This episode features a group of cadets on a “routine team-building exercise” and
a Starfleet captain who has been told to just “stand there and look official” — they’re
really asking for it with this one, aren’t they?
This is a review of “All Is Possible,” the fourth episode of Star Trek: Discovery’s
fourth season.
If you’re watching this before you’ve seen the episode, don’t worry: this review
is spoiler-free.
As with “Choose to Live” last week, “All Is Possible” is a transitional episode.
But it focuses on different stuff, and moves certain things forward more than the previous
episode did.
The focus and narrative thrust of “Anomaly” from two weeks ago is still missing, and missed,
but at least “All Is Possible” feels more significant to the series going forward than
its immediate predecessor.
The A story for this episode — at least, I think it’s the A story, it’s the one
that involves the captain and it gets the most screen time, or at least it feels that
way, I wasn’t running a stop-watch — follows Captain Burnham and Saru as they are invited
to participate in the closing of negotiations between the Federation and Ni’Var for Ni’Var
to re-join the Federation.
But, because this is Star Trek and not C-Span — or whatever the Federation equivalent
of C-Span would be — F-Span?
That sounds like something else — anyway, things don’t go smoothly.
T’Rina, the President of Ni’Var, announces just before the agreement is finalized that
Ni’Var wants an amendment allowing them to leave the Federation again with no strings
attached whenever they feel like it.
Federation President Rillak isn’t thrilled to hear that, and before long she’s telling
Burnham that these negotiations might just be dead!
I won’t go into detail about what happens next, because that would involve spoilers,
but I did think it was a little odd that this impasse between the Federation and Ni’Var
hangs on Ni’Var — which already left the Federation — wanting to add an amendment
to the agreement that would allow them to leave the Federation.
Feels sort of like they’re asking for what they already have?
There’s even a point during an early discussion of the issue where President Rillak says something
like “We would never force anyone to stay in the Federation who doesn’t want to — Ni’Var
is proof of that” — so . . . what are they fighting about?
Whatever, it doesn’t matter, it’s just an excuse to get the two sides fighting so
Burnham and Saru can come in and try to resolve the conflict.
And if you haven’t seen the episode, I’ll leave what happens to your imagination.
I will say that I didn’t much care one way or the other.
I’ll let you in on a little secret: I don’t give a shit if Ni’Var rejoins the Federation
or not.
It’s a made-up planet full of made-up people, most of whom we’ve never actually seen on
the show.
And, it seems to be doing just fine without the Federation, and vice versa, so, ya know,
who really cares?
It only matters to me to the extent that it matters to characters in the show that I’m
actually invested in.
And while Burnham and Saru definitely care about whether or not Ni’Var rejoins, and
Saru in particular has a nice little speech where he shares how his own experience with
his people the Kelpiens and their former oppressors the Ba’ul relates to the Federation/Ni’Var
negotiations, none of this comes across as all that important, especially when there’s
still a mysterious gravitational anomaly floating around out there somewhere liable to devour
another planet any second.
So, that’s the A story.
It’s fine.
The B story is a Tilly story, and involves her, Adira, and a group of cadets sent off
on a training mission that quickly turns into a decent if unremarkable restaging of “The
Galileo Seven.”
It’s classic Star Trek stuff, including a good old fashioned red-shirting, an urgent
threat from hostile lifeforms, and a situation where all the characters have to put their
differences aside and learn to work together in order to survive.
It is also fine, and a lot more compelling than the Ni’Var story, and it centers Tilly
and Adira and gives them both things to do that develop their characters in meaningful
ways.
Tilly and Adira make a good pairing.
It’s enjoyable to watch Adira having to navigate similar waters to those Tilly had
to deal with in the earlier seasons of the series, and to see Tilly having grown into
something of a mentor role.
Speaking of character growth, that’s probably the most pleasing part of this episode.
With the exception of Deep Space Nine, the Star Trek shows of previous eras of the franchise
were all pretty static — characters ended the series more or less in the same place
where they started.
Discovery has defied that expectation, and continues to defy it: this episode sees a
member of the crew reach a turning point in their life and career and choose to head in
a different direction than the one they’ve been going.
And because this season has the U.S.S.
Discovery assigned to the centralized location of Federation/Starfleet Headquarters, a character
choosing to leave the ship doesn’t mean that character is leaving the show, which
means there’s the promise of a character getting to move on and do something different
for reasons other than that they’re being written off, which is neat.
I assume that’s the situation, anyway.
That’s what was kinda/sorta being described in dialogue, sounding like a change in circumstance,
not a permanent character farewell.
So, hopefully I’m right about that.
Either way, what happens in this episode is handled well.
We also get a new and unexpected potential storyline for Saru, which definitely has possibilities,
and a suggestion of some heretofore unseen depth for Dr. Culber, which I was very glad
to see.
I like Culber, and I think Wilson Cruz is always fantastic, but this season especially
he’s been coming across as pleasant but flat.
He’s been a bit too perfect: always calm, always reasonable, always compassionate, always
patient, always knows just what to say.
A great person to have in your life, for sure, but as a character on a TV series he’s begun
to feel one-note.
But, there’s a scene in this episode between Culber and Book, who is still processing his
own grief, that hints at some pain, or regret, or something beneath Culber’s usually undisturbed
surface.
And it’s not, like, there’s obviously a dark secret or a skeleton in his closet
or anything like that — and I don’t necessarily want it to be something huge and horrible
— but just the acknowledgement that his inner life isn’t as flawless as his outward
appearance suggests is a step in the right direction, and gives Cruz the opportunity
to play something other than “saintly healer” which is also a good thing.
Not a bad episode, this one, by any stretch.
Some good stuff here, particularly in Tilly and Adira’s plot.
But it feels like the show has been kinda taking a breather for these last two episodes.
And that’s fine — barrelling ahead at breakneck speed nonstop is not necessarily
a good storytelling strategy for an entire season of television.
But I’m hoping that with next week’s episode, the break is over, ya know?
The anomaly is still out there, Culber’s holed up in his lab trying to figure it out,
let’s get back after it!
Discovery and Star Trek: Picard have both had the problem of introducing a mystery early
in their seasons, and then waiting until the end of the season for the big reveal, and
I really hope that’s not the plan for the anomaly.
I expect it will be the story for the entire season, I just hope the entire season isn’t
the crew trying and failing to figure out what it is, then in the last episode they
finally figure it out, but we’ve been made to wait so long for the answer by then that
it doesn’t really matter what it is because we’ve stopped caring.
Better to resolve something soon, but in a way that leads into a new problem, and let
that carry the story forward as we move further into the season.
Anyway, that’s just my hope, given how things have gone in previous seasons.
We’ll see how it goes!
Those are my thoughts about this episode.
Let me know what you thought, but remember: my review was spoiler free, so if you’re
going to include spoilers in your comments, please include a spoiler warning so that folks
who haven’t seen the episode yet can avoid spoilers if they want.
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Thanks for watching, and I’ll see you next week for a review of episode five!