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Star Trek: Discovery’s first chapter has problems

By Alvin Soon - on 15 Nov 2017, 10:47am

Warning: major spoilers for Star Trek: Discovery.

I get that Star Trek: Discovery’s showrunners likely wanted to make a new Trek, one that’s edgier, more complex, and relevant to our times. But after giving Discovery a third chance and finishing the first chapter of its opening season, the latest Trek mostly fails to excite.

There’s a lot to rant about, but I think the root problem with Star Trek: Discovery is how it has plot holes you could drive a starbase through.

Things happen just because they need to further the act, not because they make any logical sense. Captain Philippa Georgiou needed to die, so only she and Michael Burnham — the most senior and important officials on the USS Shenzhou, by the way — beam onboard the Klingon Ship of the Dead to fend off an army of Klingon warriors, outnumbered and outgunned. In the meantime, teams of red shirts wait on the Shenzhou.

Captain Gabriel Lorca needs to be unhinged, so they reveal how he became the sole survivor of the USS Buran — he’d intentionally blew up his ship and killed everyone on board to spare them from being captured by the Klingons. Apparently, everyone in Starfleet was cool with that, because they then gave him one of the two most powerful ships in the fleet.

But the biggest misstep is one the entire show hinges on — Burnham is blamed for causing the Klingon war, but how did she do that exactly? After she killed the Klingon torchbearer in the first episode, the Klingons didn’t retaliate. Even after she mutinies against Captain Georgiou and locks weapons on the Ship of the Dead, the Shenzhou still doesn’t fire first. Georgiou regains command and tries to negotiate for peace, but it’s the Klingons that then fire first

If Burnham had actually shot first, it would have firmly put the entire weight of the war on her shoulders. But as it is, Discovery’s biggest emotional arc has no legs, and thus, fails to land.

(There are theories that say the war started because Burnham killed T’Kuvma, but this was after everyone was already firing on each other, the Klingons had torn USS Europa to shreds, and T’Kuvma murdered Georgiou — all transgressed on Federation space. If these weren’t already acts of war, I don’t know what is.)

Not every story needs to be as tightly scripted as a Christopher Nolan production. But plot holes are forgivable only if something greater is delivered — a connection to a character, a theme that pays off, or an emotional arc that gives you the feels. But while there were high points in Star Trek: Discovery, the first chapter had none of these. I’m not looking forward to the second chapter that’s coming in January.

Alvin Soon

Alvin Soon / Former Deputy Editor

I like coffee and cameras, but not together.

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