Story: Kobayashi Maru
Written By: Michelle Paradise & Jenny Lumet & Alex Kurtzman
Series: Star Trek: Discovery
Year: 2021
Right...where were we?
So I was really good about getting CBS All Access and trying to keep up with all the new Treks when it launched. But something happened during the last batch of new Star Trek I watched...I don't think I liked it. I had to hand it to CBS and PAramount and Alex Kurtzman, they took a guy who grew up with Trek, had seen every episode and movie and really just genuinely enjoyed the franchise, and made me bored of it. I mean, I had issues with Voyager and Enterprise and felt the Kelvin films had rocky quality...but I was always down to keep up with the franchise. But Discovery's second season ended in such a miserable way, with loud messy shoot em ups in space. Then there was Lower Decks which I just honestly felt was dreck. Then Picard had it's first season and I found that it started strong but lost me by the end...and had such a dumb ending with "Picard is now a robot." But I soldiered on through Disco's third season, and while I overall found it to be superior and a better Trek than that show had been before...I just wasn't excited about it. I told myself and my brother (the one person I chat Trek with), that maybe I'd just not re-up my subscription. I figured maybe I'd get a free trial and binge catch up some day. But then I just kept not doing it. I wasn't missing it at all.
So how did we get here, where I've decided to jump back on now? Well, I have another brother who works for CBS. And he gets Paramount+ for free...and he gave me the password. So, I decided maybe now was the right time to catch back up. I am willing to give Disco another shot. I am interested maybe not in Picard's second season but certainly the third with all my old TNG friends returning, and I am interested in Strange New Worlds. So...here we are, back at it...how does Disco's fourth season start off? Is it improved, or is it the same old problems lingering for good?
As a start, it's pretty okay. This show tries, really tries to say it's about the hopeful vision of the future, that our heroes are the good guys, they are about science and exploration and helping those in need! I just have seen this show's track record three times before, and usually it is leading toward APOCALYPTIC EXPLOSION DISASTER TIME!!! The season begins with Burnham, Book, and the discovery crew working towards mending relationships with other worlds in the hopes of revitalizing the long struggling Federation. The Federation now has a new supply of dilithium to help them along while they also work towards alternative sources for energy. And they are relaunching Starfleet Academy. Things are looking up!
Discovery is sent, with the new Federation President in tow, to investigate a space station having gravitational issues caused by an unknown source. While there they are being hit by some space anomaly which causes them issues. It's Discovery intense action driven adventure stuff again. It's fine, certainly feels better than when I left off, but if every episode does this I may get weary again. I want Star Trek to be slow and boring again.
Meanwhile Book goes to his home planet for a ceremonial ritual for his nephew. While there some strange business is going on with the birds. Book goes up in his ship to investigate and things go crazy. At the end of the episode he arrives on Discovery, and we learn that his entire planet has been destroyed. Apocalypse Now!
The heart of this episode is the struggle between Burnham and the President really. Burnham thinks she is there to tick political boxes, but really she was there to assess Burnham's readiness for some new high falutin gig. She spends a lot of the episode questioning Burnham's orders and decisions, and in the end determines Burnham isn't ready for some fancy gig because she is too reckless. I like that the show calls out that Burnham has had some majorly big results in her decisions, and while some are universe saving, others have caused war and pain and troubles for a lot of people. As the president says, in this delicate time of rebuilding, the swing of Burnham's results can be less of a pendulum and more of wrecking ball. On that we agree!
NEXT TIME: Losing Kweijan
Comments
Post a Comment