'Star Trek: Discovery' premiere recap: 'The Vulcan Hello'

Star Trek: Discovery sends viewers into the Star Trek world once again, introducing them to First Officer Michael Burnham and reintroducing one of its biggest foes.

Star Trek: Discovery is set a decade before Star Trek: The Original Series, which aired for the first time over fifty-one years ago.

“The Vulcan Hello” starts with one of the original Star Trek enemies: the Klingons. A gathering of the 24 Klingon houses occurs and T’Kuvma discuss the threat of the United Federation of Planets. He declares they must stand together agaisnst the Federation.

Captain Georgiou and First Officer Michael Burnham, travel across a desert planet, trying to finish their mission before a storm comes. The two talk about the future and the Captain says she thinks Michael is ready for her own ship. The two talk about the storm before being beamed aboard their ship, the U.S.S. Shenzhou.

The Shenzhou is near the end of Federation space, trying to decipher what happened to some interstellar relays. Science Officer Saru believes it was vandalized. Michael agrees, thinking someone damaged it to get a Federation ship to that location. The crew is surprised the two agree, and the Captain jokes they should note the day. The playful mood is interrupted by an unknown object near them. Sensors cannot get a clear reading of the object. While they are trying to decide what to do, Michael offers to take a thruster pack and do a fly by.

Michael has nineteen minutes to complete her fly by of the object before she risks exposure. She loses contact with the crew halfway to the object because of interference. With a little over twelve minutes left, she arrives at the object. It is a detailed, stone like structure. Michael lands on it and the object shutters and then another being appears. Her suit alerts her this being is a Klingon. When she introduces herself as part of the Federation, the Klingon attacks. Michael fights back and kills the Klingon before floating back towards her ship. The crew tries to contact Michael without avail, and cannot beam her aboard because there is still interference and she is too far away.

Meanwhile, the Klingons are still gathered. The Klingon Michael killed is in a coffin in the middle of the room. T’Kuvma notes him as the first to die in their fight, and the coffin is sent to space while all the Klingons yell.

Back on the Shenzhou, Michael is being treated for her injuries in medical. In a flashback/dream sequence, the audience learns Michael is a survivor of a Klingon terrorist attack and was taken in by Vulcans, Sarek, Spock’s father in particular. Michael wakes and finds out she has been knocked out for three hours. She leaves to go tell Captain Georgiou about the Klingons, despite the procedure still being done on her body.

Michael stumbles into the bridge and tells them about the Klingons. They do not immediately believe her because “almost no one has seen a Klingon in a hundred years,” which seems weird given what happened to Michael’s family. She is also suffering from a concussion and the footage she took was corrupted. The Captain believes her and sets the ship to red alert.

Michael suggests targeting the object, making the Klingons believe an attack is coming. Immediately they note something is scanning the Shenzhou and a Klingon ship decloaks right in front of their ship. At this time, cloaking technology is not known to Starfleet, so the crew is confused when they notice the ship did not warp to their location. They disengage the target and send a secret message to Starfleet. Georgiou commands Michael go back to medical before her condition weakens.

The crew tries to hail the Klingons with no response. The Klingons are discussing what to do and about a prophecy T’Kuvma has been talking about. No one seems to want to be the torchbearer, until an albino Klingon volunteers. His name is Voq, and he has no noble house. He says he truly believes in the project and then puts his hand over the flame. T’Kuvma agrees after telling him they are alike and offering him his blade.

Fully recovered, Michael arrives on the bridge and speaks to Saru. He tells her the Klingon ship is covered in coffins of various ages filled with dead Klingons. He tells her they need to retreat, but she replies they cannot. Saru is scared. He tells her that his species know when death is coming and he feels it is coming now.

Meanwhile, Captain Georgiou is talking to a Starfleet Admiral when Michael walks into the ready room. She says Klingons always want war, but he tells them to hold their position as Starfleet ships are on their way. The Captain tells Michael they must hold their ground because there are habited areas within a few lightyears. She wants to believe everything will be solved with diplomacy, but as a former solider, she is worried. A blinding light appears outside and the two run to the bridge.

The blinding light and a high pitch screeching attacks the crew. Michael thinks it might be a way to contact more Klingons. Having an idea, she asks to leave the bridge, and the Captain reluctantly agrees. Michael rushes to call on Sarek. She explains the situation and what she believes are the Klingons objectives. Sarek suggests someone might be uniting the Klingons together for a common goal. She asks for information on how the Vulcans were able to deal with the Klingons.

Michael goes to the bridge with Sarek’s information. After a ship was destroyed, whenever the Vulcans met the Klingons they attacked them first. Doing so made the Klingons respect the Vulcans. Michael continues to try and push her solution as logical, but the Captain tells her Starfleet will not be the first to fire. When Michael pushes, Georgiou commands her to come to the ready room.

Michael is emotional, despite claiming what she is proposing is the only logical solution. She and Captain Georgiou argue, and when Michael appears to calm down, she uses a Vulcan nerve pinch on the Captain, knocking her out.

Rushing onto the bridge, Michael takes control and has the crew ready weapons. Saru questions her, noting her physical distress. He asks if what she is doing is what the Captain wants. Michael orders them to fire, but Captain Georgiou stumbles in and tells them to stop. She pulls a phaser on Michael and tells her to stand down, and that what she is doing is mutinous. Suddenly, warp signatures are detected. Unfortunately for the crew, multiple Klingon ships have arrived, not Starfleet.

This is certainly an interesting beginning. My thoughts are mostly positive for this episode. I generally like the characters. I think Captain Georgiou had a good presence and was intelligent and warm. Saru was entertaining, and the other crew that had lines did well. Michael is interesting for various reasons. She understandably has issues with the Klingons and a fear of losing people. I like the story of a human who learned to live as a Vulcan and seeing how that affects her life. Also having her named Michael was an unusual touch.

I enjoyed the opening credits. They were modern and fun, though I wished the theme song sounded a little bit more like the other Star Trek themes. I also thought the uniforms were nice. I was not fond of the new Klingon look and felt like the language seemed more muffled than it was in other Star Trek shows. Overall I am looking forward to the series.

New episodes of Star Trek: Discovery are currently airing on Sunday nights at 8:30 p.m. on CBS All Access in the U.S. Episode two is already available, so episode three will be available this Sunday night. CBS All Access has a week long trial, but after that it is $5.99 a month. Viewers in other countries can catch Star Trek: Discovery on Netflix a day after it airs in the U.S.