WHAT IT'S ABOUT: The starship Discovery has a rendezvous with a particularly famous cousin, the USS Enterprise, which has been away on the other side of the universe while the Federation battled the Klingons. Capt. Christopher Pike (Anson Mount, "Hell on Wheels") seeks permission to beam aboard. He temporarily takes over command of the ship because of an impending, and mysterious, threat to the starfleet. This second season of "Discovery" _ which begins with an episode entitled "Brother" _ picks up exactly where the first left off. The war with the Klingons has ended, while there is still a little while to go before the events of The Original Series, or TOS (1966-69), take place. This season, fans meet a young Spock _ played by Ethan Peck, grandson of Gregory _ and so does Discovery's First Officer, Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green), who was raised a Vulcan and is Spock's adoptive sister.
MY SAY: "Star Trek: Discovery" had a troubled first season, which is a nice way of saying it was a "starfleet debacle!" OK, maybe not "debacle," but it was definitely an unremarkable dud that had a habit of reflecting the off-screen turmoil (a total of four top producers were fired). The first "Trek" since 2005 at times seemed lost in space, or worse, clueless in space. In one baffling move, Michelle Yeoh's character, Captain Philippa Georgiou, was killed off in the 2017 pilot episode _ a parallel universe version of Philippa was brought back late in the season _ while Yeoh would go on to become one of the hottest stars of 2018, thanks to "Crazy Rich Asians." Not about to make the same mistake twice, CBS this week handed Yeoh her own "Trek" spinoff.
If Thursday's launch is any indication, "Discovery" and showrunner Alex Kurtzman have learned from past mistakes, too. "Discovery 2.0" appears to be that vitally needed course correction and reset. It's also a big, brassy entertainment that's more aligned with a theatrical experience than what's typically a TV one. That's shrewd too because there's an arms race in TV right now. Winter is coming and "Game of Thrones" is nigh. Streaming series like this one had better look expensive or risk instant irrelevance. "Brother" looks expensive, all right.
