The rebellion against the Terran Empire has begun.

Once again, it’ll be extremely hard to discuss this episode without spoilers both for this week and recent episodes, so before reading on, head to CBS All Access / Netflix / Space and watch it – now!

For those who have seen it or really don’t care about being spoiled:

The current run of episodes in Discovery are some of my favourite ever in the Star Trek universes, and are a lot of what I’d hoped we would get with a new series. I’d half expected what’s become the Kelvin-verse to go in this direction before it took a sharp wrong turn with Into Darkness, but the advantage of completely new characters, the serialised format and a willingness to take the story into places it needs to go has meant that Discovery has become absolute must-watch television. Yes, a lot of the reveals have been guessable (the end of this episode in its specifics perhaps not, but that they’d jump back inaccurately was telegraphed ages ago), but it’s been seeing things play out that has been so enjoyable.

Jason Isaacs seems to have come to the end of his time on the show, with this final episode giving him the chance to go way over the top (although he didn’t always go there, luckily). There was very little way of redeeming the character after the revelations last episode – not of Lorca’s origins, but of his motivations towards Burnham – and it was right both that Burnham saved his life… and that the Emperor took it. Talking of reveals, Burnham rescuing him seemed odd at the time for a moment, but then you remember that she promised she wasn’t going to let another Phillipa die even if this really does present some interesting quandaries for the Discovery crew back in the prime Alpha Quadrant. Sonequa Martin-Green and Michelle Yeoh were at their best this episode, with each getting plenty of opportunities to shine, both dramatically and in action. The fights were some of the best I’ve seen on Star Trek – well-choreographed, shot and edited.

But those on the Discovery were also well-served. Doug Jones’ Captain Saru gave one of the best speeches of the series as he rallied his crew and reminded them he didn’t believe in no-win scenarios. The whole “we can sense death” element to Kelpiens might have been set up just to give us that scene (and I hope that someone is writing the Making of book for this series – a job I’ll admit freely I’d have loved!). Anthony Rapp and Mary Wiseman’s Stamets and Tilly have a completely new dynamic now, and while it was odd seeing the latter back in Starfleet uniform, some of the self-confidence that came with Captain Killy is evident.

And much as I think Shazad Latif and Mary Chiefto have given extraordinary performances as Voq/Tyler and L’Rell, it was quite right that they had no presence in this episode. We really didn’t want – or need – to cut away to anything that wasn’t essential to the storytelling.

Discovery was originally commissioned for 13 episodes, which might suggest that where we’ve got to could have been the end of the first season initially (and would have been the hell of a cliffhanger). I’m glad that we have two more episodes to come this year – but I do seriously wonder how (or even if) they are going to wrap the Klingon war story up.

Verdict: A great piece of Star Trek, and a great piece of television drama. 10/10

Paul Simpson