TV Review – Star Trek Discovery: Red Angel

TL;DR –  It starts on an emotional beat and stays there up until the very last moments.

Score – 3.5 out of 5 stars

Star Trek Discovery: Red Angel. Image Credit: CBS Studios.

Review

From the very first episode this season Brother there has been one defining question this season “who is the Red Angel?” well tonight we find out and while I am sure someone out there picked it, I did not see it coming at all.

So to set the scene, we begin the episode where Project Daedalus left off, where Airiam (Hannah Cheesman) was killed to save Control getting access to the data she had downloaded. At the start of today’s episode her body is recovered, her memories deleted, and finally, a memorial service was held where people shared their fondest memories and Saru (Doug Jones) sang as her body was laid to rest. There is a real threat out there and we have to stop it but now Section 31’s Leland (Alan Van Sprang) and Georgiou (Michelle Yeoh) are willing to let slip that the Red Angel suit was theirs, or at least it started off that way. It was built when a new time war was heating up with the Klingons a few years ago that ended when both sides destroyed each other’s work. Oh and just a small thing that in one of Airiam’s data files was the scan of the Red Angel and it matches Michael (Sonequa Martin-Green).   

Continue reading
Advertisement

TV Review – Star Trek Discovery: Project Daedalus

TL;DR –  This is both a beautiful episode and also a heartbreaking one, it also reveals all the cards Discovery has been holding.  

Score – 4.5 out of 5 stars

Star Trek Discovery: Project Daedalus

Review

As this season has progressed so far, it has felt like there were a number of disparate threads running through, and it was not entirely clear how, or if, they would all come together. Why is the Red Angel jumping through time and space? Why did it lead them to the Sphere? Why is it saving certain people? Why does Section 31 have so much power? What does Spock (Ethan Peck) have to do with all this? Today some if not all those questions are answered in a very interesting way.

So to set the scene, at the end of last week’s If Memory Serves, the crew of the USS Discovery had a choice to make. Do they hand Spock and Michael (Sonequa Martin-Green) back to Section 31 and have them disassemble Spock’s mind, or become fugitives and technically commit treason. There is only one real choice. Well at the start of this week they are still on the run, but not without some allies, as a single shuttlecraft glides over a darkened hull of a ship running on low power. As the shuttle arrives Admiral Cornwell (Jayne Brook) steps out to begin her integration of Spock to work out just what the heck is going on. She has footage of Spock killing people, but her tests make it clear that he is telling the truth. Something is wrong, and she is pretty sure where to start, so it is time to give Section 31 a wakeup call. Now from here, we will be looking at the episode as a whole, so there will be some [SPOILERS] ahead.  

Continue reading

TV Review – Star Trek Discovery: Chapter 2 and Season 1 Overview   

TL;DR – We started with a group of people on a ship in space, and over the season, as adversity after adversity piled up, we ended with a crew. I mean I just wrote 1000 words just on the cast, the show is that good.

Score – 4.5 out of 5 stars

The USS Discovery being all majestic and what. Image Credit: CBS Studios.

Review

This year has been a strong year for Sci-Fi on TV we have Lost in Space, Altered Carbon, The Rain, as well as more Westworld, 3%, and The Expanse. In the middle of all this was a release, which for me was probably anticipated more than anything else, a new Star Trek series. Now the fact that I really like the Star Trek franchise should come as no surprise, indeed a wrote an article all about my love for Star Trek Deep Space Nine. However, there was also a lot of trepidation going in, since DS9 we had Voyager that had some great individual episodes but nothing really came together as a series, and Enterprise that took three seasons to find out what type of show it wanted to be and when it got there decided to end on just about the most insulting note that it could (yes I know it was not meant to be a series finale but still). However, I went into this thinking that I can at least give it a season, and boy what a season it was. So in the first season of Star Trek Discovery the broke it up into different chapters, we took a look at Chapter One here, and today we are going to take a look at Chapter Two which was the back half of the season but also some of the themes that transcend all of the season, you can also see all of our reviews for the individual episodes here. With this in mind, just a warning that we will be looking at the season as a whole, and as such there will be some major [SPOILERS] discussed in this review. So caution is advised if you have yet to finished Season One of Star Trek Discovery, and we would recommend you giving the first season a watch.

Continue reading

TV Review – Star Trek Discovery: Will You Take My Hand?  

TL;DR – In the end, we started with a group of people on a ship in space, and over the season, as adversity after adversity piled up, we ended with a crew.

Score – 5 out of 5 stars

Will You Take My Hand?

Review

Oh wow, we have reached the end of Season One and what a season it was, there were jumps in time and space, war with the Klingons, even a sojourn in the Mirror Universe. Now all of this was like a freight train barrelling towards tonight’s finale and here we are. So today we are going to take some time to look at how the episode worked on its own, before looking at how the whole season worked as a while in an article a bit later this week.

Continue reading

TV Review – Star Trek Discovery: The War Within, The War Without  

TL;DR – The season is hurtling towards the season finale and today is about putting all our ducks in a row waiting for next week’s growing dilemma.

Score – 3.5 out of 5 stars

The War Without, The War Within

Review

It is hard to believe that we are almost at the end of the first season of Star Trek Discovery, and that today’s episode is the penultimate entry for the season. Now, this more than any episode this season was all about getting everything ready for what I am assuming is going to be a massive season finale. Which is good because you can see where it is going in the future, but does leave this being one of the weaker episodes this season, but given the strength of the season it still is a fascinating one to watch. Now as always, we will be going into depth with the episode, so there may be [SPOILERS] ahead.

Continue reading

TV Review – Star Trek Discovery: Season 1; Chapter 1

TL;DR – A fascinating start to the new show, and a great platform to develop and move forward with.

Score – 4.5 out of 5 stars

Star Trek Discovery

Review

So today we are going to take a quick look back at Chapter One of Star Trek: Discovery’s first season. Look to be honest, straight from the start I am just glad that I get to talk about Star Trek, and not just Star Trek, but really good Star Trek to boot, and I’ve not really been able to say that since Deep Space Nine. In our review today what I want to do it take a moment to look at four facets of Chapter One that I found really interesting, the story, the enemies, the technology, and then talk a bit about the future. Now let’s dive in and take a look at the story, and of course, because we are looking at this part of the season as a whole, there will [SPOILERS] here, so proceed with caution if you have not watched the whole season. To read our reviews of each of the episodes of Season One so far: See Here.

Continue reading

TV Review – Star Trek Discovery: Into the Forest I Go

TL;DR – The mid-season finale is both gut-wrenching and fascinating, both an ending and a new beginning.

Score – 4.5 out of 5 stars

Into the forest I go

Review

This week marks a couple of first for Star Trek as a franchise, it is the first time ever that we have had a mid-season finale, the end of Chapter One. As well as this, it is the first time that women’s nipples have ever been shown on screen, though men’s nipples have been fine since the days of The Original Series. Also, this week we get the first gay kiss between two men, indeed there are a lot of firsts. So today we are going to break down what worked in this final episode for a while, and I think it is a good sign that part of me kind of wishes we didn’t have to wait until January to see more.

Continue reading

TV Review – Star Trek Discovery: Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum

TL;DR – Back to the war this week and the Federation is starting to lose, and desperate times calls for desperate measures, and an away team.

Score – 4 out of 5 stars

Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum banner

Review

After taking a pause from the galactic battle last week when Mudd (Rainn Wilson) invaded the USS Discovery in Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad (see review). This week we are back to the war between the Klingons and the Federation, and the tables have turned once again. In tonight’s episode, we get three intertwining stories play out, and we get to learn some Latin, so that’s always fun, says everyone never raised in the English private school system. This three-story structure is good because we get to see some character pairings we have not seen so far, and it also gives us a chance to explore more of the Klingon world. For those interested, this is the 9th time Star Trek has used Latin in an episode title, and today’s episode ‘Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum’ translates to ‘If you want peace, prepare for war’ and well it is an apt title this week. So after we set the scene, we will break down each of the stories and as always there will be [SPOILERS] ahead.

Continue reading

TV Review – Star Trek Discovery: Lethe

TL;DR – What is the future of the Federation going to be? As the war drags on we get a glimpse of two possible directions.

Score – 4.5 out of 5 stars

Lethe banner

Review

As the season draws on, we are seeing more and more a growing divide into the future direction of the Federation and Starfleet during the war. Should noble ideals be cast aside in the name of survival? Should the rules of Starfleet be ignored on the front line? This divide is important because as we see here it will mean everything for the next generation of officers.

Continue reading