Star Trek: Discoveryended its first season right back where the franchise started.
Im not talking about theU.S.S.Enterprise.
Im talking about the dancing green lady.
Credit: Jan Thijs/CBS
In the originalStar Trekpilot, theres a scene with the Starfleet captain admiring a green woman.
Shes barely dressed, swirling sensually.
The green woman is played by Susan Oliver, later a pioneering female director and a transatlantic aviatrix.
Pike, the character, is disturbed by what hes seeing: The whole dance is an alien-telepath plot.
ButStar Trek,the show, would linger on the spaced-out kink.
(The Green Woman became a regular freeze-frame in the closing credits.)
There was a similar sequence inDiscoverys finale, with variations.
The dancing green woman now had a male companion, less dressed but equally green.
And in place of Captain Pike, there was Captain Emperor Georgiou (Michelle Yeoh).
To end the war, she went to a strip club.
But Georgiou comes from the bad universe.
This was her kind of place.
How much for a little ME time?
she asked the green lady.
She went back to a private room, bringing the man along too.
She interrogated them, at gunpoint, but only after theyd all had a little fun.
Captain Emperor Georgiou was a shot in the arm forDiscoverys limp finale.
Georgiou had an important plot role in this finale, I know.
She walked into the brig with Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) to interrogate LRell (Mary Chieffo).
This whole half-season, LRells been in the brig, waiting for someone to interrogate her.
You both talk too much!
This felt like an on-point critique: This showistoo damn talky!
She also told Burnham: You know your problem?
Harsh crit, evil PhilJo, but this show reallywasincapable of following through on its most fascinating instincts.
It could be, Captain Emperor, it could be!
Georgiou was a good character, which is obviously different from being a good person.
Actually, you could argue she is the closestDiscoverycomes to a Captain Kirk.
She has Kirks brash sensibility, and his classics-quoting grandiosity.
Cant you just see Shatner saying that, really hammering the part about the.Bread.
Important to remember, plenty of nominally heroic things Kirk did in the original series ambiguous to modern eyes.
And what a misconception, to presume such a character should be The Problem, and not the star!
Disappointing is the simple answer.
Not a capital crime:Treks been disappointing before.
But it feels like nothing that happened since the premiere really mattered.
These are the basic two character traits we learned about Burnham and Voq back in September.
This is the downside of serialized storytelling.
As entertainment, this was a failure.
As a philosophical statement about, like, what the Federation stands for?
But all the particulars of this finale felt anticlimactic, wishy-washy.
So then LRell convinces all the disparate Klingon houses to return to their space: War over!
This was also some vague idea inStar Trek Into Darkness, whichDiscoveryexecutive producer Alex Kurtzman co-wrote.
Its a bummer, how vague and undefined the Klingons became over the course of this season?
The premiere suggested a belief system, a splintered culture, misfits, zealots.
But thats not who we are.
Not a bad thing to be violent or sexy plenty of greatStar Trekhas been both!
Old life, old civilizations, boldly going where weve already been.
Easy to declare your originality; hard to actually be original.
You had the feeling there was a fire at the tragic-backstory factory.
Tasked with playing multiple onion layers of grief, Martin-Green could only default to a pained expression.
Its still a sharp idea, to make aStar Trekshow that isnt about a Captain.
But I wonder if thats a long con.
(She walked away from this finale exonerated of her mutiny, and promoted to Commander.)
Theres an odd distancing effect to this storytelling strategy.
The season had its charms.
Jones Saru was a cheering presence, a fussy bureaucrat on a heros journey to becoming a courageous bureaucrat.
And I liked howDiscoverymaintained a steady bridge crew of familiar faces.
I so want there to be a scene (or an episode?)
(Actually, I just want a whole season 2 episode about Airiam and poor forgottenEnsign Robotface.)
I really enjoyedthe trip to the Mirror Universe, a near-reboot that turned out to be a mere deviation.
Those episodes were indulgent, silly, twisty.
(Everyone got drunk at a party!
Lorca died, over and over again!)
You wanted more glittery short stories like that.
Instead, here at the end of a long season: TheEnterprise!
(Maybe ifGothamends this season, Kid Batman can transfer over to play Kid Spock!)
Will season 2 follow the characters who leftDiscovery?
Lets pre-delete those scenes, and focus more time on Former Captain Emperor Georgiou.
At least with her around, the whole universe cant be boring.
Finale Grade: C
Season Grade: C+
The Stuff In The Mirror Universe: B+
