Mark Watches ‘Short Treks’: S01E01 – Runaway / S01E02 – Calypso

As a reminder!!! All Short Treks are doubled up on the Master Schedule.

In the first episode of the first season of Short Treks, Tilly discovers a very odd stowaway. Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to watch Star Trek. 

HI THIS WAS INCREDIBLE??? I didn’t know this whole time that what I really needed in my life was Star Trek doing short fiction. Because that’s really what this felt like! It was like the show made a short story into a feature, but without bloating it unnecessarily. The storytelling here in “Runaway” is economical and succinct, and by choosing to focus solely on Tilly and Po, it allows this whole episode to have a beautiful sense of energy and urgency.
It’s also fucking FUNNY. So funny! Mary Wiseman’s comedic timing is out of this world, y’all, and getting to see her unleash a bit was a treat. It was also good comedy because it was based in something very real: what it feels like to not be listened to. 

Early in the episode, we get a glimpse of Tilly’s mother when Tilly is explaining the Command program she’s just been admitted to. If any of you have had parents who were not-that-supportive about your plans or goals or dreams, the scene was IMMENSELY familiar. I have experienced a variation of it more times than I could count. So, on a personal level, it was a frustrating thing to bear witness to. Tilly’s mother is so damn worried about whether or not Tilly will fail, and yet she doesn’t offer to just HELP her. If you’re so worried, what are you doing to actually support your daughter? And that line about the messy desk… lord. Y’all. LOOK WHAT YOU DID, TILLY’S MOM. YOU GAVE YOUR DAUGHTER ANXIETY. I am barely joking!!! Because I had a highly critical mother, too, on whose behavior actively contributed to me getting worse in all the things she picked on me for. It was a never-ending cycle! I imagine that is the case for Tilly, too.

Which is why she was the perfect person to interact with Po. No one else was going to understand that same sense of loneliness and sadness quite like her. In a short period of time, the script and acting for “Runaway” manages to convey a deep worldbuilding for Xahea, most of it focused on the character of Po. The fact that she was about to be coronated as the queen of Zahea is hidden from the audience and Tilly, and it’s not just for a plot twist but as part of the character work, too. We learn about Xahea, dilithium, and Po’s incredible invention before we learn about the future. Through this, we get a glimpse of the way that Po has upset life on her home planet. I LOVED the idea of being a “twin” with a planet, y’all. That’s so strange and unexpected, but it gave the character of Po a whole lot of heart. And as much as this was about how Po’s feelings were hurt and she felt unheard and disrespected, there’s also a heavy element of greed at work. That dilithium invention would change everything, and of course people in power and people used to a certain world would be resistant to change.

That’s also why Po’s interactions were so meaningful. Tilly was plunging headfirst into change, and I bet that’s a key reason why her mother was so uncomfortable. But I’m proud of Tilly for pursuing a dream even if she’s scared and uncertain! That’s the parallel that she had with Po, despite the massive difference in context between their struggles. Both of them wanted to change the world, either on a personal or massive scale, and they were met with resistance against it from the very people who should have supported them.

It’s precisely why Ensign Tilly will be a fantastic commander some day. Her strength as we saw over season one—or at least one of many strengths, I should say—is in empathy and compassion. Tilly sees whole lives and full experiences when she looks at others. She has an optimism that isn’t cloying, but deeply beautiful. I love that about her and how she’s been written. She was the inspiration Po needed to let go of her own fears and step into her destiny. 

And I hope Tilly gets to do that on this show, too. 

OKAY, SO THIS WAS GREAT. I’m so excited for these Short Treks, y’all, especially if this was an indication of the quality! ONWARDS.

The video for “Runaway” can be downloaded here for $0.99.

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In the second episode of the first season of Short Treks, I need to promptly fight all of you. Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to watch Star Trek. 

Holy shit. Holy shit??? How did this script manage to tell one of the most emotionally intense Star Trek stories in only sixteen minutes? Whomst allowed this???

If anything, I’m remembering that there is a power in minimalism in storytelling. Both of these scripts so far deal with almost now subplots, though each of the main characters are coping with something. Here, though, we’re introduced to two characters we’ve not met before and may never see again: Craft, a human from Alcor IV, and Zora, the AI system onboard the Discovery. I remain utterly befuddled by the casual reveal that the ship has sat in a single location unbothered for ONE THOUSAND YEARS while it waits for the crew to return. It’s barely addressed outside of Craft’s logistical and emotional concerns, so I’m guessing… season two will explain why this is happening???

Anyway, that’s not the focus of “Calypso,” and it’s all the better because of that. It’s a story that is initially about circumstance. Craft’s escape pod just happened to pass within range of the Discovery before he nearly died from his injuries. Injuries, I might add, that he received because of the very ship he was in, which he occupied because of a long, long war with… someone? I didn’t catch the name of the people who Craft had been at war with. What was important was Craft’s loneliness and his desire to get home, a desire that was at odds with Zora’s directive: to remain in the same place until the crew returned. They are both stuck, functionally, but emotionally, the most incredible thing occurs. 

I admit that this is exactly the kind of science fiction storytelling I love. There can be technology we can barely imagine in the set pieces; it can take place far in the future, in another realm, in another universe; it can be literally unbelievable in some small or big way. For me, I love when those elements, which might even be a little fantastical, produce a story that is deeply human at its core. I use that term deliberately because I am also a huge fan of explorations of humanity through non-human characters. Trek does that a lot, obviously. (Allow me to also recommend the Wayfarers series by Becky Chambers, which I’m reading for Patreon, and I’m nearing the end of the second book, and they do this theme INCREDIBLY well.) Zora progresses in this episode in a manner that allows for the show to explore love, both unrequited and the slow burn type. I don’t know how many days passed while Zora and Craft were together, but from the expertly designed montage sequences, it’s clearly weeks if not months covered over the course of “Calypso.” 

During that time, Craft processes possible grief. He’s angry he may be stranded on the Discovery, far from home but not impossibly so. That distinction is important because Craft never truly gives up hope that he might one day make it back to Alcor IV. Still, he resigns himself fairly quickly to routines and to his interactions with Zora. Through this, we watch as they both share important aspects of their life with one another. This process, day in and day out, helps them become emotionally closer, even if one of the characters is an AI left behind on a starship. It’s an astounding portrayal with two powerhouse performances, especially since we only glimpse Zora for one brief scene toward the end of the episode. Aldis Hodge (MY KING) is acting to nothing for the vast majority of the episode, and it was absolutely astounding to watch.

I bring that up because we had to be sold on the relationship enough so that when the big dance number to Funny Face happens, it is believable that Craft had begun to develop serious feelings for Zora. Serious enough that he questioned whether this counted as him being unfaithful to his wife! AND THEN IT’S ALL TIED INTO THE MOVIE, AND THERE’S THAT RECURRING MOTIF ABOUT CRAFT’S REAL NAME AND THEN HE HAD TO DELIVER THE FATALITY BEFORE HE LEFT DISCOVERY and I still can barely believe how much this episode accomplished in sixteen fucking minutes?

I am so deeply impressed with Short Treks so far, y’all. DEEPLY IMPRESSED.

The video for “Calypso” can be downloaded here for $0.99.

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