Star Trek: Discovery 5.06
In which Discovery continues to prove why it's my favourite of the current Star Trek incarnations.
That was a straightforward Away Mission episode, managing to stand on its own while also being tied to the greater arc and individual character developments, thus juggling the almost impossible balance of telling a greater story while also providing standalone eps that don't require complete knowledge of events so far. Also, it's just so incredibly Trekian, with no villain in sight, everyone being their best and still problems to be solved. Incidentally, I remember how back in the 1990s, DS9 was considered revolutionariy in ST terms (among other things) for taking religion(s) seriously and makiing it a plot element repeatedy when the more classic Trek approach so far had been something like the TNG standalone episode where Picard and friends have to solve the problem of having accidentally created a religion by being spotted by a pre warp civilisation. Several decades later, sci fi dealing with religion in neither a dismissive nor a glorifying way is no longer new, but what Discovery does here is using a classic Trek trope - Michael and Tilly undercover on a pre warp civilisation planet need to not just solve the problem that brought them there but help larger problems without interrfering in a way that goes against the Prime Directive - and tying it to the larger quest for meaning and connection going on through the season. (And without making such a horrible mistake in writing like that Enterprise episode that while set in a world where the PD doesn't even exist yet manages to completely bungle what it should be about and inadvertently advertising genocide in the same of evolution.) You get an early hint when our valiant duo is aghast at the prospect of not being able to help the nice old woman who has been friendly towards them because using sonic high tech to get the dust out of her lungs would blow their cover - and then it turns out our aliens of the week use the same sonic principle (successfully) with their own means to help her already. By the end of the episode, Michael's conversation with Rhavar includes her conviction that incorporating new knowledge won't destroy this society if it happens on their own terms. Also, science and spirituality aren't played out against each other. The solution Burnham and Tilly provide for the planet is one based on technology. Simultanously, Hugh Culber proves to himself that what's going on inside him since the Zhin'tara has no physical reason whatsoever; his longing for meaning can't be satisfied by science alone, he's looking for something else as well.
Michael Burnham and Sylvia Tilly have been on missions together post s1, but usually with other people, and so I treasured the prolonged Burnnham & Tilly time the episode provided me with, especially with this being the last season, though I have to say: if all these hints that Disco characters in addition to Tilly herself will show up in the next show, the one about Starfleet Academy, I'm in addition to being pleased not a little filled with Schadenfreude at the expense of all the Discovery haters out there. Tilly, who was the protegé in s1, now being the mentor in her own right also fitted the full circle theme, and I love how these women trust each other and have each other's back. I-need-to-do-everything-myself Michael from early s1 also had a long way to go in that regard.
Speaking of trust: I thought it was a nice touch that our newest character, Raynor, proves that his own brusque approach united with what he's learned so far about connecting to the crew makes for a good commanding style by getting Adira out of their guilt ridden self questioning doldrums in a way that fits his character. And perhaps Raynor the no-nonsense having confidence in them and not letting them back out helped Adira better than a more familiar approach would have done.
All this being said: givent hat the malfunctioning technology has lead through a culture which, while in many ways admirable, also encouraged people to sacrificing themselves (literally) to achieve water for the community, there is evidently a need for change in ways other than fixing the tech, and I think that's one reason why Burnham resolves the situation slightly differently from Pike in in a similar but not identical case in s2 where he revealed the truth to one character - Jacob - while urging him to keep it secret. Michael, by contrast, encourages the man to confide the truth to others so that adaptation and change can happen.
That was a straightforward Away Mission episode, managing to stand on its own while also being tied to the greater arc and individual character developments, thus juggling the almost impossible balance of telling a greater story while also providing standalone eps that don't require complete knowledge of events so far. Also, it's just so incredibly Trekian, with no villain in sight, everyone being their best and still problems to be solved. Incidentally, I remember how back in the 1990s, DS9 was considered revolutionariy in ST terms (among other things) for taking religion(s) seriously and makiing it a plot element repeatedy when the more classic Trek approach so far had been something like the TNG standalone episode where Picard and friends have to solve the problem of having accidentally created a religion by being spotted by a pre warp civilisation. Several decades later, sci fi dealing with religion in neither a dismissive nor a glorifying way is no longer new, but what Discovery does here is using a classic Trek trope - Michael and Tilly undercover on a pre warp civilisation planet need to not just solve the problem that brought them there but help larger problems without interrfering in a way that goes against the Prime Directive - and tying it to the larger quest for meaning and connection going on through the season. (And without making such a horrible mistake in writing like that Enterprise episode that while set in a world where the PD doesn't even exist yet manages to completely bungle what it should be about and inadvertently advertising genocide in the same of evolution.) You get an early hint when our valiant duo is aghast at the prospect of not being able to help the nice old woman who has been friendly towards them because using sonic high tech to get the dust out of her lungs would blow their cover - and then it turns out our aliens of the week use the same sonic principle (successfully) with their own means to help her already. By the end of the episode, Michael's conversation with Rhavar includes her conviction that incorporating new knowledge won't destroy this society if it happens on their own terms. Also, science and spirituality aren't played out against each other. The solution Burnham and Tilly provide for the planet is one based on technology. Simultanously, Hugh Culber proves to himself that what's going on inside him since the Zhin'tara has no physical reason whatsoever; his longing for meaning can't be satisfied by science alone, he's looking for something else as well.
Michael Burnham and Sylvia Tilly have been on missions together post s1, but usually with other people, and so I treasured the prolonged Burnnham & Tilly time the episode provided me with, especially with this being the last season, though I have to say: if all these hints that Disco characters in addition to Tilly herself will show up in the next show, the one about Starfleet Academy, I'm in addition to being pleased not a little filled with Schadenfreude at the expense of all the Discovery haters out there. Tilly, who was the protegé in s1, now being the mentor in her own right also fitted the full circle theme, and I love how these women trust each other and have each other's back. I-need-to-do-everything-myself Michael from early s1 also had a long way to go in that regard.
Speaking of trust: I thought it was a nice touch that our newest character, Raynor, proves that his own brusque approach united with what he's learned so far about connecting to the crew makes for a good commanding style by getting Adira out of their guilt ridden self questioning doldrums in a way that fits his character. And perhaps Raynor the no-nonsense having confidence in them and not letting them back out helped Adira better than a more familiar approach would have done.
All this being said: givent hat the malfunctioning technology has lead through a culture which, while in many ways admirable, also encouraged people to sacrificing themselves (literally) to achieve water for the community, there is evidently a need for change in ways other than fixing the tech, and I think that's one reason why Burnham resolves the situation slightly differently from Pike in in a similar but not identical case in s2 where he revealed the truth to one character - Jacob - while urging him to keep it secret. Michael, by contrast, encourages the man to confide the truth to others so that adaptation and change can happen.