Star Trek: Discovery/Season Two/Episode Four
Discovery’s first “classic” episode
Discovery races after Spock. After “Number One”, of the Enterprise, gives Pike the latest news on Spock’s location, the Discovery heads into space to find him. They are abruptly pulled out of warp by a giant red mechanical/biological hybrid. It inserts a virus into the Discovery’s computer system. As the crew tries to beat the virus and save the ship, Mr Saru falls gravely ill. His species has a syndrome they go through when they are about to die. The spaceship activated it in Saru. As they try to save the ship, Saru and Burnham find a way to understand the alien.
Down below, The spore monster that was inside Tilly breaks out and swallows her arm. As Stamets and the returning Jet Reno try to get it off her, the entity completely engulfs Tilly, sending her into some sort of spore-land. To be continued.
The biggest revelation, to me at least, was when Saru “dies”. As he is about to be put down by Burnham, his Ganglia turn black and fall off. He discovers that his people are being told a lie by the aliens that cull them. They are being killed before their ganglia fall off to keep them compliant. Saru now has a new mission, free his people.
This episode was a watershed moment for Burnham and Saru. They both realize, and admit, how much they mean to each other. They are not just shipmates. They are family. Excellent work here by Doug Jones, not a dry eye in the house.
Speaking of dry eyes, holy crap. Stamets and Tilly were incredible in this one. Mary Wiseman is phenomenal.
Jet Reno is back! Turns out she never left the ship, but has been working in Engineering the last couple of episodes. I was hoping she would get stuck arguing with Stamets and my hopes were fulfilled. This character is a keeper.
Rebecca Romijn debuts as “Number One”, first officer of the Enterprise. The best part of this appearance, Pike telling her to rip out the malfunctioning hologram communications. This gives an in universe explanation as to why Starfleet has holos 10 years before Kirk. Excellent
This was the best episode of Disco. It is the first of their hours that I think will be remembered as a “Classic” episode. It had a Trek standard moral quandary, excellent acting, characters sacrificing for the greater good, and was just flat out well made. Fantastic stuff.
The Skinny from the Fatty 