The Red Angel’s trail leads Discovery to Saru’s home world…

Building on both the revelations in the Short Trek The Brightest Star last year, and the effects of Saru’s near death experience in episode 4, The Sound of Thunder answers a lot of questions about the Kelpiens, as well as once again throwing us into a major exploration of General Order 1, aka the Prime Directive. I’ve seen this hailed as one of the best ever episodes of Star Trek, and while it certainly delves into philosophical concepts in the way that epitomises the series for many, there’s a little too much “handwavium” going on for my personal taste (foreshadowed by Pike’s line about “stretching” General Order 1). People talk about Kirk not worrying about the consequences of his actions… well, I have faith in the writers’ room this season that there’s going to be some sort of further repercussions of Saru’s actions.

Not that that is for one second to knock the performances. Doug Jones, as I’ve said before, is one of the key components to making Discovery stand out among the Star Trek shows, and there’s so much that he’s done to make the Kelpien race feel as if it’s been part of the show for decades, rather than simply the last couple of years – simple things, such as the way that Saru walks or runs, tell us so much. The much less fearful Saru now is shown in many ways – not rising automatically when Pike comes on the bridge is more subtle than the face to face confrontation that follows but nonetheless as telling.

Although the Kelpien story dominates the episode, there’s movement elsewhere, not least in terms of Dr Culber’s return, which I suspect is not going to be anywhere near as easy as anyone had hoped. We also get an interesting discussion between Pike and Tyler regarding how Section 31 is at this stage, and throwing a bit more light on Pike himself.

Verdict: A strong episode that answers a lot of questions but throws up a load more. 8/10

Paul Simpson