As promised, here's my review for the latest episode. I've copied it over from my other social media channels!
Discovery hits its fourth episode (or fifth, if you’re counting the premiere as two separate episodes, which… you shouldn’t no matter what CBS claims to the contrary) with “Choose Your Pain”. It’s a title that makes me think of a Pokemon gym leader with two-foot biceps who grunts a lot, which I suppose is fair considering all the male Klingons in this episode could have sent out their trusty Geodudes and I wouldn’t have batted a lash. There’s a lot to like in this episode coupled with one major misstep and a few rather personal quibbles. In other words, it’s one of Discovery’s best episodes yet: a perfect encapsulation of a flawed but richly enjoyable new series still getting its space legs but finding them bit by bit each successive Sunday night.
The general plot is simple enough: Lorca is kidnapped by Klingons led by L’Rell (Voq’s somewhat steamy first mate, arguably literally) while Saru assumes command and Burnham pushes her shipmates to save the dying tardigrade. The complexity comes with the maturity of these narrative threads’ presentation; like any good Star Trek episode, there’s a depth to the goings-on.
The majority of that depth stems from Burnham, who is more likable here than at any point in the first four episodes. That’s not to say she’s by any means bad earlier on, but I’ve found her writing somewhat inconsistent. There’s no way to know whether or not that inconstency will continue for a while to come, but I can say with enthusiasm that I greatly appreciate her empathetic struggle this week. There’s an obvious literary connection here between the tardigrade and Burnham herself; it’s served as metaphor for a woman who has suffered and found herself in unfamiliar territory. The anthropologist in me (of which there is plenty) has loved watching her develop this charming affection for the creature. It’s so alien and yet so oddly easy to sympathize with, despite killing Landry. Considering a big part of Discovery’s premise involves identifying with the ‘other’, I dig this all greatly. (And besides, was Landry really all that nice? Perhaps in hindsight it would have worked even better if she had been, since it’s not hard to say goodbye to her at all, whereas if she’d been more nuanced and approachable we might struggle a bit more to stop worrying and love the tardigrade.)
I’ve written a great deal about the tardigrade gig but I haven’t even touched the fact that Stamets and Tilly both got a lot of very agreeable material this week. The episode seemed to ease back on the Burnham-centric reins despite giving her the best material she’s gotten -- an irony, but a welcome one, as it allowed these two to be fleshed-out accordingly. Tilly continues to be a golden get; Mary Wiseman perfectly encapsulates her nervous excitement and earnest personality. I have to wonder -- and fear -- if she’s being set up to die later into the season. It would certainly be a dramatic blow. Stamets on the other hand is a rough-edged egotistical sort, but like Stargate Atlantis’ Rodney McKay, we’re seeing his self-sacrificial quest for scientific achievement now too. I admit to being played like a fiddle here because the episode opens with Burnham dreaming she’s hooked herself up to the machine and all throughout the hour I had wished they hadn’t shown that because it robbed what I expected to be the climax of some of its power. Then instead Stamets is the one who suits up; clever. Speaking of Stamets, good work revealing he’s got a thing with that Dr. Culber fellow, writers. Subtle and frank. I still feel like this whole “look, we finally have gay main characters!” is very, um, 2006, but Star Trek’s got a lot of ground to make up for, I suppose. I’m surely glad it’s finally happening.
There’s also the matter of Saru and Burnham, which is very nicely-handled here and feels like a well-earned partial exhalation after all the tension they’ve experienced together. Saru gets some good material here and the Enterprise fan in me smiled at the inevitable Jonathan Archer reference when he requested a list of Starfleet’s most distinguished prior captains. (I imagine more TOS-centric fans were especially enthusiastic about the Pike and April nods.) But the real meat of the episode is of course Lorca’s torture and our introductions to Ash Tyler and Mudd. Well, rather, our reintroduction to Mudd, classic TOS recurring antagonist, now played by The Office’s Rainn Wilson. While there’s a lot to like in this subplot, including some very welcome development for Lorca and a nice brooding atmosphere to the whole arrangement, my issues with “Choose Your Pain” are also all tied to this side of the story.
First, Discovery has a pacing problem. It just does. More often than not the pace is fine or even good, but on the occasions that it fails this aspect, it really goes the whole nine yards with that failure. This week, the egregious pacing issue rests squarely with Lorca’s capture in the teaser. We’re given a reasonable amount of time following his meeting with Starfleet brass, including newly-introduced Admiral Cornwell, but afterward we jump to some five seconds maximum of Lorca on a shuttlecraft en route back to the Discovery when suddenly, Klingons, everywhere. It was almost farcical how rapidly this occurs. Maybe it’s a stylistic choice -- “keep folks on the edge of their seat!” -- but it doesn’t work. Instead it comes across as breathless in a bad way and I’d really love to see the show improve here because it seems like almost every week there’s one glaring example of this awkward momentum at play.
I’m also not entirely sold yet on Mudd. To be fair, that’s not really Rainn Wilson’s doing. It’s Mudd’s doing. I have never been a Mudd fan. His TOS appearances are just painfully hokey o me and on the one hand I’m glad to see it toned down but on the other hand I kind of hope Wilson turns it up a notch. It’s hard to explain. Perhaps John Bishop in Fringe is a good example of what I’d like from this guy. Yeah, just give him some LSD and I think I’ll be good. This isn’t to say he doesn’t serve his role well in this episode, but if you’re going to shout “you haven’t seen the last of Harcourt Fenton Mudd”, maybe twitch and flail like a YouTube streamer while you’re at it. I don’t know. I’m a hard sell sometimes.
We’ll close this week’s review with a nice big four-syllable word called ‘implications’. There’s an implication here that we’ll see more Mudd. Which is fair, because, well, we will. There’s an implication here that Stamets is not quite well; we close the episode with his mirror reflection smiling creepily after he’s left his quarters. Could this be our segue into the Mirror Universe? Very, very probably, yes. (“But it’s too obvious!” Eh, Star Trek’s been off the air for 12 years. What’s obvious to the fans is less so to newcomers.) And my favorite implication of all -- the wild, crazy theory I just knew someone else had dreamed-up, although I must confess I wasn’t prepared for half of r/StarTrek to be dreaming it -- Ash Tyler is a genetically modified Voq. We’re told through Lorca his story’s a bit hard to believe. We’re told through Tyler himself that Klingon captain has taking a liking to him. The Klingon captain is L’Rell. Last week, L’Rell said Voq would have to sacrifice everything. Well, many of us figured that might have meant his Klingon identity, didn’t we? Now, there’s a chance this isn’t what’s happening here, but after seeing how many of my fellow fans are feeling it, I’m thinking it’s at least somewhat likely. The real question on my mind is, could Tyler be a sleeper agent? It felt very much like he believed who he was, especially with how raw his attack on L’Rell during the escape. If that’s true, we’re in for some ‘fun times’ ahead. I’m excited.
“Choose Your Pain” overcomes a hilarious title and some customary mishaps to deliver one of Discovery’s strongest episodes yet. A very solid 8.
Nice review...well done!
