It’s very difficult to describe the indescribable aspects of a TV series that make it “feel” like itself. That’s part of the reason that we use such a vague term as “feel” in the first place. But I’m going to give it my best effort.
First, I have to admit that on most of its bulletpoints, Star Trek: Discovery doesn’t match what a Star Trek series is “supposed” to be.
- It’s the first story that doesn’t revolve around the commander of their mission. Even the ‘09 film focused its plot around getting Kirk into the role of Captain, even though it made no sense (Don’t even get me started on him being promoted to Captain at the end of the film).
- Its lead character is a pariah who’s been forced out of Starfleet and is reviled by the rest of the crew for acts that we see. Even VOY had its convict as only a supporting character and had him “redeemed” in the pilot, and it infamously dropped the inter-personal conflicts that were supposed to arise from Starfleet/Maquis tension.
- Lastly, it’s the first Star Trek series to revolve directly around the Federation at War. Even DS9 – which spent it’s final two seasons featuring a five-sided conflict which spanned the Quadrant – spent five seasons building that up, and used the conflict to explore the social and political climate and events which permeated the galaxy before it ever got to the explosions.
However, despite all of these divergences from past productions, it still feels like Star Trek. Whatever “it” is, Discovery has it. Because…
- It has the Roddenberry Optimism that people try to say it’s missing, despite being more actionized than what came before. This was best encapsulated in the scene where Michael is exploring the Unidentified Object before everything goes to shit: She is in awe. She stares at the space around her, and the mysterious object before her, and all she wants to do is learn what it is. She wants to understand. She’s not hoping to get a reward or promotion or prize for being The First, her desire is knowledge for the sake of knowledge. That one scene held the very concept of Star Trek in a nutshell: She is, quite literally, boldly going to seek out a new civilization.
- Beyond that one scene, there was the introduction where she and Captain Georgiou were saving the aliens from extinction. They discussed the Prime Directive, the need to not contaminate the culture of the aliens they were helping, but their resulting decision wasn’t to just let them all die. They made the decision to help without being discovered so that the aliens could continue to develop on their own. As Kirk and Co. so often did in TOS, they remembered the point of the Prime Directive: To protect less-advanced species from us, not from natural phenomena beyond their control.
- Outside of any one specific scene, the show has also shown that it is not scared of the continuity and history of Star Trek. Throughout the first three episodes they include enough references to past continuity that you know the writers/directors/production designers/etc. have watched every bit of Trek media there is, and read the books, and played the games as well. And I don’t mean that they’ve proved that they’re “real” fans or anything shallow like that, I mean that they’re not ashamed to be a fan.
- For example, they reference the Black Fleet in the very first episode, a concept of the Klingon afterlife introduced in a TOS novel published in 1984 but which never made it on-screen. The context of the speech is self-explanatory enough that you don’t miss out on understanding this series if you haven’t read that novel – heck, I haven’t read that novel – but it helps enmesh the show into the greater community for those who do know all those tiny details. Like when Picard gushes over meeting Sarek and Spock, or when Sisko breaks the Temporal Prime Directive to shake Kirk’s hand, it says that the producers get it. They’re not defensively trying to say that they’re not like the nerd Trek that losers watch, they’re saying that they love the established universe just as much as the TNG-era loved TOS.
And yes, Michael is scarred by the death’s of her parents and has a very un-Federation hate for the Klingons, but that’s no different than Worf’s grudge against the Romulans (Speaking of, there are huge parallels between Michael and Worf. Enough for a whole other post). Or even Lieutenant Stiles from “Balance of Terror” and his grudge against the Romulans. Or even James Kirk himself, whose beef with the Klingons over the death of his son was a major theme of The Undiscovered Country.
Yes, Starfleet is engaging in a front-line war instead of resolving the situation diplomatically, but that’s no different than “Errand of Mercy”, the very first introduction of the Klingons, where war also broke out between the two powers. It’s no different than the ongoing border conflict the Federation had with the Cardassians, which ran for years and wasn’t completely resolved even with a treaty.
And yes, with the close of episode three we’re getting very strong “Captain Lorca is eeeeeeeviiiiiiillllllll” hints by the show, but Starfleet officials running unethical experiments has been a worn out concept from the very beginning.
All of the story developments that people decry as being unlike Star Trek have been there all along, from the original series to the TNG era. The idea of a Starfleet that always manages to avoid violence is an idealized Starrfleet that has never actually existed. And it’s not just a fan idealization, it’s an idealization in-universe as well. Seasons one and two of TNG had Picard constantly talking about how advanced they were, how they were ready to handle whatever was out there, but then when they came face-to-face with the Borg they were completely unprepared and had to fall back on violence when they had no viable means of communication or negotiation. Afterwards they began a fleet-wide armament and combat preparation as well when they saw that they weren’t as advanced as they thought they were.
Everything that we’re getting in this show is exactly what we’ve been getting all along: People who don’t want to fight, and who aren’t violent or bad people, but who are nonetheless human and carry the experiences of their lives with them, and who will use violence in their defense and the defense of their loved ones. Just like Captains James T. Kirk, Jean-Luc Picard, Benjamin Sisko, Kathryn Janeway, and god-help-me even Jonathan Archer.
Star Trek: Discovery is Star Trek.
