Discovering Discovery

 The first season of Star Trek: Discovery I’ve watched all the way through was its most recent: its third season. Although I didn’t exactly binge-watch, I did wait until all the episodes were available to begin.  I read capsule descriptions before watching an episode but little of the media and none of the social media chatter.  Because I hadn’t seen previous seasons, I’m sure I missed character and plot developments, but basically I had no trouble following the arc of this season or the individual stories.

 The season begins with the Federation starship Discovery science officer Michael Burnham arriving alone from Discovery’s pre-Kirk era to the year 3188, which is approximately 800 years after the 24^th century era of The Next Generation (including the Picard series) and therefore farther in the future than any previous Star Trek story has yet been set.

  The problem of imagining and showing technology of a future that far ahead is partly ameliorated by what Burnham discovers: that more than a century before, a sudden and inexplicable accident (called “the burn”) destroyed most of the dilithium that fueled warp drive, along with the starships using it, everywhere in the universe.  The implication is that in the resulting disconnection and chaos, technological advancement mostly stopped. Reference is made to the 23^rd century as a kind of golden age of technology.  By now, the continuity of technology in Star Trek is such a complete muddle that this incongruity barely registers.  It’s become part of the suspension of disbelief necessary to watch the new shows.  But the “burn” and subsequent falling apart of the Federation is the major driver of this season’s stories.

 Burnham (played by Sonequa Chaunte’ Martin-Green) meets Cleveland “Book” Booker (David Ajala), a “courier” with his own spaceship.  They “meet cute” (as the old movie cliche goes) and go off together, he to rescue threatened species and she to search for Discovery, which was to follow her.  The starship arrives in the second episode, and Burnham finds it in the third.  By the fifth episode, Discovery has located the remnants of the Federation, rejoins it, gets an upgrade (with “programmable matter,” the chief innovation in technobabble.)  Discovery becomes especially valuable to the Federation because it employs a “spore drive” that can take it anywhere instantaneously without dilithium.  And the story goes on from there.

 Thanks to the quality of acting and characterization, I pretty quickly bought into this Discovery crew, and of course that’s essential, not only to the arc of the season but to the individual and often character-driven episodes.

 Discovery visits Earth, the planet formerly known as Vulcan, and the Trill home world, all of them no longer members of the Federation.  All these worlds are tense and troubled. With the season’s third episode, “Forget Me Not,” which takes Discovery to the Trill home world, I was surprised to find it at times both dazzling and moving. That’s become an unfamiliar feeling.  Moments in the Abrams movies and Picard were stirring or nostalgic, but not this kind of emotional lift I remember from movies and episodes of the Roddenberry/Berman era. 

 While one of the baddies of the season was fairly creepy, the villains seemed pretty rote.  At least they weren’t as operatically evil as the Romulans in Picard.  The Georgiou character was intriguing, and her subplot was mildly interesting, but pretty obviously a setup for a spinoff.  This sequence however included the absolute worst episode of the season for me, “Terra Firma” part 2. 

 From what I knew about the series, its greatest weakness seemed to be its dependence on the mirror universe, and all the pitfalls of that concept were on parade in this episode.  The unfamiliar worlds of science fiction cause a particular set of problems in maintaining the credibility necessary for drama.  It’s a very delicate balance.  The cartoonish nature and characterizations of the evil twins in the mirror universe can easily push it over into caricature and unbelievability.  Despite some insights, that happened here. 

 Sure, we all have a dark side, and here in the US we’ve seen what society going over to the dark side looks like. But there are other ways to make these points. The mirror universe in Star Trek worked exactly once, in the original series, because it was a high concept and sui generis.  Ever since, it’s principally been an excuse for the actors to overact, and the writers to relax their necessary discipline and indulge themselves. 

 But this episode makes it even worse with an extended sequence of what must be called torture porn.  Perhaps an audience used to zombie carnage as entertainment doesn’t see it this way. But for me it doesn’t belong in Star Trek. It seems however that these new shows are determined to indulge themselves.  The notorious instance of graphic violence in Picard is why I now always read the capsule descriptions of these episodes before watching.  I want to know what I should skip, or (as I did in this episode) fast-forward through.

 The final set of episodes concerning the dilithium planet and the showdown at Federation headquarters end the season on a high point, though some of the plot points don’t bear close examination.  These episodes had some intriguing science fiction ideas, a climax of feeling, and both enacted and stated the season’s theme: the value and necessity of connection. 

 I did run across a comment suggesting that the story reflects the isolation and disconnection of a Covid 19 plagued world.  I didn’t see that.  I did see a metaphor for the current hard divisions in politics and society, the seemingly unbridgeable gaps between factions (and what is in at least one case an armed camp.)  Viewed this way, the theme of connection is a powerful one, in the Star Trek tradition.  (And in this context, the insistence on justice in the final episode is also to the point.)

 The theme works in tandem with Discovery’s most conspicuous representation of an aspect of Star Trek’s soul: championing diversity by enacting it.  The point I want to make above all others here is this: as an old fart who was watching when Captain Kirk first appeared on the television screen, I love that there are so many strong women characters in this series.  I don’t mean this just as a matter of principle, but as dramatically successful.  And when I say strong I mean full and varied characters, not simply assertive fighters.  This series foregrounds them, and I was completely engaged.

 Similarly, Discovery may not have had much Star Trek competition in the portrayal of non-awkward non-heterosexual relationships, but this season it portrays them and the characters involved so naturally that anyone can identify with them.  Just as importantly, these characters contribute and they are connected with everyone else on the crew.  Though the writers struck gold in using the previously established Trill as at least metaphorically non-binary etc., more than anything, the actors involved made this work. The characteristic they played most effectively I thought was dignity.  That fit especially well with the understated nobility of the Discovery crew.

 At the same time, this season of Discovery gave us an ongoing man/woman heterosexual relationship with some heat.  That’s pretty rare in the Star Trek past.  But Sonequa Chaunte’ Martin-Green and David Ajala have such chemistry that the romantic comedy banter was giddy, with a subtext of passion.  Ajala creates a compelling character, with a quiet masculinity, a watchful confidence and ready but not showy strength. Both actors have charisma to burn, which only adds to what is among the most successfully portrayed romances in Star Trek.

 Doug Jones as Saru was convincing. He is one of the more conspicuous characters to depict the difference that the Starfleet or Federation ethos makes in a person’s sense of self and sense of purpose—something that’s deep in the knowledge of old-time fans.  Oded Fehr’s credibility as the head of Starfleet was crucial to the season.  But it’s the charisma and abilities of Sonequa Chaunte’ Martin-Green that thread through this season to bring it home.