Star Trek: Discovery - Season 3, Part 2

Today on Sci-Fi Adventures, I'm still writing about Discovery's third season. This time I'm covering episodes 5 to 7:

• 3-05 - Die Trying
  
• 3-06 - Scavengers
  
• 3-07 - Unification III
  

Here's some trivia for Discovery's third year: it's the first season of the series to be run by the same showrunner from start to finish, with limited writers' room drama. Season one was started by Bryan Fuller and finished by Gretchen Berg and Aaron Harberts. They stayed for season two but were fired after episode 5 and replaced by executive producer Alex Kurtzman, who handed the series over to Michelle Paradise this year. This is actually fairly normal for Trek, but the series tend to get much better when someone finally sticks around for a while.

Alright, I already said this before but these reviews are basically from right after I watched the episodes, so I genuinely didn't know where the story was going. Beware of MASSIVE SPOILERS.

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Note: I rate episodes on a 1-9 scale, with 5 being 'mostly watchable'.

Star Trek: Discovery
3-05	Die Trying		6
Episode: 022 | Writer: Sean Cochran | Director: Maja Vrvilo | Air Date: 12-Nov-2020 Discovery arrives at Starfleet HQ and the crew are told they're going to be split up and reassigned. Saru negotiates for Burnham to take a test to prove their crew's usefulness (without him coming along) and they go on a mission to get some seeds to make a cure. When they get to the seed vault they find a dying victim of a transporter accident who can't let his family go, and Nhan decides to take over for him. Meanwhile Georgiou is interrogated by the director of Scanners and The Fly and seems troubled by it. Die Trying is a bit of a dramatic title for such a low stakes episode. I mean sure refugees are going to die if the crew can't get the cure and if Discovery doesn't prove itself as a unit everyone's going to be split up, but they're hardly having to throw their lives on the line for this one. There is the guy who would rather die trying to save his family than admit they're lost, but there's not much drama left in that story unfortunately. He's just doomed. The teaser was good I thought. The reveal of new Starfleet HQ was a bit underwhelming, but I liked the crew geeking out over the new Starfleet ships, and it had some really nice music to go with it. USS Voyager-J might have been taking the fan service slightly too far though. I mean why would the Discovery crew care what letter Voyager had? They were from 100 years before the first one. But whatever! Trouble is they've put the base inside some kind of cloaking field with a gloomy blue interior that makes it bloody hard to see anything. Also I was on edge the whole time waiting for the other shoe to drop, it was way too happy, so when the crew were split up I was a lot less surprised about it than they were. Once again the series shows why Saru should be the captain, as Burnham's first reaction to the news is saying they should steal reports and run off to prove how great they are. That might work if you're Captain America but I've noticed that Starfleet isn't keen on their ships going rogue, and fortunately it's still the kind of organisation where crews don't have to. Well, okay there's a bit of a question mark over David Cronenberg, who comes across like he's from the 32nd century version of Section 31, but the rest of them seem decent enough. They're just stuck in triage mode and need a change of perspective... plus a ship that can leap anywhere in the galaxy instantly. I liked that the mission showed off the crew's science skills more than anything, seeing as they are a science vessel, and I liked that Detmer's trauma hasn't been resolved off screen. Plus learning that the Kelpians and Barzans had joined the Federation was great. But there was a lot about the episode that didn't quite work for me, or just plain left me confused: I didn't like Georgiou shutting down holograms by blinking too fast. Just... no. I don't get the point of the interrogators stating that Terrans are biologically inclined to evil, when Georgiou already knows that they're not. Why is Detmer still the helmsman instead of getting treatment when she's clearly struggling with trauma? Nhan suddenly feeling homesick and leaving the crew so that the other Barzan could die (I guess) came out of nowhere. She didn't even say goodbye to anyone or pick up her stuff! Nhan's time on the series basically gave us no insight into her species whatsoever, and all we learn before she leaves is the names of the Barzan's two prettiest moons and that their eyes change in their own atmosphere. The transporter accident made the guy look like a distorted hologram? How the hell is he not dead? Tal's lullaby is going to be one of the season's mysteries? Seriously? Also Starfleet sending Discovery out on a mission to prove themselves seemed a bit strange, because there's no century where Starfleet officers are less than competent. Of course they'd be able to work together to get a job done. The real question is whether Admiral Vance can trust them, and I think he's still on the fence. On the one hand the crew actually told him everything, time travel, Sphere Data, cover up and all. I guess they're not considering the new AIs to be a threat, despite the creepy bow tie and voice. On the other hand, two seasons of Mirror Universe captains and fake holographic admirals left the crew a bit isolated from Starfleet even before they stole the ship and brought it into an unknown future where all they have is each other. They're more Discovery officers than Starfleet officers right now, and they're very resistant about being reassigned. Well, except for Nhan. Overall I thought the episode was alright, but I didn't find it all that compelling. Plus they've ended the 'voyage home' arc really early. They didn't have to spend seven seasons on their epic journey through a hostile and mysterious universe, but I'm sure the premise was worth more than two episodes! • IMPORTANT OBSERVATION You can't actually deactivate holograms by blinking at them, that's just dumb. And even if you could do it in the 23rd century, how the hell would that not get patched out in 900 years?
3-06	Scavengers		7
Episode: 023 | Writer: Anne Cofell Saunders | Director: Douglas Aarniokoski | Air Date: 19-Nov-2020 When Book's cat shows up at Starfleet Command without her owner, Burnham and Georgiou decide to sneak out on a secret mission to save him. They discover he's stuck working in a scrapyard where the labourers have bombs to keep them from making a run for it, and engineer a prison break. It all works out in the end, but Georgiou doesn't seem well and Burnham loses her position as Saru's XO. Oh shit, Discovery actually got a full refit! I did not expect that. I thought they might upgrade it internally and leave the hull the same, but I never thought they'd change the look so drastically. I'm not so keen on the floating nacelles but the rest looks good from the glimpse we got of it. They've fixed the boxy secondary hull that's been bothering me since the first teaser. Though I couldn't help notice that they've changed the registry number to stick an '-A' on it, which is unusual. In the past the letter after the registry number was only given to new ships, not a refit of the same ship, and generally only given to the Enterprise. Are they trying to pretend it's a new ship they just built? Did it just need a different registry to be recommissioned? It really doesn't matter that if it's not consistent with what we know, in fact it'd be weird if Starfleet's traditions hadn't changed a little in 930 years, but it does have implications for that USS Voyager parked nearby. Could it be the actual USS Voyager? Is it going to have the same old bridge and corridors if you look inside? The refit also has another consequence: it completely contradicts the ship's future appearance in Calypso. I don't know what the writers are doing here, but it's very strange. Then again I guess programmable matter can look like whatever you want it to. The story has two sides: Burnham and Georgiou's covert mission to get the black box (and Book), and what the crew are up to back on Discovery. They've got new tricom badges and they do all kinds of stuff, like teleport Linus into all the most inconvenient places. I did think it'd be funny if Linus beamed into the turbolift to interrupt the kiss at the end but I didn't expect the writer to actually do it! Man, just think of how many crewmembers have got traumatic memories of him just appearing in the toilet with them now. Burnham's plot gave her time to hang around with Georgiou, which is good, but it also felt like a bit of a retread. The 'you go walking around looking at parts disguised as someone who's here to buy something while I keep them distracted' routine must be a trope by now, and the 'you wouldn't want your boss to find out you turned me away' cliché was already done by Burnham just five episodes ago! Against other Orions! It's a shame that despite Georgiou's bragging, their plan really wasn't that clever, and it was over with extremely quickly. Though that's good in a way, because it gave us more time for them to deal with consequences (Georgiou's mysterious problem, Burnham's demotion). There was plenty of epilogue here, including a nice scene with Stamets and Adira that felt kind of out of place coming after all the action. I liked that there's been a bit of a time jump here and they know Admiral Vance well enough by now that he was able to let Burnham do the whole conversation for him, but I was surprised it ended with her demotion. Mostly because she's only been first officer for a few episodes. But Saru's right, despite everything she's learned over the last two seasons, Burnham will always run off to do what she wants to do. That's often a good thing, but it means she's way too unreliable to be his first officer. He can only trust her to be herself and that's not good enough for that job. In fact she's basically Mariner from Lower Decks, except more likely to latch onto a problem and do whatever it takes to solve it... even if it's a mystery from 120 years ago. There's not a huge amount of urgency here! It's funny though that we're three seasons in and I have no idea who's going to be first officer in her place. Nilsson maybe? Commander Nhan would've been the obvious choice, but she just left. In every other Trek series the command structure's fairly obvious, but Discovery's never been that interested beyond the top two jobs. We don't even know who the chief engineer is yet! • IMPORTANT OBSERVATION It was nice to see Book's cat opening hailing frequencies and the ship was very useful, but how the hell did Book know where their secret HQ was when the Emerald Chain doesn't even know?
3-07	Unification III		6
Episode: 024 | Writer: Kirsten Beyer | Director: Jud Dudkowski | Air Date: 26-Nov-2020 Burnham is set to Vulcan, now called Ni'Var, to make her case for why the Federation should be trusted with data on an experiment that may have caused the Burn. There she discovers her mother survived her trip to the future and is now a Qowat Milat sister! Her mother's supposed to be aiding Michael on her hopeless cause, but she forces her to admit her true feelings in front of the RomVulcans, which leads her to understand herself better as well. Unfortunately the Romulans and Vulcans are split on the issue, so Burnham withdraws her request for the data to avoid driving another wedge between them. But the president gives her the data anyway because of her performance (and Saru's excellent diplomatic skills), and Burnham decides she wants to stay in Starfleet. Also Saru's made Tilly his first officer for some reason. Discovery stands out from the other Star Trek series due to its fondness for three things: flashy frantic action scenes, emotional scenes with emotional characters, and batshit crazy events. There's no action in this one, but they really ramped up the emotional scenes to make up for it, and 'Burnham's time travelling mother is now a Romulan warrior nun' definitely counts as a crazy twist. Almost as crazy as making Tilly Discovery's new (acting) first officer. Without even promoting her to a suitable rank! I realise that Saru needs someone he can trust as his XO and he's been able to come to Ensign Tilly for advice, but you couldn't get further from a Will Riker or Kira Nerys type! She's been on two away missions in her career, she hasn't even had the captain's chair during the night shift, and now she's expected to command Discovery whenever Saru is absent, as a diplomat and a tactician. Bloody hell. Honestly I'm hyped to see where this goes, because she's either going to grow into the role fast or fail spectacularly. Also making this the third part to a two part Next Gen story was a great idea, but the title promises more than the episode's really interested in delivering on. It's a quiet low-stakes bottle episode mostly about Burnham dealing with her feelings and trying to decide where she fits in: on Discovery or with Book. Sure it seems like it's about her trying to make her case to the RomVulcans to get the data, but it's really all about the emotions. More than any other Trek character (except maybe Beckett Mariner), Burnham is defined by her issues and everything comes back to examining them or giving her more things for her to get emotional about, and honestly it's gotten kind of old for me. I did like how this gave her a bit of closure with Spock though. We got a clip from the character's first TV appearance last season and here we get one from his final TV appearance, presumably downloaded from Picard's brain seeing as he was the one he was talking to. Burnham hasn't looked up Spock's final fate, but now she knows that the process he started to bring the Romulans and Vulcans back together actually paid off way way way down the line. Honestly I didn't think we'd ever see a resolution to that plot, especially not after Romulus blew up, but Discovery's jump to the far-future didn't just give them the chance to escape continuity, but also to embrace it, and give us some resolution. Now I want to know about the Cardassians, Klingons and Bajorans. And the Founders! It also let them retcon or clarify the ending of season two, as the RomVulcans know about Michael Burnham being Spock's sister despite the cover up. I never understood why they'd try to hide her existence or how that was ever going to work, so I'm glad that they've walked that back. Things didn't work out perfectly between the Romulans and Vulcans, there are still issues between people, but that's only to be expected when they've been carrying the guilt of causing the Burn all this time. I like that Burnham withdrew her request when she saw what she was doing to them, though it was a bit of a cop-out that she got the data anyway... by being really emotional in front of Vulcans. I guess the future Vulcans are a bit more chilled out about logic (they've left some of their old axioms behind for sure). Also now the situation has been flipped and the Vulcans are the lost tribe that split away from the Federation years ago. We don't get reunification between Ni'Var and the Federation in the end, that's going to take a lot longer, but Saru gets the process started by being an ideal diplomat. We do get reunification between Burnham and the crew though, so I'm sure we don't have to worry about her going rogue anymore! Overall I found the episode to be alright, but it fell a bit short from what I expect from Discovery. Perhaps the biggest missed opportunity was not including Next Generation clips in the recap. Also it should've been shot in 4:3 aspect ratio and they should've put some carpets down around the ship. • IMPORTANT OBSERVATION The word Ni'Var has been around fandom since 1967, basically the dawn of Trek, but it didn't make it into a licenced Trek story until the New Voyages anthology in 1976. It finally made it onto TV with a Vulcan ship called Ni'Var showing up in the Enterprise episode Shadows of P'Jem. Now the whole planet's taken on the name!

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NEXT TIME

Next on Sci-Fi Adventures, the next three episodes of Discovery season 3, from The Sanctuary to Terra Firma, Part 2.

Thanks for reading, by the way. If you want to share your own thoughts there's a comment box below.