While we wait for the second season of Discovery (and very interesting it's looking to be too), CBS is tiding fans over with a short run of short episodes, called, naturally, Short Treks. Disappointingly, these aren't going to be released on Netflix (at least not as of yet), meaning that anyone outside of the US or Canada can't watch them. Well, not officially, anyway. Suffice to say it's very easy indeed to find other sources for these programmes.
These are going to be fifteen-minutes episodes, released monthly, each one focusing on a different character and situation. The first episode, "Runaway," stars Mary Wiseman as Tilly, newly promoted to ensign after the final events of Discovery season one and on the command training programme. It's a slight but fun story that sees Tilly dealing with an alien intruder on the Discovery which helps develop her confidence.
There's a lot to like about this little story. A story about a runaway from an alien society, facing up to her responsibilities, with an environmental message about the folly of over-taxing resources, is very Star Trek. Mary Wiseman is as likeable and relatable as ever in the role of Tilly; it's reassuring to see someone on a Starfleet ship who's doing well for herself but isn't superhumanly competent and assured. (She does, of course, have issues with her mother. No Trek character is allowed to exist without some kind of parental relationship issues.)
The main guest star is Yadera Guevara-Prip, playing the runaway of the title, an alien girl known as Po. She's also very likeable and gives an impressively physical performance as a member of a new alien species, the Xaheans. I love the make-up and design of the Xaheans. Po is pretty much humanoid, but has intricate skin markings, blue claws for fingers, viscous orange blood, and a retractable set of quills on her back. She can also become invisible, which is cool and helps her hideout on a starship.
On the other hand, and this might be a consequence of the truncated runtime, there's a hell of a lot in this episode that doesn't make sense. Po is invisible, sure, but it's unlikely the Discovery's sensors wouldn't pick her up (OK, the Suliban on Enterprise could do that, but a line of dialogue to explain it away would go a long way). Po trashes the mess hall, and Tilly makes up a bullshit excuse about an escaped space rabbit, but while it's a fun scene it's completely unbelievable that the crew would buy it. Strangest of all, at the end of the episode, Tilly beams Po home to Xahea, in spite of the fact that there's been no indication so far that the ship is anywhere near the planet. Indeed, the dialogue suggests that Tilly has barely even heard of it besides a brief bit of news about the Xaheans achieving warp recently. They're certainly not in orbit.
With a little more running time, or just a serious redraft to produce a tighter script, this episode could have made a lot more sense and stood up rather better to scrutiny. Still, "Runaway" is a nice diversion to keep us going for the new season, and maybe we shouldn't treat is as a strictly canonical episode of the series, but rather as a throwaway side step. Either way, it's silly but entertaining, and it works well enough that I'm looking forward to the remaining four Short Treks.
These are going to be fifteen-minutes episodes, released monthly, each one focusing on a different character and situation. The first episode, "Runaway," stars Mary Wiseman as Tilly, newly promoted to ensign after the final events of Discovery season one and on the command training programme. It's a slight but fun story that sees Tilly dealing with an alien intruder on the Discovery which helps develop her confidence.
There's a lot to like about this little story. A story about a runaway from an alien society, facing up to her responsibilities, with an environmental message about the folly of over-taxing resources, is very Star Trek. Mary Wiseman is as likeable and relatable as ever in the role of Tilly; it's reassuring to see someone on a Starfleet ship who's doing well for herself but isn't superhumanly competent and assured. (She does, of course, have issues with her mother. No Trek character is allowed to exist without some kind of parental relationship issues.)
The main guest star is Yadera Guevara-Prip, playing the runaway of the title, an alien girl known as Po. She's also very likeable and gives an impressively physical performance as a member of a new alien species, the Xaheans. I love the make-up and design of the Xaheans. Po is pretty much humanoid, but has intricate skin markings, blue claws for fingers, viscous orange blood, and a retractable set of quills on her back. She can also become invisible, which is cool and helps her hideout on a starship.
On the other hand, and this might be a consequence of the truncated runtime, there's a hell of a lot in this episode that doesn't make sense. Po is invisible, sure, but it's unlikely the Discovery's sensors wouldn't pick her up (OK, the Suliban on Enterprise could do that, but a line of dialogue to explain it away would go a long way). Po trashes the mess hall, and Tilly makes up a bullshit excuse about an escaped space rabbit, but while it's a fun scene it's completely unbelievable that the crew would buy it. Strangest of all, at the end of the episode, Tilly beams Po home to Xahea, in spite of the fact that there's been no indication so far that the ship is anywhere near the planet. Indeed, the dialogue suggests that Tilly has barely even heard of it besides a brief bit of news about the Xaheans achieving warp recently. They're certainly not in orbit.
With a little more running time, or just a serious redraft to produce a tighter script, this episode could have made a lot more sense and stood up rather better to scrutiny. Still, "Runaway" is a nice diversion to keep us going for the new season, and maybe we shouldn't treat is as a strictly canonical episode of the series, but rather as a throwaway side step. Either way, it's silly but entertaining, and it works well enough that I'm looking forward to the remaining four Short Treks.
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