Beam us up, Scotty! For the first time in over ten years, Star Trek returns to television with a brand new series, Star Trek: Discovery. Set ten years before the events of Star Trek: The Original Series, the series will follow the crew of the USS Discovery as they travel throughout the Final Frontier. The series will also explain the initial conflict between Starfleet and the Klingon Empire from both perspectives.

This series is the first Star Trek series to focus on the First Officer of a ship rather than the captain. In this case, the main character is First Officer Michael Burnham, played by Sonequa Martin-Green. She is the First Officer of the USS Shenzhou, and was apparently raised as a Vulcan by Spock’s father, Sarek. While Spock had no sister in the original series, this series promises that while exploring Burnham’s backstory throughout the series, it will be revealed in a way that won’t break the continuity of the Star Trek universe.

We also get to see a new ship. While this first episode focuses on the USS Shenzhou, we will probably get to see a new ship called the Discovery sometime later in the series, hence the name. And if the premiere episode’s ending is anything to go by, we probably will be seeing the Discovery very soon.

Speaking of the premiere episode, it appears that the main plotline of the series will be focused on a confrontation between Starfleet and the Klingon Empire. Most notably, the Klingon known as T’Kuvma, played by Chris Obi, is attempting to unite all the Klingon houses against Starfleet. Given the Klingon’s warlike nature, it won’t be any surprise to see T’Kuvma try to get an all-out war between the two sides.

On a side note, the look of the Klingons changed a little bit for this series. They seemed darker and more alien like, with inspiration based on factors such as previous appearances in the Star Trek Universe, original inspirations for the species, and the novel The Final Reflection.

This series also will involve some characters from previous installments in Star Trek. For example, the premiere episode involves Spock’s father, Sarek, portrayed by James Frain. Con-man Harry Mudd is also said to appear later in the series, portrayed by Rainn Wilson.

Based on this first episode, I call this a job well done. I saw a great cast of characters and a great plotline with an enormous cliffhanger to end the episode. Martin-Green is an amazing actress, and her character has a great background of being the first human to attend the Vulcan Learning Center, and a history with the Klingons that makes her very determined to avoid conflict at any cost. Which kind of gets her in trouble. I also saw some great special effects, and the starships seen look amazing. While we didn’t really see any conflict besides a Klingon getting stabbed with his own blade, the next episode will see an actual battle between humans and Klingons.

I’m very excited for future episodes of the series, and can’t wait to see what the Final Frontier brings us next.