Star Trek: Discovery: ‘The Vulcan Hello’ Spoiler-Free Review
Star Trek is back in our televisions, and while there’s much to be excited about, let’s see if the series is everything we hoped and more.
Based on the series created by Gene Roddenberry, and created by Bryan Fuller, Star Trek Discovery is the first series in the Star Trek franchise that follows a continuity structure, meaning every episode leads to the next and so, unlike the original series.
The Vulcan Hello is the first episode of this series and, without revealing too much as this is a spoiler free review, presents us in an interesting way both the personality of our main characters and the story we’re going to follow through this season.
The episode could be called a slow burn, meaning it takes its time to build up the intensity of it. The reason for it is that, as the pilot, it needs to put some bases so we become invested in it. It takes is time to give us the excitement most were looking for, and is clear why some people might have found it unengaging, but, in my opinion, is this slow building what makes the series more investing. They don’t give you everything right away.
In The Vulcan Hello we are introduced to the starship USS Shenzhou and its crew, mainly the captain Phillipa Georgiou and the First Officer Michael Burnham. Although every member of the crew bridge is presented with a name and a glimpse of its personality, in reality, are these two characters the ones that are most developed.
In this episode, we get to see the dynamic between Captain and First Officer, much like in the original series, and in just 42 minutes we get to see that they trust each other. But that doesn’t mean that they won’t fight, as their personalities and pasts are vastly different.
One of the problems I see in this episode is that it doesn’t give the Klingons enough time to justify why they’re doing what they’re doing, only presenting them as “the bad guys” without a real reason why. But there is this resentment towards Starfleet from the main antagonist that glimpses at an interesting background story to be told.
When talking about visuals -cinematography, character design and visual effects-, this episode gives us some pretty dope ones. The sets and sceneries have life on their own, with colors that reflect their purpose and situation neatly.
We get nods and winks at the original series, with an… interesting cameo of one particular individual strongly related to the original series.
This first episode presents both themes and aspects that were characteristic in the previous series but with the addition of the visuals and action sequences from the reboots.
For those of you who have seen the series and considered this episode long and uninteresting, I recommend you to hold onto it, as the next episode remedies the mistakes in this episode of gives us more to makes us excited for this show.
