| Episode: | 58 | | | Writer: | Kyle Jarrow & Lauren Wilkinson | | | Director: | Andi Armaganian | | | Air Date: | 11-Apr-2024 |
Today on Sci-Fi Adventures, I'm watching the third episode of Star Trek: Discovery's final season, Jinaal.
I've mentioned this before, but it's rarely a good sign when Star Trek decides to go with a short made-up word for an episode title. Sometimes it works out and you get a Sarek or a Darmok, but no one's dying to see Melora or Rajiin again. Personally I prefer the more poetic and evocative titles. Give me something like The City on the Edge of Forever, The Measure of a Man, or Parth Ferengi's Heart Place.
I mean, which of these sounds like it's going to be the better written episode: The Girl in the Fireplace or Praxeus? GROPOS or Intersections in Real Time? Though don't bring up the critically-acclaimed and beloved Star Wars series Andor, we're not talking about how it gets away with half its episodes having names like Kassa, Aldhani and Narkina 5.
Anyway, writer Kyle Jarrow has done a couple of episodes of Discovery's fourth season, one I liked, one I didn't like so much, but Lauren Wilkinson is new to the show. She's known for writing the novel American Spy and working on spy thriller series Citadel, so maybe this is going to have some spy stuff in it? That might not be so bad!
There will be SPOILERS below for Star Trek stories released on or before 11th April 2024, including this one.
RECAP
The clue from episode 2 has led the Discovery crew to Trill, where they find that one of the original scientists that worked on the Progenitor investigation is still alive after 800 years, kind of. They separate the consciousness of Jinaal from the Bix symbiont and place him into Dr Culber so that he can lead Burnham and Book to the next clue. It turns out that the next clue is in the lair of some incredibly dangerous invisible creatures that can shoot giant barbs out at them, and after a failed attempt to beam around to draw their attention, the two of them hide to come up with a new plan. They realise that the creatures are protecting their nest, so they calm them down with Book's empathic power and then leave. This means they've passed Jinaal's test and he just gives them the next clue. But Moll is also there in disguise and she plants a tracker on Adira before they leave!
Meanwhile Tilly tries to get Rayner to connect with the crew, Adira discusses her relationship with Gray, and Saru makes a choice to protect T'Rina's career that ends annoying her instead.
REVIEW
I have to admit, I was distracted by how the rank marker on Culber's jacket opens up in one piece while Reno's badge splits in two. That's kind of weird. But Cruz's performance as Jinaal in the body of Culber was great I thought. Maybe too good, as now I want to keep this guy around! Actually, it's just occurred to me that there's nothing stopping the 24th/25th century shows from bringing the original Jinaal Bix back... well, aside from the fact that they keep getting cancelled.
Speaking of things coming back, I'm pretty sure we've seen this quarry a few times now. I'm not complaining though. I'm just glad we're down on a planet again, for the third episode in a row!
Of course they could've tried to skip the test by torturing Jinaal or ripping the information out of his brain, seeing as this is one of those situations where the ends justify the means... but that wasn't even considered. Burnham is driven by a will to do good, not just to complete her task. They definitely sent the right captain on this mission as I don't think Rayner would've made the same choices.
This was a pretty fun plot though I thought, with some nice location filming, a bit of action, some banter and so on. You could say it's implausible that Jinaal knew the creatures would still be there 800 years later, but it's not like the dude was locked in box the whole time. The Bix symbiont has been living its life in various hosts all this time and could've updated the test as necessary. Also, I figured out it was a test just before the characters did, but I'm considering that to be a sign of good storytelling and they were pretty intelligent overall, so I have to give this story a thumbs up.
Unfortunately it wasn't the only plot this episode.
I didn't hate these scenes, but bringing people in to say 20 words each was kind of childish. Rayner's being a bit of a stubborn baby, refusing to even pretend like he's getting to know the people he's commanding. Though I did like how he showed off at the end how he'd analysed each of them from just 20 words and Tilly pointed out that wasn't the point.
Tilly was absolutely the wrong choice to be a first officer in season 3, but this role makes a lot more sense for her. She's got traits and skills that complement Rayner's and force him out of his comfort zone. And she's the captain's wacky best friend, so she's got no fear of his authority! I'm really glad she's back on the ship as the heart and comic relief this season. Reno too, as storylines like this absolutely need them to bring the comedy.
Also, there's something very meta about Tilly basically yelling at Rayner to spend more time with the rest of the crew and get to know them, while he's saying "I can learn everything I need to from the 30 seconds of screen time they get in the background of each episode!" I'm with Tilly here, it's the final season, the writers should give Owosekun and Detmer more than 20 words per episode already!
I'm happy for him that he could learn a lesson and grow from it, but there's a reason I stopped watching The Flash. Actually there were a few reasons, but I got really sick of stories where a character makes a mistake just so they can learn a moral from it. I mean sure, have Kirk get fired up and chase after a Gorn ship so he can learn that he was blinded by revenge, that's fine! Have Sisko almost throw his career away before realising that he needs to get over his wife's death and move forward, that's even better! But this plot was a waste of the actors' time and ours.
Though hey, if T'Rina is wise enough to accept that she and Saru will have conflict there should be no drama when he inevitably votes against something she wants at some point in the future, right? Right?
I have to be honest, I was only half paying attention to this scene, and it wasn't even because I was distracted by something more interesting. I actually like that their break up was pretty much free of drama, but there was nothing in the dialogue to replace it, these two just have no spark to their conversations and never had. I have to assume that scenes like this must appeal to someone, but I had pretty much tuned out entirely by the end...
...so when I heard a weird sound effect I had to go back through the video to see what had happened. Good thing too, as I nearly missed seeing Moll planting the tracking device on Adira's arm. I'm not taking the blame for this, it was the episode that failed to keep my attention! Also, what was Moll even doing there? How did she know where they'd be on Trill? This isn't necessarily a flaw, there might be a good answer later on, but right now I'm confused.
The montage showed Burnham taking up Vulcan meditation again, Rayner seeming a bit envious of all the people in bar being friends and hanging out, and Stamets connecting up the next bit of the clue. I feel like the guy may become a problem at the end of the season as he's getting hyped about the Progenitor technology becoming his replacement legacy after the spore drive project was dropped. I'm sensing some possible conflict there, if other characters decide that it's too dangerous to share and want to keep it hidden.
And I noticed they mentioned reanimating dead organisms, which has me worried that someone's going to end up dying at some point. Maybe someone already has, and that's why Moll and L'ak are so keen to find this holy grail.
RATING
I could compare Jinaal to stories like Aquiel, Melora, Rajiin and Elogium to help me decide how it ranks and what rating to give it, but 'the heroes are given a test that reveals their worthiness' is a story would be better compared to classic episodes like The Corbomite Maneuver and Arena.
One big difference between this and those particular episodes is focus. The classic stories both go places but they never lose sight of what they're about or stray from the main protagonist for long. Jinaal, on the other hand, gives less than half the episode to the Burnham and Book A plot, dividing the rest of its time between completely different stories. This kind of story structure can work great as long as the other plots aren't dragging the episode down like a weight around it's neck... unfortunately that's what happened here for me.
Rayner and Tilly brought a little comic relief to the story, they were fine, but if the producers had cut Adira and Saru out of this episode entirely I would be giving this a higher score than...
5/10
COMING SOON
If you want to share your own opinions on Jinaal in the box below I won't do anything to stop you.
"Face the Strange is an extended play (EP) by Northern Irish rock band Therapy?, released on 1 June 1993."
ReplyDeleteThat's an unusual reference for a Trek series to make. You'd think they'd reference something older.
I've read that it's a reference to the David Bowie song Changes from 1972, so that's a little bit older at least.
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