Star Trek Discovery
S1 ep3: Context is For Kings
From IMDB:
Burnham finds herself aboard the U.S.S. Discovery, where she quickly realizes things are not as they seem, including the mysterious Captain Gabriel Lorca.
The Logical
This is so different from any Star Trek ever to be broadcast before. It certainly is going boldly and going places we’ve never been. We finally get to meet the crew that I have an impression we will be with for the remainder of the series.
There are two characters that I really enjoyed this episode:
The chief engineer, Paul Stamets, is brilliant. He’s a grump, proud and passionate. I really do like the gritty realism this gives the show. I also am liking that he doesn’t seem to be the Captain’s best friend like with all previous incarnations. There’s a clear hierarchy to the crew; one I’m interested to see how this progresses.
The other character was the Captain, played by Jason Issacs. Captain Gabriel Lorca is not a normal Starfleet Captain; he is not clear cut or led by his morals. There will be no seeking sage advice from this Captain, and while I would not want to see the Borg make an appearance, I would love to see him take them on.
I get the feeling he’s not a good guy, but I’m not sure I care about that. His Malfoy charms aside, there’s just something that to me suggests that he will be loyal to his crew and that is all I need, for now.
We have our first away mission; it delves into Alien territory and I loved it. The effects, including the deformed engineer and the action sequences.
Finally, the leading lady; Michael. Her story takes on a twisted Die Hard meets Doctor Who. While she was considered disgraced by Starfleet, Lorca doesn’t like waste and woos her as the Doctor would a companion.
The part I loved the most about Michael’s journey in this episode is her references to Alice in Wonderland. To me, it harks back (or forward) to Jim Kirk and his love of Peter Pan.
The Illogical
There was an extensive ‘previously on…’ Is it really necessary in this day and age, when most people don’t watch live and missing an episode is near on impossible.
It took three episodes to get to the show’s namesake ship. That’s a little long considering that it’s a 15 episode series order.
I’m bored already of the ‘but Michael is a man’s name.’ Are we really forgetting the Walton’s Michael Learned?! It’s not strange, it’s frigging awesome and having crew members take issue is really narrow minded and archaic.
The chief engineer, Paul Stamets, is brilliant but I couldn’t help wishing it was Alan Tudyk in the role.
It’s like the Walking Dead of Trek; very dark, very serious and very very depressing.
I did, for a brief moment, wonder if the reason why we’re here before the missions of Kirk is because time travel is involved. I can’t quite get my predictions to mesh with what I already know. However, I’m starting to get the feeling that there is a reason why it’s set at this point.
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