This is a TV show airing on a streaming service in the Year of our Spacelord 2019.
If it wants to rewrite the rules of this franchise, okay!
Still, I dug how Thursdays episode, New Eden, conjured up some classicalTrekqualities.
Credit: Russ Martin/CBS
Captain Pike (Anson Mount) tells Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) theyre going to investigate on the surface.
Its an away mission!
Turns out Owosekun was raised in a Luddite collective, so shes an ideal envoy to a pre-technological society.
(Further connectivity toTreks past: This episode was directed by Jonathan Frakes.)
Two hundred years ago, Earth was falling into the nuclear devastation of World War III.
What to make of our Angel Butterfly?
Any extraterrestrial intelligence is indistinguishable from God, Pike says.
Is the mission of season 2 to find some kind of God Thing?
Burnhams skeptical, especially with regard to the more direct problem.
In Pikes view, New Eden constitutes a separate society, pre-warp and starship-free.
So this a Prime Directive matter, our old friend General Order 1.
Starfleet officers cannot interfere.
that Earth survived World War III.
I love this setup because its so rich with potential.
Has New Eden existed long enough on its own to comprise a truly separate society?
have formed a blessed unity?
And heres where this hour gets muddled with scenes of Big Digital Junk.
(Shes had her pilots license since she was 12, turns out.)
But the rest of the episode feels painfully dedicated to quick check-ins on Stuff Well Get To Later.
Look,Disco, we get it: You shouldnt have killed Hugh.
He was a great character.
If you want to bring him back, thenbring him back.
Like: Hey, presto, Tardigrade, done!
But this Izzy Dreams of Denny subplot feels like a lame tease.
And now Tillys seeing her own [Shaggy Voice]Guh-guh-ghoooooooost?
Broken record: The serialized stuff is draggingDiscodown.
But, another broken record:Discos season 2 evolution continues.
We get a stray bits of biographical detail for our ace helmspeople.
And New Eden lands on a sneaky final vision.
Pike leaves Jacob an everlasting battery.
