Captain's Blog: Star Trek's newest episode revisits its oldest, and makes for another series high. Black Holes. Fan service. Dramatic revelations. Cafeteria brawls. Section 31 shenanigans. This episode has all the things! Set a course for Talos IV! "If Memory Serves" Previously, on Star Trek... We open on a vintage style "Previously" recap followed by actual footage from Star Trek's oldest episode, its fan-favorite but originally unaired pilot "The Cage", which featured Captain Pike, Number One, and Spock, all of whom have been keeping up appearances this season in Star Trek Discovery. It's a lighthearted nod to everything that's come before, as well as a brazen embrace of all the aesthetic differences that separate the two episodes. Discovery showrunners confidently eschew the canonistas or fan-haters by openly juxtaposing the different actors, costumes, and set pieces of the two television eras as if it's all so much ado about nothing. And it is! Without shame they cut straight from Jeffery Hunter to Anson Mount as Pike in a moment that might otherwise seem tonally and stylistically jarring but is instead rife with pathos and subtext. We realize not just the legacy that Discovery is wading into, but the implications it has for its characters. Not Just Fan Service. Make no mistake, this return to Talos IV isn't just some gimmick. It's all about character. Burnham has rescued Spock from Section 31 and she's on course to the obscure coordinates he's been clammoring about as his mind dissolves into crazy and inevitable death. Talos IV is occupied by strange survivors of atomic devastation with bulbous 60's brain-heads who speak through telepathy and manufacture illusions like fake black holes. They collect various aliens in a zoo (or menagerie) looking for something to repopulate their planet with. They left quite an impression on Spock and Pike during their last visit, (which would have taken place within the last year or so) and we know that Spock will later be willing to commit mutiny to help a crippled Pike fulfill his dying wish to return (to be healed and reunited there with his lost love, Vina). Here, Spock is hoping for his own healing, which comes in the form of inevitable plot contrivances. For his mind to be healed, Burnham must give the Talosians the secret to her falling out with Spock, when they were children (finally!). Before she'll give up her secret, though, she demands to know what Spock uncovered during his encounter with the Red Angel (also finally!). There's no real impasse here though, so that's what they do. It's a little too easy, and totally contrived, but it's not about the plot. The drama comes rather in the emotions of the characters as the truth comes out. Spock was visited by the time-traveling Red Angel as a kid and given the knowledge to save Burnham's life. It also revealed the catastrophic end of all life in the galaxy by something that looks like last week's future cyber-squids, so... no wonder he started to go insane. Burnham's big confession is simply that when she ran away from home as a kid, in order to get Spock to stop hassling her about it, she had to use some racial slurs to piss him off. Stuff like "half-breed". It stunted his emotional human development, and explains why as a half-human he would act basically 100% Vulcan the rest of his life. But it turns out he always suspected she faked it as a tactic, so there's no love lost for long, even if the damage is done. It's an underwhelming revelation at first, since it seems like something siblings do all the time and shrug off later, but the drama is in the damage. This apparently led to the virtual death of Spock's emotional human half of himself, and as a human who only sometimes pretends to be Vulcan, Burnham appreciates the damage she caused even if Spock pretends he's over it. It's complicated and out of proportion and personal, the way adult sibling relationships often are. Pike must face his lost love a second time, only to leave her behind again. A lone human survivor whom the Talosians originally wanted to mate Pike with to repopulate their planet, we know he will return to Vina in another Original Series episode "The Menagerie" (but not for another 6-8 years, give or take, after Kirk takes over as Captain). To that end, Anson Mount beautifully imbues his Pike with layers of regret and longing which fill in the middle piece to a fifty year old story arc we only ever saw the beginning and end of. It's honestly amazing how much depth Anson Mount adds to this legacy in the few scenes he gets to work with, and it never overwhelms the rest of the story. Elsewhere. Section 31 chases the Discovery just as Discovery chases down Burnham and Spock, adding some stakes and tension to the proceedings. Computer-Brain Girl (Airiam) continues to wreak sabotage across the ship while infected by a future-virus, and she blames Tyler for it (that dirty Klingon!) which nobody questions, because: Dirty Klingon. The recently resurrected Dr. Culber continues to suffer PTSD and existential angst as he pushes a co-dependent Stamets away (so sad...) , only to pick a fight with his murderer, Tyler, in the lunch room. It's a long awaited and necessary confrontation that's as intense as it is deliberately awkward. It's all the more powerful when, as they run out of steam, he confesses, "I don't know who I am anymore!" as if it's an accusation or a blame, only for Tyler -- the former Klingon sleeper agent -- to retort, "Who do you think you're talking to." It all seems so childish to fight it out like children, and strangely out of character for a Federation Utopia, until Pike makes the same observation of Saru who intentionally let the whole thing play out. Saru gives him some wishy-washy counter argument and agrees not to let it happen again, but in this one brief moment reveals (in my opinion) that he's not the same sweet Saru we knew and loved. He's slowly transitioning into someone far more violent and dangerous...! Oh, and Burnham finally smiles again! I almost forgot how much I liked Burnham as a character when she allows herself enough emotional range to have fun, or smirk, or do literally anything besides angsty agony and self-deprecation. Now that she's pals with her brother again, maybe some more adventurous fun is in our future... Conclusion: Previous episodes have felt scattershot, trying to touch on too many subplots without ever giving them space to succeed. Is it episodic or serial? Sometimes it felt they were choosing the wrong subplot or character to check in on, when it was a different one I was hoping for. The pacing has been so breakneck all season that there's been little room to do anything else. But this week they had their cake and ate it too. Everything connected neatly without ever feeling rushed. Everything mattered. Everybody mattered. And we had time to savor the moments. The acting and writing was succinct and subtle and superb leaving me salivating for next week. Another instantly rewatchable episode, which may also prove to be the turning point of the season. Captain's Blog Supplemental:
That opening shot of Pike, half a second after the recap ended with his lady-love telling him, "I can't go with you." He still remembers her... So much acting! Love the goofy editing technique in that recap. Spock and Burnham can't even talk without sibling bickering. "You really think the beard is working?" So... Section 31 is run by "Control" which is an artificial intelligence? Yeah, that's not gonna tie into the cyber-squids from the future and cause trouble later this season... Spock, escaping Section 31 with style, holds out his classic Vuncan hand gesture but it feels like a middle finger: "Say Goodbye Spock." Trivia Corner: The original footage for "The Cage" was thought lost for many years, and it was only after being found by accident that it as able to air on television in its original form.
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6/30/2020 01:50:16 am
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