Star Trek: Discovery
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This is the best episode ofStar Trek: Discoveryto date.
No holds barred, no caveats.
Weknowthe Spock-and-Pike thing was a lazy shortcut that drove CBS All Access subscriptions and viewership.
That is the perfect way to describe what Michael does on a regular basis.
Or should I say NiVar?
Both sides have a profound respect for Spock for having led the reunification process.
Because the Vulcans have every right to be pissed with the Federation.
that could transport ships very far, very quickly.
(As though that kind of decision has never resulted infamouslyhorribleconsequences.)
(Except, and this is crazy, the Romulans actually advocated tostay.)
And SB-19 just so happens to have been collecting data from a zillion sensors stationed across dozens of lightyears.
We can either choose to live with that enmity, or seek a way to change it.
There are always implications.
But Michael Burnham does exactly what she always does: force everyones hand to get what she wants.
If she fails, TRina explains, Spocks sister [will have] returned to us a dissembler.
That will have real and grave consequences.
Thats right, folks, its one ofthoseStar Trek episodes: an impromptu,high-stakes trialthatultimately putsourprotagonists characterontrial instead!
Luckily, Michael will have an unexpected Qowat Milatshalankhkai, or advocate, at her side.
Ashalankhkaiis a Qowat Milat who has bound herself to a lost cause.
(More on this whole mythology in the footnotes.)
And surprise, Michaels turns out to be none other than the human called Gabrielle Burnham hermommy.
Ha ha, this episode is going to destroy us all.
(And, you know, how to be a deadly assassin.)
She tried to warn her!
(The Romulan, Nraj, is down to clown pretty much immediately.)
VKir makes some good points, too: her sample size is miniscule.
And they say their data definitively proves that SB-19wasthe source of the Burn.
Michael wants them to take her at her word, so why wont she take them at theirs?
But these three have got nothing on mom.
If I wasnt an atheist, this sequence would have put the fear of god in me.
How can she say she speaks for the Federation when her actions repeatedly suggest otherwise?
Finally, the kill shot: She may have grown up here, but she was never Vulcan.
She is human, through and through.
I maintain that that void has made her vulnerable to manipulation at the hands of the Federation.
Is this what its like to have a therapist for a mother?
Why, then, does she still have doubts?
Maybe because the stakes are so much higher now.
And every day theres this fear that Im doing it wrong, like Ill destroy the people I love.
What if I lose everything and everyone, after all weve sacrificed?
No knowledge is worth shattering centuries worth of peace on NiVar, not even about the Burn.
I ask you for nothing, she says.
But I am giving you my trust.
As a member of Starfleet.
Shes a cowboy, but when it works, itworks.
And one last bit of redemptive joy: SARU ASKED TILLY TO SERVE AS INTERIM NUMBER ONE!!
Will Saru finally confront Georgiou about the fact that she enslaved and ate people like him?
The possibilities feel endless.
Was this episode intended to triggerKolinahr??
How could I have forgotten to mention that Michael and Book do it this week?
(Probably because it happens so quickly and incidentally that its over before it began.)
LOL @ Michael deciding her best bet would be to appeal to VKir, the Vulcan purist.
Girl, did you forget you were almosthate-crimedby Vulcan purists??
TRina and Sarus unexpected (but, like, totally expected) friendship!
She is so patient with him as he suggests their visit will be enough to win NiVar back!
You know this guy is gonna launch the whole joint someday.
Because the Qowat Milat are a retconintroduced forPicard,we havent learned much about them yet.
I mean, some of us readImzadias tweens.
