Star Trek: Discovery’s first half-season succeeded by breaking the rules

Spoilers ahead for the first half of season 1 of Star Trek: Discovery.

"Context is for kings,” Jason Isaacs’ Captain Gabriel Lorca intones in the third episode of Star Trek: Discovery, arguing that sometimes, Federation rules need to be broken if the situation warrants it. His declaration stands as a statement about the series in general. In its first half-season, Discovery broke many of Star Trek’s past TV rules, abandoning the familiar syndication-friendly episodic style in favor of a more plot-heavy, long-arc storytelling approach, offering more mature content than the franchise ever has before, and seemingly setting aside the long-established series canon.

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