With Michael Burnham now back together with the Discovery crew, they all turn to a search for the remnants of Starfleet and the Federation. And what better place to go than Earth? But far from receiving a warm welcome, they find that things are as changed on Earth as they are everywhere else in the universe.
I'm not sure Star Trek: Discovery has been running long enough to call something like this a "pattern," but the series has so far positioned more stand-alone stories earlier in a season and transitioned to a tightly-serialized narrative by the end. This episode felt like it struck a better balance there to me, with threads of the ongoing mystery of The Burn woven into a more self-contained story.
In many ways, that story felt like pure old-school Star Trek. Our heroic starship and crew find themselves at the center of a long-standing conflict between two warring sides. They take it upon themselves to broker a peace, a speech of lofty and harmonious ideals is delivered, reason is seen, and the day is saved. It sounds a bit hokey when I boil it all down like that, but it really wasn't -- it was a warm and comfortable blanket. And it being a story about Earth retreating into isolationism in the wake of a tragedy, with our heroes now the catalyst to pull them back -- it felt like it perfectly met this 2020 moment in an inspiring way.
Another moment with powerful 2020 context: the reunion of Michael Burnham with her friends. There's something extra emotional right now, even subversive, in watching good friends hug one another. I've heard some TV watchers have felt creeped out seeing TV characters in close contact right now, but this moment played exactly the opposite for me: it was energizing and hopeful. Throw in some not-at-all-subtle (but perfect for the moment) music from composer Jeff Russo, and I was moved.
It wasn't all uplifting, of course. The early scene between Tilly and Burnham was a good one highlighting loss, as Tilly finally caught a moment to mourn everything and everyone they've all left behind centuries in the past. And Tilly's comments about a changed Burnham? I felt that too; it isn't a radical change, but Sonequa Martin-Green really is showing us a character whose emotions are a little closer to the surface, less steeped in Vulcan influence. If the series continues to lean into that change, I think it will serve them well, expanding the character and playing to SMG's strengths as an actor.
Another thing I'll be interested to see more of in episodes to come is the new character of Adira. The casting of the character was something touted in press before the season began: this was to be Star Trek's first recurring non-binary character (not counting the one-offs from the Next Generation episode featuring a non-gendered race), and played by an actor who identifies as non-binary. So far? The character has been referred to as "she/her," which perhaps undermines the moment a bit? But there's interesting promise here too.
The wider fan circle did not realize this at the time Deep Space Nine was new, but recently, I've seen online that the character of Jadzia Dax is a favorite among transgender and non-binary Trekkers. I'd wager not even the writers knew the aptness of Trills as a metaphor for that part of the LGBT+ community, but it was there. And you'd better believe the writers are aware of it now. Maybe it isn't perfect to consider the human character of Adira non-binary if it's only the Trill symbiont and its past lives that make them so? But a more thoughtful and aware examination of what it means to have been a man and a woman, and to contain both those experiences? Could be quite interesting.
It's entertainment first, of course, and on that front, the show seems to have done an expert bit of casting. Hard enough to find a performer who can balance the worldliness of a long-lived Trill with the aspects of its current host. Now, they seem to have done that with a young performer (who either is the teenager the show claims, or is quite credibly close). Quite a coup.
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