Hi all! Another week, another review of Discovery’s season three, this time “Die Trying”.
Spoilers ahead for this review We waste no time in this episode getting int
contact with the remnants of Starfleet and the United Federation of Planets. The tracking
down of the organisation was accomplished much faster than I thought it would, suggesting
that the series has far more to bring to the table than simply rediscovering the UFP.
Discovery, despite giving prior warning to the Starfleet’s base receives a chilly welcome
which is completely justified, but leads to a disgruntled Discovery crew. Looking at it
from the Starfleet side, not only has the fleet been operating in “triage” mode
for the past few decades, but from their point of view, a ship lost in 2258, with no record
of anything like a Spore Drive or the Section 31 Control AI, all classified incidents, turns
up via time travel. The last time the Federation interacted with time travel, was the culmination
of the Temporal Accords at the end of that messy Time war that had hotspots erupt all
throughout history. No wonder Admiral Charles Vance wouldn’t
let them near anything until they’d been thoroughly vetted. We learn that the united
Federation has lost its governmental structure and now Starfleet seems to be all that holds
its remaining worlds together. From the minute the Commander in Chief is introduced, we’re
presented by a barrage of situations from multiple crises involving the Emerald Chain
and an unknown pathogen. I’m pleased to see that Starfleet seems to still be trying
to be Starfleet, provide aid to all these issues, it’s just overwhelmed, spinning
so many plates. Over time, many are going to be dropped and we’re told that over time,
the Federation dropped from 350 members down to 38.
A big contributing factor is apparently the loss of the UFP subspace network isolating
the former member planets from the diminished fleet. As we saw with Trill, and to a lesser
extent, Earth, many of the worlds are doing fine, they’re just sort of going it alone
until the UFP returns. Makes me think that we could see some real contribution towards
the reconstruction of the Federation by the end of the series, but we need to see the
UFP council recreated fully. Hopefully Starfleet does not retain control of the 38 worlds as
it currently has, government needs to be separate from the military, but has Starfleet been
in control for so long that they’ll know when to hand over the reins? Questions for
later. It was super fun to see the Discovery crew
nerding out over the 32nd century Starships. Made me think of some of the reactions from
certain Star Trek channels out there and to be honest, I’m thinking of gathering as
much info as I can on them to do my own. Also, it looks like I might have to update my Voyager
Legacy video. We’ve got at least 10 others to add to the list, and it does give me the
warm fuzzies to see that the Voyager also gets the legacy registry treatment that the
Enterprise received. There’s mention of organic compounds in
the hull, entire segments of ships being holographic, and they note a ship that doesn’t even have
pylons. Such a plan was considered for the earlier Universe class Enterprise-J, so it’s
nice to see how the technology has evolved to crazy levels. Amazing that entire ships
can be supported by holographic components, their holograms must be so advanced, oh wait…
they can be killed by trying to process irregular blinking apparently. That was the only scene
in this episode that gave me the Spock-eyebrow reaction then a facepalm.
The distortion field that hides the fleet HQ is one being powered by all the surrounding
vessels and makes for a very alien, and rather un-federation style display, which I’m alright
with, again, we’re 800 years further on than TNG era stuff. Things like this (added
to the touches like the entire floor materialising in the station when needed) create the look
and feel of a very advanced power. Comparatively, the crew of Discovery is even further highlighted
as being very out of place when compared to this, isolating them even more than the mistrust.
Hence their protest at being split apart when the only thing that they have now is one another.
I like the new uniforms of the era, well, I like the admiral’s version, the jumpsuit
one looks a little too plain for me, I prefer the two piece suits, I think only enterprise
made the onesie look good and that’s because those were utility overalls.
A big plot point is dropped with the repetition of a song that Tal is familiar with in a recording.
Burnham seems to be the only one to find it strange as its nothing by itself, yet. But
Chekov’s gun and all that. Also Sulu’s plant. So here’s my theory and I’m sure
its not the only one along tis line. But in my first review, I pointed out that the only
recorded instances of dilithium being destroyed involved resonance in its crystalline structure
that built until it shattered, like we saw with the Crystalline Entity and in real life
with similar structures. Now we have the notice of a strange song with no clear origin point
making its way into people’s minds. What if the phrase uttered, “it just makes its
way into the ether” proves to be literal and a signal crossed the galaxy, resonating
with all the dilithium until… the Burn. I also said that the dilithium might be alive
and have done it out of protest, which I was joking about, so I just hope this isn’t
“the song of the dilithium crystals” or some such, or some such weirdness.
Speaking of the Tikhov ship, we get to see a good old-fashioned style “ship in distress
story” with the seed vault drifting into an Ion storm, some radiation interference
coinciding with a mid-transport being to create a distorted entity. Watching them piece together
what happened was well paced, but the sort of thing that a single episode could have
been comprised of. Nahn makes the choice to leave, which surprised
me, but also was not a decision that impacted me that hard and considering I liked her character,
that’s odd. Maybe it’s because we didn’t get enough of her this series, and now she’s
gone, or maybe it’s because I think we’ll see her again. She was also still the late
addition to the crew which made her the outsider, so again, her leaving was lessened by that
peripheral status in my mind. If I had one criticism of this episode, its
that there was a lot of development crammed into it, locating Starfleet, the crew debrief,
Nahn’s decision to leave, the song and whatever the hell Mirror Georgiou’s agreed to. Then
again, there’s not enough here to stretch over two episodes really amd I wasn’t lost
at any point so it did well there. Georgiou is finally on the back foot too, after being
confronted by whoever David Cronenberg is playing here, maybe himself. Considering this
director’s favoured dark science fiction, his character seems completely unphased by
Georgiou’s bluster, I really get the sense that he’s seen some serious Trekking in
his life. Georgiou has gone from a time where the Mirror
Universe was a classified unknown and her survival a dark secret wrapped up in the notorious
Section 31, to a time where it’s common knowledge enough to have been studied consistently
and now ancient, 500-year-old history. He throws the fall of the Terran empire back
in her face, which we are aware of from DS9 as well as the killing of the Vulcan science
team at First Contact, which we saw in Enterprise. Now we have her weird freezing up on the Discovery
as a clear indicator that she’s made some pact with, whatever he represents.
Burnham and Saru are forced into a confrontation of sorts as her new way of operating, which
is basically the same as ever minus justifications, clashes with his responsibilities as a captain
to his crew and the chain of command. She proves to be an able commander, after all,
it was what she was pegged for before her mutiny and successfully completes her mission,
showing Starfleet how they operate. Despite being so adherent to the preservation and
reunification of the Federation, she seemed willing enough to risk it all to “get her
hands on” the data to try to cure the illness. I think we’re going to continue to see Burnham
struggle to adjust back to the formal Starfleet life, she’s capable of being both a model
commander and a roguish maverick, but those two don’t always go well together, but when
it do, we get a Kirk-style leader. Detmer is still struggling with the responsibility
of flying Discovery and I hope she doesn’t lockup in tense situations in the future,
but the crew looking out for one-another is definitely showing the family dynamic, rather
than merely saying there’s one there. All in all, I enjoyed this episode immensely,
however it was mostly due to the answers provided and the lore dump that was dropped at my feet
as well as the technobabble and tech stuff. In terms of character’s it’s been more
of the same, which isn’t bad, its just in this instance it was all overshadowed by the
reappearance of Starfleet. So thanks for watching this review of episode 5. I’m really excited
to explore these new vessels more and I hope we get some more screentime with them, perhaps
the Voyager J is the current flagship or do you think there’s a new Enterprise out there
still? Thanks again and until the next one, Goodbye!