Battle at the Binary Stars

"Battle at the Binary Stars" is the second episode of the first season of the American television series Star Trek: Discovery, which is set roughly a decade before the events of the original Star Trek series and shows the beginnings of the Federation–Klingon cold war. The episode was written by showrunners Gretchen J. Berg and Aaron Harberts, from a story by series co-creator Bryan Fuller, and was directed by Adam Kane. Sonequa Martin-Green stars as Michael Burnham, the First Officer of the USS Shenzhou. Series regular Doug Jones also appears in the episode, which serves as the second in the series' two-part premiere that act as a prologue to the rest of the series, setting up a season-long story arc for Burnham. Guest starring for the two-part premiere are Michelle Yeoh as Philippa Georgiou, captain of the Shenzhou, and Chris Obi as the Klingon leader T'Kuvma. "Battle at the Binary Stars" was released on CBS All Access on September 24, 2017, along with the previous episode. The two-part premiere was believed to have caused record subscriptions for All Access, and received mostly positive reviews from critics, particularly for Martin-Green's performance. Plot After being raised as a Vulcan by Sarek, and becoming the first human to attend and graduate the Vulcan Learning Center and the Vulcan Science Academy, Michael Burnham is entrusted to Philippa Georgiou, captain of the USS Shenzhou, by Sarek. Seven years later, Burnham is the first officer of the Shenzhou, and has just disobeyed and attacked Georgiou in an attempt to fire, unprovoked, on a Klingon vessel, hoping to avoid an inevitable war. The Klingon outcast Voq, on behalf of his leader T'Kuvma, has just started a beacon that attracts 24 new Klingon vessels to the system, as Georgiou has Burnham imprisoned for mutiny.