Star Trek: Section 31 review

 rating: ****

the story: Georgiou is recruited by Section 31 all over again.

the review: My X (Twitter) feed is full of abject hate for Section 31, so it seems more important to just go ahead and review it here now than to rest on the hiatus the Companion has been on in recent years.  It doesn't deserve the hate.  It deserves very much the opposite.

When Michelle Yeoh's Georgiou was killed off at the beginning of Discovery, a lot of fans were surprised.  Few enough of them seemed all that interested when she returned, via her Mirror Universe counterpart, later that first season.  Maybe it's because you kind of had to be a fan of both Deep Space Nine and Enterprise (which, aside from me, seems somewhat impossible) to appreciate the Mirror Universe beyond its "Mirror, Mirror" introduction in the original series at that point, but this was a big deal for the series, and for the franchise.  In fact, the rest of that season took place in the Mirror Universe, and somehow Mirror Georgiou ended up sticking around, including being recruited by Section 31 and ultimately winning a trip back home (kind of) via the Guardian of Forever later in the series.

Now, the biggest hiccup anyone might have with Section 31 is how she happens to find herself at the exact moment in time as her archnemesis.  Probably Carl's doing (the Guardian).

The movie opens with Mirror Georgiou's secret origin, how she became emperor in the first place, via an extremely logical explanation of how things worked there, and even the kind of life one might expect there (one twit on X suggested that home Mirror Georgiou returns to was hardly what they thought the Terran Empire would look like...but what else would you really expect? aside from the twit watching anything but the opening seconds?).  We learn she had to make a series of brutal decisions, only the last two of which we witness, including what to do with her competitor, and lover.  

Then we catch up with her in her present, which is about halfway between The Undiscovered Country and Next Generation, which can also be determined in the life of Enterprise-C captain Rachel Garrett, the youthful career of which we catch up with here.  Mirror Georgiou is leading an assumed identity until Section 31 bursts through the anonymity.  We meet the crew of misfits (and what a fun bunch they are!), and plunge into the mission.

It's worth pausing here to relish all the franchise lore we're getting to feast on.  First of course Mirror Georgiou herself, whom regular viewers of Discovery got to experience as close to redeeming herself as such a figure could enjoy.  (Section 31 itself exists to finish the job as completely as forgiving fans will allow.)  After "Mirror, Mirror," Deep Space Nine caught up with the Mirror Universe in a series of episodes throughout its seven season run (second through final seasons, almost a visit a season), from how far the Terrans fell to how they finally pick themselves up again.  Enterprise, in its final season, explains the crucial decision that shifted Earth's fate to Empire (First Contact, but with Cochrane shooting the Vulcans).  Section 31, in part, fills in the remaining gap, how it wasn't as simple as Mirror Spock being the one man to make a difference.  The rest of the dominoes had to fall, too, and that's what we see play out here.

There's also, of course, Section 31 itself, another gift of Deep Space Nine, the black ops Federation organization that also popped up in Enterprise and even Star Trek Into Darkness, and then finally Discovery, where Mirror Georgiou first signs up (up until realizing the timeline wouldn't square, I still hoped to see Ash Tyler pop up one more time).  A lot of fans still cling to the idea that Star Trek, and Starfleet and the Federation by extension, should only focus on the hopeful ideals of humanity's perfect future, but that was never the case even in the original series, where Spock could be subjected to bigotry on a regular basis (up to and including McCoy's banter).  Anyway, Deep Space Nine was my favorite series in the '90s, and so anything that keeps its legacy alive is welcomed by me, and Section 31 is easily its most visible legacy.  Playing someone like Rachel Garrett off of that (the other nice thing, beyond a Tyler cameo, would've been seeing her in the classic uniform, which spanned Wrath of Khan through Picard's days at the Academy).

(A seeming throwaway background for another character additionally finally, finally satisfactorily explains the Eugenics Wars.)

The storytelling in Section 31 is highly engrossing, beyond what most of the current era has achieved, possibly because it's forced to be so self-contained.  There's the suggestion this was supposed to be a series, and that this was only going to be the pilot; if so it's the best pilot Star Trek ever managed.

In giving Mirror Georgiou so much material, including how effectively layered its big reveals are, it satisfies on levels most of the theatrical movies never could, a truly accomplished ending and showdown with the villain, someone who really matters to the hero.  (In contrast to pretty much every other Star Trek fan, I favor Into Darkness over Wrath of Khan in how it handles our genetic superman as something other than a random force of nature Kirk bumps into twice.  The only other time it's really this perfect is First Contact, in which we learn of the Borg Queen's existence and how much it means for Picard to settle with her, apart from all other considerations.)

I really don't know how else to try and sell the achievement of it, and besides, emphasize how fun the side characters are.  There's a lot here just to reflect how much closer Section 31 is to our reality, and much better use of some of the types the franchise has been using in recent years...At this point Section 31 is actually the best thing to emerge from the modern era, excepting Strange New Worlds' current highwater mark, "Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow."

criteria analysis:

• franchise - Outlined sufficiently in review. 
• series - If accepted as part of Discovery continuity, explains itself.
• character - Mirror Georgiou takes her place among the great characters in franchise lore.
• essential - For any number of reasons, Star Trek is now effectively incomplete without Section 31.

notable stars:

Michelle Yeoh (Georgiou)

Jamie Lee Curtis (Control)

Star Trek: Discovery 5x2 "Under the Twin Moons" Review

rating: **** (Classic)

summary: The crew begins its search for the clues that will help it locate the expected treasure.

review: The second episode of the fifth season lands better, for me, than the premiere, having more focus and more to say about the new circumstances and even new characters like Rayner.

Online, Discovery has become known as the worst of the new Star Treks, too polarizing or perhaps merely too ambitious to contend with the much more obvious crowd-pleasers that followed (Picard, Strange New Worlds, even Lower Decks).  As I look back at its legacy, though, I see a rich tapestry that's ably demonstrated all over again in "Under the Twin Moons."

What I've long loved best about Discovery is its ability to depict the classic "smartest in the room" mentality of Starfleet, spread generously around the whole room (last season maybe got a little carried away with this), which as Burnham and Saru are trying to survive another of those death squad security systems and then figuring out the clue behind it, is once again in full glory.

But the best part of the episode is how it revisits the complicated history Burnham and Saru share (just these two alone have reached what Gene used to call "beloved character status," at least as far as I'm concerned), and how Rayner gets to reflect it.  Rayner is interesting, a welcome new wrinkle in the far future the crew has inhabited now for three seasons, an example of the working reality Starfleet was in before the revival, and early on I even began to wonder if he'd not actually a double agent, actually working with the pair of villains we'll be following this season (which if he is would itself be another fascinating callback, this time to Lorca), but the end of the episode turns it around completely by having Burnham offer him second-in-command  Burnham's reputation at the start of the series still colors how many fans view her, which is unfortunate, so it's nice that the series itself continues to dwell on it.  If Voyager seemed (again, mostly in the unforgiving eyes of disgruntled fans) to shy away from its complicated origins, then it's nice for Discovery to have never lost sight of its overall arc.

I loved how last season the show finally moved past the straight hero complex and refocused on the science, and that this season follows up on that, while also tying in with the Next Generation episode "The Chase."  It's rare, even in a franchise that has long since moved on from its episodic storytelling origins, to revisit concepts from that period, but Discovery has long since demonstrated its ambitious nature.  This will be a heck of a way to go, and "Twins Moons" is a fine way to prove that.

criteria analysis:

• franchise - The whole season links in with existing Star Trek lore!
• series - An episode that deepens long-term storytelling, from the start and as recently as the last two seasons.
• character - New character Rayner becomes integral to the season, and arguably, the series.
• essential - Another fine selling point for the series as a whole.

notable guest-stars:

Oded Fehr (Vance)

David Cronenberg (Kovich)

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 2x3 "Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow" Review

rating: **** (Classic)

the story: La'an ends up thrown into the past, where she and a Kirk from an alternate reality have a chance to prevent the rise of her ancestor Khan.

review: "Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow" is one of those instant classics.  It's arguably the best episode of any Star Trek in the modern era.  It's the kind of creative statement and achievement that speaks to the entire franchise.  

When the character of La'an Noonian-Singh was introduced in Strange New Worlds, her surname gave her immediate recognition in a series that was otherwise set to feature a mix of well-established (Pike, Spock, Number One, Uhura) characters, some less well-knowns (M'Benga), and assorted all-new creations.  La'an represented a mix of all the above.  She herself was brand new, but her distinctive last name meant she was related to one of the most famous, and infamous, characters in all of Star Trek, one who debuted in the original series ("Space Seed") and went on to be featured in two feature films (Wrath of Khan, which many fans still consider the undisputed best movie of the franchise, and Into Darkness).  As the first season progressed we learn more about La'an, including the prejudice she faces, and feels, due to this unusual ancestry, giving her the kind of depth only the best-established characters otherwise enjoyed.  By the end of the season she had become one of the major characters of the series.

Early in this second season, she has taken great strides to outright stealing the spotlight from all of them.  "Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow" is a monumental achievement.  Like a lot of episodes in the franchise, it hinges on classic time travel tropes.  There was a time in the fandom when the overly familiar was hugely frowned upon, but at the moment fans have grown once more accepting of it, which is why Strange New Worlds exists at all, with the ability to once again embrace the episodic format that dominated most of the rest of the franchise once upon a time.  Early feedback has deemed "Tomorrow" reminiscent of the classic example of time travel in franchise lore, "City on the Edge of Forever," in which Kirk must prevent a drastic change in the timeline by allowing a woman he inevitably falls in love with to die.  The daring twist of "Tomorrow" is that La'an must actually allow Khan to live.

It's impossible to grasp the impact of the episode without spoiling that.  There's so much to talk about, and so much to love, and it all needs discussing.

The Strange New Worlds version of Kirk first appearing at the end of the previous season gets an unexpected chance to shine as part of all this.  Star Trek now has three versions of the character, catching up with Spock in that regard.  Perhaps moreso than Spock, this Kirk is an unexpected revelation.  William Shatner will always cast a huge shadow over the role and the franchise, and will be as synonymous with it as Leonard Nimoy and Spock, and yet Chris Pine has proved to be resilient in the mainstream (this year he just headlined a successful launching of a new Dungeons and Dragons cinematic vision).  Paul Wesley, who made his name in The Vampire Diaries, will probably never be in serious competition with either of them, and yet in "Tomorrow" he gets to give as dynamic and complete single experience with the role as has yet been attempted.  His hustling games of chess, eating hotdogs, even the awkward dynamic with La'an all combine to a show-stealing appearance, if he weren't appearing opposite Christina Chong's La'an.  This whole episode only works if Kirk and La'an are a compelling pair, and for a version of Kirk only making his second appearance, and being tasked with keeping up with someone not named Spock, it's a challenge well-met.

"Tomorrow" tackles big franchise mysteries.  It explains the sliding time scale of when exactly the Eugenics Wars occurred (Voyager, Deep Space Nine, and Picard all traveled to relative contemporary times and didn't seem to have been touched by them), and even contextualizes Enterprise's Temporal Cold War, concluding a mystery that series never got around to doing itself as to why it happened at all, and probably even the identity (or species) of Future Guy (the Romulans, as long suspected).  But most of all, as Kirk in Final Frontier once claimed, "Tomorrow" concludes that you can't fix things by removing pain from the equation.  La'an can't fix herself by preventing Khan's ascension.  It's not that he's a boy when she finds him, but that his evil has to happen for all the good that follows.  

The whole story predicates on La'an needing to fix the timeline when she discovers something changed it and led to a version of reality where Kirk exists much as before, but outside the boundaries of Starfleet, the Federation, where humans never embraced the stars, not in a Mirror Universe kind of way, but without having truly realized their potential.  Kirk's convinced to play along since his brother's dead in this one but alive in the other (in the original series, the episodic format didn't really let him mourn Sam's eventual death in "Operation: Annihilate!").  Turns out temporal agents have been postponing the Eugenics Wars for years (and it's even hinted that the wars lead directly into WWIII, helping explain that, too).  For a franchise that has dipped into the past and the future many times, it's always been reluctant to explain any of this foundational material, in-canon, making "Tomorrow" important on that score alone.

By the end of the episode, the normally stoic La'an finally breaks down, the result of the cathartic experiences she's had.  Pike has struggled with his eventual fate since his appearances in Discovery, and the previous episode had just explained how Number One, Una Chin-Riley, got her own reckoning, while Spock hurdles toward confrontations with his own destinies (the implosion of his relationship with T'Pring, a confrontation with Sybok), and these are expected developments, given presentation.  "Tomorrow," no one could have seen coming.  Her antipathy toward the Gorn will clearly continue to play out, and yet here La'an gets to confront something far more personal, and find some closure from it.

When Star Trek cuts this deep, it's rare for it to play out this way.  Often it'll be a dark experience, but certainly nothing that feels remotely like a romp, which is how Kirk's effect takes "Tomorrow."  The lack of truly standalone episodes in modern lore means it's often hard to pinpoint standout experiences that are comparable to what's been previously achieved, and yet "Tomorrow" not only successfully evokes templates but moves well beyond them, and makes its story deeply personal in the process. 

To top all that off, the episode also makes great use of the new character Pelia, who is deliberately positioned to echo Next Generation and Picard icon Guinan, who put in a similar appearance in the latter's second season, and there's really no question that Pelia's appearance in "Tomorrow" is not only pitch-perfect for the character, but hugely immediately enjoyable, and a welcome distraction in the episode itself.  If this were somehow the only time you see the character, you'd love her for this spotlight alone.  

criteria analysis:

• franchise - "Tomorrow" is a deep cut that speaks to the whole history of Star Trek storytelling.  It revolves around Khan, Kirk, and explaining how the whole timeline works.
• series - Back in the Enterprise days fans always worried how a prequel to make a meaningful impact on franchise lore without breaking it.  "Tomorrow" is a textbook example of how to do it.  
• character - La'an instantly claims what Gene Roddenberry once termed "beloved character status," rocketing her not only in importance to her own series but throughout Star Trek lore in this appearance.  And this version of Kirk gets his best spotlight, too.
• essential - There's not even a question.  It's the kind of experience that speaks to all three other criteria for mandatory viewing, and even if none of them fit, it would still need seeing to believe, if you didn't like Star Trek in the first place, it would explain the whole phenomenon well enough on its own.

notable guest-stars:

Paul Wesley (Kirk)

Carol Kane (Pelia)

Star Trek: Picard 2x1 "The Star Gazer" Review

rating: ****

the story: Picard finds himself drafted into a most unexpected scenario, and then, of course, things spiral out of control...

review: The focus of this review will be the window into the background of Jean-Luc Picard that "The Star Gazer" uses for its title, the relationship with his mother that we're allowed to see for the first time.  This is an essential contribution to the character's lore.

Storytelling in the franchise originally focused only on the moment.  Any information about biographical details surfaced in dialogue.  There were never flashbacks.  The first exception to this occurred in Deep Space Nine's pilot, "Emissary," in which the Prophets grant Sisko, and the viewer, a vision allowing him to revisit how he met his wife Jennifer, and of course the first moments of the episode, in which we see how she died, during the Battle of Wolf 359.  Later, in Voyager, Tuvok's past is glimpsed in "Gravity," and "Flashback" provides a visit into his early Starfleet career.  The precedent to all this was The Animated Series' "Yesteryear," in which Spock visits himself when he was a child.  It wasn't until Star Trek, though, that the storytelling was allowed to be a truly organic element, where the narrative was able to jump from one time period to another, from the moment of Kirk's birth to Spock's formative years as he struggles to reconcile his Vulcan and human halves.

In "The Star Gazer" we see our first-ever look back at Picard in a similar manner.  Through the rivalry with his brother, explored in "Family" from Next Generation, we knew something of his origins, and we had even seen both his mother and his father in various visions.  In this episode, however, we see Picard as a child, interacting with his mother.  Interestingly, this sequence even evokes the Picard we hear about in Nemesis, whose conversations with Shinzon explore how he became interested in space.  The rest of the episode, as has the series itself, is steeped in more of his career than the mere fact that he was once in command of a starship that was lost in battle with a mysterious foe (that turned out to be the Ferengi!).

So yes, this is not Next Generation Part 2, but very much its own story, very much centered on Picard, for anyone still confused about this.  And this is the episode some of us have been really clamoring for, a visit with Guinan!  It happens to delve into the nature of Picard's romantic aloofness, as he happens to be falling in love with the nice Romulan lady who assists him at the vineyard and still trying desperately to deny such a thing could be happening...

The cast of the first season returns and they're all off on new adventures of one variety or another...until the final moments of the episode, in which the Borg are once again rearing their technological and biological distinctiveness and...Q!  Even more than Guinan, true aficionados have been craving for another clash between Picard and Q ever since 1994.  So it is very much cause for celebration.

criteria analysis:

• franchise - A relatively new tradition of allowing a character's full history to be seen and entered into canon is embraced.
• series - Picard, for all intents and purposes, fulfills several long-held desires by welcoming both Guinan and Q into the fold.
• character - Picard, as never before, blossoms as a fully-dimensional character free from the typical constraints of franchise storytelling.
• essential - Perhaps more so than Kirk and Spock's arcs in Star Trek, seeing this come about at the end of a long life is if anything even more rewarding.  This is historic in all the right ways. 

notable guest-stars:

Whoopi Goldberg (Guinan)

John De Lancie (Q)

Star Trek: Discovery 4x11 "Rosetta" Review

rating: ***

the story: Burnham leads an away team that explores a planet that may be the key to understanding Species 10C.

review: This is the kind of episode that should absolutely happen in a serialized version of Star Trek that nonetheless still has to have episodic elements.  Too often Discovery has stumbled on such elements, especially ones that try to simulate classic franchise material, and yet this time everything works quite nicely.

The away team (as with the rest of the season, a spotlight is given to one of the bridge crew, this time Detmer, who ordinarily have mere supporting roles in the background) experiences strange sensations that might have played out in a more outlandish fashion had the episode not managed sufficient control of itself (actually, I've often yearned for this when watching Star Trek in general), moving on rather than lingering on a given element.  To wit: Saru is the first affected by the elements on the planet, but quickly enough Burnham and Culber are, too, and then they realize why, and solve the problem, and make further breakthroughs.

This whole process is mirrored by how Reno is featured in the episode.  Reno has been considered a regular member of the ensemble this season despite this being only her second appearance so far, and even in this one she doesn't seem like her usual self, initially, just an excuse to be present and accounted for, until the twist at the end that adds a much-welcome further wrinkle to the season arc.  To know more about that you'll just have to wait and read the review of the next episode, if you haven't by then caught up.

So for me it's quite a rewarding episode, including how the delegates are used.  It's very much a Xindi Council, third season Enterprise kind of experience for me, and as a fan of that season and series, it's nice to be able to say that.

criteria analysis:

• franchise - By side-stepping the typical pitfalls in Star Trek storytelling, it actually transcends them in a very welcome way.
• series - Which further distinguishes Discovery as blazing its own path.
• character - Detmer might end up feeling the most organic use of background characters in the foreground this season, though the Reno twist is my favorite, as it has far more potential.
• essential - The plot advances on a few levels, one in a very unexpected but very welcome way.

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)

Star Trek: Prodigy 1x6 "Kobayashi" Review

rating: ***

the story: Dal tries his luck with the Kobayashi Maru training program.

review: In all three Star Trek shows that've broadcast new episodes in the past few months, either the Kobayashi Maru program itself or something similar (in the case of Lower Decks) has been featured.  The fourth season premiere of Discovery was even titled "Kobayashi Maru," and now Prodigy builds an episode around the program, with the title "Kobayashi."  I don't know if the writers of these shows cross the hall, visit the same writing rooms, or there are producers suggesting any of this common material, but anyone actually watching all of it (Star Trek fans usually don't go out of their watch to watch all of it, as we all discovered in the '90s) might begin to consider the material somewhat repetitive.  Again, there's no reason to expect every fan to see all of it (resources like this blog in which one person does are probably rare), but those that do, it's an odd choice, whether deliberate or remarkable coincidence.

There's the good enough excuse that each of the series is approaching this material from different vantage points and theoretically even for different audiences.  Prodigy, for instance, is obviously intended for younger viewers, most of whom will probably never have seen any Star Trek before.  They might later track down all the source material for the dialogue uttering from the mouths of famous franchise characters like Spock, Uhura, Scotty, Odo, (and the new stuff from Crusher) (I don't know why Enterprise in particular should have been left out), or, eventually, attempt to watch all of it, I don't know.  The effort of putting this material together is itself perhaps the most ambitious and fan-friendly thing Prodigy has done, something those who haven't been watching, and perhaps don't intend to watch again might very well consider, as with the Deep Space Nine episode "Trials and Tribble-ations," is worth the odd visit.  So it can be an experience for both new and existing fans.  

I haven't dubbed an episode of the series worth classic status yet.  This one comes closest.  The reservation, as always, comes with lead character Dal, who still doesn't feel like he's overly worth getting attached to, who keeps stumbling up against his limitations without really growing from the effort.  In a format like this it probably feels like exactly the right thing for the creators to be doing, since they're serializing the whole season, and thus don't want to be making definitive points too soon.  Which is, for me, a huge part of why this kind of TV should always be approached with caution, especially when the show goes out of its way, at the start, to let you know that the journey is going to be the whole point.  

The cast around Dal continues to be engaging, although they're increasingly one-note characters, except for the only other one, Gwyn, with an arc, and as of this episode, possibly not even exactly what it had previously seemed.  Her bad dad, the Diviner, hasn't given up yet his quest for the wayward Starfleet ship that also offers up tantalizing answers to its own mysteries, including a glimpse at Hologram Janeway's old running mate, Chakotay.  What if the Diviner isn't quite the villain he seemed?  But also, crucially, how does he stand even a remote chance, under his own power, of reaching the Protostar, which has leaped to an entirely different quadrant?  Unless Gwyn can convince everyone it's in anyone's interests to make it happen?

criteria analysis:

• franchise - All those familiar faces, and voices! are like puppy chow for fans.  Hard not to love. The Kobayashi Maru simulation is itself enticing, although the show's demonstration of it circles far around its parameters.
• series - A few tantalizing clues about why lies ahead, including our first glimpse at what lay behind.
• character - Dal is, for me, as hard to like as always, but placing him into familiar context at least places his struggle into a palatable light.
• essential - It's strange, for a series built around borrowing one familiar face to throw so many others at the viewer, and only a glimpse of the one who actually serves a purpose to the plot.  It's an episodic adventure that both yearns to be more than the series has been and sinks into the poorer instincts that have saddled it since the start.  

notable guest-stars:

Robert Beltran (Chakotay)

Star Trek: Discovery 4x7 "...But to Connect" Review

rating: ***

the story: With two options on how to proceed in confronting the crisis, an unexpected roadblock emerges in Zora's willingness to cooperate.

review: I enjoyed this much better than "Stormy Weather," and yet I'm not sure the resolution with Zora, the ship's computer now become its own entity, was entirely nailed.

Next Generation had previously tackled, in a number of ways, the upper thresholds of artificial intelligence, both in Data and within the ship's computer itself, among others, and of course Voyager's Doctor ("Latent Image," in particular), so Zora's arc was very much familiar, although approached from its own unique vantage point.  The problem is the viewer's ability to fully invest in a character they can't see but only hear.  in the Short Trek "Calypso," we did see Zora.  In a sense, the lasts two seasons have been competing with "Calypso," which was a standout experience on any number of levels.  Even its central character, Craft, has had a kind of stand-in with Book, who in "Connect" makes a bold decision I'll get back to later.  There's also the somewhat tangled web of those directly involved in her arc this episode.  David Cronenberg's Kovich gets arguably his biggest spotlight as part of it, as he's tasked with deciding how to handle Zora's evolution.  Stamets, surprisingly, is the one who has the biggest problem with it, and I'm not sure the episode nails his role.  Gray and Adira show up as Zora's cheerleaders, though neither one has particularly strong material to show for it.

Anyway, the episode presents two possible solutions to the crisis at hand.  One, once Zora agrees to cooperate, is to confront, peacefully if at all possible, those responsible for the anomaly, which involves a gathering of delegates to reach that conclusion, including a representative of Earth (that's another fun point to pick back up from last season).  The other is a weapon (evoking Insurrection) developed by Tarka, the tactless genius (whose very existence has finally convinced Stamets to find some) from "The Examples," who provides another welcome dose of friction, and in the end, an offer too tempting for Book to pass up.

(It's also worth noting that the potential enemy comes from beyond the Galactic Barrier, which we learned a few episodes ago; this is of course an unexpected reference to The Final Frontier; this whole arc has been drawing on familiar franchise lore, a deliberate bid to get fans who don't think Discovery is familiar enough to consider it well within the franchise fold after all.)

Unlike the talkiness of "Weather," the constant barrage of chatter works well in "Connect," an excellent example of Star Trek's intellectual proclivities.

criteria analysis:

• franchise - Zora's arc ought to evoke plenty of familiar associations.
• series - The progress of the season arc advances in a carefully calculated way.
• character - Zora is once again the standout character in what is very close to a defining episode.
• essential - It feels like the show was hedging its bets with her.  Maybe I'm not being fair.

notable guest-stars:

David Cronenberg (Kovich)

Star Trek: Discovery 4x6 "Stormy Weather" Review

rating: ***

the story: The ship accidentally gets stuck in a void created by the anomaly.

review: This might be one of those episodes I'll have to revisit later.  Watching it the first time I found myself surprisingly conflicted.  Even the showcase element at the end of "Stormy Weather" wasn't enough to completely sell me on it.

"Weather" evokes classic franchise storytelling (Voyager had a couple episodes where the ship got stuck in a pocket region of space), but never completely feels like a classic Discovery moment despite trying to be.  For me, this has long been a series defined by its smart characters sometimes spontaneously combining for sequences of fast-paced collaboration.  "Weather" lumbers along as literally everyone gets a say in how to resolve the crisis, a ponderous representation of the season's increased focus on inclusivity (Gray, who finally has a moment this episode trying to bolster Zora's spirits, has never felt as organic since a sensational debut in "Forget Me Not").  

When a solution is finally reached, it involves evoking yet another piece of franchise lore (Scotty being stuck in a transport buffer in Next Generation's "Relics") before putting the ship to considerable stress and Burnham at minimal risk (it's still a game effort at a mostly visual sequence, which was the best viewing experience of the episode and itself worth revisiting later).

criteria analysis:

• franchise - Fans often disagree, but I like when Star Trek evokes itself.  In literature, it's called resonance.
• series - As a part of the season arc I like how the episode further complicates attempting to understand the anomaly.  (This also feels like third season Enterprise territory, by the way.)
• character - Zora, the computer, is becoming a real character as of this episode as her evolution seriously complicates matters for the first time.
• essential - A previous stumbling block this season was the inability to adequately focus, although the more alarming part was how the episode just plain doesn't understand how this series works at its best, even in a scenario that seems tailor-made for it.  I don't blame director Jonathan Frakes for this (it seems the intent was to have the First Contact feel, at times, but the writing just didn't support it).

Star Trek: Discovery 4x5 "The Examples" Review

 rating: ****

the story: The crew has to evacuate a planet.

review: There's a point in "The Examples" where a project the smart people are working on is simply shut down.  This might seem a fairly disappointing moment, even considering a brief follow-up suggests one of the characters still thinks they know what they needed to know about it, and yet it helps illustrate the bold ways in which the episode strikes all the right notes without worrying too much about them, which can sometimes be a problem for a series that is sometimes brilliant and sometimes, even in seasons that are half the length of what a traditional season used to be, maddeningly vague.

The smart people include Stamets, his old rival Reno, and a visiting character (hopefully to be seen again!) who also helps extend the Emerald Chain fallout from last season, a brilliant scientist very much in the vein of Stamets and Reno, a character type the series does so well, difficult and yet rewarding to watch.  It's really, really wonderful to see Stamets in action again, which as I've pointed out really hasn't been the case since the first season, and even better to see Reno again (she debuted in the second season, fully formed), and if the guy does show up again it'll even be worth recording the other guy's name, too.  

They've assembled to try and figure out the secrets of the rogue anomaly, which this episode is now considered an artificial phenomenon, so very much in the character of V'Ger or the doomsday machine from "The Doomsday Machine" or even the Sphere-Builders from Enterprise (fans got all worked up online since the aliens in "Examples" were introduced in Enterprise; visual reference is also made to Denobulans, of which that show's Doctor Phlox was one).  

One of the things I love about the modern era of the franchise is how much easier it is to just reference known information rather than treat it as a new discovery every time it comes up.  (I'm still miffed, quite outsize to general fan opinion, that Starfleet wouldn't have known exactly what happened to Khan.)

Anyway, the episode also addresses one particular elephant in the room: the death and resurrection of Culber, and what that does to his continuing existence, including the additional psychiatric duties he's lately taken on.  No character has more surprised me in the series than Culber, since the second season, since he came back from the dead.  In the third season he became more interesting, and this season has obviously understood exactly what he's become, which is arguably more interesting than Stamets, which is why it's all the better that the season has also made such a renewed effort with him.

And the title characters, another prison drama in the franchise (Voyager was particularly keen on this, which makes it equally relevant to point out that, yes, there's a Starship Janeway in the episode, too, and one of the rare but always welcome Native American actors to show up in Star Trek, not even playing a role that has Native American connotations).  I love how this plays out, too.  The episode sort of teases it'll go one way, and then doesn't really dwell on any of the expectations, instead waiting until the end to hit unexpectedly poignant notes.

All this and Saru gets one outstanding moment, too.  Saru has really become a favorite of mine, too.  I find myself talking in his cadences at times.  Combine all this and this is why I love this episode, and how this season is developing, arguably the most smoothly of any arc in the series to date.  

criteria analysis:

• franchise - The callbacks serve to deepen connections the season has dedicated so much of its time already to help make apparent for skeptical fans.
• series - The season arc once again moves along in organic fashion.
• character - There's a lot to choose from.  Let's settle for Stamets and Culber.
• essential - A textbook example of a part of a serialized story that stands out on its own.

notable guest-stars:

Oden Fehr (Vance)

Tig Notaro (Reno)

David Cronenberg

Star Trek: Discovery 4x4 "All Is Possible" Review

rating: ***

the story: Tilly discovers an unexpected new calling.

review: "All Is Possible" turns things right around from the last episode, in all the most dramatic ways possible.  "Choose to Live" seemed half-heartedly committed to everything it was attempting to do; "Possible" takes the total opposite tack.  Book really struggles with the loss of his family and homeworld, the Ni'Var make a stand (and decision), and so does Sylvia Tilly.

The Ni'Var, for those still struggling to keep up with modern Trek lore, are the Vulcans, and Romulans.  They're the reunified version that was first teased in Next Generation by none other than Spock.  Last season, "Unification III" dropped that particular bombshell in Discovery's far future, including how the Ni'Var were purposefully withholding participation in the Federation.  This season we're getting a better look at what that means, "Possible" might end up being the best spotlight.  Where "Live" seemed so reluctant to live up to its preceding material, "Possible" absolutely goes for the gusto.  The Emerald Chain arc, and the stirring defense of Federation ideals Vance made last season, also factors into the episode.  That would be more than enough to give "Possible" a glowing endorsement.

But it also makes a statement about Tilly, a clear turning point for a character who often seemed fairly directionless, except surprisingly in a command direction.  The one real stumble in "Possible" is Tilly referencing "how long" she coveted the captain's chair, which for all intents and purposes wasn't even a thing until she found out Mirror Tilly, "Killy," was everything she never seemed capable of becoming, confident, cool, and above all, unquestioned command material.

Eventually, by the end, Tilly remembers in "Possible" that her true motivating factor was her overbearing mom, whom she realizes now exists in a distant past, far, far out of reach, and thus no longer in control of all her choices.  So she opts for a different path.  (Even mentioning how "long" her career has been is kind of a mockery of poor Harry Kim, who would've killed to wait only a thousand years to reach lieutenant!)  She decides to become a teacher at Starfleet Academy.

O'Brien, at the end of Deep Space Nine, went that route.  The movies kind of suggested Kirk's crew went that route.  Maybe with Tilly, when we see her again, will get to actually show us some of that, and not just another junior officer training cruise disaster, which admittedly much of this episode is, though it spends less time on it than you'd think, and more just getting to the point (another huge difference from "Live").  "Possible" feels like more of a goodbye than even Saru's choice at the end of last season, which this season quickly disputed.  Some fans will always point to Tilly, and not Burnham, as the most uncomfortable character to swallow in the series (she's even the one who breached the potty mouth barrier!), and so it's kind of appropriate for a season that has been rebooting to more accessible parameters would seem to consider jettisoning Tilly rather than Burnham (who once again drifts away from her Kirk mode and toward Picard this episode).

criteria analysis:

• franchise - Arguably, especially for grumpy Enterprise viewers, this is the closest we've ever gotten to Vulcans not named Spock (or Tuvok) getting to represent themselves in a dignified manner, be motivated by their own concerns, and still come off looking good.
• series - A ton of great callbacks to previous events without needing to belabor them.
• character - For Tilly a kind of big goodbye.
• essential - Sort of like David Cronenberg making another appearance but not making too big a deal about it, this is a notable episode of modest achievement, just wanting to push things in a further direction. 

notable guest-stars:

David Cronenberg

Star Trek: Discovery 4x2 "Anomaly" Review

 rating: ***

the story: Book takes the lead in investigating the cosmic disturbance that destroyed his world.

review: The season premiere was mostly about getting comfortable in the new future setting; "Anomaly" is, effectively, a second premiere, in that it establishes what the season will actually be exploring, a black hole phenomenon that will be causing cataclysmic destruction wherever it travels.  As I write that, I call to mind not just the Nexus ribbon from Star Trek Generations but the Crystalline Entity from The Next Generation, not to mention V'Ger from The Motion Picture and the probe in The Voyage Home...So there's a lot of history behind this new arc.  By the end of the episode, our crew learns one incredibly inconvenient fact about the phenomenon: unlike the others it won't be able to be tracked...

Book debuted last season as a kind of replacement for Ash Tyler, a would-be love interest for Burnham and a rogue agent playing by his own rules.  As is pointed out during this episode, he isn't even a part of Starfleet, and so he doesn't have to take orders.  Although it's also pointed out that as long as he works alongside our crew, his decisions still affect it and so he has to take that into account.  This leads to an adventure alongside...Stamets??

That's one of the reasons I like the episode.  Too often Stamets, even more than Culber, has been defined almost solely by his relationship with Culber.  Introduced initially as a brilliant scientist on the cutting edge, Stamets drifted away from the plot and started worrying only about his lingering connection to the spore drive, the fate of Culber, and then "adopting" Adira and Gray.  "Anomaly" feels like a direct attempt to course correct, forcing him to have a long episode with a different character, and even a whole experience that grounds him in matters that finally force him to focus on his abilities.  

Saru returns to help consult on the new crisis, and now we have him returning to his original role as a trusted ally of Michael Burnham, which like last episode feels like an attempt to remind viewers that, yes, Burnham is okay to like, her old reputation finally consigned to the past, if indeed it were ever applicable.  She takes very much a backseat the whole episode, actually, even though of course she has every reason to take a personal interest in Book's escapade.  

And yes, as the internet has pointed out, this is the first time two episodes in the franchise have exactly the same title.  Next Generation indeed had "The Emissary" and Deep Space Nine "Emissary," and "The Muse" while Voyager had "Muse," but this is the first time there's no quibbling.  Enterprise had "Anomaly," too, during its third season, in which it explored a region of space with weird properties and of course a whole crisis around them.  It seems fitting.

Also fitting are appearances from several familiar species, including a representative from the Ni'Var (the reunited Vulcan/Romulan peoples) and a Ferengi, the first live action appearance since Enterprise as Starfleet considers how to handle the crisis.

criteria analysis:

• franchise - Given all the roving threats in Star Trek lore, it seems fitting for Discovery to explore such matters in one of its season arcs.
• series - Like the first season, which unrolled its premise over the course of several episodes, this second episode of the fourth season has as much to do as the premiere.
• character - It's a spotlight for a grieving Book, and a very welcome fresh look at Stamets.
• essential - I'll reserve full marks on this one if only because no definitive points are made.

notable guest-stars:

Oded Fehr (Vance)

Star Trek: Discovery 4x1 "Kobayashi Maru" Review

 rating: ****

the story: The crew sets out on its new mission of reconnecting the galaxy with the Federation.

review: Now that Discovery officially has its own timeframe and mission, its fourth season can...obviously kick off with the same kind of awesome tease the Abrams movies favored.  That means ten minutes of a wild contact mission that goes horribly wrong, until Discovery does its patented "we're Starfleet officers capable of doing really smart things" maneuver (it's honestly my favorite quirk of the series), solves the problem (all of it looking great, like the whole of the third season premiere, "That Hope Is You, Part 1"), and moves on.

Which means Burnham and her crew integrating into being a regular feature of a renewed Starfleet.  We get a nod to Enterprise (complete with the end credits theme some fans would still prefer as the series theme itself), and then Burnham once again butting heads with an authority figure, in this instance the new president of the Federation, who's half-Cardassian, half-Bajoran (which is itself a nod to Deep Space Nine, and kind of Voyager, which had Seska, who originally presented as Bajoran, but ended up revealed as Cardassian).

Now, you might argue that this is beyond repetitive, but then you have to consider that many fans still can't get over Burnham's introduction as a mutineer, which means any examination of her thought process is a constant reminder that the series itself knows her reputation (which itself is a commentary on the kind of heroics Kirk used to pull; Burnham is a Kirk in a post-Kirk world).

And all of this is posited on one of the most familiar elements of franchise lore, from which the title of the episode is derived, the no-win scenario all Starfleet cadets must face.  Introduced in The Wrath of Khan and then revisited in Star Trek, the Kobayashi Maru test is an attempt to drive home that all officers must face the reality of failure, not just the possibility.  Does someone like Burnham run on luck in forever apparently avoiding the worst effects of her decisions, or is she inevitably setting herself for a terrible fall?  

The episode also visits with Saru and Book as they pursue individual goals, one of which unexpectedly propels the episode into the season's arc, to be explored later.

criteria analysis:

• franchise - A statement that resonates throughout Star Trek lore.
• series - And that emphasizes how Discovery itself has been making it all along.
• character - Specifically in Michael Burnham.
• character - Many fans have continued to question why they should care about Burnham.  This seems like as clear an explanation, in terms long-term fans can understand, as the series has made.

notable guest-stars:

Oded Fehr (Vance)

Star Trek: Prodigy 1x5 "Terror Firma" Review

 rating: ***

the story: The characters escape the predator planet, and perhaps the Diviner, too.

review: In the second part of the "Dream Catcher" story, Prodigy appears to take a big leap and complete an arc begun at the start of the series.  

Now that everyone knows what kind of planet they've really found, escape is the main objective.  But there's also the question of what to do with Gwyn, the daughter of the Diviner, the tyrant who previously kept them all prisoner and who also wanted the lost Starfleet ship they found and escaped in.  As a new kind of Star Trek, it was difficult to know exactly how all this would play out, how long it would play out (and of course, there's hardly a guarantee that the Diviner arc ends here, although it's difficult to imagine him finding a way to credibly stay in close contact with them now).

Serialized storytelling is hardly new in the franchise at this point, and in most of it, the story stretches at least for a whole season.  In Discovery, however, there were elements that resolved within the first handful of episodes, such as Michael Burnham's status in Starfleet and the nature of the tardigrade helping power the spore drive.  Prodigy, as of "Terror Firma," seems to be following that model, an extended arc that traditionally would have played out in a pilot as setup for the premise.  New era, new rules.

The episode teases along the solution that rounds out the dilemma, the big mystery at the heart of the Protostar, which turns to be a protostar, a new propulsion system that surely would have been handy in Voyager itself, the series Prodigy seems so eager to evoke.  

In the process of working all this out, it's perhaps the first satisfying episode of the series so far.  Having discarded the familiar element that drove "Dream Catcher," "Terror Firma" instead is free to challenge the characters on their own terms, leaving Gwyn finally as an accepted ally, as she was clearly set up to be from the start.  That itself is a completed arc.

criteria analysis:

• franchise - Janeway's nudge this episode helps Starfleet's best service tradition remain true.
• series - A welcome conclusion to the initial arc of Prodigy.
• character - Gwyn finally joins the good guys.
• essential -  The lack of heroic resolve from the ostensible lead character, Dal, remains a drawback.

Star Trek: Prodigy 1x3 "Starstruck" Review

 rating: ***

the story: The erstwhile crew meets Hologram Janeway.

review: The first regular episode of the series is also the first to explore how exactly Janeway, or Hologram Janeway, factors into Prodigy.  For long-term fans, Voyager's captain was itself the key selling point of the series.  The original series and Next Generation had their own follow-up films to ensure revisiting for at least a while, but that was the first two in what became an expanding franchise of characters, many of whom would never appear in another incarnation of Star Trek.  From Deep Space Nine onward, many characters would end up appearing only in their originating shows, or so it seemed.  Voyager has now gotten to luckiest, in the new era, with Seven in Picard, Paris showing up in Lower Decks, and now Janeway as a main character in Prodigy.

Hologram Janeway, and the ship she projects from, is the only standard Star Trek element of Prodigy.  She herself assumes the characters around her are cadets, and none of them are in a rush to correct her, so that's the premise, as far as she knows.

Amazingly, Kate Mulgrew sounds exactly as she always did.  Some actors, regardless of aging issues, end up sounding different when doing voice work, unless they're seasoned veterans of the form.  The depiction of Hologram Janeway is exactly as fans saw her in Voyager, so there's little confusion possible.  Anyone watching without that context knows this character as a reference tool who also volunteers Starfleet protocol when necessary but who is nonetheless very much beholden to a given set of parameters.  She doesn't adopt the role of captain, she can't control the newbies.  In some ways she's an interactive version of the computer voice Majel Roddenberry provided across much of the franchise.  (There's a whole generation of fans who shudder at the very thought.  I prefer not to seek out their opinions.)

Other than that, the episode is the cast just trying to figure out how little they know about a Starfleet ship, and not much beyond that.

criteria analysis:

• franchise - The next gig for a well-known Star Trek character is pretty notable.
• series - The integration of that character into Prodigy is kind of the whole point of the episode.
• character - And that character is, of course, Janeway, recognizable in all aspects except...being in command.
• essential - Is it ironic that Janeway, famously having a holographic doctor, herself became a hologram?  This series lacks such self-awareness, alas.