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)