Maybe this show ain't half bad, afterall. This week, the Discovery gets stuck in a time loop with Dwight from The Office and no amount of groundhogs will get 'em outa this one. Set phasers to vaporize! "Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad"
Sorry, I skipped my reviews of Episodes 4,5, and 6 because I just didn't have much to say. They had their ups and downs and I'm still struggling with my feelings about this show. At least I was, until this week... Rainn Wilson guest stars for his second time this season, as semi-comedic conman Harcourt Fenton Mudd, the only non-crew member to appear in more than one episode of The Original Series in the 60's. Is it a coincidence that my two favorite episodes of Discovery so far have now both featured Rainn Wilson? Yes. Do I think Rainn Wilson is an underappreciated actor who will one day escape the predictable type-casting of his role as uptight coworker Dwight from The Office? Also yes. If it pleases the court, may I present Exhibit A: This episode. We open at a party aboard the Discovery, and not one of those awkward gatherings at Ten Forward where Riker busts out his trombone or Data reads poetry while Whoopi Goldberg serves green synthehal. This party has dancing and flashing lights and crewmembers hooking up in the hallway while Michael Burnham awkwardly avoids any potential romantic encounters with the latest addition to the cast, a certain Lt. Tyler that escaped with Captain Lorca from the Klingons two episodes ago. I don't care for this Lt. Tyler, myself. He seems sleazy and too overtly "love-interest" (like when Battlestar Galactica added Samuel T Anders to the second season). I don't know what audience they think they're pandering too, but these kinds of characters are too "soap-opera action-star" for me. Too well-groomed, maybe? It's especially hokey that Tyler should be friends with Bunham so quickly and that their friendship should progress so suddenly. There was a moment at the end of one of the previous episodes where they bonded over being misjudged outsiders amidst an unfamiliar crew, which worked, but since then it's been, "Ooh, Lt Tyler, he's so handsome... Check out those abs!" on the part of the writers and director. It's being laid on a little thick, is all I'm saying. Before their little moment can get any more deliberately awkward, there's a yellow alert, both characters "report to the bridge!" where they encounter a giant endangered space-whale. Why not beam it aboard, they say, and assume nothing bad will happen in the first ten minutes of the show. What bad thing is it? Let's guess: A) It explodes. B) It tries to mate with the ship. C) If threatens to destroy Earth unless somebody time travels to the 1980's to rescue some sperm whales. Or D) It's a trap! Correct Answer: Admiral Akbar is always right, it's (D). Rainn Wilson jumps out dressed in alien space armor and zaps everyone in an attempt to steal the Discovery with it's one-of-a-kind spore-drive and sell it to the Klingons to avoid his fiancé. When it doesn't work, he blows everybody up and resets the time-loop to try again. Eventually, he'll get it right. Right? Except he doesn't count on one thing: Stamets, the gay science officer who plugged himself into the spore-drive a couple episodes ago and is now connected to the entire universe (multiverse?) through no small amount of treknobabble. Somehow this makes him exist outside the time stream and he must convince the crew to trust him and experiment with new ways to out-con the conman. Preferably before he vaporizes everyone again, but permanently. I love a good time-loop episode and this is no exception. Roll it in with a good con-game and I'm sold. There's always one person who "figures it out" and must solve the problem, but I like that it's not the main character this time. I didn't care much for Stamets in his first appearances. He was too snarky and bitter, but in the episode where he merged with the spore-drive, he showed real growth and rounded out a little. He's best when he's being cool, rather than uptight. I also like that we're seeing the consequences of that choice play out here, and even though it basically saves the day, I suspect the other shoe will soon drop and that choice will be the inevitable cause of no small hardship for the crew of Discovery. I also liked the space-whale and the special effects, as we get to see numerous vaporizations, my favorite phaser setting. Pew pew. Captain Lorca and Saru both get shuffled to the side this episode, which is the inevitable consequence of good serialization, and even though I've come to like them both a lot, the episode doesn't suffer for it. Why? Because Rainn Wilson carries the day, and he really can act with the best of 'em. His portrayal of Mudd is smarmy and condescending and egotistical, right up there with John DeLancey's Q from The Next Generation. I don't see Dwight at all in his performance and I wouldn't mind if he found his way back a couple more times this season or next. Conclusion: This is one of the first times I sat down to watch Discovery and felt like I was watching plain old Star Trek. Not some new-fangled permutation of my nostalgic late-night memories. Not some re-jiggered reboot rife with retcons. Just Star Trek. I wasn't comparing it to TOS or TNG or even the movies. I wasn't pining for red-shirts, "Beam me up," "Tea Earl Gray Hot" or the Riker-Maneuver. I was watching it for what it is, Star Trek, and it didn't feel like it conflicted with my previous experiences or expectations anymore. It was a good problem-of-the-week driven by strong characterization, slowly building large-form storytelling and entertaining sc-fi. After Episode 3, I wasn't sure I was into this new iteration of Star Trek. It still felt like they were trying too hard. Episodes 4 and 5 saved it and won me back over with reasonably compelling storytelling and a satisfying conclusion to the tartigrade plot that ended with Stamets' sacrifice and transformation. Since then I've been casually looking forward to each new episode and this week was definitely a highlight. I'm excited to see what nefarious consequences will occur from Stamets' new universal transcendence, Lorca's secret betrayal, Mudd's revenge or Burnham's redemption, to say nothing of the ongoing war with the Klingons or Discovery's potential role in Starfleet's super-secret spy-ops Section 31 (if the internet theories have any merit). And aren't they supposed to travel to the Mirror Universe? Can't believe every rumor... Sorry Orville, you were fun and a little weird, but whenever your new episodes air these days (you never can tell), I might enjoy watching them but I don't anticipate them with any eagerness. Star Trek wins. Game over.
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