Discovery 2x11 "Perpetual Infinity"

rating: ***

the story: The Red Angel's backstory is explored.

review: If "Red Angel," the preceding episode, was underwhelming despite being hugely significant to the season, the follow-up needed to deliver.  But "Perpetual Infinity" is, if anything, equally maddeningly underwhelming.

Just at production level (I don't often discuss this, as it's assumed, unless I'm commenting on something particularly good, that the execution itself is adequate), the actress playing Burnham's mom is not compelling.  And that's a huge chunk of the impact missing right there. 

The episode, the story itself, is not at Discovery's compelling best, either.  Discovery has hit some pretty high notes, whether in these first two seasons or even the Short Treks in between ("Calypso").  When all cylinders are firing, this is just about as good as it gets in the franchise.  "Perpetual Infinity" is instead undercooked, with too much held back to stretch out the story.  At times like this you yearn for the good old days of this sort of climactic material being saved for those episode season finales/premieres, not for the sake of turning back the clock to episodic storytelling being the norm, but serialized storytelling, when used, being used to maximum effect.

Instead we just get another "Wait, there's more!" but without any big reveals yet to remain, because at this point if there were, they might begin to feel like cheats.  Instead it's just the bad guy getting away for plot convenience.

Which wastes one of those moments that does feel impactful, Tyler's apparent death and his subsequent transmission about what's really happening.  Instead we get more of what Discovery has revealed as one of its crutches from the original series: fight scenes that just sort of exist.  Even if the choreography has improved from fifty years ago, they're still just window dressing, just as they felt in the first season when Burnham was facing the Klingons and it felt like the producers wanted fight scenes without really justifying them.  It's not just having these scenes that's supposed to be impressive, but knowing how do execute them, no matter how technically flawless they are.  They have no heart.

Even if Leland has transformed into the true threat of the season, and even if the fans speculating that the whole point is to provide an origin for the Borg (and the definitive reason they're obsessed with humans, like an updated V'ger after all), the whole thrust of the emergency weakens when the arc refuses to admit there are obvious franchise holes in its logic.  Time travel became an increasingly detailed phenomenon in later incarnations, to the point where Starfleet in later centuries took on the protection of the timeline as part of its duties.  And yet nowhere is this acknowledged.  The logic of the storytelling becomes too finely centered on artificial moments meant to derive emotional impact, if all we're meant to care about is Burnham agonizing over the sudden revelation that her mom was alive all along, and has spent a long time trying to solve one problem, and failing miserably. 

Part of what made Deep Space Nine so compelling is that there were characters who showed up to cover every conceivable vantage point.  Discovery has cobbled together an impressive repertory of familiar faces, but holds too many of these cards close to the chest.  This might produce endless possibilities in shock reveals, and often plenty of wonderful character moments, too, but in the end it's the storytelling, when all's said and done, that has to hold up. 

Bottom line, you have to nail big moments like this, and "Perpetual Infinity" doesn't.

criteria analysis:

• franchise - You truly have to be a fan of Discovery to enjoy these results.
• series - It's not an insult to say that, but it would be nice to believe anyone could appreciate them.
• character - This is about as big as Burnham's gotten, and there's a nice moment in which her differences with Spock are finally put aside, too, and that's gratifying.
• essential - The elements themselves are mandatory viewing, it's just the execution that's lacking.

notable guest-stars:
Ethan Peck (Spock)
Shazad Latif (Tyler)
Michelle Yeoh (Georgiou)
Wilson Cruz (Culber)