Star Trek: Discovery 5 Ups & 3 Downs From 'Context Is For Kings'

2. The Atmosphere

Although Discovery's tone isn't going to be to everyone's liking, what with all those horror elements taking centre stage in its third episode, it feels like a necessary shift for Trek media to undertake. This isn't the Original Series, after all, and a journey must be taken before we get to the Enterprise's five year mission.

The pilot alluded to the themes that would permeate Discovery going forward, but CIFK reiterated them with lethal force, depicting the aftermath of an experiment gone wrong with frightening detail. Corpses are mangled and distorted, blood paints the wall and, to top things off, we also had to deal with a slug-like cat... thing; something that would - ostensibly - feel more at home in a John Carpenter film than the latest Trek TV show.

Then there's the atmosphere that pervades the Discovery itself. It feels like a stark contrast to the name of the vessel, with Lorca's machinations providing a palpable sense of dread across the ship and engendering the series with a tension that would, on the surface at least, seemingly contradict the sense of wonder and yes, discovery that permeated the Enterprise's halls all those years ago.

It feels less like we're being pulled along in an adventure in many respects, and more that we're trapped with Burnham in a distorted version of Kirk's vessel. It's a house of horrors waiting to be unleashed, and that - more than anything else - is the hook the series needed most.