3x08 The Sanctuary

[6.1/10] There is way too much going on in “The Sanctuary”, to the point that it feels like the powers that be at Discovery designated this one as a specific “odds and ends” episode, in which to deposit every sidestory and subplot that didn’t really have the time or justification to warrant their own episodes otherwise.

Some of those subplots are good, some of those subplots are meh-to-bad. But on the whole, the episode feels too scattershot and ping pong-y to feel complete as an hour of television. So let’s take things one-by-one, in no particular order.

For starters, we have what feels like the season’s Big Bad, Osyrra, who emerges beyond the halfway mark of the season. She is definitely a letdown. All we get of her is a mustache-twirling baddie who chews scenery and works, at best, as a vague counterpoint to the Federation. I like what she represents -- a mercenary “power is virtue” antithesis to Starfleet principles -- but the execution turns into someone who’s just a generic movie villain without enough shading or quality in the performance to make her compelling as an antagonist.

For another, we have a stand off between Book, who’s worked to thwart Osyrra’s influence on his home planet, and his empathic brother who’s worked to aid her. Here again, I like the concept of the conflict. Book favors doing what’s right, even if it means speaking truth to power and putting yourself at risk, whereas his brother goes along to get along, particularly because he doesn’t want his son to starve. There’s understandable motivations and conflicts there, which are always something I like from a writing perspective.

The execution is just astoundingly generic and cheesy though. Book’s brother in particular gives an overblown performance that’s too severe and over the top to feel real. The conflict is drawn in a cheesy fashion, and their pugilistic standoff in the forests of Book’s home planet makes very little sense. The notion that the Discovery can just amplify their empathic powers to solve the infestation of alien locusts Book and his people have trying to fix for centuries feels like deus ex machina, even if something similar happened with Saru and the Kelpiens, and it’s an especially unsatisfying solution for a problem that was introduced as something intractable in the very same episode.

I guess it motivates non-joiner Book’s sudden desire to become a part of Starfleet. You can write it off as him seeing the potential for large-scale problem solving that the Federation represents, and more relatably , you can see it as an excuse for him to stay with Burnham since she’s decided to reaffirm her connection to this institution in the last episode. But the whole thing plays out as too convenient, and the relationship between Book and his brother is sketched out in too rushed a manner for it to really have the emotional force the show seems to want for it.

But hey, let’s go with something cheesy that I liked nevertheless. There’s something a little too easy about the paternal relationship that Stamets has with Adira, but I like it nonetheless. It’s telling (in the sense that Adira literally tells her mentor how significant it is) that Adira feels comfortable asking Stamets to use her preferred pronouns. The scene that follows, where Stamets and Dr. Culber seemingly go out of their way to use them as a show of good faith, is corny but sweet.

You can tell that Adira appreciates it and, more to the point, that they’re touched that Stamets and Culber accept them as non-binary without fuss, a form of accept Adira for who they truly are. It’s not lost that there’s also a symbolism to two performers from Rent, a show that increased public awareness and acceptance for issues facing the gay community at the time are, in effect, passing the torch to another young performer advancing non-binary representation. The line, “Pride, it suits you,” is a little on the nose in terms of dialogue, but it comes from a good place, and I appreciate how this moment is true to the Star Trek spirit of acceptance and representation.

We also see Dr. Culber interacting with Georgiou, and I gotta tell you, it's the pits. I don’t know if Georgiou’s snarky dialogue just varies too much from writer to writer, or if Michelle Yeoh has good days and bad days, but every line she uttered was facepalm-level bad here. Again, I like the idea, that Georgiou’s condition is akin to Alzheimers or similar degenerative conditions where an older parent has trouble accepting that they need help, but the way Discovery goes about it here is really terrible.

We also get some hints at broader arc material in the show. Stamets, Adira, and Tilly are able to isolate the source of The Burn, and it turns out to be some crazy nebula. Sure enough, it just so happens that the nebula is transmitting the same tune that Burnham overheard with the sick aliens and that Adira played on their cello. It’s very Battlestar Galactica, which is by no means a bad thing, but makes me want some sort of new wrinkle or twist to make it interesting and different. The closest we get here is the reveal that it’s a Federation distress signal, but we’ll have to see how that shakes out, since it’s more of a tease than a confirmation of anything.

We also get the continued development of Saru and Tilly as a command team. The comedy in this episode is pretty tepid, but I have to admit, it’s pretty adorable to watch Saru trying out different signature lines akin to Captain Picard’s “Make it so.” Likewise, I love the moment when Ryn bursts into Saru’s ready room demanding to speak with the captain and Tilly dresses him down and tells him to show proper respect. There’s some nice showing rather than telling with Tilly growing into the role, and I dig it.

Likewise, Saru’s growth as a leader is palpable as well. I like his creative problem-solving here, suggesting the Federation proceed as “observers” to Book’s home planet to deter Osyrra without explicitly getting involved. Likewise, Tilly’s plan to use a Starfleet pilot in a Book’s ship “going rogue” to avoid the space equivalent of an international incident is pretty silly if you think about it for too long, but it has the baseline plausibility to work in the moment.

We do get slightly more development with Detmer, seeing her continue to doubt herself, but have a moment where she comes through in the clutch. It’s still not entirely clear what they’re building toward here, beyond the hints that Control is still within her, but it’s a nice mini-arc. Similarly, Ryn is kind of annoying as a presence, but the reveal that Osyrra wants him captured so badly because he knows she’s running out of dilithium is an interesting angle.

Overall, this whole episode is too jumbled and diffuse to really get your hands around in terms of substance. There’s a lot of ideas, and few of them fit together in any meaningful way. Some of the stories are good, or at least endearing, and some of them are awful. But hopefully this is all in service of the greater good, planting seeds or moving things along in this grab bag of an episode so that the show can harvest them in a more fulsome manner down the line.