(As a placeholder for the series-spanning writeup, i hereby accept STD into the canon...but barely, ever so barely. Its almost unforgivable flaw is that it fetishizes violence like no TREK ever [except the non-canonical abrams]. And it doesn't move the original vision forward, only sideways like DS9 and VOY - here, we have a gay regular plus a female regular who would never be found on a catwalk, which are both great...but the other core flaw is the absence of allegorical social relevance. A couple episodes touch upon TREK themes, but that's it. As of now, no STD qualifies for this writer's franchise-wide best-of marathons.)
FOUR-STAR EPISODES: 0
AVERAGE EPISODE RATING: 2.07
-The Vulcan Hello **
A century after ENTERPRISE (and ten years before the classic), during which time there has been no klingon contact, the U.S.S. Shenzhou is lured into a standoff with a prophet of kahless trying to reunite all the houses for a war against the Federation. The humyn first officer, raised on Vulcan by sarek and convinced that war can be avoided by striking first, attempts a mutiny. There are no flashes of chemistry, only adequate acting. Nothing about the writing makes it recognizable as TREK. With tension but little else, an inauspicious debut.
-Battle at the Binary Stars **
First officer burnham is tossed into the brig...while all Stovokor breaks loose as the klingons (now with twenty-four houses present) attack the Federation fleet. Mass destruction and death ensue, followed by an audacious raid designed by burnam. They cripple the klingon flagship and kill their leader, but their own captain (michelle yeoh - SUNSHINE, MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA) is killed. Burnam is sentenced to life imprisonment for mutiny.
-Context is for Kings **
Burnam's prison shuttle is intercepted by the USS Discovery, and she's conscripted by captain gabriel lorca. An experimental propulsion system could, if successful, win the klingon war. A sister ship working on the same technology suffers total disaster. Shipmates new and old treat her with mistrust, except for her nervous, insecure roommate. The captain has secrets...
-The Butcher's Knife Cares Not for the Lamb's Cry **
An admiral questions whether lorca's tactics are too rash. Discovery discovers that a possibly-sentient, spore-friendly being is needed as a conduit to make the experimental drive work, and they use it to save a colony, but at risk to the creature's life. A TREK theme resurrected! Plus klingon intrigue and betrayal...then they capture lorca.
-Choose Your Pain **
Lorca is in a brutal klingon brig, with an unknown junior officer and...harry mudd (rainn wilson - THE OFFICE, SUPER)! Treachery and collaboration culminate in an escape, in which mudd is left behind. Needing the spore drive to rescue lorca, physicist lt. paul stamets hooks himself to it. He survives...but at what cost?
-Lethe ***
Discovery follows a burnham mind link to sarek, who is dying alone on a ship that's been sabotaged by vulcan extremists. Sarek tries to push michael's link away. An admiral visits, determined to discover the truth behind lorca's recklessness. She and lorca have sex...
-Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad **
I SO wanted to give this three stars, but the narrative gets wonky and unfocused at the end. The first TREK appearance of the real, non-android stella mudd should have been one of the funnier moments ever, but...otherwise, you have crewmembers partying (techno versions of Bee Gees, al green, and "Jump Around"...YES!), while harry mudd transports aboard and keeps initiating thirty-minute time loops, until he figures out how to commandeer the ship, to sell to the klingons. It's not as playful as a mudd episode ought be, and the choice to make him homicidal is probably irreconcilable with his established character, but it's brisk and fun.
-Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum **
Burnham, saru, and ash have an away mission on a planet with ethereal sound beings who might help them see through klingon cloak technology, but the beings have another agenda. Well, it ain't bad...though i guess i already said that in the rating.
-Into the Forest I Go **
Discovery must make 133 consecutive short jumps to unlock the secrets of the klingon cloak, which fries stamets' brain. Burnham and ash rescue the admiral on the klingon ship of the dead. With one final jump, they end up in an unknown universe.
-Despite Yourself ***
They're in the classic mirror universe! Discovery must transform itself to a reality where lorca is a treasonous fugitive, burnham is a captain presumed dead, and sylvia is the blood-soaked Discovery captain. Ash begins manifesting a klingon personality, and a deep scan reveals he was surgically transformed...and he kills the doctor to keep it secret. This high rating is unusual, given that there's minimal mirror interaction, but sylvia's fumbling transformation into "captain killey" is a delight.
-The Wolf Inside **
Tilly works to heal stamets' brain with spore therapy, so Discovery might return home. Burnham is aboard her own mirror universe ship, enduring the strain of passing as its brutal captain, with the renegade lorca to be given to the empress. She disobeys orders to destroy a klingon-led, inter-specieal rebel base. Mirror sarek is among them, and mind-melds with burnham. The empress is revealed as the mirror of captain georgiou, whom burnham betrayed.
-Vaulting Ambition **
Stamets meets his mirror self inside the mycelial network. Tyler's klingon ego, genetically grafted into him, emerges...a conceit that strains credibility to the breaking point.
-What's Past is Prologue **
Sentenced to death for disobeying orders, burnham reveals to the empress her true nature...and figures out that lorca has been the mirror lorca all along, manipulating Discovery to get back to his universe and overthrow georgiou. His followers amassed, battle breaks out aboard the flagship, on which the abuse of spore power will lead to the destruction of all universes (the battle scenes are too glamorous/gratuitous for TREK). Discovery undertakes a suicidal mission to save all life. In good shakespearean (or bad TREK) fashion, the baddies all die and the goodies all live, floating home on mycelial shockwaves. Burnham brings the empress, rather than leave her to die.
-The War Without, the War Within **
This one feels a bit more familiar as TREK. Discovery returns to its own universe, but nine months later. The klingon war is nearly over, and not in a good way. Joined by the admiral and sarek (james frain - TRUE BLOOD, GOTHAM), a plan is hatched to take the war to Q'onoS, using georgiou's knowledge of the klingons.
-Will You Take My Hand? **
Georgiou is given command of the mission to end the war...though she doesn't reveal her plan to destroy Q'onoS altogether. An away team must navigate an orion embassy village, while facing hard moral choices. One star lost for a too-easy ending, plus a back-patting denouement that's not quite earned. Nice things happen here, though - i started to care about these characters (after only fifteen episodes, hmm). Plus, the depiction of scantily-clad females (and males) is less gratuitous than in TREK's past. It would have been more morally responsible to do without the gratuitous violence, but progress must be acknowledged. Plus, the first veteran TREK actor appearance - clint howard (GENTLE BEN, APOLLO 13), as a seedy orion!
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