Star Trek: Discovery isn’t a perfect show, but shows signs of being a great one

Vulture

The CBS All Access series “stands tall alongside the best-regarded incarnations of the Trek franchise even as it raids elements from all of them,” says Matt Zoller Seitz. He adds that the new Trek is “notable as a rare work of true science fiction in a medium that too often settles for science-fiction-flavored action, science-fiction-flavored horror, and so on, amping up superficial thrills while neglecting the attention of ideas that distinguish the genre at its best. Splitting the difference between commercial slickness and graphic-novel solemnity, this Trek offers PG-13 violence, audience-pandering exposition dumps, cliffhanger endings, Game of Thrones–style pomp, and a touch of Lost’s mystery-box plotting, but also poker-faced musings on quantum science, moral relativism, logic vs. instinct, race vs. culture, and the military’s tendency to corrupt science in service of war.”

ALSO

• This feels like a show made by people who love the franchise and its universe
• Discovery is great at combining the procedural elements of the TV shows with the action from the films
• The best thing about Star Trek: Discovery is that Michael Burnham actually does stuff
• Discovery works as a successor to the franchise and a show in its own right
• So far, Discovery provide serviceable space opera and reasonably exciting interstellar battles
• 8.2 million viewers watched the premiere

• CBS All Access sees record for sign-ups thanks to Star Trek: Discovery
• Face Off judges were responsible for the Klingon makeup
• Star Trek: Discovery cast took a knee in support of NFL players
• Discovery boss talks about big delays: Each episode requires four to five months of visual effects work