Nextflix Review - Star Trek : Discovery

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I always liked Star Trek as a kid and sci-fi and fantasy generally and watched a ton of it but I must admit to getting out of the loop with it. I grew up and entered my drinking years I suppose you could say and with the freedom of going out and partying I lost interest in what was on the gogglebox and the programmes I used to enjoy. I caught a few episodes of Next Generation, Deep Space 9, Voyager but it was no longer must-see TV for me. Now I've slowed down with things from that chapter of my life (yes I'm getting old and past it), and since my redundancy I have a lot more free time on my hands and I'm going to see if I can track down and catch up on the shows I missed. Hopefully they'll be on Amazon Prime & Netflix* otherwise I may have to look for bargains. I will try and make a blog diary of it on HERE as I go.

(* I have since found most of it can be viewed on Netflix, yay!)

Anyway this new series Discovery is set 10 years before Kirk and the Starship Enterprise. The main character is Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) apparently Michael is a unisex name now?! Never knew of a woman called Michael but it could be in the future I guess!? She starts as 1st officer to Captain Philippa Georgiou (Michelle Yeoh) on board the U.S.S. Shenzou but after things go awry during an encounter she ends up in disgrace and finds herself by chance on board the U.S.S. Discovery. Starfleet are now at war and as the series progresses she discovers more about the Discovery's mission and more about it's vital role in that battle. 

Discovery is staffed with lots of interesting characters and it's cool getting to know them as the series progresses although there are plenty of twists and turns that you may or may not see coming and later in the series there's a big upheaval that shifts things quite significantly. Also no character is safe, it's not the Star trek of my youth, people die, named characters, not just guys in red shirts. Apparently there is swearing too which I must admit I never even noticed it myself but that's probably down to my own normal 4-letter word heavy vocabulary. 

Star Trek during it's 50 years of existence has often been about progressive thinking, foreseeing technological changes and spearheading social change with it's message of unity on Earth and in space. It's often credited with having the 1st interracial kiss on US television with Kirk & Uhura in 1968 although that's not quite true. In this series there is a gay couple something that could never have happened back in the 60's I doubt. I wouldn't be at all surprised if we get some transgender characters in the not too distant future and that's a great thing, I doubt I'll be around in another 50 years, although it's possible, it'd be interesting to see how much it changes to stay current with the society of it's time and what things are on it possibly foreseeing what's to come.

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