Star Trek: Discovery is back with another episode, Context is for Kings, and everything and everyone is quite different than the last time we saw them.

The action and fast pace take no time to start, at the three-minute mark we have suspense and uncertainty, but it doesn’t last for long, as just moments later the pace slows down a little but not enough to bore us, more like to keep us engaged on what’s going on.

Although this episode serves as the introduction to new characters, the USS Discovery and its crew, this episode doesn’t suffer the same mistakes the first episode did, as from the first moment we enter the Discovery, we get the feeling that we’re on a starship like none other we’ve seen before.

Jason Isaacs’ character, Captain Gabriel Lorca, is a man whose true, real intentions towards what’s going on, and Michael, remain unclear. Maybe that’s the point of the character, his vagueness in what he really wants, to build up the mystery, but he’s not the only one.

Every single character in the USS Discovery, apart from Michael, seems to have a personal agenda that doesn’t necessarily goes with everyone else’s,  like Lieutenant Stamets or Cadet Tilly, and it’s probably because, through the season, we will discover what’s really going on in the Discovery.

The mystery is a good thing, but in here, sometimes feels unnecessary, like even the ship is a secret on itself, and one may think that is too much and could turn into a problem that will carry on more trouble than it should.

In the end, however, some of the “mysteries” are explained, but nothing in comparison to the ones that were left “unsolved” or introduced later on for the upcoming episodes to dwell on.

The soundtrack of this episode gives us a vibe more in the tune of TAS (the alternate series, the movie reboot) than TOS (the original series) as it sounds remarkably similar to J.J. Abrams’ films.

This episode is the one where is clearer than ever that the  vibe, tone, and atmosphere presented in Discovery resembles more the one presented in TAS than the one presented in TOS, and  I think that’s why people are having conflicted emotions towards Star Trek: Discovery, at least that’s what’s happening with me.

The fact is that, although it occurs in the same timeline as TOS, it gives us more action and preference towards special effects than actually give us what Star Trek represents and means.

I’m not saying it’s bad, I’m saying it’s a Star Trek show that doesn’t feel like a Star Trek show, no matter how well it’s done.

[Spoiler: When Michael talked about how her adoptive mother on Vulcan read her stories of Lewis Carroll along with her son, and her name was Amanda, was one of the best moments in the episode, in my opinion, due to its connection with Spock and TOS. End of Spoiler.]

Published by María Garduño

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