Captain's Blog: Stardate 01-31-19: The Klingons are back...! "Point of Light" We open with a classic star date and log entry, which continues this season's trend of vintage vibes. Sarek's vulcan ship approaches but it's not Spock's father who beams aboard, it's his mother (and Burnham's adopted mother), Amanda. She's stolen Spock's medical files and he's in danger. Starbase 5 (aka, the psych ward) is claiming he's unstable and killing people and now missing. Doesn't sound like him, except that they're saying he's having a psychotic break so that's kinda the point, but there's still something shady about it all so Pike gives his endorsement to "look into it". Burnham still won't say what she did to hurt Spock and why it might relate to all this stuff, but it better be good now that the writers have brought it up every episode only to withhold it. In consolation, she swears she'll find him and make it right, but Spock-Mom isn't satisfied and declares instead that she will be the one to find him. Come back next week for more on that! Tilly continues in the Command Training Program, but her ghost continues to haunt her until it seems a lot more like a psychotic hallucination. While shadowing Captain Pike on the bridge, she gets into a shouting match with the phantom which just looks like she's shouting at Pike. Awkward... She quits the command training program in humiliation and embarrassment but refuses to get the psych help she needs so that instead we can have a really effective heart to heart with Burnham, who, oh yeah, is still her roommate (kinda forgot about that). The breakdown about the ghost not understanding tears was pretty smart, I thought, logically ruling out both a human ghost and a psychotic break simultaneously, and sparking the audience's imagination. Turns out it's a leftover plot thread from last season so Stamets tears it out of her like a big boogery blob of CGI. Come back next week for more on that! Meanwhile the Klingons steal the other half of the episode with infighting and political unrest, while the writers try to make amends to the so-called canonistas (those hard core trekkies that obsess over the canon and worldbuilding of the larger Trek universe for whom the many historical inconsistencies and quirks of Discovery have become a bit of a chip on their shoulders). We see a flash of the fan favorite D7 battelcruiser, and the Klingons get their hair back. A quick line attempts to explain why it had been missing (war, I guess) but it only adds more inconsistencies than it solves, so it's best to just let that stuff go. Discovery doesn't look like classic Trek. I'm over it. What I can't get over is Shazad Latif who returns as Ash Tyler, doing his best to play Klingon despite his human appearance. His beard improves his look but I doubt his hipster man-bun (see above) will age as well as the bell-bottoms of TOS. I breathed a sigh of relief when they dumped his severed head into a lava pit, but they've fake killed him before, so... Sure enough! Section 31 saves his butt, and recruits him to their recently announced spinoff series (because a new Golden Age of Star Trek has begun!). That's right, the nefarious secret organization operating under the Federation radar to secure their interests returns, and Michelle Yeoh returns with them (as we already knew from the trailers), but sadly, too late to take part in the ass-kicking. This Dark Mirror version of Phillipa Georgiou (former Emperor) is fun in an evil, indulgent kind of way and as much as I want to see her get into some crazy space-spy hijinks, I don't really want Latif's lame Ash Tyler character to tag along. Conclusion: Eh. This was a transitional episode, advancing but not completing any of the larger storylines of the season. I like the subtle tie-ins to forgotten details from Season 1, like how/when Tilly got infected (totally forgot about that!) and I suppose we had to check in on some of these peripheral plots eventually. I still wish it had a little more episodic integrity though, like last week, but serial style story-telling is the television vogue we live in, now. I suppose I'm glad each of these plots advanced as far as they did because Tilly's Ghost and Ash Tyler's Klingon angst were just not interesting enough to run rampant across the whole season. If we're gonna do them, let's get them out of the way quickly. Otherwise there wasn't much action this week, but there were some good emotional beats for Burnham with both her mother and Tilly that worked well for me. On the other hand, I could've skipped all the Klingon stuff. I'm not gonna be a hater about the new look anymore, but it's still all just stiff posturing and bad acting to me, so hopefully it's out of our system for a few episodes. I take solace in knowing the new Section 31 show means I may not have to see boy-toy Tyler anymore on the Discovery stage, but... then I remember I'll probably totally still watch it, because Star Trek, AmIright? Captain's Blog Supplemental: Proto-Geordi was back in the transporter room again with his visor (unless you happened to be blinking right then). Spock-Mom whispers a secret in Burnham's ear when they first meet, except she does it on the wrong side that has people standing on it who might overhear! Duh! Pike finally shares the screen time and... now I miss him even more :( Sure is convenient how much English the Klingons kept speaking... Why do the Klingons call it a D7 when their name for it has always been K'tinga? Seriously, how do you not include Michelle Yeoh in a hand-to-hand fight scene? But her Section 31 entrance was still totally badass, though. And that ship! Last Week's Episode Next Week's Episode Season Two Premier Don't forget to Like and Subscribe!
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