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Star Trek Discovery (DIS) Season 5

Season 1Season 2Season 3Season 4Season 5

Red DirectiveUnder the Twin MoonsJinaalFace the StrangeMirrorsWhistlespeakErigahLabyrinthsLagrange PointLife, Itself

 

Red Directive

Synopsis

"Red Directive"

Mr. Kovich requires the USS Discovery for a top secret "Red Directive". He only reveals that an 800-year old Romulan science vessel has been discovered in a debris field, and that an artifact stored aboard needs to be recovered by any means necessary. As an away team explores the derelict vessel, suddenly the two former couriers L'ak and Moll decloak and begin to fire. They encase Rhys and Owosekun in forcefields and then detonate a bomb, by which Burnham gets blown into space. As she is drifting through the debris, she sees a cloaked vessel and activates her magnetic boots to lock onto its hull before it goes to warp. Burnham uses her phaser to break into the propulsion system. Meanwhile, the USS Antares under Captain Rayner has caught up with them and locks a tractor beam on L'ak and Moll's ship. Without the tractor beam, they would escape, whereas if the warp field collapsed around the ship, it could destroy the Antares. Rayner finally stands down, but Burnham's sabotage was not enough. Moll and L'ak restart the engines and create 20 warp trails in different directions. In order to find the right trace, Burnham enlists Book's help. He suspects that they are going to the planet Q'mau, to meet with a dealer called Fred. On Q'mau, Moll and L'ak offer the Romulan artifact, an ancient puzzle, to Fred as expected. But they only need the android to open the device, which contains an old diary, upon which they kill him. Burnham, Book and Rayner find Fred's body and beam him up the the Discovery, in the hope of recovering his memory. L'ak and Moll escape with their ship, which was hidden underneath the planet's sand, pursued by Burnham, Book and Rayner on sandrunners. Against Burnham's objections, Rayner has the Antares destroy the entrance of their mountain retreat. L'ak and Moll are forced to turn around and fire torpedoes, which releases a sand avalanche that is about to obliterate the settlement. The two Federation ships descend and block the avalanche to save the city, upon which the couriers can escape. Meanwhile at the Academy, Tilly has encrypted an ancient message left behind by a Romulan named Dr. Vellek about something enormously powerful that is hidden somewhere. On the Discovery, Stamets and Culber recover a symbol from Fred's memory that he saw in the diary. Additionally, there is a mention of the "twin moons". Burnham suspects that this refers to a planet in the Vileen system. Dr. Kovich finally lets her in on the secret. Dr. Vellek was part of the Romulan crew that witnessed the message from the Progenitors in the 24th century. He somehow found their technology or clues about it. In the meantime, Saru has decided to accept an offer from President Rillak to become a Federation ambassador. He can be close to T'Rina this way. The two decide to marry.

Commentary

Discovery is back for its fifth and final season. And as much as things have changed for Michael Burnham and her crew, one thing always remains the same: her traditional space dive in a debris field, as in every single season opener so far!

The story of "Red Directive" chronologically begins at a Federation Day party and with a lot of exposition. The work on the spore drive has been discontinued. Stamets is an official "Science Luminary" with a perhaps intentionally corny holographic badge. Book has not been heard of for many months. Saru has an offer to become a Federation ambassador. The Tholian Republic and the Breen Imperium are considered threat forces. I don't think any of that is bland. Yet, someone decided to spice up the very beginning of the episode with a flashforward (like already in PIC: "The Star Gazer") to said space ride, only to jump back four hours again. This annoyed, rather than entertained me. It turned out to have no merit in the way of revealing something that makes more sense as the story catches up with the flashforward (which, for me, is the only cause that could justify such a disruptive storytelling device).

Aynway, a solid story unfolds for Burnham after she and her away team have boarded the Romulan ship on the search for something they are not told anything about and which they are to defend against an unknown enemy they are authorized to kill. I like that Burnham decides to keep phasers on stun nonetheless. Later in the episode, she cares for the dead android Fred and wonders if he has family that should be notified. This, and her insistence to learn what the "Red Directive" is all about (that her crew are supposed to risk their lives for), gives the otherwise action- and mystery-driven episode a human touch. On the downside, once again it doesn't have any consequences for her or for Tilly to hack into an encrypted database to acquire highly classified information.

Discovery has a long record of the ship's crew not following orders because they somehow can rely on Vance or Rillak to cover it up. In "Red Directive", it is additionally unjust that Rayner's reckless but legal actions on Q'mau will get him discharged in the next episode, whereas Tilly's (and indirectly Burnham's) criminal act of stealing top secret information gets handwaved. I understand that the intention is to establish Rayner as an even more daring character than Burnham and the probably only one in 32nd century Starfleet who holds a candle to her. Although it won't have any notable action for him, the next episode will push this idea even harder. Still, the story could have been told with more realism regarding actions and their consequences.

Actually, as I am writing the summary and rethinking the course of the plot, it occurs to me that Tilly decrypts the Romulan message at about the same time as Culber and Stamets read out Fred's memory. Fred reveals everything that Tilly finds out about the "twin moons" and more, such as the shape of the puzzle from the diary. Tilly's contribution to the solution is practically non-existent. If it was just about showing the garbled message from the Romulan, that's something Kovich may have done anyway to let in Burnham on the secret.

The plot is initially all about action but increasingly about the mystery. There isn't so much new about the concept, remembering that it was the defining theme of all previous Discovery seasons and of all of Picard as well. The Romulan connection with the literal mystery box (the tan zhekran) initially even appears like a carbon copy of what happened in Picard's first season. But rather than a reissue, it turns out to be a sequel to an already known mystery story, and one from classic Trek no less. I noticed the similarities to TNG: "The Chase" while I was watching and made an according note after pausing for the supper break (slightly rephrased and extended because my raw notes suck): "So far the story is decent - aside from the usual problem of a TV/movie treasure hunt that no one knows what's to gain and still everyone does everything to get hold of it - much like already in TNG: 'The Chase'. In the classic episode the outcome was a reward for a bumpy plot, and I feel this too could go into the same direction." I had no idea the story was more than only inspired by "The Chase". Just before the whole truth was revealed, I wrote down another note (I paused a lot this time it seems): "So there is a technology from ancient times that has been a well-kept secret for centuries? Sounds like Illuminati and the likes..." The connection to what happened in "The Chase" makes this a bit more acceptable because at least it is not yet another unrelated galactic secret.

Anyway, for a second time after "Unification III" with its reference to Spock's stay on Romulus, Discovery forges strong ties with classic Trek, this time with the direct mention of TNG events and a picture of Jean-Luc Picard. The series thereby strives to make up for the huge errors of ignoring canon in its first two seasons and somehow attempts to appear as more relevant. Irrespective of how the story about the technology of the Progenitors turns out, I like this development, although I don't think it can retroactively repair what was wrong with the series when it was in self-imposed isolation.

"Red Directive" is a very enjoyable story with a good amount of action, decent character interaction without misplaced emotional moments and a strong new character (Rayner) that many will relate to. It comes with yet another big mystery (which at least has a surprising connection to classic Trek), with small annoyances (the flashforward) and with some story elements that simply don't work (everything that involves Tilly).

Annotations

Rating: 6

 

Under the Twin Moons

Synopsis

"Under the Twin Moons"

Stardate 866274.3: As the Discovery is being cleaned from the sand, Burnham and Rayner are debriefed by President Rillak. This doesn't go well for Rayner, who clashes with Rillak over his actions on Q'mau. The Discovery then departs for Lyrek, the planet in the Vileen system with the twin moons. This planet used to be a burial ground of the ancient Promellians. Burnham and Saru hope to find a message from Dr. Vellek at a structure, which the Promellians protected by a still operational EM field. As they approach the place, drones begin to attack them. Adira and Tilly try in vain to find out what powers the devices, until Rayner hacks into their communication and gives them the hint that they should search for something the ancient Promellians already possessed. While Saru is distracting the drones, Burnham manages to blow up the power source, upon which they are free to proceed and find the message. Phaser scorches in a stone pillar, however, reveal that L'ak and Moll beat them to it. It is still possible to decipher the four first verses of a Romulan poem though, which seems to indicate there is a further message on Betazed. Burnham and Saru have little time left as the drones begin to reactivate. But they find a "backdoor" underneath the pillar with the remainder about "where two souls entwine, joined as one" that points to Trill. There is also an artifact, whose shape matches with the drawing from Vellek's diary - apparently the first one of five parts of a puzzle. On the Discovery, Book uses an untraceable transmitter to talk to Moll and L'ak. He realizes that he has seen Moll before - she is Malinne, the daughter of his mentor Cleveland Booker IV. As Saru has left the ship, Burnham finds a new first officer in Rayner. He was forced to resign but his reinstatement was approved of by Admiral Vance.

Commentary

With the exception of Burnham and Saru's fight against the Promellian drones, "Under the Twin Moons" is a much calmer episode than the adrenaline-filled "Red Directive". I appreciate that the pace slows down. The time for character interaction is mostly used well. I especially like the way that Burnham and Saru take on their prospectively last common mission and reflect on the past while walking through the woods, although Saru says something odd that he probably didn't mean this way and that I comment on in the annotations.

It was foreshadowed in the previous episode, and now Rayner faces the wrath of his superiors. As it happens off-screen, we can't tell whether he was forced to resign only because of his allegedly reckless actions on Q'mau or whether there was something else on his record that leads up to the end of his career. We also don't know how much his confrontation with Rillak contributed to the decision. In any case, as I already mentioned, it leaves a bad taste. He gets penalized for something he didn't actually do, whereas Burnham and Tilly did do something wrong but are protected from prosecution as usual. This all serves to "prepare" Rayner to become Burnham's new XO (no one would have seriously expected Owo or Detmer in that capacity!), but it could have been done in a more plausible fashion.

"Red Directive" gratuitously involved Tilly, who needed an excuse to take a break from the Academy routine. What she found out after cracking that file was redundant. This feigned usefulness of her character continues in "Under the Twin Moons". She and Adira desperately try to find information on Promellian power sources that is ostensibly relevant but actually doesn't help Burnham and Saru against the drones on the planet. Then even Rayner chimes in and hacks their comm channel, apparently because someone felt the new character with the potential to become a fan favorite would otherwise have been too passive in this episode. If this were all half-way realistic, his interference would make them still more nervous. Anyway, the advice he gives Adira and Tilly about searching for technology the Promellians could have possessed is correct, but eventually doesn't help in any way either. Saru and Burnham have run out of options, and blowing up the launch base of the drones is about the only thing that is still left - with or without the tips from the jerks on the ship and on hacked subspace channels. This all is a textbook example of how not to write a race against time. If you do it right, you either involve everyone in a useful capacity, or you focus on those in danger and let them follow their instincts.

There is yet another plausibility problem pertaining to Rayner. When he talks to Burnham about the old days, Vance speaks of the many firefights he and Rayner were involved in. Rayner later insinuates that the reformed Starfleet wouldn't need unconventional officers or warriors like him any longer. This is not necessarily inconsistent, yet it makes me wonder if I got it all wrong in the third season. It was my clear impression that the post-Burn and pre-Burnham 32nd century Starfleet was seclusive. The ships were hiding behind the shield around Federation Headquarters most of the time. They would avoid battles and risky rescue missions. They had effectively stopped exploring - also because of the dilithium shortage, of course. The whole organization definitely was rather more than less politically correct than after Burnham turned it on its head. Is it just me, or are both Vance and Rayner telling a completely different story?

Bonnie and Clyde only appear in the communication with Book this time. It is not yet clear what kind of a role they will have for the rest of the season. My impression is that they won't remain the main antagonists. Although Moll and L'ak kill in cold blood if necessary, it seems more likely that someone else, someone bigger, is pulling the strings. It is well possible that they will even switch sides, especially since Book knows Moll. (On the other hand, he seems to know everyone in the galaxy anyway, like Fred last week.)

"Under the Twin Moons" does not quite live up to "Red Directive". But this is not primarily because the lack of excitement but because of the awkward ways that characters get involved and changes are brought about. I like that the episode doesn't lose focus of the mission to find the old artifacts. And I really dig Rayner, although the character is not written well in this episode.

Annotations

Rating: 5

 

Jinaal

Synopsis

"Jinaal"

After analyzing the artifact from Lyrek, Adira and Tilly find that the spots on it match with those of a Trill scientist named Jinaal Bix, who lived 800 years ago. As the Discovery arrives at Trill, Guardian Xi only permits the away team to beam down after Burnham has answered the question that the fourth stanza of the Romulan poem leads to Betazed. Kalzara, the current host of the Bix symbiont, and Hugh Culber undergo the zhian'tara in the Caves of Mak'ala, so Jinaal can lead Book and Burnham to the clue. Jinaal, Vellek and four other scientists found the Progenitors' technology but it was so overwhelmingly powerful that they decided the galaxy was not yet ready for it. In the meantime, Rayner gets acquainted with the crew of the Discovery on Burnham's orders, but he doesn't make friends among them with his callousness. After talking to Duvin, a Vulcan advisor, Saru is concerned that her engagement to an outworlder may endanger T'Rina's political career and Vulcan purists could gain influence. Saru suggests to postpone the announcement. Yet, T'Rina says she has nothing to hide and convinces him to proceed regardless. As Book, Burnham and Jinaal, in Culber's body, proceed to the stash, they are attacked by indigenous predators. Jinaal chooses to retreat. Book and Burnham keep trying and get trapped. They recognize that the creatures only try to protect their clutch and are free to leave after successfully communicating that they mean no harm. They return to Jinaal with the intention to try again later, but Jinaal says this was a test and hands them the next puzzle piece (which leads into Tzenkethi space). As Adira is still on Trill to say goodbye, Moll sneaks in and secretly attaches something to their uniform.

Commentary

I was pleasantly surprised about "Red Directive". I still thought the storyline about the Progenitor technology had potential when I watched "Under the Twin Moons" right after the season premiere. Unfortunately, as one week has gone by, things fall apart in "Jinaal".

This negative impression is in part because the story is more diversified this time and involves several other characters besides Burnham. What sounds like a good idea is not to the episode's benefit in my view.

Whether we like it or not, Michael Burnham is the one character that carries the whole storyline of the season. Not only does she have the most screen time and the most lines of dialogue. She is usually the one who recognizes the truth when everyone else does not see it and who takes action when everyone else falters. We can call her a Mary-Sue but Discovery would not be possible without her always being in the focus. Everyone else pales in comparison by default, and this is all the more noticeable in this particular episode where various other people are strongly involved too. Their plot threads are trite and their lines are clumsy. Well, we see a lot of Wilson Cruz with a strong performance in a key role, but he appears as Jinaal in Culber's body most of the time, leaving the regular character underdeveloped. At least, Culber gets involved, other than his husband Stamets, who still has no purpose in this season.

Rayner already had some decent action, then slipped into a conflict with his superiors that he lost and was given a second chance, all in the course of the first two episodes. His character got so well established in such a short time. The writers probably felt that he needed a setback and decided to let him appear as edgier and less likable this time. But the way how they push it, with Rayner out-Jellicoing and out-Shawing other callous Starfleet captains, is too much. At least, it gives some of the otherwise silent rest of the bridge crew 20 words of dialogue that he concedes to them. And in the tradition of the first two episodes, it provides this week's excuse for Tilly to be aboard the ship when she calls out Rayner's being a giant [sorry, 20 words limit exceeded]. I admit that bit was funny, but one punchline doesn't justify the plot. Neither does the voice-over at the end of the episode that once again emphasizes how important it is to connect (and how poor Rayner fails in this regard), like all through seasons 3 and 4. I almost missed this reminder in the first two episodes. No, just kidding!

Anyway, speaking of character interaction that feels off, we also have the not-so-glorious return of Jett Reno. When she tries to insinuate that not all may be well in Adira and Gray's relationship after being separated for six months, why does she have to speak in riddles to "space dad" Stamets (who reacts with his usual grimaces, which in this case are understandable)? The foreshadowed breakup itself is awkward too, but more relatably so and more like it could happen in real life. Although Adira and Gray come to that decision without having reasons and essentially because they talk one another into it, it is something that comes across as familiar (and that has something of the Abilene paradox). It just isn't interesting and probably will not have consequences (other than it may be undone towards the series finale).

I would also have hoped for a more engaging plot line (pun alert!) about Saru and T'Rina. I like these two a lot. But even though the Vulcan purists may be a thing and may play a role later in the season, the question of when to announce their engagement is even more trivial than Adira and Gray's breakup and further distracts from the main plot.

Coming back to Burnham, she is also an immensely valuable asset because she often speaks through the fourth wall and voices possible objections of the audience. Burnham does it at least twice in this episode. The first time is when she suggests to skip to the end of the level and get the clue right away, the second time is when she objects that Jinaal and company would have destroyed all evidence if they had no trust in people. I like Burnham as a "fans' advocate" that occasionally provides reason in a confounding story, even when it's merely lampshading. On the other hand, some time later we have to question Burnham's sanity because she seriously expects that the predators could recognize her phaser and would not attack once it is dereplicated (is that a word?).

The perhaps biggest disappointment about "Jinaal" is that everything that happens on Trill after the zhian'tara, on the search for the second puzzle piece, is essentially a carbon copy of the events on Lyrek where the first one was found. It was drones last week, now it's deadly predators that can shoot likewise. The only difference is that, for some reason, no one thinks about asking anyone on the ship for help. Anyway, the outcome that devils in the dark protect their eggs and can be appeased with a mind-meld is just as clichéd as the idea to blow up the central control unit to disable a decentralized system. On the top of that, in both cases there is a built-in deception, then a backdoor and now a red herring.

It doesn't have to be a bad thing that the storyline is formulaic and procrastinative by design. 800 years ago, some scientists decided the galaxy was not yet ready for an ancient technology. And so they created an adventure game that would test the players whether they are "worthy seekers", as Jinaal puts it (which sounds like an Indiana Jones reference, although I don't think it's one). With backdoors to test intelligence and with a red herring involving hatching monsters to test their moral standards. If this were a single episode like "The Chase", it could be a fun trip despite the many issues of logic and probability. And if the treasure hunt hadn't been done in similar ways in like six seasons since 2017, it would still have an air of originality.

It could all have been a little more captivating, had it been more about analyzing the clues and less about mindless action and passing character tests, a bit like it would have been in TNG (and was most notably in "The Chase"). But the arguably more suspenseful part about discovering how the spots on the artifact match with those of Jinaal is sidelined and condensed to like half a minute at the very beginning of the episode.

I am a bit sorry for this episode to draw my wrath because I did not recognize the weaknesses of the premise sooner, although they were already present in "Red Directive" and "Under the Twin Moons". But as the storyline turns out to be that of an average adventure game, with "Jinaal" being merely another level to be played by the book, interrupted by sitcom-like side plots, it comes as a disillusionment.

Annotations

Rating: 3

 

Face the Strange

Synopsis

"Face the Strange"

15 hours earlier, L'ak and Moll met with a trader to acquire an item, upon which they killed the man. Moll would later attach this device to Adira's uniform while on Trill. In the meantime the Discovery has arrived at the coordinates provided by Jinaal, but the crew doesn't find anything of note. While Burnham is talking to Rayner in her ready room, there are fluctuations aboard the ship, upon which they try in vain to beam to the bridge. The two suddenly find themselves in the past, during the Discovery's travel to the 32nd century through the wormhole. Then the phenomenon occurs again and takes them to the time when the ship was still under construction. The next leap leads to the battle against Control. Rayner concludes that Moll and L'ak use a Krenim-made chronophage, informally known as a "time bug" as a weapon against them. Left over from the Temporal Wars, it is designed to cycle the ship and crew through time. He and Burnham may be the only ones aboard aware of the phenomenon because they were in the transporter beam when the first leap happened. But Burnham thinks Stamets should know about it too because he lives outside space-time thanks to his tardigrade DNA. When they arrive in a future and everyone is dead after the Progenitor tech has fallen into the hands of the Breen, Zora recognizes a pattern that all destinations are located on a cone in space-time. At some point in the past, they meet with Stamets, but they run out of time. When they attempt to disable the time bug with a device that Stamets built according to Burnham's specifications after another leap to the future, it turns out that the bug possesses temporal shielding, inside which everything ages extremely fast. Back at a time when Michael Burnham just arrived on the ship as a prisoner, the three decide to go to maximum warp and then break the warp bubble to counteract the effects of the temporal shield. After getting into a fight with her past self, Burnham arrives on the bridge and convinces her crewmates that she really is Michael Burnham from the future. But past Burnham and Rhys enter engineering with their phasers drawn before Stamets and Rayner can destroy the bug. Rayner talks to them and finally gets them to lower their weapons. By disabling the bug, everything that happened in the past gets erased from the timeline. The Discovery is now in the present again. However, six hours have passed and Moll and L'ak are in the lead now...

Commentary

What was Paul doing while he was dead? Well, more about this question and a few other problems later.

I just love time travel episodes and I am willing to overlook a few logical flaws if it is entertaining or thought-provoking (or preferably both).

"Face the Strange" is reminiscent of VOY: "Shattered" as the idea of revisiting the ship at various other points in time is concerned. It also borrows heavily from DIS: "Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad", both because of the involvement of Stamets as the only one who somehow lives outside of space-time and because of the way that the series provides a welcome break from heavily serialized storytelling. But these are just the most obvious similarities. Actually, "Face the Strange" references so many other time travel episodes in one way or another that it may be labeled as a "best of". The "temporal eddy" that Rayner mentions - first seen in TNG: "Time Squared". The Krenim and their temporal technology - known from VOY: "Before and After" and, of course, from "Year of Hell". The Temporal Wars - a recurring element of Star Trek Enterprise. Putting the hand into a zone where time passes at a different rate (and which accordingly hurts) - as seen in TNG: "Timescape". Motivating a crew member in the past by mentioning his passion for starships - yeah, just what Picard did in TNG: "All Good Things".

At one point, I even thought that Burnham and Rayner may have traveled to the very future of SHO: "Calypso", in which the ship, with Zora still operating, would be deserted likewise. I was waiting for the story to try to explain the events that led up to the Short Treks episode, and I think this is a deliberate red herring. The truth is revealed when Zora opens the blinds of the bridge window and shows the results of the Breen gaining control of the Progenitor technology, which does not comply with SHO: "Calypso".

I just love time travel episodes, and this one doesn't leave me disappointed, although or just because all of its elements are familiar.

Despite some set redecoration, "Face the Strange" is a bottle show. In the greater context of this season's story arc, it could be rated as a filler episode. It ends just as it begins and doesn't bring the crew of the Discovery any closer to finding the Progenitor tech. Who knows, perhaps it will even make it to some people's skip lists because of that. Still, it accomplishes a lot. Firstly and perhaps most importantly, it is entertaining like few other installments of the series, in the best tradition of standalone episodes (similarly as already "Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad" in the deplorable first season but better written). Secondly, it is a good intermediate pay-off for a few things set up in the first three episodes, especially regarding the way that Burnham and later Rayner too earn the crew's trust.

I just love time travel episodes, and it is good that the story arc takes a break for standalone story.

Once again, Burnham is the driving force of the episode. It was a no-brainer that at some point she would run into her angry younger self and thereby into the demons of her past. I like what the story makes of it. Rayner contributes his share to the solution and makes up for his reluctance to "connect" with his new crew. Even though it is obtrusive how the series always capitalizes on "connections", it works for me this time. I only don't like how Burnham and Rayner and later Rayner and Stamets take time to discuss their feelings although time is pressing, which is a quirk Discovery simply cannot let go. Anyway, I am glad that Stamets finally gets some action, although it is something very obvious, something he was more or less destined to do. Even Jett Reno has a nice scene when Rayner runs into her at some time in the past.

One issue that shouldn't remain unmentioned is the way Burnham gets Airiam to believe her. It isn't reasonable and doesn't feel right that Airiam apparently knows which decision she would take in the case of an unlikely situation, and without being told anything about the circumstances. This awkward reappraisal/foreshadowing is just as pointless as Airiam's death in "Project Daedalus" was in the first place.

I just love time travel episodes, and I don't mind that this one is a bit "business as usual" and maybe "paint by numbers" as character stories are concerned.

Annotations

Rating: 7

 

Mirrors

Synopsis

"Mirrors"

Stardate 866282.9: After realigning the sensors, Tilly and Stamets find out that Moll and L'ak vanished in a wormhole that is a gate to interdimensional space. Burnham and Book take a shuttle into the anomaly where they run into the debris of their ship - and another vessel that is still fairly intact, the ISS Enterprise. They dock with the Terran ship and try to retrieve some data but the captain's log has been erased and all shuttles and escape pods are gone. The crew apparently used the ISS Enterprise to escape with their families from the desolate Mirror Universe, and the ship is stuck in the anomaly ever since. There are no records of what happened to them. Book and Burnham find L'ak and Moll in sickbay and manage to disable the emitters that they use to create holographic duplicates of themselves. As they are all pointing weapons at each other, Burnham offers to rescue the two couriers from interdimensional space. Book tries to gain the trust of Moll, whose father was his mentor. It turns out that L'ak is Breen, and that there is an erigah on him, a Breen blood bounty, because he fell in love with Moll, a "lesser being" according to his uncle. As they continue their fight, Burnham and L'ak get trapped behind a confinement field in sickbay. Book and Moll agree to a ceasefire, proceed to the bridge and try to deactivate the field. After all other attempts have failed, Moll causes a power surge. Burnham and L'ak are free now and resume their fight, in the course of which Burnham gets hold of the next piece of the Progenitor puzzle and L'ak is injured. The shuttle is lost, and the ISS Enterprise drifts toward the opening of the wormhole where it would be crushed. Burnham activates the tractor beam and uses it to send Rayner a message. Rayner, who understands the reference to a Kellerun poem, asks the crew for options to widen the aperture, upon which they come up with the solution to use photon torpedoes to enhance a matter-antimatter reaction at the periphery of the anomaly. This is successful, and the Discovery tractors the ISS Enterprise into normal space. L'ak and Moll, however, were prepared and escape with a warp pod. It turns out that the clue on the ISS Enterprise was placed there by a science officer from that ship, who went on living in the 24th century.

Commentary

When Michael Burnham decides to go on the shuttle mission herself and Rayner wants to have a word with her, it initially comes across as lamentation, a bit like last week when he had a problem with his captain making the rules. He reasons along the lines that Burnham is too important to go on dangerous away missions much like Riker would have done in his place, but it has an undertone of "It's not fair if you have all the fun." And just as he is about to get across that he not only cares a lot for the mission but also for his captain, Burnham changes the direction of their talk and brings up the subject of Rayner's difficulties to get accepted by the crew. Among the many debates of this kind that Discovery has almost every week and that often turn out pointless, this one stands out as surprisingly multifaceted.

It was foreshadowed last week and becomes obvious now: Hugh Culber has Hugh Culber problems again. As much as I like the good doctor as a person, he disappoints as a character as his development is more or less determined by the traumatic experience of the season. The trouble he had after his premature death in season 1 and unwarranted resurrection in season 2 still resonated with me. In season 4, Culber didn't seem to have any purpose after accomplishing the transfer of Gray's soul into a new body. And so the writers made up a reason for him to be sorrowful when he acts as Book's counselor and fails to prevent his patient from running amuck, a sentiment that came out of the blue and vanished just as quickly, without having any repercussions. We will still have to wait if and what kind of emotional trouble remains after carrying the mind of Jinaal and whether there will be more about it than Culber speaking about his intellectual and emotional journey in thoughtful but also banal words to Tilly.

The appearance of the ISS Enterprise in the anomaly was teased in the season trailer and through the repeated mentions of the Constitution class in dialogue. However, this fan service turns out to be rather disappointing. There is no reason in the story for this ship to be the ISS Enterprise except for the one one moment when Burnham sees Booker working at what would have been Spock's console on the USS Enterprise (in an attempt to contribute to the "family reunion" theme). And considering that all ships of one class are alike, it could have been any other Connie of the Terran fleet, if saving costs by using SNW sets was the principal goal. We get a lot of exposition about what happened in the Terran Empire and on the ship, but the back story is pure "Tell, don't show". Perhaps I should be glad that Ethan Peck doesn't appear as Mirror Spock with a goatee, which would have been corny (and which I'm afraid may still happen on SNW). Yet, I would have expected the Enterprise to be more than an interchangeable set. On the other hand, it is quite possible that the ship will reappear in some capacity.

Rather than the ISS Enterprise, the big reward in this episode is the revelation of L'ak's true identity (which too was foreshadowed, by multiple mentions of the Breen) and the flashback to the beginning of his and Moll's amour fou. I like the idea that the Breen don't need their facial masks to breathe or to cool down but rather as an enhancement that has become part of their identity. It is quite clear now that this and the erigah will continue to play a major role in the story arc. For the first time in Discovery, I am looking forward to further revelations about a rebooted species.

Although I anticipated that Moll may change her mind, I never expected Book to be successful with his first attempt to get through to her. It was obvious that he would fail and that after listening to him, she would run away with L'ak regardless. Yet, there could have been somewhat more about their interaction. They essentially just agree to disagree that Cleveland Booker was a shit dad to her but a great mentor to him. This is a realistic assessment but it is also rather trivial because no one is perfect and everyone disappoints a few people in their life. Also, this is about a person that we have never seen and hence more "Tell, don't show". Other than that, Booker makes it a big deal that Moll is about the only family that is left to him after losing Kwejian. In my view, this is a reasoning he makes up for himself to somehow find salvation. Sure, he lost his home planet and most of his friends and relatives, which is an unfathomable tragedy. But he never actually met Moll, and only because she is his mentor's daughter he feels a responsibility for her that I think he doesn't have. Book does have friends in Starfleet, and at this point it is possible that he may jeopardize this (again) in the course of the remaining episodes. If this suspicion is true, it would be like an unfortunate reissue of what he did last season, for similar reasons.

This episode is a mixed bag. It comes with loads of technobabble and plot clichés. The ISS Enterprise has no real significance in the story aside from being easy to create by adding stickers to SNW sets and being an opportunity for namedropping. The back story of L'ak and Moll works a lot better, and so much better that the powerful flashbacks outperform the action on the ISS Enterprise. On the Discovery, Rayner further learns to trust his crew (and vice versa), whereas everything about Culber remains dull. Overall, this is a bit below average (although I admit the average keeps rising).

Annotations

Rating: 4

 

Whistlespeak

Synopsis

"Whistlespeak"

Stamets and Tilly try in vain to find anything special about the vial recovered from the ISS Enterprise, which contains just distilled water. But Burnham can link the sample to a Denobulan scientist, who was a member of Vellek's group and who used to build water towers on dehydrated worlds. On the pre-industrial planet Halem'no there is one still in operation. Burnham and Tilly can't beam directly into the tower, which is surrounded by an energy field. They join a group of Halem'nites on a pilgrimage to the "High Summit". As they arrive, they are greeted by Ravah and their father Ohvaz. They learn of the "Journey", a race whose winner is allowed to enter the High Summit to be with the gods. Adira finds out that there are four more towers on Halem'no that have stopped working, and that the last one is going to fail as well, unless it is serviced via an auxiliary control panel. Tilly and Burnham join the Journey, which starts with them having to ingest something that creates extreme thirst. Everyone drinking water during the run is disqualified. Burnham drops out intentionally because she thinks she has found the way to the control unit. As only Tilly and Ravah are left in the race, Ravah trips and drops their water bowl that they have to carry across the finish line, but Tilly shares her water with them so they can enter the tower with her. Having found the control panel, Burnham successfully repairs the tower. Tilly is shocked to learn that the winners are going to be sacrificed. She and Ravah are locked up in the tower where they will suffocate once it is active. Burnham decides to break the Prime Directive. She tells Ohvaz that she is from another world and convinces him to open the door so Ravah and Tilly can be saved. Tilly has discovered that one symbol inside the tower matches the one on the vial. It points to the fourth tower. The next puzzle piece is found there and leads to Betazed. In the meantime, the USS Locherer has found Moll and L'ak.

Commentary

Star Trek Discovery gets spiritual again in "Whistlespeak", for the first time since season 2 and in the tradition of classics such as "Who Watches the Watchers". I like the Halem'nites and their rituals, and although the whistling has no further significance beyond justifying the episode title, it is a nice detail. It doesn't come as a big surprise that the winners of the "Journey" would be killed, but the twist works well in light of the enthusiastic advance praise for the Halem'nites, who were said to be an enlightened classless species. It was not a great but at least a decent story - well, until I asked myself the question who built the "temple" inside the tower and for what purpose...

Everything about the design of the towers is so inconsistent that I don't know where to start. I would normally list these problems in the annotations but at least one of them is so fundamental that it shatters the credibility of the whole story. First off, I take offense at Denobulan scientist Kreel giving the Halem'nites a technology that they didn't understand, that they became dependent on and that would harm or even kill them once it fails. The latter already happened four times and it almost wiped out the rest of their civilization when the last tower was about to stop operation, after apparently no one has taken care of it in 800 years (although the technology is visible from space and would be easy to monitor). We may interject that for once it is realistic that four of the five towers have stopped working, unlike it is usually the case with ancient technology, such as with the Promellian graveyard only lately. Then again, it is implausible that some simple reconfiguration of a control panel is sufficient to repair the old hardware. Yeah, it triggers the replacement of components as Adira mentions, rather than being itself the repair, but that could have been accomplished easier by including redundancy (meaning spare consoles that can take over). I also wonder why the console is hidden somewhere in the woods instead of inside the tower (a question that will also have a bearing on the most serious issue, but have patience with me). A comparably minor thing is why a control unit would leak radiation, rather than the place where the power is generated or where most power is being consumed.

Anyway, now for the fatal flaw in the way the tower architecture is shown and described, and ultimately in the entire story. Kreel hid the console because of the Prime Directive. He made the whole tower construction look like it was natural. So far, so good. But he obviously allowed the Halem'nites access to the structure, part of whose interior he designed to look like a temple! The symbols (which probably exist in all towers) were left behind by Kreel himself and not created afterwards because even though they are ancient Halem'nite writing, a specific one of them has to match with the one on the vial. The "temple" has tritanium walls yet doesn't feature anything too "advanced" and hence looks like what it almost definitely is: a place created for them to worship the gods. What's more, the mechanism of the temple is linked to the technology of the tower, it gets evacuated together with the rest and it is air-tight. In other words, Kreel built the temple in clear violation of the Prime Directive and he additionally made staying there unsafe by design. Intentionally or not, he gave the Halem'nites the idea to have their own people killed there. The statement "Well, he couldn't have known that leaving behind a weather tower would lead the Halem'nites to sacrificing one another" ignores the facts. For those who still think this is not yet proof enough that he intended the Halem'nites to enter, the tritanium is impervious to 32nd century transporters. No one can tell me Kreel couldn't have built it in a way it would never be accessible to them. I wonder anyway how Ohvaz, Ravah and Tilly get to the chamber, which is located hundreds of meters above the ground. Did generations of Halem'nites carve stairs into the tower, or can they use an elevator? This all could have been made a little bit more plausible with a statement about the interior design of the tower. But the way it is, we are meant to accept the existence of the temple without asking unpleasant questions.

On a final note on problems with Kreel's design, the last operational tower is surrounded by an energy field. This sounds familiar because the same applied to the ancient Promellian graveyard. Perhaps I should be grateful that the story is not a carbon copy of "Under the Twin Moons" in this regard and that maybe Kreel wanted to allow people to beam in and find the clue (which is in another tower anyway). Still, it just doesn't make sense that the energy field is supposedly a side effect of the system failure. I mean, it could leak radiation and perhaps should (unlike the console!). But an impervious energy field as a malfunction is too specific and hence implausible. Moreover, this problem was included in the story for no good reason because after the tower is working properly again, it is still not possible to beam in because of the tritanium hull!

Sorry for the rant. People frequently accuse me of trashing great episodes because of my alleged obsession with nitpicking, which isn't true. "Whistlespeak" is one of the rare exceptions that prove the rule.

But what else has this episode to offer? Sadly almost nothing. Rayner takes a break from the action. His only notable accomplishment is that he manages to motivate Adira, who still feels guilty for bringing the time bug aboard. Tilly is The Chosen One this week. The writers' attempts to upgrade a character by teaming them up with Burnham have become a bit like paint by numbers. Burnham's decision to take Tilly with her is like "It's her turn this week and I feel I haven't talked enough with her this season".

Oh yes. There's also Hugh Culber with his feeling of being "connected" (multiple buzzword alerts in this episode!) to everyone. Well, to everyone but Paul, who just doesn't understand why his husband is running around with a such a blissful face and speaking wisely all the time. The "connection" that Culber feels is pure "Tell, don't show". It is possible that this overly subtle approach to get across, well, something will make sense in the remaining episodes, but right now every interaction Happy Hugh has with other characters (Tilly, his creepy holo-grandma, Book, Stamets) is totally inconclusive and darn boring.

"Whistlespeak" could have become a classic of its kind, but it gets dragged down by the badly conceived story of the water tower temple and its significance in Halem'nite culture. Other than that, it is a filler episode in which nothing noteworthy happens.

Annotations

Rating: 2

 

Erigah

Synopsis

"Erigah"

Moll and L'ak are transferred from the Locherer to the Discovery, but L'ak is in bad condition after his injury on the ISS Enterprise. Dr. Culber has little knowledge about Breen physiology and uses an old refrigeration unit to trigger his supposed regenerative capabilities. A Breen dreadnought is en route to Federation Headquarters. Admiral Vance wants the Discovery to run away with the prisoners, but Burnham convinces him it would be better to negotiate. She suspects that the erigah is not about killing L'ak. She talks to L'ak, who admits that he is the scion of the Breen Imperium and that his uncle, Primarch Ruhn, needs him alive to legitimize his claim to power. The huge Breen ship arrives, and Ruhn demands the immediate extradition of the prisoners. President T'Rina ostensibly asks for one hour to complete the paperwork. Burnham seeks Rayner's advice on the Breen and learns that his homeworld Kellerun was ravaged by Primarch Tahal. Using his knowledge about the Breen factions, the Federation sets up a ruse. T'Rina claims she has a better offer from Ruhn's rival Tahal. She proposes a third option, to leave L'ak in the Federation's custody so the status quo can be preserved. In the meantime, however, L'ak has given himself an overdose of his medication and Moll uses the opportunity to break out. The Discovery is on lockdown now, and there is no place for her to go. Book persuades her to return to sickbay, where L'ak is dying. Even the Primarch can't save him. Ruhn announces to open fire. But Moll offers to provide him with the plans of the Progenitor technology. She may also hope to use it to bring L'ak back to life. Assuming that they still have an edge, the Federation releases Moll in order to avert the bloodshed, although the Breen will likely kill her once they have what they want. Forming a telepathic link with a Betazoid piece of metal found on Halem'no, Book sees plasma storms. This reveals the current location of an ancient library in the Badlands where a manuscript called Labyrinths of the Mind by Marina Derex is presumably stored.

Commentary

Looking back at the season so far, the treasure hunt was really suspenseful only in the first two episodes. The continued focus on this aspect in "Jinaal", "Mirrors" and "Whistlespeak" has become tiresome. It is quite telling that the so far best episode in my view is "Face the Strange" with its standalone time travel adventure. In this regard, I welcome "Erigah" as a mid-season season finale that concludes the Moll/L'ak thread for now, brings the Breen into play and reshuffles the pack regarding the race for the Progenitor technology.

A lot is going on in "Erigah" and a lot of characters are involved. The writing establishes a good balance between exciting and contemplative moments. At least, this all works well once we put up with the quirk that no situation in Discovery could be too tense and too urgent to discuss personal matters and feelings.

Previous Discovery episodes often found excuses for characters to leave their comfort zones, or for them to act erratically. In contrast, everyone is perfectly in character in "Erigah". I'm two minds about that. It befits this rather complex plot that the complications are not brought about by characters being out of line. I like that Tilly becomes a mentor for Adira and helps them to become more self-confident just as she herself learned to overcome her awkwardness. I also appreciate that Culber is back to normal again, although we need to wonder what the whole fuss about him being "connected" was or will still be about.

Yet, I would really have wished for someone to break out of their role. Vance could have overruled Burnham once in his career, or Nhan could have been more than someone defined by her duty and her respect for Burnham. There is even a (bad) red herring to that end when Book wants to leave Stamets to go after Moll but then, against our expectations, decides to mind-meld with the metal card. But no. He does it in a rush, only to leave anyway a couple of minutes later, although it is realistically too late and a lot could have happened until now. It may also have been a good idea for someone other than Burnham to uncover the true identity of L'ak (which Book may have accomplished) and to come up with the ploy for the Breen (which could have been Rayner's idea). But no, it is Burnham's prerogative. Speaking of Rayner, his revelation that the Breen occupied his home planet is the only moment the characterizations leave the beaten path, although it doesn't really make sense that Burnham knew nothing about it. This is a decent story with many characters in it, at the expense of them being particularly interesting.

All in all, "Erigah" is a solid episode that moves the overarching story forward in a much more satisfying fashion than the usual clues of the week. There are several plot twists, and although not all of them are plausible, there are no WTF moments like in last week's "Whistlespeak". We learn quite a bit about the Breen and can be sure that they are here to stay (at least for the three remaining episodes of the series). And after it has been foreshadowed so openly, I would be surprised if L'ak were not resurrected.

Annotations

Rating: 5

 

Labyrinths

Synopsis

"Labyrinths"

On the Breen dreadnought, Moll reveals to Primarch Ruhn that the Progenitor technology could revive the dead and bring back the Scion L'ak. In order to retrieve the last clue, the Discovery arrives at The Eternal Gallery and Archive in the Badlands, where Michael Burnham and Booker are welcomed by a woman named Hy'Rell. As Burnham investigates the book Labyrinths of the Mind, she collapses and finds herself in an illusory version of the Archive, with Book as her guide. This is a test created by Marina Derex for her to prove worthy to obtain the last clue. After she has made her way through a maze, she wonders what there is still left for her to do. Burnham eventually recognizes that the key is to recognize her own weaknesses, in her case the fear of failure. In the meantime, the Breen have arrived too. Rayner, Culber, Book and the still unconscious Burnham are trapped on the station. While the Discovery is hiding in the plasma storms, Primarch Ruhn extends a shield tunnel to board the Archive. Stamets, Adira and Reno manage to disrupt the tunnel, but a few Breen soldiers break through. Rayner and Book fight them off. Burnham finally learns that the last clue is hidden inside a crystal aboard the Archive and wakes up. The away team recovers the clue and beams away just as the Breen materialize. Ruhn now threatens to destroy the Archive if Burnham doesn't hand out all clues. After extracting the map from the artifact, Burnham has it beamed over to his ship, under the condition that Ruhn swears a tergun, a Breen oath, not to harm the Archive. The Breen begin to fire on the Discovery and believe to have destroyed the ship because Burnham created an explosion and debris by evacuating the shuttlebay and venting the plasma from the nacelles immediately before jumping away. The ship is now 22 light-years away from the supposed location of the Progenitor technology and without warp power. On the Breen dreadnought, Ruhn orders to destroy the Archive regardless and wants to get rid of Moll too. She manages to grab his weapon and kills the Primarch. The remaining Breen accept her, as L'ak's wife, as their new leader.

Commentary

The best thing about "Labyrinths" is that the vigor of last week's "Erigah" persists. Well, the setting is a bit repetitive, with the Breen threatening to destroy the Archive this week, instead of Federation Headquarters. But I really dig the idea and the design of the Archive, as well as the character of Hy'Rell.

If something has significantly improved in the fifth season, it is that calm moments do not feel out of place in episodes with lots of action. I think that under this condition it was a good decision to separate and slow down the plot thread about Burnham finding the last clue, while the battle is raging around her. Unfortunately the story in her mindscape boils down to an implausible cookie-cutter character test like already in "Jinaal".

The illusion created in and from Burnham's mind never convinces me. I know that strange things like this have happened before, such as famously in TNG: "The Inner Light" and (far less successfully) only lately in PIC: "Monsters". So if we suspend disbelief (which is hard enough) and imagine it is possible to run an individual psycho test in the mind of an arbitrary person of any species, we should expect to learn something interesting. But this simply doesn't happen. The still best part is at the beginning when Burnham doesn't assign significance to the illusory version of Book yet and just wants to get on with whatever the test is. As I wrote in a review earlier this season, she is often a bit like the viewer's advocate. Once again, she expresses exactly what I think about wasting time talking when you could or should do something.

A bit later, however, Burnham leaves the path of reason when she ponders about why Book was chosen as her guide through the scenario. She now believes that it was because they have an unresolved issue, because they failed to talk out their different opinions about the extradition of Moll earlier in the episode. She totally overrates this recent disagreement, rather than coming to the obvious conclusion that they were or are in love, which is more than enough reason for him to be her guide, if everything in the mindscape is there for a reason. What's more, the awkwardly mistimed and forgettable debate about their feelings, which is so typical of how Discovery used to be, is retroactively assigned a special significance.

Burnham then recognizes something else - that her mission means everything to her and that she is most of all afraid of failure. This is true for all we can tell, but it hardly qualifies as newly gained self-knowledge. On the contrary, since any external reference or testimony is missing in a scenario compiled solely from her mind, by an 800-year-old program no less, this insight likely involves a good deal of circular logic and confirmation bias. It ultimately boils down to the platitude "Be honest with yourself" anyway. There is apparently an algorithm that decides whether she correctly recognized her flaws. So *that* is the qualification to obtain the most powerful technology in the history of the galaxy? Come on! I wonder what Ruhn had experienced, had he found the book first. Perhaps something like "My worst fear is to have no one I could threaten to kill and my biggest fault is that I believe every word that the little human woman says to me." - "Congratulations! You pass the test."

Well, at least the writing is aware of the lacking plausibility of the scenario. Actually, at one point the word "psychobabble" came to my mind, and guess what Burnham uses to lampshade the situation one second later! But despite the efforts to establish Burnham as a person who scrutinizes things instead of accepting superficial truths, the plot thread is similarly pointless as Janeway's journey in VOY: "Sacred Ground". Well, Burnham says she learned something else in the mindscape that may help find the technology. Maybe at least this will pay off next week.

Although the confrontation with the Breen is a better story than Burnham's psycho trip, Ruhn turns out to be an exceptionally weak villain: unnecessarily cruel, ridiculously credulous and criminally careless. Moll has control over him at any time and even prevails when he is about to dispose of her.

Annotations

Rating: 4

 

Lagrange Point

Synopsis

"Lagrange Point"

After finishing the most pressing repairs, the Discovery cloaks and jumps to the coordinates of the Progenitor technology, to find something at the Lagrange point between two primordial black holes. But then Moll's dreadnought arrives and tractors in the structure. Although it seems like Moll could access the technology right away, Burnham reveals that she received another clue in her mindscape that Moll doesn't have: "Build the shape of the one between the many." Meanwhile at Federation Headquarters, Saru volunteers for a diplomatic mission to Breen space on a shuttle with pathway drive, to convince Primarch Tahal to stand down. In order to get the structure back, Rhys, Tal, Burnham and Book take a shuttle and use a gap in the shields around the engines of the Breen ship to beam aboard. Disguised as Breen, the former two proceed to the bridge and work on taking down the shields, while the latter two try to gain access to the shuttlebay to attach a transpo lock to the structure that would allow to beam it out. After disabling two guards, Book and Burnham enter. They witness how the Breen send in a soldier, who then vanishes in what looks like an extradimensional portal. The structure is then secured using a containment field. As Adira has broken into the system and is ready to drop the shields, Burnham is still busy trying to take the containment field down. When the Breen discover that the two guards are missing, Moll orders to lock down the shuttlebay. Rayner knows that Burnham and Book will get busted any second, so he hails Moll as a diversion. Yet, just as they have attached the transpo lock to the structure, Burnham and Book are surrounded by Breen soldiers. Moll orders to take them to the brig, but Burnham still manages to give Rayner a cue that he should destroy the forcefield of the shuttlebay. So the Discovery decloaks, fires at the shuttlebay and goes on a collision course. Rhys and Tal take down the shields and get beamed out. Moll recognizes the plan and enters the structure together with a buffer containing L'ak's pattern, vanishing behind the barrier. Burnham follows her. The Discovery breaks into the shuttlebay, but the structure gets blown out, whereas the extradimensional gateway remains open...

Commentary

The old story about a bold away team that infiltrates an enemy ship works surprisingly well in "Lagrange Point". With the one exception of Burnham talking to Book about her feelings for him (and lampshading that) while the Breen are around the next corner, the pacing is excellent. It has taken Discovery until its fifth and final year, but the series finally gets action sequences and tense situations right, in all episodes of the season so far but particularly in this one, directed by no one else but Jonathan Frakes.

I like the occasional humorous remarks on the away mission and Burnham's clever idea to speak to Moll while actually giving Rayner a cue that Moll doesn't understand. This is the spirit of good old classic Trek.

Only the Breen are pretty disappointing in this episode, in which they have the arguably most screen time so far. Not only does Moll boss them around all the time, they are also sort of demystified by now. Rather than the enigmatic creatures behind the masks that they used to be on DS9, the Breen are more like Stormtroopers in the latest couple of episodes, credulity and bad aim included.

"Lagrange Point" also provides us with a justification for the insane size of the Breen dreadnought because it is a story requirement for the Discovery to be small enough to break into the shuttlebay. This is spectacular. Then again, Burnham's ship already pulled similar stunts against similarly huge vessels in "What's Past Is Prologue" and "That Hope Is You, Part 2", so the idea has lost much of its zip for me, although the execution is better this time.

The B-plot about the attempts to get Tahal out of the conflict is the far less interesting one. Sure, it may be worse for the Discovery to face two dreadnoughts instead of one, although it is just a small step up from overkill to double overkill. But couldn't Tahal's ship be a diversion that Burnham could take advantage of? It is all not as relevant anyway as it should be because Tahal is more like a phantom menace. We have never seen her before and only know how cruel she is from Rayner's recount. And when she does show up, which will probably happen in the finale because I can't imagine Saru's mission will be in vain, I'm lacking the imagination that she will be more than a reissue of Ruhn - only with a female mechanical voice. This raises the question whether we even want a new antagonist to enter the stage in the final episode or rather resolve the existing conflicts with priority.

Too little is happening in the B-plot. It is essentially about Rillak, Saru and T'Rina who want to help but can't do anything, until they come up with a desperate mission as a last diplomatic resort - that will begin next week. Well, and it is about T'Rina being worried about Saru going on that mission. Although I like the two, the same sentiment is arguably better addressed in the scene when Stamets raises his voice in vain as his protégé Adira volunteers for the undercover job on the Breen ship.

"Lagrange Point" keeps up the suspense as already the two preceding episodes. It makes sense that it is all about action, considering that Moll and the Discovery have arrived at the coordinates of the Holy Grail and are naturally struggling for its possession. On the other hand, that has been the story of the season all along. And although I expect the season finale to be still a step up in this regard, I hope for the Progenitor tech to present itself as perplexing and/or enlightening, rather than being an ultimate weapon that has to be either used or destroyed in the end. In my view, the finale should have somewhat less action and more contemplation (about something else than "being connected", please!).

Annotations

Rating: 5

 

Life, Itself

Synopsis

"Life, Itself"

On the other side of the portal, Burnham finds herself in huge hallway with access to many different environments. She gets into a fight with the Breen soldier, who first entered, but Moll appears and shoots him in revenge for him injuring her. Burnham hands Moll a dermal regenerator and offers to proceed to the technology together. Some time later Moll agrees to the proposal. As the dreadnought is still disabled after the explosions in the shuttlebay, Breen fighters begin to attack the Discovery. Rayner decides to take on the fighters with priority. He authorizes Book to use a shuttle to proceed to the gateway, although the radiation levels wouldn't allow him to survive for long. Culber joins the mission. Saru and Nhan, in a shuttle with pathway drive, have caught up with Tahal's fleet. The Breen leader is not ready to negotiate, and has no interest in opening a trade route that the ambassador offers if she reverses course. But that proposal was a ruse. Saru now knows that Tahal has a secret base near that route she would want to protect, and he threatens to attack it. The fleet turns around. As Burnham and Moll have arrived at an interface that would give them access once they have solved a final puzzle, Moll uses a moment of inattention to knock down Burnham. She rematerializes L'ak's body from the pattern buffer in the hope to resurrect him. Moll then tries to rearrange the nine equilateral triangles on the surface in a way that makes sense to her but triggers a defense mechanism of the structure, which now drifts towards one of the black holes. On the Discovery, Tilly proposes to get rid of the fighters by triggering a plasma burst, which is successful. But the dreadnought is operational again now and is coming for the Discovery. Meanwhile on the shuttle, Book is trying in vain to stabilize the gateway. Culber remembers its subspace resonance frequency that was in Jinaal's mind, using which they can lock on with the tractor beam to buy Burnham more time. Burnham wakes up and removes Moll from the console. She solves the puzzle by rearranging the nine triangles to create a negative triangular space between them, "the shape of the one between the many". She meets one of the Progenitors in a place outside of space and time. Burnham learns that the Progenitors themselves were created and only found this place. Also, they can't revive the dead. The Discovery would not be capable of engaging the huge Breen vessel and Tahal has sent a cloaked scout ship that must not discover the secret of the gateway. Rayner, Tilly and Stamets come up with a risky plan to use the spore drive to displace the two Breen ships. Separating the saucer, they entangle the spores and transfer the enemy vessels in between to the edge of the galaxy. In the gateway, Burnham is offered stewardship over the technology, but she prefers to return to her time. She and Moll are beamed out. As the technology would never be safe, Burnham decides to toss the gateway into the black hole. Kovich has plans with Moll, and as he talks to Burnham he reveals that he is actually Agent Daniels. Saru and T'Rina get married as planned. -- Many years later, Burnham is retired and is accompanied by her son to the Discovery's final mission, a Red Directive. The ship is restored to how it looked in the 23rd century and supposed to be left afloat.

Commentary

The series finale is almost one and a half hours long. I don't think it uses all of the extra time as wisely as it may have been possible. For instance, Burnham goes through a lot of gratuitous fighting in the first 20 minutes of the episode, until she can convince Moll to stand down and explore the Progenitor tech together. There are several more threats and complications that claim screen time but whose merit is that they give some characters some action, rather than really contributing to the story.

As was foreseeable last week, Tahal's involvement in the final episode is too little too late. The way that Saru tricks her into revealing her secret base may be intriguing, but overall the threat this villain poses, who appears only as a holographic image and turns out cowardly despite boasting massive warships, has a marginal impact on the story. I also don't see the necessity to wait for Tahal's scout ship and time everything precisely to get rid of it together with Ruhn's dreadnought. Once Ruhn's ship was gone, there would have been other ways to keep Tahal away from the gateway or to play down its importance to her. Finally, it may have been a thing for Rayner either to take revenge on her personally or to have mercy with her. Without that, she could just as well have been dropped from the story altogether. And the same applies to Nhan, who is on the shuttle only to admire Saru's diplomatic skills.

In a similar vein, the shuttle mission of Book and Culber does not become as big a deal as it initially seems. I am pleased that the story eventually justifies the good doctor's awkwardness ever since "Jinaal" and his going on that mission with Book against all reason. The fuss about the aftereffects of his connection to Jinaal is not totally anticlimactic in hindsight; he can put it to use after all. Then again, rather than being a metaphysical matter of "being connected to everyone", as Culber expressed it, wouldn't it be a totally plausible side effect for him to keep some of Jinaal's memories (once we accept the outlandish concept of the Trill zhian'tara)? Much stranger things have happened, and it shouldn't puzzle Culber that he suddenly knows the right subspace frequency. Anyway, if we think further about how Burnham is out of space and time inside the gateway, it may not even have needed their tractor beam to stabilize it.

I love the visualization of the other side of the portal, which is among the most impressive of the whole series. Also, the concept of it being designed in more than three dimensions is intriguing. Unfortunately, the whole idea of the builders thinking extradimensionally is of no further relevance in the story. The puzzle with the nine triangles that Burnham has to solve, for instance, involves merely two dimensions - and also feels out of place among the big character tests of the season.

I was expecting a similarly impactful revelation in "Life, Itself" as the one at the end of "The Chase". Yet, Burnham's actual encounter with the ancient technology as she speaks to the Progenitor is a bit disappointing because we don't see or learn anything exciting new about it. We already know that the far end of the gateway is an amazing place outside space, and it isn't really surprising that it is also displaced in time. It happens all the time in Star Trek after all. The danger that may lie with it and which was the driving force of the whole season is dealt with in one puny single sentence that somebody could use it to engineer an army. So that is it? That abstract theoretical possibility is what's so incredibly dangerous? More than any of the many other technologies that, combined with spatial and temporal phenomena, would make possible essentially the same?

Rather than about the possibilities and the ethical implications of the technology, the second half of the discussion with the Progenitor is yet again primarily about Burnham's personality. It honors her that her thoughts are more on her friends who are in danger, but in this pivotal moment I would have expected something more visionary. Perhaps, after assuring that no time would be lost for her friends outside the gateway, the Progenitor could have demonstrated the power of creation in some fashion instead of just talking about Burnham's qualification to oversee it. And Burnham could have shown at least *some* genuine interest in it.

The fact that the Progenitors can create life but can't bring back the dead is only a side aspect in the story. Just as the incredibly powerful weapons that the Progenitors were rumored to possess, their alleged ability to resurrect L'ak was more like a pipe dream, a depressing setback for Moll that comes across as realistic. But after building hopes about bringing L'ak back it is anticlimactic and clumsy how casually Burnham learns and later tells Moll that it isn't possible.

What we do learn about the Progenitors we didn't know yet is that they themselves were created by someone or something and only found the world beyond the gateway. Maybe this is the visionary (religious?) aspect that is otherwise missing from the story. But does it have further implications? When Burnham decides to destroy the gateway, she mentions that whoever built it could do it again. But wouldn't the decision have been the exact same, had the Progenitors themselves created everything?

No matter who actually created it and whether it contained deadly weapons of mass destruction or soldiers or only knowledge that hypothetically could be harmful, it was predictable that Burnham would eventually destroy the gateway. At least, I never expected anything else. Discovery has an unfortunate record of denying history and technology, allegedly for the greater good. It leaves a bad taste that this happens again and especially that Burnham gets rid of the gateway right away, although there was no urgency any longer, once the Breen were gone. The Progenitor technology would have deserved a chance to be further explored in some fashion, instead of deciding that it is dangerous after checking it for merely a couple of minutes.

After Burnham has tossed the gateway into the black hole, there are still almost 30 minutes left in the episode. I think the season gets wrapped up overall nicely in the next ten minutes. I only don't care for the revelation that Kovich is actually Daniels, which is another unnecessary tie-in that strives to make Discovery more relevant. Essentially it is nothing more than a namedrop. I would have very much preferred for Kovich to remain mysterious. Showing the wedding of T'Rina and Saru (with hardly any Vulcans and no Kelpien being present for some reason) was a no-brainer. Book and Burnham finally recognize that breaking up in the first place, and no one of them coming forward to change that, was a bad idea. And yes, of course, everyone affirms to everyone else how "connected" they are!

Up to this point, "Life, Itself" is a solid series finale that ties up most of the loose ends as expected and brings us a good deal of action. It involves several gratuitous plot elements and is overall unnecessarily verbose without telling very much. On the visual side, the place beyond the portal is simply amazing, whereas some other scenes are unpleasant watching and almost nauseating, such as the numerous extreme camera pans or tilts and the warp streaks/flashes on Saru's shuttle. The score is unusually prominent and among the best in the series.

But there are still over 15 minutes left for an epilogue. As I watched, I initially thought of it as a superfluous add-on to a satisfactory conclusion of the season. But the magic serenity of old Burnham and old Book in their retreat on Sanctuary Four didn't leave me cold. Then their son Leto appeared and foreshadowed that something would still happen.

The continuity fixing that follows is uncalled-for. First off, "Calypso" is only a Short Treks episode and it merely depicts a possible future. It wouldn't have required an explanation to appease me, and I don't believe it has been the plan all along to provide one in the series finale. Spending so much time to make sense of it is disproportionate. Also, the mysterious final mission raises more questions than it answers because it would have been more plausible for the crew to abandon the ship the way it was than for Starfleet to restore it to how it originally looked and abandon it on purpose so someone named Craft would find it in the future.

Of course, besides fixing the continuity issue, the final mission of the "original" Discovery also allows the series to come full circle. That aspect resonated with me. The whole epilog is genuinely heartwarming. And yes, I will miss Discovery a bit.

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Rating: 6

 


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