Four episodes into season 2 of Discovery, and I haven't updated this blog once yet. Bad me.
Basically, I like a lot about it. I really like that they're letting the crew feel like a crew; bringing Pike in to facilitate that was not a bad idea. I like Anson Mount in the role. I continue to love all these characters, and I especially like the way the story keeps them off balance so much of the time. I like the way their personal stories and the larger story arc are intertwined and feed off each other. But I'm not so sure that the mysterious Red Angel thread is strong enough to carry the season. It feels very MacGuffin-y. Worse, it feels like it's edging toward something I hated about TNG: A plot that is barely more than a premise, which provides a pretense for characters to do what they're known for doing (Picard calls a meeting to discuss; Data is superhuman but endearingly innocent; Troi feels feelings; etc.), and the audience is beaten over the head with the Message. How much more unfortunate if that kind of thing were to be dragged out over a whole season. So let's hope the Red Angels get a whole lot more development and are more meaningfully explored.
OK, to be fair, Disco is nowhere near that TNG extreme. But I think An Obol for Charon comes closest. The plot unfolds mostly by being discussed, with too many talky, unearned emotional moments; much of the dialogue tries to be witty but falls flat. I love big character moments as much as anyone, but not when they’re shoehorned in by hitting pause mid-crisis to discuss feelings. It all feels uncomfortably like TNG's telling-not-showing writing style. That said, I loved the universal translator snafu. And the way the Saru subplot echoes the larger (and classic Trek) theme about overcoming fear and not seeing everything alien as a threat. Doug Jones and Sonequa Martin-Green manage to spin some gold from a lot of really straw dialogue, but sadly, the Stamets-Tilly-Reno scenes do not work, and the humor bombs.
Let's see, what else? I don't have the energy to go into that whole primitive-religion-is-really-just-mythologizing-science story, other than to say that, if you're going to tread that well-trodden path, you really should dress it up with some better scenery. I'm very intrigued by the betwixt-and-between state of Tyler's relationship status, and who doesn't like a problematic baby now and then?
I have big reservations about Bad Georgiou. The existence of Section 31 has always been problematic, but this, presumably, is its genesis. I always assumed the Section 31 we see in the TNG era evolved from something that was originally well intentioned but misguided, something that started down a slippery slope and eventually ended up in a very bad place. But if they started with Bad Georgiou from the get-go, then the Federation is both stupid (they really think she's going to stay on the side that hired her?) and evil. And that would be a whole different show. (Not to mention that just seeing her reminds me how pissed off I was that Lorca turned out to be a cartoon villain all along, but I suppose I just need to let that go).
In other Trek news:
I missed the story a month ago that the 4th Kelvin movie is dead. I am sad. I like those movies. Just as they get to the part where the characters come together into a tight, boldly going unit, they pull the plug. Feh. But OTOH, if it means I can stop worrying about a Tarantino Star Trek, that’s some consolation.
While I did catch the news about the Picard and animated spinoffs, I also missed the news about the Bad Georgiou one. As I said above, I have serious reservations about her character within the ST universe. I guess they’re trying to segment the audience and give them targeted versions of the franchise, a la Marvel: Picard for the TNG crowd, the animated series for their kids (and grandkids), and dark-n-edgy Bad Georgiou for the all-important millennial demographic (that’s my theory, anyway -- why else do a villain-centered show?). The tentpole for the time being, I suppose, is still Discovery. Sure, there would be a ton of fannish overlap, as always with these massive franchises, but they’re not going to crank up multiple series simultaneously without painting some bright lines between them, because that’s what mainstream entertainment factories do. All of this within the crazy-ass context of the All Access business model (which, I read somewhere, may owe whatever success it’s had so far more to football than Star Trek). Seems insanely ambitious.
It’s hard not to worry that they’re going to wind up sacrificing one really good series for a bunch of mediocre ones. Even though I have my reservations about Disco, it has the potential to take Star Trek storytelling where it hasn’t gone before (ha! see what I did there?) -- to a more nuanced, thought-provoking, dramatically satisfying place. Hope springs eternal.
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