3x02 Far from Home

[7.4/10] I was worried about this one at first. Picking up the pieces after Discovery’s jump to the future after the events of last season’s finale was an exercise in clunky exposition and stilted exchanges between the characters. There’s a lot of throat-clearing that had to be gotten out of the way here: trying to establish the new situation, reaffirm everyone’s character beats after a long break, and try to suggest reasons why characters like Georgiou and Nhan came with our heroes to the future. Little of it worked, and most of it reminded viewers of the show’s frequent struggles in terms of dialogue and scene construction.

But once the show put that “quasi-series premiere” business behind it, it became...(gasp)...a regular episode of Star Trek! Sure, this is a new scenario with the leap into the further future, ships crashing down to the surface of a planet, and the great unknown being more unknown than usual. And yet if you break this one down to its essential elements, an away team having to deal with dangerous locals in the A-story, while some ailing engineers try to repair the ship in the B-story, feels like something you could see on The Next Generation, or even The Original Series.

That’s heartening, despite the newer and slicker packaging that Discovery has in tow. There’s a familiar rhythm to Saru, Tilly, and eventually Georgiou meeting some troubled locals, dealing with threats from their aggressors, and eventually saving the day despite some close scrapes and moral dilemma. Likewise, the issue with the ship that requires one of our officers to learn some personal lesson about themselves is a tried and true Star Trek plot. Discovery has to integrate those well-worn blueprints into its ongoing arc, and some of the dialogue (particularly in the Stamets subplot) is still pretty rough. But it still moves through those stories with aplomb.

The best part of Saru, Tilly, and Georgiou’s escapades in “The Colony” -- the title given to their mystery planet where they’re stranded that lacks a proper name -- is that it ties into the (seeming) major themes of this season. The Federation is more of a memory than a live concern, and with that, its ideals have faded in the years since The Burn. The question becomes, in this more scattered and dangerous setting, should our heroes follow Saru’s typical Starfleet diplomacy and moral righteousness, or should they give into Georgiou’s mercenary and at times brutal tactics in order to survive?

The answer that “Far From Home” offers is “a bit of both.” This mini-away team meets a beleaguered group of people who’ve been taken advantage of by everyone who’s come by. Cal is a true believer who thinks the Federation brings hope and compassion whereas his bartending friend treats our heroes as just another set of potential rivals or abusers. That scenario has extra weight, given how desperately in need of help and cooperation the Discovery crew is right now, giving their first, uncertain contact with folks in this brave new world extra importance.

That gets all the more complicated when we learn that the humble residents of The Colony exist under the thumb of Zareh, another “Courier” like Book, albeit one not nearly so pure in his goals. Instead, he basically runs a racket where he’s destroyed the locals’ ability to obtain food and supplies on their own, so that he can extract resources or funds or whatever else he wants in order to retrieve it for them, ruling them with a brutal hand each time he returns to collect payment and instilling a sense of fear in them.

There’s something tense in those scenes, particularly given guest star Jake Weber’s prediction toward playing Zareh like an ersatz version of Deadwood’s Al Swearengen. You sense the harshness this new frontier engenders in the galaxy’s populace, given the dog-eat-dog demeanor that everyone seems to have to have in order to survive.

That’s what makes it cool when Georgiou shows up to save the day. I’m still not crazy about the character, since the show tends to go pretty broad with Mirror Universe characters, especially her. But there’s an interesting sense that you need an amoral authoritarian to deal with the other amoral authoritarians in this future. Having someone who knows how to survive and thrive in a world of backstabbers and brutes could be an asset.

And yet, even when Georgiou is the key to defeat Zareh, Saru stops her from killing him. He doesn’t take Zareh prisoner, but instead turns him (and his ship) over to the skeptical bartender, reasoning that this is the locals’ planet, and it’s their right to direct their own destiny and handle justice on their own. He agrees to hold up his end of the bargain and give the locals the dilithium he promised even though he’s already retrieved the item he needs to get Discovery’s comms back online.

In short, Saru and Tilly are faced with the same sorts of ethical and tactical choices that Starfleet personnel in the past have faced. They choose to uphold the Federation’s ideals, more or less, even after Georgiou intervenes with a, shall we say, more aggressive approach. And in the end, they inspire the people they’ve helped to believe in what the Federation stands for. I imagine that will be a lot of what we do in season 3 of Discovery -- watch our time travelers face down difficult ethical choices in a grim world, holding onto their morality and rebuilding the Federation not just in terms of ships and space stations, but in terms of hearts and minds.

One such set of heart and mind belongs to Tilly, and I like the way the show grapples with her fear and still-budding efforts to become an officer here. Between Georgiou’s insults, Saru’s encouragement, and her own uncertain but growing confidence, this is a nice example of highlighting a character’s strengths and weaknesses and then putting them in a situation that tests both. It’s very sweet when Saru notes that this is first contact and Tilly makes a great first impression, but that’s tough when the people you’re meeting turn a phaser on you at first sight. Likewise, Georgiou paints Tilly as scared and incompetent, which makes her perseverance and help against the locals and Zareh’s goons that much more heartening.

I wish I could say the same about the B-plot with Stamets. His is still a corner of the show that I struggle with, if only because his relationship with Dr. Culber doesn’t have the easy rapport that the show seems to want it to, and Tig Notaro seems to having some trouble at convincingly delivering the sort of Star Trek dialogue that’s always been a little awkward, and is especially tricky with this writing staff. Still, there’s a good theme of admitting that you need help and not trying to push yourself too hard or too fast when you’re ill, which carries a lot of the weight here.
The only other element worth noting, and really the worst part of the episode aside from some clunkiness and throat-clearing, is the hint that we may not be done with Control. As dumb as the resolution of season 2 was, I am more than happy to call it a day on that storyline. The fact that Control’s nanites seem to have found their way into Detmer’s cybernetic attachment and are affecting her is not a prospect that enthuses me.

Still, we get an emotional reunion between the crew of Discovery and Burnham, in another instance where choosing to forbear and be diplomatic rather than blast away a potential threat pays off. The notion that Burnham has been rolling around the future for a year before the Discovery arrived is an interesting one, and giving the rest of the cast some time without her is a smart choice to establish a few things about where the crew stands before everyone’s reunited and back to business.

On the whole, there’s some parts of this one that feel tin-eared or awkward, as you can practically see the strings of Discovery trying to establish its new setting and new conflicts. But once “Far From Home” gets down to business, it becomes a flashier but familiar pair of Star Trek stories. That is, appropriately enough, a nice of hope, one that keeps the flame of the old ways alive even in our own grim and gritty future.