DVD, Discovery S2 (Perpetual Infinity)
Another 'Discovery' episode, another forty-odd minutes of bad 'Star Trek,' shot through with some good Spock (though even he has the terrible line "I like science," to be 'cute' and make the audience titter. Ugh!), and very little else. Oh, wait, there's the small matter of the origin of the Borg. Okay, so maybe I'm being presumptuous, and I really hope the writers aren't, because things are seemingly pointing to the creation of the Borg and if that is the case it will be one more thing this series has ruined in Trek - I had the impression of Borg involvement early on, first from rumours, then when the altered probe from the future attacked Pike and Tyler's shuttlecraft in that episode (you know the one, I can't remember what it was called, they all blend together), and it had been sent back from the future augmented and alive with AI, or guidance, that wanted organics dead. Then we get Starfleet computing power turned into AI through the influence of the data from the sphere. I think… Where did Control come from, I forget? It was Starfleet, but was it AI? Anyway, now we see Leland get assimilated, right down to the creepy black veins that come from nanoprobes, and it even appeared to show us a stream of these devices entering his bloodstream in the best Seven of Nine manner. And there's the whole future time where everything's been destroyed (except of course for a handy Class-M planet so that Dr. Gabrielle Burnham, Michael's Mother, can survive!), so are we really doing the Borg's origin and saying it was Starfleet's fault? I really, really hope not!
I was half expecting Alice Krige to show up as some crewmember ripe for being sucked into the future, things were going so much in that direction ('Enterprise' planned to do a Borg origin if it had continued, so it's not a new idea). Oh no, don't tell me Dr. Burnham becomes the Borg Queen. I say again: ugh! The potential messing up of one of Trek's most legendary 'races' was actually the only point of interest in this whole emotive mess of an episode. Once again we're supposed to care for a character so much that we're devastated when she's taken away, this time pulled from her daughter in the most 'dramatic' fashion, but though they valiantly cram in as many as possible mission logs and scenes with her conversing with various people, not to mention recordings of when she, her husband and young Mike, were last together (and a dream flashback for the newly-awakened-from-death Burnham), it's still a stranger who goes shooting into the red void at the end of the episode. How did that even happen? She wasn't in the suit, no one else was affected, so what is it that has so changed her genetic makeup that she's snapped back along with the time tech she travelled in? This 'Metroid'-like time suit makes less and less sense - I thought Leland told us in the previous episode it was invented by the Burnhams (sure, when can we trust anything he says, I know), but how could this couple, no matter how clever they are, be able to do something like that on their own? I keep expecting to hear that it's actually something that dropped out of the future (where are the Temporal Operatives like Captain Braxton of the USS Relativity?), but here we see it in their home-cum-lab when the Klingons show up to 'kill' them.
Not quite getting what was about to happen I actually thought for a moment it was a Romulan ship that was descending on that planet or moon, or whatever it was where they were carrying out their experiments, but of course it was the Klingons. It's just because it looked so 'raptor's wing'-ish and shows that if you have that extensive knowledge and sympathy with Trek lore of old it's actually a stumbling block to you now! Granted, the Klingons always used Birds of Prey, and would go on to have a tech sharing phase with the Romulans, but it was like something out of 'Nemesis' (probably designed by John Eaves who also did the ship designs in that film). 'How interesting,' I thought. 'How are they going to bring the Romulans into this?' Obviously they weren't, so at least that's one bit of canonical correctness they've kept to, though I don't suppose they'll be able to keep away from anything if the series runs long enough. It's so strange to be in a position to be hoping a Trek series doesn't go on too long when I used to want them to run and run! But almost nothing about this series makes me warm to it and I don't even feel disappointed any more: I just expect it to be silly and wrong. Take Burnham, or more specifically, the actress that plays her - it seems like she bursts into tears every episode and it's all so forced and unnatural. Sure, it's easy to argue that these are momentous occasions for her, she's meeting the Mother she'd thought dead for twenty years, but she's always so unprofessional and un-Starfleet in her actions and far from the heroes we're used to seeing.
Even the fake Control version of her as a hologram, where she talks flatly, like a Vulcan (now we know why the Vulcan Admiral Patar seemed so accurate - she was really just a computer simulation, so they can't even do a real Vulcan right!), was better than the normal flesh and blood Burnham. That's a problem when it's your series' lead. She's so… I don't know if the word irrational is right. Maybe she's so lacking in control, her feminine side on display so much, not reining in her emotions. I'm not even talking about when she's blubbing in front of the Mother that's become so jaded by her endless sojourn as a time traveller that she's unwilling to connect with her only daughter. That's understandable that she'd lose control, although not admirable or desirable in a Starfleet officer. No, it's things like when she wakes in Sickbay and they tell her about her Mother and she's desperate to jump up and go and speak to her. And when Pike is requested to meet her and not Burnham, they have to have a counsel in Pike's massive Quarters where she tries to make a case from every angle except a daughter's right, that she should go down too. It's important to note that they are on a time limit, with the containment field holding the suit and Dr. Burnham in place, set to only last so long! Pike indulges a bit of discussion, which I'd normally champion, but ultimately decides to deny her wishes. It's all rather silly, why not just go down, why wait until the Doctor is ready to talk, and accede to her wishes about who she'll see?
Although the whole idea of Dr. Burnham filming herself is odd, I can buy it because she is a scientist ("I like science!"), and this is all part of the process, and I liked that we see what happened to her when the Klingons attacked and so on, only through these devices (even though flying robots are incredibly overused in this series - you pretty much never saw them on other Treks, one reason the advancement of CGI isn't necessarily a good thing because it encourages the makers to break the rules or alter what is common or possible to a degree that alienates those familiar with Trek's style and approach). It was also intelligent in the way that when she travels into the future that first time she isn't on the same planet/moon/whatever that she started because the orbits would have changed so she would be in space, the kind of accuracy we're not used to seeing on 'DSC'! I immediately had questions of how she survived in this future if there was nothing left, so it was inevitable that a convenient Class-M world had to be there to explain where she went, ate, slept, etc. That tale of survival would have been more interesting than what actually happens in the episode. But as well as they did some things, the important stuff was simply stupid. Once again, if this is a suit made by the Burnhams, how does it have practically infinite data storage? Where did they get the time crystal, what even is it? There are so many questions about this tech, it's all frustratingly vague, just like the modern film series - it's all glossed over, which is a big reason it has come to feel like fantasy rather than science fiction.
The season is tied together by Dr. Burnham as she was responsible for sending the sphere to Discovery (and Terralysium is also mentioned), but I am a bit confused about all that. The sphere was the last remnant of an ancient civilisation, wasn't it? It wanted its knowledge to live on, and that knowledge is what Control used to become AI? Or it was already AI and needed that data to become all-powerful? I don't know, maybe I'm slow, but it's not easy to follow the complications because they don't present them in a clear way. It all boils down to Dr. Burnham being there at various points in time to… ensure Spock and Burnham get to the point where they destroy the sphere knowledge? So why send the sphere to them in the first place? And can the suit see into time, too, rather than just travel there, because she claims to have seen various moments from her daughter's life, and we know there was no Red Angel hovering over the scene. Unless it also has a cloaking device, which would be even more ridiculous. They gloss over the details and just generalise, filling up the space with the usual melodramatic outpourings of emotion, so far removed from the general attitude of restraint shown in Trek previously as to make it bizarre! They even do the cliches like the hands meeting on glass (or forcefield in this case), and again, hands reaching out before Mum Burnham gets sucked away in time, just too late. Again, it feels very like modern 'Dr. Who,' with the same lack of depth and reliance on surface-level shininess and unfettered emotion.
That's not all, they even radically retcon our most famous character: Spock is said to be dyslexic! So they want to make this era seem far more futuristic than it ever was shown to be before, and yet when it comes to medical conditions they slap it right bang into our time! As if dyslexia wouldn't have been cured long before then! There's also another example of a wheelchair skimming through the Discovery corridors, which has been seen before. 1) Why wouldn't it be a hover-chair considering how much antigrav hoverbots we see, and 2) any disablement or physical problem would be fixed. Unless, and I may have made this point before, the person in question is an Elaysian or some other low-gravity alien that can't stand in normal Earth gravity. The reality is it's all about showing diversity, the same reason we have people like Detmer who apparently can't get an artificial eye to look like her organic one, and has to live with a metal plate on her face (without the excuse of being Borg like Seven had!). It's about drawing in people by showing them an example of themselves, I suppose you could say the same about La Forge in 'TNG,' except that really was a different era with specific context and he was shown to actually have greater range of vision than normal eyes would have given him. But really, Spock dyslexic? Then we have Saru referring to firewalls as if that would be a term still used in the 23rd Century. They really have no idea how to craft a future world where everything is similar enough to be identifiable, yet also clearly advanced, something that even 'TOS' achieved on a regular basis.
There are always going to be anachronisms and things that are put in for the time they're made, but I don't trust these writers' judgement and it continues to be something that is constantly taking me out of the world, so much so that it breaks and fragments a poorly constructed iteration of that world and fills me with dismay how much they get it wrong! And then there's Michelle Yeoh. At least she isn't hissing and contorting like some silly 'Flash Gordon' villain, but when I think about it that is about the right analogy. It is just that with added glitz: we're reminded of the only reason she gets roles is to show off her considerable martial arts skills when Control/Leland, who has assimilated his body to use as a host, beams down and starts pew-pew-pewing away with the usual pop-gun Phasers as if he's Commander Data - how was he endowed with super speed, agility and reactions? Those are some nanoprobes! The one good moment of that whole scene is actually seeing one of their once-a-season uses of an actual Phaser beam when he shoots the time crystal, but even that is spoiled by the fact that this beam is somehow firing through a forcefield that is so strong it takes all Discovery's resources to power it, and so powerful it can prevent the suit and its passenger from being pulled into the future! So how can this beam go right through like it isn't even there? There's no consistency to the technology any more, they don't care if it makes sense, it's whatever the story needs, and a story without boundaries to rein it in just goes off its rocker.
As is the norm for the series there are so many problems you have to turn your brain off to keep going through the episode: Tyler takes a huge bug with him when Leland orders him to spy on Discovery, and activates it during a briefing. Initially I thought it was a listening device, but later realised it's to download the sphere data to the Section 31 ship - you notice how barebones they are in their approach to building this world in that such important things as a recurring ship don't even have a name! Bryce refers to it as 'the Section 31 ship,' which could get confusing since we've already seen they have other identical ships! Is it such a top secret vessel that it won't even say its name: 'oh here comes that mysterious big black ship with the crew that wear big black badges, I wonder who they could be?' Why wouldn't Discovery's own internal sensors detect and flag up that Tyler had activated a bug, anyway? When we're talking 'Flash Gordon' levels of ineptitude, it's not just in scenes degenerating into a one-on-one high-kicking fight scene, it's also in the ridiculous dialogue that precedes Georgiou and Leland's confrontation.
Back on The Section 31 Ship he convinces her to do what Tyler wouldn't and beam down with a bug to intercept the data (is the data stream from Discovery to the suit? So why do they need a bug anyway, can't they take it out of space since they have The Section 31 Ship hanging there!?), and he does it by appealing to Georgiou's base instincts and ego of being 'the most powerful woman in the galaxy.' But she's not, she's orphaned from her Mirror Universe and has had to be an underling for S31 as something fun to do, she's not the Emperor (or even Empress), and it shows how shallow the character is that she'd be influenced by him saying how much more powerful Dr. Burnham is thanks to her time suit. Genuinely, it wouldn't have been out of place in a 'Captain Proton' Holodeck adventure, that's the level of cartoon Trek has lowered itself to, and it is continually distressing. In fact there are more coherent episodes of 'The Animated Series'! I struggle to come up with anything that stops me giving this the lowest rating on my five star chart, but Dr. Burnham's veiled reference to Pike's future injuries, a future 'he won't like,' was fun, and I appreciated the poetic justice of Control's logic when deciding to use Leland's body, turning S31's own immoral ways against them because he's the ideal host due to holding multiple points of view in his head and not succumbing to guilt as the ends justify the means, so that was all good. Where this series differs from Trek is that that kind of stuff is where the real drama lies, not in 'Flash Gordon' hokey dialogue and silly laughs (Tilly's only contribution), or contrived fight scenes, but in the ideas. But they seem to have no idea.
**
Tuesday, 18 February 2020
Tuesday, 11 February 2020
The Red Angel
DVD, Discovery S2 (The Red Angel)
Airiam was right, it very much is all about Burnham, she's the Luke Skywalker destiny child of this fantasy melodrama that was created in opposition of the science fiction 'Star Trek' once was, and I don't think Martin-Green has the ability to be that centre-of-the-universe figure. It's not entirely her fault, it's as much the behind-the-scenes ravages that struck the series right from its early days, losing her her essential essence that creator Fuller set up: she's a human Vulcan child, she's logical and restrained and repressed in a way unnatural for a human. Except she very soon lost that one defining characteristic that made her somewhat fascinating. Maybe this is the result. Maybe her repressive upbringing is what has pushed her to be the most emotional, melodramatic character in Trek history? In which case they're doing a fine job of showing what the result of a formative life without emotion might do to a human psyche. I could buy that if the rest of the world these writers create was coherent, but it's pretty far removed from the straight-talking, grounded (yes, I'm using that word yet again), believable extrapolation of a future first shown in 'TOS' and furthered on 'TNG,' 'DS9' and 'Voyager.' Everything really is about her, though, she's not just some scientifically minded savant, she really is the centre of this universe that we're following, and it's just such a frustrating alteration of the way Trek tells stories that I can never entirely take it seriously!
I've highlighted so many times the blatant flaws that run through this shiny, glossy iteration that seems fit only for magpies attracted to its cathedral-like sets and glowing special effects. People that can ignore its two-dimensional characterisations and portentous, self-important dialogue and directorial choices that look like they come from 'The Lord of The Rings' rather than serious sci-fi. People who can ignore its confused morality and its bizarre need to distance itself from its own genetic heritage by bringing in technology far too early for the era it's supposed to represent in the history of the future. And it's not getting any easier to justify the series' existence, no amount of Captain Pike sternly reminding characters of his strict adherence to Starfleet regulations, able to do that. Take this episode, a mostly expository one with some new information that is not uninteresting, but still rife with the ground-level problems of this cracked and broken series: it begins with a sad farewell to Airiam's corpse, a kind of funeral service in which they show the traditional Trek manner of disposing of a body by launching it out into space within a torpedo casing, which itself was an updating of the traditional maritime method of disposing of a body by casting it into the sea. The character is eulogised and everyone's very emotional, but it means so little because we had so little to do with her! Tilly says she was her friend, so it's a shame we never (apart from in the previous episode), saw that. We were never allowed to develop a bond with this character, just as we haven't with many of them.
If the episode begins in this way, it also continues the same path. So we have Culber moping around still unable to get a grip on being a different Culber so that he even stops by Admiral Cornwell to get advice as she was once a counsellor or therapist, or whatever. We have Burnham getting so unprofessional that she actually bops Captain Leland on the nose. Twice! We have Discovery trusting Section 31 and working together in their goal of capturing the Red Angel (I wouldn't even have wanted them to know they believed Burnham to be inside). We have Georgiou expressing concern for Burnham when she doesn't really care about anyone but herself. It is, as usual, a big mishmash of mush, the only bright spot being that Ethan Peck's Spock remains Vulcan, reserved and deliberate in his speech. But really, Burnham practically justifies Leland's role even though she's unhappy with his 'intricate moral gymnastics' - she says that is his job, she knows. It's bad enough that everyone in Starfleet seems to know about this organisation that was supposed to have been kept hidden since its inception in the Federation Charter, the best and most fascinating thing about the organisation. They stripped out the good stuff about S31 being an impossibly secret, clandestine part of deep cover Federation intelligence so they can run around in big black ships, cliched up to the max, wearing big black badges so everyone knows their 'authority.' It's so laughable if it weren't a tragic waste of an invention by Trek's best writers. And then we have Saru saying he needs to know Leland can be trusted. He actually says this. To Leland.
Then we learn that, not content with introducing 24th Century technology into the 23rd Century because it's too boring to make stories without it (the writers completely misunderstanding the point of different eras is that very difference, not just in the galactic relations of alien politics, not just in the different approaches Starfleet makes, but in the limitations of their time - creativity needs boundaries to soar, and they completely fail in this regard!), we now have S31 developing a time travel suit, run on 'time crystals' (Project Daedalus). A one-man time travel suit. So it's not from the future, it's from this era! Not only that, it was designed by Burnham's own parents! Not only that, her Mother is still in it! Okay, so that was genuinely interesting, although this series does seem to have a thing about girls and their Mothers (Tilly and hers stands out; Burnham and her adopted Mother, Amanda, too). At least it being Mummy Burnham sets right a few questions I had about Burnham once again being the focal point of all time and space (it sometimes seems!), as if she's the Doctor from 'Dr. Who'! I was wondering why Burnham wouldn't know about attempts to trap her if she was from the future, but it wasn't her, so that's okay. Even Burnham wonders why she wouldn't say anything about an apocalyptic future if she knew about it (to which Spock replies that perhaps she has a penchant for the dramatic - understatement of the week!). But still, a time travel suit, invented in the 23rd Century? I was expecting it to be Burnham in there (I'm glad it wasn't), but I still assumed it would be tech from the future.
Somehow S31 can invent such a device (or Burnham's parents can), that, just like the spore drive, is going to have to be uninvented, otherwise what's to become of all the history past this? I'm hoping at some point they'll just admit this is another universe, not the 'TOS' one, because it simply does not fit. In 'TOS' they could time travel, but only by using the full power of their starship to zip round the sun. In later series' we saw other methods, but none of them were certain or something that anyone could just do, certainly not a one-person operation. Indeed, we've even been told that it isn't until around the 26th Century that time travel began to be used, and then only with great care by Starfleet and other races. If they were tying into the Temporal Cold War, that would have been an ideal avenue to explore, but it's just so continually frustrating that they cast aside the rulebook in order to muck about and do whatever they want. Because they don't have the imagination or the vision to do Trek as it should be done, they want to make a fantasy series using the Trek branding. They should have left well alone and made a whole new space series not constrained by Trek's coherent and consistent world, but then who would care? It really is like some 'Dr. Who'-inspired rubbish, where you can have unexplained fantastical time crystals and nothing has to make sense from week to week, one reason I don't think much of 'Who.' Even in the 24th Century they weren't hopping about on a whim into past or future, they had to engineer a good reason or a specific set of circumstances, but now 31 can just come up with tech.
As usual I can't stand Georgiou, or Tilly, but at least there was one good moment involving both of them: when Tilly's in Engineering (or a Science Lab, I don't know - they still haven't laid out the ship's sense of place very well at all), she burbles and bumbles as she does, until Georgiou tells her to 'stop talking!' There's never a Picard around when you want him: "Shut up, Tilly!" There was one other thing I quite liked in the episode: when Leland is talking about how Burnham's parents were investigating certain leaps in technology and advances in certain cultures weren't 'happenstance' as he puts it, but the result of time travel. I don't know, but this sounded exactly like what happened to our own 20th Century when Henry Starling created the computer boom of the latter half by using tech from a crashed 29th Century ship (as seen in 'Future's End' on 'Voyager'), which was a fun way to explain the rise of computers in our lives. I was really hoping for some reference to Chronowerx or Starling, and maybe we'll get it, but probably not. I also found that the punch bag Burnham got out her stress on, although initially odd to see, made some sense - we'd already seen a gym on the NX-01, and in 'TOS' the Enterprise also had a gym, so perhaps the holograms we've seen on 'DSC' aren't physical entities that can be interacted with as they could be on 'TNG' and beyond? That would ameliorate my problem with them a little, but I'm not sure what the evidence is for them being non-interactive physically, I just can't remember an example on this series.
Despite these few positives I still find the episode to be hard to accept, with Burnham a real disappointment, so far from the upright, good Starfleet officer that she initially seemed. Can you imagine Kira or Dax, or most of the other female characters on other Treks getting all weepy and snivelling about the difficult task they're about to do? But Burnham heads to Tyler's Quarters for some moping. I'm sure it's meant to make her more identifiable and human to audiences, especially female audiences (which this series, more than any other Trek, is very much gunning for, even against male viewership by the choices they make and the style they choose), but she just comes across as pitiful. Yes, it's more realistic that someone would be feeling vulnerable and upset, but she agreed to do this mission where she will 'die,' if only for a short time, in order to lure the Red Angel to save her (since, once again, everything revolves around her which is how they realise they can trap it). Once resolved she should be showing courage, not whimpering and simpering. Maybe I'm too harsh, but yet again it's an example of her lack of Starfleet (let alone Vulcan), strength and polish. It's a big deal for her to risk her life like that, and she is courageous to go through with it, I just can't stand her making the decision and then booing about being scared - it reminds me of that teary Ensign in Red Squad from 'Valiant,' an episode in which the Cadets take over the asylum and run a ship behind Dominion lines.
That and her assault on Leland put her in a very poor light this episode - as much as it's supposed to be something we like to see, Leland's decking means nothing other than lack of self-control and discipline, suggesting it's alright to do such a thing if you have a good enough reason. That's the way of the jungle, yes: you hurt me, so I'm gonna hurt you. But it's not the Starfleet way, and any organisation in which a subordinate struck a superior officer would take it very seriously. Well, we know they do since they came down ridiculously hard on her for 'mutinying' against Georgiou in the first episode, imprisonment for life not fitting with Starfleet any more than ignoring such an infraction does! In this case we can guess that Leland just took it and didn't report the action, but how did Spock know about it? I can't imagine Pike accepting such behaviour, and to me it's just another worrying trend in the series, when discipline and punishment are deemphasised because that's how our society seems to be going (like decriminalising drugs or the TV licence fee - almost as if, well, people are doing this stuff so we may as well stop trying to stop them!). But really, it does look bad for the organisation, even though Leland is scum and probably deserved what he got, that we're supposed to feel cheered by such an action is very uncomfortable and only makes me like Burnham less. Not only does she break down into emotional tempests all the time, she doesn't have control and is fast becoming a repugnant character.
When we finally get to the heroic moment of Burnham going through intense and mortal agony (and it is uncomfortable to watch and to see all the crew watching from their various positions - note Nilsson replacing Airiam at her station, so it's nice that they're not getting rid of the actress even though they chucked her earlier character), and the mysterious Red Angel is captured, yes, it is a good twist that it's her Mum, and a good cliffhanger making you wait to find out what's going on. When I first saw her I thought maybe it was Owosekun, then I thought Georgiou, then maybe a relation of Georgiou and it wasn't until Burnham spoke that I realised it was her Mother (and credit for Spock for having faith to keep the others from stopping the experiment - they all knew the idea was to temporarily kill Burnham, so why get upset about it, especially Georgiou who has seen, and done, far worse things!). One thing I did not get at all was when Leland is stabbed in the eye by his own ship. Huh? Why would you even have a needle in an optical piece of equipment, that was weird, and then that it wasn't explained what he was doing was also weird. It's easy to assume that it was 'Control' and this altered AI has infiltrated the S31 ships so there's more danger there, but why, why and why?
Finally, one little nugget worth mentioning is the series' approach to time travel. So often nowadays we're supposed to accept that time travel supposedly would split you off into an alternate reality, and every journey in time would be to a subtly different alternate, thus dispensing with so many of Trek's great time travel stories, or classic films like 'Back To The Future' - the point has always been that we can restore the past or save the future if we change something or restore it to the 'correct' version. That our time stream matters, rather than just being a permutation of infinite versions, none of which have any claim to being the 'right one.' Again, there are moral implications here, that nothing really matters and every version of everything exists somewhere. All to say that I was glad when Spock mentions the Grandfather paradox of Burnham not existing if she doesn't come back to prevent her death, which sounds to me like they're going with the traditional Trek approach to time travel, that things can be altered and restored, and that our 'reality' is important, so well done there. Of course that's a lot to extrapolate from one comment, but coming from Spock, an authoritative scientific figure (if not yet), it means something (I just wish he'd thrown in a mention of his own people once denying time travel, as a reference to the Vulcans of 'Enterprise'!), even if it turned out the Angel wasn't Burnham after all, thus negating his theory. I do hope they stay with the traditional Trek view, after all it is all fiction and theory, not reality and fact, and it's better to stick to the proven rules of Trek, even though they mostly don't on this series, which is why it suffers.
**
Airiam was right, it very much is all about Burnham, she's the Luke Skywalker destiny child of this fantasy melodrama that was created in opposition of the science fiction 'Star Trek' once was, and I don't think Martin-Green has the ability to be that centre-of-the-universe figure. It's not entirely her fault, it's as much the behind-the-scenes ravages that struck the series right from its early days, losing her her essential essence that creator Fuller set up: she's a human Vulcan child, she's logical and restrained and repressed in a way unnatural for a human. Except she very soon lost that one defining characteristic that made her somewhat fascinating. Maybe this is the result. Maybe her repressive upbringing is what has pushed her to be the most emotional, melodramatic character in Trek history? In which case they're doing a fine job of showing what the result of a formative life without emotion might do to a human psyche. I could buy that if the rest of the world these writers create was coherent, but it's pretty far removed from the straight-talking, grounded (yes, I'm using that word yet again), believable extrapolation of a future first shown in 'TOS' and furthered on 'TNG,' 'DS9' and 'Voyager.' Everything really is about her, though, she's not just some scientifically minded savant, she really is the centre of this universe that we're following, and it's just such a frustrating alteration of the way Trek tells stories that I can never entirely take it seriously!
I've highlighted so many times the blatant flaws that run through this shiny, glossy iteration that seems fit only for magpies attracted to its cathedral-like sets and glowing special effects. People that can ignore its two-dimensional characterisations and portentous, self-important dialogue and directorial choices that look like they come from 'The Lord of The Rings' rather than serious sci-fi. People who can ignore its confused morality and its bizarre need to distance itself from its own genetic heritage by bringing in technology far too early for the era it's supposed to represent in the history of the future. And it's not getting any easier to justify the series' existence, no amount of Captain Pike sternly reminding characters of his strict adherence to Starfleet regulations, able to do that. Take this episode, a mostly expository one with some new information that is not uninteresting, but still rife with the ground-level problems of this cracked and broken series: it begins with a sad farewell to Airiam's corpse, a kind of funeral service in which they show the traditional Trek manner of disposing of a body by launching it out into space within a torpedo casing, which itself was an updating of the traditional maritime method of disposing of a body by casting it into the sea. The character is eulogised and everyone's very emotional, but it means so little because we had so little to do with her! Tilly says she was her friend, so it's a shame we never (apart from in the previous episode), saw that. We were never allowed to develop a bond with this character, just as we haven't with many of them.
If the episode begins in this way, it also continues the same path. So we have Culber moping around still unable to get a grip on being a different Culber so that he even stops by Admiral Cornwell to get advice as she was once a counsellor or therapist, or whatever. We have Burnham getting so unprofessional that she actually bops Captain Leland on the nose. Twice! We have Discovery trusting Section 31 and working together in their goal of capturing the Red Angel (I wouldn't even have wanted them to know they believed Burnham to be inside). We have Georgiou expressing concern for Burnham when she doesn't really care about anyone but herself. It is, as usual, a big mishmash of mush, the only bright spot being that Ethan Peck's Spock remains Vulcan, reserved and deliberate in his speech. But really, Burnham practically justifies Leland's role even though she's unhappy with his 'intricate moral gymnastics' - she says that is his job, she knows. It's bad enough that everyone in Starfleet seems to know about this organisation that was supposed to have been kept hidden since its inception in the Federation Charter, the best and most fascinating thing about the organisation. They stripped out the good stuff about S31 being an impossibly secret, clandestine part of deep cover Federation intelligence so they can run around in big black ships, cliched up to the max, wearing big black badges so everyone knows their 'authority.' It's so laughable if it weren't a tragic waste of an invention by Trek's best writers. And then we have Saru saying he needs to know Leland can be trusted. He actually says this. To Leland.
Then we learn that, not content with introducing 24th Century technology into the 23rd Century because it's too boring to make stories without it (the writers completely misunderstanding the point of different eras is that very difference, not just in the galactic relations of alien politics, not just in the different approaches Starfleet makes, but in the limitations of their time - creativity needs boundaries to soar, and they completely fail in this regard!), we now have S31 developing a time travel suit, run on 'time crystals' (Project Daedalus). A one-man time travel suit. So it's not from the future, it's from this era! Not only that, it was designed by Burnham's own parents! Not only that, her Mother is still in it! Okay, so that was genuinely interesting, although this series does seem to have a thing about girls and their Mothers (Tilly and hers stands out; Burnham and her adopted Mother, Amanda, too). At least it being Mummy Burnham sets right a few questions I had about Burnham once again being the focal point of all time and space (it sometimes seems!), as if she's the Doctor from 'Dr. Who'! I was wondering why Burnham wouldn't know about attempts to trap her if she was from the future, but it wasn't her, so that's okay. Even Burnham wonders why she wouldn't say anything about an apocalyptic future if she knew about it (to which Spock replies that perhaps she has a penchant for the dramatic - understatement of the week!). But still, a time travel suit, invented in the 23rd Century? I was expecting it to be Burnham in there (I'm glad it wasn't), but I still assumed it would be tech from the future.
Somehow S31 can invent such a device (or Burnham's parents can), that, just like the spore drive, is going to have to be uninvented, otherwise what's to become of all the history past this? I'm hoping at some point they'll just admit this is another universe, not the 'TOS' one, because it simply does not fit. In 'TOS' they could time travel, but only by using the full power of their starship to zip round the sun. In later series' we saw other methods, but none of them were certain or something that anyone could just do, certainly not a one-person operation. Indeed, we've even been told that it isn't until around the 26th Century that time travel began to be used, and then only with great care by Starfleet and other races. If they were tying into the Temporal Cold War, that would have been an ideal avenue to explore, but it's just so continually frustrating that they cast aside the rulebook in order to muck about and do whatever they want. Because they don't have the imagination or the vision to do Trek as it should be done, they want to make a fantasy series using the Trek branding. They should have left well alone and made a whole new space series not constrained by Trek's coherent and consistent world, but then who would care? It really is like some 'Dr. Who'-inspired rubbish, where you can have unexplained fantastical time crystals and nothing has to make sense from week to week, one reason I don't think much of 'Who.' Even in the 24th Century they weren't hopping about on a whim into past or future, they had to engineer a good reason or a specific set of circumstances, but now 31 can just come up with tech.
As usual I can't stand Georgiou, or Tilly, but at least there was one good moment involving both of them: when Tilly's in Engineering (or a Science Lab, I don't know - they still haven't laid out the ship's sense of place very well at all), she burbles and bumbles as she does, until Georgiou tells her to 'stop talking!' There's never a Picard around when you want him: "Shut up, Tilly!" There was one other thing I quite liked in the episode: when Leland is talking about how Burnham's parents were investigating certain leaps in technology and advances in certain cultures weren't 'happenstance' as he puts it, but the result of time travel. I don't know, but this sounded exactly like what happened to our own 20th Century when Henry Starling created the computer boom of the latter half by using tech from a crashed 29th Century ship (as seen in 'Future's End' on 'Voyager'), which was a fun way to explain the rise of computers in our lives. I was really hoping for some reference to Chronowerx or Starling, and maybe we'll get it, but probably not. I also found that the punch bag Burnham got out her stress on, although initially odd to see, made some sense - we'd already seen a gym on the NX-01, and in 'TOS' the Enterprise also had a gym, so perhaps the holograms we've seen on 'DSC' aren't physical entities that can be interacted with as they could be on 'TNG' and beyond? That would ameliorate my problem with them a little, but I'm not sure what the evidence is for them being non-interactive physically, I just can't remember an example on this series.
Despite these few positives I still find the episode to be hard to accept, with Burnham a real disappointment, so far from the upright, good Starfleet officer that she initially seemed. Can you imagine Kira or Dax, or most of the other female characters on other Treks getting all weepy and snivelling about the difficult task they're about to do? But Burnham heads to Tyler's Quarters for some moping. I'm sure it's meant to make her more identifiable and human to audiences, especially female audiences (which this series, more than any other Trek, is very much gunning for, even against male viewership by the choices they make and the style they choose), but she just comes across as pitiful. Yes, it's more realistic that someone would be feeling vulnerable and upset, but she agreed to do this mission where she will 'die,' if only for a short time, in order to lure the Red Angel to save her (since, once again, everything revolves around her which is how they realise they can trap it). Once resolved she should be showing courage, not whimpering and simpering. Maybe I'm too harsh, but yet again it's an example of her lack of Starfleet (let alone Vulcan), strength and polish. It's a big deal for her to risk her life like that, and she is courageous to go through with it, I just can't stand her making the decision and then booing about being scared - it reminds me of that teary Ensign in Red Squad from 'Valiant,' an episode in which the Cadets take over the asylum and run a ship behind Dominion lines.
That and her assault on Leland put her in a very poor light this episode - as much as it's supposed to be something we like to see, Leland's decking means nothing other than lack of self-control and discipline, suggesting it's alright to do such a thing if you have a good enough reason. That's the way of the jungle, yes: you hurt me, so I'm gonna hurt you. But it's not the Starfleet way, and any organisation in which a subordinate struck a superior officer would take it very seriously. Well, we know they do since they came down ridiculously hard on her for 'mutinying' against Georgiou in the first episode, imprisonment for life not fitting with Starfleet any more than ignoring such an infraction does! In this case we can guess that Leland just took it and didn't report the action, but how did Spock know about it? I can't imagine Pike accepting such behaviour, and to me it's just another worrying trend in the series, when discipline and punishment are deemphasised because that's how our society seems to be going (like decriminalising drugs or the TV licence fee - almost as if, well, people are doing this stuff so we may as well stop trying to stop them!). But really, it does look bad for the organisation, even though Leland is scum and probably deserved what he got, that we're supposed to feel cheered by such an action is very uncomfortable and only makes me like Burnham less. Not only does she break down into emotional tempests all the time, she doesn't have control and is fast becoming a repugnant character.
When we finally get to the heroic moment of Burnham going through intense and mortal agony (and it is uncomfortable to watch and to see all the crew watching from their various positions - note Nilsson replacing Airiam at her station, so it's nice that they're not getting rid of the actress even though they chucked her earlier character), and the mysterious Red Angel is captured, yes, it is a good twist that it's her Mum, and a good cliffhanger making you wait to find out what's going on. When I first saw her I thought maybe it was Owosekun, then I thought Georgiou, then maybe a relation of Georgiou and it wasn't until Burnham spoke that I realised it was her Mother (and credit for Spock for having faith to keep the others from stopping the experiment - they all knew the idea was to temporarily kill Burnham, so why get upset about it, especially Georgiou who has seen, and done, far worse things!). One thing I did not get at all was when Leland is stabbed in the eye by his own ship. Huh? Why would you even have a needle in an optical piece of equipment, that was weird, and then that it wasn't explained what he was doing was also weird. It's easy to assume that it was 'Control' and this altered AI has infiltrated the S31 ships so there's more danger there, but why, why and why?
Finally, one little nugget worth mentioning is the series' approach to time travel. So often nowadays we're supposed to accept that time travel supposedly would split you off into an alternate reality, and every journey in time would be to a subtly different alternate, thus dispensing with so many of Trek's great time travel stories, or classic films like 'Back To The Future' - the point has always been that we can restore the past or save the future if we change something or restore it to the 'correct' version. That our time stream matters, rather than just being a permutation of infinite versions, none of which have any claim to being the 'right one.' Again, there are moral implications here, that nothing really matters and every version of everything exists somewhere. All to say that I was glad when Spock mentions the Grandfather paradox of Burnham not existing if she doesn't come back to prevent her death, which sounds to me like they're going with the traditional Trek approach to time travel, that things can be altered and restored, and that our 'reality' is important, so well done there. Of course that's a lot to extrapolate from one comment, but coming from Spock, an authoritative scientific figure (if not yet), it means something (I just wish he'd thrown in a mention of his own people once denying time travel, as a reference to the Vulcans of 'Enterprise'!), even if it turned out the Angel wasn't Burnham after all, thus negating his theory. I do hope they stay with the traditional Trek view, after all it is all fiction and theory, not reality and fact, and it's better to stick to the proven rules of Trek, even though they mostly don't on this series, which is why it suffers.
**
One of Our Planets Is Missing
DVD, Star Trek: The Animated Series (One of Our Planets Is Missing)
There are some things Trek isn't suited to: complete serialisation, short seasons, action films. And animation. We've been getting a lot of what Trek isn't suited to lately, which is one reason I've found it difficult to go back to 'TAS,' the other being a lack of enjoyment. And if you don't really enjoy 'Yesteryear,' the most lauded (perhaps the only one to be so), of this series, then what hope is there for the rest? Still, I'm surprised it had been almost half a year since I last watched one, and it turned out to be a pleasant surprise indeed, the most authentic so far. It's very much like an episode of 'TOS,' only with the addition of the more outlandish three-limbed Lt. Arex sitting next to Sulu, and a visit to a part of the engine room we never saw before. The story concerns a vast cloud, sentient, and consuming planets, and that must be thwarted from doing so to a very inhabited human colony in its path. Very V'Ger of 'The Motion Picture,' and though a couple of episodes of 'TOS' often get the credit for inspiring the debut Trek film, this must also have been heavily in mind.
Spock even mind melds with the being and it is through this ability to communicate that all it made right, an excellent lesson. It's made better by Majel Barrett resuming her usual role as computer voice which the cloud uses to communicate, something extremely Trek-like. The use of science and knowledge, tempered with hard decision-making by Kirk as he takes everything into consideration and is prepared to sacrifice this living creature to save the many colonists is also very accurate to the style, right down to Spock and McCoy providing differing viewpoints for Kirk to weigh up. I suspect if a story like this were made now, and perhaps even in Picard's day on the Enterprise-D, it would be all about the creature, the lives of people, unknowing and without a say, sacrificed for its wellbeing, whereas Kirk is more concerned about the many of his own kind. It's a victory then, whichever viewpoint you subscribe to, that a nonviolent solution is found and all is made well!
James Doohan once again performs admirably in multiple roles: as Scotty, as Arex and as the planet's Governor, Bob Wesley, and each of the characters is part of the adventure from their positions on the Bridge. It all feels very reassuring and comfortable. Maybe watching 'DSC' has helped me appreciate it more, what with its complete opposite: of discomfort and simplistic storytelling. But this cartoon had far more of the Trek spirit in it and it's good to hear those familiar voices again. For me, this is a proper Trek episode, and whether low expectations and exposure to much recent and unreliable Trek made it seem so much better, or whether I'd have come to the same conclusion regardless of what else I'd watched recently, I have to recommend this one, a story with real stakes, hard choices, nothing too wacky, and the right usage of the characters. It makes me want to see more…
***
There are some things Trek isn't suited to: complete serialisation, short seasons, action films. And animation. We've been getting a lot of what Trek isn't suited to lately, which is one reason I've found it difficult to go back to 'TAS,' the other being a lack of enjoyment. And if you don't really enjoy 'Yesteryear,' the most lauded (perhaps the only one to be so), of this series, then what hope is there for the rest? Still, I'm surprised it had been almost half a year since I last watched one, and it turned out to be a pleasant surprise indeed, the most authentic so far. It's very much like an episode of 'TOS,' only with the addition of the more outlandish three-limbed Lt. Arex sitting next to Sulu, and a visit to a part of the engine room we never saw before. The story concerns a vast cloud, sentient, and consuming planets, and that must be thwarted from doing so to a very inhabited human colony in its path. Very V'Ger of 'The Motion Picture,' and though a couple of episodes of 'TOS' often get the credit for inspiring the debut Trek film, this must also have been heavily in mind.
Spock even mind melds with the being and it is through this ability to communicate that all it made right, an excellent lesson. It's made better by Majel Barrett resuming her usual role as computer voice which the cloud uses to communicate, something extremely Trek-like. The use of science and knowledge, tempered with hard decision-making by Kirk as he takes everything into consideration and is prepared to sacrifice this living creature to save the many colonists is also very accurate to the style, right down to Spock and McCoy providing differing viewpoints for Kirk to weigh up. I suspect if a story like this were made now, and perhaps even in Picard's day on the Enterprise-D, it would be all about the creature, the lives of people, unknowing and without a say, sacrificed for its wellbeing, whereas Kirk is more concerned about the many of his own kind. It's a victory then, whichever viewpoint you subscribe to, that a nonviolent solution is found and all is made well!
James Doohan once again performs admirably in multiple roles: as Scotty, as Arex and as the planet's Governor, Bob Wesley, and each of the characters is part of the adventure from their positions on the Bridge. It all feels very reassuring and comfortable. Maybe watching 'DSC' has helped me appreciate it more, what with its complete opposite: of discomfort and simplistic storytelling. But this cartoon had far more of the Trek spirit in it and it's good to hear those familiar voices again. For me, this is a proper Trek episode, and whether low expectations and exposure to much recent and unreliable Trek made it seem so much better, or whether I'd have come to the same conclusion regardless of what else I'd watched recently, I have to recommend this one, a story with real stakes, hard choices, nothing too wacky, and the right usage of the characters. It makes me want to see more…
***
Tuesday, 28 January 2020
Zero
DVD, Smallville S1 (Zero)
One of the best episodes of the season, for sure, and a personal favourite for its excellent melding of Lex' Metropolis past, his current life in Smallville, and mixing in the characters well. The two main story-lines mesh superbly, and that's important in making an episode that links thematically to create a more satisfying watch than a simple mystery-of-the-week. While Clark is warned off Lex' own past, he is at the same time trying to keep Chloe from delving too deeply into his own for a school project. It makes for great tension, mixed with comedy as Clark and his parents deal with Chloe's bulldog tenacity for finding out secrets. But it ends on a somewhat sinister note with a device that would be used a number of times on the series: the arrow cursor of a mouse travels back and forth between Delete and Save, the document being information on Clark's adoption. It's ripe for continuation without being a specific cliffhanger, it's not flashy or melodramatic, but simple and contained, and no less powerful for it because we know Chloe's devoted to him, but why does she choose to keep this compromising document? Elsewhere, we see Lex in all his manipulative glory, be manipulated, and although I'd seen the episode a number of times I'd completely forgotten the twist at the end! Although such devices as the mouse cursor or the 'Three Years Earlier' flashing back may seem a little outdated and overdone nowadays, they were certainly fresh and exciting back then, and the style of the episode was terrific, producing a strong visual flavour to the Club Zero scenes.
The mystery is in who shot Amanda's fiance just before their wedding, and with Corin Nemec at full creep mode (before he joined the 'Stargate SG-1' team for a season as fine, upstanding Jonas Quinn!), it really is a question of how he can still be alive. Uniquely, it's a story that doesn't have anything to do with meteor freaks and shows once again how well they could pull off the world they'd created, and how inventive the series could be when it chose to play outside of the established formula. We'd seen it once or twice already, but this is the most fully formed. As well as having a good actor for Jude Royce, it ingeniously features the dead Phalen, a thorn in Clark's side in 'Rogue' earlier in the season, back when he had more hair and seen playing the role of Lex' protector against the law thanks to Daddy Lionel's money. It's truly fascinating to see a little of the kind of life we've heard rumours of Lex living before he came to Smallville - he was just the same then, with an almost fanatical devotion to his friends. You can tell he set up the evening so Amanda would find Jude at Club Zero cavorting with women, so that she knew just whom she was about to marry. It shows both his good and bad sides of personality, in that he will go to extremes to prove a point and is ruthless in following it through, even though it can often be for good reasons. That's why this version of Lex is such a strong one - we believe he believes he's right, and we see the direction this character flaw can eventually take him, even if his more naive young friends don't necessarily understand it and are more willing to judge only on what they see.
'Jude' warns Lana to stay away from Lex (not the best way to get a job: warn your potential boss about her boss, but then the application was just an excuse to spread discord in Lex' world), not the first or last to unleash negative innuendoes on him and his character. There are some inconsistencies or flaws in the writing that come through, despite it being a great story: the fact that Chloe somehow took a huge mugshot of 'Jude' when he was in disguise as the CEP man that kidnaps Lex - unless that was an amazingly good blowup of another photo, but I didn't get that impression. So Chloe was able to take a photo without him noticing, but nobody ever saw Lex being zapped into the van? And there are occasions where characters go somewhere just to say something and never fulfil a good reason for being there, or leaving without good reason. For example, Lex goes to meet the contractor at the Talon as it prepares for its big opening, but he meets his old acquaintance from Club Zero outside. After entering he rushes out to try and find Jude who had just been there and never goes back in for the important meeting, dashing off in his car. I can understand him being shaken, but Lex is usually better than that! And Clark makes a 'pitstop' at his house to find his parents being interviewed by Chloe - he makes his excuses and goes, but why go there in the first place, just to say hello? (Thanks, 'Always Hold Onto Smallville' podcast - I've begun to notice more details like that because of you!).
I like the structure of the story where we go three years before to see one view of what happened in the club, then back to current events where Lex is hanging suspended, shot by 'Jude,' apparently. It's a super opening and you wonder how they're going to get out of it, but after the opening credits we then travel back a week before to see how he got to that point, so it's really quite clever in that way. I also really like the three different perspectives through the episode on who actually did the shooting. Like Garak on 'DS9' we're never entirely sure of the truth - was Lex trying to put Amanda's brother off by making out he was only trying to save her, or was that the true playback of events? I'm more sympathetic towards that view than the others simply because Lex' whole purpose for being there appeared to be for Amanda's interests (though we don't know if he and Jude had enmity or a score to settle for other reasons), and it is the kind of thing he would do, according to what we've seen of his character. It isn't an act when he shows willingness to go far for a friend, but on the counter side it also shows how far he can go against an enemy. Clark isn't a big part of the story, but he does get to save Lex in the most fabulous use of powers and special effects: Lex is shot through a fish tank and over a railing to fall to his doom, but Clark super-speeds in, pushes a settee perfectly under the falling Lex, dashes upstairs to fling the bad guy unconscious against a wall, then speeds back to the doorway as if he'd just run in. It's brilliant, and perhaps the best use of powers on the series, ever!
The third story interwoven with the two main ones (unless you count the shocking loss of the Kents' entire field of cows to a LuthorCorp 'environmental disaster'), is Lana's plans to open the Talon which are moving ahead. Despite the hand of Lex' former Club Zero owner turning up as a grisly warning (why didn't Clark use his x-ray vision to look inside the box? Obviously because they wanted to preserve the shock for the audience on Lex opening it, but it could have been a bomb!), Lana successfully holds the grand opening and even Whitney gets a haircut for the occasion. He must be keeping a low profile after the events of 'Kinetic' and doesn't even show a shred of jealousy over Clark giving her a charming old photo of the Talon back in its black and white days, nor about Clark doing a school project on her! Maybe we just never saw those conversations? When Chloe and Pete are suspecting it was rigged you have to wonder if it really was for Clark to get Lana as his subject! Maybe he used x-ray vision when picking out his piece of paper, assuming that's how they were assigned? Chloe's dismay at so offending Clark is really sad, but it also opens up serious questions for him, since he hasn't really thought too much about the adoption. He knows about the spacecraft in the storm cellar, and he wonders about his birth parents all the time, but he's had a happy childhood so it makes sense that he wouldn't have done any digging as Chloe does. Of course we later learn Lionel Luthor had everything to do with the adoption, and even more bizarrely that he even knew Clark was coming to Earth (which was all a bit stupid, so let's forget about that!).
At this stage of the series we're seeing a real confidence in what they could do with the format so that you believe it could become almost anything. So it's a sad thing to realise things were never going to be as good as this again for much longer. They were still casting well (the contractor was also played by an actor who had a recurring role on 'SG-1,' and Mitchell Kosterman's Sheriff Ethan gets the odd line here), and while Pete and Whitney still draw the short straw most of the time, the way Clark's parents are integrated into the ongoing saga of his growing friendships with Lana and Lex is a delight to behold. It's not all about special effects, they use them sparingly and to… good effect! The nature of Lex is explored well and it's just a rollicking good story with plenty of strong character moments. Zero consequences couldn't be further from the truth, and the title is almost irony itself - I'd give it a much higher rating than zero!
****
One of the best episodes of the season, for sure, and a personal favourite for its excellent melding of Lex' Metropolis past, his current life in Smallville, and mixing in the characters well. The two main story-lines mesh superbly, and that's important in making an episode that links thematically to create a more satisfying watch than a simple mystery-of-the-week. While Clark is warned off Lex' own past, he is at the same time trying to keep Chloe from delving too deeply into his own for a school project. It makes for great tension, mixed with comedy as Clark and his parents deal with Chloe's bulldog tenacity for finding out secrets. But it ends on a somewhat sinister note with a device that would be used a number of times on the series: the arrow cursor of a mouse travels back and forth between Delete and Save, the document being information on Clark's adoption. It's ripe for continuation without being a specific cliffhanger, it's not flashy or melodramatic, but simple and contained, and no less powerful for it because we know Chloe's devoted to him, but why does she choose to keep this compromising document? Elsewhere, we see Lex in all his manipulative glory, be manipulated, and although I'd seen the episode a number of times I'd completely forgotten the twist at the end! Although such devices as the mouse cursor or the 'Three Years Earlier' flashing back may seem a little outdated and overdone nowadays, they were certainly fresh and exciting back then, and the style of the episode was terrific, producing a strong visual flavour to the Club Zero scenes.
The mystery is in who shot Amanda's fiance just before their wedding, and with Corin Nemec at full creep mode (before he joined the 'Stargate SG-1' team for a season as fine, upstanding Jonas Quinn!), it really is a question of how he can still be alive. Uniquely, it's a story that doesn't have anything to do with meteor freaks and shows once again how well they could pull off the world they'd created, and how inventive the series could be when it chose to play outside of the established formula. We'd seen it once or twice already, but this is the most fully formed. As well as having a good actor for Jude Royce, it ingeniously features the dead Phalen, a thorn in Clark's side in 'Rogue' earlier in the season, back when he had more hair and seen playing the role of Lex' protector against the law thanks to Daddy Lionel's money. It's truly fascinating to see a little of the kind of life we've heard rumours of Lex living before he came to Smallville - he was just the same then, with an almost fanatical devotion to his friends. You can tell he set up the evening so Amanda would find Jude at Club Zero cavorting with women, so that she knew just whom she was about to marry. It shows both his good and bad sides of personality, in that he will go to extremes to prove a point and is ruthless in following it through, even though it can often be for good reasons. That's why this version of Lex is such a strong one - we believe he believes he's right, and we see the direction this character flaw can eventually take him, even if his more naive young friends don't necessarily understand it and are more willing to judge only on what they see.
'Jude' warns Lana to stay away from Lex (not the best way to get a job: warn your potential boss about her boss, but then the application was just an excuse to spread discord in Lex' world), not the first or last to unleash negative innuendoes on him and his character. There are some inconsistencies or flaws in the writing that come through, despite it being a great story: the fact that Chloe somehow took a huge mugshot of 'Jude' when he was in disguise as the CEP man that kidnaps Lex - unless that was an amazingly good blowup of another photo, but I didn't get that impression. So Chloe was able to take a photo without him noticing, but nobody ever saw Lex being zapped into the van? And there are occasions where characters go somewhere just to say something and never fulfil a good reason for being there, or leaving without good reason. For example, Lex goes to meet the contractor at the Talon as it prepares for its big opening, but he meets his old acquaintance from Club Zero outside. After entering he rushes out to try and find Jude who had just been there and never goes back in for the important meeting, dashing off in his car. I can understand him being shaken, but Lex is usually better than that! And Clark makes a 'pitstop' at his house to find his parents being interviewed by Chloe - he makes his excuses and goes, but why go there in the first place, just to say hello? (Thanks, 'Always Hold Onto Smallville' podcast - I've begun to notice more details like that because of you!).
I like the structure of the story where we go three years before to see one view of what happened in the club, then back to current events where Lex is hanging suspended, shot by 'Jude,' apparently. It's a super opening and you wonder how they're going to get out of it, but after the opening credits we then travel back a week before to see how he got to that point, so it's really quite clever in that way. I also really like the three different perspectives through the episode on who actually did the shooting. Like Garak on 'DS9' we're never entirely sure of the truth - was Lex trying to put Amanda's brother off by making out he was only trying to save her, or was that the true playback of events? I'm more sympathetic towards that view than the others simply because Lex' whole purpose for being there appeared to be for Amanda's interests (though we don't know if he and Jude had enmity or a score to settle for other reasons), and it is the kind of thing he would do, according to what we've seen of his character. It isn't an act when he shows willingness to go far for a friend, but on the counter side it also shows how far he can go against an enemy. Clark isn't a big part of the story, but he does get to save Lex in the most fabulous use of powers and special effects: Lex is shot through a fish tank and over a railing to fall to his doom, but Clark super-speeds in, pushes a settee perfectly under the falling Lex, dashes upstairs to fling the bad guy unconscious against a wall, then speeds back to the doorway as if he'd just run in. It's brilliant, and perhaps the best use of powers on the series, ever!
The third story interwoven with the two main ones (unless you count the shocking loss of the Kents' entire field of cows to a LuthorCorp 'environmental disaster'), is Lana's plans to open the Talon which are moving ahead. Despite the hand of Lex' former Club Zero owner turning up as a grisly warning (why didn't Clark use his x-ray vision to look inside the box? Obviously because they wanted to preserve the shock for the audience on Lex opening it, but it could have been a bomb!), Lana successfully holds the grand opening and even Whitney gets a haircut for the occasion. He must be keeping a low profile after the events of 'Kinetic' and doesn't even show a shred of jealousy over Clark giving her a charming old photo of the Talon back in its black and white days, nor about Clark doing a school project on her! Maybe we just never saw those conversations? When Chloe and Pete are suspecting it was rigged you have to wonder if it really was for Clark to get Lana as his subject! Maybe he used x-ray vision when picking out his piece of paper, assuming that's how they were assigned? Chloe's dismay at so offending Clark is really sad, but it also opens up serious questions for him, since he hasn't really thought too much about the adoption. He knows about the spacecraft in the storm cellar, and he wonders about his birth parents all the time, but he's had a happy childhood so it makes sense that he wouldn't have done any digging as Chloe does. Of course we later learn Lionel Luthor had everything to do with the adoption, and even more bizarrely that he even knew Clark was coming to Earth (which was all a bit stupid, so let's forget about that!).
At this stage of the series we're seeing a real confidence in what they could do with the format so that you believe it could become almost anything. So it's a sad thing to realise things were never going to be as good as this again for much longer. They were still casting well (the contractor was also played by an actor who had a recurring role on 'SG-1,' and Mitchell Kosterman's Sheriff Ethan gets the odd line here), and while Pete and Whitney still draw the short straw most of the time, the way Clark's parents are integrated into the ongoing saga of his growing friendships with Lana and Lex is a delight to behold. It's not all about special effects, they use them sparingly and to… good effect! The nature of Lex is explored well and it's just a rollicking good story with plenty of strong character moments. Zero consequences couldn't be further from the truth, and the title is almost irony itself - I'd give it a much higher rating than zero!
****
Project Daedalus
DVD, Discovery S2 (Project Daedalus)
Right, so this is almost an Airiam episode. Possibly, in the context of this series which doesn't really do character episodes as such, this is an Airiam episode. In that regard it is the first and the last Airiam episode, and therein lies a problem. Judging by the highly emotional ending where she must be jettisoned into space in order to prevent her killing Burnham and taking control of the weapons on the ex-penal station to destroy Discovery, we're supposed to care deeply about her fate. But she isn't really a character at all, she's little more than background support due to the style this series has chosen - just like most of the Bridge crew, she's a face and a name and we know almost nothing about her, let alone had a chance to get to know her as a person. There's a belated attempt to try and create a bond with the audience by showing a few selected memories of her time with shipboard personnel or her walk on a beach with her new husband, but that's all! As with everything on the series it's yet another sped-up element of what Trek once was: rather than injecting little morsels of character interaction across the first season and a half in which we 'knew' her, it's all crammed into this one episode. Maybe for people with tiny attention spans and constant need for stimulation this is what passes for development, but it's nowhere near enough to make me care a jot about her emergency death and it suggests to me that maybe there was more going on with this story idea.
It begins with Airiam being played by another actress from the start of this season, for what reason I still don't rightly know, but perhaps they felt they couldn't keep the character going because of that and so came up with a plan to use her before killing her off. Maybe it was simplification, I'm not sure, as she was fine as she was, maybe they saw it as an opportunity to do something with her instead of just having this unexplained person there for viewers to wonder about and add to the background exotica of showing weird aliens a lot which the series believes is enough to sustain interest without ever getting to know them. There's no time to get to know anyone much and there are recurring characters on previous Treks that have had more development than some of the main cast on this series, so it's no surprise that Airiam was just another casualty of this wrongheaded approach to Trek as mere action drama rather than the richness we used to see. Turns out shorter seasons don't work in Trek's best interests. It actually was of interest to learn her past, that she's half human, half cybernetic and was injured in a shuttle crash, and see her idiosyncrasies: how she spends her time, what her Quarters look like, but it was too little, far too late, and it's distressing to see yet another aspect of the series fail because of the format and approach.
She could have been a fascinating character, albeit one that is a little problematic in some ways because Data was supposed to be such an advancement, and he lived a century later. At the same time we saw many superficially flawless androids and suchlike on 'TOS,' so it makes sense to address artificial life in some way, but they did neither (though touching on it with this 'Control' that is the Starfleet main computer, or something they input data into and gives them strategies, and now wants independence). They don't have room for philosophical discussion on the issues of artificial intelligence or exploring ideas because they're not tapping into that form of storytelling, preferring to concentrate on visual effects and galaxy-spanning dangers, forgetting that the personal is far more relatable. On the whole I would say this season has been far more 'Trekkish' than Season 1, and yet it still doesn't sit right and whatever they do doesn't seem to fit with the vast majority of Trek. It's such a strange sensation to be watching something that plays it as being part of that universe, yet clearly so doesn't wish to be, and it jars. I did like the shot of Airiam in space with her last memory playing across her eye before everything shuts down and so does the episode, but even the fact there was a notable lack of end music, replaced by lapping waves and wind, suggested this was a big, significant moment, yet it wasn't. If Airiam was misused, or more precisely, not built up to a point where she was someone whose loss was meaningful, Spock was also lessened in importance.
He admits himself that he is unusual, but that there are others like him, and in the context of the conversation they were talking about his half-humanness, so they've managed to make him a lesser character. I don't believe it was ever stated anywhere in canon that Spock was the first human-Vulcan hybrid, or that he was the only one, but that's the impression we've always had and one of the reasons why he's so special. It may seem logical that other Vulcans and humans would have mated and borne 'half-caste' children, but this in turn lessens the impact of Sarek and Amanda's union. In 'Enterprise' there was a big deal about the DNA of human Trip and Vulcan T'Pol being combined to create an infant, but that's the only other connection we've seen prior to Spock and it's hard to imagine, given the Vulcans we've seen in both 'Enterprise' and 'DSC' that they would consent to fraternise with humans voluntarily, Sarek being a special case because of his Ambassadorship to Earth. But when even the naming conventions are forgotten (I assumed Admiral Patar was P'Tar until I saw the end credits - typical that this character, who was actually the most true Vulcan portrayal on the series so far, is killed off), they seem oblivious to the damage they're doing to the former consistency and efficacy of Trek, and it is consistent only in disappointing those that care about such things as I do.
They chuck in references to kadis-kot, the game favoured by Seven of Nine and Naomi Wildman on 'Voyager,' and tri-dimensional chess, which we see Spock and Burnham play until their civility falls apart and they bicker like the two non-Vulcans they are on this series, culminating with Spock admitting that for the first time in his life he enjoys expressing emotion (didn't he do just that in 'The Cage' a few years earlier), and smashing the chess set to the floor. I remain generally appreciative that they found someone who could do a good approximation of the voice, and he does maintain a Spockishness in his speech that is admirable, but I really don't know what they're doing with the character other than using him to drum up interest in the series. And I do wish he'd tidy himself up with a shave and a comb, though how he looks is the least of my problems with the series. Each episode is somewhat of a chore to take onboard and I don't look forward to seeing the next part in an ever-advancing plot that still feels like it's treading water. Perhaps that's why they threw in the Mirror Universe jaunt in the second half of Season 1, because they realised they couldn't sustain such slight storytelling across 'so many' episodes. This season hasn't had that advantage of being able to turn on its head, relying instead on our desire to see how they were going to achieve a young Spock, and now, I suppose, how accurately they're going to achieve the USS Enterprise. Obviously we're not expecting the galaxy to end, but they're not even postulating that, really, it's more that events at this time can affect the outcome of the future, an intriguing idea that has barely been touched.
I keep coming back to the reality that had Airiam have been given even a little characterisation every other episode, she'd have become someone whose loss would have meant something, but she wasn't given that dignity. But then I'm not even sure someone familiar, like Admiral Cornwell, has enough of my respect that I'd care about her demise. Here, she's back as an ally of the renegades, as usual doing her own thing regardless of Starfleet, even if she is right in this case. I really get… I was going to say annoyed, but I can't even get that stirred up any more about anything that happens on this series because it's so distant from the precepts and principles of Trek that it's easier to spot things they do right. But about the shuttlecraft she arrives in, all beat up, worn and grimy… That's the 'Star Wars' aesthetic and doesn't fit in Trek. Things are supposed to be clean and smooth, not battered and falling apart. I'm not sure I've ever really liked the Admiral anyway, but she's a difficult person to pin down. She answers Pike's concerns with frank flattery about why he was ordered to sit out the war: Starfleet wanted to protect the 'best' parts of itself by sending the Enterprise (and presumably the other Constitution vessels), out away from the conflict so that if they were defeated what would be left was worth saving. It's all rather false to me, because it's silly to think Starfleet wouldn't be using its best ships in the fight and seems rather designed as an explanation to quiet Pike's moral qualms. That's the reason I see they divided their forces like that: so the less principled, hard-edged officers like Cornwell, could do whatever they wanted in compromising Starfleet principles and shut up people like Pike. It sounds very pat and handy, but it would have made a lot more sense to say he was off on a distant exploratory mission and simply couldn't be reached easily. Instead, he looks like an easily placated guy, not shrewd, just pacified with a compliment, typical of the non-utopian worldview this series chooses to embrace, it seems.
Cornwell is the poster-girl for such views, the ends justifying the means and all that, and she should really have been stripped of her rank when the truth came out about the attempted genocide of the Klingons once Burnham was able to singlehandedly prevent it. Once again we're reminded of Burnham as being this super-important, destiny child which everything hinges on as Airiam says before she gets sucked out that it's all about her. It's all rather tiresome and far from the simple values and qualities of Starfleet previously, and doesn't aid in my appreciation of the series. As always there are many questions thrown up by events in the episode, such as if Admiral Patar is a known logic extremist then why is she allowed to be in Starfleet? Or are there legitimate nonviolent examples of the creed? If so, we haven't seen them, nor have we seen any positives in the position which appears to be all about getting rid of non-Vulcans from their planet, far from the inclusiveness of Starfleet. I may have missed something in dialogue then, but it's hard to believe yet another Admiral is compromised. Then again, Admirals have a bad reputation on Trek and it's always been implied that the Captain, on the front line of decision-making, is the true hero of the organisation, having to deal with the superiors and subordinates to get to the right course of action, which is what is supposed to make the role compelling.
Any concepts and ideas that come up from thinking about the episode are paled by the many choices made, whether that be battered shuttles, more two-handed Phaser grasping (don't they realise how much cooler it looks when they just hold one arm out - see 'Enterprise' especially, for details), not to mention the weedy little poops instead of the screeching beam, or the heavily fantastical approach to Starfleet design that has things like EVA suits whose helmets fold away, click-click-click, rather than simply being removed normally. It's so silly! And what about Burnham failing to minister to the downed Naarn whose breathing apparatus is damaged by Airiam and who could be dying! Instead, she prefers to run around like a headless chicken, emoting like crazy. So much for the Vulcan training, then, and indeed, we've barely seen this aspect of her that was so intriguing, since the first two episodes. Maybe Vulcan behaviour is deemed too boring for modern audiences so she needs to be highly volatile, panicky and superhero-like in her fighting choreography and glamour, a real 'fight first, think later' type, and a real disappointment. If this is the secret base of Section 31, wouldn't there be someone there who would know Discovery was approaching and activate weapons rather than these illegal automated mines (the Federation doesn't permit them at this time, apparently, though this would change a century later when they needed to mine the Wormhole to stop the Dominion bringing in more enemy forces to the Alpha Quadrant).
And Burnham lecturing Spock on the purpose of logic?! And what about Airiam's weekly memory sorting - does she really go through every memory for the week and decide what to keep or junk - we see it in realtime, but if that were the case she'd spend another week going through the process! Maybe she only works every other week? And Cornwell says they're blackout mines that interfere with navigation when Detmer says sensors tell them they're flying upside down, but on this series there's never been a right way up in space, as they've loved to show ships approaching at different orientation, so is this in relation to the station, or what? At least it's more obvious when the shields are being hit, although, rather than the bubble we used to get they appear to be form-fitted to the hull, but then they really love to be as different as possible, distance themselves from those boring old Treks that nobody really liked - who needs Phaser beams, stars travelling in a straight line when seen in a warp field, or shield bubbles? I will say that it was good to see a tiny flashback to when Burnham's parents were being murdered by Klingons, as we've seen flashbacks to the aftermath of the Vulcan bombing in her past, but never to this other integral event of her life. And it's stated on screen about Naarn being Barzan and what that means, even if it is merely to set her up to be damaged later. Because, don't forget, the audience is stupid and needs a lot of help. They can't afford to be 'fanatical' about how much knowledge they take in these days because there's so many other things vying for their attention, so we need to not put them off with anything too complex. I was hoping the Daedalus of the title was connecting to the episode of the same name on 'Enterprise,' and it still could, but I doubt it.
At least there was no Georgiou to stain the halls of Starfleet vessels this time, though it didn't prevent from the usual lack of tension due to chop-socky laughable martial arts combat being the end point of any creeping around. I always like a good creep around in the dark, but, and I'm surprised to say this, considering this was another Jonathan Frakes-directed episode, there really was no build-up of tension. And I really did snort in derision as Burnham tries to fight a cybernetically augmented assailant rather than using her brains. Sure, she eventually traps Airiam in the airlock, but they really did slow-motion kicks across the room, with Airiam leaping through the air like Trinity, and it's just totally off-the-wall ridiculous. All sense of reality is lost in this series. And I love 'The Matrix,' and I always loved a good fight in Trek, but it's just so boring now, all about the flashiness and the glory rather than the functional, graceful simplicity of old. I don't see why she didn't simply Phaser Airiam in the first place as soon as Naarn was overpowered, instead of hesitating. Well, I do know - it's because, like the modern films, they think this is the only way people will be interested in watching. I can't imagine this series ever conceiving of doing a 'Shuttlepod One,' 'The Inner Light' or any contemplative approach that Trek formerly excelled at. Perhaps once their current strategy eventually comes to fruition, and there's a multiplicity of Trek series', each with their own approach and audience in mind, we'll see true diversity that is now missing, and that was so great about Trek: that each week it could be something different. Until that time, 'DSC' is all I have to go on and it doesn't do the job, not by a long way!
**
Right, so this is almost an Airiam episode. Possibly, in the context of this series which doesn't really do character episodes as such, this is an Airiam episode. In that regard it is the first and the last Airiam episode, and therein lies a problem. Judging by the highly emotional ending where she must be jettisoned into space in order to prevent her killing Burnham and taking control of the weapons on the ex-penal station to destroy Discovery, we're supposed to care deeply about her fate. But she isn't really a character at all, she's little more than background support due to the style this series has chosen - just like most of the Bridge crew, she's a face and a name and we know almost nothing about her, let alone had a chance to get to know her as a person. There's a belated attempt to try and create a bond with the audience by showing a few selected memories of her time with shipboard personnel or her walk on a beach with her new husband, but that's all! As with everything on the series it's yet another sped-up element of what Trek once was: rather than injecting little morsels of character interaction across the first season and a half in which we 'knew' her, it's all crammed into this one episode. Maybe for people with tiny attention spans and constant need for stimulation this is what passes for development, but it's nowhere near enough to make me care a jot about her emergency death and it suggests to me that maybe there was more going on with this story idea.
It begins with Airiam being played by another actress from the start of this season, for what reason I still don't rightly know, but perhaps they felt they couldn't keep the character going because of that and so came up with a plan to use her before killing her off. Maybe it was simplification, I'm not sure, as she was fine as she was, maybe they saw it as an opportunity to do something with her instead of just having this unexplained person there for viewers to wonder about and add to the background exotica of showing weird aliens a lot which the series believes is enough to sustain interest without ever getting to know them. There's no time to get to know anyone much and there are recurring characters on previous Treks that have had more development than some of the main cast on this series, so it's no surprise that Airiam was just another casualty of this wrongheaded approach to Trek as mere action drama rather than the richness we used to see. Turns out shorter seasons don't work in Trek's best interests. It actually was of interest to learn her past, that she's half human, half cybernetic and was injured in a shuttle crash, and see her idiosyncrasies: how she spends her time, what her Quarters look like, but it was too little, far too late, and it's distressing to see yet another aspect of the series fail because of the format and approach.
She could have been a fascinating character, albeit one that is a little problematic in some ways because Data was supposed to be such an advancement, and he lived a century later. At the same time we saw many superficially flawless androids and suchlike on 'TOS,' so it makes sense to address artificial life in some way, but they did neither (though touching on it with this 'Control' that is the Starfleet main computer, or something they input data into and gives them strategies, and now wants independence). They don't have room for philosophical discussion on the issues of artificial intelligence or exploring ideas because they're not tapping into that form of storytelling, preferring to concentrate on visual effects and galaxy-spanning dangers, forgetting that the personal is far more relatable. On the whole I would say this season has been far more 'Trekkish' than Season 1, and yet it still doesn't sit right and whatever they do doesn't seem to fit with the vast majority of Trek. It's such a strange sensation to be watching something that plays it as being part of that universe, yet clearly so doesn't wish to be, and it jars. I did like the shot of Airiam in space with her last memory playing across her eye before everything shuts down and so does the episode, but even the fact there was a notable lack of end music, replaced by lapping waves and wind, suggested this was a big, significant moment, yet it wasn't. If Airiam was misused, or more precisely, not built up to a point where she was someone whose loss was meaningful, Spock was also lessened in importance.
He admits himself that he is unusual, but that there are others like him, and in the context of the conversation they were talking about his half-humanness, so they've managed to make him a lesser character. I don't believe it was ever stated anywhere in canon that Spock was the first human-Vulcan hybrid, or that he was the only one, but that's the impression we've always had and one of the reasons why he's so special. It may seem logical that other Vulcans and humans would have mated and borne 'half-caste' children, but this in turn lessens the impact of Sarek and Amanda's union. In 'Enterprise' there was a big deal about the DNA of human Trip and Vulcan T'Pol being combined to create an infant, but that's the only other connection we've seen prior to Spock and it's hard to imagine, given the Vulcans we've seen in both 'Enterprise' and 'DSC' that they would consent to fraternise with humans voluntarily, Sarek being a special case because of his Ambassadorship to Earth. But when even the naming conventions are forgotten (I assumed Admiral Patar was P'Tar until I saw the end credits - typical that this character, who was actually the most true Vulcan portrayal on the series so far, is killed off), they seem oblivious to the damage they're doing to the former consistency and efficacy of Trek, and it is consistent only in disappointing those that care about such things as I do.
They chuck in references to kadis-kot, the game favoured by Seven of Nine and Naomi Wildman on 'Voyager,' and tri-dimensional chess, which we see Spock and Burnham play until their civility falls apart and they bicker like the two non-Vulcans they are on this series, culminating with Spock admitting that for the first time in his life he enjoys expressing emotion (didn't he do just that in 'The Cage' a few years earlier), and smashing the chess set to the floor. I remain generally appreciative that they found someone who could do a good approximation of the voice, and he does maintain a Spockishness in his speech that is admirable, but I really don't know what they're doing with the character other than using him to drum up interest in the series. And I do wish he'd tidy himself up with a shave and a comb, though how he looks is the least of my problems with the series. Each episode is somewhat of a chore to take onboard and I don't look forward to seeing the next part in an ever-advancing plot that still feels like it's treading water. Perhaps that's why they threw in the Mirror Universe jaunt in the second half of Season 1, because they realised they couldn't sustain such slight storytelling across 'so many' episodes. This season hasn't had that advantage of being able to turn on its head, relying instead on our desire to see how they were going to achieve a young Spock, and now, I suppose, how accurately they're going to achieve the USS Enterprise. Obviously we're not expecting the galaxy to end, but they're not even postulating that, really, it's more that events at this time can affect the outcome of the future, an intriguing idea that has barely been touched.
I keep coming back to the reality that had Airiam have been given even a little characterisation every other episode, she'd have become someone whose loss would have meant something, but she wasn't given that dignity. But then I'm not even sure someone familiar, like Admiral Cornwell, has enough of my respect that I'd care about her demise. Here, she's back as an ally of the renegades, as usual doing her own thing regardless of Starfleet, even if she is right in this case. I really get… I was going to say annoyed, but I can't even get that stirred up any more about anything that happens on this series because it's so distant from the precepts and principles of Trek that it's easier to spot things they do right. But about the shuttlecraft she arrives in, all beat up, worn and grimy… That's the 'Star Wars' aesthetic and doesn't fit in Trek. Things are supposed to be clean and smooth, not battered and falling apart. I'm not sure I've ever really liked the Admiral anyway, but she's a difficult person to pin down. She answers Pike's concerns with frank flattery about why he was ordered to sit out the war: Starfleet wanted to protect the 'best' parts of itself by sending the Enterprise (and presumably the other Constitution vessels), out away from the conflict so that if they were defeated what would be left was worth saving. It's all rather false to me, because it's silly to think Starfleet wouldn't be using its best ships in the fight and seems rather designed as an explanation to quiet Pike's moral qualms. That's the reason I see they divided their forces like that: so the less principled, hard-edged officers like Cornwell, could do whatever they wanted in compromising Starfleet principles and shut up people like Pike. It sounds very pat and handy, but it would have made a lot more sense to say he was off on a distant exploratory mission and simply couldn't be reached easily. Instead, he looks like an easily placated guy, not shrewd, just pacified with a compliment, typical of the non-utopian worldview this series chooses to embrace, it seems.
Cornwell is the poster-girl for such views, the ends justifying the means and all that, and she should really have been stripped of her rank when the truth came out about the attempted genocide of the Klingons once Burnham was able to singlehandedly prevent it. Once again we're reminded of Burnham as being this super-important, destiny child which everything hinges on as Airiam says before she gets sucked out that it's all about her. It's all rather tiresome and far from the simple values and qualities of Starfleet previously, and doesn't aid in my appreciation of the series. As always there are many questions thrown up by events in the episode, such as if Admiral Patar is a known logic extremist then why is she allowed to be in Starfleet? Or are there legitimate nonviolent examples of the creed? If so, we haven't seen them, nor have we seen any positives in the position which appears to be all about getting rid of non-Vulcans from their planet, far from the inclusiveness of Starfleet. I may have missed something in dialogue then, but it's hard to believe yet another Admiral is compromised. Then again, Admirals have a bad reputation on Trek and it's always been implied that the Captain, on the front line of decision-making, is the true hero of the organisation, having to deal with the superiors and subordinates to get to the right course of action, which is what is supposed to make the role compelling.
Any concepts and ideas that come up from thinking about the episode are paled by the many choices made, whether that be battered shuttles, more two-handed Phaser grasping (don't they realise how much cooler it looks when they just hold one arm out - see 'Enterprise' especially, for details), not to mention the weedy little poops instead of the screeching beam, or the heavily fantastical approach to Starfleet design that has things like EVA suits whose helmets fold away, click-click-click, rather than simply being removed normally. It's so silly! And what about Burnham failing to minister to the downed Naarn whose breathing apparatus is damaged by Airiam and who could be dying! Instead, she prefers to run around like a headless chicken, emoting like crazy. So much for the Vulcan training, then, and indeed, we've barely seen this aspect of her that was so intriguing, since the first two episodes. Maybe Vulcan behaviour is deemed too boring for modern audiences so she needs to be highly volatile, panicky and superhero-like in her fighting choreography and glamour, a real 'fight first, think later' type, and a real disappointment. If this is the secret base of Section 31, wouldn't there be someone there who would know Discovery was approaching and activate weapons rather than these illegal automated mines (the Federation doesn't permit them at this time, apparently, though this would change a century later when they needed to mine the Wormhole to stop the Dominion bringing in more enemy forces to the Alpha Quadrant).
And Burnham lecturing Spock on the purpose of logic?! And what about Airiam's weekly memory sorting - does she really go through every memory for the week and decide what to keep or junk - we see it in realtime, but if that were the case she'd spend another week going through the process! Maybe she only works every other week? And Cornwell says they're blackout mines that interfere with navigation when Detmer says sensors tell them they're flying upside down, but on this series there's never been a right way up in space, as they've loved to show ships approaching at different orientation, so is this in relation to the station, or what? At least it's more obvious when the shields are being hit, although, rather than the bubble we used to get they appear to be form-fitted to the hull, but then they really love to be as different as possible, distance themselves from those boring old Treks that nobody really liked - who needs Phaser beams, stars travelling in a straight line when seen in a warp field, or shield bubbles? I will say that it was good to see a tiny flashback to when Burnham's parents were being murdered by Klingons, as we've seen flashbacks to the aftermath of the Vulcan bombing in her past, but never to this other integral event of her life. And it's stated on screen about Naarn being Barzan and what that means, even if it is merely to set her up to be damaged later. Because, don't forget, the audience is stupid and needs a lot of help. They can't afford to be 'fanatical' about how much knowledge they take in these days because there's so many other things vying for their attention, so we need to not put them off with anything too complex. I was hoping the Daedalus of the title was connecting to the episode of the same name on 'Enterprise,' and it still could, but I doubt it.
At least there was no Georgiou to stain the halls of Starfleet vessels this time, though it didn't prevent from the usual lack of tension due to chop-socky laughable martial arts combat being the end point of any creeping around. I always like a good creep around in the dark, but, and I'm surprised to say this, considering this was another Jonathan Frakes-directed episode, there really was no build-up of tension. And I really did snort in derision as Burnham tries to fight a cybernetically augmented assailant rather than using her brains. Sure, she eventually traps Airiam in the airlock, but they really did slow-motion kicks across the room, with Airiam leaping through the air like Trinity, and it's just totally off-the-wall ridiculous. All sense of reality is lost in this series. And I love 'The Matrix,' and I always loved a good fight in Trek, but it's just so boring now, all about the flashiness and the glory rather than the functional, graceful simplicity of old. I don't see why she didn't simply Phaser Airiam in the first place as soon as Naarn was overpowered, instead of hesitating. Well, I do know - it's because, like the modern films, they think this is the only way people will be interested in watching. I can't imagine this series ever conceiving of doing a 'Shuttlepod One,' 'The Inner Light' or any contemplative approach that Trek formerly excelled at. Perhaps once their current strategy eventually comes to fruition, and there's a multiplicity of Trek series', each with their own approach and audience in mind, we'll see true diversity that is now missing, and that was so great about Trek: that each week it could be something different. Until that time, 'DSC' is all I have to go on and it doesn't do the job, not by a long way!
**
Tuesday, 21 January 2020
Kinetic
DVD, Smallville S1 (Kinetic)
One I had no memories of, so I didn't know where it was going, though I did remember the concept of meteor-juiced tattoos that allow people to walk through walls. But the story is much more than that and really uses the cast well, so I became very impressed. It may be a side effect of watching something like 'Star Trek: Discovery,' where I come out of it uncomfortable and down, so that when I watch this series it's so wonderful in contrast that I love it all the more, but I really did warm to this episode early on and went with it every step of the way, even if there were things that seemed a little strange. Like the prosthetic arm, for example - one of the three hoodlums who raid Lex' Mansion removes this arm before exiting the vehicle and you're left to wonder why, and later Clark does the 'Kent Thousand Yard Stare' as Pete calls it, using x-ray vision to gaze into the Smallville Savings and Loan bank and sees a human arm embedded in the wall. It's not until later it gets confirmed by the guy that lost it what happened, but for some reason it was a bit puzzling as I thought it meant something, like he took an arm with him whenever he did one of these jobs and left it somewhere for some reason, but I got completely the wrong end of the stick. Or the arm. Then I think it was Lana trying to get Lex to consider returning the Talon into operative status just because she wants him to, and it was an odd thing for a usually bright girl to ask. I wonder if he always had in mind that she would want to save it and so his plan was to challenge her so that they ended up working together and maybe he'd have more influence over her regarding Clark…?
It's a bit Machiavellian, I admit, but it would be very true to his character, and at this stage of the series he's often doing things to bring the young people around to their place in the world and what they can do - he's very supportive in that way, even while he's also slightly sinister in that he promises he'll deal with the robbers and you get the impression he could and would make them disappear, just as he threatened to do to Nixon a few episodes back. So he definitely displays his ruthless side, but he's not a bad guy. Someone else who isn't a bad guy is Whitney. This is really his episode to a large extent, and certainly the most he's gotten to do on the series so far, and he shines at it. He's at a low ebb, has just lost his scholarship and sees no future other than a monotonous daily grind at his Dad's store for the rest of his life, his whole existence has flashed before his eyes and he doesn't like what he sees. Then out of the blue along come some guys who were once in a similar position, but know how to have a 'good time.' Right from the start the ringleader has a dangerous edge to him by the way he's fiddling around with this baseball bat in the shop as if he's no stranger to using one, and not in a baseball field! He was really well played as this plausible villain, a manipulative man that preys on Whitney's vulnerable situation and manly pride at being unable to confide in anybody else (I assume that's why he couldn't talk to his old football buddies for help), while showing him the dubious benefits of his lifestyle. In Whitney's state he's easily drawn into this world and it isn't until actual violence is perpetrated on Lex Luthor that he shows his true character.
It's not that he stops what they're doing, but he adds a note of horror to the proceedings, and it's really only Lex' foresight in not bringing the blackmail money with him that stops him from being killed. Otherwise Whitney would have been implicated in a murder and this would have become a very different series. But he reckons against Clark's strong sense of right and wrong, his desire to atone for what happened in his and Chloe's encounter with the dropouts at Lex' Mansion. It was a really shocking opening, not just because of the raucous music and thuggish attitude of the criminals, but because it gets us to the point where we think we're about to reach a release from the scariness. When Chloe goes through that stained glass window I was so relieved because I thought it was going to be great to see Clark rush down there and catch her before she hit the ground, but instead of the expected, our preconceptions are thrown off balance: Clark is unable to get there in time. As usual for the series (at this stage, anyway), things happen in a believable way. So the tattoos make Clark weak and he can't fight them, but he heroically yells at Chloe to run. As soon as you see her out in the hall with the window at the end you sense something bad about to happen. I was so glad she didn't break out into karate moves and overpower her assailant because although this suggests she's not a 'strong' woman, it certainly grounds her. Oops, I honestly didn't mean to make that pun! Seriously, she isn't able to fight back effectively, there are always bigger predators out there. The point is that she proves herself strong by bouncing back from the experience and not becoming a shrinking violet. That's a good lesson to be teaching.
As is that which Clark learns: he's on the reverse side of her position in that he is big and strong, but he has to realise whatever he can do he can't save everyone. It's been a theme that recurs here and there, but it's a tough lesson to grapple with because it's against his innate nature to believe that. So he hides out in the barn smashing wood. Not chopping, smashing. With his bare hand. It's a great scene, made even better by Jonathan and Martha coming in to reassure him and give him a new focus (and to save the wood pile from being reduced to chips!). It would be better if they'd been in the episode more, but what influence they had was deeply felt. Something that's impressively handled by the writers is the inherent dislike between Clark and Whitney. You see the look of disgust that crosses the latter's face when Clark pops into his Dad's store. It's like one more thing to kick him when he's down is to be reminded of Clark and his happy, secure future on the farm. He can't condescend to tell Lana about his loss, but he can throw it in his 'enemy's' face as a backhanded insult. But I can't help thinking he also may have suspected Clark would pass on this information to Lana that he couldn't bring himself to say. Clark is a real friend and such a good guy to Whitney. He may be acting out of guilt at Chloe's injuries, he may be looking for redemption, he may even want to for Lana's sake, but for all these reasons he makes sure to watch over Whitney as best he can. Sure, he's inexperienced and so doesn't realise that threatening Whitney not to go off with those guys again wasn't the most tactful thing to do, but he's still learning.
Once Whitney's seen what company he's fallen in with he comes clean with Lana and Clark and doesn't even feel angry that he has to depend on his 'rival' for assistance. He won't let Clark go alone to get the disk, even though it would actually have been easier for Clark to operate on his own, Whitney a liability. Then again, Clark is susceptible to the 'phasing' attack of the goon leader, so maybe he would have been killed if there hadn't been Whitney as another person they decided to have some fun in the killing of. They're obviously adrenaline junkies, and you can see why when they go crazy with the initiation of Whitney into the gang: bodily lifting him over a guard rail and flinging him into the path of an oncoming truck with no chance of escape. I have to mention at this point how irresponsible the driver was! He should have noticed them ahead messing about on the side of the road and slowed down at such suspicious activity. At the very least he should have screeched to a halt when a young lad was suddenly in his path, but he just honks his horn and drives on through the energised Whitney and apparently never had a second thought. Maybe that's realistic and he didn't want to lose his job or his payload, or just assumed it was 'kids' messing about and there was obviously no impact so nothing to worry about!
It was a big deal for Whitney to present himself to Lana in the state he was in, scared and weak, and it shows what a strong bond they have. Lana's problems seem minor in comparison to what her boyfriend goes through in the course of the episode: the sentimental connection of the place her parents met is threatened with being turned into a parking garage. But it's still important because it means so much to her, and that's why Lex' casual attitude to her proposal seemed very suspect as if Michael Rosenbaum was playing it from the idea that he was expecting Lana to fight for it and use her skills to try and persuade him and end up working with him, or essentially for him! You'd think Nell would be a little more sympathetic to Lana's feelings, but as Lex said, she's a teenage girl, mercurial doesn't do her justice! Importantly, Nell wanted to get the sale so she could ensure Lana's future and send her to whatever college she wanted to go to, so it's not a selfish decision, she has her charge's best interests at heart. Both she and Lex are serious business people and in business there can't be sentiment. We find out there are more businesses in Lex' portfolio than we knew about as we hear about some other secret project that involves a particle accelerator, part of the classified details on the disk the gang stole, not to mention he's embezzling funds from his Father to fund it. So there's more going on with Lex than we see, but at the same time I still believe him when he says to Clark that he didn't come for the disk, he came to protect his friend.
The other thing I didn't feel particularly clear on was on the reason the gang needed new blood. Why were the tattoos running out of power, was it just their bodies adjusting to the chemical changes wrought from the Kryptonite ink? We see the tattoos stop glowing, and so does Clark in the scene with the car that's going to crush Whitney while the leader holds him in place - so did Clark deliberately save only Whitney, knowing the other guy would be crushed to death? It's ambiguous and doesn't seem in character for him, but he seems to see the tattoo fade and then rugby tackles Whitney across the ground. It was also so fast that you have to wonder how the goon it happened in front of explained it. One thing's for sure: it was very cold at the time of filming as everyone has red noses! It was also funny to hear Clark ask how Chloe got internet access while she's in hospital. Now it would be all wi-fi, but then it would have been dialup and Pete did the dirty with patching her into the hospital's line! I couldn't tell if the snowboarding game at the goon's hideout was '1080º' on N64, but it certainly looked similar. And lastly, I'm not sure if the music at the end fit Lana's hesitation at the realisation she'd be working with Lex, when she looked somewhat concerned. Still, it was a real treat: a great idea, a new spin on the meteor freak, they were still coming up with gold and masterfully handling the characters and subplots, making it a joy to watch.
****
One I had no memories of, so I didn't know where it was going, though I did remember the concept of meteor-juiced tattoos that allow people to walk through walls. But the story is much more than that and really uses the cast well, so I became very impressed. It may be a side effect of watching something like 'Star Trek: Discovery,' where I come out of it uncomfortable and down, so that when I watch this series it's so wonderful in contrast that I love it all the more, but I really did warm to this episode early on and went with it every step of the way, even if there were things that seemed a little strange. Like the prosthetic arm, for example - one of the three hoodlums who raid Lex' Mansion removes this arm before exiting the vehicle and you're left to wonder why, and later Clark does the 'Kent Thousand Yard Stare' as Pete calls it, using x-ray vision to gaze into the Smallville Savings and Loan bank and sees a human arm embedded in the wall. It's not until later it gets confirmed by the guy that lost it what happened, but for some reason it was a bit puzzling as I thought it meant something, like he took an arm with him whenever he did one of these jobs and left it somewhere for some reason, but I got completely the wrong end of the stick. Or the arm. Then I think it was Lana trying to get Lex to consider returning the Talon into operative status just because she wants him to, and it was an odd thing for a usually bright girl to ask. I wonder if he always had in mind that she would want to save it and so his plan was to challenge her so that they ended up working together and maybe he'd have more influence over her regarding Clark…?
It's a bit Machiavellian, I admit, but it would be very true to his character, and at this stage of the series he's often doing things to bring the young people around to their place in the world and what they can do - he's very supportive in that way, even while he's also slightly sinister in that he promises he'll deal with the robbers and you get the impression he could and would make them disappear, just as he threatened to do to Nixon a few episodes back. So he definitely displays his ruthless side, but he's not a bad guy. Someone else who isn't a bad guy is Whitney. This is really his episode to a large extent, and certainly the most he's gotten to do on the series so far, and he shines at it. He's at a low ebb, has just lost his scholarship and sees no future other than a monotonous daily grind at his Dad's store for the rest of his life, his whole existence has flashed before his eyes and he doesn't like what he sees. Then out of the blue along come some guys who were once in a similar position, but know how to have a 'good time.' Right from the start the ringleader has a dangerous edge to him by the way he's fiddling around with this baseball bat in the shop as if he's no stranger to using one, and not in a baseball field! He was really well played as this plausible villain, a manipulative man that preys on Whitney's vulnerable situation and manly pride at being unable to confide in anybody else (I assume that's why he couldn't talk to his old football buddies for help), while showing him the dubious benefits of his lifestyle. In Whitney's state he's easily drawn into this world and it isn't until actual violence is perpetrated on Lex Luthor that he shows his true character.
It's not that he stops what they're doing, but he adds a note of horror to the proceedings, and it's really only Lex' foresight in not bringing the blackmail money with him that stops him from being killed. Otherwise Whitney would have been implicated in a murder and this would have become a very different series. But he reckons against Clark's strong sense of right and wrong, his desire to atone for what happened in his and Chloe's encounter with the dropouts at Lex' Mansion. It was a really shocking opening, not just because of the raucous music and thuggish attitude of the criminals, but because it gets us to the point where we think we're about to reach a release from the scariness. When Chloe goes through that stained glass window I was so relieved because I thought it was going to be great to see Clark rush down there and catch her before she hit the ground, but instead of the expected, our preconceptions are thrown off balance: Clark is unable to get there in time. As usual for the series (at this stage, anyway), things happen in a believable way. So the tattoos make Clark weak and he can't fight them, but he heroically yells at Chloe to run. As soon as you see her out in the hall with the window at the end you sense something bad about to happen. I was so glad she didn't break out into karate moves and overpower her assailant because although this suggests she's not a 'strong' woman, it certainly grounds her. Oops, I honestly didn't mean to make that pun! Seriously, she isn't able to fight back effectively, there are always bigger predators out there. The point is that she proves herself strong by bouncing back from the experience and not becoming a shrinking violet. That's a good lesson to be teaching.
As is that which Clark learns: he's on the reverse side of her position in that he is big and strong, but he has to realise whatever he can do he can't save everyone. It's been a theme that recurs here and there, but it's a tough lesson to grapple with because it's against his innate nature to believe that. So he hides out in the barn smashing wood. Not chopping, smashing. With his bare hand. It's a great scene, made even better by Jonathan and Martha coming in to reassure him and give him a new focus (and to save the wood pile from being reduced to chips!). It would be better if they'd been in the episode more, but what influence they had was deeply felt. Something that's impressively handled by the writers is the inherent dislike between Clark and Whitney. You see the look of disgust that crosses the latter's face when Clark pops into his Dad's store. It's like one more thing to kick him when he's down is to be reminded of Clark and his happy, secure future on the farm. He can't condescend to tell Lana about his loss, but he can throw it in his 'enemy's' face as a backhanded insult. But I can't help thinking he also may have suspected Clark would pass on this information to Lana that he couldn't bring himself to say. Clark is a real friend and such a good guy to Whitney. He may be acting out of guilt at Chloe's injuries, he may be looking for redemption, he may even want to for Lana's sake, but for all these reasons he makes sure to watch over Whitney as best he can. Sure, he's inexperienced and so doesn't realise that threatening Whitney not to go off with those guys again wasn't the most tactful thing to do, but he's still learning.
Once Whitney's seen what company he's fallen in with he comes clean with Lana and Clark and doesn't even feel angry that he has to depend on his 'rival' for assistance. He won't let Clark go alone to get the disk, even though it would actually have been easier for Clark to operate on his own, Whitney a liability. Then again, Clark is susceptible to the 'phasing' attack of the goon leader, so maybe he would have been killed if there hadn't been Whitney as another person they decided to have some fun in the killing of. They're obviously adrenaline junkies, and you can see why when they go crazy with the initiation of Whitney into the gang: bodily lifting him over a guard rail and flinging him into the path of an oncoming truck with no chance of escape. I have to mention at this point how irresponsible the driver was! He should have noticed them ahead messing about on the side of the road and slowed down at such suspicious activity. At the very least he should have screeched to a halt when a young lad was suddenly in his path, but he just honks his horn and drives on through the energised Whitney and apparently never had a second thought. Maybe that's realistic and he didn't want to lose his job or his payload, or just assumed it was 'kids' messing about and there was obviously no impact so nothing to worry about!
It was a big deal for Whitney to present himself to Lana in the state he was in, scared and weak, and it shows what a strong bond they have. Lana's problems seem minor in comparison to what her boyfriend goes through in the course of the episode: the sentimental connection of the place her parents met is threatened with being turned into a parking garage. But it's still important because it means so much to her, and that's why Lex' casual attitude to her proposal seemed very suspect as if Michael Rosenbaum was playing it from the idea that he was expecting Lana to fight for it and use her skills to try and persuade him and end up working with him, or essentially for him! You'd think Nell would be a little more sympathetic to Lana's feelings, but as Lex said, she's a teenage girl, mercurial doesn't do her justice! Importantly, Nell wanted to get the sale so she could ensure Lana's future and send her to whatever college she wanted to go to, so it's not a selfish decision, she has her charge's best interests at heart. Both she and Lex are serious business people and in business there can't be sentiment. We find out there are more businesses in Lex' portfolio than we knew about as we hear about some other secret project that involves a particle accelerator, part of the classified details on the disk the gang stole, not to mention he's embezzling funds from his Father to fund it. So there's more going on with Lex than we see, but at the same time I still believe him when he says to Clark that he didn't come for the disk, he came to protect his friend.
The other thing I didn't feel particularly clear on was on the reason the gang needed new blood. Why were the tattoos running out of power, was it just their bodies adjusting to the chemical changes wrought from the Kryptonite ink? We see the tattoos stop glowing, and so does Clark in the scene with the car that's going to crush Whitney while the leader holds him in place - so did Clark deliberately save only Whitney, knowing the other guy would be crushed to death? It's ambiguous and doesn't seem in character for him, but he seems to see the tattoo fade and then rugby tackles Whitney across the ground. It was also so fast that you have to wonder how the goon it happened in front of explained it. One thing's for sure: it was very cold at the time of filming as everyone has red noses! It was also funny to hear Clark ask how Chloe got internet access while she's in hospital. Now it would be all wi-fi, but then it would have been dialup and Pete did the dirty with patching her into the hospital's line! I couldn't tell if the snowboarding game at the goon's hideout was '1080º' on N64, but it certainly looked similar. And lastly, I'm not sure if the music at the end fit Lana's hesitation at the realisation she'd be working with Lex, when she looked somewhat concerned. Still, it was a real treat: a great idea, a new spin on the meteor freak, they were still coming up with gold and masterfully handling the characters and subplots, making it a joy to watch.
****
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.
**
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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