- SPOILERS AHEAD … AND QUIPPY QUIPS, RED STARS AND A SPECTACULAR CASE OF FATALITY-INDUCING ARROGANCE
Balancing exposition and a fast-moving narrative is always a tricky undertaking but “Brother”, the first episode of the second season of Star Trek: Discovery managed it with aplomb in a story that had thrills & spills, introspection and some damn fine edge-of-the-seat action sequences.
With the Klingon War over, season 2 has the luxury of indulging an arc that promises mystery, familial tension, a whole new dynamic with a new captain and storylines firmly fixed on our side of the alternate universe fence.
The big news, of course, is the arrival of a new captain after the less-than-unfortunate demise of Lorca last season who was, as you might recall, not everything he presented himself to be, who it turns out is one Christopher Pike (Anson Mount) who first made his presence felt in the Original series episode, “The Cage”.
His arrival, filled with warm and inspiring words and an invocation to put the past well and truly behind them, came as a surprise, especially to poor Saru (Doug Jones) who was just beginning to mould the captain’s seat to his officer’s butt.
Pike, the first captain of that very famous Starfleet vessel, the Enterprise, two of whose officers came on over with him – crucially though, not Spock, estranged half brother to Commander Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) and now played by Ethan Peck – is a breath of fresh air in the well-fitted out environs of Discovery.
So well fitted out in fact that it led to this delicious piece of back and forth banter between Pike, his First Officer Nhan (Rachael Ancheril), Burnham and Saru:
“I see where the Federation puts its pennies.”
“Do not covet thy neighbor’s starship, commander. Besides, we’ve got the new uniforms.”
“And lovely uniforms, they are. Captain.”
“Very colorful.”
“Brorther”, which is ostensibly about the relationship between Burnham and Spock, and its rupture, the origin of which is unknown even to Sarek (James Frain) who’s not exactly on warm-and-fuzzy terms with his son either, spent much of its time on the transition the ship is undergoing after the events of season 1.
Needless to say Pike, with his inclusiveness, warm words and occasional quips that go a long way to lightening the tone – “I was expecting a red thing. Where’s my damn red thing?” – went a long way to making the change to a new leadership regime a smooth one.
Saru, of course, ended up in a weird power-sharing arrangement with Pike, a co-captaincy if you like, which may make things a tad awkward going forward especially since Pike ended up with the Ready Room (which needs a dab interior decorator pronto) but overall, Discovery and the crew seemed happier and more certain of their place in the scheme of things than they had after the trauma of Lorca.
Which is a good thing because you get the feeling that, going forward, which is in the world of Star Trek: Discovery not always a given, the crew are going to need that cohesiveness, that firmness of touch – Pike may be prone to impromptu Ted Talk-like speeches but he is also a no-nonsense captain too – and yes, those quips to stay what is looking a really mysterious course.
Following pulses from a series of red stars, only one of which stayed active long enough to give away its position, Discovery arrives at a debris-strewn asteroid, full of weird gravity readings and weird ass magnetic activity, on which lies the remains of a crashed Starfleet vessel, the medical ship Hiawatha.
While scans reveal no sign of life, which is hardly surprising with all the odd readings, and yet sadly no red star, the source of Pike’s quip (see above), Pike is adamant they have to head down and see if anyone’s alive, especially since said asteroid is now a ship-shattering collision path with a pulsar.
With five hours and counting, Burnham, Pike, Nhan and the Enterprise’s insufferably arrogant science officer Lieutenant Evan Connolly (Sean Connolly Affleck), who yes dies because he’s an annoying twat and won’t listen to Burnham who Knows Her Shit Thank You, head on down in fun-looking spherical individual pod ships, the only ones able to handle all the strange stuff the asteroid is throwing up (including a possible new power source, the source of which resists being transported … what, what now?!).
To their surprise, there are people in the ship, patients that have been kept alive by the Hiawatha’s ingenious engineer Jet Reno (Tig Notaro) who has a way with words and quippy-quips that makes Pike look like he’s not even trying to be humourously-clever.
There is some tension when the boosted beaming, only possible to set up when the team reached the asteroid, leaves Burnham behind, an accidental omission rectified when Pike comes riding to the rescue; but the big news is Burnham seeing a vision of what is known as the Red Angel, a myseterious figure who is apparently what sent Spock off on his galaxy-crossing leave of absence.
That is clearly a great big cliffhanger designed to add oomph and mystery to the narrative trajectory of season 2 but like a great deal else in “Brother”, which was busy Setting Things Up, it was given a cursory look before the action renewed again.
Despite its frenetic narrative pace, the episode never felt rushed.
In fact, there were some genuinely introspective moments such as when Sarek and Burnham talk but don’t talk – Burnham is clearly hiding something about her relationship with Spock, the exact nature of which is something she seems unable to talk about fully, a reluctance which is naturally fueling some rumours – and when dear, gorgeously heart-on-her-sleeve caring Sylvia Tilly (Mary Wiseman), who is hands down the beating heart of Star Trek: Discovery tells an understandably still-grief stricken Paul Stamets that she will miss him deeply when he goes to his new assignment at the Vulcan Science Academy.
(Ah, but will he? Yes, I can see how Discovery would be a place of sad, painful memories for him, and lordy if Rapp didn’t give that admission all the emotional evocation you could ask for – dry eye? There were none – but over the course of the episode, and thanks in no small part to Tilly’s exuberant love of science and people, you get the feeling he may just stick around.)
Star Trek: Discovery might have seemed to be a introspection-free action-mad show in season 1 such was its narrative twists-and-turns, but it was, and is, a Star Trek show and it’s these quiet, emotive moments that remind that that the spirit of the franchise is woven deeply into its storytelling DNA.
It may look all bright and shiny, and fast-and-furious-ish, and possibly is a little too much so at times, but by and large, the show hews close to the ideals that have made Star Trek such an attractive idea since the first episode of the first series, and season 2, while big, red and full speed ahead thank you very much in all the best, most tantalising of ways, gave every impression it will be just as happy in the quiet pauses as it will be pursuing what looks like a corker of a mystery.
- So where to next huh? Episode two, “A New Eden”, takes us back a little but also, quite possibly, forward too …