DVD Review: Star Trek Discovery -- Season One

Star Trek Discovery – Season One
[DVD Star]

Star Trek: Discovery is the latest addition to the Star Trek universe. Discovery is set approximately 10 years prior to Star Trek: The Original Series, so familiar names and characters are sprinkled throughout this new series even as we meet new crew members, officers, and aliens of the USS Shenzhou, the USS Discovery, Star Fleet, and the worlds of Star Trek in general.

Sonequa Martin-Green stars as Commander Michael Burnham who is one of the major characters. She’ll be familiar to those who follow “The Good Wife” and “The Walking Dead” and she does a terrific job as a human girl who was raised on Vulcan by Sarek and his wife, Amanda, alongside her foster brother Spock.

Doug Jones portrays Commander Saru, a Kelpian from the planet Kaminar. His species is a prey-species and all Kelpians are aware of when death or danger is imminent. His fellow crew mates keep an eye on him during times of action and danger. Many people might know of Jones as the Creature in The Shape of Water and as Abe Sapien in the two Hellboy films starring Ron Perlman. He’s spent his career as a contortionist, portraying creatures while in full costume. He brings Saru to life even under all the prosthetics and is one of my favorite characters.

Jason Isaacs, as Capt Gabriel Lorca of the USS Discovery, is familiar to film-goers as Lucius Malfoy (Draco’s father) in the Harry Potter films. He brings an intensity to his mysterious character.

Michelle Yeoh is delicious as Philippa Georgiou of the USS Shenzhou. To tell you any more would spoil so many story lines. Yeoh demonstrates high level acting chops here.

We eventually meet Capt Christopher Pike of the USS Enterprise, and Spock (sorry, but that’s in season two) but to longtime Trek fans we are able to slip right back into the world of the Federation, Klingons, Vulcans, Andorians, Tellarites, and others. Even Tribbles and Harry Mudd show up.

Make no mistake though, this is not a big reunion of favorite characters just for the fun of it. The storylines are engrossing and exciting, yet keep to the timeline and canon. The special effects folks do the impossible job of giving us fresh ships and technology that allegedly pre-dates The Original Series yet recognizes that in our Real Time the effects can do so much more now.

The theme song is definitely Star Trek yet distinct enough to stand on its own for a different series.

Each episode tells its own story, but there’s an over-riding arc of another storyline throughout the entire 15 episodes of season one. The first two episodes were busy introducing you to the characters, so if you aren’t sure yet about this series, wait until the end of episode three before making up your mind. I’ve heard it said that you will either love this series or hate it. I love it, and am impressed with all that the writers, actors, and special effects crew have accomplished.

Be sure to watch all the bonus features of cast interviews, behind-the-scenes information, and deleted scenes.

Currently seasons one and two are available on CBS All Access – a subscription streaming service of CBS, with season three in the works for 2020. While the second season (2019) has ended, only season one is out on DVD at this time.

[Some novels based on Star Trek Discovery are also available in traditional print format or as digital ebooks.]

[ Internet Movie Database entry for this series ] | [ official Star Trek Discovery web site ]

Recommended by Charlotte M.
Bennett Martin Public Library

Have you watched this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewer’s recommendations!