‘Die Trying’ is a worrying title.
Saru and Burnham anticipate reconnecting with the Federation and getting answers. Discovery flies through a distortion field hiding the headquarters. and see other Federation ships for the first time in the future. The crew are amazed by the new designs (some interesting stuff, like holographic walls and organic ships, which is some nice future tech that is easy to understand, but you’d still hope they’d be some stuff beyond comprehension?). We get a nice callback with Voyager-J. The crew are all ecstatic by the familiarity and the newness, as Saru, Burnham and Tall beam over. The original theme plays, so it’s a nice moment that shares the welcoming nature with the audience too. We feel as at ease and relaxed as the crew do.
As they arrive, we get a look at the new future uniform, which is primarily grey with division stripes. The Admiral refuses Discovery’s help until they had been debriefed (which I mean – duh? I dunno why Burnham thinks they can help until they’ve caught up, but I guess the emotional anxiety to integrate is there). They appear to tell the Admiral everything to do with their spores drive, sphere data and jump to the future as a holographic doctor analyses them. The Federation is currently 38 worlds (it peaked at 350), with limited contact between cells. Saru explains why there’s no evidence to their existence, which the Admiral says makes things difficult, which I guess sure. The Admiral explains their jump here was illegal as per the Temporal Accords, and they need evidence of what they say. The Admiral then explains his intention to take Discovery off the crew and effectively split them up, which obviously this family disagrees with, but Admiral puts them down with the ‘needs of the many’ speech, and to be fair like he is his CO so I guess it is his perogative.
Burnham wants to rebel to prove their worth, which disappoints Saru. Saru wants to integrate without setting a bad example and I’m on his side here, considering the need to earn trust. We get a brilliant cut of the crew being debriefed and their different ways of responding (and subtly expressing their displeasure) and I always love a good interrogation scene 🙂
Georgiou gets a special interrogation, with a mysterious figure watching over, as they immediately identify her as a Terran. She … somehow breaks them by blinking .. which is great. She’s great. Refugees are dying and between the facts the Admiral knows and what Burnham knows of planet the refugees stopped at, they reckon it is mutated plants that caused the issue. A ship may have pre-mutated samples, but it is five months away. Burnham and Saru manage to negotiate Discovery to go and get the samples, if Saru stays and three modern officers go with them.
Burnham commands Discovery into an ion storm to find the ship. Discovery finds it and pulls it out of the storm. Burnham does a fantastic job being the senior officer it’s great to see her in that element, the coherence of the crew is what we love to see in Star Trek. As they beam over and explore, something invisible tracks them.
We see the mysterious interrogator glean Georgiou by letting her question him. He drops a bombshell on her by telling her their universes have diverged more, and the Terran Empire isn’t what it was – she is alone. He also works out Burnham’s connection to her.
Speaking of which, the Away Team finds a hologram of the family, Burnham is confused to hear a song similar to what Tall was playing earlier. Nhan is distracted by seeing her own kind, so Burnham goes to the vault while Culbert looks for the family.
Culbert and Nahn find three members of the family, frozen but also dead. They realise the father was looking for a cure. The father appears in the vault before phasing away. Burnham decides if they can figure out how his phasing started, they can stabilise him long enough to talk to him. The scientists on Discovery technobabble why this might have happened, and use their transporter to fix him. Culbert tells Burnham needs to be honest and get him to accept his grief. He unlocks the vault and the crew get their seeds, but refuses to leave for medical care. Culbert doesn’t believe he is rational, but Nahn wants to respect his wishes. Burnham doesn’t want to abandon the ship, so Nahn says she’ll stay instead and return home. It’s an emotional moment although as Nahn was only part of the crew in such a minor way, it doesn’t really impact me.
The refugees are cured, and Saru and Burnham convince, through comparison to renaissance painters using discovery to draw Humanity out of the Dark Ages, the Admiral to keep them together to go explore. He agrees, under his command. Burnham discovers the music she heard is known by most people, despite the lack of contact they have had. Burnham finds a spaced out Georgiou, who snaps back and walks away. Saru warns Burnham on her choice of words with the Admiral, as they both look ‘Up’ into the stars.
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