Star Trek: Discovery learns a lesson in control in a standout episode
TV Reviews star trek discoveryI went into “Project Deadalus” determined to keep an open mind. My reaction to last week’s episode was a legitimate one—I didn’t decide to get frustrated with the unnecessary call-backs and weird pacing just so I could yell about something for several paragraphs—but it can be easy to lean into a particular view of a show and start to see the worst in everything. It’s entirely possible that the problems I had obscured me from appreciating what was actually effective, and I’ll admit to struggling to see the show in the same light as its fans. I don’t think I’ll ever embrace this uncritically (if I do, I think I would be bad at my job?), but I can, at the very least, make an effort to not keep making the same complaints over and over again.
Turns out, this wasn’t really necessary. It’s possible I could’ve come out of this episode still bothered by the same things that always bother me, but while some of those frustrations remain (the show is still kind of lousy at building a sense of anything real outside of the Discovery), this is such an overall strong entry that I think I would’ve have loved this even if I’d come to it determined to hate it. “Project Deadalus” is much of what Discovery does best, from the big action set-pieces to the willingness to raise stakes, combined with some of the most satisfying character work the show has done in ages. Maybe ever. If this is how good the show can be when it actually focuses on its strengths, I’m willing to put up with the occasional ill-advised callback.
Actually, “Project” provides a solid example of a really good callback: namely, a reference to a central theme or story idea from the original series that recontextualizes that concept into something new. We learn that Control, the artificial intelligence that’s behind Section 31 (and, apparently, pretty much all the Federation at this point), has gone rogue. Whether or not the system is being controlled by another party is a mystery for another time. But “civilization in the grip of an evil machine” was a standard plotline in the original Star Trek, and to see it brought back, only to have its origins in Starfleet’s own systems, is pretty neat.
Really, the whole storyline with Control is a good one. It moves fast: the episode starts with Admiral Cornwell arriving via shuttle to talk with Pike to warn him that something is very wrong with Section 31. She proposes heading straight the Section 31 headquarters, which, conveniently enough, is the address the secret messages we learned about last week were being sent to. Whether or not this is a little too convenient is up to the viewer to decide. It makes perfect logical sense, but, as with Pike’s decision to damn the torpedoes and head straight to the former space penal colony that Section 31 calls home without so much as a staff meeting, there’s little room to breathe. This, again, has always been part of Discovery’s M.O., perhap as a function of the reduced episode number in each season from earlier Trek shows, and the focus on serialization. It basically works here because there’s a strong enough emotional core to help gloss over any of the awkward bits.
Much of that emotional core comes from the rapid-fire development (and ultimate dispatching) of one of the show’s more striking background characters: Airiam, the Six Million Dollar Woman. Apart from her visual design, we haven’t spent much time with Airiam before now, but for once, Discovery set its sights on a crew member and manages to make them just interesting enough to care about. It’s very neatly done, and a large part of the praise should go to Michelle Paradise’s excellent script. The whole episode is really a master class in maximizing impact in a limited amount of time. We get a handful of scenes with Airiam, but the broad strokes are enough to establish the pathos necessary to give her loss at the end of the hour real meaning. We learn that, because of her computer brain, she has to repeatedly go over her personal memories and decide which ones to delete and which ones to save. It’s a clever sci-fi touch that uses her visual design to nifty effect—and even better, it has multiple payoffs before the end.
Really, this is the sort thing the show has needed to do for ages. Instead of burning more time on Tyler (who, much to my relief, spent this hour off-screen and locked in his quarters), we need to know more about the people on the Discovery so that it’s possible root for them as more than just a concept. We don’t even need that much screentime. The episode still manages to give us a couple of strong action sequences, a creepy “everyone here is dead” space station sequence, and several scenes that deepen the relationship between Spock and Michael. Hell, we have a scene between Spock and Stamets that actually made me enjoy Stamets for once.
This is just good, good stuff, the kind of writing that gives actors a chance to really dig in, while ensuring that the Big Moments, when they happen, have a context and depth beyond their initial pizazz. It’s not all perfect—I’m not huge on the revelation that everything that’s going on is somehow connected to Michael, although it does explain why the Red Angel contacted Spock. But it just feels more like a show that’s telling a story for once, and not just a collection of shiny things arranged to good effect.
About those Spock and Michael scenes: I was initially worried that the show was going to lean too hard into Michael having to teach her brother how to be a better Vulcan or something, but their fight over a 3D chess game is actually a lot more complicated and interesting than that. Both characters make good, if brutal, points about each other, and this is considerably more compelling than last week’s revelation that Spock is pissed because Michael was mean to him when he was eight. It feels like the sort of painful, awkward sniping that seemingly all siblings go through at some point, and does well by both characters. And, as with Airiam’s memory archiving, it also pays off later in the episode in the main story, giving Michael the inspiration to use random movements to “upset” Control’s attack protocols.
There are so many really excellent examples of setups and payoffs throughout the episode that you feel rewarded for paying attention to something you were already enjoying. The craft here is just superb, and for once, I find myself appreciate the entry the more I think about it, noticing nuances I missed on the first time through. Hell, this even uses “Tilly saves the day” in a satisfying fashion, both offering Airiam a chance to have a few final moments as herself and then immediately undercutting it by having those final moments fail to save her. For the first time since the Red Angel story was introduced, I find myself legitimately and fully engaged in what happens next. All it took was a story that remembered to take the time to make me care.
Stray observations
- I like how all of Airiam’s memories are in first person except for the video she and her husband took on the day before the shuttle crash. It’s a small, subtle touch that’s both internally consistent and a nice way of reinforcing how alienated she must feel from her former life.
- I’m not sure how Spock figured out the Stamets/Culber relationship so quickly, but it works.
- Okay, I didn’t go too deep into the plot but: upon arriving at Section 31 headquarters, Michael, Airiam, and Commander Nahn discover everyone on board the station, including the Vulcan admiral who programmed Control, is dead. While under the control of, um, Control (which snagged her brain through the time traveling space probe), Airiam downloaded all the sphere’s info on artificial intelligence and was in the process of transferring that information when Tilly interrupts her with some happy memories, giving time for Nahn to shoot her out an airlock. There’s also a nifty fight sequence between Burnham and mind-controlled Airiam
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I liked the episode, it might have been better had we gotten to know Airiam more earlier, but I thought the memory file sort of thing worked well enough.
It almost appeared as though during the fight with Airiam that Burnham used the classic double-handed chop à la Kirk-fu. Also, Kadis-kot!Control seems like it will be the reason why Section 31 goes underground. I groaned a wee bit when Airiam mentioned that “it’s” all about Burnham. I think we’re going to find out her parents developed Control or something.
Also, is Airiam the Red Angel?
Michael’s kid becomes the Red Angel and fights against the machines in the far future. The Matrix Sentinel from last episode turned Airiam into…
Wow. Zack wrote a highly positive review of Discovery, while io9 posted a review that was less than effusive. Does that mean all the usual whiners will be over there bitching about the reviewer instead of hyperventilating over here? I was so looking forward to the latest weekly installment of “Zack Handlen is a mean old poopy pants who hates Star Trek and should check with other reviewers to see what the consensus is first because all the other reviews are sooooo good and he’s the only one who doesn’t get the show! POOPY PANTS!!!”
Does that mean all the usual whiners will be over there…Apparently not all of them :/
Maybe it’s because there is no Orville for the white dudes of AVClub to fawn over tonight?
I don’t always agree with Zack Handlen, but there’s a full archive of reviews of TOS, TNG and DS9 that prove that he doesn’t “hate Star Trek.”
Just not a fan of ST:DSC – which, given how often it goes off-brand, is not surprising.
Just not a fan of ST:TNG – which, given how often it goes off-brand, is not surprising. – You in 1987.
No one has ever accused him of hating Star Trek, but rather of not giving a chance to anything that doesn’t make him feel exactly like he felt watching TNG and DS9. Which is a flawed reviewing premise in itself.
I actually came here to hear about all of the things wrong with this episode, because I have never been so irked by so many things wrong while watching Discovery. I generally like it, and I thought last week’s was one of the best of the season, and it still got a bad review here. But this week’s just had so many things wrong it was distracting:
Airiam’s gone from background wallpaper to a plot device, and they attempted to turn her into a real character half an hour before they kill her off. Sorry, not enough time for me to care about her when the thing they’ve been telegraphing for the last 3 or so episodes is obviously finally about to happen.Burnham *attacked her captain* and started a war in S01E01 to try to save her ship from Klingons. Now she won’t kill one rogue cyborg, who we as an audience have never even seen interact with for more than 5 seconds, to save her ship? So much for Vulcan logic. (Not that this is much of a surprise. For someone who was initially presented as a near-emotionless fake Vulcan, Burnhan sure is an irrational emotionally-driven trainwreck at times.)
How is a logic extremist an admiral in Starfleet?
If Starfleet is so concerned about this AI making biased decisions why don’t they just…stop listening to it?They said they couldn’t use their shields because it would attract the mines and they would get smothered by mines. They got attacked anyway, so of course, the solution is to turn on the shields?I’m sure I’m forgetting some stuff that happened in the first half of the episode, like Spock being an expert on the relationship of 2 people he doesn’t appear to have ever met before.
Also, this Control thing….was presumably helping them run the Klingon war. Which they were losing so badly they considered planetary genocide as the only way for the Federation to survive. Shouldn’t that be a serious “back to the drawing board” moment?
if there’s one thing i’ve picked up from this series it’s that Starfleet [in discovery at least] is pretty darn awful at decision making, or anything else really, so with that in mind it doesn’t surprise me they haven’t yet worked out ‘turning it off’ would’ve resolved the issue with control…
Because people who bring up reasonable criticism of a show are whiners and peopleple who use straw man arguments that contain the words poopy pants against people whose opinions hey don’t like are reasonable commenters.That’s how that works.
Honestly, you sound way more ranty and deranged than anyone who has ever complained about this reviewer’s takes.
Yes, someone who has a different opinion of a TV show is “entirely nuts” and “wholly unfit to review television shows!”“Unfit to review anything!”Oh, look, it’s you! And a glance at his Twitter reveals he’s angry about the Trump presidency and what the GOP is pulling, so his anger will age as well as the Trump presidency? OK, that makes sense.
But ranty seems to be your default insult toward anyone you disagree with, so I’ll happily accept it.
Yeah, does not compute…particulary since the episode is primarily about reverse engineering its own retcon (Discovery’s morally ambiguous Sec. 31 has been corrupted by a rogue A.I).
Another instance of Discovery taking the path of least resistance when exploring its own ideas.Speaking of which: Airiam’s sacrifice might have been more moving and/or persuasive if she wasn’t given a glorified red shirt treatment.
To answer your question, no, because legitimate criticism cuts both ways. There are plenty to be made of Star Trek: Discovery, and plenty to be made of Handlen’s treatment of Discovery. This is not unexpected, since Discovery borrows more from the Abrams’ Treks than previous incarnations, and Handlen has made no secret of his distaste for “nu Trek”. He’s not alone; there is a very loud, very angry undercurrent in Trek fandom who hate everything that happened after Enterprise shuttered its turbolifts. Of course, that he’s not alone doesn’t make these criticisms “whining”; quite the opposite. It legitimizes these criticisms, since we’ve seen it all before: blah blah blah #notmytrek.
What looks much more like whining is reducing legitimate criticism to baby talk while circling the wagons around a reviewer who, again, has made no secret of his prejudices. Refusing to acknowledge there can even be legitimate criticism has a very mommy-is-perfect smell to it. Discovery has flaws, like all Trek shows. In that respect, and in others, it’s no different than the beloved shows of yore. Yet it doesn’t get any of the slack those shows are given, and is treated quite a bit differently. This is a legitimate criticism. So you’ll just have to pardon those of us who don’t love our mommies blindly.
I’m stuck at work and not going to get to see this until tonight but a question – is the title of the episode in any way linked to the Daedalus-class ships?
It’s name dropped only. No indication of what it is.
Thanks.I’ve been a big Daedalus fan since reading the Star Trek Chronology and Star Trek Encyclopedia as a kid.
Daedalus class ships are more or less halfway between Archer and Pike. Two good timing references: TOS “A Piece of the Action” acknowledges a starship Horizon that came “from the same outfit” as the Enterprise, presuming Starfleet, but about a century before. That would put it at 2165 or thereabouts, four years AFTER the founding of the Federation. That ship is the model in Ben Sisko’s quarters.. TNG “Power Play” is the definitive reference though, as Picard confirms the info on the Essex, which is stated as Daedalus class, and that it went down in 2167
I figure it’s ore of a flying too close to the Sun/hubris type of thing.
No, this is a reference to the guy who built himself a pair of wings.
Isn’t that Icarus?
Daedalus was the inventor, Icarus was his son. He built two pairs of wings for them to escape the island of Crete. But Icarus was a dumb-dumb and didn’t listen to his dad when he told them that the feathers on the wings were attached with beeswax, so they shouldn’t fly too close to the sun.
I get the sense that Daedalus refers more to the mythological character than the ship. Daedalus created artificial wings for himself and his son Icarus; The Red Angel has artificial wings. Icarus flew too close to the sun and fell to his death; Section 31 is responsible for the death of Michael’s parents.
Can we talk about the girl power on display in this show and this episode in particular?We had Admiral Cornwall, who always lights it on fire when she shows up.We had the power of friendship memories between Airiam, Oyo, Detmer and Tilly, with a bonus memory that’s just Burnham smiling.We had Detmer pulling out her pilot skills with everyone calling out random flight patternsWe had Nahn, with a level of “This shit ain’t right” snooping we haven’t seen since Odo. We had away team fisticuffs between Airiam, Nahn and Burnham that one some of the most thrilling Trek fight scenes I’ve seen.We had Tilly with using the power of friendship to reboot Airiam.We had Nahn making the hard choices for Burnham, while also gasping for air.Finally, let’s add this to the list of Trek moments that made us cry:City on the Edge of ForeverWrath of Khan Spock’s DeathUndiscovered Country’s Signature CreditsThe Inner LightTapestryLower DecksDuetThe VisitorTears of the ProphetsWhat You Leave BehindTrek ‘09’s first nine minutes with HemsworthProject DaedalusETA: Can the red angel come and lift me out of the grays?
Nice post – this episode reminded me a lot of Lower Decks, though unlike the one-off nature of that episode, I hope we continue to learn more about supporting characters like Owo and Detmer.Also totally agree about the fights – in general the show does a nice job of 1) clearly showing 2) impressive choreography that 3) fits the characters doing the fighting. We’re well past the days of the double fist punch…
We also had a rare all-woman away team (well, boarding party. Everything’s a party in the swinging 23rd century!). I think it might be the first, but I can’t remember enough of Voyager to be sure. It seems practically guaranteed that at some point just Janeway, Seven, and/or Torres went somewhere by themselves.
I doubt it, Torres hated Seven!
Uhura once led an all-female landing team of security officers. That was in TAS, though.
YAASSSS!Airiam’s death hit me 100% in the feels. And it’s because they showed us all her great times with people who loved her and who she loved back, first. I hope they do more girl power episodes like this. Writing women as if their people! Yassss!And please take your star for name dropping the Odo Snoop™.
I might have cried had I know more about cyborg LAdy than “she plays Kadis Kot and “she walked on the beach once”. Her whole puirpüose in that show was to be kicked out of the airlock to make Michael look tragic.
Worry not. It’s not like death is really permanent in the Discovery universe. After all, she did do a full back up all herself, so all they have to do is recover her body, perform a bare-metal restore, and she’ll be good as new (minus the memories of trying to kill the security officer and getting blown out of the airlock).
you’d think…but they played it like that wasn’t an option…much as they couldn’t beam some or all of them out of the station to solve the moral dilemma…just as a for instance – there are other ways they could have achieved the same thing…after all if she had to physically be there to transfer the data because, reasons…if she’d been beamed directly into detention they *could* have purged her memory bank or whatever it is, de-virus-ed her & restored the memory dump she left behind again…& wouldn’t that be a usually-miraculous bit of bridge-crew plot-armour entirely in keeping with the tao of trek…?instead they seem to have strongly implied they’ve gone the full tasha yar on a potentially interesting character…I liked the episode but I’m not sure that deal shakes out the way I’d have liked it to…
The source of my tears was more the reaction and sense of loss conveyed by the other characters. The reaction shots—especially of Tilly–were really effective, and I felt sad for them losing their friend. That hit hard, for me, not withstanding that Airiam was window dressing before this episode.
someone should put Michael out of her misery (hint.. the show’s writers?)
I’ve been complaining about the lack of character development for 90% of the bridge crew since the show premiered. It’s friggin’ weird to have these faces doing vitally important jobs that the show never bothers to actually define in any way other than visually (robot girl! Eye girl!)So, yeah, the episode did a decent job in making Airiam a person in its opening scenes. But how much more effective would the episode have been if we actually knew anything about her prior to the episode where she dies?
This.
Just watching the show now, but it seems it’s greatest failing is underutilizing characters. There are about 5 on the bridge – the helmsman (most prominent before now), the black guy on coms, the Asian guy on weapons, the black girl who sits front right of the captain and does…something, and the cyborg woman (at least until now) from this episode who are basically set dressing even though they are bridge officers. I would have to look up their names and they all have less total lines between them than Spock who joined the show about 3 episodes ago. Trek has always been centered around a few characters, but this is the least the ensemble has ever had to do by a wide margin. Maybe because we are bingeing instead of watching weekly, but hard to care that a character with about 5 lines in the first 20+ episodes dies.
The worst thing is that it would have been easy to get us invested in the crew and there is even a model from TNG to use. Every few episodes show the folks who aren’t Michael Burnham doing something together a la the Enterprise poker game. That way they could slowly give us some backstory on folks like Airiam (cyborg woman) instead of a backstory infodump in one episode that telegraphs her death Walking Dead style.
Everything that happens in the Discovery universe is about Michael Burnham. Every other character and every event that happens in the galaxy only serves to further her plot. Including making the most famous Star Trek character of 50 years her brother.)
One of the biggest things modern Trek doesn’t give a damn about is how Star Trek always used to be an ensemble show.
Those are the other flaws in the show. The writing is competent and the actors do really well with what they are given, but it focuses too much on her and the flaws in continuity with everything else are glaring. Usually I don;t much care. Go ahead and chuck continuity out the window if you think you have a good idea. But there are so many things they can’t really explain they are going to get a bulk discount on lampshades if they ever try. Spock never mentioned he had a sister. Sarek never talks about his daughter in Starfleet. Starfleet seems to know all about the Mirror Universe. Spock apparently knows about time travel, yet it doesn’t come up when he is on the Enterprise. The spore drive. All these alien races we never see again. And the minor things like uniforms, ship aesthetics, interfaces, etc.Thing is, none of that was really necessary. You should have been able to write Michael Burnham’s story without involving Spock or Sarek. They get involved in season 2 a little more, but it was completely irrelavent in season one. That makes their involvement merely fan service, not a cool Easter Egg. Or go nu-Trek and put it in a whole parallel universe. You can do anything you want, pick and choose what’s the same and what is different, and not worry at all about continuity.
Or go nu-Trek and put it in a whole parallel universe.
It all looks very much like they desperatly want to be KelvinTimeline, but apparently Paramount holds the rights to that one for the movies and CBS can’t do it…
That makes a lot of sense, but it doesn’t explain why they couldn’t invent the Farenheit or Celsius Timelines- unless Paramount has the rights to all alternate universes except the Mirror Universe.I can imagine their lawyers saying “we own the multiverse!”
The Fahrenheit Timeline, in which the Federation returns to Imperial measure for… some reason. 🙂 I’m sure American audiences would appreciate it…
Thank you for listing all of that! It was really wonderful to watch and I’m glad the writer for this episode is one of the new showrunners next season.
i didnt think it got a new season, i read that it was coming off the cbs streaming service and going on free tv..St:disco season three would be awesome
Don’t forget Drone and Lineage!
“Lower Decks” – OMG, thank you for the memory!Just one of the best pieces of fiction (in any genre and any medium) I’ve ever experienced (IMHO/YMMV). Wept at that episode. And welled up at the end of this too.
Pretty solid list of cry worthy Star Trek moments, and I guess I would just add two for the to Star Trek shows you left out. While Voyager only had a handful of perfect moments, one of them really had to be when B’Elanna Torres ask the doctor if he would be the Godfather to their daughter. It was probably the most earned moment of the entire series and the two actors played it beautifully. The only other cryable moment was when UPN decided to cancel Enterprise after it’s absolutely mind-blowingly good 4th season that was absolutely the best Star Trek we had since the end of Deep Space Nine. The show had finally started to live up to its vast potential and paid off with Incredible storylines that tied into all Trek eras but was brought to an end way too soon leaving us with the Notions of what might have been.
I’m not sure how Spock figured out the Stamets/Culber relationship so quickly
Those ears pick up more than sound, UV and particulate matter. They function as straidar, gaydar, bidar, sadodar, and scatophilidar.
And their fight was very public. Spock is a skilled observer.
They can even get CBS All Access.
But only in select geographic regions, of course.
I think he has a VPN stashed in his beard.
I hope he cleans them thoroughly because buildup of particulate matter in his ears can lead to serious complications.
Like Star Trek V.* nods sagely *
Anyone else catch that old style Kirk Maneuver Burnham laid on Airiam in the middle of the fight? Straight up fall-on-your-ass-double-jump-kick.
I cheered when Burnham knocked Airiam down by boxing the ears she doesn’t have, just like boxing the also-earless Gorn worked. Now that’s the kind of fan service I can get behind! I don’t need a whole episode of the Talosians standing around looking (but not sounding) like Talosians, just some ridiculous Starfleet-issued bar-room brawl fighting techniques, and I’m happy.
AMEN!
I guess we now know what it takes for Discovery to do any character development of its bridge crew – kill one off! But seriously, a very good episode.
This was a good episode, but even when Discovery is good it manages to tick me off. Turns out Commander Airiam (Commander??!!) was a really interesting character who we knew next to nothing about until today, when Disco decided to ram-rod her backstory down our throats. It was so cool to finally get some kind of slice of life moments aboard Disco with one of the secondary characters. They are apparently capable of doing this and doing it well…..why doesn’t this happen more often?? Sorry Lt Detmer and Lt Bryce….we aren’t gonna spend any meaningful time on your characters until it’s time for that episode where you get shot out an airlock! But seriously…..I did think this was one of the best episodes yet and I am legit excited to see what happens next week.
Turns out Commander Airiam (Commander??!!)…Lieutenant Commander. Star Trek frequently calls Lt. Cmdrs “Commander,” probably for brevity’s sake.
I get that (and actually Orville does it too, lol). My point is she is a Commander and a fixture on the bridge, yet we knew almost nothing about her until today. That seems crazy to me.
So that’s just Detmer, Owosekun, Rhys and Bryce left from the main bridge crew to get individual episodes
Or they cover it all in one episode…..instead of Lower Decks it could be, ummmmm, Upper Decks??
They are getting there… they have all them showing off their meaningful expressions on their faces after something important happens on the bridge. It is hilarious, it is like a drinking game for me and my friend who watch the show together.. “here it comes, they gonna show them tilting their head now one by one in shock/agony/surprise etc etc”.
Or “….And the rest.”
It’s that way with US Navy ranks as well since Lieutenant Commander is a mouthful and shortening it to Lieutenant would be disrespectful.
Yes, the good old “A Death in the Limelight.” I think it would’ve felt a little less weird if we’d seen Airiam off the clock once before or participating in some banter; before this episode, I didn’t think she had human emotions, but I guess she’s just all-business at work and only lets her panels down during her off-hours.On the other hand, suggestion is a powerful thing in film. Now that I know what Airiam’s deal is, it’s entirely possible she’ll seem more personable when watching earlier episodes.
I’m not ashamed to admit I teared up pretty hard at the end of this episode. It really tugged at the heart strings. Such a good episode.
Nahn’s shocking last minute save only made sense because Burnham never bothered to check if she was okay. As soon as there was a break in the fight, I was wondering why no one was even asking if she was alive or not.
Not to mention it shields Burnham from another hard choice- as with Saru’s ganglia, she just couldn’t do it and hey presto! she doesn’t have to.
Nahn’s shocking last minute save only made sense because Burnham never bothered to check if she was okay. As soon as there was a break in the fight, I was wondering why no one was even asking if she was alive or not.
tilly saves the day with the power of friendship….because of course she does. I loved it though
isn’t it obvious by now? Michael is the red angel. someway somehow. they’ll star trek their magical spore drive way to it, which is just meh, but whatever.
poor nahn. everyone was all torn and upset about ariem but no one expressed any concern about her whatsoever when she was suffocating and fake-out died.
admiral cornwell’s reason for why the enterprise was out of the war was complete fan service bs that also actually reinforces the themes of TOS so it works too.
poor ariem if only we knew you better, or at all. turns out you might have actually been interesting if we got to spend more than one episode with you. it just shows how much time they’ve wasted NOT building characters
Couldn’t Starfleet send out a new android, upload Airiam’s saved memories, and pretend none of this ever happened? Not saying it’s a great idea, but “twin” characters are a pretty common theme throughout Star Trek (mirror universe, Data and Lore, the two Rikers, etc.)
Couldn’t they just beam her into a prison cell when she was being flung out into space?
I think they established that it would have been too risky. And I think they have other plans for Airiam’s character (the memories part that was already saved) without having to worry about the corrupt evil AI still existing. This was a clear-cut way to kill off the AI.
Airiam isn’t an android, she’s an augmented human (more of a cyborg). You can’t create a new one, at least in this time period, without effectively killing a person to make her. Data is still like 100 years away.
You can’t create a new one, at least in this time period, without effectively killing a person to make her.
The more I think about this idea, the more it bothers me from a narrative perspective. What human parts of Airiam still existed? Her body and eyes could be controlled by an evil computer, her voice sounds synthetic, her head contains less skin than the Borg, and even her memories behave like a file system.
On the other hand it may help explain why Captain Pike decided against this cyborg “enhancement” down the timeline.
Data, Lore & B4.
I really get tired of the hardcore fans of any series hating something because it doesn’t embody that particular show well enough – usually with a penchant to auto-hate without giving that show much of a chance. I feel those people forget that any entry into a series needs to be able to stand on it’s own feet, and, in fact, needs to do so to not only be compelling, but to also establish itself in that particular universe. Sure we’d all like to see TNG or DS9 or even TOS return and regale us, but guess what? That’s never going to happen.
With that said, I have found myself agreeing with you lately. For instance, Spock and Michael’s feud has very little substance to say the least. Are we supposed to believe that Spock is unable to forgive something so trivial? Shit, my brother punched me in the face multiple times and called me every name in the book when we were young. Most siblings are no different. For that to basically be the reason they don’t talk as adults is, if you’ll pardon my French, God damned stupid. I also agree with you on Tyler. I don’t think it was necessary to bring him over into this season, but maybe we’ll get something out of him other than being the cause of some angst.
Otherwise I think this season has been pretty remarkable for the most part, and I look forward to further episodes and hope things aren’t as blatantly obvious as they seem.
It’s less that it isn’t one it Treks before it and more that it lacks major Star Trek elements, as in bedrock principles. If it wasn’t Star Trek it would be a better show. It would have to build its own world and develop characters. It would have no obligation to the spirit of Star Trek and it would be unable to lean on Star Trek material to bribe viewers into watching it.
I’m with Zack. I’d been really unhappy with the way the show was developing in its second season, but this episode was excellent, and I think it bodes well for the future that the first credited script from the incoming season 3 showrunner is such a jump in quality. (According to IMDB, she’s also writing the last two episodes of the season, but I don’t know what their source is for that).
Actually, I think this season has been far superior to the first one.
I realize they’re probably hedging their bets with runtime for when an eventual syndication run comes, but I really wish they’d make the episodes longer! This one could have used some extra time.- I’m also bummed that we only got some Airiam development before they offed her. She was always a mystery character so it was cool to finally get some background on her but it was near-wasted because she’s gone now.- I wonder if they’ll take any storylines from the books or just the ideas. Control as an idea made for an awesome series of books so it’s exciting to see it translated. Since the probe is now apparently Section 31 tech from 500 years in the future, I wonder if they can decipher any of it and find out about Bashir and his mission to take them down. I expect even if they ‘defeat’ Control, it’ll continue using holographic fakeouts to keep the organization running and biding its time.- It’s curious that so much of it is focusing on Burnham’s past and parents. If it weren’t for Georgiou’s comment to Leland and Burnham seemingly have been fairly old enough to know better, I’d expect her to actually be from the future. Although the way Stamets talked to Spock it seems like they’re getting at Burnham being the Red Angel.- I thought Nahn was going to die also which would have been a bummer. Between the double Checkhov’s Gun of her breathing augments and Airiam’s life story I’m surprised she was still alive.- I wonder how long before they figure out that Airiam sent the stuff they locked Tyler up for. It would be hilarious if they never did and just sent him to prison.- I desperately hope they see the fan reaction and make a “Pike’s Enterprise” series next. He is seriously contending with being an all-time favorite captain. This guy is spectacular.The trailer for next week was bizarre. I have no clue what to expect. I guess that’s the hallmark of a good trailer though. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Yes, I really want more Pike, he is killing it.
– I wonder if they’ll take any storylines from the books or just the ideas. Control as an idea made for an awesome series of books so it’s exciting to see it translated. Since the probe is now apparently Section 31 tech from 500 years in the future, I wonder if they can decipher any of it and find out about Bashir and his mission to take them down. I expect even if they ‘defeat’ Control, it’ll continue using holographic fakeouts to keep the organization running and biding its time.The first time Control was mentioned on Discovery, David Mack posted that their use of the name was total coincidence, and we shouldn’t expect it to align with the Control from the novels. Seeing how it initially looked very similar until this episode made a hard left turn, I can see why he warned us off. For one thing, for all it’s faults, book-Control considered itself zeroth-law compliant and did what it did to protect humanity and the Federation, so it probably wouldn’t ever go full evil-computer and decide to kill off all life.- I desperately hope they see the fan reaction and make a “Pike’s Enterprise” series next. He is seriously contending with being an all-time favorite captain. This guy is spectacular.I have my suspicions. Rumor is they’re building a very expensive Enterprise bridge set, so it’d make sense if they were planning to get more use out of it. On the other hand, if we spend much time on the Enterprise this season, most of the sets will be redresses of Discovery, so the Pike show would have to either build a duplicate of the main DSC sets (since they can’t really use one set on two shows full-time) or they’d be retconning the look when they built their own corridor-and-rooms. Either is possible, but both seem awkward.The trailer for next week was bizarre. I have no clue what to expect. I guess that’s the hallmark of a good trailer though. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯I’m glad this week’s trailer (and the one for this week’s episode) revealed so little.More inexplicable teasers, I say! Throw in deleted scenes, test shots, and deceptive ADR, too. I want to be surprised, dammit! Go full Mad Men, if you have to!
Source for the “They are building an Enterprise bridge?” rumor?
Season 15 episode 7: a skeleton is found in one of the cabins as they are decommissioning the discovery. Remains are checked by the science officer on duty and it is identified as Tyler!Pike and Burnham both look at each other‘Who’s Tyler’ they ask in unison.
I dont know, dont trust it. I think your bosses got a call from CBS. I’ve enjoyed this season but there was plenty to nitpick this episode and you’ve been an ace at pointing them out. It must have really pained you to pull back on the criticism cause you really glossed over this episode in what may be your shortest review yet! Dont be afraid of your negativity. Write it how you feel it. I’m still gonna enjoy the show but I appreciate the different perspective, especially one with more insight into the subject.
Some nitpicks: Commander Nahn seemed to suspect something was up with Airiam and watched her intently when she was uploading data or whatever in the minefield. But she never said or did anything about it.They were told to bring down Airiam, had ample time to shoot her in the back, yet they just stood there like idiots.
Airiam’s physical superpowers were extremely vague. She can dodge gunfire, but not punches. She can punch Michael hard enough to send her flying across a room, but not hard enough to win the fight. Commander Nahn was apparently in desperate need of medical attention, but Michael never even glanced in her direction to see how she was doing. Why do Airiam’s eyes glow red whenever she’s being evil?
Yeah, the whole time Michael was pleading with Airiam, I was like “Uh…Nahn? Suffocating behind you? Give her a hand, maybe?,” lol.
Also, she’s in a freakin’ space/EV suit that should be able to supply her native atmosphere because duh, but for some reason she nearly dies because she has to have her apparatus…What?
Why do Airiam’s eyes glow red whenever she’s being evil?Visual change to show her turning evil for the audience’s sake, That’s it, no greater purpose
And it was an easy way to visually reference the AI with the familiar three red dots.
Also, she’s in a freakin’ space/EV suit that should be able to supply her native atmosphere because duh, but for some reason she nearly dies because she has to have her apparatus…What?
But I think he is saying it’s lazy and condescending to the audience.
The first one was big for me but maybe Nahn chilled on her suspicion when Airiam told Tilly not to leave her side. What was more an issue for me was Tilly putting it together without any reason to be suspicious. There didnt seem to be any reason for her to access Airiam’s download history.
So… Control is the thing that destroys all life in the future, and the squid-probe that attacked was sent by control and infected Airiam?Also pretty impressive how they made me care about the weird cyborg background character and get me fully invested in like two eps. The actress really did a great job just with her voice. That was a surprisingly moving death scene. And michael… not even gonna check on Nahn that whole time she’s suffocating? Geez, probably would’ve airlocked Nahn without a second thought.
I hate asking these questions in sci-fi shows, but… couldn’t they have just transported everyone out? Or even grabbed Airiam after she was ejected out the airlock?
I just want to point out about something and perhaps offer a perspective. You said the dynamic between Michael and Spock this episode more compelling than the revelation last episode of just Michael being mean to Spock when he was 8. Except that revelation is the bedrock of this scene that you found compelling and the reason this relationship is fraught.Spock’s anger at its core is driven by that hurt and pain. This wasn’t just a case of “oh my sister was mean to me once when I was 8”, this is much more serious than that, this is about a boy who was bullied and made an outcast because of who is he, a boy who finally found someone he could idolize and learn from and someone who was accepting of him and loving him and showing him towards accepting himself and finding his own strength, and a boy who saw that person he adored tear him down to his very core and remind him that he isn’t worth it and that every bit of strength she gave him was worth nothing. I don’t know if your life experience, but I can attest from personal experiences just exactly how damaging that can be and how that one “mean” moment can affect the rest of a person’s life. This was not just a petty sibling spat. This is if Spock had been bullied for being gay and Michael supported him only to turn around and tell him he’s not worth it and call him the F word. This is if Spock is a mixed race child bullied for his color and Michael supported him only to turn around and call him the N word. The fact that Michael didn’t mean what she said doesn’t matter because those words are still said, and a younger child who looked up to her still heard those words. The damage was done, despite whatever good intentions she may have had.Children are like sponges, they absorb everything that is said to them and they internalize it. Spock is told by Vulcans that he’s not good enough to ever be a Vulcan, and now he’s told by Michael he’s not good enough to be a human. That kind of damage from someone you idolize is crushing, even for adults, much less a child in his formative years still trying to understand the world. Michael and Spock’s moment as children were more than just “mean”, it is someone you love and idolize throwing racist or homophobic slurs at you. Those damages don’t disappear, it informs your core, your being, how you see the world, and your entire self esteem. Words have the power to do irreparable damage, ESPECIALLY to children.If people being “mean” wasn’t that big of a deal, we would have a lot less children (and people in general) dying because of “mean” words.
I don’t understand, can I have an example of a death that resulted from mean words?
Better than usual. Still the same structural problems…
awful direction (give the camera pans and angles a rest, jeez!), awful
dialogue (“They’ll slice the hull like cheese!”) and a general hitting-you-on-the-head with themes (to be fair, a Trek tradition.)
But at least it focused on one story, for the most part. Spock 3.0’s actor is actually pretty good, even though the writing for the character is not great.I agree with Zack that, thank god, Tyler was locked in his room, and we got some time with basically any other character that isn’t immediately dislikeable. It’s too bad that the show has been so focused on those characters instead of someone like Airiam or one of the other background people.Still, an A (this show’s first!) is generous, even on a sliding scale for this show. The emotional scenes really didn’t land because we hadn’t spent any time with robot lady, and that fight scene actually made me laugh out loud at one point… but I guess you take what you can get.
I don’t know if I’d go so far as to say EmoSpock’s actor is pretty good. But it’s really hard to tell because he’s constantly in comparison with Leonard “Let Me Iconic-ize That For You” Nimoy. I don’t mind though. I might also be being unduly harsh on EmoSpock because he has a sexy voice, and it confuses me and there’s something morally dubious about a firthing Spock. Btw, yes/no… mentioning an AI that seeks to grow through knowledge of other cultures and using the word “evolve” is… basically prefacing some Borg time?
p.s.
Actually Spock is the Old Man’s Man, haha
My headcannon is that the actor isn’t playing Nimoy’s TOS Spock, he’s playing Nimoy’s Cage-era Spock. They’re retconning his having emotions in the pilot. Give him ten years or so, he’ll be logical af.
I guess they had to do it this way because otherwise we’d all just be like “please make the bad Nimoy impersonation stop”.
They could have just not wittten Spock in lol
That’s not headcanon, that’s exactly what they are doing, and I love it.
That’s not head-canon, that’s canon-canon. Both Peck and the showrunners and writers have indicated as much in several interviews.
So it’s like a cannon that shoots cannons?Good to know it’s not just me. I generally don’t pay attention to the extra-curriculars associated with the show, so I’m not clued into things like that.
No, it’s a canon… that’s canon. There are two Ns, not three.
Yeah they are really pushing this ‘logic is bad’ theme but my hope is they flesh it out and add some complexity to the conversations on logic. If not for that I thought Spock and Michael had some good dialogue. But I would like a little less trope writing on logic and the importance of having that ‘human spark’ quality.
Like goatees mean evil mirror universe, beards on Vulcans means this Vulcan has emotions.
My headcannon is that the actor isn’t playing Nimoy’s TOS Spock, he’s playing Nimoy’s Cage-era Spock.Bingo. Nimoy was smiling and smirking every 5 minutes in The Cage, amazing how many J.J./Discovery haters seem to forget that he’s half-human.
I’d say Nimoy still had the sexier voice.
Has the sphere encountered the Borg?
I think Ethan Peck’s performance is fine and I like the character he’s playing. But in no way, shape or form, in terms of writing or acting, does that character even slightly resemble Spock. With so many things about Discovery, I have to perform ridiculous mental gymnastics to make it work.
They could lead it to the Borg. They could have Discovery spore jump over to the Delta Quadrant to dump off part of Control or something. I mean, I hope they don’t. But they could.
+1 for “robot lady.”
“Like cheese” …. what kind of cheese are they eating in the future, they barely dented the Discovery lol.
nothing about Jonathan Frakes?
No wonder this one got an A. It’s got that Frakes freshness!
MMMMMMM….It smells like……..Riker’s beard!
So they finally give Airiam some backstory only to kill her off in the very same episode?Did anyone actually plan this show out?
lol, this is hilarious. I was so furious about this, I quickly posted a similar rant before I read the recap. Then I read the recap and started reading the posts and there are now (at least) five posts complaining about the same thing and THIS is the episode that Zack liked? Bwa ha ha ha ha ha….
She’s appeared in 20 episodes of the series and this is the first she gets anything to do and its to die.Pointless!
The story arc has potential, which is a lot of progress over previous episodes. Still a lot of the same problems but with a direction and a story we can at least get some character development and tension.
Will any of you be surprised if this isn’t the end of Airiam? Remember, her memories were downloaded. She’ll be back in some form or another.
Yeah but would anyone actually be bothered? You cannot build enough character in a single episode to make people attached to her, if she were to come back it’d be almost a non-event.
Today we lost a great character. Over the past two years everyone has enjoyed wondering who that was.
Now I fear the day we learn even the slightest detail about Detmer.
Haha
Time to bring back Ensign Daft Punk!
The writer of this episode did some heavy fucking lifting to make us care about Airiam before they killed her, because none of the previous episodes did a damn thing in the way of characterization! The POV ending in particular really got me.That’s one thing I hope this show does a bit better in the future. We know Saru, Burnham, Tilly and a few others fairly well, but there’s all these other people on the bridge who we just don’t know. Detmer got banged up in the war, and Owo grew up in a Luddite collective (a fact the show forgot as soon as they said it), but otherwise, who are they? What about the black guy and the Asian guy who just yell when the ship’s in trouble and react to what’s on the viewscreen?Also, unrelated, but if Airiam turns out to be the first Borg, I’m going to mail my poop to Alex Kurtzman.
Ffs. She’s not the first Borg.
*Phew*. All the dialog about the impending death of all sentient life, possibly at the hands of a mercilessly improving and adapting computer network set off my ill-advised foreshadowing alarm.
*gasps*Control is Zora…Zora is Control…!!Oh My God!!!!!
Sorry, I’m a bit testy about a very few subjects. Borg origins are one of them. Every other day it’s V’Ger is the start of the Borg or insert random ass theory not supported by the televised evidence in the various ST groups.
Too little too late. I don’t particularly like it when I’m introduced to a character JUST to have her killed of for dramatic effect.
It is a trick straight out of The Walking Dead’s handbook and one of the main reasons I gave up on that show. What’s sad is there were plenty of opportunities this season to fill in Airiam’s character instead of dumping all of her development into the episode where she dies. It would have been helpful to know before she was possessed that she is essentially a robotic bucket for information.
That’s the problem with the entire bridge crew. We know nothing about them, other than bits and pieces. Until the start of Season 2, I didn’t even know their names. I know nothing about Owosekun, other than she was raised by luddites, nothing about Detmer, other than she used to blame Burnham for the artificial eye, and nothing about The Black Guy Who Handles The Comms, or the Nameless Asian Guy Who Taps On The Touchscreens, and until this episode, we knew nothing about Ariam besides the fact that she been hacked for the past three episodes. The writers seem to have them just hang around long enough to have their character developed just in time to meet their fate as Another Red Shirt.
The POV ending in particular really got me.
Followed by silent credits. Really well done.
“Oh, now they rip off Doctor Who. Couldn’t have done that for the recap last week?”I can’t help but notice all my complaints about this episode are actually complaints about the earlier episodes not being as good.
Yeah, the T-800 would have been really proud of that “going off-line” final scene.
It’s not the Borg.
(1) It would negate the power of the first contact meeting with the Borg because the Control AI would already know about Star Fleet, etc.
(2) It would require some way of transporting Airiam’s lifeless body (with the AI still functional) all the way to that remote part of the Galaxy where the Borg evolved
(3) and most importantly, the Borg didn’t want to destroy life and replace it with cyber-intelligence, they wanted to assimilate life into the Borg collective.
Carry on.
Also, the guys are named Bryce and Reese (Rhys?). They couldn’t make their names a little more distinct?
Your hope for the future may come true: Michelle Paradise who wrote this episode will be co-showrunner along Kurtzman in season 3.
Dedicating an episode to make you care about a character just before they get killed is a TV trope as old as… probably The Sopranos, which isn’t *that* old, but anyways, Discovery isn’t the first to do it. Movies sometimes do it too, at a more micro level—characters enjoy their most sympathetic moment just before they die. If a character who you previously weren’t supposed to particularly like—and sometimes one who you were supposed to actively hate—is suddenly being painted in an incredibly sympathetic light, then they’re probably about to die.
Ugh, THANK YOU. I think it was and remains an utterly baffling decision to have a star trek show where we don’t bother making the friggin’ BRIDGE CREW into actual, you know, characters. They’re in every episode, they do vitally important jobs. We have to look at their faces all the time. The directors and editors keep cutting to them constantly for reaction shots…and yet NONE OF THEM have any personality, persona or anything. They are literally extras.It’s such an astonishingly bad choice. Remember every other modern Star Trek pilot? We get to know all the characters. Everyone gets a signature moment and we understand what their deal is. Discovery has a smaller core cast and I actually do like the characters the show does bother with.But why couldn’t they, twenty episodes in, spent even a whiff of effort on all those other faces we have to look at all the time? Sigh.
That comms guy always looks so lost and overwhelmed
Well, this explains why they re-cast Airiam during the season break, I guess. The original actor is still on the show in a different role, so she’s still employed.
Oh no.1 Not…. Cyborg Lady. She was such a well rounded character. She walked on the beach once. and she played that game Neelix liked.Does Discovery really think that I give a damn about her because they gave us two snippets of backstory in this very episode. she remains a glorified extra that looked cools standing in the background. And now we know that single raison d’etre was being hacked and thrown out of the airlock to give Michael another trauma. because in the end EVERYTHING in Disco is about Michael.
Bravo. I just posted a similar rant, without the “it’s all about Michael” part.
It seemed like Airiam was alive floating there in space for at least a few seconds….why didn’t they try to beam her back aboard Disco in an attempt to save her?? Given she is at least partially a machine (I’d guess mostly machine) one would think she’d handle exposure to space better than your average human. And maybe they covered this in the episode….but why didn’t they beam all three off the station when yit was hitting the fan and destroy the thing? Did I miss a line about shields being up around it or the transporter being down??
That was my main problem with the episode. They should have had the away team take a shuttle to the base from Discovery, and have a throw-away line about how the mines were also giving off a transporter inhibitor field. That would have solved the “saving Airiam from space” problem, and the “why didn’t you just beam everyone out when things went sideways” problem. Plus, this base is supposed to be super fortified and secure (sensors couldn’t even penetrate it to find life signs), but transporters worked still?
Totally agree. This was my only problem with what was otherwise a great episode (and I agree with Zack that Disco is not always great). They needed to throw in a line on how Control or Airiam or the mines or whatever had disabled the transporters and everything else would have worked.
this. i’m amazed this is literally the only comment i’ve seen anywhere noticing this. why did everyone on discovery forget they have transporters? Transporters that they’ve actually used in the past to rescue a spaced crewmember (Ash in season 1).
I think it was just too risky, she couldn’t be trusted. She might get hacked again.
I thought it was pretty obvious that the AI was too dangerous to risk transporting her back, even to the brig. The only solution was to completely destroy it, which meant sacrificing Airiam.
I think the main point was that she was still affected by the Control virus beaming her back would have just put the ship at risk again since they didn’t know how to cure her of it? So she’s like, “kill me just in case!” Which would imply that she was doomed as soon as she was infected, no matter what. Harsh
Yeah, I mean you could be right, but it seemed like she was really only able to do damage when she had access to a computer station…..granted she seemed to be quite a handful from a physical strength standpoint, so maybe restraining her is easier said than done. Could they have “turned her off” though and tried to fix her?? See, we don’t even know if she had an off switch! I keep thinking back to Picard and the Borg. They brought Picard back to the ship as a Borg, a decision that was very risky but obviously worked out well in the end.
Yes. The transporter has saved the day many, many, many times in the history of Star Trek. They needed to help out the fans with a little tech gobbledegook to take that option off the table this time. Otherwise you get geeks like me saying “Beam them up! Beam them up!!” to the TV.
Watched the episode a second time….Airiam is laying a beat-down on Burnham, Nhan is suffocating on the ground, and Pike is back on Discovery thinkin “oooooh, cat-fight!!” Granted, the fight scene is VERY well done, but Burnham and Nhan could have very easily been killed for no good reason. They already know about the holograms and about Airiam being compromised…I don’t understand why they didn’t either beam the away team back, or quickly beam down additional security to help handle Airiam. Other random thoughts on second watch:Tilly’s speech to Airiam is so hollow….they adore each other all of a sudden, have we even seen them in the same room together prior to this episode??Stamets and Spock actually have some good on-screen chemistrySeveral very funny dry one-liners….especially Pike to Tilly “yeah, I was there”The Nhan/Airian dynamic was strange….why was Nhan so suddenly suspicious and why didn’t she say anything/investigate further??The visual effects continue to be stunning, simple things like when Discovery powered up and came out of hiding, really greatFrakes should direct every episode….like, seriously, make it soThere was some really good acting in this episode….Michael’s reaction to Airiam being ejected was well done. At the same time Nahn gave off the vibe of “I almost suffocated, nobody seemed to care, this B is goin for a ride.” Very nice.
That was directed by Frakes? I am honestly shocked.. 🙁
It’s 3 years later and here’s me pointlessly necroing an old thread just so that I can say – yes, me too. And is no-one monitoring life signs in the spacesuits so they could tell Nhan was in trouble? That’s stuff the writers room or the EP should have caught.
Don’t forget that Picard is several hundred years in the future.
Because of her malware infection?
Actually back in the Kelpia episode (please don’t make me look up the title) Saru beamed down to the planet through shields, so that’s no longer a problem, apparently.
Despite it’s flaws, I enjoy the show. But I still dislike this “conflict” between Spock and Michael. Spock knows she was “mean” to him to save him, and Michael knows Spock is trying to help her when he tells her it wasn’t her fault what happened to her parents. Yet both are angry with each other to a very deep level? Over THAT? It makes little sense, other than to create an artificial conflict plot point.By the way, I like when Michael is having her Epiphany while can Cdr. Nahn is gasping for air behind her. It’s like “Yeah, Michael, don’t bother and help me or anything.”
I’m sorry but Airiam has been a tangential (if best) character. She’s had hardly any scenes and in the FIRST episode where they start to flesh out the character (tell us ANYTHING about her life), they fucking kill her. They just “red-shirted” a member of the bridge.This. fucking. show….
Careful, The Machine reads these things! 😉
Yeah, who do they think she it? Joe Tormolen? Robert Tomlinson? Sito Jaxa? Ahni Jetel? Lyndsay Ballard? Joe Carey? Enrique Muniz? Everyone in “Empok Nor”?
I think for Joe, Robert, Ahni, Lyndsay at least those was there only appearances so us getting details about their lives before they died made some sense. Also it’s not like a good chunk of Naked Time, Balance of Terror, Latent Image, was even about those respective characters specifically, really they were more pieces in the overall story (the latter in particular were more about how their deaths reflected on a main character). Definitely the case with Muniz as that was more about O’Brien dealing with the situation than anything. Ariam has been around for like a season and a half (Carrey hadn’t really been talked about/seen much before his actual death episode which wasn’t great either) and squeezing all of the character stuff with her in the episode they are killing her off just feels a bit cheap. With guest characters like Sito you got to maximize the time you got but you shouldn’t have to do that with someone who is supposed to be a regular presence.
I like this show, and I had forgotten her name or hadn’t ever known it. I was like “oow we finally get some info about… oh nevermind.”
This. fucking. show….Oh please, all of the previous Trek shows have used characters as set dressing until a writer needed them for a story, then shoved their entire biography in our faces in 15 minutes. Stop beating up on Discovery, this is nothing new.
No one seems to have mentioned what this might mean for hooking up Disco to TOS. I think they may be trying to pull off a Dune-lite scenario: we defeat the rogue AI, realize it almost destroyed everything, and consciously back off the most cutting edged tech for the foreseeable future. Back to the library computer, viewscreens, and no holo or AI.
Great point.
This was most definitely the vibe I was starting to get off this. They make a big deal out of cybernetically augmented individuals and AIs, specifically so they can call out taking them off the table. The word “augmentation” seemed especially loaded, given its past use to refer to the genetically enhanced supermen of the late 20th century in the Trek timeline. And of course the Federation is still afraid of THAT scenario well into the 24th century.
Definitely could go that route. I keep getting the feeling too they are going to use an accident or need to permanently jump Discovery to the future. That future most likely being set in Picard’s show time. Then having Discovery and it’s crew stay there from then on. This way they don’t have to be stuck in cannon anymore and can move with new things.
At the very least I’m thinking this whole episode would give Pike a reason to reject Airiam-style augmentation after his accident in the future and instead be confined to his beeping chair.
Really? This is the episode you give an A to? It was comically bad. The paper-thin “backstory” given to Airium basically amounted to her having once walked on a beach and sat round a table with Tilly and Detmer. If the writers knew she was going to be important and wanted us to actually feel something for her they should have developed her at some point in the previous eight episodes. It’s almost as if they’re writing this completely blind with absolutely no plan for the future. As it stands, the ending came across as laughably melodramatic. The character simply didn’t deserve the emotional weight the show was trying to foist upon her.I know this was never going to be Spock dying in Wrath of Kahn, but it wasn’t even up to Tasha Yar standards. I had no reason to care about Airium before and I still didn’t have any credible reasons to care at the end of the hour. Like most of Discovery, it felt rushed, shallow, poorly thought through and ultimately hollow. When the silent credits kicked in I actually laughed. I’m very surprised to see this kind of shoddy, emotionally manipulative garbage get lauded here.
we LOLed too with the silent credits..it was so silly..
I continue to enjoy Discovery despite it’s flaws, and I think saying it’s garbage is a little too harsh (though I understand), but I feel your critiques are apt. Disco continues to suffer, IMO, from wanting to do too much given the time it’s allotted itself. The stories are usually exciting (regardless if they are executed well or not), but as an adult I want more than just that. I’m sure most of us do. Trying to shoe horn so much in HALF the overall length of time every other series gave itself unfortunately leads to exactly what we’re seeing. Lots of action, some nice non-action moments which I always appreciate, but a lot left unsaid or unshown that could or should be; which would thus build a richer environment and cast of characters for us to enjoy; and, unfortunately for us as older viewers, the absence of which is very much felt and leaves us unsatisfied. I think it’s as simple as that. Nobody is asking for the highest of erudite, obscure stage drama from a simple entertainment show- but capable and serviceable backstory, background and characterization literally take time- and that is something Disco and it’s runners just don’t seem to want to give it, for whatever reason. I’m just wondering why they signed on to only do half-length seasons, or for that matter why they chose to use a streaming service instead of going OTA. It’s too bad. If they gave themselves the opportunity, I have no doubt the show could be a top-notch assay into Trek lore.
The Red Angel is Michael, right? have people already been saying that? haven’t been keeping up with these reviews.
Thing I’m wondering is if any of these near-omnipotent time-travelling sentient machines are going to tie into Vger…like, they seem to be hinting in that direction sometimes. I mean, wasn’t Vger’s whole thing consuming whole planets and such as information? And don’t they reference an even larger/more complex machine intelligence that creates it?
Am I the only one who thought her Airiam’s husband looks a lot like Leland, but with hair?
Their next challenge is to develop the other bridge women (without killing them) but yes I quite liked this episode. One thing I don’t think I can handle much more of though: Pike (or someone but usually Pike) says something mildly heroic and Oyo+Detmer look at each other and smile. I just…I don’t think I can watch that scene any more. It’s embedded in my brain like a program from a probe from 500 years in the future
they do that with all characters on the bridge when something happens.. it is a silly parade of worried or amused or socked faces
Also worth noting:- Disco + distant future + war + sentient AI = vaguely familiar, eh? Clearly Calypso was meant to directly connect. Thinking Zara is our heroes’ counterargument – a sentient AI using the other 75% of the sphere’s knowledge to keep Control and similar AI in check- Calypso… Obol for Charon…. Project Daedalus… All episodes about sentient AI specifically. All references to Greek mythology about fate, tempting fate, and playing at god. Huh.
The lead image is so bright, talk about a course correction!
The only thing that really bothers me about this show is the one or two second clips of Owosekun and other bridge officers showing concerned faces. Like every episode without fail, there’s at least one shot of someone showing their appreciation or gratitude or sadness in a quick second facial gesture and it is annoying as all hell./endrant
I’m a bit surprised by this review — not in its appreciation for the episode, but for apparently glossing over the fact that the future-crisis storyline — in which “Control” is apparently a computer program that becomes sentient and decides at some point the best course of action is to wipe out all life — is straight out of the “Terminator” movies.
I liked the episode, but the revelation that the potentially interesting time travel-infused narrative that has been guiding the season was just a retread of the Skynet storyline was pretty deflating.I suppose the Red Angel, a being from the future sent back to stop Control, is a clever reversal of the usual “Terminator” trope of the time traveler trying to kill the good guys. But still.
What’s next, they defeat Control by the end of the season and then Section 31 goes into hiding?
Do we know when they switched showrunners for this season? This feels like a completely different approach for the show, which otherwise tended to just assume we cared about characters and only show the unearned endings of conflicts we didn’t know existed.
I was gutted at the end of this episode. So sad but great to finally get to know some of the secondary characters.
DISCO standing around watching them fight like watching TV…Me: Beam in help!DISCO ordering Burnham to open the airlock…Me: Beam Airiam directly to the brig!Airiam diesMe: Relieve Pike of duty…(and oh by the way how is it possible Burnham can survive super blows from Airiam who knocked Nahn through the air across and room into the hallway and Burnham against a wall? How can Burnham lay a punch on Airiam if Airiam can dodge phasers?)
Another bad, bad, godawfully bad script (apparently being a Logic Extremist does not disquialify you from Starfleet high command, it is morale-building to point out that someone was kept out of the war because they are “the best in Starfleet” in front of a crew that was not kept out of the war, security officers are so expendable noone will give a second’s thought to them when wounded, hanging the whole last act of the movie on a crisis that could be solved in a heartbeat if someone remembered the transporter they used to beam to the station, etc.), but finally someone told Burnham to her face that she was responsible for the Klingon war. They undercut it, of course, but damn did it feel good for the minute it lasted. And at least Frakes did a good job of paying homage to Wrath of Khan’s away mission vibe.
The upside is they have committed to a storyline. No getting out of it now and that means they must start developing characters. And the arc doesn’t seem that bad. I actually was excited about the possibilities.
I envy your optimism!
While I like Discovery somewhat more than Zack Handlen and I don’t always agree with his criticisms of it, I think his reviews are thoughtful and worth reading. I don’t have to agree with someone to be interested in what they have to say.
In this case, though, I’m in complete agreement with Mr. Handlen: with “Project: Daedalus” they knocked it out of the park. (And they needed to, because this season was stumbling.) Moreover, I agree with his reasons for identifying this as a standout episode.
But I also think this episode added some much-needed dimension to Burnham’s character, which I felt had been lacking. For example, I didn’t buy the idea that her youthful attempt to push away Spock so cruelly was enough to cause a decades-long rift between them.
But when Spock admonished her for thinking herself responsible for things that had nothing to do with her, and identifying that this came as the result of the childhood trauma of hiding in a closet while Klingons murdered her family, it made Burnham’s character feel more fully formed for me. I’m not sure if this is where we’re heading, but maybe the rift between them is in part due to Burnham’s stubborn belief that the trajectory of Spock’s life following her attempt to run away was her “fault.” Whereas Spock on some level resents what he sees as her condescending belief that his destiny was not his own.
I also never bought the idea that Burnham was responsible for the first season’s Federation-Klingon war. The series established from the very beginning that the Klingons in their xenophobia viewed the mere existence of the Federation as a threat and sent a vessel into Federation space with hostile intentions. Burnham just happened to be the one to set foot on it. The war was going to happen one way or another.
I also think it’s interesting that the Spock portrayed in Discovery is more emotional than the one we see in TOS. People have remarked on how the Spock portrayed in “The Cage” is not the one we’ve come to know and love. This was because the creators hadn’t yet decided on the emotionless, logical character who has become so iconic. It wasn’t an intentional character arc. But I like how Discovery’s writers have identified and are playing with that. It offers some interesting story potential.Anyway, Zack, I enjoy your reviews. Like I said, I don’t always agree but that doesn’t make me angry. It just gives me occasion to think about things from a different point of view. Thank you for that.
I’ll disagree with you on the Klingon war. Burnham beamed over with a clear mission, and a clear purpose: to capture T’Kuvma. It was explained that this was the way to defuse the situation, by deflating his status among the Klingons. It was also very clearly stated that were he to be killed, he’d become a martyr and war in his name inevitable. Those were the stakes.
And what does she do? She loses her self-control and kills him. The war is on her. This war, at least. Another that may have happened….may have started in another way. But to point to the inevitability of a Klingon-Federation war as a way to absolve her of personal responsibility for starting it does not hold water.
Mind you, it’s in line with the core ethos of Discovery….
I am probably the only one who feels this way but when the show first aired I wanted her to own the fact she started the War to save Federation lives. She would have been a calculating fierce character who showed little or no remorse. I will take this recent development though where she f8nakky drops the guilt.
I don’t remember Burnham showing that much actual remorse. The show quite quickly started shaping her redemption, and didn’t really dwell on the fallout except show the rest of the Discovery crew keeping their distance at first.
True. It would have been refreshing if she was allowed to embrace her actions instead of being redeemed imo. Storytelling is great because we get to see an honesty not always made available to us in everyday life. I felt it was sort of glossed over as her mistake instead of it being apart of her character. This was mediated a little bit when Spock gave the ‘writers’ explanation of her actions being brought upon as the result of her trauma when her parents were killed. It was so two dimensional though imo. A complex character that I would want to follow would have serious reasons for her actions. It wasn’t just an outburst from trauma but a rationale based on conviction. It would have been great to see that carry through, like ‘hey, I did what I thought was right’. Now we can tackle that as a human theme in a science fiction show. Maybe I will go back and watch those early episodes again but I thought an opportunity was lost to have genuine diversity of thought from characters. Redemption for characters can be a great tool, but I don’t enjoy it when it used to explain away the original character that I have been introduced to. If Georgiou didn’t die would she have ever second guessed her decision. Is she second guessing herself because the outcome is undesirable or because her world view was incorrect. Still, I am optimistic! If the show can quit struggling with itself about who people are and focus on themes I can forgive that it won’t be episodic. I can get behind a story arc. Just give me authentic sci fi. Be comfortable with the choices, let me build investment and move on to new questions.
I totally get what you’re saying.
While reading your comment again I remembered Lt. Valeris in ST:VI. She’s pretty much a character like you describe, making her controversial choices and sticking with them. Her jibe about “Klingons conspired with us to kill their own chancellor, how trustworthy can they be?” is one of the most memorable moments in that movie (Catrall’s delivery of it, almost mockingly defiant, really sells it, too) for exactly that reason. And although I’m not sure I wouldn’t gripe a bit about a show following her subsequent adventures -it’d probably be a little grim for my expectations of a Trek show- it would clearly be a bold, interesting choice. It would be analogous to…let’s say “your”…version of Burnham. But of course, then they couldn’t make her a
hero in the classic trek vein as they seem to have decided to do.
A final thing, again a subjective divergence of opinion. Back in “Battle of the Binary Stars” it seemed to me like Burnham’s actions weren’t just motivated by conviction. Trauma did play a part, and was essentially what drove her over the edge and into betrayal and mutiny. And it was what caused me concern, I couldn’t see how they could move forward with such a damaged character in a Trek story- and as you point out, they didn’t, they just papered over.
I hear where you are coming from but I respectfully disagree. I’m pretty much on Burnham’s side with her choices that were made under the all-consuming fog of those out of control circumstances that day. I don’t consider her a mutineer under the circumstances, or at least one that should be punished criminally. She didn’t do anything that day out of self-service or a criminal intent but in desperation to prevent significant loss of life (on both sides probably). Frankly I find what she did that day courageous and exceptional. She risked her career and her life’s dream for an uncertain outcome, but was willing to do so if it meant saving lives. It’s easy to follow orders over your own conscience. People do it every day, sometimes to terrible or evil effect, intentional or unintentional. She felt she was privy to information her caption didn’t have, and as XO and knowing that, she had a unique responsibility to challenge her CO if the situation was dire enough.Believe me I’m not a Mary Sue apologist, Im just with Michael on this one, because if it was me in that situation, I feel I might have made the same choice given all the variables involved. I may have to do a second rewatch regarding T’Kuvma, and you may be right, Burnham may have done wrong in seeking immediate vengeance for Georgiou, but IIRC by then the fighting and hostilities had already begun. There wasn’t much if anything her ship could have done to avoid open warfare that day, although none of the crew of the Shenzou knew it at the time. Burnham thought if they made a strong stand the Klingons would back off, unfortunately that didn’t happen, but I can’t blame her for thinking that based on the information she had to work with at the time. The only thing I could really point to that she could have possibly done in addition was to confer with Starfleet command to get authorization before proceeding, while continuing to discuss it with Georgiou. I’m not sure if it was shown specifically, but I took the fact that she didn’t was that there simply wasn’t time, or she didn’t perceive that there was, to do those things and that under any other circumstance she would have taken a more by the book approach; but it’s hard to proceed with perfection or caution when you’re taking sustained enemy fire, or afraid that you might be in any moment. So for those reasons I do stand by her in the decisions she made that day and I was surprised when the script chose A) skip over everything that happened next and B) show a Starfleet that wouldn’t take any of that into account and would throw away a good/great officer and (presumably) human being. I could see administrative sanctions being applied (reduction in rank, possible expulsion), but not severe criminal ones.So yeah, that’s just where I am with it. Feel free to let me know if you think I’ve overlooked any pertinent details.
I hear where you are coming from but I respectfully disagree. I’m pretty much on Burnham’s side with her choices that were made under the all-consuming fog of those out of control circumstances that day. I don’t consider her a mutineer under the circumstances, or at least one that should be punished criminally. She didn’t do anything that day out of self-service or a criminal intent but in desperation to prevent significant loss of life (on both sides probably). Frankly I find what she did that day courageous and exceptional. She risked her career and her life’s dream for an uncertain outcome, but was willing to do so if it meant saving lives. It’s easy to follow orders over your own conscience. People do it every day, sometimes to terrible or evil effect, intentional or unintentional. She felt she was privy to information her caption didn’t have, and as XO and knowing that, she had a unique responsibility to challenge her CO if the situation was dire enough.Believe me I’m not a Mary Sue apologist, Im just with Michael on this one, because if it was me in that situation, I feel I might have made the same choice given all the variables involved.I may have to do a second rewatch regarding T’Kuvma, and you may be right, Burnham may have done wrong in seeking immediate vengeance for Georgiou, but IIRC by then the fighting and hostilities had already begun. There wasn’t much if anything her ship could have done to avoid open warfare that day, although none of the crew of the Shenzou knew it at the time. Burnham thought if they made a strong stand the Klingons would back off, unfortunately that didn’t happen, but I can’t blame her for thinking that based on the information she had to work with at the time. The only thing I could really point to that she could have possibly done in addition was to confer with Starfleet command to get authorization before proceeding, while continuing to discuss it with Georgiou. I’m not sure if it was shown specifically, but I took the fact that she didn’t was that there simply wasn’t time, or she didn’t perceive that there was, to do those things and that under any other circumstance she would have taken a more by the book approach; but it’s hard to proceed with perfection or caution when you’re taking sustained enemy fire, or afraid that you might be in any moment. So for those reasons I do stand by her in the decisions she made that day and I was surprised when the script chose A) skip over everything that happened next and B) show a Starfleet that wouldn’t take any of that into account and would so quickly throw away a good/great officer and (presumably) human being. I could see administrative sanctions being applied (reduction in rank, temporary expulsion, some confinement), but not severe criminal ones; certainly not LIFE. That’s as if she intentionally collaborated with the Klingons to attack a SF vessel with the intent to destroy it along with all hands on board.So yeah, that’s just where I am with it. Feel free to let me know if you think I’ve overlooked any pertinent details.
I’m glad the Admiral is back on board, just so my eagerly awaited bit of dialogue can now happen:Alien on viewscreen: “What is your name, Captain?”Cornwell: “Don’t tell him, Pike.”
She’s Airlockiam now…
Oh the silent credits.. are we supposed to mourn for an undeveloped character that was pretty much a red-shirt? They do watch a lot of GOT, we knew that already, but in GOT at least they make you care about a character before they kill him/her (so maybe try with Michael? 😉 )
I hope Disco has an efficient shrink/therapist on board, otherwise poor Burhnam will soon self-combust from the angst they keep adding to her miserable life.
I kind of like this Spock, more than I thought I would.
Just dig on my man there off McCoy’s right shoulder. Discovery has been paying attention, clearly…but to weird, weird minor details in lieu of big things. Big things like, “How does this Federation?” and “Section 31 – secret thing”
So did everyone suddenly come down with a case of the stupids, especially in the last 15 minutes?After Burnham locks Ariam in the airlock chamber, you think she might take a second to help commander Nhan find her breathing apparatus? Then she pops up at the end, “Oh, I found it! Don’t worry about me. I’m fine. Thanks for caring!”
When they had no choice but to open the air lock to stop Ariam did noone think, “Hey, let’s get a transporter lock on her and beam her directly to the brig?Not only would it have saved her life but then we might get to explore the character more so I might actually feel something for the character. How do you expect a dramatic, tearful moment in the death of a character we barely know? A couple of memory flashbacks in her data files in a single episode does not make up for nearly two seasons of being a background character on the bridge.Perhaps not the worst episode but I think the praise for this episode is overstated.
Oh! What if Airaim pitched into space and left for dead crashes onto a machine planet where she is rebuilt ala V’Ger and she is the original Borg queen?
just watched the first season on DVDs from the public library (no thanks to the idea of paying for another streaming service, CBS) and have started re-reading zack’s reviews with more than just idea curiosity about whether the show would be worth checking out someday.and while i absolutely agree with the broader issues surrounding the show (why make it a prequel? why focus on klingons that don’t look anything like any klingons we’ve seen before? why the heretofor unknown sarek relationship? etc…), i think it’s interesting and clearly passionate in it’s performances and writing to be a welcome inclusion to the franchise.this latest episode (which i haven’t seen and probably won’t for another year or so) sounds like one which addresses perhaps my biggest complaint about the first season, which basically sacrificed character for serialization. aside from burnham, lorca, saru, tilly, stamets and tyler, i would have had no idea who most of the other characters were – the only reason i learned some of their names was because i had closed captioning on and slowed down the closing credits, but there was essentially no effort put into introducing us to those characters or building any sort of connection with them.and, as someone who absolutely loved the tapestry of characters on DS9, that was a little disappointing. it doesn’t take much – even just having geordi resignedly admit that his visor causes him pain in the first few episodes of TNG did more to personalize him than pretty much any of the random background players on DISCO. hell, even back in the hoary old days of TOS, we got to know the bridge crew either through tiny scenes or the exposition of others – i mean, Sulu was very much a second-string presence for much of TOS, with few opportunities to do more than call out the speed of the ship… but those few opportunities, to reveal his love of fencing or caution other bridge crew about matching wits with Spock, were there and they made the Enterprise a vibrant place that gave the viewer a connection to the entire ship and crew.basically, my complaint boils down to the fact that, after watching the first season of DISCO, i still have no idea who almost any of these people are and that makes it difficult to connect with them on any but the most superficial level. i’ll check out the next season when they come through at the library but that’s about the most enthusiasm i can muster at this point – cautious optimism, same as when i sat down to watch the first episode a few days ago.
I’m late to this episode but it was good even though I’m sad that we lost such a great example of character design. Airiam really was beautifully made.However I’m going to predict that she floats around in space for a good few centuries before being revived in the future and returning to the present as the Red Angel. Or maybe I’m looking for excuses for them to bring her back.
it would be a lot cooler if she (like Marvin in the Hitchhiker’s Guide) existed for eons & remained viable…& I’d be less inclined to roll my eyes than if it’s Burnham…not sure how she “restores” herself but if she was out there until after Control is no more then you could skip the need to purge that bit first…just needs daling with before suiting up & heading back in time in search (presumably) of “inflection points”…so I rather like that idea…
Very good episode, but Airiam feels like a missed opportunity. Her look was striking (like an offspring of Nebula and Data) and her origin was completely mysterious. We didn’t even know she was human before this episode!Having a human gradually transformed into an android feels like a path for quite a few great storylines. It was shortsighted thinking to get rid of the character before having done anything with it.
Can we talk about how last episode Pike asked everyone on the bridge if they were on board with going rogue and becoming fugitives and then proceeded to disobey Starfleet’s rules, but ignoring all hundreds (thousands) of other officers and basically kidnapping them?????
Apart from it being an established convention in film and TV, I think that there’s also an implication throughout Trek that the people on the bridge are basically department heads or section chiefs or similar, so in a way they speak and represent the crew in general.
I understand the convention, but I always laugh imagining all the rest of the ship changing sides and committing treason without even knowing it.
There’s a lovely beat in B5 where they’re about to do something wildly risky and illegal, the commander makes the conventional speech about “if anyone disagrees, leave now”, and as the camera pans across the bridge crew one guy just takes off his headset and walks out.
I’ll admit there’s plenty of precedent for the sacrifice play in Trek, but this was the most pointless one since Data’s “Brent Spiner demands a hero moment” in Nemesis. This season we have had multiple times they put the whole ship in jeopardy to save a crewmember, because WE ARE STARFLEET WE DON’T LEAVE SOMEONE BEHIND. But like five minutes into Airiam’s breakdown it’s “throw her out the airlock.” Like, eventually they had to lose a crew member so they could regroup or whatnot, but it’s so abrupt.
Good episode, however i did wonder why noone bothered to check upon Nahn. Not Michael in a break of the fight, not any bridge office, no officer monitoring life signs of the away team, no Pike who brought her over from Enterprise. No-one bothered. Could Airiam be the first Borg Queen, or more probable, could Airiam be the Red Angel?
Oh en BTW, where are Leland en Shenzoui, who are supposedly in charge of Section 31?This could very well be why Section 31 is going underground (being dismantled or something) and which could lead to why its such a secretive organization by the time we reach DS9
There are only five people aboard Discovery whose deaths would resonate whatsoever, and two of them can’t die because they’re Spock and Pike and this show is a prequel. Airiam, whose name I likely could not have told you prior to this episode was definitely not one of the other three (Burnham, Tilly, Stamets). This was an incredibly cheap and obvious learn about a crew member so when they die it’s totally significant trope. It did not work. Not to mention that she died in a very stupid way. I don’t believe there was any reason they were incapable of beaming Airiam back, and directly into the brig.
“Section 31 has no headquarters.” – Luther SloanMan, at every turn, this show reminds me how much better it would be if it stuck to the original conception of Section 31. So very, very much better.
What was the original concept? If it was from TOS I’ve never watched that series.
The thing that makes me roll my eyes every time we see an interaction with a Control-reanimated-human, is that it has an ego. It argues with people. It explains why it’s killing Leland before it kills and reanimates him. It quips with Spock when he attempts a Vulcan nerve pinch (“that would be effective – if I still had nerve endings”). Why would a computer program do that? It wouldn’t. That ruins it for me.
I got CBS all access to binge during lockdown, so I am only just now watching Discovery. After all the times Zack has complained about not laying the emotional groundwork, I am really surprised that he is willing to let this episode skate. The scene with deleting memories and the brief exchange with Tilly was a great way to make a powerful reveal about the character without a lot of tortured dialogue (ahem). Or, it would have been, if it had been done before we knew she was compromised. The superhappy memory not so much, it felt more like a cheap and easy substitute for backstory. Still, I did find the ending effective, largely because of Tilly. Saving the world by reminding the threat “You are human and you love me” is not my favorite trope. The only time I’ve seen it done really well is with Xander and evil Willow. But Tilly sold it for me, especially when (and this is where the superhappy memory paid off) she downloaded the memory, not as a last ditch attempt to save the day, but to comfort Airium as she dies. What really bothered me was the security officer. She seems to know something is up, and is watching Airiam after she sends Tilly away, and absolutely nothing comes of it. She doesn’t report her suspicions to anyone, she doesn’t do anything to stop or slow the download, she doesn’t keep an eye on Airium once they beam down, and she seems as surprised as anyone when they get the message from Pike. Also, she’s not prepared for the ripping-the-mask-off move in the fight, after she was basically told “I will rip your mask off when the time comes.”