Star Trek: Discovery episodes 1 & 2: What did the Trekkies think?

The greater focus on politics was appreciated, but the different appearance and personality of the Klingons was a bugbear for many

CBS and Netflix dispensed the first two episodes of season 1 of Discovery at the weekend, the latest Star Trek series and one coming off the back of nostalgia for older series like The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine and frustration with J.J. Abrams' film trilogy.

The double opener fell somewhere in-between these very different adaptations, offering more political and diplomatic intrigue than the action and emotion-heavy movies but still being a long way away from anyone ever calmly ordering hot Early Grey tea and slow dancing on the Holodeck.

Critical reaction was mostly positive, but what did the franchise's enormous fan base think?

To the Star Trek subreddit's credit, there were a lot of users deferring judgement until later in the season instead of making a snap assessment following the launch, and the reaction wasn't generally characterised by the kind of rabid fastidiousness that outsiders perhaps associate Trekkies with.

There were, however, quite polarised opinions.

The good:

"I thought the story was exciting and had promise. I liked the character building, the nods to the other series, and the graphics. I really like that they're doing a season story arc, maybe even multiple seasons. That was my favourite thing about DS9." - u/rumple_teazer

"I loved it. It had:

- Space. Planets. Ships. Technology.

- Exploration of a complex alien culture.

- Moral dilemmas.

- Interesting characters.

- A Federation committed to peace and exploration.

- Space battle (but only after attempts to negotiate).

- A diverse cast.

Seemed like Star Trek to me." - u/BasementDweller3000

"I thought the acting and line delivery was a bit off at the beginning but got better throughout, the show was absolutely gorgeous and I think the story has potential and I'm interested in where it goes. Yes, it's very different than previous series of Star Trek, but imo it should be. I want it to be its own thing and I think we need to give it more than two episodes to assess how "trek like" future episodes will be." - u/Quivex

"I think the fact that the first two episodes are essentially a big prologue for the show is really interesting. Not what I was expecting, and now I'm fascinated to see where the story goes from here." - u/JohnCarterofAres

"I think Star Trek fans are too caught up in the legacy of the series. Back in the 60's they were just finding good scripts and getting them filmed, but over time it got anchored to its own legacy." - u/PHalfpipe

The bad:

"My main grievances:

1) Too grim dark - Star Trek was supposed to be the one source of positive outlook on the future and yet we get another show about war/death/betrayal and destruction. Basically military sci-fi.

2) Too much melodrama - the constant bickering between crew members is NOT Star Trek. Can you imagine if people working in the Navy or on a Submarine argued this much? Or hell, imagine yourself in a board room of your company. Lets all chime in and bark back at the CEO. Nothing would ever get done. I want to see humanity working together not at each other's throats.

3) Unlikeable lead - the main protagonist couldn't be more unlikable if they had her kill a baby in her first scene. Rude, indignant, stubborn, overly emotional. Not to mention the actress seemed to be phoning in her performance.

4) The cinematography - I hate you forever JarJar Abrams for infusing lens flares and dutch angles into Star Trek. Now I can't watch a single scene without getting nauseous and distracted. Holly hell did we need 360 angles and cameras sweeping around actors every time they spoke dramatically. This is Michael Bay Level crap." - u/logan343434

"I just want a star trek show about exploration. Is that too much to ask?" - u/JeffCraig

"It has that really cheesy SyFy channel movie CGI. Everything is so.damn.shiny. Chrome ALL the things." - u/zerodry

"Not only is the story and direction too grim dark, but I also hate how grim dark the Klingons turned out to be. Yes, they are a scary warrior race, but they also knew how to party. Can you imagine the Discovery Klingons getting drunk on blood wine, laughing heartily while singing songs and embellishing stories of combat and glory?" - u/Manolo_Ribera

|Here you have a captain who is not in control of an unstable first officer, let alone the ship. Both of whom leave the bridge during a face-off with a known hostile alien race to discuss orders the captain received from Starfleet. That's not the way it works and it has a terrible impact on a crew." - u/Willard2566

"I wonder if CBS realizes the message this might send showing what it's like with two women in charge on a starship, with them disagreeing with each other, one knocking the other unconscious, then that one waking up and pointing a weapon at the other." - u/verstohlen

The pedantic:

Following on from that last criticism, the main talking point among the fandom seemed to be the Klingon redesign. "Just admit this is how Gene wanted them to look, but we never had the budget or tech to do it," one user wrote, though others felt the heavier prosthetics left little room for the actors to emote and that that the race's culture had been made too one-dimensional.

Inevitably, Worf chimed into the debate on Twitter in typical Worf fashion:

Read our review on the first two episodes here and a guide on how to watch the show here.