Starring Sonequa Martin-Green, Doug Jones, Anthony Rapp, and Mary Wiseman
Distributed by Paramount Global
Episodes: 65
Most episodes rated TV-14, season one rated TV-MA for violence and profanity
Author’s note: This review contains spoilers for Star Trek: Discovery.
When Star Trek: Enterprise was canceled in 2005, it brought an end to eighteen continuous years of Star Trek on TV. In the twelve-year hiatus that followed, three big-screen movies were released, but they swapped Star Trek’s thoughtful, philosophic science fiction for an action-centric approach more like Star Wars, alienating many fans.1
So, excitement mounted in 2016 when CBS announced a new Star Trek TV show, Discovery, which concluded in May 2024 after five seasons. Many hoped that this show, set a decade before the original Star Trek, would return to Trek’s traditional emphasis on scientific exploration, moral questions, and optimism about the future.
Unfortunately, those hopes were dashed. Discovery’s first season is a violent, graphic depiction of a war between the Federation and the militaristic Klingon Empire: The crew of the starship Discovery face, among other things, the death of their captain, the mutiny and imprisonment of their first officer (the show’s lead character, Michael Burnham), and the painful revelation that several main characters are enemy agents.2 “I think people felt it was too dark,” producer Alex Kurtzman later admitted.3 Dismayed, many fans of traditional Star Trek jumped ship to The Orville, which debuted at the same time as Discovery and offered a bright, optimistic sci-fi universe more akin to older Star Trek series.
Discovery’s first season is not all bad. The second half includes an exciting arc taking place in the “mirror universe,” a parallel world (established in the original Star Trek) populated by evil versions of the regular characters. This gives the first season’s two strongest actors, Michelle Yeoh and Jason Isaacs, the opportunity to flex their theatrical muscles by portraying both heroic and evil versions of their characters.
Acknowledging fan disappointment over the show’s pessimistic tone, the producers changed course for season two, bringing the USS Discovery into contact with the Enterprise, commanded by Captain Pike (Anson Mount), its captain before Kirk in the original Star Trek. . . .
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Endnotes
1. In 2014, former Star Trek: Deep Space Nine producer Ronald D. Moore remarked that Star Trek’s “home and its heart is really in television.” He thinks the franchise struggles to translate to the big screen because “The kinds of stories that you’ll tell in the features space are not the kinds of stories that made that show so popular. The features all have to be action-oriented. . . . The TV shows were morality plays, they were more thematic, they were examining society in different ways.” See Matt Wright, “Star Trek’s Heart Is in Television, Says Ron D. Moore,” TrekMovie, February 5, 2014, https://trekmovie.com/2014/02/05/star-treks-heart-is-in-television-says-ron-d-moore.
2. Despite her name, Michael Burnham is female.
3. Valerie Ettenhofer, “Star Trek Exec Thinks He Knows Why Discovery Didn’t Connect with Some Fans,” SlashFilm, June 2, 2024, https://www.slashfilm.com/1593781/star-trek-discovery-exec-why-biggest-fan-complaint.
4. Anthony Pascale, “Anson Mount Responds to Fan Petition Calling for Star Trek Pike Series,” TrekMovie, April 15, 2019, https://trekmovie.com/2019/04/15/anson-mount-responds-to-fan-petition-calling-for-star-trek-pike-series.
