Captain's Blog: Skipping across the universe on a highway made of mushrooms... "New Eden" Tilly did some science on the computer and found the location of another one of those pesky red lights hidden all over the galaxy that everyone's so worried about (even though they don't know anything about them, much less any reason to be so concerned). They Black-Alert their way to the far side of the Beta Quadrant using the ol' Spore Drive from last season and pretend they didn't shelve the project because it was killing Stamets and putting the time stream at risk. They find a two-hundred-year-old colony of regular humans somehow and their two-hundred-year-old distress signal still working, but no distress to be found. So who are they and how could they possibly get there? This is some classic Trek! Now we're talking. A funny culture of the week, a mystery to solve, and some lip-service discussions of the tension between science and faith. I feel like a kid again. Plus, Captain Pike says, "Be bold, be brave, be courageous. Black Alert." The colonists are essentially Amish, living in a pre-electrical society, the descendants of some survivors of WWIII who were mysteriously transported across the galaxy to safety in the midst of nuclear devastation. In an attempt to explain their salvation, they merged Earth's major religions into one, literally cutting and pasting together a new holy book. They turn their back on science and all that jazz (because it led to WWIII obviously) and are essentially Luddites now. But one of the descendants, Jacob, has his doubts and keeps an old distress signal operating in the hopes that humanity is still alive out there and might come for them. Enter Pike, and Burnham and Owosekun (the black girl from the bridge crew) to go down and make sense of the distress signal (and apparent lack of distress). We're told Owosekun's family were also Luddites but sadly that's all the character development she gets, outside of cracking the mysteries of a slide-lock on a trap door. That's Missed Opportunity Number One. I was hoping to get to know the extended cast better, and I appreciate her inclusion with the A-Team for a change, but I'll have to keep waiting for something more substantial. She never actually uses that backstory in any functional way, and in fact it's Pike who hogs the camera and relates naturally with the locals. Apparently his father taught science and comparative religion, so he "gets it" when it comes to faith stuff. He also gets the good lines, character development and majority screen time and though it's a bummer for Owosekun, it's all good for the audience because the dude can act, and he brings some legit new undertones to his protrayal. Missed Opportunity Number Two is the society itself. It reads like an idea out of the Original Series: a less than veiled metaphor for the haphazard way humans construct baseless religious ideology out of happenstance and catastrophe. But here, the concept gets very little exploration beyond its mere explanation. It's only used as a set piece and an obstacle to the plot. Pike hides behind General Order Number One (the pre-Prime Directive) and they keep their true identity a secret. Only Jacob sees through the ruse and they're forced to admit the truth to get what they hope is some useful two-hundred-year-old camera footage from him. Pike navigates these moral conundrums deftly, despite Burnham's frustrations and reluctance. These colonists think they're the only survivors of the human race but because they're pre-warp, they need to be left alone to evolve at their own pace (I guess?). Burnham literally says, "science is my religion" and wants to rescue these colonists from... themselves, basically. These are humans, afterall, not some primitive alien race. Pike manages to hold his ground without losing empathy for both sides of the argument. Picard would be proud. In this way the episode is not actually about the high-concept of Religious Unity, but rather the tensions between faith in general and science. The Red Angel mystery of the season, sits at the cross-section of these points of view and begets a twisted paraphrase from Arthur C Clark: "Any alien race sufficiently advanced is indistinguishable from God." (Another good line by Pike.) What they don't know is that up in orbit, [insert complication] is about to destroy the colony and Discovery must science their way to a solution. Saru gets a chance to shine in command, once again, and Tilly and Stamets whip up their best science to solve the problem, and wouldn't ya know it, it requires some good-looking special effects and action spectacle to save the day. Detmer, my personal favorite Cyborg-face girl,reminds us she's had her pilot's license since she was twelve (heart melting) and it's her who actually does the day-saving. She whips the ship into a donut maneuver to launch a gravity-rock (captured last episode) to [insert complicated solution]. Anyway, it's slick and simple enough for a B-story, but what works about it is that Stamets has to keep using the spore drive. He already had to use it once at the opening of the episode because their destination was 150 years away, and we saw how painful it was for him (but mostly just emotionally, cuz like, his old boyfriend is in there... or something). But when he sees that it's the only solution to save all the colonists, and there's only moments to act, he accepts his fate and does what's necessary. Again. Pike is frivolous in his use of Stamets for these kinds of jumps, not because the logic doesn't hold, but because he seems to give no consideration to the toll on Stamets himself (and he's such a considerate guy, otherwise). But I don't think this is an accident in the writing, and I look forward to the other shoe dropping on this one. Show don't Tell. I do however feel like the writers aren't giving themselves room to breathe when it comes to character development, though. They keep writing these scenes where Burnham or Stamets tell us how tormented they are in their soul, and then we're shown only very little of it that matters. So much verbal attention is given to the hardship of Stamets seeing his old boyfriend in the mycelial network, but we don't actually see him experience that during the jump. He just storms out in grief after it's over. Perhaps that'll come around in a later episode? Likewise Burnham continues to look constipated every time the subject of Spock comes up and I just want to give her some laxatives and tell her to relax a little, maybe up her fiber intake. She's a good actress, I think, but she's more fun when she's... having fun! It made sense in Season 1, but I'm ready for her to balance out as a character. Oh, and Tilly has begun seeing ghosts, I guess. So... More on that next time, maybe? Conclusion: 3.5 out of 5 stars. Jonathan Frakes returns to direct this episode and visiting a planet of the week is as classic as it gets, even with the modern Discovery spin on it. I said last time I wanted more throwaway episodes and this is what I get. An pretty okay, one. But that's okay that it's okay! It was still enjoyable and superficially thought-provoking (not unlike Voyager, now that I think about it... but I liked Voyager!). Pike carries the episode once again with his complex charisma and maturity, and Tilly keeps doing her schtick, while Saru is always stable. But the writers don't seem to know how to balance out the supposed star of the series, Michael Burnham without making her sad, or how to use the extended cast for more than set dressing. Part of the problem is that the story gets so complicated there's no room left for character growth or to explore the metaphor they created. Everything is all about plot. In that regard, it's a very quickly paced, energetic and cinematic show doing its damnedest to keep up with the movies with only half the time to work with. And... it basically works, I gotta admit. We do start to get a better grasp of what's going on with these red lights (now red angels?) and they seem like they're manipulating/guiding the Discovery into these rescue operations. I guess we'll just have to keep watching to find out more, and if we have to take a few more detours along the way, I won't mind one bit!
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