By Jarman Day-Bohn
Last night's mid-season finale (is anyone else besides me frustrated by this new trend of mid-season finales?) of Star Trek: Discovery, "Into the Forest I Go," was a very fulfilling action-thrill ride; reminiscent of some of the best space battle episodes of Deep Space Nine back in the day. Spoilers ahead!! .....
Before I say ANYTHING else about the episode, I would be remiss if I did not mention 2 of the HUGE firsts we encountered on this episode:
- The first kiss on screen between two men in Star Trek
- The first onscreen appearance of nude Klingon BOOBS!
Ok maybe the second one is just my inner 12-year-old coming out, (but it still did happen, and my mind is scarred for life) but the first "first" was incredibly significant. Especially since it was done so well. And by "it" I mean the whole relationship with Stamets and Culber was built up beautifully over the previous eight episodes, and this quick kiss was meaningful and touching and heart-wrenching because there was a very real possibility that Stamets would not make it out of the spore drive alive. Outside of the story within the episode, on the more meta side of things Stamets and Culber's relationship and representation of two gay men on screen means so much to those in the LGBT community who have never seen their lives reflected properly in Star Trek until this point. (The brief encounters Riker has with an androgynous alien in TNG and Dax's kiss with another Trill who is currently in a female body but used to be a male on DS9 were great, and in the right direction of progress, but the Culber/Stamets relationship really breaks that glass ceiling.) My point is, if their relationship was not done well, and felt forced for the point of progressiveness on a TV show, I still would have been all for it, but it would have given the mouth-breathing haters of the world something more to rail about. I'm sure they will still be all up and arms about having LGBT representation on Star Trek, but they will seem all the dumber for it since it was also done so well, and not forced at all.
Now, back to the rest of the episode...
People may dis the spore drive and think it's a bit too much technobabble and that it takes up too much of the plot arc of the show, but this episode used it beautifully. When the Discovery was twirling and jumping all around the Klingon ship, shooting it over and over again, blasting in and out of existence, I was nearly cheering and jumping out of my seat. Frankly, it was badass.
Meanwhile the scenes with the away mission team of Michael and Ash infiltrating the ship were thrilling as well. I was so happy to see Admiral Cornwell alive! I didn't think she was dead initially, but after seeing her talk on the CBS/Star Trek: Discovery after show "After Trek" last week, it made it seem like she was gone for good. She's an awesome character so far, and I can't wait to see what she has in store for Captain Lorca, since she was about to report to Starfleet that he is unfit to command. The last few scenes with him you can tell that he is shaking in his Starfleet issued boots.
Ash Tyler has a bout of PTSD from his torture session with L'Rell. I'm still in the camp that Ash Tyler is actually Voq (our old friend, the albino Klingon) - Either genetically altered or his consciousness moved into a human body. But this episode leads me to believe that he is a sleeper agent. He doesn't know that he is Voq, until L'Rell or someone else says the code word to awaken his memory. This is evidenced by his genuine anguish and trauma from the memories he has of his torture. I believe that these torturous memories are actually screen memories of his painful surgery to turn him from Klingon to human, but I could be way off with that one. Nothing wrong with a little WILD speculation! Then we also have the scene with L'Rell in the cell at the end of the episode, where Ash Tyler kneels before her in emotional anguish and she says, "I'll never let any of them harm you." It's gotta be Voq!
Nearly everyone in the group I was watching the episode with were expressing their exasperation over the continuous subtitles and gutteral Klingon language. And right as our frustrations with it reached an all time high, Michael finally starts to use the universal translator with them! FINALLY! Hopefully they will use this as an excuse to have the damn Klingons speak English from now on. I thought the transition from them speaking Klingon to English was done very well on screen.
Then we have the climactic, cliff-hanger ending of our crew and the Discovery being transported to what seems to be an alternate universe, with Stamets a mumbling pile on the ground, with white eyes, talking about how he can see "everything." Are they in the mirror universe? Will that create mass hysteria among rabid Trek fans? Well....we'll have to wait until JANUARY to find out.
Let us know in the comments if you think you have any idea where the hell this show is going to go in the future. Is Ash Tyler really Harry Mudd? Is Captain Lorca really an Orion Slave Girl?!!