Star Trek: ‘Discovery’ Part II– The Present Future
Welcome back to our Star Trek: Discovery catch-up. In this post, we’ll be covering all of season three as well as the first half of season four.
There are shared moments in time we can single out that denote markings of profound and terrifying change. The COVID pandemic is one of those shared moments.
We were all chugging along, working our jobs, going to school, grabbing drinks, catching movies, and then one day… poof. We stopped leaving our houses and we stopped seeing the people we love.
Days stretched into years and a couple of miles of distance may as well have been light-years. In short, Star Trek: Discovery‘s third season shares a lot of parallels to the era in which it was released.
Looking for a recap of seasons 1 & 2? Check out our recap.
Captain’s Recap Log: Stardate 2020-2022
DISCO season three begins with Michael Burnham arriving nine centuries from the world she left behind. And for an entire year she lives in that world before the rest of the USS Discovery finally turn up.
The 32nd century is different from any time previous period in Star Trek we’ve seen. However, this new time is gut-wrenchingly familiar to our modern day. Millions died after virtually all Dilithium exploded during a mysterious event called “The Burn”.
Without standard means of travel, the Federation disbands and Starfleet becomes a shell of its former self. Traveling from one world to another is enormously difficult. Even the most basic aspects of every day life feel like a fight for survival.
The lives of the people in the 32nd century, much like our lives right now, are incredibly isolated. But as this is still Star Trek, the purpose of Discovery remains the same: to remind us that there is still a future and a family worth fighting for.
Before we delve into the season as a whole, we have to get up to speed on the new characters. There are quite a few new people and organizations we get to know in this season.
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Crack a Book Why Don’t You?
Cleveland “Book” Booker (David Ajala) is an empath from the planet Kwejian. Michael encounters him shortly after she arrives in the 32nd century. Book is a courier and Michael spends that whole first year learning the ins and outs of her new time period from him.
They fall in love. It’s very sweet. Book is also in love with a Maine Coon named Grudge. She is big but don’t judge her for she has a thyroid condition and she is a queen.
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Discovery’s Latest Lovebirds
Adira Tal (Blu del Barrio) is a human who lost their memories around the same time Michael first turned up in the 32nd. They have a trill symbiote inside of them and no non-Trill has ever been joined to a symbiote before.
A quick trip to Trill grants Adira their memories back. It turns out they were in love with Gray who died very violently. This abruptly resulted in his symbiote being transferred to Adira as a last minute emergency solution.
Gray Tal (Ian Alexander) is a Trill. He’s also dead within minutes of us meeting him. However, once Adira gets their memories back, Gray appears to them as a kind of apparition. Much of the remainder of DISCO season three focuses on what this new situation means for both Adira and Gray.
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The Not So Federated Planets And Their Nemesis, The Orion Crytocurrency Enthusiasts
The Federation still technically exists, albeit in hiding, but it’s limited by its lack of Dilithium. Most worlds, including Trill and Nívar (formerly Vulcan) have left the Federation.
We primarily get to know the current iteration of Starfleet through Admiral Charles Vance (Oded Fehr). He’s hesitant to trust Discovery and her crew due to its many enemies. There’s also Kovich (David Cronenberg) who appears to be the current Section 31 big boi (official title).
The Emerald Chain is a galactic trade federation and the primary antagonist of the Federation. It’s led by an Orion named Osyraa (Janet Kidder).
Her goal is to dominate everyone through oppression and subjugation. Or, as she refers to it: capitalism. She controls people through a mix of slavery and poverty, or as we’ll refer to it: the gig economy.
Finding The Plot
The main plot of DISCO season three goes thusly: Discovery must investigate the origin of The Burn, gain the trust of former Federation worlds and what remains of Starfleet. All this while evading the Emerald Chain who wants Discovery’s spore technology for their own. Easy!
Eventually Discovery learns that The Burn was caused by a mutated Kelpian child named Su’Kal (Bill Irwin). Su’Kal is trapped on a planet made entirely of Dilithium which only Discovery and its spore drive can reach. Discovery must fight off Osyraa and her goon squad.
Meanwhile, Saru and his team beam down to the Dilithium planet to help Su’Kal. They must help Su’Kal understand who he is, what he has done, and remove him from the planet so he can no longer accidentally cause another Burn.
There are certain specific goals DISCO’s creative team had going into the show’s third season. Obviously, there was a desire to move the show into the future.
However, they also wanted make the Federation feel more connected to our modern society without losing its futuristic hopefulness. They accomplish this by abandoning the trappings classic, utopian Trek in favor of, how to put this delicately… total infrastructural collapse. Hooray!
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A Game of Musical Captains’ Chairs
They also want to move major pieces on the board. Notably there was the question of who deserved the captain’s chair. In a bid to have their cellular peptide cake and eat it too, Saru is captain until the season finale when the job goes to Burnham.
On the one hand, this has a cool parallel to Star Trek: Deep Space Nine where Benjamin Sisko also gained his rank of captain in the season three finale. On the other hand, that means Star Trek has, on two separate occasions, made a Black character wait three full seasons to receive the rank they gave to their white counterparts immediately.
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Georgiou, You Got To Georg-Go!
There is one exception to the Burn plotline drawing full focus this season. Since the intention is to spin Emperor Georgiou off into her own series, two episodes were dedicated to making her sick with bad CGI (or time/space displacement sickness, if you prefer).
During those episodes she briefly returns to her mirror universe with a little help from the Guardian of Forever. We see how much Georgiou has changed before she’s whisked away to a mysterious earlier timeline. The hot goss is that she’ll take over Section 31 wherever she winds up.
Even A Delicious Flavor Gets Old If It’s the Only One
As exciting as moving further into Trek’s future than we’ve ever gone before there are a number of challenges the show struggles to overcome. For one thing, there are A LOT of characters on the show. By season 3 we should know who all of them are, but many of the bridge crew, despite having names, each only has about one note a piece.
Likewise, the fact that most of the season focuses on one specific goal (understanding The Burn) causes the episodes to bleed into each other and give the season one, uniform flavor — and that gets boring sometimes!
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Reburying Your Gays – A Saga
Hey! Remember when we talked about how fans were so mad that Dr. Culber (one half of Trek‘s first ever gay, married couple) died that the creative team brought him back to life? Well, in season 3 we shockingly get a bit of a retread of that story when Gray Tal, played by a trans man, is killed minutes after his introduction.
And while Gray’s consciousness persists and interacts with Adira, this focus on queer suffering feels frustratingly familiar. Fortunately, Paul, Hugh, Adira, and Gray do form a kind of found family unit over the course of the season in a way that’s gratifying.
On The Crying Cast and the Importance of Being Earnest
When we dropped the recap of DISCO‘s first two seasons, a response we saw from a lot of people is how the cast cries too much and that the show is overly emotional. On the contrary, I would argue its emotional core is one of DISCO‘s greatest strengths.
Now more than ever it’s essential that we collectively acknowledge our emotions, that we embrace them fully, and craft a new path forward together understanding our hopes and fears for the future. The fact that Discovery leads as much with emotion as it does logic makes it exactly the kind of Star Trek we need right now.
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Once Upon a Sentient Sphere
Let’s touch on the subject of sentient sphere data inside Discovery. For now, all you need to know is that it seems as though the ship is becoming increasingly more alive. It saves the crew from certain death during the season finale.
The sphere data also gains its own voice which it uses to make cool movie recommendations. That, however, becomes more relevant in season four. Speaking of which…
Discovery Season 4 and the Amazing Technicolor Murder Eye
DISCO season 4 starts with a very simple premise: rebuild the Federation. However, the show has this funny, little tendency to throw big definite article problems at simple premises.
In season two we met THE Red Angel. In season three, we investigated THE Burn. Now with season four, there is THE Dark Matter Anomaly which basically looks like a demonic eye in space.
Whereas the Red Angel silently bore witness to major events at random locations and the Burn was a past major event, the DMA is a mixture of both. It actively appears at random locations and blows those locations to hell, starting with Book’s homeworld of Kwejian.
There are a few characters we need to touch on, but thankfully now that we’re in the future there isn’t quite so much to discover (get it) in that department this time.
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A President Who Actually Does Things
Laira Rillak (Chelah Horsdal) is the newly minted President of the Federation. She is very hands-on when it comes to projects pushing the Federation forward, especially when those projects involve Discovery.
She takes an often-antagonistic position when it comes to dealing with Captain Burnham, criticizing Burnham’s unwillingness to accept losses. Rillak believes that Burnham’s seeming incapability to accept the concept of a no-win scenario could place others in danger, and, refreshingly, is written in such a way where we (rightfully) are inclined to agree with her.
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A Risan Bad Boy for Book
Ruon Tarka (Shawn Doyle) is a scientist from the pleasure planet of Risa. He used to work for The Emerald Chain and has been searching for a means to find an alternate universe that’s better than the one he’s currently in.
Tarka is confrontational and often mean for the sake of it. He has Big Top Energy, which will become important later.
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A Sentient Sphere Naming Ceremony
Zora (Annabelle Wallis) is the name the sphere data on Discovery eventually gives itself. They are the primary computer for all of Discovery and we find out that, in addition to basic sentience, they have also developed emotions.
Zora cares so much for the Discovery crew that her ability to function is impacted. She is somehow both momma bear and baby bear at the same time which is adorable but also potentially A Big Problem.
Finding the Plot Part Deux
Of the seven episodes of DISCO season four that have aired thus far, the plot has mostly revolved around understanding what the DMO is and why it is. What we know so far is that it appears to be made and controlled by someone (currently dubbed “Unknown Species 10C”) who exists outside the DISCO universe.
The current representatives of the Federation debate whether to respond to the DMA with diplomatic relations or violence. When DISCO went on hiatus we left off with Book and Tarka fleeing with the means and intention to destroy both the DMO and Unknown Spices 10C along with it.
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Swingin’ Synth Bods and Professor Tilly
There are two other major developments worth mentioning. Firstly, Gray gets a synth body and is able to interact with other people again. As of now, Gray and his new body are headed back to Trill.
Similarly, Tilly decides to leave Discovery to become a teacher at the new Starfleet Academy. Whether or not this means Tilly is being spun-off into her own Starfleet Academy show is unconfirmed. We do know that she will return to the Discovery before this season is over.
Speak Philosophy To Us, DISCO
Season four of Discovery embraces a far more cerebral side of Trek than it has had in the past. There are episodes which focus on the nature of existence through the lens of both Zora and synth Gray.
The discussion of how the Federations should approach acts of aggression harkens back to the days of Star Trek: The Next Generation. In fact, there’s an entire episode where Discovery gets trapped inside a pocket universe which parallels a The Next Generation episode called “Where Silence Has Lease“.
Discovery remains extremely emotional at its core, sometimes to its detriment. Over the last two seasons the show fixates on one emotion in particular: grief. With season three we focused on the DISCO crew reeling over the loss of all their family and friends.
In season four, Book’s plot is focused on the fact that his entire planet is gone. That’s a lot to deal with every week and there are times I wish Discovery‘s tone would lighten up.
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Michael and Gabrielle and T’Rina and Saru
There are two Nívar-related characters from the last two seasons we still need to talk about. Michael’s mother Gabrielle is now a member of a Romulan order of warrior nuns called the Qowat Milat.
The use a form of communication called “Absolute Candor” which is just a nice way of saying they tell you the truth whether you want to hear it or not. Gabrielle and Michael finally have a powerful mother/daughter relationship and it’s a lovely thing to see.
We meet President T’Rina (Tara Rosling) who currently leads the people of Nívar. She’s calm and logical, but what most people care about is that she is vibing with Saru.
T’Rina gives Saru tea. Saru gives T’Rina clippings from his garden. Meanwhile, we’re all waiting for those crazy kids to make it work.
And Now You Know The Rest of the Story
We made it! You now know everything you need to know when new episodes of Discovery air beginning February 10. We’ll begin posting individual episode recaps/reviews when the show returns.
In the meantime, share what you’re enjoying so far and what your predictions are for the rest of the season. One note: criticism is fine, but if your comment boils down to “I hate this show,” please refrain. We’re hoping to build a communal space for folks who watch the show to communicate with one another.
Until next time, this is your humble Star Trek recapper signing off.
Computer: end program.
