TREK REVIEW: DIS 5-9 & 5-10

5-9: LAGRANGE POINT 

5-10: LIFE, ITSELF

Aren't you a little short for a Stormtrooper?

Star Trek: Discovery's final two episodes bite off a bit more than they can chew thanks to the late-in-the-day cancellation of the series, but still give us a more satisfying than we normally get with Discovery. In spite of running to only ten episodes, this last season has been tighter and better paced than the show normally manages, with a more coherent structure. 

"Lagrange Point" sets things up nicely, but is very much a first part rather than a satisfactory episode in its own right. It's a taut little thriller, with Michael and co. infiltrating the Breen dreadnought which is, somehow, effectively under the command of Moll after she insighted the rebellion against Ruhn. There's some good stuff here, with Adira stepping up to the plate on a risky away mission against the objection of her space dad Stamets, and some cool-as-a-cucumber stealth work from Rhys, who's finally developed a character this year. Frankly, I was expecting them to kill him off, since he's never been more than a handsome background character till the last few episodes.

Taking the lead in the Breen mission are Burnham and Book, once again showing that they have all the best chemistry even when they're having to communicate through cod-Iron Man helmet cam effects. I love how Book, thrown in the deep end and having to keep one of the various Breen troops occupided, instantly resorts to flirting, and gets away with it. There's a very clunky scene where, in true Discovery style, everything stops so Michael can have an emotional moment with her ex, but at least it's lampshaded. 

The weakness in this episode is that the Breen aren't really living up to their promise as the new Big Bad. The main draw of the Breen was always their mystery, and inevitably, once we started to learn about them they become less interesting. That's pretty much unavoidable. Sadly, while we do get some intriguing snippets about them, they've turned out to be such a generic warrior race that they just fail to hold interest. Once they start speaking English so Moll can understand them, they just come across as a bunch of ranty soldier boys. The fascinating idea of their having two forms isn't explored at all. We learn both too much and not enough about their culture for them to be interesting, and it's a real shame.

This is exacerbated in the final episode, when Primarch Tahal coming to take Ruhn's dreadnought how he's out of the game. She's exactly the same as he was, but with a crackly female voice instead of a male one, only she really is all mouth and no trousers. It's great to finally have Saru back, with Doug Jones giving a great performance as the steely predator-mode Kelpian who'll stare down the aspiring Breen Queen, but Tahal just isn't threatening enough to warrant turning up as an eleventh hour villain. Plus, every time they refer to the Primarch I just thing of a bargain clothes shop.

Where these episodes really sing is in the mindbending science and beautiful visuals. Having the Progenitor's tech sitting in a capsule hanging in the Lagrange point of two black holes is awe inspiring, especially when we learn that the Progenitors may well have created this whole system themselves, just to hammer home how incredibly advanced they were. And, of course, the capsule's bigger on the inside, being merely the entry point to another dimension (where have I heard that one before?) There's a bit of confusion about all this though, as it's also said that the 24th century scientists were responsible for putting it there, which doesn't really mesh with everything else we learn.

It's inevitable that both Moll and Michael will throw themselves across the threshold into the other dimension as the penultimate cliffhanger, but the world they find is nothing short of spectacular. It's reminiscent of the timeless realm of Interstellar, but with some logic to its construction even if we have trouble following it. The idea of the Progenitors having access to a limitless space containing hundreds of worlds is fantastic, and suitably epic for the final discovery. 

However, it all falls down a bit with the final test, which falls into the perennially annoying, ludicrously simple maths puzzle variety. I realise there were other tests of character beforehand, but this simple brainteaser is what convinces the Progenitors that Burnham has what it takes to take control of god-like technology? It's also disappointing that the terrifying threat it poses is apparently little more than growing a clone army. Surely they could have come up with something more imaginative?

We've known for the whole season that eventually Burnham would find the supreme technology, just as we've known that she would inevitably decide it was too advanced and dangerous and that there were just some things mankind was not meant to know, etc. There's only one way stories like this can go, and this duly went there. All fine, all so predictable. Overall, though, it still worked for me, largely thanks to some genuinely nice moments between Burnham and the last Progenitor. (It is frustrating, though, how Michael is constantly fretting about getting out and saving Book, when the alien keeps reminding her that they are outside of time and therefore can take as long as they like.) 

One thing I absolutely adored was the revelation that the Progenitors didn't create this technology at all, just found it along with all the worlds it contains. It's continuous creation, all the way back to the dawn of time and maybe beyond. This brings to mind Pratchett's undersung classic, Strata, although that wasn't the first to use this idea (and subverts it anyway). In any case, love it.

There's a lot going on in this episode, good and, if not bad, then frustrating. Culber's miraculous spiritual experience post-joining is just remembering a few numbers that the Trill scientist handily left in his head. I enjoyed the final defeat of the Breen, using the spore drive to just dump them out by the edge of the Galaxy, even if the science was a bit ludicrous, even for this series. Still, I hope they don't show up again one day, brimming with godlike mind powers thanks to the Galactic Barrier...

After all the excitement, we get what is basically a series of epilogues as they try to wrap up everything. I'll admit, I punched the air when Kovich revealed he's actually Agent Daniels from Enterprise. Very silly, yet absolutely perfect. David Cronenberg doesn't much look, sound or act like Matt Winston, but he did say he's "lived many lives." Perhaps he regenerated? Saru and T'Rina's wedding was suitbaly lovely, even if we didn't see as many Vulcans or Kelpien as we might expect, but is was good to see some old faces again. Then, at the very end, we get a beautifully acted moment where Burnham and Book finally make up for good. Lovely.

Except that's not the end, because one last, very long epilogue was recorded after they learned of the cancellation. This jsut about works. It's too long, for sure, but this little peak at the 33rd century and the much older Admiral Burnham's life is pretty satisfying, even if she does have the same neo-Luddite retirement dream as every other Starfleet captain. Bringing them back to Sanctuary Four, with Book's alien conservation projects, is a nice touch.

What doesn't quite work is the final fate of the USS Discovery itself. Short Treks' "Calypso" was the highlight of that brief series and left us with all sorts of mysteries to ponder, and notably didn't quite line up with the direction that Discovery eventually went. While a nod in its direction would have been nice, trying to explain it all away ultimately leaves us with more questions than answers. Why does the ship need to be returned to its original state, with the "A" scraped off an everything? Why does Zora, a sentient being we might recall, have to be dumped alone for untold decades as part of this mission? How the hell does anyone know about someone or something named Craft turning up at some point in the future, to do something or other? It just doesn't quite work.

Overall, though, both the epilogue and the final episode as a whole manage to tie up this season, and the whole series, quite satisfyingly. This has probably been the best season in Discovery's run, and it's a shame that it had to get canned just as it got the formula right, but better to go out on a high.

Other bits and pieces:

• Book and Burnham's son is called Leto and is a captain in his own right. He's at least in his thirties, so this section can't be set any earlier than the 3220s.
• As for when "Calypso" is set... it still isn't clear whether Discovery really was hanging around for a thousand years, or just made to look like that by being reverted to its old design. The latter seems more likely, but it could still be a good while before Craft turns up. If she does sit there for a thousand years, it's set no earlier than the 43rd century.
• Culber gets a Bones-ism: "I'm a doctor, not a physicist!"
• Kovich/Daniels has Geordi's VISOR, Sisko's baseball and a bottle of Chateu Picard in his collection, making him look like the galaxy's biggest fanboy and tealeaf.
• Tilly basically outright says she's sticking around for the Starfleet Academy spin-off, and no surprises there.
• The planetary landscape filled with fields of flowers is beautiful... and I reckon it's Lurglestrop from The Smeds and the Smoos (the finest science fiction story of our time).
• The Breen apparently practise polyamory and enjoy oil baths. So now you know.

TREK REVIEW: DIS 5-7 & 5-8

 5-7: ERIGAH
 5-8: LABYRINTHS

Two solid episodes that ramp up the tension now that Michael Burnham's mission - and Star Trek: Discovery itself - are running out of time. I find I haven't a great deal to say about these two; they're extremely competently made episodes with some tight direction, some very nice performances from the regulars and nothing too unsual or experimental. There are some intriguing additions to Trek lore, with a real sense of history being built up. This latest series has felt connected to the wider Trek universe in a more organic way than in previous seasons.

"Erigah" works well due the continual increase in tension. There's some decent action, yes, but it's the gradual ramping up of the state of emergency as the Breen come after L'ak. We know this isn't going to end well, and there's a sense of doomed inevitability about the crew's attempts to stave off the upcoming conflict.

There are two threads to "Erigah" (I wish they'd made up a different word. I wondering who Erica is). Primarily we have the stand-off with the Breen, revolving around Starfleet's holding of Moll and the terminally injured L'ak (and whose fault is that Michael?) Making L'ak the Scion of the Breen Imperium, heir to their throne, is maybe a bit much, but it gelps up the stakes even more. Primarch Ruhn will stop at nothing to have him back so that he can use him to take overall power of the Imperium, with the erigah as the perfect excuse to pursue him.

There's some lovely work by Eve Harlow and Elias Toufexis. They completely sell the unique bond Mol and L'ak share, a love that unites them even across two very different species. Harlow, in particular, excels at the quieter, more anguished moments, far better than her gung-ho bad bitch persona, although it does suggest that this is just a front she puts on to survive in the dangerous world she inhabits.

Also shining in this episode is Callum Rennie as Rayner, who gets some deeper backstory here. We learn that Kellerun was conquered by another Breen Primarch in his lifetime, leaving the planet wasted and his family dead, among many others. It makes sense that Kellerun would be in the Breen's path, just as it makes sense that Rayner's been to the Badlands. They're all part of the same area of space, the DS9 neck of the woods. Rennie gives a very believable performance as someone trying to keep it together when faced with the people who destroyed his world as "collateral damage." From what we've seen of the Breen so far, you can't help but think his hatred of them is understandable; L'ak is the only one we've seen who has any redeeming features.

While it seems pretty brutal that Starfleet hands Moll over the Breen, it's hard to see what else they could have done. Frankly, the Federation were pushing their luck holding her and L'ak at all when the Breen demanded them. Still, Moll gets on fine, at least as far as the next episode.

The other thread deals with the mysterious metal card that they apparently picked up when they got the most recent puzzle piece. Stamets, Tilly, Adira and Book (for some reason) work on this clue to try to find out where the final piece is. This is a lot less engaging than the A-plot, but it has its charms. I love the idea that the Betazoids use what is, essentially, psychometry, imbing objects with telepathic impressions that can impart information. The reveal that the object is a library card is lovely, as is the entire aside with Jet Reno (still the most watchable character in the entire series thanks to Tig Notaro's perfect delivery), who used to peddle books for a shady antiquarian (blatantly this is Pelia from Strange New Worlds). So it's off to the Eternal Gallery and Archive for the final piece of the puzzle.

"Labyrinths" is a much calmer affair, although there's still a building tension as the Breen are never far away. It's fun to visit the Badlands, realised in a truly astounding set of visuals that are fully in keeping with its appearance on DS9 and Voyager, but more intricate and dynamic. The eventual reveal of the Archive, nestled in the eye of the storm like a castle beneath the clouds, is absolutely beautiful. 

It's pretty obvious that the Betazoid book will aslo be telepathic and draw Burnham into a mental exercise. While the script continues to remind us that Burnham is under threat while she's in the mindscape, it still feels very leisurely. Martin-Green plays it all very well, particularly Burnham's mounting frustration that gives way to calm acceptance. The tests surrounding the clues are becoming increasingly esoteric, but it at least means each step feels earnt. 

David Ajala gives a beautiful twin performance, as both Book and the avatar in Burnham's mind that takes his shape. For the latter he affects a subtly more proper accent and careful enunciation, which fits in nicely with the quiet characterisation, not to mention the Time Lord robes he's kitted out in. For the former he gives it his all when confronted with the clipping from a Kwejian world root, one of the last remaining pieces of Book's homeworld. I get a feeling this will tie in with the Progenitor tech's ability to recreate life and ecosystems (if they remake the planet Kwejian in the last episode I will not be at all surprised). Ajala gives a beautiful performance as Book is overcome with emotion. Not for the first time I feel that he's better than the material he's given deserves,

However, the stuff on the Breen ship drags the episode back. It's the only thing that really lets this pair of episodes down. The Breen politicking isn't all that interesting once you're in the middle of it, and the fact that the Breen all look the same and sound very similar makes it next to impossible to follow who's talking. It's even more difficult to tell them apart when they're speaking Breen, but it's at least alien and threatening, unlike the bickering in slightly modulated English.

Moll performs a classic bit of turning-the-henchmen-against-the-main-villain, but it's still hard to credit that she's seemingly managed to put herself in charge of this faction of Breen. Still, it should lead to an interesting final confrontation as we approach the grand finale.

Oh, and Reno should have a spin-off where each episodes shows us a story of one of her historic odd jobs.

Character points:

• Yeah, T'Rina speaks Breen. You can't get anything by her.
• Is Saru even in this show anymore?
• Reno used to run a bar making cocktails called Seven of Limes, and worked as an engineer for the Hysperians, the Ren Faire-styled human colony to which Billups belongs on Lower Decks.
• Pros to having an English actor on the cast: getting to hear someone say "shite" on Star Trek.

Alien life forms:

• Betazed had no colonies in the 24th century.
• The Breen, it appears, engage in scarification to signify marriage.
• Hy'rell, the chirpy librarian lady, appears to be an Efrosian. This species, also known as Atreonids, appeared in the original cast movies; notably, the Federation President in Star Trek VI was Efrosian.

Shippy-ships:

• Ships seen in "Erigah:" USS Locherer, USS Credence, USS LaMar and USS Excalibur-M.
• The Breen dreadnought is ridiculously mahoosive.

Dialogue disasters:

 "Labyrinth... labyrinth... oh, it's a maze!"  Well done, bullet.

TREK REVIEW: DIS 5-6 - "Whistlespeak"

 A nice change of pace this week after the heavy lore and grand revelations in "Mirrors." "Whistlespeak" is a leisurely,old-fashioned episode that, in its own way, calls back to years of Star Trek storytelling with the sort of straightforward Prime Directive story we've seen many times before. There's nothing much here that's new, with the story suffering from the same sorts of issues these stories often have. The aliens are extremely human-like, their society feels sketched in, and they speak in an overly formalised way that can rob scenes of urgency and impact.

Still, overall this is nicely done. While they're lumbered with some stilted dialogue, the guest cast is uniformly solid. June Laporte is the standout as young Ravah, who's likeable enough that it's genuinely unsettling when they willingly going towards their death. It's also a nice touch that Laporte, who is non-binary, gets to use they/them in the episode. The Halem'nites explicitly recognise three genders, so just because they're at an earlier stage of development doesn't mean they don't get to be progressive. I'm sure the anti-woke crowd is spitting blood again.

There are other elements that add to the reality of this world. Cloud seeding with silver iodide is a tried-and-tested method of rain generation, while whistlespeak itself is used for long-distance communication by cultures all over the world. The sonic treatment that causes the elder woman to cough up the dust that's ravaging her lungs is more questionable, but there are similar techniques used in Asia with anecdotal effectiveness. It's a great moment, though, with the Starfleet interlopers shown that an allegedly primitive culture have achieved the same results as their high technology has.

Indeed, in spite of some very impressive tech on display here - I particularly like the contact lens tricorders - there's a nice theme of there always being someone more advanced elsewhere. While the Federation has technology that looks like magic to the Halem'nites - and has done for at least eight hundred years - the Progenitors have tech that massively outstrips them. The Halem'nites worship the creators of the weather towers as gods, but it's not really much different to how Starfleet look at the Progenitors. Again, this is wellworn stuff from classic Prime Directive stories (the good ones, at least), along with the resolution. The Denobulan scientists (a nice bit of detail) who installed the weather towers saved the population from drought, but altered their social development for centuries, leading to a religion obsessed with blood sacrifice (albeit in a terribly sanitised way). Burnham's interference is less a breach of the Prime Directive than partly putting right an earlier breach, much like many of Kirk's actions back in the day.

As for the regulars, it's very much a Tilly episode, with Mary Wiseman providing the heart and humour of the episode. I like that the bigger girl gets to be the "queen of endurance" here. The script takes pains to remind us that Tilly's now a teacher, obviously so we're not surprised when she goes back to the Academy (and to star in her own series, almost certainly). She shares great chemistry with Laporte, as does Martin-Green with Alfredo Narciso as Ravah's father Ovahz.

Back on the ship, outside the main storyline, the focus is on Culber, as he tries to come to terms with his experience as a temporary host for the Trill scientist's consciousness in episode three. This ties in nicely to the spiritual themes of the episode, and the balance between science and faith, Culber being convinced there's a physiological reason for his changed outlook and feelings. Stamets is being extra spesh and can't fathom why his husband might feel different after a) dying and being resurrected and b) hosting a centuries-old alien consciousness. You'd think Hugh would speak to Adira more about it, given that they still are hosting a centuries-old alien consciousness. There's a strange story thread involving Culber's spending time with a holographic recreation of his abuela, which, while not entirely unheard of in Trek terms, veers close to Black Mirror territory when he starts considering recommending it as therapy. I expect he'll be essential to the eventual realisation of how to use the Progenitors' tech once it's finally recovered.

Bits and pieces:

• The eventual discovery of the next puzzle piece was ridiculously throwaway - basically, "Oh yeah, we beamed into that other tower and there it was."
• Although it's generally assumed the Denobulans joined the Federation, there's no indication of whether they were members when the towers were set up on Halem'no or if they are in the 32nd century.
• Why is the control unit for the tower miles away in the woods? And why is it leaking radiation? The Denobulans really didn't think this through, did they?
• Given that they were looking for planets that suffered droughts in the distant past, I wondered if they'd be heading back to the Crepusculan planet Burnham and Georgiou visited back in the first episode of Discovery. That might have been a nice touch, although they'd need some serious disguises.
• Kovich gets ever more mysterious. He owns some 21st century legal paper, for some reason. I'm wondering if it's going to turn out he bought it firsthand in the 2020s and is either a time traveller or hundreds of years old.
• We've got a full list of 24th century scientists involved in the mystery now: Jinaal Bix of Trill; Vellek of Romulus; Hitorishi Kreel of Denobula; Carmen Cho from the Mirror Universe; and Marina Derex of Betazed (named after Marina Sirtis, I assume).
• Culber's Mofongo con pollo looks delicious and I am definitely getting some plantain and having a go at making it.

TREK REVIEW: DIS 5-5 - "Mirrors"

We reach the halfway point of the final season with a strong episode that gets away with being the second bottle episode in a row by keeping things interesting with character moments, lore revelations, new questions and some effective action sequences. Yes, it's a bottle episode but it doesn't feel like it, partly due to cleverly pinching the sets from another series. There will, however, be a couple of big spoilers below the cut.

TREK REVIEW: DIS 5-4 - "Face the Strange"

Time travel episodes are always fun, and "Face the Strange" is no disappointment there. Even though this is very clearly a bottle episode designed to recoup some of the money spent on the big flashy openers (and no doubt even bigger, flashier series end), it uses its limitations well. Given that Trek has done a lot of time travel episodes before, including a number that saw a central character jump back and forth through their timeline, there was inevitably a sense having seen this before. However, the episode embraced that, referencing a number of the time travel episodes from the past, but in a natural way. There's a bunch of references in this episode that make the die-hard fans go "aha!" but just sound like extra colour to the less obsessed viewer, which is exactly how it should work.

In the past, when we've had a character thrown back and forward through time, it's generally just been them alone, struggling to convince the rest of the crew of what's going on: Picard in TNG "All Good Things;" Kes in VOY "Before and After;" and Chakotay in "Shattered." The last of these is perhaps the most similar to this, as there the ship had been thrown into different points in its timeline, while here, Discovery itself is being thrown back and forth, along with its crew. The difference here is that we have two characters working together, able to rely on each other, with Burnham and Rayner unaffected thanks to being mid-transport at the very moment the time bug activated. (I love that: time bug. Such a simple, silly sci-fi idea, and such a simple name. On Voyager they'd have called it a "chronometrically disaffected ambulatory arthropod" or something.)

As much as the central idea of shifting everyone else along the timeline doesn't quite make sense (where do all the crew in the future when they're dead? Where does Airiam come from when it goes back to the past?) it's a fun conceit. It's also a good opportunity to finally have Rayner work closely with Burnham and adjust to her way of doing things; had he carried on being an immovable object much longer, he would have become tiresome. 

The episode is focused on the theme of change, and it works so well as a final season instalment it's surprising it was written before they knew the series was ending. Like "All Good Things," this works well because the series has changed so much since its first series. Having Rayner there, who wasn't present for the earlier episodes, underlines this, as he can act as an external observer to remark on this. In this regard, it works better than Voyager's "Shattered" or the quite similar-in-approach "Relativity" (down to the scene on the ship pre-launch), where, in spite of characters coming and going, the series still felt much the same throughout. 

It's gratifying that the writers remembered that Stamets exists slightly outside of time, calling back to the previous (and somewhat better) season one time loop episode "Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad." This allows a third character to take part in the time-jumping proceedings, but in a different way, affected by the jumps but aware of them. (Really, what the hell happened to him while they were all dead?) It was nice to have Hannah Cheeseman back as Airiam one last time, and frankly they should never have killed off a character with such potential. Ultimately, the time jumping was worth it to see today's more measured Captain Burnham face off against her angry, chip-on-her-shoulder mutinous younger self. (A touch of the Captain America fighting himself there; she could do this all day, I bet.)

Other bits to like: breaking the warp bubble, with a (fairly solid) conception of what suddenly falling out of warp would do to time relative to the ship's frame of reference when back in normal space; a fun, gruesome intro that shows us just how much Moll and L'ak aren't to be messed with (and that L'ak seems to be the more timid and weary of the two); the jump forward to a ruined Federation being genuinely eerie and foreboding. The only disappointment there was that it really looked like we were getting a glimpse at what led to the situation from the Short Trek "Calypso," when Discovery has been abandoned and Zora has continued to evolve into a sophisticated but lonely being. While clearly that scene was meant to evoke the mini-episode, it can't be related, showing instead a different future that, presumably, Burnham and crew will avert.

A fun, standalone adventure then, but it'll be good to get moving with the main storyline again after treading water for an hour.

Looks back and forward:

• Pretty clear now that the Breen are set to be the big bad this season, being the main bidders for the Progenitor tech and out to take down the Federation.
• We get the briefest of glimpses at a 32nd or 33rd century Breen ship.
• Kind of nice that we see the Golden Gate Bridge out the ship's window while it's still in drydock, seeing as it was the Breen who destroyed it 120 years later during the Dominion War.
• I thought the lizardy guy who sold Moll and L'ak the time bug looked familiar, but couldn't place the species. Apparently he's an Annari, from the Voyager episodes "Nightingale" and "The Void." It makes sense that this far in the future, species from all over the galaxy can turn up.
• Also from the Delta Quadrant, the time bug is Krenim technology left over from the Temporal Wars. Again, it makes sense that the Krenim, who used time as a weapon, would have been involved in that.
• This might be the first time travel episodes that sees someone jump into the middle of an earlier time travelling trip.
• We got some great Linus and Reno moments in this episode.
• The title's a nice nod to the episode's theme: a line from Bowie's classic "Changes."

TREK REVIEW: DIS 5-3 - "Jinaal"

After a cracking start to the season, the third episode of Discovery is a middling affair that suffers from trying to do too much at once. There are four main plotlines running through this, which is perfectly fine for a serialised story, but as Discovery is trying to manage that middle ground between serial and episodic adventures, none of it really gets the time it needs to thrive. 

The core story, the quest for the galactic puzzle pieces, brings us to Trill, a planet we were bound to go back to if only to resolve Adira and Gray's story. There's some deep Trill lore on offer here, with the zhian'tara ritual performed again - Jadzia Dax manifested all her past hosts using this on DS9, with Ezri using it to manifest her murderous past host Joran in the final season. Those weren't portrayed in the same way, and what we have here is closer to the original, with Jinaal, the first host of the Bix symbiont, taking control of Culber's body, while the rickety old lady its currently inhabiting just waits for permission to die.

Thanks to Wilson Cruz, this is by far the most successful part of the episode. He gives a great performance as Jinaal, tweaking everything about his persona: his vocal delivery, his walk, his overall demeanour all change, without ever being over the top. Jinaal is a lot of fun to be around, thoroughly enjoying the chance to go for a walk in the wilds after centuries of being a quiet voice in a succession of heads. This section of the quest really is contrived: those old scientists expected someone to find the previous clue, decipher it, find the right Trill who by rights was expected to be dead by now, seek out their new host, and then go on a perlious journey, survive a monster encounter and still be around for when said Trill reveals the next piece still, luckily, hiding under a rock. 

Still, it's fun, with Michael and Book making a good team as usual, always more enjoyable to be with when they're out causing trouble and getting into scrapes. It's always strangely reassuring to be back in a quarry standing in for an alien planet, and while the big, bug-like monsters are a little generic, watching the adventurers work out how to deal with them while trying to not get killed is entertaining.

Meanwhile, Adira and Gray have an awkward but mature conversation about their relationship, which basically means they break up. This is the least interesting part of the episode, in spite of Blu del Barrio's attempt to keep things engaging. Even the chemistry they shared with Ian Alexander isn't present anymore. Frankly, now that Gray's got his body back and isn't haunting his ex, he's not a very interesting character. Gray and Adira were once two parts of the same being, which was fascinating and gave the actors something to work. Now they're in a long-distance relationship and it's not working for them or the story.

Back on the ship, some more engaging relationship antics are going on with Saru and T'Rina, who have their first, very mild-mannered argument, when the Kelpien does the man thing and tries to protect his fiance's interests in the political arena. This rather overshadows his first assignment as ambassador, but Doug Jones and Tara Rosling keep the scenes working. T'Rina is proving to be a quietly awesome character; she should end up president of the whole Federation. I suspect we'll see something of the Vulcan purist threat in future (a 32nd century follow-up to the "logic extremists" of the 23rd, I suppose).

Finally, a fun but throwaway run of difficult introductions for the backbenchers and job-doers as new Number One, demoted Commander Rayner does the worst breaking-the-ice in workplace history. There are some entertaining titbits in the crew's 20-word party pieces, but mostly this is here to expand upon the friction between Rayner and Tilly. It works, but feels unnecessary to the story, using up time that might be more valuably spent elsewhere.

That kind of sums up the episode. It all works, just about, but the balance is off, and while it's a perfectly watchable instalment, it's a bit of a disappointment after two such strong opening episodes.

Nods, winks, promises and revelations:

• It turns out that Trill spots form a pattern that is unique to the individual, like human fingerprints or Saurian ridge scales.
• On the subject of Saurians, they are revealed to reproduce parthenogenically, with Linus having already laid several clutches. Perhaps he'll look up his descendants.
• It's said that it's unusual for a Trill symbiont to live 800 years, but not unheard of, with Bix having made it this far but being on its last legs (metaphorically speaking). That almost seems included just to rule out a new version of Dax, who would be 1273 by now (the Dax symbiont was born in 2018, fact fans). We can hope though.
• Starship watch: we glimpse the USS Locherer, named for the late cameraman JP Locherer who got a nod in the credits of "Red Directive." 
• The diplomatic conference includes a Selay, who previously appeared in the first season TNG episode "Lonely Among Us," as well as in a couple of cameos since. This one is quite redesigned since then, and is reddish instead of green.
• There's a second mention of the Breen Republic, so I'd not be at all surprised that those icy bastards turn up this season.
• Next, we're off to Tzenkethi space - could we finally, after all these years, find out what they actually look like?

TREK REVIEW: DIS 5-1 & 5-2

5-1: RED DIRECTIVE 
5.2: UNDER THE TWIN MOONS

(SPOILERS WITHIN)

After two years, Star Trek: Discovery returns with its fifth and final season. We'd been promised something special with this run, with the showrunners intending to deliver something that even the naysayers of this divisive series would enjoy, and that was before it was decided it wouldn't be renewed. The double-episode season opener delivered on that promise, giving us a pair of episodes equally rich in action, mystery and heart.

"Red Directive" starts with an almost absurdly action-packed teaser that sees Burnham surfing on the hull of a starship, before jumping back to the events that lead up to this. I'm not sure Trek has done this before; it reminds me of classic episodes of The Outer Limits. It's a fun introduction, but borders on being too much; hasn't every season Discovery season opener had Burnham in freefall in space somehow? In a way, it's comforting: for all the promise of this being season doing something different, it's still full of OTT action setpieces, and Michael still has to place herself right in the centre of the action.

It isn't long before we learn of the Red Directive itself, seemingly 32nd century Starfleet's highest priority order, put in place for when it's absolutely imperative something doesn't fall into enemy hands. It was open knowledge that this season was going to have a quest element that revolved around some galactic mystery. However, I don't think anyone expected for it to act as a sequel to a sixth season episode of The Next Generation that'snow over thirty years old. "The Chase," while designed as a way to silence critics who couldn't suspend disbelief at a galaxy full of human-shaped aliens, was a fun episode that hinted at deep mysteries of the Star Trek universe. Sure, the science was wonky, but when isn't it on Trek? We already knew that no one writing for the franchise understands how evolution works.

It's a story that, in retrospect, is begging for further exploration. If anything, the chase across the galaxy was a bit lacklustre in the 24th century, and this longer, more action-packed version is far more entertaining. On the other hand, the original version had the Progenitors hiding clues in our very DNA; this time, they've scattered bits of a stone jigsaw puzzle across the galaxy, which isn't quite as fun from a sci-fi perspective. Still, it allows for lots of Indiana Jones-esque gallivanting across the place, exploring ruins and colourful locations and getting into scrapes. 

This means new planets - two in two episodes! Sometimes it feels like this series forgets what its name is. Q'Mau is a classic desert world with a hint of the Tatooine to it, while Lyrek, the world with the twin moons, is a proper, Republic Serial jungle adventure location, with haunted ruins and killer mechanisms, albeit a bit more on the high-tech side. Lyrek calls back to The Next Generation as well: while it mostly recalls the weaponry showground of Minos from season one's "The Arsenal of Freedom," it's actually a tombworld of the long-dead Promellians, whose abandoned ship caused trouble for the Enterprise in season three's "Booby Trap." It's a fun detail that the Romulan ship that kicks all this off is almost as old in the Discovery era as the Promellian ship was in The Next Generation.

There's plenty more callbacks but, unlike in Picard's final season, none of feels gratuitous. It all adds to the sense of a rich universe, full of history. Making an obscure, one-off Romulan character one of the greatest scientists in the universe is a nice touch, as is washing up a classic Romulan starship. There's also Fred, the delightful Soong-type android - sorry, synth - who's been knocking around since at least the 26th century. It's nice to see Data's family is still going strong in the far future (and we're bound to see more of Fred, just as soon as Culber and Stamets get him fixed up).

Which isn't too say there isn't plenty of new material here. Eve Harlow and Elias Toufexis are great fun as dastardly duo Moll and L'ak, whose simple money-motivated approach makes for a nice contrast to the high-minded ideals of science and learning of the Federation team. Of course, Moll turns out to be Book's long-lost sort-of-stepsister, because everyone knows everyone in this universe, but this offers some promise for future tension, especally if she has links to the now-lost planet Kwejian. 

The other major new character, Callum Rennie's Captain Rayner, is a joy to watch. We may have lost our hero Shaw, but we get new grumpy, bullish officer to enjoy. However, Rayner is quite the opposite in command style, taking risks and considering the mission ahead of individual lives. We can only ask what other skeletons are in the closet if his poor decisions on Q'Mau were enough to get him forced into retirement, especially considering the sorts of breaches of protocol that Burnham, Tilly and the rest get up to on the reg. Of course, it's all an excuse to get him in place as Burnham's new Number One, in the most most predictable move of the two episodes (and one that makes a mockery of any kind of disciplinary system Starfleet has going on here). It's an interesting choice to make Rayner a Kellerun; so far, it's had no bearing on the story, but it's always gratifying when a one-off species isn't completely forgotten about. (The Kelleruns were one of two warring people's seen in the second season DS9 episode "Armegeddon Game," the one where O'Brien does take coffee in the afternoon.)

The regulars and semi-regulars are all well-served. Doug Jones in particular gets some choice material, getting some heartfelt moments with both Burnham and his now fiance T'Rina, and some very fun stuff as "Action Saru" down on Lyrek. It's always good to see Tilly back, absolutely not setting up her new role as a lead on upcoming spin-off Starfleet Academy, no-sirree (and don't ask Mary Wiseman, whatever you do). Oded Fehr and David Cronenberg get to play to their strengths as Admiral Vance and Dr. Kovich, the latter who seems to have his own personal version of the Matrix on hand for super-secret mission briefings. 

Experience tells us that Discovery has a tendency to start a season well, before floundering in the middle and rushing the ending. Still, I remain optimistic that the final season will continue to deliver. A shorter, ten-episode season will hopefully fix some of the pacing issues that have affected the series in the past, and with another four pieces of the puzzle to find, more than half of the run should be taken up with missions to mysterious planets. Next stop: Trill.

Questions, references, observations:

• No one has any idea what L'ak's species is, and I can't help but wonder if that will be significant to the story later.
• We're convinced that President Rillak, with her mixed heritage, will somehow be instrumental to decoding whatever miraculous technology is finally recovered from the Progenitors.
• They've shelved the Spore Drive, much to Stamets's chargrin, in favour of the still mysterious Pathfinder Drive. Probably for the best: has everyone forgotten that they're not supposed to use the spore drive because it hurts the people on the mycelial plane?
• Starship watch: Rayner commands the USS Antares, another well-worn Starfleet name.
• Picard callback: the Romulan puzzlebox that kicks off the quest also had a role in that show's first season mystery.
• Why does Moll think that a Romulan ship would be beyond the Federation's jurisdiction? The Romulans are members now, since Ni'var rejoined.
• The sands of Q'Mau have "unknown radiative properties." That's got to come into play somehow later. I hope no one has space cancer.
• Three cheers for everyone's favourite future knick-knacks, the self-sealing stem bolts!