Voyager 7x14 "Prophecy"

rating: ***

the story: The crew encounters a generational Klingon ship.

what it's all about: Now, technically, the story is about, well, a prophecy (there would be little reason to call the episode that otherwise), and while that's certainly central to the story, seemingly the whole point...there's a layer of cleverness to it that speaks to the plight of the crew, the premise of the series, too.

And that's why I consider it first and foremost an encounter with a generational ship.

Because isn't that the theoretical fate of the crew?  If they don't find a shortcut?  In the final episode ("Endgame"), we in fact encounter an alternate future where Miral (more on her later) and Sabrina (the daughter of Naomi Wildman, who herself has already long represented the possibility) represent another generation of the crew.  And so to encounter a ship with a generational crew must be considered a fairly deliberate plot device on the part of the producers, something that harkens back to the wide range of stories in previous seasons about the nature of the series, previously featured most heavily in all the potential shortcuts, as well as potential new homes, should the crew ever decide to abandon its journey.  Neelix, in "Homestead," ends up taking that option, and "Prophecy" predicts that, too.

So that's whole level on which the episode works exceptionally.  There's also Miral.  Miral is the future daughter of Torres and Paris.  Previously, in "Lineage," we saw Torres tormented by the idea of her, but in "Prophecy" she has a chance to welcome the possibilities.  And ironically, it has everything to do with Klingons.  Now, you can actually enjoy "Prophecy" purely as a Klingon episode, and unlike most Torres episodes, you don't have to be filled with angst about it (such as "Barge of the Dead," "Day of Honor").  That in itself is a remarkable accomplishment, just another of the many things Voyager did that few fans would ever have imagined possible, a true testament to the approach the series stuck to despite massive backlash among the more intransigent. 

And as a final spotlight for Torres, it's wonderfully understated in its poetic impact.  It might seem strange, to give such a famously conflicted character such a personal story that really belongs to someone else, and yet...that's what makes it work so well.

criteria analysis:

• franchise - Fans of Klingons will enjoy this unexpected new cultural meditation.
• series - Wonderfully evocative of the premise.
• character - A fitting final spotlight for B'Elanna Torres.
• essential - Sometimes perfection seems incomplete.  You just really kind of wish it had been one final existential crisis for her.

notable guest-stars:
Sherman Howard

Discovery 1x12 "Vaulting Ambition"

rating: ****

the story: Burnham confronts the Emperor.

what it's all about: The biggest and really only problem I had with Deep Space Nine's serialized storytelling was that when it counted, during those six- and ten-episode arcs at the start of the sixth season and end of the series, respectively, there didn't seem to be a lot of narrative clarity.  Things happened, and they kept happening, but the stories the series wove with such precision in its episodic tales vanished, and big moments ended up buried or marginalized.  Discovery certainly doesn't have that problem.  Its solution?  To have big reveals, and to keep them at a slow burn.  "Vaulting Ambition" is the latest climax in a series of climactic reveals.  It's almost like Star Trek is suddenly embracing the false face flair of Mission: Impossible, another iconic series Leonard Nimoy acted in.

Which is to say, everything I was saying about the last episode is once again true this episode.  Discovery has definitely reclaimed its narrative momentum.  With that strong three-episode suite at the start of the series, and now with three of the past four episodes, there's a stronger sense of impact than at just about any other point in TV franchise lore going on.  I have no idea how long this lasts, because there have always been strong seasons in Star Trek that don't necessarily carry on to succeeding seasons.  Momentum of this kind is easier to continue within a season than outside of it. 

But anyway, momentum does continue here, and in a number of fruitful ways.  Tyler/Torchbearer reaches a climax (is Torchbearer permanently gone? we'll see!).  Stamets and Mirror Stamets (in an echo of Bashir's experiences, after a fashion, in Deep Space Nine's "Distant Voices")  figure things out, and Burnham, as I said in a woefully in inadequate summary of the episode above, hashes it out with Mirror Georgiou.  That sequence is a nice way of bringing Burnham back to the center of the series, with everything else revolving around her, something that hasn't seem as true for a while. 

Oh, and Lorca comes from the Mirror Universe.  Yeah.

Apparently there was some speculation about this, just as there had been with Tyler/Torchbearer.  Doesn't diminish the impact of the revelations, though.  These moments are pitch-perfect.  Hopefully fans in an era where chatter is instantaneous can keep the storytelling itself in perspective, how it's executed.  Of course, that's another story that continues in other episodes.

One element that definitely is episode-specific is resolution for Stamets and Culber.  Arguably this is Culber's best moment.  Arguably?  Let's just agree that it is.  It's enough to be able to see Stamets be Stamets again.  The episode in part serves as a reminder of just how engaging the character is.  It also reminds us that he is capable of connecting with someone on a deep level (he seems to fail this with just about everyone else, but Tilly comes closest to filling that void, as she likely will in the future).

And?  This is Saru's best appearance in a long time, too.  Certainly, better than the ham-fisted spotlight "Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum."  At exactly the same time the series offers up its creepiest moment, when Mirror Georgiou reveals Burnham is...eating Kelpian.  (She's not eating Mirror Saru, but...on any level this is just wrong.)

So, this is a very good episode.

criteria analysis:

• franchise - A huge development in the Mirror Universe mythos.
• series - Huge moments seemingly every few minutes for Discovery fans.
• character - I think just about every main character had a huge moment in this one.
• essential - So many huge moments!  Is this in fact a leading contender for best episode of the series so far?

notable guest-stars:
Michelle Yeoh (Mirror Georgiou)

Discovery 1x11 "The Wolf Inside"

rating: ****

the story: The journey to the Mirror Universe gets real in a most unexpected way when Tyler's secret is exposed.

what it's all about: "The Wolf Inside" is everything "Despite Yourself" wasn't quite.  Where "Despite" was almost completely setup, "Wolf" cuts deep.  It's essential in just about every way, and once again proves the strength of Discovery's storytelling.  This is a series that has embraced serialized storytelling from the start, something Star Trek has been working on since Next Generation but most enthusiastically in Deep Space Nine and Enterprise.  At times Discovery has slipped into episodic mode, the franchise's old wheelhouse, even if it's been an awkward fit.  "Wolf" proves how rousing the series is in its natural serialized mode, moving forward with big dramatic moments that in any other Star Trek would've been the subject of a reset button after one story. 

So yeah, Tyler really is the Torchbearer.  "Wolf" is almost a direct sequel to the first two episodes of the series, with effective use of flashback so we know exactly what we're dealing with.  In all previous iterations of the franchise, this would've been exiled to a "previous in" pre-episode recap.  It's refreshing to see so many of the old rules broken, in ways that benefit the storytelling.

But there's a lot of tradition in the episode, too.  Even more than "Despite," "Wolf" feels like it's carrying on the storytelling tradition of the Mirror Universe, picking right back up where Enterprise left off.  In more ways than one!  This happens to be the first time Discovery features Tellarites and Andorians, both of whom appeared in Enterprise (the latter quite extensively), for the first time since the original series.  The rebellion featuring them as well as Vulcans and Klingons also serves as an ironic nod to the Deep Space Nine episodes that followed up on "Mirror, Mirror," where Kirk is able to convince Mirror Spock to end the tyrannical grip of the Empire...to disastrous results for humans. 

Beyond the big reveal of the Emperor at the end of the episode (which again follows tradition, where Hoshi Sato in Enterprise and Worf in Deep Space Nine kept the role in the family), is how Tyler's drama plays out, in parallel aboard Discovery and with Burnham in the enemy ship.  I can't state how much Tyler has turned around from his inauspicious, seemingly random origins in the series.  The more we've seen of him, the more he's been given exactly the development he's needed.  By the time we're asked to reconcile the truth about him, we feel just as betrayed as everyone else, and paradoxically we want him to survive his execution, too.  How else does Tyler find redemption?  Or will there be some even juicier results from the nature of his existence?  It's Seska redux (Voyager), what we never got to see from Ro Laren in Next Generation, and what Deep Space Nine tried to pull in a single episode ("Defiant") with Thomas Riker (the transporter duplicate).  Seska had a whole season to let the dagger sink in, plus several rewarding surprise appearances later.  Tyler is Seska as if we care as much about her, before learning the truth, as we did about Ro Laren.  See where this is a good thing?

Also?  Stamets meets Mirror Stamets.  And that's the biggest tease of the episode...

criteria analysis:

• franchise - The Mirror Universe just keeps getting better.
• series - This crew's journey in it just keeps getting more complicated.
• character - Tyler reaches one climax of his existence(s).
• essential - Reaching immersive depths not really seen since the start of the series.

notable guest-stars:
James Frain (Mirror Sarek)
Michelle Yeoh (Mirror Georgiou)

Discovery 1x10 "Despite Yourself"

rating: ***

the story: The crew finds itself stranded in the Mirror Universe.

what it's all about: So, the serialized story continues, in an unexpected new direction.  Or, new for Discovery, but hugely familiar in the franchise at large.  Mirror Universe?  Does that mean nothing to you?  In the original series, "Mirror, Mirror" introduced the Mirror Universe (and that explains the name, too), which famously featured Goatee Spock, where the gimmick was everyone there was basically the evil counterpart of everyone here.  Flash-forward to Deep Space Nine's "Crossover," where the story picks up again, and then continues throughout the rest of that series, mostly one episode a season.  And then Enterprise had the two-part "In a Mirror, Darkly," where the origin of the Mirror Universe is revealed (and ties in with First Contact), among other things.

"Despite Yourself" actually has a tie-in to that one, which is also a tie-in to the original series episode "The Tholian Web," where a lost ship called the Defiant is found.  "Web" didn't state that the ship was in the Mirror Universe, but "Mirror, Darkly" established that.  And so now Discovery does, too. 

There's plenty of Discovery-specific material, too.  "Despite Yourself" is a direct continuation of "Into the Forest I Go," which means Lorca and Stamets are responsible, indirectly (or was Lorca deliberately leading the ship there?  fans wonder!), for getting everyone to the Mirror Universe.  Speaking of Stamets, he's beginning to look, more and more, like he's going to be the latest Star Trek character to flirt with godhood, a tradition that also goes all the way to the original series.  Seeing him with the pupil-less eyes is spooky!  And just another thing being serialized.  We'll see.

And what about Tyler?  We find out that he's been overwritten (or underwritten?) by the Torchbearer from the early episodes of the series.  That's another fan theory confirmed after a fashion.  To finally have that mystery solved is pretty huge, and arguably the most important element of the episode. 

My only gripe?  That this is the kind of episode that needed to hit harder than it did.  Serialization has its drawbacks.  The biggest one is that when a story doesn't have resolution within a single episode, a given episode can't stand on its own as well as it might otherwise seem it does.  A different series would've dealt with Tyler's revelation as the whole episode, and yet here it's just a subplot being explored across multiple episodes. 

criteria analysis:

• franchise - Return to the Mirror Universe!
• series - The latest twist in the journey!
• character - But the big reveal?  Tyler is basically the Torchbearer.
• essential - Juggling these elements, in this case, diminishes the impact of the whole.

Voyager 7x13 "Repentance"

rating: ***

the story: The ship temporarily houses alien convicts.

what it's all about: "Repentance" is basically the Dead Man Walking of Star Trek episodes.  It's not really about a member of the crew at all, but the guest character played by Jeff Kober, a convict who undergoes an operation that cure him of the impulses that led him to murder, but leaves him with unbearable remorse.  The family of his victim has a chance to grant him an appeal, based on this development, but ultimately chooses against it.  It works as a tragedy, whether or not the viewer carries the idea into the real world, and that's all due to Kober's sympathetic performance.

There's other shenanigans going on around this plot, including a formulaic fellow convict played by F.J. Rio (playing a far less sympathetic character, certainly compared to the last time we saw him, in Deep Space Nine), basically padding.  Seven is loosely tied into the plot, a Borg parallel concerning her lingering guilt over her actions while a drone, but it's not terribly memorable.

What "Repentance" does is affirm the strength of Star Trek's original episodic mandate, in a way Voyager had in particular come to master, so that guest characters were capable of carrying whole hours, as in the masterful "Distant Origin."  This one's comparatively minor, but as a late addition in the final season, it's a great reminder of what Voyager was capable of, regardless of persistent fan criticism to the contrary.

criteria analysis:

• franchise - A testament to Star Trek's original episodic format.
• series - And how Voyager could so masterfully employ it.
• character - A weak effort to tie Seven into the plot.
• essential - A compelling guest character effortlessly sells his own case.

notable guest-stars:
Jeff Kober
F.J. Rio

Discovery 1x9 "Into the Forest I Go"

rating: ****

the story: The crew takes the fight to the Klingons.

what it's all about: The wonderful thing that didn't exist in previous incarnations of the television franchise that's now ubiquitous is the concept of the midseason finale.  Season finales themselves are something Star Trek helped revolutionize, with "The Best of Both Worlds" at the end of Next Generation's third season, where something truly important and potentially game-changing happen.  Most of the ones that followed, across the franchise, were two-part episodes.  Voyager gave new emphasis to two-part episodes within seasons, but no story ever had to wait until the next set of new episodes to be completed.  Now, in the binge era, there are whole seasons released in an instant, but the more traditional platforms have been featuring the midseason finale, which is exactly like what season finales have become, but, well, in the middle of the season. 

Long story short, that's "Into the Forest I Go" in a nutshell.  It's a midseason finale, where big things happen.  Nine episodes in, with a lot of big things happening at the start of the series, covering a third of the show's existence, that may not sound like much, but it really is.  Given that it seemed to be heavily serialized at the start, only to give way to more episodic storytelling in the back stretch, that puts the season back on track, in some ways, or merely back in familiar, identifiably Discovery territory.

Obviously the Klingon conflict has been at the heart of this story from the start, so the episode is climactic in that regard.  We discover, or are given a considerable clue, a hidden truth about Tyler, all but confirming a favorite fan theory about him, that he was really the Torchbearer of the Klingons from the early episodes all along.  Only he may not even know it.  I've had a conflicted take on the character (Tyler) since he first appeared, but he's emerged as worthy of the weight placed upon him, as a kind of answer to Burnham.  Burnham is the character who has earned considerable distrust, and yet Tyler is the one who seems to truly earn it.  And no one has a clue.  You've got Lorca, who's the shadiest Starfleet captain to ever be featured as a main character, and Stamets, who has also been compromised (a defining attribute of this cast) and trying to get out from under it.  Lorca manipulates Stamets, it seems, as he's manipulated others, for his own ends.  Burnham goes on a suicide mission looking for redemption, to earn the trust Lorca had previously given her freely...And in the end, it's all about Tyler.  His PTSD is as notable in the episode as anything else we see about him, and it's harrowing and feels like the most real thing we've seen from the character...But then, what is real about him?

So the Klingons are handed a big defeat, and yet, they come out better positioned, seemingly, than before, by the end of the episode.  Big things happen, and big things promised for next time...That's exactly how to do a midseason finale.  There's been a lot of criticism about the release model, the streaming service and yet the adherence to traditional standards.  This kind of storytelling affirms that they got it right.

criteria analysis:

• franchise - Anytime a big Klingon moment happens, it's historic.
• series - A moment the season has definitely been building toward.
• character - Tyler emerges as Burnham's chief rival for most important character in this series.
• essential - As good a selling point for the emerging legacy of Discovery as you could ask for.

Discovery 1x8 "Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum"

rating: **

the story: Saru is compromised by aliens.

what it's all about: This is the first episode to really disappoint me from the series.  It's as flat a story as could be expected, with Saru being featured at face value, which for me is the most disappointing thing about it, as Saru has consistently been a highlight of Discovery, who along with Burnham has been the uniting element from the early twists of the journey.

Then this happens.  "If you want peace, prepare for war," as the title translates.  The title has far more to do with Lorca than Saru, which is about as telling as the undercooked nature of the episode can be expected to deliver.  It's clearly an homage to classic Star Trek storytelling, with too many examples to bother referencing here (yeah, I've indulged that instinct plenty of times in other reviews across the franchise, but I don't really think it's relevant for an iteration of the franchise that has until this point gleefully broken new ground).  That's a problem especially if the subject is Saru and we're supposed to just accept that it's a logical conclusion to tell it this way because of the nature of the character, and feel warm and fuzzy because he feels a sense of peace he's never known and...This was the chance to expand the character, not limit him, and yet that's exactly what happens.

Logistically, the episode also comes up with a convoluted turning point for the Klingon conflict, a Star Trek scenario where the good guys have to be the good guys for traditional reasons...Again, this is below the series.  Deep Space Nine, which broke this ground, never stooped to something like this.  It just reeks of that last itch of the growing pains following the loss of showrunner Bryan Fuller, like someone was desperately trying to figure out where everything was supposed to go without really thinking about it, so they fudged it.  And that fudging is a whole episode.

criteria analysis:

• franchise - Casual fans will probably see how this connects to Star Trek tradition.
• series - But Discovery fans ought to feel something like a slap in the face.
• character - In any other context, this Saru spotlight would be much more acceptable, but instead it's disappointing, even if it's nice that it finally happened.
• essential - No, not really.