The Vulcan Hello

Guest starring for the two-part premiere are Michelle Yeoh as Philippa Georgiou, captain of the Shenzhou, and Chris Obi as Klingon leader T'Kuvma.

Burnham disagrees, and dons a space suit to investigate in spite of the dangerous radiation from a nearby binary star system.

[4] At the end of that month, CBS hired David Semel, a veteran television procedural director who was under an overall deal with the studio, to direct the first episode of Discovery.

[6] Fuller wanted a more visionary director, and had personally reached out to Edgar Wright to direct the episode before CBS hired Semel.

[13] The title refers to a story told by the character Sarek to the protagonist Michael Burnham, explaining that Vulcans earned the respect of the Klingons by greeting them in their own "language", by firing weapons on sight.

The episode serves as the first of the season's two-part prologue, exploring Burnham's initial actions on board the USS Shenzhou and her relationship with Captain Philippa Georgiou.

[14] It was important for Fuller and Kurtzman, when they were developing the story of the episode, to "present both sides of the argument" by exploring both the Starfleet and Klingon perspectives, with the conflict taking inspiration from a global trend of isolationism.

[13] In November 2016, series' writer and consulting producer Nicholas Meyer mentioned that Michelle Yeoh had been cast in Discovery,[24] and she was soon confirmed to be portraying Captain Georgiou of the USS Shenzhou.

[28] Three actors were cast as Klingons in December 2016: Latif as Kol, before he was recast to the role of Tyler;[18][29] Chris Obi as T'Kuvma;[30] and Mary Chieffo as L'Rell.

[14] By January 2017, James Frain was cast as Sarek, a character who was first portrayed by Mark Lenard in the original Star Trek series.

[31][32] The next month, three actors were cast as Starfleet officers: Terry Serpico as Admiral Anderson, Maulik Pancholy as Dr. Nambue, and Sam Vartholomeos as Ensign Connor.

[37] By mid-May 2017, production on the episode had been completed,[38] including filming for scenes set on a desert planet which had taken place on location in Jordan.

[14] The long haul space suit worn by Martin-Green in the sequence weighed 25 pounds (11 kg), and was built in the United Kingdom from high-density foam covered in fiberglass.

[11] In Canada, it was broadcast on the CTV Television Network and the specialty channels Space (English) and Z (French), also on September 24, before being streamed on CraveTV.

[43] The marathon started at 7 am PT/10 am ET and was Live streamed on the YouTube internet video platform, going through each first episode chronologically in order of release with "Vulcan Hello" airing after "Broken Bow".

"[45] Aja Romano at Vox called the trailer's visuals "sumptuous" and "modern, but still very much in keeping with the aesthetic of previous Trek series".

Created by Remarkable Media, the 50 feet (15 m) rig consisted of a truss skeleton covered in LEDs, and was suspended from a Black Hawk helicopter.

With 9.5 million total viewers, Screener's Rick Porter characterized the debut as "decent", particularly due to its off-set start time and competition with NBC Sunday Night Football.

[52] The episode's broadcast led to record subscriptions for All Access, with the service's biggest day, week, and month of signups coming with the premiere.

[54] Writing for TVLine, Dave Nemetz graded the episode 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.

"[57] Vulture's Matt Zoller Seitz gave a positive review, referring to the episode as "wonderstruck, overstuffed, corny and stirring" and feeling it "stands tall alongside the best-regarded incarnations of the Trek franchise... with an almost entirely new slate of characters... and casts them with actors you can't help but like even when they’re getting on your last nerve.

"[60] 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.

[62] Merrill Barr of Forbes felt the show was "not bad, but it’s off to a strange start... [it] has every chance from here to become something great, possibly even awards worthy.

"[63] Patrick Cooley of cleveland.com called the series "a bitter disappointment, plagued by bad dialogue, poor storytelling and wooden, bewilderingly stupid characters.