Pike gains a glimpse of his future, as Burnham and Spock follow a lead to Control…

It seems a bit odd to say spoilers for this episode, as the key parts relate to something that was shown on screen over 50 years ago… but still…

Spoilers follow.

I wasn’t in the least surprised when Discovery revisited the events of The Cage for episode 8 – having Chris Pike as a key member of the crew for the season, let alone Spock, made this seem inevitable. I wasn’t expecting them to be able to revisit the events of The Menagerie as well, but that’s what we get thanks to the Klingon time crystal that Pike grabs. There’s a dramatization of the radiation accident that cripples Pike after he’s left his tour of duty on Enterprise (although what is it with Starfleet personnel in any universe that they have to reach up to touch the glass once they’ve been irradiated?) and a recreation of Pike’s wheelchair which just emphasises how horrendous the accident was.

You may wonder why the time crystal doesn’t show him the “happy ending” afforded Pike at the end of The Menagerie, but to do that would negate the ‘present day’ scenes of that episode: Pike has to fight Spock from kidnapping him, because he’s known for years that this is his fate, and – as Anson Mount makes clear in perhaps his best scene as Pike the whole season – he’s accepted that. You have to wonder if there’s even a sense of relief when it actually happens down the line.

The strength of Pike’s plotline overshadows some serious questions raised by the presence of L’Rell on Discovery above Boreth. She’s told the other Klingons that Ash Tyler/Voq and their child are dead – and we know that the Klingons aren’t exactly the sort of people who casually accept someone’s word that things are the case. Surely there’d be a spy from another House around who’d point out that there’s someone suspiciously like Ash still on Discovery?!

The Spock/Burnham strand has some cool moments for both characters, but you really have to wonder why they didn’t think for a second that the 10-minute late report wasn’t the setup for a trap? I can understand Control screwing with Spock’s tricorder so they don’t suspect the survivor, but they both seem to blithely wander into the situation. That said, it’s good to see them working together rather than somehow at loggerheads – and the brief appearance of Amanda at the start is a nice reminder that she is mother to both (we can’t have Sarek, as that would muck up the way round they’ve used to cover the lines in Journey to Babel about Spock and Sarek’s interaction over the years).

Life on Discovery continues with the ever-blinking Linus part of a nicely-played scene in the mess deck. Tig Notaro, Anthony Rapp and Wilson Cruz have enjoyable scenes together, but I still hope that there’s not going to be a forced Stamets/Culber reconciliation simply because the former has to concentrate on his work!

Verdict: An excellent performance from Anson Mount can’t hide some story problems – but hopefully the reasoning behind them will become clearer in the final two eps. 8/10

Paul Simpson