Star Trek: Prodigy 1x7 "First Con-tact" Review

rating: **

the story: Dal reunites with the Ferengi who raised him.

review: The thing that's gonna be a problem for a viewer like me is that I'm not the target audience, and so will be asking questions the show is either going to address later or possibly not at all, and that's hard to swallow.  The Ferengi character introduces the biggest stumbling block yet, and the episode makes no effort to explain the apparent difficulties.

This is a series that begins in the Delta Quadrant.  The Delta Quadrant, as very emphatically stated in Voyager, is too far from the Alpha and Beta Quadrants (where the majority of the franchise takes place) to make casual journeys practical.  There's always the chance of random transplanting (as Voyager itself represented), and of course a few Ferengi in The Next Generation did exactly that (which, too, was featured in Voyager).  But the chances of a Ferengi raising Dal, who we find in the Delta Quadrant, ending up in the Gamma Quadrant (no hint of close association with which was ever uttered in Voyager or Deep Space Nine), it just complicates things too much, with again, no attempt at all to throw existing fans a bone in untangling it.  

Conceivably, Dal's Ferengi pal traveled to the Gamma Quadrant from the Bajoran wormhole, although at what point even that is difficult to determine.  Women in Ferengi society didn't receive mainstream rights until the end of Deep Space Nine, which introduces a very short window for this one to have begun operating as a typical Ferengi (which itself is also anachronistic, because soon after Deep Space Nine give Ferengi women rights, it also reformed Ferengi society itself to be less driven by profit)...Anyway, I don't think Prodigy expects its viewers to be worrying too much about any of this, much less why the Dominion and the Borg Collective apparently never bothered each other, so...let's just move on.

The story itself is another episodic one, involving the Starfleet standard of first contact protocols (the name of the episode, as spelled in the episode itself, is exactly the same as the Next Generation episode, and the second Next Generation movie, but in all other references emphasizes the Ferengi's true motives with a single hyphen).  Dal surprisingly isn't the villainish character this time, and comes up with a quick heroic solution in the end, but the Ferengi is not only villainous but even willing to immediately transmit her knowledge of Dal's whereabouts (and that of the Protostar) to the Diviner.

The use of familiar interference protocols is about as subtle as it was when Discovery attempted it in its first season.  Again, younger viewers aren't going to be quibbling with any of this, and most of the time there's little reason to believe Prodigy has much interest in anyone else's opinion.  This is disappointing for fans who might think otherwise, and who've made it this far watching the whole franchise without blinking when so many have cherrypicked their way through.

And very little effort is even made to advance the Chakotay subplot!  Why must they these things out???

criteria analysis:

• franchise - The crew again attempting to familiarize itself with Starfleet standards at least gives casual viewers something to latch onto.  That and the Ferengi.
• series - A moment that ought to have deepened show mythology feels like it leaves too many unanswered questions. 
• character - Points for adding some depth to Dal.
• essential - And taken, for thinking new and old fans will be happy with how little is actually done with it.
• notable guest-stars:
• Robert Beltran (Chakotay)

Star Trek: Discovery 4x3 "Choose to Live" Review

 rating: **

the story: Burnham must track down and neutralize a rogue member of the Qowat Milot who has been stealing dilithium and has just murdered a Starfleet officer.

review: This one's a difficult review to write, because "Choose to Live" is both an important episode and yet so strangely inert, the execution so drained of life, it's tough to admit it's just not as good as it should be.

The biggest news for fans is that Gray now has a body!  Gray's character arc, so brilliantly begun in "Forget Me Not" last season, has degenerated into the worst kind of serialized storytelling the modern era has given us, things that linger and kind of creep along episodes and seasons, seldom receiving a spotlight.  It's particularly egregious for being such an important moment, worse even, for me, than "Project Daedalus" from the second season that suddenly thought Airiam was worth exploring, even as she was a secondary character in her own episode.  "Choose" doesn't even give Gray secondary status.  He's third, behind Burnham, behind Book, arguably behind even Tilly, meaning he ranks fourth in such a dramatic moment for his development.

Getting to have his own body again.

It's poor juggling on the writing side, and sluggish editing even with all those elements to feature in a single episode.  The liveliest moment comes from Vance using a hammy metaphor to help assuage Burnham of her need for control (itself a theme of the season) when Burnham lightly agrees to the wisdom.  Saru has some nice moments with Tilly, whose arc this season is trying to figure out why she feels so out of place (which seems like it probably would've made more sense last season, when she an' everyone else literally skipped ahead into the far future and away from everything they'd known outside of their shipmates).

(It occurs to me that Gray plays fifth fiddle; even Stamets, in science hero mode once again, has more to do.)

Much of the episode trades on franchise elements recently established in Picard, which Discovery made use of in its third season already, and again draws on here.  This would be fine if the episode draws as deftly on them as Picard itself had.  Picard doesn't get near enough credit for how gracefully it played out in its first season.  Discovery can sometimes hiccup when trying to find the vibe of a season, skipping on the record player even when it has something interesting to say.  "Choose" is so busy trying to explore four or five different plot points it doesn't give enough breathing room to any of them.  Book, for instance, is supposed to be distraught and devastated, and rightly so, but in this episode he really behaves no differently after a restorative mind meld than he did before it.  You could infer differently if you'd just watched the previous episode, but in this one no real grief is visible, only conversations implying it.  I don't know if it's the acting or that the whole episode was filmed without really figuring any of it out.

We see Burnham's mom again, and this time, unlike "Unification III" last season, I again see her as the lifeless injection she was in the second season.  That's the whole episode, as close to a real bummer as this series has yet produced.

But it is nice for the Gray arc to have reached this point, no matter how badly executed. He has a body.  He can live again.  This has so far been a season where characters are finally moving on, and symbolically, amidst the lethargic chaos of an episode, we have a vantage point from which to pinpoint an exact moment in time for which to pivot the overall arc.  I don't think that's why "Choose" plays out the way it does.  But it doesn't hurt to view it that way.

criteria analysis:

• franchise - For fans of the modern era, the episode serves as a refresher course for new mythology.
• series - However much I want to read into things, the overall effect of the episode is also to drag on rather than enhance the season arc.
• character - It's a huge moment for Gray, even if he plays at best fifth fiddle in achieving it.
• essential - I don't know if the writers thought they were going to merely duplicate Gray's debut from last season by doing it any other way, but as far as I'm concerned this moment was almost blown.

notable guest-stars:

Oded Fehr (Vance)

Star Trek: Prodigy 1x4 "Dream Catcher" Review

 rating: **

the story: The characters end up on a planet that seems to provide them with their heart's desires.

rating: The crucial question all incarnations of Star Trek must answer is how closely do they follow the traditional storytelling model?  Most of them have a Starfleet crew exploring space in a starship encountering weird mysteries.  As of "Dream Catcher," Prodigy fits that model.

Interestingly, it even has a version of Janeway in the Delta Quadrant, once again doggedly insisting they follow Starfleet protocol.

A lot of fans grumbled at how Voyager did that for seven seasons despite a premise that seemed to contradict such things.  Prodigy is in some ways Voyager revisited, and it wastes little time doing exactly the same thing.  By the end of the episode (which ends in a cliffhanger, so the implication plays out in the next one), even the Maquis parallel of the character who seems diametrically opposed to the interests of everyone else, Gwyn, has reached an impasse.

The particular franchise trope "Dream Catcher" follows traces all the way back to "Shore Leave" in the original series and can be found in later shows like Enterprise's "Dead Stop."  Again, the character who stands out in all this is Rok-Tahk, the scary monster with a child's voice who finds illusory acceptance from cuddly creatures projected by a predatory planet in the episode.

For younger viewers who have no real Star Trek background to draw from, it's probably easier to view any of this as fresh ground.  For seasoned viewers, it's either comforting or vaguely alarming that something so familiar is already being presented.

criteria analysis:

• franchise - Prodigy announces itself as familiar territory.
• series - I think this is potentially a huge misstep so early in the run.
• character - On the other hand, it is a useful way to explore these characters.
• essential - Even if the limited details of the animation make the results, especially for Janeway, as difficult to enjoy as the ring of familiarity.

Star Trek: Lower Decks 2x7 "Where Pleasant Fountains Lie" Review

 rating: **

the story: Evil computer voiced by Jeffrey Combs.

review: By now, Jeffrey Combs is so familiar to fans of the franchise, casting him is tantamount to stunt-casting.  He played two regular recurring roles in Deep Space Nine, made an appearance in Voyager, and had another regular recurring role in Enterprise, and so he joined the ranks of the Star Trek family with an assured legacy.  In "Where Pleasant Fountains Lie," he's representing two legacies, his own and the classic idea of the evil computer that has taken over an alien world.  

The result is underwhelming.  By the time we catch up with the evil computer, it has already been deposed, and so the whole episode is him trying to trick his way back into control (any control!), and the episode doesn't really nail the comedic potential of it.  The vocal performance by Combs is what you would expect from Combs, but it's not really the right fit for him.  In his three recurring roles (and other appearances besides), he never wasn't unsavory of some kind, so trying to buy him as capable of ever being trusted is inherently difficult.  This is not exactly HAL.

Anyway, the episode rebounds by unexpectedly lobbing a gimme in the direction of background character Billups, who seemed previously to be as boring a Starfleet officer as can be.  But he's apparently royalty on his world, and his mom will stop at nothing to trick him into being royalty again.  So that's the arc that lands solidly in this episode.  

criteria analysis:

• franchise - Evil computer trope, check!
• series - It's tough to decide where the success of the Billups arc lies.  It seems like Lower Decks is the only incarnation of the franchise where this could've happened.  But in the end...
• character - ...we'll say that the success is in the ability of Lower Decks to nail another character, since it sometimes doesn't really know what to do with some of the others.
• essential - No, not really.  If you really like Billups, maybe!

notable guest-stars:

Jeffrey Combs

Star Trek: Lower Decks 2x5 "An Embarrassment of Dooplers" Review

 rating: **

the story: The Cerritos hosts an inconveniently nervous ambassador.

the review: It seems obvious that "Dooplers" was meant to be the Lower Decks equivalent of tribbles, and whether you think this is a good or bad thing, it's the highlight of the episode, other than the continuing attempts to explore lingering character arcs.

At this point, it's clear that the season was quite determined to linger on those arcs throughout its course.  Rutherford still can't settle into the fact that his implant essentially rebooted his whole character, Mariner can't decide how she feels about Boimler's time aboard the Titan, and so these things are rehashed while other subplots have Mariner and Boimler attempting to crash an exclusive Starfleet party (which eventually concludes with failure, but their discovery that Kirk & Spock failed to find their way in, too, in a previous generation) (which seems kind of ridiculous, if you think about it too much).  

Surprisingly, it's Captain Freeman, in her efforts to resolve the duplicating Doopler crisis (I wish they'd come up with a more creative name for the species), doing so by being gruff, the first time she gets to be successful just by being herself (it comes up again in the season finale), who shines in the episode.  Since there's so much happening around this, and the brunt of the effect of the whole thing hinging on the ambassador's hilarious embarrassment, "Dooplers" ends up losing a valuable opportunity to take a victory lap (which, again, is probably something the producers themselves figured out, given the season finale).

criteria analysis:

• franchise - The echo of "The Trouble with Tribbles" is worth savoring, plus the restraint in not actually featuring tribbles.
• series - There's the sense that, given the overall emphasis on the Pakleds in other episodes, that another set of gimmick aliens just here to be ridiculous might be Lower Decks overextending its hand.
• character - Even if everyone else kind of feels like they're treading water, Freeman gets a small nudge in a positive direction.  She's no longer just Mariner's mom!
• essential - If the episode had leaned more on the Dooplers, or Freeman, it might have been.  

Star Trek: Lower Decks 2x1 "Strange Energies" Review

 rating: **

the story: Ransom gets zapped with weird energy and develops godlike powers.

review: Welcome back, Lower Decks!  The second season opens with a fairly unambitious episode that nonetheless grounds it in traditional franchise lore, a plot device demonstrated previously in the original series ("Where No Man Has Gone Before," "Charlie X") and Next Generation ("Hide and Q"), although played very differently in Deep Space Nine (Sisko as the Emissary of the Prophets, a series-long arc that never sees him develop special powers, unlike his rival Dukat, who does when he becomes emissary for the Pah-wraiths).

And while Ransom, a key member of the command staff voiced by the biggest name of the regular cast, Jerry O'Connell (as a reminder, I list O'Connell as a guest-star when Ransom has a significant part, even though he's generally in every episode), certainly deserves an odd spotlight every now and then, that "Strange Energies" devotes its time to a supporting character in this situation is a little disappointing.  Boimler, locked up as a member of another crew (Riker's Titan) at this point, would have been the obvious choice, and it almost seems as if everyone realized what a terrible mistake it was, as he's barely even in the episode.

Tendi and Rutherford instead have the significant spotlight, although nothing much comes of it except to highlight that they're pals.  Even more surprising is that even Mariner doesn't have much to do!

The whole experience seems calculated just to make sure someone popping in for the season premiere doesn't feel too bogged down in series specifics, which is kind of funny, as Star Trek traditionally holds premiere and finale slots to make bold series-specific statements.  Well.

criteria analysis:

• franchise - The familiar plot device is a nice reminder of the kinds of things Star Trek has done in its rich history.
• series - My quibbles aside, it's genuinely nice to see Lower Decks return with new material regardless of its overall merit.
• character - I don't think there's a significant spotlight for anyone here, with Tendi coming closest (although the four episodes I've seen as of this writing suggest there was a specific push for her, and this was merely a soft start).
• essential - Not at all. The kind of episode you can enjoy but not worry too much about.

notable guest-stars:

Jonathan Frakes (Riker)

Jerry O'Connell (Ransom)

Star Trek: Discovery 3x3 “People of Earth” Review

 rating: **

the story: The crew find out what Earth is like in the far future.

review: I don’t know, this is the second episode that feels tepid and lethargic to me, all the more alarming because the season premiere was so filled with energy.

“People of Earth” at once dives right into the arc and meanders. As can be the danger of serialized storytelling, it feels very much as if the writers are concentrating on “what we need to see” without understanding how to make it compelling.

It feels blandly inevitable. Burnham and Saru have a perfunctory discussion about captaincy; Burnham puts on a Starfleet uniform for the first time in a year; she convinces Book to wear one as part of a ruse; we meet the human hosting a Trill symbiont; she has a conversation with Stamets that suggests she’ll be interesting.

And it all just happens. Earth is represented by a new governing agency, at conflict with marauders from Titan. This part of the story is given minimal attention. I saw hot takes that called the resolution a Scooby reveal, but it’s not worth dwelling too much on, as we’re given little reason to care about either faction except as an example of how things have changed.

The pacing of the season is totally off. We had one episode of Burnham adapting to her new life, and then here it’s supposed to, theoretically, feel as weird for the viewer as for Burnham to adapt back into her old life. This is an even bigger problem when Burnham’s new life looks even better in hindsight, and everyone just going through the motions in her old.

So for now I will just keep hoping things become...interesting.

criteria analysis:

>franchise - A bold statement on the fate of our favorite planet! This is what happens when the good guys aren’t around. It’s like Picard if Picard never went back into action.

>series - It’s a good bit for the arc, however ultimately handled.

>character - No one really gets a decent spotlight here.

>essential - The kind of episode that could be omitted from a viewer’s itinerary not out of poor quality but out of general blandness.

notable guest-stars:

Michelle Yeoh (Georgiou)

Star Trek: Lower Decks 1x6 “Terminal Provocations” Review

 rating: **

the story: Another junior officer totally screws up.

review: Weirdly, I’m actually feeling less patient these days with modern Star Trek that feels too much like classic Star Trek. The second episode of Discovery’s third season, “Far From Home,” for instance, has a subplot that would have substantially played exactly the same way in nearly every other TV incarnation of the franchise, and now this, the second time in this inaugural season of Lower Decks, I find the results to be a little too standard. This is the “holodeck malfunctions” episode.

It would actually be a little more interesting than that, since Rutherford and Tendi are the lead characters in that half of the episode, based off of Rutherford creating Badgey, an instructional aide much like the paperclip from Microsoft. But it sort of becomes far more about Badgey’s glitch descent into cartoonishly murderous intent than any real insight into Rutherford, Tendi, or their relationship.

Boimler and Mariner, meanwhile, have a friend who turns out to be a huge screwup, which is the source of the holodeck malfunction. I was actually hoping he’d at least turn out to be a secret agent of the aliens the crew desperately tries to contend with (as represented by J.G. Hertzler, most familiar to fans as Deep Space Nine’s one-eyed General Martok; he’s the other bit of fun casting this episode features, along with Jack McBrayer as Badgey, just the opening salvo of a tide of familiar voices in the second half of the season).

criteria analysis: 

>franchise - Casual fans might enjoy the animated version of the holodeck trope.

>series - Boimler and Mariner’s friend is a sort of cautionary tale, and his fate will in hindsight foreshadow the end of the season.

>character - I don’t think any of our the four main characters particularly shine this time.

>essential - Nope.

notable guest-stars:

Jack McBrayer (Badgey)

J.G. Hertzler

Star Trek: Discovery 3x2 “Far From Home” Review

 rating: ***

the story: The crew of the Discovery winds up in the far future.

review: Honestly, in hindsight I would probably prefer this being the season premiere and “That Hope Is You” coming second. “Hope” is a kinetic, exhilarating episode, against which it’s hard for “Far From Home” to compare. It’s the same basic story with a resolution that’s so abrupt it’s almost disappointing, when the crew finds Burnham on the other side of a mysterious hail. In “Hope” we have no idea when Burnham was going to reunite with them. Here we’re quickly told she waited a year. Unless the third episode glosses over that year, that’s another awkward jump.

And because it becomes so inevitable, it’s just going through the motions, and there’s no single compelling narrative in the whole crew to keep things interesting. There’s a half-hearted Stamets and Culber thing happening (neither character deserves to be eternally relegated only to that relationship, and Stamets in particular is far less interesting when he’s not being a caustic engineer, a glimmer of which we see opposite Reno). Saru butts heads with Georgiou (whose best moment quickly redeems the episode just before the last minute), and encourages Tilly. And this is all kind of odd, since some of the best stuff last season was getting to see this exact crew being brilliant in group settings. 

By the time they’re learning the harsh realities of the far future, there’s a space pirate making things incredibly uncomfortable for them, and Georgiou gets a pitch-perfect comeuppance for him, the first time I personally have found Mirror Georgiou pitch-perfect. I mean, if ever there was a good use for her it was exactly this moment. So there’s that!

criteria analysis:

>franchise - I’m going to say there’s precious little here to interest general fan interest.

>series - It was probably necessary to see how the rest of the crew made it to the far future, certainly, and perhaps the whole experience proves how necessary Burnham is to the series.

>character - Mirror Georgiou in a true shining moment.

>essential - As it plays out? Not especially, it seems.

notable guest-stars:

Michelle Yeoh (Mirror Georgiou)

Tig Notaro (Reno)

Star Trek: Lower Decks 1x5 “Cupid’s Errant Arrow” Review

 rating: **

the story: Mariner is convinced Boimler’s girlfriend can’t be real.

review: Well, I guess it had to happen. “Cupid’s Errant Arrow” is the first episode of Lower Decks that didn’t really work for me.

Everything about it feels like the series at its most basic level, in fact everything we’ve already seen...again. The worst part is that for the first time, Boimler is reduced to being the butt of the joke rather than actively participating in it. In fact, it’s kind of a whole episode that’s theoretically about him but instead is about Mariner’s desperate attempts to uncover the truth about his girlfriend.

Tendi and Rutherford get a subplot about how much better everything is on another ship, but they learn it comes with a price, that the crew there is under immense pressure...because they experience big wacky events all the time. Except literally every episode of Lower Decks has pivoted around big wacky events, too. And therein lies the danger of the series: calling too much attention to the fact that it doesn’t really follow its own premise.

In fact, the other subplot is another big dramatic Starfleet mission the crew of a third-rate Starfleet ship is...still involved in. I mean, I get that this is an animated series in an era where big wacky events are expected to happen every episode, and that half of Lower Decks is the funny version of Star Trek. But there have to be some limits. Even Orville frustrates viewers just expecting funny Star Trek, because as often as not it’s actually trying to...just be Star Trek(ish). 

Anyway, there’s nothing that particularly stands out this episode. You might call it the one where the creators were finally done enjoying how great the original idea was and then just took it for granted.

criteria analysis:

>franchise - If you’re already a Star Trek fan there’s little to gain from watching this one. Except that one alien who was fighting for the right to inhabit a whole planet with his wife. In context it’s the best bit of the episode, and nothing you would ordinarily see in the franchise.

>series - Which I guess I’ll use as the reason to watch Lower Decks this episode. It’s a great punchline, however deeply buried it is in everything else.

>character - Since it’s really a Mariner episode, it’s worth watching for that, including a flashback scene that’s kind of fun.

>essential - Not essential. Nope. Move along home!

Picard 1x9 “Et in Arcadia Ego, Part 1”

rating: **

the story: Picard’s team reaches their destination.

review: Sometimes the problem with serialized storytelling is that it boxes the story into elements that need to happen but become difficult to tell interestingly. That was always the biggest problem with Deep Space Nine, especially in the six- and ten-episode arcs that were laden with plot elements that squashed all opportunity to explore their potential. They ended up hammering points without elegance. What Enterprise accomplished so brilliantly in its third season was the ability to break its ideas down to concrete points, particularly as the importance of Degra blossomed. Even after he was necessarily taken off the table, there were enough moving parts still in play that even the inevitable was interesting.

With this penultimate episode of a season-long arc, we reach a point that ought to have been can’t-miss, and...it nearly does. The problem is in the introduction of two characters. One is a good addition handled poorly, and the other is a bad addition also...handled poorly. The first is another Brent Spiner Soong performance, but the character is almost completely marginalized, his significance taken for granted, perhaps. The other is another android played by Isa Briones (who also portrays Soji, the twin from the first episode, the one glimpsed last episode, and probably dozens of other iterations), who turns out to be the latest treacherous turncoat. The reveal is somewhat akin to the Founders in Deep Space Nine (in fact, the whole conflict is very similar), which is why I tended to have a problem with the Female Founder in that series; she had no nuance at all, in a series where shades of gray were everywhere.

There was a good way to handle all of this material, but I don’t think this was it. But let’s get to the point summary to clarify:

criteria analysis:

• franchise - I think you have to be invested for any of this to work. I think general viewers would be even more inclined to dismiss the creative approach to this episode than I am.
• series - I mean, it’s interesting and relevant, obviously. 
• character - The introduction of the new Soong was the only good thing about the episode.
• essential - The results are too perfunctory. After all the creative thought put into it, I would almost greatly prefer to Picard movie default ending of him needing to stop some giant machine from blowing up. Or having to blow the machine up. 

notable guest-stars

Brent Spiner (Soong)

Jeri Ryan (Seven)

Discovery - Short Treks 2x5 "The Girl Who Made the Stars"

rating: **

the story: The young Michael Burnham learns a valuable lesson.

review: Sort of a bootleg Moana, "The Girl Who Made the Stars" combines subpar animation with an extrapolation of a tale Burnham recounts in Discovery's second season.  This is the sort of effort younger viewers won't complain as much about, compared with older ones.

It's nice, as a fan, to have a moment with the young Burnham and her dad (given how the second season played out, it's now easy to assume they had a much better relationship than Burnham and her mom...!), so I almost wish we could get more.

Just maybe, not in this style.  A stark contrast to the results with "Ephraim and Dot."

criteria analysis:

• franchise - You don't need to be a Star Trek fan to watch this one.
• series - But an appreciation of Discovery will help.
• character - A nice peak into Burnham's childhood.
• essential - It's not a great selling point for the franchise.

Discovery 2x9 "Project Daedalus"

rating: **

the story: In which we learn more about Airiam...that robotic character...right before we say goodbye.

review: "Project Daedalus" reverts back to Discovery's penchant for viewing traditional Star Trek through a warped lens.  The ostensible central element of the episode, the character and destiny of Airium, never fully claims the spotlight, instead serving as an echo for things the season has already done, and better.

Airiam herself is fascinating.  She's one of several background characters in the tradition of the original series, which if you look closely featured characters like this, and the diehards...care?  But in the grand scheme, their repeated presence doesn't really amount to much.  (There were characters like this in other series as well; Voyager in particular.  What separates Discovery's use is mostly the endless emphasis on them.)  Let's call it the Detmer Effect.  Detmer is a character who, like Burnham and Saru, hails from the Shinzou, the original Georgiou's ship at the beginning of the series.  She mostly serves as a point of continuity, and the lingering repair job that left an implant on her face, a funky hairstyle, and a replacement eye.  You'd know her if you saw her.  You might even know her name.  But she really doesn't amount to anything except her image.  Discovery has made no effort except continually showing her to make Detmer anything actually important.  Even Mayweather, a main character in Enterprise who was featured much in this manner for most of his appearances, had a ton more to do in sporadic spotlight material.  Airiam, even in finally getting her story told, is not a Mayweather.  Even her spotlight episode is full of things other people are doing.

But at least one of these background characters gets a story.  We learn that Airiam isn't a robot or an android, but a person who survived a horrific crash, that among other things claimed the love of her life.  But the story doesn't even allow her to dwell on that, the most significant parallel of her story (see: Spock, Culber, even Tyler).  Instead she becomes another pawn in the Section 31 power struggle.

So anyway, what's most worth remembering about the episode is once again Spock and Burnham, still trying to sort out their relationship, this time over a game of 3D chess.  Spock proves cruel in his efforts to force Burnham to face her past.  This is a Spock who is feeling less of his typical Vulcan restraint than we're accustomed to, who is a lot more like the Spock famously known as "frenemies" with Bones McCoy.  Except this Spock is interacting with someone he knows a lot better than Bones, someone he literally grew up with, who knows as much about him as he does them.  As much as Burnham is trying to use her knowledge of Spock, Spock is protecting himself, as he has been all season, as best he can.  Burnham just happens to represent everything he thought he'd mastered already, but still challenges him.  This is Motion Picture territory, when even Kirk couldn't get through to a Spock who again had tried to perfect himself, but found a giant obstacle in his way.

criteria analysis:

• franchise - This is the sort of episode that might prove uncomfortable for established fans, who will naturally seek a more comforting, familiar vision of Spock.
• series - And yet it's a Spock who fits in perfectly in the Discovery model.
• character - And as such, that chess sequence is the highlight of the episode.
• essential - It also completely overpowers the Airiam elements, which undercuts the whole episode.

notable guest-stars:
Ethan Peck (Spock)

Discovery - Short Treks 1x3 "The Brightest Star"

rating: **

the story: How Saru ends up joining Starfleet.

review: Well, "Calypso" officially seems like an outlier.  This is the second of three Short Treks to produce underwhelming results.  High hopes for the fourth, though, as it features Mudd, who has become one of my favorite Discovery elements.  "Brightest Star" wastes all its time, basically, fifteen long minutes.  Take the opportunity, people!  Be bold!

We see Kelpian society, at least Saru's experience of it, probably for the first and last time, including Saru's father and sister, and a wisp of the competing species they live amongst.  Maybe this is all revisited, but Kelpians are pre-warp, and only Saru is apparently clever enough to not only question why things run the way they do, but also to use technology on an instinctive level...This is all stuff that could be better explained if it's to be accepted easily at all, by pulling back the lens much more, make it less simplistic.  I realize that Star Trek's bread and butter has often been this kind of storytelling, but usually for aliens of the week, not main characters and their origins.  One of the franchise' strongest legacies is background material.  Even going back to the very beginning, Kirk and Spock had solid experiences sketched out at a time when it's wasn't particularly necessary.  Saru has been presented as one of Discovery's lead characters from the start.  There's no excuse to leave him with so little to go by, especially once you actually show it. 

I don't know.  I don't mean to be grumpy.  I hate grumpy Star Trek fans.  But these Short Treks haven't been showing Discovery at its finest (aside from "Calypso" which is the franchise at its finest), and that's somewhat inexplicable to me. 

criteria analysis:

• franchise - Having Georgiou explain what a huge exception she's making for Saru doesn't really fill the credibility gap in the whole concept.
• series - This is not Discovery at its finest by any measure.
• character - Still, you gotta give points for trying harder with Saru than they did with Tilly.
• essential - If this is the best they ever get with the guy, it is nice they tried, because we don't often get to actually see this kind of material.

Discovery - Short Treks 1x1 "Runaway"

rating: **

the story: Tilly encounters a stowaway.

what it's all about: This is Discovery doing what every other incarnation of Star Trek did on a regular basis.  Somewhat appropriately, as with the lone episode from the first season that attempted the same thing ("Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum"), it's a relatively clumsy affair.  The best that can be said about it is that it puts the spotlight squarely on Tilly, which strangely never really happened in the first season. 

As with "Para Bellum," the writers seem positively ill-equipped to handle this kind of storytelling.  Their attempts at shorthand in a short episode (roughly fifteen minutes, but this is called Short Treks) are painfully rough, and come off more as the work of an amateur playwright than professional screenwriter, the same naïve conclusion (experience literally makes Tilly feel better about herself) common to such efforts.  What Discovery does far better is breakneck speed storytelling, or letting Michael Burnham ruminate (or torture herself, which was why Ash Tyler was such a good match for her) on problems.  That's the complete opposite of what "Runaway" attempts to accomplish. 

But again, spending time with Tilly also helps us get to know her better.  Knowing at all that she struggles against an overbearing mother (imagine the young Troi!) adds welcome depth.  The story also builds on the Mirror Universe experience, where Tilly was a command-track type (to say the least).  Having her struggle along that path puts her in the same footsteps as the Doctor, say, or yes, Troi, and that's a nice bit of resonance.

But I really hope further Short Treks are less clumsy.

criteria analysis:

• franchise - Familiar material for Star Trek fans.
• series - Unlike the whole first season (practically), there's nothing of particular significance going on here.
• character - Except some welcome character work for Tilly.
• essential - Nope.  Not at all, if for no other reason than it doesn't showcase Discovery's storytelling strengths very well.

Enterprise 3x17 "Hatchery"

rating: **

the story: Archer becomes overly protective of Xindi-Insectoid eggs.

what it's all about: "Hatchery" is the same kind of episode as "Similitude" before it, but there's a big difference.  Where "Similitude" shown a bright light on characters and character dynamics, "Hatchery" loses itself in its episodic material.  But both are symbolic of the kind of frayed nerves the crew experience during the Xindi conflict.

Once more I must remind viewers that Star Trek for the bulk of its history was episodic rather than serialized in nature, in that episodes were conceived to be self-contained, often with metaphorical value that served the story rather than characters or the overall fictional landscape.  Where Next Generation introduced serialized storytelling, it still favored episodic storytelling even in its efforts to serialize, and even Deep Space Nine spent the bulk of its time in episodic storytelling.  Enterprise chose to do a completely serialized season, but still sought after episodic material for much of it; "Hatchery" is one of the more arc-flavored episodic stories, in that it features the Xindi, when much of the other such material didn't.  It even depicts the Insectoids as ultimately sympathetic, even though just a little later they will be depicted as one of the more aggressive Xindi species.

The bulk of the story rests on the crew mutinying against Archer, who has been chemically induced to obsess over the Insectoid eggs.  However, the character who benefits most from the experience is Hayes, the lead MACO whose primary motivation is following orders.  Despite "Harbinger" showing his progress in integrating with the regular crew, Hayes actually seems to revert here.  Still, it's interesting use of the character, about what you'd expect from a military guy, and it does emphasize the differences continue to exist.

criteria analysis:

• franchise - The increasingly impatient casual viewer ironically has no time for traditional Star Trek storytelling.
• series - The episode's usage of the Xindi-Insectoids is relatively inspired.
• character - Hayes, and the MACOs at large, receives a subtle nod.
• essential - Taking away the episodic gimmick would have improved the story in this instance.

notable guest-stars:
Steven Culp (Hayes)
Daniel Dae Kim

Enterprise 3x16 "Doctor's Orders"

rating: **

the story: Phlox is forced to sedate the rest of the crew and operate alone for four days.

what it's all about: From Next Generation's "Frame of Mind" and "Remember Me" to Deep Space Nine's "Distant Voices" to Voyager's "Projections," the franchise has a rich history of episodes where characters have a hard time telling what's real.  And "Doctor's Orders" is part of that tradition.  It also runs parallel to Voyager's "One;" like Seven, Phlox ends up alone and handles it poorly.  Seven's experience ultimately taught her that she did value the company of her crewmates despite her hard drone-honed exterior.  Phlox, meanwhile...Well, it's really just an excuse to hang out with him.  Is that really such a bad thing?

Phlox had been a standout of the series from his introduction, a typically cheerful individual who livened every scene he graced.  Beginning with "Dear Doctor" (like that one, he composes a letter to Dr. Lucas in "Orders"), however, Phlox took on a darker reputation, one "Similitude" would confirm earlier in the season. 

Yet Phlox was also good for unusual bits of comedy, such as in "Two Days and Two Nights" and "A Night in Sickbay," and "Orders" draws on that, too.  But mostly it's just an episode where the spotlight is fully on him, and it's a tall order for any character, but as with everything else thrown his way, Phlox is up to the challenge.  "Orders" may be lightweight and unrelated to the season arc, but it's also the last chance in the season for the crew to let loose a little, before it becomes darker, and that was exactly what it was set out to do.

criteria analysis:

• franchise - Shares storytelling DNA with episodes from every Next Generation era series.
• series - Not particularly relevant to the season arc.
• character - It's an excuse to spend some quality time with Phlox!
• essential - Too bad he's often used as an aside, when he isn't involved in heavy subject matter.

Enterprise 3x13 "Proving Ground"

rating: **

the story: Shran shows up, seemingly offering his assistance in the Xindi conflict.

what it's all about: One thing the third season didn't really do very well was integrate non-Xindi arcs.  The Temporal Cold War, for instance, proved an awkward fit in "Carpenter Street," and in "Proving Ground," Shran and the Andorians show up...Actually, that's about it.  They show up.

Okay, it's slightly more complicated than that.  The episode spends most of its time questioning whether or not Shran has an ulterior motive, and sure enough for most of it he does indeed seem to.  But then he doesn't.  The whole thing's a somewhat convoluted excuse to remind viewers that Shran still exists.  This would've been more relevant had he appeared earlier, or in more than just the season finale as a follow-up.  Instead he just feels tacked on.

I mean, it's not a bad thing.  It's just...awkward.  And it kind of contradicts the extreme dangers Archer and company have encountered along the way, most of them having little to do with dodging enemy Xindi.  That the Andorians can just stroll in at this point, it just feels forced.  Shran and Archer's relationship evolves more toward what it'll be in the fourth season, true, and so that's good.  But...

criteria analysis:

• franchise - Poor excuse to remind viewers that the Andorians are still around.
• series - Still, it's an arc-specific episode that will feel like something is being accomplished.
• character - It just has nothing to do with the Xindi arc, but rather Shran.
• essential - An episode that clearly should not have been developed in a vacuum.

notable guest-stars:
Jeffrey Combs (Shran)
Randy Oglesby (Degra)
Scott MacDonald (Dolim)
Tucker Smallwood
Rick Worthy

Enterprise 3x6 "Exile"

rating: **

the story: An alien with information about the Xindi attempts to use Hoshi as a bargaining chip.

what it's all about: "Exile" is the first Hoshi spotlight that doesn't cast her in a vulnerable position because of neuroses but rather because of the situation itself.  In a way, its most significant aspect is foreshadowing later in the season when she's once again become a hostage, this time to the Xindi themselves.  Otherwise it's most useful as connecting tissue for the spheres mystery and getting closer to the Xindi.

A lot of observers seem to have fixated, upon original broadcast, the Beauty and the Beast nature of the plot, which is a fairly superficial understanding of the plot, insofar as the alien who tries to trick Hoshi into becoming his companion (an old Star Trek trope) turns out to be ugly, or maybe because of the arrangement he proposes.  Either way, Hoshi is never coerced; it's always her decision, even when he's trying to manipulate her.  She shows great strength of character throughout the episode.  It's really a remarkable turnaround for the character, a sign of the added experience she and the rest of the crew has at this point. 

It was probably bewildering, in these early episodes, all the emphasis on the spheres, not having any idea how they connected to the Xindi or the arc itself.  In hindsight they're a hugely significant element, and therefore any and all material concerning them, especially in these episodes, must be considered accordingly, especially the clever way in which the producers plotted this particular course.  If the crew was slow to come across the Xindi themselves, it was intriguing, learning about the spheres.  After all, they were directly responsible for the Expanse itself.  And, ah...never mind.  If you don't know yet, I won't spoil it for you.  In this review, anyway...

criteria analysis:

• franchise - A familiar story trope that again might seem mystifying to casual viewers trying to understand the relevance to the season arc.
• series - But to dedicated fans, it makes a ton of sense, especially the spheres material.
• character - This is the most assured Hoshi we've seen to date.
• essential - It foreshadows later Hoshi material, but in hindsight maybe if the alien had been an agent of the Xindi the relevance would've been more obvious.

Enterprise 3x4 "Rajiin"

rating: **

the story: The crew takes aboard a troublesome passenger.

what it's all about: "Rajiin" quickly puts the season arc back into focus after lapsing in "Extinction."  Not only does it bring back the Xindi Council, last seen in the season premiere ("The Xindi"), but it shows them actively working on something.  At this point they still seem like a fairly anonymous group, perhaps comprised of actors familiar from various other appearances across the franchise, but little more than bad guys who show up once or twice an episode just to remind you they exist.  Once we've been properly introduced, later, these appearances take on greater significance.

The episode itself is another instance of Enterprise evoking the original series.  Kirk was encountering random beautiful women all the time; the association became so great that he was considered a ladies man regardless of whether or not he actively pursued every woman romantically.  The implication seemed to be enough.  Archer had been put in this position before, and this is one of the most explicit examples.

Other than all that, "Rajiin" is mostly an example of the arc being a continuous experience for the characters, as we touch back in with T'Pol and Trip, for example, during the therapy sessions Phlox suggested in the premiere.  So also is the acquisition of a compound the crew needs to coat the ship with; we'll see another explicit example, of why it's so crucial, in the next episode ("Impulse").

criteria analysis:

• franchise - Casual fans ought to be reminded of Kirk in the original series.
• series - Nudging the season arc along.
• character - I don't want to sell the episode too hard, but there is character work within, it's just not ultimately the point.
• essential - It would've been interesting if Rajiin had been a member of the Xindi Council.

notable guest-stars:
Randy Oglesby (Degra)
Scott MacDonald (Dolim)
Tucker Smallwood
Rick Worthy