Star Trek: Discovery
Watched it last night. I enjoyed it. Bryan Fuller is one of the creators and he wrote the episode. He got his start writing for Deep Space Nine and then Voyager, and went on to create and write Wonderfalls, Dead Like Me, Heroes, Pushing Daisies, Hanibal The effects are flashy, the make up is good, although the opening scene pulls back from an extreme close up and my first thought was ceremonial mask, but it wasn't. It was just, I hate to say, bad makeup. I just told myself to just get over it. The program is not about this one set of makeup.
I am interest in Lt. Saru. My first impression was when faced with trouble, is he more likely to run and hide? Later in the episode it is explained that where he is from the relationship between species is binary, the diner or the meal. His species was the meal, and as a result they have developed a heighten sense of danger. What I liked about his explanation was how they presented a situation early on and in a subtle way brought attention to it, and one simply makes an observation, perhaps wondering how did this guy become an Lieutenant in Star Fleet if his first inclination is to run away? Then later, in a discussion later on when he is advising the topic comes up to explain something that is going on now, but it also explains that first impression. He fight or flight response is not an issue of character, it is genetic. I liked the explanation because it seemed very organic the way it presented itself. And in a nice way tells us something about first impressions in general. I'm a Bryan Fuller fan, so it might be that his style of writing is very agreeable to me, but may not be to others. Much like I can hear a piece of music, and instantly just like, and then find out that it was composed by Philip Glass or Hans Zimmer. I need to watch the episode again a few times. That's where I tend to notice the subtlies, because I'm easily distracted and miss things, or don't process what happened very well.
I also realized this morning that Lt. Saru is played by Doug Jones. He has played countless creatures, but the one where I first became aware of him was in Pan's Labyrinth, when he played the pale creepy guy with eyeballs in his hands, and the satyr. They had a extra about him on the DVD.