Captain's Blog: The ship hits the fan this week in the climactic conclusion to Star Trek Discovery Season 2. The evil AI 'Control' closes in on Discovery and Enterprise and time is running out to travel to the future and save the galaxy. Will the Riders of Rohan rush to the rescue when all seems lost? Is timey-wimey stuff enough to snuff the badguys? Will Spock ever shave that beard?! Find out what happens and my full season review... "Such Sweet Sorrow" Part 2 All the phasers get fired as Discovery and Enterprise buy time for Burnham to launch her time-traveling Red Angel suit and save the galaxy. Let's start with the battle. It's cool if you're on Adderall, but for the rest of us it's pretty frenetic. It would've been enough for the two iconic vessels to face off against a fleet of enemy ships, but instead they added dozens of shuttles and fighter-pods and thousands swarming mini-drones and enough bright flashing lights to cause an epileptic seizure. There are flavors of Battlestar Galactica (reboot) and Abram's Star Trek 2009 as well as Michael Bay's Transformers, but it's basically awesome. Don't get me wrong, it's bonkers and chaotic but it makes for the guiltiest of pleasures. There are sparks on the bridge. Inspirational diatribes. Extras leaning left and right. Shield statuses shouted out. It's never been more Trek and Trek has never been better. The plot may be generic in a certain sense, but there are some truly exciting moments. "This is Starfleet. Get it done." Red Angel Wrap Up. Burnham suits up and heads out with Spock in tow, and can't seem to get the darn thing to work. Isn't that always how it goes with time-crystals? And then Spock figures out what we've all suspected on the internet: Burnham isn't supposed to go forward in time, she has to go backward to produce all those red lights that have been leading them through the season. All those detours were functionally necessary to get to this point and succeed (I guess?). This leads to one of the best moments of the episode which I have been hoping for for a while, even if it turns out a little half-baked. The black hole time jumping is beautiful as Burnham reappears at key moments from throughout the season, reminiscent of Interstellar in it's visual creativity. But instead of seeing these same scenes from a new perspective, we're given little more than closeups of Sonequa Martin-Green intercut with flashbacks of recycled footage. Bit of a letdown. And it doesn't help that some of these plot points are tenuous as best. The mission to Kaminar was necessary because... Saru's sister shows up in a starfighter to help in the battle? Not likely. She only learned about space travel -- what, like days ago? And did she really help? Really? It was gratuitous and sentimental mush. Tig Notaro and Po were at least a little more functional, but their contributions bordered on Tell and not Show, and felt contrived after the fact. I appreciate the attempt to wrap everything up, but at least half of it felt improvised rather than planned. Haphazard writing. This is where it gets tricky, but I really do think the fault here lies in the writers. Are these the same writers who started the season? There are strong story hooks in the first few episodes and strong climactic moments in the later but they barely line up. It really feels like a different ending was cobbled together to salvage the season. Smart sounding lip service to science and deep cuts into Trek canon never seem to balance that with eye-rolling dialogue, character inconsistency, stop and go pacing and illogical plot holes. These are medium quality writers trying to produce movie-quality Game of Thrones in space -- and I applaud them for their bold reach, they really leap for the moon -- but they can't always land it. The incredible actors compensate for so much of it, but can't hide all of it. When Nahn says, "Yum yum," I had to slap myself in the face, not just because of how cringy it was but how random this behavior is in someone we've been watching all season; she doesn't talk or act like this. Throwaway comments about Terrans and Mirror Universes and "this isn't where your story ends" are just distracting and all the worse for how little they add. On the other hand, homages and farewells to characters like Spock and Pike are handled with such perfect subtlety and nuance that I want to stand and clap. How can they be so good? Is it the same show? Tilly's antics and the Culber/Stamets melodrama fall somewhere in the middle: mileage may vary. I would've taken those scenes in different directions but that's just me. What's most disappointing about it all is the name Michelle Paradise, this week (and last's) credited writer (among others), and next season's showrunner. I thought she did a killer episode with "Project Daedalus" in which she succinctly develops and kills off Computer-Head Girl, but in this two part finale she only manages to hide egregious plot holes, gratuitous climactic clichés and underdeveloped storytelling shortcuts beneath fan service and distracting "Wow!" moments. Which, in her defense, the fan service really *really* landed, and the wow moments, well, yeah they really did make me go wow and I feel no shame in that. But what am I to make of such inconsistencies? What does this bode for Season 3? Is she propping up the writers room or are they covering for her? Who deserves credit for what in an ensemble production? (...There are no answers to this.) Past Treks have faced similar BTS troubles during production (TNG) and hit their stride as fan favorites by the third season, so I guess I'll cross my fingers. Into the Unknown. Discovery follows Burnham's red signal into the wormhole (black hole?) into the future, even as Georgiou kills Leland/Control in a magnetic glass box of emotion. Their destination: 930 years into the future, which is where her mother is trapped. All the drone ships shut down, like any good over-the-top movie ending, and we're left with a giant question mark for Season 3: Will they settle in the future and tell all new stories in a new world? Will they bop around all different time periods and dimensions? Will they ever come back? Georgiou is aboard, so will she be a friend or foe? What does that mean for her Section 31 spinoff? Will Saru become default Captain? It's a great cliffhanger because we don't follow them into the future to see even an inkling of a clue. The episode ends with Spock shaving, and finding a balance between faith and logic ("The universe is not obligated to explain itself to me,") donning his classic blue uniform and reporting to the Enterprise bridge for new missions before Kirk takes over (can we please just get that spinoff now!). They all lie to Starfleet that Discovery is destroyed and per time travel shenanigans, should never be spoken of again. Nice and tidy, perhaps a little too tidy? I don't mind where it landed (was there anywhere else it could?), just how contrived it was written. Conclusion: The most awesome flawed finale you could ask for. It works in spite of itself. And by works, I mean it's working hard and the effort does not go without notice. Somehow, I still loved it and I'm not surprised so many other people online are raving about it too. It easily stands among the season's strongest, or at least most exciting! And at least half its flaws are a mere matter of preference, so I won't belabor those, but I was not a huge fan of the directorial style of repeat director Olatunde Osunsanmi who basically edited the episode by dumping the film roll into a woodchipper. It's movie quality, sure, but I don't generally like those kind of movies (looking at you Bourne sequels!) but you can't fault the guy for going all in and he does things no previous Trek would dare. So in short, here is what works and what didn't. Works: Klingons in character as violence-intoxicated pirates "It's a good day to die!"; Time travel visuals a'la Interstellar; The long cinematic shots of the space battle (just WOW!); Georgiou/Leland's Inception-style zero-G hallway fight scene (did not see that coming); All the blue phasers (pew pew!); Everything on the Enterprise bridge -- sounds/colors/uniforms; Everything Pike; The farewell sendoff to the Enterprise and crew including a glory-shot of the ship repaired in space dock, shaven Spock in his blue uniform, "Spock to the Bridge", one last smirking "Hit it" from Pike, and the wonky zoom-out through the ceiling dome that homages and reverses the opening shot from "The Cage". Doesn't Work: the D7 battlecruisers to the rescue (superficial, I wanted more); Saru's sister showing up (dumb, just needless); Nahn saying "Yum yum" (so weird!); time travel flashback footage (cheap); Cornwell's sacrifice and explanation (unnecessary?) while Pike is safe behind a glass window from a torpedo that can otherwise blow a hole in four decks (must be transparent aluminum!); Spock advising they eliminate all record of the Discovery (Starfleet needs advice from a Lieutenant?); Number One stating her name as Number One (trying too hard); Why do they have to go to the future once they kill Leland and neutralize Control? (because the writers wanted to?) Final Verdict: Stop overthinking it! It was awesome! Trek has never been flawless, it's just never had Twitter haters to contend with. This was some great television with a high dose of cheese, but I'm from Wisconsin so I know how to consume a guilty pleasure. I relished watching every week's episode even when they were meh, and I can't wait till Season 3. So how was Season 2 overall? Can it be Great even if it isn't Perfect? I think so. Last Season I felt like Discovery had so many cool ideas truncated by trying too hard. I mostly liked it but mostly in spite of itself. This Season wasn't perfect either, but it was just plain fun. They fell back on traditional conventions like establishing shots of the ship to both orient the scene and also show off how cool it looks without jarring angles, lens flares, and motion blur mucking it up (though there was still plenty of that anyway). There was more screen time for the larger crew. Explanations for continuity discrepancies (it's okay to waste a line of throwaway dialogue once and while to prove you know what you're doing). And story choices that redeem and vindicate unlikable characters and plot points without undercutting what came before. Season 2 showed that Discovery is Star Trek without compromising the identity it had from the start. In short, it had its cake and ate it too, and I wouldn't mind an extra helping. Acting: 4.8/5 Just great stuff. Newcomers Anson Mount and Ethan Peck stole the show and brought out some of Sonequa Martin-Green's best work. I can't express enough how great Mount's facial emoting elevated the show. Likewise Peck truly channeled a subtle version of Nimoy's Spock that only holds up better the more you consider it. Green defaulted to anguish a little too often, and let slip some unnecessarily snotty condescension in brief moments, but by and large she did amazing work handling complicated family dynamics that belied their long and messy histories. Shazad Latif as Ash Tyler was surprisingly improved, and so was most of Wilson Cruz's work as Culber, but the romantic stuff in general was just shotty material for Anthony Rapp to work with. He was one of my favorites and his early episodes hinted at more than what he was given by the end. And there were little things, flashes of attitude and snark from just about everyone at some point that always made me roll my eyes. I think some of it bordered on mushy sentimentalism, but it was a deliberate choice and some people like that. The most important emotional beats were among its best. Side characters like Owo, Detmer, and Reno proved they can handle more next season. Format: 5/5 The hybrid style of serial and episodic storytelling worked a lot better this season as it leaned more heavily episodic at the start and transitioned naturally to serial by the end. I really feel like they understood the balance this year, even if a few episodes sputtered. Most shined. I expect next season will be spot on. Writing: 3.5/5 All over the map. Pacing wavered between breakneck and boring. Dialogue was emotionally poignant and perfect for some scenes and full of gibberish exposition in others or sappy soap opera junk. There could've been more show-don't-tell and I think most of the season would've benefited from a second draft. You could tell which scenes they cared the most about and put the most thought into, and which they had to put up with to keep the story moving. When they did the work, it was gold. When they didn't, it was dirt. Not a lot of gray area. There was clearly an overarching vision for the season, but it felt like some of the minutia started to fall apart for them. Character Development 4.5/5 Pike's arc was superb, full of haunting tragedy and heroic self-sacrifice. Spock was a little riskier, not quite the version we expected, struggling to find peace in logic despite his roiling emotions, but it worked for me. It ended exactly where it needed to, preparing him to work with his quintessential foil, a certain Captain Kirk, and become the aloof, professional, and serene Vulcan we love and remember. The sibling-squabbling dynamic between Spock and Burnham was brilliantly arranged. But the storylines surrounding Tilly felt skippable, and the romantic complications between Culber and Stamets were too hokey for my taste. Vain attempts were made to include Owo, Detmer, Jet Reno and of course Airiam that wet the appetite but were never gonna be enough. Ash Tyler's character came a long way for me, I really gotta hand it to them, and L'Rell felt more fully fleshed out despite the brevity of her scenes. But Cornwell and Leland were flat all the way through. Georgiou was all over the map (is she space Hitler or mommy? Pick one!). And Saru's was pitch perfect right up until it wasn't relevant in the ending; They missed one simple opportunity to utilize his newfound assertive aggression by having him make some drastic and risky space maneuver that pays off big time (I'm thinking something akin to "Ramming speed!") but leaves you nervous about his long term stability. Ultimately it was a season built around Burnham finding reconciliation with her family and like Season 1, this primary thematic through-line worked the best. Plotting 3/5 Echoes of Season 1 here. Huge plot developments are built up only to be tossed aside and forgotten. Some setups were not properly paid off: D7 battlecruisers, Saru's character shift, Georgious's treachery, Culber and Tyler's rivalry. While other payoffs were not properly set up: Airiam, Project Daedalus, Po, Serana. And there are a lot of glaring plot holes. The whole deal with Control and the Sphere Data and Time Travel never held water, especially in the end when there's no longer a need to hide in the future. Luckily they hid all these embarrassments behind... Production Design: 5/5 Huge improvement. All the new Enterprise, the uniforms, interiors, and bridge design were beautiful and faithful and exciting. All the old stuff felt slightly improved and salvaged while new stuff like the Section 31 ships and exotic planets demonstrated greater confidence and competence. They really did a great job keeping what worked and redeeming what didn't. Special effects were just incredible this year, no wonder they had budget problems again! But better lighting and steadier establishing shots went a long way to letting us actually enjoy their hard work. Someone deserves an Emmy, this year, I think. Fan Service: 5/5 I could go on and on here. Pike. Spock. Number One. Talos IV. Holograms. Everything. Was. Perfect. Never pandering. Never cheap. Always handled with love and respect and occasional humor. Which is saying something because in a certain sense, there was a lot of fan service this season, but it all worked. Every time. Innovation: 4/5 Not as many patently original ideas as last season's Black Alert or Spore Drive, but good ones all around. No complaints. Peaking in on the "lost years" of Pike and Spock was great, taking a sliver of Star Trek continuity and expanding on it. The backstory of the Ba'ul and the Kelpians stood out though. The data Sphere was a personal favorite. Time Crystals at the heart of a Klingon monastery. Section 31 ships were cool and most of what we know of Control was all new. Social Commentary: 2/5 Could've been more integral. While the LGBTQ folk are all aflutter over representation (and I must admit, they did a good job casually including diverse people in normalized roles without the need to draw attention to it) the satirical and allegorical social discussion was minimal. A few gratuitous arguments over environmental responsibility (remember that awkward tiff between Stamets and Reno?) and the dangers of AI or fake news felt unexplored. Culber's PTSD, Tyler and Culber's identity confusion, Airiam and Detmer's augmentations, Spock and Burnham's multi-culturalism, Saru's emancipation, all of it felt like fertile ground for story telling that got only minimal lip service and then sidetracked in favor of martial arts and phaser beams. Missed opportunities all around. Star Trekkiness: 4.5/5 It really just felt like Star Trek. And not just because of the inclusion of fan favorite characters and subject matter, it really had a Trekky vibe that I quite enjoyed. After trying to stand out last season and be its own thing, they took a step back and embraced the legacy of what's come before. It just worked. There was faith in the face of despair. Heroism in the face of hardship. Utopian altruism in the face of corruption. Reconciliation in the face of betrayal. As Pike said, "We're always in a fight for the future." The "Discovery is not Trek" debate has never had less wind in its sails. All in All: Discovery's missteps have never been more glaring and yet never less relevant in the face of such great achievements. The good easily outweighs the bad, and most episodes were instantly rewatchable. I can't praise Anson Mount and Ethan Peck any more for their wonderful contributions. They elevated the entire season to such an apex I can't imagine how they'll ever top it. It will go down as a fan-favorite in the years to come and no doubt both actors will build their careers off these break-out performances, unless the petitioners get their wish for a spin-off (20k signatures and counting! They have my vote!). Discovery has flaws, but it's awesomeness-quotient is as high or higher than Trek has ever been (excepting maybe 1996-98, the stretch that included First Contact, the Dominion War in DS9 and the Borg on Voyager). I love the ship, I love the crew, I love the stories and all the style, and I love watching it. The end. Comment Below with Your Thoughts!
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