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Going forward, going back
Since because of SNW, I have Paramount + these days, I've done some Discovery rewatching. Now one reason why I've mostly stuck to my journal here with my Discovery discussion and enthusiasm - and by now, I think it has advanced to one my favourite Trek incarnations of all times, so there's a lot of enthusiasm to go around - is that whenever I try to check on what other people might have to say, I seem to run into extremes I can't agree with.
Not just the obvious extreme - i.e. those people who play gatekeepers and declare the entire show as "not real Star Trek" -, but people who like one part of it but not the other. So far, I've spotted:
- viewers who like the first and second season but not the third and fourth (mostly because of the changed setting, the characters left behind and the changing characterisation)
- viewers who like the second season only (because Pike; these are prone to be close to the "not real Star Trek" crowd, and if I didn't happen to like Pike myself, it would have put me off watching SNW altogether, much as the praise of "The Orville" as "REAL Star Trek" during Discovery's first season ensured I haven't watched a single Orville episode to this day
- viewers who like the first season only, because they don't like Pike and resent the presence of Spock in it, but can't cope with the change in era due to the different setting of s3 and s4
- viewers who like the first and the thirtythird century seasons, but not the second, because Pike and Spock, see above
Meanwhile, I'm standing there thinking "I like every season, I love how the show keeps reinventing itself while staying true to the core Trekian ideas, how the characters develop, I don't agree with every plot and character decision, but I think Discovery is the most ambitous Star Trek in terms of going boldly beyond where all the others went before of any Trek show since DS9, and not just chronology wise, understanding that this doesn't mean darker, which is why all the "grimdark" accusations (usually by people who haven't watched beyond the first few eps of s1) aren't true.
Going back to s1 with all this (and the future seasons of the show) in mind, here are some rewatch thoughts:
- Generally, what does and doesn't work for me now as a dedicated viewer is pretty similar to what did and didn't work for me back in the day when the show was entirely new to me - for example, the Klingon redesigned makeup is still weird and inhibits any of the actors playing Klingons to do more than spit out their lines stiffly, with the exception of Mary Chieffo as L'Rell who does a lot with her eyes throughout and by the time the first season ends has gotten the hang of how to cope with all this stuff on her face while still providing character. Otoh, I thought then and think now that the big season storyline with its twists and turns is really well executed. Also, while it's true we don't get to know more than their names about the bridge crew (with the exception of Saru) in s1, it's not true that that we don't get to much about the Discovery crew and the series ensemble (there's a difference) - s1 like all four seasons is Michael-centric, but it it also introduces and fleshes out: Saru, Tilly, Paul Stamets, Hugh Culber of the regulars who would stay on the show, (Mirror) Captain Lorca as the man who turns out to be the season's other primary antagonist, L'Rell and Voq/Tyler (depending on whether you count Voq/Tyler as one or two characters) as the characters making the Klingons, the season's first primary antagonists, into individuals, Katrina Cornwell inaugurating a welcome new tradition of sympathetic Starfleet Admirals who don't show up as a plot obstacle, and of course the two versions of Philippa Geourgiou. Not to mention we get memorable guest star turns and new versions of legendary Trek characters: Sarek, Amanda and Harry Mudd. (I would argue that Amanda in the first two seasons of Discovery and in the second season of SNW is the first time on screen since her original introduction in Journey to Babel that the character has been used in more than cameos and coming across three dimensionally as her own person instead of being there to provide Spock with angst.)
- S1 of Disco as opposed to the MCU Secret Invasion is actually a season who uses the spy/undercover tropes effectively, meaningful and well; the question "who are we in a dark time?" is asked throughout the season (of Michael, but also of Starfleet in general), but whereas when DS9 did this in the Dominion War, at a time where showing the darker side of the Federation was new, the external years were those of the mostly peaceful and optimistic 1990s, now the question is asked in a very dark Doylist time, and so the season replying that yes, you can stand by your ethics and ideals even in a time when extinction may threaten, and no, "someone has to get their hands dirty" is not a good answer, was what made me connect to show emotionally then and now the way I did
- seriously, though, about the spy tropes in this season: we get three major ones and some minor ones. The Voq = Tyler one was the one guessed by a sizable part of fandom. I didn't think of it on my own, but the moment I read the theory, it made sense, since Voq after having been treated as important in three episodes suddenly disappeared right after L'Rell had told him he'd have to give everything for the plan of how to win the war and convince the other houses, and Tyler's backstory as told to Lorca (the claim that he'd been L'Rell's prisoner since the battle of the Binary Stars seven months ago when we had seen L'Rell and Voq stuck on the Ship of the Dead only an episode and four weeks in show time earlier) did not make sense and/or was blatantly false). The "Lorca is from the Mirrorverse!" twist, otoh, I didn't believe the first time I saw it, and only came around to once the show went to the Mirrorverse, i.e. shortly before the reveal, but in retrospect, it was, like the best Agatha Christie murders, fairly prepared. By which I don't mean the newly invented light sensibility of Mirrorverse characters. Lorca twice, in his introduction episode and much later, just before they jump to the Mirrorverse, makes the "you're a ship of scientists, I need a ship of warriors" /"You were a ship of scientists, you've become a ship of warriors" statement, and putting down science, even in war time, is not something a "good" Starfleet Captain ever does; he's pursuing an "end justifies the means" policy as shown by his original security chief, and the way she denigrates and insults the prisoners also is not something that would or should happen on a regular Starfleet vessel (for comparison: Odo, Worf et al may have a low opinion of criminals, but other than Odo to Quark, which is its own special thing, you don't see them insulting them upon arrival before they have done anything), Lorca is sleeping with a weapon under his pillow (and the great thing is that the audience long with Katrina Cornwell plausibly sees this as PTSD at the time, but it is of course standard for the Mirrorverse), he's familiar with torture (this isn't the 1960s anymore, and so I think any trek post Picard's time in Chain of Command wouldn't have indulged into "the Captain is somehow immune to torture" trope, but it makes sense for a man grown up in the Mirrorverse to have a greater pain threshhold, whereas not to much for Gabriel Lorca Prime who as far as we know wasn't ever someone's prisoner to be tortured before), and he's repeatedly shown to be great at manipulation (including with people who don't personally like him, like Stamets) in order to achieve his goals. Not to mention that in retrospect, if you check his individual actions, all Lorca does really is dedicated to get Discovery to the point where he's able to return to the Mirrorverse with this ship, and with Michael personally loyal to him.
- the third big use of spy story tropes is in the Mirrorverse, when Our Heroes have to play their evil alter egos (except for Lorca), and here the show also delivers on the fun part of said tropes (Tilly as Killy) along with the "Becoming the Mask?!?" trope, as Michael is afraid she might do this in terms of impersonating her Mirrorself but is unprepared for the true emotional twist of finding Mirroverse Georgiou alive and well; incidentally, the way Michael and Mirrorverse Philippa Georgiou start by projecting each other's alter egos on each other and bond because of that, but then more and more start to relate to each other in a different way than to their alter agos until when they part in mid s3, their emotional connection to each other is very firm and very much is own thing is a masterful example of how to do this with variants
- but what makes all this and the use of the Mirrorverse (which in its later DS9 eps was pure camp without any frightening "there but for a way not taken go I" chills) so great is as mentioned the intimate connection to the season long "who am I, in the dark?" question; later season Michael and friends would not have been disturbed in the same way, but the Klingon War along with having spent the season with a Captain who lives the "end justifies the means" conviction really makes ia challenge
- the way the season starts and ends with a mutiny for exactly opposite reasons and with opposite effects is something which frustratingly you only see the first part referenced, when the second is instrumental to the overall story; in the pilot two parter you have Michael going against Georgiou Prime re: shooting at the Klingons first in her convinction that only this will save both Captain and ship, no one joins her even before Philippa shows up, and this is when the Federation is in a good state and there hasn't been a war in a century; Michael's actions don't help anyone and ensure she's seen as the cause/trigger of the war instead, and but for Lorca would have ended her life in Starfleet and in freedom - whereas in the season finale you have Michael going against the (Mirror)Georgiou-suggested genocidal solution to the Klingon War which Starfleet Command has become desperate enough to accept, but doing so in the open, not behind anyone's back, arguing with Katrina Cornwell that this is not who they are (and that she was wrong back in the pilot, btw, that's another thing overlooked when I read/hear references to Michael Burnham), the entire bridge crew joins her, and she's able to sway Cornwell to try another solution. In short, it's the anti "24" - plot, where the main character didn't grow by becoming more and more ruthless and sacrificing their morals for the greater good, by presenting the exact opposite and rewarding it narratively. Again, not unprepared but very much prepared through the season. We get Michael when she thinks Lorca wants her on his team because he's after illegal experiments with bio weapons refusing as early as episode 3 (thereby establishing her actions in the pilot don't mean she's a hawk per se, just that she was desperate and triggered and doing the wrong thing in these particular circumstances), we get Michael noticing the Tardigrade is suffering and arguing against it, whe get Stamets (introduced as a snarky jerk) showing his own ethics by coming up with an alternate solution rather than torment the Tardigrade, we get Katrina Cornwell taking the risk of going to the Klingons in an attempt to broker peace, later we see her help Tyler through a mental breakdown while imprisoned and in pain herself, we also saw her establishing mutual respect across the lines with L'Rell, and we've seen Michael and friends in the Mirrorverse choosing to do the compassionate thing over the expedient thing when the pressure and temptation to act otherwise were very strong, we've also seen Michael using her meeting with MirrorVoq to try and understand how to negotiat with Klingons and achieve an alliance instead of war. In short, all this prepares us for believing that yes, these are people who would rather than commit genocide take the incredible risk of making a leap of faith and reaching their enemy to end the war. (And btw, thus they are better than humanity is now and has been - since one ST element is the belief we can be better. Not perfect: better than we've been so far.)
- re: the question on whether giving Michael a backstory with Trek's most famous Vulcan-Human family was right or wrong; while I think Michael's backstory would have worked for her if these had been new characters who adopted her after her biological parents (supposedly) died, I also think it added something to Amanda (see above), Sarek and Spock that it was them; of course I'm influenced by liking complicated, messy family relationships, which all the scenes with Michael and Sarek in s1, Michael and Spock in s2, and Michael and Amanda in both seasons give me.
- re: Michael as a Mary Sue: no more than any other capable main ST character, and the season lets her be wrong as well as right (not just with the attempted mutiny in the pilot; she's also not immune to Lorca's manipulations, telling him she's glad to serve with such a Captain by episode 6, and Tilly has to draw her out of her self imposed guilty emotional withdrawal early in the show with a lot of effort; there's also her emotionally understandable but factually wrong decision of not reporting Tyler's blackouts and issues because he begs her and swears he'll tell her if it happens again)
- the big one for initial viewers: killing sympathetic Georgiou off at the end of the pilot and replacing her by charismatic yet ruthless Lorca in the third episode as the Captain character. Without knowing where this is going, I can totally understand the complaints at the time, but in retrospect, it couldn't have been done any other way. We the audience had to see enough of Georgiou to understand why Michael and Saru are mourning for her through the season, why their shared grief both divides and bonds them, and why Michael will react to Mirrorverse Georgiou the way she does, so the show couldn't have started with Lorca and Discovery already. And of course Lorca as the hidden seasonal villain (as opposed to the Klingons as the open villains for the season) had to be introduced in a way that was ambigous, making it on the one hand understandable why Michael eventually signs up and for the larger part of the season trusts him but on the other hand laying the groundworks for the reveal. Which we get in time enough for seeing the emotional effect on Michael and the Discovery crew, instead of it being brushed aside, ahem, Secret Invasion.
And now I'm off to watch the SNW s2 finale. And then more Discovery.
Not just the obvious extreme - i.e. those people who play gatekeepers and declare the entire show as "not real Star Trek" -, but people who like one part of it but not the other. So far, I've spotted:
- viewers who like the first and second season but not the third and fourth (mostly because of the changed setting, the characters left behind and the changing characterisation)
- viewers who like the second season only (because Pike; these are prone to be close to the "not real Star Trek" crowd, and if I didn't happen to like Pike myself, it would have put me off watching SNW altogether, much as the praise of "The Orville" as "REAL Star Trek" during Discovery's first season ensured I haven't watched a single Orville episode to this day
- viewers who like the first season only, because they don't like Pike and resent the presence of Spock in it, but can't cope with the change in era due to the different setting of s3 and s4
- viewers who like the first and the thirtythird century seasons, but not the second, because Pike and Spock, see above
Meanwhile, I'm standing there thinking "I like every season, I love how the show keeps reinventing itself while staying true to the core Trekian ideas, how the characters develop, I don't agree with every plot and character decision, but I think Discovery is the most ambitous Star Trek in terms of going boldly beyond where all the others went before of any Trek show since DS9, and not just chronology wise, understanding that this doesn't mean darker, which is why all the "grimdark" accusations (usually by people who haven't watched beyond the first few eps of s1) aren't true.
Going back to s1 with all this (and the future seasons of the show) in mind, here are some rewatch thoughts:
- Generally, what does and doesn't work for me now as a dedicated viewer is pretty similar to what did and didn't work for me back in the day when the show was entirely new to me - for example, the Klingon redesigned makeup is still weird and inhibits any of the actors playing Klingons to do more than spit out their lines stiffly, with the exception of Mary Chieffo as L'Rell who does a lot with her eyes throughout and by the time the first season ends has gotten the hang of how to cope with all this stuff on her face while still providing character. Otoh, I thought then and think now that the big season storyline with its twists and turns is really well executed. Also, while it's true we don't get to know more than their names about the bridge crew (with the exception of Saru) in s1, it's not true that that we don't get to much about the Discovery crew and the series ensemble (there's a difference) - s1 like all four seasons is Michael-centric, but it it also introduces and fleshes out: Saru, Tilly, Paul Stamets, Hugh Culber of the regulars who would stay on the show, (Mirror) Captain Lorca as the man who turns out to be the season's other primary antagonist, L'Rell and Voq/Tyler (depending on whether you count Voq/Tyler as one or two characters) as the characters making the Klingons, the season's first primary antagonists, into individuals, Katrina Cornwell inaugurating a welcome new tradition of sympathetic Starfleet Admirals who don't show up as a plot obstacle, and of course the two versions of Philippa Geourgiou. Not to mention we get memorable guest star turns and new versions of legendary Trek characters: Sarek, Amanda and Harry Mudd. (I would argue that Amanda in the first two seasons of Discovery and in the second season of SNW is the first time on screen since her original introduction in Journey to Babel that the character has been used in more than cameos and coming across three dimensionally as her own person instead of being there to provide Spock with angst.)
- S1 of Disco as opposed to the MCU Secret Invasion is actually a season who uses the spy/undercover tropes effectively, meaningful and well; the question "who are we in a dark time?" is asked throughout the season (of Michael, but also of Starfleet in general), but whereas when DS9 did this in the Dominion War, at a time where showing the darker side of the Federation was new, the external years were those of the mostly peaceful and optimistic 1990s, now the question is asked in a very dark Doylist time, and so the season replying that yes, you can stand by your ethics and ideals even in a time when extinction may threaten, and no, "someone has to get their hands dirty" is not a good answer, was what made me connect to show emotionally then and now the way I did
- seriously, though, about the spy tropes in this season: we get three major ones and some minor ones. The Voq = Tyler one was the one guessed by a sizable part of fandom. I didn't think of it on my own, but the moment I read the theory, it made sense, since Voq after having been treated as important in three episodes suddenly disappeared right after L'Rell had told him he'd have to give everything for the plan of how to win the war and convince the other houses, and Tyler's backstory as told to Lorca (the claim that he'd been L'Rell's prisoner since the battle of the Binary Stars seven months ago when we had seen L'Rell and Voq stuck on the Ship of the Dead only an episode and four weeks in show time earlier) did not make sense and/or was blatantly false). The "Lorca is from the Mirrorverse!" twist, otoh, I didn't believe the first time I saw it, and only came around to once the show went to the Mirrorverse, i.e. shortly before the reveal, but in retrospect, it was, like the best Agatha Christie murders, fairly prepared. By which I don't mean the newly invented light sensibility of Mirrorverse characters. Lorca twice, in his introduction episode and much later, just before they jump to the Mirrorverse, makes the "you're a ship of scientists, I need a ship of warriors" /"You were a ship of scientists, you've become a ship of warriors" statement, and putting down science, even in war time, is not something a "good" Starfleet Captain ever does; he's pursuing an "end justifies the means" policy as shown by his original security chief, and the way she denigrates and insults the prisoners also is not something that would or should happen on a regular Starfleet vessel (for comparison: Odo, Worf et al may have a low opinion of criminals, but other than Odo to Quark, which is its own special thing, you don't see them insulting them upon arrival before they have done anything), Lorca is sleeping with a weapon under his pillow (and the great thing is that the audience long with Katrina Cornwell plausibly sees this as PTSD at the time, but it is of course standard for the Mirrorverse), he's familiar with torture (this isn't the 1960s anymore, and so I think any trek post Picard's time in Chain of Command wouldn't have indulged into "the Captain is somehow immune to torture" trope, but it makes sense for a man grown up in the Mirrorverse to have a greater pain threshhold, whereas not to much for Gabriel Lorca Prime who as far as we know wasn't ever someone's prisoner to be tortured before), and he's repeatedly shown to be great at manipulation (including with people who don't personally like him, like Stamets) in order to achieve his goals. Not to mention that in retrospect, if you check his individual actions, all Lorca does really is dedicated to get Discovery to the point where he's able to return to the Mirrorverse with this ship, and with Michael personally loyal to him.
- the third big use of spy story tropes is in the Mirrorverse, when Our Heroes have to play their evil alter egos (except for Lorca), and here the show also delivers on the fun part of said tropes (Tilly as Killy) along with the "Becoming the Mask?!?" trope, as Michael is afraid she might do this in terms of impersonating her Mirrorself but is unprepared for the true emotional twist of finding Mirroverse Georgiou alive and well; incidentally, the way Michael and Mirrorverse Philippa Georgiou start by projecting each other's alter egos on each other and bond because of that, but then more and more start to relate to each other in a different way than to their alter agos until when they part in mid s3, their emotional connection to each other is very firm and very much is own thing is a masterful example of how to do this with variants
- but what makes all this and the use of the Mirrorverse (which in its later DS9 eps was pure camp without any frightening "there but for a way not taken go I" chills) so great is as mentioned the intimate connection to the season long "who am I, in the dark?" question; later season Michael and friends would not have been disturbed in the same way, but the Klingon War along with having spent the season with a Captain who lives the "end justifies the means" conviction really makes ia challenge
- the way the season starts and ends with a mutiny for exactly opposite reasons and with opposite effects is something which frustratingly you only see the first part referenced, when the second is instrumental to the overall story; in the pilot two parter you have Michael going against Georgiou Prime re: shooting at the Klingons first in her convinction that only this will save both Captain and ship, no one joins her even before Philippa shows up, and this is when the Federation is in a good state and there hasn't been a war in a century; Michael's actions don't help anyone and ensure she's seen as the cause/trigger of the war instead, and but for Lorca would have ended her life in Starfleet and in freedom - whereas in the season finale you have Michael going against the (Mirror)Georgiou-suggested genocidal solution to the Klingon War which Starfleet Command has become desperate enough to accept, but doing so in the open, not behind anyone's back, arguing with Katrina Cornwell that this is not who they are (and that she was wrong back in the pilot, btw, that's another thing overlooked when I read/hear references to Michael Burnham), the entire bridge crew joins her, and she's able to sway Cornwell to try another solution. In short, it's the anti "24" - plot, where the main character didn't grow by becoming more and more ruthless and sacrificing their morals for the greater good, by presenting the exact opposite and rewarding it narratively. Again, not unprepared but very much prepared through the season. We get Michael when she thinks Lorca wants her on his team because he's after illegal experiments with bio weapons refusing as early as episode 3 (thereby establishing her actions in the pilot don't mean she's a hawk per se, just that she was desperate and triggered and doing the wrong thing in these particular circumstances), we get Michael noticing the Tardigrade is suffering and arguing against it, whe get Stamets (introduced as a snarky jerk) showing his own ethics by coming up with an alternate solution rather than torment the Tardigrade, we get Katrina Cornwell taking the risk of going to the Klingons in an attempt to broker peace, later we see her help Tyler through a mental breakdown while imprisoned and in pain herself, we also saw her establishing mutual respect across the lines with L'Rell, and we've seen Michael and friends in the Mirrorverse choosing to do the compassionate thing over the expedient thing when the pressure and temptation to act otherwise were very strong, we've also seen Michael using her meeting with MirrorVoq to try and understand how to negotiat with Klingons and achieve an alliance instead of war. In short, all this prepares us for believing that yes, these are people who would rather than commit genocide take the incredible risk of making a leap of faith and reaching their enemy to end the war. (And btw, thus they are better than humanity is now and has been - since one ST element is the belief we can be better. Not perfect: better than we've been so far.)
- re: the question on whether giving Michael a backstory with Trek's most famous Vulcan-Human family was right or wrong; while I think Michael's backstory would have worked for her if these had been new characters who adopted her after her biological parents (supposedly) died, I also think it added something to Amanda (see above), Sarek and Spock that it was them; of course I'm influenced by liking complicated, messy family relationships, which all the scenes with Michael and Sarek in s1, Michael and Spock in s2, and Michael and Amanda in both seasons give me.
- re: Michael as a Mary Sue: no more than any other capable main ST character, and the season lets her be wrong as well as right (not just with the attempted mutiny in the pilot; she's also not immune to Lorca's manipulations, telling him she's glad to serve with such a Captain by episode 6, and Tilly has to draw her out of her self imposed guilty emotional withdrawal early in the show with a lot of effort; there's also her emotionally understandable but factually wrong decision of not reporting Tyler's blackouts and issues because he begs her and swears he'll tell her if it happens again)
- the big one for initial viewers: killing sympathetic Georgiou off at the end of the pilot and replacing her by charismatic yet ruthless Lorca in the third episode as the Captain character. Without knowing where this is going, I can totally understand the complaints at the time, but in retrospect, it couldn't have been done any other way. We the audience had to see enough of Georgiou to understand why Michael and Saru are mourning for her through the season, why their shared grief both divides and bonds them, and why Michael will react to Mirrorverse Georgiou the way she does, so the show couldn't have started with Lorca and Discovery already. And of course Lorca as the hidden seasonal villain (as opposed to the Klingons as the open villains for the season) had to be introduced in a way that was ambigous, making it on the one hand understandable why Michael eventually signs up and for the larger part of the season trusts him but on the other hand laying the groundworks for the reveal. Which we get in time enough for seeing the emotional effect on Michael and the Discovery crew, instead of it being brushed aside, ahem, Secret Invasion.
And now I'm off to watch the SNW s2 finale. And then more Discovery.