Runaway

DVD, Short Treks (Runaway)

I'm not sure how to quantify and categorise these 'Short Treks,' the shortest running time of a Trek production ever, even beating 'The Animated Series' for length. Something warns me that one day this will be the running time of most episodes, bite-sized chunks for people to digest on the fly in their high-speed lives. But I'm not going to get into issues of attitude and changing mores, I want to know where to place this new Trek: it was released between Season 1 and 2 of 'Discovery,' four mini-episodes to help sate the appetite of those who loved the series and couldn't get enough of it (not me), and as a tease for the coming season, so I'm glad that they released them on the Season 2 DVD. Actually, they only gave us two, which seems a bit mean-spirited, as if they're hoping to collect them all together with future shorts as a separate release. To be honest I was just pleased that fifty percent were here. But back to the qualifier again: can this be called a new series? An extension of 'DSC'? Something else? It's a sort of 'Season 1.5,' and so should easily be drafted into the column of 'DSC,' except that there are future shorts that are to be animated, so clearly they're not limiting themselves to 'DSC,' and yet it's not a proper series in itself. Did they not think of us poor Trekkers when they came up with this idea? It's nice to have more minutes of Trek to add to the slowly gathering momentum of the third TV era of the franchise, but it's also a real headache!

Deciding where the episodes sit in canon and order is one thing, but the quality of the episodes themselves is another, as is the timeframe they're set in. This one is post-Season 1's (awful) finale, since Tilly is an Ensign now, but as there's no mention of the Enterprise it's not occurring immediately after the cliffhanger, its placement on disc 4 suggesting it'll tie into an episode further along in the season. Now we've established that, I'd also like to establish my continuing irritation with the character of Tilly. I don't find anything to enjoy in her role or characterisation, she's just annoying, and since this short is focused on her it was a good bet I wasn't going to like it. Which I didn't. It's a slight (as dictated by the format), tale of Tilly meeting the runaway of the title, an almost as irritating teenage girl alien. There's not really much of a story, and in fact I felt it could have sat perfectly in 'Dr. Who,' exactly the kind of spinoff short or scene from an episode of that poor modern iteration of the classic sci-fi series, which 'DSC' has seemingly been influenced by, another reason why it's such a disappointment to me as a Trek series. Indeed, seeing this short made me once again (after re-watching the first season and discovering it really was as dully average as I thought the first time, and as stupid), wonder if I really want to delve back into this destruction of the Trek name, but I'm still grateful to have new Trek on physical media and I'm ever hopeful for improvement (I have to be!).

I'm not going to be too hard on this, it's just a short, it's just a freebie, and it stars one of my least favourite people from the series, so it wasn't going great guns before I even saw it. It was interesting to meet Tilly's Mother, even if I still cringe at the era-ruining holographic tech, not to mention the way the food slots and computer are far too advanced for what they should be. I doubt I'll ever get over the total messing up of Trek history and style and everything else I love about it, but it's better to get it out than keep it inside. Of the four shorts this was the one I was least keen on seeing, but being a stickler for broadcast order (in most cases), I had to watch it first. Next up on order of 'merit' would have been the Mudd short, then I am actually looking forward to seeing the Saru one, and most intriguing to me is the far-future episode that, along with Mudd, is absent from the DVDs. But I've crossed off another part of Trek to view, even if I can't ever see reason to return to it. I'm sure it's very inspirational for teenage girls, but it's not my cup of Tarkalean, I'm afraid. Oh well…

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