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.
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.
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.
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 Starfleet ships take heavy fire, and the Shenzhou is almost destroyed, but is saved by the arrival of Admiral Brett Anderson and the USS Europa.
T'Kuvma agrees to a ceasefire with Anderson, but then sends a large vessel, hidden with a cloaking device, to ram and destroy the Europa.
[8] The episode serves as the second of the season's two-part prologue, exploring protagonist Michael Burnham's initial actions on board the USS Shenzhou and her relationship with Captain Philippa Georgiou.
[8] In November 2016, series' writer and consulting producer Nicholas Meyer mentioned that Michelle Yeoh had been cast in Discovery,[19] and she was soon confirmed to be portraying Captain Georgiou of the USS Shenzhou.
[12][20] Three actors were cast as Klingons in December 2016: Latif as Kol, before he was recast to the role of Tyler;[13][21] Chris Obi as T'Kuvma;[22] and Mary Chieffo as L'Rell.
[22] Obi compared T'Kuvma to Moses, and said that the character was the "runt of the litter" who was transformed into a leader after believing that he had been tasked by the spirit of Kahless to unite the Klingon Empire.
"[32] Writing for TVLine, Dave Nemetz graded the two episodes a 'B+', saying, "the nail-bitingly tense premiere delivered a cracking good action story, eye-popping special effects and a number of gasp-worthy twists" that was worth the wait.
"[34] Maureen Ryan of Variety gave muted praise, saying the series "has yet to prove itself a worthy successor to The Next Generation or Deep Space Nine.
"[37] Patrick Cooley of cleveland.com called the series "a bitter disappointment, plagued by bad dialogue, poor storytelling and wooden, bewilderingly stupid characters.