Short Treks were a transparent gimmick. Each was a 15-minute (or so) installment of Star Trek: Discovery, released at a rate of one a month in the run-up to season two. The hope was Star Trek fans would keep their CBS All Access subscriptions active from month to month to catch these slight bits of content. I didn't bite. But I am a fan enough to pay for the run of the series proper... and go back then to catch up on what I missed.
The first of the four Short Treks episode was centered on the character of Tilly, and was entitled "Runaway." Tilly encounters an alien stowaway that has sneaked aboard the Discovery. Out of empathy, she hides the alien and grows close to it, learning about herself in the process.
One thing I'll say in praise of these Short Treks (if this first one is any indication): they did not skimp on the budget. This short 15-minute episode was as fully produced as any 15 minutes of a full episode. It was loaded with great visual effects, it features an alien with a complicated and effective makeup, and from top to bottom it showed all the great production values you expect of modern sci-fi.
Also great: they chose to focus an episode on Tilly. I like a lot of the characters on Discovery, but Tilly seems to be a favorite with a broad cross-section of fans. There have been Star Trek characters with anxieties and odd personalities before (Reginald Barclay leaps to mind, but there are others), but never a main character we get to see every week. She's an especially human and relatable character that's great to have around, and great to feature in a short story like this.
But otherwise, "Runaway" is a bit of a mess. This mini-episode is a full 50-minute episode of story crammed into 15 minutes, and the result is total confusion about exactly what's happening. (SPOILERS follow... sort of. To the degree I understand the logic of the plot, anyway.) Tilly meets a strange alien with Jem Hadar-like personal cloaking abilities. And she talks! And she's in some sort of symbiotic relationship with her home planet? And she's a queen?! The story whiplashes around as if the sheer speed will stop you from asking questions. But without an anchor to grab onto, questions are all you have.
Why is this alien on the run? Is it because "the powers that be" are trying to oppress her technological discovery? But she's about to become queen, so is there really any threat to her? How close are we to her homeworld that Tilly can just beam her away at the end? How can she do this without alerting anyone to her use of the transporter? Why doesn't she get in trouble for trashing the mess hall? Why does the food dispenser freak out and start hurling dinners? (It's a lot more food than one invisible alien could be ordering and throwing.)
None of it makes any sense. All you really have is that Tilly is on a small personal journey to come to terms with her mother's overbearing expectations. And even that arc gets short shrift, as her mother is kind of a non-entity. We don't even get to see her face; the scene of Tilly's "phone call" home is all shot wide, as though the production is trying to preserve the option of casting a bigger name actor as Tilly's mom in a real episode somewhere down the road.
It feels like maybe there's an interesting story in here somewhere that, if built out (with other regular characters to support it) could have made for a decent episode. But as it stands, it's a confusing and disappointing effort, the worst installment of Star Trek: Discovery there's been.
I give "Runaway" a C-. I'm certainly glad I didn't pay for a month of CBS All Access to watch it. Perhaps the other three Short Treks will be better? In any case, they're not the main attraction I'm here for.
No comments:
Post a Comment