fleet facing off against the Shenzhou is a fearsome visual. You genuinely get the sense that the shit is about to hit the fan for the Federation ship. It took DS9 six seasons to amass two great fleets to slug it out. If Discovery is to go for the action jugular, it’s nice to see them aiming this high. The Klingon ships belch great plumes of green fire which achieves great damage whereas the Federation ships look like kids spitting into the wind. Watch and gasp as the Europa is basically bitten into by T’Kuvma’s vessel and then explodes in spectacular fireworks. We’re not in Kansas anymore, Dorothy.
Worst moment - Still too many bloody tilted angles. Do the camera guys know how to hold a camera straight? The last time I watched something this visually jarring was Battlefield Earth and for the same reasons, and we know how that turned out. I remember reading interviews with David Livingston saying that he wanted to bring a more dramatic visual style to Trek, include high and low and tilted angles, and how he snuck them in to episodes as much as he could without the execs getting in a paddy (Go watch DS9’s Crossover, he went to town in that one). But it seems that the tide has well and truly turned these days and whilst I understand the need to be visually arresting and unique, it shouldn’t come at the expense of the performances and storytelling because it is so distracting it pulls your attention away from the important things.
Despite trying to give T’Kuvma (say his name in a melodramatic growl like the Klingons do, it’s so much fun) some backstory (including flashbacks to when he was a child), the Klingon dialogue scenes are still hampered by the language barrier. In the same way that excessive technobabble used to switch me off in TNG and VOY, these inexplicably incomprehensible scenes had a similar effect. Maybe I have become a lazy television watcher and expect everything in English, or maybe these scenes plod on in dreary Klingonese and feel as though they are adding little to the overall story. TNG found a way to make the Klingons palatable and that was to stage their politics and their world as though they were the most theatrical of Shakespeare plays. Discovery seems intent in keeping them as alien as possible. A laudable goal, but pretty alienating as far as I’m concerned. It might be hard to believe but I don’t watch science fiction to listen to men in freaky masks babble an incoherent language, but I think that is exactly what the non-SF think. This material would confirm a non-fans fears. There’s a moment where it looks like Burnham’s head might be burst like a massive spot, Game of Thrones style (and the scream she lets out is agonising).
Result - Much more engaging, but essentially because this is an hour-long action sequence that never lets up the tension. You’re talking truly cinematic visuals that accompany Battle at Binary Stars (and I would expect so too, the reported budget per episode exceeds that of many movies); epic space battles, ships detonating in slow motion, sets being torn to pieces, insane sweeps and zooms through wreckage into battle, hand to hand combat…the action is relentless. Is this the Star Trek we have come to know and love? The one which indulges philosophy, morality and huge science fiction ideas? Not at all. But maybe we have to move with the times and this dizzyingly accomplished action proves to be extremely watchable on a ‘cor wow!’ level whilst my brain remained quite unengaged. It’s Trek based on adrenalin and not intelligence. I’ve certainly not seen anything thus far in Discovery that suggests it is better television than the more dialogue driven Trek of old, just that it is much more expensively produced. I like the fact that the Starfleet gets an arse kicking so early in the show and the attempts to shake hands with the Klingons ends in bloodshed. There’s a certain arrogance about Roddenberry’s vision for the show that deserves a bloody nose every now and again. DS9 was adept at dishing this out and it looks like Discovery is following suit. Burnham remains an interesting character and I’m really pleased that she is called to account for her actions and that her fate remains ambiguous, right up to the last scene. This kind of serialised Trek is well worth exploring, as long as there is one character or a crew to follow to make the journey worthwhile. With Georgiou for the chop, Burnham has become our protagonist and she’s a disgraced and imprisoned one. With no hint of the ship in the series title the biggest question is where do we go from here? As a piece of television, this is damn near flawless. The action is relentless; full of tension, drama and smart set pieces. As an episode of Star Trek, it is unpredictable and exciting, but still very vague as to its intentions as a series. Entering the third hour of a show you shouldn’t still be wondering what the hell it is about.
**** out of *****
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