I'll be brief. This was not the best episode. “Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum”
We open with a space battle just to remind everyone we're at war with the Klingons. It's a pretty neat visual display if you like the dark, murky aesthetic Discovery has established. It's a little clearer than the big battle in Episode 2 and more focused on just a couple ships, but still brief. The real plot is about Burnham, Saru and Tyler going for a nature walk on the planet Pahvo where they meet non-corporeal, glow-in-the-dark alien dust in an attempt to solve the Klingon's expanding cloaking technology. Meanwhile there's a B-plot following two characters who aren't even part of the main cast: The Admiral betrayed by Captain Lorca in Episode 5 and the Klingon woman trying to get revenge on the Klingon usurper who stole the "throne". The Admiral and the Klingon woman briefly team up to get off the ship but it doesn't work very well. There's also a C-plot where Tilly and Stamets have lunch. It's not the ideas, it's the execution. This episode was all over the place in terms of story and character twists. They were so sudden and numerous that before you could process how badly they were set up, and how dubious they are to be true, there would be another one to distract you. Just enough useful information is omitted to keep you in a state of suspense and confusion until you realize the writers for this week's episode were just sloppy. For example, Saru's weird prey-senses are driven wild by the "music" of this harmonious planet, until he breaths in the glowing blue dust aliens and suddenly understands them. Except his "understanding" makes him go rogue and want to trap his team on the planet forever to avoid galactic conflict. Turns out he's been in some form of agony this whole season due to Burnham's chaotic life choices and the ongoing war. So now we're led to believe the most emotionally stable person was in fact a loose cannon of fear and cowardice? This is Episode 8, it's a little late and a lot unearned. Meanwhile Burnham and Tyler do an unnecessary and unjustified homage to "The needs of the many" speech from Wrath of Khan before making out (gag me). Do Starfleet Officers have to study that philosophical phrase at the academy or something? Either way, it's a cheap use of "intertextuality" to further the forced romance of the two characters, one of whom is pretty obviously a Klingon in disguise at this point. "Ooh, I just want the war to end so I can go fish trout at home where I'm definitely a normal human who knows all about your so-called 'lakes'..." Conclusion: There were also a lot of plot-holes and logical inconsistencies here as well, but I won't get into all of them. Basically Discovery is a good show sometimes and others it's clearly trying too hard. That unevenness is not uncommon in the first season of a show (or the first seasons of most Star Trek shows), except this was billed as prestige television. These are not the kind of half-baked mistakes you get in prestige television where the entire series is developed to a far more thorough standard. The only plot I'm still interested in is the multi-dimensional mischief going on with Stamets and the spore-drive because it's clearly leading to the mirror-universe. At least next week promises to tie things up before the mid-season break and converge the various storylines. See you next time! Last Week's Episode Review Next Week's Episode Review Don't forget to Like and Subscribe!
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