Star Trek Discovery 1x15 - a season finale and a half

Warning! Danger, Will Robinson!
Here be SPOILERS for Star Trek Discovery series 1 episode 15!

Where do we start with this episode, Will You Take My Hand? Ceti eels, bread and circuses, Trills and Betazoids - it was all in here. Double-crosses - the first Prime Directive moment? - familiar actors, Orions, Qo’noS markets and dirty tattoo parlours. What didn’t this episode have?

I have to say I liked the twist to this. I honestly thought there was going to be a completely different ending - and no, I’m not talking about the distress signal. I know hundreds of people will be rushing to look up Captain Christopher Pike and find out what he was doing wandering around the Alpha Quadrant around the year 2255, but I’m more interested in how the only mutineer on the ship managed to have the backing of the entire crew to stage another mutiny right there, right then, if Admiral Cornwell didn’t back down from her desperate plan.

Also: giving the detonator to the bomb to the klingon prisoner was inspiring but also perhaps the best bit of Prime Directive I think I’ve seen on Discovery. Not interfering with the internal struggles literally on the homeworld of another race by handing over your weapon of mass distruction is basically surrendering and withdrawing to let them sort it out themselves. They have, of course, tipped the outcome in favour of L’Rell, but what choice did they have?

I loved the markets and the fact that, as Burnham says, this is life. It’s people getting on with it, whether it’s in the Orion quarter or milling around the free-flowing streets. It may have been filmed to look a little dark (literally - is it ever daytime?) and dingy, but the signs, the people, the things they were doing in the background - they were all fascinating. Maybe it’s a human thing to want it well-lit all the time and I should get over it.

I did notice the young (?) Trill lady getting her tattoos done and for a moment I really hoped it was Emony Dax. She didn’t really have any cause to be hanging around Qo’noS at all, never mind the Orion quarter, but I can’t help hoping it was. It’s very closed-minded of me - it could have been any one of several million joined or unjoined Trills, I know. I’m basically doing the same as every person who says ‘where are you from?’ and when you say your country they say ‘I know someone there called X - do you know them?’. But I just miss DS9 and while Discovery is excellent in every way, it’s still neck-and-neck with DS9 in my heart. I can’t help it.

There was a lot to think about with Burnham and her past with klingons; we were never told the exact details of how and why her parents came to be dead, but this spelt it out and the energy of the gaming place was infectious, even through a TV screen. I was not at all surprised that Tyler managed to insert himself so easily in a gambling den full of klingons - I was more worried that he wouldn’t leave. Well, worried is a stretch. More like hoping something in him would switch him with Voq and he would assert himself. I know that’s not on the cards, but again I held out hope. The fact that Tyler has now escaped a life of lab testing, of suspicion and pity from well-meaning Federation people is crafty. I know it’s a bit drastic, going into the heart of klingon territory and culture to avoid a few overly polite humans, but part of me thinks he remembers how Voq saw it and whatever part of him was Tyler liked it. I wouldn’t blame him if he just wanted a good old-fashioned klingon knees-up, to be honest. He needs it, with what he’s been through.

L’Rell - what now for the ‘nothing’ that nobody wanted? And now she has her pet human - sorry, ex-klingon - with her, how will she tighten the leash on the other houses and keep order? As long as she holds the planet to ransom, she’s good. But that makes her a target and it’s going to be hard to keep the planet spinning while at the same time using it as a bargaining chip to keep the houses in line. At least now her house can come out of hiding - if there’s anyone left.

I actually enjoyed the end speech at what I assume was Starfleet Headquarters. Nice that everyone got a medal - and Tilly finally an Ensign! YES! It’s about time! She’s been through a lot this series (not least of all getting high with the dude who was in the original series as Balok, as the dude under the stairs who helped Dax find her ‘pin’ in DS9, and one of the Ferengi hustlers in Enterprise. He certainly gets around) and it’s about time this was recognised. One final touch I really liked - a posthumous medal for Medical Officer Hugh Culber. Gone but not forgotten.

And so to the very end - the distress call from one USS Enterprise. Very interesting indeed - where have they been during the klingon war and how intact are they? As an aside; I know Commander Spock was First Officer of the Enterprise under Captain Pike in the original timeline but he can’t be in this one - if this is 5 - 10 years before Kirk gets the Enterprise in the Kelvin timeline (which this appears to be), then he couldn’t have been serving on the Enterprise at this time - he would have been at the Academy, designing the Kobayashi Maru and going through his own Starfleet training. But if we do see Spock, it has to be Zachary Quinto or it’s all off. After all, he’s the best not-Spock who ever Spock’d.

Admiral Cornwell mentioned that they were off to get their new captain (someone not on Earth, then?) before the distress signal went off. I hope that in season 2 there’s a running gag whereby every time they try to get to that captain to pick them up, they get side tracked and Saru ends up ‘acting captain’ for the entire season. That would make me happy.

Do you know what? This whole season has made me happy. It had a few dips here and there, and there were times I really wanted certain characters to die, but on the whole it’s been a rollercoaster and I’ve really warmed to a lot of characters. I’ve loved the twists and the turns, and I’ve enjoyed the way they crafted something so carefully that it never occurred to you to question it until it was too late. All in all, this has been a bang-up season 1 to any series, and to have it as our new Star Trek has been even better. To begin with I was just relieved it wasn’t shit - now I’m happily calling it my second-favourite series (although with time I don’t know how that will change).

It may have taken 14 years to get a new Star Trek on TV, but it’s here and I bloody hope it’s here to stay. If this cancel this now, we riot.

Peach and lube, everyone. Peach and frelling lube.