Short Treks 2x6 "Children of Mars"

rating: ****

the story: The daughters of separate Starfleet engineers at the Utopia Planetia shipyards are rivals until forced to discover common ground under the worst circumstances.

review: I think Short Treks is becoming the most reliable source of great franchise material we've ever seen.  "Children of Mars" continues its emerging tradition of bucking traditional Star Trek storytelling forms, and in the process gives us another transcendent experience, and could actually be the best of them yet.

A mostly wordless experience (much like "Ephraim and Dot"), we follow the arc of two girls who engage in fairly typical school behavior.  The whole thing becomes an object lesson not only in how these things happen, but reaches far beyond the franchise to speak at truly universal levels.  Again, Short Treks achieves something that can be viewed by someone who has never seen and never imagined liking Star Trek, and can easily be appreciated for its remarkable accomplishments.

The Star Trek ideal has always been at the heart of its appeal among fans, its idealistic vision of a future where humanity has reached, at last, a state of peace with itself.  But even in Kirk's day Spock still felt the sting of racism.  The integration of aliens into the culture was something Enterprise explored, with particularly compelling results in its final season.  By the time we see the image of Picard, and realize this is part of the Star Trek: Picard landscape, we realize that humanity still has a way to go.  This isn't Star Trek rejecting its own message, but continually affirming it. 

We won't know the particular relevance of "Children" to Picard until Picard itself  But that hardly stands in the way.

criteria analysis:

• franchise - Speaks directly to the heart of Star Trek's message.
• series - Begins to emphasize that Short Treks itself has become a viable representative of the franchise.
• character - In this instance, Starfleet itself.
• essential - A breathtaking artistic achievement.

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 - Short Treks 2x4 "Ephraim and Dot"

rating: ****

the story: A tartigrade fable!

review: If Star Trek is to delve back into animation, this is the template for greatness.

Obviously, Star Trek has delved into animation before, the relatively short-lived Animated Series that, back in the early '70s, was actually the second incarnation of the franchise, a fairly cheap production that brought back the original cast and told new adventures much as the original series had, with the same basic execution, a pattern Star Trek was to follow for decades across four additional live action incarnations.

Discovery was the boldest break in the TV branch, not only because it was the first fully serialized version of the franchise, but because it freely embraced new narrative structures in ways no other version of Star Trek had before it, despite a few notable exceptions (such as Voyager's "Distant Origin," which featured the main cast in supporting roles). 

"Ephraim and Dot" is sort of like the Disney version of Star Trek.  I don't say this because of wholesome family values or any other current association that might readily come to mind, but because it feels like a Disney short, that most direct expression of the studio's best creative instincts.

It features a tartigrade, the weird alien life-form (based on a current science fad that's popped up any number of places in recent years) called the tartigrade, which factored heavily into key aspects of the first and second seasons of Discovery, enabling the show's ship to feature its innovative spore drive.  Discovery had already turned the creature into a "Devil in the Dark" morality tale, so "Ephraim and Dot" is free to presents its tartigrade at face value, and still, by the end, duplicate the feat.

At its most simple, the Short is sort of like Wall-E, with a fun little relationship that develops, mostly in silence, between the tartigrade and a Starfleet maintenance bot.  But the storytelling and animation push the whole package to exquisite heights.  This is something you will be able to enjoy or share with your kids for years to come, beyond any immediate need to delve into greater Star Trek lore.  Yet another classic Short Trek.

criteria analysis:

• franchise - Lots of easter eggs for fans!
• series - Arguably the best tartigrade appearance in Discovery.
• character - And more than any previous appearance, makes you care for the creatures.
• essential - Pushes the boundaries of great Star Trek still further.

Discovery - Short Treks 2x3 "Ask Not"

rating: ***

the story: A cadet faces an awful test when faced with an impossible decision.

review: Finally, a Short Trek that isn't mediocre or great, just comfortably somewhere in the middle.  This is the seventh one now; the format itself has been tested and its creators generally know what's possible.  This is the third one, of the past three, to give the Discovery Enterprise a little more breathing room, and the first to feature Pike directly.  As he was throughout his appearances in Discovery's second season, Pike remains eminently watchable, so "Ask Not" has at least that going for it.  But there's more.

Ever since Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, and Wesley Crusher's early experiences in The Next Generation, fans have been given glimpses at the sorts of things Starfleet recruits might expect in their initial training.  The 2009 Star Trek movie was built around the idea, too, but for the purposes of this Short Trek, I'll dwell mostly around Wes.

"Ask Not" feels like an attempt to give us something far better than what Wes got to experience.  It doesn't give us strong character work so much a great grasp of the scenario.  We get some fun details, including an unexpected callback to The Motion Picture's hilarious "reserve activation clause" that Kirk used to bring McCoy back, another sign that Discovery's creators have been far closer attention to franchise lore than some fans have been willing to admit.  (The longer a franchise goes, the more old fans like to claim that the new stuff "just isn't the same."  But Star Trek fans have been making that claim since at least the first season of Next Generation.  And really, since The Motion Picture.)

This is the sort of experience that's fun just to watch play out.  Like a lot early Next Generation, Wes's experiences feel fairly primitive.  "Ask Not" is vivid, as Discovery tends to be, without being needlessly flashy (these productions are always by definition minimalist, operating on budgets befitting their brief running times; this one's the shortest of the Shorts so far).

It's another real treat.

criteria analysis:

• franchise - Good use of Starfleet lore, in familiar yet fresh ways.
• series - If it doesn't give us fresh insight into Pike necessarily, it does give us a welcome return visit with this version of him.
• character - With such a brief run-time, it's a welcome relief that this Short Trek didn't try to hamfist character development, as some of the earlier ones did.
• essential - For its kind of story, yes!

notable guest-stars:

Anson Mount (Pike)

Ethan Peck (Spock)

Rebecca Romijn (Number One)

Discovery - Short Treks 2x2 "The Trouble with Edward"

rating: ****

the story: You've got to see the secret origin of the tribble scourge to believe it!

review: Every time the tribbles are in the spotlight, they shine.  You've got "The Trouble with Tribbles" in the original series, "More Trouble, More Tribbles" in The Animated Series, "Trials and Tribble-ations" in Deep Space Nine, and now, "The Trouble with Edward."

Aside from Pike at the start of the episode, the cast is entirely original to this Short Trek.  It doesn't matter.  Everyone delivers.  And it's got terrific logic.  And it becomes pretty darn hilarious.  It's everything you would want if someone were to try and explain all of it. 

With the original batch of Short Treks, the writers delivered a mixed bag of brilliant and labored stories.  The first two of this second batch have both been brilliant.  As a format, Short Treks is turning into a reliable engine.

criteria analysis:

• franchise - Tribbles!
• series - Pike's bit actually helps flesh out the story.
• character - Take your pick, but really it's the tribbles.
• essential - Required viewing for fans.  Including the commercial at the end!

notable guest-stars:

Anson Mount (Pike)

Discovery - Short Treks 2x1 "Q & A"

rating: ****

the story: Spock boards the Enterprise for the first time and meets Number One.

review: Seems more an ode to Number One than Spock, though it can function both ways, and I'm not at all complaining either way.  This may be the best Number One spotlight (and the closest to learning her name?) we ever get.

I've already seen quibbling over whether or not they screwed up the costuming for this one, given that it's technically a flashback to a period with different costumes than we remember.  I suppose that can't possibly matter in the grand scheme, unless you really want it to, and I don't.

Written by acclaimed novelist Michael Chabon, "Q & A" sets the the second batch of Short Treks on sure footing.  Number One didn't get a lot of scenes in Discovery's second season, so it was nice for her to get this spotlight at all, much less it turning out to be such a good one.  A character famously portrayed by Majel Barrett Roddenberry in the original pilot of the original series ("The Cage"), and never seen again, until Discovery, Number One occupies a unique place in franchise lore.  Here we discover that she's an intellectual equal to Spock, and it doesn't feel like a cheap development.  We even see how she helps guide Spock's subsequent deportment, reconciling the smiling Spock glimpsed in that pilot with the famously stoic one better known in virtually every other appearance.

It does help connect the Spock previously featured in Discovery with his other portrayals, too.  When we caught up with him in the series, he was already past the point where we'd seen him with Pike's crew originally.  We not only learned of his relationship with Michael Burnham, but another period of doubt in a life filled with such moments.  Here it's nice to be able to enjoy unfiltered Spock, with someone who accepts him as he is, not merely as a friend or colleague, but his basic character.

criteria analysis:

• franchise - Wonderful look at Spock regardless of where you're coming from.
• series - A welcome return to the Discovery version of Pike's Enterprise.
• character - At long last, a Number One spotlight!
• essential - It's possibly the best one we'll ever have!

notable guest-stars:

Anson Mount (Pike)

Rebecca Romijn (Number One)

Ethan Peck (Spock)

Discovery - Short Treks 1x4 "The Escape Artist"

rating: ****

the story: Mudd has been captured...again.

review: Wow, so I begin to suspect there was no production overview on these Short Treks.  Two of them were attempts at profound statements, idea-wise or character-wise, and they more or less failed, and two of them were simply creative statements, and they were huge successes.  The latter I consider "Calypso" and now "The Escape Artist."  "Calypso" featured a totally new character while "Escape Artist" marks Harry Mudd's third Discovery appearance, and his best to date.

After a debut marred by an undercooked debut for Tyler in "Choose Your Pain" and a perhaps overly clever follow-up in "Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad," Mudd at last stands front and center, and is all the more charming for it.  It's not Rainn Wilson who was ever the problem.  On the contrary, he proved an inspired choice (the most inspired casting choice of Discovery to date) to play this incarnation of Mudd.  Presentation of the character has also been remarkably consistent, more than enough to sell the, ah, virtues of a character who had become entangled in memories of the original (and animated) series but perhaps doomed to never escape it. 

There are even echoes of other Star Trek adventures here.  One can see Enterprise's "Bounty" in there; the two stories even share Tellarites in common, and I doubt that's coincidence.  But the difference is that Mudd isn't Captain Archer, and isn't even Starfleet.  What "Escape Artist" and "Calypso" do best, in fact, is prove that Star Trek doesn't need Starfleet to tell a worthwhile story, which is something the franchise hasn't really tried before.  As Mudd has reiterated a few times at this point, existing alongside the Federation but standing outside of it gives him ample opportunity to reflect on its existence (another thing the Abrams films, particularly Star Trek Beyond, have also touched on to considerable value).

"Escape Artist" takes full advantage of the Short Treks format, even using unusual editing for a Star Trek, which other entries would've greatly benefited from (particularly "Brightest Star"), and unlike the other three realizes that this was an opportunity to revisit something we had seen but could might see in even better light with added spotlight.  And it's something you could show anyone and they would more likely than not get a kick out of.  And that's as high praise as you can get for mass audiences.  For fans, it's a fun indulgence in a lot of familiar material, grounded by letting a fun character be at his most engaging.

criteria analysis:

• franchise - General fans will dig it.
• series - Committed fans will dig it.
• character - Arguably the best Mudd spotlight to date.
• essential - A great way to showcase Star Trek.

notable guest-stars:
Rainn Wilson (Harry Mudd)

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 1x2 "Calypso"

rating: ****

the story: A thousand years in the future, Discovery's AI makes a startling new friend.

review: The first Short Treks was ultimately a disappointment, a crude narrative that suggested the whole concept was a mistake.  "Calypso" is the complete opposite.  It's also basically the same exact story, and that's how you can tell that it's the strength of the storytelling that's always key.  You can probably pin the victory on Michael Chabon, the celebrated novelist who helped come up with the idea and wrote the teleplay. 

Like "Runaway," "Calypso" features a single character visiting Discovery and interacting with a single character, and both visitors ultimately leave, and there's personal discoveries (ah) learned along the way.  But where "Runaway" feels forced, "Calypso" is a rich and rewarding experience.  It maybe doesn't hurt if you're an Odyssey nerd like I am, and realize that the title and arc of "Calypso" are drawn from Homer's ancient epic poem about Odysseus's ten-year journey homeward after the Trojan War.

That's actually a lot of what I love about the story, what it says about The Odyssey itself.  Calypso the Homeric character might be said to be a villain, who sidelines Odysseus for an extended period, keeping him from his mission, but as a commentary, "Calypso" helps explain how the experience might have been beneficial to him, therapeutic.  Too often, especially in our present age, we reduce everything to the most negative, simplistic interpretations possible. 

"Calypso," on a more superficial level, also revels in Star Trek's frequent indulgences in old Hollywood footage, in this instance Betty Boop and the Audrey Hepburn film Funny Face (1957).  Footage like that will always be cost-effective, but "Calypso" particularly uses it effectively, involving it directly in the plot.

No familiar faces appear, but the storytelling is strong enough where you become drawn into it anyway, and the concept of Short Treks suddenly awakens, as "Runaway" didn't manage to accomplish, a whole new world of possibilities in a more than fifty-year-old franchise. 

criteria analysis:

• franchise - There's something that just feels right about an old Starfleet ship still doing good for the universe well after its crew has departed. 
• series - If that ship isn't named Enterprise, then a story like this almost does more to solidify Discovery's bid for an enduring legacy than anything in the first season.
• character - Easily draws you in with previously unknown characters.
• essential - This is Star Trek in a nutshell: evocative storytelling on every level.

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.