Discovery

Star Trek finally returned to “television” in 2017, twelve full years after Enterprise left the air, and like ENT, Star Trek: Discovery (“DIS“) is another prequel series to TOS, albeit a lot closer in time to Kirk & Company’s first adventure (in 2265). Similar to Voyager launching the United Paramount Network in the 1990s, DIS launched CBS’s online streaming service CBS All Access in an attempt to compete with Netflix and Amazon Prime utilizing CBS’s extensive back catalog of Paramount and Desilu-produced classic television shows.

Given that almost no one from the prior iterations of the franchise are involved with this new era of Star Trek on television, and CBS vested interest in Discovery being a success, this show has a cinematic level of production in every episode that attempts to pull some of the modernization and style that made The Kelvin Films a huge success with movie-goers.

All episodes are listed for each season. Each episode is indicated with either a “W” for watch or an “S” for skip. I also opted to order my viewing in “chronological order” as best determined by the initial stardate given in the episode. If there isn’t a stardate, I placed it where it made the most sense relative to the other episodes. Eventually, each title will link to a post that discusses the reasoning for seeing an episode and skipping an episode.

Lastly, episodes that are “essential” are indicated with an * in the Ep. No. column. Essential episodes are selected on a number of factors including character development, other cannon connections, and cultural impact. In other words, these often are the best of the best of each season.

Season 1

The first season of Star Trek: Discovery starts with a bang! With the new online streaming presentation, much of the restrictions placed on the prior series are gone, allowing for more daring and modern storytelling, even if the results are a bit uneven. But let’s face it, it is a rare Star Trek series that has a smooth first season either in front of the camera or behind it.

CBS split the season into two “chapters” between episodes nine and ten, when it evidently became clear after changes in leadership that they needed to add a couple more episodes to better handle the story laid out in the first three of the season.

100% of the season is worth watching and needed for season two, even though the main story does not carry across to the next season. Of these episodes, six are essential viewing.

Ep. No.	Title	Stardate	See/Skip
01×01*	The Vulcan Hello	1207.3	W
01×02*	Battle at the Binary Stars	1207.3	W
01×03*	Context is for Kings	Unknown	W
01×04	The Butcher’s Knife Cares Not for the Lamb’s Cry	Unknown	W
01×05*	Choose Your Pain	Unknown	W
01×06*	Lethe	Unknown	W
01×07*	Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad	2136.8	W
01×08	Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum	1308.9	W
01×09	Into the Forest I Go	Unknown	W
01×10	Despite Yourself	Unknown	W
01×11	The Wolf Inside	Unknown	W
01×12	Vaulting Ambition	Unknown	W
01×13	What’s Past is Prologue	1834.2	W
01×14	The War Without, The War Within	Unknown	W
01×15	Will You Take My Hand?	Unknown	W

Season 2

Season Two picks up where Season One left us, resolving some of the dangling plot lines and resolving an odd creative decision. We finally get to see a more fully realized Captain Christopher Pike, a reasonable update to the starship Enterprise, and a few familiar characters appear this season.

Again, behind-the-scenes turmoil, multiple showrunners, and likely an overly ambitious plot idea lead to some uneven storytelling this season. With that said, the production of this season even exceeds that of the first season and the visual results are stunning.

Between Seasons One and Two, CBS also produced a short series of shorts, most of which tie into the events of this season. I’ve created a separate page for Short Treks over here.

So, with all that, 100% of the season is worth (rather, required) watching in order to understand the plot. Until I rewatch the season, I will state that at least four episodes are required viewing.

Ep. No.	Title	Stardate	See/Skip
02×01*	Brother	1025.19	W
02×02	New Eden	1027.32	W
02×03	Point of Light	1029.26	W
02×04	An Obol for Charon	1834.2512	W
02×05	Saints of Imperfection	Unknown	W
02×06	The Sound of Thunder	1035.86	W
02×07	Light and Shadows	Unknown	W
02×08*	If Memory Serves	1532.9	W
02×09	Project Daedalus	Unknown	W
02×10	The Red Angel	Unknown	W
02×11	Perpetual Infinity	Unknown	W
02×12	Through the Valley of Shadows	1048.66	W
02×13*	Such Sweet Sorrow	1050.8	W
02×14*	Such Sweet Sorrow | Part II	1201.7	W

Stardate Sidebar: Note, the stardates used in Discovery are a mess. There currently seems to be no progressive logic for how they flow during the first two years depicted on-screen. Maybe I will figure it out on my next rewatch.

Season 3

930 years after the events depicted in the season two finale, we learn what happened to the crew of the Crossfire-class starship U.S.S. Discovery.

Ep. No.	Title	Stardate	See/Skip
03×01	That Hope is You, Part I*	Unknown	W
03×02	Far From Home*	Unknown	W
03×03	People of Earth	865211.3	W
03×04	Forget Me Not	Unknown	W
03×05	Die Trying	Unknown	W
03×06	Scavengers	Unknown	W
03×07	Unification III*	Unknown	W
03×08	The Sanctuary	Unknown	W
03×09	Terra Firma, Part I*	Unknown	W
03×10	Terra Firma, Part II*	Unknown	W
03×11	Su’Kal*	Unknown	W
03×12	There is a Tide…*	Unknown	W
03×13	That Hope is You, Part II*	Unknown	W

Season Four

Captain Burnham and the crew of the U.S.S. Discovery race to locate the source of a galactic threat before it destroys the burgeoning Federation.

Ep. No.	Title	Stardate	See/Skip
Part I
04×01	Kobayashi Maru*	Unknown | 3190	W
04×02	Anomaly	Unknown | 3190	W
04×03	Choose to Live	Unknown | 3190	W
04×04	All Is Possible	865661.2	W
04×05	The Examples	Unknown | 3190	W
04×06	Stormy Weather	Unknown | 3190	W
04×07	…But to Connect	Unknown | 3190	W
Part II
04×08	All In	Unknown | 3190	W
04×09	Rubicon	Unknown | 3190	W
04×10	The Galactic Barrier	Unknown | 3190	W
04×11	Rosetta	865783.7	W
04×12	Species Ten-C*	Unknown | 3190	W
04×13	Coming Home*	Unknown | 3190	W

Season Five

In its fifth and final season, the crew of the U.S.S. Discovery embark on a bold new adventure, following a trail of clues left behind from a group of scientists from 800 years past.

Ep. No.	Title	Star Date	See/Skip
05×01	Red Directive*	Unknown	W
05×02	Under the Twin Moons	866274.3	W
05×03	Jinaal	Unknown	W
05×04	Face the Strange*	Unknown	W
05×05	Mirrors	866282.9	W
05×06	Whistlespeak	Unknown	W
05×07	Erigah	Unknown	W
05×08	Labyrinths*	Unknown	W
05×09	Lagrange Point*	Unknown	W
05×10	Life, Itself*	Unknown	W