Where's my universal translator?

I hope I'm wrong but I think I'm going to have a love/hate relationship with Star Trek: Discovery, that is to say that I'm going to love to hate this series, or at the very least the episodes were the Klingons make an appearance. 

Once my favorite race within the Star Trek universe, the Klingons of Discovery are quickly causing me sore eyes and lots of frustration - all thanks to what I view as the unnecessary use of subtitles by the shows production team.

We get it, they speak a different language!

As a person with a visual disability I find it more then a little aggravating to have to consistently hit the pause button on my P.V.R in order to read a dialogue that is undoubtedly important to the story-arc this series is pursuing.  

Within the Trek of old we did not necessarily assume that each species spoke the universal tongue of English - that's why the universal translator was invented! 

With this series set roughly ten years before the events of Star Trek: The Original Series there really is no excuse for the subtitles other then to annoy both the fans and the actors who have to learn these lines.

In short if I wanted to read good science-fiction then I'd pick up a copy of Ender's Game, DUNE, Neuromancer or any one of the other true classics out there.  If I'm watching Star Trek it's because I want to be somewhat mindlessly entertained by the moving pictures as opposed to having to concentrate on the text at the bottom of the screen.

Am I alone here, where do you stand on the subject of subtitles in Star Trek: Discovery?

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Is the USS Discovery controlled by section thirty-one?

I've always felt like Section thirty-one is highly under utilized in the Star Trek Universe, but maybe that's about to change.

This past Sunday was make or break day for me with Star Trek: Discovery, having watched the series premiere I was left feeling a sense of hopelessness and concern with the direction this new series was taking. Last week I blogged that this was not the Star Trek of my youth, and at the time that seemed like a negative, but not so much anymore because context is for kings!

From the Battlestar Galactica reboot to Babylon 5, I've always enjoyed my science fiction a little on the dark side, maybe that's why Star Trek appealed to me because it was a shining light at the end of a very dark tunnel. This would also help to explain my initial reaction to this much darker take on the universe that Gene Roddenberry created.

However with the introduction of the Discovery and Captain Lorca, my outlook began to change, because Jason Issacs is a master at portraying dark and evil characters - and make no mistake about it the character of Lorca screams section thirty-one! 

Michael Burnham was on her way to a Federation penal colony to serve a life sentence for her actions aboard the USS Shenzhau, however her shuttle was intercepted by the Discovery because Lorca had need of her expertise. Burnham was once again assisting with what can only be assumed to be top secret research, and taking part in an away mission to recover critical data to that research.

Once the away mission had concluded Burnham was offered the opportunity to remain on Discovery by Lorca, who then sent the shuttle and its three other passengers on their way to their final destination - or did he?

Could it be that Starfleet is unaware of Michael Burnham's presence on the USS Discovery? At the beginning of the episode when the shuttles pilot was lost to the darkness of space no further mention was made of it. Assuming that Captain Lorca is indeed section thirty-one then he would do whatever he felt necessary to achieve his goals, such as destroying a transport shuttle so that its occupants are perceived deceased.

And with the transport of a hostel life form to the Discovery by her chief of security is it safe to assume that Lorca is not the only section thirty-one operative on board, or could the USS Discovery be a black ops vessel fully maned and controlled by section thirty-one?

I said it before, this is NOT the Star Trek of my youth, and now I'm realizing that's not necessarily a bad thing. I'm beginning to enjoy the direction this series seems to be taking and I look forward to seeing just how far down the rabbit hole the shows production team is willing to go.

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Star Trek: It has always been about hope!

I found myself feeling hopeless on Sunday night....

When it was announced that Star Trek was making its long awaited return in 2015 I was ecstatic, it had been almost a decade since production wrapped on Enterprise and I needed something to look forward to, to be hopeful for.

Whither it be James T Kirk engaged in mortal combat with Khan, Jean-Luc Picard defending the Federation against a Borg invasion, Benjamin Sisko protecting the Alpha Quadrant against the Dominion, Jonathan Archer helping to lay the foundation of Starfleet or Kathryn Janeway attempting to bring her crew home, Star Trek has always been about hope.  

However by the time the two hour series premier of Star Trek Discovery had concluded I was not left with a feeling of hope, but rather a feeling of hopelessness - this was not the Star Trek I had grownup with.

Discovery has a much different feeling to it, a very dark and hopeless feeling. 

Set roughly a decade before the events of the original series, Discovery begins with a confrontation between Starfleet and a fractured Klingon Empire. The Klingon's have been absent for almost one hounded years, other then popping up every now and again to kill colonists as a reminder that they are still out there - and that's how we meet our main character Michael Burnham.

Burnham is orphaned during one such raid and is adopted by Spock's father Sarek. Sarek places Burnham in the Vulcan Science Academy, and once her education is complete he logically returns her to the human race by placing her aboard the USS Shenzhou under the command of captain Philippa Georgiou.

It is during her service as the Shenzhou's first officer that Burnham sparks a war between the Federation and Klingon Empire, betrays her shipmates, and ultimately causes the death of her captain before facing a court-martial and being imprisoned for life.

Star Trek has always been about hope, but the premier of Discovery left me feeling hopeless.

As we look forward to next weeks episode it's fair to assume that Burnham will somehow evade her life sentence and once again find her way onto the bridge of a Starship. 

However in a series that opened with so much aggression and has already killed off what was believed to be a central character, this show feels like it is tapping the darkness that is the Kelven timeline as opposed to the hopefulness that was always just beneath the surface in the original timeline. 

With that in mind I can't help but wonder if Star Trek Discovery will be the CBS All Access attempt at Game of Thrones in space, only time will tell but here's hoping that the shows helmsmen sets a course in the right direction in the weeks to come.

Because Star Trek has always been about hope.

Star Trek Discovery: Why the Klingons look so.....different!

When CBS announced a new Star Trek series in November of 2015 I was thrilled!  This would be the first new series since the conclusion of Star Trek: Enterprise on May 13th, 2005 - that's over a decade without boldly exploring new frontiers in a prime time television slot!

With the announcement of this new endeavor fans were left with a multitude of questions. Would this be set in the timeline of the original series? Would this be set in the alternate reality of the Star Trek Kelvin timeline? Who would the central characters be? How much would this new series change the Star Trek cannon?

Over the last twenty-one months fans have learned a great deal about some of the changes, but ahead of Star Trek: Discovery's premiere in September, I wanted to address the change that many fans are having difficulty with - The Klingons!

In a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly, new show-runner Aaron Harberts stated that "In the different versions of Trek, the Klingons have never been completely consistent, we will introduce several different houses with different styles. Hopefully fans will become more invested in the characters than worried about the redesign" he would then go onto say that not only was original show-runner Bryan Fuller supportive of the change but that he had also played a hand in the redesign of the warriors with the ridged-heads.

There is an assumption that series writers will use the Klingon Augment Virus to explain these physical changes, with the virus being a strain of the Levodian Flu which was created by Klingon researchers who were attempting to bio-engineer enhanced warriors.

However as a fan I'm having a difficult time accepting this new design - I long for the days when one of the Federations greatest warrior races appeared through the flames of battle looking like this:

Do you agree?  Let me know in the comments below and watch for the debut of Star Trek: Discovery as it warps into prime time on September 24th.

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An Introduction

Welcome to Discovering Discovery!

As a new edition to our weekly selection of blogs, Discovering Discovery will focus on both news and our personal views as they relate to the new CBS All Access series.

With this series representing the long awaited return of Star Trek to the small screen after a decade of silence, we expect that there will be a lot to talk about.  As such we welcome both your feedback and you insight in the comments below or through any one of our multiple social media feeds which are accessible at CanGeek.com.