Kobayashi Marie finishes its discussion of the First Season of Star Trek Discovery with Episode 15 –Will You Take My Hand?
Season finale!
First time around, I tweeted that this episode “rushed to its conclusion and every plot strand ended unsatisfactorily. Such a shame.”
Have been mulling it over and have reached a conclusion. That last episode of Star Trek Discovery rushed to its conclusion and every plot strand ended unsatisfactorily. Such a shame.
I have a bit more appreciation for the episode second time around and after almost a year, but I do still think that it was a bit hasty in getting to the end.
But anyway, what were we dealing with this time? Mostly the delicious Emperor Georgiou (Michelle Yeoh) being delightfully bitchy with Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) and Sylvia Tilly (Mary Wiseman). Hey bridge officers, that’s obviously not the Georgiou you knew from before. Why can’t you see that she’s different?
Trust Tilly to be the one who realises – her reaction as the isik drops is priceless! Sounds like the Emperor and Killy had some excellent killing sprees together in the other universe – they would be good to watch in a further Mirror episode?
Not content with verbally beating up the bridge officers, Georgiou also deals out a few hefty kicks and punches to L’Rell. Brutal. She refers to Ash Tyler (Shazad Latif) as a ‘half-breed’ and ‘it’ right in front of him. And on Qo’nos, she’s clearly having a great time with the Orions in her leather corset too …
Anyway, I digress. I had a flashback to Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan when Paul Stamets (Anthony Rapp) navigated a jump into the depths of Qo’nos and announced “Am I good or what?” – echoes for me of Dr Carol Marcus (Bibi Besch) asking “Can I cook or can’t I?” when she shows off the results of the Genesis project she has created.
A highlight of this episode has to be “Oh shit, that is not a drone” – I think it’s one of my favourite line readings of the entire season. On the opposite end of the scale, just like Burnham, I also find it uncomfortable to see and hear Tyler speaking Klingon with such ease.
So up to this point, I enjoyed the episode this time around. But the denouement still feels a little rushed. L’Rell can suddenly unite all of the Klingon houses, Tyler cries again then decides to leave with L’Rell, and Burnham tells Georgiou to be a good girl. Yeah, like that’s going to happen …
And I was also annoyed by something probably insignificant in the scene in Paris. I can’t believe for one moment that the sign outside the building would be entirely in English. The French are proud of their language. It should read Fédération des planètes unies surely? The logo would still let everyone know where we are.
Of course, ending the whole season with a Priority 1 distress call, followed by the words “Hail from Captain Pike, sir” and the Star Trek TOS theme to finish is both an excellent cliffhanger, and also potentially a really cheap shot at a tease.
As it happens, we now know that we’re going to get Pike and Spock in Season 2 so I will forgive them. Unless it gets them in all kinds of ret con knots with earlier storylines, in which case I will be very, very cross indeed.
Kobayashi Marie will be back on next Wednesday with an all new column beginning the recaps of Season 2 of Star Trek Discovery
Kobayashi Marie finishes its discussion of the First Season of Star Trek Discovery with Episode 15 –Will You Take My Hand?
Season finale!
First time around, I tweeted that this episode “rushed to its conclusion and every plot strand ended unsatisfactorily. Such a shame.”
I have a bit more appreciation for the episode second time around and after almost a year, but I do still think that it was a bit hasty in getting to the end.
But anyway, what were we dealing with this time? Mostly the delicious Emperor Georgiou (Michelle Yeoh) being delightfully bitchy with Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) and Sylvia Tilly (Mary Wiseman). Hey bridge officers, that’s obviously not the Georgiou you knew from before. Why can’t you see that she’s different?
Trust Tilly to be the one who realises – her reaction as the isik drops is priceless! Sounds like the Emperor and Killy had some excellent killing sprees together in the other universe – they would be good to watch in a further Mirror episode?
Not content with verbally beating up the bridge officers, Georgiou also deals out a few hefty kicks and punches to L’Rell. Brutal. She refers to Ash Tyler (Shazad Latif) as a ‘half-breed’ and ‘it’ right in front of him. And on Qo’nos, she’s clearly having a great time with the Orions in her leather corset too …
Anyway, I digress. I had a flashback to Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan when Paul Stamets (Anthony Rapp) navigated a jump into the depths of Qo’nos and announced “Am I good or what?” – echoes for me of Dr Carol Marcus (Bibi Besch) asking “Can I cook or can’t I?” when she shows off the results of the Genesis project she has created.
A highlight of this episode has to be “Oh shit, that is not a drone” – I think it’s one of my favourite line readings of the entire season. On the opposite end of the scale, just like Burnham, I also find it uncomfortable to see and hear Tyler speaking Klingon with such ease.
So up to this point, I enjoyed the episode this time around. But the denouement still feels a little rushed. L’Rell can suddenly unite all of the Klingon houses, Tyler cries again then decides to leave with L’Rell, and Burnham tells Georgiou to be a good girl. Yeah, like that’s going to happen …
And I was also annoyed by something probably insignificant in the scene in Paris. I can’t believe for one moment that the sign outside the building would be entirely in English. The French are proud of their language. It should read Fédération des planètes unies surely? The logo would still let everyone know where we are.
Of course, ending the whole season with a Priority 1 distress call, followed by the words “Hail from Captain Pike, sir” and the Star Trek TOS theme to finish is both an excellent cliffhanger, and also potentially a really cheap shot at a tease.
As it happens, we now know that we’re going to get Pike and Spock in Season 2 so I will forgive them. Unless it gets them in all kinds of ret con knots with earlier storylines, in which case I will be very, very cross indeed.
Kobayashi Marie will be back on next Wednesday with an all new column beginning the recaps of Season 2 of Star Trek Discovery
You can catch up on the prior columns here!
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