[5.8/10] This was a really disappointing end to what's otherwise been Discovery's best season. I don't mind action in my Star Trek, but this was (a.) pretty mediocre action and (b.) seemed ironically disconnected from the stories and themes of the season. It's like they dropped an unrelated mid-budget action movie into Discovery for some reason, with none of the emotional resonance or plot-relevance the show's been generating in its third season. This was basically "Burnham and company punch things, jump off of things, and blow things up" for an hour.
That said, I did like the story with Saru and company in the Verubin Nebula! It felt like pure Trek, in the sense that it was a crazy space anomaly, resolved through bonds between character, with a thematic aim of having courage to face the scary risks of what's beyond our doorsteps. They overexplained a lot of the mechanics of The Burn, but the core of that material was still good.
That said, from there, the episode was just an onslaught of random solutions to random problems, convenient narrative shortcuts, and unearned efforts to gin up emotion in the midst of false jeopardy. I didn't buy for a second that the show would let Tilly and the B-Team die, or that Burnham wouldn't escape the warp core explosion, or that Saru and company would perish in the nebula, and the show didn't really include enough tension or costs from these close shaves to make them seem worthwhile.
But hey, the status quo is reset, dilithium is safe and liable to make space travel easier going forward, and so maybe we can have more traditional Star Trek adventures going forward. Plus after 3 seasons, Burnham is officially captain (which is a little weird given that she almost bailed and recently got demoted, but that's a Star Trek tradition), which should be interesting.
On the whole, this was a really tepid finale to what was, nevertheless, a season that suggests Discovery's on an upswing. It still can't seem to get these big finales right, but it at least points the way forward in a way that gives me hope.
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParentSpoilers2021-01-07T17:21:17Z
[5.8/10] This was a really disappointing end to what's otherwise been Discovery's best season. I don't mind action in my Star Trek, but this was (a.) pretty mediocre action and (b.) seemed ironically disconnected from the stories and themes of the season. It's like they dropped an unrelated mid-budget action movie into Discovery for some reason, with none of the emotional resonance or plot-relevance the show's been generating in its third season. This was basically "Burnham and company punch things, jump off of things, and blow things up" for an hour.
That said, I did like the story with Saru and company in the Verubin Nebula! It felt like pure Trek, in the sense that it was a crazy space anomaly, resolved through bonds between character, with a thematic aim of having courage to face the scary risks of what's beyond our doorsteps. They overexplained a lot of the mechanics of The Burn, but the core of that material was still good.
That said, from there, the episode was just an onslaught of random solutions to random problems, convenient narrative shortcuts, and unearned efforts to gin up emotion in the midst of false jeopardy. I didn't buy for a second that the show would let Tilly and the B-Team die, or that Burnham wouldn't escape the warp core explosion, or that Saru and company would perish in the nebula, and the show didn't really include enough tension or costs from these close shaves to make them seem worthwhile.
But hey, the status quo is reset, dilithium is safe and liable to make space travel easier going forward, and so maybe we can have more traditional Star Trek adventures going forward. Plus after 3 seasons, Burnham is officially captain (which is a little weird given that she almost bailed and recently got demoted, but that's a Star Trek tradition), which should be interesting.
On the whole, this was a really tepid finale to what was, nevertheless, a season that suggests Discovery's on an upswing. It still can't seem to get these big finales right, but it at least points the way forward in a way that gives me hope.