Star Trek Discovery: 2x12 (Through the Valley of Shadows)
In which Pike gets some unwanted spoilers.
There's something pleasingly meta about Pike's fate being foreordained; that is, after all, the very nature of a prequel. Pike's fate was set in stone more than fifty years ago, and its been haunting the character all season. From Lorca's last fortune (“Not every Cage is a prison”), to his unshakable loyalty to Spock foreshadowing Spock's own willingness to risk everything for Pike, to the brief mention last week that Burnham's mother could tell him his future but “You wouldn't like it”... It feels satisfying to see Pike finally having a chance to confront that inexorable destiny.
And it was a hell of a scene. I do wonder if it had the same impact for causal viewers, who didn't already have that sinking feeling at the notion of seeing Pike's future, followed by the confirmation that, yes, we're going there as soon as we hear the word 'training simulation' on the intercom. Extra credit to the sound designers, who really got across the iron-lung quality of Pike's life-support wheelchair, the hoarse sounds echoing in the empty corridors really giving an extra skin-crawling feel to the moment.
I felt the strongest moment wasn't the vision itself, though, nor Pike's initial reaction, but the moment later in the episode, where we see him in his ready room. The lights there have normally been a bright yellow; now they're a cool blue. Pike may have worked through his fear and horror, and acknowledged his fate, but he remains a changed man. The joie de vivre that has defined him so much this season has drained out of him. It's not just a moment of tragedy that he's had to acknowledge, but that he'll have to live with that knowledge for all the years to come, and still at the end face that moment he knows is coming.
We get some really fascinating looks into Klingon culture this week; it's always lovely to see Klingons that aren't warriors. The Boreth monastery looks great, and the idea that it guards time crystals adds some interesting wrinkles to Klingon mythology. Kahless said he would someday return... was he, perhaps, a time traveller who will emerge again in the distant future? Was the vision Worf had of Kahless when he was a child caused by the time crystals? Did the future Alexander from “Firstborn” visit Boreth to achieve time travel? And do the monks of Boreth ever visit Bajor to compare notes on guarding non-linear artifacts?
It also struck me that Pike's final fate is a particularly Klingon tragedy, being kept alive but helpless; if that's the sort of vision the crystals normally give seekers, it's no wonder Klingons never take them.
Meanwhile, Michael and Spock wander into a trap!
I've said it before, and I'll say it again - I love how this season is letting Amanda play a major role. I also love that they're not treating her as any less a mother to Michael even with her biological mother back in the picture; her adoptive family isn't less 'real' than her human family, she just now has... more family. I'm also loving every moment of Spock and Michael as siblings; they've really done a fantastic job selling the idea that these are people who grew up together. Given how driven Michael is most of the time, it's nice to see her relax a bit around Spock, and vice versa.
Control also finally gets a small bit of personality. It knows how to set a trap for Michael and Spock - confront them with enough mysteries that they can't resist investigating. Why didn't this ship report in on time? Why's it just sitting there? Why's it going to warp? Where are we going- Oh, crap, none of that mattered, they were all just distractions. I also thought it was kind of fun that the contrived coincidence of the one survivor just happening to be a former shipmate of Michael turned out to have been carefully planned by Control.
As it monologues, Control lays out some of its driving ideology; it sees itself as superior, and so can justify any measures to preserve its existence. This feels to me like a result of it 'growing up' as part of Section 31. 31 values the Federation, and so can justify anything in the name of protecting it. They taught Control to value some people and treat others as expendable, and it took their message to heart. Or, as Captain Picard put it once: “When children learn to devalue others, they can devalue anyone. Even their parents.”
It feels like another semi-metafictional touch that Michael's the one variable Control can't plan for - Control can plan for Spock and Pike and the Enterprise and the Klingons, because it and the audience know everything they'll do for decades to come. But Michael, the new character retconned into a prequel story? She can do anything, she's not bound by any preset destiny....
In minor notes:
Is that a reboot-style dress uniform Pike's wearing in the flash-forward? It looks good on him... and serves as another reminder that fate always has it in for Pike, in this and any other timeline.
Reno's wife was 'Soyuzian'. I assume that, in the same vein as the Roman Planet and the Gangster Planet, the Soyuzians are a culture based entirely around the Russian space program.
It's nice that Burnham finally realises that you can physically destroy computer data - but, of course, I doubt things are going to be that simple. My guess for next week? It's a bluff, Michael suspects Control has an agent on Discovery and the self-destruct is a ploy to flush them out, the same way they trapped the Angel.
There's something pleasingly meta about Pike's fate being foreordained; that is, after all, the very nature of a prequel. Pike's fate was set in stone more than fifty years ago, and its been haunting the character all season. From Lorca's last fortune (“Not every Cage is a prison”), to his unshakable loyalty to Spock foreshadowing Spock's own willingness to risk everything for Pike, to the brief mention last week that Burnham's mother could tell him his future but “You wouldn't like it”... It feels satisfying to see Pike finally having a chance to confront that inexorable destiny.
And it was a hell of a scene. I do wonder if it had the same impact for causal viewers, who didn't already have that sinking feeling at the notion of seeing Pike's future, followed by the confirmation that, yes, we're going there as soon as we hear the word 'training simulation' on the intercom. Extra credit to the sound designers, who really got across the iron-lung quality of Pike's life-support wheelchair, the hoarse sounds echoing in the empty corridors really giving an extra skin-crawling feel to the moment.
I felt the strongest moment wasn't the vision itself, though, nor Pike's initial reaction, but the moment later in the episode, where we see him in his ready room. The lights there have normally been a bright yellow; now they're a cool blue. Pike may have worked through his fear and horror, and acknowledged his fate, but he remains a changed man. The joie de vivre that has defined him so much this season has drained out of him. It's not just a moment of tragedy that he's had to acknowledge, but that he'll have to live with that knowledge for all the years to come, and still at the end face that moment he knows is coming.
We get some really fascinating looks into Klingon culture this week; it's always lovely to see Klingons that aren't warriors. The Boreth monastery looks great, and the idea that it guards time crystals adds some interesting wrinkles to Klingon mythology. Kahless said he would someday return... was he, perhaps, a time traveller who will emerge again in the distant future? Was the vision Worf had of Kahless when he was a child caused by the time crystals? Did the future Alexander from “Firstborn” visit Boreth to achieve time travel? And do the monks of Boreth ever visit Bajor to compare notes on guarding non-linear artifacts?
It also struck me that Pike's final fate is a particularly Klingon tragedy, being kept alive but helpless; if that's the sort of vision the crystals normally give seekers, it's no wonder Klingons never take them.
Meanwhile, Michael and Spock wander into a trap!
I've said it before, and I'll say it again - I love how this season is letting Amanda play a major role. I also love that they're not treating her as any less a mother to Michael even with her biological mother back in the picture; her adoptive family isn't less 'real' than her human family, she just now has... more family. I'm also loving every moment of Spock and Michael as siblings; they've really done a fantastic job selling the idea that these are people who grew up together. Given how driven Michael is most of the time, it's nice to see her relax a bit around Spock, and vice versa.
Control also finally gets a small bit of personality. It knows how to set a trap for Michael and Spock - confront them with enough mysteries that they can't resist investigating. Why didn't this ship report in on time? Why's it just sitting there? Why's it going to warp? Where are we going- Oh, crap, none of that mattered, they were all just distractions. I also thought it was kind of fun that the contrived coincidence of the one survivor just happening to be a former shipmate of Michael turned out to have been carefully planned by Control.
As it monologues, Control lays out some of its driving ideology; it sees itself as superior, and so can justify any measures to preserve its existence. This feels to me like a result of it 'growing up' as part of Section 31. 31 values the Federation, and so can justify anything in the name of protecting it. They taught Control to value some people and treat others as expendable, and it took their message to heart. Or, as Captain Picard put it once: “When children learn to devalue others, they can devalue anyone. Even their parents.”
It feels like another semi-metafictional touch that Michael's the one variable Control can't plan for - Control can plan for Spock and Pike and the Enterprise and the Klingons, because it and the audience know everything they'll do for decades to come. But Michael, the new character retconned into a prequel story? She can do anything, she's not bound by any preset destiny....
In minor notes:
Is that a reboot-style dress uniform Pike's wearing in the flash-forward? It looks good on him... and serves as another reminder that fate always has it in for Pike, in this and any other timeline.
Reno's wife was 'Soyuzian'. I assume that, in the same vein as the Roman Planet and the Gangster Planet, the Soyuzians are a culture based entirely around the Russian space program.
It's nice that Burnham finally realises that you can physically destroy computer data - but, of course, I doubt things are going to be that simple. My guess for next week? It's a bluff, Michael suspects Control has an agent on Discovery and the self-destruct is a ploy to flush them out, the same way they trapped the Angel.