Review by: Jay Andrews Tracy

Star Trek Discovery is the latest Star Trek television series that has aired. It is the most anticipated Star Trek series that has ever come in our time, thus far anyway. This is a two-part episode for the pilot, which in many ways it was a cliffhanger for the first, making you want to watch more of it. The series pleases Star Trek fans, but I do not know if that will be just enough to make the cut of the show.

CBS was originally going to have it only just for access, which was going to be a bad idea. For this, they have decided to release it on Netflix, but only outside the United States and Canada, which means you still have to purchase CBS all access to watch it in the United States. (I, like many other Americans, plan on all kinds of not paying for a subscription.)

This new series takes place 10 years before the original Star Trek with Captain Kirk (William Shatner) and crew. The mission is similar and familiar, of course, to explore new worlds, meet new aliens and civilizations. They develop the characters, and you get to know a familiar face, which would be Sarek (James Frain), who is a Vulcan. Sarek is well known throughout nearly all the Star Trek series.

The Captain of the USS Shenzhou is Philippa Georgiou, played by Michelle Yeoh. She is a known Malaysian actress, and has done familiar movies such as Super Cop, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, and she enjoys the current, if short, role on the show. She plays the part of a Captain very well, and her officers look up to her.

I think that the opening sequence for Star Trek Discovery is something of an eye candy. With the tribute to the original series makes it a comfort for Star Trek fans all over the world. This might be one of the best openers for the Star Trek franchise in a long time.

The technology aboard the Shenzhou seems to be better than what was in Star Trek the Motion Picture. I can remember in Star Trek the Motion Picture, the transporters barely worked, but they seemed to have no problem in this new series. I even think some of the technology might be better than in the Kirk days.

The visual effects of the series are amazing. The space flight scenes, and the planetary scenes are beautiful, especially the opening scene which takes place on a alien planets desert. The battles are almost too realistic. With the amazing CGI, it really does hold up to be a Star Trek series.

The uniforms are annoying. I think the telling part of the colors of the crew is a wonderful thing, so we know who is in command, and who has security detail. I hope that they change this in the upcoming seasons, sometimes it is even hard to tell who is who because of the same colors. I guess they are trying to make a point that everyone might be of equality? But they really are not? Kind of confusing I thought.

The first 2 episodes chime in about the Klingons, and it is likely to be a recurring theme throughout the show. The Klingons of Discovery are different than what we are used to from the other series. They have more humanistic features, and have more upfront dialog in the two episodes than any other Star Trek series. You know from watching the premiere that the Shenzhou engages the Klingons and have an all out battle with them (I will not completely give the episodes away).

I do hope we learn more about the Klingons and other alien races in future episodes. We at least see the Vulcans. I think that if they keep doing what they are doing with character development that the series might take off for CBS.

I personally think that The Orville is a better space television show. I think that if Star Trek did what Orville did that they would have had a much better place in television-land. I wanted more with Star Trek and I (and everyone else) was hoping that it would be more than it was. I think that delaying it made fans upset, but needed to be done to get the end result of what we have today.

Overall, Star Trek did better than Orville did in ratings on opening preview night. I think that they need to bring a Next Generation type of series to get my interest, or hey even a Deep Space Nine drama series. I honestly hope the series does well. Star Trek is Star Trek, and The Orville wants to be Star Trek, and maybe is, and is better at it than Star Trek itself is (that’s a mouthful). Give it a shot, tell us what you think!