Star Trek: Discovery 1.15 (Season Finale)
Feb. 13th, 2018 11:05 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakWhen I saw the name "Akiva Goldman" in the credits, I was less than joyful, because the first script of his I've seen filmed was "Batman and Robin", and...yeah. (Checking up on his filmography since then, he's also done Dan Brown adaptions. Um. Yeah. (Otoh, in fairness, given he had an acting cameo in one of the reboot movies and is credited for the script of "The Vulcan Hello", one part of the Discovery pilot, chances are he's an ST fan, and there are two other scriptwriters named for "Will you take my hand?", the finale, as well, though he's credited with the story and direction.) Anyway, the result is a finale which is one of those weird cases where I'm completely on board with (nearly) all the story beats and the points the episode makes, it's just that I find the execution, as in the actual telling, both in pacing and dialogue, to be not up to the high standards this first season for the most part set. Basically, it's like someone mapped out a perfectly fine ending and then left it at a script that could have used a lot more editing and rewriting. Still: I did like what was actually going on (mostly) and it capped what was to me one of the best first seasons of any ST show. (Certainly better than both my best beloveds, TNG and DS9. Which doesn't mean Discovery as a show in totem will be better, not least because it had a strong arc for its lead in the first season that's not repeatable and derived much of its emotional power from it. I'm really curious how the writers will handle the next season. Just leave Akiva Goldman out of the writers' room, hm?)
To start with the Klingons: I feel a bit smug about guessing correctly Ash(Voq) would return to the Klingons, especially since in the last week, I've seen a lot of other people predicting he'd die. This correct guess was no great detective work on my part, though, just the result of recalling how the Dominion War on DS9 ended (with Odo returning to his people and parting from Kira), and drawing conclusions from the "not just Tilly but everyone in the mess hall accepts Ash" scene. If the other crew members had rejected or blamed him, he'd have had some obvious goal to achieve. But the preceding episode even wrapped up him and Stamets with their scene. And there would have been absolutely no point to the entire Voq-Tyler-storyline if he'd remained on Discovery as Ash. Returning with L'Rell as someone who sees himself as Ash but has Voq's memories and basically is the unofficial human ambassador working as a bridge between two recently warring people, otoh, makes sense of it all.
L'Rell taking over and uniting the Klingons with this stopping the war, using MirrorGeorgiou's destruction plans for Quo'nos, was also the only logical conclusion for her story, and I'm glad she did it with herself as the leader, not as someone's grey eminence. What I had not anticipated was that it would be Michael Burnham rather than Katrina Cornwell having this idea, but that worked, too (they had Tyler talk about L'Rell and Voq being the last true believers in T'Kuvma's idea of unity in the previous episode). Incidentally, let me just say I am SO RELIEVED there never was a L'Rell versus Michael love struggle about Tyler which was what I had been afraid of might happen several episodes ago. I also had thought L'Rell preventing the bombing rather than having the possibility of planet wide destruction at her disposal would be her entry point to power, but you know, the second does work better for current Klingon mentality, especially given they were about to win the war, and what worked for the Minbari would not work for them, if you allow me the Babylon 5 allusion.
One last Klingon related thing, though it's actually about Michael: her reaction to hearing Ash talk as Voq and gambling and her subsequent telling him just how her parents died was hands down one of the best scenes of the episode, beautifully played by all participants. It also added even more depth to Michael's ethics and ability NOT to take the eye-for-an-eye road.
As I said, I have no quarrel with what the episode is saying, just with some of the execution, because I think the points it makes are more important than ever. That I'm concurrently struggling to watch the third season of Enterprise contributes to this. Said third season was (in)famously the one most obviously influenced by the post 9/11 mentality in the US, and does it ever show. Torture is a case of a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do to get information, and when Archer tries to save babies whose parents were Xindi (aka members of the people who comitted the pseudo 9/11 attack on Earth), it's because he's mentally taken over by aliens, not because he's behaving like a decent human being even in war time. Given this, and given the current global rise of fanaticism, fundamentalism and abandonment of ethical lines, I find it all the more important that that Discovery creates a scenario where Earth and humanity's survival (and, because unlike the era Enterprise is set in, it already exists, the Federation's survival) are at stake as well, and has our heroine, after putting her through all the trauma excuse the Jack Bauers of the fictional world wish for, say: No. And let her be joined by her comrades in this. No, there are methods we won't use, even with our survival at stake, and we won't stop looking for another way.
The optimism of the show, that people can be reasoned with - Cornwell, reminded of her ideals and faced with not just Michael but the rest of the bridge crew protesting, is listening; MirrorGeorgiou doesn't want to kill another Michael; L'Rell, having to decide whether unity or victory is more important, chooses unity -, might be utopian, but that is what Star Trek needs to be, now more than ever. And so, in theory, I think the choice of not including a space battle or a hand to hand combat situation in this finale but let all the confrontations be verbal ones, was in the spirit with that and a good one. (Besides, the show already has given us both space battles and hand to hand combat situations in previous episodes.)
But. And here we come to the execution and the pacing problems and the dialogue problems. MirrorGeorgiou as written by Goldman suddenly doesn't bother with even trying to play PrimeGeorgiou with her behaviour on the bridge; if Lorca had been that blatant and obvious he'd been outed as an impersonator of a Federation Captain within five minutes. And is there a reason why she needs to out herself to Tilly? Why has she zero capacity for stealth? Mind you, I was good with the episode reminding us that she's a gleeful genocidal mass murderer. "We had so much fun wiping out the Betazoids." But then, at this point I thought this was a reminder so we understand why MirrorGeorgiou won't be left at liberty at the end. But no. This was the one point where I wasn't on board not just with the script but with the plotting. To clarify, I'm okay with MirrorPhilippa getting away because she makes a good arch nemesis for Michael, but I did NOT want Michael to let her get away, I wanted it to be an escape against some effort on the part of our heroine to recapture her. Why? Because, again: gleeful unrepentant fascist mass murderer. You do not knowingnly let someone like this Georgiou loose on the universe.
Now, about pacing: much as I treasured the above mentioned scene with Michael confiding about her parents, the way everyone wandered off on Qo'onos to do their own thing in what was supposed to be a desperate clock ticking situation felt distinctly weird, especially in contrast to the quick resolutions thereafter. And after we made it through all of the Mirrorverse episodes without a resurrection of the cliché of the evil bisexual (I mean, I enjoyed Intendant Kira on DS9 as much as anyone, but come on, in this day and age?), MirrorGeorgiou having a leisurely threesome was also something of a let down.
Moving on: Michael's speech, by itself, was touching. Everyone getting awards or reinstated was touching. But cross cutting between the two was overdoing it. Not to mention that the point Michael makes about what Starfleet is was made several times at this stage already. Stop hitting us over the head with it, script! Too much means schmaltz instead of pathos, Goldman.
Back to stuff I liked again: Michael and Amanda, Michael and Sarek. Awwwwww. It makes me want to resurrect an old fiction idea about those memories Picard got from Sarek, now with added Michael. We'll see.
Tag scene: not Lorca Prime, but Pike. You know, I blame Bruce Greenwood for this, and how frustrated I was when the second reboot movie killed him off just to give Kirk more angst, but I'm totally game for this. And for more awkward Vulcan family reunions, of course, but I definitely look forward to more Christopher Pike and Number One. (Who'll play Majel Barrett, I wonder?)
To start with the Klingons: I feel a bit smug about guessing correctly Ash(Voq) would return to the Klingons, especially since in the last week, I've seen a lot of other people predicting he'd die. This correct guess was no great detective work on my part, though, just the result of recalling how the Dominion War on DS9 ended (with Odo returning to his people and parting from Kira), and drawing conclusions from the "not just Tilly but everyone in the mess hall accepts Ash" scene. If the other crew members had rejected or blamed him, he'd have had some obvious goal to achieve. But the preceding episode even wrapped up him and Stamets with their scene. And there would have been absolutely no point to the entire Voq-Tyler-storyline if he'd remained on Discovery as Ash. Returning with L'Rell as someone who sees himself as Ash but has Voq's memories and basically is the unofficial human ambassador working as a bridge between two recently warring people, otoh, makes sense of it all.
L'Rell taking over and uniting the Klingons with this stopping the war, using MirrorGeorgiou's destruction plans for Quo'nos, was also the only logical conclusion for her story, and I'm glad she did it with herself as the leader, not as someone's grey eminence. What I had not anticipated was that it would be Michael Burnham rather than Katrina Cornwell having this idea, but that worked, too (they had Tyler talk about L'Rell and Voq being the last true believers in T'Kuvma's idea of unity in the previous episode). Incidentally, let me just say I am SO RELIEVED there never was a L'Rell versus Michael love struggle about Tyler which was what I had been afraid of might happen several episodes ago. I also had thought L'Rell preventing the bombing rather than having the possibility of planet wide destruction at her disposal would be her entry point to power, but you know, the second does work better for current Klingon mentality, especially given they were about to win the war, and what worked for the Minbari would not work for them, if you allow me the Babylon 5 allusion.
One last Klingon related thing, though it's actually about Michael: her reaction to hearing Ash talk as Voq and gambling and her subsequent telling him just how her parents died was hands down one of the best scenes of the episode, beautifully played by all participants. It also added even more depth to Michael's ethics and ability NOT to take the eye-for-an-eye road.
As I said, I have no quarrel with what the episode is saying, just with some of the execution, because I think the points it makes are more important than ever. That I'm concurrently struggling to watch the third season of Enterprise contributes to this. Said third season was (in)famously the one most obviously influenced by the post 9/11 mentality in the US, and does it ever show. Torture is a case of a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do to get information, and when Archer tries to save babies whose parents were Xindi (aka members of the people who comitted the pseudo 9/11 attack on Earth), it's because he's mentally taken over by aliens, not because he's behaving like a decent human being even in war time. Given this, and given the current global rise of fanaticism, fundamentalism and abandonment of ethical lines, I find it all the more important that that Discovery creates a scenario where Earth and humanity's survival (and, because unlike the era Enterprise is set in, it already exists, the Federation's survival) are at stake as well, and has our heroine, after putting her through all the trauma excuse the Jack Bauers of the fictional world wish for, say: No. And let her be joined by her comrades in this. No, there are methods we won't use, even with our survival at stake, and we won't stop looking for another way.
The optimism of the show, that people can be reasoned with - Cornwell, reminded of her ideals and faced with not just Michael but the rest of the bridge crew protesting, is listening; MirrorGeorgiou doesn't want to kill another Michael; L'Rell, having to decide whether unity or victory is more important, chooses unity -, might be utopian, but that is what Star Trek needs to be, now more than ever. And so, in theory, I think the choice of not including a space battle or a hand to hand combat situation in this finale but let all the confrontations be verbal ones, was in the spirit with that and a good one. (Besides, the show already has given us both space battles and hand to hand combat situations in previous episodes.)
But. And here we come to the execution and the pacing problems and the dialogue problems. MirrorGeorgiou as written by Goldman suddenly doesn't bother with even trying to play PrimeGeorgiou with her behaviour on the bridge; if Lorca had been that blatant and obvious he'd been outed as an impersonator of a Federation Captain within five minutes. And is there a reason why she needs to out herself to Tilly? Why has she zero capacity for stealth? Mind you, I was good with the episode reminding us that she's a gleeful genocidal mass murderer. "We had so much fun wiping out the Betazoids." But then, at this point I thought this was a reminder so we understand why MirrorGeorgiou won't be left at liberty at the end. But no. This was the one point where I wasn't on board not just with the script but with the plotting. To clarify, I'm okay with MirrorPhilippa getting away because she makes a good arch nemesis for Michael, but I did NOT want Michael to let her get away, I wanted it to be an escape against some effort on the part of our heroine to recapture her. Why? Because, again: gleeful unrepentant fascist mass murderer. You do not knowingnly let someone like this Georgiou loose on the universe.
Now, about pacing: much as I treasured the above mentioned scene with Michael confiding about her parents, the way everyone wandered off on Qo'onos to do their own thing in what was supposed to be a desperate clock ticking situation felt distinctly weird, especially in contrast to the quick resolutions thereafter. And after we made it through all of the Mirrorverse episodes without a resurrection of the cliché of the evil bisexual (I mean, I enjoyed Intendant Kira on DS9 as much as anyone, but come on, in this day and age?), MirrorGeorgiou having a leisurely threesome was also something of a let down.
Moving on: Michael's speech, by itself, was touching. Everyone getting awards or reinstated was touching. But cross cutting between the two was overdoing it. Not to mention that the point Michael makes about what Starfleet is was made several times at this stage already. Stop hitting us over the head with it, script! Too much means schmaltz instead of pathos, Goldman.
Back to stuff I liked again: Michael and Amanda, Michael and Sarek. Awwwwww. It makes me want to resurrect an old fiction idea about those memories Picard got from Sarek, now with added Michael. We'll see.
Tag scene: not Lorca Prime, but Pike. You know, I blame Bruce Greenwood for this, and how frustrated I was when the second reboot movie killed him off just to give Kirk more angst, but I'm totally game for this. And for more awkward Vulcan family reunions, of course, but I definitely look forward to more Christopher Pike and Number One. (Who'll play Majel Barrett, I wonder?)
no subject
Date: 2018-02-13 10:19 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-02-13 10:28 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-02-13 11:23 am (UTC)(And it seemed like a call back to mirror Kirk lasting all of five minutes before Spock threw him in the brig...)
no subject
Date: 2018-02-13 02:25 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-02-13 11:45 am (UTC)A really strong first season for the show.
no subject
Date: 2018-02-13 02:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-02-13 02:24 pm (UTC)The hard won self-realisation of the Discovery crew wasn't used very well. Or in Campbellian terms, having slain the Dragon (Lorca and his vision of a ship of ideal soldiers [and in the process incidentally dealing with a reality eating Imperial Flagship which was the mechanism by which Lorca's vision was defeated) in the Underworld (Mirror Universe), the crew got to return to the real world with their treasure (the true realisation of what it truly means to be Star Fleet). But they never really got the chance to actively share that Treasure that they brought back. Then again, The Return is often the least understood part of the Hero's Journey by modern US authors, who generally feel that the Treasure should be its own reward. Which is not to say that this is a Hero's Journey, but it does serve to illustrate why I found this episode unsatisfying.]
Essentially the pacing was badly off. And it didn't help that the writers used threats you know were never going to materialise to fail to heighten dramatic tension (like you know in a superhero franchise the world is never going to be destroyed by the evil plot because they are already advertising the next movie). So threaten earth with destruction was a null threat. Stuff was resolved too quickly, and everything was golden afterwards.
It was, to me, the studio resetting the show for the next season/showrunner and abandoning the first season (all in the space of a single episode). Probably in a panic over the fan reception with the first half of the series (shooting wrapped after Episode 4 was shown). We are now going to be given what their test audience wants (especially with the appearance of the Enterprise).
Aside: I always find it more profound when faced with an existential threat, that most humans in the Federation still behave as humans, even if they where the Star Fleet uniform. But it is those (like Sisko during the Changeling menace) that hold to the ideals of Star Fleet at these times that provide the moral backbone and strength of Star Fleet's creed, and why Star Fleet can be impressive. It's easy to be all Federation Goody Two-Shoes when dealing with unthreatening primitives, but a lot harder when you are facing a credible threat and there is an easy way out. But unfortunately the fans don't believe this and get upset when many members of Star Fleet actually initially acts human in these situations.
no subject
Date: 2018-02-13 03:05 pm (UTC)Otoh, I think Michael telling Ash she sees only Ash in his eyes now and kissing him might have come from a desire to give these two a complete reconciliation before he takes off, and that could have been interference. Or just Goldman executing a plot point clumsily, who knows. As I said - the Michael-Voq parallels in the pilot (both of them are passionate devotees to their respective leaders and somewhat outside the rest of their respective societies, both interrupt a session between the High Council/Starfleet command and their captain with a protestation, both are told by their leaders about their potential, both see their leaders die in front of them and then end up in months of isolation and grief) make conclude that he was always meant to end up on a parallel note to her - which also means not with her.
Tilly coming into her own was something that happened over the course of the season, not last minute, ditto for Saru growing into leadership and his and Michael's relationship changing and strengthening to the point where Saru, while not letting the reveal Michael lied to him about the existence of Mirrorverse Kelpiens pass, doesn't hold it against her, either - as he would have even before their Georgiou died, but sees it in context. The way he and Michael relate to each other now is the result of the entire season, not a sudden change in the last episode.
Now I'm still waiting for a narrative pay off for Culber's death - as opposed to the other deaths throughout the season, there is no narrative necessity I can see justifying it so far. (Whereas if Georgiou had not died in the pilot, Michael's entire arc might not have happened, and she'd never have responded to MirrorGeorgiou the way she did, if Landry hadn't died, Lorca wouldn't have been able to give her job to Tyler/Voq, thereby justifying the later's presence on Discovery, and either Lorca or Mirrorverse Georgiou HAD to die as the slain dragon, the embodiment of everyone's dark tendencies and temptation to sacrifice principle to victory; given all, it made more sense for it to have been Lorca.) And yes, the pacing was just weird through the episode. But it doesn't feel to me as if the characters themselves ended up in the wrong place, as opposed to the one where their stories through the seasons were leading towards.
no subject
Date: 2018-02-13 05:07 pm (UTC)The problem I have was with the non-crew aspects (ie the rest of the Federation and the Klingon Empire), which were resolved far too quickly and conveniently. Which are the consequences I was actually referring to, rather than that of the character arcs.
Essentially the crew didn't really get to use their newly-won sense of self to affect the situation. In this sense they were cheated of their Return, of their ability to show that they had learned what it meant to truly be Star Fleet, in the rush to close off the season. [In other words they really didn't get their Hero moment.]
Instead we have "good work, we were wrong, we promise we won't do it again, everybody is forgiven (and you are no longer a pariah), the spore drive was a bad idea which we aren't going to use ever again, have some pretty gongs, and get ready for the next adventure."
no subject
Date: 2018-02-13 10:00 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-02-14 04:18 am (UTC)It's been a great season after a rather weak start, but I do wish they'd stuck with the Klingon appearance established in TNG. I find it really hard to reconcile the new reptilian ones with past series.
I was pleased with how the season ended, though it seemed very sudden. The final Burnham speech was OTT and, to me, far too American. I found myself wriggling with embarrassment as it just didn't fit in with the whole series feel.
When they were hailed at the end, I was almost certain it would be by a prime-verse Lorca. But then again, Pike may have picked him up somewhere, though I can't see him as being as compelling as the "ours".