‘Star Trek: Discovery’ Season 2 Premiere: Ruffling Feathers

Excellent review, Sopan Deb. I think Tig will bring a major boost to the show. The acting that really amazes me is that done by Doug Jones, who plays Saru with a lively depth of character, balancing fearfulness, sensitivity and strength in natural and unique (like an alien?) ways. Jones does all of this while balancing on those crazy hooves and while wearing a facial prosthetic mask that allows for only the slightest facial variations. He deserves special mentions. From Season One I miss Jason Isaac's terribly. He's much better with his British accent, but I miss his complex character. Very pleased to see Michelle Yeoh is back! I hated the Klingons of Discovery until the strange, difficult scenes with muffled, garbled language were eliminated. I am thoroughly enjoying the interactions this season among crew members I wonder when they'll start a regular poker game.

Thank goodness the Orville came and kicked some fun into this show. I agree that, so far, this season is more fun and interesting.

We didn't know Spock had a half brother for the entire tv series and not until move 5 did we find out. Spock was not big about sharing even with Kirk. So I don't have a problem believing people came and went in Spock's life. I love Anson Mount as Pike. I would follow him in to battle or into 104 for a drink.

Ok, I'm a die-hard canon fan. So be it. Just look at that gap between the "critics" (+) and the viewers (-) in "Rotten Tomatoes." The latest "Star Wars" comparison (contrast?) barely competes in the distance between them, and that says something for sure. (And is "quicker" used here as an adjective or an ungrammatical adverb? Now *there's* something for real review.)

Arguably the best first season of any Star Trek series? No, that would be The Original Series. Season 1 of TOS had "The City on the Edge of Forever," "The Devil in the Dark," "Balance of Terror," "Space Seed," "The Naked Time" and lots of other classic episodes. Subsequent Star Trek series took awhile to find their feet, but TOS was excellent right out of the gate!

"...Warp drive ready..." Captain Pike: "Hit it!" Like you were expecting some other word? On another note, The Star Trek re-boot movies series played around a lot with establishing new canon about the early lives of the crew. I didn't buy it then. On Discovery, we explore a lot about the early lives of several characters - and to be honest, I DO buy it here. It's funny how we are finding out so much about Spock - and he isn't even IN THE ROOM (let alone on the ship). Goes to show that what they tried with the re-boots failed badly. Here, it succeeds wildly.

Meh. Georgiou and Lorca delivered heavyweight character appeal in D1. Fresh good-to-evil-evil-to-good stuff. Both characters elevated Michael's otherwise lukewarm performance. Both had believable grit and were light years ahead of a sanitized "Pike" who mostly seems intent on delivering a throwback feel to the chummy dynamic of the Jim-Bones-Spock triad. Weak overreach. D1's well crafted exploitation of the Klingon storyline is a home-run for the ST universe. Finally, one storyline examines in-depth reasons a Federation of planets would be at war with, and despise, the Klingons. At least one ST show explores how heinous the Klingon Empire had been. Yay. Discover S1 was dark. Different. An interesting take on an old canon which sometimes works but sometimes fails by trying too hard to inhabit too much of its glorious past. Note: The shout-out to Tig Notaro's androgyny and Saru's high-heeled sexual ambiguity appears formulaic. Third gender appreciation is a tired discussion. We live a universe where 10 to 1 says different ways of being is normal. 'Nuff said. Could ST just give up on prototypes, please? Short hair for Tig? Really? A gay man who likes opera? Please, people. "Brother" was one dimensional at best. Too bad. Confirmed information says CBS has a new creative team with throwback ideas. ST canon wins. Previous course is now abandoned. A great pity. I'd like a show wiling to go where no Start Trek show has gone before.

"Best first season of any Star Trek series." The first season of Star Trek in 1966 not only created the whole phenomenon but featured episodes like "City on the Edge of Forever." Discovery hasn't reached that level. How good could it have been if they had to add Spock, Pike and Enterprise after saying they would not?

Another lifelong fan of Star Trek since watching TOS as a boy in the late 1960s. This IMO was a very balanced critique of Discovery S2E1. With the exception of the original which went a little downhill after a sparkling first season - I agree that Discovery was quite good but not great, last year. There were SOME legit complaints about the first season but like TNG which initially suffered from bad writing, acting and infighting, the producers have addressed some of the issues while keeping the good things from S1. The result was a very good season premiere. Let's hope this continues and Discovery has a nice long run, just like TNG.

Star Trek Discovery had the WORST - not best - first season of any Star Trek series, Enterprise included. Not just terrible character development and terrible stories, but utter inconsistency at every turn with established Star Trek canon, from tribbles that do not reproduce, to the wrong insignia, to holographic communications (not used until DS9), and an overall vulgar, turgid visuals that did not fit with the timeframe in which the show takes place and was nauseating to look at.

Notaro and Mount were great in the premiere, but I am still skeptical about DISCOVERY making any mention of the Enterprise beyond the occasional Easter egg. At some point, if Star Trek is to exist in the television universe well into the 21st Century, then it needs to boldly go where no Trek show has gone before...which is far away from the name Enterprise, the original characters or any of the same old tropes.

I actually laughed out loud when I read this bit of the article: "The “Discovery” creative team is making a course correction after a choppy maiden voyage defined by shoddy character development, gaping plot holes and a grim story that often made for laborious viewing." "Course correction", "shoddy character development", "gaping plot holes", wow, we must've been watching two different shows. You just have to laugh when you read something like that. Season one was great, season two looks like it's going to be even better. Y'all are wildin', that first season was incredibly entertaining, better than any first season of previous Treks. It was also the best written episodic science fiction of 2017/2018. C'mon, y'all, please stop pretending "Discovery" seaon 1 is bad, since it so obviously isn't?

I love how this season started. As a lifelong Star Trek fan, I know that some series take a while to "warm up", Discovery took very little time to warm up! Anson Mount is fantastic as Pike. My wife said he has the swagger of Kirk and the statesmanship of Picard. To me, Spock not fully accepting Burnham does seem in character for Spock given how he was around Sybok in Trek 5. Spock being torn between worlds and seeing his mother embrace Michael may be part of the reason he focuses so heavily on being Vulcan. I am curious to see how that all plays out. All in all, I love this Star Trek and can't wait for the other series. Some say we may get "franchise fatigue" but I don't think so. Star Trek was made for TV and is hopeful look at the future. Having read nearly all the Trek novels published which cover many series, I know it is possible to have multiple Treks going on at the same time and it is wonderful. Lastly, we really need the positivity of Trek now more than ever and this show is delivering on that. Live long and prosper!

I find it fascinating that throughout the reviews and comments, so far no one has mentioned the fantastic interplay between Pike and Burnham in the early part of the episode. Pike (admittedly still brimming with frustration from being ordered back during the war) cuts Burnham off mid-sentence to heroically man-splain how they're going to save everyone even against impossible odds, a typical old-school Kirk-like response. The extraordinary thing about the exchange is Burnham's response, and the relationship the two began to build afterward. If you haven't watched the episode yet, watch it for that exchange. I hope they keep the writers that created it, and that Star Trek will continue to be an effective and eloquent advocate for social advancement. To boldly go where no man has gone before.

This was a great episode to start Season Two. The action and special effects were movie level quality. The story had wonderful action and spectacle but also had time for moments of solid character interactions. The humor was utilized well. I loved the first season but this one may top it.

"It arguably had the best first season of any “Star Trek” series" Not remotely. This is nearly on par with claiming the Star Wars prequels were better than a New Hope. Say what you will about the original series or Next Generation, the characters weren't stupid. The characters in Discovery routinely behaved in idiotic ways that didn't make sense even in context. Such as the head of security telling Burnham to unleash a monster so she could shoot it with a phaser, even though it was well established that said monster shrugged off phasers. Her resulting death was a Star Trek flavor Darwin Award. It's a series that started off stupid, with Burnham committing mutiny when she had plenty of other options, and never got better.

I'm very excited for this show coming back. The episodes where they ended up in another dimension were great. Long live the Empire stuff was entertaining.

Jeffrey Hunter? CBS is pulling a Tupac with holograms of the captain in the pilot of the original series playing the captain here. That original actor passed away decades ago. I had thought Anson Mount had been tapped to play Christopher Pike, Maybe the Times should contact Daniel Radcliffe to serve as fact-checker as the existing ones failed their due diligence here.

I guess the show is being presented on the CBS network? I guess it is shown every week at the same time?