This week on Star Trek: Discovery, Burnham and Georgiou defied orders to rescue Booker, after learning he’d been imprisoned in an Orion-Andorian work camp — and unfortunately, there are consequences for insubordination.
“Scavengers”
Written by Anne Cofell Saunders
Directed by Douglas Aarniokoski
1. That New Car Smell
We pick up a few weeks after the previous episode, after Discovery‘s been retrofitted with 32nd technology, including programmable matter that allows its engines to separate; holographic interfaces; and the badges that act as communicators and personal transporters. It continues to be a delight seeing the crew marvel at the new tech, and demonstrates what a stroke of genius it was to introduce this era via a crew from an earlier time period — Owosekun commenting programmable matter is literally cool to touch, and Linus accidentally transporting onto the bridge while getting used to his badge (more on that later), were particularly great moments.
What’s curious is that Discovery now has an ‘A’ added to her registry number on the hull: typically, starships retain their registry number even after an extensive refit, and the letters are for new ones with the same name ie. the Enterprise had the A added after the first one was destroyed in Search for Spock, not after its overhaul in The Motion Picture. Perhaps things have changed by the 32nd century — which may well mean the new Voyager is actually the original — but what happens when you run out of letters? Go to AB?
2. A Big Bad
Burnham and Georgiou’s mission is the weakest part of this episode — the escape plan seems pretty rushed, and it completely glosses over what happens to the prisoners at the end. (Also, Burnham maintaining cover when the Bajoran was murdered didn’t sit well with me — sure, it may’ve not been the right time, but she should’ve thought of something.) The storyline is more concerned with setting up for the future: not only did Booker get captured recovering a black box from one of the ships destroyed during the Burn, but we learn a lot about the Emerald Chain, the Orion-Andorian crime syndicate introduced in the season opener, who seem more and more to be Starfleet’s primary concern. We learn their leader’s name is Osyraa, and that Booker’s Andorian friend, Ryn (Noah Averbach-Katz), tried to overthrow her: it was a pleasant surprise that Osyraa didn’t appear in this episode, and after the scuppering of her operations here, there’s now an inevitable reckoning to look forward to.
3. Resurrection Coming Right Up?
Stamets and Adira’s dynamic has really turned into one of the sweetest on the show, with him behaving like a big brother. This week, Stamets was pretty flustered about all the changes to the ship and where everything is now, and it’s surprising he doesn’t get annoyed with Adira, when they reveal they redesigned the spore drive controls to use a clean nanogel instead of those needles. (They later remove Stamets’s implants, something Culber is ecstatic about.)
Later, Stamets learns Adira’s been talking to their dead boyfriend Gray through the symbiont, and he cannot believe he’s met someone else who’s loved, lost, and found their love again. For such a secular franchise, it’s surprising how many resurrections there’ve been on Star Trek (like the aforementioned third film), and as Stamets’s conversation with Culber indicates, he feels he owes it to Adira to help, suggesting some mad microbial science may also return Gray to the land of the living.
4. Georgiou Needs Help
After her moment of confusion last week, Georgiou’s PTSD goes into overdrive here: during a moment of banter between her and Burnham en route to rescue Booker, she has a flashback at the mention of Ash Tyler’s name, where she seems to be mourning the death of someone close named San. Georgiou is triggered again during the climax, nearly costing Burnham’s life before she snaps out of it: afterwards, Michael and Philippa have a talk about how it’s OK to be struggling with your mental health, which is as necessary in the Trek universe as it is in our’s, as the Terran Empire wasn’t exactly open minded about these issues. It’s going to be interesting to see if Georgiou will be receptive to Burnham’s advice, and just who this San was.
Continued below5. Emotional Whiplash
Before going to face the music, Burnham and Booker finally kiss, a romantically satisfying moment that not even Linus accidentally beaming into the turbolift (which was admittedly laugh-out-loud funny) could ruin. Unfortunately, Burnham’s day — and our jubilant mood — is ruined by her shakedown from Saru and Admiral Vance. It’s very clear both men absolutely empathize with her decision (hell, Vance even says he may have sanctioned the idea if Saru had been able to inform him of it), but agree she needs to be disciplined.
When given permission to speak freely, Burnham states she believes that, only by solving the mystery of the cause of the Burn, will the Federation be able to truly band together again. Vance’s quiet reaction tells us he sees the truth in her words, but Burnham is still a Starfleet officer. Worse, Saru feels betrayed, and hurt Burnham doesn’t trust him enough to tell him what she wants: movingly, he tells her he realizes she’s changed, and things can’t go back to the way they were. He demotes her back to chief science officer, and Michael replies he’s “doing the right thing.” Perhaps being demoted will give her the freedom to pursue the cause of the Burn, without the expectation of being at Saru’s beck and call: that’s the probable silver lining from all this.
Bonus Thoughts:
– Saru telling Tilly he doubts she’d have done the same in Burnham’s position is possibly the greatest backhanded compliment ever.
– There’s a ship called the Le Guin, which is presumably a nod to the late, great Ursula K. Le Guin.
– Did we know Book’s ship could rearrange itself like that? It certainly looks very cool.
– Discovery‘s spore drive remains Starfleet’s secret weapon.
– Favorite line of the week has to be Georgiou saying, “He [Tolor] is a bully! They crumble like a cookie when they meet a bigger one!”
– Finally, since this is effectively our weekly Star Trek column, I’d like to share a moment of silence for Herb Solow, the producer who sold the series to NBC in the 1960s, who died on Thursday, aged 89. “Second star to the right, and straight on ’til morning,” captain.
See you next week for “Unification III” (yes, you heard that correctly TNG fans).
