Discovery is given a highly classified mission to retrieve something from an ancient Romulan ship. But Captain Rayner, of the starship that Discovery must team up with, plays much looser with the "at any cost" parameters of the mission. Meanwhile, Saru must decide whether to accept a new position that will take him away from Discovery.
I would never have expected differently, but this first episode of the final season made it clear that Discovery is going to go out just like it came in. The show has always had operatic, galactic stakes, and has always been highly serialized. It's had jaw-droppingly amazing visuals -- as good or better than any Star Trek movie, brought to television every episode. It's also occasionally had deficits in the writing, which in my view are usually made up for with two big plusses: top notch acting by Sonequa Martin-Green, and a roster of characters that have filled Star Trek's "Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations" ideal better than any series that came before (or since).
"Red Directive" certainly demonstrated all of this -- to a new extreme, if anything. Parts of the episode felt like the action beats of a summer blockbuster around which the whole thing had been crafted: Burnham "surfing" on the outside of a ship at warp, "motorcycles" running from a massive rockslide. Mindless action that felt much more "Star Wars" than "Star Trek," but which looked fantastic.
Saru's relationship with T'Rina remained as charming to me as it was last season. I appreciated that the way Discovery has gone, Saru might credibly said yes OR no to the job offer. This is a show determined to grow its characters and not put them back in the package at the end of each episode -- even when that sometimes makes storytelling a bit more challenging. (See: the struggles to keep Tilly around despite her new job.) Every major character on Discovery has grown and changed since we first met them, though for Saru it has probably been the longest (since he literally transformed from cowering "prey" to dart-throwing badass)... and so I appreciate this final arc for him.
But other character moves in the episode were less successful. The intended awkwardness of bringing back Book didn't really land for me. Yes, time has passed in both the world of show and the real world since Discovery's last adventure. And yet, we didn't even have an episode without Book around, so it really doesn't feel like he ever left. And with Burnham seemingly determined to make it not weird, to just ignore everything he did, it really comes off like nothing's wrong at all -- and that is kind of weird.
Discovery began its run very much tied to classic Star Trek, and now it appears it's going to go out tied to The Next Generation, setting up a season-long arc following up on a fan-favorite episode. It's arguably an easy trick to pull in a longtime Star Trek fan like me... and yet I don't mind being "tricked." It does feel to me like the right kind of story to pick up on, with enough interesting elements to form a worthwhile sequel, while not messing with something so "sacred" that you'd wish they'd left it alone. I'll be interested to see where it goes.
But... man, did this feel like a rocky start. I had a hard time with the episode's mindless action and needless secrecy. Like I said, though, Discovery has sometimes been these things too, amid things I've really liked. It's no surprise it's going out on its own terms. I give "Red Directive" a C+... but I hold out hope for what's yet to come in this final season.
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