Discovery goes back to the beginning. Spoilers.
Finally things start to happen. Fortunately it’s a jumbo sized (55 minute) episode.
The big plot developments are all around Spock, in particular we finally have an existential threat in the form of the robot aliens from the previous aliens. But more importantly Spock is ‘cured’ enough to be an active participant in things again. The one off note for me is that after all the build up. Spock’s break with Burnham felt anti-climactic. It had a strong emotional truth to it, but not enough to be the deep dark secret of the past dozen episodes.
Another ‘finally’ is giving Culber the space to finally have his reaction to things. It’s been pretty obvious from the acting how it was going to play out, but it was done well. It’s going to be interesting seeing where this goes for both Stamets (who has to lose Culber again) and Culber. There’s also a nice little moment for Saru, with his instant (and correct) insight that the fight with TyVoq needs to play out.
And then finally we have more Section 31 shennaigans, with Georgiou seemingly out manoeuvring Leland. It’s hard for me to care very much about this subplot, as Leland has come from nowhere, and Georgiou is so obviously evil. But hopefully they’re going somewhere with all of this.
Quick hits:
– I can’t say too clearly how much I loved the ‘previously on’ with “The Cage”. Although I suspect that it was a bit incoherent for anyone who hadn’t watched the episodes.
– Please, won’t someone stop the spinny cam.
– 4.6% Carbon Dioxide in the atmosphere of Talos IV? I’m not an environmental scientist, but that’s a lot. Earth has about 0.0005%.
– The Talosian makeup is a nice balance between the original and what would make sense on screen today.
– The continuity with Spock is more Quinto than Nimoy, which I was a bit disappointed in.
– I really hope we’re not going to be spending too much time before the crew find out about Airiam.
– Why on earth is a shuttle stolen from the Section 31 ship in Discovery livery?
– I liked the whole ‘cut off the heroic Captain’s speech’ thing in the final scene.
766 down.