Warning! Danger, Will Robinson!
Here be SPOILERS for Star Trek Discovery series 3 episode 1!
I sat down the other night and rewatched the two-parter of Star Trek Discovery that ended season two, just so I would remember where we were all up to.
And do you know what? It made me miss ST: DIS all over again. The way they played the long game - again - to bring us everything we needed for the actual finale was just as impressive this time around as it was the first time I watched it. Season one had its own long game - the story of Lorca that we didn’t know we needed. Season two gave us a new mystery and its resolution. I liked how it ended up and where it left everyone, because now everything can be new again. Let me explain:
One gripe I had about the concept of ST: DIS was that it was set before Kirk’s time. As with the other most recent series up to that point, Enterprise, we were looking back rather than looking forward. I wasn’t overly thrilled with this, as they would have to observe certain canon and established events. I would have been happier if it happened some time after Voyager and DS9 ended, as that would put us the furthest into the future. Also, looking back is not what Star Trek is about - it’s supposed to be about moving forward. Forward motion, after all, is all there really is at the end of the day.
Now here we are with season three, and it looks like my gripe has been addressed: we’re now in the year 3188, which I believe makes it the furthest Star Trek has ever gone forward.
In short? I liked this episode - liked it a lot. It felt like a TNG plot inside a Star Trek Beyond story. Again, let me explain:
We start off with a very
Beyond scenario - Burnham and the crew have been successful, but now she is cut off from not just everyone she has ever known, but everything that was ever familiar. She is 930 years in the future where things must have changed (think for example about the difference between the the place now called the UK in 2020 and how it was in 1090). She’s trying to find her ship and her crew - she has no clue if they’re in her time, or if they even survived the wormhole that brought her 930 years into the future. She “meets” Book, and gives him a pretty good
Captain James T Chris Pine Kirk speech about intention and needing help. She gradually finds herself and her determination, gets back to what makes her
her, and so her adventure becomes trying to not only find herself and her ship, but the Federation itself.
Book, meanwhile, is having his own TNG episode. He appears to be a courier who is not at all fazed by having to “steal” cargo from other couriers. This random woman who falls out of a wormhole breaks his ship, forcing him to work with her to get what he needs to fix it. We find out he has a rather expensive, much sought after cargo, and yet he doesn’t want anyone calling it “cargo”, because it doesn’t belong to anyone. At this point anyone who’s ever seen a
Star Trek episode knows that the cargo is probably alive, presumably sentient, and Book might not be what he appears. We are rewarded by seeing that he stole the cargo to deliver it to a different place entirely - in actuality he’s rescued a member of an endangered sentient species from becoming dinner, repatriating it to a sanctuary planet which seems to be a massive wildlife preserve bent on letting them just live free and unencumbered.
After a lot of shenanigans including drugs, fights, tech and some great set pieces, Burnham finds one Starfleet contact that she can ask for help in finding the Discovery. But all is not what it seems, and again she is left to try to cling to what she believes Starfleet and the Federation are, in the face of everyone and everything telling her that there is nothing left to cling to.
She finds people to reach out to, she finds solace in the familiar, comfort in knowing there are others who believe as she does, and to borrow a line from Beyond, she finds she still believes in “strength in unity”.
Big fan of this episode. Book is set up to be an interesting mystery, and the possibilities for his story are endless. Burnham is alone but she’s more determined than ever, and we’ve already seen a new side of her during this episode. Shout out to Aditya Sahil, who was the quiet, resolute figure of a Starfleet officer - without actually being a Starfleet officer. Interesting to note that Twitter has already decided he’s the cinnamon roll in all this and must be protected at all costs. I cannot disagree.
The editing was fantastic, especially when Burnham is drugged, and the cinematography (is that Iceland?) was stark, beautiful, peaceful - and very well shot. The FX shots were not lacking, and the scenes in the Mercantile reminded me of a bazaar you might find in Farscape. We had a return to interesting Star Trek races - Andorians, Orions - even a Lurian who looked like Morn! Cosmo, the other courier, used a language that reminded me of Danny Pudi’s character from Beyond. It would be interesting to find out if in fact it was the same language.
All in all, this was a brilliant start that filled me with the same love for
Star Trek as many other episodes - it had the optimism, the drive, the characters, the tech. - all the parts I love in a good
Star Trek episode. I for one really hope it continues in the same vein. I want to see more of this 32nd century and how everyone in it is surviving, what The Burn is all about and how Burnham can (hopefully) do something about it. I also think we need the ship back, but I'm sure (mostly because I've seen the trailers) that everything will get sorted in the end. You know what? I’m more than happy to watch that unfold week by week.
Peach and lube, everyone. Peach and frelling lube.
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