Star Trek: Discovery: Season 5

I am cautious and taking a wait-and-see approach. But I have to admit that what we saw was promising. I'll talk about the good things the final season COULD have in store for us. But there is an elephant in the room. One I ignored for four seasons before understanding I could no longer deny it.

The show sucks. Like legit.

Before last season I said if Discovery were NOT a Star Trek show it would be a great sci-fi show. It just happened to be a bad Star Trek show. But the fact that it was SO bad at the Star Trek stuff really REALLY hurt it during Seasons 3 and 4, that was never a factor in the first 2 seasons. If you ask me thrusting the crew into the 31st Century should have been an absolute gamechanger not just for the show, but Star Trek in general. My mind reeled in anticipation to get centuries later updates of the Klingons, the Cardassians, the Borg, the Dominion, the Ferengi, ALL of those weird and wacky Star Trek aliens we love are people we are now hundreds of years out of date for! The amount of changes in the canon and the relationships and politics could and should be entirely different and fascinating! Discovery gave itself the chance to become the most mindblowing Star Trek series of all time!

Season 3 was bad. But I accepted it because it WAS the first season of the crew trying to reestablish the Federation. I reasoned future seasons would give us the updates I craved.

Season 4 did not. At all. It was a total waste of time. It went on a totally unrelated tangent story about artificial intelligence and God aliens we'd never heard of before, and the entire season felt like the show was giving Star Trek fans the finger. Star Trek: Picard, especially in the third season, went out of its way to do callbacks and tie-ins to the previous 24th Century shows. Discovery didn't just forget it was Star Trek. It forgot it was the Star Trek show with potentially the best premise in franchise history.

Will Season 5 waste it too?

Calling back "The Chase" from Star Trek: The Next Generation is a good start. That was fan-favorite episode of the series doing a Mea Culpa about the unexplainable goofiness of the entire implausible premise of unending humanoid aliens, and attaching an (implausible) explanation anyways. It tickles me they are FINALLY giving that episode's heady themes the weight they deserve.

How is the episode? Don't like the new Series Regular Rainer. He's an ass.

For the record, Dr. Kovich is ALSO an ass, but he's a calculating one, which is forgivable. And at the end, he's persuadable. But when he orders the crew that stun settings are not sufficient and he doesn't care who must die to get that information, perhaps the viewer is led to think he's a monster. Instead, I think his perspective is normalcy for a shell-shocked person living in the tattered remains of the Federation in the 31st Century for his entire life. I didn't sense evil behind his orders. I sensed world-weary trauma instead. And that's fascinating. It's helps that director David Cronenberg is fantastic in the role. Like Tig Nataro as Jet Reno, it's perfect casting.

Eve Harlow is too hot to be on Star Trek. It's a bit pf a problem for the Kurtzman stuff.

Tilly's drunk flirtations with the crewman who walked her back to her quarters reminded me why I like the Kurtzman stuff, and why I USUALLY (but not always) prefer it to the Roddenberry and Berman eras. The characters talk and act like real people. They did kind of on DS9 too, but most of the relatable human stuff on that show was played by aliens. On the Kurtzman stuff, humans themselves are quirky, awkward, and interesting. It's weird Roddenberry handed us fifty years of boring characters and confused that for virtue and human perfection. Nothing could be further from the truth.

You want to talk crap about the Kurtzman era, the reason I won't have your back is because of stuff like that. I can think Discovery is one of the worst Star Trek shows (only Voyager, Enterprise, and The Animated Series are worse) and still think it desperately improves on the canon in necessary ways.

For instance, did you know it's okay for Vulcans to express love? They don't have to be comfortable about it, but they can acknowledge it. It's a thing and Kurtzman Vulcans don't lie and act like it isn't.

I love that Fred is a synth. I was shocked and amazed by that notion. But he's first Soong-Type Android we've seen in the 31st Century. Old model for sure.

The action set piece at the end was amazing too. And it sort of bothered me that it was TOO amazing. It really didn't need to be, and it's not like Paramount isn't drowning in debt. But using the shields of two crashing starships to halt an avalanche on an inhabited planet is what is known as A New One. Can't say Star Trek never tries new things anymore.

I dug the episode but I don't want to get my hopes up. The show has burned me before.

But.. But...

While I actually enjoyed the first two seasons of Star Trek: Picard a LOT, I understood why they were polarizing for some fans at the end of the day. I didn't agree with the complaints, at least not entirely. But I understood them. And then the third and final season of Picard was the best Star Trek we've gotten since Deep Space Nine went off the air in 1999. It was amazing and everything Star Trek fans ever wanted. Maybe that is not my expectation of Discovery: Season 5 (mostly because I am not insane) but if it wound up the best Discovery season of all time, that would be consistent with what happened to Picard. We'll see. I'm still a skeptic who believes the show sucks deep down. They will need to put in a LOT of work to win me back. But this episode was a good start. 4 stars.

I am SO not going to enjoy Rainer as the new first officer but I will give the show credit for having Burnham make the offer herself. A lesser show would have had her saddled with him against her will. Sometimes the Star Trekness in Discovery peeks through.

Amazingly gorgeous and beautiful CGI effects and vistas. While Paramount is going bankrupt they also seem a bit ill-advised.

Back to Trill next week. Good. Although I could use a Betazed update too.

I love that Culber openly loves Book. Even Book seems astonished by that fact.

Unfortunately, I don't feel like this episode leaned too heavily into the Star Trek aspect of the show. It leaned into it some. But not enough for my liking, especially considering that's my biggest complaint against the show. The episode was fine, but I am not really gonna be satisfied with fine with the current stakes being what they are. 3 stars.

I love Deep Space Nine. I do. But after seeing this I can't help but think they mishandled the Trill. The fact that something like Ezri Dax only occurred to them in the final season says the producers may have come up with a great and unique premise, solidly unlike the version on The Next Generation. But they never really understood it or its implications.

For Star Trek: Discovery, the Trill are not a hard to understand concept of young but weirdly wise people like Dax asking you to accept them as they currently are. There is a mystery and mysticism built into their entire literal underground society. And that feels a LOT more right to me than what Deep Space Nine wound up doing. I've repeatedly stated that Discovery's biggest sin isn't that it's a bad show, or even that it's a bad sci-fi show. It's just a bad Star Trek show. Well, as far as the Trill are concerned, it's doing things right for the first time ever.

I was never crazy about the fact that Enterprise made Vulcans insanely racist, but I respect that the Kurtzman era works with it instead of ignoring it. The idea that people like that still exist in the 32nd Century in a society of prigs that basically believes they are better than everybody else? Totally believable.

I don't believe Saru's intentions about postponing the engagement announcement were either sexist or ill-intentioned in any way. And yet when she tells him she doesn't need or didn't ask for a caretaker I was like, "His problem is he has been hanging around humans too much." That's normally not a bad thing (I think 32nd Century humans are more interesting that 32nd Century Ni'Var), but yeah, Vulcan females do NOT need or appreciate that. It's probably why Spock was as terrible with Vulcan women as he was.

Adira and Gray's parting was so sweet and dear. I love those two kids and hope they find happiness in their lives.

The idea that the Symbiont could PLAUSIBLY live for 800 years is not consistent with what DS9 told us. But on the other hand, DS9 really didn't go into detail there, or take a firm canon stance one way or the other, so I believe it still fits.

The episode's (and probably the season's) biggest misstep is Commander Rainer. Star Trek has a shoddy history of introducing a buttmunch for conflict (see Enterprise's Malcolm Reed for the worst example) but I will concede it's good that Discovery decided NOT to make him human. I don't like the idea that humans having conflict with each other is a bad thing, so I resented that characters like Reed made me see it as a bad thing. When Tilly lectures Rainer instead about "And oh, yeah, you were DEMOTED," I feel perfectly comfortable with the smirk on my face. Having a human character so outside of human interactions makes me think badly of 22 Century humans, if Reed can become a bridge office and not a single member of the crew knows a single thing about him. The fact that the alienness of Rainer's behavior is being treated as such is much easier to digest because he's a freaking alien! God, there were SO many unforced errors on Enterprise. Somebody tells you Discovery is the worst Star Trek show, I'll point out it never ONCE did an episode where a surprise facet of a main character was that they liked pineapple. For real. And we're supposed to empathize with this cast of freaks claiming to be evolved humans after that! Give me the age of Trump and carton of Ho-Hos any day over the hell that is humanity's dull, boring, and cold future as envisioned by Roddenberry and Berman. For crying out loud. Just thinking about that crap makes me wish tooth decay and shingles to Berman and Braga. God, we had it SO rough back in the aughts after DS9 went off the air. Pineapples! Pathetic.

I took the show to task for refusing to give us good updates for 23rd and 24th Century aliens. I think this episode did a good job representing both Trill and the Ni'Var. Trill is especially significant and cool here because I think Discovery is doing more with that species that DS9 ever did. So yeah, we're finally getting some alien updates.

Not down with that new-fangled Ferengi make-up design though (their design from TNG and DS9 is already perfect) but I might tolerate it if we got an update about Ferenginar itself. We'll see. I might not.

I am not getting "Last Season" vibes from the show yet (which is not good) but I still got a sense that they are going through a Trek checklist, which they should have done more of in season 3 (and at ALL in season 4). I understand the producers wanted more than this. But the arc is not feeling like it's going to a satisfying end-point. How many times are the Star Trek characters gonna meet a God stand-in, and why the HELL was Gene Roddenberry never critically torched for ALWAYS doing it, and acting not only like it was interesting instead of stupid, but like none of us ever saw the earlier God episodes with the same damn premise and resolution? Considering Roddenberry is lionized by the fandom I just have to assume every single person who loved that pure hack only saw a single one of the dozens God episodes and movies and were not aware those other trite episodes existed. To talk like a Vulcan, it's the only logical conclusion as to why that terrible writer is beloved instead of mocked.

I'll tell you something though. Regardless of the fact that Gene Roddenberry went too far over the line in making humans boring, alien, and basically the future a horrific scenario for any of us with either a real personality, and the slightest bit of artistic integrity. They actually had Data painting portraits, unaware of how 30 some odd years later human beings would detest AI art with every fiber of our being. Gene and Berman thought the idea was "neat" instead of repulsive, which basically distills the entire problem with their tenures. But I'll tell you, regardless of the fact that things were TOO vanilla, Roddenberry was onto something with the idea of sci-fi as comfort food, and a safe space to talk about allegories and topical issues while keeping things mostly static, and rarely gut-wrenching. The downside to that is there was never a SINGLE decent (real) death in any of the first five Star Trek series or first ten films. But I liked watching a sci-fi project, that was a weekly broadcast TV show, and never made a federal case out of the fact that it's almost never the end of the world (unless it's a season ending cliffhanger). A lot of people were skeptical about Star Trek returning in the cynical age of Game Of Thrones, Breaking Bad, and The Walking Dead. What those people don't understand is that the fact that TV doesn't operate like that anymore doesn't make Star Trek dated or outmoded. It makes it needed, and a dire tonic for the age we live in. Now Discovery has not been the perfect poster child for that. But I think Picard, Strange New Worlds, Lowers Decks, and Prodigy show the world still needs feel-good entertainment like Star Trek, and it is not a dirty of shameful thing to want to enjoy a TV show, have the heroes win, and fight for a better future. If you think that concept is now irrelevant, you are a giver upper, and not my political ally, and I don't dig you. I wanna fight for the better future. Maybe not the cold artless horrorshow seen on The Next Generation. But I could live in the same future as the characters from Lower Decks and Discovery. Jett Reno actually eats chips. Culber's grandmother literally keeps around religious icons. Humanity is NOT this huge homogenized bland faceless colonialist organization in the Kurtzman shows. When Jinaal ask Book and Burnham if humanity has evolved into an age of permanent peace and prosperity Picard would shriek, "Look how far we've come! We're NEVER going back to that!" But Burnham and Book know through actual experience any civilized society and democracy is on the verge of being toppled when something unplanned like the Burn happens. You just don't know. Picard's promise and faith is not just egotistical and narcissistic. It's a bit short-shorted and stupid (and oh, yeah, hella racist).

After reading all this people will be like "Matt, why do you even watch Star Trek if you HATE it so much?" I DON'T hate it. That's the thing. I freaking LOVE it! Along with Justice League Unlimited and Twin Peaks, Deep Space Nine is my favorite TV show of all time, and like those two, is the only one that been off the air for as long as it has been and still entirely holds up. Because DS9 wasn't the show that had Picard shriek at Q, "We've made mistakes, but we've come so far!" It was the show that had Ben Sisko say, "It is easy to be a saint in paradise." THAT is what Star Trek's humanism and futurism should be about. Star Trek: Picard ultimately lived up to that idea using the characters from the show I had SO many problems with learning the correct lessons about how to deal with people and their problems. I love Star Trek because I know how important and amazing it is when it is great. That doesn't stop the majority of it being piss-poor. But it does mean that I love it, flaws and all. Regardless of whether I think Roddenberry was a no-talent hack who took sole credit for the hard work and brilliant ideas people added to his premise, truth is, on paper, the premise is sound. The fact that the showrunner was incompetent and didn't understand people, doesn't change the fact that a sci-fi project with capable heroes and an optimistic future does have value. In the right hands, it can wonderful. So every time you see me take a gratuitous shot as Roddenberry, Berman, and Braga, it's because I believe Star Trek is bigger than Gene Roddenberry and none of those three people understand that the future of humanity does not get to be decided by one man. Especially a man with such a poor understanding of human psychology, and someone who doesn't understand people or what makes them tick at all. The premise is sound. I believe in it. I believe it can work. And when it doesn't, I'll say so. I'll take the shots at the sacred cows like Roddenberry no other fan would dare to. But don't for one second think I don't love Star Trek with every fiber of my being. I want to be the Star Trek fan Ira Steven Behr is. Acknowledge the failings and do better. And isn't that what the potentially great future for humanity would boil down to anyways? Me pretending that Gene's warped notions about colonialism, gender roles, race, politics, psychology, child-rearing, and sexuality weren't totally messed up is me refusing to acknowledge the past mistakes and trying to do better. I think the best way to honor Roddenberry's ideal about a humanity that learns from its mistakes is to acknowledge and learn from Roddenberry's. And that something I am totally up for.

I digress. I thought it was a terrific episode outside of the Rainer stuff. 4 stars.

Rayner is a tough character to like, and I appreciate the show putting in the legwork so we someday can. Stamets mentions before the Tardigrade stuff he was "surly". And yeah, I used to hate him and now he's my favorite character. I don't imagine this will happen with Rayner, but seeing Mutineer Michael and her old-school haircut was a good reminder that people can change, and for the better.

Rayner's scene with the past Michael WAS pretty great. And it was nice seeing Airiam again. Nobody wanted to believe or hear about her sacrifice but I love that she did.

I love Reno asking Stamets if he was in a time loop. His frantic reaction to that was hysterical. I also noticed a little sparkage between her and Rayner too.

The horrible future for Discovery seen in Star Trek: Short Treks is something I am VERY glad to see come into play. Short Treks are canon and if Discovery went off the air without ever mentioning that again it would have driven me nuts. But it's the future and a timeline that needs to be undone. Que Sera Sera was the best callback to that EVER.

I love that Tilly loves future Michael's hair. I do too.

It was sort of a breather in not moving forward the mythology too much but also a pretty exciting sci-fi high-concept too. And the Burnham on Burnham fight is pretty sick. 4 1/2 stars.

I am EXTREMELY happy. This is EXACTLY what I was hoping Seasons 3 and 4 would be, but they weren't. Star Trek giving 32nd Century updates on classic aliens and their changed world politics could have been SO fascinating, as well as learning the outcomes of several unknown things from the 24th Century. This episode delivered both.

The idea that L'ak is an unhelmeted Breen is great enough. The idea of the first face being behind the need for the helmet is brilliant, as is learning that surprise, Breen CAN speak English, or at least use the universal translators. They just mostly choose not to. I'm sure understanding that will make their and Weyoun's interactions in the last season of Deep Space Nine funnier when I rewatch it, even if that was never the DS9 writers intentions. Because it's great because it still fits.

Another DS9 mystery solved was that we learned precious little about how the former Terran Empire fell after Mirror Spock's advocacy for reforms on the DS9 episode "Crossover". I wish Michael had learned in this episode Spock was NOT the brutal dictator everyone else in that Universe was, but what I love is learning some of the humans in the former Empire escaped the newly form alliance between the Klingons, Bajorans, and Cardassians, made it to our Universe, and started a new life. It was kind of a morbid joke during the Berman era (especially in the Enterprise two-parter "Through A Mirror Darkly") that the evil of The Mirror Universe is immutable. Even Deep Space Nine suggested when Terrans were fighting for their freedom that Mirror Sisko, O'Brien, and Bashir were still seamy dirtbags. And I love that this show say, nope it isn't an Evil Universe at all, it's an unlucky, BAD Universe, but people are still people, and some people WANT to change and be good. And that's actually more of a Star Trek notion than the "Everyone is evil or at least entirely different" from the older shows. It's more realistic and relatable to our own experiences. And isn't that the most human ideal Star Trek can strive for? People say Discovery is terrible and failing Roddenberry's ideals. Is it possible it and the other Kurtzman stuff is simply doing right by the Roddenberry ideal for the first time ever? That seem likelier to me, but what do I know?

The flashbacks with Mol and L'ak were just great, and it was wonderful to get some context for them both. Book is right about something. I believe both can reached. In the right setting and conditions they would probably stand down. And as Michael points out with her and Book's presence, second chances are totally a Starfleet thing. Joss Whedon loves redemption stories but he always has his characters do unforgivable things when he tells them. The idea that both Michael and Book have made mistakes, but I'm not against either of them is the right way to do it. Not like Spike and turning his attempted rape of Buffy on Buffy The Vampire Slayer into a "moment of growth" for HIM, which is appalling. But I don't think either Mol or L'ak has done anything they can't come back from, even though unlike Michael and Book, they are killers. They've had their reasons, and it's possible reason is the entire way out of this mess.

Culber's stuff wasn't interesting, but it could LEAD interesting places in the weeks to come. We'll have to see.

Rayner's lack of growth is very frustrating to me. He learns a valuable lesson at the end of every episode this season. and forgets it by the beginning of the next one. That's annoying.

This season is FINALLY delivering on the selling points of having adventures in Star Trek set in the 32nd Century. About dang time! 5 stars.