First contact with another episode. Spoilers after the jump.
The least ‘focused’ episode so far, with two plots running side by side with little interaction. The away team, the Klingon ship. It’s not bad, just a bit dull and meandering.
So the plan is to permanently alter a natural wonder in order to win a war? It’s not a very Star Trek-y plan. It’s nice that there’s some discussion of the need for the permission of any sentient species that’s there, but surely there’s an argument against doing this purely on the basis of its unique nature. It’s a little bit like using Uluru as a helipad.
Other than that the planet side story is pretty confused and hard to follow. Saru gets seduced by some kind of vision of perfect peace? I’m not sure that pretty music can overcome basic genetic training. And this then completely up ends his basic personality? It’s not earned, even with the little sickbed scene at the end.
The Klingon story is even less interesting – L’Rell is trying to do something, but gets found out by Kol. What’s more interesting is the elephant in the room – where is Voq? We haven’t seen Voq in several episodes now. One online theory is that Voq is Tyler, which would explain several holes in his story. It wouldn’t explain how he has a near perfect background, as well as a substantial increase in IQ versus earlier appearances.
We then get a couple of Stamets pieces, all of which is pointing towards some kind of breakdown or something else going on. The most obvious explanation for the massive change in mood is that there are two of him somehow, supported by the strange mirror thing earlier in the season.
All in all, another episode really dedicated to moving chess pieces around rather than telling an interesting story. Given that next week is the mid-season finale, I hope that they’re building up to something interesting.
Quick hits:
– Grammar points for the correct plural ‘birds of prey’.
– Has General Kol never heard of surveillance cameras in interrogation rooms?
– Helen pointed out that there’s an incredibly strong ‘Avatar’ vibe from the planet side section of this episode. Fair comment.
– Are Pahvans going to turn out to be Organians in some respect?
747 down. Just one more episode in the current run before a few months off.