Star Trek: Discovery -- Season 2 Episode 14 (Such Sweet Sorrow: Part 2)

WARNING:  I’m going to give away details, including the ending of the episode.

I’m accustomed to a 26-episode season for Star Trek.  Discovery’s first season was 15 episodes.  Here we are at the end of the 14-episode second season.  I’m also hearing that Star Trek: Picard is going to be 10 episodes.  I’m going to have to get used to a slightly shorter season.

That being said, having fewer episodes does seem to produce a higher quality of episode.  There is a cohesive narrative for this season and we get a decent setup for the third season.

Burnham is going to take Discovery into the far future.  She has a few more things to do.  It takes her a moment to figure out exactly what, but she does it, with an assist from Spock.

Speaking of which, Spock seems to think he’s going with Burnham.  We know he’s not.  If he did, it would mean that there’s a way back from the future.  Instead, he has to go with Captain Pike and be on that spinoff that everyone keeps talking about.

There are two things that I noticed.  Both stem from the fact that control was defeated.  The first is that Burnham goes into the future anyway.  Since Control was defeated, it should be unnecessary for Discovery to make the time jump.  Burnham’s mother should also have come back.

This leads me to my second point.  It’s not stated that she didn’t.  She may have wound up on some distant planet.  However, it’s also not stated that Discovery is going so that they can look for her, either.  Maybe it’s destiny.  Maybe the writers are hearing all the complaints about retcons.  I don’t know.

Part of the finale seems contrived.  There was no reason for Cornwell to put herself in mortal danger, for instance.  Why would the crew even let her?  We also find out that everyone left in the 23^rd century agrees never to talk of Burnham or the spore drive ever again.  So, there’s that.

Either way, it was a pretty solid second season.  It was better than other second seasons that I’ve seen.  It will be interesting to see what a third season holds.  We’ve gotten a few glimpses.  Unfortunately, there doesn’t seem to be a date more solid than sometime this year.

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Star Trek: Discovery -- Season 2 Episode 13 (Such Sweet Sorrow)

I’ve had my complaint about Star Trek: Discovery so far, but I will say this:  I’ve spent the second season wonder what its end game is going to be.  There were seven red signals, a sphere with a vast amount of data and an artificial intelligence bent on getting that information.  We also find out that Burnham’s mother isn’t really dead and that she’s been working against the AI from 930 years in the future.

So, how does this all work out?  The data can’t be erased.  Once it’s in Discovery’s computer, it won’t let Discovery be destroyed.  The only option is to go through with the original plan of sending the information into the future.  The difference here is that Burnham will take the entire ship into the future.  Yes, they’re going to build another angel suit and let Burnham use it.

This raises a lot of questions, some of which I’ve asked before.  Will it work?  Does it even make sense?  Will Burnham’s mother be there or will she even be allowed to leave the future?  Will Discovery make it back to the 23^rd century or will Discovery be 930 years in the future for the rest of its run?

However, we now know what the time crystal was for.  A new red signal even leads Discovery to a planet where the inhabitants might be able to help.  We learn that it will probably be a one-way trip for Burnham and Discovery, as the crystal will burn out.  (That doesn’t mean the 32^nd century won’t have some other means of time travel.)

The entire episode is buildup.  It’s setting us up for what Burnham has to do to save humanity and all life in the galaxy.  She has a lot of figuring out to do and a need to accept her fate as The One.  Yes, she’ll have help and various characters will vow to go with her.  (I suppose it’s better than assembling a new bridge crew in the future.)  I guess we’ll have to wait for Part II to see how it plays out.

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Star Trek: Discovery -- Season 2 Episode 12 (Through the Valley of Shadows)

Having a huge franchise can be a blessing and a curse.  If you don’t draw on it, you are wasting potential.  If you do use it, it can come across as namedropping.  So far in Star Trek Discovery, we’ve seen Amanda, Sarek, Spock, Pike, Number One and the Talosians, not to mention The Enterprise and Boreth.

On the flip side are Control, which is a Skynet wannabe, and the Spore Drive, neither of which was mentioned in any other series or movie.  And there’s Michael Burnham, Spock’s foster sister.  That’s at least understandable, as Spock didn’t mention his parents or half-brother to Kirk.

What can I say?  It’s been a busy season.  Speaking of which, after this episode is the two-part season finale.

So, yeah.  This episode serves as a setup.

Control is bent on getting that Sphere data.  To do that, they need a Time Crystal, which means a return trip to Boreth, where the Chancellor will put in a good word so that Pike can beam down.  It’s not clear exactly what the plan is yet, but it’s got to be big.

Meanwhile, Spock and Michael check out a Section 31 ship that has gone silent.  That’s because Control killed everyone except for one person.  Coincidentally, that person served with Michael on the Shenzhou.  There’s no way that control took that person over.  Right?

By episode’s end, it’s determined that the only rational course of action is to evacuate Discovery to Enterprise and destroy the ship.  Given that a third season has been ordered, it can’t be that easy.  Even if we didn’t know that, there are still two episodes left.

I know I keep on about this whole Control/Skynet thing.  It’s not that farfetched.  Both are AI systems that become self aware and wipe out all known organic life.  Time travel is involved and there’s a parent/child team trying to stop them.  The child is seen as a threat to the AI and the mother has undergone a major personality shift trying to stop the AI.

So, part of the story is trying to change fate.  There’s also a part of the story that involves accepting your fate.  Pike has to accept his if he wants the time crystal.  Michael will also have to accept hers in the two-part finale.  So, there’s that.

It’s not clear what Pike intends to do with the time crystal, exactly.  He can’t get it to Michael’s mother.  It would seem that he has no plans yet to build another suit.  He’s doing this not really knowing why.  However, the alternative is letting everyone die.

The second season is almost as smooth as I’d have hoped.  There are a few parts, like here, where it seems like maybe it’s a victim of one too many rewrites, but I can forgive that.  It took me the entire season, but things are starting to make sense.

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Star Trek: Discovery -- Season 2 Episode 3 (Point of Light)

There’s that line: Hell is other people.  It’s not what other people think of you, but rather, what you think other people think of you.  That seems to be the theme for this episode.

Ash/Voq is having a hard time being accepted as a Klingon since he looks human.  Tilly thinks she’s going crazy because of what’s ostensibly a hallucination.  So, of course, she hides it for fear of the straight jacket.  Also, we learn that Spock lacks empathy and Burnham feels like she’s responsible, due to some untold transgression against him when they were children.  She can’t even bring herself to approach or contact him.

The story progresses on these three fronts.  Ash learns that he has a son, which T’Rell, the mother, saw as a liability.  Her association with Voq has made her tenure as chancellor a difficult one.  Having a kid wouldn’t make that any easier.

Tilly’s hallucination isn’t making things easier for her.  It’s taken the form of an old friend, May and pseudo-May is persistent.  This might be all good and well, but Tilly has training to undergo and she nearly has a breakdown in front of the captain and the rest of the bridge crew.  But, there’s hope.  May could be the result of a parasite.

As for Spock, it looks like it may be a few episodes before we see him.  Burnham gets a visit from Amanda.  Amanda may not have been the best mother to Spock and Burnham, but she tried.  Still, it’s difficult to think of Spock being in a mental institution.

I mean, he was seeing the same Red Angel that Burnham saw, so there’s that.  The big thing is that Burnham committed some undisclosed transgression against Spock that may or may not explain everything.  Either way, Burnham feels guilty.

The second season is doing a pretty good job of building a cohesive story.  There are a few missteps, like Klingons having hair now.  (Apparently, they were shaving it before.)  And everything is tied together.  Spock knew about the Red Angel.  The Klingons do, too.

I have only one really big complaint.  I know I keep harping on this, but what’s with the whole Disco thing?  Couldn’t they use Dis or Disc?  I mentioned this with the first episode.  I was hoping not to see it again.  I really want to know why the first five letters of the ship’s name.  We never saw Voyag or Enter.  Could someone explain this to me?

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Star Trek: Discovery -- Season 2 Episode 1 (Brother)

It took me a while to watch the first season of Star Trek: Discovery.  I refused to subscribe to CBS All Access.  So, I had to wait for it on DVD.  I then had to reserve it at the library and wait for it to become available.

I still refuse to pay for All Access just to watch the one show, but when the second season became available, I didn’t have to wait as long.  It turns out that Netflix has the DVDs available to rent.  So, I was able to get the first disc of the second season pretty quickly.

The story starts out where last season ended.  Captain Christopher Pike has assumed command of the USS Discovery, leaving the Enterprise to be repaired.

What happened to the Enterprise?  The ship detected seven red signals.  When the ship attempted to scan one of them, many of the ship’s systems blew out.  Pike is now taking emergency command of the Discovery to complete his mission.  Pike has brought with him two officers to help.

What they find is a collection of debris.  It has abnormally high gravity…and the wreckage of a Starfleet vessel, complete with survivors.  A rather large sample of the debris is brought onboard for study, the survivors are rescued and the crew of the Discovery has a new mystery on its hands:  What are these mysterious signals?

You might be wondering where Spock is in all of this.  After all, he is the chief science officer of the Enterprise and Michael Burnham’s foster brother.  That’s discussed more in the next episode.

This episode is more concerned with setting up the next story arc.  I wouldn’t say that this season is less ambitious.  Instead, it would seem that the series has found its footing.  I suspect that it’s going to go for a more even pace.

Last season, we had a war with the Klingons and a prolonged venture into the Mirror universe.  (I had issues with both.)  From what I’ve seen, the writers decided to stick with one main story and use Burnham’s relationship with Spock to move it along.

The show would also seem to rely more on a new story than canon, which is odd considering that the first episode has two established characters, one of which will be sticking around for the remainder of the season.

My only issue is how to abbreviate the name of the series.  ST:D never really sat well with me.  ST:Disco isn’t an option, either.  Has anyone used ST:DIS yet?

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