So, uhm, I have to admit, I kinda forgot about the new season until this week, with how much was going on in my life recently, but it was surprisingly easy to get back into the hang of things. The episode started slowly, with an almost boringly formula "sent on a highly classified mission in pursuit of scavengers with stolen artifacts" action movie plot, but the character moments and the slow peppering of the overarching mission of the season slowly but steadily elevated it into an eager hype to see how this goes again. The Progenitors from The Chase, with one of the Romulans from their team finding the secret of creating life? No wonder it's the most prized quarry in the entire galaxy, and it's perfectly understandable why Kovich had all the details classified, perhaps even by direct order of the president herself. After all, the technology that created all sentient life in the galaxy and was first thought up as a roundabout way to explain why most sentient life was humanoid and could have fertile offspring with each other, could plausibly be used to create biological weapons of a frightening magnitude, or even something like a hyper-charged version of the Genesis wave. If the public learned of this, it could very well cause a mass panic.
Moll and L'ak are shaping up to be intriguing antagonists, even if I misjudged them at first; back on the Romulan ship (itself a beautifully rendered adaptation of a classic design), they didn't seem to go out of their way to cause harm, incapatitating Owo and Rhys, but they showed they meant business by blowing Burnham out into space to cover for their escape. But they quickly showed their ruthlessly pragmatic, villainous side by killing Fred after he double-crossed them so that he couldn't tell the contents of Vellek's diary to anyone else (I expected them to just deactivate him, but they evidently want to leave no loose ends behind), and then they expertly manipulated Burnham and Rayner's Federation priorities and sensibilities by causing an avalanche threatening thousands of people, which read to me as them knowing they'll give up pursuit to save innocent lives because that's what Starfleet does. As for Rayner, he's a classic Javert-type character who has clearly allowed his history with the pair to become personal, even if he begrudgingly agrees with Burnham in the end that saving lives is more immediately important. And I liked his constant trolling of Burnham and Book, which felt to me like him intentionally antagonizing these random outsiders intruding on
his job.
And, of course, Tilly. Oh, Sylvia Tilly, how I love you so; Mary Wiseman excelled in the role as usual, exaggerating Tilly's, well, Tilliness by just the exact amount one would expect from being drunk and very ineptly trying to hide it from her colleague. I must say though, I expected something darker based on the episode synopsis, so the fact that her getting entangled in a web of secrecy turned out to be a comic relief subplot (complete with her successfully breaking into the most secure database possible WHILE STILL DRUNK) came as a surprise, albeit perfectly fitting her character, especially with her unexpected mentor figure Dadmiral Vance coming to the rescue and offering his full support.
And naturally, Saru and T'Rina just filled me with so much squee. His speech at the end was so romantic and so Saru-like. Now we only need some Keyla and Owo content, and we'll be all set. Well, I'd also love some Burnham/Tilly content, but her and Book just made their de facto break up official, so it would be a bit in bad taste.
TRIVIA:
- Tholians and Breens mentioned as the local bad guys? Well, some things never change.
- Romulan handwriting looks very nice, plausibly derived from the printed characters while also being reminiscent of Vulcan writing as well
- "Just Fred" kind of reminded me of Lore in a way, with his obnoxious rubbing-his-literacy-in-your-face-with-a-smirk conversation style
- I saw some people refer to Indiana Jones as a primer for what this season will feel like, with some even specifically mentioning The Last Crusade, and funnily enough, we even have something approximating Henry Sr's diary and Indy's rubbing of the crusader's coffin
- Burnham screwing up and immediately being reprimanded by both Rayner and Kovich almost felt like an answer to the flurry of criticism that she always gets away with everything. Further, Starfleet shuttering the spore drive and Paul lamenting that he could've made it work almost sounds like the series itself reflecting on how some viewers saw the concept. The pathway drive itself sounds akin to the well-known slipstream, as if to symbolize the creators giving in and returning to more familiar themes and concepts in their pursuit of the approval of a vocal, more nostalgia-minded part of the fandom.
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