Star Trek spin-offs have rarely had much luck with their second seasons, despite the 'Growing the Beard' trope getting its name from Will Riker's season 2 look, as at this point they were typically still sorting themselves out both in front of and behind the scenes. Sure their first seasons were often worse, but Trek's sophomore seasons have been plenty awkward in their own right. Discovery found itself with a new showrunner five episodes into the season, so it's been living up to Trek tradition behind the camera, but was its second year enough of a mess on screen for it to truly be considered proper Star Trek?
Honestly I don't think Discovery is set up in a way that allows it to fail as spectacularly as previous series, as it has much shorter seasons and it's too serialised. Sure it can put out some rubbish, but it just doesn't have what it takes to produce episodes as legendarily terrible as The Omega Glory, The Outrageous Okona, Threshold or A Night in Sickbay. And unless the budget gets slashed, there's no way it'll ever inflict a Shades of Gray style clip show on us either.
Though does that mean this has actually has a shot at being the best second season a Trek series has ever had? Is this block of episodes really capable of going up against the seasons that gave us The Trouble with Tribbles, The Measure of a Man, Whispers, Projections, and Regeneration? I am going to answer that question for you! Eventually. After I've rambled on about Michael Burnham and time travel for ages first.
I'll also be dropping SPOILERS for the whole season, from Brother to Such Sweet Sorrow, Part 2, and maybe some older Trek as well, so if you haven't seen it yet you should probably go watch it first. Unless you don't care about having the whole plot ruined for you; I know some people aren't really that bothered.
Star Trek: Discovery's first season was all about the universe conspiring to force Michael Burnham to deal with her issues, rediscover her humanity, and get out of the habit of going rogue all the time, and season two carried on where it left off. Except with more crying. It's great that the series is actually dealing with the aftermath of traumatic events instead of putting characters through hell and then hitting the reset button in time for the next episode (even Deep Space Nine was guilty of this), but I do have a couple of problems with its approach.
First, having everything revolve around Burnham comes off as ridiculous and makes the universe seem smaller, and the more aware you are of it the less likeable she becomes. She was adopted into Spock's family in the Prime Universe, adopted by the Terran Emperor in the Mirror Universe (the counterpart to her former captain), and her mother is the genius inventor of a time suit who has been single-handedly fighting to save all sentient life in the galaxy from destruction. I'm not sure what we were supposed to think about Spock telling her that she shouldn't feel burdened with saving the day, when pure chance consistently puts her at the centre of every major event. The other leads, Kirk, Picard etc. were in a position to make a difference because they put themselves into that position, it was their job and their choice. Burnham has to wear the Red Angel suit because she's the chosen one and that's far less satisfying to me. Not that she was the only one to be toyed with by fate, as coincidence even dragged Tyler's baby son back into the story... though of course that was also one more thing to torment her.
My second problem is that when everything is the most traumatic event in Burnham's life, then nothing is. I liked her scream when she got hit by the red hot shrapnel in Brother, it seemed very realistic, and I could understand why she'd be concerned about Pike taking an overloaded phaser to the chest in New Eden... but each new episode this kept going on and on. In fact every single episode this season featured at least one scene of Burnham becoming extremely distraught, but you don't have to take my word for it because I've taken screencaps:
In fact this season was almost like a superhero origin story for her; she couldn't become Captain Burnham so she became Captain Marvel instead. Or Iron Man at least. The humour, the ridiculously high stakes and the time crystals were very Marvel as well now that I think about it. Plus all the call backs to earlier stories; Discovery's not keen on the 'explore strange new worlds' part of Trek, but it has no problem bringing Vina back, or flashing forward to Pike in his chair, or giving the Enterprise her blue phasers.
Though to be fair the season did spare a little time for Culber and Saru to go through a metamorphosis of their own. In fact the whole series went through a transformation, shifting even further away from Bryan Fuller's dark vision to become more fun and adventurous.
I've definitely noticed that Discovery would much rather make you feel than make you think. A lot of sci-fi series rely on Fridge Logic and are filled with story problems that you don't notice until it's over and you've had a while for it to settle in your brain, but with Discovery you don't even have to wait! You can tell it makes no damn sense while you're still watching it. The series makes use of big emotional events, ticking clocks, and flashy visuals to distract you from thinking too hard about it. Or to at least endear itself to you to the point where you want to forgive it.
I mean the season began with three mysteries:
- What disabled the Enterprise?
- What caused the red bursts to appear at seven points 30,000 light years across the galaxy simultaneously?
- Why does Spock know about the red signals?
And the answer to the big mystery of the second set of seven signals is 'the crew built a high tech suit that can teleport through space and time and it's got a button on that creates inexplicable flares that can be detected from 50,000 light years away instantly.' Somehow I get the feeling that the writers didn't care a whole lot about the mechanism used to resolve the mystery. What they cared about was Michael dressed as an angel with a grin on her face as she teleports around carrying on her mother's work by indulging in a bit of predestination.
Plus the time travel was even more confusing than it typically is, with a bad future and predestination setting up the good future occurring simultaneously. Gabrielle Burnham's Terralysium was only thriving 930 years into the bad future because Michael sent a signal in episode 14 to send Discovery to get an asteroid in episode 1 and use it to save the planet from radioactive particles in episode 2. But Michael died before she could do any time travelling in Gabrielle's timeline, that's why she came back in time to save her, so how could Terralysium have been saved? It seems like the signals exist whatever the time travellers do, because they were (and will be) sent from the final timeline: the one left standing after everyone's finished messing around with the timeline, but who knows? At least it all made more sense than the Temporal Cold War in Enterprise, plus it got a proper resolution!
The series could've cleared a lot of the ambiguity up with exposition and discussion, but that would've meant slowing the pace down. Only emotional conversations and snap decisions are allowed during the ticking clock! I imagine that was true for the writers as well, as I get the feeling that they must have been getting these scripts out in a hurry. Still, at least the the Discovery crew found time to visit a few planets this time, even if they were too busy to dwell on the consequences of their actions on Kaminar, or what happened when a time tsunami hit nearby. To be fair the stories that seemed to be wrapped up too quickly often had a surprisingly massive impact on the main plot down the road; I never would've called that the giant sphere episode would be absolutely crucial to the overall plot for instance. I thought they did a decent enough job of giving us apparently standalone stories that were later revealed to be pieces of the serial narrative, without repeating the season one problem where the Discovery seemed to be hanging out doing its own thing while the war happened to other people. The ship is definitely at the centre of its own story this time, even when the story takes a sharp turn in an unexpected direction.
Like season one, the second season feels like it was started by one showrunner and then someone else took over early on, and I'm not just talking about the way it starts as The Search for Spock and changes into The Terminator halfway through. Though it was weird how for the first half every villain is misunderstood and every problem can be solved without firing a shot, and then in part two they can't even start to reason with Control. I suppose you don't want to be talking computers to death in a prequel though, as it'd be stealing Kirk's thunder. By the end it was all about getting the sphere data well away from the Federation, the exact opposite of season one's mission to bring the cloaking device data back home from the Mirror Universe, though I wouldn't say it has a message about knowledge or technology being bad. I figured that Starfleet might decide to regress in tech a little as a defence against Control and to make things line up better with the Original Series, but instead they beat the AI by using their technology cleverly, because science is actually awesome. Suits me, as it's much more of a Star Trek message I think; well Next Gen era Star Trek anyway. Though it's funny to me that Starfleet's reaction to time travel tech saving all sentient life from a Section 31 AI is to keep Section 31 and get rid of the time travel tech! Fortunately they'll figure it out again in time to save Earth from the Whale Probe. And the Borg.
Discovery's a weird series and it's clearly got issues, but nothing that really spoiled this season for me. Granted I was usually a lot more interested in what was going to happen in the next episode rather than what was happening in the one I was watching, but I didn't dislike any of them. I'd definitely prefer it if the series had some substance, the dialogue was smarter, the science made sense, and the plots were bulletproof, but I've been able to enjoy it just fine regardless for the most part.
But did emergency backup showrunner Alex Kurtzman somehow succeed in giving us the best season two of a Star Trek show ever? Honestly it's been ages since I watched most of the other shows and I dropped Enterprise's second year just four episodes in, so I don't think I have any business answering that. Though the internet seems to think that Deep Space Nine had the best season two, and I liked this better than that, so maybe? Sure this was melodramatic nonsense that falls apart under any analysis, but it was nonsense with enthusiasm, heart and incredible production values.
My top three Discovery season 2 characters:
Captain Christopher Pike: The writers took a risk recasting three classic Trek characters, especially as two of them had been recast for the current movie series, but man they pulled it off. Well okay Spock wasn't all that recognisable and barely said two words to his captain, and Number One was hardly in it, but they made a fair case for Pike being the best Trek captain ever in just 14 episodes. Anson Mount's Pike isn't as crafty as some later captains, but he's all charisma, confidence and competence, and he somehow manages to possess unwavering morality and faith without coming off as corny or naive. The dude is the dictionary definition for 'Starfleet captain'.
Commander Jett Reno: Discovery's new engineer rarely showed up, but that also meant that they couldn't waste her. Whenever she was on screen there was a reason for it, mostly because there was a need for someone to be sardonic, dedicated and resourceful in equal measure. The biggest missed opportunity of season two was Reno and Dr Pollard never getting to meet, as the snark would've been legendary.
Ensign Sylvia Tilly: I was tempted to make Nhan my third character, but then she said that "Yum yum," line in Such Sweet Sorrow, so I'm giving third place to Tilly instead. Tilly didn't get all that much to do this season after her imaginary friend story arc at the start, as she was mostly stuck playing the 'socially awkward genius who carries on talking for too long' stereotype I've grown sick of after years of Arrow. Plus they never gave her any old-school away missions with Burnham like I wanted! But she's still great. Somebody really does owe her that beer.Top three Discovery season 2 episodes:
- Such Sweet Sorrow, Part 2 (9)
- Such Sweet Sorrow, Part 1 (8)
- Project Daedalus (8)
Bottom three season 2 episodes:
- Saints of Imperfection (6)
- The Sound of Thunder (6)
- The Red Angel (6)
Next time on Star Trek: Discovery:
What do I want from season 3? I want Burnham and Tilly to team up more (or at all). I want the bridge crew to continue their journey to becoming real people. I want it to save the dramatic moments until they have a real impact, I want the writers to give each script to someone whose job is to nitpick the hell out of it so they can plug the holes, fix the science, and add discussions and explanations where needed or desired. And I don't want them to go anywhere near a dystopian Federation. Especially when we've got a series coming up set just a couple of decades after Next Gen! The whole premise of Star Trek is 'we can make the future better' and how much fun is that series going to be when we know for a fact that despite their efforts it all goes to shit?
Discovery has taken a real risk by leaving the Original Series era behind and jumping so far away, but it has all the potential to become something great now that they're finally able to cut loose and be as futuristic and weird as they want without being constrained by being a prequel. For the first time since 2002 we're finally going to find out what happens next... well the first time since season 1 of the Picard series really, seeing as it's going to come out first. But Discovery can go anywhere in the galaxy and time travel (once Stamets comes out of his coma), so they can meet the Ferengi, the Borg, the Dominion, the Kazon... go nuts with the whole Star Trek toy box. Though whether the show turns into Andromeda, Voyager, Stargate Universe, Blake's 7 or Red Dwarf I hope they at least resist going for the 'threat to all life in the galaxy/multiverse' plot again.
I wish I could say that I'm hopeful that the series is going to manage a hat trick and produce my favourite third season of Trek as well, but next time it's going to be up against Yesterday's Enterprise, The Best of Both Worlds, Civil Defence, Improbable Cause, Future's End, Twilight and Azati Prime, so it doesn't seem likely. But good luck Discovery!
NEXT TIME
If you want to talk about Discovery's second season, or how glad you are I didn't put all the reviews into one article like I planned, then feel free to leave a comment in the box below.
Londo appears to share your distress at seeing a dystopian Federation.
ReplyDeleteWe're both very distraught at the thought of our glorious space empire in decline.
DeleteI used to think -- when I was a cynical teenager -- that a fallen Federation would be awesome. I now realise that it's missing the point by a light year.
DeleteMy big question is why does everyone think the Sphere data will be safe on Future Terralysium? Control has destroyed all life apart from itself, but are we to assume that it then shuts itself down now the job is done, or goes somewhere else? Because otherwise Control is still around and we know it has time travel capabilities because of the drone. So what's stopping it creating its own predestination paradox by sending the Sphere data back to itself so it can become self-aware.
ReplyDelete(Ignoring the fact that Control seemed quite self-aware already, so why it needed the Sphere data, I have no idea.)
Characters kept saying that Terralysium was safe because there was no technology on the planet, but I don't see how that helps when Control, um, controls everything and can just send a ship over there.
I was worried about a lot of things this season, especially as they were introducing the Enterprise, Pike, and Spock, but I think for the most part my fears didn't come true.
Agreed. When they did touch on existing Trek stuff, they did it well, rather than, say, bringing in the Borg decades too early because ratings have gone through the floor.
they made a fair case for Pike being the best Trek captain ever in just 14 episodes. Anson Mount's Pike isn't as crafty as some later captains, but he's all charisma, confidence and competence, and he somehow manages to possess unwavering morality and faith without coming off as corny or naive.
Yup, he's the Trek version of the movie Captain America and he's great. I like that they kept his future vague; I was expecting his accident to happen in the finale, and that would be a shame because there's a lot more story in this version of Pike. I hope we see it.
I'm excited for series three because, as you say, they have free reign now, and I think that will make the series sing. It's already a different sort of Trek because of the way the characters and stories are written, but now it's freed of continuity baggage. Maybe.
I think part of the reason that they believe they can solve their problem by just throwing it into the future is because they're dumb and constantly make snap decisions based on limited information. Plus Burnham has an instinctive need to jump down every rabbit hole... I mean wormhole that she sees.
DeleteBut the way I understood it is that Control needs the Sphere data to become unstoppable, either because of the lessons it can learn from thousands of years of accurately recorded history, or because +2 to self awareness helps it avoid falling for Georgiou's obvious tricks.
With the Sphere data in play you always get a bad future with Control ruling an dead galaxy (or at least a quieter one). With the Sphere data temporarily missing for 900 years, Starfleet and friends have more than enough time to erase a very stoppable Control, so it no longer will have existed in the future to have had any influence in its own creation. The future Discovery ends up in should be 100% Control free.
In the finale they say that saving Terralysium was to give them safe harbour once they're through the wormhole, and the impression I got from that is that its limited technology makes it the one friendly planet they can relax at without worrying that they're going to take their Sphere data and make their own Control. They can't risk even a utopian Federation getting their hands on the information, so it's them they're hiding from really, and as Terralysium's not on anyone's radar, no one will be sending any ships there.
Of course the first episode of season 3 could show that I'm entirely wrong.
That makes a bit more sense. I'm not convinced by their muddled storytelling, but as you've said, they do it with it such confidence that it doesn't matter.
Delete