star trek discovery season 3 episode 1 review

#Star trek discovery season 3 episode 1 review full#

Who’d have guessed that the scoundrel-ish character we meet at the beginning of the episode would turn out to be an interstellar conservationist? Or that Star Trek: Discovery would go slapstick with Burnham getting eaten (and spat out) by a giant slug. But he’s also hiding his ability to form a telepathic bond with the natural world – most notably the giant trans-worm he’s trying to save from the bad guys. Yes, he operates in lawless worlds and his job as a courier (moving merchandise between holo-sellers and holo-buyers) could easily be confused with that of a smuggler. It’s reminiscent of the sequence in The Witcher where Yennefer portalled herself away from the bad guys.īook himself (played by David Ajala) is not quite the Han Solo-ish rogue he first appears to be. Their scrap over Book’s cargo culminates in a fun, incredibly inventive chase sequence based around on-the-run transporter action as the protagonists beam about the planet’s surface.

The random selection of aliens they encounter – including familiar faces such as Andorians, Orions, and a Lurian (the same species as Deep Space Nine’s resident barfly Morn) – ultimately feel more Star Wars than Star Trek, especially as most of them seem to operate in black markets. While their banter initially feels like an awkward mix of exposition and forced antagonism, some real chemistry is developing by the time they reach the spectacular city of Requiem. There’s fighting, bickering and the odd betrayal before they form an alliance of convenience, mainly because Book’s the only person Burnham knows in the last thousand years. Before long she bumps into the ship’s pilot, Cleveland Booker (aka Book)… After an unfortunate collision with another spacecraft, she tumbles towards a barren planet that looks a lot like Iceland and has a conveniently breathable atmosphere. The galaxy has become a more-or-less lawless place, where space travel can no longer be taken for granted – like the Wild West with state-of-the-art gadgets.īurnham quite literally crashes into this culture shock of a future after she emerges from the time portal she used to save existence from malevolent AI CONTROL. The Federation couldn’t explain how or why it happened, so the interplanetary organisation that’s always formed the backbone of Star Trek gradually fell apart, to the point it’s now represented by one lonely man in a space station. At some point during the intervening centuries, the mysterious “Burn” caused most of the dilithium in the universe to explode, rendering starships inoperable.

#Star trek discovery season 3 episode 1 review full#

But despite the universe being full of gadgets that appear to run on magic, some things have gone backwards.