Take me to your leader. Spoilers.
Overall not quite the same impact as the previous couple of episodes, and more about moving us forward a little bit onto a season-long plot (although still at a slow pace). The first half of the episode, up until arrival at Earth, is really quite flat – lots of reunions and exposition, not really a lot of story.
The exception to that is the conflict between Saru and Burnham. I was thinking when Burnham anointed Saru as Captain that the situation was inherently unstable, and so it proved to be. I like the story, as it’s done without anyone having to act completely against character. But I did feel a little like the one year time skip for Burnham meant that a few scenes with Book were carrying a lot of weight about Burnham’s attitude to her job changing so strongly.
The Earth plot was fairly by the numbers, with it being pretty obvious that the raiders were going to turn out to be more sympathetic than first thought. And seriously, why can no one ever spend 30 seconds to explain their plans before they head off on a hair brained scheme. It’s such a hackneyed device.
Adira Tai is an interesting character – it’s the first time that a Trill has appeared on screen in a very long time, and they have a lot of potential as an interesting character. I was a bit worried they were going to be another ‘wunderkind’, but the symbiont angle gives an interesting new spin on that.
Quick hits:
– Yep, just completely misread the end of the previous episode. Given what we’ve seen of the relative sizes of the ships in this episode, and the description of Book’s ship as being ‘big’ last episode, I think that’s where I went wrong.
– Star Date 865211.3. That honestly makes the time jump land more for me than 33rd century for some reason.
– I would have liked a few episodes of Burnham’s adventures. Maybe some Short Treks? Did love the hair in the montage though. But it makes some of the ‘Burnham has changed dramatically’ story a bit harder to engage with.
– A year doesn’t quite feel long enough for me. Two or three would have more resonance.
– Millions is way too low a death toll for an event with the scale of The Burn. Billions, maybe even trillions, once you count those who died from the immediate cessation of space travel for some time.
– The repair bots from Ephraim and Dot are now 100% canon.
– “Cake is Eternal”. Never truer words.
– Ooof, ‘I love your hair’ ‘Thank you’ – burn on Tilly’s current hair from Burnham there…
– I am actually on board for the Georgiou-Book-Burnham love triangle if they go that way.
– For the MBMBAM fans, that pause after ‘It’s Familiar’ from Burnham was followed by a thousand shouts of ‘but not too familiar’ I’m sure.
– There is always something about seeing Saturn in Star Trek, even more than Earth.
– Odd that Stamets and Detmer’s injuries aren’t referenced at all this episode.
– “One Aye, we’re not pirates”. Hah.
– All Hail Queen Grudge.
– A Trill joining with a Human is not a complete retcon (see *The Host*), I hope they explain how this is possible over a longer period. It can honestly just be ‘shiny new drug’, I just want an acknowledgment of continuity.
801 down, Star Trek starts its ninth century.