flying ghoti

DIS S5E4, “Face the Strange”: Listen: Burnham and Rayner have come unstuck in time. A classic little time hijinks episode, quite a bit of fun, with some decent and much-needed character growth for Rayner in there. Will I like him more after this? We shall see.

DIS S5E3, “Jinaal”: Burnham meets with a Trill who has the next clue in the puzzle. The best part of this episode was seeing Saru and T'Rina navigate a sticking point in their relationship like the adorable cinnamon rolls they are. The worst part was Rayner. I have Concerns about Rayner.

I'm sure I'll have more to say about Rayner as the season goes on, but he too is a bold choice to promote to main character. He's an out and proud asshole, and while I can kiiiinda see what Michael sees in him, I don't love the idea that he is in some sense what the Federation needs. We'll see.

DIS S5E2, “Under the Twin Moons”: Discovery races to find the Progenitor tech. This so far really echoes “The Chase”, the episode it's riffing on – which is a pretty divisive episode to choose as the basis for an entire season! I like it, but a lot of people really don't, and I totally get why.

DIS S5E1, “Red Directive”: Kovich sends Discovery on a classified mission to recover something from an ancient Romulan ship. Starting the season with an explicit TNG callback is a choice, one that reminds me of Picard S3 too much for me to be uncautiously optimistic. But I'll be happy to be wrong.

The story was compelling and managed to be both very Star Trek and also very different from the typical Star Trek storyline. It's got a little bit of “Arrival” in there, which is a flavor of SF that Trek doesn't usually incorporate. Refreshingly novel without abandoning the classic utopian ethos.

So that's Discovery season 4, which I would say was at least as good as season 3! Less thematically coherent – my initial guess after episode 1 that the season would be about “Michael's pathological desire to save everyone” was WAY wrong, that never came back at all – but more consistent in quality.

But that quibble aside, it's an excellent cap to an excellent season. We even got Tilly back for a bit! The resolution worked for me; it's hard to show consequences that feel weighty enough while still showing the Federation's commitment to restorative justice, but I think they walked the line okay.

DIS S4E13, “Coming Home”: Discovery has only hours left to reach an understanding with the Ten-C, and there's still a pretty big problem in the way. Not as much cool xenolinguistics this time; even extremely complex sentiments are communicated easily. I see why they did it, but it's still a letdown.

Also, Saru and T'Rina are adorable and I ship them so hard. I absolutely love that even as this incredibly high stakes situation plays out with the fate of entire worlds in the balance, there's still time for Saru to worry about “okay but does she LIKE like me?”

DIS S4E12, “Species Ten-C”: Discovery makes first contact, but there's a complication. I really liked this one; it felt like the whole story of the season has fully come together now, plus there's some very cool xenolinguistics going on. A definite high note to go into the season finale.

I went into this episode hoping for a “Darmok”, and sadly, this isn't that. We don't get that same excitement of really crossing a linguistic barrier. But we do learn that the Ten-C are big floaty dudes who hang out in a gas giant's atmosphere and communicate with pheromones. A good starting point.

DIS S4E11, “Rosetta”: Burnham explores a Species Ten-C ruin hoping for some clue about their culture. Star Trek rarely features really *alien* aliens, which on some level is intentional, because ultimately it's about humanity. But the Ten-C seem to be an interesting semi-exception, and that's neat.

The B-plot gives us Ruon Tarka's backstory in an apparent attempt to humanize him after last episode. It doesn't really work, if the goal is to make me like him more. He's still a selfish egomaniac who's driven by all the wrong motivations. Not a badly written character, just a deeply unlikable one.

DIS S4E10, “The Galactic Barrier”: Discovery must, well, cross the galactic barrier. That's a callback aaaall the way back to the second Star Trek episode ever produced, “Where No Man Has Gone Before”. Kinda cool, as I approach the end of my watch, that an episode from 60 years ago remains relevant.

Nhan is back for an episode, which the show clearly thinks I'll be very excited about, but since I thought for a moment they were bringing back Tilly, I was actually kinda disappointed. I'm sorry, showrunners, I just don't have strong feelings about Nhan! Should have made her do more in season 2!

DIS S4E9, “Rubicon”: Burnham has to stop Book before he blows up the DMA… somehow? Again, we get the results of some good setup, as everyone involved has clear, established motivations that conflict with each other in interesting ways. It's a very character-driven piece, and the payoff feels earned.

The structure of the episode is odd in places – a lot of it is devoted to Burnham and Book working to earn the latinum to buy the isolynium, which is a bit of a cul-de-sac – but overall I think it works. I really liked Owo's brief scene with Tarka; it's good to see the secondary characters interact.

DIS S4E8, “All In”: Burnham chases Book to a casino where he hopes to buy isolynium to destroy the DMA. Again, I quite like Book and Burnham and hate to see them on opposite sides, but I like that we've been given ample evidence for why each of them would feel the way they do. Good setup and payoff.

Oh, and I just want to say I think it's very funny every time people just use their personal transporters to just get to the other side of a room. You'd think there'd be transport inhibitors next to, y'know, the Federation President, but apparently not.

Among other questions… why's he even got glasses? It's the 32nd century! But I digress. This episode is hard to watch because I hate to see Michael and Book at odds, but I appreciate that they both raise good points; there's no strawman in the fight. It's a genuine dilemma with huge risk either way.

DIS S4E7, “…But to Connect”: Burnham and Book are on different sides of the issue of what to do next about the DMA and Zora is acting out. Another good episode, though I confess I'm increasingly unclear on what Glasses Guy's job is. (His name is Kovich, but I can only think of him as Glasses Guy.)

The big plot-furthering revelation is that the DMA was created by extragalactic beings, which is kinda neat. I don't think we've had those (unless species 8472 counts) since that TOS episode where everyone got turned into D&D dice. And the big clue is a direct callback to TOS's galactic barrier.

DIS S4E6, “Stormy Weather”: Investigating the DMA gets Discovery stuck in a void as its newly sentient onboard computer has a poorly timed emotional meltdown. This is a pretty good episode; the relationship building between Burnham and Zora the AI is really sweet and earnest. I like Zora.

It's not a bad story exactly, and the idea of Stamets being jazzed up by Science to the point of putting the ship in danger mostly works for me, but there's never any reason given as to why the experiment has to happen right here, right now. It makes the stakes feel very abstract.

DIS S4E5, “The Examples”: When the DMA threatens an Emerald Chain colony, Burnham leads a rescue of six people trapped in prison. The A-plot here is really quite good, with some great character moments for Michael and Book. The B-plot, about Stamets and a new guy trying to understand the DMA, well…

This one is almost entirely character and thematic work, and I for one think that's something Trek doesn't do often enough, so I really appreciated it. I also really appreciated the relationship tease between Saru and the president of Ni'Var. Get it, Madam President.

DIS S4E4, “All Is Possible”: Burnham and Saru must solve a last minute hiccup in the Ni'Var/Federation talks, while Tilly leads a team building exercise for some Starfleet Academy cadets. Another episode that barely relates to the main plotline, but which ties in well with the themes of the season.

The A-plot is a little shaky, though, as Burnham's feelings about the situation seem to change from minute to minute, and it seems very clear that there were ways for J'Vini to achieve her goal without murder. It's also weird that it's assumed that Ni'Var won't hold her accountable for her crimes.

DIS S4E3, “Choose to Live”: Burnham and her mom track down a rogue Qowat Milat, Tilly expands her comfort zone, Grey gets embodied, and Book faces his trauma. A lot going on here, very little of it directly related to the apparent plot arc of the season, but that's not necessarily a bad thing.