The breakneck pace of episode 13 was going to be hard to top and indeed episodes 14 and 15 seemed almost a let-down yielding a somewhat muddle-headed finish in episode 15, "Will You Take My Hand?"
First off, hats off to the actors.
Doug Jones and Mary Wiseman are clear fan favorites and I would second the vote to declare them the break-out stars of this flavor of Star Trek.
Anthony Rapp, Shazad Latif, Jason Isaacs and Michelle Yeoh have been very solid especially Yeoh who got to play BOTH a very admirable and good Georgiou and a deliciously very evil Georgiou.
Sonequa Martin-Green has also been very good. Thus, I hesitate to detract from her fantastic performances but unlike other editions of Star Trek, the story lines rested very heavily on the singular character of Burnham and her choices. Yes, the Original Series was mostly Captain Kirk but Spock and McCoy had their own stories that were quite substantial and Kirk's development as a character rested very heavily on his interaction with Spock and McCoy. The same could be said of TNG, DS9, VOY, and Enterprise captains. Thus, I cannot fault Sonequa Martin-Green's acting but I can fault the show runners who placed so much of the shows various plot points to develop her character arc in the season. It is those plot points that at times got them into trouble in the story telling.
Essentially, episode 15 was round two - "What will Burnham do this time?"
This time she doesn't go it alone and act unilaterally. She goes through proper channels and her stand draws the support of her crewmates. Bravo! All fine and good.
But …..
How did they get into this situation?
We knew from episode 14 that Sarek, Cornwell, and the Federation command made some "deal with the devil" with mirror-Georgiou to be revealed in episode 15.
The plot holes were ginormous!
#1. Giving command over to mirror-Georgiou was an interesting move but the writers didn't have the courage of their convictions. All season long they had mirror-Lorca in command pulling off the charade being just nice enough to fool the crew but clearly showing signs of the "dark side of the mirror." Mirror-Georgiou made no effort to "blend" in. Was mirror-Lorca that much more skillful and manipulative compared to mirror-Georgiou? Tilly quickly realized what the score really was. Undoubtedly, the rest of the crew did as well. Everyone is going to be on their guard that something is fishy.
#2. Okay, so you give the volcano bomb to mirror-Georgiou, now what? She isn't going to blow herself up along with some percent of Qo'noS. What was the escape plan? Was she going to transport back to Discovery and fly the ship out and then blow up the bomb? Was she going to plant the bomb and hire the equivalent of an Orion Han Solo to escape and blow up the bomb along with the Discovery? Either way, at some point the Discovery crew will become aware of the plan and have to decide, are we going to stop it? Was Sarek/Cornwell/Federation big heads assuming the Discovery crew would not attempt to intervene once they find out what the real plan was? Or were they planning on sacrificing them in the plot?
#3. Okay, so you manage to stop Georgioiu from detonating the bomb. Now, you give control of the bomb to L'Rell? The potential for double-cross by either side is huge. Would L'Rell really trust the Federation that she is really the only one with the detonator to the bomb? Would the Federation really trust that she won't deactivate the bomb and resume the war?
#4. Okay, let's say we can trust L'Rell to make an effort to stop the war. How does it look to the leaders of the other 23 Houses? L'Rell says to them, I have a bomb that will blow up Qo'noS so you have to stop the war and put me in charge! How are the other 23 Houses going to feel after being given that kind of ultimatum? They might obey for the time being but that is not the basis of a stable government.
#5. Okay, let's say we can trust L'Rell to make an effort to stop the war. L'Rell says to them, the Federation planted a bomb on Qo'noS and gave me the detonator so you have to stop the war and put me in charge! They might obey for the time being but they are going to think L'Rell is a tool of the Federation.
Either way you slice it L'Rell's rulership is not likely to be a stable one. The writers wrote themselves into this corner and wound up having to rely on a rather drastic and implausible way out of it.
#6. After all is said and done, we get this public ceremony where the crew of the Discovery is given awards for their actions. Would the leadership of Star Fleet and the Federation really reveal publicly how the war with the Klingons actually got resolved? Wouldn't the people behind the plan to blow up Qo'noS be quietly forced to resign and the true nature of the final deal kept quiet?
Shoe-horning this episode in Federation-Klingon relations is rather problematic for "canon" freaks.
For the uninitiated, in Star Trek "canon" the Klingons remain foes of the Federation until Star Trek Six - the Undiscovered Country. It is in that movie when the Federation and Klingons sign the Khitomer peace treaty and promise aid to help the Klingons survive the disaster of Qo'noS moon Praxis blowing up. By TNG and beyond, the Klingons are allies with occasional hiccups. In none of the previous flavors of Star Trek was there the sense that the Federation-Klingon conflict ever reached an existential threat to either side as seen in ST-Disco with the exception of the alternative time line episode in ST-TNG "Yesterday's Enterprise."
But you don't have to be a Federation-Klingon canon purist to feel dis-satisfied with the resolution as the plot points to get them to the end of the war was very shaky.
The final teaser to set up season two was the appearance of NCC-1701. Let the speculation begin!
Overall season 1 ratings:
Acting grade is an all-around A and A-.
Production design in the visuals, the sets, and the music. All top-notch A+.
Story telling: on one hand A- and on the other hand C+.
The serialized story-telling can be quite addictive and the pacing of the show was generally quite brisk lending itself to binge viewing that the streaming format counts on. I usually didn't see the show immediately on the day of release but never got more than two episodes behind. However, I can see how it could be easy to knock down three or four or more episodes in a single sitting, hence the A- grade.
However, though one can say the show had a lot of "sizzle" but when digested a little bit, you do wonder if the "steak" was very good. This was most evident in episode 15. Hence the OTOH C+ grade.
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