Star Trek Discovery launches a new vision for the franchise that is familiar yet different

Star Trek has been a huge impact to the scifi geek community worldwide. The franchise has spawned 5 television series, 13 movies and 1 animated series. Star Trek started out as a television series in 1966 for 3 seasons before being revived as a movie in 1979, thanks in no small part to the blockbuster success of Star Wars. More movies then followed together with multiple TV spin-offs: The Next Generation (TNG), Deep Space Nine (DS9), Voyager, Enterprise. The last series Enterprise ended in 2005, leaving fans devoid of Star Trek on TV for over a decade... until NOW. Star Trek fans, or Trekkies, of all generations can join on adventures where no one has gone before with the release of Star Trek Discovery early this week!

Star Trek: Discovery is co-created by Bryan Fuller (Star Trek DS9 & Voyager) and Alex Kurtzman (Star Trek 2009 reboot & Into Darkness, Transformers) for CBS, a US media corporation currently custodian of the Star Trek franchise. The series lead goes to Sonequa Martin-Green (The Walking Dead) as Starfleet Commander Michael Burnham. The support cast includes Doug Jones (Hellboy) as Lt. Saru, Michelle Yeoh (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) as Captain Phillipa Georgiou, James Frain (The Lone Ranger) as Vulcan Ambassador Sarek, Shazad Latif (Spooks) as Lt. Ash Tyler, Anthony Rapp (A Beautiful Mind) as Lt. Paul Stamets, Jason Issacs (Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets) as Captain Gabriel Lorca, Mary Wiseman (Baskets) as Cadet Sylvia Tilly and Chris Obi (American Gods) as Klingon leader T'Kuvma. Since the departure of Bryan Fuller in November last year, Executive Producers Gretchen J. Berg and Aaron Harberts currently serve as showrunners for the series, i.e. the ones with overall creative authority and management authority, or figuratively the joint-Captains of Star Trek Discovery.

Behind-the-scenes featurette.

This new series is yet another prequel ("can we not finally move forward in the timeline?" - editor's rant) that takes place 10 years before Kirk and Spock begin their missions in The Original Series. It is is not affected by the reboot films (Star Trek, Into Darkness, Beyond) which have since been classified as the Kelvin timeline. Therefore taking place in the Prime timeline, the adventures of Discovery occur in the time-span between Enterprise concluding in the year 2161 and The Original Series commencing in 2266; let's not get into stardate namenclature, it's just confusing!

Sonequa Martin-Green as Commander Michael Burnham (centre), Tan Sri Michelle Yeoh as Captain Philippa Georgiou (right) and Doug Jones as Lt. Saru on the bridge of the USS Shenzhou.

The main protagonist Michael Burnham is a human black woman raised on Vulcan as a ward of Ambassador Sarek; yes Spock's father. Michael (show creator Bryan Fuller likes assigning female characters male names) has since joined Starfleet at the urging of her adoptive father and progressed to the position of First Officer of U.S.S. Shenzhou, serving under Captain Phillipa Georgiou for the last 7 years. So begins the pilot episode of the series "The Vulcan Hello".

The opening title sequence of Star Trek Discovery is departure from the typical starship flybys of preceding series (Enterprise excepted).

Introducing the Starfleet crew circa 2256:

Senoque Martin Green as Commander Michael Burnham, First Officer of the U.S.S. Shenzhou.

As a result of her Vulcan upbringing, she maintains an air of cool logic with emotions held in check yet not totally suppressing them unlike true Vulcans. Burnham is a Xenoanthropologist and inherently a first contact specialist.

Malaysia's Tan Sri Michelle Yeoh as Captain Phillipa Georgiou of the U.S.S. Shenzhou.

She is a veteran of war and Michael Burnham's Starfleet mentor.

TV trivia: Most US TV productions task their cast to speak English in American accents. As a departure from this norm, Michelle Yeoh as Captain Georgiou retained her polished Chinese-Malaysian accent as a statement on global diversity in the hopeful future. Read more into this from an article on SyFy. Whilst here in Malaysia we are much accustomed to this as her normal accent, Americans may be just tempted to flick on the English subs to catch every word!

"Easter Egg" found! Captain Georgiou keeps a piece of asian culture in here ready room / office. Can you spot it? Read more about this at TheHypedGeek.com. 

Doug Jones as Lt. Saru, Science Officer on the Shenzhou.

Saru is a Kelpian, an alien species that has the ability to sense threats including rather pessimistic premonitions of death.

Jason Isaacs as Captain Gabriel Lorca of the U.S.S. Discovery.

A brilliant tactician with a decisive charisma but he hides some secrets.

Anthony Rapp as Lt. Paul Stamets on the Discovery.

An Astromycologist by training means Stamets specializes in space fungus ("seriously how useful is that going to be?" - editor's rant)

Shazad Latiff as Lt. Ash Tyler, Security Officer of the U.S.S. Discovery.

Mary Wiseman as Cadet Sylvia Tilly.

A final year cadet of the Starfleet Academy working in Engineering of the Discovery.

Listen directly from the Starfleet crew themselves as they introduce the mission of Star Trek Discovery.

James Frain is Ambassador Sarek of Vulcan.

Father to the soon to be infamous half-Vulcan Mr. Spock, and adoptive father to Michael Burnham.

In every incarnation of Star Trek, the lead starship (or space station in case of DS9) is every bit a character by itself. The starship brings our Starfleet heroes to adventures where no one has gone before and often times is an adventure itself.

U.S.S. Discovery NCC-1031.

The lead starship of the namesake series is captained by Gabriel Lorca. Nothing much is known about this starship yet of its capabilities ("although it could be used as a giant space pizza cutter!" - editor's rant). Fan speculation suggests it is one of Starfleet's newer starships and conceivably fast with its lengthy warp nacelles. This speculative video by Hybrid Network might provide more insights:

U.S.S. Shenzhou NCC-1227, Walker-class starship.

The other major Starfleet vessel to feature in this series is the U.S.S. Shenzhou, commanded by Phillipa Georgiou. It is designated a Walker-class starship and apparently an older model, although how then its registration number of NCC-1227 exceeds that of the Discovery's NCC-1031 may indeed suggest otherwise. Unusually the bridge for this class of starship is located at the bottom of the saucer section.

The Shenzhou in atmospheric flight.

It's no spoiler that Klingons feature heavily in this series and looks to provide the over-arching plot. At the start of the serious, relations between The Federation and The Klingon Empire is icy, unlike most of the TNG era where both are staunch allies. There are 24 Great Houses in the empire and whereby a formidable leader T'kuvma steps forth attempting to unite them all against the Federation.

Chris Obi is Klingon T'Kuvma.

Outcast albino Klingon V'oq serves T'Kuvma as his devote right hand.

What, those are Klingons? We have seen the smooth forehead Klingons from TOS evolve to their bumpy forehead versions in TNG, explained as side-effects of genetic engineering gone wrong in the Enterprise series. Then Klingons in the JJ Abrams Kelvin timeline sported another variant. Now here is yet another variant of Klingon in Star Trek Discovery looking even more alien. And not just in physical look but also dress (ouch, spikey!) and cultural look (organic ships?). No clues yet as to whether this will be explained over the course of the series in a logical explanation acceptable to fans. Read more about the new Klingon look in this article by USA today.

REMAIN KLINGON: A cool Klingon trailer version for Star Trek Discovery as seen from their perspective!

There are many more Klingon characters and look towards which ones to be the major antagonists as the series progresses. Oh, in Klingon scenes, our Klingons now fully speak Klingon! Worry not there are subtitles provided... in fact each episode contains Klingon subtitles for our English-speaking characters!

Star Trek Discovery is now available to us here in Malaysia via Netflix. New episodes will be released on Mondays at approximately 3pm Malaysian time. There are 15 episodes for this season with the first 8 scheduled until 6 November 2017. After a mid-season break, the remaining episodes commence on January 2018.

The first two episodes of the series has been released this Monday 25 September 2017. Here are initial reactions for episode 1 "The Vulcan Hello" & episode 2 "Battle at the Binary Stars" during a mini-viewing party for Malaysian Trekkies by Outpost (no spoilers):

This two episodes can be seen as a pilot to the new series, introducing some key characters and the tone for the season. For a more in depth look into Star Trek Discovery, watch our video review hosted by Vulcan cultural officer Mr. Smock with local Trekkies Thomas Kuan and Chow F.C. aka Mr. Engineer:

Here are snippets of what to look forward to in the coming episodes including the U.S.S. Discovery in action (beware MAJOR SPOILERS if not yet watched first 2 episodes):

Now for some goodies to our valued readers!

OUTPOST GIVEAWAY

Thanks for Netflix, we have more GOODIES to GIVEAWAY! Up for grabs we have 3 complimentary 3-month subscriptions for Netflix so you Trekkies can watch Star Trek Discover legit. Also 1 lucky winner with receive a Netflix tote bag, notebook, lanyard, and pen.

To stand a chance to win this Outpost Giveaway, just follow these few simple steps:

• Like our Facebook Page Outpost Productions.
• Like / Wow / Love this Facebook post.
• Share the Facebook post to your timeline (set privacy to public) with reasons why your friends should watch Star Trek Discovery, .e.g. I want to watch Star Trek Discovery to see Michelle Yeoh as a Starfleet Captain.
• Include in your shared post hashtags #StarTrekDiscovery #Netflix #OutpostGiveaway.
• Join local Trekkies on Facebook Group Starbase MY - Star Trek Fans Malaysia
• Fill in your details in the form below which include permalink to your shared post.

This contest will be closing on Monday 2 October 2017, 11.59pm. winers will be notified. So make sure to follow us and stay tuned!



Other Terms & Conditions:
a. Participants must be resident in Malaysia.
b. Giveaways comprise 1 tote bag with Netflix gift card (main prize), and 2 Netflix gift cards (consolation) for total 3 winners.
c. Winner of tote bag must be able to arrange self-collection of prize within 2 weeks of notification. Collection point will be in Klang Valley.
d. Only 1 entry per person.
e. Submission to Join the Facebook Group Starbase MY - Star Trek Fans Malaysia must be received before closing deadline.
f. Selection of winners are final
g. We reserve the right to amend these terms and conditions without prior notice.

LIVE LONG AND PROSPER

Stay tuned to Outpost Productions on the following channels for our geeky news and intel plus Trekkie meetups in Malaysia:

• Facebook / Twitter / Instagram: OutpostMY
• YouTube: MySciFiFanOutpost

Disclaimer: Star Trek and other trademarks are copyright to CBS and/or Paramount, referenced here for fan service announcements without intent to infringe.

Deciphering the logic behind Star Trek most rewatched episodes on Netflix

Renown streaming service Netflix officially opened access to Malaysia subscribers in January last year, offering STAR TREK content from the entire franchise comprising six television series and twelve movies; the 13th movie Star Trek Beyond has yet to join the Netflix roster. Excluding the movies, the 1970's Animated Series and Trek-related documentaries, that's a massive database of 695 episodes produced in half a century logging in over 536 hours of airtime.

Star Trek first aired on 8 September 1966, creating sci-fi icons Mr. Spock (left) and Captain Kirk.

In conjunction with the 51st Anniversary of Star Trek and pending launch of the next series, Discovery, Netflix has revealed some interesting statistics on viewership of the venerable sci-fi franchise from among its 104 million subscribers across 190 countries. Firstly, 12,000 fans have watched every episode of Star Trek on Netflix. We presume these are true fans, or Trekkies, to have dedicated the equivalent of 22 days to this endeavour. Yes, Outpost and our resident Vulcan Mr. Smock salutes you hardcore Trekkies. LLAP.

Source: Netflix

Secondly, Netflix revealed the ten most rewatched episodes of the saga, and the selection certainly raises Vulcan eyebrows from the fandom. Among Trekkies, our gut feel (as unVulcan-like as it sounds) of favourite episodes would lean towards some of these titles:

• The Original Series (TOS): The City on the Edge of Forever, Balance of Terror, Mirror Miror, Space Seed.
• The Next Generation (TNG): All Good Things, The Inner Light, Yesterday's Enterprise or Best of Both Worlds.
• Deep Space Nine (DS9): Sacrifice of Angels, What You Leave Behind, Trials and Tribbleations, The Visitor.
• Voyager: Scorpion, Timeless, Message in a Bottle, Endgame; this series tends to have short titles!
• Enterprise: Similitude, Carbon Creek, In a Mirror Darkly, Twilight; some of the multi-episode arcs of Season 4 were also fascinating

Netflix's methodology omits the pilot episodes of each series, possibly since most viewers would logically watch the pilot first to sample the series before committing to its run.  So if pilot episodes were allowed as candidates, the top ten list may indeed comprise each pilot from the five series. "Rewatched" is defined as a subscriber returning to watch at least 6 minutes of a previously completed episode. Logical? Enough so.

Well the actual results did reflect some of the above picks but also contained some surprises:

Source: Netflix

To be fair, if each series were to be reflected equally in a top 10 list, that would only allow 2 episodes to be nominated from each series. TNG is no doubt a common fan favourite, hence having Best of Both Worlds and Q Who is no surprise as the most watched episodes. What does seem surprising among Trek fandom is the overwhelming popularity of Voyager taking 6 out of 10 slots in this list, and totally leaving TOS and DS9 in the dust! No Enterprise, no tears that's fine since it's often touted as the weakest series.

You must watch these: Resistance is Futile
Source: Netflix

A closer look at the selections point towards rewatching Borg-centric episodes from both TNG and Voyager: Q Who, Best of Both Worlds, Scorpion, Dark Frontier and Endgame (ranked no. 1). These episodes making up 70% of the list clearly shows continued fascination with the Delta Quadrant's most dangerous cybernetic species. Perhaps fans were selectively screening Borg episode marathons. Here's a Borg documentary which fans surely don't mind rewatching:

This is part 1 of 2 (pun intended).

One of the non-Borg episodes from Voyager The Gift is easily remembered when Kes departs the series immediately after the events of Scorpion allowing for recruitment of sexy Borg 7 of 9 as part of the main cast. The other two episodes comprise Time and Again from Voyager Season 1, and Clues from TNG Season 4. Er, what? Need a mindmeld to jog your memory? Maybe these 2 episode trailers could help:

Whilst the TNG episode trailer for Clues seems intriguing, the choice of Time and Again from Voyager's opening season defies logic when compared against so many better episodes from the saga. Perhaps if the 2-part episodes were merged to allow 2 more slots in this top ten, there would be some entries from other series and the better known episodes among the fan community.

On a global scale, Netflix reflects that TNG and TOS have bigger audiences, but Voyager and DS9 have more rewatches of favourite episodes. And despite well-known mixed emotions fans have towards the 7-year run of Voyager, many still return to rewatch the series.

Here's what American Trekkies had to say to Netflix on their favourite captain and episodes.

Now Netflix's data on the most rewatched episodes for subscribers in Malaysia are indeed more curious:

Source: Netflix

Voyager dominates unanimously on the top ten list ousting even TNG. Similarly with the global top ten, popular Borg episodes Endgame and Scorpion make the list together with The Gift and Time & Again (still why?). A selection of other Season 1 episodes come into play from Phage introducing the organ-stealing Vidiians, The Cloud and Eye of the Needle. Here's a more thoughtful hypothesis on why by our Mr. Smock: "Together with Time and Again, this cluster of the four first season Voyager episodes listed in sequence are simply reflecting a number of local Netflix viewers rewatching the series from start."

Here's revisiting the Voyager with the cast Kate Mulgrew, Garrett Wang, and Robert Picardo.

Indeed the devotion of Malaysian Trekkies to Voyager may be uncharacteristically high due to airing of the series on Hallmark channel on pay-TV broadcaster Astro during the previous decade. Hallmark aired every episode every day consistently plus reruns for an extended period thereby allowing many Malaysians to be exposed to Star Trek through Voyager. In contrast, TNG was broadcast weekly on public TV during the 1980's into the 1990's, whilst Enterprise may have only been available through one of Astro's subscription channels in the early Y2K era. Deep Space Nine was only broadcast for the first couple of seasons before the host channel went off air, hence never completing the series run in Malaysia.

Crew of the Voyager can toast towards being the most popular Star Trek on Netflix in Malaysia.

For Malaysian Voyager fans out here, Mr. Smock highly recommends sampling some of the other Star Trek series on Netflix, starting with the episodes mentioned near the start of this post. Kindly note later seasons of both DS9 and Enterprise became highly serialised, hence it may be more difficult to jump into these series which may form part of a wider story arc. For more standalone episodes, select from TOS and TNG.

Of course, Trekkies across the world are standing by for the next live-action series Star Trek Discovery releasing in under 2 weeks on Netflix come 25 September 2017. Discovery takes place in the Prime timeline  10 years prior to TOS. The series lead actress is Sonequa Martin-Green (The Walking Dead) as Michael Burnham, First Officer of the USS Shenzhou. Michael Burnham has been revealed as Spock's half-sister through adoption by his Vulcan father Sarek, played by James Frain. Captain of the USS Shenzou is Malaysia's own Tan Sri Michelle Yeoh, in the role of Captain Philippa Georgiou. The USS Discovery itself is captained by Gabriel Lorca, played by Jason Isaacs (Harry Potter). Much of the series appears centred around conflict with the Klingons. Let's start the countdown to Discovery!

Star Trek Discovery lead Sonequa Martin-Green as Michael Burnham (centre) and Tan Sri Michelle Yeoh as Captain Phillippa Georgiou (seated right).

Stay tuned for our special feature on Star Trek Discovery coming soon after premiere of this new series on 25 September 2017.

OUTPOST GIVEAWAY

Thanks for the nice PR folks at Netflix who actually noticed this piece, we have some GOODIES to GIVEAWAY! Specially for 1 lucky Malaysia Trekkie, we will giving away a Netflix tote bag loaded with a notebook, lanyard, pen and 3-month subscription to Netflix.

Win this Netflix tote bag and goodies

Plus 2 consolation winners will also receive a Netflix Gift Card for 3-month subscription. Perfect for binge watching over 700 episodes of Star Trek which can be completed within 22 days of the 90-day subscription, provided no sleeping involved!

Win this complimentary subscription to Netflix and binge watch every single episode of Star Trek.

To stand a chance to win this Outpost Giveaway, just follow these few simple steps:

1. Like  / Wow / Love this Facebook post.
2. Share the Facebook post to your timeline (set privacy to public).
3. Post under Comments in the Facebook post title of your favourite Star Trek episode from those mentioned in this blog post with your reasons for selection.
4. Include in your comment hashtags #StarTrek #Netflix #TopTen #OutpostGiveaway.
5. Join local Trekkies on Facebook Group Starbase MY - Star Trek Fans Malaysia
6. Like our Facebook Page Outpost Productions

This contest will be closing on Tuesday 26 September 2017, 11.59pm. Notification of winners will be via Outpost Productions Facebook Page with instructions for prize redemption. So make sure to follow us and stay tuned!

Other Terms & Conditions:

a. Participants must be resident in Malaysia.

b. Giveaways comprise 1 tote bag with Netflix gift card (main prize), and 2 Netflix gift cards (consolation) for total 3 winners.

c. Winner of tote bag must be able to arrange self-collection of prize within 2 weeks of notification. Collection point will be in Klang Valley.

d. Only 1 entry per person.

e. Submission to Join the Facebook Group Starbase MY - Star Trek Fans Malaysia must be received before closing deadline.

f. Selection of winners are final

g. We reserve the right to amend these terms and conditions without prior notice.

LIVE LONG AND PROSPER

Follow Mr. Smock's cultural assimilation via Outpost social media channels.

Stay tuned to Outpost Productions on the following channels for our geeky news and intel plus Trekkie meetups in Malaysia:

• Facebook / Twitter / Instagram: OutpostMY
• YouTube: MyscififanOutpost

Disclaimer: Star Trek and other trademarks are copyright to CBS and/or Paramount, referenced here for fan service announcements without intent to infringe.