Brother

The second season premiere of Star Trek: Discovery was a high-intensity thrill ride with movie-caliber visual effects. But it also had many great moments for character throughout -- and it was here that the episode really shined.

Captain Christopher Pike assumes command of the Discovery after his ship, the Enterprise, is critically damaged. He's leading a mission to explore a strange transmission that appeared in space. Discovery finds a powerful gravity vortex and dense asteroid field -- but more importantly, locates a crashed Starfleet ship that has been missing almost a year. The crew must mount a rescue in this seemingly impossible situation.

Though Pike casts a long shadow in Star Trek lore, the truth is we've really never seen that much of him. The Jeffrey Hunter incarnation in Star Trek's original pilot is well over half the meaningful footage of the man; the version from "The Menagerie" had no personality to draw on, while Bruce Greenwood's take in the "Kelvin universe" movies was basically just there to mentor Kirk for two or three scenes. The truth is, large though Pike looms, he's sort of a blank canvas to paint on.

The Discovery writers and actor Anson Mount did just that, serving us up a fun loving and breezy captain, easily among the most laid back we've seen in all of Star Trek. Sure, you've gotta bridge a mental gap to get from the "ready to quit Starfleet" version we saw in "The Cage" to this -- but this is going to be a lot more enjoyable to watch for multiple episodes.

Another engaging new character was Reno, played by Tig Notaro. I already find myself wanting her presence on the show full time. It's great to see someone who is whip-smart and sarcastic without also being disdainful and cruel. Someone who is as dry as a desert without being robotic or inhumanly cold. She seems like the sort of person who'd either get along wonderfully or horribly with Stamets, and I can't wait to see either.

The character highlights weren't just limited to the new characters, though. The moments between Michael Burnham and Sarek played well, particularly the extended conversation in Burnham's quarters. I like how the scene leaned into Vulcan directness, and was a moment of revelation without being a bitter confrontation. Burnham challenges Sarek on having an ulterior motive with Spock when adopting her. Sarek readily admits it, and the two move on without... well, hurt "feelings." Very true to both characters.

As we've come to expect, every moment with Tilly was solid gold. The comic relief with Pike was fun, but the more poignant moments with Stamets were the ones I found more satisfying. I've heard some fans compare Tilly to Barclay from The Next Generation, but I don't find the comparison apt at all. Tilly wears her heart on her sleeve in a way no Star Trek character ever has, and it's great to see the writers use this new tool they have. Tilly and Burnham may have been the key friendship of season one, but it already looks like the focus will be moving to Tilly and Stamets in what we see ahead.

Though the episode cheekily denied showing us much of the inside of the Enterprise, we did get inside Spock's quarters at the very end, chock full of little nods to continuity. We saw meaningful props recreated from the original series, and an update to that ever-present metal grating we saw in all the crew quarters of the original series. Other fun nods to Trek continuity included a glimpse of a character in what looked like a precursory version of Geordi's VISOR, and Pike finding a fortune cookie fortune under Lorca's desk that meaningful nodded to the Star Trek pilot "The Cage." (It also seemed to tease a return of Lorca some day, in his Prime Universe version.)

While I applaud the work of the visual effects team, which delivered an action sequence as high octane and expensive-looking as any Star Trek we've seen on the movie screen (including recently), the nature of the action itself is really where the episode fell flat for me. The sequence in the asteroid field (and all the running and jumping aboard the crashed Federation ship) felt jumbled and unclear. It was action for the sake of action, and the logistics of it just didn't come across very clearly. Adding to that was the sense that it didn't really feel much like Star Trek, particularly with the podracer-style sound design that seemed to be dropped in straight from Episode I.

Had the action been more organic and not a clear indulgence to short attention spans, I think this episode could have contended for the series' best to date. As it was, it was a mark against an otherwise enjoyable hour that tantalizingly set up the season to come. I give "Brother" a B+.