I didn’t feel like the talking carried with it the weight of momentum or severity of context in many instances. I suppose ‘weightless’ would be my best description. It’s an entirely ‘feel’ thing and of course, those Klingon commanders did step down, but it seemed more tell than show. Did they stick around? Perhaps they saw value in destroying a few Starfleet vessels even if it served no greater purpose? Maybe they left because what was actually being achieved? I know they leave the conference call, but there doesn’t seem to be any impact from that from anyone else. If they did leave the area, what if those on board the Shenzhou saw it as relief? Maybe battle wasn’t inevitable after all, from their perspective. Perhaps it makes them more confused, makes a tense situation even more so.
Michael in the second episode (and I now try and work out how to do spoiler stuff on this new forum)
SPOILERS
having the conversation across the stars with Sarek, putting aside the distance issue, didn’t really feel like it amounted to much of anything. I did not get the impression that that was the catalyst for leaping through the vacuum.
It was nice exposition, but, again, for me it was her own reasoning against the computer that felt more impactful and meaningful.
With the people I watched the openers with, I commented that it might have been possible to reduce all that happened in them as backstory as part of the scene at the end of the second episode. I do not feel like you would lose anything of significance, any particularly memorable sequence that defined a character that wouldn’t otherwise be mentioned. Perhaps that is too harsh and again, I enjoyed what I watched, but I had this nagging feeling that it was known that Star Trek has a lot of (useful and important) dialogue, but didn’t quite know how to utilise it well. It’s quite possible that if this wasn’t the opener to a brand new show I wouldn’t feel this way, a two-parter down the road that let things be drawn out a bit to emphasis the character drama once we’d gotten used to the characters, a la Best of Both Worlds that is as effective as it is because we know Riker and Picard and because Selby came out of nowhere.
