Battle at the Binary Stars

This Story: Season 1 Episode 2 (production code 102)
DSC Overall: Episode 2
Trek Overall: Story 685b, Episode 728
Airdate: 24 Sep 2017
Story by Bryan Fuller
Teleplay by Gretchen J. Berg & Aaron Herberts
Directed by Adam Kane

Notes

• This episode aired on the same night as the first one.
• The first episode of any incarnation of Star Trek to make its initial airing *NOT* on terrestrial television – its original airing was on CBS All Access (a pay streaming service). It was repeated on traditional television about three years later, however.
• One of the Federation ships that shows up is the USS Shran – which is a reference to Thy’lek Shran from Star Trek Enterprise.
• Another ship is mentioned the USS T’Plana-Hath after a Vulcan philosopher originally referenced in Star Trek IV.
• Stamets, Tilly, & Lorca are all credited, but do not appear.
• Voq was played by the same actor who played Ash Tyler (Shazad Latif) through the first and second seasons of Discovery.  In this episode though he was credited as “Javid Iqbal” (a made up name).
• There were about 60 to 70 different starship designs designed by John Eaves for the big space battle.
• One of the Klingon houses is named here – “The House of D’Ghor”.  We previously heard that in the DS9 episode “The House of Quark“.
• T’Kuvma mentions a prior battle with the Humans at Donatu V.  This was previously mentioned in “The Trouble with Tribbles“.
• The way the Klingon ship was ultimately defeated is very similar to the events at the end of “Star Trek VI“.
• The Klingon prayer said here was later re-used in the episode “Despite Yourself“.
• As with the first episode, the Klingons speak in Klingon with no on screen subtitles.  You can however turn on the subtitles, and what they are saying is shown in English.
• This episode and the first one are basically a prequel of sorts to the series proper which starts in the third episode, IMO.  That one is the one that show’s format is shown.
• It is said here that a dead person cannot be transported (due to no life sign), but I’m pretty sure I’ve seen that happen before – I just can’t place.

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