Gee, I wonder what species we’ll meet this episode. Spoilers.
There’s a lot about this episode that I like. The presentation of actually having to genuinely work for communication with an alien species is nicely done, and a step beyond the sort of thing already covered by *Darmok* in TNG. But the rest of the episode is quite erratic.An awful lot of this plot would be solved if Discovery had any kind of security department on board, that might for instance have noted people skulking around, kidnapping a senior officer, or conspiring with another ship.
Yet more ‘quick time outs’ from the driving urgent plot. This week we have primal scream therapy and more talking to Zora about feelings. Some of them (not all) are OK scenes, but they’re universal momentum killers.
We’re pretty close to the end of the season now, so I’ll save a lot of the overall judgment for that review.
Quick hits:
– Hey, those were some pretty accurate numbers for the object they’re describing. Well done!
– There’s an openable port above the engine room? Not good planning from an arbor point of view.
– The contingency first contact plan is stupid. It’d be like spraying a pheremone on the outside of a plane. There’s no good reason for it to have worked.
– Those pseudopods have real *The Abyss* vibes.
– Book is, perhaps consistent with his character, pretty bad at being a prison guard.
– “Pain makes people blind” is not a bad thesis statement for the season. But it has required a fair bit of ‘trauma porn’.
– Poor Grudge. Yelling is too much.
843 down.