SEASON 1, EPISODE 3: CONTEXT IS FOR KINGS
A list of links to the episodes rewatched so far can be found in the initial post.
Rating: 9/10.
TL;DR: Six months after the Battle at the Binary Stars, we follow prisoner Michael Burnham to her first encounter with a mysterious experimental starship called the
USS Discovery... and the threatening and awe-inspiring enigma of a technology that might just change the galaxy forever.
Recap: The prior episodes intrigued me on a first viewing and on the most recent viewings alike, but the truth is they weren't the first DISCO I saw. The very first episode of the series that I actually watched -- I had been reluctant to try it -- was
"Context is For Kings." It was a happy accident, because (and I know I'm not alone in this) this is the episode that got me hooked, and it's still not just one of the series' best, but IMO ranks with some of the best Trek has to offer, period.
The uninitiated viewer won't know any of the details covered in the first two episodes, but though they provide added texture to what happens here -- which I certainly appreciate now, watching this episode right after the opening two-parter -- you don't
need to know them. Michael Burnham is a famous "mutineer" being transported on a prison shuttle with some serious criminals, including at least one multiple murderer, through some kind of Skiffy Space Storm.
Her fellow convicts hold her responsible for starting the war. One of them in particular had a cousin on a ship named
Europa that was destroyed at the Binary Stars, and tells her that she has more than "eight thousand" deaths on her head. We immediately get a glimpse of Burnham's intensive mental skills as she quietly corrects the figure to precisely "8,186."
The shuttle is in trouble, infested by some kind of spaceborne lifeform that might deplete its power supply (one might later speculate, given what we see later, that the infestation may originate from a certain nearby ship). There's a bleakly funny gag with the shuttle pilot suiting up to make EVA and clean off the hull, promptly to be lost to the storm... but as the convicts seem certain to die with Michael staring serenely off into space and commenting on the likeliest causes of their demise as the others struggle with their shackles, the
Discovery retrieves them.
One of the coolest things about this episode is that while the
Discovery is a fine slice of sleek Starfleet technotopia, there's also a sense of slightly ominous mystery about it from the first moment. We meet charismatic security officer Landry right off the bat -- I still find myself immediately liking Landry, hardass though she plainly is -- but as one of the convicts mentions, it's weird that this brand-spanking-new ship straight off the assembly line isn't already soaking up Klingon disruptor fire at the battlefront.
What's going on here? Why are there so many "silvershirts" which are apparently the precursor of science officer blueshirts? Why are there officers with weird black badges? And if this is a Starfleet ship, why is Landry so apparently content to conduct Burnham to a mess hall for what would appear to be the specific purpose of watching what happens when her fellow inmates decide to take the death toll of the Binary Stars to "8,187" and attack her? (And for that matter... why
do they decide to suddenly attack her at the precise moment they're all seated in a room full of Starfleet personnel? Curiouser and curiouser.)
No sooner does this happen than -- as if on cue -- Burnham is ushered into the presence of Captain Gabriel Lorca. She sees her old friend Saru on the bridge along the way, the second familiar face from the
Shenzhou on this ship (she already ran into Keyla Detmers in the mess hall, now sporting her signature side shave and cyber-implants -- no doubt the results of an injury either at the Binary Stars or some battle after that). But Saru is quickly forgotten in the face of the Captain.
Lorca is compelling: all at once intriguing, eccentric, off-putting, enigmatic, charismatic, and demanding. Not for him all the usual pieties about Starfleet's peaceful primary mission as explorers and diplomats. He's here to win the war, full stop; the kind of captain that really thrives on conflict. And he has a collection of weird quirks and objects, like the bowlful of fortune cookies on his desk -- which also sports a cooing Tribble(!) -- and an aversion to light, or at least to quick changes in light. He at first asks for Burnham's help, but when she tries to refuse, pleading that she just wants to do her time quietly, he does not shrink from ordering her.
"I'm not a chauffeur; there are no free rides on my ship," he declares, and says he'll use whatever resources are to hand to achieve victory.
With that settled to at least some degree, Burnham is sent to her quarters, which it turns out she shares with the young and effervescent Cadet Tilly. (It's fascinating to encounter the early versions of these characters on a rewatch with some idea, now, of how someone like Tilly will grow over subsequent seasons. Mary Wiseman's debut here is still almost impossibly charming.) Tilly is friendly until she learns that her new "built-in friend" is Michael Burnham the mutineer, at which point she withdraws.
Cue our first Black Alert, which in this context is genuinely ominous, or at the very least seems
eldritch. "What is going on on this ship?" Burnham wonders as she watches weird glimmering spores and condensation materializing next to her... but Tilly curls into her bunk and stays mum. It's interesting to see the extent to which this is played as something like the introduction to a horror scenario.
The next day sees Saru escorting Burnham to what is supposedly a short-term assignment in engineering. There is a great exchange between the two outside the doors of engineering as Burnham tries to somehow apologize for what happened at the Binary Stars, and Saru hovers between sympathy and vindictiveness as he informs her that while he believes she has regrets, he also thinks she is dangerous, and intends to protect his sometimes-reckless Captain from her darker side.
During Burnham's sojourn in engineering, Tilly (also on assignment there) makes an awkward attempt to cold-shoulder her and we meet Paul Stamets for the first time. This is the touchy, somewhat prissy and clearly hard-pressed early version of him, clearly irritated at having to include this interloper in his process.
We catch Stamets in mid-conversation with a fellow-genius and old friend named "Straal" -- they both refer to uninvited eavesdroppers on their conversations as "lurkers" -- and Stamets orders Burnham to reconcile some incredibly abstruse code. Later, he is incredibly annoyed when she finds an error in it, and otherwise tries to keep her at arms' length: after all, she's both a convict and worse, a temp. After her shift, Burnham contrives -- with a literally unconscious assist from roommate Tilly -- to break into a secure chamber where she finds an astonishingly beautiful "forest" of fungus.
The following day sees dark news from Captain Lorca. The
Discovery's sister ship, the
Glenn, has been lost with all hands. Lorca orders a landing party to investigate, puts Stamets in charge of recovering all the scientific material on the Glenn, and orders him to include Burnham in the party. (There's a great exchange where Stamets questions involving her at this level, and Lorca orders Saru to assess Burnham's abilities from their years together aboard the Shenzhou. Saru admits that "mutiny aside," she is the "smartest" Starfleet officer he's ever known. Lorca gives Stamets a wry look and adds: "And he knows
you.") On the shuttle flight over, Stamets explains at Burnham's insistence -- no doubt still smarting from Lorca's jab -- that his field is astromycology and that it has to do with the miracle of "panspermia," with "physics as biology." He also recounts being scooped out of the lab along with his best friend, who is now dead because of research with which he doesn't fully trust the "warmonger" Lorca.
What follows is a classic sci-fi horror excursion (except that they get out alive) aboard the
Glenn, where the entire crew has been killed by some kind of accident related to its experiments, and where a crew of Klingon raiders has run across something massive and dangerous with claws that can rip through advanced metal alloys. They escape with Burnham decoying the creature, which it becomes clear is a giant-sized tardigrade with an aggressive disposition.
Back on
Discovery, Saru escorts Burnham to a debrief with Lorca and remarks that she has comported herself "respectably" during her supposedly temporary assignment. In session with Lorca, though, the Captain formally invites her to join his crew. When she questions why he wants her to stay -- and notes that she's well aware that he has manipulated events to get her on board and that she's not actually willing to engage in the illegal weapons tests that she assumes are underway -- he replies that the events of the Binary Stars shows that she evinces "the kind of thinking that wins wars." He takes her on a tour of the spore drive and of the wonders it promises, admits that he did choose her but not for weapons tests, and delivers the famous
"universal law is for lackeys, context is for kings" speech that finally persuades her.
The episode ends with Burnham taking her first steps to settle in on Discovery -- much to Saru's displeasure, and it's a nice touch that we see his threat ganglia activate as the prison shuttle leaves without her aboard -- and the
Glenn being scuttled. We're not done with ominous mystery, though, as we're shown that Landry has smuggled the giant tardigrade into secret captivity at Lorca's orders.
HIGHLIGHTS
It "Doesn't Feel Like Trek": "Context is For Kings" delivered something genuinely new in the Trek universe. On a different Trek show, the drama of the
Discovery and the
Glenn would have been the stuff of a one-off episode that cautioned against questionably ethical attempts to trump warp drive technology. After the destruction of the
Glenn, a regular Trek show would never mention the spore drive again (or at most, would revisit it in another one-off with much the same point a few seasons later, maybe with Section 31 trying to resuscitate these evil experiments or something like that).
DISCO makes no pretense of giving all of this the usual treatment. The spore drive is here to stay, this whole incredibly questionable top-secret R&D project being the key to winning the war. Lorca's ethically ambivalent status is also here to stay: we're not shown that he was Right and Good All Along, although we're certainly shown how he makes his point of view enticing even to someone like Burnham who -- mutiny aside -- is largely a by-the-book classic Starfleet officer at her core. The tension and ambiguity of Lorca will, if I'm remembering rightly, fuel a good part of the season.
Discovery herself is introduced as enigmatic and a bit... the word I've repeatedly used is
ominous, and I'm sticking with it. There are no adoring shuttle fly-arounds, no sentimentality about what a fine ship she is. The crew we meet mostly respect their Captain but are also clearly somewhat frightened either
of or
for him, or both. Landry, as we see in the episode's final scene, has a level of loyalty to Lorca that can be fairly described as almost creepy. It isn't fully clear whether or not Burnham is making a deal with a kind of devil, even if a necessary one, when she agrees to stay.
I love all of this. The ethical questions typical of Trek are still at play, but
Discovery exists in a universe where the triumph of good is not guaranteed -- even within the society of the show's protagonists -- making it a show in conversation with the flawed reality in which it's produced. It felt
fresh to me, though still in continuity with what came before, and that hooked me.
Once Again, the Cast: After this entry, I'm going to stop commenting on the across-the-board excellence of Doug Jones as Saru. I pinky-promise.
Henceforth, let it be stipulated that I think he is the most impressive actor to play an alien crewman in any Trek show since Nimoy as Spock in TOS. I would even tentatively say that
(stage whisper engaged) in terms of the consistency of his conception and writing and the ineluctable quality of the performance, he may have created a notch
above Nimoy.
(Yes, I know this to be sacrilege. But I think it may be true, and the rewatch is bringing home to me just how
true it is.)
There is never, ever a moment when Jones doesn't simply embody Saru like a fully-fledged person whose consciousness and physicality were just
there to be accessed. And I think he deserves his flowers; the only other actors who compete with him in this regard are (I would argue) Brent Spiner and Michael Dorn on TNG, and Rene Auberjenois and Armin Shimerman on DS9. But even in
that august company, he stands out. In future entries, I'll only comment on him when the performance rises above (or less likely, falls below) these stratospheric standards.
Everyone else is great. Martin-Green is still consistently excellent as Burnham, walking the fine line of an incredibly complex character with confidence and verve. Wiseman's Tilly and Anthony Rapp's Stamets are both instantly vivid and likeable, and both serve as sources of fairly graceful exposition (excepting a very brief
As You Know, Bob conversation between Stamets and the short-lived Straal). So is Landry, even if we're clearly not
meant to like her. And by the Great Bird of the Galaxy, Jason Isaacs' Gabriel Lorca is truly unique as a starship Captain and a big part of what makes DISCO so refreshing. I can see why many fans fell somewhat in love with this character.
As with the opening two-parter, even the bit players nail it, like Burnham's convict companions from the shuttle. And this time, there are no weak links. At least not anyone I noticed. As I can remember doing on a first watch, I regret that more use isn't made of Lt. Commander Airiam (who is usually just a background character with a badass character design that must have involved a lot of time in the makeup chair). As such, her actress gets almost nothing to do, but heck, she does that "almost nothing" capably, too.
Paul Stamets & Astromycology: DISCO and its spore drive
riff on the very real science of astromycology and a very real pioneer of said discipline also named Paul Stamets, who was consulted on how to work his discipline into the Trek universe. The real Stamets was reportedly proud to see the fictional counterpart of his work appear on a show that would appeal to young people. I like this connection to real scientific innovation in the real world, even if the connection is of course more than a bit arm-wavy (see below).
A Sense of Wonder: Speaking of astromycology, the glimpses we get here of the spore drive and the mycelial forest supporting it are memorable and noteworthy. Watching Burnham marvel at the fungal growth chamber's beauty is to marvel along with her.
Horror Aboard the Glenn: The fate of the
Glenn's crew is like if we saw the final result of the infamous transporter accident in
Star Trek: The Motion Picture, and it is haunting. The giant tardigrade is an incredibly frightening antagonist, and really everything about the
Glenn -- including Short-Lived Shushing Klingon Raider -- is darned compelling. Farewell, Straal, who never gets a first name that I know of: we hardly knew ye.
What I Now Know is Foreshadowing: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland see very nifty usage in Burnham's chase with the giant tardigrade, and in the episode's epilogue. I now know that this is setting up other Alice-themed things later in the season, and that's pretty nifty.
LOWLIGHTS
None, really. Pretty much everything works, here. I would rate it as a classic episode.
JUST NUTREK THINGS
The Rule of Space Cool: The space storm that bedevils the prison shuttle in the opening, and the Extremely Dramatic Tractor Beam that rescues it.
The Rule of Big Swings or Rubber Science? No! The Rule of Big Swings as Rubber Science! DISCO's take on astromycology of course adapts the real-life science to the fiction with lots of armwaving, swinging for the very quasars at the edge of the universe in adapting the theorized role of fungal life in "panspermia" in particular. Fictional Stamets' explanation of the interface between physics and biology is definitely
at the point of being rubber science in the finest NuTrek fashion. It's sort of vague as to whether the mycelial network literally means that fungal networks are the "muscles" connecting the cosmos, or that the mycelial network is a cosmic phenomenon
poetically analogous to and
partially connected with fungi. Real-Life Stamets' comments seem to imply that his consultations recommended the latter interpretation, but it's possible that this got lost in translation.
The other side of the coin of this being unlike normal Trek, of course, is that if you don't like the idea of the mycelial network, you're stuck with it from this point to the end of the show. It is the basic engine, literal and figurative, that drives DISCO. I don't personally think it's any worse in terms of believability than warp drive or artificial gravity, and it most certainly isn't worse than even more rubber-science NuTrek conceits like "red matter" and transwarp beaming, so it wasn't a dealbreaker for me. In part, that's admittedly because my head canon relates the spore drive to Real-Life Stamets' framing.
The Very Visible VFX Budget: Like any episode of DISCO, this episode is chock full of jaw-dropping visuals, particularly including the extremely convincing CGI tardigrade. But I think what really brings home the sheer investment in the show's VFX is that Lt. Commander Airiam, a character design nearly as elaborate as Saru, is a
background character. That is wild to me.
You can definitely see that.
