Point of Light

DVD, Discovery S2 (Point of Light)

The comfort levels of watching this series creeps up ever so imperceptibly, but with a few course corrections clear in this episode it shows, if only in part, how it could have been, and should have been, from inception. The biggest deal for me was seeing the Klingons with hair. It wouldn't mean anything to 'DSC' viewers that had never known Trek before this or the modern films, but for me, this was a very important moment in the production of the series. Although I suspect claims of the makers that say everything will eventually adhere to canon and 'line up,' as they put it, with 'TOS,' I never really believed that because the overwhelming evidence before me was that they considered visual aesthetics (and even realistic behaviour), to be unimportant. But this one change does at least take action in that direction and was probably brought about because of the protestations on the altered Klingons seen in Season 1, so it gives more hope that other things will change and that one day this will feel like Trek. They still made some of the Houses' representatives look a bit silly with a variety of hairstyles and coverage (and sadly there's no getting around those stupid, unwieldy claws), but the brilliant thing was, and this is all I was asking for from the start, was that we had one guy that looks just like the Klingons of old and future history: the biker gang rockers with the flowing locks, beards and moustaches! Hooray! I had to rewind the first few seconds of the Klingons' reintroduction because they cunningly bury the change in looks by distracting with something equally as desirable to those who care about Klingon culture.

The D7 Battle Cruiser was always a stroke of genius, even in its 'TOS' form of basic texture, and it was astonishing how poorly conceived the Klingon vessels of the first season were in comparison to this. We'd already witnessed something of a design lineage in 'Enterprise' thanks to the (ugly, but not as ugly as 'DSC'), D5 class we saw there, so it was baffling that they had cast off the two most recognisable alien ships (both Klingon - the other being the Bird of Prey), in Trek visual history, and didn't even seem to have the confidence to display their new designs with pride, though that latter complaint may be more in line with the style of the series which is a space show that has rarely indulged in showing ships in space in any significant way or amount of time in which to experience them and take in their design sufficiently. It's only a holographic representation (just can't escape those holograms, it seems), but it was alluring enough that I completely missed the hair at first, which is saying a lot. It's true that I had heard of the change to Klingon appearance long ago, and applauded the decision, but it was fulfilling to see it in reality. If they really are tending toward the Klingon accuracy again, then these are very promising signs. We get mentions of Boreth, the monastery where Tyler and L'Rell's baby is to be raised as a monk (where Kahless was supposed to reappear and did, in 'TNG,' the same place Worf retired to between the destruction of the Enterprise-D in 'Generations' and his new role on DS9), and actual reference to Kahless and the Lady Lukara (though spoken in Klingon English, Kahlesh and Lukareth, which may be more accurate, I don't know), though I'd have loved it even more if they'd called back to the prophecy about him coming to Boreth.

I like that they're even beginning to build up enough of their own lore to go back to, including the great tradition of bringing back an actor from a previous role and putting him in as a new character. This time it's Kenneth Mitchell playing his own Father, Kolshar I think was the name, the traditional Klingon with the white flowing locks. That was something I didn't pick up on until the end credits, as I had heard Mitchell was going to be in it again somehow, but had tried to avoid knowing as much as possible. Considering I wasn't enamoured with the Kol role as a mere dully two-dimensional villain, it's somewhat surprising that I enjoyed his Father so much, reminding me of the villainous power-mongers of old. It may be that I was so struck by how cool it was to see a proper Klingon again that I wasn't thinking about anything else, but he really seemed like those older, wilier members of a House, and his treacherous acts were fitting for the Klingons we know of in the time of 'TOS' and the films beyond. It would be nice to see a fully honourable Worf or Martok type, but we haven't really seen that many Klingons that have had an appreciable role other than a mere name, so it's asking too much of the state this series is in. The question of whether Worf could play his character again without changing the makeup is now moot as we see that with the hair as it should be there's no inconsistency in the face, and it was such a relief to have a Klingon back. Even L'Rell looks so much better with her hair!

Filling in some of the much needed backstory and connections between the Klingons was highly necessary and suddenly they come alive from the mere empty-headed thugs of last season to something akin to what they used to be. Ujilli was a character that had appeared in a couple of episodes before, and is now said to be L'Rell's Uncle who has looked after the baby that sprang from Voq and L'Rell's union, though he doesn't last long enough to be a recurring character thanks to Kolshar. They pack in a bat'leth fight, which is overly gory with lashings of blood, but not as unpleasant to watch as some of the previous season's excesses. I felt it was wrong of L'Rell to go into battle stance when her little baby was there as a hostage ready to be killed at any moment, but then it was a desperate time and it looked like all three of her 'family' were going to be executed as soon as she imprinted her thumb on the Klingon seal. I just feel that in past Trek, if it had been Worf or someone like that, they'd have found a way to protect the child and then take the battle to their enemies. But it is all consistent with brutal Klingon ways, so I'm not going to come down too heavily on that, there are other things to fault… If anything in the Klingon story that rang hollow it was the way Tyler is drawn to Ujilli and the reveal of his baby: someone stalks through his living area so he follows thinking they're spying on him, which leads him to Ujilli and baby, but as Ujilli turned out not to be the enemy he might have been, it makes sense that he wanted Tyler to get to the conclusion indirectly.

It's also very true to the kind of plotting of the series that Kolshar's espionage plan hinged on him goading Tyler enough so that he'd pull off some of his face paint which contained tiny implants that could be used as listening devices, but again, the Romulan-esque deviousness of the race at this time in their history especially, rings true, even if it is a daft idea. The one thing they didn't do that I expected was to name the baby as some famous figure we'd heard of in later series' - I was waiting for that right up until the drop-off at Boreth, but it never came. I really was expecting it to be Worf's cousin or B'Elanna's Grandfather or something, tying things further to other Trek. Maybe they'll keep it for another day, or maybe that's it as far as that storyline goes and L'Rell's offspring won't play any part other than as… well, I'm not really sure what the point of it was. To show the vocalised differences between her and Tyler that he realised meant he couldn't remain Klingon with her as a liability to her position? I must say the transition from living among his people to ending up recruited by Section 31 (yes, it was they), did feel organic so that I bought that part of the story, and despite grave reservations of turning such a secretive and immoral organisation into an important part of both 'DSC' and indeed, getting its own spinoff, I wasn't appalled by that side of the story. I saw Michelle Yeoh's name in the opening credits and already low expectations dropped further, but by the time she shows up disguised as a hooded Klingon to rescue L'Rell and Tyler from execution, I'd forgotten she was even scheduled to be in the episode!

That made me thoroughly intrigued on whom this hooded saviour could be, and even when she was revealed she wasn't quite as bitingly evil as before. I knew she'd been recruited into Section 31 from a deleted scene at the end of the final Season 1 episode, and I knew her recruiter, 'Control,' would be back, but other than that it was all new to me. If this is, as it seemed, a first step on a redemptive arc for the character then I'm all for it, because she was one of the most distressing and hateful things about the first season, this mass murderer allowed to roam free in our universe by the good guys. Her slightly toned down appearance here gave me a modicum of hope that it won't be as ridiculous a decision as it first appeared, another minor course correction perhaps? It's still hard to accept that these writers see Section 31 as something of a boon (a bit like 'Enterprise,' though even there they were shied away from by our characters), rather than something to be stamped out as Bashir and Sisko viewed them - an evil within that needed to be purged to save the Federation's soul, as it were. Now they're the ones with the cool technology and we don't care that they're immoral, fitting much more with our own time than with the bright future Trek used to portray. They still wring humour out of Georgiou's evil nature, which is jarring, but it was more like she was becoming accustomed to this universe and our ways. I wondered if her interference in the Klingons' internal matters was more than just a 31 mission for her - was she doing a Lex Luthor on 'Smallville' and manipulating Tyler away from L'Rell for the benefit of Burnham, just as Lex did with Lana and Whitney in the first season, trying to get Clark hooked up?

If they were trying to get Georgiou into our good books, having her save a couple of characters that had had some development in an episode was a good way to do it. The 31 ship that Control apparently commands was certainly intriguing, and I imagine that's what the spinoff series will be set on. From just that little snippet I can see how a series might work, though I also have major concerns about it. If they had more of what was going on in this episode, however, it might not completely fall apart on scrutiny, though we've yet to see 31's crew and how they operate, so it all hangs in the balance. This episode at least had a more organic structure than previous clumsy attempts to pull off a Klingon story, so it was pleasing in that way. It's sad that they created something that was actually more than surface filler between Tyler and L'Rell only to part them and the baby all three, but it made me interested again in Klingon politics and wish that we could see more Klingons like Kolshar on the series. But I know the Klingons don't have much to do in this season, and I was all for that after Season 1, so I'm pleased at least they managed to claw back some respect for the warrior race. I can't say I'm a fan of their volcanic buildings, I think they put far too much stock in dramatic sets as if that's what really matters on this series - obviously the older series' didn't have the ability to pull off as elaborate designs, but that rarely mattered because you were so drawn into the stories of Klingon soap opera, or culture, in a stage play so you didn't worry as much about surface detail.

There are three stories to this episode so it was good it had over forty-seven minutes in which to tell them, and none feel rushed to conclusion. We get some payoff at last from the little green spore that landed on Tilly last season, revealed to be a multidimensional parasitic creature. I assume it was not really sentient and just using Tilly's mind to create May as otherwise it would seem a bit harsh of Saru to kill it. Although I think they ended up just trapping it in a forcefield rather than killing it, so perhaps it's not the last we'll see of this life form. I liked that we got a non-humanoid creature, another Trekky addition, and the stress it put Tilly under was both uncomfortable to see and funny to watch - yes, I admit it, Tilly actually made me laugh out loud, though it was more with glee at what they were doing than at her usual extremes of behaviour. When she's on the Bridge fouling up her latest Command Programme assignment it was funny as she's talking to May, who no one else can see, in the same way as Sam talking to Al in 'Quantum Leap' could be a great source of amusement. But when things become more sinister it was also worth watching, and you feel for the wearing down of Tilly. It's another of those strange ironies that, like Burnham, Tilly is a much more accessible character, at least for me, when she's miserable. Maybe it's the bunny wabbit hopping chatter and 'cuteness,' mixed with girly-girl talk that puts me off normally? Whatever, I did enjoy this B-story and liked how they wove her and Burnham's story together.

Michael's story (is it the 'B' or 'C' plot?), which begins with another comfort stop for me as we hear her Personal Log (even if it does swerve off into Tilly's marathon), ends abruptly when she has a falling out with Amanda who has come to ask for help in decrypting Spock's medical files (would it not have been simpler to send a communication?). This was the story that fell flattest as some of what was said were characters telling other characters what they should already know: after they've witnessed Captain Vela of Starbase 5 claim Spock murdered his doctors and went on the run, both Amanda and Burnham seek to convince Pike that he would never do such a thing, but they know Pike is his good friend and is well aware of his pacifistic nature - in fact Pike says he agrees with them. Then there's also the moment where Burnham's cracked the files and Amanda tells her adoptive daughter what it was like for Spock growing up, and how she feels she was a poor Mother to him because Sarek wanted him brought up in the Vulcan way and so she had to bury her feelings to accomplish that and saved them all for Burnham (even though she was also brought up in the Vulcan way - interesting then that Amanda wonders if Spock's upbringing led to his current mental state). I suppose families, parents and children, don't necessarily tell each other these things, so it could be a revelation to Burnham, but as usual it seemed like the writing should have been taken up a notch there for such an important scene. It's also, if not hard to believe, hard to accept from the little we know of Amanda, that she would steal Spock's files as the 'logical' thing to do (being human), or that she'd react so badly to Burnham telling her why she and Spock don't speak any more.

That was something we've been waiting for, and it's far more interesting than whether a human is a Klingon spy or vice versa, the kind of fantastical twists that were built up to in Season 1. Burnham thought she was protecting Spock from the Logic Extremists (were they the ones who killed her parents and left her for dead, as there were two separate attacks in her life, the Vulcans and the Klingons, right?), by wounding him so badly that he'd keep away from her, as she was a target and didn't want to endanger him. Okay, so she was young and it doesn't make that much sense, but in her mind it does, so I buy it. What doesn't make sense at all is how badly Amanda takes this news, claiming that this is why 'the four of us' can't get together (I really wish there had been a reference to Sybok somewhere in this scene where she speaks of another family member that disappointed them or created problems), when in Trek canon we know that it's Sarek and Spock that aren't speaking at this time since he disagreed with his son's choice to go to Starfleet Academy (made even deeper a wound by Sarek having to choose to sponsor either Spock or Burnham as we found out in 'Lethe'). So Spock is the real reason they can't get together, or as equal a reason, but I suppose we can put all this down to the emotional state of an older woman, and her worries over what has happened to her son.

What did work is that Burnham's sorrow at Amanda's swift exit leads into her desperation to have a problem to solve, which is exactly what Tilly's dealing with, and she uses logical reasoning to come to a belief in this strange and straining apparition that is starting to break Tilly, even though 'May' herself isn't exactly a nasty horror, it's just the constant battering of her on Tilly's mind at this crucial time in her work in the Command training. So things come full circle, Stamets gets the creature out of her (even if it is typically cartoonish), and all ends happily to some degree or another, which can't be said of many a 'DSC' episode. There are still some of the usual issues of story logic or sense, such as Section 31 black badges being instantly recognised by Tyler (this is supposed to be a secret organisation, you know!), or how weird it is that L'Rell often speaks to her people in English as if they were trying to hold back a little on the Klingon language, the integration into the series of which was one of the few achievements of the first season. There are also a few other details that are worth a mention, the main one being Captain Vela suggesting Pike isn't moving with the times using 'old-fashioned' screen communication rather than hologram chat, which was either a dig at old viewers like me complaining about the overuse of holograms, or an insight into Pike's methodology, and if I'm being optimistic, perhaps a sliver of hope that they're highlighting this because they'll eventually be moving to screens again, or that the Enterprise (when we see it), will adhere more to the old-fashioned conventions we know because that's what Pike prefers.

There's a robot head guy on the Bridge of Discovery that looks just like the one on the Shenzhou, but as usual, we don't get any explanation. It's also becoming increasingly clear how different this version of Airiam sounds and I really want to know what's going on with her. The Vulcan city of ShiKahr, created in 'TAS' and where Burnham was escaping from when Spock found her as a child thanks to the Red Angel, is mentioned, which is lovely, and one oddity is what appeared to be Burnham having a Tribble as her 'ringtone' for communication - funny that the first time we ever see it used it's for a Klingon communication as they hate the fuzzy blighters. The scene with Tyler contacting Burnham was well shot, alternating between the different hologram views and even combining the two locations into one for a different approach. I appreciated that it was explained why Tyler was contacting her, tying the episode together, because why would he when he could just send a message direct to the Federation, and it is this that is ultimately responsible for keeping L'Rell in power, at the cost of having to distance herself from her love, even to the extent of 'killing' him in the eyes of her people, chucking a severed head into the volcanic pit below. His betrayal of the lie of Klingon disunity to the Federation means that he's now an outcast in both places, officially dead, and so an ideal candidate to join a clandestine organisation. Even if I'm uneasy with supporting that organisation I can appreciate how the episode got him there. Does this mean the series has turned a corner and we can expect more logical progression and development? I end another review with hope, and that's the right direction of travel.

**