Remembering "STAR TREK: DISCOVERY"
REMEMBERING "STAR TREK: DISCOVERY"
Seven years ago saw the premiere of the seventh television series from the STAR TREK franchise. "STAR TREK: DISCOVERY" premiered on September 24, 2017 on the CBS All Access streaming channel. The latter was renamed four years later as Paramount+. Created by created by Bryan Fuller and Alex Kurtzman, the series starred Sonequa Martin-Green as Commander (later Captain) Michael Burnham.
"STAR TREK: DISCOVERY" followed the crew of the Federation starship U.S.S. Discovery, beginning a decade before the franchise's first series, "STAR TREK: THE ORIGINAL SERIES", in the mid-23rd century. At the end of the second season, Discovery and its crew traveled to the 32nd century, which remained the setting for the last three seasons. The main character, Michael Burnham, began the series with the rank of Commander and as the First Officer of the U.S.S. Shenzhou. An encounter with the Klingon Empire led Burnham to suspect the latter had plans to attack the United Federation of Planets. When her commanding officer, Captain Philippa Georgiou dismissed her suspicions, Burnham committed mutiny, killed a Klingon leader and started the Federation-Klingon War. Her actions led Starfleet to court-martial her and sentence her to life in prison.
Six months after her court-martial, Burnham ended on a prison transport encountered technical difficulties. The U.S.S. Discovery, commanded by Captain Gabriel Luna, rescued the transport, Burnham and her fellow prisoners. While the other prisoners continued on to another prison, Luna retained Burnham aboard the ship after she helped the crew obtain a dangerous space creature. Thus, began Burnham's life aboard the U.S.S. Discovery. She started as science specialist and became Discovery's commanding officer by the end of Season Three.
I had encountered negative comments on the Internet from television critics and STAR TREK fans about "STAR TREK: DISCOVERY". But I had been determined to watch the show. Twelve years had passed since the cancellation of "STAR TREK: ENTERPRISE" and my curiosity had to be appeased. To be honest, I never really became a major fan of "ENTERPRISE", but I had been willing to give this new series a chance. Like "STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE NINE" and "STAR TREK: VOYAGER" before it, "DISCOVERY" made history by its casting. The series featured the second person of color as the lead of a TREK series. And it featured the second female lead. However, "DISCOVERY" went beyond both "DEEP SPACE NINE" and "VOYAGER" by featuring the first woman of color as the lead. "DISCOVERY" also made history by featuring the first LGBTQ couple, Lieutenant Paul Stamets and Dr. Hugh Culber, as part of the cast. And Season Three featured the franchise's first openly non-binary character, Adira Tal.
I had watched the first season of "STAR TREK: DISCOVERY" and instantly fell in love with the series. "DISCOVERY" started out in serialized form from Day One by following the narrative formula of "BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER" - a multiple episodes arc within one season. Most of the characters struck me as ambiguous and complex, including the leading lady. I also loved how that first season set up the conflict between the Federation and the Klingon Empire; and how the starship's foray into the Mirror Universe affected the war for the Federation. There were times when I found myself wishing Michael Burnham had been Discovery’s commanding officer from the beginning. Her rank as Commander at the beginning of the series, followed by her eventual promotion to Captain by the end of Season Three, bore a strong and uncomfortable similarity to Benjamin Sisko's rank within Starfleet. I say uncomfortable, because like Burnham, Sisko was a person of color. And this seemed to be some kind of formula for non-white leads.
Despite the similarities between Burnham and Sisko's Starfleet careers, there were differences. Burnham's Starfleet rank underwent changes, due to her roles in the Federation-Klingon War. And if Burnham had began the series as Discovery’s captain, I wonder if I would have enjoyed her Season One arc as much as I did. The casting of Martin-Green as the series’ star proved to be controversial on many levels. Certain fans had resented her position as the show’s lead. They especially resented the revelation of her character, Burnham, as Spock’s adoptive sister. These fans had accused the showrunner of forgetting that the half-Vulcan/half-Human officer had never mentioned an adoptive sister in previous TREK productions. This is true. But these same fans had forgotten Spock’s penchant for never discussing his family, unless circumstances forced him to do so. This happened when the Enterprise (NCC-1701) crew first met his parents in an episode from "THE ORIGINAL SERIES". And history repeated itself when they met Spock's older half-brother for the first time in the 1989 movie, "STAR TREK V: THE FINAL FRONTIER".
Despite the hullaballoo over Burnham’s character background and the series’ serialized arc, Season Two of "DISCOVERY" featured another season-long arc - the Federation’s conflict with a a rogue artificial intelligence. Unfortunately, this season also featured Captain Christopher Pike as Discovery’s temporary captain and the unnecessarily long presence of Spock aboard the starship, thanks to some contrived writing. Although many fans and critics had enjoyed Anson Mount’s portrayal of Pike, I found his performance dull and pretentious. Pike seemed to reek of what many had regarded as the traditional Star Trek leading man, but without any real spark.
Matters grew worse for me when the showrunner made the decision to send Discovery and the series into a new direction - namely 900 years in the future. Why? I had already written about that decision in another ARTICLE. Just because Burnham was Spock's adoptive sister, did not mean it would have been necessary for the series to make a concerted effort to connect with the 1966-69 series. Both Burnham and Spock had served aboard two completely different starships. Their chances of the occasional "family reunion" seemed fleeting at best. What made this decision even more ridiculous to me was the creation of a new series featuring Spock and Pike aboard the Enterprise (NCC-1701). This meant "STAR TREK: STRANGE NEW WORLDS" was the actual prequel series and had the real task of connecting to the 1966-1969 series. And it did not always succeed. Needless to say, this decision to send Discovery into the future had changed the series’ style and tone and made it difficult for me to enjoy the rest of the show’s run.
I tried to stick with "DISCOVERY" during its third and fourth seasons. But I gave up every time I tried. For several years I never understood why the showrunner had decided to keep the Ash Tyler aka Voq character in the 23rd century, especially since he was Burham's love interest. I eventually discovered that the franchise had plans to create a series or movie about the Section 31 intelligence agency and Tyler had joined it sometime between Seasons One and Two. Tyler had remained behind as the agency's new leader. This never made sense to me. Ash Tyler never struck me as the type to command Section 31, let alone be one of its operatives. The showrunner kept Tyler in the 23rd century and allowed the Mirror version of Philippa Georgiou. I found this even more puzzling since Georgiou was supposed to be the lead in the Section 31 series. She was more Section 31 material than Ash Tyler. And unlike Burnham and the rest of the Discovery crew, she returned to the 23rd century in mid-Season Three. The TREK franchise eventually produced a movie about Section 31. Although Michelle Yeoh, the actress who portrayed Georgiou, was cast as the lead; the actor who had portrayed Ash Tyler, Shazad Latif, was never cast. Yeah . . . the actor got screwed over by the franchise.
With Ash Tyler out of the picture, "DISCOVERY"'s showrunner created a new love interest for Michael Burnham - a courier named Cleveland "Book" Booker. The two had become a romantic pair in very short time. Too short, in my opinion. Once Burnham and the Discovery crew realized that the Federation no longer existed, they set out to help Earth recreate the organization. Honestly, this goal bored me senseless. I had hoped the series would take another direction and try something new. But it did not. Even worse, the series gradually replaced its serialized format with more episodic writing over the last seasons. Its handling of Burnham's clash with Discovery's new captain and former First Officer, Saru, led to her being replaced by none other than Sylvia Tilly, a junior officer in Engineering. Yes . . . Saru had replaced the experienced Burnham with the inexperienced Tilly and very few people had complained about this scenario. Tilly had been a very popular character. Fortunately, the showrunner allowed Saru to face Starfleet's displeasure over such an idiotic decision. He was transformed from Discovery and Burnham became its new captain. To be honest, I never viewed these episodes. I learned about this particular arc from a relative of mine, who tried to stick with the series.
I made an attempt to resume viewing "STAR TREK: DISCOVERY" for Season Four . . . but my interest did not last. The series had become so boring to me by this point that I forgot what the fourth season was about. Did it have a season-long arc? I do recall various episodes that featured the occasional supporting character undergoing some kind psychiatric counseling, which bored me senseless. And honestly . . . I realized I had no interest in Earth or any other planet re-creating the Federation with the Discovery crew's help. At this point, I had simply given up.
There were aspects of "STAR TREK: DISCOVERY" that pleased me. Michael Burnham proved to be a very complex leading character. She had eventually been promoted to captain. Despite my issues with Season Two, I found it entertaining. And I loved the Season One. In fact, it is one of my favorite television seasons in the TREK franchise. However, the showrunner's decision to send the U.S.S. Discovery some 900 years into the future led to some bland and sometimes implausible storytelling that prematurely ended my interest in the series. Pity.