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Star Trek Discovery (DIS) Season 2

Season 1Season 2Season 3Season 4Season 5

BrotherNew EdenPoint of LightAn Obol for CharonSaints of ImperfectionThe Sound of ThunderLight and ShadowsIf Memory ServesProject DaedalusThe Red AngelPerpetual InfinityThrough the Valley of ShadowsSuch Sweet Sorrow ISuch Sweet Sorrow II

 

Brother

Synopsis

"Brother"

Captain Pike beams over from the Enterprise with two of his officers, to take command of the Discovery on Starfleet's orders. The Enterprise has been investigating seven red bursts that have appeared across 30,000 light-years, and of which all but one are gone. The ship's systems were somehow damaged by the incoming signals. Pike orders the Discovery to proceed to the location of the last signal. It turns out to be on an asteroid that is surrounded by a debris field and heavy gravitational distortions that don't allow to beam down. There is no sign of the red signal any more. The interaction of the ship with the asteroid causes its course to change, and a collision with a pulsar is imminent. However, there is a crashed Starfleet ship on the surface whose crew may be alive. Pike asks his bridge officers for options, and Burnham comes up with the plan to use landing pods to navigate through the debris. Lt. Connolly, the science officer of the Enterprise, dies when a rock collides with his pod. When Pike has to eject and his thruster pack fails, Burnham saves him by grabbing him and using her thrusters to land safely on the asteroid. On the crashed ship, the USS Hiawatha, they find Denise Reno, an engineer who has managed to keep some heavily injured crew members alive by means of engineering. The landing party sets up transport enhancers to beam the survivors to the Discovery. Burnham doesn't make it in time. She is about to become unconscious when she sees a winged figure. But Pike has returned to rescue her. On the Discovery, Stamets and Saru arrange for a rock from the mysterious debris field to be captured and confined in the shuttlebay. Pike's mission is over, but the Enterprise needs more extensive repairs, so he stays aboard the Discovery. He tells Burnham that her foster brother Spock has taken leave. In Spock's quarters on the Enterprise, she discovers that Spock's sudden disappearance is related to the strange red lights.

Commentary

Although he would never openly admit that anything was wrong with it, we could notice in Alex Kurtzman's various announcements for season 2 that it is his intention to fix at least some of the issues of Star Trek Discovery, to make it feel more like the Star Trek we used to know. One aspect in this regard is the transformation of the crew to one that is characterized by trust and cooperation and not by intrigues and animosities any longer. The determined yet thoughtful and open-minded Captain Pike (Anson Mount) is the key character to reunite the remaining crew and also to reconcile the fans with the show. When he comes aboard, it is almost like the makers of the series speak through the fourth wall, telling us that everything will be all right again.

I like Anson Mount's Pike. He gives the crew more encouragement in the course of "Brother" than Lorca did in nine episodes of season 1 combined. And we can notice how grateful everyone among the bridge crew is that their service is appreciated, that the captain cares for them and not only for the mission. He explicitly refers to Lorca's misdoings to that end, which seems somewhat superfluous though, and is another instance where he breaks the fourth wall. The first ten minutes are heavy on exposition anyway, most of which is not particularly skillful but comes across as contrived. We have got remarks about the colorful new uniforms, on Pike's career and on the splendidness of the Enterprise, that the ship is a "beauty", one of the "most prominent ships" and that "only something catastrophic could knock her out". Overall, some less boasting about Pike and the Enterprise would have been desirable.

It is perhaps more interesting what is totally missing from the exposition. The episode begins with Burnham's flashback about her first encounter with her foster brother. Young Spock rejects her. He creates some sort of dragon hologram to scare her (or because he himself is scared?) and then closes the door right in front of her. It is very clear at this point that the two still or again have some unfinished business. When Pike beams over from the Enterprise with two officers, Spock is not among them, but some other guy in blue, Connolly, is the ship's science officer. We can see Burnham's disappointment. Now would be a good time to ask Pike about Spock, but she doesn't. She later talks with Sarek, but the two neither address what drove the family apart nor Spock's current whereabouts. At the end of the episode, Burnham finally asks Pike, only to learn that Spock is on leave. And yet again, Burnham only insinuates that the two have some sort of problem. I don't like the continued secretiveness about Spock, the mystery that is built around him just because no one bothers to ask or to answer obvious questions. In an episode with otherwise so much exposition it's just not a good balance.

Speaking of not talking with each other, it is surprising that Saru and Burnham don't know about the respective other person's siblings, although they have served together aboard the Shenzhou and the Discovery for quite some time. This is symptomatic of the state of Discovery (the ship and the series). It's nothing like the family feel we know from previous Star Trek crews. But as already mentioned, with Pike's arrival this is subject to change. It changes quite suddenly in the case of the so far mostly silent bridge officers. If I'm not mistaken, Detmer has more lines in this one episode than in the complete first season combined. This bodes well for possible further adventures of the crew.

Stamets remains the same weird person he was for most of the first season, and there is a first foreshadowing of Culber, who will somehow return from the dead. He will be a welcome addition. I am only curious how the series will accomplish this feat. Tilly, on the other hand, is a major nuisance in this episode. It seems she leaves out no opportunity to make a fool of herself. Every single scene with her is rife with silliness, although we have to admit that it is only realistic that a rarely performed procedure like a command transfer is awkward. Yet, she appeared much more serious towards the end of season 1 and in her Short Treks episode, so this is a real setback. I like how Mary Wiseman portrays the character, but with the lines written for Tilly she should rather do stand-up comedy. Speaking of stand-up comedy, Tig Notaro as Reno is a pleasant surprise. She shows, rather paradoxically, how a character can be comic relief without the semblance of a comedian. Reno's sarcasm and her engineer's attitude to things at hand resonates with me. Her Frankenstein lab is quite eccentric. Although her role isn't and probably won't become big, my impression is that she will stick around.

Some things don't change in season 2, however. Burnham is still a know-it-all. Well, it is laudable that she notifies Pike of his mistake when, for a moment, he doesn't heed his own principle to listen to his crew. But her immediate disdain of Connolly, just because he replaces Spock, is unwarranted. As some sort of retroactive justification for her negative opinion, Connolly is consistently shown as a jerk. When the four officers climb into the landing pods, it is clear that he would be the one who doesn't make it. Burnham, the prodigy, on the other hand, does not only steer the pod through the asteroid field all manually, she also predicts that a boulder would hit Connolly. I like how Burnham cares for Pike's life when his thruster pack fails, upon which Pike returns the favor when she has to stay behind on the Hiawatha. But I doubt she would have done the same for Connolly.

I don't like the pod ride anyway, although I must admit it was a highlight of the episode and not in any way less exciting than the spacedives in the first two Abramsverse movies and especially in "Into Darkness". But that is just the problem. In "The Vulcan Hello", Burnham's excursion to open space still had a human dimension, we could notice that she was in a hostile environment and in an unpleasant situation. All this realism is gone in "Brother" where she mutates to a superhero like Kirk and Khan before. It is no surprise that "Brother" feels like a movie, considering that Alex Kurtzman directed it and probably had more influence on this episode than in the first season (although it was purportedly still written and produced by the meanwhile fired Aaron Harberts and Gretchen Berg). This includes the stupid movie screen format that wastes precious screen area for no benefit except for giving Kurtzman the semblance of working on a movie.

On the bright side, the visual effects of this episode are definitely the best of the whole series so far, at least in a technical and artistic sense. I hope that the silly neon-colored space is gone for good. I don't like many of the visualizations of the Discovery interior though. Especially the turbolift ride through vast open spaces and the rollercoaster-like pod launch are totally unrealistic and were included just for some unnecessary extra thrill. The voice-activated helmet and the quick-unfolding gravity simulator too are implausible. These technologies definitely don't exist in the 23rd century we used to know, not even in the 24th century. If Kurtzman is so into visualizing ultracool technologies, he should save them for the Picard series. The way it happens now, there will be hardly anything even more advanced left to show.

As exciting as everything pertaining to the asteroid is, it is one of the most contrived amassments of strange phenomena in the history of Star Trek that appear one by one in rapid succession. We have got a debris field that surrounds an interstellar asteroid, which surprisingly has an atmosphere. Then the Discovery somehow interacts with a field around the big rock and is pushed away. The asteroid is now on a collision course with a previously unmentioned pulsar. Then a strange chasm and a Starfleet vessel are discovered on the surface. Also, dark matter is involved in some fashion. At least, it was mentioned at a point I couldn't really follow any longer. It is to the story's benefit that it tries to refer to real scientific principles, rather than to particles that don't exist (although the frequent statements that a phenomenon is "strange" or "never encountered before" mean pretty much the same). But it is simply too much at once. And even the good intent to use actual science is annihilated by linking all this to the spores and suggesting that the rocks could be a "100% efficient power source".

In what seems to be a hallucination, Burnham sees the figure we already know as the "Red Angel". Normally we wouldn't give this little experience much weight. It is a bit unfortunate that the trailers already anticipated the kind of threat the Discovery would face in season 2. I think it would work a bit better if the nature of the story remained more of a mystery. The cold open with the Cassini mission footage (in black & white, with an ancient NASA logo!?) and the mention of the African creation myth too complies with previous observations in the trailers, that someone or something influenced mankind in its history. This part of the mystery is much like in 2001: A Space Odyssey, especially since in Arthur C. Clarke's book, unlike in the film, the destination planet of the mission is Saturn. My apprehension is that the writers are fond of building this big puzzle, but may not be able or willing to solve it sufficiently, and to keep it in line with canon.

Overall, "Brother" is more like a promise to improve the series in its second season than a great episode by itself. I like that some of the Starfleet spirit is back. I look forward to further adventures with Anson Mount as Captain Pike. While Alex Kurtzman's directing could have been more light-handed, especially at the beginning, I have praise for the visual effects sequences. Rather than the silly ultrawide screen ratio, the visualization of the space action makes this episode feel very exciting, like a blockbuster movie. Not everything in this regard resonates with me, however. For instance, I dislike that Kurtzman more or less repeats the self-indulgent superhuman spacedive scene from "Star Trek Into Darkness", and the moronic CG sequences of the Discovery interior only signal that the series still doesn't want to be taken seriously. Also, the scientific ramifications are too complicated and most likely still won't make sense when the crew eventually solves the mystery about how dark matter, mushroom spores and the "Red Angel" are related to each other. Last but not least, Spock appears as unnecessarily mysterious. The unasked question of what happened to him distracts from other topics.

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Rating: 4

 

New Eden

Synopsis

"New Eden"

Spock sketched up the seven light bursts two months before they actually appeared. Michael Burnham wants to meet her foster brother to find out more about this mystery, but Pike reveals that Spock is in a psychiatric unit on Starbase 5. Then another red signal appears. Since it is located in the Beta Quadrant as far as 51,450 light years away, Pike authorizes the use of the spore drive. The Discovery arrives at an Earth-like planet that is inhabited by 11,000 humans. Pike beams down with Burnham and Owosekun to investigate. They find an old-style church building in a settlement called "New Eden". It turns out that the ancestors of the humans living here were saved from World War III as long as 200 years ago and taken to the planet "Terralysium". This was the work of an unknown entity that is now worshipped as a deity. On the Discovery, Tilly takes a sample from the dark matter asteroid that may help to develop a non-human interface for the spore drive, but she almost gets killed by an energy discharge. The crew of the Discovery is alerted by radioactive debris in orbit of the planet that is about to destroy the atmosphere. Encouraged by a young female crew member named May, Tilly leaves sickbay against her orders and suggests to use the asteroid to drag away the radioactive debris. The plan succeeds. In the meantime on Terralysium, Jacob, a descendant of scientists and a sceptic of the planet's religion and of the myth that Earth was destroyed, has incapacitated the landing party and taken their technical devices. He wants to prove that the visitors are not inhabitants of the planet as they claim but came all the way from Earth. Yet, Pike, Burnham and Owosekun try to maintain their story. When a child plays with a phaser, Pike reacts instinctively and the blast discharges into his chest. Burnham and Owosekun carry him into the church from where they are beamed up. Tilly suddenly remembers that she met the young crew member before. She is May Theresa Ahearn from her high school. Tilly, however, is shocked when she finds out that May actually died several years ago. Although the General Order 1 forbids to interfere with the culture on the planet, Burnham convinces Pike to beam down again, to obtain a helmet camera from a WWIII soldier that shows how the people in the church were saved. Jacob receives an energy cell in return that he uses to illuminate the church. On the video, a figure appears in a bright light. It is the same that Burnham already saw on the asteroid.

Commentary

This episode doesn't have a good start because it continues with the unnecessary secret-mongering about Spock. It looks like it will take Burnham several more talks with Pike to finally worm the complete truth about Spock out of him. This time, she learns that her foster brother has been committed to a mental institution. But there is definitely still more about the story that will be revealed bit by bit, only to reassure us that this season is all about "the search for Spock". I think that the longer it is protracted, the more likely meeting Spock in person may end up in a disappointment.

The rest of the story is a pleasant surprise. I would go as far as calling "New Eden" the first Discovery episode that really feels like Star Trek. We have got a crew that works together and among whom almost everyone contributes something important in terms of dialogue and action, almost like with the ensemble casts of the four preceding TV series. After Kayla Detmer in last week's episode, this time it is Joann Owosekun's turn to receive more attention than in the whole first season, and I really like that.

Micheal Burnham is pleasantly cautious in this episode. She has a different opinion about the people on the planet than Pike. She would like to reveal the truth about her own identity, that she came with a starship, and to demonstrate the superiority of science over religion. But although she repeatedly calls the faith of the people of Terralysium into question, she refrains from trying to prove it. She follows Pike's orders not to interfere, even as he is severely hurt by the overloading phaser. Pike, on the other hand, is rather impartial about his mission. He has the General Order 1 (the Prime Directive) to go by, and he doesn't seem to need anything else. Overall, his involvement could and perhaps should have been a bit more personal, maybe even emotional. The way Pike appears here is more like a model officer and not like an interesting character with rough edges. But it is only his second appearance, and we will likely see a lot more of him this season.

After her conduct in last week's episode "Brother", I didn't expect that Tilly could annoy me even more. Well, I was mistaken. She is awkward as never before and talks way too much. Nothing she says or does is coordinated. Still, as chaotic as it seems, against all reason it all makes sense in the end, up to a point that it is simply ingenious. Tilly comes up with the idea to use the asteroid to drag away the radioactive debris from the planet, and I will be damned if the sample she unwisely took from the asteroid isn't like Chekhov's gun and won't solve a problem such as navigating the spore network. Of course, the fact that she is out of her mind (as evidenced by the dead schoolmate she hallucinates) may excuse her behavior. And all this may be related to that spore that conspicuously entered her body in "What's Past Is Prologue". If being connected to the spore network is the explanation, Tilly's character may be fixed in a way to become more agreeable again. But we have to remember that essentially the same already happened to Stamets in the first season, and the and the "spore schizophrenia" neither becomes more plausible nor more interesting by just being repeated.

Speaking of Stamets, he too is a bit mysterious again. He first mentions that he met the real Hugh Culber, and not just an illusion, in the spore network, as already seen in "Vaulting Ambition". But after he has connected himself to the spore drive again, he seems to be very disillusioned. It appears that he was looking for Culber but didn't find him in there. We may speculate at this point that Tilly is the key to him finding Hugh.

Another reason why the story feels so much like the Star Trek we used to know is because the concept of an unknown or forgotten Earth colony on an alien planet is a cliché as old as the first season of TOS. Every series so far had at least one or two stories of this kind, such as TOS: "This Side of Paradise", TOS: "The Paradise Syndrome", TNG: "Up the Long Ladder", TNG: "The Masterpiece Society", DS9: "Children of Time", VOY: "The 37's", ENT: "Terra Nova" and ENT: "North Star", to name only the most obvious examples. Moreover, at least three of these episodes already involved an abduction by aliens. While it is unnecessary that Discovery adds yet another unknown Earth colony to the list, at least it happens with the good intent to prove that Discovery can be Star Trek, and is successful at that. Also, this story is embedded into a bigger context where it may make more sense than previous instances of the cliché.

It is obvious that the so far two occurrences of the red signal have a common pattern. In both cases Discovery ran into humans that were stranded in unlikely places and that urgently needed help. It now looks like the "Red Angel" is not an enemy but indeed some sort of guardian angel who appears whenever someone is in danger. At this point of the ongoing arc, the red lights appear to be just another strange phenomenon but not really a threat.

Star Trek has a long history of dealing with questions of religion. TOS depicted a secular world in which religion may have existed but was simply not mentioned. TNG included outspoken criticism of religion on a couple of occasions. In DS9 and Voyager, there was something like an ongoing competition between science and faith, one that overall ended almost in a tie, with only slight advantages for science. "New Eden" continues in the tradition of DS9 and Voyager. I like the idea that the inhabitants of Terralysium combined all their different religions into one, which is a new concept, at least in Star Trek. In a way, they have accomplished the same degree of unity in their small community as the rest of humanity by the 23rd century. I also like the reconciliatory outcome in which Jacob, the sceptic, supports religion by using science, when he connects the power cell to illuminate the church.

Overall, it still seems that Michael Burnham, who only believes in science ("Faith is a lie!") and invokes Clarke's third law is right. Not a god but still unknown aliens must have transferred the church along with the people inside to the remote planet. But after the vision of the "angel" and in the light of the ever growing mystery it looks like she may have to struggle to keep up her stance. I'm looking forward to this aspect of the story.

One more thing that I dislike about "New Eden" is that it is ridden with facts and figures, as well as with an unmanageable amount of technobabble. In particular, the first 10 or 15 minutes of the script disregard the principle "show, don't tell", as they are all about discussing signal strengths, galactic distances, Earth history and other details, many of which should have better been illustrated in some fashion. I also didn't really understand, even after rewinding three times, what exactly Tilly was trying to accomplish by taking a sample from the asteroid, how black matter, metreons and spores are possibly related and if it will ever make sense in hindsight. My expectation is that it won't and that it would have been better anyway to bury the idea of the spore network for good before it can do even more damage to our sanity.

It also feels out of place how Tilly and Saru assure each other of their being special, with all kinds of superlatives. "The youngest candidate ever in the command training program", "the only Kelpien in Starfleet", "learned 90 Federation languages". As I already wrote in last week's review, the bragging needs to be cut down.

The second episode is another important step on Discovery's journey in a more agreeable and more Trek-like direction. "New Eden" continues to show the characters as a Starfleet crew and not any more as a bunch of people who are driven by selfish goals. I like the idea of making Discovery an ensemble cast show, although in this particular episode the consequence is that no one truly stands out (at least, not in a positive sense). Director Jonathan Frakes does a good job to maintain the flow of the story, even though the A-plot on the planet and the B-plot about Tilly and the asteroid are largely isolated from each other. The episode includes some decent action that does not feel out of place and like on steroids as lately in "Brother". On the other hand, the script is very verbose and should have dropped at least some of the exuberant facts, figures and technobabble. While the episode is still far from perfect, this is the perhaps first time in Discovery that I truly look forward to the next adventure.

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Rating: 5

 

Point of Light

Synopsis

"Point of Light"

Stardate 1029.46: A diplomatic ship of Vulcan origin requests a person to beam over to the Discovery. To Michael Burnham's surprise, the visitor is not Sarek but Amanda Grayson. Spock's mother says she tried to visit him in the facility on Starbase 5 but was not admitted. She then stole his medical file and asks Burnham to decrypt it. Burnham, however, seeks Captain Pike's permission in this delicate issue. Pike contacts Starbase 5, only to learn that Spock is wanted for murdering three of his doctors. The captain now orders Burnham to find out what is on the file. Amanda admits that she never gave her full love to Spock because she agreed to him being raised the Vulcan way. When a winged figure appears in the data, she recognizes it as the "Red Angel", an apparition that dates back to the day that young Michael ran away from her home. Spock claimed that the Red Angel led him to her. Michael tells Amanda that she is determined to find him, also because she once hurt him in good faith that through the separation she could protect him from the Vulcan extremists, who already tried to kill her. Amanda leaves hastily, saying that she, not Burnham, would find him. Captain Pike offers Ensign Tilly, who is in her Command Training Program, to sit in his chair on the bridge. But she screws up because of the "ghost" of the dead schoolmate May that is haunting her. Tilly announces that she quits. In the meantime on Qo'noS, tensions rise between Chancellor L'Rell and Kol-Sha, the father of the late Kol. Kol-Sha accuses L'Rell of being a puppet of the Federation, and he has only contempt for her Torchbearer Voq (in the guise of Tyler), whom he calls a "plaything". Kol-Sha refuses to remove his "war paint", upon which Voq assaults him, trying to wipe it away. Voq, on the other hand, is under the impression that he doesn't have the full trust of L'Rell and her House of Mo'Kai. He confronts her uncle, Ujilli, who eventually shows Voq the secret: L'Rell's son, whose father he is. Kol-Sha, however, learns of this secret too because there were sensor implants in his paint that got transferred to Voq when the two struggled. He kills Ujilli, kidnaps the child and demands L'Rell to abdicate. L'Rell and Voq try to fight their way out, but Kol-Sha erects a stasis field around them. Just when he is about to kill them, Philippa Georgiou appears to their rescue. L'Rell uses the opportunity to kill Kol-Sha. Georgiou calls herself a "Starfleet security consultant" and says that it is in her interest to maintain the peace with the Klingon Empire. But she wants L'Rell to get rid of Voq and of her son, who weaken her position on Qo'noS. After talking to Burnham, Tilly becomes aware that "May" is not a ghost of a teenage girl, but a parasite that entered her body from the spore network. Stamets uses the dark matter sample to extract the parasite and contains it in a forcefield in engineering. In the High Council on Qo'noS, L'Rell calls Voq a traitor and presents his head as proof that he is dead. She also shows the head of her son who was allegedly slain by Voq, a crime that Kol-Sha was going to prevent but got him killed. The real Voq and his son are on a Section 31 ship on the way to Boreth, where the still nameless boy will be raised as a monk. Georgiou plans to recruit Voq for Section 31 just as she herself was recruited by the secret organization.

Commentary

I had to lower my expectations for this episode because the trailers indicated that Discovery would switch to a serial format again. Moreover, I was not looking forward to seeing the unfortunate storylines and characters from the first season again. I was ready for a positive surprise, but it didn't happen.

I never liked L'Rell. Sure, I hated the Discovery Klingons from the day the extreme makeover in defiance of canon was made public. But despite the lack of facial expressions through thick layers of latex and despite the distorted voices I hoped that one or two of the new-style Klingon characters could grow on me, whether they would be heroes or villains or anything in between. Maybe my mistake was that I was spoiled by DS9. However, with T'Kuvma and Kol just being cookie-cutter villains that were killed off soon and Voq being transformed to Tyler, it was now up to L'Rell alone to defend the reputation of her reimagined race. She utterly failed. And this was not just the fault of the make-up that didn't allow Mary Chieffo to act. The character and her story were written to show her as a punching ball, who gets beaten and captured all the time, and whose alleged triumphs and power are fake because someone else is always pulling the strings. So far the culmination of her miserable career was that in "Will You Take My Hand?" she was handed over the button to destroy her home planet.

L'Rell's make-up was revised for the second season. Not only did she get hair, like most of her people. Her skull was considerably shortened, quite possibly in an attempt to make her more relatable. But with her facial make-up still being extremely thick and her voice still being noisy, she doesn't feel any more like a real person than in the first season. Discovery has reclaimed a little bit of its visual consistency with Star Trek, which I appreciate. But it doesn't become a better series by revising a few of the most obvious continuity errors.

It is only realistic that the Klingons wouldn't accept a woman as a chancellor whose only legitimation comes from the Federation. And Kol-Sha is totally right with his low opinion of L'Rell and Voq, at least from a Klingon viewpoint. It is clear that rather sooner than later he or someone else would try to overturn her regime. I like anyway that, at times in this episode, the Klingons talk and fight like the Klingons we know, and Kol-Sha is particularly convincing in this regard. The strange thing is that when he first threatens and then attacks the two, it doesn't look like L'Rell still has the power to blow up Qo'noS. Either that, or she was negligent enough not to take precautions for the case she would be ambushed. In any case, "Point of Light" adds another chapter to her sad story, that she is saved only at the grace of the woman who hates Klingons the most and who was determined to destroy the planet in "Will You Take My Hand?". And that she is forced to present the head of her "dead" lover Voq at the High Council as proof of her worthiness to rule. She even calls herself the "Mother" of the Klingons in that scene. It all gets so smarmy that it becomes unintentionally funny. Everything about L'Rell is fake, and in some way symptomatic of the whole show.

Speaking of Emperor or "Captain" Georgiou, if one character is even more fake than L'Rell and Voq, it's her. The former genocidal dictator was allowed to pose as her Prime Universe counterpart, she was free to leave in "Will You Take My Hand?", she has been exonerated and now works for a secret agency, the only justification being that she has certain "skills". (This feels a bit like in a trashy secret agent movie where the line "He/She is the best." is usually the signal for me to switch the channel.) It is all so much against common sense that it almost hurts. Her appearance with the cloaking suit is very comic-like, which can ultimately be said about her whole role. I still liked Michelle Yeoh as Captain Georgiou. But as soon as she began to play Georgiou's evil counterpart, which is the much more significant role by now, I don't know what this character is about. She doesn't give me the impression there is a real person behind her often very stiff face, a problem she shares with L'Rell even without thick make-up as an obstacle.

As I already predicted, the mystery about Spock will be revealed to us bit by bit, and his situation will appear more dramatic each time. I am afraid that this happens in a way that the solution to the whole puzzle can only be disappointing. This time, we learn that Spock allegedly murdered three of his doctors. Shocking! Shocking? Not really. Since it is obvious that this can't be true, it is not really a big deal. And this is not the only revelation about Spock. It seems that everyone keeps a part of the story secret. Pike has to admit to Burnham that after his report to Starfleet Command Sarek may know about Spock's whereabouts. Amanda confesses that she didn't give enough love to Spock because he was supposed to be raised the Vulcan way and also that Spock already saw the "Red Angel" in his childhood. Burnham, finally, says that she avoided contact with Spock to protect him. Perhaps the lack of love for Spock from his family is supposed to make the idea of him as a murderer more plausible. But overall the "family" aspect of the whole story about Spock and the Red Angel remains weak in my opinion, in spite of the continued efforts to involve Sarek, Amanda and Michael. It's just the big "Let's talk about Spock" day, which serves to further raise expectations that very likely won't be fulfilled. I'm still curious what the "Red Angel" is about. But while it may be fascinating, I doubt that it will fit into the timeline without wiping the life-changing events from everyone's brains and particularly from Spock's brain. The writers of Discovery have a bad track record in this regard, seeing how they ended the Klingon War with a sledgehammer approach.

In Discovery's first season, Amanda (Mia Kirshner) was shown as a kind but overall unremarkable character. I liked her, but because it was easy to like her. My impression is that the writers wanted to give her a more active and an overall more significant role, to allow her to step out of her husband's shadow. However, I don't think that it suits her to steal Spock's medical file, to take Sarek's ship and secretly approach the Discovery. Conversely, thinking about what we should expect from Amanda, there is not much of a mother-daughter relationship between her and Burnham, the chemistry doesn't feel right. And while it is perhaps understandable that, after learning that Burnham is to blame for the estrangement with her brother, Amanda leaves in a kneejerk reaction, a woman who loves her children would think twice and take any help she can to save Spock. Actually, I think that after confessing to each other what each of them did to disappoint Spock, the two should be even now.

Tilly already got on my nerves in the last two episodes. Now the hallucinated "May" has joined her in an effort to annoy the hell out of me. It was foreseeable what would happen as soon as Tilly sat down in the captain's chair with "May" standing behind Pike, that her story would reach a low point. But although I was glad that the worst part was over and that Tilly did not have to join Spock on Starbase 5, I didn't really enjoy the rest either. Tilly finally speaks to Burnham about what tortures her mind. I have always liked their interaction, as one of the few instances of a genuine and credible friendship on the show. If only Burnham, with her superior knowledge and life experience (uhm, but she's never been in love?) wouldn't know everything better. After being tormented for days or even weeks, Tilly says just two sentences about her imaginary friend, and Burnham immediately concludes that a girl in Tilly's mind who doesn't cry is actually a mycelial parasite. Wow. Stamets doesn't hesitate either. He just grabs the black matter sample container and, in something like an exorcism, sucks out "May", who then grows to some ugly slime cloud.

I already anticipated that "May" was actually the spore that entered Tilly's body during the return to the Prime Universe, and I won't be surprised if the brownish slime ball gives birth to Hugh Culber next week. Bad science may be justified to tell fascinating stories that develop in unexpected directions. But the spores are an omnipotent concept that can be twisted to work in any possible way and serve as a deus ex machina.

Like already in "Brother", where Pike, the Enterprise and the new uniforms were praised, this episode too speaks through the fourth wall. L'Rell advertises the "new" D7 cruiser as a symbol for the unity of the Klingons, and thereby as a symbol that Discovery tries to reconcile its ship designs with how they used to look in Star Trek. I appreciate that Discovery's makers have recognized they have gone way too far with their obsession to reboot just everything, but couldn't the true D7 have been introduced in a more casual fashion?

"Point of Light" comes with yet again redesigned Klingons and with the promise to show a familiar ship that was sadly missing from the series. I also like that the Klingons in this episode talk and act more like the Klingons we used to know. The graphic violence in this regard crosses a line but is tolerable once in a while. But all this can't save the farcical story about L'Rell. "Point of Light" continues to show L'Rell as a weak and whiny villain that I simply don't care for and whose appearances are cringeworthy. The other two plot threads are not convincing either. Everything about the visitor in Tilly's mind is just annoying (and predictable anyway). The search for Spock continues with more revelations that are meant to raise the expectations. But the fact that Sarek's family is broken has no consequences in the bigger picture. Aside from harking back to the characters and storylines I already didn't like in the first season, this episode feels like it was squeezed in to keep things going, much like already "The War Without, the War Within". Its pace was nervous, and it made me nervous. After seeing in the two preceding episodes how Discovery can do better, it is even more disappointing. I'm still looking forward to learning more about Spock's mission to find the "Red Angel" (and less from other people talking about him). But other than that, "Point of Light" is a setback that unpleasantly returns with almost everything that was wrong about the series, in terms of characterizations and storylines.

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Rating: 2

 

An Obol for Charon

Synopsis

"An Obol for Charon"

"Number One", Captain Pike's first officer, arrives from the still inoperative Enterprise and hints at inconsistencies in the files about Spock. Pike continues the pursuit of Spock's shuttle, which is about to leave the sensor range. Suddenly the warp field breaks down, and the Discovery faces a huge sphere composed of organic and anorganic matter. The ship is caught in a stasis field and the universal translator gets infected with a computer virus, turning the communication on the bridge into a Babylonian chaos. The polyglot Saru temporarily activates a backup system but the virus begins to affect other systems as well. In engineering, Reno is about to support Stamets and Tilly, when an electromagnetic discharge sets the organism known as "May" free. "May" attaches itself to Tilly's body yet again. In the presence of the sphere Saru sees flashes of UV light, a sign that he has entered the vahar'ai, the final stage of his life. Saru and Burnham develop "digital antibodies" to slow down the virus in the Discovery's systems, but the ship is running out of time since Spock's shuttle is at the edge of the sensor range. Pike wants to break free using photon torpedoes, but Saru feels that the sphere is dying and actually wants to establish "last contact". So Pike agrees to stand down and wait for a transmission from the sphere. The sphere sends the data and finally explodes, but not before reversing the polarity of the stasis field to allow the Discovery to escape. In engineering, Stamets and Reno work on a way to let "May" speak through Tilly, using a makeshift cortical implant. "May" says that she is a member of the jahSepp, a species native to the mycelial network and that their realm is threatened by an alien intruder. She identifies Stamets, who repeatedly navigated the ship through the network, as the intruder. After Reno has freed Tilly of "May", the entity transforms herself into some sort of cocoon that completely envelops Tilly. Saru goes to his quarters to die, accompanied only by Burnham. He asks her to cut off his threat ganglia to end the suffering. When she finally agrees, the ganglia fall of by themselves. Saru lives, now without the fear that was apparently induced by these organs. He calls the whole idea of the "Great Balance" on his home planet Kaminar a lie. In the meantime, the Discovery is on a pursuit course for Spock's shuttle again, thanks to sensor data obtained from the sphere.

Commentary

After last week's unfortunate setback, Discovery is now back on the new course, with another installment that is reminiscent of classic Trek. Of course, we know the kind of story all too well, in which an alien entity tries to communicate but actually is not understood and only inflicts damage. V'ger from "Star Trek: The Motion Picture", the Whale Probe from "Star Trek: The Voyage Home", the D'Arsay archive from TNG: "Masks", "Pup" from DS9: "The Forsaken", the Saltah'nan virus from DS9: "Dramatis Personae", the spatial distortion from VOY: "Twisted" and the obelisk from VOY: "Memorial" are just the most noteworthy examples. Rather than being realistic (which it isn't, despite the frequency of occurrences), this common trope serves to illustrate one of Star Trek's most important principles: Not everything that we don't understand must be harmful, and not even everything that harms us does this harm on purpose. In this regard, "An Obol for Charon" is a successful episode, although just a few aspects about it are particularly interesting, such as the translator malfunction and Saru's connection to the sphere.

The pace of the episode is breathless, which may be appropriate regarding the dramatic circumstances on the bridge and in engineering. But overall, it is too hectic, consisting of 40 minutes of more or less uninterrupted action. The only notable exception is the sequence in which Burnham accompanies Saru to his quarters, where is he is going to prepare for his death. One important reason for the rush is that the story tries to accomplish too much. It has to deal with the ongoing search for Spock, with the emergency caused by the sphere, with the nature and intentions of the sphere itself, with Saru's apprehension that he is going to die and with the struggle with "May" in engineering. Most classic Star Trek episodes include only half as many different topics, and take accordingly more time for each them.

After "Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum" and SHO: "The Brightest Star", this is the third Saru-centered episode. It is interesting to observe how the importance of his character gradually grows in the course of the story. At first, it is just his rhinovirus that he hints at. Then he puts his language skills (that were mentioned last week) to good practice and fixes the universal translator. In the presence of the sphere, Saru senses the coming of his death, which at this time does not appear to be more than a vague feeling (although Saru himself seems to be pretty certain). It is nice how Saru subsequently recognizes the link between the sphere and his own condition and comes to the conclusion that the sphere is about to die itself. The rest about the story is all about Saru. When his condition (somewhat unexpectedly) doesn't improve after the explosion of the sphere, he leaves the bridge in a very touching scene, accompanied only by Burnham. In his quarters, it becomes rather melodramatic when Burnham hesitates to take the knife to relieve him of his pain. Then the threat ganglia suddenly fall off by themselves, leaving Saru without the fear that has always determined his own life and the lives of his whole race.

Something that bothers me about the Saru story is that Burnham is suddenly shown as a person who is very close to him. This simply doesn't comply with my memory of the first season and of the three preceding season 2 episodes. On the Shenzhou, Burnham and Saru were at odds with each other, perhaps a bit like Spock and Bones, but without an amiable undertone. When Burnham came to the Discovery on Lorca's behest, Saru's reaction was quite acerbic. Neither he nor Burnham did anything to change that, except on the purely professional side. The fact that they never talked about their siblings (as of DIS: "Brother") and that Saru never really told Burnham about life on his planet and the "Great Balance" further corroborates my impression that the two are not particularly close. If anything, they form a community of fate. And considering that her actual family is falling apart, Burnham may want to be as close as possible to her new family aboard the Discovery. Still, the impression the story tries to give us, that she and Saru have been friends for a long time, just isn't right.

Another issue to discuss about the Saru story is that his death is foreshadowed in every possible way until his deathbed scene, only to be averted in a dramatic plot twist. I generally dislike this kind of a red herring, and it is particularly inappropriate in light of Discovery's previous character deaths (or rather, lack of deaths). We also should keep in mind that Discovery was announced as a "modern" series that would be more daring and more consequential in this regard (and even a bit like Game of Thrones, where anyone may be killed off any time). But Discovery turned out the least consequential of all Star Trek series. Except for a few minor characters that were written as unlikable so no one would miss them, such as Landry and Connolly, everyone so far has survived against all odds or has even returned from the dead! Culber will be resurrected next week, and quite possibly we will also see Lorca again. The saving grace of Saru's falsely foreshadowed death is that the unlikely twist really surprised me and makes sense in terms of further character development (Saru without fear). I only hope that it takes a long time until a Star Trek episode resorts to such an awkward plot device again.

Regarding the lasting change to the character of Saru after the loss of his threat ganglia, it remains to be seen if the writers remember that his character is not so apprehensive any longer and which practical consequences this will entail. One obvious opportunity (that I imagined before actually seeing the trailer for "The Sounds of Thunder") is that Saru returns to his homeworld to expose the lie about the "Great Balance". Yet, two things still bother me about how the idea that fear is induced into the Kelpiens is handled. The first is that Saru already did lose his fear on the planet Pahvo in "Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum" and that the events of the episode neither had any consequences nor were hinted at in any fashion. The second beef is that Saru knew all along that the Ba'ul manipulated and probably even killed his people, as seen in "The Brightest Star". The assumption that the threat ganglia are a further means to make them obedient is no more than the icing on the cake in this regard. It seems like the fear of the Ba'ul has so far impaired Saru's judgment, still many years after joining Starfleet, and that it is more like a personal epiphany that he finally recognizes the obvious truth.

There is yet again very little progress regarding the Spock mystery. At least this episode doesn't make a big deal of facts that a character kept back without any good reason.

"An Obol for Charon" also marks the first appearance of Rebecca Romijn as "Number One". However, she only shows up in a cameo at the beginning of the episode and contributes next to nothing to the search for Spock or any other aspect of the story. Bearing in mind the big fuss that was made about this character, she is underwhelming so far. We will have to wait and see if and which role she may play in future episodes.

As an engineer, I enjoyed the dispute between science (represented by Stamets) and practical engineering (represented by Reno). And as already mentioned, I would have liked this part of the episode even more, had it been conceded the due time. The way it actually happens, the two come up with makeshift solutions within seconds, which sort of misrepresents both sides of the medal. It would have worked better in an episode of its own or with some more time. One more thing of note in this regard is that when psilocybin released by "May" blurs their senses and Stamets and Reno are on drugs, it is like an innuendo to the criticism of the science of the series. The characters are literally on the oft-cited "magic mushrooms" here.

One topic that Reno and Stamets clash about is how the allegedly dirty warp drive (according to Stamets) that requires dilithium mining and hence devastates whole planets can be replaced with the clean spore drive. It is ironical how his idea is more or less destroyed just minutes later when "May" claims that the spore drive damages the mycelial network. This, however, is not really a surprise because at latest since the excursion to the Mirror Universe Stamets should be aware that the network is affected by his jumps. Anyway, while the revelation that the spore drive is dangerous is primarily an attempt to retroactively align the series with canon, it also demonstrates that no technical innovation is without harmful side effects.

As I already noted about the previous season 2 episodes, Discovery resorts at least as often to technobabble as Voyager, the series that is customarily berated the most for it. A phenomenon that is unique to Discovery, however, is the additional abundance of analogies. TNG and Voyager were fond of analogies as well, but used them economically, and only if they contributed to the story (such as "souring the milk" in TNG: "Galaxy's Child") or if they otherwise served to get across a point (such as when Data didn't understand them). In Discovery, they are probably meant to make the technobabble more digestible, and ultimately they sound like they are aimed at the viewers, rather than at 23rd century Starfleet personnel. "An Obol for Charon" brims over with such analogies. There is one for seemingly each and every phenomenon or technical trick. Pike's reference of the Discovery being caught in a spider's web is still reasonable. But "digital antibodies" that are "like an army of ants eating a water buffalo"? Come on! This ostentatiously breaks the fourth wall and takes the viewers for fools. Well, the good thing is that the writers seem to have been aware of it themselves, so much that they let Reno ironically comment on Stamets's analogies.

Summarizing, the new and improved Discovery is back with another story that focuses on the crew, rather than on shady characters, and that presents genuine science fiction, rather than generic intrigues. This isn't a reason for particular praise, as it is something I expect from a series that wants to be Star Trek. "An Obol for Charon" may not be the most original story of its kind but it is exciting for the most part. Unfortunately it is also very rushed, and everything related to the sphere or to Tilly falls short of the Saru story. The foreshadowing of his death and his interaction with Burnham becomes very melodramatic and does not work on all accounts. On the other hand, it provides welcome breaks in a story that otherwise consists of almost uninterrupted action. The mystery mongering about Spock continues, albeit in a less obtrusive fashion than last week.

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Rating: 4

 

Saints of Imperfection

Synopsis

"Saints of Imperfection"

The Discovery pursues Spock's shuttle to a nebula. The pilot ignites the gas, thereby blinding the ship's sensors. Pike orders to disable the shuttle by detonating a photon torpedo in its vicinity. The shuttle is tractored into the shuttlebay, where the pilot turns out to be Philippa Georgiou. She says that she found the shuttle adrift in space, with no sign of Spock. Pike does not know that she is the Georgiou from the Mirror Universe, and Burnham does not let him in yet. In his ready room, he is already welcomed by a holographic message from Leland, who says that Section 31 takes care of the issue, rather than Pike or Burnham. He also announces that he will send a liaison officer. This liaison turns out to be Ash Tyler. Tilly is not in the cocoon any longer, she was somehow transported to the mycelial network. Stamets comes up with the plan of a partial jump that would submerge the port section of the ship in the network. Although it means a high risk, Pike agrees because it is his firm stance never to leave someone behind. In the spore network, "May" wants Tilly to find a "monster" that threatens the jahSepp. After the Discovery has arrived, the two proceed to the weapons storage. They run into Stamets and Burnham. And they find the "monster", who turns out to be Hugh Culber. Culber was transferred there through Stamets and has survived only by using the bark of a tree that is poisonous to the jahSepp. Stamets can convince the intimidated Culber to come back with him. But Culber is unable to cross the barrier to normal space. This is because he is not composed of normal matter. "May" agrees to help him return, using the mycelial transporter on whose other end real DNA would help to reconstruct Culber's body. In the interim, the Section 31 ship has arrived to tractor the Discovery out of the barrier between normal space and the mycelial network. As the ship sinks deeper into the network, Leland wants to act, but Georgiou buys the crew more time until everyone is safe. In the cocoon in engineering, Culber rematerializes. On the Section 31 ship, Admiral Cornwell reminds Leland and Pike that they work for the same goals.

Commentary

Michael Burnham doesn't get any rest. Just after the life of Saru has been saved, she needs to worry about her other friend, Sylvia Tilly. Unlike it was the case with Saru, her friendship with Tilly is well-established in the series, and so it feels right how desperate she is about the disappearance of the ensign.

Burnham's almost whiny voice-over at the beginning and the end of the episode is rather odd. It would make more sense in a season finale, as already in "Will You Take My Hand?", or in the conclusion of a story arc. It feels out of place in an episode like "Saints of Imperfection" that is action-oriented and otherwise takes little time for contemplation and that does not have a definite beginning or ending either.

Just as I don't like Mirror Georgiou, I don't like the attempts to rehabilitate the character ("She's not so bad after all, she bought the Discovery more time."). And the continued deception about her true identity gets on my nerves. It unnecessarily extends a character conflict that did not work in the first place, since the masquerade began in "The War Without, The War Within". I concede that for Burnham it is a personal matter because she used to be close to Prime Georgiou and because she brought Mirror Georgiou to our universe. Burnham is understandably torn between her sense of duty (perhaps she was ordered to keep the secret?) and her sense of right and wrong in this regard. And so she exhibits an open hostility towards Georgiou that makes Pike suspicious, yet hesitates to reveal the reason. But the story makes it look like she were the only person to know the truth, the only person who would be entitled or expected to reveal it to Pike and the only person who is troubled by the presence of the former dictator. Saru, Tilly and probably some other crew members are aware of the deception as well but no one seems to have a problem with Georgiou. It is Pike and Nhan who are concerned, rather than Saru or anyone else of the old bridge crew. In this episode their mindlessness is still excusable because there are more pressing problems at hand. But I would expect Saru and Burnham to discuss the issue as soon as possible, especially now that we know how close the two are.

Another thing that doesn't quite work is the return of Ash Tyler. I think the timing for his arrival on the ship has symbolic reasons, to coincide with the resurrection of his victim Hugh Culber, rather than being in any way instrumental for the plot. There is a little bit of interaction with Burnham and with Pike, but nothing particularly important. It is just as anticlimactic as the much-anticipated cameo of "Number One" last week. In both cases a big opportunity was made into a insignificant side story.

Captain Pike is only formally in charge of this week's mission. Section 31 knows more about Spock than he does, Burnham knows more about Georgiou, Stamets takes charge of Tilly's rescue and only Leland's interference saves the Discovery. Pike rarely acts on his own, and his experience and integrity is not an advantage. Considering how edgy everyone else is, he simply has a hard time as the nice captain who listens to the crew and who has their respect. His character is symptomatic of the things that still don't go together in the Discovery universe. On a further note about Pike, it is odd that he knows Georgiou as well as Leland, which seems gratuitous and reminds me of the time when Kirk used to know everyone in outer space. It ultimately just allows him to deliver a few more lines. At least, Pike has one good scene when, after noticing Burnham's reaction to Georgiou, he reminds her to be honest to him. Well, he himself didn't tell her the whole truth about Spock either, at least not immediately. But we may just say it was the captain's prerogative.

I like Tilly in this episode. Although she is still agitated (who wouldn't be after being abducted to a hostile realm?), she remains reasonable and skillfully keeps "May" in check whose only intention is to kill the "monster". Tilly profits from the fact that after quite some time in her mind the otherwise very alien "May" has adopted to some extent a human way of thinking and has picked up some aspects of May's friendship with Tilly. The "Pinky swear" is hilarious and does not come across as too silly.

In the course of the episode, the focus shifts away from the search for Tilly to the rescue of Hugh Culber. The doctor was killed by Ash Tyler in "Despite Yourself", was transferred to the spore network through Stamets and has managed to survive there with the help of a tree bark that is lethal to the jahSepp that attacked him. It is very touching how Stamets approaches his intimidated friend, and tells the story of their date in the Met Museum of Art to prove that he really is Stamets and not some deception. But Culber's ordeal is not over yet. He is composed of a different kind of matter, and while he himself is ready to stay behind so Stamets can save himself, Tilly and Stamets come up with a way to rescue him too. Everything about Stamets and Culber is emotionally strong and does not fall short of the action despite the fast pace of the episode. I admit I am glad to have him back.

Still, everything about the mycelial network, the jahSepp and Culber's rescue is only enjoyable as long as we ignore the awful treatment of science, especially regarding the new findings of this episode. The spore network already had a very bad reputation from the first season. It is a realm that encompasses the whole universe and that was allegedly created before galaxies even existed, which vehemently clashes with everything we know from real-world astrophysics. It enables instantaneous travel from one place to any other, the only small condition being that a compatible "navigator" and a supply of mushrooms is available. The spore drive also allows to travel to other universes and to travel in time. The possibilities are nearly unlimited and let every scientific or technical discovery of the following 130 years pale in comparison. "Saints of Imperfection" adds even more miracles to the list. We learn that the mycelial network somehow took over Culber's "soul" when the delirious Stamets was still connected to it and discovered Culber's dead or dying body. There is a precedent in the form of the famous katra transfer in "Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan". But as if the Vulcan feat were not fantastic enough, the spore network creates a body for Culber without having his DNA, and still knows exactly what the good doctor looked like and how his body is supposed to work! Considering that in "Vaulting Ambition" it looked like Stamets was wandering around in an illusory realm, it is incredible anyway that the spore network is suddenly an inhabitable environment, with gravity, breathable air and plants. Agreed, we learned in TNG: "Schisms" that something similar applies to subspace, but the existence of a realm that would allow indigenous lifeforms as well as human to survive there is a big stretch. What's more, this depiction does not let the spore network appear particularly alien, not like a phenomenon that would allow ultrafast space travel but rather like a fun terrain for an ATV ride.

We don't know much about the jahSepp at this time, and perhaps it is the last time we have seen them. Everything pertaining to them can be classified in just two categories. One one occasion they are dumb creatures who don't know anything about the outside world and who are only driven by their instinct to eat everything they encounter. Yet, "May" knows how to manipulate normal matter in many ways and how to transport Tilly to her realm. Maybe "May" has learned quite a bit during her "away mission", still it is totally over the top how a naive and primitive organism becomes an ingenious genetic engineer and particle physicist. Like with the spore network itself, the writers have imposed no limitations on the jahSepp, who are allowed to have (or lack) any abilities they deem useful for the story. They don't recognize that constraints are beneficial, and even essential on long term. I know that some fans will interject that the Q are omnipotent too. But there are three decisive differences that effectively limit the concept of the Q. The Q never show up except for one specific member of his kind. They can't be invoked the way it is possible with the spore drive. Finally, it has never been attempted to explain the Q with science because they are beyond Starfleet's understanding, whereas everything related to spores seems to be rather well understood and becomes Trek lore (that for some reason will fall into oblivion).

In "Saints of Imperfection" the mycelial network becomes an omnipotent concept without any limitations. The writers twist it in any way they want. I was prepared that the announced return of Culber would not make much sense, and it was obvious that it would have to do with the spore network. But the way it was written it is not just implausible but totally incredible unless I set my suspension of disbelief to the level of "pure magic". My prediction is that many of those who currently still praise the episode for its story will change their minds after a second viewing. VOY: "Threshold" still keeps the prize for "Worst Science in an Episode", but "Saints of Imperfection" is the new runner-up, with the spore network winning in the category of "Worst Scientific Concept".

Just like in last week's episode, the pace is mostly breathless, but there are a couple of calm scenes as well. As I already mentioned, "Saints of Imperfection" gets the emotional side of the reunion of Stamets with Culber right. But it is simply not the right time for it. We have to remember that the ship is being rocked by the anomaly and is being eaten up by the jahSepp. Pike and Saru repeatedly order the away team to return immediately, but instead hurrying to the exit they wallow in memories and engage in discussions about the nature of Spore-Culber. So it's not only the science that doesn't work, also the timing is not appropriate.

Like last week's episode, "Saints of Imperfection" too suffers from an overkill of analogies. Less would have been more. And once again, several of them are inept. For instance, Stamets as a "lightning rod" for the mental energy of the dead Culber (curiously one week after Stamets and Reno used a real lightning rod) and the jahSepp as "healthy cells that attack cancer" are so crude as analogies that they only work for an early 21st century viewer who is not expected to ask further questions.

The Weekly Spock News is rather scarce this time. The red signal is said to have left a trail of tachyons, which could indicate a time travel, a cloaking device or a transporter. This doesn't tell us anything new, as it could already be deduced from what happened in "New Eden".

Overall, "Saints of Imperfection" brings us the much-anticipated return of Hugh Culber, whose reunion with Paul Stamets is well played and very touching. But it is overshadowed by the extremely bad science in the writing that invokes one deus ex machina after another and that ultimately turns the spore network into a ludicrous concept that can accomplish just anything, from resurrecting the dead to brewing the perfect craft beer. The episode was thrilling to watch but at the cost of a nasty hangover.

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Rating: 2

 

The Sound of Thunder

Synopsis

"The Sound of Thunder"

While Tilly and Airiam are investigating the data obtained from the ancient sphere, Dr. Pollard examines her two patients that recently underwent transformations. She finds that Hugh Culber has been restored to a "pristine" condition, up to an old scar that is gone. Regarding Saru, she confirms that he has changed on the psychic side. She also discovers that some sort of teeth are growing after the loss of the threat ganglia. The Discovery receives a new signal related to the Red Angel, this time from Saru's homeworld Kaminar. When the ship arrives, the signal has vanished just as on the two previous occasions. Pike tries to contact the Ba'ul, the advanced race that dominates the planet, but receives no reply. He then sends Burnham to establish first contact with the Kelpiens and, at Saru's insistence, allows him to join her. The two beam down to Saru's old village where they encounter his sister Siranna, who is now the priest of the village. Siranna is happy to see her brother again after 18 years but she also reproaches him with not caring for her. Siranna says that she too saw a "fiery sign" in the sky. Suddenly the pylon built by the Ba'ul, the "Watchful Eye", is activated, frightening Siranna. Saru and Burnham ask to be beamed back immediately. The Discovery gets surrounded by Ba'ul ships that demand Saru's return. Otherwise they would destroy his village. Saru beams down to the surface to surrender himself. The Ba'ul also abduct Siranna to the unknown place where he is being held. On the Discovery, Tilly and Burnham analyze the data the sphere recorded about Kaminar. At one point, 2300 years ago, many Kelpiens entered the vahar'ai, and the Ba'ul were almost extinguished. They conclude that the evolved Kelpiens were the actual predators and the Ba'ul were their prey. A Ba'ul appears and tells Saru and Siranna that they have to die because they know the truth and pose a danger to the Ba'ul. But Saru breaks free and smashes the drones that attack him. He builds a communicator from the debris and contacts the Discovery. On Burnham's suggestion, Captain Pike decides to help the Kelpiens and trigger the vahar'ai in all of them, isolating the frequencies of the sphere transmission that were responsible for Saru's evolution. The Ba'ul expose a massive stronghold and transmit energy to the pylons in all Kelpien villages, enough to destroy them. Pike orders to arm photon torpedoes, but the ship couldn't possibly target all 4056 pylons at once. The Ba'ul energy network is then disabled by someone else. It is the Red Angel, who also appears to Saru and Siranna. The Discovery leaves Kaminar in the hope that the Ba'ul and the now evolved Kelpiens find a peaceful new balance.

Commentary

"The Sound of Thunder" would have had the potential to become my favorite Discovery episode. It tells a classic Star Trek story and ties in with the very personal unfinished business that the newly enlightened Saru has with the state of his homeworld. I like the continuity with SHO: "The Brightest Star" which, in hindsight, was a successful appetizer, although it established that the ship Georgiou arrived from was the Shenzhou, not the Archimedes as stated in "The Sound of Thunder". I don't like at all that the shot from the Short Treks episode was retroactively changed to comply with the new script. Anyway, another positive aspect is that for "The Sound of Thunder" the writers abstained from packing various B- and C-plots into the story as in the preceding three episodes that were marked by a hastiness that almost made me nauseous.

Overall, this Saru-centered episode started with a voice-over by Saru that didn't feel out of place, with great character interaction (involving the so far mostly silent Airiam) and with an overall contemplative mood that reminded me of the best times of TNG. It was a pleasant experience and was beginning to grow on me. But after about 25 minutes things started to go south. I don't mind the decent amount of action after the Ba'ul show up and abduct Saru and his sister. But I don't like how the story presents a "truth" that is actually just the result of a chain of swift conclusions and reckless actions. As I further explain in the annotations, there is not sufficient reason to believe that the "evolved" Kelpiens are predators who would hunt the Ba'ul. There is actually no reason to assume that they "evolve" at all. But if they do, why in the world would a Starfleet captain release the predators? And why would the person who suggested just that, namely Burnham, be surprised that the prey fights back? And how do they think the allegedly ferocious primitive Kelpiens and the technologically advanced yet fearful Ba'ul would ever come to terms? The second half of the episode is unfortunately marked by rashness like in James T. Kirk's worst days in episodes such as "The Apple" or "A Piece of the Action".

After seeing the trailer, my expectation was that the Ba'ul would turn out the same race as the Kelpiens, and that no Kelpiens were ever actually "culled" but, on the contrary, selected for one of the limited places in a society of elders. Well, perhaps I am a bit disappointed that my prediction didn't turn out right. But the actual outcome leaves me dissatisfied for the above reasons and because of several other questions that remain unanswered or that the writers deem sufficiently answered by the fact that it's just the other way round and the Kelpiens are the actual bad guys (at least if they don't manage to restrain themselves). Maybe a future episode will revisit Kaminar and will show if and how the two races work on a common future, but right now there are more questions than answers if we are honest.

Another letdown in this regard, albeit "only" in terms of style, is the hissing voice of the Ba'ul (to insinuate they have to be evil, in what seems to be a last-minute attempt at a red herring) and their look that unpleasantly reminds me of the tar pit creature that killed Tasha in TNG: "Skin of Evil".

The episode also establishes that Kelpiens, after losing their threat ganglia, "evolve" to predators that can shoot some sort of darts from their heads and are incredibly strong. I don't think this is beneficial for the further character development of Saru. It would have absolutely sufficed to establish him as a more courageous man, one that stands up for his views and his interests like he does at two points in the episode, although the second time it has to be rated as insubordination. The idea of Saru as a person who, when angry, may become some sort of Hulk (with new superpowers in addition to the ones he already had, such as the superior eyesight and MacGyvering skills) does not sit well with me. Saru tells Siranna not to be afraid of the change, but shouldn't she actually be very afraid, not only of a conflict with the Ba'ul but also of who or what she is becoming?

After seeing how suddenly he departed in SHO: "The Brightest Star", I initially enjoyed the reunion of Saru with his sister Siranna very much. Their chemistry is very good, and ultimately the Kelpiens prove that despite extensive latex appliances it is possible for actors to relay emotions. The make-up designers should ask themselves why this wasn't possible with their new Klingons. I like anyway how Siranna is much more than the usual one-dimensional alien stock character. She is happy to see Saru again after so many years, yet quickly recognizes that he has not returned because of her, which upsets Siranna. She believes in the "Great Balance", yet she is open to reason and open for new possibilities, just like her brother. It is a pity that her role in the further course of the episode is quite passive because, as already mentioned, it is determined by the inconsiderate actions of the Starfleet crew.

Last week, Paul Stamets's tearful reunion with Hugh Culber was inappropriately shoehorned into an action story. It is good that "The Sound of Thunder" takes time for a wrap-up of these tumultuous events and a proper "Welcome back, Dr. Culber". It is a nice touch how Hugh Culber is understandably a bit frightened when Saru approaches him, who himself has lost his fear. Yet, the eerie score in the scene when he speaks about his accident many years ago foreshadows that not everything is right about this new Culber, although Dr. Pollard says it is just his nervous system that still has to stabilize. We will have to wait and see whether there is still something going on with Culber and whether it will entail yet another excursion into the awful spore network.

Like already in the two preceding episodes, there is no real news about Spock in "The Sound of Thunder". But the wait is almost over anyway, as he will appear in person next week. Anyway, in a status meeting Pike, Burnham and Tyler finally discuss two of the questions that have been bugging me all along. The first is why the Red Angel leads the Discovery to places that are somehow related to them and now to a specific crew member. The second is whether the Red Angel is a savior, or rather the entity that created the emergencies in the first place. The three don't come any closer to an answer but it is a good idea to finally ask these questions.

Regarding the Red Angel, however, it is a letdown that the entity appears like the cavalry or a deus ex machina. We already know that the Red Angel did save the people from WWIII, but on the so far two other occasions of the Discovery coming to rescue people in need the Red Angel remained passive. We will probably learn more next week, but for now it seems like the Red Angel can do just anything, anywhere and any time.

As I mentioned above, "The Sound of Thunder" could have become my favorite Discovery episode because it is the first of the series to take the due time to tend to a specific character. But overall it turns out to be just okay. It is a pity that much of what was built up in terms of character development and of ethical principles is thrown overboard in the course of the episode. Perhaps it was a mistake in the first place to visit Saru's homeworld so soon after his transformation in "An Obol for Charon". He should have been given time for intermediate character development and not return to his homeworld in anger, almost immediately after recognizing the bitter truth. And considering that the Kelpiens and Ba'ul are not just aliens of the week, I would have appreciated if the story about their common history and the "evolution" of the Kelpiens had made a little bit of sense.

Annotations

Rating: 3

 

Light and Shadows

Synopsis

"Light and Shadows"

Michael Burnham heads for Vulcan, while the Discovery remains at Kaminar to investigate the temporal phenomenon related to the Red Angel. Probes can't be controlled near the anomaly and it proves too dangerous for the ship to get close to it. So Pike, who used to be a test pilot, and Tyler take a shuttle to launch a probe from there. A temporal shockwave occurs, and the shuttle vanishes from the sensors. On Vulcan, Michael arrives at Sarek and Amanda's home. She suspects that Amanda knows where Spock is. Amanda leads Michael to a cave where she hides Spock, who is in a delusional state of mind. He always repeats the number 841947. Sarek appears and persuades Michael to take Spock to Leland of Section 31, in his view the only organization that could possibly help him. Inside the anomaly, Pike orders Tyler to vent plasma from the shuttle's nacelles as a signal that could help locate them. Then the probe returns, but with upgrades that allow it to break through the hull and access the computer. After arriving 500 years in the future, it was sent back by someone on purpose. Stamets, who can navigate the anomaly thanks to his connection to the mycelial network, beams over to the shuttle. While Tyler and Pike try to keep the probe in check, he can almost steer clear of the anomaly, but the shuttle runs out of fuel. After initiating the self destruct, the three officers are beamed out. On the Discovery, the intrusion of the probe into the computer system can be stopped, but something happens to Airiam in the course. On the Section 31 ship, Leland prepares a procedure on Spock and tells Burnham to leave. But Georgiou warns her that Leland is going to use a mind extractor that would kill her brother. After Burnham has escaped together with Spock, Leland suspects that Georgiou helped them and warns her that her position is not safe. But Georgiou knows about a secret, that Leland is responsible for the deaths of Burnham's parents. In the meantime, Burnham has figured out what the number means that her brother was repeating. As a child, he suffered from a condition that let him confuse spatial orders. The actual number is reversed, 749 mark 148 - the coordinates of Talos IV.

Commentary

"Light and Shadows" is just 40 minutes long, and it begins yet again with a voice-over by Michael Burnham. But unlike it was in "Saints of Imperfection", the voice-over really fits in here because it comes in the form of a classic log entry and describes what is going on, rather than being a philosophical digression superimposed on an action sequence. It also very efficiently replaces the "previously on Star Trek Discovery" recap that I usually skip anyway because it is distracting.

The search for Spock is over! Michael Burnham finally finds her brother on his home planet, rather than somewhere far out in space. We already know from the teaser trailers and from several statements in previous episodes that Spock is deranged. It seems that the makers of Discovery have used every opportunity to prepare the fans for a very different Spock. But that doesn't mean I have to like the idea. I will reserve my judgment about the storyline as well as about Ethan Peck's portrayal of the character for later because so far we could not see much of Spock aside from a person who runs around apathetically and repeats a number.

My apprehension was that this episode would digress and delve further into the family secrets of the Sareks, rather than tending to the problems at hand. I am glad that, aside from the revelation that young Spock suffered from l'tak terai, some sort of dyslexia, everything focused on the question how to help Spock here and now. And even l'tak terai didn't turn out an unnecessary new mystery but provided the key to the decryption of the strange numbers that Spock kept repeating (which he reversed because of his condition).

As I mentioned in previews reviews, I am appalled by the depiction of Sarek in Discovery in general. I don't think that Sarek would be such a cold proponent of reason of state, much less that he would condone secret ops or even genocide. And I also don't like that James Frain plays the character with a spiteful undertone. In this Sarek's narrow-minded view, a harmless children's book like Alice's Adventures in Wonderland brings "chaos", whereas a disorder like l'tak terai is something not to worry about because the highly advanced Vulcan education can cure it. The tok'mar ritual that he performs every day, apparently a Vulcan form of prayer for Spock's return, is the only sign in the episode that he really cares for his son. Other than that, Sarek once again leaves a bad impression. In light of how Sarek appeared in Discovery so far, it seems to make sense that he would trust Section 31 to find the right treatment for his son. But we have to wonder what kind of connection Sarek has to Leland and his secret organization. He either does not know much about them, or he is aware of their dark secrets. In neither case he should entrust them with taking care of his son. His logic is that Section 31 is the best for Spock, and that it is best for Michael not to disobey her orders again. But since when is Section 31 officially responsible for legal prosecution, or for taking care of mentally ill patients? And under whose authority, except Sarek's, is Burnham to turn over her brother to Section 31?

Amanda, on the other hand, cares for her son more than everyone else. She hides him on Vulcan, and thereby most of all hides him from his own father. She risks a confrontation with him that actually occurs when Sarek follows her and finds the hiding place. It becomes obvious at this point that Amanda and Sarek are in a harmonious relationship only because Amanda acknowledges Sarek's lead in practically all matters. And even though Amanda has likely been more active than ever in her efforts to save Spock, she once again yields to Sarek's authority.

Everything related to the temporal anomaly is just classic Star Trek as I love it, perhaps even the best of its kind in Discovery so far. I especially like the temporal hiccups that are a bit like in TNG: "We'll Always Have Paris" but definitely more exciting in the DIS episode.

The Discovery crew once again works like a well-oiled machine. Saru shows leadership when, after the disappearance of the shuttle, he encourages the bridge crew to try the impossible and locate it somewhere in space-time. I only wonder if and how Saru is fit for duty so soon after the ordeal in "The Sound of Thunder". We have to keep in mind that he mutated to a monster who shoots darts from his head, together with his whole people that may now be on the verge of a war with the Ba'ul. Some sort of wrap-up would have been necessary, especially since the Discovery is still in orbit of Kaminar, but the spatial anomaly is apparently the only concern. Anyway, Saru remains level-headed all the time. Stamets proves his unique abilities once again, this time without overstressing the capabilities of the spore network. And Rhys makes his first valuable contribution to a story when he spots the plasma trails that Pike left behind as a beacon.

Only Pike and Tyler initially don't get along. Pike has two good reasons not to trust Tyler, because he is a Section 31 agent sneaking around on his ship and because he used to be a Klingon agent who killed a crew member. Pike explicitly mentions this to Tyler. Still, I don't get what Pike is worried about in particular. The two are at odds for already four episodes now, but it's all just about a feeling. It may have been a good idea for Pike to talk to Saru or Burnham about Tyler at some point, but he seems to keep his apprehension to himself, just like he didn't talk to Burnham about Spock and just as he is not curious to learn why Burnham is so hostile towards Georgiou. The people on the Discovery generally, and Pike in particular, talk too little. They would only discuss a problem once it has become so big that it's not possible to ignore any longer. Well, in the case of Pike's mistrust of Tyler, they seem to have come to terms. After their mission in the shuttle, they are almost like best buddies. We will have to wait and see if this persists, because character conflicts are (unfortunately) the spice of the series, and the starship has been without a spy or saboteur for only brief periods so far. But perhaps rather than Tyler, Airiam is the next crew member who will stir up trouble, seeing the red light in her eyes in an ominous shot.

Speaking of spies, after buying the Discovery more time in "Saint of Imperfection", Mirror-Georgiou continues to play nice when she warns Burnham that Leland's procedure will likely kill Spock and helps them to escape. I think Michael Burnham should have noticed herself that something is wrong about Leland's kindness, but for some reason her otherwise infallible instinct fails her this one time. Anyway, as I already mentioned in a previous review, I don't think it is a good idea to try to bring the Georgiou of our universe back and grant a cruel dictator easy redemption. And one more thing that bothers me is that once again Georgiou uses her knowledge of Leland's past against him. This feat doesn't become more realistic by just repeating it. Georgiou may have certain "skills", but she is new to this universe in which things work differently. She can't possibly know more than people who have been living in our universe and working for Section 31 for much longer.

The probably biggest bummer about "Light and Shadows" is the revelation that Leland is somehow responsible for the deaths of Burnham's parents. This is utterly implausible. We already know that Klingons attacked her family on Doctari Alpha, and that later Vulcan extremists tried to kill her in the learning center. As if it were not unlikely enough that Michael Burnham would be the victim of two terrorist attacks within a few years of her early childhood, we are now supposed to believe that both attacks were selectively aimed at her or her family! For some reason, little Michael was such an enormous threat that just everyone in the galaxy wanted to kill her.

With their attention to detail and the pleasant colors, the CG visuals of season 2 are quite a contrast to the cartoonish effects of season 1. "Light and Shadows" shines with several beautiful CG sequences, such as the temporal anomaly, the surface of Vulcan or Burnham's shuttle approaching the NCIA-93. Unfortunately the episode also recycles the preposterous turbolift sequence from "Brother".

After a pause of one episode in which the characters largely refrained from breaking the fourth wall, it's analogy time again on Discovery. "Light and Shadows" comes with gems such as Stamets's "catching a grain of sand in a hurricane, using a pair of tweezers".

"Light and Shadows" is a solid and very efficient episode that manages to tell two stories despite its length of only 40 minutes. The plot about the anomaly is classic Trek as I love it. The end of the search for Spock is at least a satisfying preliminary conclusion to the overextended big mystery story of the season. I am still opposed to the idea of deconstructing Spock by showing him as a delusional person but so far I can live with the way it is handled. Rather than that, I have gripes with some of the characters and with the revelation about Leland, but overall I liked this episode and I am very curious what will happen on Talos IV.

Annotations

Rating: 7

 

If Memory Serves

Synopsis

"If Memory Serves"

Stardate 1532.9: Michael Burnham and Spock are en route to Talos IV, a planet that the Enterprise with Pike and Spock visited a couple of years ago and that is off limits since then. Spock correctly recognizes the black hole that suddenly appears as a Talosian illusion and steers the shuttle right through it to the actual planet Talos IV. Here, the two are welcomed by Vina, the only human survivor of a survey ship that crashed on the planet many years ago. Vina leads Spock and Burnham to the Talosians. In return for the healing of Spock's damaged mind, the Talosians demand access to Michael's personal memories about Spock just as well, to learn from it. Spock recounts that he was in a mind meld with the Red Angel, who didn't reveal his identity but showed him the destruction of all civilizations of the galaxy some time in the future. He believes that the Red Angel is human. Spock was then confined in a hospital. He ran away when he was about to be delivered to Section 31, but without killing anyone. On the Discovery, Pike wants to find Burnham and Spock before Section 31 does, although his orders are to remain at Kaminar and investigate the debris of the probe. There is no debris left, however. Everything salvaged belongs to the shuttle. In the meantime, Culber confronts Tyler in the mess hall. The two fight out their conflict, and Saru decides not to intervene. Culber tells Stamets that he can't connect to his past and can't continue their relationship. Vina appears to Captain Pike and announces a transmission from Talos IV, in which Burnham asks him to come for them. Pike sets a course and Stamets tries to activate the spore drive but it shuts down. Someone sabotaged the drive and also sent out secret transmissions to an unknown recipient. It appears that this person used Tyler's access codes. Pike then heads for Starbase 11, only two light-years from Talos IV, using the conventional warp drive, with the intention to change the course mid-way. On Talos IV, Burnham fulfills her part of the deal and lets the Talosians read her mind. It transpires that the night she ran away to protect her family from Vulcan extremists, she insulted young Spock so he would not follow her. On the way to Talos IV, the Section 31 ship is on Discovery's tail. Upon their arrival, both ships have locked their transporter beams on Burnham and Spock, until Pike gets a cue from Vina to release them. The two materialize on the Section 31 ship, or so it seems. In reality, they approach the Discovery with the shuttle. After assuring himself of his crew's support, Pike decides to continue his insubordination and to run from Section 31.

Commentary

As could be expected after Burnham and Spock set course for Talos IV last week, "If Memory Serves" is much like a direct sequel to the very first Star Trek pilot episode, "The Cage". But this comes with a big caveat. In order to forge the ties, the Discovery episode starts with a "Previously seen on Star Trek" recap that uses footage from "The Cage". This old footage, however, is not edited the normal way as it is done with previous Discovery events, but is flipped through in the fashion of a pop-up book. This way, the recap looks technically sophisticated yet very stylized. In other words, it does not appear like something that happened in the "real" world of Discovery but as some sort of tale. In fact, the technique is much the same as the customary one in fantasy movies that begin with someone opening a fairy tale or comic book, upon which an illustration in the book gives way to a live-action scene.

I concede that stylization of classic Trek is the only way to handle the visual discrepancies with Discovery regarding the characters, the technology and the ship. "If Memory Serves" does an excellent job within these limitations, and I really like the final cut from Jeffrey Hunter's Pike to Anson Mount's. The resemblance of the two actors in their role is the arguably best visual link between Discovery and "The Cage" that still exists. But overall the style of the recap clarifies that the old look of Star Trek is not endorsed any longer, unlike it still was in DS9: "Trials and Tribble-ations" or ENT: "In a Mirror, Darkly". As much as "If Memory Serves" is meant as a homage to "The Cage", it only corroborates Discovery's depreciation of the look of the old Star Trek.

After the recap has already done a solid job to reintroduce the viewers to the events of "The Cage", the rest of the exposition takes place in the form of a recording that Michael Burnham plays during their flight to Talos IV. We learn that travel to the planet is prohibited, albeit there is no mention of the death penalty established in TOS: "The Menagerie". "If Memory Serves" shows how an exposition can be done better than in the contrived dialogues of the first two episodes of this season, and how it particularly improves the flow of the story.

The story of "If Memory Serves" is largely predictable, but mostly not to its disadvantage. We could expect that the Talosians would heal Spock with their psychic powers, that he would reveal a little bit more about the Red Angel and his agenda and that Burnham would eventually disclose the reason for her estrangement with Spock. The general certainty about the course of the episode makes the little surprises even more enjoyable, the most notable of which is the appearance of Vina. It is remarkable how Vina was kept out of the announcements and trailers. And although it was a no-brainer in hindsight to include her, it pleasantly surprised me when she appeared on the planet and in Pike's ready room.

There is one aspect of the story that utterly disappointed me, however. Since the beginning of the season the question has been lingering what Michael could have possibly done to alienate her brother so much that they wouldn't talk for many years. Michael feels very guilty about whatever she did to Spock, and so ashamed that she wouldn't talk about it with Pike or even with her mother. But we also knew that she did it in good faith, to protect her brother from Vulcan extremists that might have targeted him in case there had been a close bond between the siblings. Actually, with these facts already established we already knew everything. In "Point of Light", when Michael told of her attempt to leave her home on Vulcan, I envisioned what she could have said to little Spock at that very moment in order to repel him. And even the wording that I had in mind, including a racial insult and a remark that he is not capable of love, was much the same as it eventually turns out in "If Memory Serves". I'm definitely not prophetic, I only recognized the obvious connections. But it never made sense to me how this argument between two children could have such a long-lasting effect. What bothers me most about it is that the big family secret of season 2 has such a banal reason. Like hardly anything else in Star Trek, it exemplifies what "anticlimactic" means.

Regarding Michael's reluctance to let the Talosians read her mind and her intention to leave immediately, it was probably meant to add a last chapter to her history of being defensive of her "big secret". Realistically, however, isn't it a comparably small price to pay if she can save Spock? And considering that the Talosians may manipulate her mind in nearly every possible way (as they already demonstrated to her with the black hole in the flight path), her resistance may be futile anyway. Burnham should have shown the same skepticism when she decided to hand over Spock to Section 31.

"If Memory Serves" successfully keeps up the suspense pertaining to the origin and agenda of the Red Angel. We learn that the Red Angel is likely human. Actually, I wouldn't be surprised if he or she is a character we already know. The pending destruction of all sentient life in the galaxy was already teased before the start of the second season and does not come as a surprise, although it would better have been one. Without even having the element of surprise, the way the apocalyptic event is shown in "If Memory Serves" is almost casual. It happens all the time in Star Trek (at least, regularly in the movies and occasionally on Voyager and Enterprise) and does not appear as a real threat, especially after having seen a teaser of the foreshadowing of the possible catastrophe.

I am very pleased by Ethan Peck's performance as Spock. When I close my eyes, it is almost like listening to Leonard Nimoy in TOS. I understand that from an actor's viewpoint it is not desirable to imitate all facial expressions and intonations of someone who played the role before. But as a fan I am glad to see that the old Spock is back (I'm confident the beard will go away too) and is not reimagined the way it was done with Sarek. Ethan Peck's Spock is closer to the original than Zachary Quinto's, even though we have to keep in mind that the Discovery Spock is still recovering from a trip that tortured his mind.

The A-plot is about Spock, Burnham, Vina and the Talosians, although my impression is that more of the screen time is set on the Discovery. The story about Culber, who is struggling with continuing his old new life, strikes a chord with me. Culber says that he can't connect with his old life any longer, that he remembers everything but is emotionally detached from it. In Star Trek, a franchise that has people restored after mutilations and even return from the dead all the time, this sentiment is something new. As much as I still dislike the extremely implausible way that Culber returned, the aftereffects of his resurrection feel very realistic to me. Kudos that the story manages to get across what Culber feels by just letting Wilson Cruz act, without any effects to visualize his condition! It also feels right that Culber would attack the man who killed him and that the two would fight out their conflict, only to recognize that they both have a problem with their identity. Culber says, "I don't even know who I am anymore.", and Tyler retorts, "Who do you think you're talking to?" This is perhaps a bit formulaic but it really touched me.

The conflict about the spy and saboteur aboard the Discovery, on the other hand, does not sit well with me. Saru discovers that someone sent three unauthorized transmissions, and Pike has no idea who could have done that? With a Section 31 agent on board? We know that he and Tyler are besties since their shuttle ride last week, but does his support on one occasion generally exonerate Tyler? Only after Saru presents the evidence that the transmissions were sent with Tyler's codes, Tyler becomes a suspect in Pike's eyes. From a purely legal viewpoint Pike acts correctly, but with so much at stake for Spock and Burnham and with the knowledge that Section 31 is up to no good, he is very negligent. Of course, this all is a red herring anyway because most likely Airiam is the one who sent the transmissions and also deactivated the spore drive. At least that is what I expect, seeing how the manipulation is conspicuously shown as red lights in her eyes.

On a final note about the characters, Emperor Captain Georgiou continues her redemption tour. This time she helps Burnham and Spock by not warning Leland of the Talosian hallucinations. Overall, Section 31 once again appears as an uncontrollable secret organization that may do harm just as it can avert harm from the Federation, and I don't like how all this is officially endorsed by the same people who run Starfleet.

"If Memory Serves" stands out from season 2 because it is a homage to "The Cage", but with the big caveat of downgrading the existing visuals as if they were inaccurate illustrations in a book. The certainty that the old Star Trek is lost diminishes my fun with this episode, although otherwise it is more respectful. I can live with the reimagination of the Talosians, and it is fair that the death penalty for going to Talos is not mentioned. The story of Spock and Burnham on Talos IV works well, only the revelation that the big family secret was in fact a trivial incident in the two siblings' childhood is very disappointing. Culber's struggle with his new life is a highlight of the episode, while everything related to Section 31, Tyler and Georgiou continues to be contrived. Like in last week's "Light and Shadows", the pace is agreeable and not as hectic as in most other Discovery episodes. Overall, "If Memory Serves" is a good episode but not a perfect one.

Annotations

Rating: 5

 

Project Daedalus

Synopsis

"Project Daedalus"

Admiral Cornwell arrives on the Discovery with a shuttle and demands to speak with Spock. She has visual evidence of Spock killing three people in the mental institution, but he passes her lie detector test. According to Cornwell, the decision making of Starfleet was transferred to Control, the artificial intelligence of Section 31. Cornwell herself was locked out of the system. The transmissions that were secretly sent from the Discovery went to an abandoned penal colony, which Cornwell identifies as the Section 31 Headquarters. While Airiam is working on the decryption of the messages, the ship proceeds to the Section 31 Headquarters. But something is happening to Airiam, which makes her transfer her complete memories to the Discovery computer. The station is protected by mines that attack the ship and that are apparently controlled in a way that anticipates any movements that are not random. Cornwell contacts the station, and the hail is answered by Admiral Patar, who is known for being a Vulcan logic extremist. Patar says that the order to attack the Discovery comes directly from Starfleet Command, and orders the ship to stand down to be boarded by Section 31. Cornwell and Pike, however, decide to send a team consisting of Burnham, Nhan and Airiam to the station to restore Cornwell's access. For some reason, life support is down. Then the team runs into the corpses of the station personnel, including Patar. The transmission from the admiral was a hologram, as was the recording of Spock murdering his custodians, as Saru finds out. On the station, Airiam does not act on her own. She continues to transfer data collected from the sphere to Control. The AI wants to gather this data to become more powerful. It is possible that Control will be responsible for the destruction of all sentient life in the future. Tilly tries to send back the personal memories to Airiam but it is of no help. Pike then gives Burnham the order to blow out Airiam through the airlock. Airiam still gives Burnham a cue to search for a "Project Daedalus" and then dies in open space.

Commentary

After the nostalgic excursion in last week's "If Memory Serves", the new episode "Project Daedalus" leads us back into the dark Discovery-style 23rd century. "Control", an artificial intelligence constructed by the shady Section 31 was entrusted with deciding about the destiny of the Federation. Moreover, this happened under the orders of Starfleet Command, which includes Admiral Patar, a Vulcan extremist according to Cornwell. We also learn that Section 31 faked the evidence of Spock killing Starbase personnel. And this all is just the tip of the iceberg, considering that it seems that the admirals and Section 31 were only useful idiots in Control's plan to kill every sentient being of the galaxy. It makes sense now why the probe sent back from the future looked so much like the "squid ships of doom" that Spock saw in his vision, and why Airiam would secretly send huge amounts of data to the station where Control is located. Regarding the bigger picture, "Project Daedalus" satisfies our need to get some more facts and not just rumors and premonitions.

I like the intense interaction of Spock and Michael Burnham during the chess game, although Spock gets overly emotional and although we don't learn anything really new about their difficult relationship. But it is good that the two finally talk about their differences instead of just blaming a particular ominous event in their childhood for all that is wrong with them. It turns out that after so many years Spock doesn't really resent how nasty Michael was to him. Rather than that, he criticizes how she always tends to overrate her own importance - regarding the killing of her parents, being a target of Vulcan extremists and the reason of the Klingon War. In his view, she has a feeling of responsibility or guilt for all the disasters in her own or in her family's lives, by which she offends him and ultimately only chastises herself. I think this assessment of her personality is spot-on. Yet, as unrealistic and also undesirable it is that a single person is the focal point of the universe, the whole series is more or less built on this premise. Discovery is not tired of corroborating Burnham's feeling of being very special. People used to blame her all the time for the war she allegedly caused. We already knew that Klingons, Section 31 as well as Vulcan extremists tried to kill her as a child. And Airiam adds fuel to the flames when she warns Michael that she is Control's main target. In a way, the very concept of the series defies Spock's logic.

Spock himself may have been a different person when he was younger, or still before the second appearance of the Red Angel. Having been healed by the Talosians, Spock now embraces his life or at least wants to, unlike Michael does. As detrimental as it is for him as a "half-human abomination" to be accepted by Vulcan purists, it may be instrumental in other regards. Spock says that he enjoys his emotions, which is a statement we would rather not hear from a Vulcan, whereas for humans emotions are so normal that there would be nothing special about it. For now, I can accept how the series deals with the character. Yet, we know that in Spock's development it is only an intermediate step and that he will start suppressing his emotions again. One promise of the Discovery producers was that they would show how Spock becomes the person we know. But I'm not sure if I'm interested to see this development of the character, other than being a necessary correction with regard to canon.

The arguably oddest conversation of the whole episode takes place between Spock and Stamets in engineering. In just two or three minutes, the two move from banter to giving each other relationship advice! They address the current power outage, Spock's engineering skills, Spock's connection to the Red Angel, Stamets's connection to the spore drive, Spock's trouble with his sister and Stamets's trouble with Culber, in rapid succession in about that order. The two may be weird characters, and they may take a certain pleasure in reminding each other of just that, but it feels totally out of place.

The cybernetically enhanced Airiam finally gets a backstory, which seems too late for the viewers to become emotionally attached to her character. Her story is in a rather sad tradition that a TV series would focus on a minor character only if the intention is to kill them off. Yet, the belated effort to introduce the character and her relationships works for me, and it is remarkable how Hannah Cheesman manages to convey emotions despite the thick make-up. The only thing I don't like is how Airiam mutates to a superhero when it would have absolutely sufficed to show her as somewhat stronger than Burnham. Well, and while Airiam is given a touching death scene, it irritates me how everyone just stands by and watches, without even trying anything. In a series that otherwise relies heavily on the deus ex machina, like only recently in "Saints of Imperfection", it is not even considered to use regular technology such as the transporter in "Project Daedalus".

For some time I thought Nhan would be the one to die in the episode, considering how ominously Airiam asked about the apparatus that Nhan needs to breathe. Furthermore, she was suspicious of Airiam's actions, which in my impression foreboded that Airiam would get rid of her soon. Regarding Nhan, there is also an omission because after trying to get hold of her breathing apparatus again on the station, we don't see her for a couple of minutes while Burnham is still struggling with Airiam, which insinuates that Nhan is dead.

A couple of elements of the story don't work at all the way they were probably intended and just frustrate me. I'm aware it's in character, but Tilly's extremely silly defensiveness ("I'm not a fugitive.") when Cornwell enters the bridge is just awful, especially considering that she was not surprised but already knew of the admiral's arrival. Landmines are banned in most present-day countries, and there may be noble reasons to outlaw space mines likewise, but I think the crew's outrage about the latter is too much driven by the real-world analogy. We already knew that Pike wondered why his ship was kept away from the war, but is it really necessary for Cornwell to break the fourth wall yet again and reveal that the best of Starfleet were supposed to survive? Finally, it transpires that Admiral Patar was killed by Control anyway, so her being a Vulcan extremist has no bearing on the story, except for further damaging the reputation of her people (and of Starfleet Command).

"Project Daedalus" is a rather straightforward action episode with decent horror elements that fortunately does not attempt to tell multiple stories at once the way it was tried in season 1 and in a few episodes of season 2. Once again, the pace is pleasant. We learn more about the threat that the Red Angel warned Spock about. But other than that, the introduction of Airiam and her eventual death is the only memorable aspect of the story. The various smaller plot points don't work so well, several of them are even plain annoying.

Annotations

Rating: 3

 

The Red Angel

Synopsis

"The Red Angel"

After destroying Control, the crew assembles for Airiam's memorial service. Tilly investigates the bioneural signature of the Red Angel from Airiam's files and comes to the conclusion that it's Michael Burnham. Since every appearance of the Red Angel opens a micro wormhole that also allows the future AI to infect someone or something in the present, as it happened with Airiam, the crew decides to set up a trap. Captain Leland has to admit that Section 31 is responsible for the creation of the time travel suit in the Project Daedalus 20 years ago. At that time the Federation was in a temporal arms race with the Klingons. Leland also tells Burnham that her parents were working on the project, and that the suit contained a time crystal stolen from a Klingon black market, which was the reason for them to raid the outpost and kill her parents. Spock discovers a pattern of the appearances of the Red Angel, which happen whenever Burnham is in danger. The future Burnham has to save her because of the grandfather paradox. So Michael Burnham agrees to be exposed to the deadly atmosphere of Essof IV, the former test site for Project Daedalus, as a bait for the Red Angel. The planet is rich on deuterium, which is used to power the necessary stasis field. As she is about to suffocate, Pike orders to stop it, but Spock raises his phaser and insists on carrying on. The Red Angel eventually appears to resuscitate Burnham, and can be confined in a coordinated effort of the equipment installed on the outpost on Essof IV, and the Section 31 ship from where the collapse of the wormhole is initiated. When Michael regains consciousness again, she recognizes that not she herself is the Red Angel, but her mother!

Commentary

The episode title was a dead giveaway that the identity of the Red Angel would eventually be revealed. When Michael Burnham was identified as the Red Angel, it didn't surprise me at all because that was what I expected all along, most definitely since Airiam's last words that it was all about Michael. Yet, it is remarkable that Tilly found it out as soon as in the teaser of the episode and that it entailed clear statements and actions instead of more mystery mongering. Especially the latter should have made me suspicious because on every other occasion in Discovery a revelation was followed by doubts, denials or distractions. With my knowledge about how the series works, I should have smelled the red herring. But it took me until the Red Angel actually showed up that I thought by myself that someone else might climb off that suit. In terms of keeping up the mystery, it is a successful episode.

Any comment of if and how Michael Burnham's allegedly dead mother can be the time traveler has to be postponed for now. I like time travel as a plot device, and although there is no satisfactory solution to the grandfather paradox (at least none that makes for a good story), I still hope that at least the goals and circumstances of the people who created the temporal mess will make some sense. Regarding the continuity with the rest of Star Trek, it does not seem to bode well. But it should be noted in Discovery's favor that time travel is shown as something still rather uncommon in the series, and that no one knows of ready-made solutions to fix a contaminated timeline, the way it was customary in the later years of the TNG era.

On the downside, after being temporarily consequential with Airiam's death last week, Discovery resurrects yet another dead character. As diverse as the reasons or excuses may be (time travel, spore network, Mirror Universe, Klingon genetic magic), Discovery has the by far worst track record of all Trek series in this regard. It is also the one series in which the destinies of single characters are all strangely entangled with each other and with the whole galaxy, which ultimately appears like a village. Besides occasionally exploring the unknown, the series draws too heavily and too frequently on family mysteries in a literal sense.

As could be expected, the story of "The Red Angel" is all about Michael Burnham. Pike muses that she "is going to wake up one day, access time travel technology that doesn't exist yet, and take it upon herself to save the galaxy." Spock confirms this as a quite precise description of her character. He repeats his assessment from last week that she feels a responsibility for situations beyond her control. I agreed with Spock, but with the reservation that the statements and events of the series give Burnham a good reason to believe that she is the focal point. And when she agrees to be exposed to the atmosphere of Essof IV to suffocate, she takes the ultimate responsibility by making the ultimate sacrifice. Under the assumption that she were the Red Angel, she would evoke her own responsibility in a predestination paradox. But as already mentioned, we will have to wait and see what the actions of the actual Red Angel, her mother, were about, also in particular with regard to Michael Burnham.

Besides Burnham, everyone else among the cast has one or two notable scenes as well. In this regard, "The Red Angel" reminds me a lot of last week's "Project Daedalus". Both episodes focus on one main plot, in a way that is still unusual for Discovery and that I appreciate, and both include a lot of character interaction, some of which doesn't work well or even feels out of place. In "The Red Angel", it seems that everyone talks with some other person that he or she did not have any business with so far. In the case of Burnham and Nhan, who wrap up their mission on the station, it makes sense. It is also understandable that the Discovery crew is suspicious of Leland and that Pike may have ordered Saru to watch over him, but their discussion is inefficient and looks like a mere attempt to give Saru a greater role. Considering Cornwell's past as a therapist, it seems like a good idea for Culber to seek her advice, but it is just not the right time for it, and the few words she says to him before being interrupted can hardly be rated as something that could encourage him.

The arguably oddest incident, however, takes place in engineering where Georgiou exposes her kinky side, an unfortunate stereotype of the Mirror Universe since DS9, and flirts with Stamets (who she says is pansexual in her universe although in season 1 she barely knew "her" Stamets). With her conduct she embarrasses Stamets as well as Culber, blows her own cover and leaves everyone baffled. (We have to keep in mind that Pike apparently still doesn't know who she is because he, Burnham and Saru don't talk with each other!) After Georgiou has left, Tilly asks, "What just happened?", and that is exactly what I asked myself. Other than that, Georgiou continues her path to redemption. Although it is possible she has other reasons, it seems she cares a lot for Michael Burnham and she is the first who demands to stop the mission to trap the Red Angel. The plan for Georgiou is to become a lead character in the planned Section 31 series. But the in-universe reasons for her to know or anticipate just everything, to behave like she does and for everyone else to put up with it escape me.

The character that pleasantly surprises me in this episode is Leland. Other than the former Mirror Universe dictator who works for him, he feels like a real character. He has a motivation to work for the greater good and he has accepted for himself that it may require to ignore some rules that everyone else is bound to. He feels sorry for the things that have gone awry because of his fault, for the AI of his organization that went out of control but much more personally for Michael's parents that were killed because he failed or neglected to protect them (which makes a lot more sense now than it did when Georgiou first mentioned it to Leland). Leland knows that he deserved the punches on his nose. Everything about him is so much more believable than what we see of Georgiou, also because Alan van Sprang's convincing performance. Well, all this comes with the caveat that Leland may face the same fate as Airiam.

"The Red Angel" is the fourth episode in a row with straightforward storytelling and with a pleasant pace. But just like last week's episode, it feels uneven in its character interaction. I think it would have been better to focus on a few of the many guest characters that are all aboard the Discovery in this episode, and create a small B-plot instead of lots of inefficient isolated scenes that are strung together without forming an arc of suspense. At last, the exciting final ten minutes compensate for the preceding undecidedness. The revelation of the Red Angel's true identity successfully keeps up the mystery but also overextends it by ultimately turning it into a mere family affair. Leland is a positive surprise among the guests, whereas Georgiou continues to be a nuisance.

Annotations

Rating: 4

 

Perpetual Infinity

Synopsis

"Perpetual Infinity"

Michael Burnham wakes up in sickbay, thinking that she only dreamt of meeting her mother. But Pike tells her that it's true. Dr. Gabrielle Burnham is the Red Angel. She escaped the Klingon raid on Doctari Alpha with the time travel suit. But instead of going to the past to avert it, she found herself 950 years in the future, at a time when Control, the evolved AI, had already eradicated all life in the galaxy. Whatever she tries, she can't prevent it from happening, and after every mission she is pulled back into the desolate future. The forcefield still holds her in place on Essof IV, but it won't last for long. On the Section 31 ship, Control modifies Leland's body with microscopic devices to act as a human instrument. The mind-controlled Leland wants Tyler to access the data obtained from the Sphere, allegedly to secure it. Conversely, Gabrielle Burnham tells Pike that the Sphere data will be crucial in the evolution of the AI and has to be deleted. She tried to destroy the Sphere herself and she sent the Discovery to intercept, but in all cases Control eventually got hold of the data. Despite Saru's objections, Pike orders to delete the files from Discovery's memory banks. The data, however, builds an encryption around itself that protects it from deletion. Michael Burnham, Spock and Stamets come up with a plan to transfer everything to the time travel suit so it would vanish in the future, and to save her mother by powering transport enhancers with dark matter, which will allow to beam her into the space-time continuum of the present. In the meantime, Leland has sent Georgiou to the site, equipped with a device to intercept the data stream and copy it to the Section 31 ship. But Georgiou is suspicious of Leland's behavior and tells Tyler to look after him. Leland immediately attacks and seriously injures Tyler. Tyler still manages to warn the Discovery, but Leland has already beamed down to Essof IV where he kills the security personnel and destroys the time crystal as well as the controls of the transport enhancers. Georgiou fights against Leland, who is impervious to phaser fire. Burnham and Stamets decide to disable the forcefield emitters so the suit with the data would be pulled into the far future, knowing that they have no means of keeping back Gabrielle Burnham. Pike orders Burnham, Stamets, Nhan and Georgiou to be beamed up and then destroys the site. Leland, however, manages to escape with 54% of the Sphere data. The Discovery picks up an escape pod with Tyler.

Commentary

I really like how "Perpetual Infinity" opens with the so far sketchy events on Doctari Alpha, a flashback that may be considered a part of Michael Burnham's near-death experience and that perfectly sets up the mother-and-daughter story. I also think it's a nice touch that, after waking up, Michael initially believes it was just a dream, only to learn that she really saw her mother. I don't know if it was meant to be a deliberate ironical innuendo, but customarily in Star Trek it is just the other way round, that a life-changing experience turns out to be just a hallucination or conscious deception.

It was to be expected that this episode would not show a happy family reunion but that the presence of Michael Burnham's mother would stir up even more trouble. I anticipated the major plot points with regard to the mother-daughter relationship, that Burnham's mother would be consumed by her mission and estranged from her daughter, that the two would come to terms later and that they would be tragically separated in the end. As already in "If Memory Serves", the predictability of the general course of the story makes it easier to follow and enjoy it. This sounds paradoxical, but it is pleasant to be able to watch a Discovery episode without the need to stop the replay (or even rewind) after every unlikely plot twist, trying to understand what has just happened. Many of the ingredients of the story are already known from DS9: "The Visitor" and VOY: "Year of Hell" anyway and work quite well in the context of Discovery too. Although we never saw Gabrielle Burnham in person before, Michael's various mentions of her parents and her flashbacks did a good job to introduce her. And Sonja Sohn's performance is captivating, even though or just because her character is confined behind the forcefield for the complete episode. Sonja Sohn and Sonequa Martin-Green may not exactly strike us as looking like mother and daughter, but their chemistry convinces me. Well, and we now know where Michael's feeling of responsibility for each and everything comes from. It is easy to imagine that Michael may become just as psychically exhausted as her mother.

The plot thread about Leland is a disappointment. Only two episodes ago, we already had Airiam run amuck after being manipulated by Control. It is anything but original to simply repeat the same story with Leland. Also, the way Leland gets infected with something like nanoprobes just cries "Borg assimilation" and is not really imaginative either. Still, I hope there is no actual connection to the Borg because that could be the ultimate death blow to the series.

The writers once again exert themselves to let Georgiou appear in a positive light. And after their continued revisionist efforts of the past couple of weeks, I admit that this time they almost got me. Georgiou is still in character (as far as this still means anything in her case) when Leland, under the influence of Control, appeals to her vanity, saying that Dr. Burnham outperforms her as the best informed person of the galaxy. But then Gabrielle Burnham herself talks to Georgiou, "from mother to mother". She knows that this Georgiou is not from our universe, but she asserts that Georgiou would sacrifice herself for someone she loves, obviously referring to Michael and likely referring to something particular that will still happen. In a way, Gabrielle Burnham gives Mirror-Georgiou the ultimate absolution and manifests the so far vague plan to transform Georgiou's character. But this testimony of a time traveler can't replace true character development as it simply doesn't take place regarding Georgiou. She always appears as a more or less sinister person with a strange affection for Michael Burnham, and she totally lacks the required profundity to tell a "Saul-to-Paul" story. Her character only excels whenever Michelle Yeoh can show off her martial arts skills, which more and more looks like the main reason to hire her in the first place.

Spock appears only occasionally in "Perpetual Infinity", just as already in the two preceding episodes since his arrival on the Discovery. This seems odd, considering that his first-hand experience with the Red Angel, not to mention his scientific expertise and flawless logic, would make him the foremost expert on the subject, who should be present in all meetings. The in-universe reason may be that he is still recovering and not yet fit for duty, but I have been waiting in vain for a statement or at least a hint on his status. Spock even seems to be perfectly content with his current role as an advisor, rather than as a part of the crew. But it is also evident that the makers of Discovery are apprehensive that Spock might steal the show once he gets as much screen time as Michael Burnham. And so he only provides advice on scientific and philosophical matters, and effectively becomes Michael Burnham's counselor without being personally involved too much. While it may seem adequate in a series in which he is only a guest character, it is anticlimactic in hindsight, seeing that Spock was much more important as long as he was only talked about. I hope that Discovery still chooses to give Spock a more personal part in the remaining three episodes.

There is one thing that bothers me in an episode that is otherwise all about the people that Michael Burnham cares most for. We don't see how Tyler is rescued from the escape pod and what his condition is. But the next thing after Owo mentions the escape pod is Spock coming to Burnham's quarters for a game of chess. She either went to her quarters without caring for Tyler, or he is well again. We will see next week.

"Perpetual Infinity" is among the more exciting Discovery episodes, although only the final six minutes are dominated by action. It thrives on a family drama across time and space, and on other character relationships. I also like that the story ties together some loose ends and refrains from building up further mysteries. On the downside, "Perpetual Infinity" comes with a lot of technobabble and with rather lame plot complications because of Control's manipulation of Leland. Overall, this is a solid and enjoyable episode by Discovery's standards.

Annotations

Rating: 4

 

Through the Valley of Shadows

Synopsis

"Through the Valley of Shadows"

Discovery receives the fourth of seven signals, leading the ship to the Klingon planet of Boreth. Tyler calls Chancellor L'Rell to arrange free passage for his ship. At Boreth, L'Rell tells Pike of the possible reason for the signal to appear near the otherwise insignificant planet: It houses time crystals. When L'Rell argues with Tyler about the safety of their common son on Boreth in case Tyler was seen on Boreth, Pike says that he will beam down himself to obtain such a crystal, which may enable the crew to outwit Control. L'Rell, however, warns him that this will require a great sacrifice. On the planet, Pike is greeted by an old monk named Tenavik, who turns out to be L'Rell and Tyler's son. He exists at an older age because of the time anomalies on the planet. Pike insists on taking a time crystal with him, which comes at the cost of him witnessing his inevitable future, in which he will suffer severe radiation burns and will end up totally immobilized. Meanwhile, Burnham and Spock have embarked a shuttle to investigate an anomaly on a Section 31 ship. They find that almost the whole crew has been killed by exposing the ship to open space, obviously an "accident" arranged by Control. There is only one survivor, Kamran Gant, an officer Burnham knows from the Shenzhou. Gant agrees to return to the ship with Burnham and Spock. They devise a plan to isolate Control in the computer system. But Spock notices that after purging the computer a remainder of the program is left: in Gant's body. Control lured Burnham to the ship to get rid of her, because the AI considers her a threat. Burnham continues to fire her phaser, but even after repeated hits Gant is still not disabled. Finally the nanobots leave his body. Spock incapacitates them by magnetizing the floor. He and Burnham return with the information that the ship was on a course to a destination somewhere outside Federation territory. Before Pike can consider the next steps, the Discovery faces a fleet of 30 Section 31 ships, apparently all controlled by the AI. Since the ship is hopelessly outgunned and there is no way to delete the Sphere data that Control wants to obtain from the computer, Burnham sees no other option but to destroy the Discovery. Pike orders to prepare the evacuation and calls the Enterprise for assistance.

Commentary

"Through the Valley of Shadows" begins with a family moment when Spock and Amanda, Michael Burnham's mom #2, comfort her after losing mom #1 for a second time. Michael has a sad and very complicated family history, and I am glad that the series takes the due time to explore it. Although I was opposed to the very idea of Spock having a foster sister, this is one of the few aspects of Discovery that have grown on me. I enjoy Burnham's interaction with Spock because it caters for contemplation and because it reminds me of the character moments of classic Star Trek. Although I doubt that in the remaining two episodes he will do more than moderate and counsel her, I am getting used to him in this role. The two have a relationship of the kind that is otherwise sadly missing from the series and that will be hard to replace once Spock is back on the Enterprise.

That said, the talk with her mother is the last contemplative moment for her in an episode that (once again) will challenge Michael Burnham physically, mentally and psychically. Unlike Pike, she and Spock are the two characters in this story who are driven by reason, rather than by musings what the future or an unknown time traveler could hold for them. It resonates with me how Burnham objects to following the new signal, openly contradicting her captain. Her stance makes sense considering that the only thing they can do to outwit a time-traveling enemy is to act unpredictably. And since Discovery's computer is carrying the information that Control wants to have at any cost, it would be a good idea anyway to try to hide the ship. But Pike feels a strange obligation to follow the signals, and ultimately to fulfill his destiny. And while Pike accepts the "soul quest" on Boreth that whoever generated the red signal seems to impose on him, Burnham and Spock decide to take their fate into their own hands. Although it turns out a mistake that they attempt to fight Control single-handedly, at least they try to do something instead of simply following the path of destiny. In the end, when the Discovery is surrounded by infiltrated Section 31 vessels, Burnham once again contradicts Pike and finally suggests what would have been a perfect option already last week: to destroy the ship.

It is just too obvious that Kamran Gant, the only survivor of the Section 31 ship and a person Burnham used to know, has to be yet another incarnation of Control. Burnham and Spock's excursion to the Section 31 vessel is thrilling but is anything but surprising. Control may be a formidable enemy, but the AI takes on a familiar human form for the third time, which is becoming boring. While I don't think anyway that Star Trek should be about fighting villains, it is also disappointing that Control is essentially a simple machine that sends out killer robots and not an antagonist that has a particular back story or motivation. The whole theme of the human-created AI whose goal it is to kill all humans is increasingly reminiscent of the Terminator series, where (despite many inconsistencies) the implications were fleshed out much better. Well, there is also the rumor that Control may be the origin of the Borg, which may be supposed to give the whole story more canon significance. But if this should be true, and if only in a hint that Control travels to the past of the Delta Quadrant, it would ultimately take away the show's last bit of seriousness.

On a further note about Burnham's family, last week's episode ostentatiously established Mirror Georgiou as Burnham's mom #3(m). It is curious that Georgiou is absent from this episode, just as Admiral Cornwell was missing last week, although both should still be aboard the ship or at least their departure could have been hinted at. This may have budgetary reasons, but it just doesn't make sense in a heavily serialized show to treat episodes as separate entities, with a binary decision whether a certain character appears or doesn't appear.

Speaking of characters that have been absent, Jett Reno is back for "Through the Valley of Shadows". I found her first two appearances refreshing. However, the way she tries to socialize with the crew in "Through the Valley of Shadows" feels odd. The intention is to show her as rough around the edges but soft inside. But Reno's bluntness in the way she talks with everyone even when she is off duty is overdone, and her attempt to fix Hugh Culber's relationship with Paul Stamets has the semblance of her doing a repair job with duct tape. Well, maybe Tig Notaro's acting skills just hit the wall here. But aside from that, it's just not plausible how Reno does not care for people on one occasion but then acts as some sort of messenger of love for two men she barely knows. I made a similar remark about Stamets in my review of "Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad", but in Reno's case it's even less credible.

The scene that was definitely meant to be the focus of interest in "Through the Valley of Shadows" is Captain Pike's vision of his future. I agree that it is an emotional highlight of the episode, well played by Anson Mount. But it remains isolated in the context of the story and probably of the whole series. We will most likely never see the actual accident. And although it may be shocking for Pike to witness the dramatic end of his active life, it will hardly have an impact on his decisions in the final two episodes of the season. Yet, Tenavik insists that "If you take the crystal, your fate will be sealed forever.", by which he does not only break the fourth wall but also postulates that the captain's destiny is written in stone. Even more than that, the impression is that the bad karma is the price he pays for the time crystal, and that he wouldn't have to worry if he left without it. With a few exceptions, Star Trek is a show whose characters take their destiny into their own hands. Pike obviously doesn't have this choice because of the curse of the prequel and because Alex Kurtzman is determined to "sync up with canon" with on-the-nose continuity references.

Another bothersome aspect about "Through the Valley of Shadows" is that once again the appearance of a signal is directly related to a crew member of the Discovery. This time it shows up on the very planet where Tyler hides his son. I wouldn't rate the implausible coincidence as an error yet, but the writers need to come up with a very good explanation why the fate of the galaxy hangs on the personal matters of a handful of specific people. And speaking of people of significance for the whole galaxy, it once again seems like Michael Burnham is the key to the whole mystery, rather than her mother.

After we could see just a holographic image in "Point of Light", this episode fulfills our expectations and shows the revised D7 in its full glory, albeit for just a few seconds. However, it becomes clear that the production designers could not bring themselves to give this iconic ship an authentic look. While the proportions of the "new" Klingon ship are relatively close to the original one from TOS, the overdetailed surface with the abundance of tiny lights looks like the modeler thought the ship might be 20 kilometers long (which wouldn't even surprise me a lot).

Another disappointment in the field of production design is the monastery on Boreth. We know from season 1 that Klingon interior designers in the Discoverse are fond of an overblown mixture of Gothic, Baroque and some oriental styles. While some details were strangely familiar to someone with an eye for Earth's architecture, overall the previous interiors were still alien enough. The monastery, on the other hand, is so definitely Gothic that it could be just as well located in medieval England (well, except that medieval monasteries usually weren't built on spacious volcanic dragon caves). I have a beef with the Klingons as "timekeepers" anyway. Aside from the problem that no one would remember those crystals on Boreth in the 24th century, the whole fantasy theme just isn't Klingon-like. The concept feels more like "California Pike and the Temple of Doom" or perhaps like the Bajoran Orbs.

Overall, "Through the Valley of Shadows" is too much built around the foreshadowing of Captain Pike's fate, in a sledgehammer approach at creating continuity with the rest of Star Trek. I have lost my faith that Discovery really tries to blend in continuity-wise, except in such ostentatious references. Other than that, the episode features decent yet predictable action in a story that increasingly borrows from the Terminator series and from fantasy movies. While "Through the Valley of Shadows" demonstrates that the story arc of season 2 is exhausted, maybe it is at least resolved to our satisfaction so the series can move on in season 3 with a fresh approach, and preferably with some genuine exploration rather than with another season-long fight against a villain.

Annotations

Rating: 2

 

Such Sweet Sorrow I

Synopsis

"Such Sweet Sorrow I"

Captain Pike and Saru rig the Discovery for remote destruct, and the whole crew transfers to the Enterprise. But the Sphere data disables the destruct sequence in an act of self-preservation. Michael Burnham already knows from a time crystal vision that the ship would raise shields, so using photon torpedoes is not an option either. The only way to save the data from Control is to send the ship to the future. Although a time crystal is available now, it would require to construct a time travel suit from scratch. And it would have to be built to Dr. Burnham's specifications, matched to her DNA, so only her daughter could possibly operate it. Michael Burnham agrees to take the Discovery to the future. But there is not sufficient energy available on the ship to power the crystal. Spock theorizes that Michael Burnham herself sent out the seven signals from the future, to guide the Discovery just where the ship is needed. Then a fifth signal actually appears near the planet Xahea, where Me Hani Ika Hali Ka Po has developed a method to recrystallize dilithium. She helps to build a device to charge the time crystal. It would be powered by the spore drive and make it inoperable for 12 hours, taking away the option to jump away from the infiltrated Section 31 ships. It would also cause the time crystal to burn out, trapping Burnham in the future. As the Enterprise arrives, with the Section 31 fleet just 10 minutes behind, many of the crew decide to stay with Burnham. Tyler, on the other hand, has plans to leave, saying that he wants to make sure that Control never happens again. Jett Reno too touches the time crystal, in an attempt to increase the charge rate. Then the Section 31 fleet arrives, surrounding the Discovery and the Enterprise...

Commentary

I like how "Such Sweet Sorrow" picks up the events from the Short Treks episode "Runaway" and makes the little story about Po and her engineering skills relevant in hindsight, although not all of the plot holes are resolved. For instance, we still don't know where Tilly beamed Po in the end, only that it can't have been Xahea. Anyway, with "Runaway" and "The Brightest Star" two of the Short Treks episodes already set up a bigger story to come to pass in the second season, and it seems obvious at this point that "Calypso" will become a reality just as well and that the Discovery will end up without a crew (or with a long dead crew) in the far future. But this may be just a red herring.

Many disappointed Star Trek fans would definitely have no problem or would even cheer if Mary Sue Burnham disappeared from Discovery together with the eponymous spore drive ship. They are the key figures but also among the most often mentioned nuisances of the show. In a way, "Such Sweet Sorrow" plays with everyone's expectations, whether we may love or hate Star Trek Discovery and its characters. The episode sends us on an emotional rollercoaster ride, and although it shows battle scenes only in the form of flashforwards, it is all about the current spectacle and the even bigger one to come in the second part. But does it tell a story? I have problems to recognize one between the long-winded technobabble related to time crystals and how to power them on one hand, and the many tear-jerking goodbye letters and speeches that continue all through the episode on the other hand. Especially the latter were beginning to get on my nerves. And just when I thought by myself that it's enough already, Pike still had to give his farewell address to the crew. As much as I appreciate Pike's leadership and how well the crew gets along since he is aboard, this mutual flattery is too much, and it's disproportionate considering how little we have seen of many of the people that Pike commends.

There are some isolated good lines or dialogues, but overall the way the various scenes with character interaction are written comes across as paint by numbers. The first meeting with Po to develop a way to power the time crystal is symptomatic in this regard. Po's lightheartedness clashes with Burnham's grimness, with Reno's acerbity and with Georgiou's cynicism. No one can really explain why Georgiou would be present in this engineering meeting anyway. She has no real purpose in the episode (and more or less in the whole second season) except for representing a certain attitude which can be described as "Let sentient life perish, as long as my Michael is safe". And although I enjoy the scene in which Burnham meets Sarek and Amanda and although the Vulcan katra may explain how Sarek felt the danger and led him to Michael, it feels contrived how the two would arrive right before the battle and her scheduled departure for the future. They show up all the time in the series, once every few episodes, just to corroborate that Michael has a family and has a lot to lose. This time, a simple flashback would have been much more efficient and credible to illustrate just that. Less would have been more.

It was clear after the many ominous hints throughout the season that no one else but Michael Burnham herself created those seven signals. I will comment on the predestination paradox at a later date, after the second part of the season finale. But it is clear already now that this principle of time travel, while not completely new to Star Trek (it appeared in TOS: "Assignment: Earth" and TNG: "Time's Arrow" before), manifests that in the Discoverse it is not possible for Michael Burnham to change her destiny, just like Pike won't be able to escape his delta radiation burns. This is a concept that is contrary to the very idea of Star Trek. If it were her free decision, it would be a nice tragic touch if Michael Burnham followed in the footsteps of her mother. But it is her destiny, and Spock unfortunately corroborates this view by invoking the predestination paradox.

As I wrote above, we will still have to wait and see what actually happens (we know that at least Spock won't disappear with the Discovery for that matter). Some fans would prefer an ultimate time travel solution that does not only remove the future of the ship but erases everything related to Discovery from history. But that won't happen, even though it would ultimately be necessary to fulfill Kurtzman's promise to repair continuity. The writers won't retroactively invalidate their own series. My impression is that they are going to make sense of one or two selected among the countless problems of the series in the last episode. In any case, "Such Sweet Sorrow" was not helpful in this regard but only reiterated what we already knew.

As already the title insinuates, "Such Sweet Sorrow" is a story that takes an odd delight in tearful farewell scenes. This doesn't have to be bad, but here it spans a whole episode and becomes bothersome. For all we know about the series, something totally unexpected will change everything in the second part. I generally appreciate the creativity that goes into major plot twists and perhaps it will even help reclaim some lost continuity. But whatever really happens next week, after the Enterprise and the Discovery have been surrounded, I doubt that the way "Such Sweet Sorrow" plays with our expectations and with the (perhaps existent) attachment to the characters and the ship sets it up well. In the worst case, the episode will have been nothing more than a big red herring.

Annotations

Rating: 3

 

Such Sweet Sorrow II

Synopsis

"Such Sweet Sorrow II"

As the Section 31 fleet surrounds the two ships, the plan is to send Burnham in the Red Angel suit to open a wormhole for the Discovery to travel to the future. Drones and shuttles are deployed to ensure a safe passage, but Leland's ships too release drones, with what seems impenetrable shields. Po steals a shuttle and devises a way to disable the enemy drones. As the construction of the suit is completed, the crew rush to get it to the shuttlebay, but Stamets is severely hurt by a blast that hits the ship on the way. Hugh Culber is still on the Discovery, against Stamets's expectations, and induces a coma to save his friend. Spock takes a shuttle to guide Burnham through the wormhole, but the suit does not allow to enter a destination in the future for the jump. Spock recognizes that Michael first has to travel to the past to create the five already known signals. In the meantime, Leland has boarded the Discovery, searching for the Sphere data. Georgiou and Nhan try to stop him, but their fight seems to be in vain. Chancellor L'Rell arrives in support of the Discovery, together with a fleet of Ba'ul fighters from Kaminar, one of which is piloted by Siranna, Saru's sister. A torpedo gets stuck in the hull of the Enterprise. Admiral Cornwell and Number One try to disable it, but it is set to explode in 15 minutes. The only way to prevent the Enterprise from destruction is to pull down the blast door from the inside. When Pike arrives, Admiral Cornwell says that he has a different destiny and volunteers to stay with the torpedo when it goes off. After performing the five jumps, Michael Burnham is ready to enter the wormhole, but the Discovery would be unable to get precise enough sensor data from the inside to follow. So she creates a sixth signal as a beacon for the ship. Spock can't follow her because his shuttle's engines are damaged, and so she agrees to send a seventh signal from the other side of the wormhole, as a sign of her safe arrival. Georgiou traps Leland in the spore cube and magnetizes it, thereby destroying the nanobots in his body and ultimately Control. The Section 31 ships are now dead in the water and can be destroyed. Burnham and the Discovery enter the wormhole, leaving the Enterprise with Pike and Spock, the Klingons and Tyler, the Ba'ul and Po behind in the 23rd century. At Starfleet Command in San Francisco, Pike and his crew as well as Tyler testify that the Discovery was destroyed. Spock recommends to delete all records of the events related to Control, to prevent it from ever happening again. 124 days later, the Enterprise receives the seventh signal, indicating that the Discovery is safe.

Commentary

To paraphrase Captain Picard from "Yesterday's Enterprise", "Let's make sure that history never remembers the name - Discovery." Captain Pike says something along these lines at the beginning of "Such Sweet Sorrow II", and there is a clear ambiguity to it. In an in-universe view, his crew has to take care that the Discovery vanishes to the future, to save the Sphere data from Section 31's grasp. But Pike also breaks the fourth wall because he speaks for Alex Kurtzman, who promised to the fans that by the end of season 2 the countless canon violations of the series would be resolved. But what actually happens is that the offending ship and crew are simply sent to a time where they can do no *further* harm. Of course, this changes nothing about the damage that was already done in the first season (spore drive, holodeck, etc.) and that was added in the course of the second season (further miracles of the spore drive, omnipotent time travel suit, etc.). Kurtzman did show some good intent by revising the Klingons. But overall season 2 was to the disservice of Discovery's reconnection to Star Trek's continuity, and it ends with him hammering into our heads that continuity is preserved because some discontinuities are swept under the rug.

Although many other Discovery critics were hoping for the ship to erase itself from existence retroactively, I knew that the producers and writers of the series would never go as far as invalidating their own stories about the Discovery in a clean reset of the timeline. This would have been just too much of a change of mind to ask from the people who create the show. Yet, it is disappointing that "Such Sweet Sorrow II" shows exactly what we could expect after seeing the first part, without any kind of new twist to it. I would have hoped for at least some things to make a little bit more sense in retrospect. Alas, the season finale just confirms my apprehension, that some selected parts of the continuity with canon Star Trek are preserved with the bland "out of sight, out of mind" method, a bit like in ENT: "Acquisition" but on a much larger scale. After the "successful" secrecy about the Mirror Universe and Captain Georgiou's true identity, Starfleet simply extends their orders, and includes the Sphere, Control, the spore drive, Discovery and her crew, the seven signals and the time travel suit to the things or events that must not be mentioned. Never ever.

Discovery skeptics like me have argued since the very beginning of Discovery's production that if it is the intention of the producers to disregard the established history, looks and other standards of Star Trek, they ought to set their series in the far future, so they are free to show all the new races, advanced technology, huge ships and bombastic battles they apparently deem necessary to be able to tell their stories (to a "modern audience"). With Discovery's departure to the far future, it seems that they finally made up their minds in this regard. But it makes me angry that the huge error of setting the series in the TOS era was made in the first place. It makes me angry that a series first systematically destroys the continuity with the old Star Trek and thereby harms the integrity and uniqueness of the latter, only to switch to a new format that will inflict no further damage and that could have been chosen (and would have been chosen by people who really love Star Trek) in the first place.

It also puts me off that, in Discovery's revisionist history, Starfleet is all about lies and deception. To quote Captain Picard once more: "The first duty of every Starfleet officer is to the truth, whether it's scientific truth or historical truth or personal truth!" Pike and his crew violate this principle when they lie about the whereabouts of the Discovery. Spock violates it when he suggests to ban everything related to the Discovery. Starfleet violates it by not telling their officers the truth about facts they should be aware of, still not 120 years later. This is not only dishonest, it is very short-sighted, knowing that Starfleet commanders may well get into a situation where it is vital to know the scientific or historical truth, to decide what must be done and what must not be done. Starfleet is all about exploration and is all about the acquisition of knowledge but decides to keep away essential knowledge from their crews and from its population. A lie for the greater good is no stranger to the Star Trek Universe, as seen when Sisko poses as "Gabriel Bell" in DS9: "Past Tense". But Discovery's Starfleet clearly crosses a line with the large-scale scheme to deny and falsify history. I usually avoid to invoke Godwin's law, but is the best way to avoid that fascism rises to power again to remain silent about Hitler?

Since I already mentioned Hitler anyway, let's talk about Georgiou. As soon as she first appeared in season 2, my complaints were that she has no obvious purpose in the story and that she is granted easy redemption because everyone (except for Michael Burnham) does not know, does not tell or suddenly does not remember that she is a cruel dictator from the Mirror Universe. Nothing has changed in the course of the further episodes leading up to the finale. Georgiou has continued to play nice and to utter occasional sarcastic lines. That's it. No reckoning, nothing that would have put her to a test of character. Even the light sensitivity that plagued Lorca the whole time he was in our universe is gone. Emperor Georgiou has been transformed to Captain Georgiou without the slightest effort, and we are supposed to buy that she is a nice person now, that she has left her bad history behind. Just as Star Trek Discovery keeps telling us that continuity is preserved by simply ignoring the bothersome facts, the series expects us to believe that Georgiou represents only the best of Starfleet now. We don't know if and when the Section 31 series with her will really be produced (and how this will be accomplished with her being in the 33rd century), but is that what we want? A new series that is even more fake than Discovery because its premise is built on a lie?

While Georgiou gets hyped in the story because the producers think she is a fan favorite they can use in a new series, her former colleague Control-Leland continues to be disappointing. Control is defeated with ease (with the same trick as already two episodes ago) and has no backup. Looking back at the episodes since Leland was "assimilated" in "Perpetual Infinity", Control was an underwhelming enemy anyway. While capable of all kinds of manipulation of computers, other technology and even human bodies, the AI lacked any kind of foresight. Also, Control never expressed a motivation, never argued with our crew. The Borg were much more interesting in this regard, and even the artificial intelligence M-5 from TOS: "The Ultimate Computer" had something beyond pure logic, pure cold-bloodedness or pure evil to it. Control, on the other hand, comes across as just a mindless killer machine. This is particularly sad in light of how the character of Leland was just about to evolve when Control took over his body. The only good thing about Control is that it didn't turn out to be the origin of the Borg.

As I already mentioned, the number of surprising plot twists in this season finale amounts to zero. The two ships get into a battle with Section 31 as foreshadowed. The torpedo gets stuck in the hull of the Enterprise and Leland boards the bridge of the Discovery much like in Burnham's premonition. And eventually Burnham crosses over through the wormhole with the Discovery in tow, exactly according to plan. We knew that Spock would not be able to follow because continuity needs him on the Enterprise. We knew that Pike wouldn't die defusing the torpedo because his inescapable fate is to end up in a boxy wheelchair. We knew that Burnham would still have to perform her jumps to create the seven signals. The only slight surprise is that Admiral Cornwell would sacrifice herself. Except for a few good character moments, especially between Spock and Burnham, the episode is 60 minutes of mindless space battle and hand-to-hand fight. Mindless because there is no real dramaturgy to it. The ships, drones and shuttles keep firing on each other all the time without accomplishing anything of note, the big ships hardly move at all, and even the arrival of the Klingon and Ba'ul cavalry isn't a game changer. Nhan and Georgiou keep on kicking and boxing Leland for some 20 minutes, in three different locations of the ship, although all they would have to do is lure him to a place where they can magnetize him. It becomes obvious that towards the end of the series the writers were so concerned with coming to a conclusion that they ran out of ideas. In this regard, it was especially counterproductive to split the season finale into a tear-jerking first part and an action-ridden second one that both get lost in their respective themes. Additionally, "Such Sweet Sorrow II" is so full of gaping plot holes like probably no other Star Trek TV episode ever made.

There are a few things that I liked in the second season. Most credit goes to Anson Mount as Captain Pike because he effectively saved the show that had hit its low point after a desolate first season with mostly unlikable characters. In some of the season 2 episodes, Discovery almost seemed to have an ensemble cast. But the focus was still very much on Michael Burnham, and perhaps even more than in season 1. It seems that no sub-plot could take place without Michael dropping in and giving her opinion. And the story about the Red Angel finally promotes her to some demigod of Star Trek. Frequent readers of my reviews know that I never target an alleged "SJW" agenda in the casting or in the stories. But the longer I watch Discovery, the more I can understand why there are such complaints even though I still think they are inappropriate. In fact, if it weren't for Pike and Spock, two characters whose gender can't be switched and whose reputation must not be damaged, Discovery is a show in which women are not only in the lead and are more visible than men but also have the superior logic, morale and courage. Remember Connolly? Even though Pike and Spock fared comparably well so far, they eventually yield to the power of women in "Such Sweet Sorrow II". Spock's apology for not boldly following Michael into the uncertain future is awkward, and Pike has to admit that Admiral Cornwell is more ready to sacrifice herself than he is.

Well, but most notably and overtly Pike shies away from the self-sacrifice because this is not his destiny. Invoking destiny is something very problematic because so far in Star Trek, everyone could change their destiny and could "exceed the original programming". Star Trek's tenet used to be "There are always possibilities". But destiny, as it was formerly known from fantasy or from certain other science fiction franchises, is just too tempting a concept. It found its way into JJ Abrams's film of 2009. It has played a major role ever since Discovery was launched, and increasingly in the second season. Besides Pike, Michael Burnham is the second notable character who is not in control of their destiny. Like many weaknesses of the show, the significance of destiny has something to do with it being a prequel. But I think that it would have been very well possible to preserve continuity without calling out Pike's accident as inevitable and without turning Burnham into a Skywalker-like figure whose role since her early childhood was to save the galaxy.

Unlike in the famous TNG time travel episode "Yesterday's Enterprise" that I referred to above and that may have served as an inspiration, the temporal mess is not really cleaned up in the season 2 finale of Discovery. Too many questions remain. Time travel has never been consistent in Star Trek, but the revelation of how the Red Angels I+II interfered with the past remains sketchy. Even though some of it makes sense under the assumption of a predetermined timeline (aka destiny), various contradictory evidence that has accumulated especially since "The Red Angel" simply doesn't fit in. But I won't complain too much about the insufficient solution to the time travel phenomenon because it is one of the smaller problems of "Such Sweet Sorrow II".

Not everything is bad in the season finale. On the visual side, it is one of the best, if not the very best episode of the whole series. While the visual overkill of the battle can't excite me, the effects of the travel through the wormhole are superb. I also like the visualization of San Francisco and of the drydock, and I bet both of them would have looked very different, had they been created for the heavily reimagined first season.

I probably still need some time to recover from "Such Sweet Sorrow II". But not because of what happened in the episode, which wasn't a lot after all, at least nothing that I hadn't already thought about. Rather than that, I will have to deal with the many repercussions, and with the course that Star Trek (and not just Star Trek Discovery) will be able to take after this season. Despite some improvements such as the addition of Pike and despite some visual amendments pertaining to the Klingons, Discovery has missed the goal to return to the style, tone and type of stories that most fans love about the old Star Trek. But perhaps most notably, it has set itself apart as a series that is not bound by the positive vision of the franchise any longer. As already after the two first Abramsverse movies, the second season of Discovery leaves me with the sad feeling that the Star Trek Universe has become a worse place, in spite of all affirmations (in-universe as well as in the real world) to change that.

Annotations

Rating: 2

 


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