Star Trek: Discovery / Season 1

Season 1 of Star Trek: Discovery
Episodes	15th
Country of production	United States
Initial release	Episode 1: Sep 24 2017 on CBS , Other Episodes: Sep 24. 2017 to Feb 11, 2018 on CBS All Access
First publication in German	25 Sep 2017 to Feb 12, 2018 on Netflix
Season 2   ▶
► Episode list

The US Star Trek television series Discovery began in September 2017 with the 15-part first season . It was first released in two parts via video-on-demand : nine episodes appeared by mid-November 2017, the remaining six in January and February 2018. The first episode was premiered in the United States and Canada by television station CBS . In a season-long, cross-episode story arc, it is mainly about a war between the United Federation of Planets , represented by Starfleet and their spaceship Discovery , and the Klingon Empire .

Episodes

No. ( total )	No. ( St. )	German title	Original title	First published in the USA	German language first publication (D / A / CH)	Director	script
1	1	beacon	The Vulcan Hello	Sep 24 2017	25 Sep 2017	David Semel	Akiva Goldsman , Bryan Fuller , Idea: Bryan Fuller , Alex Kurtzman
The action begins in May 2256. The star fleet spaceship USS Shenzhou, commanded by Captain Philippa Georgiou, encounters an unknown structure in space on the edge of Federation territory. Since the ship cannot get close enough to explore the object because of a stray field, the first officer Michael Burnham examines the structure in a spacesuit alone at close range. There she kills a Klingon suddenly appearing in affect, to whose known warlike species the Federation has had no contact for over 100 years, and barely escapes death during the operation. The structure turns out to be a Klingon battle ship and thus a threat to the Shenzhou. On board that ship, the Klingon T'Kuvma pleads for the 24 disagreed Klingon houses to unite with one another in order to fight successfully against Starfleet, which they feel threatened by alleged expansionist efforts. Burnham, who came aboard the Shenzhou seven years ago after completing his volcanic training, received advice from her Vulcan mentor Sarek to respond with a so-called "Vulcan hello", that is, to attack the Klingons first. Influenced by this, Burnham, whose parents were once killed by Klingons, betrayed the orders of their captain and usurped the command. Meanwhile, more Klingon spaceships appear, opposing the Shenzhou.
2	2	The judgment	Battle at the Binary Stars	Sep 24 2017	25 Sep 2017	Adam Kane	Gretchen J. Berg , Aaron Harberts , idea: Bryan Fuller
Georgiou resumes command of the Shenzhou and has Burnham imprisoned in a holding cell. Because of the impending battle against the Klingon fleet, the Shenzhou receives support from other Starfleet ships, including the USS Europa under the command of Admiral Anderson. After the attack by the Klingons, there is a battle in space in which Starfleet suffers significant losses. The Europa is destroyed, the Shenzhou badly damaged. Burnham faces death from broken hulls. She therefore escapes from her holding cell with the help of the on-board computer, briefly crossing space. The Klingons consider themselves victorious in the battle and claim this part of the room for themselves. Except for their lead ship, on which T'Kuvma is also staying, the Klingon ships leave the scene. Georgiou and Burnham beam onto the Klingon ship to take T'Kuvma hostage and thus as leverage in the peace negotiations with the Klingons. In direct personal combat, T'Kuvma and Georgiou are seriously injured and, unlike Burnham, cannot be beamed to the Shenzhou. Before a Starfleet military tribunal, Burnham pleaded guilty to mutiny, among other things, before she was sentenced to life imprisonment and lost her officer rank.
3	3	Lackeys and kings	Context is for Kings	Oct. 1, 2017	Oct 2, 2017	Akiva Goldsman	Gretchen J. Berg, Aaron Harberts, Craig Sweeny , idea: Bryan Fuller, Gretchen J. Berg, Aaron Harberts
Six months after her conviction, Burnham is on a shuttle as part of an inmate transport. When it is in danger in a storm, it is rescued by the star fleet spaceship USS Discovery and brought on board. Because of Burnham's skills as a quantum physicist , Captain Lorca employs her as an assistant scientist. She is also part of an away team around Lt. Stamets investigating the drifting in space USS Glen, the Discovery's sister ship. Burnham protects her colleagues from the violent attacks of a reptile-like creature that is wreaking havoc there. Back on the Discovery, Burnham realizes that Lorca deliberately brought her on the Discovery and that he wanted her to be tested. Lorca explains to her that an experimental biological, spore- based propulsion system is being developed on the Discovery , which should help the Federation to win the war against the Klingons. The drive enables space leaps over many light years in a matter of seconds and was successfully tested on the Glen before an experiment failed. Because Lorca judges Burnham's behavior during the battle in the binary star system to be tactically wise, he convinces her to stay on board permanently and return to Starfleet service.
4th	4th	Leap	The Butcher's Knife Cares Not for the Lamb's Cry	Oct 8, 2017	Oct 9, 2017	Olatunde Osunsanmi	Jesse Alexander , Aron Eli Coleite
A Federation colony on the remote planet Korvan II is attacked by Klingons, putting the colonists and dilithium supplies at risk. In order to get there quickly and to defend the colony, Lorca would like to use the spur drive, which, despite successful simulations, does not yet work reliably enough. Meanwhile, Burnham discovers in her investigations of the reptile-like being, which Lorca intended for the fight against Klingons, that it is aversive to light and does not attack other individuals by nature, but only for self-defense. Particularly useful is the discovery that the creature - mostly referred to as a tardigrade , Burnham referred to only as a "ripper" - is able to enter into a symbiotic relationship with spores and use the mycelial network in the galaxy to determine its position. Taking advantage of this knowledge, one lets the creature come into contact with spores on the Discovery and thus helps the spore drive with the necessary accuracy to reach Korvan II. The Discovery rescues the colonists who are under heavy fire. Meanwhile, Klingons steal the dilithium processor from the Shenzhou wreck. The Klingon Kol, who has a claim to leadership after T'Kuvma's death, pursues a different political course than T'Kuvma before. The unusually light-skinned Klingon Voq is out of favor with Kol. The Klingon woman L'Rell supports Voq and advises him to take action against Kol and T'Kuvmas to continue the political course that unified the 24 houses.
5	5	Choose your pain	Choose your pain	Oct 15, 2017	Oct 16, 2017	Lee Rose	Kemp Powers , idea: Gretchen J. Berg, Aaron Harberts, Kemp Powers
Lorca's superiors in Starfleet want, on the one hand, that other Starfleet ships are equipped with the spur drive, and on the other hand, that the Discovery no longer uses the spur drive for the time being, so that the Klingons do not become aware of it. During the flight with a shuttle, Lorca is kidnapped by Klingons. He is trapped on a Klingon spaceship with Starfleet man Ash Tyler and the adventurer Harry Mudd. Lorca and Tyler are tortured by the Klingons and leave Mudd behind on their violent escape from prison because he betrayed them by secretly disclosing information to the Klingons. Meanwhile Burnham discovers on the Discovery that the spur drive, when used with the help of the tardigrade, leads to a significant deterioration in the physical condition of the tardigrade. As the Discovery translocates itself to the vicinity of Lorca's captivity with the help of the spur drive, the tardigrade shrinks or dehydrates considerably. Discovery saves the two refugees. To protect the tardigrade, Stamets injects some of his DNA, which allows him to use his own body to operate the spore drive and thus enable the Discovery to escape from the Klingons. To save the tardigrade, Burnham and Stamets release it into space and thus into the mycelia network.
6th	6th	Lethe	Lethe	Oct 22, 2017	23 Oct 2017	Douglas Aarniokoski	Joe Menosky , Ted Sullivan
When Ambassador Sarek is in a small volcanic spaceship on a secret meeting with two Klingon houses who want to forge an alliance to win the war, it is badly damaged by a logic extremist who blows himself up. Sarek is seriously injured and lies unconscious on board the small spacecraft within the Iridia Nebula. Burnham, who was once trained by Sarek, feels Sarek's pain as she is able to connect with Sarek's soul. Contrary to the decision of his superiors, Lorca lets the search for Sarek start and Burnham to fly to the fog with Tilly and Tyler. In her attempts to fuse her thoughts with those of Sarek, Burnham learns that Sarek's decision to enroll Spock in a Vulcan expedition rather than her was retrospectively voided by Spock's decision to join Starfleet instead. Burnham helps Sarek regain consciousness and be localized by a transponder signal so that he can be rescued. Since Sarek is now unable to meet the Klingons, Lorca's lover, Admiral Cornwall, travels to the meeting instead. However, this turns out to be a trap, Cornwall is captured.
7th	7th	T = Mudd²	Magic to Make the Sanest Man go Mad	Oct 29, 2017	Oct. 30, 2017	David M. Barrett	Aron Eli Coleite , Jesse Alexander
The criminal Harry Mudd keeps the Discovery crew trapped in a time loop, each run of which lasts 30 minutes. His goal is to control the spur drive and sell the Discovery to the Klingons for profit. When Mudd is cornered by the crew at the end of each loop, he explodes the Discovery. The spur drive does not work without Stamets; because of this connection, Stamets is the only one on the crew who notices the time warp. With this knowledge and with his help, Burnham and Tyler work to put an end to Mudd's activities. To do this, she steals the time crystal from Mudd, which he needs to maintain the time loop. With this leverage and the argument that she herself is a more valuable prey for the Klingons as the murderess T'Kuvmas, she persuades him to break off the time loop.
8th	8th	Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum	Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum	Nov 5, 2017	Nov 6, 2017	John S. Scott	Kirsten Beyer
The Klingons are increasingly equipping their ships with cloaking devices and causing heavy losses to Starfleet with surprise attacks. Therefore, the Starfleet Command would like to take away the tactical advantage that the Klingons have as a result. To achieve this goal, Burnham, Saru and Tyler are on the planet Pahvo, where there is a towering crystal that makes the whole planet vibrate at a specific frequency and acts like a natural transmitter, also out into space. The team's job is to modify the frequency of the transmitter so that it can serve as sonar for Starfleet, which it can use to track down cloaked Klingon ships. Indigenous beings called Pahvaner on the planet, who want to live without conflict, take possession of Saru, let him act in their interests and want to prevent the team from leaving the planet. With Tyler's help and against Saru's resistance, Burnham manages to modify the frequency of the tower and to call Discovery, which beams the three back on board. It quickly turns out that the Pahvaner, because of their goal of transforming discord into harmony, ensure that the tower uses its signals to draw the attention of the Klingons to Pahvo. The Klingon ship with Kol on board is approaching the Discovery. Previously, Kol had understood the Klingon L'Rell's attempt to gain favor by obtaining tactically relevant information from the prisoner Cornwall as a deception.
9	9	algorithm	Into the Forest I Go	Nov 12, 2017	Nov 13, 2017	Chris Byrne	Bo Yeon Kim , Erika Lippoldt
Faced with the threat of the approaching Klingon flagship, Starfleet orders Lorca to return to safe territory on the Discovery. Lorca, however, disregards the order and lets his crew begin a mission through which the Discovery can seize the Klingon camouflage technology: After Burnham and Tyler have beamed onto the Klingon ship unnoticed by the Klingons and have started installing sensors there, Lorca leaves perform the Discovery over 100 micro-jumps around the Klingon ship and keep it in check. The Stamets associated with the spur drive can only cope with the jumps with great physical deprivation. On the Klingon ship, Burnham is unplanned to fend for himself as Tyler is sidelined due to symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder he suffered from torture while in Klingon captivity. Burnham gets on the Klingon ship bridge, duels with Kol and thus saves time for the Discovery. This is useful when copying data via camouflage technology. Burnham and Tyler beam back onto the Discovery with the injured Cornwall and a Klingon hostage. When attempting to leave the scene with the spur drive, there is a technical error that stranded the Discovery in an unknown area in space.
10	10	Just because of you	Despite Yourself	Jan. 7, 2018	Jan. 8, 2018	Jonathan Frakes	Sean Cochran
The Discovery finds itself in a parallel universe in which the humans, called Terrans here, are a fascist power and are fought by non-human rebels. On the bridge you can see that the discovery of the mirror universe was probably moved to the starting universe. While Lorca lets his crew look for a way to escape this universe again, a Terran spaceship approaches the Discovery. In order not to attract attention as a stranger or not to risk life on the Discovery, the crew on the whole ship adapts to the roles that their alter egos of the mirror universe have previously played. This implies that Ensign Tilly takes on the role of the ship's commander. Meanwhile, Dr. Culber in the infirmary that post-traumatically disturbed Tyler is not himself and was probably changed by the Klingons. Tyler breaks the doctor's neck. Then he beams with Burnham and Lorca on board the approaching ship. Burnham is in the role of the commander of that ship and brings Lorca as a prisoner, who is then tortured. The ship's first officer tries to murder Burnham, but she kills him and takes command of the ship.
11	11	The wolf inside	The Wolf Inside	Jan. 14, 2018	Jan. 15, 2018	TJ Scott	Lisa Randolph
Saru leaves Burnham ignorant of the death of Dr. Culbers. Meanwhile Burnham plays with Tyler on the ISS Shenzhou her role as captain of the ship, which includes the fight against the Klingon-led rebels. Burnham and Tyler go to a planet where the leaders of the rebels are. It is their official Terran mission to kill them, but they secretly surrender to the rebels to learn how the Klingons of the Mirror Universe learned to cooperate with other species. The leader of the rebels is the Voq of the Mirror Universe, whose words cause inexplicable irritation for Tyler. Burnham promises the rebels time to flee from the Shenzhou's destruction of their settlements. Back on the Shenzhou, Tyler realizes that he was once Voq, but that he was operated on to a human by the Klingons in order to secretly infiltrate Starfleet. His attempt to kill Burnham in retaliation for killing T'Kuvma is thwarted by the saru of the Mirror Universe at the last second. Burnham executes Tyler pretending to be the Shenzhou crew, but secretly beams him onto Discovery, where Saru has him arrested immediately. The intelligence information collected by Burnham about the route of the Defiant spaceship, which had previously reached the Mirror Universe, arrive with Tyler on the Discovery. Previously, Tilly tried unsuccessfully on Discovery to cure stamets with spores. After all, the Terran Empress Georgiou's spaceship ensures the destruction of the rebels on the planet.
12	12	Blind desire	Vaulting ambition	Jan. 21, 2018	Jan. 22, 2018	Hanelle M. Culpepper	Jordon Nardino
Burnham and Lorca are taken to Georgious' ship Charon. While Georgiou tortures her captured enemy Lorca, she has dinner with Burnham. Stamets finds himself in the mycelia network and there meets the consciousness of his counterpart from the mirror universe. There he learns that the experiments of that alter ego have made the network unusable. He also encounters a version by Dr. Culber, whose loss he accepts before he wakes up and finds his spore collection infected. Georgiou laments that she allowed Lorca to become a father figure for Burnham, so that they wanted to overthrow Georgiou as ruler. As a punishment, she plans to execute Burnham. However, this reveals the truth about itself that it comes from the other universe. Burnham explains how they came to be in the Mirror Universe. Georgiou enters into a deal and shares information about building the spur drive in exchange for information about alternative ways of moving between universes. As a result, Burnham realizes that the Lorca she knows is actually from the Mirror Universe and has manipulated events with the aim of getting closer to her and getting back into the Mirror Universe. Finally Lorca escapes from the agony chamber in which he was tortured.
13	13	Prelude to the past	What's Past Is Prologue	Jan. 28, 2018	Jan. 29, 2018	Olatunde Osunsanmi	Ted Sullivan
The Lorca of the Mirror Universe frees his old crew. With their help and that of the Stamets from the mirror universe, he kills Georgious followers and claims the ruling post for himself. Georgiou hides from Lorca, Burnham also escapes captivity by Lorca and contacts the Discovery crew, with whom she discusses a plan. As a result, Burnham must lower the containment field around the large energy source derived from the mycelia network so that the Discovery can destroy it and, in the resulting explosion, fly into the mycelia network through which the Stamets of the original universe can navigate. Georgiou agrees to help Burnham, and together they attack Lorca's group. Rejected and beaten by Burnham, Lorca is killed by Georgiou. The latter offers to sacrifice itself in favor of Burnham's escape. Burnham, however, takes Georgiou on the Discovery, while Georgious’s flagship Charon is destroyed. The Discovery crew put their plan into action and returned to their original universe through the mycelia network. However, the Discovery arrives unplanned nine months later than when it was thrown into the Mirror Universe. To the surprise of the crew, the Klingons seem to have won the war by now.
14th	14th	Escape to the front	The War Without, the War Within	Feb. 4, 2018	Feb 5, 2018	David Solomon	Lisa Randolph
The 24 Klingon houses are no longer united and therefore fight independently of each other against the Federation, which has an important disadvantage due to a lack of information about the Klingon camouflage technology. Admiral Cornwall and Sarek come on board the Discovery, convince themselves of the authenticity of the crew and immediately plan to use the Discovery and its spur drive to deal a blow to the Klingons that will turn the war in favor of the Federation. The plan is based on Georgiou's experience in the mirror universe and plans to jump with the spur drive to the Klingon homeworld of Qo'noS, where the crew should find weak spots on the planet's surface for a possible surprise attack. Since the last trip used up all available spores, the Discovery ensures the growth of new spores with a particularly fast type of terraforming on a moon. Meanwhile, Tyler, whom the captured Klingon healed, tries to reintegrate into the team. Lorca is considered dead, initially Cornwall and Saru act as captains. Finally, the Discovery begins with the implementation of the plan, for which Cornwall and Saru, according to Georgiou's statement that they had important information, use Georgiou as captain.
15th	15th	take my hand	Will you take my hand?	Feb 11, 2018	Feb 12, 2018	Akiva Goldsman	Gretchen J. Berg, Aaron Harberts, idea: Akiva Goldsman, Gretchen J. Berg, Aaron Harberts
Tyler announced that a drone was to enter the dormant volcanic system beneath the planetary surface of Qo'noS in order to map and identify targets. The Discovery jumps with the spur drive to a nearby cave and an away team consisting of Georgiou, Burnham, Tilly and Tyler poses as dealers. Tilly discovers that the volcanic system is active and that the drone Georgiou is carrying is in fact a hydrogen bomb . With this finding, Burnham confronts Admiral Cornwell, who admits that the detonation of the bomb in the active volcano is supposed to wipe out all life on Qo'noS so that the Federation can win the war. Burnham insists that Starfleet shouldn't cause genocide and forces Georgiou to return the bomb in exchange for her freedom. However, they hand the bomb over to the Klingon woman L'Rell, who uses the threat of the weapon of mass destruction to unite the Klingon houses and end the war under her leadership. The members of the Discovery crew are celebrated as heroes, Burnham officially receives rehabilitation and her previous rank of commander back. Tyler decides to stay with L'Rell. As the Discovery flies to the planet Vulcan at warp speed , it receives a distress call from the USS Enterprise .

criticism

At Heise online , the critic expressed a high degree of praise. The story told is innovative and, in contrast to the Star Trek reboot films, exciting and rich in substance. The actors in speaking roles did an excellent job and were more convincing than those in Starship Enterprise and Deep Space Nine . Costumes, sets, lighting, scene settings and special effects are also better than in the previous Star Trek TV series, and the look of the series is opulent. Despite its narrative weaknesses, Star Trek: Discovery is stylish.

The critic of the US business magazine Forbes also praised the main cast, the performances of most of the leading actors are "simply fantastic". On the other hand, it is not a strength of the series to hide their plot turns - including the revelation of Tylers as a Klingon sleeper - from the viewer, as they are handled, among other things, "clumsy" through exposure .

In the US television magazine TV Guide , the critics said that the decision in favor of a cross-episode storyline that runs through the season would bring more advantages than disadvantages; the characters, for example, would be characterized in an easily understandable manner. The biggest problem with the Klingons is not necessarily their mother tongue, but the quality in which the actors communicate in Klingon, because their dialogues lack fluidity, naturalness and inflection . The series has fantastic action situations and outstanding performances, but a major weakness is repeated occurrences of deus ex machina , because often things only happen to reach an end on the path of least resistance.

In the British radio magazine Radio Times , the critic praised the second half of the season in particular. After a few stand-alone episodes in the first half of the season and the air break, the series suddenly seemed lively, exciting and imaginative. Nevertheless, the second half of the season is not perfect either; the phrase that Lorca is a Terran from the mirror universe is both ridiculous and revealed in a superficial way.

In the New York Times , the journalist Sopan Deb criticized the resolution of the war between the Klingons and the Federation in the final episode as problematic and asked with incomprehension: Why was L'Rell, who wanted to wipe out the Federation at all costs, willing to start the war in exchange for ending control of their entire race?

Web links

• Season 1 at fernsehserien.de
• Season 1 in the Internet Movie Database

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Fabian A. Scherschel: Series review Star Trek Discovery: We are Starfleet! In: Heise online . Verlag Heinz Heise , February 13, 2018, accessed on August 25, 2019 . 
2. ↑ Paul Tassi: 'Star Trek: Discovery' Was Great Except For One Casting Decision. In: forbes.com. Forbes , March 6, 2018, accessed on August 25, 2019 (English, original quotes in the same order: “just fantastic”, “clumsily”). 
3. ↑ Kaitlin Thomas, Joyce Eng: Star Trek: Discovery Midseason Check-In: What's Working, What's Not? , in: TV Guide from Nov. 15, 2017, accessed on May 27, 2018
4. ↑ Huw Fullerton: Star Trek: Discovery series 1 review: “a terrific central idea, even if the execution fell short” , in: Radio Times, Feb. 12, 2018, accessed on May 27, 2018
5. ↑ Sopan Deb: Star Trek: Discovery series 1 review: “a terrific central idea, even if the execution fell short” , in: The New York Times, Feb. 11, 2018, accessed May 27, 2018