You know one of the things I really dislike about me is I can’t whistle.
We’re treated to a light show (and some shots which to be honest look like I wrote the shot list!) as Burnham, Tilly and Staments are stuck trying to work out the mystery of the chemical compound.
The test fails, revealing:
Nothing.
Kovich produces on paper (a ‘genuine 21st century legal pad’) the list of scientists, hitherto a secret, and presents it to Burnham to help, meanwhile Culbert is testing a grief programme that scans your brainwaves and produces a replica of a person you knew for you to do self-therapy with. It’s easily something the show could choose to critique and creepy or laud as modern medicine – it seems to be leaning to the latter. Culbert’s dialogue is a bit expositiony and it didn’t need to be. Initially Culbert feels the programme is faulty as it avoids a question but in typical Trek fashion, it actually is providing an alternate perspective, giving Culbert a brainwave.
The team use the identity of the Denobulan doctor and their work with weather to isolate a likely planet for the next clue, a super dry planet. It has one habitable region, supported by Kreel’s tower. The planet is pre-Warp – about time we had some Prime Directive shenanigans! Once again Burnham decides to go with another crew member on the Away Team – I wanna see Raynor lead one!!!!
Also I have a feeling about how this is going to go, but really by the 32nd century we’re still going to face difficulty in hiding technology from Pre-Warp? So much for Ant Theory …
The aliens speak over distance with Whistlespeak, and have no class! Yay! Also apparently they now have retinal tricorder mods which … is a bit freaky with one of their eyes flickering light blue as they scan their surroundings … As Tilly talks about Academdy life, they catch a whistle conversation and I can’t help smile along with them – it is a really adorable concept!
The Away Team come across a raspy traveller, and between saying the right thing and the traveller being quite expositiony (which seems to be part of the language), they learn that only a chosen few gets to go inside the tower. The traveller collapses from the dust in her lungs, and as the other aliens attempt to find their medicine, Burnham and Tilly remind themselves about the Prime Directive. THe aliens use vibrations from dishes to create a soundwave which helps the traveller eject dust from her lungs (and do some crazy wobble to the camera) and then make Burnham faint which I mean – same to be honest! A VERY talkative daughter of the High Father infodumps about how the Away Team can get into the Temple, if they wanted to – some time of race challenge. The daughter seems very keen for them to, do it, too keen, especially given the look of apprehension on the father’s face.
Back on Pandora, I mean … whatever this planet is called, some high energy fantasy music plays as giggling children run through the forest and I’m getting Peter Pan vibes all of a sudden. Apparently Burnham insisting on the challenge has inspired others to also, including the daughter, much to the charaign of her apprehensive father. It seems genuine and I relate to them both. Tilly also seems to relate, and recognises some of the daughter in a student she knows, and tries to council her.
Discovery reports back clues that confirm something I suspected earlier – the tower is failing, so the Away Team also needs to fix it as well as find their clue. Meanwhile Culbert is still struggling with his brain (aren’t we all) – it is healthy, so no explanations to help him understand his feelings of spirituality. Staments encourages him to enjoy it, leaving Culbert to reflect.
The unwell traveller from earlier speaks of how she ran a long time ago, and her friend won – her friend, who she speaks of in the past tense far too pointedly, and I wonder if Burnham picks up on it. She certainly seems a bit wary, but nevertheless continues. Part of the race is to eat a sugarcube that parches the body – they must run thirsty, along a track filled with bowls of water …
To be honest, is it hubris to say I could do it? Could it really be much worse than the roughest day of Ramadaan I’ve had doing physical activity mid-fast? Runners drop out as they continue, Burnham and Tilly attempting to rely on their Starfleet endurance. I do like this whole bit – it is a classic Trek situation of making future folk go through a very primordial challenge. However, Burnham spots some moss which would suggest radiation which points to the control panel they need to fix to save the tower. Tilly volunteers to keep running in case the clue is still in the tower, so Burnham gets to leave the race and drink some water – I like they make a cute reference to the PT training Burnham gave Tilly all the way back in the first season, I was hoping they would!
A very sick looking Tilly stops – she looks faint, but the daughter runs back and encourages her on. These people are sweet 🥺
Burnham finds the control panel and sets to work fixing the old technology with help from Discovery. Tal takes the lead – they’ve been being supported by Raynor this entire episode in a way which, for Raynor, is genuinely very sweet! Meanwhile, at the end of the line, in sight of the finish, the two finalists must complete the challenge holding the water. Not gonna lie, if anything that would just motivate me to finish not be a burden to give up, but I guess I don’t tend to do cross country during Ramadaan …
The daughter trips and drops her water, disqualifying her, but Tilly pays back her kindness by sharing her water with her which – didn’t sound like it was against the rules, so that’s a boss move! Meanwhile, Tal flakes and asks for someone to take over for them but Raynor doesn’t permit it, he tells them they’re capable for the job and they need to stop self-doubting over the time bug mistake. The show doesn’t give this sub-plot much time but it still sees it through and I love it for that – I relate heavily to how crippling I can find self-doubt and I wish I had an authority figure like Raynor recognise that in me and tell me the same words to get me to be able to move on from it. The machine successfully restarts, giving them the ability to transport.
But oops, the daughter and father give a tearful goodbye to each other over her and Tilly’s sacrifice. Seems like today’s Away Team wasn’t quite the right amount of genre savvy as they get locked into the temple. They are in the mechanisms that will produce the rain, and so presumably if they stay there, they won’t survive.
Burnham can teleport in to the chamber next to where Tilly is, but she will reveal herself to the father, violating the Prime Directive, something Burnham seems very willing to do without hesitation. The reality of the situation hits the daughter and she loses her resolve and sobs in the face of death 🙁
Burnham teleports in and flat out tells the father the truth. I feel like in a lot of previous episodes like this, I maybe often cry out why don’t they just do this, but this episode shows why, the father is unable to understand what is being told of him and simply withdraws. Tilly gets the daughter to hum a family tune, which Burnham echoes to her father, and this breaks through to him enough that he opens the door. The daughter has already asphyxiated, but a medical team beams in to save her.
Burnham shows the father a hologram of his planet, aweing him. But it also gives him an existential and spiritual crises. Again, to the show’s credit, Burnham reassures him – much like I believe – that the existence of science and aliens does not prelude that of a deity. Clarke’s Third Law – magic and science are one and the same, right? They reflect on the pace of societal changes, before Culbert interrupts them with the daughter’s recovery.
Meanwhile, Tilly may have offered Burnham a lifeline for violating the prime directive – she had discovered the vial of water had the number ‘5’ on it based off the ancient numbering system etched into the wall. Anyway excuse me while I cry as the father tells his daughter how proud he is of her.
And the sky rains.
They recover the clue from Tower 5, which has some Betazoid text, as Tilly and Burnham reflect over the responsibility of technology. Their moment is interrupted with the coordinates of Moll and L’ak.
I do like that they just leave this super important clue to an incredibly powerful technology everyone is risking their life for just on a random table though.
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