Star Trek: Discovery 3x8 “The Sanctuary” Review

rating: ***

the story: Book’s brother is tangled up with a mast organization called the Emerald Chain.

review: This is the kind of episode that feels like it ought to work better, but it falls on the weak side since most of it is accomplished in perfunctory terms. On the one hand it’s not just a Book spotlight (he has been either absent outright or marginalized for long stretches of a short season), but a look into his family, even though the results don’t feel overly personal or pivoted around that family. It’s a clear example of the predatory nature of life after the Burn, but represented in the most generic way possible.

So yeah. Talking about “The Sanctuary” after a later episode in which the implied fallout has indeed occurred doesn’t even make it feel any more important. The Emerald Chain, and the green Orion lady representing it, doesn’t advance any further than what you see here. There’s nothing to ground it other than “they’re bad guys.”

And again, there’s so much the episode attempts to accomplish a first viewing of the results are underwhelming. Book is a unique character, and he bears the further unfortunate distinction of essentially filling the shoes of Ash Tyler, who if anything became far more interesting the longer he stuck around, and whose subsequent absence this season only grows harder to accept. If this were a Tyler episode, it just seems as if far more would have been accomplished. Book merely duplicates the same “I’m a really good guy doing really good stuff in very harsh circumstances” vibe we’ve already seen in, yeah, his first appearance.

Maybe a more concise summary will explain this better:

criteria analysis:

>franchise - I honestly don’t think there’s enough grounding here to entice a casual fan. That’s what’s missing here.

>series - On the other hand, if you’re a Discovery fan there’s plenty to enjoy.

>character - Even if you discount the effectiveness of Book’s material, there’s also additional emphasis on the Georgiou arc about to reach its crescendo in the next two episodes, which itself gives Culber more of that extra emphasis he’s enjoyed this season

>essential - And between any of that and the Emerald Chain indeed resurfacing a few episodes later, it’s probably well worth taking note of.

notable guest-stars:

Michelle Yeoh

Oded Fehr