But the Powers That Be did at least learn some lesson from the premiere -- in the original scheduling plan, this episode (with its Latin title meaning "If you want peace, prepare for war”) was to have been the fall finale. But much like "The Vulcan Hello," this installment was only sort of a cliffhanger; it didn't so much build to a crescendo as it just stopped a story at the halfway point. They saw fit to go ahead and give us the conclusion next week, and then go on break for the holidays.
One element of the story felt like the most classic take on Star Trek that Discovery has served up yet, the story about making first contact with the mysterious lifeforms of Pahvo. There was the gradual realization that the landing party was in fact dealing with intelligent life, the ensuing discussion about the morality and regulations surrounding the scenario, even the series lead delivering rousing speeches.
But the whole thing felt rather rushed. This is particularly odd, because in a streaming format unbound by the need for strict network run rimes, the writers could have given everything as much time as necessary. Instead, this is actually the shortest Star Trek episode ever (outside the animated series) -- less than 37 minutes without the re-cap, "next time on..." and the beginning and end credits. In my view, that brevity sacrificed a great deal of clarity.
The "possessed Saru" plot served up the needed boogieman/complication in that story line, but didn't exactly do right by the character. You have to do a lot of painting in between the lines on your own to understand the character's behavior, and his explanation at the end somehow felt less than sufficient. The Pahvans took away Saru's fear, and so he instantly became predator instead of prey, smashing equipment, seeking to maroon his crewmates, and generally not thinking anything through more than one step? I suppose I see the logic of instantly throwing a switch here, but I feel like a gradual leaning into his newfound bliss/strength would have been more compelling, and would have done a better job of driving home that it's still really him in there, not an alien-controlled puppet.
None of the other story lines really got enough closure to comment on much. It's inconceivable that after laying all the groundwork for a L'Rell/Admiral Cornwell team-up that the Klingon would have actually killed the Admiral. (Indeed, it seems they've set up a role reversal, where the Admiral will now have to rescue L'Rell.) I guess we'll see how this plays out.
The Stamets/Tilly subplot had some fun moments between the characters, but it too is incomplete at the moment. We've seen that after being high on life for a while from huffing tardigrade DNA, Stamets is now crashing hard and back to his cranky old self. Moreover, he's devolving even from there, experiencing momentary confusion about basic reality. That's as much as we got though -- all setup, no payoff, or even intermediary steps on the way to one.
So, yeah.... I'm feeling a bit put off by this episode at the moment. I will say in its favor that an alien planet has never looked so great in any Star Trek series. The location shooting combined with strategic CG assists really made it a credible environment that was shot as impressively as any of the planets that showed up in the Kelvin timeline movies. Plus, we got the elaborate opening ship battle. The money was really all on the screen this week.
Just not all of the story. I give this week's Discovery a C+. Perhaps, when considered as a piece with what follows, I'll need to revisit that, but for now, this was definitely my least favorite episode of the series to date.
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