Discovery 2x6 "The Sound of Thunder"

rating: ***

the story: Saru fights for his people.

review: Much of what "The Sound of Thunder" accomplishes might ultimately hinge on what Discovery does to follow it up.  On the one hand, it's a powerful example of the kind of hope for the future that Star Trek has always been about.  And on the other, it might end up serving as a cautionary tale.

"The Sound of Thunder" is a kind of sequel to the Short Treks minisode "The Brightest Star," which was the first time the series visited Saru's home world and the circumstances in which he left it behind.  Now we see Saru, having made a personal discovery a few episodes ago, coming back not only to redeem himself, but help his entire species move on.  The question remains, move on to what?  Saru was originally depicted as an alien whose fear response was the result of his species being prey.  Recently he learned that given the natural course of events the predators on his world had been preventing, he could actually move on from that.  As we learn in "Thunder" (much as Voyager depicted with the Kazon in its second season), quite the reverse ends up being true.  Saru's people, the Kelpians, were originally the predators, and the present state of affairs (as of "Thunder," concluded) was actually engineered to prevent them from continuing that role.  (It's almost like an analogy for post-war occupations, as in Germany after WWII or Iraq today, though so thoroughly fictionalized as to not depict clear parallels.)

So the thought remains, will the Kelpians become predators again?  On the one hand, Saru is optimistic, and of course he is.  But on the other, he himself is depicted as more aggressive, less reasonable.  It might even be noted that Saru was always aggressive in his instincts when provoked, even when driven by fear.  Now, imagine a whole species, all of whom apart from Saru himself never moved on from their simple, isolated life on Kaminar, and you would expect that...the results will probably be complicated. 

That lingering doubt has to be the response to an episode like this.  The episode itself is artful and gives some lovely insights to other matters (the whole season arc actually begins to look like Enterprise's much-discussed Temporal Cold War from a different vantage point).  But the risk of serialized storytelling is that in avoiding conclusions in any given installment, it becomes difficult to properly value some installments based on their own merits.  You end with ambiguity, you get an ambiguous result.

criteria analysis:

• franchise - That idea of hope that's always been at the heart of Star Trek...is it really there this time?
• series - Discovery, as ever, boldly plunges ahead.
• character - Saru has definitely taken up the mandate.
• essential - This is one of those episodes that could impact the overall legacy of the series.

notable guest-stars:
Shazad Latif (Tyler)
Wilson Cruz (Culber)