In the second episode of the second season of Star Trek: Discovery<\/i>, a red burst leads the crew to a shocking place. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to watch Star Trek<\/i>.<\/p>\n
Trigger Warning: For a brief discussion of grief.<\/b><\/p>\n
HOLY SHIT, I LOVED EVERY SECOND OF THIS EPISODE. In many ways, this felt deeply Trek<\/i> in nature. It was the kind of ethical dilemma that we saw explored in many of the original five series (and I believe there was a Voyager <\/i>episode something like this?), except here, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s taken in a completely new direction. UGH IT WAS SO THORNY AND COMPLICATED AND EMOTIONAL. Let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s talk!<\/p>\n
Tilly and Exploration<\/b><\/p>\n
Tilly remains one of my absolute favorite Trek<\/i> characters, and I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m enamored specifically with her development. I like that while she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s still awkward at times, we get to see her become more confident as an ensign. That being said, she learns an important lesson that she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been struggling with since last season: We can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t help others unless we help ourselves. (My therapist is cackling in my head right now.) In \u00e2\u20ac\u0153New Eden,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Tilly\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s friendship with Stamets leads him to confessing that he is hesitant to use the spore drive because he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s afraid of seeing Dr. Culber again. And while this subplot takes up relatively little space in this episode, there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s so much depth to Stamets\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s grief. We saw how affected he was by seeing Culber when Culber guided him and the Discovery<\/i> home, and I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m of the opinion that that wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t<\/i> a hallucination. Maybe it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just Culber\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s consciousness in the mycelial network, but something<\/i> remained behind.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n As someone who has spent the past year and a half grieving, there are days when I wish I could see the man I loved again. But most days\u00e2\u20ac\u201dif I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m being entirely honest\u00e2\u20ac\u201dI have to avoid that line of thinking. Actually, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not just a line of thinking, but a behavior. Some days, I can handle seeing a photo of him; the majority of them, I cannot. Now, if there was a means to interact with him again like Stamets believes is possible? I think it would be a terrible temptation. I use that word deliberately, too, because I know how difficult my own healing has been. Complicated grief, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s called. I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even know that existed, but now I have a name for what these eighteen months or so have felt like. And just like Stamets, I know I have<\/i> to move on. My life cannot be perpetually defined by grief.<\/p>\n How can Stamets move on if the mycelial network provides him a means of seeing or interacting with Dr. Culber without actually<\/i> having him back? Each time would be both joyous and sorrowful, until it probably became about nothing but<\/i> sorrow. All of this is what Tilly internalizes and then decides to take matters into her own hands with the piece of the asteroid she helped take in during the previous episode. Unfortunately, by putting all of that act on her own shoulders, she ends up hurting herself badly and nearly putting the entire ship at risk. I loved that Saru wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t discouraging Tilly from finding a solution to Stamets\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s problem; rather, he wanted Tilly to understand that she didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have to do things alone<\/i>. Again: Wow, could Discovery<\/i> stop being so LOUD? Turn the volume down!!! One of the hardest lessons I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve had to learn is this exact one, especially since I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve long felt like I had to prove myself to everyone around me by being fiercely independent. Which can so easily slip into toxicity!!! I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m just glad that Tilly is being guided in the way that she is. She\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s still be encouraged to think outside the box, but Saru is also pushing her to think of herself, too. One of Tilly\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s great powers is empathy, but she should direct that empathy inwards as well.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n May<\/b><\/p>\n I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have a theory. At all. Y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all, I was just excited to see a new character on this show, especially one with an accent like that. I haven\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t commented much on this, but like… Discovery<\/i> feels effortlessly diverse in the way a lot of Trek<\/i> doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t? It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s casual in a way that makes it seem like an accurate depiction of the world. So, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m excited, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m thrilled that Tilly is about to reconnect with a childhood friend, and then… bam. We find out that May is DEAD. And has been dead for years??? And I realize that NO ONE ELSE EVERY INTERACTED WITH MAY. WHAT THE FUCK. So… who the fuck was that? Or what<\/i> was that? Is this connected to either the mycelial network or the red bursts? Why is this show like this???<\/p>\n Spock<\/b><\/p>\n I remain intrigued that this show is hinting at a bigger story involving Spock, but focusing that story through Pike and Burnham. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just such good storytelling!!! (And I have more craft\/structure stuff to talk about later.) As I said in the last review, we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re grounded in this story by experiencing it through Burnham\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s emotions. Add to that the newly introduced Captain Pike, who has a completely different take on Spock than Burnham, and we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re getting a very new and refreshing look at an iconic character. We still don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know what happened between Burnham and Spock that have left them estranged, but clearly it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s so big that Burnham believes that offering an olive branch to Spock would never work. Which… lord. How bad can this possibly be??? I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have a theory at all, friends. Nothing.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Plus, I wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t expecting Pike\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s reveal. I am absolutely interested in seeing how Spock is dealing with a mental health crisis, since that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s what this sounds like, and it definitely is new ground for both this character and<\/i> someone who is Vulcan. What about those red bursts precipitated this incident? What kind of care is Spock getting, and how will it affect him? What will happen when he inevitably reunites with his family? I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m so invested in this already, y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all!!! Even if the red bursts weren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t a compelling mystery (THEY REALLY FUCKING ARE), this would still be such a cool thing!<\/p>\n I NEED MORE.<\/p>\n New Eden<\/b><\/p>\n I… loved this. I loved it so much. As I said in the opening, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153New Eden\u00e2\u20ac\u009d was classic Trek<\/i> in execution and thematically. This is a first contact story, and\u00e2\u20ac\u201dcorrect me if I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m wrong!\u00e2\u20ac\u201dI believe that I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve tended to enjoy first contact episodes a whole lot. They\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re such a fascinating ethical conundrum, but this episode honestly blew many of them out of the water. After the events of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Brother,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d we get a second red burst revealing a second community that may need to be saved. That looks like a pattern to me, and with the presence of that weird angel thing two times as well, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m calling it. SOMETHING IS AMISS ON DISCOVERY<\/i>, and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s both creepy and kind of endearing? Like… it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a good thing that the Discovery<\/i> keeps following the red bursts. Except… oh god, that ending.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Wait, let me build up to that. Because the ethical journey to the ending was handled so well by this script. (Which, I should note, managed to deal with an incredibly heavy topic while still keeping it all HILARIOUS. Gods, this episode was so funny?!?!?!? Mary Wiseman\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s and Sonequa Martin-Green\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s comic timing is perfect??) The people of New Eden somehow escaped Earth during World War III and ended up on this distant planet. In the two hundred years since then, a unique community has sprung up, one where the original inhabitants believed that an \u00e2\u20ac\u0153angel\u00e2\u20ac\u009d saved them from the destruction of Earth. In the wake of that saving, a religion has sprung up that was cobbled together from different elements of major faiths on Earth. I think there was a potential for this episode to make said faith a lot more like the one we saw in Saru\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s backstory in Short Treks<\/i>, and I actually love that it wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t about dogma in quite the same way. There was no cruelty here. This wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t about subjugation either. Yes, Jacob did<\/i> deal with the backlash to his curious nature, but even that didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t feel like Saru\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s journey.<\/p>\n But the problem that the crew has to deal with? Oh, let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s talk about STRUCTURE. Because initially, I thought that the challenge here was just going to be Burnham\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s temptation to tell the people of New Eden that they believed a lie. Burnham is a rationalist. Her beliefs are guided as much by her love and appreciation for science as they are by her upbringing on Vulcan. So, logically, she doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t understand how Starfleet\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s policies best benefit these people, who believe something huge and consequential to be untrue. Earth is not gone! It wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t destroyed! But at the same time, Pike\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s guidance made sense. Wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t Burnham upset the development of a pre-warp society if she interfered like that?<\/p>\n And then the story twists to a new wrinkle: the potential destruction of the ENTIRE PLANET by a nuclear winter caused by the unstable planet\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s ring. Which means that Discovery<\/i> would have to violate the very order that Pike is busy trying NOT to violate down on Terralysium. AND THEY COULDN\u00e2\u20ac\u2122T EVEN CONTACT HIM TO TELL HIM WHAT THEY WERE DOING. Oh god, it was such an ironic twist, and I wondered how Pike would deal with the ramifications of it once the people of the First Saved where saved once more.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n And then a new<\/i> structural twist happens, and it was so fucking brilliant, y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all. Because this big, meaty problem that the Discovery<\/i> deals with\u00e2\u20ac\u201din one of the most entertaining sequences in the whole show\u00e2\u20ac\u201dthen switches focus back to Burnham and Pike. How? Through the character of Jacob, the descendent of the scientists who landed on this planet hundreds of years before. God, that made all the interactions between Burnham and Jacob so COMPLICATED. And I loved it! It was one scientist talking to another. Except Burnham had to lie<\/i>. She had to maintain a cover that involved her not<\/i> giving information to someone who desperately desired it. I could see the pain on her face every time she had to misdirect Jacob!<\/p>\n That made the scene in the basement so much more disastrous. Pike tried his best to keep the cover going, but after being discovered, captured, locked in the basement, and then SHOT IN THE CHEST WITH A PHASER HE LEAPT ON TOP OF, this spiraled into a whole new disaster. At what point would this lie be impossible to uphold?\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n This wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t just a great ethical disaster, though. I loved how it was about Burnham learning from her past mistakes. She really did her best to obey her captain to the very end rather than assume she knew better. EVEN THOUGH THIS WHOLE MISSION HURT HER. At the same time, Pike was willing to listen to Burnham\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s pleas that they do something<\/i> to obtain the video footage from the helmet of the original survivor. And that exchange between Pike and Jacob allowed Jacob to have a full, satisfying role in this story, too. He wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t an antagonist, even if his actions made things harder for the Discovery<\/i> crew. No, he just wanted confirmation of what he believed. At its heart, that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s such a pure, beautiful thing, and I see that as the reason why Pike ultimately relented and broke with protocol to give Jacob what he needed.<\/p>\n Of course, now I wonder about the ramifications of that<\/i>. Because… what the FUCK just happened to that church now that it has power? How did that weird angel creature transport the entire thing and its inhabitants to the Beta Quadrant? And why<\/i>? UGH, THIS WHOLE RED BURSTS STORYLINE IS SO GOOD!!!! I need more!!!<\/p>\n The video for \u00e2\u20ac\u0153New Eden\u00e2\u20ac\u009d can be downloaded here for $0.99<\/a>.<\/p>\n Mark Links Stuff<\/b><\/p>\n – My third novel (and middle grade debut) THE INSIDERS has been announced! Check out the cover reveal and pre-order links here.<\/a> In the second episode of the second season of Star Trek: Discovery, a red burst leads the crew to a shocking place. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to watch Star Trek.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[713,614],"tags":[615],"class_list":["post-7822","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-discovery","category-star-trek","tag-mark-watches-star-trek"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7822","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7822"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7822\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7822"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7822"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7822"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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