Star Trek Discovery(2017-2022) is the second time we’ve had a black Star Trek captain? First time black female main character? First time female Asian captain? Who knows maybe I’m wrong, as of this writing I am just becoming aware of the massive Star Trek fan base (Trekkies!) and its legacy which now includes over a dozen TV shows running from the 1960’s to the present at a rate of at least one a decade. I have seen the first few episodes of Deep Space Nine though whose Benjamin Sisko (Avery Brooks) seems to have been one of the more innovative and successful choices of leads for the mega-popular series. I always find myself wondering why did I never watch Deep Space Nine back in the day, a black guy main lead, popular on mainstream television, how could I have missed it? Somewhere reading Tad Williams perhaps. Anyway, It’s always exciting to see a new black face in science fiction so I knew I’d get back around to Star Trek Discovery sooner or later after watching the initial ads.
So how does this new show and its black female main lead hold up compared to the older work? Where does it fit in, what new adventures and worlds to explore? Interestingly enough, Star Trek Discovery is set a decade before the original series. Our main protagonist here is Michael Burnham (Sonequa Green) a human raised by Vulcan parents. What new adventures does Sonequa Martin and Burnham have in store for us viewers in the prequel world of Discovery? Well some good ones. And some boring ones. The season’s major story arc concerns itself with the Federation-Vulcan war, and captain Gabriel Lorca (Jason Isaacs) whose starship the Discovery has been enhanced with a new form of inter-dimensional travel. I think the show started off pretty awesome. The first two episodes “The Vulcan Hello” and “Battle at the Binary Stars” were pretty great and action packed. The Vulcans were raving and crying war, the federation was coming in peace, and new and old political and religious ideologies and ideologues were preparing for a good old Mexican standoff. The show does drop off for a bit after this point though. Episodes 3-8 include some good episodes about Michael’s Vulcan background, some sciency stuffy that I was not too personally inspired by, and some timeline goofiness episodes in “Magic to make the Sanest Man Go Mad” and also “Into the Forest I go” that seem more like filler before picking back up towards the end.
One thing I will say is there is a sense of continuity or either a pacing difference in Deep Space Nine and my personal favorite Babylon 5 that is absent here and I think maybe that comes from the show being set on a Starship instead of a Starbase. There is some groundbreaking material here though a non heterosexual relationship in the main cast, three or four strong female leads, and of course the black lady Michael Burnham. A lot of online reviewers seem to think the series suffered from focusing on the rebel Michael Burnham too much but I haven’t finished the series so I can’t say for now. All in all it’s not to bad at all. Blacks to the front immediately no matter the Cost! Full out Attack! A lot of other minorities offer strong performances during this first season of Star Trek Discovery. Which reminds me…..
Are the fictional races in Star Trek coded paths for talking about racial politics? Is this a form of escapism and is it positive, benign, or negative? Which one of these was Whoopi Goldberg in? I think I saw that one back in the day. Probably.