Star Trek Discovery 1.05 Choose Your Pain review
Choose Your Pain review
The fifth episode of the series. An interesting story, but there is at least one element I didn't like. The 'colourful metaphors'! Like, this isn't your parent's Star Trek! But more on that later. More is revealed about Lorca. There is certainly history between him and Admiral Cornwell. Their interaction is rather good, particularly when she's confronting him about recruiting Burnham. Then there is Mudd. He was also done rather well, there was no problem believing that he was the same character that Kirk and Spock will meet.
That he was collaborating with the Klingons, there's no doubt. Lorca was well justified in how he reacted to this news, even abandoning him on the ship. Tyler (I don't think he's Voq) was good also, he also wanted to escape from the captivity, from what L'Rell was doing. Talking of L'Rell, she's getting more interesting (what else are the House of Moquai up to? I still don't think Tyler is Voq...) She clearly didn't want Lorca to escape. (Lorca seems to hold out better than Picard will against Madred), but then the scenes aren't the focus of the episode.
(Even less than that episode of Babylon 5; Intersections in Real Time.) Still, the escape was done rather well, particularly with Saru recognising that the fighter that Lorca amd Tyler was in wasn't their enemy. Then there is the situation with the Tardigrade. Each jump had been draining it, and after the jump to rescue Lorca, Ripper enters a state of hibernation (or specifically, a state of cryptobiosis) due to the stress. Thus Staments having to take it's place after the rescue, but more on that below.
Burnham letting it go is a logical development of her earlier concern for it's welfare. (I don't think it goes to warp, rather it jumps into the Galactic Mycelium.) Saru's worries about being a good commander was done well also (I liked the list too). But back to the 'f-bomb' issue. It wasn't at all necessary. Data's swear in Generations wasn't as gratuitous as this was. It reflected the situation that they were in (with the Saucer entering Veridian III's atmosphere) and was also a consequence of the effect that the emotion chip was having on him.
The scene with Staments and Culber was interesting, especially with the bit with mirror at the end. (Is the mirror universe involved? I don't think so.) 7/10. (The 'f-bomb' lowers it a bit!)