Star Trek Discovery completes it's epic yet controversial first season with no shortage of last minute twists and thoughtful character developments that tie up the series' themes and plot lines quite nicely. But is it enough to satisfy the Trekkie fanboys? Let's take a look... (14) "The War Without, The War Within" and (15) "Will You Take My Hand?" The last two episodes see our titular crew returned to their normal universe just as the Klingons close in on the Federation and Earth. They call it "nine months in the future" but they were in the Mirror Universe so long, this little so-called time displacement only serves as a distraction. Are they planning more timey-wimey stuff? No. Are they going to try to reverse the nine months they missed in order to save countless lives in an already lost war? Good idea, but nope, not that either. They're just gonna shrug and go with it, so again, I say, why bother with the time shift at all? Before we can dwell on the tedious inevitability of this well-trodden narrative predicament, Admiral Cornwell and Ambassador Sarek raid the Discovery to commandeer it and berate them for seemingly abandoning the war effort ("uh, we've been traveling the multi-verse, yo!"). This jumpstarts the episode with excitement and unpredictability. One negative note about this, though, is they remind us of the ever-so-important plot point back in Episode 8 or 9 (or both) in which the Discovery worked out a solution to the Klingon cloaking technology which would've turned the tide of the war had they not disappeared to another universe with it, but which, like all "major" plot devices this season, is abruptly abandoned and forgotten. In this case, the de-cloaking technology is too little, too late afterall (so why bring it up?!). One positive note about this scene, however, is Burnham's reunion with her "father" Sarek, and the mind-meld they share which saves a lot of exposition time ("she's telling the truth!") and actually has some emotional weight to it. Once again, the showrunners demonstrate a better handling on character than longform storytelling and the actors save the show. The Federation High Command (which at this point seems to be only Cornwell and Sarek, and for all we see, Discovery is practically the last of the fleet, too), interrogate the Klingon L'Rell in the brig who obviously doesn't help them because, duh, and then they try their luck with Emperor Georgiou who, because she's a bigger-name actor, gets more screen time. And what is her brilliant war strategy that she ripped straight from the Mirror-Universe of evil, scheming, and domination? Take the war to them. Attack the Klingons' homeworld. Uh, you mean nobody thought of that one yet? But first, we need mushrooms! In order to carry out the Complicated Plan of Attack, they need spores for the spore-drive, but like every third episode of this series, the mycelial network is "down" again and needs to be rejuvenated. Insert extremely brief brainstorming session in which characters just make shit up and it becomes true, and the episode goes and just does it because it needs to fill the rest of the hour, and Tyler and Burnham arguing about their abusive relationship dynamic just isn't gonna cut it (Ugh! Enough of them already!). So they terraform a moon with instant-mushrooms and within a few seconds the whole planet is glowing with the spores they need for their mission. At the beginning of the episode Saru made the brilliant decision to keep Georgiou's presence aboard the Discovery a secret from the bulk of the crew, since he's not super happy Burnham brought her back. But this decision comes back to haunt him -- and save the episode -- when Admiral Cornwell introduces her unexpectedly in a last minute twist, on the bridge. Not as the Mirror-Universe Space Hitler that she is, but as the "secretly saved" and "undercover" Captain Georgiou of this universe with the skills to save the day. The crew is ecstatic, because they take it at face value. Why not? But Burnham and Saru's eyes bug out like crazy. "Whaaaaa?!?!" Georgiou smiles. All according to plan. But when she starts snipping at the bridge crew it's clear she's not the sweetheart they remember. You can take your evil mother-figure lookalike out of the Mirror Universe, but you can't take the Mirror Universe out of... nevermind. Let's go on a mission! Assemble main cast: Half-Klingon Ash Tyler even though his allegiance can't be trusted? Check. Empress Georgiou whose plan can't possibly be kosher, and whose motives are for sure suspect? Check. Tilly, the inept cadet (she still doesn't even have a real rank?!) for comic relief? Check. And don't forget the main character Michael Burnham. Check. Now warp inside a volcano. Really? Yes. Why again? To hide and stuff. Everybody dress in black and go ask around where the hidden temple on top of a volcano (different volcano) is so you can put a drone inside it and I honestly don't remember the rest. Who cares. It was a ruse. There was no drone. It's an H-Bomb. Not a real H-Bomb. A made-up sci-fi Hydro-Bomb that will destroy the whole planet because tectonics and science and genocide. Tilly is the one to figure it out but not until after getting totally high with the Orions. The Orions are the human looking aliens with green bodypaint going all the way back to the first pilot episode of the original Star Trek series in the 60s. They have the distinction of being my second favorite aliens right behind the blue bodypainted Andorians with the antennas on their heads and the white wigs. Meanwhile Georgiou has some gratuitous group sex with a couple Orions of her own to kill time (?!), and Burnham and Tyler play games with the Klingons. When Burnham learns about the genocide (seriously, what did they think they were gonna do attacking the homeworld?) she manages to be everywhere the plot necessitates all at once. She goes back to the ship to argue with the Admiral and then back to Klingon-land again to argue with Georgiou, all in a flash, getting more and more noble and altruistic with each confrontation. In the first, we get a less than subtle echo of her mutiny in the pilot. There she wanted to attack the Klingons, and she stood alone and desperate. Here she wants to avoid an attack and her crew stands up beside her as she spouts on about good old fashion Star Trek values and Federation enlightenment. Rah Rah! I give them points for coming full circle with the character and building her up to this climactic moment to revisit the decisions of her past and make a new choice. I deduct some points, however, on the basis that her initial decisions way back at the beginning were not without their merits (shooting first would've saved lives on both sides and it was okay for the Vulcans to do it!), and she's more than a little preachy here. If the Federation has such high values, why does everyone always have to lecture their leaders about it (see Picard, Kirk and pretty much 40 years of Trek history)? Anyway, that issue is dropped as soon as they solve the bomb-problem and no hard feelings about the attempted war-crimes. The Ending... Where to start. Georgiou puts the H-Bomb (the size of a suitcase) down the volcano but Burnham gives the detonator to L'Rell so she has power over the fate of the Klingons which somehow convinces them all to unify under her, and that somehow convinces them to turn back from obliterating Earth. I'm not convinced. But they had to save the day, right? So whatever. There's no big shootout between spaceships or even small shootouts with hand phasers. And Mirror-Georgiou even gets to live to guest-star another day. Why not let an evil-dictator from another dimension go loose with her freedom, amIright? L'Rell becomes the new Klingon Supreme Leader with all 24 Houses united alongside her (instantly!) and ends the war even though she said they'd never stop until they were dead. Ash Tyler miraculously decides to stay with the Klingons because he had so much fun bro-ing it up with his Klingon pals playing that game in the streets earlier, and though it's not the death I'd hoped for for his miserable character, it at least gets him off the cast list for now (Whew!). Tilly gets admitted to Command School, nicely completing her character arc. Stamets gets basically overlooked, which is a big shame. And Burnham gets reinstated, completing her arc as well. Do Sarek and Cornwell get court-marshaled for genocide? Nah, they hand out the medals, such as the Medal of Honor for Saru since the writers weren't able to give him a real character arc. I was also hoping for some of the bridge crew to get rewarded with real names for their diligent background work. There was Bald-Robot-Lady, Cyborg-Face-Girl, Big-Hair Black-Chick, and Ghoti-Dude. Unsung heroes, all. And then there's the Enterprise. In what is sure to distract all the fanboys from noticing all the basic narrative missteps, the newly bonded crew of Discovery encounter in the last minutes of the episode a random distress signal from -- wait for it -- the USS Enterprise! Commanded by chronologically accurate Captain Pike, the ship looks incredible. If the current Abrams-verse series of films portray an Enterprise heavily inspired by the original retro 60's look, this iteration looks like the actual original if it had been filmed with better special effects from the beginning. It doesn't look like it's in any real distress, to be honest, as it hovers face to face with the Discovery, but who cares? It'll make for at least one good episode in Season 2 and we'll have fun watching them dance in and out of Star Trek canon, and avoid casting Spock while name dropping him all the time. Final Assessment This is tricky. Discovery has been such a mixed bag, and there's so much room for overarching subjectivity that it's difficult to give the series as a whole an objective conclusion. On the one hand, I loved tuning in every week and eagerly anticipated each installment. On the other, many of the story decisions made me actively wince as a writer (wannabe writer at least). So let me break down each of the categories 1 to 5 and you can see for yourself. Acting: 5/5 Top notch. Usually full of subtext and nuance. Almost all great actors except for Shazad Latif as Ash Tyler. Sonequa Martin-Green carried the show and added layers to her portrayal of Burnham. Jason Isaacs and Michelle Yeoh were joys to watch, without fail. And Mary Wiseman and Anthony Rapp always looked like they were having fun. More please! Format: 4.5/5 Star Trek is historically episodic: Alien of the week; Distress Signal of the week; Social Commentary of the week. But Discovery went full on single-cohesive-narrative and largely succeeded in the sense that it didn't take away from the Trekiness. Personally, I preferred it, and think it was the right call. Everyone is about serialized long-form narratives these days so there was never any other choice. And while some Netflix shows have struggled under the structural weight of slower plot developments as their episodes blend together, Discovery remained intact, giving every episode a unique identity as it moved the larger story forward. Room for improvement: I would've liked more episodes total, exploring more tangents and digressions and side characters. More miscellaneous throwaway episodes or "bottle" episodes, but that's just me. Writing: 2/5 This was the biggest let down. While many character confrontations were quite focused and intense, there were too many soap-opera scenes for my taste. The drama was shouted at me when it should've been seducing me. At times it was heavy-handed, obvious and trying-to-hard, and not in the guilty-pleasure Battlestar Galactica sorta way. Luckily the actors redeemed most of this. Mixed bag a worst. Character Development: 4/5 Michael Burnham is the real "main character" and she had to have a meaningful and dramatic character arc, complete with failure and redemption, love found and lost, family tragedy and parental stand-ins. Her dramatic choices directly effected the entire series from beginning to end and carried emotional consequences for her and her crewmates. Stamets and Tilly faired pretty well, too, despite only getting focus every other episode. Saru's development didn't coalesce completely. Lorca and Georgiou played great villains and effective foils for Burnham but didn't really grow or change. There's room for improvement here with many of the secondary characters, but mostly this is a very strong 4. Plotting: 2/5 Character is king, they say, but bad plotting is still bad plotting. If you have a setup, you need to have a real payoff, not just a cheap line to explain it away. There are just way too many ideas and mission objectives that don't lead to anything, or when they do lead to something the plot ends up going a different direction, anyway, nullifying the relevance of entire episodes in a few lines of exposition. On the other hand, many of the twists were genuinely smart and tantalizing. On the other hand... many of them were predictable long in advance. Hit or miss. Production Design: 2/5 The Discovery (the ship itself) is awesome looking and watching it use the spore drive to jump instantly around the galaxy is sweet. So are the phaser pistols. But the sonar beeping in the background noise of the bridge was too rare and inconsistent. The uniforms seem harmless at a glance but the more you examine them, the dumber they look. Overall, the aesthetic of the show as a whole is way too dark, it's difficult to see anything clearly. It was inevitable that the production team would have to reconcile the slick, shiny stylings of the Abrams-verse films (complete with lens flares and iPhone inspirations), with the dated retro canon of the 60s TV original, but the visual-reboot they ended up with looks like they're trying too hard to look cool and missing the point. The production value screams money (indeed it was an expensive show) but maybe too much money misspent. The ships are always filmed to look small but not in a way that produces a sense of scale and realism (ala Battlestar Galactica). Most aliens looked good, like the Andorians and the new Kelpians (basically just Saru) But then there's those Klingons... Klingons: 1/5 Total fail. This gets it's own category since Klingons represent such a large and integral part of the Star Trek lore. I would be okay with updating their design a bit, if you must, since it's not the first time, but this new design adds nothing to their depiction. It's clunky and less maneuverable when it should've made them seem more alien and predatory than other humanoids. Instead of advancing their already considerable characterization, it reduces them to their most simplistic. And it honestly just doesn't look good. The outfits are generic and stiff. Their combat unimpressive. Their culture of honor is grossly underdeveloped. We don't see them laughing and reveling. The one redeeming element is that their Klingonese is treated like a real language, but we've been seeing that since the 80's films. Fan Service: 3/5 Hit or miss on this one. In a way it was cool to hear lines dropped about a "Constitution Class Vessel" or the "USS Defiant" or to hear that classic bridge sonar beeping. But other details like the inexplicable Tribble on Lorca's desk (why?) or Georgiou calling Burnham "Number One" just seemed like cheap gimmicks. Even the Enterprise's appearance at the very end was too intertextual to have any value of its own. Fan service works best when the ideas being borrowed or stolen are actually meaningfully integrated into the story, because then even if you don't get the historical reference, you at least understand why it matters here and now. Harry Mudd was used well, for example, and so was the Mirror Universe. If, however, I didn't already know the Enterprise was cool, I wouldn't understand why its appearance at the end of Discovery's last episode had any weight. Mixed bag. Innovation: 3/5 Black alert. Spore Drive. The gormagander space whale. Starfleet ship designs in general. These were all good innovations. Otherwise the show was a little bogged down retreading old ideas and conflicts (ie. war with Klingons, the search for humanity within oneself). The one original planet we see, Pahvo, is too bizarre and arbitrary in its weirdness and ultimately leads nowhere, story-wise. Discovery simply didn't go boldly to too many places we haven't already been, unless a gay kiss, and a Klingon sex scene strike you as groundbreaking television. Hit or miss. Social Commentary 4/5 Star Trek is no stranger to didactic progressive messages, but they usually hide behind sci-fi metaphors or watered-down ambiguity so as to avoid ever actually being controversial. Discovery is no different but by updating to modern sensibilities, it actually felt edgier and more relevant than usual Star Trek. Casting was diverse, themes were timely, and you can find challenging metaphors pertaining to the environment, immigration, nationalism, fascism and racial identity among so many others. Most of them worked for me without needing to agree with any one message to appreciate its portrayal. Not bad. StarTrekkiness: 3/5 This one is tricky. Every iteration of Star Trek seems to pride itself on "breaking the mold" of its predecessors, and no show did that more than The Next Generation which came to be the epitome of Trek for an entire generation (mine, essentially). And though each iteration had its own flavor, there are many universal and inalienable elements that define all of them as Trekky. Some very Trekky things Discovery got right: Lots of technobabble or treknobabble. Deus-Ex-Machina plot resolutions. Less than subtle progressive social commentary. Preachy speeches about vague altruistic values. Klingonese. The main characters are smarter and more noble than Starfleet Command. The Chain of Command is optional when you have strong convictions. Mutiny is basically okay if you think you're really right. Someone exploring what it means to be human. Confronting alternate versions of yourself. On the other hand, there are some very blatant missteps (besides Production Design). The sex scenes feel very out of place. There's very little spirit of excited optimism. The "future" doesn't "feel" Utopian by any means, it's too bleak and distraught. Ultimately as you can see for yourself in online comments sections, this is a mixed bag. All in all, I still find myself really rooting to like Discovery and I look forward to next season. I enjoyed it for what it is, and I'd have no qualms about rewatching any of it. What can I say, I'm a fan. But unlike so many other children on the internet, that neither blinds me to its flaws nor instills in me any rage about them. They are what they are, and I've put up with worse. See you next season! Next Season Premier Season 2 Short Treks Previous Episode Review Don't forget to Like and Retweet! Comment below with your opinions!
4 Comments
2/12/2018 05:26:43 pm
I mainly agree with you. Although, I don't care if the Klingons look different, as Gene supposedly wanted them done around the same way as current way back in STIII, but budget issues...there's an image of the sole 1983 concept art online somewhere. The armor in said drawing is what L'Rell wears. So, there is a history.
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C
2/13/2018 11:21:25 am
Thanks for the comment! That's interesting about the Klingon concept origin, I was not aware of that. But it fits, considering the Discovery ship itself is also based on early Ralph Mcquarrie art from that same time period. The hologram communications are lifted from some obscure episode of the Animated Star Trek as well. I wonder what else was inspired by that old, overlooked or unused material! It's almost ironic, then that they went so far back for these concepts, yet aesthetically the show was filmed to appear so modern and stylish like the new movies. I guess they wanted to have their cake and eat it too, which is fine, because I wouldn't mind eating another slice! Personally, I wanted a longer season!
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Daryl Lanz
6/23/2018 05:49:01 pm
I agree with most of your comments, Chris. What I really appreciate is the thoughtful, extensive analysis you brought to the show. Like I told you, I'm a big fan of Star Trek, going back to the original series, but I really didn't have anyone to discuss my feelings and thought on Discovery with.
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C
6/23/2018 08:46:36 pm
Thanks Daryl! Glad you like my reviews and analysis. I'm looking forward to season 2! Hope you'll stop by again to keep the conversation going!
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