In our Discovery 3X01 review we praised the change of pace that fueled the prequel to the classic Star Trek series. towards new unprecedented horizons. After crossing the wormhole with the USS Discovery, Commander Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) crashed on an unknown planet and met Book, a messenger with a strong environmental sensitivity.
In a future a thousand years away Since the timeline of the previous season, things have changed dramatically; Only a few remnants of the Federation remain, after a catastrophic event that turned dilithium into a valuable bargaining chip.
We had left Burnham in the hope that we could find his companions and thus reach Discovery, whose fate seemed uncertain at the time. The second episode of this season, however, sheds light on the dynamics related to the crew of the spaceship that owns the series, opening up new insights into the future and ensuring more space for new dynamics between the characters.
For a handful of dilithium
This new chapter of Discovery, which releases its episodes weekly on Netflix, is a necessary second introduction to this third season and is in fact the other side of the coin at the premiere last week. In “Far from home“In fact, we are involved in the disastrous exit of the USS Discovery from the wormhole that catapulted it into the future. If in the first episode the fall of Burnham had a value and symbolic representation of rebirth, resulting in a subtext in a relaunch of the franchise, this second episode shoot all cartridges at readiness level, keeping us glued to the screen as Discovery crashes on an unknown planet, in a series of visually stunning sequences, to the point of giving the impression of being in front of more feature films than television series quality, yet another reminder of how the limit between the big screen and the small one is getting thinner.
Fallen on a hostile planet, with a glacial atmosphere, which is nothing like Burnham’s planet last week, Saru (Doug Jones) finds himself dealing with an emergency which sees most of the crew injured and Discovery out of commission on the communications and navigation side.
Despite the constant pressure from Georgiu (Michelle Yeoh) to want to contribute in his own way to be able to contact Burnham – although at this point in terms of writing his attachment is starting to be a bit spurious – Saru decides to explore the inhabited. area with Tilly (Mary Wiseman), seeking help with component repair. Meanwhile, we notice that Detmer (Emily Coutts) suffers from an unusual estrangement compared to the other members of the crew, hoping not to have to witness the reiteration of stories already present in the last season.
“The Colony”, this is the only name by which the unknown planet is identified by its reluctant inhabitants, it is astonished at the fortuitous and catastrophic appearance of a Federation ship – remember that we are still in the future – and fear this event may have repercussions with the arrival of a messenger who keeps the planet under control by stealing its resources and subjugating the small community of miners that inhabit it.
Wearing not too veiled western styles, “The Colony” is presented as a border where the law of the strongest rules, enclosing the events of Saru and Tilly in an intergalactic room, within which all those scenes that do not concern the restoration of Discovery and the imminent threat of ice parasites, which threatens to engulf the ship and kill its crew before the two emissaries return.
The end of an era?
Those who screamed at the sacrilege and imminent demise of the franchise after last week’s premiere, may find in this episode a variation of that scan of unknown planets and civilizations that, after all, were not lacking even in the previous episode, but that at this point undergoes a change in its own enunciation, without distorting the underlying message in our opinion of unity in diversity, which has always been a legacy of the Gene Roddenberry series.
It is also true that especially from the second season of Discovery We are not facing a classic and comforting image beyond Star Trek, which sees the cohesion and harmony among the crew as its pinnacle, as well as the greatest source of tranquility for the viewer. IS this new episode of Discovery just confirm this atmosphere in the mysterious portrait of Detmer or in the relationship between Stamets (Anthony Rapp) and Reno (Tig Notaro), who undoubtedly lives from too much naivety, going through Georgiu’s impulses; while we can’t help but abandon ourselves to the sagacity of Saru or the cuteness of an evolving Tilly.
All the dynamics that some risks imply of different entities at the narrative level, but that could also have unprecedented implications. Who knows if the delicious (and predictable) finale suspense will serve to bring fans peace or set the dust on fire.
