I think this is the most self-confident episode of Discovery we have had. Ironically given that the plot involves the crew of the ship having to prove themselves to the remaining rump of Star Fleet, this is an episode that acts like it has nothing to prove. Stronger than last week’s episode but it shares that quality of not being a stand-out episode of Trek in general while being clever, engaging, entertaining and visually brilliant. Where it has the advantage over past episodes is that it uses small moments to make use of a large cast.
Discovery has finally found the hidden remains of Star Fleet and the Federation. Do you want starship porn? Well we get a big glowy show of ships (including a version of Voyager) that makes the secret Star Fleet base feel more like Iain Bank’s Culture than earlier versions. There’s even a USS Nog for DS9 fans. Here the Discovery runs into an excellent threat: a reasonable, measured and quite rightly suspicious Star Fleet whose last records of a “USS Discovery” is a ship that was destroyed centuries ago and which also has very strict laws against time travel (a nod to Enterprise). Hey! Lots of inter-show continuity going on here but all done in nods and without interrupting the plot.
The threat to the ship comes in the form of military bureaucracy and I really like this. Star Fleet has gained a new ship and traumatised crew and so (arguably sensibly) wants to split up the crew and repurpose the ship. Saru and Burnham have other ideas (arguably sensible ones) and we voila! We have a dramatic conflict in which reasonable people are in conflict for reasonable reasons! No secret conspiracies or mirror universe doppelgängers , just two sets of people with different agendas.
OK, I mean we DO have a mirror universe doppelgänger in the form of Emperor Georgiou who gets her own time to shine in a debrief interrogation scene with Michael from the Good Place. No, no not actually a Ted Danson cameo but a flippin’ David Cronenberg cameo, as the future-Federation’s resident mirror universe specialist. If that and the rest of the crew’s debrief scenes (some very funny plot summaries of seasons 1 & 2) aren’t enough, we also have a mysteriously-abandoned-ship/base story.
The episode crams a lot in! Yet, it keeps things together and sticks to a good pace. The weakest part is centring security officer Nahn and her people’s culture. Yet even here the sense of unearned emotions arise from flaws in previous episodes. Nahn has been a character in 13 episodes of Discovery but prior to this episode, I would have struggled to remember her name or how she joined the crew. So we get a bit of a “Hello, I’m Commander Nahn. Here is a quick backstory about my people who are very unique because we breathe funny air but our culture has a thing about death, no time to explain what it is and I was very attached to the nice robot lady who died. Goodbye!”
Security Officer of Discovery is a position with a bit of a curse attached to it.
Five episodes in and so far I haven’t felt disappointed by a single one of them! Aside from Nahn, the only annoying thing was Saru’s version of the Dark Ages versus the Renaissance and given the time period is forgivable. Future Alien guy has a very potted & distorted take on human history? Technically that’s realism.
Anyway, David Cronenberg.
Cora’s review is here http://corabuhlert.com/2020/11/14/star-trek-discovery-is-determined-to-fulfill-its-mission-or-die-trying/
Camestros Felapton 
9 responses to “Star Trek Discovery: Die Trying (S3E5)”
I knew he looked familiar!
And he wanted to keep his glasses on during filming? Because he “they make me look smart” line didnt make much sense.
I found this episode quite soothing and it was a logical conclusion of previous episodes (although Tal was put aside quite fast). It was solid. Thats more than quite a lot of previous Disco episodes and a lot better than the “asleep at the wheel” – apeisode that took me off Voyager and Enterprise, but I hope they are able to surprise us a bit more in the next epsiodes (Im curious if there will be a number of “problem of the week” epidoes now or if they build a new arc for the season – because technically they have reached everything they strived for.
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It was a bit of an uneven episode but fun and did not turn the Discovery into gonzo space pirates, etc. The new Star Fleet was interesting and offered more info on another conspiracy arc — the Emerald Chain.
But as usual, there was the Trek plot wrangling that made no sense. Nahn was Pike’s security officer on the Enterprise and then came with him to Discovery. Her people were introduced in ST: TNG. She didn’t like the wild and whacky Disco crew that much until Airiam sacrificed herself to save Nahn and Burnham. Nahn felt very guilty about what happened in that sequence, the choices she made, and that was part of her deciding to stay with the Discovery crew into the future — she felt a responsibility to help protect them. She’s had a more substantial role than many of the bridge crew up until this season, but her ties with them aren’t as strong as the original crew has with each other.
So having her exit once the main mission was essentially complete — getting Sphere to the future and finding what remained of Star Fleet/Federation — made a certain amount of sense. But the way they did it was weird. Why would a seed ship containing all the Federation planets past and current’s seed stock be that small? Why would it be staffed with only one scientist and his family and no visible weapons systems in a future full of space pirates and hazards like ion storms? So as a maguffin, it was weak in the Star Trek tradition. Nahn feeling out of place and wanting to see what had become of her planet did make a certain amount of sense — she’s out of her time and having the same trauma as the rest of the crew, she’s less invested in Discovery’s science search ethos and she’s probably not going to fit into the new Star Fleet. But it might have helped to make that a bit clearer, both before this episode and in what she said during it.
Cronenberg’s investigator seems to be possibly a remnant of Section 31 in the future. His (iconic) glasses were being used as some sort of camera/spectrum analysis taking readings or images of Georgiou whenever he adjusted them. So that’s kind of interesting. Originally Empress G was going to be heading up a spin-off show on Section 31. So they may have changed that idea rather than just abandoned it altogether. At some point they are going to want to bring Book back into it, so some over-arching plotlines probably are going to develop around the mystery of the Burn.
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Thanks for pointing out that there was a use for his glasses. I missed that.
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He would touch the corner of the glasses, essentially as if he was taking a photo or some other analysis of her. And Georgiou basically knew it too, asking about the glasses. Cronenberg does things so elegantly that it was easy to miss though. There was clearly implied more going on since if the Mirror Universe hasn’t been heard from in over a century or more, why do they have an expert in it at the base and sitting in with her with what are “his” hologram interrogator programs for Discovery’s crew? So it seems likely that Star Fleet did not abandon having an intelligence wing, especially in the future as they’ve structured it.
The Burn is the over-arching Mcguffin mystery for the season (along with the now song clue) and the Emerald Chain will be the main conflict. Star Fleet base were worried that Discovery’s crew were spies for the Emerald Chain, as shown in the debrief, but their relating of their whacky adventures from the previous two seasons threw things for a loop, which was highly enjoyable. My favorite part of the episode was when Tilly, Stamets and Reno are all sniping at each other working the problem and the bewildered Star Fleet Lt. gets told, it’s our process. Yes it is, and that’s why this third season is really working for my husband and me. The future is designed for Discovery’s double-edged strengths — it’s filled with space pirates and smugglers, combative couriers, weird biology and frontier worlds because of reduced travel and communication — all the gonzo weirdness and off the cuff rogue maneuvers that are a thematic note of Discovery; and also the stuffed shirt, try to keep the flame alive, beleagured Star Fleet that Discovery tries to keep as their ideal. And none of it hampered by trying to squash all that into vintage Star Trek timelines and characters. They can do any special effect they want, any plotline, etc. It finally feels like the show has its own groove, though that’s partly because characters have been established or partially established over two seasons.
The seed vault was shielded but the scientist was trying to beam into the vault to check it when the blast happened. They made it sound like it was very fast. But yes, again, it was the most ill prepared important seed vault ever. It is a Trek tradition to do these things, so I wasn’t that annoyed, but I always hope that Star Trek shows improve their plots.
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//The future is designed for Discovery’s double-edged strengths — it’s filled with space pirates and smugglers, combative couriers, weird biology and frontier worlds because of reduced travel and communication — all the gonzo weirdness and off the cuff rogue maneuvers that are a thematic note of Discovery//
Very true
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I also wonder why the seed vault ship wasn’t equipped with decent shielding. Because the coronal mass ejection that killed the family of the scientist may well also have affected the seeds.
And Book will apparently be back next episode according to the “next time on Star Trek Discovery” trailer.
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I assume the inner bit was
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I’m very happy with how the season is going. Definitely an improvement over seasons 1 & 2 (no matter how much I liked Jason Isaacs *ducks*). Something’s definitely going on with Georgiou, though. I think the next episode will get into that further. I haven’t heard anything about the section 31 show being canceled, so unless Philippa is going to start Section 31 up again in the future, they’ll have to get her back to the earlier timeline.
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So many nice little moments in this episode. Watching the bit where Security Officer Nahn was willing to give only name, rank, serial number, I thought: “Hmm. Homage to that other beloved space western’s scene, where Zoe got interrogated by an Alliance officer?”
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