Discovery ventures to the Verubin Nebula, where Burnham, Saru, and Culber make a shocking realization about the origin of the Burn.

There’s an awful lot happening in what looks to be a three-part season finale, though admittedly for the first 15 minutes there’s no great pace. This is the point where we find out the cause of the Burn, and it’s fairly unexpected, though you might feel a bit cheated that you didn’t have the clues to work it out for yourself. It’s as if someone looked up and realised ‘What, there’s three episodes left? Best get a move on!’

There’s a significant section of the run time devoted to Michael, Culber and Saru (cleverly allowing Doug Jones to be prosthetic-free) on the Kelpian ship, stuck in a dream-like state within a computer programme. You might be scratching your head at times, but things become a lot clearer when Osyraa and her forces turn up and everything starts to escalate. Finishing on a cliffhanger that would have typically finished a season on a high, there’s everything to play for in the final two episodes.

Verdict: Erratic pacing, a lot of info dumps and some high drama – this episode pretty much sums up the season to date. Let’s see what happens next. 8/10