Wow, another very good episode of
Discovery! This might be my new favorite episode of the show. Thinking about it, this season has been quite the up 'n' down turbolift/rollercoaster ride for me, with strong episodes like “Brother”, “New Eden”, “The Sound of Thunder” and now “If Memory Serves” almost taking turns with more mediocre (“An Obol for Charon” or “Light and Shadows”) or downright bad episodes (“Point of Light”). In general though, the show feels much stronger and more focused than it did in season one. I hope this trend continues.
Right from the get-go – with its retro “Previously on
Star Trek” montage (which positively startled me) – “If Memory Serves” felt like a very special episode. I feel like they went all in this time on touching upon the fans' nerd sensibilities, and I'm glad they did. Everything felt right for me, Talos IV, the Talosians, Vina, Pike and Spock.
I must say I immediately fell in love with Peck's portrayal of Spock! What a great performance. I already love him much more than Quinto's Spock, which wasn't bad, but never stopped to remind me that it wasn't Nimoy-Spock I'm seeing. For some reason Peck instantly registers as the original to me. I hope he sticks around much longer on the show.
Is that the access who plays L'Rell as the female Talosian?
Interesting. My wife asked the same thing. Her voice was very similar, wasn't it? But apparently it was
another actress.
I believe I spotted Lieutenant Nilsson, aka the first Airiam actress Sara Mitich, in this episode. If that was her that I spotted, she even had dialogue.
Yes, I'm glad they finally gave her some lines. Would be neat if they expand upon her character. I don't know what it is about her performance that I like so much, but somehow I thought her Airiam was way more interesting. I feel that Cheesman plays her much more robot-like, which takes away from the mystique, I think.
I feel this episode did what a good prequel should do; adding details, context, and meaning to what came before. I came away from the episode feeling excited about this show.
Yes, this was the best kind of prequel they can do. They already did a similar thing back in “Lethe” where they added interesting context to the complicated relationship between Sarek and Spock. What they did in “If Memory Serves” nicely complements what we knew of Vina's and Pike's story from “The Cage” and “The Menagerie”.
(And her gloating about Genocide still has me wondering why she's getting her own show)
This had me rolling my eyes as well. Way to destroy the little bits of sympathy the audience might have developed for her over the course of the last couple of episodes.
I agree on the first point. I found that scene to be heartwrenching. And while it does change my opinion of her, it really makes me like her more as a character. I like it when good people do shitty things for what they believe to be the right (but ultimately wrong) reasons. To me, that's the core of great character development. It's Xander telling Buffy to kill Angel.
Nicely put. The scene was written and acted pretty well by all involved. This was also the first time I didn't dislike the young actor who's playing Spock as a child. Very impressive emoting going on in his face in this scene.
The two things that annoyed me about this episode were the lighting (too many damned lens flares) and the camera angles. It felt very strange on Discovery at times.
I agree. While I loved the writing and performances in this one, the directing felt a little off in some places. The lense flares on Talos IV and in the Burnham flashbacks worked pretty well, because they fit the theme of illusions, but why the hell would they film Saru and Pike with a fish eyes lense in the corridor, or employ a Dutch angle in the turbolift scene with Pike? I'm not saying the camera makes me dizzy or anything, but some of the creative choices called a little too much attention to themselves and were used in questionable instances.
Am I correct in my impression that they somehow made Vina a complete and total surprise? I had absolutely no expectation of seeing the character.
The characterization was spot-on. Great performance by the actress.
I would have LOVED to be surprised by Vina's appearance, hadn't Netflix pretty much spoiled it with their preview image of the episode, which shows Vina standing in front of the Talosians.
I LOVED how they chose that specific insult because it ties into TOS' This Side of Paradise. Kirk uses that slur to anger Spock, and now we see why it works so well!
Yeah! I hadn't even thought about that, but yeah, it even adds context to that particular episode.
The Section 31 stuff. Why the fuck would Starfleet admirality trust them more than their own fleet, and their decorated Captain Pike? Especially considering how it's all about Spock. This makes no sense at all, and also makes S31 look rather incompetent - why do they pick an open fight with a Starfleet ship, instead of doing covert spy stuff? And why do they have the backing of the people they openly fight?
Yes, I was asking myself the same questions. Why does the admiralty of Starfleet task Section 31 with tracking down Spock? Why wouldn't they just mobilize the entire fleet (!) that's at their disposal? This is not even a problem of not fitting previous depictions of Section 31 in
Star Trek. I just don't understand how they make any sense in how they are portrayed here.
