Star Trek Discovery: Season One

Set 10 years before the events of the original 1960s Star Trek series, Discovery is situated at the beginning of the war between the Federation and the Klingon Empire. Sonequa Martin-Green stars as Commander Michael Burnham, a respected Starfleet officer who is convicted of mutiny after defying her Captain (Michelle Yeoh) in an attempt to stop a war. Captain Lorca (Jason Isaacs), the maverick commander of the science ship Discovery, believes that she is essential to winning the war and offers her a position with his crew, but First Officer Saru (Doug Jones), who previously served with Burnham, is wary. This is a Trek show set in a time of war and the dark style (visually and thematically) reflects that. There are nods to the original series with appearances of Vulcan diplomat Sarek (James Frain) and con man Harry Mudd (Rainn Wilson), and the ship becomes trapped in the same evil alternate universe introduced in the original series episode "Mirror, Mirror." All in all, this is an exciting, visually inventive show that offers the evolution of a crew bonding in crisis and puts the ideals of the Federation philosophy to test, and it should appeal to Star Trek fans. Since it was created for the subscription streaming service CBS All Access, this home video release will be the first opportunity for many viewers to see the series. Compiling all 15 episodes from the 2017-18 debut season, extras include behind-the-scenes featurettes, and deleted/extended scenes. Highly recommended. (S. Axmaker)