01 November 2020

‘Star Trek: Discovery’ (CBS, season 2)

in Bucharest, Romania
Star Trek: Discovery CBS All Access season 2

After successfully negotiating a truce with the Kingon Empire and thus saving the Federation from the brink of extinction, the USS Discovery quickly finds itself under new leadership. Captain Christopher Pike from the USS Enterprise takes temporary command to investigate a series of mysterious signals originating from unexplored parts of the galaxy – and to search for his missing First Officer Spock in the process.

Apparently, I am getting into a habit of writing about Star Trek: Discovery only as the next season airs, so it is high time to put down a couple of thoughts on the second season. Overall, I enjoyed it more than the first, but some new story lines felt more forced, straining my suspension of disbelief to levels seldomly reached by other series. Having a galaxy-threatening conflict as the main thread each season changes the structure and atmosphere significantly compared to classic Star Trek – more fast-paced action, less reflection and moral dilemmas.

I was impressed by the dramatic camera angles used frequently throughout the show, leading with an upside-down view of the scene – maybe it was supposed to remind viewers that the action takes place in space, where this unusual viewpoint would be natural. The pacing is tighter and more focused than in the first season, with each episode contributing significantly to the central plot, skipping occasional filler. This still allows for an interesting excursion into Kelpian culture and for several connections to places and events from The Original Series, something other Star Trek fans may appreciate more than me.

The plot itself though made little sense. The combination of time travel and AI rising threat is terribly cliché and done to death in science-fiction that mentioning every influence would probably take longer than both my reviews combined – think Terminator in the Star Trek universe. The fast action conveniently allows the show to neglect reasonable explanations, but I personally still cannot wrap my mind around the seven signals: how were they able to detect them in advance simultaneously (thus knowing to expect seven of them and where to look), while the signals originated in different parts of the galaxy, some thousands of light-years away? That implies the power output and timing were designed specifically to reach Federation space at roughly the same time and apparent brightness. The in-show answer is basically: ‘time travel works in mysterious ways’, but I do not find that particularly satisfying. And why does every major plot ark on Discovery have to revolve around Michael Burnham?!

In the two-part finale, the second season does manage to clean up the continuity issues introduced in the first, from the spore drive to Spock’s inexistent sister, which I am counting as a major positive for the series. I was a little disappointed that they decided to revive a character killed in the previous season, through more made-up science bordering on magic, but it at least had emotional significance. And as before, Emperor Georgiou, now reformed into a position at Section 31, has constantly stolen the show with her witty-bordering-on-maniac remarks. For me at least, that rumored Section 31 series cannot come soon enough!

Speaking of the new series in the Star Trek universe, it’s puzzling how their international distribution rights have been split up: Discovery is airing on Netflix, along with the previous installments, but Picard was available only on Amazon Prime, and the animated series Lower Decks is on neither as far as I can tell. I don’t plan on starting another subscription service just for watching Picard. Their strategy doesn’t seem to make much sense – I would think it would be more profitable to sell distribution rights outside the US to multiple streaming services to reach more viewers.

My rating: 4.0

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