Spoilers Star Trek: Discovery 2x12 - "Through the Valley of Shadows"

Much better than last week, or even the week before. Still no If Memory Serves though.

Breaking down my thoughts on each part of the show:

• The Pike on Boreth plot was mostly great. Anson Mount put in a fine performance, and it was chilling - yet gripping - to see the accident finally dramatized. It was also nice to see a different sort of Klingon from what we are used to with the monks. My only problem with the plot is nothing about the time crystals in this episode made a lick of sense. I'd say it was a fantasy element dropped into a science-fiction show, but it's not even that. It's just a hastily constructed plot device which does what the show requires. As long as you ignore that, however, it was a good element of the episode.
  
  
• The Burnham/Spock B plot on the Section 31 ship was meh. First, SMG's acting was off this episode again. Like the time that she said to Spock "I'm not angry, I'm furious" in a completely level tone of voice. Even two episodes ago I thought she was really hitting it out of the park. But in every scene, she's outshone by Peck as Spock. Even outshone by the Control-possessed mook of the week, who is a convincing character until he goes all bond villain. Which gets to the other issue - the plot is boilerplate, and does nothing whatsoever to even bring the arc along further. Honestly, I'm not sure who thought it would be helpful to have fights for two weeks in a row between a character and a control-assimilated person. The only thing I can think of I'm supposed to get out of this is that losing mama again knocked Michael back on her heels, and this gets her groove back. But I think that could have been dealt with through a 5-minute conversation somewhere, with more focus on Pike.
  
  
• There's a couple bits of non-plot character work. One is Ash's journey - dealing with his unsettled feelings about abandoning his son, meeting L'Rell again, etc. The initial bits where he talks to Michael about things are painful - as are all his scenes with Michael. His later scenes with L'Rell are much, much better. Still, I've come to the conclusion Latif just isn't one of the best actors on the show. He's not given the best role, but he does nothing with it other than make it relentlessly bland, where a greater actor would help to bring out the torture within.
  
  
• The other big character work involves Stamets and Culber. This stuff is great. Stamets gets basically one scene, but considering how much the show has been ignoring him, it's great that he got that one scene. Culber is kinda bland in comparison to the last few episodes in sick bay, but he's really there to get lectured to Reno (and Tig Notaro shows she can do more than snark). The group mess hall scene was much appreciated, but...where the fuck is Tilly? You have Stamets and Reno eating with four extras, and you can't have Tilly there? Did she even appear in this episode?

So yeah, good, but not great.

 

Even the Klingons on Boreth talk more like "normal" Klingons from the rest of the franchise. This episode is full of good stuff.

 

Star Trek: Star trek ?

 

Damn straight

 

Correct.

 

It was notable how little makeup Voq's son had on the lower part of his face. It looked like it was mostly his natural bone structure.

On the other hand, L'Rell looked more made up than she did earlier in the series. She had those obscenely big prosthetic lips again which were clearly pulling away where they were in contact with her own lips. And she was slurring heavily at times.

 

Did I misunderstand the scene in the episode? I was expecting him to save cadets, but we only see him attempt a single rescue and it ends in failure. I suppose it's less poignant a decision for him to make if he knows he's going to suffer heroically versus simply suffer from the attempt, but I felt like the scene was not showing enough of his actions there as I would hope.

 

DSC sometimes has a habit of going in the right direction to correct problems but then backsliding in later episodes. I hope L'Rell's makeup becomes more simplified both for Mary Chieffo's sake and the audience.

 

Shit! So that's how we find out what happened with Pike!

I like L'Rell's hair and make-up in this one. Especially the hair.

 

Her hair is a HUGE improvement for her overall appearance.

 

Memory-Alpha users asking the most important questions

So they don't need to change the name of the show.

 

OH GOD!!!!!!!!!!

Damn. If I were looking at myself in the future, and it were like that... I couldn't do it.

 

Disclaimer: I rate each episode on its own merits, in isolation from the rest of the episodes, seasons, or even other series.

All that said, this one gets a genuine 10/10 from me. (Granted, one contributing factor is it demonstrates beyond a doubt that we'll not be seeing the genesis of the Borg, a fact for which I am eternally grateful. )

 

It's possible. It was obviously very selective.

I guess there's just a tension between the needs of the narrative, and the fact that this is something we've known about for a long time and had never seen. I suppose I'm glad that they chose to serve the current narrative, so long as it's not meant to contradict the heroic sacrifice but merely be a narrow window into it.

Either way, that scene immediately following where Pike makes his choice was a deeply moving one. Pike is amazing.

 

If so it didn’t represent it very well.

 

Seriously though guys, where is Tilly? I skimmed through a few scenes, and she wasn't even on the bridge in the background this week.

 

She went to the same place Jet goes to.

 

Star Trek: Season 0

 

Delta radiation: it sucks.