Happy N7 Day! Wait, wrong space saga. This week on Discovery, Burnham accompanied Adira to the Trill homeworld, where the elders were shocked to learn one of their symbionts had joined with a human. Meanwhile on the ship, Saru sought a way to help his crew after Culber informed him they were all privately struggling to process leaving everything they ever knew.
“Forget Me Not”
Written by Alan McElroy & Chris Silvestri & Anthony Maranville
Directed by Hanelle M. Culpepper
1. The Cutest Little Drones
This is incredibly shallow, but I love how cute the new maintenance drones on the ship — and the medical ones we see later in flashback — are: they’re like EVE from WALL-E, relatively small, curved floating devices with childlike optics. It’s clear that in the 32nd century, you no longer have to balance form and function, and can make anything as adorable as you like. I also wonder: are these non-humanoid synthetics sentient?
2. Sphere Data’s Awakening
After Saru learns that the crew are stressed out, the sphere data starts making itself known again, merging with the ship’s computer to voice suggestions on how to help, its voice (Annabelle Wallis) abruptly taking over from the computer’s regular one (Julianne Grossman). “She” suggests giving the crew the evening off, and more astonishingly, dinner and a movie, particularly the humorous works of Buster Keaton or Charlie Chaplin. (“Buster Keaton?,” Saru asks.) This is an intriguing turn of events, to put it simply, despite having some idea of where it’s going, thanks to the Short Treks episode “Calypso” — it’s going to fun seeing the computer evolve further, à la EDI in Mass Effect (relevant, see?).
3. Family Dinner Fight
Unfortunately, the dinner Saru throws for the main crew doesn’t go as smoothly as planned: Stamets and Tilly are behaving coldly to each other, after an argument over whether they need someone else who can pilot the spore drive, and a haiku contest started by Georgiou goes awry when Detmer’s PTSD causes her to fixate on when Stamets was almost killed. He asks what’s wrong with her, causing her to admit she resents him, explaining she’s the ship’s helmsman, yet he gets all the credit because of the spore drive.
Later, Tilly reassures Saru it was for the best, and that all things considered, it was a pretty typical family get together. It’s an old adage, but this was a great demonstration of how pretending everything’s fine is unhealthy, and that the first step to resolving issues is acknowledging there are ones. Detmer meets Culber in sickbay and admits she needs counseling, and reconciles with Stamets when the rest of the crew gathers to watch a Keaton movie — I suspect she will become his standby to use the spore drive when necessary.
4. Love and Loss
Likewise, when Burnham and Adira are on Trill, it becomes clear the reason the latter is struggling to access the memories of their symbiont, is because they are afraid to confront the traumatic circumstances of their bonding. We discover, after they essentially mind meld in the sacred pools of Mak’ala, that after Senna Tal’s death, the symbiont bonded with Gray (Ian Alexander), Adira’s boyfriend. Gray was fatally injured after their ship collided with an asteroid, and Adira volunteered to become Tal’s new host.
There’s some superb use of color theory in this sequence: before Burnham persuades Adira to remember all this, the symbiont’s dreamscape is red, hot, anxious and frayed, but afterwards, it becomes blue, tranquil and soothing. Adira’s predecessors, including Gray and Senna, welcome them, and afterwards they are able to remember all of their names, although it will take time for them to remember everything they experienced.
There has been some criticism about Gray being dead, because of the casting of Alexander (who is transgender), and the “Bury Your Gays” trope, but he’s far from consigned to oblivion, as his “ghost” at the end of the episode shows he’ll be a significantly more important part of Adira’s psyche than previous portrayals of Trills’ past selves. In any case, the idea of two lovers literally becoming the same person is incredibly romantic, and only possible on Star Trek.
Continued below5. Trill’s Xenophobia Problem
Immigration also continues to be a major subtext this season, as we learn the Burn greatly affected the population of Trill humanoids and symbionts. The planet’s elders call Adira’s joining an “aberration,” or even more xenophobically, an “abomination,” and Commissioner Voss (Andrew Shaver), the xenophobe, sends men to straight up murder Adira, despite the decision of Leader Pav (Karen Robinson) to not forcibly remove the symbiont, and merely exile them.
After the sympathetic Guardian Xi (Andreas Apergis) takes Adira to the caves of Mak’ala and finishes their bonding, Pav and Voss both apologize, with Voss begging for forgiveness. It raises the question: what were they so afraid of? There should be no reason why in the 32nd century a symbiont couldn’t successfully bond with a non-Trill, just as there’s no reason today people should fear immigrants when they have generally, and successfully, integrated into their new countries — it’s all rooted in an irrational fear of change.
Bonus thoughts:
– It appears the Bajorans have had a major influence on galactic fashion over the centuries, as the Trills’ robes and Gray’s ear ring all evoke the Bajoran designs from Deep Space Nine.
– Andreas Apergis is likely best known for voicing several characters in the Assassin’s Creed games, including Cesare Borgia: it’s funny how hearing his voice during a live-action performance didn’t ring a bell.
– The caves of Mak’ala, which first appeared in Deep Space Nine, are strongly evocative of New Zealand’s legendary Waitomo Glowworm Caves here, while the sight of Adira and Burnham floating in the pools, their arms outstretched, resemble the precogs in Minority Report.
– Booker doesn’t appear in this episode: he must’ve been off trying to gather alcohol that wasn’t synthesized in a replicator.
This was another lovely episode, all about accepting, processing and growing stronger from trauma: see you all next week for “Die Trying.”
