Warning – Spoilers. Still haven’t seen the episode? View on CBS All Access (US), Space or CraveTV (Canada) or Netflix (worldwide excluding North America).

Alan Leightizer (Lieutenant Guy Guyson) and Velvet Wells (Chief Engineer Tachyon Field) are crew of the USS Hummingbird. They have performed together at Holodeck Follies for the last five years.

Continue reading for their first reactions to Star Trek: Discovery “Battle at the Binary Stars” (s1e2).

Yesterday Velvet answered a lot of questions and Alan gave his instant reaction thoughts while watching the first Star Trek: Discovery episode, “Vulcan Hello”. Today they both share their top of mind thoughts and questions on “Battle at the Binary Stars”.

Alan

• Ha ha, lateral vector transporter. I was wondering about the weird setup, I like they explained it.
• With the Captain holding a pistol on the 2nd in Command, wouldn’t security have been more active?
• Boots with insignia for clips/fasteners? Or just decoration?
• Seems the brig is the best place to be in case the ship gets attacked – it has all the forcefields.
• Neat to actually see the emergency force fields.
• They’re about to slam into an asteroid and she says “all hands prepare for evacuation”… but no warning for the impact? Rude.
• Surprised the first thing out of their mouths wasn’t “SHIT THE KLINGONS HAVE INVISIBLE SHIPS”
• When escaping the brig, sure the pressure would have shot her out of the brig, but opening the blast door would have pushed her away from the door as well, leaving her tumbling in the vacuum.
• If they were being sucked into a binary star’s debris field and stopped by a tractor beam, why didn’t the ship continue into the debris field after the ship with the tractor beam was destroyed?
• She broke out of the brig (fine, she was going to die anyway)
• They have half a dozen transporters and surely more than one torpedo warhead, why send only one?
• Brave going to a damaged Klingon warship without life support or any sort of protective gear (That’s Star Trek for ya)
• They just transported a warhead, why can’t they transport without a lifesign? I guess it’s a matter of from vs to.
• WHY KILL THE KLINGON IT WAS YOUR PLAN TO CAPTURE HIM AND YOU’RE A RATIONAL VULCAN-TRAINED OFFICER! SO DUMB.
• Ha ha, Star Trek: Discovery of a Federation Prison.

Velvet

I edited out some of my duplicates from Alan’s list:

• USS Shenzhou – keeping old technology showing Starfleet keeps updating old designs (and will in the future the reader already knows)
• Burnham’s curtness reminds me of 7of9. Some claim both characters were rude because they don’t have patience for niceties. Stop trying to soften female characters.
• “Behave.” Seems to be the theme for the character. Also seems way too emotional a word for a Vulcan. Also bet some flippant retort was cut from the script.
• The “Confidence is justified. As is yours” is a great exchange as both characters check themselves. Note to self: Also a great elevator speech.
• Why does Sarek care so much? Why invest so much in Burnham’s development? Is it out of guilt because he proposed the Vulcan Hello that ended in so many lost lives?
• “If we’re talking we’re not fighting” antithetical to Klingons – great example how the two cultures are alien to each other
• Voluntary antimatter containment breach – treknobabble for Starfleet does believe in suicide despite what Picard and others tell Worf.
• Disciplinary board – fully POC, thankfully and one even gets to speak!
• “Service was my purpose… that dream is over.” – powerful delivery, watching Burnham realize that the second life she knew was gone and she would have to start over for a third time.
• “Now I am the enemy.” A challenging line to the naysayers. Even though they are sending her away, she ain’t goin away, seen?

Things I took as references or nods to other Star Trek franchise moments

• Donatu V – site of the Klingon Federation war 2244
• USS Shran, a nod to Jeffrey Coombs character
• Theme: Federation being positioned the same way the Borg were viewed – destroying individuality. We know it isn’t true but does that mean the Borg were just misunderstood?
• Burnham has Kirk’s ability to talk computers to death
• Imprisonment for life – like certain other Federation crew… send her to the Federation version of Rura Penthe — (insert your least favourite local city here)

Episode Two should have been combined as an extended episode. By being separated, some great moments felt rushed to complete the chapter.

One longer movie style episode would have: given a sense of completion to the narrative, been a better teaser for those coming back to Star Trek, and, since we are not post scarcity yet, seen as better network goodwill toward those without subscription access.

What are your reactions so far?