Burnham, Tyler, and Saru venture down to a forest planet to make use of a naturally growing antenna to help them see cloaked Klingon ships when Saru gets up close and personal with the native alien life and decides that they should all stay and forget the war because… why not?
“Si… Vis… Pacemaker?” is a pretty solid episode, the only thing that bothers me about it can be traced right back to it being the first part of a two-parter because a lot of it seems incomplete. It’s not that middle chapter syndrome thing going that you see from a lot of trilogies and it’s only the first part which is… well, it’s weird, but it makes sense too.
It was great to see Discovery’s crew venture down to a planet and the digital manipulation that turned all of the leaves blue was a nice touch making the planet seem more alien. The aliens also… very cool, but for some reason, they reminded me of Avatar.
Probably all the blue.
Planetside, the story was serviceable, but didn’t really take off until it was revealed what what going on with Saru and why he was acting the way he did. Big props to Discovery for not going down the mind-control route on that one.
Over on the Klingon side, things are unraveling as well. L’Rell and Admiral Cornwall have some facetime and I’m really sad that the Admiral’s story appears to be over and done with. I actually liked her and would have liked to have seen more between her and L’Rell.
More because it was the first part of a two-parter and less because of any real deficiencies, but this episode was good, but did not reach peak greatness despite its best efforts. Perhaps the premiere of next week’s episode will change my mind, but for now, I’ve got more “meh” than awe.
It honestly stuns me (no pun intended) when I hear someone use the age-old complaint that Gene Roddenberry wouldn’t have approved of this or that or that Discovery doesn’t fit Gene’s vision of the future. I mean, come on… the guy’s been dead for almost three decades now and these idiots are acting like they were old fishing buddies.
Well, I didn’t know Gene Roddenberry.
He seemed like a nice guy unless you watched that documentary about The Next Generation, but overall… a nice guy. But I didn’t know him, all I know is Star Trek and Star Trek was all about exploring strange new worlds and seeking out new life forms. I know this… because the original series said so.
So here, in this episode with a title too complicated for me to remember, we go to a strange new world and meet a strange new lifeform. That’s Star Trek.
Oh, it’s supposed to be optimistic? Looked pretty optimistic to me. Never once did the Starfleet officers take up arms against the blue whisps or even think about it. The only conflict from that plot came from someone desperate to protect them from the Federation/Klingon war. That’s optimism up the wazoo.
And yes, I keep hearing those complaints: It’s not Star Trek and it’s not optimistic even though… it is and it is! I have a friend who has never seen a single episode of the series because he refuses to pay for CBS All Access (which, honestly, unless you are in absolute poverty is a stupid argument) and he still calls it the worst Star Trek series. Remember, he’s never watched it, but he buys into all of the negativity.
That’s not optimistic.
That’s not Star Trek.
Jason Gaston 