Star Trek: Discovery Review - 6 Ups And 5 Downs From Season 1

As the landscape of television has changed and advanced in the 21st century, storytelling tendencies have evolved significantly.

The episodic style on which TOS and The Next Generation was based has now dated considerably. Instead, arc-driven stories and consequences that carry over across multiple episodes, concepts that would seem alien to Star Trek writers of the 60s and 80s, are standard for television dramas.

Now, psychological trauma isn’t resolved in 40 minutes, and damage lasts well beyond the end credits. It’s a style that Star Trek first delved into with Deep Space Nine’s long-running, season-spanning Dominion War arc, but Discovery by virtue of its modernity is able to approach real consequences in ways that even DS9, previously considered Trek’s darkest show, could not.

No sooner did the show begin, in fact, than fans were plunged straight into a bloody war with a protagonist permanently tainted by her actions in instigating a brutal conflict. Later, issues of male sexual assault and post-traumatic stress were handled in ways that no previous Trek show has dared approach.

With the crew of the Discovery going to hell and back over the course of the first season, the lingering effects of their battle scars and losses will be keenly felt in the show's future.

What did you think of Discovery's first season? Let us know down in the comments section.