This is the best episode of the show yet.
THAT SAID, It still has many of the fundamental issues I have present. They’re clearly conscious choices, they’re not going away, and I don’t like them. I probably never will. The question for me is does everything else make up for it, and this episode proves the show can do that.
I have already banged on about it multiple times but I HAVE to mention these two things again, because they are EVER PRESENT and it's annoying me.
The legacy Trek nods are way too frequent for the timeframe. Braka playing with the NX-01 model, the Vulcan cadet quoting Spock, etc. There was definitely a few more I'm blanking on as well.
It's too much. We did the love letter to DS9 last week that let them cut loose when it came to legacy Trek references because it was the main plot point but it just feels artificially stuffed into this one.
They have chosen to set this EIGHT-HUNDRED years after the TNG/DS9/VOY era of Trek but they can't fully commit to it. When you add the legacy nods to the frankly
weird (and incorrect) choice to make so much of the dialogue read contemporary to our time the whole thing feels jarring when it doesn't need to be.
Just commit to the era, tell the story and drop the contemporary nonsense. There is something interesting to explore in this era. The whole rebuilding after The Burn and the Federation being on its knees as a once great power clawing back control in a completely hostile environment is inherently interesting. Just do more of that.
Braka is fun. Paul Giamatti is absolutely chewing the scenery and I don't mind. You could critique it as too much, too Gary Oldman-in-
Léon, but it’s so entertaining I just don't care. Yes, it's very monologue heavy but it manages it because Giamatti has the acting chops to pull it off. He's completely OTT but it's enjoyable to watch and he's irredeemably unhinged. Grey villains are fine when done right but an irredeemable asshole like this is also good when you have the actor to pull it off.
The setup is… convenient. They’re doing a live exercise on a derelict ship and it all goes wrong instantly. The Braka twist at the end softens it but still. We don’t have a simulation for this? We can’t do the basic training version of it before we send the new kids on the block? Maybe third years? Also, maybe don’t send the cadet who’s still having panic attacks on the bridge on this particular field trip.
Also, is there ANYONE who didn't call the red shirt death from the start?
The action and pacing of the episode was exciting though, and I liked the War College and Academy working together complete with real stakes. It made them feel competent
(besides miss panic attack on the bridge)
The Caleb/Tarima stuff… meh. I liked their vibe when she was introduced. Since then, it’s felt like the show’s speed-running their relationship because of the 10-episode season squeeze. Now they’ve slept together and suddenly we’re doing telepathic link stuff. I get it. I don’t hate it. It just doesn’t feel like it’s progressed in a satisfying way, it feels like they’re ticking plot boxes at double speed.
There are things that grate on me heavily still about this show but I will say this: I had to tap out of Discovery for one GLARING reason. I found it boring as fuck. This show has MANY issues, but it's not boring. There are lots of interesting things going on and it feels ambitious and when it does focus on the Trek-centric storytelling of the era they are in without the legacy nods and referencing to wanking it generally works well. I have rolled my eyes a bunch of times over the last 6 episodes but I've never been bored watching the show.
Oh yeah, the bat demon alien things felt a bit Buffy-esque which was fitting because we basically got this as the resolution of the episode:
