If Memory Serves

DVD, Discovery S2 (If Memory Serves)

Better than most this season, but it still suffers from the wilful selective adherence to Trek's precepts, rules and consistency, and thus ultimately saddens me. That's the common reaction I have to almost every aspect of modern Trek, because almost every aspect is shifted or off-balance. I've been thinking a lot about it recently, and I realised that that's what bothers me. Beyond the obvious plot holes or over the top emotive acting, the whirlpool of musical manipulation that is the score, the extreme lens flare that goes back to the modern film series, beyond all these clearly intrusive changes on the larger end of production, it's the tiny details that pile on top of each other and make me feel subconsciously uncomfortable where the old Treks made me feel reassured by their consistency and attention to the details. In every episode of 'Discovery' I'm constantly doing battle with my well-honed knowledge of what is right in Trek, how things should be, and were for decades across hundreds of hours of film and TV. I was listening to the Cirroc Lofton and Aron Eisenberg podcast 'The 7th Rule' recently, and they managed to encapsulate what I hadn't quite put my finger on before: that there are specific rules of operation, of procedure, of style, that have been abandoned or forgotten. They mentioned how it makes no sense to hold a Phaser with both hands because there's no recoil, you only need to hold it out straight. Such a little thing, but it made me realise that the makers of this Trek aren't paying attention to basic realities of this world, so how can they hope to get me invested?

Instead, they throw in references to other Trek, much like the Kelvin Timeline films did, I'm sure it's not supposed to be a diversion, but thinking that that is enough to show their Trek knowledge. But it's not. If you're not keeping to the style of Trek, then no amount of plotting or characterisation is going to make it feel right. I noticed it in so many little things in this episode, in an episode in which we're travelling back to Talos IV. We're seeing the Talosians for the first time since the 1960s (unless you count the little action figure on Rain Robinson's desk in 'Future's End' from 'Voyager'!). And we're meeting up with Vina again. If any of the other Trek series' had done something as radical it would have knocked my socks off with delight, but here, it's all so far removed from how Trek was that it may as well be the Kelvin version for all the symmetry there is. Again, Burnham and others hold the Phaser as if it's a gun - now some may be reading this and thinking why am I so fixated on something so mundane and unimportant to the plot, but I'm just using it as an example of the mental processes, or lack of, behind the scenes. This is just something that was drawn to my attention and it's easy to say it doesn't matter, and perhaps in isolation it wouldn't. It's a bit like how they always fire bolts of energy rather than the traditional beam. That's the way it's been on the series so I should be used to it, but it's failed to bring me into this world because there are so many of these wrong choices and that the stories aren't good enough to paper over these mistakes. And when you get them stacking up on each other this is what causes me to feel that this isn't the world I knew, this isn't the tight, realistic galaxy I grew up with, and so I feel pushed away.

It's exactly the same thing as the Klingons in Season 1: if we'd seen a mix of styles, some with hair, some flat-headed, then you can build your speculative excuses and say we just didn't see these bulbous-headed, claw-handed Orc versions in the other Treks, but maybe they were around somewhere. If we saw beams being used sometimes and there was actually a rationale for them using the bolts then that would deepen the universe, not divide it into pre- and post- modern Trek. If some people always carried and aimed the Phaser with one hand, then… etc. But we only get this one new style, this wrong style, and it's upsetting. I had to get that off my chest because although in many reviews I've mentioned my problems with the series I haven't seen the light of explanation that 'The 7th Rule' highlighted for me. That's why I so often come out of it conflicted, sometimes even depressed and it's good to understand your reaction. Not so I can 'move forward' as a grumpy Culber says to Stamets when he can't simply resume his old life, but so that I can temper any expectations with the knowledge that it's not going to be possible, while these people continue to follow their own rules, to ever accept modern Trek. Whether 'Star Trek: Picard' will be closer to what it should be, I don't know, but it should at least work better for the characters who are being played by the same actors who know them so well.

Another 'TOS' character is brought back in this episode, and I suppose I was thinking that either the Talosians would remain hidden behind their illusions, or that we'd see them as they were, and I never really gave thought to Vina, the woman injured beyond recognition in a crash on their planet. It was nice to see her again, but I do wish they'd at least try to cast people that look like the actor they're taking over from - it would be hard to find someone like Susan Oliver who dazzled as the original Vina way back in 'The Cage,' but the actress they got, while she was okay, was a mere generic female character, she didn't have the intensity of Oliver. What I did like was how they reconciled the canon of 'The Cage' with that seen in 'The Menagerie' because they are slightly different in how they end. In 'Cage' Vina is given an illusory version of Pike to live with her when the real one leaves, and in 'Menagerie' we see Pike going back to her and they reuse the shot of the fake Pike as real Pike going to be with her, the character's ultimate canonical endpoint. Vina actually mentions that she's lived with Pike, the illusion (not in so many words, but alluding to it was a good choice), so I really appreciated that level of care taken. If they can do those things why can't they do it for everything else!

My happiness with Vina's role didn't extend to the Talosians themselves. They had to redesign them, didn't they! Why? The episode even begins with a montage of clips from 'Cage' to remind us of its connection, and those aliens were one of the best designs of all Trek history. So naturally they felt they needed to make them blander. I suspect there's some political correctness going on here, too - the original efforts in creating the most alien aliens they could was to use petite female actors with male voices, a natural way to make them unnatural to us, and the bulbous craniums stood out even more. But in our current world of gender confusion and not wanting to offend minorities (it's impossible not to offend someone, which would explain why films are so often bland these days), I bet they deemed this excellent method to be unacceptable. If it was just that I wouldn't mind, but they also changed the look of their great heads for no good reason and the overall effect is for a far less impressive, more plasticky, and by far inferior version of these iconic aliens. I'm sure no one ever really thought we'd be given the chance to see them again, although after twenty years of Trek prequels you could also say it's surprising how long it's taken to get to them (though you have to remember we've only had six seasons and three films in that category and time period). Were they really necessary to the story, however? Of course not, it was all a stunt to excite, oddly, people like me that know and love their Trek history! So while they're going their own way with regard to every little thing about Trek, they still want to appeal to me, it seems, which is a little confusing. To Trek or not to Trek…

What I will praise is this version of Spock. I don't know if Ethan Peck knew the character before he was cast, whether he watched all the episodes and films, but however he came by it, his cadence and line delivery are very good. He has a richness to his voice that is, if not quite close enough to Leonard Nimoy's, far more accurate than Zachary Quinto's whiny approximation - I hope we never have to endure that again! The beats of his words and the kind of things he says are largely true to Nimoy and so I was pleased about that. He obviously doesn't look that much like Nimoy, but again, he's slightly closer than Quinto, and if they have to recreate such a beloved character, any degree they can come closer to the original is required. There are still things about him that smack of 'DSC' - his fighting with Burnham over the controls of the shuttlecraft as they head towards an apparent black hole which he knows to be an illusion. The Spock we know would have voiced his solution, not had a martial arts whack-a-mole session, but in his defence he had been drugged up a lot, had issues with his adopted sister, and is a younger, less fully formed version of the Spock we know so well. It was hard to accept his smile to Pike at the end (especially as a smile to a Captain has meant a huge amount in 'TOS'), but they generally fail to show Vulcans as truly even and devoid of emotion on the surface as they used to, which used to make them my favourite race. At least the Vulcan Admiral we see seemed much more Vulcan than some (Sarek, my biggest problem).

Why did Spock need to go to Talos IV? He claims it was so Burnham could read his thoughts and see what he saw of the Red Angel, but as we saw in his memory, he did a mind meld on it, so why not just do that? Obviously it was a contrivance to bring in the Talosians, Vina, etc, and that's the more simplistic nature of modern TV for you. You can suggest that his mental problems were too extreme and only the Talosians could set his mind straight, which would also explain why he didn't rationally unmask the black hole, or even speak, to Burnham, his mind in too much turmoil. It doesn't explain why he couldn't simply go to Vulcans and get them to help him, except he's an outcast to them so I can just about buy the Talosians as his only hope. Okay, I'm winning myself round slightly, but there's still much to irk. One thing is that the death penalty for travel to Talos IV is completely ignored as it has been all along - the computer says travel in the Talos Star System is prohibited, and nothing more. I was really hoping that at the end of the episode one of the Admirals would say that just sticking up a warning isn't working (and where was the warning buoy you'd expect from the Federation on the edge of dangerous space?), and we need to make it a death penalty. There's still time for them to do that, but it would have set my mind at rest on at least that one thing.

When we do find out what Spock knows it makes for an… interesting development. Apparently the Red Angel is actually human (no surprise there), and is changing the past because in the future the galaxy will be overrun by those squiddies from 'The Matrix' films, seen in that which the Discovery probe turned into when it returned from the time rift and proceeded to attack Pike's shuttle. Showing the end of life across the galaxy is never going to work - they need to realise it's sometimes best to leave things to the viewer's imagination, but unfortunately, in this age of CGI advancement they forget the power of the human brain to fill in the gaps with the right trigger words and so we see a load of probes flying through the galaxy to blow up planets. Okay, so it can't be the Borg as I previously thought, since removing potential drones through destruction isn't their way, or fulfils their purposes. It could still turn out to be them, however, considering how loosely 'DSC' understands Trek races (nice to see the Andorian and Tellarite Admirals again, though - is that the first time we hear a Tellarite speak on the series? And I wonder why they dialled back the Andorian's robotic vocal effect to about normal speech, while the Tellarite has quite an affected voice?).

The end result of all this is that because Burnham and Spock are not handed over to Section 31 (once again, everyone's expected to know the name of this clandestine organisation - I guess it must have upped its game by the 24th Century and destroyed all historical records available to Starfleet officer below Admiral level, because back in the 23rd Century even an ordinary Doctor tells Spock 31 are coming to pick him up, and expects Spock to know who they are! How they've ruined such a superb idea from 'DS9'!). And the result of Pike retrieving his officers is that Discovery goes on the run. Why is Starfleet always portrayed as the bad guys now? It sounds like 'Picard' is going that route with him and his friends not being in the service any more, and in 'DSC,' Cornwell, Sarek and other high-ranking officials got away with attempting to blow up Qo'noS without any repercussions, it was all swept under the carpet. Now Starfleet are using 31 with abandon and Discovery is forced to go rogue. It's all upside down and makes me wonder if they're making a comment on government leaderships in the West in their current state. Whatever they're doing I don't like it - we've seen many times when Captains and crews have been forced to go against Starfleet, but usually it's against a specific Admiral or group (like the infiltration in 'Conspiracy' from 'TNG'), but I don't like my utopian Federation to be constantly compromised. That's not true to the Roddenberry vision at all.

The trip to Talos IV, which I assumed was going to have nothing whatever to do with Pike as I had the impression he hadn't met them since 'Cage' when he goes back in 'Menagerie,' does make an impact on the Captain, but it can be assumed that this helped him to reach his decision about returning to them after his injury a decade later, so there are things that work and make it sit acceptably within the timeline. What isn't so acceptable is Pike's seeming lack of experience with human nature - he can't seem to see beyond his Starfleet rulebook when he talks to Saru about his non-intervention of the Culber/Tyler altercation in the Mess Hall (I assume that's what it's called on this ship, but we so rarely hear about ship details, another reason why it's hard to be invested as much in this vessel and crew compared with older series' that took the time to explore their ship). If this had been another Captain he'd have given Saru a proper dressing down, but Saru remains confident and assured as if there is no hierarchy. I really miss that sense of authority and designated roles in Trek. Partly it's come from the confused attempt to make the series different, the last remnants of Bryan Fuller's original concept being that the Captain isn't the main character, it's Burnham, but that has never really played out properly since she may as well be high up in rank considering all she does and the series hasn't played with the lower decks idea. Regardless, you'd think Pike would understand the psychology of what was going on - I agree that he should be against what happened, just not that he needed Saru to spell it out as it makes him look stupid.

Other stupid things included the plot with the spore drive's sabotage and secret messages being sent with Tyler's command codes. I thought at first the writers were assuming the audience is incapable of understanding a frame, because it was just so obvious that Tyler wasn't the culprit, but Airiam, since she was infected by that probe in the previous episode. It may well be that this whole thing was developed to get rid of her character since Sara Mitich had dropped out of the role and been replaced by Hannah Cheesman with no explanation. Maybe it was also that she's a holdover, again, from Fuller's ideas and they weren't really going to explore robots in Starfleet after all (especially with Data coming back to prominence thanks to 'Picard'). Who knows how these decisions are reached? I'll be sad if they do get rid of Airiam (and I have a feeling I heard a rumour of her demise), because, of all the Bridge crew she's the only one with intrigue surrounding her that I wanted them to explore. They've failed for the most part to make the crew living characters, and it probably has something to do with the fewer hours in a season with which they could afford to explore such things. That's how old Trek used to operate, anyway, so we don't want to be like that anymore. That's the attitude I'm sensing. Since they showed Airiam and reminded us she's compromised (by the three red dots in her eyes), I guess they don't think we're complete idiots, but you'd think the crew would have realised Tyler isn't stupid enough to send unauthorised transmissions using his own codes, too.

Speaking of Airiam, was the blonde woman in what passes for Engineering (is it just the spore hub, or what?), who actually gets lines, Lieutenant Nilsson? Because Sara Mitich is credited as that and there was something familiar about her, plus I'm sure she's been seen before this season. Good that they gave her something else to do and suggests it was a problem with the makeup rather than a plot choice to change the actress over. If the main story on Talos IV isn't enough then we have two other plots going on at the same time. The aforementioned story of Tyler and the others, and something that ties into this: Culber's difficulty in acclimatising back to his old life after all he's been through. Stamets is particularly unable to see the problem, or he ignores it and tries to be a good friend, but all Culber really wants to do is escape and ends up in the Mess trying to beat up Tyler. It did seem like just another excuse for a fight, and I'd have had more respect for Tyler if he'd nobly allowed Culber to take out his rage on him without ever fighting back or flinching. That's the kind of thing that Trek used to do and would have shown there was some Klingon honour in there. In the end I'm not sure anything really came of it unless it was to further increase suspicion of Tyler for when he's accused of spying for 31 at the end.

One thing came of it: another irritation and failure to understand Starfleet and the ways of future humans. I'm referring to the little cleaning hover-robots that come in and right the chairs after the fight, and go round tidying up. Starfleeters aren't lazy enough to require robots to do things like that for them, it's not true to the way we know they operate and is somewhat demeaning and very much a contemporary take. Where the writers in the Eighties and Nineties reminded us that it's the traditional mindset they continue to have (books, opera, classical music, culture that has remained for hundreds of years), it's also the traditional approach to what they do - so farming the land, like Picard's family vineyards or the value of physical activity and natural operation of the body. All this boils down to the fact that I don't believe the Starfleet we've seen before would avoid mundane tasks like tidying up chairs and tables, and while actual cleaning would probably have something to do with the ship's interior technology itself (for example, spills might be absorbed into the bulkhead perhaps), I never had the impression that humans were removed from dirty work completely. The phrase 'scrubbing the plasma manifolds' comes to mind. I don't like that once again they're putting in these little touches that would probably be considered 'cool' by a modern audience, but when you think about it doesn't fit with established ways of operating. The value of hard work, the value of physical interaction with your environment is alienated in favour of automation, further taking people away from living. Not least that it should have been given as a task for Culber and Tyler to jointly clean up the place, but there's no punishment, no reinforcing of the rules other than verbally to Saru so it all fits very well within modern ideals and attitudes. Ease and expression of emotions rather than self control. A kind of people that can't even pick up their own overturned chairs and need robots to do it for them. How far we've fallen in this version of the future.

One thing that was true to old Trek was reusing locations - I recognise the look of that old rock quarry as the surface of Talos IV! It was the site of the rebel base in the Mirror Universe from Season 1. Maybe not the exact place, but it looked like the same quarry! I did love the updated version of the singing blue flowers, and we even see Burnham experience the exact same reaction to them as Spock in 'Cage': touching a leaf so it stops vibrating, then smiling. They even had the old music or sounds when on that planet and that was lovely. It was also very true to the Talosian attitudes when they wish to observe Burnham's memories of the rift that developed between her and Spock as children. Both an alien unfeelingness to the sensitivity of the request, and a suitable curiosity to see such a thing. I don't know why they didn't simply take the memories, pluck them from her mind like the leaf of one of their blue plants, but maybe it comes out better with the willing cooperation of a subject (much like Pike in 'Cage'). It was good to see Spock use nerve pinches on the Doctor and her guards in order to escape, especially with all the emphasis on Vulcan martial arts they've gone for on this series. When we witness Burnham casting young Spock aside I felt sure I'd seen similar scenes somewhere in Trek before -  it was like Sybok leaving young Spock (how sad it happened to him twice), and we see old Nimoy in 'Star Trek V' talking as if he's a child asking why he has to leave, and it's so affecting, but this wasn't so much so, down to Peck and Martin-Green not being actors of the Nimoy calibre.

I had to rationalise Burnham's actions as being wrong because she acted out of fear, because it really was a stupid motivation that she was so certain in her childish mind that the Logic Extremists would bomb her family's home that the only thing she could do was leave. I couldn't remember what was supposed to happen after this, though. She was saved by Spock's intervention (though having a ridiculous multi-legged creature chase her through a forest was another awful indulgence, just like the mindless stupidity of the Kelvin films - and the forest of Vulcan's Forge? I thought it was supposed to be a desert!), so she must have returned home, but what happened then, did they just not speak to each other for the rest of childhood? It was daft, and I don't entirely buy this whole Burnham in the Spock family backstory - not that I mind him having a heretofore hidden adopted sister, I never had a problem with that, especially considering that was just copying Sybok, it's just the way they present things on this series that I can never fully accept. It's like when they couldn't resist showing us Vina's damaged true self and it's so much less shocking and extreme than it was in 'Cage.' It could be said that this is a few years earlier so maybe more healing has taken place, but she already said back then that the Talosians hadn't known how to put her back together properly so how would they be able to heal her since then? It's also like the gangway for the shuttlecraft that comes out like Kelvin Sulu's magical folding sword, because this modern way of thinking is always about trying to impress with pretty graphics, not about making sense or being functional as was the aesthetic so superbly shown across Trek before. Now it's gone way into fantasy.

It's always the same, there are far, far too many of those moments that make my toes curl and push me away. It was interesting to hear that if two Transporter beams both try to beam you away then it would rip your atoms apart, but again, even that doesn't sound right. We've seen things happen before (like Riker being duplicated), so I suppose it's possible, but they never think things through and for all old Treks faults it did prize 'thinking' highly, not something common nowadays. It's the same kind of attitude as Georgiou shows when she says in her universe the Talosians tried it on and she blew up their planet. Mindlessness and stupidity, the hallmarks of modern Trek and that sadly couldn't be papered over by adding in Talosians, Vina or even Spock. It appears Shazad Latif is back in the cast again after being only a guest character in the first half, but then he wasn't part of the cast in all of the first season either. I'm beyond being dismayed by the misuse of Section 31 and I really have few expectations that the series can ever grab me as Trek always has, but at least there are a few more things to like as it progresses, even if I fear they will always fail in a big way and the more they play with established characters and races the more 'off' things will be. At least when 'Enterprise' was at its blandest it was dealing with inoffensive aliens of the week that had no bearing on the future, or anything, really. But I will give them credit for the Security Chief being a Barzan - another spot I didn't get without 'The 7th Rule' (I thought she was the same race as the princess from Tilly's 'Short Trek'!). And finally, credit for a fitting title - it's just the kind of thing Spock would have said.

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