Discovery must stop Book's ship (under the control of Tarka) from destroying the 10-C power source, but doing so may sacrifice their ability to get home. And even if successful, the aliens must still be convinced to stop their system-annihilating anomaly. Meanwhile, an evacuation effort is underway at Earth, but it's too late to do much for a seemingly doomed planet.
Over the course of the season, I think the writers had dug themselves an awfully deep hole with Tarka and Book. The weren't going to make me come around on understanding either character's behavior any better, but of course... they were going to try. I thought that effort fell flat; Tarka had been so single-minded all season long, so beyond seeing reason, that him doing anything short of fighting tooth-and-nail up until the bitter end wasn't going to feel honest to me. So his sacrifice for Book did not feel redemptive -- it just felt false. But good riddance; it's not like I was invested in him anyway.
They didn't make any effort at justifying why Book was such a dupe this season, but I suppose that's alright since that ship left the spacedock a long time ago. I did like his apparent death and subsequent "resurrection," though. I personally wasn't moved by the potential loss of the character (not even enough to actively even question whether the writers were "tricking me" or not). Sonequa Martin-Green, however, got another chance to showcase that she might be the strongest actor Star Trek has ever had. Her long, wordless reaction to Book's death went through half a dozen micro-emotions in a single shot, so tight on her face that you could see every one. Her euphoria when Book was later restored was equally powerful. I may have been past caring too deeply about Book, but wow, did I care about what Michael Burnham thought about Book.
The rest of that "return" sequence, though? Ugh. I was stunned at how completely the writers threw away the very thing that was so compelling about the previous episode. We were served up literally an entire season about how unknowable these aliens would be, culminating in a fantastic hour showcasing the difficulties of communicating with them. But then Saru just downloaded Duolingo 10-C and suddenly three different characters are all taking turns with their own long, complicated monologues. Give me more of "how do we express this complex idea in a simple way!" What have you done?!
I found the rest of the episode to be a similar mix of good and bad, though not to the startling extremes of "Sonequa Martin-Green doing what she does best" and "the 10-C being reduced to the lowest alien denominator." There was a very enjoyable rapport between Tilly and Admiral Vance, featuring stoicism under pressure, a real "end point" for a long growth arc for Tilly, and some pleasant gallows humor... yet I'm also not entirely sure any of that wasn't a distraction from what was most interesting in the episode. (What if that screen time had instead been used to keep communication with the 10-C difficult?) I liked that, for a change, Discovery didn't have any characters (that we care about) actually have to give their lives to save the apocalyptic day... yet I'm also fairly sure that made the jeopardy seem toothless, when even a secondary character like Ndoye survived.
I felt not at all mixed about the relationship between T'Rina and Saru. That may have been the one plot thread I thought was perfectly handled at every moment throughout the season. Am I a "shipper" now? How am I a shipper now?!
I can't close without acknowledging the cameo at the end that made Republican politicians performatively lose their goddamn minds: the appearance of Stacey Abrams as the President of Earth. You might think this was typical politics, one side ranting against the other. I think it cannot be stated often and forcefully enough: that reaction was racist. It. Was. Racist. No doubt, if I had the chance to say that directly to the sorts of people who whined about Abrams' appearance, they would scream about cancel culture and how they're tired of being called racist. OK, stop being racist.
Here's why it feels to me that this is about race. I have no idea how many people actually subscribe to Paramount Plus, but I feel pretty confident in declaring that it's got to be a smaller number than were watching a typical network television sitcom about 10 years ago. A particular sitcom: Parks and Recreation. I could point out that there was no whining when John McCain made a cameo appearance on that show -- but that would simply point out the hypocrisy that it's fine with Republicans when one of their own does something. But then, Joe Biden also appeared on Parks and Recreation. No big social media reaction to that -- even though all the same social media was around then, even though the political environment at the time had already grown pretty toxic, even though certainly more people saw that than saw the season four finale of Star Trek: Discovery. The difference? Stacey Abrams, a black woman, was portrayed as a person in a position of respect and power. As having a place of importance in a hopeful future. That brought a backlash. Gross.
This was simply the latest in a long line of Star Trek fans getting to fulfill a dream by appearing on the show -- people like Stephen Hawking, Mae Jemison, Prince (now King) Abdullah of Jordan, Tom Morello, Seth MacFarlane, and more. It was fun. Maybe Stacey Abrams was a little stilted in her line delivery, but hey, I'll bet she was nervous and freaking out about actually getting to be on Star Trek! I'd much rather have her holding public office than acting in television shows anyway. (She's still working on that.)
(deep breath)
Right, the season finale of Star Trek: Discovery. A few very strong, emotional moments. A lot of frustrating decisions. I could see giving it a wide range of mediocre grades, depending on what I choose to give the most weight to. I think I'm going to come down on the more positive side of "I'm here to buy absolutely anything Sonequa Martin-Green wants to sell me" and give the episode a B-. But I certainly hope that before season 5, the writers' room regroups and charts a better course for the next episodes.
No comments:
Post a Comment