Another late name change. Spoilers.
An episode with some good ambition, but the foundation it’s built on is just too shaky to really make it work. There are three things this episode really needs to make it work.
First, we need to believe that Osyraa might be good, or at least not too evil. But everything from the costuming to the acting undermines this, so we never think of the ‘deal’ as a real option. But if you kill minions or prisoners indiscriminately you’re just not going to be credible as ‘potentially good’ no matter how hard you try and work the script.
This is further undermined by the second point, which is this sudden thing about the Emerald Chain and science. The one appearance to date (the pesticide) didn’t give enough justification for this. And again, the costuming makes the scientist just look straight evil.
And finally, Stamets’s whole arc this season. There just hasn’t been enough time spent on it, and while the acting is nice it just hasn’t been built up enough. Instead he just turned up to work happy one day, and there hasn’t been enough to justify it.
So as a result the episode doesn’t have the impact that was hoped. Think of another world, where we’ve seen a much greyer portrayal of the Emerald Chain, and the deal on offer looks much more palatable. That would have far more suspense, and would make Osyraa a much more interesting character. Instead, she just seems like she’s up to something. And where Stamets’s concerns are obvious, and don’t need to be in the script.
The rest of the episode is some standard order ‘Die Hard on a space ship’ stuff that isn’t exactly groundbreaking, but is competently done.
Quick hits:
– Oh, the guy who they left alive is in the ‘previously on’. I wonder what’s going to happen.
– Transporting instead of elevators is a whole flex.
– Fire suppression technology blocking sensors does not seem like a good idea.
– Serious Davros vibes from the scientist.
– As if the Die Hard-ing wasn’t obvious enough, now she has no shoes…
– Wasn’t the spore drive an ecological catastrophe?
– I knew those little robots were going to be important to the plot.
810 down. 800 down if you use the Memory Alpha counting.