Burnham’s link with Sarek is the key to saving the Vulcan’s life, while Lorca’s position on board Discovery comes under threat…

One thing you can say about Discovery – every episode throws up increasingly outlandish theories about the series’ correlation to the incarnations of Star Trek that have come before. There’s one floating around regarding this episode (which I won’t spoil here as you need to have seen the episode to understand how it could be feasible) that I really hope is true – and will be fascinating to see play out, if that’s the case. It regards the Admiral with whom Captain Lorca has been sparring, whose relationship with Lorca takes some quite unexpected twists this time around…

The core focus of the episode is the relationship between Burnham and Sarek, and despite various claims that there wouldn’t even be mention of Sarek’s more famous son in this series, Spock very much is key to events that are revisited here. Sarek doesn’t come out of this in a particularly good light (and much as I enjoyed Ben Cross’ performance in the Kelvin-verse, I think James Frain comes into his own as the character here, feeling very much like a slightly younger version of Mark Lenard’s character). Of course, as with any prequel that uses pre-existing characters, we know that Sarek is bound to survive his ordeal, but putting him in this situation allows an expansion of a 50 year old character in whom we are already invested that simply wouldn’t be the case if Burnham’s relationship had been with another Vulcan.

Other relationships take a bit of a back seat here, but there are some strong moments between Burnham and Tilly, particularly as the former achieves some self-awareness about the way she acts. (There’s been some criticism of the dialogue between Burnham and Tilly – as if male writers shouldn’t have two women discussing the merits of a new male arrival – but frankly the scene in question did more to establish Burnham’s increasing humanity than any number of well signposted “revelations”.) There are multiple theories regarding new head of security Ash Tyler (which would seem to be borne out by the otherwise bizarre choice of clip in the “previously on Discovery” sequence), so it may be that there’s considerable irony in him explaining humanity to Burnham. There’s part of me that’s hoping that there’s a lot of 2+2=5 going on, though, and that the truths regarding both the Admiral and Tyler are far more bizarre!

Verdict: Another strong episode. 8/10

Paul Simpson