Reviews

This was more of a bridge-type episode, transitioning us from mirror universe back to prime. It basically tucks away a few loose ends from the past episodes and sets up the action for the next. As little is going to happen in the way of action, you might expect this episode to drag things down. However, I was pleasantly surprised by this one. Without the distractions of CGI generated space battles and phaser laden skirmishes the only thing left was to explore some person-to-person interactions. And they did! (Gwarsh! You can build tension without special effects or bloodshed!)

So, in spite of some poor choices on the part of our characters, this was possibly the most Trek-like episode yet.

THE GOOD One of the problems that has plagued this series from day one is the lack of well written dialog. The charaters have either barked orders/insults to eachother, said perfunctory things to fill in gaps, or spoken very awkwardly. Because this episode was mostly about relationships, the script was actually much better written. Characters actually spoke to eachother about their feelings (or deliberately avoided doing so, as with Burnham speaking to Tyler). All in all, the dialogue was more natural, and you could almost see the relief on the actors faces. It made the whole thing more watchable.

(In fact, Jason Isaacs, Shazad Latif, and Anthony Rapp seem to be the only ones who could consistently deliver the trash dialogue believably. Then again, these guys could read the phonebook and make it sound like Shakespeare. Anthony Rapp, gets special props given some of the utter nonsense that he had to say believably. Now that's acting....)

In this episode we see more glimpses of Saru's nobility and humanity (kelpanity?) in how he deals with Tyler and seeks to understand Burnham. We see Burnham brush off Tyler. Cronwell and L'Rell square off. The solidarity scene in the cafeteria was high-school-musical predictable, with Tilly taking the lead to sit with Tyler, but it did serve to show a crew that has some solidarity and humanity. Things that have been sorely lacking in past episodes.

Okay. And anything that brings Michelle Yeoh back for even a few more episodes is worth watching. Moreover, James Frain finally gets something Vulcan to do and rises to the occasion. His Sarek was on the money this past week.

But some major gaffs in this show seem inevitable.

THE BAD Cornwell 'classifies' any notion of a parallel universe. End of loophole. Yup. That explains why no one else, ever, ever, ever would know that any of this happened. Right.

And this one starts out with a bang--a forced mind meld Sarek to Saru. Now forget the fact that the mind meld was considered sort of a private/intimate thing by Vulcans in the past and--I would think--would usually require participants to be consenting adults, Sarek goes right to it nearly shocking the gentle Saru. I suppose that this makes some sense, given the urgency of the situation, but a few seconds of introduction might have helped the shell-shocked Saru understand what was going on. And--ummm--Burnham was on the bridge. Sarek and Burnham already have a special relationship, why did he not mind-meld with her? Not a specifically the best Vulcan moment for Sarek on this show.

I am loving the fact that Michelle Yeoh gets a redo after being offed in the second episode. I am a little dismayed that the 'only way' to win the war with the Klingons was to let her evil twin Skippy command the Discovery. Ummm. About two seconds of thought would make any sane person question whether the former Empress of the Terran Empire would think that slumming it as a Federation starship captain would be enough for her.

Moreover, there might be a few personality-fit problems with her goals and those of the Federation. Moreoever, moreover, in universe prime the mirror-woman is basically the ultimate sociopath, so how on earth (or Qo'nos) do they trust this woman to command a starship? Use her and lose her after the 4 Years War? Throw her down into the Elba II asylum with Garth of Izar, Marta the Orion woman, Alec Peters, and anyone else considered expendable by the Federation? Heck, maybe she'll jump ship at Qo'noS and become the Klingon Savior. Moreover, moreover, moreover, it's not clear that mirror tactitcs work so well on Klingons, seeing as Captain Killy got vaporized on contact.

And what would an episode of STD be without micelial madness? Channeling the Genesis Project, our lack of spore problem can easily be solved by sending rockets of super spores to populate a barren planet. Why? Because if we don't have the micelial drive on line by next episode, the Klingons will have already sacked planet earth and we couldn't renew for a second season. Or explain the existance of TOS, TNG, or any of the other subsequent series....

THE UGLY No ugly. Really! This one was much better. I am looking forward to next week.

I can't give this one more than 6 stars, but things are coming along for this series. Two weeks in a row! I will absolutely cancel my subscription to CBS until the new episodes are out, but unless things really look bad next week I'm in come the fall.

The best news is that we are, mercifully, done with the mirror universe for now. The second best news is that--barring some egregious violence--this was the most watchable episode of the entire series so far.

This time, they kept to a plot and even built up some tension. Burnham, I must say, was finally given a real role to play, and Sonequa Martin was able to deliver this with some moxie--in spite of having to do so beneath some fairly tone-deaf dialogue. Saru still needs more lead lines, but, quite thankfully, the writers have finally allowed him to shed some of his Kelpian passivity, and Doug Jones was deft enough to make it believable that Saru has actually grown a pair. Even behind all that ridiculous make up. And apart from a nearly endless/implausible action sequence in the throne room, the episode was the best paced episode so far.

Sadly, there is still lot of bad news....

Jason Isaacs is an incredible actor but even he couldn't pull off the impossible transformation of Mirror-Lorca-pretending-to-be-Prime-Lorca to evil, Mirror-Lorca. Why? Because impossible is hard to achieve. Again, it's very hard to see how even a very cunning Mirror-Lorca could sublimated his evil inclinations and mirror-universe impulsivity enough to last 10 minutes in Federation space. I'm sorry. Now that we see how much of a loose cannon he is on his home turf, he would have been outed trying to take a bite out of Saru's left arm 5 minutes after entering Prime space. You can't have it both ways.

He proved it this episode by his rash takeover of the Empress' ship, only to lose it to the (literal) one-two punch of the Empress and Burnham. Sure Lorca has always been mavricky and the writers, last week, were fond of giving us 'clues' in flashbacks that he was really, truly Mirror-Lorca. However, looking back, all that stuff didn't really amount to a hill of beans and it almost seems as though they could have gone either way with the character if this was one of those choose-your-own-adventure books. (What's sad is that if he were Prime Lorca he'd be a lot more interesting character: the somewhat damaged, former captain of the USS Buran who didn't go down with his ship and who isn't beyond some level of recklessness so long as it punishes the Klingons.)

If Lorca is so malevolently brilliant to pull such a quick coup de starship, how did he miss the fact that Burnham would double cross him in the end. And how in that nearly endless/mostly pointless, Marvel-comic, two-against-like-20 action sequence in the wide-open throne room where they were sitting ducks, did Burnham and Georgiou dispatch of all of Lorca's henchman... with no plan other than, 'let's surprise them.' Holy Here We Go Again, Batman! Really?

And why, why, why did we get rid of Lorca, one of the best characters in the series so far? Given that Lorca is Gabriel and Burnham is Michael, it seems somehow unlikely that the writers would so easily give up one of their Archangels. (That said, if we find out that Prime-Lorca had been waylayed and tied up by Mirror-Lorca all this time and is ripe for the findin' now that our crew is back in Prime, this would be just another cheap twist of the plot thumb screws by our over zealous team of writers.) And how did Lorca get to Prime? Did he learn about the Discovery and deliberately go to Prime as part of a nefarious plot? (Cue evil laugh.) Nope. Transporter accident/just dumb luck. Ugh. The writers failed us again.

And then there is Tilly, who seems to be growing more and more gray matter with each episode. Maybe the writers intended that she is some kind of secret genius. But at this point we have a cadet running engineering while the chief engineer is non compos mentis micilia and now that he's back she seems to be the only one that can figure out how to save the Discovery from almost certain doom and gloom. Then we have the two of them engage in near-technobabble regarding how to the Discovery will survive, with Stamets concluding that it is possible but will be--what is that scientific word? Oh, yeah, 'hard.' Umm. .

Then we have the kill-the-death-star sequence, with Discovery running the trench like the rebel fleet trying to snuff out the mycelial powerball on the Empress' ship. The difference, of course is that Luke Skywalker was actually pursued by Tie fighters and Darth Vader had Luke in his sights. Here, we only had a few ship-side phaser canons and a quip from the chief security officer asking if the containment field was up. Oops. One quick fly through and blammo! (So much for building tension.)

Then, of course, Stamets finds his way back to another bizzare micelial dream sequence involving Culber telling him to follow the music. This was very hard to take. No amount of extended editing sequence involving rapid-flash sequences of Stamets, surprised crew members, and discovery riding miclelial waves could build any tension here when you knew they would absolutely make it back safe and sound.

Oh. And how did we get back to universe Prime? The mycleial drive. So why, oh why, was Burnham on the suicide mission on the Empress' ship? To get the data on the Defiant. So the whole drek about the Defiant data was--yes--just another contrived plot device to get characters in position for another reason. At some point, though, it would be nice if our crew would go on a mission for some reason other than that it puts them in the right place at the right time to drive another plot line.

Which leaves our dear crew back in the Prime universe, nine months after they left, with no response from the Federation and the Klingons winning the war.

And that, at least, my friends, might be a promising premise for the next episode and another chance to hit the reset button.

I'm starting to sympathize with the episode writers of STD.

It's almost as though the show's creators sat in a dimly lit room and came up with a lot of disparate plot points and twists and basically assign them on a per episode basis to a staff writer who has to string them together into a coherent script. They pick straws and then the loser gets the byline.

On the positive side, there was some good pacing in this episode. The acting, I think, is as good as it can get given the material the actors have to work with.

But problems continue to abound, as the writers twist and retwist and reretwist the plot so many times they are starting to lose credibility.

The AshVoq nonsense goes further down the rabbit hole and is now inconsistent with the medical data, as interpreted by Dr. Culber in an earlier episode. Contrary to Culber's belief that AshVoq's bones were shortened and that his insides were rearranged, we find out that this was more of a consciousness transfer. Similar to the transfer of a Vulcan Katra--first seen in the third Star Trek movie--L'Rell uses some Klingon hoodoo to transfer Voq's memory essence to the tortured Ash. She ends up helping Ash by doing a Katrectomy this episode, because she can't stand to see Voq suffer.

How she concealed her Katrectomy gloves whilst in captivity is yet another mystery. Worse, it's not clear why she brought them along in the first place, as the Klingon prayer was supposed to awaken Voq. Moreover, where/how was she going to use them, except as a fashion statement or if she anticipated their need as a plot device. As Voq, now, apparently lacks a body to reimplant his Katra into, the gloves would be of little use, even in a pinch. If they really wanted to twist the plot around yet again, she would have exorcised Ash and left Voq inside the body. Just saying.

As sci-fi concepts go, the transfer of consciousness thing is on the verge of patently ridiculous. The only reason it was added to ST III was that it was a way to bring back Spock. It was implausibly lame back then, but at least they just tried to hand wave around it. We have seen a more temporary transfer of consciousness with varied success, usually used by races with much superior technology to the Federation but with--thankfully--little explanation. This episode, though, went all Spock's-Brain on the concept and we have crossed into the realm of laughable. On the bright side, the Voq character was so viscerally obtuse and two dimensional he really needed to go. So, hopefully, (per L'Rells Klingon death roar) Voq is gone for good.

Then again, Katragate has nothing on the Great Empress Caper. This whole subplot really doesn't hang together. It does make sense that there was some betrayal perpetrated by Burnham on Mirror-Giorgiou, but given that Burnham has been in Mirrorland long enough, it is surprising that she didn't bother to look up anything about it from the Mirror-Shenzou's logs while she was biding her time. It is even more surprising that Lorca didn't tell her about it, as--well--he would have known. If Lorca really wanted to succeed in his revenge on the Empress, he needs Burnham to survive to help pop the grand dame. Besides, as we find out, he has a thing for Burnham.

It's not clear why the Empress is inclined to believe that Burnham is from an alternate universe or how the exact scanner needed to determine the unique composition of an alternate-universe object was conveniently present in Giorgiou's chambers. (Apparently, her interior decorator knew it would come in handy...) Given the rashness of the denizens of the mirror universe, I don't buy that Mirror-Giorgiou would be able to wait long enough to find out if Burnham was telling the truth. She would have judged Burnham a liar and offed her post haste. I do get the arrangement to trade micelial travel tech as a life-sustaining bargain for Burnham, but, Mirror-Giorgiou would have to have enough impulse control to make the bargain in the first place.

After the fan-predicted reveals that Ash is Voq and the Empress is Giorgiou, we now complete the trifecta with the great reveal that Lorca is really Mirror-Lorca. Surprise. Sure, it feels so good in the moment, but the writers have once again opened up a whole can of Regulan bloodworms that they are just not prepared to contain.

First off, it's not clear how Lorca as a mirror-universe guy could truly conceal himself in the Federation. (Although, who knows, in the 'new and improved' STD vision of the Federation, where back stabbing, double dealing, and expletives are the norm, it might just work out...) Maybe he used data from the Defiant to figure out how to get to Universe Prime, but then why did he not use the same technology to get back? Why did he need the micelial drive? As above, these mirror-universe people shouldn't be able to control themselves long enough to fit in. (Heck, even Voq couldn't contain himself enough as a Prime-Klingon to be a good spy...) Lorca's intentions at the moment are mysterious (actually a good thing), but what is not clear is that after concocting a ridiculous plot to get to the Empress, the least he could have done was to arrange some way of call in some backup. Did he really intend that his only means of escape from captivity would be a dullard of a guard?

And then there's the whole micelial nonsense. Not only do we get extended dream-like sequences in the miceleal plane--a really frustrating construct in any movie, science fiction or otherwise--but we get to meet mirror-Stamets there. He and real-Stamets can now work together to solve the degradation of the micelial network problem together, in a light-up, Tron-like way. They can also roam about the ship in a Matrix like fashion, eventually joining up with their corporeal selves. Very metaphysical, very weird, and (still) lousy science fiction. (Maybe I'd be on board if they brought in some unicorns. I like unicorns.)

And if that were not bad enough, Culber lives on as a dead guy in Micelia. No, Culber is not just a vision, he is a Sixth-Sense, honest-to-goodness, resident of Micelial Heaven. Yes, Micelial Heaven, a different dimensional plane where we all go to after death. And wherein Stamets can visit Culber at his leisure. He can tell Stamets information that there is no way Stamets could otherwise know. And, I bet, will be instrumental in curing Stamets' yeast infection. So now Stamets can now speak to dead people. Please, please, please give me a break...

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, the writing has done little to flesh out the characters of the story. We are starting to get into the 'Enterprise' problem where most of the characters are just too flat and vanilla to connect to. Only Lorca and Stamets have any real personality. Rather than writing natural dialog and creating relationships where character can come to the fore, the writers are too busy--what else--twisting, retwisting, and reretwisting their plot lines and developing wacky sci-fi concepts.

Sadly, I really do want to like this show, but they are making it awfully hard. Hopefully, we escape the mirror universe after the next episode and get on to some more interesting, character driven territory.

First an foremost, let me pause and give thanks to those who really love STD and support it wholeheartedly. In spirit, I really do want to be one of you, but I am still waiting--what seems like an interminable amount of time--for this series to deliver anything worthy in terms of story and/or sci-fi. I still hope for a real Star Trek vibe, but this is clearly secondary. I am comforted in knowing that even iconic ST, such as STNG had a pretty horrific first season, so maybe this is all growing pains... I

Sadly, I cannot rate this too highly. It gets 4 stars because it had some semblence of plot , but all the usual problems of this franchise are still here and, at least for me, they continue to drag things down.

The major problems:. I need a story that makes sense, characters that act rationally, and characters that I care about.

In writing the show, it seems clear that they decided a priori on a number of building blocks: the plot twists (and twists within the twists), a few (however implausable) science fictiony devices that would make STD stand out from all other Treks (things like the Micelial Drive*), some interesting departures from ST canon (new and 'improved' Klingons, saltier language, a snarkier, biting, and back stabbing 'tude in what is clearly not your grandfather's Federation), and some historical twists (e.g. Spock had a step sister...). They clearly spent a great deal of time lot on the look of the show and decided on way-cool-dark-apocolyptic-sci-fi-modern with gaudy costuming and CGI to knock your boots off. They probably even decided on some pivitol plot points they wanted to put in and which little Easter eggs to subtley implant into the show to pique faithful ST fans' interest (is that a Tribble in Lorca's office? Awesome, dude! LL&P!!!). Oh, yeah. And throw in fan favorites: like strand 'em in a Mirror universe. Can't go wrong with that one...

They over thunk it.

As they concentrated on all this minutia in their brainstorming meetings, they forgot that the most important thing of any TV show--Sci-fi or otherwise: Story Telling. Oh, yeah, and that understanding characters through their actions (not just through paragraphs of prose) is probably number two. (See Burnham's monologue at the beginning of this episode. Totally unnecessary if they could just have portrayed this with action. (Expository information since last episode could have been done in the form of a Captain's Log. Instead of just telling us that she has a moral confict, she could have briefly told us of what abhorrent things she had to preside over as captain in the mirror universe and ended the log with a comment that she is not sure how long she could do this anymore... kind of like Captain Kirk did in TOS Mirror Mirror. OMG.)

The writers probably do the best with Lorca. Sure, they talk too much about him being a badass but at least they show it too. In characters like Burnham, they build her up to be a super-human, uber competent, and capable of Vulcan super-logic but then show her doing so many rash and stupid things that negate all the hype...

They undermine their own story by plot twisting their plot twists. You know: Ash is Voq then Ash can't possibly be Voq then Ash is back to Voq. Or how about Stamets is dead. Nope he's coming back. Nuh-uh, he coded stone-cold dead (exeunt medical team). Waaait a dogone micelial minute, he may be back again. Surprise! (Err, possibly....)

Tonight we were even blessed by some Burnham sleight of hand, which would have been better if you could actually have SEEN a hint of it if you were looking for it. I reran the scene 3 times after I was done. It was possible she planted the chip with the punch, but they kept us at a bad angle and kept her left hand out of camera range. Really? Did they plan the plant or decide to add it later, after filming the scene. Lesseee, Burnham would never space someone willingly so she arranges that Ashvoq (Voqash?) gets saved in the end. (Another conundrum, because it's not clear when she would have had time to do this.) But that's not enough. Maybe she transfers important data with it. Sure, yeah. That's the ticket...

And you can only manipulate your audience so much: If you keep twisting your twists, your audience stops trusting anything about the narrative. Morever, in the whole process of the whole nonsense, the writers continue to get lost in their own inconsistencie, which they will have to eventually explain.

I am not the kind of person to watch After Trek. The idea that you need after-game commentary to understand what just happened, gawk like a fanboy at the stars, or convince yourself that it was all genius when it wasn't never sat well with me. But I did catch about six or seven minutes of After Trek, where one of the authors explained VoqAsh's transformation, pointing to a long tradition of Klingons transforming spies into alien races and implying that Arne Darvin was a good example of this in TOS. So, no big thing that, you know, they transformed Voq to Ash... just a regular old episode of Klingon Extreme Makeovers.... (see my last review for details.)

Okay. The Trouble With Tribbles debuted on 12/29/1967. Ummm... Klingons back then did not require major surgery to look human. Most of them just had had to shave the beard and change the uniform. DNA was discovered in the 1950s, but the idea that you might be able to send a cheek swab to FindMyFreakinLostRelatives.com and they could tell you your ancestry--70% Klingon (30% Antaak, 25% Daa'maq, 15% G'logh); 20% Vulcan; 10% Human--was science fiction itself. By now, we could conceive of scanners that could do this. Klingons, back then, also spoke perfect English and it is not clear that Darvin ever had a physical exam before joining the diplomatic core, as both the tribble and McCoy using the scanner (e.g. 'Heartbeats all wrong, body temperature is... Jim this man's a Klingon...') pretty easily figured out he wasn't human. And remember, too, that TTWT was a comedy, so it gets a little comedic license. STD is truning into a different kind of comedy, but it takes itself so seriously that, well, none of this makes any sense.

That said, even worse than watching a teleplay that keeps accumulating lousy elements of science fiction, is watching an extremely talented actor such as Shazad Latif, absolute NAIL the schizoid conflict and subseuqent Voqian melt down only to have everything fall flat as a pancake because NONE OF IT MAKES ANY SENSE.

To wit: I get Voq's rage, but why on earth would he just blow his cover when he could do far more damage by keeping it all inside and letting it all hang out later; he attacks himself, which even he has to explain to Burnham as to why later, because--dude--even Voq knows he's in a mirror universe. Because if Voq's purpose was to inflitrate the Federation to get critical information back to his Klingon brothers and sisters, he just totally screwed it up by revealing himself in that way. And even if he couldn't help himself when confronted with his dovish, Klingon Doppleganger, you'd think he'd get it together and back pedal everything once he was out of the situation. He knows he's supposed to be a spy, right?

And then, of course, there's a practical point here. Why trash your most likable and most human character (e.g. Ash) in this way. It is simply a writers mind-(insert STD F-bomb here) and was never really necessary for the plot, whatever that really is anyway, and is just the writers toying with their audience.

So, once again, the whole thing makes zero sense from Voq's point of view. Which brings us back to how the heck did Klingon technology not only did major cosmetic surgery but was also able to do a personality transplant (at least for a time) on AshVoq, because VoqAsh can't seem to hold it together long enough to hold off violence. Maybe live-then-dead/then-live/then-dead-again/then-maybe-live Stamets can help explain this one or maybe he can bring back AshVoq without the Voq (micelially) so we can have at least one servicable character for the rest of the series.... The biggest trajedy in all this is that the writers didn't give us enough time and expository material to actually CARE enough about Ash, so if he's done for it won't be enough of a loss for us as an audience.

Next on the reveal (at least according to internet hypotheses), is that Lorca is really Mirror-Lorca. Okay. Ummm... I think we all guessed that mirror-you-know-who was the Terran Empress, but this Lorca thing would open up a whole new can of worms. It would be far better (and simpler) if Lorca is really Our-Universe Lorca, but I think that mens that the writers will take the muddier approach. So I guess we will have a lot temporal anomoly nonsense to explain and figure out why Lorca needed the Micelial Network to get them to the Mirror universe in the first place when jumped parallel universes without it previously. The whole thing bends around on itself, circling back on itself like a one-sided Mobius strip. My guess is that they haven't thought this through all that well, and the 'answer' will be avoided or totally unsatisfying.

And THAT is the problem with this series... too much focus on building blocks and not enough on how they all come together into a STORY. If you have to watch the show a dozen times to figure out what happened or can only get joy 'catching' all the inside jokes, there is a major problem. Canon/no cannon. Pure Trek/basterdized Trek. Heck, good/bad Sci-fi (was anyone really interested in inconsistancies in the original Star Wars?)... No one would really care if they just delivered a coherent story with characters that we cared about.

(And no. No Spock with a beard, but we did get Sarek sporting a Van Dyke... will wonders never cease.)

*If you still think the micelial concept has any hope, go back and relisten to Tilly's uber techno babble explaining it to Saru this episode. Even for Star Trek technobabel this makes absolutely no sense...

Sometimes I wonder why I have kept my CBS All Access subscription. I was going to cancel it during the Discovery break, but when I did CBS basically offered me a free month to keep it going, so I went for it...

***WARNING: CHOCK FULL OF SPOILERS****

Ah, well. After the first episode of the second half of the first season of Discovery, I am equally amazed that I am still watching this show. I had some hope that things were going in the right direction at the end of November, but now STD has clearly jumped the Vakol Fish...

For those who want to see how to do a better episodes in a mirror universe, first and foremost, see TOS Mirror Mirror and watch Star Trek Continues sequel to this, Fairest of Them All (possibly one of the best ST fan films ever made, which can be found on the STC website). There were four or five DS9 Mirror universe-type episodes and even Enterprise's, 'In a Mirror, Darkly' parts I and II puts this debacle to shame.

About the only positive thing I can say is that Jonathan Frakes seems to have done a valiant job of holding things together as a director, given the smack sandwich of a script handed to him by Sean Cochran. The performances of the key actors were spot on in spite of the rudimentary dialogue and sheer ridiculousness of the episode, a credit to Frakes as a director. There was also the semblance of a plot here, but really not much of one to speak of.

I can't point out all the bad--I get PDSD (post Discovery stress disorder) just thinking about it;

1) For a new series, Discovery has yet to do something--anything--new. We've gone back to the mirror universe many times now, so if you do it you really have to do it better. Clearly, the TOS writer Jerome Bixby was on to something, as we just can't seem to shake the mirror universe. (Note to self: if STD decides to do an episode about Khan/the eugenics program I will sign off Permanently.)

What's more, they didn't even bother to come up with a new twist to the mirror universe thing: basically, our heroes are trapped in the mirror universe and must find a way back home; to do so they must pretend that they must pretend to be barbarians, like their mirror universe counterparts. Sound familiar?

Sadly, given the generally sarcastic, erratic, and brutal nature of the Federation and Discovery crew in this version of ST, it is far more difficult to contrast them with denizens of the mirror universe. Which, after all, is the whole point of the mirror universe in the first place: the sheer negativity of the place shows us why integrity, compassion, and selflessness are so important to our existence... illustrating yet another problem when you play loosey goosey with the basic Star Trek premise... (Psychic spoiler--for comic relief, Tilly will uncharacteristically bark an order at Lorca at the end of part II of this episode. Hah hah.)

2) If Ash is indeed Voq, as is implied, the Klingons must have clearly developed the technology to give Voq a full body lift, rearrange his innards, genetically alter his cellular structure/DNA, change his body chemistry/physiology etc. so he could show up as human on Star Fleet scanners. They would then have to engraft the 'real Ash's' memory engrams/personality within Voq's brain such that he can speak flawless English and appear human in every way... Ummm.... I hope there's a better explanation, but, if this is the case, as is strongly implied, this is so implausible as to be lousy science fiction (even worse than the Mycelial Drive). Besides, if the Klingons can do all that, they deserve to prevail over Starfleet.

3) If they killed the doctor, they are inept, gutless, or both. First of all, we were only starting to get to know him as a character. This is the first episode where you see the guy as more than just a benign personality. Culber really has some backbone. Moreover, if you introduce the first authentic, gay couple to an official ST series, why abort it before you have a chance to explore this further?

4) Tilly's transformation to Killy is heroic, in a way, but really wasn't all that believable. Not at this stage of her development, anyway. I get the push-comes-to-shove-she's-able-to-step-up-to-anything vibe, but it really didn't work for me because I just didn't buy it. As a side note, it didn't seem to work for the actress either...

5) Great ploy to get the Shenzou to come by, but was it just dumb luck to have the Shenzou close enough to get to the Discovery in record time or yet another convenient plot device? How stupid was the Shenzou's present captain not to try to waylay Burnham with his henchmen present, instead of 1-on-1 in the elevator. (Even Chekov attacked Kirk with a posse.) Hard to believe he ever ascended to the captaincy....

6) Yes, Kirk got some nookie in Mirror Mirror, but he was playing his part with the Captains Woman. Clearly, from the previews, Burnham and Ash get it on in this episode too. What the heck... err... it's not as though they're really in harms way on an enemy vessel, fighting for their lives and trying to save their crew, or officers on duty--I guess Burnham and Ash know it's just television.

7) Wardrobe once again goes over-the-top with more impractical uniforms, this time for the Terran Empire... I'm half surprised they did not have people jogging around the ISS Shenzou wearing 'Lambada' tee shirts as another, shameless marketing ploy.

9) In a monumental set design failure, why do the agony chambers look like go-go dancer booths from Hullabaloo the 1960?

10) They can fabricate ISS wardrobe in seconds but Lorca has to smash his head against the wall to appear injured...

11) They made it a two-parter... not sure I can stand much more of this. Why did they prolong the agony? (On the bright side, maybe next week they'll throw in Spock with a beard...)

The list goes on and on, but I can't write any more... it hurts too much.

This episode was actually better than the last episode and eminently watchable. We finally get a real story and some sense of humanity from individual characters. However, there was something very, very un-Star-Trek like in this episode that really sticks in my craw. So we'll have to start out with the ugly.. (I've posted this late to assure that everyone has a chance to see the episode before this one hits the net. Sorry. Can't see how to review without the spoilers...)

***NOTE: THERE BE SPOILERS HERE--right at the outset

THE UGLY:

RUTHLESSNESS OF THE FEDERATION: I suppose modern audiences demand mega-CGI, but blowing the Klingons to smithereens at the end of the show was simply NOT Star Trek. Sure, we all got that high-five, just-destroyed-the-Death-Star pleasure out of watching the Ship of the Dead explode and everyone agrees that you gotta do what you gotta do to win a battle, but once it is CLEAR you have won, Kirk, Picard, Sisko, Janeway, Archer, you name 'em, would HAIL the Klingons and offer them terms of surrender. Sure, the Klingons would refuse and would blow themselves up anyway, but every (I mean every) Starfleet captain would give them the chance. (I was going to reference Balance of Terror for a good example of this, but there are too many others.) Maybe Lorca is a bit of a nut, but everyone on the bridge was all 'Yeehah!' about it and Lorca was going to get the medal of honor for his behavior. (For their part, BTW, Klingons blow their enemies to bits, but not out of ruthlessness. From their perspective, they are giving their enemies the honor of dying in battle.)

Not that I don't have sympathy for Lorca's position: he has a major grudge to bear and, unlike SFX for previous captains, the whole thing looks like a shoot-em-up video game, so it's only natural to just pull the trigger and Wham! But, sadly, in an otherwise well plotted episode, this was a major low for the franchise and a red flag that the people involved in this production don't really understand the whole Trek thing.

SHOOTING YOUR WAD: Yup, they did it again. Poor Ash Tyler. It was a good plot point to put him out of commission with an attack of PTSD on the Klingon ship, but definitively demonstrating that he is somehow, secretly enthralled to L'Rell, ala the Manchurian candidate, takes away from anything they decide to do with this subplot in the future. Once again, they're giving away the farm... and for what?

VOYAGER REDUX: Looks like Discovery is now stranded in uncharted, unknown space. And the rest of the season will be devoted to finding their way back home. Sound familiar?

THE BAD:

THE WHO-VAHNS? After Lorca decides to defend the Pahvans, the whole Pahvan thing becomes irrelevant. Which makes you wonder why they even bothered with the goofy, animated-series-worthy alien planet in the first place.

THE PROBES: FYI, if you want to sneak onto an Klingon ship and place spy probes,consider: 1) making the probes small and unobtrusive; 2) disguising them to look like Klingon devices; 3) Not having them light up and blurt out that they are actively communicating with the enemy. Just saying.

FREAKIN' CLOSEUPS: the camera work is still very frustrating. A lot of darkness and lens flare and so close you can see the skin pores and nothing else.

THE KLINGON SHIP: This ship looks like they steampunked the Notre Dame cathedral. If only something--anything--looked like a functional starship it might even be plausible. It does give you a lot of objects to hide behind and interesting geography for hand-to-hand combat...

RUSH ROMANCE: I think we get the Tyler-Burnham romance thing, but it's really happened way too fast. Now we know why: the creators weren't sure they were being picked up for season two. Sigh.

KOR: I didn't like this two dimensional character a bit, but what's the point of having an arch nemesis if he can't come back to haunt you?

NAKED KLINGONS: You saw the scene. If they were going for 'yeech' with this one, they succeeded. Please tell me why this was necessary.

THE GOOD:

BEST PACING AND A REAL PLOT THIS WEEK: 'nuff said. We need more clear writing on this show.

REAL SENSE OF CHARACTERS: this is the second episode where the crew is functioning like a crew to solve problems. We get an idea of the PEOPLE behind the names and the backstories by their ACTIONS. The actors probably breathed a collective sigh of relief: now that they have something to work with.

--BURNHAM: finally a take charge moment for our hero, where she doesn't do something monumentally stupid or insubordinate

--STAMETS: still irascible, but the guy is really starting to grow on me... this week he became more real and heroic

--LORCA: finally, the guy is making some sense and is appearing captain-like. It didn't help that he had to spell out his ploy to his crew; you know, that he really wasn't leaving the Pahvans high and dry... although it was pretty obvious to us in the audience...

TENSION: yes, this is the first episode where they were really able to ratchet up some tension.

CONCLUSION: If the last two episodes had been the first two episodes, fans might not have been 100% satisfied but would have been less aghast at what has been done to Star Trek. Hopefully, the series will start pushing more character-driven plots rather than relying solely on window dressing. The key to any good series is story telling and we finally have this in the last two episodes. In that sense things are picking up. They still need to make this Trek and not, yet another, apocalyptic, shoot-em- up, sci fi series. But we are finally getting somewhere.

Finally! An episode of actual Star Trek. Although it was far from perfect, this episode was the best showing from STD so far.

For those who may have thought I was just using this as a forum to slam STD, this is not the case. I really want to like this show and, with this episode, I finally have a reason to. For me, at least, this is the first solid episode of the season.

THE GOOD: 1) MORAL DILEMMAS: the landing party has to confront a number of moral dilemmas after beaming down to the planet Pavan and making contact with the Pavanins.

2) GROUP EFFORT/CONFLICT RESOLUTION: Our captain and crew actually seem to get along and solve problems rather than snarkily shouting epithets and threatening one another. This started in a smaller way in the last episode and has carried over here. Whether the conflicts were Burnham-Saru, Burnham-Tyler, or Tilly-Stamets, they were legitimate conflicts that all parties tried to solve together.

3) OPTIMISM: Meeting up with a race that thrives on and wants to transmit universal peace and harmony... we're finally home, baby.

4) STAMETS: Anthony Rapp is an incredible actor and still deserves better than what has, so far, been written for his part. That said, they gave him enough so that he had a chance to nail it this week, and he did. I'm not really fond of where the Stamets thing is going but Rapp is handling the character well.

5) BURNHAM WAS TRULY HEROIC: Underutilized, perhaps, but heroic this time. Oh, and this week she seemed to understand the chain of command.

6) CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT: we're starting to see some humanity from the characters. I think in past episodes the writers confused backstory with character development. Now that our heroes are actually interacting meaningfully with each other, they are starting to develop some depth.

THE BAD: 1)THE PLOT: The main plot to this one struck me as more akin to a Star Trek Animated Series episode than a mainstream, live- action episode. The idea of a living/breathing planet where all life forms sing a song together was both flimsy and a little Kumbaya for my tastes. Worse, the objective of the landing party--to get the Pavanins to allow them to harness the power of their of their incidentally important bio-inorganic, 'natural,' space beacon--was weak and contrived. I figured how the whole thing would go down with the landing party on the planets' surface once Saru made contact with the alien life form. On the positive side, at least the plot (this time) was original.

2) LAME-O SIDE PLOTS: They really didn't flesh out the Stamets mood-swing thing. Tilly is perceptive but still way to gawky to actually believe that she was a Starfleet Academy graduate; the authors still don't know what to do with the Klingons. Was L'Rell, the female torturer Klingon, actually trying to help Cornwell escape or just trying to extract information. It's still not clear... If there was some deliberate misdirection, things need to be clear enough so that the audience is actually misdirected. At this point, it's not clear to me that the authors know where they were going with this.

3)THE KLINGONS: Yeah, they're supposed to be bad, but I still have no idea how Klingons this disorganized and back stabbing could ever have developed the technology for interstellar travel let alone the cloaking device. Their costumes are still Game-of-Thrones-meets-Pennywise and so stiff that it's hard for the Klingons to walk. Again, the full facial make up makes it impossible for the actors to emote except by rolling their eyes or moving their jaw.

4) KLINGONESE: I'm not a fan. They hobble the actors' expressions by near-total, facial prosthetics and clothing so stiff that they can hardly gesture. To top it off, they have the actors break their teeth over Klingonese, causing the actors to speak slowly and making it even harder for them to express themselves. Once again, Romans in all TV miniseries seem to have British accents, but I don't think any of us actually believe that the Romans spoke to each other in the Queen's English. A few words here or there, fine. Or in front of human characters, okay. But if Klingons spoke in English to each other, we would suspend our disbelief enough to imagine that they were conversing in Klingon.

5) FULL FACIAL MAKEUP: Again, this hobbles the actors from expressing themselves. In the present episode this caused major problems for Saru. Doug Jones expressions cannot be seen behind all the plastic and this was an episode where his emotions were important. Ditto for the Klingons. It would be better to have less alien looking aliens and allow for more acting.

6) RETURN TO EPISODIC TV: the overarching story is getting subordinated by self-contained episodes. That said, I'd take an episode like this over anything that preceded it so far.

7) THE TITLE, HMMM: To his or her credit, someone must have majored in classics in college. However, I don't think the episode really reflect the sentiment of the Latin adage, 'If you want peace, prepare for war.' Maybe they were trying out some irony or it will become clear later on...

THE UGLY: 1) SURPRISE: I don't have any 'ugly' this week. I do, however, have something to say about CBS.

I am still genuinely ticked off that even after paying you need to sit through commercials. Some may get added value from CBS All Access, but there's really nothing here I want to watch other than STD. So the rest of it is a wash. And if I'm paying, they really need to fix their streaming problems.

"Plagerize! Let no one else's work evade your eyes! You know why the good Lord made your eyes, so don't shade your eyes. Just plagiarize, plagiarize, plagiarize! (Only be sure always to call it, please, research.)" --"Lobachevsky" by Tom Lehrer

I'll be very up front about this one--I can't be objective. I can't stand it when writers so blatantly plagiarize. Aron Eli Coleite and Jesse Alexander took full writing credits, but the entire premise of the episode, including almost every pivotal plot element, was filched from the STNG episode, "Cause and Effect." If I could give this episode a '0,' I would. (That's what they would have gotten if they had submitted the script to 'Turnitin' before handing it to CBS.)

More on that later. First the positive stuff...

THE POSITIVE STUFF: 1) RAINN WILSON'S HARRY MUDD: I don't necessarily love what the writers did to the character, but I sure love Wilson's take on Mudd. Wilson is less jolly and more sinister than Roger C. Carmel, but his Mudd is screen gold. Favorite moment: Mudd chowing down on a sub sandwich whilst sitting in the captain's chair. I'm guessing it was Wilson's lunch. Lots of wow for Wilson.

2) ALL THE CHARACTERS WERE BETTER: A starship works best when the characters solve problems as a group rather than just bark and throw insults at each other.

3) ASH TYLER: so far, he is the best character they have written... and finally a character that actually allows for some optimism. He is the most... human. (If the nutty conspiracy theory that Ash is actually a genetically altered Klingon is correct, then I hope the Klingons win the day, destroy the Discovery and its entire crew, and Ash and Mudd team up for the much better sequel to this series: Star Trek: Mudd in Your Eyes. BTW, I do hope Voq was actually played by an actor named Javid Iqbal. Otherwise, this is a very poor joke, as Javed--spelled with an 'e'--Iqbal was a Pakastani serial killer found guilty of molesting and killing over 100 boys. So, if Javid Iqbal is not a real person, this would go under the category of not funny.)

4) THERE WAS ACTUALLY A PLOT: Yes, we now actually have a real plot. Sure, the major elements of the plot were pilfered, but at least there's a story.

THE BAD: 1) I appreciate the experimental nature of Braga's time- loop idea, but I didn't really like the STNG episode either. It was just too monotonous to see variations on the same scenes played again and again. (For a better execution of the time loop concept, see Groundhog Day with Bill Murray. Who, coincidentally, would have made an excellent Mudd.)

2) THE GARGAGANDER: or whatever it is called. Now we have yet another giant, space creature… on the Starfleet 'endangered species list,' so per regulations and so it can be used as a shameless plot device as it must be beamed aboard (cue silent scream). Of course, the gargagander has been hijacked by Mudd--who, due to STD's high special effects budget--apparently has endless financial resources to do anything that he wants.

3) TIME LOOPS: why do the Klingons want the Discovery when they could steal Mudd's time loop crystal and replay all their battles over and over until they win. Ummm... duh.

4) STAMETS: I do like post-mycelial-DNA-infusion Stamets: he's more fun. But he's so over the top, like he's been smoking the mushrooms instead of just incorporating their DNA. Yet another goofy twist to the lousy koo- koo/mycelial blink drive concept.

5) THE ENDING: I, Mudd from TOS was a lighthearted episode, so the silly/comic ending made a lot more sense. Given the dark, grave nature of STD, the smack-me-in-the-face 'reference' to I, Mudd just didn't fly. Even Rainn Wilson couldn't sell it.

THE UGLY: 1) TOO EARLY FOR THIS: It's just too early in the run to start ripping off old ST episodes. Yes, ther is a huge back catalog to pinch from, but the derivative nature of this episode so early on is cringe worthy. (Yes, I'm asking for a brand spanking new STD. Not something you hear every day.) BTW this didn't work for the STNG episode, The Naked Now, either. If you want to see an excellent rehash of the old, check out DS9s Trials and Tribble-ations. (More of a TOS homage than a stand-alone DS9 episode.) Or, check out ST Continues (web series) episode Fairest of Them All--their take on the aftermath of the TOS Mirror Mirror episode.

2) PLAGERISM: What did they steal? 1) the time loop: an incredibly unique plot element; 2)the method by which the time loop could be resolved--that one character is somehow cognizant of said time loop and is the linchpin to breaking it; 3) the tension builder--that each false loop ends with the ship being destroyed.

The time-loop element is so distinctive/experimental/surreal that there is no mistaking that this is a major rip off. This critial premise is so unique it still stands out as groundbreaking. Loops have been done in other contexts (see Groundhog Day), but imagine what might happen if they decided to film a STD episode in reverse chronology, highlighting important elements of the play Betrayal. Harold Pinter's estate would sue. It's one thing to do a homage or parody (ala Seinfeld), it's another to shamelessly reuse.

3) MUDD-Y WATERS: Why is Mudd now written like an evil, Marvel comics super criminal, instead of a petty, somewhat bungling opportunist? The addition of Harry Mudd to the equation did make for a more interesting nemesis, but the characterization is way off.

CONCLUSION Here's hoping the writers can come up with something original next week. I am getting dangerously close to canceling my CBS membership.

On the bright side, this episode has given me at least some hope that this series will finally take off. For me, at least, this was the best episode of ST Discovery so far.

***SPOILER ALERT: just giving you a heads up. I really don't know how to review this episode thoroughly without giving away some plot points. So if you haven't seen the episode, stop here and watch it first.

So why only 5 stars? Here's why:

THE GOOD: First and foremost, this is the first episode of ST Discovery that had a cogent plot and real pacing. The Search for Sarek was paramount and this was the first time that we had an overarching plot that wasn't broken up by a lot of unrelated nonsense. In fact, there was a kind of unity between Lorca and Burnham, confronting their demons and raking in their self control.

The insight into Lorca, comes out from a combination of his actions and from the dialogue, rather than just planting information about his past.

Burnham is a little better this time. She was actually almost likable this episode.

Ash Tyler is the first true Starfleet officer on board Discovery. He certainly will have imperfections, but at least he doesn't wear them on his sleeve like everyone else.

There was a slightly more hopeful tone. We're not quite there yet, but at least there is a glimmer of hope.

THE BAD: 1) It's hard to make the search for Sarek a real cliffhanger. Unless you thought that they were starting, say, the Celsius Timeline* (just add 273 to anything in the Kelvin Timeline), it was a foregone conclusion that Sarek would survive. 2) The character of Tilly is, well, a little too silly. We are getting dangerously near Wesley Crusher territory. 3) Still a lot of lack of discipline in Starfleet. No military organization would resemble this. 4) I'm not jiggy with Vulcan terrorism. (If Stamets can say groovy, I can say jiggy.) In the past, at least, Vulcans themselves did not commit violent acts. (The bombing of the Federation Embassy on Vulcan was perpetrated by V'Las, a Romulan undercover operative.) Suicide bombings are also a politically loaded topic, so it would be very disappointing if they just used this as a plot device. 5) The writers concentrate too heavily on character flaws. Characters that are too deeply flawed and imbalanced become too difficult to relate to or unlikable. 6) Except for Ash, the crew does not aspire to function as a group. 7) I have a really hard time understanding how Burnham didn't understand Sarek's decision or why he didn't tell her. Umm... did she really grow up on Vulcan? 8) Ditto for Sarek feeling guilty about his decision. Spock--being half-Vulcan-- WAS a more logical choice. It would have been better if Sarek felt guilty because he didn't understand what a profound effect this choice had on Burnham. 9) The writing needs more originality and needs to be smarter

THE UGLY: 1) It's still not Star Trek 2) Our focus has turned from the bad sci-fi concept of the organic/inorganic-hybrid-mycelial-blink drive to the equally bad concept of the Katra-that-knows-no-spatial-bounds garbage. 3) Good thing Engineer Stamets had that 'Make Your Own Analog to Digital Psychic Katra Locator Link Device for Dummies' book lying around, so he could cook one up in a jiffy. Considering he had no idea what a Katra was before this, it's not clear how he produced the prototype in screen seconds. 4) Not clear what the deal is with interstellar booty call. There was really no real reason why Admiral Cornwell needed to make a personal appearance on the Discovery, other than the writers needed her so she could be the substitute Sarek for the secret meeting with the Klingons. 5) Lorca has put his career on the line again and sent crew members on a mission of unparalleled peril. The tension is mounting as the danger increases... So it apparently makes perfect sense that instead of minding the store, he decides to get it on with the admiral. I guess it helped relieve some tension. Of course, the writers should have milked that sexual tension for at least a few seasons before pulling the trigger. It's a tried and true device that really works (Think Sam and Diane from Cheers, Ross and Rachel on Friends, Homer and Marge on the Simpsons**).

THE CONTROVERSY: I read some nonsense about Ash Tyler possibly being a Klingon plant (like Arne Darvin in TOS, The Trouble With Tribbles).

I doubt that this is true. First, the writers have so far been guileless. Second, Ash has an actual record at the Academy and verified back history. It would be unlikely for the Klingons to have somehow hacked the Starfleet database at this point in history (Unless Starfleet went with Cybersecurity by Equifax instead of Vulcan). Moreover, Ash must have been examined by the ship's doctor after his torture on the Klingon vessel; so ostensibly, he would have been identified as a Klingon. ("Heartbeat is all wrong. his body temperature is... Jim. This man is a Klingon!") It is possible that Ash could be an unwitting spy for the Klingons (some kind of implant relaying information) or a sleeper agent ala the Manchurian Candidate. But we have to hope that the writers don't mess up the one, solid, relatable character that they have.

*As TOS was a product of 1960s, US television, I'm assuming the original time line was measured in Fahrenheit. (Unlike Tom Lehrer, I am not quite old enough such that I have a deep desire to give my age in Celsius. That'd put me in early grade school.)

**Okay. The last one was a joke. I'm getting a little punchy...

My hope is starting to wane for this series. I figured that it might have a rocky start, but never thought that we'd be getting such lumps of coal for episodes. I really want to be more positive, because I really wanted to see some great Trek back on the small screen, but given what this series has put out so far, this is not likely.

Forgetting, for a moment, that this is Star Trek, this episode doesn't even have good story writing. The pace of the episode is slow, the plot is convoluted, and the escape from the Klingon ship was way too easy for Captain Lorca. Without giving away too much in spoilers, you really need to build tension to the maximum before you release the trigger. Episodes of the Iron Chef build tension better than this: my heart pumps faster wondering whether Bobby Flay will really get that last dollop of whipped cream on the plate just in time than it did for this episode. Whether this is bad scripting, bad directing, or bad editing, I don't know. There is no question in my mind where the apex of the episode was, but the build up was too fast. Predictably, you actually know exactly what is going to happen, and when it unsurprisingly went down there was not even a glimmer of that 'will-they-make-it-or-will-they-not' suspense. This was not even good for mediocre TV.

Then there is the sci-fi element here. Maybe I'm alone in this, but the mycelium blink drive/organic propulsion system is not only an out- there idea, it's lousy science fiction. Making it, again, the centerpiece of an episode really strained my nerves. When they added the giant, space water bear (tardigrade) into the equation, it really got implausible to the point of loony. This episode takes an further leap into the far-fetched and ludicrous. And again, this episode led to a terribly predictable plot point, although the sacrifice was made by different character than I expected... and that was not a good thing.

Which leads us to the major faux pas with this episode: our heroine Burnham was sidelined at some point in the episode and never really got into on the action. She's one of the stronger characters that they've created, so it's not clear why the writers hobbled themselves by taking her out of the equation. On the bright side, she didn't do anything monumentally rash/stupid this time.

I am not a purist and I don't really care that the Klingons look different from Klingons in TOS/the movies/Next Gen etc. But why are they covered with so much prosthetic makeup and stiff clothing that the actors can do little but speak their parts? It is virtually impossible for the actors to express themselves through all that stuff. Kudos to Doug Jones who ekes out as much expression as he can through his total face makeup and contact covered eyes. At least his body is unencumbered by wardrobe ballast.... (Big plus, this time, having an English speaking Klingon. This beats having the actors break their teeth on Klingonese and speak it so slowly you could read the subtitles twice and still have time to spare.)

The bright leaf on the pavement here was Rainn Wilson's Harry Mudd. Rather than channel TOS actor Roger C. Carmel, Wilson gives a great performance making Mudd far less jolly but more of a chaotic neutral opportunist with a comedic edge. It would have helped if the writers could have given him a little more in the way of cogent dialogue, but Wilson has the acting chops to add dimension to this character where little was written here.

So far, Discovery has Starfleet, starships, recognizable uniforms and insignias, Klingons, etc., but it really doesn't yet have much of that Star Trek flavor. While the writers spend their time writing disjointed action scenes and over-intellectualizing bad sci-fi concepts, we are desperately lacking a Star Trek message here. I get the darker tone- -we had that with DS9, but even on DS9 there was a glimmer of optimism that shot through. Where is the notion that we have an optimistic future ahead of us filled with excitement and wonder? If you want apocalyptic sci-fi you might as well tune in to just about any other series produced today.

Lets hope this is just the beginning jitters and that there is something better afoot. If not, I'll be canceling my CBS subscription. I'll give them another month. And while we're at it, it would be great to start rounding out the characters, mapping out real plot lines, and adding at least some semblance of pathos. (Note to writing staff: adding a couple F-bombs is not a substitute for pathos.) CBS is clearly paying a bundle for this series--they'd be better off dialing it back on the special effects and getting some decent writing. Heck, I'll even settle for something with less Trek but more tangible Sci-fi and some relatable characters...

(If you want a more sugar-coated view of the episode, tune into After Trek. This is the post Discovery talk show where CBS gives itself a congratulatory slap on the back after each episode. Note to CBS: you wouldn't have to screen all your 'guests' on the post-Trek show if you put out a quality episode. Ramp it up and you will have real fans giving real praise...)