Seeking out one of the seven mysterious "red lights," Discovery finds a distant planet sparsely populated by humans who disappeared from Earth during World War III. The locals have stagnated in technology, and have cobbled together their own religion to explain their survival, a hodgepodge of various Earth religions. Without violating the Prime Directive, a landing party must discover how these humans came to be settled on a world so far from their real home. The ship also must deal with an imminent global disaster.
There's an interesting story at the core of this episode; interacting with primitive societies is a Star Trek staple. It's also a nice twist to literally encounter a planet populated with people descended from Earth for a reason (as opposed to the original series' hand waving that served up Earth-like planets on the regular without purpose). But there are also many elements of this story that don't quite work, as well as some missed opportunities.
For starters, the "blended religion" of the people of New Eden seems like a far-fetched idea. I would think a shared experience like the rescue by the "Red Angel" would either spark some entirely new faith, or start a small-scale holy war where different religions would try to claim the event for theirs within their existing frameworks. Building a new religion that's "one from column A, one from column B" doesn't seem like the natural outcome. I suppose it's possible that later information we get about the Red Angel as the season unfolds might help to explain this, but for now, it feels like there's explanation here we didn't get (or that the writers didn't craft).
The Prime Directive (or General Order One) is all over this episode... until it isn't. Despite Burnham's logistical aikido at the end of the episode, I really couldn't see how Pike went from unflinching support for non-interference to beaming down and revealing himself to the local, Jacob. Pike had other solutions in this moment, from going down and stealing the camera to copying its information and leaving it in place. Nothing seemed to necessitate or explain suddenly coming clean to Jacob.
It feels like a missed opportunity not to give Saru a bigger role in this episode. Coming off the Short Treks episode all about him (which we actually watched just after this episode, though it "aired" before), it would be really interesting to get his take on Starfleet's all-consuming non-interference policy with primitive cultures. Obviously, Saru did join Starfleet and thus must have espoused belief in the practice, but one has to wonder how supportive he truly is. At the very least, encountering any primitive culture ought to stir up feelings for Saru that are worth at least touching on.
Time lost by Saru was time gained by bridge officer Owosekun, who got to go with the landing party in a slightly beefed-up role this episode. It was nice at least to see some character getting fleshed out a bit. The story line for Tilly was also enjoyable. Though her decision to work alone in secret felt like a bell the show maybe ought to stop ringing soon, her encounters with the strange vision of an old school mate was a fun gimmick. Presumably this all relates back to that one spore speck we saw land on her shoulder back in season one. It may bring Stamets and Tilly, already close, even closer together.
Again, Discovery served up an action sequence that looked great but didn't necessarily make a lot of sense. Using the asteroid fragment's gravity to drag away the threat to the planet was a fun idea that looked amazing on screen. But I would also think that if its gravity is strong enough to do that, it will surely affect some other changes on the planet that might not be so pleasant. Oh well, we'll probably never see New Eden again, so problem solved!
This was a fun enough episode as it unspooled, but left me feeling less satisfied than the season's premiere. I give "New Eden" a B-.
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