Star Trek: Discovery - Part 1: The Superficial

FULL DISCLOSURE: I grew up on Star Trek, the original series. I liked Star Trek: The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine. I thought Voyager was okay most of the time, and I liked Enterprise. I enjoyed the movies to varying degrees, excluding the first two "Kelvin universe" films (I have not seen the third one) which I thought were very poorly written, and I had a blast as a part of the Star Trek New Voyages production team in upstate New York. All of that being said, here is the first part of my objective as possible review of Star Trek: Discovery. Be aware that this review is based upon episode #1 only. I did not see episode #2 because I do not have CBS All Access and will not be subscribing to it, so I don’t know anything about what happened after all of those Klingon ships showed up.

First, THE SUPERFICIAL

The opening credits left me feeling...neutral. I found the music to be forgettable, and in fact, as I write this, I don't remember the theme at all...except for those last few notes. If you're a Star Trek fan and you watched the premier of this new series, then you know to what I am referring. Visually, however, the opening credits did, indeed, make an impression. The graphics showing the designing of various bits of technology struck me as a sort of sequel to the opening credits of Enterprise, which showed, step by step, the advancements in space travel technology from the early days of the space program to the time in which Enterprise took place. Separate from that, the graphic of the little animated U.S.S. Discovery silhouette flying around the screen hearkened back to the opening credits of old shows like Land of the Giants, seemingly telling us that this show "comes before" -- perhaps a reminder that this series is supposed to take place 10 years before the original series.

Before I talk about the rest of the show, I just want to say that even though it's supposed to take place 10 years before the original series, I never expected it to look like the original series. We're not in the 1960's anymore. Production values have come a very long way in the last 50 years, and had the producers tried to make this new series look like the original, CBS probably would have thrown them off of the lot. Besides, according to at least three different sources that I have read, due to various licensing restrictions, the producers weren't allowed to make certain aspects of it look the same. At any rate, I will be talking about the look, but I do not judge the show by its look. Onward...

THE KLINGONS

I found the Klingons' appearance to be...interesting. I honestly don't know what I think of it yet. They obviously look very different from what we have seen before, but at the same time there are some similarities. I don't know if these Klingons are supposed to be typical of their contemporary race or if they are, perhaps, an offshoot who have been away from their home world for a very long time, perhaps hundreds or even thousands of years, and have therefore evolved differently. I was left with the feeling that these Klingons are much more like their ancient ancestors than those who we have seen before. Even though I don't usually like having to read my TV shows, I very much liked that they spoke their own language in their scenes, rather than English. That helped me to accept them as Klingons, despite their different appearance.

KLINGON VESSEL(S)

No. Okay, if the Klingons we saw have been away for a long time and did evolve separately from the rest of their race, then okay, their vessel covered in the coffins of their dead is ancient and atypical of what "modern" Klingons fly around in. That said, when the other Klingon ships showed up at the end of the episode, I was disappointed not to see something resembling the D-7 battlecruisers of the classic Klingon Empire.

THE U.S.S. SHENZHOU - EXTERIOR

Although the design of this vessel's warp nacelles are a departure from the cylindrical nacelles of the original series and Enterprise, the overall design of the ship bears enough similarity to that of the Enterprise NX-01 that it actually does look like a descendant of that vessel. For me, that helps to tie these two series together as taking place in the same universe. I found the occasional TOS bridge sound effects to be a nice touch.

THE U.S.S. SHENZHOU - INTERIOR

Obviously, the technology of this vessel's bridge -- its controls consoles, forward window/viewscreen, holo-communications, etc. -- is far superior to that of the original series' U.S.S. Enterprise. Again, this series is being produced 50 years later. These things had to be updated to avoid being laughed off of the screen.

THE STARLEET UNIFORMS

At first glance, I didn't like them. I missed seeing command, sciences, and operations wearing three different colors. Then I realized that, to a smaller extent, they are. The metallic components of the uniform are gold for command, silver for sciences, and copper for operations. I still don't like the design all that much and am not thrilled with everyone wearing all blue, but, just as the ship can be seen as a descendant of the NX-01, these uniforms could very well be the direct descendants of the blue jumpsuits worn by the crew of the NX-01 in Enterprise.

THE PHASER (just because)

I liked the hand phaser. It looked a lot like the classic phaser of TOS, but cooler, and looked like it had a smaller version of the switchable muzzle of the old hand lasers from The Cage.

So, that's my commentary on the overall look of the show -- the superficial aspect of it that I am willing to accept as a necessary change for a more modern, non-1960's series and it audience. Perhaps we are to meant to assume that, ten years after Discovery, the events of the original series still take place as they were presented to us 50 years ago, but that everything actually looks more like this new show and not like it did when we watched TOS. Or, perhaps CBS intends to reboot the original series down the road if this series is successful enough to justify the risk. Or, perhaps this series is actually much less a prequel to TOS and much more a sequel to Enterprise.

CAPRICA - A Better Series Than Many People Realize

Today I take a step back to talk about a much too short-lived television series that was much better than many people realized -- CAPRICA -- the prequel series to the Battlestar Galactica reboot. On the surface, Caprica was a science fiction series on SyFy that didn't perform well in the ratings and was cancelled after only one season, but it was so much more. Caprica was a very well written and acted character-driven human story that was very relevant to our world today.

As I said, on the surface, Caprica was a science fiction series. It was intended to tell the story of the creation of the Cylons in the 12 colonies, beginning 58 years "before the fall." That is, 58 years before the beginning of Battlestar Galactica. Graystone Industries has a contract to develop 100,000 artificially intelligent robot soldiers (the U-87 project) for the government of Caprica. The company is having a difficult time developing and A.I. brain capable of enabling the robots to perform as required. As a result, the company is behind schedule and over budget, and the government is threatening to cancel the contract and award it to a competitor.

Enter the human stories that are so relevant to the real world today. First, Daniel Graystone (Eric Stoltz), the very rich and well-known CEO of Graystone Industries, and his wife, Dr. Amanda Graystone (Paula Malcomson) have a 16-year-old daughter, Zoe (Alessandra Torresani). Like many teenagers, she is rebellious and sometimes gets into trouble at school. After getting caught using her holoband at school -- the holoband is a wearable technology produced and marketed by Graystone Industries that enables the wearer to interact with a Virtual Reality world -- there is a scene in the Graystone home in which the family is "discussing" what Zoe did wrong. Zoe is shown to be defiant, argumentative, smart-mouthed, sarcastic, and extremely unappreciative. Amanda gets right into Zoe's face, shouts at her, scolds her, and ultimately slaps her after she makes one very disrespectful remark. Daniel, on the other hand, keeps his distance. He stays very calm, does not face his wife or his daughter...or the situation...except for a couple of very brief moment, and seems to want to dismiss the entire situation as not being nearly as serious as his wife and daughter both know that it is. Mentally, he's not even entirely there. In many ways, the Graystone family reflects what is wrong with so many dysfunctional families in the real world today.

About the holoband technology: It has been hacked. Teenagers have created a place in the virtual world, called the V-Club, where they can go to fight, have group sex, kill anyone they wish, or just dance and party to their hearts' desire. Zoe, who is a computer genius, has taken it further. Using public records from every source imaginable, she has created a virtual copy of herself. The copy looks exactly like her, has all of her memories, her likes and dislikes, etc. It is an EXACT copy of her, but can only exist in the virtual world.

Basically, Zoe hates her life. She feels as though her parents are never there for her, so she has looked elsewhere for something to fill the void. She has found that something in "the one true God." The commonly accepted majority religion of Caprica, and perhaps of the other 11 colonies, as well, is the worship of what we know today as the pantheon of Greek gods -- Zeus, Apollo, Athena, etc. The followers of "the one true God" don't believe in them, but rather believe in one Almighty God. Zoe has found this God, thanks to her boyfriend, Ben Stark (Avan Jogia) and has shared her new faith with her best friend, Lacy Rand (Magda Apanowicz). Together, the three of them are planning to run away to Gemenon, where "a new family" awaits them. This, too, is relevant to our world today. So many teenagers are crying out for help in many ways, and too many of them are being ignored.

The time to run arrives. Zoe, Ben, and Lacy cut school and head for the maglev train to take it to the spaceport. Zoe and Ben board the train, but Lacy backs out at the last minute. She doesn't board, and the train leaves the station without her. Unknown to Zoe, Ben is a member of The Soldiers of the One -- the terrorist branch of the One True God worshipers. He is wearing a suicide vest under his jacket. He reveals this to Zoe when he apologizes to her seconds before he detonates it, killing himself, Zoe, and dozens if not hundreds of other passengers. It's pretty obvious how this is relevant to our world today. In addition, Daniel and Amanda are shown grieving over an trying to deal with their daughter's death in a very real way.

Also killed in the bombing are Shannon and Tamara Adams (Anna Galvin, Genevieve Buechner), wife and daughter of Joseph Adams (Esai Morales). Together with his brother, Sam (Sasha Roiz), Joseph is originally from Tauron, a colony that is generally looked down upon by the people of the other colonies, many of whom refer to the natives of Tauron as "dirt-eaters." Joseph and Sam came to Caprica as war orphans after their parents were killed during a Tauron civil war. Now grown, Sam is married to a man, which is considered to be as normal as any two-gender marriage in that society, embraces his Tauron roots, and is a soldier in the Ha'la'tha, a crime syndicate much like the Mafia. Joseph is a lawyer, has more or less rejected his Tauron roots and even changed his Tauron last name, Adama, to the more Caprican-like name Adams, and has only a loose connection to the Ha'la'tha -- the Guatrau (basically, the Godfather) put him through law school.

A couple of weeks after the bombing, Joseph and Daniel happen to cross paths outside of a town meeting where the public has just been updated about the investigation into the bombing. The scene that follows is of Joseph and Daniel having coffee together in a coffee shop, bonding over their shared losses without even having to speak. It is a VERY human scene. Before the two part ways, Daniel, who owns the professional pyramid sports team, the Caprica Buccaneers, invites Joseph to attend a game with him. Joseph asks and is told that he can bring his 11-year-old son, William (Sina Najafi).

When we see Joseph and his son together for the first time -- Joseph picks Willy up at school -- we discover through dialog that, like so many fathers in the real world today, Joseph has always been so focused on his career as a lawyer that he hardly ever spends any time with his son. This has left Willy to himself more than any 11-year-old boy should ever be left to himself...especially an 11-year-old boy whose uncle is a soldier for the crime syndicate. Sam is only too happy to teach Willy how to cut school the right way, how to survive and seize power on the streets, and how to act with the police while being arrested...all over a nice cold beer.

The story goes on from there. I could probably write another 50,000 words on this series and still not say everything that I would like to say about it, and I've probably forgotten to write about some aspects of it that I intended to, but I don't want to include too many spoilers, just in case this post has motivated you, dear reader, to check out the DVDs of this series or find some other way to check it out. Suffice to say, I like it a lot. Very rarely do I ever buy the DVDs/Blurays of a series that has no real conclusion to its story. I bought this series.