Star Trek: Discovery/Season Two/Episode Two

The Discovery picks up another mysterious red signal and uses their spore drive to warp across the galaxy to the Beta Quadrant. There they find a civilization of humans who somehow traveled across the galaxy to escape World War 3, over 200 years ago. They soon discover that this ties into the strange red angel being that is at the center of this season’s story arc. The colonized planet faces an extinction level event and the crew races the clock to find a way to save them without violating the prime directive.

Pike’s character is filled out some more as we get insights into his family and see how he commands an away team.

Sylvia Tilly tries to extract a piece of the asteroid from last episode and is knocked unconscious. Upon awaking, and fellow crew-mate helps her find a way to save the planet. Of course, this person is not actually there and is an old school mate of hers that died years earlier… I am sure this will have repercussions going forward.

Lt Joann Owosekun finally gets some screen time, and some backstory, as she joins the away team. Apparently the Luddites still exist in the 23rd century. She is played by Oyin Oladejo.

Andrew Moodie guest stars as Joseph, one of the human colonists. He alone recognizes our heroes as travelers from outer space, the original Earth. I felt this guy’s pain as no one believed him.

As my wife stated, this season is showing an immediate improvement in quality. This was a classic Trek story. We had an away mission to a distant planet somehow populated by humans who speak English. We had an impending disaster that pushed the crew to the limit of violating the Prime Directive. This was comfort food. It was also directed by Jonathan Frakes…excellent.