A drifting escape pod is picked up by the Discovery, and its lone occupant, Craft, is revived. But in a sense, Craft remains just as alone. Discovery has been abandoned for a thousand years. Its now-sentient computer, Zora, sees to Craft's recovery.
The first season of Star Trek: Discovery sparked a debate among some Star Trek fans as to what, exactly, is Star Trek. After several spinoffs, many with different tones and premises, a lot of definitions one might have once considered don't quite work anymore. (And perhaps this is why you'll find a handful of people out there who, for example, claim that "Deep Space Nine isn't Star Trek.") I try to be pretty open-minded in what I accept as Star Trek. Yes, Discovery is darker. It's certainly hard sometimes to take it seriously as a prequel and square it with the original series. But I definitely recognize in it enough of what I'd call "Star Trek."
Calypso is not Star Trek.
This one-off episode features no familiar characters. No recognizable aliens show up. There's no Federation, no lofty moral ideals being explored. There's no tether here at all connecting this to any Star Trek that has ever come before, it just happens to be filmed on a Star Trek series' sets. It is a fully self-contained science fiction story with its own agenda, like an installment of The Outer Limits or The Twilight Zone. And compressed down as it is into 15 minutes, I wouldn't even call it a particularly good one.
The rough shape of a compelling story arc is here. This is the tale of a lonely person who briefly experiences companionship but then must learn to let go. "If you love somebody, set them free." It's the tale of Zora, the Discovery computer. But there really aren't any obstacles between point A and point B of her journey. Zora kinda-sorta fibs about Craft's ability to leave Discovery and return home, but it's not a lie that metastasizes between the two characters. There's never any strain in their relationship, and Zora's decision to ultimately let Craft go doesn't feel like it comes at an especially high cost. Her lesson simply isn't that hard to learn.
The quibbles multiply if you try to logic out how this situation even came to be. Is 1000 years of AI evolution not enough for Zora to reach a point where she can override her own "orders" to hold position? She has to know the odds of anyone coming for her are slim to none -- especially after Craft arrives with news on the state of the galaxy outside. (He seems to be human, but he knows nothing about the Federation. So there you go.)
I think this story would have landed a bit better, as a Star Trek tale, anyway, if the computer had had any prior hint of a personality. It could be primordial compared to what we see in Calypso, but it would have been nice to give us some connective tissue. If, for example, this had been a story of a known character like Data, somehow trapped in isolation for 1000 years, that would have packed a punch. Here, it really didn't mean much. At least the idea was clear, though. Unlike the scattered and confusing Runaway, you could tell what was going on here.
Again, the production values on these Short Treks are top notch. There are great visuals surrounding the shuttlebay, and of course, the big set piece moment where actual 60+ year old movie footage with Fred Astaire and Audrey Hepburn is rendered in 3D and built out into an interactive environment. It's all very impressive (even if the "get off my lawn" part of me would never actually want to watch a movie that way)
Still, I was underwhelmed by "Calypso." I'd grade it a C. I'm glad full episodes of Discovery are also back for me to watch each week, because the Short Treks thus far are leaving me cold.
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