Jeremy Gallen's Streaming Reviews

Trekking Through the Past and Future

After the cancellation of Star Trek: Enterprise, the hallmark science-fiction franchise fell into limbo to the point where there would be no new series for over a decade, with director J.J. Abrams filling in the void with his "reboot" films occurring in an alternate universe, which were well-received and stirred rumors of spinoff series. However, longtime Trekkies yearned for the older days of their beloved series, with Star Trek ultimately falling out of Paramount's control, and CBS starting a new streaming channel, Star Trek: Discovery one of its launch shows, occurring in the original series continuity.

Discovery occurs a decade before The Original Series, although one wouldn't notice it by the vastly-superior technology, which has long been a problem in the long-running franchise as Enterprise demonstrated. The protagonist is Commander Michael Burnham (who is, by the way, female), whose actions incite a war between the United Federation of Planets and Klingon Empire, after which she's court-martialed and stripped of her ranks. However, she's ultimately assigned to the titular Discovery, powered by a Spore Drive, and whose crew deals with said war with the Klingons and an entity known as the Red Angel in the second season.

In the third season, Discovery is thrown into the 32nd century, when the Federation is fragmented, with the crew investigating a cataclysm known as the Burn, with the alliance being rebuilt, and the ship seeking a mysterious ancient power other dangerous groups are seeking. All in all, I enjoyed the series, with Michael being a great lead with links to Spock and his family, along with other excellent characters like the alien Saru, astromycologist (space fungi scientist) Paul Stamets, and his gay lover, the medical officer Hugh Culber. The series does go a bit heavy on DEI at times, with some gender-neutral characters, but was otherwise a great comeback for the Star Trek franchise.

Score Breakdown
The Good	The Bad
Great characters and cast. Superb effects and music. Some nice twists.	Typical Star Trek inconsistency with technology. Has its slow moments. Somewhat DEI-heavy at times.
The Bottom Line
A great return for Star Trek.