7 Years Later, Star Trek: Discovery’s Premiere Is Still Incredible & Controversial

Star Trek: Discovery premiered 7 years ago, and its first two episodes remain incredible and controversial. The first new Star Trek TV series since Star Trek: Enterprise was canceled by UPN in 2005, Star Trek: Discovery premiered on September 24, 2017.Discovery's first episode, "The Vulcan Hello," was broadcast on CBS, but its second episode, "Battle at the Binary Stars," was only available on the new CBS All-Access streaming service. Star Trek: Discovery's premiere strategy was meant to drive audiences to subscribe to CBS All-Access (now Paramount+). This tactic worked, but it alienated many viewers accustomed to Star Trek broadcasts being free on network TV or syndication.

7 years ago, the entertainment landscape was very different. The COVID-19 pandemic was 3 years away. Superhero movies like Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Wonder Woman, and Spider-Man: Homecoming ruled the box office, with Marvel Studios' wildly successful Thor: Ragnarok and DC's disastrous Justice League premiering just two months after Star Trek: Discovery. The biggest TV shows in the world were Game of Thrones and The Walking Dead, and serialized storytelling was dominant. Star Trek: Discovery arrived to bring Star Trek into the serialized age, with visuals equal to the quality seen in Star Trek Beyond, which was the last Star Trek movie released in movie theaters the year before, in the summer of 2016.

Discovery’s Premiere Taught Audiences A New Way To See Star Trek

Star Trek TV was now a movie every week

Star Trek: Discovery's premiere was certainly a shock to the system. Simply put, Star Trek had never looked so dazzlingly cinematic on television before. Star Trek: Discovery also broke established Star Trek tropes: For the first time, the lead character, Commander Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green), was not a starship Captain. Discovery was seen through the eyes of the First Officer, and Burnham was a flawed and conflicted character who believed she was acting on behalf of the greater good but made terrible mistakes in her judgment.

"The Vulcan Hello" and "The Battle at the Binary Stars" showed a complacent Starfleet confronted with a resurgent and terrifying Klingon Empire. Star Trek: Discovery was also an action-packed spectacle that had never been delivered by a Star Trek TV series before, and it was easily on par with the visual splendor of J.J. Abrams' Star Trek movies. Meanwhile, the phenomenal performances by Sonequa Martin-Green, Michelle Yeoh as Captain Philppa Georgiou, and Doug Jones as Saru were urgent, emotional, and gripping. Discovery forged the model for Star Trek going forward. After Discovery, there was no going back for Star Trek.

Discovery Is Surprising Because Of What's NOT In The Premiere

Star Trek: Discovery's first two episodes were really just a prologue

Star Trek: Discovery's premiere is unlike any other Star Trek pilot because it's actually a prologue. "The Vulcan Hello" and "Battle at the Binary Stars" aren't even set aboard the USS Discovery, which wouldn't be introduced until the third episode of Star Trek: Discovery, "Context is King." Star Trek: Discovery's premiere is shockingly missing many elements that would become integral to season 1 and the future of the series.

Absent from Star Trek: Discovery's first two episodes is Captain Gabriel Lorca (Jason Isaacs), who would be revealed as season 1's main villain and joined Michelle Yeoh as Discovery's marquee stars. The USS Discovery's controversial spore displacement hub drive - the revolutionary technology of Star Trek: Discovery - doesn't come into the picture until the third episode. Nor are core Star Trek: Discovery characters like Lieutenant Paul Stamets (Anthony Rapp) and Dr. Hugh Culber (Wilson Cruz) introduced until the third episode. Star Trek: Discovery isn't even Star Trek: Discovery yet until episode 3, "Context is King."

Star Trek: Discovery’s Early Mistakes Defined The Show

Discovery had issues from its inception

For all of its virtues and innovations, Star Trek: Discovery was also flawed since its inception, and the show couldn't get past its initial mistakes. Series creator Bryan Fuller originally intended Star Trek: Discovery to be an anthology, but after that format changed, the show couldn't overcome the issues inherent in being a prequel set 10 years before Star Trek: The Original Series. Discovery's aesthetics, uniforms, and advanced technology couldn't be reconciled with TOS canon, and longtime fans couldn't get past this or the unwelcome redesign of the Klingons.

Star Trek: Discovery's solution at the end of season 2 was to shed and outrun its most problematic aspects. By permanently jumping to the 32nd century, Star Trek: Discovery left behind its hated Klingons and started anew in an unexplored future era where the USS Discovery was now a relic from the past. Still, the bad taste Discovery left in many fans' mouths never went away, despite the brilliance of the show's acting, production design, and the legacy Discovery was building as the flagship of a new era of Star Trek.

Discovery Season 1 Was About Reclaiming Star Trek’s Identity

"We are Starfleet!"

The underlying theme of Star Trek: Discovery season 1 was identity, and it worked twofold. The Klingons began Star Trek: Discovery in fear of losing their identity as the United Federation of Planets was expanding. The Klingons, a society fractured for generations, sought to unite, and their mantra was "Remain Klingon." In contrast, Starfleet's own identity as benevolent explorers was subverted by a brutal and bloody war with the Klingons. Faced with potential extinction, Starfleet grew desperate and violent, even considering genocide on the Klingon homeworld to end the war.

Commander Michael Burnham's speech to the Federation at the end of Star Trek: Discovery season 1 was the show reclaiming Star Trek's virtues. As the first Star Trek on TV in 12 years, Discovery couldn't rest on the past laurels of Star Trek. Discovery had to reassess what Starfleet meant in the present, and what it would represent in the future. By journeying into and through the heart of darkness, Star Trek: Discovery emerged with a better understanding and appreciation of Gene Roddenberry's optimistic vision of the future, re-embracing it for a new era.

Star Trek Is Better Because Of Discovery

Discovery led the way for Star Trek's renaissance.

Thanks to Star Trek: Discovery, Star Trek was reborn, creating a new legacy that honors the past while looking ahead to the future. Star Trek: Picard brought back Patrick Stewart and, eventually, the entire cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation, with Star Trek: Picard season 3 fulfilling most fans' wildest hopes. Star Trek: Lower Decks and Star Trek: Prodigy became the new paragons of Star Trek animation, proving comedy and sweeping, epic sagas weren't limited to live-action.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds would certainly not exist without Star Trek: Discovery. Captain Christopher Pike (Anson Mount), Number One (Rebecca Romijn), Lt. Spock (Ethan Peck), and the Starship Enterprise found new life thanks to Discovery. Strange New Worlds, and its cast of Star Trek legacy icons and instantly beloved new characters, brought back what Star Trek was missing: The Original Series' episodic style, willingness to boldly experiment, and a new frontier spirit of optimism.

Even with fewer Star Trek series on the horizon than at the apex of 2022, when Paramount+ boasted 5 simultaneous Star Trek shows and a new episode of Star Trek streaming nearly every Thursday of the year, Star Trek remains strong heading into the franchise's 60th anniversary in 2026. Star Trek enters a new age of made-for-streaming movies with Star Trek: Section 31, another spinoff of Discovery. Meanwhile, Star Trek: Starfleet Academy is in production, weaving Academy Award-caliber actors with the newest generation of young Star Trek heroes. Star Trek: Discovery's premiere, flaws and all, made everything possible, and it was a "Vulcan hello" to Star Trek's continuing renaissance.