Story: The Butcher's Knife Cares Not for the Lamb's Cry
Burnham is tasked by Lorca to investigate the Tardigrade to see how to use it as a weapon, since it is able to easily take down some Klingons, he figure it is something to use on his side. But she quickly realizes it isn't a threatening monster, just a different kind of being then they've encountered before. But this takes convincing, especially after the overzealous security officer is killed when she decides to attack the beast to try and test it's attack abilities.
But Burnham realizes that the Tardigrade, which has been nicknamed Ripper, has some kind of relationship, maybe even control, over the spores...so she as she experiments, she comes to believe that Ripper could possibly be the very variable the Spore Drive needs to work. When they test the theory, it turns out to be true. And with control of the Spore Drive, the Discovery is able to make some big moves in the War, which clearly begin to help in the turning of the tides against the Klingons.
But even this early in the process, it is becoming clear to Burnham that being connected to the drive is painful for Ripper...can Starfleet really put any kind of being into this kind of slave labor? It's moral questions like that being raised that help define this as Trek for me. We don't yet have the answers the show falls on, but in a new format of Trek they can stretch out their moral issues...but the fact that they are present is what makes it feel at least a little like a new modern Trek to me. There are issues that feel maybe slightly off, particularly the era the decided to set it in (a lot of the story beats would work just as well in a century or two post TNG...why the need to set it Pre-Kirk?). But so far? I think it feels like Trek, and I'm curious to see how it moves through these story beats.
The B-plot of the episode revolves around Voq and L'Rell, still on T'Kuvma's stranded ship...attempting to lead the war effort. But Kol comes in and earns the loyalty of Voq's men, who are hungry and desperate, and they decide to strand Voq on the Shenzhou, at L'Rell's suggestion. But L'Rell is secretly on Voq's side all along, and she comes aboard the Shenzhou, and she tells him that in order to win the loyalty of the Klingons, and to take down the Federation he'd have to do something drastic, and sacrifice absolutely everything. It's an intriguing set-up for what is surely to come. What will Voq have to do or become to defeat the Federation and regain what respect he had.
NEXT TIME: Ash Tyler
Written By: Jesse Alexander & Aron Eli Coleite
Series: Star Trek: Discovery
Year: 2017Burnham is tasked by Lorca to investigate the Tardigrade to see how to use it as a weapon, since it is able to easily take down some Klingons, he figure it is something to use on his side. But she quickly realizes it isn't a threatening monster, just a different kind of being then they've encountered before. But this takes convincing, especially after the overzealous security officer is killed when she decides to attack the beast to try and test it's attack abilities.
But even this early in the process, it is becoming clear to Burnham that being connected to the drive is painful for Ripper...can Starfleet really put any kind of being into this kind of slave labor? It's moral questions like that being raised that help define this as Trek for me. We don't yet have the answers the show falls on, but in a new format of Trek they can stretch out their moral issues...but the fact that they are present is what makes it feel at least a little like a new modern Trek to me. There are issues that feel maybe slightly off, particularly the era the decided to set it in (a lot of the story beats would work just as well in a century or two post TNG...why the need to set it Pre-Kirk?). But so far? I think it feels like Trek, and I'm curious to see how it moves through these story beats.
The B-plot of the episode revolves around Voq and L'Rell, still on T'Kuvma's stranded ship...attempting to lead the war effort. But Kol comes in and earns the loyalty of Voq's men, who are hungry and desperate, and they decide to strand Voq on the Shenzhou, at L'Rell's suggestion. But L'Rell is secretly on Voq's side all along, and she comes aboard the Shenzhou, and she tells him that in order to win the loyalty of the Klingons, and to take down the Federation he'd have to do something drastic, and sacrifice absolutely everything. It's an intriguing set-up for what is surely to come. What will Voq have to do or become to defeat the Federation and regain what respect he had.
NEXT TIME: Ash Tyler