The search for Spock is over... almost.
Ethan Peck makes his debut appearance as Trek's
most celebrated character, but spends the bulk of his time wandering
about in a fret, muttering numbers and strange phrases to himself as
if he was Barry Allen after a sojourn in the Speed Force.
There
are two strands to this fairly brief episode, one dealing with
Micheal and her family on Vulcan, the other on the Discovery
following up the mysteries of
the Red Angel. There's a lot to enjoy in both of them, although
neither one quite manages to be more than a bridge between this
episode and the next.
Michael
returns to Vulcan (which is absolutely beautifully realised in some
of the best shots of the series) to have it out with Amanda, who she
correctly deduces is hiding Spock. In spite of Spock's limited agency
in this episode, this strand is all about him, with the conflicting
attitudes of Sarek, Amanda and Michael threatening to tear their
family apart. They all have Spock's interests at heart, but differ
vehemently on how to help him. In the end, Michael and Sarek win out
and take him to Starfleet – well, Section 31 – only for Michael
to realise how stupid she's being and break him out before they use a
mind-sifter on him. Once again, Georgiou helps Michael, doing the
right thing for perhaps the wrong reasons. Her motivation is so
opaque so far that it's hard to say what she's up to.
It's
revealed that Spock suffers from a specific learning difficulty named
l'tak terai, which is
compared to dyslexia but, as a spatial awareness disorder, seems to
be closer to a Vulcan equivalent of dyspraxia (the two conditions are
closely related, though). Not only do we have a dyspraxic character
in Doctor Who, now
it's revealed that one of the most intelligent and remarkable
characters in Star Trek also
experiences the condition. This is brilliant, although there's never
been anything to suggest that Spock has such difficulties in the
past, but it shows that a disability doesn't have to hold someone
back from doing great things. Sarek's unsurprisingly shitty attitude
is a powerful element as well – basically dismissing it as being
cured by superior Vulcan teaching, which is, of course, ridiculous.
Even in the 23rd
century, you don't cure dyspraxia, you learn to work with it.
Moreover, though, one feels terribly sorry for Spock, who torn
between his mother's and father's expectations as a child.
Back
on the Disco, the
investigation into the Red Angel continues in orbit of Kaminar. I'm
not quite convinced that the Red Angel must be from the future just
because there are tachyon traces (which have already been identified
as being a result of cloaking devices as well as time travel) and
because its technology is more advanced than what Starfleet has now
(which could just mean it's alien). Nonetheless, this seems to be the
answer to its origins, at least partly. I love the shuttle trip into
the time rift, though, which is classic Trek adventure
and makes what would otherwise be a very talky episode into something
more action-packed. The time pockets add some bizarre elements to the
peril, which gets particularly exciting when the Discovery's
probe comes back from the future, augmented by superior technology
into something like one of those be-tentacled killer robots from The
Matrix.
The
trip is an excuse to put Tyler and Pike in a small space together and
force them to come to an understanding. Frankly, I'm on Pike's side;
Tyler is a known murderer who killed a crewman, and whose defence is
that at the time he was under the control of a split personality, but
that he's just fine now. Is it any wonder Pike doesn't trust him? For
his part, Tyler sees through Pike and realises he's thrill-seeking
due to his sitting out the war, which actually fits Pike's character
rather well; back in “The Cage,” he fantasised about living it up
on the Orion Colonies dealing in slave girls because he was feeling
guilty about his actions in Starfleet. Basically, he's a cocky test
pilot who deals with his guilt with adrenaline. However, while Tyler
proves he can be trusted to put his captain and his mission ahead of
personal feelings, he's still a massive liability and Pike's
chumminess with him after this is a bit unbelievable.
Still,
the plot thickens when Airiam gets infected by some kind of influence
that makes her eyes go red and evil-looking. There's a definite link
between, not only the “probe” and the Red Angel, but also the
intelligent red sphere from episode three. It's an intriguing episode
that mostly serves to further the overall plot, but has a lot of
solid content in itself.
Best
line:
“Everything's
cooler with 'time' in front of it.”
General
observations:
- So, assuming the probe was picked up after drifting for five hundred years and arriving in the native time of the agency that sent it back... there's someone or something active in the 28th century involved in the whole Red Angel fiasco. It doesn't necessarily follow, of course, that the Angel is from this time. More than anything, this brings to mind Enterprise and it's time war, with factions acting from different points in history with different levels of knowledge and technology. If there is something acting from the 28th century, then this is a period we know very little about, although it might be noted that Enterprise's mysterious Future Guy called this era home.
- Almost any continuity issues could be resolved by utilising the time travel aspects of this plot. On the other hand, I almost want them to go all out and use it to pull Discovery into another timeline altogether, thereby saving them from having to fit in with existing continuity, something that's been pretty hit-and-miss so far.
- For instance, there's a bit of a clash here with the original series, which has Spock and Sarek estranged for years beforehand and not even having seen each other since years Spock joined Starfleet. Feasibly, though, neither one counts this as a meeting, given that Sarek barely interacts with Spock and Spock is off his head.
- Leland is responsible for the deaths of Michael's parents. Because of course he is. Does everything have to be related to Michael and Spock's childhoods?
No comments:
Post a Comment