Star Trek: Discovery - Season 4 Review, Part 1

This week on Sci-Fi Adventures, I'm writing about the fourth season of Star Trek: Discovery! Because writing about Star Trek is extremely on-brand for science fiction website and I'm a bit of a fan. Plus it's traditional for the fourth series of a Star Trek series to be the peak of its quality, and I like quality.

It's also traditional for Star Trek series to burn through showrunners early on, and Discovery has definitely lived up to that tradition. Last season featured the third transition of power, as Michelle Paradise took over as showrunner (or co-showrunner with Alex Kurtzman) and sailed the series in yet another wildly different direction. She's still in the captain's chair for season four however, and it and seems like Discovery may have actually settled down a bit.

There were two major changes behind the scenes this season though: everyone had to deal with COVID-19 protocols, and they got a new AR wall to play with like the one used on The Mandalorian. So there was much less location filming, but they had better fake locations.

Okay, I've written reviews here for these four episodes:

• 4-01 - Kobayashi Maru
  
• 4-02 - Anomaly
  
• 4-03 - Choose to Live
  
• 4-04 - All is Possible

There will be MASSIVE SPOILERS for these stories (and lesser spoilers for earlier Trek stories) so I guess this is mostly for people who's already seen and formed their own opinion about the episodes and wants to read someone else's thoughts.

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Note: I rate episodes on a 1-9 scale, with 5 being where my attention starts to fail.

Star Trek: Discovery - Season 4
4-01	Kobayashi Maru		7
Episode: 043 | Writer: Michelle Paradise & Jenny Lumet & Alex Kurtzman | Director: Olatunde Osunsanmi | Air Date: 18-Nov-2021 Burnham is sent on a mission to investigate a distress call, but she has to deal with an unwanted passenger tagging along: the President of the Federation. The Discovery crew manage to get a damaged space station to stop spinning but a new threat requires them to evacuate everyone without the transporters, and someone has to fly a work bee over to sort that out. Burnham decides pilot the craft personally and nearly dies in a collision, but ultimately manages to save the day. The President isn't impressed with her inability to delegate however. Meanwhile Saru has a conversation with Su'Kal on Kaminar about stuff and Book's planet explodes. This is a brand new season but Discovery is still very Discovery. It's also a little bit Star Trek Beyond at the start, with Captain Burnham's farcical diplomatic mission to the planet of the butterfly people. The difference is that Beyond's opening shows that Kirk is getting worn down by years of constant sci-fi adventure, while Burnham has only been a captain for a few months and is hyped to get the mission done even if it gets her chased through a forest by people trying to kill her. I guess it's more similar to Into Darkness's teaser in that regard. I have to admit, I can't think of any previous Trek stories where the heroes visit a planet of aliens who form wings out of swarms of butterflies that are guided by a network of satellites. It's the most psychedelic thing to happen in Discovery since the last thing. We get to see a little bit of Burnham's mission to give away some of that dilithium she discovered last season, which is cool. But we also learn that now that the Federation's out of survival mode, they're working on proper alternatives and developing a next-gen spore drive! I guess the writers read the complaints about how they gave us a season built around the Federation running out of non-renewable natural resources and then resolved it with the characters finding more space oil. There have been other developments in the last five months as well, like everyone getting new uniforms with the colour scheme flipped. Plus pretty much everyone got a promotion. The end credits are full of Lt. Commanders now. And Bryce has been temporarily replaced with Lt Christopher, so I've got another name to remember. I was wondering if making Burnham the captain was going to solve the problem of the series being two separate shows fighting to coexist (Star Trek: Burnham and Star Trek: Discovery) and so far the answer seems to be... mostly. My investment in the rescue mission drama was spoiled by the ridiculous flamethrowers built into the pillars around the bridge, however Burnham's story kept my interest and she was pretty great as a confident, but inexperienced captain. I liked how she clashed with the president despite neither of them being wrong, and I liked how she was called out on pulling a 'Burnham' and doing the dangerous job herself. There were two other plots going on in the episode however, and I feel like the producers could've saved a bit of cash and cut them entirely. Maybe filled the time with a scene of Detmer and Owo having a conversation or something. The trouble with the Saru scenes is they made me feel bad for not giving a single damn about his speech about why Kaminar should joining the galactic community, or his conversation with Su'Kal. It was nice to actually see the Kelpians and Ba'ul coexisting in their sci-fi cities, but season 3 gave me the impression that Kaminar already was part of the Federation, so it all seemed kind of redundant. Plus there was more spinning camera work in the Saru plot than there was in the scenes of Discovery spinning around a space station that was spinning itself apart. Meanwhile the Uncle Buck Book scenes had this thick ominous cloud hanging over them that made a tragic outcome fairly inevitable. At first I thought it was nice that Book has attained true main character status and is being allowed to roam outside of the Burnham plot, but once I deduced that the cute kid was only being introduced to die I stopped paying attention and started getting impatient. I maybe wasn't expecting his entire damn world to explode though! I guess we won't be exploring Kwejian's rich culture in future episodes then. Overall the episode was alright I thought. Burnham's somehow still butting up against authority figures despite being in command but she's coming into her own, there was some nice upside-down filming on the space station, and they got the meaning of the Kobayashi Maru test right (it's not to face your fear of certain death, it's to test how you deal with the fact that you can't always save everyone). How the hell is its true purpose still a secret 900 years later by the way? Anyway, there's lots of good here, but I'm deducting points because between Star Trek, Star Wars and Doctor Who I'm all burned out on watching planets explode now. Plus that reveal of Archer Space Dock, with the Enterprise music playing, was such an obvious attempt to recreate the reveal of the USS Voyager-J last season that I had to roll my eyes a bit. I suppose it doesn't help that everything feels so cold and surreal and detached that it conflicts with their attempts to make me feel warm and fuzzy about things. I'd really appreciate it if they could move Starfleet HQ to a nice planet and sort out the lighting.
4-02	Anomaly		7
Episode: 044 | Writer: Anne Cofell Saunders & Glenise Mullins | Director: Olatunde Osunsanmi | Air Date: 25-Nov-2021 Book takes his ship into the outer edges of the anomaly to gather data, but he's a little bit upset about the fact that he has to bring a hologram of Stamets along as co-pilot. Also his planet just got destroyed, so he's got that on his mind too. The ship is tethered to Discovery to keep it safe, but Discovery has to drop the tether and move away when the gravity waves get too much. Burnham is able to talk the distraught Book into listening to her, and she helps him hit the engines at the right moment to ride a wave back out of the anomaly. He survives and he's gotten them the data they need, but they have a problem: the anomaly is changing direction and they can't predict where it'll head next. Anomaly is all space drama and feelings, which is good if that's what you're into I suppose. Personally I think it's great that there is a Star Trek series that actually deals with the repercussions of the traumatic events the crew has been though. The trouble is that it's dealing with all of the trauma at once. The episode goes from Burnham helping Book with his issues, to Saru helping Burnham with her issues, to Culber helping Tilly, to Grey helping Adira, and it started to drag a bit for me to be honest. Also the bridge was full of explosions again! I'm glad that they were a bit more subtle with the flames this time around, but the effect is diminished when the same thing happens two episodes in a row. On the plus side, I feel like the series has figured out how to properly use its characters now. Moving Burnham to the centre of the bridge has made that into the centre of the action. The bridge crew aren't really getting developed as characters, but they're more involved and they get to say the occasional line. Plus it even seems like Zora's going to be more of a thing now, as she's got a name and everything. And she's really handy to have around at times when no one can reach the buttons. I think this might actually be the first episode in all 55 years of Star Trek, 800+ stories, to feature a scene where the crew are weightless on the bridge... not counting Prodigy. It shows how serious this anomaly really is, as blowing up entire planets is one thing, but shutting down the gravity on a Federation starship is almost unthinkable. I'd talk about the actual plot, but there wasn't a whole lot going on this time. Book took his ship into the edge of the anomaly to get sensor readings, there was a bit of drama and he came back out. I did like Burnham using her programmable matter touchscreen to feel the gravity waves though, that was actually clever. We got lots of clever technology in this actually, like the tether apparently forming out of the hull, a holographic avatar, and a regular room being transformed into a holodeck. It's a good way to end up treading mud all over your quarters, but it's definitely convenient. And they've found an interesting solution for Gray, using the exact same technology that was used to transfer Picard to a robot body centuries ago. Definitely makes more sense than being respawned in the mushroom dimension. I was a bit confused about Stamets' hologram though, as he was clearly getting real-time feedback from Book's ship, but they apparently couldn't use that connection to send the data back. It was also a bit weird that 'the data' basically had a progress bar. They had to stay in there until they had all 'the data'. Sadly after all that drama they ended up learning basically nothing about what the anomaly actually is, but Book's hallucinations were interesting. Were they just hallucinations or was he actually seeing something? Is the anomaly something more interesting than just a planet-wrecking space ball? Overall I'd say this was a good episode that made a good use of music to keep me interested even though they pulled the 'heartfelt conversation one minute before catastrophe' trope again. If they could dial down the therapy a bit, that would be ideal as it's getting a bit too sappy for me personally. No one gets to have real normal conversations anymore as they're too busy dissecting their feelings or sharing technobabble. Sure it's called Star Trek: Discovery because it's about the character discovering themselves, but at this rate they could change the title to Star Trek: Hugs and Understanding. I mean I'm not against hugs and understanding in my Star Trek, that's one of the things that's good about it, but you've got to handle that kind of thing with care and restraint or else it becomes cringy.
4-03	Choose to Live		6
Episode: 045 | Writer: Terri Hughes Burton | Director: Christopher J. Byrne | Air Date: 02-Dec-2021 Burnham goes on a mission with Tilly and her human Romulan ninja mother to capture a murderous fugitive, and ends up discovering an ancient ark filled with cryopods. Fortunately the fugitive only wanted to save the dormant aliens and they're able to work it out. Meanwhile Book and Stamets head to Ni'Var to do some science, and Book finds a little bit of peace after a mind-meld with the planet's leader. And Adira worries as they wait for Gray's consciousness to take hold in his new body. I like spaceship drama, but after two episodes of flame jets on the bridge it's nice to get away for a bit and do some other things. In fact I'm not sure this episode even has an exterior shot of Discovery herself. We did get to visit the USS Credence though, and I guess the budget must have been a bit tight for this story as it looked just like a 23rd century starship on the inside. I don't mind series like this reusing sets to save money, they all do it, but the trick is to redress them enough so that I don't realise! There were three stories going on in this episode: Burnham's mission to capture a Qowat Milat fugitive, Adira worrying about Gray, and Stamets going to Ni'Var do some science, though other character threads were woven in. There's not a lot happening but there's a lot going on, and it gets bonus points for the title being relevant to most of it. The Adira plot really is just them waiting and worrying about Gray as he floats in limbo or whatever. It's not my favourite flavour of television to be honest and I mostly just zoned out. Though I'm glad the Ghost Gray arc has been resolved and they found a sensible and straightforward solution. Plus it did give me a glimpse of Discovery's new bar and that looks pretty great from what I could tell, with the fire windows along the walls. It's very distinctive and unusual, and far warmer than the mess hall set. Plus it even comes with its own Morn! At first it seemed like the Stamets plot might be pushing the anomaly plot forward, but it was really about Book going through mind-meld therapy and realising that he can't let his memories of Kwejian fade along with his grief. I mostly zoned out again, but I did appreciate that the President of Ni'Var came over in person to help out. Most planetary leaders are too busy to assist scientists or help a guy process his grief, and I did like her scenes. The Burnham plot was about apprehending a fugitive, but it was also about politics, which surprised me. We're getting a lot more of the Federation President than I expected, and this is more welcome to me than I expected as well. Burnham's learning about how to play along not just with the admirals but also with politicians, and she hasn't gone rogue once yet! By the way I thought Admiral Vance's musical analogy was great; there's some solid dialogue in this story. The Tilly plot was about her tagging along in the Burnham plot, but she also had her story about getting out of her comfort zone and figuring out if she's on the right path, and I guess that's still ongoing. The two of them were sent on a mission to deal with the Qowat Milat's own Burnham: a woman who felt that she had to take drastic action to save millions and went rogue, even though she was surrounded by people who would've been able to help her. J’Vini is a woman who found herself with a typical Star Trek dilemma, a broken ark ship filled with cryopods, and had entirely the wrong skillset to handle it. Instead of science, she has a sword, instead of diplomacy, she has a sword. I guess Starfleet's reputation must really be terrible in this century considering that someone who believes in always telling the truth murdered a Starfleet officer to steal dilithium instead of just telling them what was going on. It's even more amazing considering that she didn't really need the dilithium! It was just a precaution in case the anomaly came to the planet. I'm glad that Burnham both sympathised with her situation and also wanted her to be put on trial for what she did, because there was quite a body count here for a job that Burnham and Tilly were able to handle in a couple of minutes. I also like that they had to compromise on her consequences as part of the ongoing process of bringing Ni'Var back into the Federation. Discovery's going a bit Deep Space Nine here and that has to be a good thing. That reminds me, we got an actual Burnham and Tilly away mission in this episode! I finally got what I've been wanting this entire series! They even got to play with the AR wall and visit a properly alien looking location. Though they didn't meet any locals so I'm not sure it really counts. In fact they were weirdly isolated from the aliens they saved and never talked to them. I guess that would've meant straying too far from the personal stories going on. Oh, I should mention that Burnham's mother was in this one. Not much came of it to be honest. Overall I thought this was a fairly decent episode for a first time Trek writer, with lots of lore and good dialogue. I'm glad that the big scary DMA is still a thing that's out there, but it's not something they have to personally fly into every episode. But like I said last time, the series has a lot of emotional arcs going on simultaneously and it's splitting the focus too much for me to care much about any of them. I'd rather the crew were out solving space problems rather than mental health problems. Partly because I don't think these writers have a whole lot of knowledge of the subject, partly because I'm not really interested.
4-04	All is Possible		6
Episode: 046 | Writer: Alan McElroy & Eric J. Robbins | Director: John Ottman | Air Date: 09-Dec-2021 Tilly has to keep a group of cadets alive on a dangerous icy world, while Burnham and Saru get involved with politics on Ni-Var, and Book has a therapy session with Culber. We've had two episodes in a row without the bridge or the bridge crew! I guess that's one way to stop me from whining that they need more to do during their screen time. The whole episode's all heartfelt sincerity, which suited some plots more than others. The Tilly plot especially felt cliché and quite a bit cringy at times for me, as the young cadets learned to understand each other and bond as friends in the most trite and obvious way. The Galileo Seven, it was not. In fact Star Trek: Prodigy handles the same subject with more wit and maturity. It did remind me a bit of Star Trek '09 though, with Tilly running away from a big, inexplicably phaser-proof creature on an icy moon. It also had a bit of the DS9 episode The Ascent as well, with the characters having to make it up a mountain to send the signal. Well, up a tiny ridge. The Ascent actually bothered to come up with a good reason for why they crashed, but this episode was filmed somewhere legitimately freezing so they've both got their positives and negatives. I'm calling Tilly's performance as a leader a positive, as she was so good as a teacher that she made everyone completely forget that a guy had died right in front of them earlier that day. The weird thing is, this is exactly the kind of story that Tilly's been needing in her 'cadet to captain' arc, with her in a leadership role over a group of lower-ranked officers (or cadets in this case), but it's ended up putting her on a different path. In a strange backwards way, her time as an unqualified first officer in season three has given her the experience she needs for her true calling: being an instructor at Starfleet Academy. And her plot ended with her giving Adira a snow globe with the NX-01 in it, which is the kind of reference I can get behind! Anything is possible, even for captains like Archer. I did not expect this to be Tilly's last episode and I'm still not sure that it is. Sure there were signs all season that she wasn't comfortable on Discovery, but I didn't think it was leading up to her leaving the ship! Properly leaving, not like Saru who only left just long enough for Burnham to be promoted over him. I guess that away mission she had with Burnham last episode is the only one we'll ever get. On the plus side, this gives Adira more purpose on the series as they'll be taking Tilly's place as the genius cadet. And I suppose Gray might serve a purpose too someday! Meanwhile Burnham and Saru got involved with a mystery on Ni'Var! Except it wasn't really a mystery, they were just learning about politics again. Fortunately Burnham didn't have to go rogue this time as the President wanted her to come up with a third option. And the option she came up with was to put herself on the objective committee to decide Ni'Var's fate, which is something everyone could get behind, apparently! I suppose the two presidents were just looking for any excuse to say 'yes' and get the deal signed, and that was as good as any. Plus Saru and the Ni'Var president shared more meaningful looks, so there's definitely something going on there now. Something very dignified and subtle. And I'm glad that they're still doing stuff with Burnham's Vulcan upbringing and citizenship. Also Ni'Var's finally back in the Federation! Plus we've got confirmation that the Federation President has Bajoran and Cardassian ancestry. To be honest I'm finding that I more interested in this stuff more than the crew's issues, but I suppose that's to be expected seeing as I have so much more investment in it. I mean Book's therapy session with Culber was well acted and probably well written too, but I spent the whole time waiting for the next plot to come along. It sounds harsh to say I didn't really care about any of it, but they're not real people so I don't think any feelings will be hurt. It's just not what I'm into from my TV. Especially not three episodes in a row. It's all emotions and no plot. In fact overall this is my least favourite episode of the season so far. It kind of gets by on its likeable characters and comfortable tone, I like how characters are still able to joke around despite everything, but it promises more than it delivers. And that whole thing about the Tellarite cadet hating the Orion until it was revealed his dad was actually an activist either needed a rewrite or a big red line right through it.
NEXT EPISODE Star Trek: Discovery will return with five more episodes, but next on Sci-Fi Adventures, Babylon 5's apparently getting a bit depressing with And All My Dreams, Torn Asunder. Okay I'm done writing for this week, now it's your turn to let me know what you thought about these episodes.