Below this introduction you'll find reviews for the first seven episodes of the second season, Brother to Light and Shadows, basically covering the time that season one showrunners Gretchen J. Berg and Aaron Harberts still shared the captain's chair. Before they were kicked out for yelling at writers and spending too much money, or whatever actually happened there.
These reviews were all written right after I watched each episode, so you're getting my first impressions and legitimate cluelessness. You're also getting SPOILERS for each episode and I'm considering the rest of Trek to be fair game as well. Plus somewhere in here you'll find a free bonus spoiler for the Ray Bradbury story A Sound of Thunder (hint: it's in my review for The Sound of Thunder).
I decided to give out review scores again for a change, with the rating based on how much I enjoyed it rather than anything objective. I don't see the point in judging a cake by its ingredients. Though if an otherwise gripping episode did something really stupid I may have taken a point off and vice-versa.
| 10 | Oh, also I've used a 1-9 scale, so ignore 10. |
| 9 | I loved the episode so much I probably put it back on again afterwards to rewatch my favourite scenes. |
| 8 | It was like 'good', except better. |
| 7 | About average for a series I like. A fine score, worthy of respect. |
| 6 | I can't say I didn't enjoy it, but I'd hoped for better. |
| 5 | It kept my attention, so it had that going for it at least. |
| 4 | I realised I was sketching on my notepad instead of watching the screen, but I kept on doing it. |
| 3 | It wasn't an ordeal to get through, but I wasn't really paying much attention to be honest. |
| 2 | I'm not saying it was bad necessarily, it just wasn't for me at all so I turned it off. |
| 1 | It was bad. It was really really bad. |
| Discovery - Season 2 (Part 1) | |||
| 2-01 | Brother | 7 | |
 Hey they changed the opening titles a bit! Same music, but at least it's angel and Enterprise themed instead of Klingon themed to show that we're in a different chapter now. Man this was a good episode of Star Trek. Well, aside from the asteroid chase scene which seemed like a retread of the bit no one liked from Into Darkness (I know that doesn't narrow it down), with a little extra confusion thrown in. Why were they trying to eject Pike into space when they knew his helmet wasn't down? Also Tilly was dialled up to 11 and it turns out that's too much when everyone else is joking around too. Plus I'm still a little annoyed about them changing the look of the Enterprise. I just want to let the episode get away with everything though because of how great the characters were. The regulars were used well, the bridge crew developed signs of a personality, new characters like Reno and Nhan got me hoping they'd stick around (Connolly not so much), and even Doctor Pollard got a quip! But the stand out was Anson Mount who came in like a man auditioning for a Captain Pike spin-off. The guy's so charming and inspiring he lightens up the whole crew, yet I can somehow buy him as being the miserable Pike from The Cage a few years earlier. I immediately accepted him as Pike and successfully transferred all my accumulated investment in both the Jeffrey Hunter and Bruce Greenwood incarnations over to him before the credits came up. Something tells me that Spock's going to have a harder time winning me over, though I did like his voice. This felt like an episode of a series that has recognised that people are enjoying The Orville due to its fun characters and humour, and has taken steps to improve in those areas, though it's still very much Discovery, especially in the scenes of Burnham and Young Burnham with Sarek. It's still throwing money at the screen and trying to be all 'prestige television', it's just being less Battlestar Galactica about it. I'm concerned about where it's going with the Spock storyline and the science vs faith themes, but also interested, so it's doing alright so far. Plus I noticed that there was no villain in this story! Creepy Kid Spock was the most sinister person in it. We didn't get much of the Enterprise in the end, but it sure got a lot of praise in that short time. Even though the Enterprise spent the episode mysteriously crippled (to demonstrate the threat and make it so Pike had to transfer over to resolve it), I think they did enough to compare the ships and define what kind of Starfleet vessel Discovery is. The Enterprise is a tougher ship as it's a top of the line badass explorer, but Discovery is a newer ship built for x-treme science adventures, with shuttle pod launchers and a landing bay big enough to catch a giant asteroid in. That asteroid capture scene was extremely Star Trek by the way (even though classic Star Trek would've gotten the thing on board with minimal spectacle), and now that the war's over we'll hopefully get to see more of that. Bit weird though how Sara Mitich was out of the Airiam makeup and standing next to someone else playing Airiam in that scene in the hangar bay after they caught it though. I'd show a screencap, but I'd rather show off this cut instead:  I really loved this cut, even if does put Burnham on the wrong side of the door to push the button. I can't get over how perfectly it matches up. This is how you win me over with needlessly flashy direction. | |||
| 2-02 | New Eden | 7 | |
 Folks have been saying that this season would be about faith and science, and this episode does a lot to prove they weren't lying. Plus it was an actual Star Trek away mission, which is something inexplicably uncommon on this series despite its budget. We've had lost Earth colonies before (Terra Nova, Up the Long Ladder) and humans transplanted from Earth (The 37s, North Star), but this is one of the rare occasions where the Prime Directive applies and they left without anyone knowing they were from Earth. Well aside from Jacob, whose faith paid off in the end. And I'm glad it did, as they were being real dicks to the poor guy. Though I guess he did knock them out and steal all their stuff. Last season early on we got Lorca's philosophy: context is for kings, which made a bit more sense after the reveal that he literally wanted to be a king. Here Pike says that context gives a new perspective and decides that Jacob deserves that, so he's more egalitarian when it comes to the truth. Well he had to be talked into it by Burnham but I'm sure he was happy for any excuse. I can live with another season of 'the ends justify the means' if this time 'the means' is just being nice to people. I had some faith in this episode myself, as Jonathan Frakes and writer Sean Cochrane also gave us Despite Yourself last season, which was one of my favourites. Frakes' direction was all over the place though, with the camera whipping everywhere. It was... enthusiastic at least, and I do appreciate it when I'm encouraged to wake up and pay attention instead of scribbling on my notepad. It was an interesting episode, though there's too many question marks around it for me to be entirely comfortable with what they're doing this season. I'm not sure what to think about Tilly's mysterious ghost, or the angel rescuing people from World War III and guiding the crew to exactly where they need to be, but I'm fairly sure I enjoyed what happened in this story at least. Just give me Owosekun opening a lock with a magnet, Detmer doing a doughnut, and a beautiful new ready room and I'm happy I suppose. Plus it was awesome to see them take immediate action to save a planet without debating whether it was right to intervene in their fate first. Something's pretty broken in your philosophy if you have to be talked into saving lives instead of being talked out of it when there's a bloody good reason. Kirk and friends had it right in the Original Series when they'd try (and inevitably fail) not to interfere with other worlds, but would stop extinction events whenever they could. Though hang on, how come the tractor beam worked on the asteroid here but they couldn't use it to bring the rock into the hangar gently in the last episode? | |||
| 2-03 | Point of Light | 7 | |
 Funny how the episode called Point of Light is the first one this season where they didn't visit one of the seven points of light. They didn't go anywhere in fact, but the episode sure moved at a good pace regardless, even if it was a bit of a step backwards to the darkness of season 1 at times. There are three plots in this episode: Tilly going nuts, discord in the Klingon High Council and Burnham getting a visit from her mother and they all worked I reckon, more or less. Also none of these plots involved Pike getting injured, almost killed, or killed for the first time in the character's 54 year history! The Tilly going nuts story was pretty unusual for Star Trek as she didn't report her imaginary friend until it was obvious to everyone that something was up with her. She had me worried she was going to drag this out for multiple episodes, but thankfully the opposite was true. Once she was down in Stamets' lab they had the problem identified and cured in about two minutes! They were moving so fast that the computer put a forcefield around the extracted organism a full three seconds before Saru finished giving the command! Though I figured they'd at least wait a minute to talk to it first, so they could get some idea of what it wants and why it hates Stamets so much. I'm glad that we're finally learning what was up with the green spore that burrowed into Tilly's shoulder in What's Past is Prologue, and even more glad that it's not Dr Culber's soul (or whatever other theories people had). Plus Tilly's friend isn't a ghost... probably. It's still a bit unclear exactly what it is, though Stamets called it a "eukaryotic organism" which almost narrows it down to being a plant, animal or fungus (Tilly jumped straight to 'fungus' and I'm sure she's right). It'll all get answered in the next episode I expect, though we may never know why the corridor lights have to flicker during a half marathon. The Klingon High Council plot also covered a lot of ground, as it managed to reintroduce the Klingons, show the new status quo, reveal a secret baby, reveal an actual D7...  Burnham's plot also featured an imaginary friend, this time belonging to Spock, and it featured a mother, belonging to both of them. It was nice to see Amanda out on her own mission without Sarek around for once, even if it's only brought her and her daughter sadness so far. I'm not sure what to think about Spock being forever changed by the visions of the Red Angel or by whatever Burnham did to drive him away though. I think it's a bit late in the game to add secret defining experiences for Spock. They're really piling on the reasons this guy should be messed up. Wait, are they going to have the resurrected Dr Culber be a shapeshifting fungus from the mycelial network that's taken his form and personality from Stamets' memories, like imaginary May except tangible? Because that would actually make a strange kind of sense. Another thought: if Tyler was involved in the design of the iconic D7, is that why the back end looks so much like Discovery? (Yeah I know the ship showed up a hundred years earlier in the Enterprise episode Unexpected but I'm happier pretending that episode didn't happen.) | |||
| 2-04 | An Obol for Charon | 7 | |
 I've never been that bothered by the way that main characters have plot immunity in series like this; it rarely ruins the tension for me when I already know that a character will definitely pull through because their name is in the opening credits and they haven't finished their story arc yet. But man I couldn't give a single damn about Saru asking Burnham to cut off his ganglia at the end. His survival was never in doubt so I was getting impatient waiting to see what would save him and it took the episode forever to finally reveal that it was the CGI budget. A dinosaur man's blinking eye effects aren't cheap so the CGI ganglia had to be sacrificed! Can't say I saw that one coming. So now Saru isn't a fraidy cat anymore and he'll never sense the coming of death again. Suits me, that gimmick was pretty much played out and I wasn't keen on it to begin with. He'll just have to get by on super speed, super strength, super eyesight and being able to speak 100 languages as his super powers. Also Discovery might be losing its super power too now that they know they're harming an alien race whenever they spore jump. There are three Trek stories this episode reminded me of: Next Gen's Contagion (with the virus) and Disaster (with crew members trapped in various locations), and Voyager's Twisted (with weirdness caused by an alien that wanted to download data), and I think this was closer to Contagion in quality (which is a good thing). Any episode where Stamets and Tilly sing a duet of Space Oddity before he successfully drills a hole in her skull with an actual drill is definitely in danger of going too far, but it really worked for me, and it turns out that putting Reno in the same room as Stamets is a very good thing. It was about bloody time they brought back Reno at all, plus we got a surprise second appearance by Nhan and Linus, and they even had a proper conference with the bridge crew! Plus this was the second Trek story ever for Number One. Only took her 50 years or so to make another appearance after The Menagerie (and at this rate it'll take 50 more before we learn what her name is). Shame that the series has already made me sick of hearing Spock's name and he hasn't even shown up yet. Overall this was a proper Star Trek episode that moved at a good pace whenever Saru wasn't dying, and it generally kept my interest. Plus the way the universal translator was used to scramble their languages and make it impossible to communicate is something I've never seen in any Trek before, so that was clever. | |||
| 2-05 | Saints of Imperfection | 6 | |
 This episode left me with many questions, but only two I really care about: first, what the hell happened to the hole in Tilly's head? She had a hole and now it's gone! Why not just leave the tech device glued to the actress's temple for an episode longer until they could get a dermal regenerator on it? Second, in the scene where May told Tilly her crew might all be dead, why was Tilly flipped but her badge wasn't?  I'm not sure the writer intended me to laugh out loud as Burnham was tormented by everything from her ridiculous soap opera life in quick succession, but I came close. She started the episode freaking out about Tilly being killed or kidnapped by fungus, then:
The episode also featured the long-awaited resurrection of Dr Culber and honestly I'm so glad to get it over with already that I'm not even going to nitpick how they did it, or even think about how they did it. If you die while kissing someone whose brain is a conduit to the mycelial network you transmit your mind and physical blueprint there to be reconstructed and then deconstructed by super genius spores, it's fine, whatever. At least the mycelial network isn't the literal afterlife like I was afraid of. Plus I was kind of right about the fungus from Tilly turning into him, as it was used as the raw material to construct his clone using his DNA as a template! (I wasn't right at all). Though it wasn't hard to figure out how they'd bring him back after all the shots of the cocoon earlier in the story; the moment his arm unexpected vanished when he tried to cross the barrier I immediately thought of the cocoon and figured out the solution. It was nice that they had to put their faith in May to help them though, just as she relied on Tilly earlier, and she came through for them. The title Saints of Imperfection is from a Guillermo del Toro quote, where it refers to monsters, but it turns out that no one was a villain in this story. This episode was packed full of imperfect saints though as people kept acting like a bit of a dick before ultimately doing the right thing to save the day. Tilly agreed to save May, the Discovery crew agreed to save Tilly, Tyler saved Rhys, Leland agreed to save the Discovery crew, evil emperor Georgiou bought them more time with the power of blackmail, and in the end May saved her monster, the saintly Doctor Culber. Not sure how the monster being their problem fits with the earlier accusation of Captain Stamets screwing up the network irreparably but I doubt this is the end of that arc. But for all the talk of this season finally getting the series back in line with canon, they've gone and retconned the hell out of Section 31. It's gone from a rogue conspiracy to basically Starfleet Intelligence, under the direct command of Admiral Cameo! It's possible they're going to take them on a journey to become the villains but I don't see how that works with the spin-off series they're getting. Though it's interesting that in an episode that references so much from Context is for Kings, like the fate of the USS Glenn and the water dripping upwards, nothing was said about the folks in the black Section 31 badges on the ship back then. This wasn't my favourite episode so far, mostly it kept cutting from slow three minute scenes of characters having conversations to the rest of the crew in extreme peril trying desperately to buy them just a few more moments. It wanted me to feel for what Stamets and Culber were going through but I just wanted to yell "HURRY THE FUCK UP!" at them. And "How have you not thought of using the fungus transporter yet? It's so obvious!" But it was alright. It was directed by the same guy who did Magic to Make the Sanest Men Go Mad which probably explains why the last scene, with Burnham walking across the bridge to her station and seeing Tyler at his station behind her, is almost identical to the last scene of that story. And it was written by the same person who wrote the 'Saru goes nuts on the planet of the glowing blue alien spores' story last season, so there's a bit of similarity there as well. The episode ended with Burnham hoping that the person guiding their fate knows what they're doing, which is interesting as it this seems to be the episode that the showrunners were fired during. The series went on a planned production hiatus after this and when it started up again executive producer Alex Kurtzman was now the one guiding their fate. Not generally a good sign for a TV show, but all perfectly normal for a Star Trek series. It typically takes until season three until the right people (like Michael Piller on Next Gen, Ira Behr on DS9 and Manny Coto on Enterprise) are in place to make it really shine. | |||
| 2-06 | The Sound of Thunder | 6 | |
 Damn that was an obvious redress of the transporter room. They got away with turning the brig into Spock's quarters and the Shenzhou bridge into the Section 31 ship, because those were all Starfleet, but turning the transporter room into an alien lair was just distracting. It had me wondering the Ba'ul had gotten Starfleet technology somehow, maybe through time travel. This episode had a few things going on, like Culber dealing with his new body, and Pike and Tyler having very different attitudes regarding their mysterious angel, but it was mostly about Saru returning home a changed man. So now Saru has replaced his fear ganglia with deadly anger ganglia, with his transformation compared with Culber having an entirely new body. They could've gone one step further and drawn comparison to how Tyler has the transformed body of Voq, but they've been keeping those two well apart. I did find it interesting though that Culber's situation reminded me of the arguments some fans make about the transporter, that it basically kills you and clones you at the other side. I think Culber's reaction is a big hint that it does not do that, as he is absolutely freaked out about what happened to him.  It's interesting how the episode makes the Ba'ul surprisingly sympathetic, despite their centuries of horrific slaughter (and the way they use the 'sinister' mode on their communicator that makes the lights on the bridge flicker). Their ancestors could've been forgiven for wiping out the Kelpians in self-defence, considering how close to extinction they were pushed, but they found a horrible way to coexist instead. We were never really told how the war between the Ba'ul and Kelpians started, the transformed Kelpians don't seem all that much more aggressive so who knows what happened, but the Ba'ul's desperate attempt to end the war using advanced technology and their willingness to wipe the threat out entirely with genocide when it seemed necessary mirrors the Federation's actions in the Klingon war, so I'm glad that Pike was only interested in making peace between the species instead of getting judgemental. You could argue whether the Discovery crew broke the Prime Directive by making first contact or whether Pike made the right call to interfere by sending the signal to transform the Kelpians... but that'd mean you care about it a lot more than the episode does. I imagine that Kirk would say that it was right to get involved, as Kelpian society was frozen stagnant by the interference of the Ba'ul (like the People of Vaal in The Apple), and Picard would say it's none of the Federation's business (like it wasn't their business to free the Bajorans). I think triggering the transformation planet-wide when they were still learning what it had done to Saru's mind and body was a bit of a daft move (especially considering it's their custom to euthanise each other when the symptoms show). Though to be fair I'm not sure the episode disagrees, considering that it sent the Ba'ul into full genocide panic and almost led to disaster as Discovery couldn't have saved all the Kelpians.  (I hope it's Tilly). | |||
| 2-07 | Light and Shadows | 7 | |
 Light and Shadows is the first proper post-Harberts and Berg episode, as their names have been dropped from the credits, though I didn't notice any obvious hints in the episode that the series is about to go off the rails (any more than usual I mean). Sure the fuzzy image of the Red Angel in the opening titles has been replaced with a clear look at the suit, now that we know that it is a suit, but the title sequence for episode 1 could've been put together after the filming of episode 14 so there's no point looking there for clues that the original plan has been changed.  But this was less of an episode, more of a three-part story arc with a fourth episode bolted on as a B plot. So much happened in it! Burnham managed to find Spock, took him to Section 31 for treatment, broke him out of Section 31 after discovering what they were going to do to him, hid out in an asteroid field and then headed off to Talos IV. All while Pike was having a proper five hour Star Trek adventure with Tyler which introduced a new villain and planted a spy on the ship. And it's only like 40 minutes long, including the next-time trailer, making it something like the second shortest regular Trek episode ever! I was a bit surprised they didn't find room to fit Culber in at all though, seeing as he's apparently a regular this season. Burnham's plot finally brought the search for Spock to an end as she found him in the last place she thought to look: home. Sarek found him too, but continuity remains intact as his son wasn't exactly in the mental state to have a conversation. Though saying that, it turns out that he's aware of Section 31 as well! How this group becomes a complete mystery by the 24th century is a complete mystery to me. I guess Spock's condition must be deteriorating, seeing as he was entirely reliant on Burnham to escape a medical facility and escape capture in a shuttle this time. She just can't stop doing a bit of a mutiny to save the people she's closest to. I liked how Burnham didn't hesitate to a: take Georgiou at her word, and b: beat the crap out of her when given an excuse. They've got a complicated relationship. Of course Georgiou might have been lying about what Leland was up to, as the only thing that's certain about her is her vaulting ambition. Either way they had a very nice fight scene in the corridor, which wasn't an obvious redress of one of Discovery's hallways for a change! The A plot ended with the reveal that there are multiple Section 31 ships and Spock's never before mentioned dyslexia has him reading numbers out backwards. Turns out that they were the coordinates for Talos IV... which is a name that means a lot to people who've seen The Cage or The Menagarie and very little to those that haven't. It might have been a better idea to have a death penalty warning flash up to give the rest of the fans something to react to.  I'm actually fine with the pace of it as I'd rather have a compressed story than one that drags past the point I give a damn, but I feel like they could spare a few minutes to have a proper conversation about something every now and then. Saru basically just said 'Stamets will know what to do' and then he did and it was done, just like when they removed May from Tilly a few episodes back. He was also incredibly brave again, which seems like it should be out of character for him but isn't. I'm surprised he can fly a shuttle though, not that he flew it for long.  It doesn't look good for Kaminar either really, though no one seemed worried about what the time tsunami would do to the planet (not even Saru). When Pike said at the start that they were sticking around Saru's homeworld for a bit I figured they were helping to sort out the mess they made last episode, but nope it was to set off a wormhole nearby and then make a run for it. It seems like the Red Angel situation is more complicated that it appeared, as the wormhole she came from also led to a less benevolent faction. Could Discovery actually be cleaning up Enterprise's canon as well by properly wrapping up the Temporal Cold War? (Probably not). So now Burnham and Spock are on the run to Talos IV, Airiam's been infected by a virus from the future, and Leland's responsible for the death of Burnham's parents. Okay fine, I guess I'll watch the next episode then. | |||
NEXT TIME
Thanks for reading, feel free to leave a comment.
At this rate, the Talosians will be able to open a resort for all their visitors. Enjoy their lovely menagerie!
ReplyDeleteMaybe in a later season we'll learn that they've finally got their zoo open to the public and they're doing pretty well for themselves. "We once isolated ourselves from the galaxy because we feared that if others should learn our power of illusion they would destroy themselves as we did. But then we discovered that they were visiting Shore Leave planets and playing in holodecks, and we realised that we only destroyed ourselves because we suck."
DeleteI'm almost certain there was a universal-translater-goes-wrong episode in DS9 but it's very possible I'm making it up. Or misremembering an episode of B5.
ReplyDeleteI haven't watched all of the episodes yet -- I'm about 60% of the way in -- but I went into series two very worried about the direction of Discovery. I liked how un-Star Trek the first series was -- apart from annoying things like redesigned Klingons -- and how it seemed to want to do its own thing, rather than retread what went before, but everything about series two seemed to indicate that it was going to go the other way. Seeing the Enterprise was worrying, the introduction of Spock was worrying, bringing Section 31 in was worrying. It's like when Doctor Who brings back Davros or the Cybermen or whatever; all of time and space to use for stories and you're going back to what you've done before.
I'm pleased to say that -- so far, anyway -- they've got the balance right in series two. There are plenty of Star Trek elements being brought in, but they are being handled in new ways, and when they are not -- Section 31 -- they are at least interesting.
That said, I think already I know what the Red Angel is, what the Big Bad of the series is, and why the Big Bad is doing what it's doing. I'll be surprised if I'm wrong, and that's a shame. But it was the same with series one; predictable as anything, but still fun along the way.
I loved the design of the Ba'ul, even if the directors didn't want us to get a good look at it.
Oh, and I don't think Spock's dyslexia caused him to read the numbers backwards; I think it was because he was mentally "through the looking glass" -- because of his breakdown -- so things were mirrored. But maybe I'm overthinking it, because that seems stupid now I've typed it.
The DS9 episode you're thinking of is likely Babel, where everyone's vocabulary got jumbled by a virus. The universal translator could've actually been a big help there... but it wasn't.
DeleteI would've be happy if Discovery was just Star Trek: The Previous Generation, but I'm fine with it doing its own thing too as long as it feels like it's taking place next door to Star Trek, like Deep Space Nine did. I don't think it's quite there yet but it's definitely a lot closer than it was in its first year.
Not that I want Trek to go back to what's been done before, I just want it to go back to where those things happened, that world. And if they absolutely positively have to bring some things back I'd prefer it if they'd stop reimagining them and just bring them back. Though I appreciate that resurrecting and de-aging Leonard Nimoy just to force him back into acting is probably beyond the series' budget and breaks several laws of man and nature, so I do cut them some slack.
And I don't know if you're right about Spock's brain, but if they could've used an Alice in Wonderland reference to explain something they probably did.
On reimagining: I will say that it was bold of them to do a "Previously on Star Trek..." recap with footage from "The Cage" then segue into a completely different Pike on a much more advanced starship. That takes some guts. Or irreverence. Not sure which.
Delete(You probably mention this in Part 3 or 4, but I haven't read those yet as I'm still working through the episodes.)