Captain's Blog: Giant encyclopedic space-spiders and acid-tripping symbiote-ghost-boogers manage to make for the most unexpectedly tear-jerking episode of the season. Discovery keeps getting better. "An Obol for Charon" A lot happens this week, so let's break it down. While chasing Spock, the Discovery is yanked out of warp and trapped in a metaphorical web by a metaphorical spider which is actually some giant, goobery spherical entity whose "attack" causes the universal translators to break. In one of the cleverest malfunctions in Star Trek history, everyone is stuck speaking gibberish and we realize how multi-national and inter-species the crew really is. They've never actually all been speaking English. Only Saru can fix it, because in an exercise in over-achievement he learned some 80+ Federation languages when he joined Starfleet and thank god they told us this a couple episodes ago (if you were paying attention) or it would seem waaay too convenient. Too bad he's dying from a cold, either exacerbated or triggered by the orb. I'll come back to that because our B-plot continues Tilly's fate at the hands of a fungus monster that only looks like a booger (and it was only pretending to be a ghost). She's trapped in Engineering with Stamets during the whole A-plot crisis and thankfully Jett Reno (comedian Tig Notaro), our new Engineering hero from 3 episodes ago, made it to the party before the doors jammed. They have fun getting high off LSD spores while making contact with the fungus aliens who, like most Trekkies hanging around the forums, are none too happy about all this spore-drive nonsense from Season One. They want it stopped! They view Stamets and the humans as alien invaders destroying their world, so they abduct Tilly and... More on that next week, I guess. Again. The New Original Number One. Way before Riker ever popularized the moniker as First Officer under Capt. Picard, there was an unnamed woman who Commanded the Enterprise ("No Bloody A, B, C, or D!") under Capt. Pike in Star Trek's famously unaired pilot, "The Cage." She was played by none other than Majel Barrett, the First Lady of Star Trek, who went on to marry Gene Roddenberry, play Nurse Chapel and Lwaxana Troi, as well as the Voyager computer voice, over the years. Despite only appearing briefly in a few scenes, she became a fan favorite and feminist icon because of her rank and competency and the (possibly apocryphal) anecdote about NBC executives demanding either her or the demon-looking alien (Spock) be cut. Other stories suggest they merely didn't like her acting. When forced to choose, Roddenberry supposedly joked that he kept Spock and married the girl (and later snuck her in anyway). Rebecca Romijn (Mystique from the original X-Men Trilogy and former wife of John Stamos if you remember that far back!) plays the new Number One from Pike's Enterprise crew, still unnamed as far as I could tell, complete with luxurious long brown hair, to deliver the secret getaway route of an as yet, still absent Mr. Spock. Also, she likes cheeseburgers so now I guess she's a fan-favorite of mine, too! And in further fan-service duty, the scene also manages to explain why the Enterprise never had holograms: they malfunctioned, but only on Enterprise so Pike had 'em ripped out. Is that good enough for ya!? Further Continuity Corrections can be found in the Spore Drive subplot, proof that the new writers and producers are eager to win back the angered fans from last season. Not only are we getting "clever" (unnecessary?) little explanations for the holograms, uniforms, Klingon hairstyles, and Spock's unspoken relatives, but it's finally clear how they'll write away the spore drive as well: with an environmentalism metaphor. To be clear, this has been done. Human pollution and environmental consequences in general have come up many times before in Trek episodes and even some movies. But in case we never heard of this particular "issue" before today, the writers make sure to spell it out in a pretty preachy and gratuitous argument between Stamets and Reno about the environmental impact of dilithium mining? Yeesh. And then they double down by turning the metaphor around, to show that it's not just dilithium mining that has environmental consequences, but this spore drive business is ruining an entire fungal universe, or something. The takeaway is 1) that whatever way you scoot across the galaxy, you gotta remember to be considerate of those around you, and 2) that the spore drive was never going to be a viable option to get Voyager home from the Delta Quadrant and now it never will be, so get over it! Keep your Kleenex ready though, when Stamets drills a hole in Tilly's head to save her (or... whatever reason he thinks he has to do it) set to the song "Major Tom to Ground Control". It's a surprisingly emotional moment captured surprisingly well by the two very fine actors, who continue to add new layers to their performances. And more importantly, new layers to their relationship. Instead of being told, we're finally shown the ways in which this crew has become close friends. We finally see what they have to endure together and at what costs. Likewise, when Saru asks Michael Burnham to cut off his ganglia to assist in his dying, they give so much time to cultivate the moment that I began to think they might actually kill him. Having lost her step-brother Spock years ago, it's easy to empathize with a Burnham who thinks she's about to lose another "brother" (in this case, Capt. Georgiou was like a mother to both of them if you recall). Conclusion: This was definitely the most Discovery episode yet, with fast camera movements, crazy treknobable, and breakneck pacing and action, and yet it might also be one of it's most Trekky episodes, and another series high. Frantic, high concept and emotional, it really has everything to make for a continually strong and fan-pleasing second season without having to shed any it's original core identity. It redeems Season 1 plot lines and reconciles larger continuity issues, while nonetheless feeling focused on and relevant to its own story. In this way Discovery is continuing to find its own legs, rather than try to twist itself into the images of Treks from yesteryear. Captain's Blog Supplemental: Headgear Girl is back from a couple episodes ago, and so is Miscellaneous Alien Guy from the Elevator (Linus?). And even though Cyborg-Face Girl failed to save the day this week, I still love her. Suddenly Stamets is defending the Spore Drive that almost killed him and hides the ghost of his dead lover? I thought using it came at great pain? Is Number One still aboard Discovery? Why wasn't she helping during the crisis? Is she still eating that cheeseburger or did she go back for seconds? So Saru has no fear ganglia anymore, huh? And he feels... powerful? Ominous... Kinda convenient after causing Discovery to lose Spock's tail, it gave them the exact info to find him again. How many more episodes are we going to "chase" Spock? Remember to Like and Subscribe! Last Week's Episode Review Next Week's Episode Review
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