Trektember: The War Without, The War Within | Star Trek: Discovery
“We created something today in a desolate wasteland that had never seen life.” —Michael Here is a terrific episode, the best one of the season. It floats through what feels like the perfectly toned middle act of a great submarine…
Trektember: What's Past is Prologue | Star Trek: Discovery
Then war broke out in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back. But he was not strong enough, and they lost their place in heaven. The great dragon was hurled…
Trektember: Vaulting Ambition | Star Trek: Discovery
While some reviews of Star Trek: Discovery have lauded the second half of the first season because “the stakes are high, and the showrunners and writers aren’t afraid to let us know nothing is sacred,” I, unfortunately, didn’t see it…
Trektember: The Wolf Inside | Star Trek: Discovery
“Even the light is different…the cosmos has lost its brilliance. And everywhere I turn, there’s fear.” —Michael Burnham Star Trek is, at its core, about identity: identity as a society, identity as a species, identity as an individual. And since…
Trektember: Despite Yourself | Star Trek: Discovery
Recap Discovery is not where she’s supposed to be. Having perfected the Klingon cloak-breaking algorithm, the crew initiate a spore-jump to Starbase 46. The information they possess could help win the war. But something goes wrong and they find themselves…
Trektember: Into the Forest I Go | Star Trek: Discovery
This was the first episode where, for me, the Klingon scenes weren’t insufferable. Their speech finally sounded like language and actual communication rather than ceremonial correcting and positioning. It’s a too-common mistake made by shows set in cultures of deep…
Trektember: Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad | Star Trek: Discovery
Read enough articles about Star Trek: Discovery, and you’ll start to see a repetitive phrase: “this is the first episode that really felt like Star Trek to me.” We’ve even had a couple of variations on that verbal “time loop”…
Trektember: Lethe | Star Trek: Discovery
As I watched “Lethe,” I couldn’t help but think about how the author of Ephesians (let’s acknowledge scholarly dispute over the epistle’s author, but go with the traditional designation of Paul for convenience) admonishes children to obey their parents. It’s…
Trektember: Choose Your Pain | Star Trek: Discovery
Recap Burnham raises concerns about the physical effects of spore drive jumps on the tardigrade creature, which places Stamets, Culber, and Acting Captain Saru at ethical odds after Captain Lorca is captured by the Klingons and the spore drive is…
Trektember: The Butcher's Knife Cares Not for the Lamb's Cry | Star Trek: Discovery
Author’s Note: Star Trek: Discovery is an unusually contiguous series in the franchise. As such, certain ideas and narratives cannot be discussed fully within the bounds of a single episode. For the purposes of this analysis, then, I’m going to…