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4thofelevenIn which we get one more piece, and end up going backwards.
I have to say, I've never really been fond of the Trill – they've always felt like an interesting concept that none of the shows have really known what to do with properly. And “Jinaal” seems to continue that trend. Discovery's got a lot of mileage out of the Zhan'tara concept, but it's still a bit too much space-magic for my tastes, and while Wilson Cruz does an excellent job of fleshing out Jinaal as a unique character, and it's fun to meet one of the scientists who originally discovered the Progenitor's secrets and hear their justifications for hiding it, it honestly feels like this could be done just as well with a hologram or prerecorded message. The story doesn't really do much with the idea that Jinaal is a long-dead echo who knows his return is only temporary.
(I also feel the episode misses an interesting opportunity – the Progenitors created humanoid life, but presumably that means the Trill symbiotes aren't the product of their efforts. What do they make of all this?)
Breaking up Adira and Grey was unexpected, but seems like the writers realising that Adira wasn't well defined outside of their relationship with Grey. I'm not opposed to this – it's reasonable that a long-distance relationship wouldn't work, and that they both needed to reconsider their relationship after everything they'd been through, but I'm not sure there's enough time left in the season to really develop Adira as an independent character, and we might be losing an interesting relationship without really gaining anything to replace it.
Meanwhile, in “Face the Strange”, we get a strong episode that really shows how far Discovery has come. The writers have said they didn't know until after filming ended that season five would be the last, but it really feels like they must have seen the writing on the wall, given how much this episode feels like a resolution to Michael's arc.
A lot of praise has to go to Sonequa Martin-Green for her double act as modern Burnham and Season One Burnham. She really captures how the character was initially portrayed, down to holding herself differently and a much less relaxed pose. Honestly, she brings back season one Burnham so well that it almost weakens the resolution of the episode – It's not a major flaw in the episode, but being reminded of just how uncomfortable in her own skin Burnham was back then and how isolated she felt makes it hard to believe the rest of the crew would so easily trust her future self.
(Well, maybe Tilly. Wiseman also does a great job of making her past self feel distinct and closer to what she was.)
Maybe the main past sequence should have been set a bit later in the season, after Lorca was exposed?
I did really like the nod to Star Trek history in the nature of the mcguffin – of course black market Krenim tech would be one of the nastier legacies of the Temporal War!
A little disappointed that they didn't take advantage of the time jumping to finally work “Calypso” into continuity – it's always been a weird anomaly, a story that's clearly the writers playing around with ideas that Discovery would end up using in a slightly different fashion, and at this point is starting to look like the only episode of televised Star Trek to be rendered non-canonical. I have seen one clever explanation, though – Zora in the 'dark future' is confused about what's reality and what are her dreams, so Calypso could be one of her dreams in that timeline. It'd make sense – Calypso as a weird mix of what really happened with details that don't quite match works well as dream-logic. It's a fun idea.
I have to say, I've never really been fond of the Trill – they've always felt like an interesting concept that none of the shows have really known what to do with properly. And “Jinaal” seems to continue that trend. Discovery's got a lot of mileage out of the Zhan'tara concept, but it's still a bit too much space-magic for my tastes, and while Wilson Cruz does an excellent job of fleshing out Jinaal as a unique character, and it's fun to meet one of the scientists who originally discovered the Progenitor's secrets and hear their justifications for hiding it, it honestly feels like this could be done just as well with a hologram or prerecorded message. The story doesn't really do much with the idea that Jinaal is a long-dead echo who knows his return is only temporary.
(I also feel the episode misses an interesting opportunity – the Progenitors created humanoid life, but presumably that means the Trill symbiotes aren't the product of their efforts. What do they make of all this?)
Breaking up Adira and Grey was unexpected, but seems like the writers realising that Adira wasn't well defined outside of their relationship with Grey. I'm not opposed to this – it's reasonable that a long-distance relationship wouldn't work, and that they both needed to reconsider their relationship after everything they'd been through, but I'm not sure there's enough time left in the season to really develop Adira as an independent character, and we might be losing an interesting relationship without really gaining anything to replace it.
Meanwhile, in “Face the Strange”, we get a strong episode that really shows how far Discovery has come. The writers have said they didn't know until after filming ended that season five would be the last, but it really feels like they must have seen the writing on the wall, given how much this episode feels like a resolution to Michael's arc.
A lot of praise has to go to Sonequa Martin-Green for her double act as modern Burnham and Season One Burnham. She really captures how the character was initially portrayed, down to holding herself differently and a much less relaxed pose. Honestly, she brings back season one Burnham so well that it almost weakens the resolution of the episode – It's not a major flaw in the episode, but being reminded of just how uncomfortable in her own skin Burnham was back then and how isolated she felt makes it hard to believe the rest of the crew would so easily trust her future self.
(Well, maybe Tilly. Wiseman also does a great job of making her past self feel distinct and closer to what she was.)
Maybe the main past sequence should have been set a bit later in the season, after Lorca was exposed?
I did really like the nod to Star Trek history in the nature of the mcguffin – of course black market Krenim tech would be one of the nastier legacies of the Temporal War!
A little disappointed that they didn't take advantage of the time jumping to finally work “Calypso” into continuity – it's always been a weird anomaly, a story that's clearly the writers playing around with ideas that Discovery would end up using in a slightly different fashion, and at this point is starting to look like the only episode of televised Star Trek to be rendered non-canonical. I have seen one clever explanation, though – Zora in the 'dark future' is confused about what's reality and what are her dreams, so Calypso could be one of her dreams in that timeline. It'd make sense – Calypso as a weird mix of what really happened with details that don't quite match works well as dream-logic. It's a fun idea.
no subject
on 2024-04-29 01:50 am (UTC)