Star Trek Discovery (SUPER QUICK REVIEW) Ep, 7: Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum

Wanted to catch-up on my reviews before the finale, but due to a variety of circumstances (including prepping to launch a Star Trek Adventures narrative roleplaying game podcast featuring actors and comedians called Star Trek: Redundancy, coming soon from GarbageProductions.net!) I only had time to write some quick thoughts: full review of the finale coming tomorrow!

• Felt the most like a classic Trek of anything we’ve seen, while still carrying on with the meta plot
• Finally gave us more Klingons
• Still hate that design
• Interesting seeing Saru in the role of the aggressor
• Explanation for space madness best we’ve seen, almost ever, in Trek – the fact that Saru is constantly feeling his flight reflex is truly tragic and a neat detail to learn about the character
• Oh Burnyler/Tyham…you’re gonna implode so hard in the finale
• The admiral continues to be a fairly ‘meh’ character, though I do love remembering that everyone in Starfleet has hand-to-hand training (and love that Discovery has kept it in the Kirk style)
• Stamets back to being cranky is good, though makes last episode seem like a gift of convenience rather than a legitimate character shift
• Love that he’s still out of time – calling Cadet Tilly ‘Captain’ was a beautiful little moment.  Can likely also work as a bridge to future Trek content (Borg, etc) if they need it.
• That’s an interesting thought: maybe the Discovery will become capable of time travel, allowing it to realize its anthology show ambitions without actually sacrificing the crew and the ship. We’ll have to see.
• The problem with the show running as heavily serialized as it was early on is that the filler episodes REALLY feel like it. The away mission was interesting-ish, but felt like much ado about nothing (though the ending was pretty rad)

 

Predications going into the finale: either full Tyler betrayal or confirmation to the audience that he’s the a double agent

• Mirror Universe either directly shown or Stamets gets switched out
• Probably a death…hopefully not Stamets’ boyfriend Dr. Culber. We know Tilly is safe now as she is a captain in the future, but that was a pretty safe conclusion
• Love hearing folks I know from the Toronto theatre scene on the bridge getting names and more screen time…makes me worried for their safety: killing regular minor crewmembers is a time-honoured tradition and a way to keep your core cast safer longer…hang in there, bridge crew.

In any event, I’m excited to see what a mid-season finale looks like for this show!