Story: Will You Take My hand?
Written By: Gretchen J. Berg & Aaron Harberts
Series: Star Trek: Discovery
Year: 2018
Discovery's debut season comes to the close with an episode that isn't perfect, doesn't totally satisfy, has a few issues...but in the end is solid enough to wrap up some major threads, and help set up a bit of what we can hope to see next time around (whenever that may end up being). In a way, it is emblematic of this first season. It has some things that don't always work, but it's heart is in the right place and ultimately it's decent. Not great. But decent.
Georgiou has been left in charge of the ship by Admiral Cornwall...and the desperate move to put a Terran Empress in charge of one of their secret weapons is pretty accurate to a long line of bonehead moves made by Starfleet Admirals who mean well but are ultimately fairly dumb and potentially dangerous. Cornwall probably lived long enough to train Admiral Nechayev in the role of dumb dumb Admirals that make shady calls and think it is in the best interest of everyone only to have the plan kind blow up in their face. Georgiou's motives for taking on this role seem to be "freedom" but even though the episode doesn't lead to anything truly deeper than that...you have to assume she will return as a baddie some day.
Anyhow, they plan to jump into a cave on Quo'Nos...but need more info on where to go from there. Georgiou beats up L'Rell but gets nowhere, before Burnham stops her and decides to face Tyler again by enlisting his help...using his Voq knowledge. He helps them come up with a plan to have an away team beam into an Orion Outpost on the planet to get some info on a buried monastery of a former sect of Klingon religion...where they will secretly scan the defenses of the planet. But Tilly (who is also let in on Georgiou's secret so she can join the away mission) realizes that it isn't a scanner...it is some kind of bomb, which Georgiou knocks Tilly out and takes to unleash and commit genocide on the planet.
This is ultimately the crux of the episode. Once Burnham and co. realize that the Federations iffy plan involving Georgiou is to use her non-Federation ideals to commit genocide, they want nothing to do with it. The crew call Cornwall and use their idealism to show her that this is NOT their way. They have to be better than the Klingons. And they use the bomb to end the war, but not how it was intended. Georgiou has the bomb's detonator scanned to her DNA, but Burnham gives her the freedom she is doing it for, in exchange for the detonator to be tied to L'Rell's DNA. Make her have the power to destroy her own world, in the hopes that she can use that threat to unite the houses. The exchange for this is that L'Rell also end the war. Which she does. It is a tad too easy peasy...but I really don't care because the point is that Burnham has learned her lesson from the pilot...she now knows that taking the action the Klingons would take is sacrificing something of themselves.
It's all kind of meesy, but so is the first half of this season. I appreciate that the note they've ended on is a bit more Star Trek optimisim, and less dark gritty war. I wanted this war to end and be out of the picture from here on out. I am glad it is. Trek needs to explore again, and they clearly set up the show as going more for that route in the end. Voq/Tyler decides to join L'Rell, and leave Burnham and co...knowing he has no place there anymore, and maybe he can help with the Klingons in some way. Burnham gets her commission back, Stamets gets promoted, Tilly is made a full Ensign, most of the crew is honored. I am a little bummed that they seemed to be ending the show with Saru still in temporary command, as the ship is heading to Vulcan to pick up their new Captain...but that may have to wait, as before the show can end...they answer a distress call. From Captain Pike. And the Enterprise.
Nice teaser for things to come! Here's hoping for a show that can lighten up and add in a bit more warmth and fun to the proceedings...and maybe they will start their making good on promises of "rectifying the canon stuff." This season may have had ups and downs, maybe didn't always work...but it was mostly a good ride with a ton of potential. The way they ended this season gives me hope more than anything, that this show is going to have some kind of exploration theme next year, and these characters have some real depths to mine yet.
NEXT TIME: Discovery Season 1 Recap
Written By: Gretchen J. Berg & Aaron Harberts
Series: Star Trek: Discovery
Year: 2018
Discovery's debut season comes to the close with an episode that isn't perfect, doesn't totally satisfy, has a few issues...but in the end is solid enough to wrap up some major threads, and help set up a bit of what we can hope to see next time around (whenever that may end up being). In a way, it is emblematic of this first season. It has some things that don't always work, but it's heart is in the right place and ultimately it's decent. Not great. But decent.
Anyhow, they plan to jump into a cave on Quo'Nos...but need more info on where to go from there. Georgiou beats up L'Rell but gets nowhere, before Burnham stops her and decides to face Tyler again by enlisting his help...using his Voq knowledge. He helps them come up with a plan to have an away team beam into an Orion Outpost on the planet to get some info on a buried monastery of a former sect of Klingon religion...where they will secretly scan the defenses of the planet. But Tilly (who is also let in on Georgiou's secret so she can join the away mission) realizes that it isn't a scanner...it is some kind of bomb, which Georgiou knocks Tilly out and takes to unleash and commit genocide on the planet.
This is ultimately the crux of the episode. Once Burnham and co. realize that the Federations iffy plan involving Georgiou is to use her non-Federation ideals to commit genocide, they want nothing to do with it. The crew call Cornwall and use their idealism to show her that this is NOT their way. They have to be better than the Klingons. And they use the bomb to end the war, but not how it was intended. Georgiou has the bomb's detonator scanned to her DNA, but Burnham gives her the freedom she is doing it for, in exchange for the detonator to be tied to L'Rell's DNA. Make her have the power to destroy her own world, in the hopes that she can use that threat to unite the houses. The exchange for this is that L'Rell also end the war. Which she does. It is a tad too easy peasy...but I really don't care because the point is that Burnham has learned her lesson from the pilot...she now knows that taking the action the Klingons would take is sacrificing something of themselves.
It's all kind of meesy, but so is the first half of this season. I appreciate that the note they've ended on is a bit more Star Trek optimisim, and less dark gritty war. I wanted this war to end and be out of the picture from here on out. I am glad it is. Trek needs to explore again, and they clearly set up the show as going more for that route in the end. Voq/Tyler decides to join L'Rell, and leave Burnham and co...knowing he has no place there anymore, and maybe he can help with the Klingons in some way. Burnham gets her commission back, Stamets gets promoted, Tilly is made a full Ensign, most of the crew is honored. I am a little bummed that they seemed to be ending the show with Saru still in temporary command, as the ship is heading to Vulcan to pick up their new Captain...but that may have to wait, as before the show can end...they answer a distress call. From Captain Pike. And the Enterprise.
Nice teaser for things to come! Here's hoping for a show that can lighten up and add in a bit more warmth and fun to the proceedings...and maybe they will start their making good on promises of "rectifying the canon stuff." This season may have had ups and downs, maybe didn't always work...but it was mostly a good ride with a ton of potential. The way they ended this season gives me hope more than anything, that this show is going to have some kind of exploration theme next year, and these characters have some real depths to mine yet.
NEXT TIME: Discovery Season 1 Recap