Who knew Billie Holliday was a Star Trek fan. Spoilers.
A slightly better episode overall. But still a lot of flaws at both the micro and macro level.
At the micro level – the episode unfolds without much in the way of interesting story, and spends way too long developing the peril. The story in brief is ‘fell in a hole, got out’, with some filigrees along the way. The episode spends a lot of time of this crisis having psychological crises and talking about them. It’s very Star Trek, but can we please have at least one person trapped under a girder.
The Zora plot here fell a bit flat. It would work better if Zora had been an audible presence over the past two seasons, such that growing emotions would be an interesting development, and we could see a difference. But due to a lack of planning we’ve had a long run without any real appearances from her (only six episodes overall).
At a more macro level – where is this season going? We’ve got the DMA, which has lost most of its threat. Book is going through something, but beyond that there’s little driving progression to the season. It would be nice to have a bit more of a clear direction, almost halfway through the season.
Quick hits:
– Do the graphics designers not know how a family tree works?
– It takes them a surprisingly long time to realise they’re stuck.
– More ‘save the ship’, less ‘explain SONAR to the crew’ please.
– Can someone other than Burnham have the ‘save the day’ idea?
– Another tragic backstory, this time for O-O? It’s feeling a bit more like fill in the blanks than anything else.
– Another Burnham death ride. Sigh. For no purpose. And surely there was a safer place to be then the very exposed bridge.
– Galactic Barrier – wow, that is a *deep* call back. If we get Sybok too I’ll be very impressed/scared.
831 down.