This week’s Discovery is all about relationships and secrets. Spoilers.
Normally in an episode with three main subplots there’s at least something to like. This was fairly unusual for me in that I quite disliked all three of the subplots.
First up we have the Spock plot with Amanda and Burnham. This all felt a bit flabby and directionless to me – the main payoff is a slight advance in the backstory for Spock’s ‘angel’, plus a little bit of plot advancing in Spock now being on the run. But it was mainly a lot of whispered conversations which never really earned their emotional freight.
Then we have the Tilly plot, with the ghost May undergoing a complete personality change from last episode and trying to drive her mad. There wasn’t anything particularly ‘bad’ about this part per se, but it was very by the numbers and didn’t really allow for the things that we like about Tilly to be seen. For instance, I’d have maybe preferred a version where she was interested in the ghost initially, but the ghost’s behaviour drove away.
Finally it’s back to the Klingons, in a plot that seems mainly concerned with moving some chess pieces (mainly TyVoq) from where they were left last season, plus the return of former-Emperor Georgiou. Klingon politics has never been Star Trek’s finest hour, and it isn’t here either. And while I’m not as averse to the whole Section 31 thing as some fans out there, it’s not a plot line that obviously will move things around.
Overall it feels like an episode that had three objectives – get TyVoq on a ship with Georgiou, get the Spock plot moved on three spaces, and get the strange alien thingy out of Tilly. It does all this, but without any joy or fun along the way. Just a slog.
Quick Hits:
– That’s some impressive running for Tilly to catch up that far after spending 30 seconds talking to a ghost.
– I’m not sure the Klingon D7 battlecruiser needs an origin story, but I’m here for it. Also nice to see the makeup changes (mainly hair) for the Klingons bringing them closer to the original appearance.
– I think I preferred it when the Klingon scenes were subtitled – L’Rell is quite hard to understand without the subtitles.
– Maybe Burnham and Amanda would be better off having the conversation in private rather than just whispering in the middle of a corridor.
– The shot with May at both ends of the line was nice.
– Deus ex Georgio.
– Shades of Ghostbusters in the end of the Tilly plot.
– The ‘swooping from above snd turning upside down’ camera work was very distracting.
761 down.