Star Trek: Discovery 4x10 "The Galactic Barrier" Review

rating: ***

the story: The crew reaches, well, the Galactic Barrier.

review: They aren't looking for God!  I know any fans (who are probably shuddering to do so, given its terrible and not totally earned reputation) making the association with Star Trek V: The Final Frontier can't help but think exactly that (but we still haven't identified Species 10C!), so let's just get that out of the way.

For me, the season just keeps getting better with these latest episodes.  I really wanted to grant "classic" status to this one, but decided it lacked the killer moment(s) that would truly warrant it, except for a wealth of character moments, chiefly among them Tarka's surprising backstory and Burnham burying the hatchet with President Rillak (finally putting her name in these reviews!), plus Saru in arguably his first real character arc, continuing along the journey to finding love with T'Rina (the actors playing all these recurring characters are omitted from the "notable guest-stars" section in large part because Discovery's use of such characters, from the first season onward, has been so much more steady than even Deep Space Nine's deep roster ever managed; I've instead been employing, for this series, the appearances of famous actors, which is why Oded Fehr regularly appears in it despite the fact that Vance is otherwise indistinguishable from the frequency of use as the others).

But Tarka!  Unexpected!  To say the least!  A very welcome one indeed, kind of the reverse of Lorca, in that he appeared to be a basically villainous character and now we see, apparently, that he's actually a good guy (mirrored by Rillak's arc, of course) looking for a little redemption.  For me it elevates the whole season, in addition to other pieces of the episode, including the delegate who cracks funny so randomly early on.  Often the series can labor on a fairly dour tone, when it's so often at its best in characters like Reno or the brilliant scientific minds getting to sound brilliant (I honestly don't believe any incarnation of the franchise has so successfully pushed science as being this cool, not since the original series, which famously did so with the introductions of so many gadgets like the transporter and communicator).

So an episode that doesn't seem overly eager to advance the season arc instead pushes all the right character buttons, which itself has been a significant goal of the season.  

criteria analysis:

• franchise - This is where I "deduct a point" in the inconclusive experience with the galactic barrier, which would itself have been the big deal in most other versions of this story.
• series - This is how confident the storytelling is, that it can hit that note without obsessing over it, because there's more to focus on, so much so that Kovich can actually suggest there's more stuff to worry about besides the DMA without giving so much as a hint as to what it is!
• character - Tarka, who wins distinction as a recurring character who essentially has his own episode, more directly than Airiam in the second season, more like Nog from Deep Space Nine.
• essential - It's the deft handling of all the characters that helps the episode shine, when there had been points earlier in the season where this much emphasis nearly sank the storytelling.

notable guest-stars:

Oded Fehr (Vance)

David Cronenberg (Kovich)

Star Trek: Discovery 4x9 "Rubicon" Review

rating: ****

the story: Burnham duels with Book on the cusp of Tarka's weapon being deployed.

review: Most fans will consider Wrath of Khan to be the ultimate test of wills in the franchise, and yet for me it has long been "For the Uniform," the Deep Space Nine episode in which Sisko matches wits with Eddington, the security officer who joined the Maquis right under his nose and got away with it.  The whole episode is Sisko trying and failing to get his revenge; Eddington refers to their new relationship as Javert and Valjean from Les Miserables, rather than the Moby-Dick references of Khan and First Contact.  

And anyway, watching the maneuvering between Burnham and Book in "Rubicon" feels gloriously to par with that.  The feeling of betrayal has been a major part of the season since Book split off with Tarka, and Burnham couldn't fathom how this had happened, and ever since the season has been referencing a period from just after the start of the previous season that viewers never actually got to witness, the time where they shared adventures together before the rest of the Discovery crew showed up in the 32nd century.

(Other viewers have been keeping track of what exactly Species 10C, who set up the DMA, has been mining, which is Voyager's omega particle; Tarka's weapon runs on the same isolytic weaponry featured in Insurrection.  I don't often feature enough details in these reviews.  But I like franchise links, and it's definitely worth referencing that. The mining nature of the DMA evokes not only the classic "Devil in the Dark," but Nero in Star Trek, although of course there are still plenty of episodes left in the season to wait and see what Species 10C is actually like; the naming scheme for them also evokes Species 8472, also from Voyager.)

I'm dubbing the results a classic for that reason.  I don't think the episode is overall as crisp as other Discovery entries I've granted that status, but I think the thrill of the encounter is good enough, something the season has been chasing, and also badly needed, to nail the arc, and to give weight to Book, his arc, and even Burnham, who to this point had been defined by relationships with characters like Georgiou, Spock, and Tyler, all of whom ended up going in their own directions.

criteria analysis:

• franchise - Fans should see welcome echoes in the showdown at the heart of the episode.
• series - One way or another "Rubicon" advances the season arc in a definitive way.
• character - Probably a defining moment for both Burnham and Book.
• essential - Wait, what am I saying, probably?  Absolutely!  It absolutely is!

notable guest-stars:

Oded Fehr (Vance)

Star Trek: Discovery 4x8 "All In" Review

rating: ***

the story: Burnham and Book pursue their separate goals at the same poker table.

review: I loved that the episode hinges on a (space) poker game.  As a franchise fan, it evokes Next Generation too easily to be ignored, and unlike that series, it's a game with truly high stakes.  While the episode sort of coasts along, that sequence, and how lively Burnham is (arguably the most lively she's been to date, in the whole series), it's very easy to love.  I think if the creators were paying attention to this production, they may've stumbled upon something very crucial to the continuing adventures of this crew.

It's a waltz, really, between Burnham and Book.  Book is an incredibly reluctant villain at this point, and for whatever reason once again reverting to a lethargic persona, which has been crushing his appeal all season.  Call it malaise, PTSD, or just uninspired acting, but it sets off Burnham's energy as never before, so I guess there's some positive to it.

Star Trek visits another attempt at the Star Wars cantina, and with all the moody (read: very, very dark) lighting, it's hard to really get into it, but the guy with all the goods is nothing like Quark in Deep Space Nine (but, and this is relevant because there's a Founder in the episode! Odo never let him get away with quite this much), and adds the same kind of energy as Book's other running mate, Tarka (although even he doesn't have much to do this episode), and Vance, who arguably has his best appearance to date feeling rotten he put so much faith in that guy.

The sequence with the bot Culber won't just clean like it desperately wants to is a nice touch, too, and how everyone finds what they're looking for, including the location of the unknown species and what their actual (probable) motivations are is handled so well, if Book hadn't turned so stubbornly into Eeyor I would've really loved this one.

criteria analysis:

• franchise - It feels like a nod to Next Generation, that epic (space) poker game.
• series - Several big developments for the season arc this episode.
• character - Arguably the most fun Michael Burnham has ever been.
• essential - Taking everything down a notch is the gloom in both the cinematography and the general character of Book.  

notable guest-stars:

Oded Fehr (Vance)

Star Trek: Prodigy 1x10 "A Moral Star, Part 2" Review

rating: ***

the story: We find out the Diviner's motivations.

review: The internet very troublingly suggested there might actually be merit to the Diviner's actions, that they represent a viable alternative look at the Federation.  I'm here to state categorically, as presented in this episode, this could not be farther from the truth.  He's no different from Nero in Star Trek attempting revenge without the least bit thinking it out, lashing out like, well, a villain.  

To put it simply, the Diviner is a time traveler who is attempting to gain revenge on the Federation for his homeworld's first contact, which led to a devastating civil war.  The Diviner assigning blame to the Federation, rather than his people, is absurd.  We've seen nothing noble about this guy, no redeeming quality, not even love for his daughter Gwyn (instead a possessiveness hinged only on her representing one last member of his species, after himself).

So that's what we learn this episode.  Very begrudgingly, he reveals all this to Gwyn, even as the rest of the good guys are mounting a plan to get the ship back.

The clever thing the episode does is tell the viewer what it needs to know, but prevent the characters themselves from knowing, which leaves a climactic moment free to leave an explosive dangling plot for when the series picks back up again in the fall.  We think they won!  They're getting what they wanted!

Well, careful what you wish for...

The episode ends as we meet up with the real Janeway, who will hopefully help all of us solve the mystery of what exactly happened to Chakotay.  Truthfully, I've watched the last few episodes expecting to learn something, anything, about that, but the series itself went in a different direction.  I really do hope the Diviner arc is over, at least with his active participation, at least in the snarling role he's had.  

criteria analysis:

• franchise - The sort of amazing that I want is perhaps a little impatient.  It doesn't want to wait so long for Chakotay.  
• series - One way or another, this is a definitive turning point for the series.
• character - He turns out to be very much a villain, but at least we get to see why the Diviner is one.
• essential - Hey, and they even have their own nifty uniforms now, too, I might add.  The show has found its stride.

Star Trek: Prodigy 1x9 "A Moral Star, Part 1" Review

rating: ***

the story: The Diviner finally gets his hands on the ship.

review: I haven't been overly patient with the Diviner arc mostly because it symbolizes how fast and loose the series has played with distances, which greatly simplifies the storytelling but has never been adequately explained.  To be a constant threat the Diviner needed a good enough reason to remain one once the crew had split off far beyond his reach.  This episode, he gets one, by getting the crew to return to him.

This is possible because his robotic henchman Drednok is able to visit the ship, which actually first occurred the previous episode (he apparently has multiple bodies).  The crew is faced with an ultimatum of relinquishing the ship or being responsible for the Diviner slaughtering the rest of the workforce in the mining camp they escaped from.

Anyway, what all this really amounts to is advancing the plot.  In a serialized story you kind of need to do that.  By the end of the episode, as indicated above, the Diviner "wins," and in the bargain has reunited with his wayward daughter Gwyn, which leaves us with a cliffhanger, and another review in which I consider whether the Diviner is worth more than he seems...

criteria analysis:

• franchise - I don't think anything "great" happens in the episode.  Fans not committed to the series would not necessarily be missing anything.
  
• series - Although fans of Prodigy obviously would!
• character - The Diviner takes a step closer to becoming truly meaningful.
• essential - It seems increasingly likely that we approach the real end of the Diviner arc.

Star Trek: Prodigy 1x8 "Time Amok" Review

rating: ***

the story: Our crew ends up split in time.

review: Well, gosh darn it...I may actually be a fan of this show now.

This is my favorite episode of the first ten.  Typically I'm fairly generous with four stars/classic status (I guarantee you will find very few fans who have not only watched the whole franchise but enjoyed a lot of it).  It's true that even calling "Time Amok" my favorite I'm still not awarding it four.  I reserve that for when I think a real contribution has been made to franchise lore.  What I mean to say about this episode is that it has officially made it safe for me to believe Prodigy will reach that point.

There will be newer fans who will be absolutely flabbergasted even at that.  This is a version of Star Trek we've never seen before.  It's a true entry point, and it's perhaps for some new fans the only Star Trek that is going to make any sense at all to them, at least for the foreseeable future.  That's a plain fact.  

For me, until this point, the series was too self-conscious, too caught up trying to justify itself, too worry about what its characters were doing to just allow them to inhabit an episode.  In this one, for the first time ever, Janeway challenges them and they're...ready.  They just are, and all it takes in one purple wave to run through the ship and split them up.

The biggest beneficiary is Rok.  For all her early appearances this was the "gentle giant" whose main distinguishing factor was the little kid's voice.  While Dal spends so much time doing a bad impression of a Lower Decks we're-not-gonna-grow-up!!! attitude (which is mostly absent from the episode, another point in its favor), Rok has been waiting patiently for a spotlight.  The best tradition of Star Trek storytelling is that every main character eventually gets at least one.  What helps sell it is that the episode doesn't even worry about it, but just lets it happen.  In fact, other than the recurring bit about not wanting to be seen as "security material," there's no indication at all that this is a Rok episode until it turns into one.

It's truly organic storytelling.  Sometimes serialized TV finds this the hardest accomplishment, so busy just trying to move a story along.  Other than Gwyn's daddy arc, it really seemed as if Prodigy simply wasn't interested, and so my attention had faded.

It's not lost on me that the title of the episode deliberately riffs on a classic one (from the original series, and I will not tell you which one, even if you are new to Star Trek).

criteria analysis:

• franchise - Here's where I nominally dock a point.  You don't need to be an existing fan to understand this one at all, which is actually a good thing.
• series - Achieving a longstanding goal of getting the crew to function together by splitting it up.  Brilliant!
• character - Rok, who, as it turns out, rocks.
• essential - For Prodigy, a breakthrough moment to be celebrated.

notable guest-stars:

Robert Beltran (Chakotay)