After the heavy-handed ridiculous and rushed train-wreck that was the first, the introduction into the second season leaves me equally underwhelmed. While the first episode certainly tries to go in a new direction, the focus on over-the-top action and the silly deadpan humor lends to thee impression that the writer still don't know what Star Trek is about.
They've looked at the success of The Orville and Guardians of the Galaxy and tried to inject the same kind of humor into the series without realizing that this sort of interpersonal dynamic simply does not jive with a full fledged Trek show. The turbolift scene was pure and utter cringe and so was Tilly's “the power of math” exclamation. Apparently Linus the Saurian doesn't know handkerchiefs and Tilly is a character from the Big Bang Theory. It reminds me of when Data installed his emotion chip and discovered his sense of humor. None of the jokes felt organic as the writers desperately tried to inject some humor into the series.
The intro starts off with some African myth about the creation of the Milky Way, as religious and superstitious undertones are interspersed throughout the whole episode, culminating in Michael Burnham's encounter with a space "angel". Burnham remains the silly hothead with a penchant for lecturing people, keeping in tradition with her grating character. The episode suggests that she was supposed to teach Spock about empathy so that he can better "interact with humans", which to be quite frank, is the most ridiculous idea committed to paper when it comes to Trek lore.
First of all, Spock is a Vulcan and as such Utilitarianism would best describe his ethical foundation throughout the series. His reasoned and logical approach to virtue has served Spock well in the past and I cannot fathom why the show tries to subvert that. It's not as if emotional ethics of care are inherently superior to a logical one, as the show would suggest. Second of all, Spock is half-human, so there's really no need "teaching him empathy" as emotional attachment is already part of his personality. Lastly, since "empathy" is an emotion, it cannot be "thought" as it's not an intellectual virtue. Emotional Spock is supposed to be something exceptional, usually bringing out the worst in him because as a Vulcan he's ill-equipped solving problems on an emotional basis. In other words, this whole sub-plot makes no damn sense.
Saru has better vision than most humans, so he is asked by Burnham to decipher the marooned ship's registry number from the frikkin' bridge screen. If his eyes can read the registry from the screen, I'm sure so can the ship's scanners. Makes absolutely no sense. After that they launch in their little pods Battlestar Galactica style, accelerating through a narrow set of intermingled tubes.
The race through the asteroid field looked nice, but felt more like a scene from Star Wars, especially with the silly "pod racing" sounds. What's even the point rushing full speed through a highly unstable field of space debris? They have like two frikkin' hours to arrive at their destination. I get that they can't beam over there, but if they can land a bunch of space pods, they can just as well get there by shuttle. Also, don't they have deflector shields anymore? The whole situation felt so contrived, it was just a weak excuse to shove another action sequence in there.
Of course, Pike's officer Connelly dies because he wouldn't listen to Burnham, crashing into a rock while "mansplaining" to her. If only everybody could be as awesome as Burnham who can "withstand 9G for 11 minutes". Then they find Jett Reno on a marooned spaceship, an engineer who is keeping her shipmates alive with makeshift apparel and a dry sense of humor. She's not a doctor, but is capable of doing all this because "the human body is basically a machine" and because "she reads books"... but of course!
The mysterious space mystery, which are 7 red bursts scattered throughout the galaxy, are so nondescript I don't even care for the show to unravel the secret behind it. Considering thee general quality of writing, I wouldn't speculate too much either, as you'll only end up disappointed.
Lastly there's Stamets who still mourns the loss of his partner, listening to space opera. Apparently Kasillian space opera singers suicide themselves after their one and only performance, giving Stamets a weak excuse to throw in the towel having received an invitation to teach at the Vulcan Academy. Uhm yeah... ok. Considering that Vulcans are an isolationist people and highly protective of their culture, is that even a thing? I mean, Stamets invented the spore drive (one of the cool concepts in the new series) but considering what an uproar Spock's departure from the academy was, I highly doubt Vulcan academics would be very welcoming to a human professor especially one that is still very emotionally involved in the death of his partner.
The tone of the first episode is all over the place. When they arrive as the asteroid field, the music starts ramping up like crazy, as if they could die any moment now. If this were a Trek show, the crew would arrive there calmly, collect data and scan the environment according to procedure without having a go at each other like hysterical groupies at a Justin Bieber concert.
The episode shows again how little the writers care about Trek canon. It puts spectacle over meaning in a way that is not befitting the Trek franchise. The show is visually appealing enough to be entertaining as a generic sci-fi show, but as Star Trek it is woefully incapable. The only nice thing about this episode were the TOS uniforms making a comeback. Screw the silly gold and silver uniforms that looked like they were designed by Cartier.
