Okay, I got some opinions about this episode:
- I really mostly liked what was on screen this episode
- I don't think I like what they are setting up for the series' future
Recap
This episode consisted
mostly of completely ridiculous and arbitrary technobabble set-up scenes explaining why they have to go to the future. And the other half was long, emotional good-bye scenes between the characters that are meant to leave. Pretty much confirming the "DISCO will jump to the future"-theories (because otherwise everything would have been completely pointless). Thrown in there LOTS of TOS bones for the fans, to
such a degree this episode is very well a backdoor pilot for a Pike-Enterprise series.
Review
The problem is:
For the most part this is only franchise management. Often directly going in the way of natural storytelling.
I really, really wish they would have got "Discovery" the show on really solid ground for a few seasons before announcing spin-off shows. Instead, they're putting the cart before the horse, and stealing the show's own thunder to use it to set up future spin-offs. I really think thworing the Discovery into the future isn't a great idea. I'd much rather wish they try to actually follow through on being that re-imagined prequel, and would only try to
get better at it, instead of completely throwing the premise out of the window and trying to create a competely new show from scratch.
Problems for the FIinale
The most serious issue I see is that - like last season - the finale has to cover a LOT of ground now. It literally has to solve ALL the plot issues, work as a conclusion for the entire season, and at the same time still explain the main mystery of the season (the signals).
And probably work as a set-up for a complete re-vamp, for future seasons, and we'll probably see Control become the Borg in the final five minutes.
All of which while using most of it's screen time for a big battle.
Be prepared folks, that like last season, the next episode might not be able to be neatless solve the entire season in 45 minutes. I really wish they would have learned from previous arcs - the Dominion war arc(s) and the Xindi-arc both took the time and resolved most of their recurring plot elements in the episodes
before the grand finale, so that that they all got the time and focus they deserve. Throwing all in a single episode again might lead up to overload. Again.
What I liked
- The original Enterprise was nice. SO many little details, designs and on and on. To be honest - this is how a TOS era prequel show should have looked like right from the beginning. That being said - I really wish they would nudge the Discovery herself into that direction, instead of handing the prequel baton over to Pike's Enterprise and fuck off to the future. I like the Enterprise as shown here - but I still don't care about another prequel series
- Most of the character scenes were really well handled.
- The red angel pulling humans for New Eden finally made (a bit of) sense - setting up a future human colony for Ma Burnham, so that she isn't alone, without polluting the timeline by picking up people that were otherwise about to die. I mean, she could have gotten humans that were about to die from her own timeline (say, from a doomed ship in the Klingon war) - but that was fine as well.
Neutral observation
- The scene with the unfolding "evacuation corridors" from the Enterprise to the Discovery looked kinda' goofy.
But I like some good, old engineering, and corridors are IMO much better than beaming everyone onver. I just wish the "walls" were maybe fabric (like in real spaceships) instead of force-fields...
What I didn't like
- Sooo.... the Short Treks really were essential viewing? That's bad, especially since they were dumped on Netflix without warning. I knew about them. But my friends watching the show who aren't hanging around on Trek forums didn't even knew they existed
- The technobabble was atrocious - even for Star Trek. Yes, they tried to make it "cool" with supernova explosions, lots of cute giddiness and human analogies. But that doesn't cover up that - as far as Treknobabbel went - this one was bad. Usually technobabbel was used as filler. But now it isn't used to serve the plot - it IS the plot! All the big goodbyes were only because that lousy technobabbel didn't allowed for other solutions (like blowing up the ship with a good old torpedo next to the warp core...)
- Sarek and Amanda arriving on a ship in crisis, say goodbye, and fuck off. Without bringin any help. That scene would have worked better as a hologram communication (with "help can't reach you in time").
- Tyler chosing Section 31 (that is about to destroy the universe) over saving the universe with Michael and going into an unknown future didn't make a lick of sense - it wasn't character motivated, but because he's cast in the spin-off S3 show. Franchise-management.
Final Grade
8/10
As I said - I liked MOST of the single elements of this episode. The only real issue I have is with the franchise management taking over. Whenevery they actually DO focus on
their characters and stuff, it's actually pretty great.
