Star Trek: Discovery continues to make news in the wake of its Sunday premiere. Today we have details on possible connections to TOS, how Burnham will deal with events of the premiere, a new video all about Saru, a Trek vet grading Discovery science, more numbers for CBS All Access and for piracy too.
Goldsman: Don’t expect Spock to show up on Discovery
The premiere episode of Star Trek: Discovery established that the lead character Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) was a ward of Sarek, father of Spock. In a post-premiere interview with Variety, executive producer (and co-writer of the premiere episode of Discovery) Akiva Goldsman talks more about the Sarek/Burnham relationship:
The meat of that relationship, which is foster child to foster parent, is honestly one of the significant stories that we’re telling. As character stories go, it is one of the spines of the narrative. And like all parent-child relationships, evolving. I think that in [episodes] one and two we start to see that we’re going to be dealing with a period of external conflict and crisis, and how that motivates character decisions throughout the course of the show. It also creates intense strains-slash-enhancements in interpersonal relationships. How Sarek deals with his daughter is different in [episode] one than it is in two than it is in subsequent episodes. Burnham’s role has changed, so Sarek’s view of her continues to change.
When asked if we can expect to see Sarek’s son Spock show up on Discovery, Goldsman indicated that isn’t going to happen:
Right now we are really trying to be very gentle about any kind of direct intersection with what we would consider hero components of “TOS” [the original series]. It’s certainly mentioned, but it’s not explored.
Sarek delivers Michael to the USS Shenzhou in a flashback from the premiere of Star Trek: Discovery
Sonequa Martin-Green on Michael Burnham after the death of Capt. Georgiou
In an interview with W Magazine, Sonequa Martin-Green talks about how the death of Captain Georgiou will influence the arc of Michael Burnham throughout the first season:
“It’s the epitome of devastation,” Green said. “She’s not just my captain. She’s not just my mentor. She’s not just my teacher or my leader—she’s also my mother, in a sense.” Georgiou’s death will continue to inform Burnham’s development throughout the show’s first season: “That’s one of those turning points. That’s one of those catastrophic events, one of those mortifying events, that changes the course of your life, and it’s hard to remember who I am as a woman, as a first officer,” she said. “What you witness is an annihilating moment in my life.”
Speaking of Sonequa, CBS has published a gallery of photos of the actress from their relaunched WATCH! Magazine. The new photo shoot had the actress in a number of interesting outfits and includes various facts and trivia about her, including that she had never watched an entire episode of any Star Trek show until she was cast in Discovery.
Sonequa Martin-Green Stars from CBS WATCH! Magazine
Discovery drives CBS All Access downloads, and piracy
Yesterday we reported how Star Trek: Discovery had a strong debut on in terms of CBS Television ratings and record new subscribers for CBS All Access. Today Variety reports Discovery drove a 64% increase in app downloads for CBS All Access. The app saw 46,000 first time installs on Sunday alone (Apple and Google app stores combined). Those are big numbers for CBS All Access, but still dwarfed by the 171,000 new installs for HBO Go on the day the seventh season of Game of Thrones debuted.
But, not everyone is playing by the rules. It should come as no surprise that Star Trek: Discovery has already become one of the top pirated shows, based on rankings at Pirate Bay. It joins an esteemed list of pirated programs including Game of Thrones and Rick and Morty.
Trek vet grades Discovery science and tech(nobabble)
Longtime Star Trek writer and science adviser Andre Bormanis, who worked on The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine and Enterprise, gave his take to SyFy on the science of the Discovery premiere, giving it an “A-.” He was particularly impressed with how they handled the binary star and related terminology. Bormanis, who is currently working on The Orville, also saw continuity with his former job of creating tech talk for the show:
“They clearly have people who know what we lovingly call technobabble, people who know phase inducers and shield frequencies and all the rest of the terminology that was established specifically for the Star Trek Universe.”
Bormanis says Discovery got the science right
Saru: Lady Gaga with ‘threat ganglia’
The latest character video released by CBS focuses on the character of Saru, where cast and crew give us more details on the Kelpian, including Doug Jones explaining how there is a little Lady Gaga in Saru.
Star Trek: Discovery is available exclusive in the US on CBS All Access with new episodes released Sundays at 8:30 pm ET. In Canada Star Trek: Discovery airs on the Space Channel at the same time. Discovery is available on Netflix outside the USA and Canada with new episodes made available Monday at 8 am BST.
Keep up with all the Star Trek: Discovery news at TrekMovie.
SO glad there’s not gonna be any Spock in this. Sarek shouldn’t have been in it to begin with. I would’ve been happier with Frain as some rando Vulcan with a heart. Also Burnham’s Vulcan shirt is beyond tacky. How can you give the science of the show an A- when it barely covered any science at all? What about the science of holograms sitting in a room hundreds of light years away from where they’re broadcasting? Or the science of instantaneous katra-munication? I dunno if 46k is a success, but I guess it’s a promising start. It’s a far cry from 2 million though, good thing we have two years still.
There was a similar weird Vulcan connection between T’Pol and Trip in “Affliction,” where, despite being far apart on different ships, they communicated in a white space area.
That’s true and I didn’t have a problem with it then, maybe because it didn’t feel like a plot contrivance. I don’t like how quickly Sarek picked up the phone when Burnham called for advice; it’s like what, he was just standing there ready to talk? I think that scene made me averse to the idea that Sarek can be in her mind. Also the fact that like carrying a katra is a pretty big deal. See TSFS.
I guess she did use a diplomatic channel, so maybe it’s his direct line at work. :)
@matt. Yes agreed
She called her foster dad on his private line.
It was just intended to move the story along. You want to watch her twiddle her thumbs while the phone rings? Some nit-picks have validity but I’ve been hearing this one and think it’s uber nit-picking. Please give it a rest.
No, I won’t give it a rest! This is not super nitpicky. No I don’t want to watch her wait. But they could’ve edited that scene differently so it cut to her already talking with him. Then it wouldn’t have been a literal one second delay. Also I just like the idea of if they’re on the edge of Federation space, it should take some time for these messages to travel to and fro, just like in TOS and ENT. Now that opportunity is lost.
Due to the Katra connection, he might have sensed she was about to call him :)
Given she had to provide security clearance I’d suspect she dialed some sort of specific vip line that he’d pick up immediately. Maybe even knew it was her.
Well, she has been his ward for two decades so perhaps he felt her inclination to communicate before she picked up the phone.
…And he did specifically say a “piece” of his katra.
We have these things called cell phones in the 21st century, I wouldn’t imagine that 200 years later that people are harder to communicate with. I think that maybe you’re just nitpicking but that’s fine, it’s what us Trekkies are supposed to do.
And the way Spock sensed the death of the entire crew on the TOS episode. There is a lot of Vulcan mysticism that has yet to be explored. A few of the TOS Trek novels had a similar vulcan to vulcan connection – can’t remember the titles. It’s been years since I’ve read them.
Trek67, originally, back when TOS first came out, weren’t Vulcans supposed to be full-on telepathic? I honestly can’t remember.
There was ab ability to plant suggestions and it was a challenge to communicate through walls. Vulcans were never shown to have one on one telepathic conversations. This is something new they’ve attached to the “Katra” for convenience.
There is also The Omega Glory, where Spock was able ‘to suggest’ telepathically a girl to give him access to a communicator.
I had forgotten about that Trip and T’Pol part. Thanks for the reminder!
The 46K is just from iOS store, so just on Apple products. So that doesn’t include people who subscribed on a laptop, or via devices like Roku, Chromecast, Fire Stick, XBox and PS4.
Matt, Whew! Because I thought 46K sounded awfully low.
@Marja,
It’s very low considering that it from both Apple and Google app stores. Variety even made a point of comparing it to first-time installs for the 7th season of Game of Thrones which was over 171K.
CBS is saying that Discovery broke a new record for CBS All Access without revealing the actual numbers, and comparing it to a previous record by 2017 Grammy Awards which they haven’t revealed as well!
You have a real hate-on for DISC, ahmed. Anything chance to belittle, complain, put it down, or find something to complain about… you post about it. Aren’t you needed on the Orville sites and posts to praise it’s mediocrity and sing MacFarlane’s praises?
As soon as I saw the negativity I knew it was Ahmed without looking.
Drove record numbers for AA which is a small OTT service. Comparing it to GOT? Come on…
Streaming is a growth business. The huge numbers that watched is great. The growth will come over time. Or it won’t. But it’s hardly a negative at this point.
@Marja — 46K DOWNLOADS FOR JUST ONE DAY!!
How many Star Trek fans had already downloaded the app in preparation for signing up? I know I downloaded my CBS app months ago when the first trailers came out. There’s plenty of free content on the app without signing up, for someone to already have the app. That’s how I watched Stephen Colbert monologues, for instance, before I signed up for CBSAA.
OK that makes a LOT more sense. Yeah I thought that was total. If I was CBS I would really be panicking right now lol. Come to think of it, I don’t have AA on my phone either. I only subscribed to it through my laptop.
@MattR,
“The 46K is just from iOS store, so just on Apple products.”
Incorrect. As it’s clear from Variety report; the 46K figure from Apple and Google app stores combined.
Question is, how many cancelled after episode two aired? I did.
The first two words of Goldman’s statement were RIGHT NOW,
So I think that it is possible that we might see Spock down the road.
More than likely if it happens, it will be a couple of years from now, if ever.
He probably means this season as they have now filmed (and filming the finale now).
But yeah my guess is if the ratings (or whatever they call it for streaming) doesn’t get high as they like my guess is there will definitely be some stunt casting in season 2.
@Gary 8.5
It seems unlikely to me that Spock would show up. Doing that would be a stunt designed to get more subscribers. But I think that the fan boys who are going to subscribe have already subscribed. Such a move really wouldn’t help cbs. It would feel like a desperation move.
It’s because I adore Spock that I DON’T want to see him in Discovery. He’s too important to me to want to see him messed with by anyone else.
alb,
I agree; using Sarek seems cheesy on the level of using Khan in ST:ID.
@Marja
I agree. Unless there is some special story driven reason that the adoptive father MUST be Sarek then why use the Sarek character?
Using Khan in Into Darkness was a waste and they could have used any kind of replacement for the antagonist. And the movie would have been better served for it. Although it would have been harder to squeeze in the Nimoy cameo…
Marja, Kirok, definitely agree. Thus far, we have been shown no reason the Vulcan needs to be Sarek. And using Khan in STID was enough to make me never want to see that movie again. I hope they stick to their ‘leave the TOS crew alone’ statement.
It does give some insight to why Sarek would be reluctant to see Spock join Starfleet and also provide one reason for why Spock would.
It might. If Spock were younger than Burnham. From what I can tell it seems he is older and the Spock Sarek falling out happened before Burnham joined.
I believe Spock is younger than Michael.
I think Spock is younger than her and she joined Starfleet first (in a way, they are undermining Spock’s bold decision to choose Starfleet over vulcan, and rebel against his father’s expectations, a bit by making it seems he just copied his sister) so yeah, I have to reconcile with the fact that Sarek is a big hypocrite. He didn’t talk with his son for years just because he didn’t approve him being in starfleet, and yet he had already approved and supported his daughter making the same decision. No wonder why Spock was a mess with such a contradictory father.
Some might say that maybe Sarek disapproves Spock’s decision after seeing what starfleet does to Michael, but I don’t think this scenario works for a simple reason: Spock is already working with Pike aboard the enterprise here which means that when Sarek is being all supportive with Michael on her ship and giving her advices and such (before and after the accident) he’s not speaking to his son who is on another ship.
Sarek looks and acts much like Sarek
So it’s already way beyond Khan in STId
Agred. I’m actually happy there will be no Spock. We already have him in TOS and the Kelvin films. I’m not against an appearance of course I just don’t want them to rely on him like they are doing with Sarek, who I like so far but wasn’t needed.
And I don’t know but you had 10 million viewers for the show on CBS but less than 50 thousand downloads of the app? That doesn’t sound like a great start to me. Sure there will be people downloading in the coming weeks but you figure their biggest splash would be the night of the premiere but I don’t pretend how this all works.
I agree with your points. It really could (should) be another random Vulcan to help Michael. Besides, I thought the acting of Frain was a little dull and with too much “emotional slips”. If that was to be Sarek, he could or should have been more distant and logic than he was shown to be. It also made me desire that Frain could channel Mark Lenard’s tones and pauses, his way of talking and stressing the words. Frain was slightly too affected…
And that thing of holograms sitting and acting as if they were there didn’t get me either…
@Marcello
Yeah. Sarek leaning on things as a hologram as if he was in the same room was weird to me. Is he broadcasting in a room that is the exact duplicate of a room on some Federation Starship?
On another note, there was a Ready Room on the ship. Kirk never had one of those. I don’t recall Archer having one either. Constitution Class was the only one without that feature?
@Kirok
Unfortunately by the time of TOS they didn’t have money or didn’t even thought about having a ready room for Kirk… This came with TNG but now they like to have one in every ship.
@Marcelo
I’m aware of why there is one on TNG. But based on what they’ve shown us that is something that did not start on starships until after the TOS era. It seems out of place to put one on a ship that’s only 10 years before the Enterprise’s 5 year mission. If they needed something like that a briefing room would have fit with the timeline much better.
Its not unusual to have different ship designs. In that way, if the NX bridge was workable, why doesnt every bridge look the same?
@Marcelo — exactly. Kirk held meetings in his quarters, and used them as his office. More importantly, you got the feeling Kirk liked sitting on the bridge, rather than in his office waiting for something to happen. The layout of the Enterprise also made having a Ready Room just off the bridge physically impossible, with its one turbolift. Given that Kirk would have to leave the Bridge to go to his ready room via the turbolift, what difference does it make if he goes to his quarters to work, or one floor down? Who knows, maybe Kirk did have a ready room just one floor down, but preferred hanging out elsewhere on the ship? It’s ridiculous to impose limitations on a new feature that only makes sense, now that budgets can support it, based on what was done in the past.
Archer spent a ton of time in his ready room.
Yeah archer had one right?
@TheAdmiralAdbises
Did he? I don’t recall but then I haven’t seen the show for a while. Did he call it a ready room? Weird that I don’t remember thinking it out of place then. Oh well…. if he didn’t that makes the constitution class the oddballs of the fleet.
If archer didn’t have one then it’s not just constitution.
Very interesting character. My bet is Captain Lorca will become everyone’s favorite character.
Same, am really looking forward to him
I hope so too because I already miss Georgiou; I thought she had huge potential to be a Picard-esque true leader guided by strong moral principles, informed by a long and varied career and yet also a caring personality. I thought Michelle Yeoh was outstanding. I thought the scenes between Georgeou and Burnham were excellent. Gonna miss Georgiou…
I gotta stay off the boards until I see the episodes. Haven’t seen episode 2 yet and already there are huge spoilers out there. Jeez….
Oh boy, sorry – didn’t mean to spoil that one for you. Hope you can still enjoy it anyway.
It wasn’t you. I found out about it days ago. I have similar problems with GoT as I watch nearly a year after it’s shown on HBO. I plan on subscribing later this week so hopefully it won’t be a problem beyond episode 2.
It’s not a spoiler when the episode has already aired.
It is if you haven’t seen the show or movie yet.
No it just means you havent seen it. Its not a spoiler. A spoiler is information about something that is not published. No one has any obligation to hold back info on this site because YOU havent seen the show
No. A spoiler is information about something that pre knowledge of has the potential to ruin the enjoyment. When Beyond came out I saw it and I had some friends who hadn’t seen it yet tell me “no spoilers!” It was no longer a spiller for me. I saw it. But it was for someone who hadn’t seen it yet. I did not reveal anything out of common curtesy.
Hahahahaha ofcourse there is. It aired days ago!
Michelle is on imdb listings for every episode of season one, so there will be more of her.
@gingerly,
Did you see either of Jason Isaacs or Anthony Rapp in the first two episodes? Nope.
Guess what? They both are listed on IMDB for 15 episodes.
Rainn Wilson who plays Mudd is listed for 7 episodes, but the actor himself as well as the showrunners said that he is in just two episodes.
IMDB listings means nothing.
@Ahmed
Aww damn. :(
IMDB gets no advance information on shows and films. Those are just put there by members of the site and usually corrected after the show or film has aired.
46K from Apple’s App Store and Google Play. Now, that’s a big figure for sure!
Just as I thought. Whether or not we expect the USS Enterprise NCC-1701 to appear on a future episode of “Star Trek: Discovery” is unclear.
I wouldn’t mind seeing one of the other Connies. Exeter, Yorkdown, Constellation, even the USS Constitution herself.
If we do see a Connie, even if only from the outside, it will be interesting to see if it looks identical to the TOS version, or the movie version, or something different. It will be a clear indication of the producers intend for Discovery to be a visual reboot of TOS and/or the entire franchise.
My fondest fanboy wish is to see a Connie in Discovery. Not the Enterprise, but a different Connie. Someone pointed out that Gene Roddenberry said about the Klingon makeup in TMP, “they always looked like that, we just didn’t have the budget to show it.” I think the same could apply to all the design changes in Discovery – they always looked like that, we just didn’t have the technology to realize it fully. That would apply to the holograms, and the bridge windows, and even the costumes.
It’s going to be interesting if we see a Constitution class ship. I kinda hope we do.
In the official tie-in novel, set one year before The Vulcan Hello, it is revealed that the blue uniforms we see on DSC are the older style and the Cage uniforms are reserved for the newer Constitution class vessels only. Though obviously by the time of TOS, they have been phased in on star bases as well.
Seems like a weak justification, but at least it’s a justification. I can live with that.
I could see them switching uniforms during Discovery’s run. It changes thing visually and creates new merch to sell!
If the series has a season as a year, then if it went for 10 seasons, it would reach Kirk and crew on 5 year mission.
Of course, 10 seasons is probably unlikely. I am guessing it will go for at least 5 seasons amd may go as many as 7 like the other spin offs did.
Not necessarily because you are assuming every season will be a new year. I don’t think DS9 or Enterprise considered every season a new year but could be wrong on that.
Either way if they wanted to reach the 5 year mission they could simply do a time jump which has also been done in Trek but not common.
I get the strong impression they have some loose ideas to transition to TOS. They’ve admitted as much. So, I suspect the Enterprise shows up eventually.
Or, the series ends with the beginning of Kirk’s 5 year mission. Who knows. Maybe someone gets transferred to the Enterprise.
But TV is different now. If Discovery is successful, there is really no telling what might happen. Why would CBS scuttle a successful TV series to let Paramount make a movie?
Star Trek lends itself to going on forever. They can change ships, captains, eras, etc if they want to.
7 years became the thing because of many factors. Contracts with the leads, ratings beginning to flatten and the studio wanting to continue movies without the TOS crew. If I recall, they actually had options on the cast for an 8th season.
So Discovery could go on forever. Or be spun off as Fuller intended, into other eras.
One of the most pirated already? Well shit, nobody saw that coming CBS All Access! This is the problem when you expect people to pay monthly for a handful of episodes.
That’s not necessarily a bad thing. Netflix uses this data to their advantage.
Right. The question is, if they couldn’t pirate it would they have subscribed? Most probably wouldn’t have. So, you’re putting the show in front of people who otherwise wouldn’t have watched. It’s certainly more likely that someone who is watching in some way is more likely to spend money in the future than someone who doesn’t watch at all. Plus, it means there are more people talking about the show online or IRL, which is also good.
I think it’ll be interesting to see if her Captains keep getting killed off.
totally unrelated note: does anybody else wonder how this Saru guy did on the Kobayashi Maru test? I keep thinking his very nature would disqualify him from being an officer (y’know, clearly the ‘risk is our business’ credo doesn’t translate the same to his folk), but then again, I’ve only got 1/2 the first episode to go by.
He is a science officer. He wouldn’t take the Kobayashi Maru. Spock didn’t take it until Khan forced him to.
Spock was Captain of the Enterprise so it was pretty goofy that he never took it. The test should be for all cadets. Since there is no way to win it, its more of a psychological test than a real test.
Would be for the best if they just pretend the Kobiashi Maru doesn’t exist. Its a dumb concept from the get go. TNG did the idea a lot better but it still pushes the limits of believability.
I don’t see Saru getting a command if he’s going to turn tail and run at every dangerous encounter. Perhaps he’ll transfer to Starfleet’s Department of Risk Management. ;)
He didn’t run from the torchbearer ship…he just made sure they were at maximum safe distance to observe it. He was right about running from the Klingons, the Shenzou should have high-tailed it when those other cruisers showed up.
That test is really only used for people looking for command positions. That said, I read somewhere (probably this site) where Doug Jones said Saru and Burnham are actually in competition for being Captain so I don’t know.
He’s in the command structure. How could he possibly get there, let alone function properly there, based on what we’ve seen of his universeview? It’s hard enough to see it sometimes with early 1st season Spock, since he comes off kind of peacenik-y in ARENA and a few other times (not that there’s anything wrong with that!), but with this guy, it goes to the point of seeming utterly wrongheaded to have him there. It’s almost like the trap with early Troi’s “i feel danger” or whatever, only with a good actor instead of a bad one. And I don’t know that the acting quality will transcend the corner they seem (to me) to have painted themselves into with this character.
BTW, MEASURE OF A MAN screenwriter Melinda Snodgrass has a pretty good assessment (from where I stand) of DSC ep1 on her blog.
@Tiger2,
Saru is a Lieutenant Commander.
Its a bit goofy anyway. Kirk took it. But Spock never did? Spock was Captain of the Enterprise in WoK. So if you hate the test, you can just join science or engineering divisions before getting a command rank? Weird.
He galloped away as fast as his horse feet could carry him.
XD!!!!! LOLOL.
He’s an intriguing character. He must have command prowress. And he came up with that plan to blow up the Klingon ship so he can be aggressive
Yeah, culture isn’t personality.
Spock will not show up on Discovery. And if my grandmother had wheels, she’d be a wagon. I think we’ll see not only Spock, but the Enterprise with all its current folks. If Spock will drive ratings, he will be there. Whether it’s ZQ or not in the role is inconsequential. Remember the TNG writer’s guide and its ‘Klingon and Romulan stories’ are to be avoided? How’d that work out?
I think it will be interesting to see Lt. Commander Saru learning about courage in the face of adversity, and going from being the cowardly lion to a courageous Starfleet officer. I’m anxious to read STDISC Desperate Hours to learn how Saru came to be a lieutenant Commander on the Shenzou, and what important lessons Burnham learned from Georgio being her Captain/Mother for seven years.
I’d argue it took courage for a guy like Saru to join Starfleet in the first place. It’s okay to be cautious, I would say Picard is a lot more cautious with his ship than Sisko, Janeway or Kirk. It’s different styles and approaches.
Yeah. There’s a difference between careful and cowardly. We have to see more.
I’d argue that given his culture and biology Saru is probably the most brave officer we’ve ever seen on a Trek series. He’s breed to be prey and to sense death and yet he enlisted in an exploratory group that has many risks.
I am VERY keen to learn more about how this came to be.
Well duh it’s going to be pirated. The marketing ploys they’re using to push CBS All Access is asinine. And don’t forget, they actively admit that they sell your contact info to 3rd party telemarketers/spammers.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Season 2 airs on Netflix in the US, to be honest. CBS All access is never going to be a thing.
I would be surprised to see a season 2 on Netflix if Dsc doesn’t deliver and keep subscribers. Most likely CBS will pack Trek away for a while again. I believe that if cbs were interested in some other entity making episodic Star Trek they would have arranged for it some time ago. It’s not like they didn’t have suitors.
They said as much. But used it for their own needs. I doubt they’d decline to take money to keep Trek going even if they didn’t want it anymore.
How was stream by the way? You had said you couldn’t watch Netflix. Was AA better?
I never said I couldn’t watch Netflix. I have only seen the one episode that aired on TV Sunday. Haven’t seen episode two yet I’ll let you know how to stream is after I get it later this week.
You previously said that you did not watch Netflix because it was “unwatchable” due to buffering and streaming issues…
I never said any such thing.
Done here.
Hello. REspectfully, I can imagine this: “Star Trek: Discovery” would be picked up by The CW for season two in the event season one isn’t successful enough for CBS All Access. The CW did pick up “Supergirl” for season two after a “not successful enough” season one on the CBS network.
@DonDonP1 — It’s not that SUPERGIRL wasn’t sucessful enough, it’s that it was the wrong demographic. DISCOVERY isn’t the CW’s brand, and we wouldn’t want them to modify it so it was so. “STARFLEET ACADEMY” is more the CW’s speed. And I would actually enjoy such a show, but that’s not what they’re making at the moment. THE CW is not long for this Earth anyway … Once ATT takes over Warner Bros. you’re likely to see the dissolution of the CW, and CBS will move any content it was producing for it over to CBSAA and Netflix — where the Millennials and under 18 crowd will be streaming their content …
Hello. Respectfully, I doubt that the CW would cease to exist. “Why,” you ask? I do not see any news on that.
Sybok will be in it for sure. I feel the pain…
I think for sure they will not delve too much into TOS in the first season. However in future seasons, once the characters of Discovery are more fleshed out, I think it will be too tempting to ignore. The writers and producers are all fans and I think they will have some fun with it. That being said there are a limited number of episodes per season. Perhaps just go all out for one episode with TOS influence.
Still can’t rationalize that the country that originated Star Trek as being the only one that has to pay an additional fee to watch it above an beyond Netflix. Moot point, maybe, because I found a dozen HD streaming sources to choose from.
Moot point definitely. Yo Ho Ho and a bottle of rum…
Spock is featured prominently in the tie-in prequel novel, Desperate Hours.
If they are going to do TOS tie-ins, I prefer they do them this way. My imagination conjures up a perfect 60’s Nimoy Spock. Anything on screen isn’t going to come close.
Was Burnham actually living with Sarek and Amanda? It seems very unusual that Amanda would have had no influence on Michael if she was present in her life, and also strange that Amanda would just let Sarek convert Michael into a Vulcan mind so to speak. When Michael arrives on the Shenzhou, it’s like there was no human influences during her years with Sarek.
Agreed. No influence from Amanda? Kinda hard to buy into that, especially seeing how bad she wanted Spock to feel his human side. This little girl was 100% human. And, what’s with Sarek giving the “Live Long and Prosper” line in the transporter room, but without the hand sign?? And no proper response from Burnham when he gives her the line. Sloppy.
Again, you’re complaining about things that arent evident. They havent shown us what influence Amanda had, if any.
Its possible that Michael was damaged from her parents death and imprinted on Sarek…and wanted to be like him. We saw her suggest learning Vulcan “to answer faster” which was a lie on her part. She didnt fail because she couldnt answer quickly (the questions were in English anyway), but because she was damaged.
We can take her plea to learn Vulcan as a coping mechanism “maybe if I was Vulcan, I wouldnt feel this way”. Sarek says as much in his reply that the problem isnt her tongue, but her heart. So to cope with the tramua she embraces the Vulcan way of burying emotion.
Perhaps Amanda tries to help her deal with it in a human way and Michael rejects it. We simply dont know.
Perhaps part of the issue between Sarek and Spock was Spock respecting his mother and his human half while Michael, a full human, embraced the Vulcan side. ie. “Even your human sister is more Vulcan than you, Spock”.
And through her relationship with Philippa and being around other humans, Michael begins to let her guard down. We see Sarek “snap” at her when she greets him via hologram and she tersely replies that her emotion “informs” her logic, so she’s making an excuse for her emotions, that emotions are positive. Spock sort of does this too later on.
In this way, I feel like they didnt show us enough about Michael’s past influencing her. Philippa even says she always wondered if Michael’s Vulcan ways would come back to bite her. But her actions were not “logical”, they were purely emotional. So it was sort of weird. It only works if Michael confuses her emotions with logic..ie. she is so traumatized by the death of her parents that she wants revenge but shes convinced herself firing first is logical when it isnt.
But they didnt show us that. Even Sarek warns her about this…he flat out says something about being influenced by the dead. He clearly meant her actions were all about her parents’ deaths, not what was actually happening today.
The fact she ignored Sarek, ignored Philippa and tried to fire first…it never came across reasonable to me.
Amanda is supposed to show up in episode 9 or 10.