Star Trek Discovery Quick Pilot Review Episodes 1 and 2 Spoiler-Free

By Matthew Nemeth

So i have hardly paid any attention to Star Trek in the past i have known it to be popular, to be about space exploration, there are some captains, something called the Klingon that have their own language and are a separate species and i know a few character names and my Nan used to always have it on when i would visit before she, unfortunately, passed back in 2006 as well as a few other family members watching it in the past so kind of feels like it’s in the family, Kind of, but that’s about it. I went into Discovery with a very open mind not knowing if i would even like it and having no real expectations of any kind and apart from the recent films there hasn’t been a Star Trek series since 2005 So i went into this series knowing it would be fresh and thanks to Netflix it is released just the day after the US which is nice. This review will be for both episodes 1 and 2 but i will separate the reviews.

Episode 1 The Vulcan Hello

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This was a very good and very entertaining episode of TV for me, As i said i went into it with open arms and let this episode introduce me to the new series, Sonequa Martin-Green’s acting was great and I’m happy to see her have the leading role here. I felt the episode at the start was a tad slow but i was sort of expecting that and i was also ok with it but roughly halfway in the episode really kicks into gear as you are introduced to the weird and mysterious Klingon and you also get some nice stakes and drama and im looking forward to seeing where episode 2 goes. Who knows maybe i would have liked Star Trek all along? I never doubted that i would i just simply never paid attention. I mean i paid no attention to Breaking Bad and now i think it’s the best show of all time. There is an absolute ton of potential with this show and from it being modern to it having a brand new cast (as far as i’m aware) i’m fully on board with the new series and hope it manages to fill some of it’s potential in the 1st season and then lead nicely into the second. This was far from a “let’s spend a whole hour explaining the world of Star Trek to new people” which would have been boring, we did have some of that but there was also a nice sense of stakes, drama, interesting characters and a whole new race of characters i know nothing about but still very much remain interested in. See you for episode 2 below!

Episode 2 Battle At The Binary Stars

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So, unfortunately, i didn’t like this episode quite as much, it jumped ahead a little too much, made me care about the mystery of the Klingon a lot less, it also showed too much of them as well as having things go a little too crazy too quickly (maybe just calm it down a little for new viewers?) yes i often talk about pacing being a major part of TV and being too slow is a big big problem in TV and yes this was very fast paced, but to have all the dream sequence thing (i don’t know what it’s called I’m new to Star Trek) shoved into this episode at times made me feel lost as a viewer and i didn’t know what on earth was happening. As a new viewer was that meant to be part of the mystery? It just didn’t feel like it. I mentioned that i lost a little interest with the Klingon in this episode, Something about them maybe from the way they speak I’m not really sure, just annoyed me to the point that i wanted to get back to the main characters and wanted the Klingon to remain a bit more of a mystery. But maybe I’m not supposed to see them as some kind of mysterious species? maybe as part of Star Trek (again I’m new to ALL of this), they have always been front and center? Anyway, i felt a lot more impact from the ending and what happened there and felt some nice dramatic emotion with Micheal’s (Sonequa’s) character and enjoyed the fight scene at the end.

Overall i still enjoyed the 1st 2 episodes but not as much with the 2nd, But I’m still very much all in on the show and I’m looking forward to some more space battles and exploration, ill give episode 1 a 9/10 and the 2nd episode an 8/10. Also, i feel like with new or even returning series that starting a new season with 2 episodes or a double length one makes it harder to settle back in, especially in this instance where i am trying to get into a new world and understand it.

 

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