Story: Project Daedalus
Written By: Michelle Paradise
Series: Star Trek: Discovery
Year: 2019
With the help of Admrial Cornwell, Discovery (on the run from Section 31 and the Federation) head to Section 31 Headquarters, in the hopes of resetting "Control," an advanced AI computer that is essential to Section 31's operations. In the meantime, Burnham and Spock are not reconnecting as Burnham would hope, and whatever took control of Airiam is doing something sinister. "Control" is actually trying to become sentient and will kill anyone in it's way to achieve it. Which sort of feels like the thing has sentience of some sort already. But it basically becomes a ticking clock to stop Airiam and Control before they succeed and "Control" wipes out all sentient life in the Universe, as Spock was shown by the Angels.
I liked the Spock and Burnham stuff because Spock is right, Burnham thinks so much of her importance that she believes she alone can save him. But he doesn't want or require her saving. She cannot save everyone. And that comes into play in the episodes climax. She tries hard to save someone, against all odds, and in the end she cannot. I think that works. Unfortunately, that theme is undermined when Airiam declares that it all has something to do with Burnham...so I guess she is right too?
I think the flaw of this episode is very much related to the Airiam story. She has been a fancy background extra in all of her appearances so far. And now, the emotional depth of her character is the crux of this episode. We are meant to feel her plight, which is there but all of her backstory, every character trait she has, all of her friendships...they all make their hasty debut in this episode. The character needs a meaningful death, so for impact we need the character to have some kind of connection with the audience. But it is all manufactured. Sneak in some scenes or moments in the season showing that Airiam and Tilly or others are friends. Don't give me a few flashes of scenes that didn't exist before, telling me there is a deep friendship, so we can pretend it hurts when she dies. And what sucks is that all of this could've easily worked if Discovery planned out it's characters nearly as much as they seem to have planned out their plot arcs. They are missing a trick there.
The has been some talk about Logic Extremists on Vulcan throughout this season, and I have to say I don't much care for the plotline. There is a seemingly evil Vulcan Logic Extremist Admiral in this episode, but it turns out she is actually dead and what we saw was a hologram. So whatever. I still don't care for the idea, as I think it is counter to what I want in Trek. We already got Vulcan assholes in Enterprise, and they did their best to wrap that up in Season 4 of that show. Do we need Vulcan assholes to make a return? Not really.
I think the episode is decent at moving some of the plot forward, but so much of the episode relies on my feelings for Airiam and her sad demise. And honestly, I didn't feel a thing for her. She wasn't really a character until her final moments. I could respect the idea of having an episode about a red shirt biting the dust, where they try and make you get to know the red shirt before hand...but as Airiam has been on the show since the first season and they have ignored her completely, it just feels like odd. You've had all this time to sneak in character moments for Airiam and others, and you just shoehorn it into the final minutes? It seems like a waste.
NEXT TIME: Burnham is the Key
Written By: Michelle Paradise
Series: Star Trek: Discovery
Year: 2019
With the help of Admrial Cornwell, Discovery (on the run from Section 31 and the Federation) head to Section 31 Headquarters, in the hopes of resetting "Control," an advanced AI computer that is essential to Section 31's operations. In the meantime, Burnham and Spock are not reconnecting as Burnham would hope, and whatever took control of Airiam is doing something sinister. "Control" is actually trying to become sentient and will kill anyone in it's way to achieve it. Which sort of feels like the thing has sentience of some sort already. But it basically becomes a ticking clock to stop Airiam and Control before they succeed and "Control" wipes out all sentient life in the Universe, as Spock was shown by the Angels.
I think the flaw of this episode is very much related to the Airiam story. She has been a fancy background extra in all of her appearances so far. And now, the emotional depth of her character is the crux of this episode. We are meant to feel her plight, which is there but all of her backstory, every character trait she has, all of her friendships...they all make their hasty debut in this episode. The character needs a meaningful death, so for impact we need the character to have some kind of connection with the audience. But it is all manufactured. Sneak in some scenes or moments in the season showing that Airiam and Tilly or others are friends. Don't give me a few flashes of scenes that didn't exist before, telling me there is a deep friendship, so we can pretend it hurts when she dies. And what sucks is that all of this could've easily worked if Discovery planned out it's characters nearly as much as they seem to have planned out their plot arcs. They are missing a trick there.
The has been some talk about Logic Extremists on Vulcan throughout this season, and I have to say I don't much care for the plotline. There is a seemingly evil Vulcan Logic Extremist Admiral in this episode, but it turns out she is actually dead and what we saw was a hologram. So whatever. I still don't care for the idea, as I think it is counter to what I want in Trek. We already got Vulcan assholes in Enterprise, and they did their best to wrap that up in Season 4 of that show. Do we need Vulcan assholes to make a return? Not really.
I think the episode is decent at moving some of the plot forward, but so much of the episode relies on my feelings for Airiam and her sad demise. And honestly, I didn't feel a thing for her. She wasn't really a character until her final moments. I could respect the idea of having an episode about a red shirt biting the dust, where they try and make you get to know the red shirt before hand...but as Airiam has been on the show since the first season and they have ignored her completely, it just feels like odd. You've had all this time to sneak in character moments for Airiam and others, and you just shoehorn it into the final minutes? It seems like a waste.
NEXT TIME: Burnham is the Key
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