Eyyy we’re back. A LOT has happened in the last 18 months. Honestly so much since April 2019. I graduated. COVID happened. We went through another surge in the civil rights movement that kinda didn’t really result in anything. So much real time has happened and yet we pick up in Discovery exactly where we left off with Burnham shooting to the future. Except the disjoined nature of this kind of actually helps set the scene. Much like how Booker has to observe a Burnham who has missed 900 years of history in what was just a moment for her, we have to narratively follow Burnham in the future 18 months after we last saw her.
Just to note before we start off. Netflix blocks screenshots. I used to try and make it a USP of my watchthroughs that I would include screengrabs with some sort of commentary or witty caption a lá Cracked.com. But as you can see from my previous entries, I start doing less and less and this is because it is a lot of effort to find a workaround. I can’t remember what workaround I did last time – I watch Discovery legally on Netflix, it was possible I grabbed the screens off a less legit source just for the purpose of this blog, but that’s an extra step of effort, especially considering how much these sights make it difficult to pause and scrub without spawning pop-ups and then in addition if you pause you get things covering the screen so you have to screenshot while in motion and get lucky. It’s too much effort for 0130 Sunday morning when I want to go to bed. Hopefully I find a workaroundANYWAY
We start with Burnham crashing into and knocking off course a ship fleeing an enemy. She is now in the year 3188. After causing both herself and the ship to crash into Hima. We get a beautiful scene by Sonequa Martin-Green, as she displays a wide variety of raw emotions as she first tries to ensure Discovery made it through, then confirmed Control has been defeated, then realisation that she is stuck in the future on her own, with a mix of pain, fear, and focus on the tasks she has to complete. We then get a wonderful scene where she affirms her identity as a Starfleet officer, setting up one of the thematic arcs of the episode, dons her badge, and sets off to the other ship.
There Brooker instantly attacks her, with a wounded but still skilled Burnham kicks his butt, while trying to talk him down and convince him he’s not their to steal his cargo. They board his ship (he seems to leave his knife that he threw behind and another thing I’ve started doing in the last 18 months is playing regular games and campaigns of DnD and if there’s one thing I always remember to do it’s pick my weapon back up if I threw it so this bothered me).
BUT NEVERMIND HE HAS A CAT WE LOVE THE CAT THEY’RE SO FLUFFY
It’s great seeing Burnham using her intelligence to figure out what everything is but surely 900 years of technological advancement would be far, far beyond her. She still seems a bit quick on the draw. I get it, we can’t keep doing Fish Out of Water stories but Trek has established 100 years is enough to baffle someone so.
Brooker needs to buy some more dilithium, and Burnham’s antiques make good currency. He agrees to take her to Mercantile (conveniently on the very planet he crashed on), where in exchange for her belongings he will take her to a communication array. Along the way Burnham is heartbroken to hear the Federation collapsed after the Burn, an event where most of the dilithium blew up. Burnham can’t accept it, declaring the Federation is more than just ships, it’s an idea, continuing her beliefs from previous seasons.
Mercantile is a hovering building which I guess makes it 900 years into the future futuristic but also it looks very contemporary with Discovery and the latest films’ style so not hugely. But then again this also seems a very worn down city anyway. There Burnham is betrayed by Brooker who tricks her into walking into the vault where she is suspended and he makes off with her items. There an Andorian and an Orion question her, and end up drugging her to make her more compliant.
The next scene is wonderous. Martin-Green’s comedic performance and the cinematography give a wonderful scene as the usually serious and stoic Burnham lets all that go and acts wackier than Jack Sparrow. She talks her way into being reunited with Brooker who is being beaten up by the guy he stole from, she then hits him and then when the two of them find themselves with weapons pointed at them from both sides, they team up to fight and run – Burnham still drunk. She manages to grab a whole bunch of dilithium and the two teleport across several locations on the planet to escape. Burnham seems awfully trigger happy as she guns down men who not even I know if they are villains or just mall security so Burnham definitely doesn’t. Also when they are fleeing some of the missed shots hit the ground at their feet which makes no sense unless you were shooting at their feet?????
Eventually they catch up to them at Brooker’s ship where the Orion murders the other courier (so I guess now we do know they were bad) and then they are all brutally eaten by Brooker’s cargo – a trance worm. We even get Andorian blood splattered on our screen. Burnham is briefly eaten then spat up as they deliver the trance worm to a sanctuary. Some similarity is drawn between Brooker being exiled by his poacher family for becoming a conservationist to Burnham leaving her time to save everyone.
He returns the favour by taking Burnham to an outpost. What we see next is a beautiful scene as Burnham meets Sahil, one of the last few remaining members of the Federation. The moment is tear-jerking (honestly I cried) as Sahil is able to finally get his hope rewarded as the day he has been preparing for as he spent every day the last 40 years waiting has arrived in the form of Commander Burnham, who gets her faith that the Federation endures. She field commissions him and they finally hang up the Federation flag as they aim to find Discovery.
The episode is hilarious and touching, but in typical Discovery fashion a bit slow to really get momentum. As a two-part opening, we are just setting the scene. Momentum usually hits a few episodes in and at the moment, now we have been reintroduced the only plot thread is where is Discovery. However for the raw powerful acting and the message of hope, I look forward ahead. But first sleep.
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