Perpetual Infinity

Still slightly in the backlog of Star Trek: Discovery, my post today is about the episode almost two weeks ago, "Perpetual Infinity."

Having captured the Red Angel (and learning that she is Michael Burnham's mother -- not in fact dead), the Discovery crew tries to understand her grand plan. But Dr. Burnham isn't interested in help with her time-traveling quest to stop Control from reaching full sentience. And whether she can be convinced to cooperate or not, there's only so long Discovery can hold her in the present time. Meanwhile, Control steps up its efforts to acquire the data from the mysterious sphere, flooding Leland's body with nanites so he can be manipulated as an automaton.

In the previous episode, I praised the phenomenal acting of Sonequa Martin-Green. She deserves fresh praise for her work here, as Michael Burnham goes on quite the emotional roller coaster this episode. Her first scene alone is a tour de force, when Michael awakens in sickbay and learns her mother is alive. But the episode goes on to have her deal with rejection from that mother, gradual and touching acceptance, and then losing her all over again. Martin-Green is undoubtedly the strongest performer Star Trek has had since Patrick Stewart. (Stewart has to come back to play Picard again, lest he abdicate the title.)

Martin-Green has a great scene partner this episode in guest star Sonja Sohn. Sohn has a tough assignment here as Burnham's mother, having to start off stern and cold (and making us understand why her character is that way), then plausibly warm to her daughter, and finally sacrificing herself for the greater good. Not only does she have to play this arc in under an hour, she must do while confined in a small space for every scene (outside of the opening flashback). Sohn is great, and there's no doubt that she and Martin-Green lift each other even higher. I mean, reuniting with someone and then losing them in the span of one episode is pretty much a television trope, but I wasn't bored with it for a moment here.

The Burnhams may get the best scenes of the episode, but there are some other strong moments too. Culber is given a resonant monologue when he argues that, after the experiences Dr. Burnham has gone through, she won't be the same person Michael expects. There's more excellent rapport between Spock and Michael, culminating in him offering her emotional solace in a way that doesn't at all betray his logical nature. And, once again, Michelle Yeoh gets to be part of a top-notch fight scene.

I finally got my wish in that the show has at long last made a credible threat of the character of Leland. But then, they did him by not really having him be Leland anymore, but rather a puppet of Control. I wish that Leland had been more menacing on his own so that this new Control version might seem like a cumulative danger. But at least the abstract baddie that is Control now has a face, like when Picard was made to be the face of the Borg. In fact, the show seems to be strongly telegraphing that Control is some sort of proto-version of the Borg (right down to the "resistance is futile"-like declaration that "struggle is pointless"). For a show that's being extra careful at honoring tiny bits of Star Trek continuity, this would be an odd choice; the film First Contact established that a Borg collective existed centuries before this time frame. We'll see where they're headed with this.

It's becoming noticeable to me how marginalized the characters of Tilly, Saru, and (when he's not having his heart broken) Stamets are right now. The mechanics of the swift-moving plot remain a bit squishy, and the technobabbly dialogue used to half-heartedly explain it is often shunted to this unfortunate trio. But hey, if I were a writer who knew how good Sonequa Martin-Green was, I'd want to write as much material for her as possible too. (She even makes "Hamlet. Hell yeah." seem almost plausible.)

I give "Perpetual Infinity" a B+. Some of the story moments may have been predictable, even trope-tastic, but they were served up with enough acting skill that on the whole, the episode worked well.