Hello again, another week, another Discovery; episode 6 of season three, “Scavengers”.
There will be spoilers ahead in this review. So much character development across multiple
people this episode. Nielson even got a line, that’s huge. That aside, let’s get in
to it. The USS Discovery 1031 itself gets its much
needed overhaul, which, I believe, means it’s now stuck in this era. Not only has time travel
been removed from the equation by the Temporal Accords, but if it wasn’t, this Crossfield-Refit
cannot go back in time with all this tech, it would contaminate the time stream. Admiral
Janeway doing it for Voyager was bade enough. From the smaller shots we get to see, the
Aztec-ing patterns of the hull have been altered, the deflector upgraded from the TOS style
satellite dish to the imbedded one and most notable the nacelles are like my grasp of
reality and been readily detached. They have gone from their angular square design to a
slightly less angular triangle design. Internally, they mention how the systems have effectively
been completely overhauled, but kept to look the same for ease of transition for the operators
of the vessel. A conceivable and practical choice for both in universe lore and real
set design. The spore drive interface has seen overhaul by Adira Tal and Stamets, ever
protective of his field of study, surprisingly is alright with this, even grateful.
So of course, now I want the answer to two questions. One, how up-to-date is Discovery
compared to the rest of the fleet, the programmable matter’s limits are not yet defined, but
with such an extensive refit in just a few weeks the tech seems extremely valuable. And
question two, how has this affected the Sphere Data, emerging A.I? Was the computer itself
altered, or just the interfaces. We also learn that the combadges of 3189 have
not only acquired the properties of the previously seen personal transporters, but are also PADDs
and tricorders. Noice, it continues the evolution of the combadge from “communicator-locator-universal
translator” to an all in one device. Stamets and Adira draw closer as he recognises
her gifted skills. I would go into an in depth analysis of why Stamets identified with the
awkward young genius with over 700 years’ worth of experience, but Culber does that
for us. I’m glad that Adira opened up to him concerning the manifestation of Grey and
Stamets suggests it’s because she is so closely attached to the prior host. Seems
likely. I do think its building to an tragic farewell. If not for some biological reason,
it’s not overly healthy to exist in the past, even if it seems like Grey is present
in person. Everything we know about Trill says he can’t be, but Stamet’s is hardly
an authority on Trill so his kindly advice may serve to make the goodbye harder when
it comes. What is going on with Georgiou though? We
noticed her space out at the end of last episode, and it was definitely more than just her being
lost in thought. I suspected that she may have made some arrangement with the Cronenberg,
but she seems to be at a loss as to the cause. We did have that throwaway line about how
Terran universe humans had a chimerical gene that made them more aggressive, and I’m
wondering if this has been corrected in her? Maybe her freezing up is a form of PTSD being
brought about by a reassertion of some deeper compassion that she was lacking?
Whatever the cause, she seems to be reliving the death of someone important to her back
from her time in the Mirror Universe, this “San”. She seems to be trying to stop
the bleeding and trying to keep whoever this is alive so either this is a repressed memory
that’s surfacing, or one that she previously had no issues with. It could also be someone
trying to read her mind or something, sifting for information.
Saru’s misgivings about Burnham come to a head in this episode and I’ll be honest,
I’m surprised by the direction they are taking Michael’s character. I noted how
she’s sort of bouncing between Saru, a Paragon Starfleet captain, and Georgiou, a Renegade
free agent, but I was certain that they’d have her smoothing the lines between the two
to sort of resemble the Kirk-archetype style of character who blends the fast-with-the-loose
and the dedicated officer. Bravo for Discovery for committing to the flaws of Burnham’s
year-shifted character and exploring how these affect the people around her.
She does have a point however, when she says how the Federation can never truly be restored
while the mystery of the Burn remains unanswered and this I agree with 100 percent. You cannot
re-establish any large interstellar power when the very notion of being an interstellar
entity remains in question. Despite no reoccurrence of anything like the wave that seems to have
swept through the galaxy, the use of Dilithium comes with baggage. Although it’s a bit
hard to believe that Starfleet has not recovered enough data recorders from its own salvage
to triangulate the origin of the signal. Plus you wouldn’t need just flight recorders
to reveal that the Burn had a point of origin, surely Starfleet would have noticed, unless
it was a Starfleet “blacksite” that was the cause.
Last episode we got to see how effective she was as a Federation Commander, now we get
to see her in operation alongside Georgiou. The two work well together, but despite this,
Georgiou still rebukes Burnham’s offer of confidence stating that she trusted another
Michael Burnham and was betrayed. On top of this, Burnham’s scolding and disappointment
by Saru adds to the lack of trust her closest friends have in her. In one episode, she has
managed to alienate two of her guiding figures, now I’m genuinely questioning if she’ll
choose to remain in Starfleet. So it’s just as well that she seems to have found her old
anchor of Booker. Speaking of… Booker is reintroduced as being way in over
his head with the Emerald Chain, the seeming evolution of the Orion Syndicate headed by
this infamous Osyraa. Quick aside, how did he know how to located the Starfleet HQ in
its pocket? I can only gather that in the weeks of Discovery’s refit, Burnham or someone
else let him know how to find the fleet. So Book seems to be trying to escape from the
Chain along with the Andorian Ryn but it’s really not going well. Booker seems to continue
to remain defiant and unbroken by the slavers, then again he’s only been there for a couple
of weeks unlike Ryn who has been destroyed by the Chain. More so than the severance of
his antennae, which can grow back eventually, the real act of villainy was to make him a
part of the system that kept them all enslaved. I noticed a couple of obvious Easter eggs
from the old ships in the scrapyard, several DIS era ships because, easy models I guess
as well as a damaged 24th century phaser, a name drop of stem bolts and a bowl of badges.
Linus provided actual comedic relief in this episode, it’s not often that Discovery gets
me to make an actual hearty laugh, usually it’s a chuckle at most (unlike Lower Decks).
But his random and failing use of the personal transporter function was a hilarious gag that
paid off well at the end interrupting that emotional tension between Burnham and Book.
That and Tilly’s interactions with Grudge as well as that cat’s introduction. I Loved
it. At one point, and even in the back of my mind, I thought Grudge might actually be
a shapeshifter cat like TOS’s Isis from Gary Seven’s episode “Assignment: Earth”.
Ah, on some level I’d still like that to be a thing, although it’s real unlikely
by now that it would never have been revealed. So there’s my impression and review of episode
six of Discovery. My opinion hasn’t changed of this series and that’s good because it’s
been a steady improvement and with a storyline that I’m engaged with, even more than whole
Red Angel thing, which I began to disengage with when AI got involved. Still, I’m looking
forwards to the next episode and I’ll see you next time for a review of that too, until
then, I’ve been Ric, thanks again and goodbye!