Young Michael Burnham is told a bedtime story by her father…

Olatunde Osunsanmi is best known as the director of many of the key episodes of Star Trek: Discovery, as well as being the on-set supervising producer for the show. He turns his hand – and his vivid imagination – to animation with this beautiful interpretation of Brandon Schultz’s script. It’s something of a novelty for Star Trek to draw on the mythology of non-Western cultures – which, with well over fifty years of storytelling within the franchise, is something of an error that I hope this is part of correcting – and builds on Burnham’s mention of the story early in season 2.

As with Dot and Ephraim the story is designed to appeal to a younger audience than might normally watch Star Trek, but it also has plenty for the parents/older fans watching it. From the start, we were told that Discovery would be about Burnham and her journey of self-discovery – something that perhaps season 2 sidetracked from in its building of the mythos around Spock and the early Enterprise crew – and from this story, you can see what inspired the young girl to seek the stars.

Kenric Green reprises his role from the live-action series to good effect, with Kyrie McAlpin a credible younger Burnham. The animation style is still stylised but in a very different way from Dot and Ephraim, with Kris Bowers’ score helping to set the mood well.

Verdict: A very different and effective piece of Star Trek. 9/10

Paul Simpson