It was a transitional and expositional episode. The scriptwriters had to advance the story line about the Red Bursts and the Red Angel on one hand. And on the other hand, they had to finally get Spock onto the screen. Both were accomplished but as a result the episode as a stand-alone entity didn’t feel like much happened. It serves as a bridge to the latter half of season 2 but that was about it.
*** spoilers ahead ***
Okay, so we have had hints the Red Angel might be a time-traveler and this episode seems to go headlong in that direction when Tyler and Pike take the shuttle into the spatial-temporal anomaly. The igniting of the plasma on the shuttle was an easter egg for TOS fans who remember that same move in “The Galileo Seven.”
We shall see how the writers room works out the Red Angel story. It is still not clear whether the actions of the Red Angel are good or bad for Disco and the inhabitants of their timeline.
The whole idea of altering the past to change the future is well trodden territory in Star Trek. The TNG film “First Contact” had the Borg travel to the past to block humanity’s entry into the community of civilizations by sabotaging Cochran’s historic FTL (faster than light) spaceflight. This intervention prevents the formation of the Federation allowing the Borg to assimilate the Alpha Quadrant including Earth.
The Xindi arc in ST-Enterprise was about a future race making incursions into the ST-Enterprise timeline to prevent their defeat at the hands of the Federation in the distant future. Archer and company eventually figure out what is going on and manage to convince enough of the Xindi leadership to turn against their shadowy benefactors from the future.
Will the Red Angel motivations prove to be evil? Or is the Red Angel good and in its own battle in the future having to draw upon the past to assist in its battle in the future?
The Disco timeline initially saw 7 red bursts and was able to only visit one of them (season opener). Thus, there are six other incursions into the timeline by the Red Angel we know nothing about as of yet. Since the initial 7 there have been two more that resulted in the rescue of the people of New Eden and the revolution of Kaminar. Where will the writers take us going forward?
As for Spock, we get some more backstory about his life and the cliffhanger moment is when Michael figures out that Spock’s numerical recitation is the spatial coordinates for Talos IV!
For TOS fans, we know that Talos IV was in the first pilot episode “The Cage” that NBC didn’t like. Roddenberry and company retooled and made a second pilot “Where No Man Has Gone Before” that green lighted Star Trek for its three year run on NBC. The material in “The Cage” got repurposed to very good effect in the TOS two-parter “The Menagerie.”
Will be interesting to see how the Disco writer’s room use Talos IV. Will there be a discussion of General Order 7 that says no one shall visit Talos IV, a policy advised by Captain Pike and Science Officer Spock?
The reliance on TOS ideas is a delicate balance. On one hand, it is fun to fill in details and use details from TOS to guide the show story lines. ST-Enterprise used this device in some story lines in season four. However, it could become too constraining and stifle efforts to world build on its own merits. ST-TNG, ST-DS9, and ST-VOY were set in the future and free to introduce newer story ideas effectively. The ST Kelvin-verse film “Into Darkness” had good moments but it was constrained in many ways by having to have touch points with ST-The Wrath of Khan. Disco’s creative team could run into such problems if they are not careful.
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