I’ve held off on adding another streamer despite the attraction of the ST franchise but the great reviews I’m seeing of this show, here and elsewhere, are making me revisit that resolve.
If I pull the trigger can I start with this show, skip Discovery, and be fine? I’d double back to Picard at some point …
You’ll miss out on some of the set-up for the first episode, but there’s enough in the show itself that you’ll be able to figure things out.
That being said, the Pike episodes of Discovery are the best ones, so are probably worth watching as well. The rest of Disco, not so much.
I am pretty sure anything you would need to know from Discovery is in the recap in front of the first episode.
not really - no. The only part they recap seems to be the one fact he is dealing with and a couple of other random bits - which will make far more sense if you see season 2 of disco.
I liked Discovery but I’m clearly in the minority.
And even I have my gripes.
I think there is the implication that he could actually do this and be fine, but also that means he’d be dooming those cadets to death. Is it worth it to let a bunch of innocent people die to save yourself from the beeping chair?
Edit: I also liked Discovery, I like Michael Burnham and I appreciated them taking big plot swings. I am also grateful for it starting a new golden age of Trek. I think the production troubles it’s had, with multiple different showrunners over the seasons and other woes, has made it less than it should have been. I’ve also never really liked the mechanical design of the show; from the beginning I complained about how it looks nothing like TOS and now feel vindicated with the way Strange New Worlds fulfills the promise of a modern show set in Kirk’s starfleet.
But why is genetic engineering such a taboo in the Federation? We never get any indication other species had analogs of the Eugenics Wars on Earth. Denobulians Star Trek has never (at least until Discovery season 3) made a clear distinction between Earth and the Federation. Humans are so overwhelming dominant in the Federation it feels like humanity is just assimilating other civilizations into it’s own. That’s a very dark shade of grey.
Because of Khan Noonian Singh and the Eugenics Wars. That happened on Earth before, I believe, first contact.
Yes, that explains why Earth has such a ban, but what about all the other Federation member worlds? 
Because Earth is one of the founding members of the Federation. Presumably, when the founders came together, they brought the experiences of their individual histories to the table to negotiate basic principles.
I believe, at least in some versions, the founding members were Earth, the Vulcans, the Andorians, and the Tellarites.
I’m just gonna assume that when Kirk takes over, almost everyone resigns cause Kirk snaps at his crew and doesn’t encourage a familial, arguing, editorializing atmosphere.
Ironically, Kirk’s core crew stays together for an insanely long time.
How to have a holodeck malfunction story without a holodeck…
Not without its precedent (Qpid, ShoreLeave, etc).
I am glad they resolved the one story line - and in a way thats not completely a ‘very special episode’. The resolution is also not entirely without precedent (Metamorphasis).
So just what does everyone think happened to Rukiya? Did M’Benga fake her death before hiding her in the pattern buffer?
That was great. A combination of a Godlike Being episode and a Mirror Universe episode (for all effects and purposes). Fun, and a good resolution for the story arc.
Yes, some starship-trapping alien space clouds are less friendly.
Maybe he just said she was staying with relatives elsewhere. She’s very ill, so she might not be expected to attend even tele-school.
My favorite part was a sniveling Anson Mount.
I got the feeling that the actors were enjoying themselves in playing against their usual roles. I bet there were a lot of bloopers getting that episode done.
A real throwback episode - and a lot of fun. I’m glad they resolved the Rukiya plot - it was okay up until now but it’s the kind of hanging plot that can really screw with a show of they don’t deal with it.
That was the original point of the Mirror Universe episodes in TOS and DS9 - they were there for the actors to play against type and goof around. It was later that they forgot to be fun and started to suck.