Drone

DVD, Smallville S1 (Drone)

I didn't rate this very highly on previous viewings, only 'Craving' and 'Crush' on the same low level. I don't know whether it's because I've been exposed to so many weakly plotted or characterised modern TV episodes (specifically 'Star Trek: Discovery'), but I found myself quite liking this, despite its reputation from personal memory. It is a little basic - we're back to another freak-of-the-week with some specific power connected to some specific character flaw (the need to be 'Queen Bee'), but I found the mix of Clark learning lessons on friendship, Lana struggling with competition from the Beanery, and Lex experiencing a hatchet job attempt from a female reporter hired by Lionel, to be more than adequately entertaining. It's a bright, colourful episode, as the series usually is, life lessons are learned, and if it doesn't go any deeper than bee attacks it's still lovely to visit the Talon, the Kent Farm or Lex' Mansion and spend time with these likeable characters. And sometimes that's all you need from a story. Sure, it might be a little inappropriate the amount of time Lana's spending with Clark these days, but maybe Whitney's too busy with the family store (his only role in this episode being basically a background extra as he and his mates come to support the Talon). Clark certainly doesn't mind!

It could have delved more deeply into the themes of the episode, whether that be integrity and objectivity versus friendship, or whether winning by any means can ever be the right way to go, and there are things like the bee attack on Martha in the field where it feels like she's just there to be the victim (as she was in the previous episode, 'Reaper'), rather than being an organic part of the story, which is probably one of the things that felt slightly off about the episode. It does have a recycled ending from 'Craving,' too, with the Student President campaign headquarters of bee bad-girl Sasha the site of an explosive conclusion, a bit like the greenhouse blowing up at the end of the former episode. But it was a terrific action shot as Clark flings a handy screwdriver into a can of gas and throws himself over Sasha to protect her as the entire place goes up, taking the bees, hive and honey with it. It is a bit of a straightforward horror story with this girl using bees as her weapon of choice to take out each candidate she's up against in the school election - it's also a little silly that Paul, the first victim, just stands there screaming when the bees pour out of his sink, as the natural reaction would be to flail the arms about and throw yourself away from the swarm, not stand stock still with your mouth wide open!

I was also expecting Lex to resolve his problem with the reporter much earlier when he first reveals he knows what's going on, but instead we come back to it a bit later for him to use the carrot, rather than the stick, by promoting her to run the journal she works for. It reveals the journalistic integrity which didn't allow her to be bought, only stretches so far. They say everybody has a price and it's in the Luthor wheelhouse to find it, but while the storyline had some intrigue it didn't really go anywhere much, unlike, say, the one with Roger Nixon where Lex was made to look a lot more powerful and gained a lackey for himself. What I did like was the Chloe story where her endorsement of Paul really upsets Clark. But it's all about expectations. If Clark had given the subject serious thought he might have realised she wouldn't necessarily endorse him as she has specific standards, ones she talked about earlier in the story when he hasn't really even considered what his policies and positions on relevant topics are going to be. Even Lana explains to him that Chloe had to be impartial and objective, and unlike the reporter after Lex she really does show integrity, though it's painful and you can see there is regret, as well as the admission she should have broken it to Clark more gently (though he didn't give her much chance and she wasn't ready for it).

Jonathan chimes in with advice about 'giving up' being a tough habit to break when Clark first wonders if he should be running in the election, and I do like Lana's qualms about how she got back at the Beanery by finding out some dirt on its health violations - such things are far from the ridiculously fantastical direction the character would eventually go in, a crazy superwoman with powers in the later seasons when the series largely went off the rails. At this early stage it remains real, the friendships and affections are genuine, and the series continues to impress a feeling of community on the viewer, this time mainly back at the school. I remember the bee CGI not being up to standard, and that may be another reason I used to mark this down, but either because I was expecting it, or because I'm more forgiving on such unimportant matters these days, I didn't mind it, and it was fun to see the particle effect face made up of bees, a couple of years before the same idea was used in 'The Matrix Revolutions' to personify the machine personality. I don't know if it had been done before 'Smallville' or not, but it worked quite nicely. And I like seeing the occasional examples of nuance, like Martha expressing dismay as Clark's about to drink milk straight out of the bottle! It may be one of the lesser episodes of the season, but it still gels, and though there may be potential holes (I thought all the bees were killed by Clark using the cold gas pipe at the Talon, but there were obviously more; Sasha says even the police can't stop her, but if anyone knew she was responsible for bee attacks she wouldn't be accepted as Student President, so she didn't think that through!), there's not much wrong here: Pete gets something a little more substantial to do as Clark's self-appointed campaign manager, and Clark gets to be the hero, saving the villain.

***

Broken Bow

DVD, Enterprise S1 (Broken Bow)

'Begin at the beginning' is good advice, and you couldn't get much closer to the beginning and still be able to call it 'Star Trek' than the time period 'Enterprise' inhabits in 2151, over one hundred years prior to 'TOS,' two hundred prior to where the previous series, 'Voyager' left us, and a hundred years after the events of 'First Contact' in which the 'TNG' crew went back in time to make sure the first warp flight went ahead as planned and gave the Vulcans reason to notice us and come down out of the stars, marking the origins of Trek's trek beyond our world. But to still be able to call it 'Star Trek' was not on the agenda for this series, the first sign it was trying to set itself apart from what had gone before. It was a dangerous gamble with the possibility of alienating the dedicated right from the off, but 'Enterprise' did a lot of alienating, and many of the problems with Trek made in the 21st Century can be traced back to it. There's a good reason why it was the first Trek to fail, unable to survive beyond four seasons, and only then with much shaking up and soul-searching, and why it is (or was, until the misery of 'Discovery'), my least favourite in the canon: they dared to be different, but they went too far, setting precedents that the Kelvin Timeline films, 'DSC,' and probably any other Trek productions forthcoming, pounced on and bloomed into full fruition. The more simplistic nature of the storytelling, the lack of a direction, the attempt to focus down on two or three main characters more than an ensemble - in short, it went back to the roots of the original.

Trying to be 'TOS' in the modern age seems to be both a masterstroke and a complete failure to understand what appealed about Trek. It's true that Kirk, Spock and the starship Enterprise have remained in popular culture to a surprising extent, so tapping into these rich veins of money-making potential was a wise move. However, from 'TNG' onwards (and arguably in the film series, too), the emphasis was laid on creating new characters, expanding the scope of the world in both time and technology, and building a cohesive universe. But that's not the pop culture world we live in now, where branding is key, blandness is prevalent, and it's all about the lowest common denominator to get the masses hooked on a brand. So yes, it was a good business decision to try and get back to the nostalgic Sixties approach of fighting and taking on weird aliens, but it didn't in turn bring the intellectual side of 'TOS' up to date with along with that cowboy-esque style. That's where they failed - 'TOS' was a product of its time, completely episodic, but it stood out then and for years afterward as the gold standard for what sci-fi could be, featuring recurring aliens of various kind that became the staples of its world, ironing out the initial inconsistencies of terminology and protocol, and presenting us with a world that was ripe for further exploration because it was set up to be real. 'TNG' expanded that exponentially, 'DS9' built on all that came before, becoming a hub of all Trek, and 'Voyager' took off to explore part of the galaxy that had been spoken of, but not explored.

'Enterprise' came along as an antidote to the 24th Century Treks, but they were still popular at the time, and I can never escape the nagging thought that had the studio got its way, and another series set in that time period had been produced instead of a prequel, Trek might have endured well beyond a further four years, and perhaps there wouldn't have been a need for JJ Abrams to 'reignite' the brand (burning it, more like), by rehashing it in a 'Star Wars' mould, and so on and so forth. There are arguments against such thoughts, namely that 'Nemesis,' the final 'TNG' film, released during the run of 'Enterprise,' was the first complete box office failure (though that's mainly down to it not being a great film, let alone a great Trek film - lessons should have been learned there in putting someone in charge who didn't know the franchise), and then there was the coming division in the mid-2000s of the TV and film rights as Paramount broke apart. So disruption may have been inevitable, but on the other hand, if we'd had a 24th Century series to continue the story post-'Voyager' there would have been the instant hooks of bringing in favourite characters, perhaps even have one or two main cast members from previous series'. What 'Enterprise' did was to divorce itself from all previous Treks and so it had to stand alone. That makes sense from the perspective of getting new viewers interested, because, as with any large body of work, it could be daunting if you thought you had to catch up with everything to understand the new series, but also isolated it from the fullness of the vast Trek toy box.

Nowadays that's less of a problem when many people have access to every iteration of a franchise, rather than having to be interested enough in the first place to purchase all the videos (yes, 'Enterprise' Season 1 was the last Trek series to be released on VHS tape, and 'Broken Bow' was probably the last new video I ever bought!), or DVDs. But even now there are people that won't watch Trek because they'd have to view a load of old episodes or films, that's the impression they have, anyway. If 'Enterprise' was trying to be pure Trek, separate from everything that went before, it was in a much different manner than 'TNG,' which also had the mandate to stay away from the original's familiarities as much as possible. It created new technologies (like the Holodeck and the Replicators), featured entirely new types of character (Data), and preferred not to use the existing races as much as possible - at first. Once it became comfortable in its own skin, it could delve more deeply into the old races than even 'TOS' had ever done, eventually bringing in characters played by the original actors to enhance that sense of history and depth to the continuity. Even in its pilot it had the good sense to bring in a familiar face to send them off on their mission (an ancient Dr. McCoy), setting a tradition that every Trek series followed, even the Kelvin films (Leonard Nimoy back as Mr. Spock), though sadly abandoned by 'DSC.'

'Enterprise,' not one to completely ignore all traditions and aware of the need to include some kind of Trek royalty, even if a minor prince, brought in an aged Zefram Cochrane via the device of a recording of an important speech he made thirty-two years before the episode. This was one of the highlights of this pilot, as James Cromwell returned to his 'roots' of appearing in a number of roles across Trek, to reprise his popular iteration of the famous 'TOS' character he'd played in 'First Contact.' He shot to fame with 'Babe,' around the same time as that film, but he had some loyalty to Trek for the roles they'd given him before he broke into films, and even more with this small appearance, he must have been doing them a good turn because he was still a well known film star at this time and for years afterward, so it brought a tear to my eye to see this happen, and it's a beautiful retcon of where the famous words came from at the start of 'TOS' and 'TNG,' rather than a 'Captain's Oath' that the Kelvin films retconned it into (more like Captain's Oaf!). That wasn't where 'Enterprise' ended its adherence to other Trek, because it begins with an exciting chase through a cornfield that combines new and old into an impressive opening: we get a Klingon warrior plunging through the corn, such a strong visual of this 'Smallville'-like field of green, bright blue sky, but also a deadly urgency. And you get a new race, the yellow and black mottled faces of the Suliban that were yet another triumph of Michael Westmore's invention after fourteen years going strong.

Importantly, though the scene is superbly directed with a free-flowing, fast moving camera, beautifully setting off the first Trek in widescreen, the Klingon looks right (even though he was bumpy-headed like the post-'TOS' variety, a wise decision, and one that would eventually be explained in Season 4, much to my satisfaction), and the aliens are truly alien (they can become malleable enough to squeeze under a door!), it's the fact that it all makes sense that underlines everything - the Klingon doesn't just turn and fight with his pursuers, he uses his brain, luring them into some kind of methane tower and then blasting it to smithereens! It's spectacular, but it's also thoughtful, and that used to be the hallmark of good Trek. It's not only the action side of things that is done well in this episode, you also have a feeling of nostalgia, and not what you'd expect, a skin-deep love of 'TOS,' but a reminder of the past, in particular Jonathan Archer's personal memories of his time with his now-deceased Father, a universal nostalgia anyone can understand, whether they know Trek or not. This is something the series failed to do for the most part, creating characters with a history, and who we can identify with, but at least in this episode they carried off that Trek ability to appeal to the thoughtful and emotional in humanity, something I've not seen in any Trek series or film since, preferring to portray emotional characters rather than evoke emotion in the audience.

A big problem with the ongoing series was its lack of direction. 'TNG' was made the same way, but then that had debuted fourteen years earlier, and in a different TV landscape. Things were beginning to be more commonly serialised, with ongoing arcs, yet 'Enterprise' chose to dumb it down, failing to act on its own arcs, which had such great potential. Potential is the key word about 'Broken Bow,' because I remember watching it for the first time, buying the video in the Summer of 2002, a couple of months before it was shown on terrestrial TV, (Channel 4, with adverts), and being very impressed with what I saw - I even felt that if this was how strong it started, loosening up the constraints of past series' in terms of a more dynamic presentation that made you feel you were there, maybe it could become my favourite series of all, that's how optimistic ("Optimism, Captain!"), I was for the series' future. I was a lot younger then, and still more easily impressed than I became in the following five or six years, but 'DS9' and 'Voyager' were my favourite things, so to even think that a new Trek had the capability of surpassing them shows how well put together this pilot was. The big deal that made me more excited than anything else was the concept of the Temporal Cold War, this conflict connected to the 'distant future,' one that we would learn more about over time, but crucially, was eventually dropped. Though it played something of a role in Season 3's Xindi saga, it was all very vague, and one thing I was always thinking early in the series was how one day I'd be re-watching it with the knowledge of who 'Future Guy' was (the shadowy operator who orders Silik around from his temporal chamber).

Sadly, we never did learn what it was all about, and I now have no real hope that we'll one day see a Trek series that deals with it at all, or if we do, it will be ridiculously fantastical, just as 'DSC' is so much fantasy that it's hard to take as 'Star Trek.' But it was the potential, initially, that I was invested in. The TCW had been included as an order from on high, the studio wanting a connection to the 24th Century in case there were opportunities there, even if the series itself wasn't to be set there. For once, I'm totally onboard with the studio in this regard, I think it was a brilliant idea and one that should have been used regularly through the series, rather than an episode in the middle of a season, and one at the end. Every few episodes should have dealt with it in some way, but it was squandered, probably because the writers didn't really want it there. So they hurt their own series - there was talk early on of 'maybe we'll get Patrick Stewart to direct an episode in Season 2,' 'maybe we'll have Guinan guest star,' but in truth, connecting to other Trek wasn't one of the series' strong points and it is the most separate of the lot. Not in terms of the lore, because unlike 'TNG' it was happy to pick up the races and situations of established Trek, the Klingons, Vulcans, and soon to be seen Andorians - all had some kind of ongoing arc, but they were also generally a little underdone compared to the excellent cultural exploration of previous Trek.

In 'TNG' it had been stated first contact with the Klingons was disastrous, but here we see humans helping the warrior race and it's a little ambiguous as to how they reacted to this. Early episodes had the Klingons nosing around and being unfriendly, but it was never well adjusted to fit with what we thought we knew, and they were simplistic caricatures of the race, lacking the texture and depth of other Treks before it, no Gowrons or Martoks to be seen. If the Klingons were an uncertain component of 'Enterprise,' the Vulcans were the exact opposite, integral to the series with a clear role, just not the one we expected. The change in Vulcan temperament and position was the biggest controversy of the series, and my personal low point. I could buy they were devious and deceiving when it served their ends, justified by logic (after all, logic is only the beginning of wisdom…), and manipulative, but what I couldn't get onboard with was the sudden dramatic change in how Vulcans were portrayed. In all other Trek they were calm, dispassionate and betrayed no emotion on the surface. That's what made them such compelling aliens, because we know underneath there's violently raging emotion they keep in check their whole lives. To destroy this central dramatic and cultural aspect of the race is to lose most of their credibility and draw. Vulcans have (had, until 'Enterprise'), always been my favourite race - all Trek races are a facet of humanity, and they seemed to represent that struggle we all have in how much we show of our inner selves, whether that be in anger, sadness or joy, and so they were an attractive proposition for being so strong and in control. A number of things conspired to create the perceived need to change them, the main one being that they were too cool, too powerful, and this is a humanist franchise, written by humans, for humans. Vulcans were often 'shown up' as the killjoys or the social outcasts, but they didn't mind because they singularly followed logic.

Sure, sometimes Tuvok or someone would see the 'error of their ways,' to the extent that they came to understand that working within human guidelines meant they needed to adjust their behaviour, mainly because the truth is that Vulcans are largely superior to humans. Physically, mentally, but humans have to have an edge, and that's usually their 'gut feelings,' listening to intuition, not being rigid. The two species complimented each other, and though humans often gave Vulcans a hard time, the Vulcan way was often shown as being right - one good example in this episode is when T'Pol deals with bread sticks - rather than eat with her fingers as they prefer not to do, she patiently and carefully saws through it with her knife, proving that 'with proper discipline anything's possible.' Attitudes of patience, self control, self denial have become increasingly irrelevant to modern society, fewer people seem to think they have value, and so Vulcanness has itself been downgraded. And because we want humans to be the best that gave them another reason to make Vulcans in 'Enterprise' into the bad guys. Condescension, irritation, impatience, these are all displayed by Vulcans even in this first episode, and this idea of their emotions being barely contained has sadly stuck so that even in current Trek productions set practically at the time of 'TOS,' it's now standard to use this method of portrayal, the single biggest flaw 'Enterprise' gave to the world. I've even heard people claim Vulcans were always this way, we just saw ones that were with humans a lot, for example. But if you look at Spock and Tuvok, the two main Vulcans, they didn't behave emotionally except in extreme circumstances, something you could rely on.

That Vulcans were reliable and reassuring was one of their greatest assets, but it seems that people felt they were boring and wooden. If Vulcans had never changed from other iterations then I wouldn't have been so put off by the ones in 'Enterprise'! T'Pol I can accept because she was shown to be a bit flaky over the course of the series, but every other Vulcan being hot-tempered or mean? Archer even calls attention to Ambassador Soval when he raises his voice in anger and though that was a pretty good scene for showing that Archer is this man of action and Captain material, it also draws attention to the illogical manners of the Vulcans of this version - Archer even says perhaps they've been living among humans too long, but T'Pol and the other Vulcans never left the Vulcan compound on Earth, and as I said before, we saw other examples of the race behaving far more dispassionately within Starfleet. So it's definitely society's attitudes that have changed and taken the Vulcans' uniqueness away, much to my dismay. It can't even be explained away as them being a hundred years prior to 'TOS' because (as is said in the episode), they have a lifespan of two hundred years which means that most of the Vulcans who are in 'Enterprise' would still be around by 'TOS,' and some might just still be alive in the 24th Century!

'Enterprise' ruined the Vulcans and went out of their way to show emotional ones at every opportunity, but our society (or those that make our entertainment), seems to think we want to see emotions, we don't want to bury any thought or feeling, and then they wonder why people are so mean and nasty in the anonymous world of the internet! 'Enterprise' also defanged the Klingons, as I noted before, but fortunately for canon, stayed away (largely), from the other major race, the Romulans. They could still come up with interesting new races, and the Suliban are the latest villain of the piece, augmented by future biological enhancements that enable them to camouflage against any surface, climb up walls and across ceilings, and manipulate themselves into almost any contortion, so they were a formidable threat right away. Again, over time they lost this threat as the TCW moved further into the background, but at least in their introduction I loved this idea of Archer and his Enterprise stumbling into something much greater than themselves that they don't really understand, but acting on their best impulses to try and do right. It's a bit tricky for them because it's as much about proving themselves to the Vulcans on their readiness to go out into space and take their place on the galactic stage, so theirs is a motivation of pride to some extent, but Archer genuinely wants to do the right thing, not backing down, and there were a number of things that made him seem a strong Captain, which is not how I've come to think of him.

In my mind he was a bit weak, although this could be as much about the ship and technology he had access to as it was about his character. One thing that made this era feel different to the 23rd or 24th Centuries presented before it was in how primitive things were in relation. So the NX-01 (NX being the usual prefix for an experimental vessel, long established in Trek), was often outgunned and overtaken in size and speed by the ships of other races. They were cramped conditions to travel in, and though it was all shiny and new, it was prone to the kind of problems new technology often has. 'DSC' and the Kelvin films completely went in the opposite direction with everything new being sparkly and huge beyond established aesthetic of good sense, continuity be stuffed. 'Enterprise' at least had an aesthetic in mind that fitted with established canon, inspired by submarines - so there are handles all over the place, tight corridors and poky rooms. And so many things that date this to pre-'TOS' in advancement: like 'TOS' they have wall-mounted Communicators rather than some invisible intercom system ('DSC'), or always using hand Communicators. They wear Landing Party jackets that look like more expensive versions of those seen in the very first episode of Trek ever made, 'The Cage,' which were beautiful and looked terrific. They can't just hop back onto the ship, they have to go through decontamination first, and no one wants to use the Transporter because it's new tech and hasn't been tried on a human! They even have grappling hooks rather than tractor energy beams and hand Phasers are new (Phase Pistols!).

Despite all this, as is the case with whatever the latest iteration of Trek is, I always find myself comparing it to what I'm watching, and was surprised by how many parallels I found with 'DSC' that I didn't like in that. A major example is when Reed and Mayweather watch the alien dancers on Rigel X, and Reed wonders if the butterflies their long tongues snatch out of the air are real or holographic. So they did have some kind of rudimentary form of holography even at this early stage (but it's far from shoving a Holodeck in our face when it had been previously established that 23rd Century ships didn't have them!). Also, the hand weapons they use before Reed brings out the Phase Pistols shoot bolts of energy (another precedent that has sorely damaged Trek's cool factor), rather than beams. The difference is that neither of these things ruin Trek's feel and are indeed minor parts of the episode, the 'norm' being shown as the fantastic Phaser battle on the snowy rooftop with beams ripping through the storm to great effect. I was surprised to see that Archer even uses two pre-Phaser weapons at one point in the same way I derided Burnham for doing in a Season 2 episode because it doesn't make sense, but we don't know what these bolt energy weapons actually are. I was surprised to see the first weapon fired on the series was an energy bolt rifle, in the scene in Sickbay when the Suliban Klingon-nap Klaang (how did the one Suliban lift that Klingon? They couldn't have beamed out as there was no sound effect or light).

Another issue for me has always been that Vulcans don't like to touch due to being touch telepaths and are extremely restrained in this area (witness Sarek and his wife merely touching fingers as a sign of affection), something about them that has been totally forgotten. Again, 'Enterprise' leads in that regard here as T'Pol has to rub decontamination gel on Trip's body in what was a rightly derided cynical attempt at a ratings grab by featuring a couple of character stripping down to their underwear. 'Enterprise' was trying to inject more of the innuendo back that had been in 'TOS,' so the Captain is kissed by an alien woman (albeit as a way to 'measure his trustworthiness' - yeah, sure!), we get the skintight alien dancers, and Trip and T'Pol in decon. It's also true that much of this first episode is about an action-packed adventure rather than exploring or philosophy, but that's often the case for a feature-length Trek pilot, the closest we got to Trek films other than Trek films themselves - it became an exciting thing to look forward to as you always knew a new Trek series would start with great scope and drama. But they did a good amount of characterisation, too, another important aspect of Trek that has lessened as time goes on. Sometimes I wanted more context, such as how Archer knew Hoshi or Trip, but as most of the characters were meeting for the first time it wasn't a huge problem.

Something the pilot got very right was in giving us things we'd never seen before. The sweet spot within the ship is a good example, as zero gravity had always been something to avoid on Trek for the cost and effort that had to go into it to make it work. It's only a little moment (and as far as I can remember was only used once more), but it was a terrific idea that excites you about what might be possible on the series. The fight in the temporal chamber between Archer and Silik was also very memorable and unique, their actions preceded by a future echo of what's about to happen. I have no idea to this day how they pulled it off, I only know it looked amazing. Sure, Archer kisses a woman and gets in a fight (these uniforms are much more utilitarian so they don't rip like Kirk's flimsy things!), but he also has a statue of Zefram Cochrane over his desk - it's not called out, you wouldn't get the reference if you didn't know it, but you can tell it's him from the way it's a recreation of the statue Geordi La Forge described in 'First Contact,' and is an example of the kind of beautiful touches which employing people who know Trek and its history gets you! The fact they have a horizontal warp core is another brilliant callback to how things used to be prior to 'The Motion Picture,' and the sets are generally great. I didn't even mention the doors that have to be opened by a button on a panel next to it, nor that a chef prepares the meals, and I loved the exoskeletal detail on Klaang.

The technobabble is all present and correct, but sometimes, as in Archer's first conversation with Dr. Phlox, he cuts through it to demand a simple answer. The important thing is that they don't talk down to the audience, while also making it understandable, rather than just throwing it in occasionally to remind you that people have to do complicated stuff ('DSC'). And the ship is a character - every new starship should get a scene where people have a flyby to examine it close up, but Trek's ability to move between action and excitement and building up its internal world has been lost of late (say, the last ten years or so!), so it's wonderful to see it still in evidence in this version. A starship is a lady, a being with personality, and Archer has a feeling for his ship: 'take her out straight and steady.' We're also given plenty of opportunity to see the ship in space, and it looks lovely. The effects are very good, even with some CGI being slightly shaky (the squished Suliban), there are still many scenes that stand out even now - witness the Suliban creeping across walls and ceilings, or the NX-01's encounter with the little cell ships in the gas giant. Drama is heavy in certain scenes such as Archer and Trip going off in a captured cell ship and T'Pol has to decide whether to remain in position so they can find their way back, or move out of the way of the 'depth charges' that could destroy them. The arc of the episode is that humans and Vulcans can work together, despite their differences and it is cheering to see T'Pol do what was in the Captain's wishes when she has command.

The characters work well together, there's nothing to take you out of it, and whether it's the creepiness of aliens boarding Enterprise and the power going out, or Archer leading a team to get Klaang back, it's full of old-fashioned thrills. It even has subtitled Klingon spoken, just like 'DSC,' another connection between the two. It's funny that this became the least loved series and yet, because everything since (until 'Picard'), has been prequels, it's the most referenced in modern productions. Some say it was in a different timeline to all the previous Treks because of the Borg's time travel in 'First Contact,' but you have to go with the intent of the writers that this was in the same universe as what went before, and because it's so removed from the others in years I always bought that. Even though their Tricorders are small and the Communicators diddy, I just put it down to them being less advanced in what they could do than in 'TOS,' and I absolutely loved the uniforms that pay tribute to both future Trek and real space exploration of our day. It's funny to think that the model hover drone ship young Archer and his Dad play with was sci-fi then, but a reality now! Even with the inconsistency of the Vulcans I loved this episode and it does an excellent job in creating the parameters for a new era, while also being firmly created in the tail end of the Golden Age of Trek. Part of that is how they use the races and tech at their disposal, but it also goes down to the beautiful montage of the opening credits, combining historical footage with that of Trek's own future history, which was a bold move away from the traditional space shots of all other Trek.

It showed once again what was possible within this world without breaking it, and although the theme music took some time to get used to (and it probably would have been better if they'd used the orchestral arrangement that was Archer or the Enterprise's theme), it does stand out as embodying the message of the series and the Roddenberry vision. There are also a number of familiar faces that further help to position the series as part of the greater Trek universe. Aside from James Cromwell we have Vaughn Armstrong, the man of the most different faces in Trek, as Admiral Forrest (named for Deforest Kelley), John Fleck, another regular face in 'TNG,' 'DS9' and 'Voyager,' Gary Graham's Soval (he'd been an Ocampa in 'Voyager'), James Horan of many other roles, and Thomas Kopache (best known as Kira's Dad on 'DS9,' among many others). Even Henry Archer (Mark Moses), had played a character in 'Voyager,' and Joseph Ruskin's credits stretched back to 'TOS,' though you wouldn't recognise his face here as a Suliban doctor, so it really was a collection of the old with the new! That should have been the ability of 'Enterprise,' combining new with old, but they sadly were riding the very end of the wind that had blown Trek across the entertainment oceans of success, and though some cast members were careful, saying they'd take one season at a time, others were caught up in the hype and talking of it being the closest thing to a seven year gig in the business.

It was not to be, but not from any failure with this pilot which did a very creditable job of presenting a previously unseen era, continuing to shoot higher with its scientific jargon and concepts so the audience had to keep up, and not straying into fantasy. In a way I am glad we got to see this pre-Federation Starfleet, even if it didn't give us what we hoped for, namely the Romulan War which would have been coming in the Sixth Season, and the founding of the Federation beyond that. It began optimistically and gave a new sense of danger and menace to space travel where even the shakes of the deck plates worry some - Hoshi is actually less timid than in my memory and has a nice moment when she gains T'Pol's respect, and I'd say again that the potential was all there with these characters, their ship, and a galaxy of new political situations and hierarchies into which humans were trying to carve out a niche. Politics and culture were some of the things that often got lost and marked this variation of Trek out as a simpler, less ambitious one, but again, I can't fault the pilot for that. For me it ranks just below 'Caretaker' that began 'Voyager' and 'Emissary' that kickstarted 'DS9,' but it's better than all the other pilots and most likely will be the last great pilot of Trek, because even though we're getting more series' these days, they're not made by a majority of people at the top who understand what Trek is. 'Enterprise' may not have always got it right, but it succeeded enough that it's a series I like to watch again, and is an intriguing vision of a future before the future we know so well.

*****

Reaper

DVD, Smallville S1 (Reaper)

Another of those that was slightly better than I remembered. I think I just had a moderately negative impression of some of it because it is a grim opening and it does deal with uncomfortable subject matter of pain, living beyond what you can cope with, and euthanasia, but it also has very strong examinations into Fathers and sons, the constant parallel between Clark and Lex' situations and upbringing, but this time also bringing in Whitney's own issues. And it's all dealt with in a sensitive, grounded way. Well, most of it. Once Clark is going up against Tyler, the human Grim Reaper, who both purposefully and accidentally reduces people to ashes, it might be a touch jarring compared with all the personal stories going on. But yes, that opening is truly grim and distasteful when this young man is emotionally blackmailed into doing what he doesn't want to, and put his ill Mother out of her misery with a pillow to the face - she says if he loved her he'd do it, but if she loved him she wouldn't ask such a thing of him! So there's that, and then the poor coroner, or whatever they're called, those that chop up dead bodies to find out cause of death, is the first to suffer at the dead hands of death. Tyler didn't do it on purpose so you can forgive him that one, but he should have at least taken responsibility. But he had a mistaken belief that he'd been 'sent back' to save people from pain, a mission that gave him the ability to cope with this weird and way out happening instead of it being a mere freak (of-the-week), accident.

Like Chloe in that other recent episode, he goes out of a window and hits the ground, but unlike Chloe he dies and his Kryptonite bracelet (of which we never did hear an explanation for its origin), becomes embedded in his wrist, and activated when it's pulled out by the mortician, or whatever he's called, sending a wave of green energy through his body. The episode appears to deal with the issue of euthanasia and seems to be pro-life pretty clearly since Tyler's actions are proved to be rash and coming from the wrong mindset, that of believing himself to be there for this purpose when in fact he was removing life unnecessarily - I always go back to Dr. McCoy in 'Star Trek V' where he's carried this pain around for much of his life of turning off his Father's life support to ease his pain, then a cure being found for his ailment shortly after. The point is no one can know how long a person must suffer, and no one can know what good could come out of it, or despite it. As Clark says, while there's life, there's hope, and Tyler was taking that away and becomes the villain through doing that. We don't know if the first old lady he murders would have agreed if he'd told her what he could do and asked her permission to 'help,' but although she was in pain she was conscious enough to enjoy having a little dog as her constant companion, she was watching TV and appreciated the flowers brought to her, so it wasn't like she'd given up all semblance of living, or all interest in life.

Tyler is more complex than the average meteor freak because he has a purpose he's defined and thinks he's acting selflessly, but as he realises at the end, it was his own pain he was trying to silence. It was a bit too tidy for him to commit suicide, pressing his own hands together (so he'd never accidentally touched his own skin up to that point - or did he have to consciously do it like that for it to happen?), rather than either facing what he'd done, or stay to be with his Mother in her last days or hours, we don't know how long. All we know is she'd improved enough to be sent home and it's very likely she'd have been overjoyed to see her son again. The emphasis on the episode is definitely about parents and children spending time with each other, and that's where the real drama comes from, not a creepy guy murdering people with a sense of duty. The biggest part of that has to be Clark and Jonathan falling out when Clark doesn't want to go on their annual fishing trip, feeling too old for that now, and in his mind it becoming his Dad's thing that he's making him do. Once he understands it has nothing to do with fishing, it's about being together for the day he's happy to do it again, but it takes a turn down some avenues to get there!

It's never a good time to invoke Lex Luthor's help in his Dad's eyes, but this turned out to be the absolute worst time for Clark to ask a favour, as Dominic, Lionel's lackey is investigating Lex and finds out about his 'secret' project to explain the accident. Whether it was to create more trouble for Lex, or that was just a side benefit in his main mission to find out about this mysterious episode for his employer, he's open with Mr. Kent about Lex' endeavours in this regard, which is what blows up what was a simple dislike of Dad being too protective and treating him like a child, from Clark's point of view, to the ever-present bias against the Luthor name that Jonathan has every reason to uphold, considering the history. I like how Lex goes to Jonathan and when he suddenly brings up this investigation into his family, Lex sees there's no point hiding anything and comes right out with it. I still get the impression that the investigation is open, but he's very good at seeming genuine. But that's the trouble, you're never entirely sure now. Lex is treated without compassion, both by Jonathan in his failure to be moved by Lex' reality with his Father, and Dominic, who always has a cold rejoinder to any 'opening up' Lex does to him on the subject of Lionel. It's great how you wonder the lengths Lex will go to right to the point when Lionel opens the boot at their secluded Metropolis meeting place - has he killed Dominic and is returning the body? No, Lex hasn't gone that far, and Lionel even congratulates him on how he's handled the situation as if it was just another test.

Sometimes Clark can come across as a little holier-than-thou in his attitudes, mainly because he is still a teenager and hasn't the life experience to know what to say to people. He can be forgiven for what he says to Whitney, though, clumsy in some ways, but also striking his fellow student in just the right place. It's sad that Whitney admits how Clark will always have his Dad there for him, but Whitney won't, that's the basic dividing line between them, but in reality Jonathan wouldn't be around for many more years. But Clark does seem to care, and again, it's a great way of showing how he was responsible for Whitney getting to play with the Metropolis Sharks as he'd wanted to in front of his Dad - at first it seems Lex is just being a good guy, and maybe it was set up for us to see Jonathan and Lex find common understanding, but then Lana guesses it was Clark who asked him to arrange it. At first I was thinking, why is Whitney doing this, I thought he lost the chance to get into football, until you learn it's a favour. Then I was thinking why would Lionel, the owner of the team, have gone along with this favour to Lex, who must have asked him to get them to let Whitney play for this one-off experience, but of course, Lionel would reward his son when he's done something he approves of.

It all seems to make sense, for an episode of 'Smallville,' aside, perhaps, from the fact that no staff members come running in the Smallville Medical Centre during the physical altercation between Tyler and Whitney (he came to help him and his Dad - knocking him out against a basin doesn't seem much like help to me!), and then Tyler and Clark! Then I didn't get how Lana and Tyler knew each other as when they meet at the graveyard they do seem tom but haven't met in the episode. And why was Tyler just standing there in the SMC ward, when Whitney comes in? Had he just got there and heard the lad outside? But that's about it, and its just another feel-good story in the 'Smallville' world that is a pleasure to watch by the end. Maybe they don't go into the ethics of euthanasia very deeply, but I like that Clark stands for life, especially because wherever he goes he's there to keep it safe, such as when he defends Martha from Tyler and the Kryptonite power doesn't turn him to ashes (fortunately for the series' longevity), but merely drains some feeling of life from his face where he was touched. Good stuff.

***

Such Sweet Sorrow, Part 2

DVD, Discovery S2 (Such Sweet Sorrow, Part 2)

I don't recall what the length of the longest episode in Season 1 was, but this finale may well be longer than any of them at sixty-two minutes, and it feels like it. It's a strange one which for much of the running time I thought I'd be saved from having to write much in my review by the fact that so much of the goings-on were the kind of mindless spectacle that you could easily turn your brain off for, the kind of thing prevalent and prevailing throughout the Kelvin Timeline films, but partly due to its length, and partly due to lots of things happening that require detailed discussion, I wasn't saved from a lot of writing, and unfortunately, neither was the episode saved by an ending that attempts to tie up as many loose ends as possible. But the ending with Spock (mainly), being the one to sort out all the inconsistencies with canon, his discussion on the various intricacies of Burnham, her mission, and the USS Discovery, culminating with taking his place on the Bridge of the USS Enterprise, was undoubtedly the high point and pushed the episode up a star in the ratings, which would otherwise have been rock bottom for me. While they labour to sort out the canon quandaries posed by Burnham and her ship, the physical problems remain just as large - I can't accept that this is the same Enterprise, these are the same people and this is the same universe I've always known and loved.

My new theory on the core of the series, where it's coming from and what its aims are, doesn't help me to appreciate it. While many will love the feminisation of Trek, it's gone beyond even the point of political correctness as it's basically all women doing everything of consequence. This may not be a bad thing for some, but it doesn't engender my respect and admiration, nor does it encourage or delight me. In short, it's not my cup of tea. The role of the male characters seems to be merely to throw a paper-thin shroud over the reality that the women are the ones with agency. I counted up everything that was going on, and I don't usually do this, but it was so in your face that it stuck out: Pike is commanding the Enterprise, true, and Saru, the Discovery, but they're essentially just there in the background while the real work is done by the female members of the crew in every respect! Whether it be the typically male attributes of hand-to-hand fighting with a villain (Fake Georgiou and Naarn taking on Leland in inexplicable physical confrontation instead of using their weapons); or even the skilful side of bravery, attempting to disarm the torpedo lodged in the Enterprise's forward hull (Admiral Cornwell and Number One, who curiously, we never heard the name of as I was expecting), and sacrifice (Cornwell staying to the end as the only solution). The trope of allies from an unexpected quarter swooping in to provide cheering assistance at a moment of dire need is fronted by Siranna of the Kelpiens leading the charge and L'Rell of the Klingons. Even the shields have to be saved by Tilly going up some ladder amid explosions, and her friend Po, the Queen of Xahea (can't imagine what her bodyguard must be doing, unless her approach is not to have any retinue, further deviation from realism), is the one to provide the plan of action!

Pike, Saru and Tyler are relegated to standing or sitting on their respective Bridges as they watch things unfold, powerless to do anything, it seems! Even Spock, who's intellectual process enables him to provide the necessary advice to Burnham, is stuck in his shuttle and is merely the mental and emotional support for Burnham, who's doing the real work out in her time suit. It is truly bizarre the way they've turned things around from the traditional Trek way, and I'm sure feminists the world over are cheering with joy at the coup achieved by 'DSC.' Even amid all these cold observations, I felt the episode would have worked reasonably well as a permanent ending for the most sorry excuse for a Trek series I could have imagined. It does sort out the hanging questions of how this ship and its unique propulsion method in the spore drive were never heard of again in 'future' Trek, or why Michael Burnham was never spoken of. That it is Spock who respectfully suggests all information regarding Discovery, its drive, its crew and the time suit, should be erased from the records and considered treasonous to even speak of to prevent tampering with time, is, I suppose, the only reasonable way to deal with all the painting themselves into a corner they've done from the genesis of this, essentially, reboot of the Trek universe, and legitimises it in the same way that Leonard Nimoy's presence in 'Star Trek XI' did the same, and if there is one bright thing in this whole season, it is that Ethan Peck did a creditable job in the role.

Nevertheless, ending the series here would have been preferable. They do mention a nine hundred odd time jump into the future, but it's far from being clear (as is common on the series), what this means exactly, and only from news about Season 3 would I have understood that they were going to the 32nd or 33rd Century (I forget which), further than any Trek has gone before. That's a big problem, not being able to be clear on such important points and leaving it to minor lines of dialogue for people to understand the big things that are happening as I don't think it would have registered with me on first viewing if I hadn't already had prior knowledge. Knowing their destination I did wonder if the ship would only be in the future for a season, considering that each season is a separate story, and also that Fake Georgiou is set to head up the 'Section 31' series that is unfortunately still to plague us at some point in the near future. But jumping ahead or behind a thousand years is nothing for this series, another reason it feels so much like the film series that it has clearly taken much of its inspiration from, not having a sense of propriety or moderation, respecting boundaries. Or it could be that with the popularity of Pike and Spock, they quickly developed a plan to leave the 23rd Century to them and 'S31,' while 'DSC' can ruin the distant future with gay abandon.

Either way makes no odds to me because I realise, and have realised on an ongoing basis, that this new 'golden age' of Trek is unlikely to have anything in it for me, because everything is so far from Trek's rulebook and believability, its patient, careful building of a cohesive universe that has endured for so long. Until it was sabotaged by the film series. They claim that it's all 'Prime Universe,' but you can't do what they've been doing and be true to the past that they've chosen to treat as a malleable commodity. The trouble is they don't have the writers, production personnel or even the man at the top with the dedication to Trek history, and even where they do, it's only in part. For example, Kirsten Beyer is the champion of Trek past in the writers' room, but she's a 'Voyager' lady, writing the novels continuing that series even today, so her heart is obviously in the 24th Century. We haven't got that generation of people who grew up in the Seventies on 'TOS' and the subsequent films and venerate its history and production. The Okudas, the Doug Drexlers, the Ron Moore's to name a few. We haven't had this base of Trekkers in a position to keep the torch burning brightly and things on track. Instead we have a younger generation whose only exposure to Trek may have been the Kelvin films and its emphasis on thrills and spectacle and a disconnect with Trek continuity, not just in fictional terms, but in purpose and goal, and this can only hurt Trek's storytelling potential and integrity.

This episode felt the closest to one of those Trek films than anything they'd done before on the series, and to a casual observer I'm sure it was a rip-roaring success with a big battle, countless drones, robots and quick cuts, flashing fury of light and sound, sassy, snarky dialogue and brief suggestions of weird alien faces. Like that red harpy on the Bridge of the Enterprise - how I wish Michael Westmore's genius was still in evidence, a considered brilliance that was as much about a race's culture and character as it was throwing bizarre shapes and colours onto the screen, which is how most other humanoid aliens are done in sci-fi in general. It's very much the 'Star Wars' way of a suggestion of depth in a room full of alien faces rather than the Trek way of feeling out a race rather than being just for show, creating reality rather than suggesting one like a bag of colourful sweets flung in the viewer's face. It shouldn't be surprising that if this new era of Trek is following the Kelvin rules and attitudes, it would also be very similar to 'Star Wars' because those films were JJ Abrams' attempt at pulling off a 'Star Wars' film without it being one and before he even knew it, it was an audition for him directing real 'Star Wars' (well, it's debatable that the recent trilogy can be called that, but like Trek, it can't be denied that it's 'real,' just that it's any good!).

Hence we have space battles full of the debris of tiny ships, fighters, drones and blasters blasting. I wonder if we'll ever get back to that idea of starships as these huge lumbering sea-faring vessels that don't turn on a dime or swerve around like jet fighters, nor do they carry a compliment of drone weapons in case of war. Starfleet was always very hands-on, things were done by people, not left to robotic claws, but that's another instance of the changing of Trek's attitude. Here, we see drones zipping about on the hull exactly like R2-D2 and his fellow droids fixing things. It's antithetical to Trek's approach of humans doing things for themselves and is another clear indication that this current regime do not understand the property. And so it has become 'Star Wars,' and as I said, this episode is the closest to being like an actual film. It's presented in cinema screen ratio as all episodes have been this season, it's full of special effects and every cliche you'd expect, whether that be the allies suddenly showing up to join a losing fight at just the right moment, to a villain needing to be dealt with in person in the bowels of the ship… It gives the modern audience what they expect and there isn't really anything beyond that, other than the sheep's clothing of characters like Spock and Pike that are known from the past. I'm guessing this is the one that was called a clips episode as it shows Burnham going back to various places the Red Angel had been seen through the season, and it's really only clips from those episodes. So it's not in the category of 'Shades of Grey,' but I'm guessing they did that to save money - even this shiny modern Trek is trying to save money (though probably more from wasting it on the wrong things than austerity)!

Burnham becomes what she was meant to be from the start: a comic book superhero. She melds into her time suit, crystal-ed up and ready to strike a pose as the female Iron Man, to lead her ship into the future and get that Sphere data out of the clutches of the odious Control. I will even say there was one good moment in all this, where she launches out into space to get to a place where she can initiate the time jump, or time vortex, or time whatever, far enough away that other ships won't be pulled in. It struck me right at the start of the episode when they were running through the recap that it might have been more sensible for them to go backwards in time as Control wouldn't exist, whereas in the future there's no guarantee that it isn't still out there somewhere (and I hereby predict that Control, in the form of Leland, will indeed make a 'surprise' return at some point, just as all super-villains do in comic books). I think part of the point was for her to rescue her Mother, who was in the future, so maybe that was the rationale, but in that case she's risking everything for her Mum when she should have gone back in time to be certain the Sphere data wouldn't fall into the enemy AI's digital control. The real point, of course, is to excite the audience with thoughts of the possibilities of this future, but for me it just makes me fear that they'll be unable to craft a believable future since they were unable to resurrect the 23rd Century and had to completely redesign and redefine its parameters for it to fit with today's audience, an action which negated the point of its existence in the first place - literally no point in going to different eras if you ignore the limits that make them unique!

I wouldn't be surprised if it was also a bit of a suggestion that future Trek will tie together for some big, overarching mission when the time is 'right,' since 'Star Trek: Picard' had been announced before this season was released and everyone was anticipating the arrival of an era they really wanted to see, instead of continual prequels for the last twenty years. Since 'Picard' is set in the future, wouldn't it be a thrill for Jean-Luc and Burnham to team up, again like the mega-successful (and totally soulless and boring), comic book films of the Cinematic Universe age we've had to endure. They've since said there are no plans to do that, and they might be right going by the negative reaction I've heard appearing to greet 'Picard' on its debut season, but then again, perhaps to boost subscribers (it's no longer about ratings, but it is about subscribers so the old rules do still apply after all!), they'll need to tie the arms of the franchise together (maybe they could also tie the legs, gag it, and throw it down a well while they're at it, as it would be a more humane end to a storied franchise than what they've done to it!), and don't forget they're copying the film side of things in every respect - remember "Benedict Cumberbatch is not Khan"? Well, they said Spock wouldn't be showing up, too. So you can't trust what's said, because just as in other parts of the media it's about inflaming passions, whether they be good or bad, it doesn't matter, as long as people are reacting rather than being ambivalent.

And how they have followed the films in style, content and intent: you don't even need to look at the cinematic approach or the battle scenes or the 'Star Wars'-ification of fighters and drones and pew-pew-pew. We need this precocious teenage girl to tell us how to win, old Captain Pike obviously too stupid to be able to work out a plan of action for himself. Some Captain he turned out to be, and yet people are clamouring for a TV series based on his adventures! His "Get it done," sadly has connotations that I suspect the writers and more than half the audience either never knew or had forgotten (remember irritating Captain Ronny Cox on 'TNG'? That was his catchphrase - what's with this urge for a Captain to have one anyway?). As soon as Fake Georgiou suggests Saru invite Leland aboard which will stop the fighting, I knew why she said that, or at least why the writers wrote it. Because, as I've said before, her role on the series is twofold: to be bad, and do and say the things our 'pure' Starfleet heroes won't, and because Michelle Yeoh is a martial artist more than she is an actress. So it's imperative that she gets her shot as much as possible at doing what she does best. Even when it's irrelevant to the Trek universe or the story. So as soon as she said that I knew it was an excuse to bring her and Leland together for the same old cliched fight, and lo and behold, that's exactly what happened. Okay, not exactly, Leland beams himself aboard, but the intent of the 'story' was the same.

Fake Georgiou's fine sentiments are given yet more airing: "I leave very little to chance - especially when it comes to revenge." We're supposed to like this character, that's how they always present her, as this loose cannon, irreverent and fun. To me she's objectionable and the biggest slap in the face on the series where it comes to Trek's morals and outlook. I've said it before, but the statement of intent made by killing off her Prime counterpart, a Picard-like diplomat, wise and caring, in exchange for the truly evil, violent and vile offender, a multiple murderer, a tool that Starfleet has used through Section 31, is abhorrent. We're supposed to react with glee as she finally gets the nasty Leland into the spore chamber and laughs as he suffers - torture your enemy, let's hear him scream, it's okay because he's evil. To me that's the opposite of Trek's message and once again follows the new 'traditions' laid down by the Kelvin films, in this case enjoying the destruction of your enemy, just as Kirk and Spock did at the end of 'STXI' where they kick Nero into a black hole or something. Yes, Georgiou is alone when she does this thing, even Naarn, her ally in the fight, is absent (did she survive, I can't remember?). And yes, we've often had other characters look askance at her attitudes. At the same time she's still allowed to participate and they are even happy to use her talents when it suits them. It's as if that 'Voyager' episode ('Nothing Human'), with the Cardassian Dr. Crell Moset, never happened! I've sometimes thought of Garak in 'DS9,' but even he would balk at some of the things Fake Georgiou has done. Or maybe he wouldn't, but he'd have the approbation of Dr. Bashir and the others, and there would be consequences.

When Trek did go into the dangerous area of ends versus means, it was for a specific story (the greatest and most notable being 'In The Pale Moonlight'), but we always knew the rights and wrongs of it. Morality is very blurry on this series, right often coming across, through Pike, as a blind obedience to rules and regulations, and the bad being the looser ones who justify easier ways, but even then it's not that simple. The confused morality is something else I largely attribute to the films, though even in 'Enterprise,' thanks to reaction to the 11th September attacks, they added in a harder edge to their Captain, without the complexity shown in 24th Century Trek series'. I experience Trek as a malaise now, that doesn't really know what it wants to say, other than elevating political correctness and injecting size and shininess where once was rational design and development. I've often likened the Kelvin films (especially the first two), to being Trek as if it had been treated with steroids, an artificially inflated, muscular Neanderthalism. In 'DSC' they've often taken that, though they have managed to drip in a few tiny snippets of Trekness, more so than the films did, for sure, more on which in a moment. But they even nicked the space jump - as I said, that bit was one I liked thanks to all those drones and shuttles piling round Burnham like a protective cocoon, holding off the constant blasts as she's the most important to the mission. But it's all too little. In general the whole battle and all that happened on the action side of things was a laughable parody of action drama.

So to the little scraps of Trekkiness that squeeze through amidst all the sorrow that is not sweet: Spock is injured and you see a few specks of green Vulcan blood, as you should - see! See! They can do little details right when they choose to! There's an exploding console - check, which knocks over the crewmember and their chair - check. There are some actual Phaser beams (I should really start calling them Actual Phaser Beams, it's so rare to see them in operation), though like the films, they emanate from tiny cannons coming out of the ship's hull (ugh). They even demonstrate how effective a beam is at quickly eliminating threats when they zap, zap, zap the little dead drones that no longer have Control's, er, control. So you didn't need those bullet pulses of Phaser energy after all! (And it looks so much cooler, what is wrong with you people?). There's the time jump when Burnham goes off in her suit which went all 'The Motion Picture,' just like the Thruster Suit Spock wore in that film. And who could forget "Today is a good day to die," ringing out on the Bridge of the Klingon ship! We even get a new hairy Klingon and from the end credits you can see it was Glenn Hetrick, one of the head makeup guys, giving himself a cameo. More interestingly, he was called K'Vort, and so must have an important future since we know there were Klingon vessels in the time of 'TNG' that were K'Vort-Class. Nice little Easter egg, but it would have been nice to hear his name obviously spoken on screen and not have to get it from the credits (same with Yeoman Colt - again credited, but I never caught a mention of her).

It could also be said that Burnham's advice to Spock about "…A galaxy full of people who will reach… for you," was a reference to the hippies in 'The Way To Eden' which Spock 'reached' ('we reach, brother'), as a real deep catch. It could also be taken that Burnham's words were what encouraged Spock to form friendships with Kirk and Bones ('the furthest from you, let them guide you'), as otherwise it just sounds like pointlessly self-important waffle without any real meaning except to display Burnham's affection for her brother, and her emotional state (what? Burnham getting emotional? Again? Was she raised by 'Enterprise' Vulcans, or what!). And I really am tired of her trickling down tears every episode, or stopping what she's doing to get something off her chest at a critical moment when haste is required and people are dying: Oh Spock, I don't want to lose you, boo hoo, blah, blah… Do your duty woman, and get on with it. Mind you, even Cornwell (whom I will not be mourning the loss of, remaining ambivalent to her), stopped what she was doing to shake hands with Number One before she left from trying to disarm the torpedo, so Burnham hasn't had the greatest influencers around her. There's some pedigree in dealing with a torpedo wedged in the ship, off the top of my head I can think of two key episodes, one from 'DS9' ('Starship Down' - Quark has to use his Ferengi instincts to gamble and comes up trumps), and one in 'Voyager' ('Before and After' and/or 'Year of Hell' - a time crystal torpedo, in 'DSC' parlance!), so that's fun, but still laced with stupidity in this case.

If I can go into the nit-picky for a moment I will point out some of the wrongheadedness of this current generation of Trek makers: zips. We don't have zips in the future, in fact on 'TOS' they made a point to conceal zips from view so clothing had a more futuristic appearance to it - how does it go on or come off (well, with Kirk it's usually ripped off in a fight, but…), we don't know, adding to the mystique. In 'DSC,' though everything is either not explained or not very clearly, a fudging I get the impression is there to disguise the writers' own lack of surety, they do choose to show some things that old Trek was wise to avoid (it's also highly possible they don't actually know these things). And so we do get Burnham zipping up. In contrast, her Iron Man suit magically folds around her in some kind of post-24th Century way that doesn't fit with Trek's established methods, but that's by the by, the same way everything has to be BIGGER. But it's the consistency episode to episode that has been as much at fault as the choices they've made. I mentioned in other reviews about contradicting themselves as if they're unsure what they're doing, and this time it's revealed that the time crystals show possible futures rather than the definite article. Cop-ooooooooooout. In the same episode Chris Pike wants to stay with Cornwell in the torpedo room because he thinks that his future is certain from what he saw on Boreth. While we're there, I'm sure it's nice how the Admiral bravely and calmly faces her death, but if I was her I'd be working on that off switch to the very last second! Just me? Plus the Enterprise has been badly designed if you need to bring down the blast door from the inside! Matt Jefferies, what did you do? It wasn't his fault? Oh.

Still on the subject of clarity, if I hadn't known better I would have got the intimation that this was where the accident with Pike was due to happen. Obviously that was a number of years down the line, but the way things were set up, even I was wondering if they were actually going to do it early and blame it on the time crystals or something, because he leaves the Bridge to go down to the torpedo room and it just has that ominous feel, much like when Spock left the Bridge to save the ship in 'Star Trek II.' Instead, he's just going down to offer his services to Admiral Cornwell. The Captain of the ship isn't the best person to be attempting to deal with something like this, where are all the Engineers, busy? It makes even less sense for someone of Admiral rank to be dealing with an unexploded bomb, surely they have people for things like this, and she's the most important person on the ship. It's all so artificial the way she's the only one that can be there, and then it comes down to something as simple as closing the door from the inside. Any Engineer half as good as Starfleet's best would be able to rig something so that wasn't necessary, but it's all in aid of giving Cornwell a 'hero's' death. Unfortunately, it was a pointless and unearned one. And talking of people being in the wrong place, like last season, I don't know about the soundness of the ethics of Culber treating Stamets, it's obviously done so they have some screen time together, but it's debatable whether Culber should even be back in a medical uniform after what he went through. The series is consistent in its unreality.

The whole silly fight between Fake Georgiou, Naarn and Leland/Control, with it's snarky women trading barbs with the villain, was silly, but at least it had some originality with the shifting gravity in the corridor. It's not a patch on another weird Trek fight (I love the time-slippage one between Archer and Silik in 'Broken Bow' - truly something I'd never seen before), but it did feel different. Until I thought of 'The Matrix Revolutions,' and then even 'Star Trek Beyond' had an elaborate version of it, so I'm afraid even the series' best ideas are nicked from other productions. My biggest confusion, though, came from the fact that if Georgiou has Leland/Control trapped and defeats him by, er… doing something with the spore room (how does she know what to do, she doesn't seem a very scientific type?), isn't it problem over? Do they still need to go into another time? Or is Leland only one host of Control, and there are many more it can jump into? And why is it that everyone interviewed has to lie about Discovery 'exploding'? This is Starfleet, are they the bad guys? Is the idea we should never trust Starfleet? Is it because of the close links to Section 31, that notorious 'secret' organisation - the guy interviewing them, who isn't worthy of a name or face (it seems Starfleet prefers to do things this way, since Burnham was convicted by superiors hidden in shadow at the start of the series - this time it's just not shown to us, as if saying he's a faceless representative of Starfleet). If so, then they even say that 31 needs a radical overhaul and more transparency. Erm… a top secret intelligence agency needs to be more transparent? This is the same 31 that we learned about in 'DS9,' the one that had been operating autonomously since the founding of the Federation, is it not?

I could go on and on - we get Siranna showing up with the Ba'ul ships, and no explanation of how and why. Are the Ba'ul allied with the Kelpiens now? Did they steal the ships? How long did it take this technologically backward race to learn how to fly them? It's all very ill thought-out, but that's what it's designed to be. They don't want you to think about anything deeply, they want to impress you with melodrama and pretty effects and move on. It must be the first Trek that actively discourages thinking, and that's quite an achievement! Burnham will be forever forgotten, never spoken of by Sarek, Amanda and Spock. How harsh! Is that really going to make any difference, and wasn't she the 'hero' at the end of last season, rewarded in front of all of Starfleet, along with her crew, who are also missing now. And everyone's just going to swallow this fake story about the ship blowing up? I was never really bothered about Burnham being part of Spock's life, and his family's life, because we never knew about Sybok until the film where he appeared - Vulcans are a secretive lot, but to put this as the reason we never heard of her? If she does ever come back to the 23rd Century (and I can't really believe Discovery will remain in the far future), then that undoes that, but was it logically necessary? And although I don't think Number One is too bad, she is far from the restrained, Vulcan-like character we met in 'The Cage,' just as sassy and sarky as all the other women on the series, almost as if it had all been designed by women. Funny that.

I will say it was nice to see a drydock, just like 'TMP,' but now, thanks to all those ridiculous robots and drones I have to ask why they would have these worker bees and humans doing any of the work? Ill thought-out. That's the very nature of the series, to give you something that reminds you of what it's connected to (like a fun spot of lock rerouting to open a door), while at the same time happily doing everything it can to feel off from that universe. Couldn't they have given us the old rubber band stretch for the Enterprise going to warp at the end, just this once? It's incredible how close it is to the Kelvin films, they've certainly achieved something there, except it's the opposite of what I hoped a new Trek series would achieve! Two-dimensional comic book heroes to suit the comic book action and mindlessness, a strong 'Star Wars' influence, zips and bings, and bangs and booms… I had actually forgotten how little I esteemed 'DSC' by the end of Season 1, and by the time I got around to viewing the DVDs I was genuinely interested to see how they'd improved it. With all the talk of course corrections it sounded as if they were finally going in the right direction, but it turned out these were very minor - the Klingons remained stupid and mainly ugly, even with hair, the Enterprise was a major disappointment in keeping strictly to the huge, shiny aesthetic with its massive window, and even Pike wasn't quite the revelation the series needed, too often reduced to a lesser, regs-spouting stereotype of 'old' Trek and overshadowed by the format's need for Burnham to be the decision-maker and fulcrum everything rests upon. Even the proposed theme of science/faith was forgotten, and even in a fourteen episode season they failed to keep a (mildly), compelling serial going. Instead they descended more and more into anti-intellectual feminine fantasy and only made me look forward to returning to genuine 'Star Trek,' and to realise that's all there is going to be, we're never going to get what Trek was and should be, the door of setting a precedent having been kicked wide open to the detriment of true Trek. At least there's enough real Trek for a lifetime's re-watching.

**