Star Trek: Discoveryended its second season Thursday with a twist that could decisively alter the prequels troubled course.
When the budget allows,Discoveryhas shown itself more than capable of delivering spacefight thrills.
Then he arrived, and everything became about the sphere.
Credit: John Medland/CBS
She seemed more excited, in fact, about getting her hands on some raw time crystal.
The addition of Captain Pike (Anson Mount) was also a bright spot.
Mounts cheerful performance was unexpected, in light of the characters history.
John Medland/CBS
film series as a punching bag for bad guys.
Credit Mount for bringing low-key good humor to a show that usually aims for rap-rock extremes of emotion.
Captain Pike saw his sad future, and got back to work.
The Klingon Empire will always fight to preserve our future!
Chancellor LRell (Mary Chieffo) told Pike in the finale.
he responded, always amicable.
(The only downside to neo-Pike: His warp-speed catchphrase, Hit it, was divorced-dad-gets-an-earring lame.)
Meanwhile,Discoveryentirely lost Michael Burnham.
It turns out the only idea this show has for its hero is to drown her in parents.
Then, in last weeks episode, Michaels Vulcan step-parents swung byDiscovery.
Their katra told her she was in trouble, or something.
Imagine if Sarek swung by theEnterpriseevery time Spock had problems in the originalStar Trekshow!
Its infantilizing, really, howDiscoverykeeps throwing parental figures at a grown-ass Starfleet officer.
The season briefly seemed to be nudging toward a paranoid story about the brightheartedDiscoveryversus Section 31s espionage tactics.
I think Kurtzman wants his CBS All Access universe to have it both ways.
But all this is mere prologue to the hail-mary twist at the end of the finale.
Michael flew her Red Angel outfit through a time-space wormhole, takingDiscoverywith her into an unknown future.
After the disappearance, Starfleet interviewed the remaining characters.
You always knew thatDiscowould have to conjure up somereasonfor Michaels voided existence inStar Trekhistory.
Its the Droids Knew Lukes Father Decades Ago?
Well, now we have our answer, and it is dumb beyond dumb.
Spocks advice is a near-quote of a memorable line fromThe Simpsons.
And I further decree that everything will be just like it was before all this happened!
And no one will ever mention it again, under penalty of torture!
Was this the plan all along withDiscovery?
It sounded like a wink.
ButDiscoseason 2 was a failure in both directions.
It shamelessly dove intoTreks past for no good reason except look-I-remember-that fan service.
(You cant evolve if youre always going backward, oh ye producers of prequel reboots!)
SoDiscoveryhas been a real weirdStar Trekadventure so far, and this season was worse than the first one.
Are there better days ahead?
Jett Renos on board, so thats a big plus.
Young Spocks not on board, so thats another plus.
Whenever she is, it cant be worse than the past.
FINALE GRADE: B-
SEASON GRADE: C-
