Star Trek: Discovery - "Vaulting Ambition" - Season 1 Episode 12 Review

By Jarman Day-Bohn

Source: CBS

With this episode and the last, we now have two major reveals exposed: Ash Tyler is somehow Voq, and Captain Lorca is actually from the mirror universe. If you are like me, you may have already had those reveals spoiled for you in the form of fan theories from various Star Trek forums and podcasts. If you don’t over-expose yourself to those, then you might have been very surprised by these twists and turns.

Source: CBS

Even though I already guessed these surprises, I still found them very satisfying due to the extremely tight writing, but even more because of the excellent performances. Jason Isaacs is a solid veteran performer, and both Sonequa Martin-Green and Shazad Latif as Michael Burnham and Ash Tyler/Voq respectively continue to surprise me. Martin-Green really has come into her own as an actress this season, and since she really has to be the audience surrogate for all these surprises, it’s a tough job to constantly give us satisfying performances of the depth of these reveals. And Latif really makes me feel the transition between tortured Tyler into a truly frightening Voq.

Source: CBS

Each and every character has been developed more and more over this season so far, with the exception of Keyla Detmer (played by Emily Coutts, the officer with the damaged face from the battle of the binary stars, with the cool half fade haircut), but they keep giving her more and more screen time, hinting that she will be more important and prominent later on in the series. I am saddened that Stamets has spent so long in a state of coma/insanity, because I miss his firey personality in relation to the other characters. And of course, along with that, we have the loss of Culber, who does actually return in this episode in the form of a vision in Stamets’ clouded brain. I am hoping, along with so many other fans out there, that Culber still returns to the show in some capacity, whether it be through some weird time travel loophole or via his Mirror Universe counterpart. If they can pull it off organically somehow that the Mirror Universe Culber permanently joins the Prime Universe Discovery crew and once again falls in love with Stamets, I will be a very happy man, but I know this would be difficult to happen without feeling forced.

Source: CBS

Speaking of loopholes, I am wondering how they plan to retcon many inconsistencies already taking place in the timeline of this show with the rest of Star Trek canon. Included in this is 1) There is no mention or repercussions of Starfleet ever having a spore drive in shows that take place after this one, and 2) Starfleet seems to be completely unaware of the Mirror Universe when it “first” shows up in the original series, which takes place after this. So…either some weird time travel stuff goes down to where none of this ever happened, or they get back to the Prime Universe and Starfleet keep all these activities and the spore drive completely under wraps in such a top secret fashion that Kirk and his crew would not be told of it even when they report their Mirror Universe activities back to Starfleet Command. I really do hope they come up with some explanation for all this, otherwise that would feel just a bit lazy to me, and a bit of a cheat to true fans out there. I really would only take one line of explanatory dialog to retcon it and I’d be happy with it.

Source: CBS

I should also mention the reveal of Captain Georgiou being the Emperor in the mirror universe. I don’t know if it’s just me, but I really didn’t care that much about that reveal. I know that story-wise that makes this more complicated between her and Michael Burnham because of their close relationship in the Prime Universe, but I really just am not riveted by Michelle Yeoh’s acting, and I just don’t buy her as this all powerful Emperor. For some reason, I think I would have enjoyed it more if Admiral Cornwell was the Emperor instead. But, c'est la vie.

So! Where is the Prime Universe Lorca? Dead? And I’m confused…so Ash Tyler was a real guy? Does that mean that Voq’s actual body is gone? But they said they reduced his bones…so did they get rid of the original Ash and just overlay his memories and take his face…off? What is the ISS Discovery up to in the Prime Universe if they did indeed switch places? What is Mirror Universe’s Lorca’s grand plan? Hopefully we find out the answers to this and more on next week’s Star Trek: Discovery! Let me know what you thought of the episode in the comments below!

Jarman is a proud Trekkie and Tolkienite, but really just goes crazy over anything sci-fi, fantasy or horror. He is also the co-host, editor and producer of the main A Play On Nerds podcast. Jarman spends his non-geek-media-consumption hours performing voice overs for various projects, which you can find at JarmanActor.com - See his random musings on his Twitter feed @HistrionicSpock

Star Trek: Discovery - "Into the Forest I Go" - Season 1 Episode 9 Review

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!

Source: CBS

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...

Source: CBS

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.

Source: CBS

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.

Source: CBS

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?!! 

Star Trek Discovery - "Lethe" - Season 1 Episode 6 Recap and Review

By Jarman Day-Bohn

Source: CBS

For those Trekkies out there that were worried about the format of Star Trek Discovery (among their many other worries), in that whether it would be serialized or procedural, I think that this week’s episode, Lethe, showed us that it will be a good mix of both. The story arc of the show is still present throughout, but this episode deals mainly with Michael Burnham’s past and her relationship with Sarek. I honestly believe that this is the first episode of Discovery where the crew has really come together and it is starting to feel like previous incarnations of Trek. When you boil it down, it’s your typical episode of: distress call, let’s go save them, oooo it’s in a dangerous nebula… Like so many of our favorite Trek episodes in the past!

Before we delve into the episode properly, I must first state that when I started streaming the show, everyone’s voice was severely lowered, like through a comedic audio effect. I knew I wasn’t crazy when Michael Burnham came on the screen and sounded like Leonard Nimoy! I restarted the CBS All Access app and it luckily went back to normal. So, ok, no big deal, right? Just a strange little hiccup. Then the real trouble began… Every couple of minutes, the stream would jump ahead 4-5 seconds, skipping over scenes and dialog. I had to rewind every time to see what I missed. Now yes, of course, this could be some fault of my otherwise perfectly working Amazon Fire Stick and super-fast internet, but needless to say, I was a little frustrated that the streaming service I’m paying for JUST to watch ONE show, was having streaming issues… Okay; first-world-problems-rant over. The next section is my lovely recap, but feel free to skip to the review section if you remember how everything went down perfectly.

Recap

Source: CBS

The episode starts off with what I think is a cool side story about Vulcan culture and the splinter group of radical logicists, who hate Vulcans associating with anyone other than Vulcans. (I think we can all see the parallels to that and real life right now…) We have Sarek travelling to speak to 2 Klingon houses in an attempt to end the violence, and one of the splinter group Vulcans on board his little ship tries to blow him up. Sarek manages to barely escape death, but is gravely injured. The Katra connection he shares with Michael immediately affects her, light years away from where he is. Michael knows Sarek is in trouble and begs Captain Lorca (against Starfleet orders) to rescue him. With Stamets’ help, they think they can use a neural link device to amplify Michael’s Katra link to Sarek to push him into activating his ship’s distress beacon. (Star Trek technobabble at its finest!)

 

Source: CBS

Michael jumps on a shuttle with Tilly and Ash Tyler, jumps into the nebula and dives into the neural link machine. She enters Sarek’s mind and finds herself in his memories, at the time of her graduation from the Vulcan academy. She finds out, with Ash Tyler’s help and encouragement, that she is in the memory of one of Sarek’s greatest regrets. Apparently Sarek was told that only one of his not-quite-Vulcan children (Spock and Michael) would be able to join the Vulcan Expeditionary Group, and without Michael knowing, he chose Spock over her. He regrets it because after choosing Spock, Spock rebels and joins Starfleet anyway, so he should have chosen Michael. Breaking through and confronting Sarek in this memory allows him to waken just long enough to activate his distress beacon and he is taken back aboard the Discovery and saved.

 

Source: CBS

Meanwhile throughout all this, Captain Lorca is on board the Discovery getting hot and heavy with Admiral Cornwell. It turns out, she was using her psychological expertise to test him out the whole time, due to his recent erratic behavior and refusal to follow Starfleet orders over and over again. When she touches one of the odd scars on his back while he’s sleeping (post-coitus), he jumps awake, grabs a phaser from under his pillow and grabs her by the throat, throttling her. She tells him he is unfit to command, and after she returns from the Klingon diplomatic talks that Sarek was going to attend, she will find him a replacement and get him psychological treatment. Of course, this doesn’t go well and she is kidnapped by the Klingons by the order of Kol. Suddenly, Lorca is struck with the glowing ethics and bureaucracy of Starfleet, (SARCASM) and decides to actually go through the proper channels before rescuing her.

 

Review

Like I mentioned at the beginning, I think this episode is the start of many more in the series that will feel more like old Trek, with a more problem-of-the-week feel, but with an ongoing story arc, similar to Deep Space Nine. For all the Trekkies out there that are Discovery haters, try to stay with it! You may be surprised by how you feel about the show by the end of this season. And besides…it’s not going anywhere. CBS just renewed Discovery for a second season! Huzzah!

Source: CBS

I really enjoyed how every character really played their part in this episode, from the engineer, to the doctor, to Lt. Saru and Michael, Tilly, Lorca and Ash Tyler! Speaking of Ash Tyler (possible future episode SPOILERS ahead) – The going theory out there is that he is actual Voq, but genetically altered and undercover on Discovery. I won’t go into the specifics of the theory, but it’s pretty much all but confirmed. I love this idea, because if you watch this episode with that in mind, it would seem as though Tyler/Voq is seeing humans and other races in a new light, and Michael is key in all this. Possibly he will be key in actually realizing peace between the Federation and the Klingons, being able to show the Klingons that the Federation is actually full of races worthy of partnership. This goes along with my theory that this whole show will be the bridge to the Federation truly becoming the peace-loving and super-progressive organization that they are by the time we reach the original series. If you watch this show under that lens, I think the whole show really comes together.

Source: CBS

I will mention briefly that Lorca and Tyler are seen toward the beginning of the episode in a holodeck type room, running a training simulation fighting Klingons. While canonistas out there might think this goes against Trek canon, and that there shouldn't be anything like that yet on a Starfleet vessel, I will point you to this section of the "Holodeck" Memory Alpha wiki page: 

Prior to the late 24th century, Federation starships were not equipped with holodecks. (VOY: "Flashback")
However, in 2151, the Starfleet vessel Enterprise NX-01 encountered a vessel belonging to an alien race known as Xyrillians, who had advanced holographic technology in the form of a holographic chamber similar to the holodeck, which Federation Starfleet developed two centuries later. A holo-chamber was later installed aboard a Klingon battle cruiser,
In the 23rd century, Constitution-class starships were equipped with a recreation room, which employed holographic technology. The USS Enterprise had a recreation room located in Area 39 of the ship. (TAS: "The Practical Joker")

Also…Lorca is from the Mirror Universe. I’m just putting it out there!