TL;DR – New faces, old friends, and a new dilemma, sign me up.

Score – 4 out of 5 stars

Review –

The first season of Star Trek Discovery was one that started of interesting, took a bit to find its feet, but by the end of the Season a bunch of people had become a crew, and I was there for it. Tonight we dive back in with a bit of trepidation because they ended the season face to face with the most iconic starship in Star Trek history the original USS Enterprise. So where do you take the story from here, well into some very new territory it seems. 

So to set the scene, at the end of Will You Take My Hand? the USS Discovery was on its way to Vulcan to both drop of Sarek (James Frain) and also pick up their new captain. Well before they got there, they had to drop out of warp due to an emergency distress beacon coming from the USS Enterprise. In Brother, we start right from where we left off, trying to hail the ship when nothing else worked it was Morse Code that made it through and the Enterprise informed them that Captain Pike (Anson Mount) and two others were coming on board. Well, both Sarek and Michael (Sonequa Martin-Green) know who severs on the ship, but Spock is not there. Pike informs everyone that he is taking over command of the ship because of an emergency, you see seven lights just blared into existence across the galaxy, at the same moment, thousands of light years apart. Well since they just got out of a war The Federation is understandably nervous about what this might mean because this is not a natural phenomenon. Well off The Discovery goes, once more unto the breach, which turns out to be literal when they drop out of warp behind a fracturing asteroid. Now we will be looking at the episode as a whole, so there will be [SPOILERS] ahead.

The first thing we see with Brother is a shift that we have never had to deal with in Star Trek before, and that is a change of captains, from Lorca to Pike. In many respects, we are in uncharted territory, so it is so grateful that Anson Mount immediately fits in with the rest of the cast. He is a different type of captain that we have had both in and out of Discovery, charming, but direct, and when he says ‘let’s have a little fun’ you believe it, but then he can also hush the entire bridge when he needs to. Add to this, whoever was behind casting Tig Notaro as Denise Reno should win an award, because that was an amazing choice, and I hope we get to see more of her throughout the season.

While there were some new faces in this first episode, there was also the return of our cast, that have a year behind them in their roles and now they are coming out swinging. For Michael, her entire world just got turned upside down with first the idea of meeting Spock again, and then not actually getting that resolution. As Michael is the emotional core of the show, you can feel that sadness as Spock turns away from her as a child when she is at her lowest point. It was also good to see a bit more about the relationship between her and Amanda (Mia Kirshner). There is a lot of pain behind her separation with Spock and that is something that I am sure will be explored more.

Now Stamets (Anthony Rapp) has been able to finish the last mission he has time to grieve, and it pains him because he sees Hugh (Wilson Cruz) everywhere on Discovery. Even in this episode, there was a nice arc to his story from being a bit too forthcoming with Tilly (Mary Wiseman) to being in despair, to getting that moment of joy when new science opens up new opportunities. Also seeing in the opening credits that Wilson Cruz has been upgraded to regular when his character died last season, well you have my interest. Speaking of Tilly It was nice to see her both taking big steps forward, yet still not being all there when the new captain arrived.

One thing that you will see throughout the episode is just how beautiful it all is, indeed those opening moments where they merge from Cassini footage to the galaxy was gorgeous. All throughout the episode, there are these moments where they didn’t need to take the extra effort to frame it as well as they did, like a long shot of the USS Enterprise panning to people walking down a hallway, but I am glad that they did. There are some good action moments throughout the film, including one scene that reminded me of Into the Darkness, but like one of the few good things about that film. The sets were great and I really liked how the dressed the USS Hiawatha, like I know that is a warehouse, but you made it work. As always Gersha Phillips is here with the amazing costume design and I wonder if we will see the crew transition to the new uniforms as the series progresses.

In the end, do we recommend Brother? Yes, yes we do. As a first episode, it brings everyone together, introduces new characters, and sets in motion the big mystery of the season. It has some seriously high production values, and it makes the most of every moment it is on screen. Also, that end reveal, oh Spock what have you gotten yourself into.             

By Brian MacNamara: You can follow Brian on Twitter Here, when he’s not chatting about Movies and TV, he’ll be talking about International Relations, or the Solar System.

Have you seen Star Trek Discovery yet?, let us know what you thought in the comments below, feel free to share this review on any of the social medias and you can follow us Here. Check out all our past reviews and articles Here, and have a happy day.   

Credits – All images were created by the cast, crew, and production companies of Star Trek Discovery
Directed by –Alex Kurtzman
Written by – Alex Kurtzman, Gretchen J. Berg & Ted Sullivan
Based off – Star Trek created by Gene Roddenberry
Created by – Bryan Fuller & Alex Kurtzman  
Starring in Season 2 – Sonequa Martin-Green, Doug Jones, Anthony Rapp, Mary Wiseman, Wilson Cruz & Anson Mount with James Frain, Mia Kirshner, Tig Notaro, Hannah Cheesman, Emily Coutts, Oyin Oladejo, Patrick Kwok-Choon, Ronnie Rowe Jr., Sara Mitich, Sean Connolly Affleck, Arista Arhin, Raven Dauda, Julianne Grossman, Liam Hughes, David Benjamin Tomlinson & Ethan Peck