Klingons and Spies

Story: Point of Light
Written By: Andrew Colville
Series: Star Trek: Discovery
Year: 2019

While the opener tried to set a new tone and story arc for the show, and the second episode promised a solid way to mix episodic and serialized television...the third episode feels like a retread of the first season to me.  I have to say that I was a little put off by it in a way.  I liked the first season, but the dark griminess of it all left me hoping for brighter days ahead. So far this season has been delivering that, and I have no doubt it will continue to do so, but this episode felt like the dark and dreary first season came back to life, and I was quite surprised to find I am not that into it anymore. Perhaps it will grow on me, it isn't a bad episode...but I think they could've used a bigger break before returning to the Klingon and Section 31/Georgiou stories.  
Anyhow, the Klingon Empire is still in the process of reunifying it's council and the houses and, well, the empire.  But there is distrust that remains, particularly distrust in the new Chancellor L'Rell, and her appointment of Ash Tyler/Voq as Torchbearer.  People don't trust this human dude, and Ash himself is unsure of his own place in that society. The main opponent is Kol-Sha, who was the father of Kol from the first season (both are played by the same actor), and he attempts to usurp her throne when he kidnaps L'Rell's secret baby (apparently she had the baby ex-utero sometime during Voq's transformation into Ash...sure).  But Kol-Sha's plans are thwarted by Section 31 operative Georgiou.  This of course confirms Kol-Sha's feelings that L'Rell is a Federation Puppet, but no matter. 

Ultimately, to unite the houses and gain trust, L'Rell must say goodbye to both Tyler and the Son of Voq, and she tells the council that she has killed him for Betrayal and for killing the baby, and she showcases synthesized heads of both to prove she killed em.  Tyler and the Baby go off with Georgiou, Leland (who was introduced in an extra scene released at the end of Season 1), and the Section 31 ship.  The baby will be left to be raised by monks, and Tyler may end up joining Georgiou as a Section 31 operative.  

It's a lot of storylines that I was less interested in revisiting from Season 1. I don't need more Klingon lore, I definitely don't need the bad voice changer they use on Klingons that make them harder to understand (there were actual lines from L'Rell I actually didn't make out), and I am sorry, but I don't really want to revisit evil Mirror Georgiou working as a spy for the Federation.  I know there's a show in the works that will follow her evil exploits as a shady spy, but I am not that interested in that show.  Essentally if the show moved on without any of that stuff I'd be perfectly happy.  

The stuff on Discovery was more interesting to me.  We fill in some more details of Spock's MIA nature, he apparently escaped his psych ward after killing three Doctors (or so they claim), and Amanda is trying to figure out what has happened to her son. But he apparently had a meeting with the Red Angels as a child, which is certainly intriguing.  Also, we figure out what is going on with Tilly and the girl from her past she sees.  Turns out it isn't a ghost, but it is a fungus parasite that attached itself to Tilly (which happened at the end of Season 1 and I just forgot completely), and the combo of getting zapped by the asteroid brought the image to life. They remove it from Tilly, but I suspect this storyline has more to go.  

Unfortunately, I think that while Season 1 wasn't awful, some of it's less interesting aspects were brought back into the game in this episode. I didn't hate the episode, it wasn't painful to watch, but I just found the Klingon stuff to be more of a chore than the Discovery things.  I want more episodic stuff based on the Red Angels, I don't really care about digging into the Klingon political climate or the shady spy ring headed up by an Evil Emperor from another universe.  I know it is hard for them to just ignore that stuff, but I think it is now a less interesting angle for me...and as such, this episode is a lot less interesting than last week's episode.  I may look more favorably on it as the show goes on, but after "New Eden" I just want some good ol' fashioned Star Trekking.

NEXT TIME: Saru is Sick

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