Sunday, November 5, 2017

Star Trek: Discovery -- "Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum"

So many problems, so little patience...

Apparently, despite last week's expository assurance that, thanks to the mushroom drive, the Federation is winning the war, thanks to the cloaking device*, the Klingons are actually winning the war.  Fortune is a cruel master.  In response, Discovery has been sent to the planet Pahvo, a seemingly uninhabited planet with on which every life form vibrates at the same frequency, a frequency which is broadcast into space via a naturally-occurring crystalline antenna (I mean... Star Trek).  Specialist Burnham, Lieutenant I-hate-bloodwine Tyler, and Commander Saru have been sent to the surface to somehow alter the antenna so that it will broadcast a thing-a-ma-jig that will neutralize all Klingon cloaking devices "within range of Pahvo," whatever that means.  En route to the antenna, they discover that Pahvo is not actually uninhabited, but home to a race of intelligent pollen clouds that exist in perfect Avatar-style harmony with their natural environment.  Even the neon blue trees seem reminiscent of "Dances with Aliens".  Because Starfleet is the good guys, they can't use the antenna without first asking permission, now that they know there is someone from whom to ask.  Commander Saru attempts to make first contact with the pollen clouds.  It seems to go well, up until the point where Commander Saru informs his subordinates that the Pahvons have invited them to stay indefinitely and that, since the Pahvons have achieved perfect harmony with their planet (whatever that means), he intends to accept the invitation on behalf of the entire landing party.  He crushes Burnham and Lieutenant rohkeg-blood-pie-is-also-disgusting Tyler's communicators with his bare hands to prove his point (why are all aliens always physically stronger than humans?).  Believing that this is the obligatory "contagious hippie-ness" episode that every installment of Star Trek must have, Lieutenant only-eats-food-that-is-already-dead Tyler takes command and orders Burnham to carry out their mission.  There may also have been some making-out involved.  It's unclear.  Saru tries to stop Burnham, during which fight it is revealed that Commander Saru, the first officer of the Discovery, is not under any mind-controlling influence.  He just thinks the Pahvons are really nice and doesn't want to involve them in the war.  Marooning the landing party on Pahvo seemed like the best way to achieve that end.  Burnham convinces the Pahvons that the Federation is on the right side of the war, the Pahvons agree to beam out the anti-cloaking signal, and Discovery beams the away team back on board.  But wait!  The Pahvons, like the Organians before them, actually think that both the Federation and the Klingons are a little silly (fair point).  Instead of beaming out an anti-cloaking signal, they are beaming out an invitation to both the Klingons and the Federation to come to Pahvo and talk out their differences.  The Klingon flagship (T'Kuvma's former command) drops out of warp in the Pahvo system.  Only Discovery can save Pahvo from becoming a Klingon-induced wasteland.  Cut to black.

*This is the part where I angrily remind everyone that the Romulans invented the cloaking device and gave it to the Klingons as a part of their season 3 Original Series strategic alliance.

There is also a B-plot (which doesn't make any more sense than what I just wrote), but let's talk about Commander Saru for a moment.  We met Discovery's first officer back aboard the Shenzhou under Captain Michelle Yeoh when Burnham was the first officer and Saru was the science officer.  Saru was introduced as a Kelpian, a race that evolved intelligence despite (or maybe because of) being hunted by every other life form on their planet.  In the pilot, Saru claims that, as a result, his species can "sense the coming of death."  In this episode, he reveals that he is literally always afraid.  This always struck me as a tenuous position for a Starfleet officer to be in.  He seemed far too cautious to be put in charge of anything (according to the Next Generation episode "Tapestry," caution is where promising careers in Starfleet go to die), but he had some moments of decisiveness aboard the Shenzhou, and, besides, he was only the science officer.  When he was made first officer of the Discovery, I assumed that I would be shown some way that my questionably American assumptions about what makes a good military leader were wrong and that I would feel properly chastened for questioning Saru's competence as a Starfleet officer.  Instead, Saru betrays his fellow officers just because the pollen people made him feel not afraid for a few hours.  This is now the second time in this series that the first officer of a starship has attempted to commit mutiny.  As I have said before: I don't think the writers thought through the consequences of this turn of events before writing about them.  There were certainly reasons to question the morality of Discovery's mission once it was discovered that Pahvo was not uninhabited (namely, this is not the Pahvons' war).  As the commanding officer of the mission, it was within Saru's prerogative to do so.  Lying to his subordinates and attempting to maroon them on Pahvo against their will was not the way to go about it.  If Saru remains a Starfleet officer for much longer... well, as I said before: Starfleet is terrible at being a military.

About that B-plot.... on the Klingon flagship under the command of General Kol of House Kor (which I assume is headed by Korr, the Klingon captain from "Errand of Mercy"), Admiral Cornwell is being interrogated by L'Rell.  L'Rell is the Klingon with whom Voq, T'Kuvma's apprentice who is, in all likelihood, currently masquerading as Lieutenant Tyler and making out with Specialist Burnham, was eye-fornicating a few episodes ago.  Except that L'Rell isn't interrogating Admiral Cornwell.  L'Rell hates general Kol and wants to defect, so she helps Admiral Cornwell escape.  Unfortunately, the two are discovered by General Kol before they can reach L'Rell's ship.  There is a weird exchange between L'Rell and Cornwell (L'Rell: "You were not what I expected"; Cornwell: "Neither were you") after which they fight and L'Rell kills Cornwell.  Or does she?  It was all an act for General Kol's benefit.  Or was it?  I don't know.  L'Rell goes to "dispose of the body" (except it's not a body?  or is it?) and discovers the bodies of many of her erstwhile companions who were executed for insufficient loyalty to General Kol.  She swears vengeance and leaves Admiral Cornwell's body (but she's not dead; or is she?) to confront General Kol, where by "confront" I mean feign allegiance to.  General Kol accepts L'Rell's fealty, then orders his body guards to show her "how house Kor treats liars."  None of this made any real sense at the time and, given that most of the characters ended up exactly where they started (except for Admiral Cornwell; I do believe she is now dead), feels like unnecessary filler.  L'Rell had already resolved to help Voq betray Kol.  Kol had already demonstrated his disdain for T'Kuvma's followers.  I guess Kol now explicitly wants to kill L'Rell, but there were probably more efficient ways to get to that point, especially since L'Rell was clearly away for some time helping Voq turn into Lieutenant look-at-my-pet-Tribble Tyler.

Oh yeah, and now Admiral Cornwell is dead two episodes after sleeping with Captain Lorca, representing the ultimate combination of the Original Series' objectification of women and the Next Generation's objectification of admirals (and also women).  Why?

In summary, this episode used 45 minutes to tell the story "Discovery is going to fight the Klingon flagship next week."  Maybe they should have taken the week off and just said "Discovery is going to fight the Klingon flagship next week."

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