Original Content explores the politics and space battles of ‘Star Trek: Discovery’

Star Trek: Discovery, the first Trek TV show in more than 10 years, premiered on CBS this week before making the leap to the network’s new streaming service, CBS All Access (which is where the rest of the season will air).

Created by Bryan Fuller and Alex Kurtzman, the show offers a serialized, morally complex take on the Trek universe. In the latest episode of the Original Content podcast, Darrell Etherington and Anthony Ha discuss the show’s behind-the-scenes drama, our history with the franchise (we’ve both watched a lot of Star Trek) and our response to the first two episodes.

We also touch on the controversy around Discovery cast members taking a knee in solidarity with athletes protesting police brutality (despite the criticism of President Donald Trump). Just to reiterate: You can watch or not watch whatever you want, for whatever reason, including politics. But if you really think that politics has no place in Star Trek, you’re wrong.

We also discuss the week’s other streaming headlines, many of them Amazon-related, including the new Echo, an unusual Alexa integration, the disappearance of YouTube from the Echo Show, Amazon’s new plans for theatrical distribution and (in non-Amazon news) Hulu’s deal to stream 30 Rock.

Also, we didn’t mention this in the show itself, but next week we’ll be reviewing Big Mouth, the new animated series on Netflix from comedian Nick Kroll.

You can listen to the episode in the player above, subscribe using Apple Podcasts or find us in your podcast player of choice. Be sure to leave a review and let us know what you think. You can also send feedback directly to us.

Featured Image: CBS