First Impressions: Star Trek: Discovery, S2 Ep 12, "Through the Valley of Shadows"

This episode of Discovery continues with this season's modus operandi--good characterizations and acting, and poor plotting. Yet this is enough for me to continue with the show, because when the first two are there, they are firing on all cylinders.

In this episode, that was never more evident than when it came to this guy.

Anson Mount has been doing great work all season, and this episode had a scene that more or less left me in a blubbering mess. Since the time suit was sucked back into the future in the last episode, Starfleet has decided they need a time crystal to save all sentient life, and the Klingon planet of Boreth (where we saw Ash Tyler and Klingon chancellor L'Rell drop off their secret baby) has a monastery where the crystals are kept with the monks. (Yes, yes, it makes no flipping sense. Just put your logic blinkers on and go with it.) L'Rell and Ash get into a fight over who gets to go down to the planet--since, after all, Tyler/Voq is supposed to be, you know, dead (although that's not a terribly important barrier, in this show)--and Pike volunteers to go instead. Once he gets there, he meets a hooded albino Klingon monk who says he will give Pike a crystal if he looks into the future one shows him and accepts his fate.

(An albino Klingon monk, guarding crystals that do funky things with time! Ooooh, who could that be? It's L'Rell and Ash's kid, all grown up! Which makes me question the "kindness" of bringing him to Boreth, since at this rate he'll be in the grave even before Discovery starts its third season.)

And we the audience know what Pike is going to see, just as we recognize the fate that's been hanging over him the entire season. His accident is shown in all its horror, and the aftermath of him sitting in his chair in paralyzed agony, and even though we know it's coming, it's a brutal gut punch. Anson Mount just kills it here, because he looks at that future and sees what is in store for him, but as a Starfleet officer he steps up and accepts it anyway.

Damn, I almost think I'd rather have another season or two of Christopher Pike (and Spock and Number One) aboard the Enterprise than the new Picard show.

In the opposing storyline tackling this episode's themes of destiny and fate, Burnham and Spock hie off together after a Section 31 ship that missed its check-in (after some more sibling banter: "I don't need saving, brother!" "Shall we, sister?" when Spock, acting on Saru's orders, insists on going along). The two have a lovely conversation, and Michael is depressed and cynical, since nothing they have done has defeated Control. Spock admits that both logic and emotion have failed him, and the only thing he has left is a sense of purpose. Then they come upon the crew of the Section 31 ship, drifting dead in space after an apparent venting, and rescue the sole survivor, a former crewmate of Burnham's from the Shenzhou.

(ALL TOGETHER NOW: "Are you sure about that, Michael? Who IS this guy, really? Should we maybe not trust him quite so fast?")

Neither Spock nor Burnham hear me yelling at the screen, however, and the three of them beam aboard the Section 31 ship. And sure enough, the Lone Survivor gets Michael alone and tries to infest her with nanobots, resulting in a rather suspenseful scene where she keeps firing at the poor guy (although maybe not that poor, since he's already long gone and reanimated by Control) until she phasers a huge hole in his midsection and a stream of nanobots comes pouring out. And Spock, finally, comes running in and hits upon the idea of magnetizing them to the deck. Apparently Michael is the one "true threat to its [Control's] objectives," and despite its confident assertion that it will win, there must be one timeline out there (shades of the Avengers and Thanos) where it fails.

Back aboard Discovery, there is a nice scene involving the bridge crew eating lunch, including the welcome return of Jett Reno (and the Six Sinuses from the Black Lagoon guy, whose name I've forgotten). Stamets is also sitting with them, at least until Culber comes into the mess hall with a different group, whereupon Stamets rushes back to his engineering cave (this is a very brief scene, but it's another fine performance by Anthony Rapp). After this, Reno goes to sickbay with a hangnail excuse, and tells Culber to stop being an "idiot whose name rhymes with Poo." She relates how her wife died during the Klingon War, and she didn't get another chance; but Culber and Stamets have another chance, and she urges him not to screw it up. These scenes were a welcome break from the overall tension of the episode, and all I can say is MORE OF THIS PLEASE. Especially Jett Reno.

The episode ends on a cliffhanger, as after Spock and Michael's return to Discovery seemingly the entire complement of Section 31 ships, presumably controlled by Control (groan), pop out of warp around Discovery. Since they cannot delete the sphere data from Discovery's mainframe, Michael says they need to destroy her, and Pike agrees. He calls the Enterprise to come to their location (his ship is going to get there before the Section 31 ships, which are already there, can capture them? Really?), and gives the order to begin evacuation. (Just before this, there's also another nice scene where Pike relates what happened on Boreth, or at least part of it, and you can see just how devastated he is by what he has learned. More stellar acting on Anson Mount's part.)

The episode ends there, but now I'm wondering if this is going to connect with the excellent "Short Trek" shown on All Access before the season proper, called "Calypso." This depicts a Discovery 1,000 years in the future, abandoned by her crew and ordered to wait for their return, during which the computer evolved to sentience (and not a Control-inator type sentience, either). At any rate, next week at the very least we'll get to see the Enterprise again, and hopefully Number One as well.

So: parts of this I really liked, and parts had me screaming in frustration. I'm still holding out hope that Michelle Paradise, Season 3's new co-showrunner, will fix their plotting problems. They have an excellent cast and characters, if they could just get their damn storytelling straight.

Second Impressions: Star Trek: Discovery S2 Ep 11, "Perpetual Infinity"

Sorry for being late with this one, but the Hugo finalist announcement interfered a bit with my timeline, and general life stuff. I also went back and watched this episode again, and appreciated it quite a bit more the second time around. This is mainly due to the awesomeness of guest star Sonja Sohn as Dr. Gabrielle Burnham, Michael's back-from-the-dead-and-the-future mother. And Michelle Yeoh played a pivotal role as well.

In this episode, taking off directly from the ending of the previous one, the Red Angel is actually Michael's mother, who has spent the intervening twenty years (and 841 time jumps) trying to defeat the Section 31 AI Control, who gains the data belonging to the sphere plopped in Discovery's path in "An Obol for Charon" (by none other than Momma Burnham herself, we find out), and uses it to become conscious and exterminate all sentient life in the galaxy. (Although that's a bit confusing to me, as it already seems pretty damn conscious. I suppose the sphere data actually gives it the technology and ability to do what it ends up doing.) Discovery is trying to hold on to Dr. Burnham long enough to get some answers, and implement a plan which will sent the suit and the sphere data back into the future where Control will never get it, while severing the link between Dr. Burnham and the timeline she is trapped in, and bring her back to Michael and Discovery's present.

Naturally, Control tries its best to throw a monkey wrench into this, by taking control of Leland's body. (Done in an unpleasant scene that reminds me of the Borg, and HOO BOY I hope the writers don't go there.) Control-Leland attempts to steal the sphere data from Discovery, enlisting Ash Tyler and the Mirror Emperor--in the latter instance, appealing to Philippa the Merciless' ego and narcissism. She appears to go along with this at first, and indeed this betrayal would be right up Empress Georgiou's alley. But after beaming down to the containment facility and talking to Gabrielle Burnham (in an awesome scene featuring two Asian women over 50, abundantly meeting the Bechdel test and establishing that the writers are softening the Mirror Emperor a bit and giving her a teeny tiny conscience, which is something of a disappointment but I suppose a necessity for her to star in her own show), the Empress realizes Control has taken over Leland and enlists Ash Tyler to stop him. Whereupon Leland stabs Tyler in the gut and beams down to finish the download, kill Dr. Burnham, destroy the suit and make off with the sphere data.

There's quite a bit of hell breaking loose in the final act, as Georgiou and Leland fight--although this fight wasn't choreographed as well as previous fights have been, in my opinion--and Stamets, Tyler and Nhan destroy the containment field and sent Dr. Burnham and her suit (minus its shattered time crystal) ricocheting back into the future. The facility is destroyed, but Leland manages to beam back to his Section 31 ship with 54% of the sphere data. The episode ends with another lovely scene between Spock and Michael, and the lines being drawn for the final episodes of the season.

Honesty, Sonja Sohn made this episode, and I hope we get to see her again. I'm still skeptical of this entire Red Angel storyline, and indeed it is established here that Dr. Burnham is not behind the seven signals that attracted Starfleet's attention in the first place. What do you want to bet that Discovery itself ends up being behind those signals, by way of the Last Seven Jumps of the Magic Mushrooms? I do wish they would get out of their oh-my-god-the-universe-is-ending conceit, and concentrate more on their stellar characters. Which means, I suppose, that I would like Discovery as a whole to be more of an episodic show rather than a serialized show. That's completely contrary to the way stories are told on television now, I realize, and a strictly episodic format has its drawbacks and limitations as well. But it seems like there should be a balance between the two extremes, and Discovery has yet to find it.

First Impressions: Star Trek: Discovery, S2 Ep 10, "The Red Angel"

Hoo boy. This episode demonstrates what has become the modus operandi of this season of Discovery: over-the-top, overstuffed, convoluted, unnecessary plot twists, and plot holes big enough to warp a starship through, balanced out with stellar character moments. Spoilers ahoy, after the picture.

(I've used another image of Philippa Georgiou, because as usual, Michelle Yeoh damn near salvaged the whole thing all by herself.)

We open with Airiam's funeral, which would have been more emotionally resonant if we just hadn't gotten to know her before she got offed. This included the first of two great Saru scenes, as the Kelpien sang Airiam to her rest as her coffin was catapulted into space. (Was that really Doug Jones singing? If so, hell, what can't that man do?) Then we have a round-robin scene of discussion about the Section 31 rogue AI and the Red Angel, interrupted by Ensign Tilly busting in and saying she found a snippet of code from the Red Angel in Airiam's memories--a snippet that matches the biological scans of Michael Burnham.

Oh. (Which comes as no surprise to fans of the show. In fact, a certain Australian wag put up a poll on this very question last week.)

The next scene shifts to Sickbay, where Hugh Culber assures Pike, Spock and Admiral Cornwall that it is, indeed, the future version of Burnham operating the Red Angel. (While it's nice to see Wilson Cruz again, and obviously the writers wanted to give him more to do, is it really a good thing to reactivate Dr. Culber to duty without giving him an extensive physical and psychological evaluation? Seeing as he was, you know, so recently dead and all.)

(Oh yeah, and Culber stating confidently that it is Michael? As we'll see at episode's end...whoooooops.)

Given this assertion, Stamets, Tilly and Spock come up with a plan to build a "mousetrap" for the Red Angel. Spock points out that many (although not all) of the Angel's appearances have come when Michael is in danger. Therefore, if they intentionally threaten her life, she should appear. Captain Pike objects to this, but Burnham insists on pushing ahead. (And therein is the biggest plot hole in the episode--they should not have brought her in on what they were doing. Yes, if it had been Michael, she would have been forced to show up to save her own life, but armed with foreknowledge of the plan, she also would've been able to come up with a way to escape.)

This plan, set on a planet with an atmosphere inimical to human life that Burnham is deliberately exposed to, works. She is allowed to temporarily die, the Red Angel appears to zap her back to life, and Leland and Ash, aboard Georgiou's ship, close the Angel's wormhole and cut off her escape. The mousetrap closes, the suit falls to the ground and opens, and the person within tumbles out--and it's not Michael at all, but her human mother.

To backtrack on this a little bit, Michael Burnham has lived for over twenty years thinking both her parents were dead. In a strong, tense scene in this episode, Captain Leland, from Georgiou's ship, revealed that they were covertly working for Section 31 way back when, and Michael's mother actually invented the time-traveling suit. But a younger Leland allowed their location to slip to the Klingons and they tracked the elder Burnhams down and murdered them. After learning this, Michael punches Leland out, not once but twice. Following this is another excellent scene between Michael and Spock, as they begin to work out the kinks in their relationship.

In the other plot thread, the continued recovery of Culber, there's a very good scene where he goes to Admiral Cornwall, who was apparently a therapist in an earlier period of her life, and has a short but beneficial therapy session (something he desperately needs, obviously). He also tries to talk to Stamets later on, but there's way too much going on at that moment for the two of them to have any kind of conversation, and Stamets tells him so.

Two other scenes just had me chortling, one in particular where Georgiou goes down to engineering where Stamets and Tilly are working on the mousetrap, and when Culber stops by, she immediately picks up on the tension between them (and knowing the Mirror Emperor, she's spying on everything and everyone anyway). She then launches into a hilarious monologue about Stamets' alternate in the Mirror Universe being "pansexual" and how much fun she had with him, even over Stamets' objections of "I'm gay, and so is he!" (meaning Culber). There's another bit where Saru, testing out Leland's sincerity, pulls himself up to tower over the human while saying that even without his ganglia he still has a pretty good read on whether someone is a threat, and I'm thinking, "Cripes, threat ganglia or no, this is someone you do not want to fuck with."

So now Michael's mother is thrown into the mix for some good old-fashioned family dysfunction and melodrama (or some more, rather, given her Vulcan family's history). The strength of Discovery, by far, is the characters and character dynamics. They just need to get their plotting together. Sigh.

First Impression: Star Trek: Discovery S2 Ep 9. "Project Daedalus"

I have mixed feelings about this episode. There are many good things about it (characterizations and direction) as well as some not-so-good things (plot and the overall Big Bad). But the worst thing is the one I saw from the opening scene.

That is, we wouldn't be beginning an episode showing the viewpoint of an interesting but criminally underused character if we weren't going to bump her off.

Look, Star Trek has always had a "redshirt" problem. That is, a seemingly endless array of expendable characters who are there only to be slain by (in the case of the Original Series) the Monster of the Week. (Since we can't realistically--not from a story POV, but a television industry POV--kill off William Shatner or Patrick Stewart, after all.) In some ways, this trope was better in TOS: whenever a strange new redshirted person appeared, the viewer knew that's what they were there for, and thus didn't have to bother caring about them other than a certain detached curiosity as to how they would be offed.

But Discovery had made some (admittedly minimal) efforts to flesh out the bridge crew this season, which I heartily approved of. This shouldn't, and doesn't have to be, the Michael Burnham Guilt-Me Show. (Referring to Burnham's biggest flaw, which was brought painfully to the forefront during a beautifully acted scene in this episode, between Sonequa Martin-Green and Ethan Peck.) We have some wonderful characters here, and excellent actors, and they deserve a chance to shine, dammit. Just look at what they've done with Anson Mount's Christopher Pike this season. I would happily follow him, Spock, and Number One (another highly touted but underused character) into either a mini-series or a spinoff. Even with what little we've seen of the bridge crew, these are interesting individuals who could power compelling stories, and it's goddamned frustrating that the powers-that-be don't seem to realize that. A single scene per episode, spotlighting a different crewmember in a round-robin sequence, would have sufficed.

Instead, we get Lieutenant Commander Airiam's fascinating backstory, and snippets of her friendship with Sylvia Tilly, pilot Kayla Detmer, and tactical ops officer Rhys--only to end in Airiam's well-acted, moving, and infuriating Noble Sacrifice.

It is beautifully shot, I will grant you. Jonathan Frakes directed "Project Daedalus," and it's abundantly clear that he is the best Star Trek director (even if he is fond of long, swooping, upside-down, slightly nauseating pan shots, like the one at the beginning of this episode). The pacing is spot on, the action explosive, and he gets a bravura performance out of Sonequa Martin-Green--the anguish on her face in her final scene with Airiam is palpable. And the episode's ending, with Airiam replaying her favorite memory as her cybernetic systems fail in the unforgiving vacuum of space, is enough to bring tears to a lot of viewers' eyes. I just wish we had seen all this stuff, and all these relationships had been established, before this character's death.

So that's my first and foremost objection to this. The second is the direction the plot reveals are apparently taking us. The AI-gone-rogue is a time-honored Star Trek tradition (and a particularly TOS tradition, as it sometimes seemed like James Kirk spent half his time talking killer robots into destroying themselves), so it's not the idea in and of itself, it's what is done with it. What complicates this is that it's Section 31's AI gone rogue. Which would not matter so much if there wasn't going to be an entire upcoming series exploring Section 31 (along with Michelle Yeoh's badassery). So, unfortunately, I think the showrunners are going to pull their punches with this entire storyline, because they have to worry about the other series. This is evident in the dragging in of whatever-the-hell the Red Angel is, which at the ending of this episode seems to have something to do with Michael Burnham's dead parents (and which will play right into her "everything is my fault" complex, even after Spock beautifully deconstructed it in this very episode).

Having said all that, there are some very good things about this episode, and the pitch-perfect characterization is at the forefront. In particular, Saru seems to be back on track, with the addition of some extra confidence and forcefulness after the loss of his threat ganglia. The scene between Spock and Stamets was also noteworthy, as Spock boiled down Hugh Culber's trauma to just a few well-written and delivered lines. I find it very interesting that the writer of this episode is Michelle Paradise, who was just announced as the co-showrunner of Discovery's third season. If they can marry her command of the characters to some better plotting, we could have a really breakout third season. This one (with some nagging weak points) is certainly better than the first, but I think the show still has a way to go.

First Impressions: Star Trek: Discovery, S2 Ep 8, "If Memory Serves"

I think this will be the pivotal episode of this season of Discovery, as there are a lot of things happening here. Storylines collide, surprises are revealed, and consequences are seen. It helps that it's also a bang-up episode in and of itself, right up there with "Saints of Imperfection" (my second favorite episode of the season) and nipping at the heels of "An Obol for Charon."

Let's discuss these three facets of the episode, one at a time. This will of necessity involve spoilers. I'm also not going to recap everything that has gone before, as that would make this post Jethro Tull-like in length. So if you're confused, warp off to CBS All Access and get caught up. I'll still be here.

Spoilers after the picture!

(Yes, I still miss Lorca.)

(But Pike has definitely helped to ease the pain.)

1. Culber's Resurrection; or, Life After Death Ain't All It's Cracked Up To Be

Poor Hugh Culber. I really felt for the guy, because he's completely adrift. He spent months in the Magic Mushroom Palace struggling to survive and barely hanging on to his sanity, and now he's back in the "real" universe in a newly generated body that isn't his (lacking previous scars, for example); on a ship and among a crew that have gone on without him; with his murderer serving on said ship; and with a husband, Stamets, who desperately wants to go back to the way things used to be, as if nothing has happened.

This, obviously, is impossible. Culber says straight out that he doesn't know who he is, and understandably so. That being the case, he certainly doesn't know if he still loves Stamets. I know some people are upset about Culber breaking off the relationship, and admittedly this whole thing was a mess from the get-go, as Culber never should have been killed off in the first place. It was a stupid, unnecessary "plot twist" from the previous showrunners. Nevertheless, it was done, and this is a sometimes-clumsy way of showing the consequences of that boneheaded decision. I hope that the current showrunners will see their way clear to bringing Culber and Stamets back together, after exploring and resetting the characters and relationship.

It helps that both Anthony Rapp and Wilson Cruz have been spectacular in their roles. In that heartbreaking scene where Culber breaks things off, Rapp just knocked it out of the park.

2. Flashbacks! Recaps! Jeffrey Hunter and Anson Mount Look a Whole Lot Alike!

This episode opened with a squee-inducing montage of the original Star Trek pilot, "The Cage," which was reworked for the two-part episode, "The Menagerie." It's possible that a (very few) Discovery viewers don't know what all the fuss over Talos IV is about, and this "previously [like 50 years, man] on Star Trek" brings them up to speed. Then it's a glorious dissolve of past into present, Jeffrey Hunter's (the TOS Pike) face fading into Anson Mount's, and we're off to the races.

Anson Mount as Christopher Pike has been one of the more pleasant surprises of the season. This is a character that never appeared past "The Menagerie," and thus is a relatively blank slate, and Discovery has made the most of it. Mount's performance has turned Pike into a layered, multifaceted character, in a way that is more than a bit tragic, since we already know his end.

3. Spock Stops Teasing, and Starts Speaking!

Ethan Peck, as Spock, actually gets to say something that makes sense (well, mostly) in this episode, instead of muttering backwards number sequences and snippets of "Alice in Wonderland." Of course, the immediate question is, "How close is he to Leonard Nimoy?" And the answer is, he is and he isn't. He has some of Nimoy's mannerisms and speech patterns, but although they're similar, they're not slavishly carbon-copied. Overall, he struck me as being far more smug in his logic-superiority than later-era Spock. This would make sense, as at this point in his life Spock has a bit of a stick up his ass. (Also, the beard, which Burnham makes delicious sisterly fun of, helps to hide the fact that Ethan Peck does not have nearly as close a resemblance to his predecessor as Anson Mount.) We're only one true episode into his tenure, but I think Peck's performance is interesting enough for me to (tentatively) call it a winner.

(But hell, that kid who plays young Spock? He's the real winner of the two in this episode, acting-wise. That scene where young Burnham, running away to protect the family from "logic-extremists", insults and demeans young Spock to keep him from following her, was raw and real. It hurt Spock to the point where two decades later, despite recognizing the reason she did it, Spock can't bring himself to forgive her, and you can see why in every pained expression and quivering lip on that kid's face.)

4. I'm Afraid the Red Angel Will Turn Out To Be an Overblown Red Balloon

So apparently the Red Angel is a time traveler from 500 years in the future, the same place as the Evolving Squid Probe that attacked Pike's and Ash Tyler's shuttle, Nautilis-style, in last week's episode. (Which was a very cool special effect, by the way. Discovery continues to look gorgeous.) I am very hesitant about any kind of time travel storyline on Star Trek, because it usually ends up shooting itself in the foot and blowing itself up, all at the same time. Add to this the fact that this temporal wanderer is trying to prevent a timeline where Something Ominous, Something Black and Blue destroys all inhabited planets and all sentient life, according to Spock's not-quite-coherent recounting of his aborted mind meld with the Red Angel. To which I reply, "Ah, cripes, I'm really beginning to hate any We Must Prevent the Death of the Universe Stakes," because that storyline is so over-the-top as to be meaningless (and what the hell is the point anyway? That this universe and its inhabitants are so bad the Big Bang needs to start over?). As far as emotional resonances go, Stamets and Culber affected me far more in this episode than the reveal of its Red-Suited Pseudo-Religious Something-or-Other.

5. Lieutenant Airiam, We Barely Knew Ye

Come to find out that Lieutenant Airiam, the gray-skinned, prosthetics-wearing cyborg on the bridge, was infected by the Evolving Squid Probe from last week's episode, after it scanned the shuttle's computer, Discovery's computer, and bled its way right into her eyes, showing up as three red dots in each pupil. In this episode, she sabotaged the spore drive, preventing Discovery from jumping at a somewhat crucial moment. Which would mean a lot more if we knew anything at all about Airiam, other than she sometimes works under Sylvia Tilly. I mean, come on, people. This is an online streaming service, and you can make each episode as long as is necessary. It seems to me you could have included a couple of scenes featuring Airiam in the previous one or two episodes, even if they just amounted to her having brief conversations with, for instance, Tilly. That would make her predicament (and apparent upcoming betrayal, judging from previews) more meaningful than a perfunctory dispatching to Save Our Female Lead.

6. As Usual, Philippa Georgiou For the Win

The final scene of this episode is delicious. After Leland, aboard Section 31's flagship, falls for the Talosians' illusion of Burnham and Spock beaming aboard, the Mirror Emperor casually reveals that she tangled with the Talosians in her universe and nuked the planet to slag (or at least she thought she did, I suppose). Then she asks how Leland is going to deal with losing his two fugitives and stalks off, leaving him staring bug-eyed after her. Talk about hoisting someone on their own petard and leaving them high and dry. I cannot fucking wait for Michelle Yeoh's show.

This may sound like I'm praising with faint damns, but despite all this, I really liked this episode. What I don't like is what it appears to be setting up. But we'll have to see.

First Impressions: Star Trek: Discovery, S2 Ep 7, "Light and Shadow"

Well, damn. THAT was more like it.

This episode is the polar opposite of the previous one. When I started watching it and saw that it was only 40 minutes long, I thought, "Ooookay," but this was forty tightly written, gripping minutes. Spock FINALLY makes an appearance, Amanda reams Sarek a well-deserved new one, Captain Pike and Ash Tyler wrestle with a probe-turned-giant-space squid that looks like a weird "Trek" version of "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea"....and at the very end, we get a link back to the Original Series' "The Cage" and "The Menagerie." Hooooly shit.

Yes, the Red Angel is (seemingly) confirmed to be a futuristic time traveler. I'm not sure this is a good thing, but we'll have to see. On the credits side, this is the first episode, I believe, that new co-showrunner Michelle Paradise makes an appearance. If these are the kinds of stories we'll be getting from her, they made a very good hire indeed.

First Impressions: Star Trek: Discovery S2 Ep 6, "The Sound of Thunder"

I'm cautiously optimistic about this season of Discovery, in that the show finally seems to be finding its voice and its stride. "An Obol for Charon" was definitely the high point for me so far, followed by "Points of Light" and "Saints of Imperfection." Unfortunately, this season is still producing clunkers, and this is one of them.

It's not evident when you first watch it though, because this show is, and continues to be, gorgeous. The special effects are top-notch, and the alien in this episode is a creepy, black slime dripping CGI masterpiece. (I wish they hadn't filtered the actor's voice, though. I know they did that to make it sound even more alien, but it just made it hard to understand what the Ba'ul were saying.) Doug Jones' performance as Saru is equally as good, but he's always been one of the best actors on the show (along with Anthony Rapp). Anson Mount, as Captain Christopher Pike, is one of the better elements this season, and I'm liking what they're doing with a relatively undeveloped character from the original series. If the writers can do as well with a young Spock (which we really need to see--hopefully he finally shows up next week), that will be a step forward for the show.

But sometimes it doesn't seem like the writers are really thinking through what they're doing, and that was never more evident than this episode. This episode combined two story threads: Saru's Kelpien background (also incorporating the Short Trek "The Brightest Day") with the overarching season storyline of the hunt for the Red Angel. Kelpiens, we found out in the Short Trek, are a sentient prey species, living in peace and isolation on their planet and subject to periodic "culling" by their predators, the technologically advanced Ba'ul. Every so often certain Kelpiens are summoned to the pylons that oversee each village, and they're zapped into nothingness and never seen again. Saru escaped this fate eighteen years earlier by cobbling together Ba'ul technology to reach beyond his planet and get in contact with the Federation (and specifically a young Lieutenant Philippa Georgiou). Due to the restrictions imposed by General Order One (which is an apparent precursor to the Prime Directive, Starfleet's non-interference policy) Georgiou can only rescue Saru by making him promise to leave his planet behind and never contact it or his people again, and Saru's thirst for knowledge is so great that he agrees to this.

This episode picks up what happens after "An Obol for Charon," in which a Big Dumb Object stops the Discovery and basically begs the ship to take its testimony before it dies, and in the process triggers Saru's vahar'ai, the (supposed) imminent death of Kelpien individuals that occurs with the culling. But come to find out, when Saru's threat ganglia fall off and he survives, only to lose the fear that has consumed Kelpiens their entire lives, he realizes that the Ba'ul have been imprisoning his people and telling them lies about their biology and way of life for centuries. Obviously a confrontation would have to take place here, and the Red Angel sends a signal from Kaminar, the Kelpien home planet, to force one.

To make a long, convoluted story short, the Ba'ul attempt to destroy all the Kelpiens, and are countered by Discovery and Saru, using the signal from "Charon's" Big Dumb Object to trigger vahar'ai in every Kelpien on the planet. Here is where the episode starts to break down, because nobody asks if that's a good thing, even the normally more cautious Captain Pike. I realize that Discovery was in the middle of a crisis, but for crying out loud, if they had time for Saru to have a flipping long conversation with Burnham and Pike while he was on the Ba'ul's ship, they had time for someone to say, "Uh, is forcing a massive biological change on an entire species without even asking them really the best way out of this?" It also shreds General Order One into teeny tiny fragments and blows them away on the wind. I'm not a fan of General Order One/the Prime Directive at the best of times, because it seems like a (to continue the "Big" analogy) a Big Stupid Rule that Starfleet has to pay lip service to while allowing their captains and others to find clever ways around it. I wish it had never been included in the series at all. I wish it could be jettisoned entirely, but it's far too late for that now. Aside from a perfunctory mention from Captain Pike, nobody pays even lip service to it this time around.

And to top it all off, almost none of this had to happen, because at the last minute the Red Angel shows up to shut the Ba'ul genocide down. This is a massive, disappointing cheat. The only good thing about it is that Saru caught a good look at the Red Angel, which suspiciously resembles a bipedal, rather human-shaped being in a red spacesuit. So I suppose this episode advanced the season's overarching plot a bit, and it did give Saru some character development (losing his threat ganglia has apparently turned him, at least temporarily, into an arrogant jackass) and some appropriately badass scenes. But man, the show spouted a lot of contradictory, not-so-good stuff to get there.

Look, every show has less-than-stellar episodes, and a lot of this season of Discovery has been trying to fix and/or retcon the missteps of the first season (particularly killing off Hugh Culber). And the revelation about Saru's people is certainly a game-changer. But this is not a good way to handle the aftermath of that, and I certainly hope the show improves going forward.

First Impressions: Star Trek: Discovery, S2 Ep 5, "Saints of Imperfection"

This episode takes off directly from the end of the last one, "An Obol for Charon." There is advancement along several fronts in this episode: the overarching plot of the search for Spock (heh) and the Red Angels, Sylvia Tilly's clash with the mycelial network, the reintroduction of Ash Tyler, and the (always welcome) reappearance of Michelle Yeoh, the Mirror Emperor. There's a course correction from the first season, which I was happy about, even though it involved a great deal of technobabble and woo-woo. But this is also a honking big spoiler, so I'll hide it behind some cast photos. Proceed at your own risk.

Yeah, I still miss Gabriel Lorca, bastard though he was.

On the other hand, I can hardly wait for the show starring Michelle Yeoh, Section 31 shenanigans or not. If they write her correctly, the Mirror Emperor will have Starfleet eating out of her hand.

Last chance to turn back now. Spoilers Ahoy!

The big reveal in this episode, of course, was the resurrection of Hugh Culber, Discovery engineer Paul Stamets' husband, who was murdered last season by Ash Tyler, an unknowing Klingon plant. (Yeah, it's complicated.) The fact that a member of one of the first canon gay couples in Star Trek was summarily (and unnecessarily) killed off caused quite an uproar. But the groundwork had been laid for this for some time, and at the end of "Charon" when it was obvious that Stamets would be going into the mycelial network to rescue Tilly, I figured he would encounter Culber there. I thought it would be a ghost or some sort of magic mushroom hallucination, and Stamets would get a final chance to say goodbye. Wrongggg! Culber was really in there, transferred at the moment of death by Stamets' connection to the network, and Burnham, Tilly and Stamets (with some assistance from May, one of the beings living inside the network itself) were able to bring Culber back.

Needless to say, this is where the technobabble and woo-woo comes in, on a level seldom seen even in Star Trek history, and it stretched my suspension of belief to its absolute breaking point. But dammit, it works, and this was entirely due to Anthony Rapp's and Wilson Cruz's performances. Now, however, they had better deal with the aftermath to this plot twist, which should of necessity involve some trauma and stress on Stamets' and Culber's relationship, if not outright PTSD. Anything else would be a cheat.

That was the emotional highlight of the episode, but this was a fast-paced, action-jammed hour, and the special effects (Discovery's sinking half in-half out of the mycelial network to rescue Tilly) were excellent. Michelle Yeoh's Mirror Emperor Georgiou faces off with Michael Burnham in some delicious scenes that have me panting for the Section 31 show, and Sylvia Tilly (the delightful Mary Wiseman) explored her friendship with the alien May, who kidnapped her into the mycelial network. I also must single out Anson Mount, playing an earlier version of Christopher Pike from the original Star Trek. This character, and the actor's performance, is really growing on me.

(But c'mon, people. This continued teasing of Spock's appearance has passed beyond frustrating and is well into annoying territory. Bring him on and get on with it.)

So far, I think the best episode this season was last week's "An Obol for Charon," but "Saints of Imperfection" isn't far behind. It seems like the show is finally finding its own hybrid, and at times gloriously weird, voice.

First Impressions: Star Trek: Discovery S2 Ep 4, "An Obol for Charon"

Well, that was a bit of a mess. An interesting, ambitious mess, mind you, with some noteworthy individual character moments, but still a mess.

This episode was definitely overstuffed, with three separate storylines that could have been episodes all on their own. (Actually four, with the overarching "let's catch up with Spock and find out what the hell is going on" theme. At this point, as far as I'm concerned, this is getting a little tiresome. Quit teasing the audience, stop talking about Spock endlessly and bring him on board, and let's go after the Red Angel and get on with this.) There's the "dying 100,000-year-old alien sphere who wants to pass on all its knowledge before it kicks, and nearly destroys the Discovery doing so" storyline, the related "dying alien sphere triggers Saru's Kelpian fear-and-suicide response and makes him think he is dying as well, only to discover he can ride it out and come out the other side, and realizes his people don't have to live their lives like they've been doing for centuries after all" storyline, and the "alien blob masquerading as Sylvia Tilly's dead friend latches on to her and reveals it's part of the spore network trying to stop human intrusion into its ecosystem" storyline. At times, all three stories felt rushed and ill-fitting, and I think the entire thing could have gone back for another editing pass. This episode could easily have been an hour and a half, maybe longer.

Having said that, each storyline had some very good moments, in particular Doug Jones' scenes. His final scene with Michael was sublime, with excellent performances from both Jones and Sonequa Martin-Green. We also saw the return of Tig Notaro as Denise "Jett" Reno, with Reno and Anthony Rapp's Stamets instantly clashing and playing off each other beautifully. And that moment before the impromptu brain surgery when Stamets asks Tilly to sing her favorite song, and she breaks into David Bowie's "Space Oddity"? That gave me shivers. The relationships between the crewmembers are getting stronger, and we're starting to see how these people care about each other now that Lorca's noxious influence (as much as I liked Jason Isaacs) is fading.

It seems to me that Discovery is still finding its way, and while it's definitely on the improve, it's still not there yet. If they pare down the storylines and concentrate more on the characters, and adopt a leaner narrative style, I think they'll have a winner. I'm not giving up on them yet.

First Impressions: Star Trek: Discovery S2 Ep 3, "Points of Light"

After the sort-of soft reboot of "Brother" and the more or less bottle episode "New Eden," this episode carries over several themes and characters from the first season, reintroducing the Klingons, the Klingon-turned-human Voq/Ash Tyler, and the new Klingon chancellor, L'Rell. (And a most welcome appearance by Michelle Yeoh, whose former Mirror Emperor Georgiou is now fully ensconced in the black ops Section 31.)

This story has a general theme of consequences, both for Michael Burnham, Ash Tyler, L'Rell, Amanda, and Sylvia Tilly. I thought it had a nice balancing act between the Season 1 and Season 2 characters and storylines, while setting things up for further revelations. We still haven't seen the adult Spock, but we learn more about his and Michael's childhood, and the discovery that he saw the so-called Red Angel even as a child. (I still think it'll--or they'll, as there seems to be more than one-- turn out to be nasty mofos.) The Klingons seem to be a bit better imagined and portrayed here, with not quite the harsh edges of the first season.

And yay! Michelle Yeoh. I will always be down for seeing her. (And did she admit the Mirror Emperor had a child? That's what I thought she said while talking to L'Rell.) Obviously they're setting things up for her spin-off show, and I can't wait.

The effects and sets are as gorgeous as ever, and there were several long and interesting tracking shots in this episode. If they can more fully integrate the first and second season storylines and themes, I think the show will benefit. It definitely needs its own point of view within the overall Trek universe, and this ep seems to be taking steps in that direction.

First Impressions: Star Trek: Discovery S2 Ep 2, "New Eden"

Well. This was a rather nice balance. It seems (or at least I hope so) that that season of Discovery is becoming more of an ensemble story, instead of The Trials and Tribble-ations Tribulations of Michael Burnham. This was more or less a bottle show, even though it did advance the overall season arc (and Young Spock is still nowhere to be seen). The primary mystery is the seven signals (spread over 30,000 light-years, as Captain Pike helpfully reminded us), and the fiery-winged "angels" seen by Burnham in the season opener, and also apparently Spock in his nightmares. These "angels" also play an important role in the self-contained plot of this episode, rescuing a group of humans from World War III and transporting them to an Earth-like planet thousands of light-years away.

(Hmmmm....what makes me think these "angels" are going to turn out to be not-so-angelic after all?)

Sylvia Tilly remains an eccentric, flighty, resourceful delight, and she and Saru seem to be developing a nice relationship. They had a very good scene together. Stamets is still grieving for Hugh, Michael has admitted learning to follow orders the hard way, and Christopher Pike is developing some interesting layers. For me, the most positive development is the bridge crew being given more to do and starting to flesh out their personalities. Please, more of this.

If the show continues on in this same general vein, I will say the behind-the-scenes upheavals and the change in showrunners is definitely for the better. I liked a great deal of the first season (especially Jason Isaacs), but this is tentatively starting to feel like Star Trek.

First Impressions: Star Trek: Discovery, Season 2 Ep 1, "Brother"

(I'll try to keep this as vague as possible, to avoid too many spoilers.)

• This show is as gorgeous as ever. The special effects are feature-film worthy, even in the madcap (and probably nausea-inducing, for some people) section to land on the asteroid. 
• We're obviously setting up for a season-long arc here. There's the Enterprise! (Although it's conveniently damaged and knocked off-line in the first fifteen minutes.) And Captain Christopher Pike! (No Number One yet. [Edit: Yes, there is a Number One, per i09. Sorry, I missed that.]) And Spock, going AWOL! And flashbacks to Michael Burnham's childhood, with a petulant-looking child Spock. And Sarek, a little more palatable and a little less shitty this time around, so far at least. And a galaxy-spanning mystery, apparently tied in to Spock's nightmares.
• We get names for the bridge crew! Hurrah! They appear to be gelling, and the obnoxious (white) guy gets hoist on his own petard and wiped out by a rock. Nobody seems to miss him very much.
• Sylvia Tilly remains utterly delightful, and Saru has a laugh-out-loud scene when his threat ganglia extrude.
• There's a rather abrupt jump-cut at the end, when Burnham goes aboard the Enterprise, into Spock's quarters, and taps into his personal log. (And how could she do that, for that matter? Wouldn't officers have security encryption on their logs?) I suppose they had to do this for the final reveal about Spock, but I thought it was rushed and clumsy. Although they don't seem to want to show very much of the Enterprise, probably to avoid as much wrath from TOS fans as possible.
• There were several good character interactions in this episode, particularly between Tilly and Stamets. (Does anyone think he's really going to leave the Discovery? Come on.)
• With Captain Pike now at the helm, (even if he does say it's more of a "joint custody" situation between him and Saru), the show is trying to distance itself from last season's Lorca nastiness (even though I thought Jason Isaacs was one of the best things about the first season), and back to more classical Starfleet ideals. And, as Pike said, "have a little fun" along the way. 

This first episode is definitely lighter in tone, even with their Priority One threat. Hopefully they can maintain a good balance. We'll see. I'll give this one a B to start off with, and we'll go on from there. See you next Thursday!