Cozying Up to "Ko'Zeine"

After the action, suspense, and heartbreak of episode six, episode seven delivers a quieter character study in "Ko'Zeine." Making good use of the A story/B story format often used in the 90s Star Trek shows, "Ko'Zeine" focuses on the personal struggles of four cadets during the "All Worlds Day" break. Darem and Jay-Den wind up on a Kionian moon, which is to host Darem's long-arranged marriage. Meanwhile, Careb declines to leave the Academy for the holidays, and for duplicitous reasons on her own, Genesis returns to the Academy rather than visit her father, a Starfleet admiral. 

What follows is a fairly laid-back, somewhat predictable hour of character development. It's perhaps the weakest episode of the season so far, but it's nice to see an hour exploring issues that have caused teenage angst since time immemorial: lying for stupid, fear-based reasons and freaking out over the idea of being caught, not knowing how to reconnect with a girlfriend after you've had a fight, and being forced to make decisions very early in life that will impact your path for decades to come. 

Tig Notaro is the highlight of this episode, as she often is, just by playing a version of herself. I'm so glad she came over from Discovery. 

There's really not much to say about this one. The actors do their usual credible job, the stakes are relatable, and several interpersonal relationships move forward in a way that feels organic. It's not a memorable episode; nor is it objectionable. 
 

Come, Let's Review "Come, Let's Away"

SPOILERS BELOW for "Come, Let's Away,"
Episode Six of Star Trek: Starfleet Academy

I came to the latest iteration of Star Trek with low expectations, given my disappointment with Star Trek: Discovery and its last three seasons in particular. But I must say, I feel like the show keeps getting better with each successive episode, and "Come, Let's Away" is certainly its best hour yet. 

Once again, I'm glad that the showrunners have learned you don't need world-ending stakes to create suspense and meaning in science fiction. I note this because the stakes for this episode change as the story progresses, to excellent effect; it starts as a training exercise, entertwined with the fate of a budding relationship, progresses to a hostage situation, and then pulls the rug out from under the audience with an 11th hour turn that reveals the stakes are higher than this cast has ever faced--and as a bonus, the good guys lose in a big way by the time the curtain drops. Characters we came to enjoy over the course of the first five episodes meet their final fates here in a way that feels organic and earned, relationships evolve naturally, and we learn things about our protagonists and, in a welcome return, one of our chief antagonists--Paul Giamatti's Nus Braka. 

Indeed, there are couple of scenes with Nus Braka and Holly Hunter's Chancellor Nahla Ake that are utterly compelling, a master class in acting from both performers. 

Crucially, the plot points all make sense, too, progressing logically, and none of the characters are stupid; they make good decisions, they have backup plans--and they still lose, because the opposition is just a couple of steps ahead. It's great to see--proper drama with relatable stakes. 

Come, let's bring on the last three episodes of season one! 

P.S. I do have thoughts on last week's episode, "Series Acclimation Mil," but I haven't put them to . . . well, not to paper, but to screen. I haven't decided how I feel about the episode yet, because there are parts I genuinely love, and parts I have reservations about, and I haven't decided if the problems are with the episode or my perception. 

 

A Class Opening Act

MINOR SPOILERS for "Kids These Days" and "Beta Test," the first two episodes of Star Trek: Starfleet Academy

The latest adventure in the Star Trek saga brings us down to Earth--quite literally, as this series is set at Starfleet Academy in San Francisco--but also metaphorically, because, judging by the first two episodes, this series will be more grounded than Star Trek: Discovery or Star Trek: Picard, in which the fate of worlds and even universes was at stake. This time around, the adventures are about rebuilding, reconnecting, and discovering potential on voyages not just through space, but through life and all its ups and downs. 

As a spinoff of later seasons of Star Trek: Discovery, this new show's premise unfolds from the near-destruction of the United Federation of Planets, the long-standing setting for all the Star Trek series and movies, and the reconstruction necessary after its near-fall. The first episode of the series introduces us to some of the people impacted by the Federation's near-collapse and how they come together at the renewed Starfleet Academy, now reconstituted in San Francisco for the first time in over a century. 

The cast is led by Holly Hunter, who's really superb here as Academy Chancellor and former Starfleet captain Nahla Ake. Hunter owns every scene she's in with a sincere, empathetic performance edged with both tragedy and playfulness. Tig Notaro and Robert Picardo are back and as lovable as ever as their original characters Jett Reno, crabby time-tossed engineer from the 23rd century, and the Emergency Medical Hologram, whose program is still functioning almost 1,000 years since it was first initiated. 

Paul Giamatti appears only in the first episode, but he's wonderfully over the top as Nus Braka, interstellar thief and murderer, half Klingon and half Tellarite for extra boorishness. Some genius on the makeup or hair styling team gave Giamatti's character a haircut that features a completed game of Xs and Os on the side of his skull, a ludicrous detail that tickles me to no end. It's not explained, which is perfect. I hope no characters ever take note of it. 

Of course, the students are the main focus of this series, and their actors all shine in different ways. As I approach my 60s I'll admit to finding some of their antics a little annoying, but then I remember they're young--when I was surely even more exasperating. Sandro Rosta as Caleb Mir has to do most of the heavy lifting among the student characters; he's the "bad boy" of the show, a child torn from his mother by Holly Hunter's Nahla Ake (naturally). Rosta has to believably balance his understandable resentment for Ake while still being sympathetic and showing the ability to grow past his pain and impetuousness. Rosta, I think, pulls it off, and the scenes between Rosta and Hunter are a joy to watch. 

Even the bridge officers on the USS Athena--more on that later--already feel more real and interesting to me than the poor, overlooked bridge crew of the Discovery, even though the Athena crew appear only in the pilot and Discovery's secondary characters had over 50 episodes to grow--but didn't. 

The show's storytelling across its first two episodes is economical and tight; the plots are focused and logical, and the dialogue generally decent--though there are times when 21st century slang takes us out of the show, though the flaw is much less egregious here than it was in Star Trek: Section 31. The stakes are grounded but still engaging: Caleb wants to find his mother, Ake wants to help him, the Federation wants to rebuild. There's a good balance between high--but not ludicrous--political stakes and very real, very human issues. We see a little of this in most of the other student characters too, stories that I imagine will be fleshed out over the course of the series' run. 

Star Trek's production design continues to get better with each succeeding series, but the crew really did a spectacular job here. They've managed to change the Federation's technology and style just enough that it still looks familiar to fans of the older shows while also reflecting its far-future 32nd century setting. 

The show's hero ship this time around is the USS Athena, a starship that also doubles as Starfleet Academy's main building. While docked at the Academy, the Athena functions like any other academic centre, full of classrooms and laboratories. But when field trips are called for, the Athena heads up to Earth orbit and docks with the warp engines stored there. It's a brilliant concept, well executed. 

Even the music is more experimental and interesting than we usually find in Star Trek television (the films are another matter; most of them have superb scores). There's a fight scene in the first episode that's really effectively scored, and a lovely rearrangement of a 1960s pop hit that creates a beautifully tender and nostalgic moment near the end of that episode. 

All these elements combine to create a show that, to my great surprise and delight, captures Star Trek's legendary feeling of hope and optimism and faith in humanity's ability to find the best in ourselves and push through adversity. In these dark times, that's a precious gift. 

 

The Discovery Musical

At the end of Star Trek: Discovery's second season set about a decade before the events of the original series, the Discovery crew jumps forward in time. When the show's third season begins, they have arrived in the 32nd century, about 900 years beyond their native time. 

The events of season three kept the Discovery's crew very busy, with no time to catch up on the history of the 900 years they skipped. Thus we, the audience, are deprived of seeing the character reactions to what happened to their cultures and homeworlds and the Federation itself in the intervening years. 

Wouldn't it be great if the producers developed a lighthearted two-part episode to bring the characters--and the audience--up to speed on the history of the Federation from the 2360s to the 3180s? Presenting 900 years of history without turning the lesson into an exposition dump would be tricky, so why not deliver the goods the fun way every one loves--via musical? 

I'm half-serious. I really would like to learn what happened to the Federation after Picard and before the "present day" of Discovery. And I'd love to see how the crew reacts to the adventures of the Star Trek characters we're familiar with from the 23rd and 24th centuries. But beyond that, wouldn't it be neat if the showrunners used the episodes to comment on an important issue: how history is written and interpreted, and the challenge of capturing truth at a distance of hundreds of years. Who knows how much history has been distorted by the time of the Federation rump state? Who knows how 32nd century humanoids view the legends of the past? 

Plus, the exercise would give future showrunners a broad framework of how the Federation might have evolved after Picard and before the Burn. 

Well. Something to consider, anyway. 

Strange New Worlds Wishlist

Strange New Worlds started filming not long ago, so here's my pie-in-the-stars wishlist for the show:

1. Be true to the title. Show us the wonders of the universe, inspired both by Star Trek continuity but also by real-world science. The first episode of For All Mankind season two demonstrated how to do this effectively. Maybe even start with our own solar system, even if it's just the Enterprise picking up some crew from human colonies on Venus or the Moon, Mars, Titan, etc. before the ship embarks on its five-year mission. 

2. Return to the tried-and-true episodic format, the one that gave us classic episodes such as "City on the Edge of Forever," "The Trouble with Tribbles," "The Inner Light," and "Who Watches the Watchers?" If you must include a season arc, make the stakes relatable at a human scale. Let's not save the entire multiverse again, like Star Trek: Discovery, or even just the galaxy, like Star Trek: Picard. How about an arc that saves a work of art, or a relationship, or the soul of just one person? 

3. Hire Bear McCreary to score the show. Failing that, Brian Tyler. 

4. Hire some real SF writers to contribute verisimilitude and a sense of wonder to the stories. 

5. Build an interesting ensemble cast and develop those characters almost as much as the leads.

6. As with the original series, run still frames of previous episodes over the end credits.

7. Have Captain Pike do some variation of the "Space...the final frontier" intro in the opening titles.

8. Let's have an Andorian, a Tellarite, or an Alpha Centauran in the cast. Or all three, better yet.

9. Have the protagonists lose once in a while, and grow from that experience. 

10. When the series ends, let's have a big series penultimate episode followed by a more introspective epilogue episode in which Pike, knowing his destiny, hands over the keys to Kirk. Then do a Kirk: Year One limited series leading into the events of "Where No Man Has Gone Before."

The Real Cause of the Burn

Not really, but I think it would have been better than the cause revealed on the show, which was, at least, better than my worst fear: that time travel shenanigans would have shown Michael Burnham was the cause of the Burn, because of course, "BURN-ham." 
 

Lower Decks, Higher Enjoyment

The first season of Star Trek: Lower Decks concluded a few days ago. Despite my initial reservations at the idea of a comedic Trek--let alone a comedic Trek that would be treated as canonical--it turns out that Lower Decks is my favourite Star Trek offering of the 21st century. 

Lower Decks is the story of four low-ranking officers posted to the USS Cerritos, a starship assigned to so-called "second contact" duties--that is, they fill out the paperwork and perform all the other non-glamorous work of establishing formal relations with new civilizations in the wake of more prestigious "first contact" missions like those carried out by the Enterprise. 

The four officers are rebellious Beckett Mariner, suckup Brad Boimler, obnoxiously cheerful D'Vana Tendi, and engineering nerd Sam Rutherford. They're supported by a stoic bridge crew: Captain Carol Freeman, First Officer Jack Ransom, Security Chief Lieutenant Shaxs, Chief Medical Officer Dr. T'Ana, and Chief Engineer Andy Billups. 

Naturally, each of these characters has their own comedic quirks. Mariner tends to fly off the handle, sometimes violently; Boimler's ambition gets him into embarrassing predicaments; D'Vana has to endure the stereotypes associated with her Orion heritage; and Rutherford has a cybernetic skull implant that sometimes goes haywire. The senior officers have their own foibles: Freeman clearly has a chip on her shoulder with regards to the lack of prestige of their mission; Ransom is a comedic mix of the less savoury traits of Captains Kirk and Riker; Shaxs is even more prone to violence than Worf ever was; and Billups is a bit of a sad sack. My favourite character, Dr. T'Ana, is a Caitian, the humanoid cat species introduced in the first Star Trek animated series; but instead of presenting as a sexy stereotype, the "feline fatale," as it were, T'Ana is a crotchety, potty-mouthed alley cat. She's clearly good at her job, but has no patience for her patients, as it were. 

The show's humour mixes slapstick, self-parody and referential humour, and situational gags. The writers do an excellent job in finding the humour in the franchise's inconsistencies, logical leaps, and absurdities, poking fun without being mean. There's also plenty of fun to be had in the character interactions and the way they navigate the challenges presented by the A and B stories, a structure we haven't seen since the glory days of 90s trek (TNG, DS9, and VOY). 

The show doesn't ignore story in favour of jokes--far from it. To my great surprise and delight, Lower Decks achieves a rare feat: it improves with each episode, thanks in great part to the strength of the stories and the growing confidence and ambition of the writers. It all culminates in one of the best season finales in Star Trek history - a finale with real jeopardy, high stakes, huge changes to the show's status quo, plenty of clever humour, and special guest stars that show up with great fanfare, but organically; their appearance makes perfect sense given the story. 

Best of all, Lower Decks captures the original Star Trek spirit by portraying a future where people care about right and wrong and make decisions based on the greater good for everyone. I find both Star Trek: Picard and and Star Trek: Discovery quite cynical about Star Trek's ideals; their showrunners, to my mind, can't really bring themselves to believe in Gene Roddenberry's original utopian vision, so the Federation we see in Picard and Discovery is corrupt or flawed in some fundamental way. Not so Lower Decks. The animated series isn't naive about the Federation or the difficulties of maintaining utopia, but these showrunners clearly believe that Federation ideals are worth not just examining, but upholding. 

My one complaint - and it does ease off as the season progresses - is that the showrunners lean a little too heavily on references to the old shows. The references are, by and large, clever and appropriate, but they're so numerous that it reminds the audience just a little too much that this is just a show, and so are all the other Star Trek series we love. 

Thanks to this first season, I'm now more excited for more Lower Decks than I am for the next seasons of Picard and Discovery. Not only is the show funny, not only does it feature great characters whose stories I'm invested in following, but it feels like coming home to the grand old days of 90s Trek. 

Sign Me Up for Short Treks

Now this is a cool idea: sometime later this year, CBS will release four "Short Treks," 10-15 minute episodes of Star Trek: Discovery, each focusing on a single character. For example, Rainn Wilson will direct and star as Harry Mudd in a Mudd-centric short, and Pulitzer prize-winner Michael Chabon has written a Short Trek about a new character who finds himself alone on a deserted spaceship. The two other episodes will centre on Saru and Tilly, who happen to be two of my favourite characters on the show.

I love Chabon's work, and I'm thrilled that a writer of his clout is adding his distinctive voice to Star Trek. I'm also really looking forward to seeing Rainn Wilson's interpretation of Harry Mudd again. More importantly, it's important to refresh the format of a long-running series from time to time; kudos to the showrunners for taking some chances. 

I Will Take You By the Hand, with Reservations

SPOILERS FOR STAR TREK DISCOVERY'S

"WILL YOU TAKE ME BY THE HAND?"

The season finale of Star Trek: Discovery opens with a lovely sequence of two worlds in opposition: our lovely blue marble, Earth, and its grey sister, Luna, threatened by an approaching Klingon fleet; and Qo'nos, shrouded in green mist, home of the enemy. This short sequence heralds the end of the main story arc of the show's first season, the Federation-Klingon war. We know from other shows that the war must end without either side being destroyed, but how exactly does it end, and will that ending bring redemption for poor Michael Burnham? We find out the answer in "Will You Take Me By the Hand?"

The End is Near
As you might expect--this is, after all, a utopian vision--Michael is indeed redeemed, but I'm sorry to say that her arc, and that of the war itself, ends on a note so puzzling that it undermines the good work of the season thus far.

Last episode, Admiral Cornwell made a deal with Mirror Georgiou: her freedom and temporary command of the Discovery in exchange for her experience exterminating the Klingons in the Mirror Universe. While Michael, Saru, and the other Discovery crew suspect that trusting Georgiou with this task isn't the best idea, they reluctantly obey her orders; with the Federation on the brink of defeat, they have little choice.

Georgiou and company use the spore drive to jump the ship into the porous crust of Qo'nos, where they can stay hidden while assessing the planet's defences. Meanwhile, Michael, Georgiou, Ash Tyler, and Sylvia Tilly meet in the transporter room; there's a cute moment where Tilly, figuring out that Georgiou is the Empress and not "their" Georgiou, starts to offer the Terran Empire salute.

"Don't do that," Burnham mutters, pushing Tilly's arm down.

These Little People Went to Market
The quartet beam up to the surface of Qo'nos, to an Orion market. I fully accept that Qo'nos is cosmopolitan enough to have communities of offworlders, but it seems a little strange that the Klingons at the market don't care that humans are walking around openly. They are, after all, at war...

At the market, each member of the landing party searches for information about a shrine to Molor, which they've previously determined would be the best place to release a drone to locate military targets for a Starfleet assault. Tilly, who seems to get a lot of the best scenes (and more power to her), tries to ply information from an Orion trader played by Clint Howard, a lovely cameo from the actor who famously appeared as Balok in "The Corbomite Maneuver." After getting high with Clint, Tilly discovers to her horror that the drone she's carrying is in fact a doomsday bomb, but doesn't have time to tell Burnham and Tyler before Mirror Georgiou, having slept with a pair of comely Orions to find the shrine's location, knocks Tilly out, takes the bomb, and makes her way into the planet's crust.

While all this is happening, Michael Burnham and Ash Tyler take a different approach to finding the necessary information; Ash draws upon his Voq persona to ingratiate himself to a group of gambling Klingons. I must say I was impressed with the character's portrayal here, so much so that I believed in this character more as Voq than I do as Tyler; he really makes a quite natural Klingon, and clearly Michael feels the same way; she's visibly disturbed by Ash's all-too-easy transformation. And here we learn the exact, horrifying circumstances of Michael's central life trauma, the loss of her parents; they were killed by Klingons while she hid in a cupboard. To his credit, Ash Tyler is genuinely disturbed and shamed by this revelation.

Tilly arrives at this point to explain what Georgiou has done, and, fearing the worst, they beam back to Discovery to simulate the effect of the bomb: it would wreak massive destruction, probably killing most of the population and forcing the rest to evacuate. Burnham asks Saru to open a channel to Admiral Cornwell, who confirms that Georgiou's plan is endorsed by the desperate Federation Council.

Burnham threatens mutiny, this time to end a war rather than to start it. Cornwell asks what Burnham would suggest...

What if They Started a War and Nobody Came? 
This is where the episode goes completely off the rails. Burnham makes her way to the shrine and confronts Georgiou, who has already dropped the bomb-carrying drown down a well into the planet's depths. Burnham begs Georgiou not to detonate the bomb, and gives her proof that the Federation will still give her her freedom even if she doesn't destroy Qo'nos. Instead, she must hand over the detonator to...L'Rell, who arrives with Ash Tyler. Smirking, Georgiou agrees, heading off to wreak havoc in season two, one presumes.

Burnham offers the detonator to L'Rell, saying that the Klingon can consolidate power by holding the doomsday weapon as a trump card against the divided Klingon houses. To my shock, L'Rell agrees, and she and Ash Tyler go off to unite the fractured Klingon Empire. With a metaphorical shrug, the Klingons on Earth's doorstep turn around and head home.

This development might have been believable if L'Rell hadn't been presented as a war-mongering xenophobe from the first episode. Why in the world wouldn't L'Rell just keep the detonator and continue the war, wiping out humanity for good and then disabling the bomb? Failing that, why didn't the writers have Ash Tyler/Voq convince L'Rell to end the war by offering to stay with her? L'Rell clearly adored Voq, and I can believe that she would do anything for him, even this. This would also have been a nice resolution for Tyler--a way to pay the price for the acts he committed in the Voq persona. And it would have taken all of 30 seconds' worth of dialogue.

The war ends, Discovery heads home to Earth, and Michael Burnham gets her rank restored while everyone else on the ship gets medals. This was a nice scene--it's always great to see how the showrunners visualize future Earth--but for some reason, Michael makes an inspirational speech, when really you think the Admiral or Saru (poor, disrespected, best character Saru) would be the more logical choice in this context.

The show almost saves itself with an eleventh-hour cliffhanger that's pure high-octane fan service, but the war's resolution is so distracting and nonsensical that I really wasn't in the mood for the tease. And that's too bad, because it sets up some pretty interesting possibilities for season two.

Final Frontier Thoughts
While some of this first season's twists and turns have annoyed me--the war's resolution, the inability of the writers to pin down what they were trying to do with Tyler, and Lorca's heel-turn chief among them--there's still a lot to like about this opening storyline. I genuinely like most of the characters, with Saru and Tilly being my favourites, followed by Stamets, Tyler (despite reservations about his arc), and Burnham...though I don't like her as much as I feel I should, considering she's the lead. I don't blame Sonequa Martin-Green for this; she's a fine actress, but the writers have made her deliberately unsympathetic for much of the first season, and playing a human raised by Vulcans, she comes off as pretty cold; colder, even, than Leonard Nimoy's Spock, who somehow managed to express his character's humour and humanity from his second appearance onward. (He feels a bit stilted in "The Cage.")

I'm also finding that it's difficult to name truly standout episodes that work outside the context of the season's arc. I can name two dozen or more classic episodes from the other Star Trek shows, but nothing in this first season really works unless you sit down and watch the whole thing. That's the nature of television these days, of course, so I don't blame the showrunners for it; but I do feel that something has been lost.

None of my friends will be surprised that I'll keep watching--I made it through Voyager's seven mediocre seasons, after all--but I'm not watching out of duty; I think this could become a great show, with more careful forethought on the part of the writers and producers, and perhaps - please - the infusion of some more science-fictional ideas. Star Trek works very well as a mirror for our present-day foibles, but it should also spend time living up to its initial premise, exploring the final frontier and simply asking us to marvel at whatever scientifically plausible marvels await our descendants. Maybe they can explore why future humanity hasn't lost itself to VR or runaway nanotech or artificial intelligence, or why people still get bald or grow fat; there has to be a sociological or scientific reason for that. Or show us a quasar, or the birth of a solar system, or just visit a geologically interesting moon. Something. I love space opera, but let's see some giant space amoebas or sentient rocks from time to time, you know? 

Maybe the writers will surprise us. See you next season! 

At Peace with "The War Without, the War Within"

SPOILERS FOR STAR TREK: DISCOVERY'S

"THE WAR WITHOUT, THE WAR WITHIN"

As we close in on the season finale of Star Trek: Discovery, my impression of the show is as confused and muddled as the show itself can be: I'm impressed by its moments of greatness, but in equal measure I'm frustrated by its storytelling flaws. "The War Without, the War Within" reflects this ambiguity.

The basic structure of this episode is simple: Admiral Cornwell arrives to bring the Discovery up to date on the war (the Federation is losing, badly), and the crew comes up with a harebrained plan to turn the tide; meanwhile, Ash Tyler/Voq struggles with questions of identity and forgiveness.

The Ash Tyler/Voq question has been the show's greatest puzzle. By this point, I think it's become clear that the showrunners either haven't really considered the larger philosophical questions surrounding this character's journey (or is it two characters?), or they have, but they've presented it in such a way as send a message that's the opposite of the one they intended.

The dialogue in this episode and others seems to establish that what we have here is Voq's surgically altered body, which until recently also contained Voq himself (that is, his personality/memories/soul/katra/essence) with an overlay of Ash Tyler's memory/personality/soul/katra/essence. Since L'Rell "killed" the Voq aspect of this being's tortured psyche, we are left with, presumably, Ash Tyler, who now has all of Voq's memories.

Presumably, Ash Tyler's body is dead. Maybe some of it was even used to build Voq's human body. Or maybe Ash Tyler is still a prisoner of the Klingons, and they only transferred a copy of his personality to Voq. So maybe there are two Ash Tylers, one with an original human body, one in a surgically altered Klingon body. Or, if you take a different philosophical view, maybe there's a "real" Ash Tyler, and the one we know is really Voq, but Voq "brainwashed" to believe he's a human. It really depends on the sophistication of the medical technology involved; are people the future sophisticated enough to transport and capture souls, body-swapping them as necessary? I suppose there's precedent for it in Star Trek--witness episodes like "Return to Tomorrow," for example, in which non-corporeal beings possess Enterprise crewmembers. And in a way, it's much like the age-old transporter problem: do you die when you're transported, only to be replaced with a perfect copy at the end of the process?

Whatever Tyler's "true" nature--if that can ever really be established--we're clearly meant to empathize with him here, tortured as he is by Voq's actions. I thought the writers handled his situation  in this episode reasonably well, given the circumstances, if you accept their premise that this really is Tyler. Tyler bumps into Paul Stamets in the hallway, and Anthony Rapp delivers an incredible performance in just a few seconds; he looks like he wants to tear Tyler apart for the murder of his partner, and it's all in his murderous eyes. But he walks away, of course, because this is still Star Trek, a point driven home even harder when, after an awkward moment in the mess hall, a number of crew members join his table in an effort to start the process of forgiveness and healing. It's a reminder that this is still a utopian vision, an imagined future in which people try to do a better job of being nice to each other. On the flip side, Michael Burnham is not so forgiving of her former lover; Tyler begs her for forgiveness and understanding, but Burnham, clearly struggling, recoils; he tried to murder her, and she's having a hard time forgetting that. This interaction felt very genuine, and encapsulated how the showrunners are trying to balance classic Trek ideals with modern television storytelling techniques. They don't always strike the right balance, but I think it works here.

I also enjoyed Admiral Cornwell's reaction to learning that her Gabriel Lorca died (presumably) months ago, and that for several months she's been interacting with (and even sleeping with) an evil duplicate. In one amusing moment, she vaporizes Mirror-Lorca's trademark dish of fortune cookies: "Bastard!" She also classifies all knowledge of the Mirror Universe, which explains why, in "Mirror, Mirror," Kirk and company are so surprised to wind up there.

The rest of the episode is pretty much a setup for tonight's big finale. There's a nice sequence of the Discovery engaging in a bit of terraforming to grow some more mushrooms to replenish the ship's spore drive, and Admiral Cornwell and Mirror Georgiou hatch a (possibly genocidal?) plan to turn the tide of the war. Cornwell even puts the Emperor in nominal charge of Discovery--posing, of course, as the real Georgiou, who she claims actually survived the battle of the binary stars. Only a few of the crew know differently, and presumably they're all just waiting for Georgiou to stab them all in the back, Mirror-style.

We'll see what happens a few hours from now...

What's Passed is Prologue?

SPOILERS FOR STAR TREK: DISCOVERY'S

"WHAT'S PAST IS PROLOGUE"

Here's a little extra spoiler space for those who see this on Google Plus...

And so the U.S.S. Discovery's excursion to the Mirror Universe ends as I was afraid it would: serviceably, and not without considerable entertainment value, but stopping short of excellence. 

Holding Up a Mirror to Ourselves

"What's Past is Prologue" concludes the Mirror Universe arc with Gabriel Lorca plays his final hand: unleashing a violent coup to take over the I.S.S. Charon and overthrow Emperor Georgiou. The action is well-orchestrated and effectively violent; people are exposed to biological weapons, knifed to death, and vaporized by phaser fire; it's all as awful and ugly as it should be. It is also, however, somewhat contrived. The plot is constructed in such a way as to give Michael Burnham victory despite overwhelming odds: she wins over the Emperor and they essentially win out with fisticuffs and swordfighting. It's a little tough to swallow. 

That being said, the scenes aboard the Discovery, with Saru taking command of the ship, were extremely well done; Doug Jones really shines as Saru in this episode, throwing shade at Lorca and delivering a truly inclusive and inspiring speech to the crew before they head into battle to rescue Burnham, destroy the Charon, and make the jump back to their home universe. The climactic sequence is well-staged, exciting, and comes with a surprise twist that had me leaning forward in my chair...only to slump back, disappointed, in the final moments. More on that below. 

With the conclusion of the Mirror Universe arc and the upcoming (one assumes) end of the Klingon War in the episodes to come, it's transparently clear that this first season of Star Trek: Discovery has been intended to serve as commentary on the world's currently upside-down political realities, with the rule of law, secular pluralism, and scientific rationalism under threat more openly than it has been for quite some time. (None of these threats are new, and one could argue that freedom, prosperity and democracy have long been somewhat illusory or at least unevenly distributed, but it's been a while since it's been at the forefront of public consciousness.) The allegory has been somewhat ham-handed, but then Star Trek has never been subtle; in fact, some might say that ham-handed allegory is the series' stock in trade. And while getting older has made me more cynical, the show gives me hope for the future despite its failings. In this case, it's that scene with Saru motivating the Discovery's crew, and Michael Burnham's anguished sincerity in believing in the angels of our better natures. She even rescues Emperor Georgiou, despite knowing she's a murderous cannibal--that's how much she believes in redemption and in the value of life, even evil life. (Of course, it's also true she has selfish emotional motives in play; but characters in Star Trek have always been imperfect.) 

 

Reflections on Mirror Lorca

I had hoped that Captain Lorca, once revealed as a native of the Mirror Universe, would turn out to be supporting the coalition of rebels fighting the Terran Empire, which might have added some shades of grey to the story; imagine what an endorsement of Federation values it could have been if Lorca changed his original plan and forswore his imperial ambitions? 

But no, Lorca was a wannabe dictator all along. There is a great moment, though, just before Lorca dies, when Burnham, confronting him, says that if he had just asked, the Federation would have helped Lorca get home. Jason Isaacs' reaction to this news is great; you can see on Lorca's face that asking simply never occurred to him, but given his experiences in the Federation, he realizes that Burnham is telling the truth. He doesn't say so (nor does he have much chance to, as he's killed by the Emperor moments later), but Isaacs' performance speaks volumes here. I'm going to miss him, and I hope we get to see him return as the yet-unseen original universe Lorca. 

A digression: I want to commend the sound designers of this episode for mixing in some old-school sound effects from the original series--a nice, nostalgic touch. 

Back Through the Looking Glass

When Discovery returns to the prime universe, they discover that they've overshot the mark...arriving much later than they had anticipated. This is when I leaned forward in my seat; I knew that Bryan Fuller's original plan had been to produce an anthology show that visited the various Star Trek eras, and I thought maybe Discovery had jumped forward 10 years, to the time of the original series, which would have utterly blown my mind. Unfortunately, they only missed nine months, and so the last two episodes of the first season will doubtlessly conclude with the wrap-up of the war with the Klingons. 

I know my initial hopes were unrealistic, but just imagine how cool it would have been if the writers had developed a strategy to make a Trek anthology work. Handled properly, it could have tapped into the powerful nostalgia that helps make the show work, while also using our current reality as a lens through which to re-evaluate that nostalgia and the Trek shows that preceded Discovery. 

I suppose, though, that would have broken the show's budget, and it may have failed utterly. But it could have been cool...

Here's where I tie this review back to the pun in the title. You can guess where this is leading: what we've seen so far from Star Trek: Discovery this year--what's passed--may or may not foreshadow what we can expect to see in season two. Depending on your response to the show, that may be (in my case) good television that falls just short of greatness, or more disappointment if you think the series has fallen short this initial season. The show may not be perfect, but it's trying to bring something new to a series with literally hundreds of episodes. I applaud the showrunners for their efforts thus far, even if they sometimes miss the mark. 

Faulting Ambition

SPOILERS FOR STAR TREK: DISCOVERY'S

"VAULTING AMBITION"

In "Vaulting Ambition," Michael Burnham, Captain Lorca, and the rest of the U.S.S. Discovery's crew are still trapped in the Mirror Universe, searching for a way home while hoping to avoid being revealed as intruders by the vile cutthroats of the Terran Empire. To that end, Lorca and Burnham infiltrate the I.S.S. Charon, the gigantic flagship of Emperor Phillipa Georgiou in the hopes of finding the data that will give them a way home. 

Kudos, by the way, to whoever designed the Charon. It's a city in the sky powered by a small sun, and looks much like a dark, floating castle; it's beautiful but malign, and exactly the sort of vessel you might expect an evil empire to build. 

Using a gambit as old as fiction, Burnham poses as her own evil self, with Lorca posing as her prisoner, delivering Lorca into the Emperor's talons - or more accurately, into an agony booth. As a reward, Emperor Georgiou invites Burnham for dinner...

Burnham discovers the meal she's been genuinely enjoying with the evil version of her beloved former captain Phillipa Georgiou is cooked Kelpian, essentially turning Burnham into a cannibal who's just eaten, if unknowingly, the flesh of a sapient being. In the context of Burnham and company's current predicament, the story beat makes an awful kind of sense, viscerally illustrating the perversity of the Terran Empire. Even so, I found the idea gratuitous - surely the torture, genocide and backstabbing already established in the Empire is enough to signify their evil? 

Meanwhile, Stamets' consciousness is trapped in the mycelial network, where he meets his own Mirror Universe counterpart, who is similarly trapped. After a tearful (and well acted, I thought) encounter with a vision of his murdered partner Doctor Culber, Stamets manages to break out of his coma (and so, too, does his counterpart), only to discover that the Discovery's supply of mushrooms has been corrupted. This could be why the spore drive is nowhere to be seen in future iterations of Star Trek...

Back on the Charon, Georgiou figures out that Burnham is up to something, and prepares to execute her. Out of desperation, Burnham reveals that she's from a parallel universe, prompting Georgiou to spare her. Because of the crossover of the U.S.S. Defiant into the Mirror Universe a century ago, Georgiou knows about the prime universe, and one senses that she's eager to conquer it. So she and Burnham make a deal; Georgiou will hand over the Defiant files to help the Discovery get home, if the Discovery crew hands over the secret of the spore drive. Hopefully Burnham isn't dumb enough to believe the Emperor will hold up her end of the bargain...

This episode also confirms what some fans suspected: that the Gabriel Lorca we've been watching this whole season is, in fact, a native of the Mirror Universe, and he deliberately engineered the Discovery's crossover so that he could...well, the jury is out. Either Lorca wants to take the throne for himself and rule as an evil dictator, or he could be on the side of the rebels and want to restore freedom to his universe. We'll see, but his behaviour as the episode concludes is so brutal that I suspect we're meant to see Mirror Lorca as irredeemable, especially since Georgiou earlier claimed that Lorca "groomed" Mirror Burnham to be his lover/protege, a word choice with connotations so disturbing it essentially ruins Lorca's character if true. 

Finally, this episode was really, really short, clocking in at under 40 minutes. I miss the days when an hour-long show was closer to 52 minutes...

While I'm still enjoying Discovery, I'm finding that the Mirror Universe works best in small doses. Hopefully the Discovery gets home next episode, with this particular plot resolved - save for Lorca's fate. I hope we get to see the "good" version of Gabriel Lorca; I'd love to see Jason Isaacs tackle that. 

Jeff's Meditation on Televised Nostalgia

Fans of Star Trek, The X-Files, or pop culture in general should visit Jeff Shyluk's Visual Blog and read his recent essay on the recent reappearance of those two shows. With enviable articulation, Jeff illustrates how the new iterations of the shows, while they possess a number of merits, may fail to provide satisfying experiences, particularly for older fans. Jeff's argument is thorough, well-presented, and thoughtful, and I envy the depth of his insight. The essay is also accompanied by a delightful illustration that perfectly matches Jeff's point.

Head over here to read the essay and view Jeff's artwork. 

Confronting The Wolf Inside

SPOILERS FOR STAR TREK: DISCOVERY'S 

"THE WOLF INSIDE"

"The Wolf Inside" establishes definitively that poor Ash Tyler was the Klingon Voq all along, surgically altered and overlaid with Tyler's personality to appear human. To my mind, this somewhat blunts what I thought was an important and interesting examination of post-traumatic stress disorder, trading it for subterfuge and intrigue. Everyone saw this coming, so I'm not surprised, but I am somewhat disappointed. 

On the other hand, this revelation (or rather, clarification) certainly raises the stakes for Michael Burnham, who, on top of all her other issues, now knows she fell in love with a Klingon spy, with all the attendant betrayal that entails. To complicate matters still further, it appears as though the Ash Tyler personality implant/overlay is making it hard for Voq to take control, or at least to maintain it. And now that he's been revealed, surely Tyler/Voq has been neutralized as a threat, which makes you wonder where this story was going in the first place. 

On to other matters. This week, the Discovery's crew continues their mission to steal the technological data necessary to make their way back to the so-called "prime" universe without falling afoul of their evil counterparts. To that end, Michael Burnham makes contact with something she calls a "coalition of hope," the assembled Mirror Klingons, Andorians, Tellarites and Vulcans who stand in opposition to the evil Terran Empire, the our peaceful Federation's dark counterpart. 

As in last week's episode, the creators manage to create a palpable sense of jeopardy for our heroes, trapped in a dark reflection of their own reality; "Even the light is different," Burnham remarks. First Officer Saru's Mirror counterpart serves as slave labour in this reality, denied even a name. And we continue to be shown the duplicitous and savage nature of the human beings in this universe, who show not the smallest fraction of the humanity and compassion displayed by the alien rebels. If nothing else, this storyline comes at an opportune time, as people in our reality are reminded once again that we are often our own worst enemies. 

There's a bit of derring-do bait-and-switch action in this episode that fooled me in a delightful way at a pivotal moment, and the final reveal was, if somewhat predictable, still powerful - and puzzling, given Captain Lorca's sinister, smiling reaction to seeing the face of power in the Mirror Universe. One gets the impression that Lorca has been planning this journey all along...

There's one more note of mystery as we see the internal voyage of coma-ridden Stamets, who meets with a duplicate - perhaps from the Mirror Universe, perhaps not - in a hallucinatory alien forest. What wonders might unfold here? 

While not as strong as the previous pair of outings, "The Wolf Inside" remains solid, if uneven, entertainment. There's certainly a lot to unpack in each episode of Discovery, so much so that it may take until the end of the first season to see if it all hangs together in a coherent and satisfying way. 

Enjoying "Despite Yourself" Despite Myself

MAJOR SPOILERS FOR STAR TREK: DISCOVERY'S

"DESPITE YOURSELF" 

Star Trek: Discovery returned this week by paying off two of the worst-kept secrets about the show: Ash Tyler's reveal as a Klingon Manchurian Candidate, and the appearance of the infamous Mirror Universe. One of these developments was handled with great panache; the other presents viewers with some troublesome subtext. 

First, the good. Following the events of "Into the Forest We Go," the Discovery finds herself lost in space, jumping not to Starbase 46 as intended, but into a field of starship debris. Captain Lorca orders Ash Tyler to retrieve a data core from one of the stricken ships, and the intelligence in the core reveals that they've jumped to a parallel universe, specifically one longtime viewers are familiar with: the dreaded Mirror Universe, home to the fascistic Terran Empire. Realizing their peril, Lorca and company react with commendable logic, reskinning the ship and manufacturing uniforms to make themselves indistinguishable from the I.S.S. Discovery they have inadvertently displaced (into the prime Star Trek universe, they theorize; who knows what mischief that crew will perpetrate in "our" universe?) 

My highest commendation goes to the costuming department this time around - the Mirror Universe uniforms are amazing, with a corruptive allure that it's difficult (but necessary) to resist. It's also fun to see Sylvia Tilly being forced to act against her nature by playing the Discovery's captain, as she apparently is in this universe, having backstabbed her way up the chain of command. The dreaded agony booths of the original "Mirror, Mirror" also appear in this episode, and they are genuinely terrifying. 

I was surprised and delighted most, though, by the reference to the U.S.S. Defiant, which as Star Trek: Enterprise viewers will remember, was captured by the evil versions of Jonathan Archer and Hoshi Sato in that series' fourth (and best) season. Naturally the ship's appearance confuses Lorca, Burnham, and company, since from their perspective the Defiant is currently still on normal duty back in their home universe. They don't know what the audience knows, namely that the Defiant was thrown back in time and into the Mirror Universe some dozen years in the future (from their perspective). These are the kind of wacky hijinks that are only possible in science fiction, and only then in long-form storytelling like this. At this point, Star Trek has become a period piece, in a sense, a setting with a reasonably consistent history, look, and feel. Continuity callbacks are important because they acknowledge the established reality of the setting, and respecting continuity gives writers the obstacles and complications that are often necessary to create good material. Yes, it's also shameless fan service, but it works for me here. 

As for Ash Tyler's story, I'm somewhat disappointed because the reveal does, in my mind, undercut the PTSD storyline that was so essential to his character. Now, given that we still don't know the exact nature of Tyler/Voq's...existence...perhaps this reveal can still remain thematically satisfying. It really depends on how the writers develop the character from this point forward. It appears as though Tyler/Voq's body is Klingon, surgically altered to appear human, with Ash Tyler's memory engrams/personality/soul overlaid on top of the original Voq personality. Depending on your spiritual point of view, you could argue that this person is really the Klingon Voq, with a ghost imprinted on his brain; or, you could argue that Tyler is, in a sense, still alive, only living in Voq's altered body. 

If Voq is written as the real person, then Tyler's story becomes even more tragic, since we never really met him. On the other hand, if Tyler's engrams/personality/soul/whatever are presented as "real," then Tyler's story...becomes even more tragic, since he suffered all that torture and was also ripped from his physical body and stuck in a Klingon. 

I imagine the two personalities will fight over who gets to keep the physical meatspace, but philosophically this is a hugely complicated mess, to put it mildly. But again, this is the sort of story that science fiction was designed to handle. 

Sadly, when Dr. Culber realizes something is up, Tyler promptly snaps his neck - a surprising shock moment, to be sure, but one that brings to an abrupt end the notion of whether or not his relationship with Stamets can be sensitively handled in a satisfying way. 

Or does it? I immediately thought of the "kill your gays" trope when Culber died, but according to actor Wilson Cruz and writer Aaroc Harberts, there's more to Culber's death than meets the eye, and Harberts and Cruz, both gay men themselves, were quick to say that this isn't what's happening, and furthermore, that Cruz will return. They're not going to replace Culber with a Mirror Culber, so maybe he's not dead and his neck is just broken? Hmmm. 

This is the first episode of Discovery to be directed by Jonathan Frakes, AKA Will Riker, who started directing episodes way back during the days of Star Trek: The Next Generation. Frakes has a reputation for adding a dark sort of flair to his episodes, and he was clearly well-suited to "Despite Yourself." The episode manages to be campy fun and loomingly creepy at the same time - no mean feat. 

So, despite my reservations, I feel like this was another surprisingly solid outing for Star Trek: Discovery. If the Empress of the Terran Empire turns out to be a descendant of evil Hoshi Sato, well, I'll be pretty darn impressed. 

Things to Look Forward to in 2018

One year ago today, I wrote about some of my hopes for 2017. To my surprise, a lot of the items on my list worked out quite nicely, including Mom and Dad's big birthdays, our tenth wedding anniversary, our trip to see the solar eclipse, G&G, voice acting lessons, seeing friends, paying down some of the mortgage, and the return of Twin Peaks and Star Trek, which both exceeded my expectations.

We didn't finish all the house projects we wanted to, and we didn't wind up doing much to celebrate Canada 150. But by and large, Sylvia and I made the most of a difficult year.

For 2018, my number one hope is a big one: health and happiness for my loved ones. And really, if that one comes true in 2018, I'll consider myself blessed beyond measure.

My second biggest hope is that I can ensure Sylvia has a great birthday celebration in October. She has a big one coming up, so we're hoping to head to New York for the occasion.

Gaming & Guinness comes in May, and that's always a blast.

More prosaically, some projects I'd like to work on:

• Get my home office in shape
• Pick up new office chairs for Sylvia and me
• Pick up some DVD storage for the theatre room
• Replace aging theatre room seats
• Start thinking about replacing the hot water tank
• Read 150 books
• Get Mom and Dad's Super 8mm home movies rescanned in HD
• Get closer to finishing the big Woods family photo scanning project

So those are my hopes for 2018, some modest, some not. We'll see what we can accomplish. 

Into the Mid-Season Hiatus We Go

SPOILERS FOR STAR TREK: DISCOVERY'S  

"INTO THE FOREST I GO"

With this week's follow-up to last week's less-than-stellar outing of Star Trek: Discovery, we move from the show's weakest episode to its strongest yet, ending the first half of the season on a high note. 

"Into the Forest I Go" picks up where "Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum" left off, with the Discovery in orbit around the peaceful planet Pahva awaiting the arrival of the Klingon Ship of the Dead. Captain Lorca seems genuinely concerned about the Pahvans, and takes pains to stay and protect them even as Starfleet orders him to retreat. What follows is a remarkably, even cinematic, sequence of derring-do that depicts the Discovery's crew coming up with a means of breaking through the Klingon invisibility screen: to wit, Michael Burnham and Ash Tyler sneak onto the Klingon vessel to plant a couple of sensors that will provide enough data for a computer algorithm to penetrate the cloak. This sequence is easily the highlight of the season, with exciting pacing, sharp editing, great moments of suspense and peril, and a victory that feels well-earned. This episode shows how important it is to get the small details right to add verisimilitude and strike the right emotional chords: the jump cuts illustrating the many spore drive jumps needed to accomplish the sequence's key tactic, for example, and the great sound design that illustrates the use of the universal translator. 

Beyond this deft action sequence, we get to see Lorca's character fleshed out a little more. There's a great moment where he puts in his eyedrops to protect his damaged eyes so that he can look right into the explosion that marks the death-knell of the Klingon sarcophagus ship, a nice callback to the origin of Lorca's disability and a window into his warrior's soul. He's also clearly relieved by the rescue and ultimate recovery of Admiral Cornwell, even though her wellbeing presents a risk to his career. 

Speaking of Cornwell, she gets a great moment onboard the Klingon sarcophagus ship, putting her medical training to use to help Ash Tyler, who's on the ship assisting Michael Burnam during the aforementioned action sequence, get through an episode of post-traumatic stress disorder. I'm not a medical professional, but this scene had the ring of truth to it. A follow-up conversation between Tyler and Burnham about the episode is sensitively handled, too. 

However, this episode pretty much confirms the very badly-hidden rumour that Ash Tyler is actually the Klingon Voq, who, you may recall, hasn't been seen since Tyler's appearance. It appears that Tyler is actually Voq, surgically altered to appear human, and that his memories of being abused by L'Rell are actually memories of the painful surgery (and brainwashing, presumably) he endured to become "Tyler." Or perhaps this is all a red herring, and Tyler is indeed a human being. We won't know until after the hiatus. 

And then there's poor brave Stamets, who navigates the spore drive through the dozens of jumps necessary to calibrate the sensors Tyler and Burnham have planted. He comes through the sequence okay, if a little dazed, but in the episode's coda, he agrees to make one last jump back into safe Federation territory...and that's when you know things are going to go wrong. While the scene went by pretty quickly it appears as though Captain Lorca sabotaged the spore jump sequence from his command chair; in any event, the ship jumps to an unknown location and Stamets goes white-eyed, flopping to the deck and babbling about "...so many permutations." Best guess is that the Discovery has jumped, either accidentally or through Lorca's betrayal, to a parallel universe. Given Jonathan Frakes revealed earlier this year that he's directed a Mirror Universe episode, three guesses where the Discovery crew has wound up...and the first two don't count. 

I really cannot praise the direction and editing of "Into the Forest I Go" too highly; the creatives involved delivered a very satisfying hour of television, and I look forward to seeing what the second half of the season brings. 

If You Seek Star Trek, Prepare for Discovery

SPOILERS for STAR TREK: DISCOVERY's 

"Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum"

In "Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum" ("If you seek peace, prepare for war"), Michael Burnham, Saru, and Ash Tyler visit a truly gorgeous alien planet, Pahvo, that may hold the key to rendering Klingon invisibility screens useless, thereby turning the tide of the Federation-Klingon war. Meanwhile on Discovery...well, not a lot really happens on the Discovery this episode, except for one very well-executed space battle that does a good job of displaying Captain Lorca's humanity and giving a couple of minor characters brief moments to shine. There's also a weird scene with Stamets and Tilly that seems to have nothing to do with the main plot of this episode, but provides some hints on where Stamets' character arc might be going. 

Kudos to the production team for making Pahvo feel like a really alien world, and for introducing a pretty need alien species, mist-like folks who build gigantic crystal towers stretching toward the stars. The Pahvans are extremely dedicated to peace, so much so that poor Saru, who for the first time finding himself in a place where he doesn't feel fear, winds up turning on Burnham and Tyler and insists that the landing party should abandon their mission and live on Pahva in peace. At first I was a bit put off by this development, since it seemed at first to hew a little too closely to the plot of "This Side of Paradise," but it turns out that Saru wasn't overly influenced by the aliens; he just made some bad choices. We learn that Saru is actually pretty badass, running at ludicrous speeds and horse-kicking humans so hard they fly several meters. Ouch! 

This episode ends on a cliffhanger, as the Pahvans, instead of helping the Federation win their war, invite the Klingons over for peace talks. I'm sure that will turn out fine in the next installment! 

While this wasn't a bad episode, per se, I found its pacing strange, and in some spots the editing was so abrupt I felt like I was missing pieces of the story. It felt like this story was a little rushed in post-production, or perhaps could have used one more editing pass. 

All in all, this feels like the weakest episode of the season thus far, supplanting "Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad." It's not bad, just a little rough around the edges. 

Muddling to Make the Sanest Fan Go Mad

SPOILERS for Star Trek: Discovery's 

"Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad" 

"Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad" is, in my view, the weakest episode of Star Trek: Discovery to date, but it has its virtues, most of which are unrelated to the hour's central device, the once-novel, now-familiar, time loop conundrum.

In "Magic," Harry Mudd, having somehow escaped from the Klingons, is bent on revenge against Captain Lorca, who left him to rot on a Klingon prison ship. Using alien technology that allows him to reset time and experience events over and over, Mudd is bent on capturing the U.S.S. Discovery and selling it to the Klingons, with disastrous effects on the Federation's war effort. Luckily, Paul Stamets, thanks to his connection to the spore drive, can detect Mudd's interference with the time stream, and he enlists the help of Michael Burnham and Ash Tyler foil Mudd's scheme before time runs out...for the last time.

At first I found it a bit difficult to reconcile this episode's depiction of Mudd as a ruthless mass murderer--he brutally kills Discovery crew members over and over during the course of his plan to capture the ship--until it hit me that Mudd only kills one person on what he thinks is his last go-round. Maybe he was running through all the scenarios until he could capture the ship bloodlessly? Or maybe I'm just rationalizing, trying to make Discovery's version of Mudd compatible with the one we see in the original series. On the other hand, we know that the Mudd of "Mudd's Women" has received psychiatric treatment, so perhaps at some point between Star Trek's new "now" and Kirk's era, Federation medicine heals Mudd sufficiently to transition from mad murderer to jovial con man. Well, that will serve as my head-canon, anyway.

It seems a bit of a cheat to introduce a high-concept, TNG-style episode so early into what has, so far, been a pretty significant departure in storytelling style from past Treks. Maybe this episode would have worked better as a breather in season two or three, when personalities are more established. On the other hand, we get to see Burnham starting to come out of her shell a little, perhaps driven out by the stressful events of "Magic...".

I disproportionately enjoyed a number of this episode's features:

• The return of a personal log, an old Trek staple (Burnham's, in this case)
• The civilian costuming
• Mudd's bug-headed space helmet
• Continued use of the "vaporize" setting on the phasers - still chilling
• The brazen use of "Stayin' Alive" at the party that opens (and re-opens...and re-opens...) the episode
• The many gruesome and morbidly hilarious deaths of Captain Lorca
• Mudd's ultimate comeuppance

All in all, this hour was an amusing diversion, but I'm not sure it really serves the show's narrative arc. Future episodes will tell. 

Turning Over a New Lethe

SPOILERS follow for Star Trek: Discovery's "Lethe"

The sixth episode of Star Trek: Discovery, "Lethe," is a satisfying character piece that doesn't quite match the series high so far, "Choose Your Pain," but provides important backstory for Michael Burnham and her foster father Sarek, while also giving us a better glimpse into the motivations of Captain Lorca. All this, and "DISCO" t-shirts for the crew!

Lured into a trap by a renegade Vulcan (a "logic extremist"(!)), Sarek lies near death in a small, crippled shuttle lost in a dense nebula. His telepathic death agonies reach Michael Burnham, who asks a strangely sympathetic Captain Lorca for permission to mount a rescue mission. Burnham, Ash Tyler, and Sylvia Tilly board a shuttle, homing in on Sarek's katra in an effort to locate and rescue the dying Vulcan.

Meanwhile, Captain Lorca's commanding officer, psychologist, and lover Admiral Katrina Cornwell - surely not the greatest combination from a human resources perspective - pops aboard Discovery for a visit.

Harkening back to the old a-plot/b-plot structure of 90s-era Trek (perhaps unsurprising, since this episode was written by TNG veteran Joe Menosky), "Lethe" juggles two stories about relationships and past trauma to good effect. We learn more about the Sarek/Michael relationship, and we're introduced to young Amanda, played here by Canadian actress Mia Kirshner. It turns out that Michael and Spock were both in the running for a prestigious assignment to a Vulcan expeditionary force of some kind, only for an officious Vulcan to tell Sarek that there was no way two non-Vulcans (in their eyes, the half-human Spock fell into that category) were going to join that elite club. Michael learns that Sarek reluctantly chose Spock, and then lied to her, saying that her application had been rejected all those years ago.

Not only is this an interesting turn for Michael's relationship with Sarek, it puts the decades-long story about Spock's relationship with Sarek into a fascinating new context; as it turns out, Sarek should have chosen Michael, since Spock wound up rejecting his father's wishes by joining Starfleet. Sarek's choice was a waste. No wonder there were some hard feelings--even for the supposedly non-emotional Vulcans.

Naturally Sarek is rescued in the end, but not before Michael has a lot of new feelings to process.

Aboard Discovery, we find that Lorca is clearly traumatized by losing the crew of his former ship, the USS Buran, and that his friend and commanding officer is clearly concerned that Starfleet put him in command of a new ship too soon. In fact, when Lorca awakens from a post-coital sleep with Admiral Cornwell, he suffers an episode of PTSD and pulls a phaser on her before realizing what he's doing. Cornwell puts Lorca on notice, saying she's going to remove him from command.

Before she can make good on her threat, however, she winds up having to take over the mission that Sarek was initially supposed to handle. Naturally it's a trap, and she winds up a prisoner of the Klingons. When Saru informs Captain Lorca, Lorca shrugs and says he wishes he could help, but the Admiral herself ordered Lorca to stop being so reckless and get authorization from the admiralty before undertaking any out-of-scope missions.

A simple plot summary doesn't really capture all there was to like here. Aside from the fascinating new context for an old piece of Trek lore, we're treated to an evolving exploration of Lorca's nature - is he evil? Or just traumatized? Is he sincere in that he's trying to be a better captain by following orders, or is he just using that as an excuse, hoping that the Klingons will kill Cornwell before she can relieve him of command?

And what's up with Stamets, who seems completely tripped out in his brief scene this episode? Is he merely suffering the effects of being the new biological navigation computer for the spore drive, or is he some kind of evil mirror duplicate, as hinted at in the creepy closing shot of last week's episode?

Also: loved the callback to the food slots from the original series, Cadet Tilly continues to delight, love the DISCO t-shirts, and the name-drop of the Constitution-class Enterprise. She's out there somewhere, ten years before Kirk took command! So cool.