Screengrab
It’s been a very long year and a half since we last saw Michael Burnham and the crew of Discovery, and after a very satisfying second season that left us wondering just where things were going for the third, we now have an answer … sort of. When we last saw Burnham and Discovery, they were both hurtling through a wormhole to the future to try and prevent the end of the universe. Hoping to be in a future far away to keep the evil forces at Section 31 from acquiring the sphere data embedded in Discovery’s computer, Burnham made her way 930 years into the future, unexpectedly colliding with a ship on the other side of the wormhole in the process, plunging both of them to the surface of the nearest planet.
There’s just one huge problem — only Burnham emerged from the wormhole. There’s no sign of Discovery, no communication, no nothing. But the pilot of the ship she hit is very much alive and very much pissed at her, assuming her collision with his ship was on purpose. It takes a little while for the man to trust Burnham and vice versa, but they begin to bond as Burnham comes to realize something horrifying — the Federation no longer exists. The pilot, who eventually reveals his name to be Book, tells her that about 120 years earlier most of the dilithium in the universe went poof, or boom really, and the Federation just collapsed in on itself. What dilithium there is is a highly sought after element that ‘merchants’ such as Book (or smugglers, if you will) are eager to trade for at the Mercantile, which happens to be on the planet where they crash landed. Book apparently stole his cargo from another merchant, who wants it back at any cost, and is interested in Burnham’s Federation ‘antiques’. He offers to take her to the Mercantile to trade some of her items in exchange for a chance to communicate with Discovery, while she gives him her tricorder to barter for some dilithium. While Burnham is still digesting a future in which Orions and Andorians are working together, she’s double-crossed by Book, who takes all of her items and basically gives her up to the Mercantile security force.
In an unexpectedly delightful moment, we get to see Burnham as we’ve never seen her before after the guards spray something in her face to get her to talk and it does … really, really fast as she rolls through all the emotions in the span of a few seconds. I think this is the first time we’ve really seen Burnham out of control and Sonequa Martin-Green did a wonderful job showing us a different side to the usually by-the-book Starfleet officer. In the process of being questioned while under the influence, she gave up Book but he knew she was affected by the spray and managed to get her to work with him to get out of their precarious predicament — and in the process she stole a lot of dilithium crystals — with the help of … personal transporters! Of course the others chasing them also have personal transporters and it took a plunge off a cliff into the water to give them a little break, and it got them back to Book’s cloaked ship to check on his mysterious cargo that was in a temperature-controlled compartment.
Screengrab
But they weren’t in the clear for long, and when the others finally caught up with them Book was forced to give them the code to open the compartment (the code was STINKY). And out comes a giant sluglike creature that ate a couple of the assailants while those not eaten transported away. And then the creature ate Burnham, but Book was able to communicate with the creature and it spit her out. Book and Burnham took off so he could bring the creature back to his home planet (which resembled the planet Nibiru in Star Trek Into Darkness with its red foliage) to be reunited with others of its kind. But Burnham still yearns to be reunited with her crew and Book thinks he may know someone who can help her.
Taking Burnham to an old Federation outpost, there she finds a man — whom we first met at the top of the episode but with no context — who has been manning this outpost, all alone, for forty years. Unable to use long range scans, he’s just been waiting every day for someone like him to show up, and she did. He seems to know Burnham’s name, or perhaps he’s just overwhelmed that she’s from the Federation, and he’s honored to help her find her ship. But it’s not there, at least not as far as he can scan. And in exchange for his help, Burnham, a commissioned officer, is able to grant him the one thing he’s always wanted — to be sworn in as an official Starfleet officer for his years of duty. There’s been no one else to do it, and Burnham is more than happy to perform the duty and help hang the Federation flag. It was a lovely, emotional moment that made my eyes tear up a bit. But there’s still the question of where the Discovery is.
Overall, the third season premiere of Star Trek: Discovery was another reboot for the series and it set things off on the right foot. It was great to see Burnham out of her element, being a little more free with her emotions even as she tried to keep up her Starfleet officer facade, not something easy to do when you find out there is no more Starfleet or Federation, and you have no idea where your crew is. The addition of Book as Burnham’s foil here was also a great decision. David Ajala perfectly balanced his character’s haughty aggression with emotional understanding for Burnham’s situation, and he has a cat on his ship named Grudge (a huge Maine Coon to be exact). Book can’t be all bad if he’s got a cat, right? But Martin-Green and Ajala have great chemistry so we have to wonder if some romance may develop down the road.
This reset has also done the one thing the show has needed. There’s no question Season 2 was terrific with the addition of Pike, Spock and Number 1 to the show (and they proved so popular they’re getting their own spin-off), but knowing the time frame of Discovery‘s first two seasons within the Star Trek Prime timeline, there was always the question of how none of the shows or movies from The Original Series onward ever mentioned the events of Discovery, the ship itself, any of the crew or most importantly the spore drive. Now we know. The Admiral sacrificed herself, and the Enterprise crew vowed to never mention Discovery again (even though Spock is hoping to get a signal from the future). With Discovery now 930 into the future, long after any of the previous Trek series, the show is no longer tied to that timeline, no longer has to fit within storylines that have already been established. The crew of the Discovery, once they’re found, can actually explore strange new worlds and boldly go where no one has ever gone before, and Star Trek: Discovery can finally find its own voice. And with that in mind, it all makes the third season premiere even more exhilarating. It will be interesting to see how everyone aboard Discovery processes their new reality.
New episodes of Star Trek: Discovery stream every Thursday on CBS All Access.
Share this post
