This one gets
9/10.
I LOVED it overall; but it had some minor things I didn't care for and sorry 40 minutes is still TOO DAMN SHORT>
!
Liked:
- The way the tension was handled between Pike and Tyler/Voq. (LOVED the line: "The Chair outranks the Badge..." line; and the fact Pike was NOT impressed by Tyler throwing the "Hay, I'm Section 31's liaison, so you have to work with me..." bit. Pike was having none of it and for once we have a Captain that didn't just cry to higher authority (like some other Captains have done in the TNG era a few times in similar situations); Pike just used the Regs and DIRECTLY ASSERTED the authority a Starfleet Captain has.
- That Pike is flawed, not thinking completely clearly and is still PISSED he sat out the Klingon/Federation War and is trying to prove himself to himself (and that he took Tyler along because he figured if they bought it - too birds with one stone.
)
- That they did allow Tyler to show/prove to Pike by his actions that maybe he's not such a bad guy, and is more Human than Klingon and can work for the good of the team. Pike still doesn't (and probably shouldn't) trust Tyler fully; but they moved both characters past the "To me, you're the Enemy.." stage in a believable way. (YMMV).
- That overall the presentation of the Time Rift WAS shown as dangerous and unpredictable; and further that the crew on all levels was just freaked the hell out. (And yes, I'm harping on the TNG/Berman era because If this were TNG, we'd still see some simple temporal weirdness and the Anomaly would be something they could have just scan by modifying the Deflector Dish and emitting a 'particle of the week'.) The stuff with the Anomaly here did feel unpredictable and dangerous; and while the solution WAS ultimately "Stamets and his Tartigrade DNA..." - it wasn't a linear standard Trek line solution.
- That whomever or whatever is doing these Temporal Incursions is 'fighting back' (IE The realize the U.S.S. Discovery is doing something that could interfere; so they take their Probe, modify it; and send it back to stop them. It brings up that the whole timeline is in flux and the entities of the future aren't omniscient - and there no 'set path' the timeline seems destined to follow. (I HATED the TCW aspect of ENT - but the way they're executing a similar situation here is sitting better with me. That said, if they start going down the whole 'predestined' route like they did with the TCW in ENT - my view of this plot device in this story could change to a negative one; but at this point I find it intriguing. YMMV.
)
- The family tension between Micheal/Amanda/Sarek. That was VERY WELL DONE and interesting. For once we have a family relationship dynamic where the motivations of all the characters make sense - and I like that you can tell Amanda is still really pissed at Burnham because of what Burnham revealed to her; AND she pissed at Sarek because this whole situation has driven home what she sacrificed to be with him (and realizes he WOULDN'T have gone as far as she did for their relationship) - BUT she does still love the both of them and in the end wants what she thinks is best for everyone, including Spock who she is protecting. It was a complex dynamic but it was all played off well (IMO).
[Observation: The casting of 'Amada' is wonderful on all levels. She very much looked like a younger Jane Wyatt in this one and the performance she gave was wonderful too.]
- LOVED Michelle Yeoh 100%. This show is lucky to have her. I LOVED how she's portraying what she's been given to do as the former Terran Empress; and the entire sequence of scenes that involved her and SMG as Burnham were MARVELOUS. I LOLed hard with some of the staged fight sequence; and LOVED the look she gave Burnham after she shot at (and came close to make it look good) her with the Phaser. (I'd love to see any BTS stuff where I'm sure Michelle Yeoh was giving SMG pointers/choreographing the sequence because yeah, I'm sure Michelle Yeoh had to dial it down so SMG didn't look completely out of her league in the fight sequence on camera.)
- I also like that they have the former Terran Empress still scheming on how to get/consolidate what power she can. The character is NOT being altruistic toward Burnham or Spock in any way, regardless of the reasons she claims to be helping her. Everything the character does is for her own personal gain in some respect - and I like the writers are doing that and not really softening of attempting to overtly Humanize the character.
- That the audience was shown Airiam was OBVIOUSLY compromised by the modified Probe; BUT did it in such a way that it's believable the Discovery crew (because of the situation) didn't notice.
Disliked:
- The Technobabble. Sorry, but I don't need to hear Tilly and Stamets spout meaningless TNG era style technobabble...PERIOD. TOS avoid it to this level for the most part for 80 episodes; and no one ever thought any less of the show for it. It's the 23rd century. Just have the characters do it and not spend minutes theorizing what to do and why it will work. "Stamets your Tartigrade DNA should allow you to make sense of this..." should have been all the audience needed to know.
- That the episode was only 40 minutes total INCLUDING the credits and next weeks teaser. I know they want to have the episode "run the length that's needed..."; but come on, if you have an 'Hour Format' - said writing staff should be able to at least get 42 - 45 actual 'story' minutes in a single episode. WTF?
Seriously, had it been a bit longer, I might have given this one a 10; but to repeat, it still gets a
9/10 from me.
