Ok, so, I will probably just go with being a lot more spoilers on this post. It’s an older show, chances are if you care you’ve watched it. I was a bit less spoilers in my Season 1 write-up, which functions a bit more as just a review.
I also want to preface this a bit that, I watched Star Trek Strange New Worlds before watching this season. This is notable because this season is effectively a sort of, soft pitch/pilot for SNW. Captain Pike is captain of Discovery this round, replacing Lorca, who of course, got vaporized last season. Just when I was starting to really like the guy. Oh well, it was a nice twist that actually was not expected. And it was done well other than maybe even ONE reference to the bad eyesight thing could have happened during the Mirror Universe events. Maybe someone on the Shinzou comments about the lights in “Captain” Burnham’s quarters being a bit bright or something. Like a subtle hint, not a full-on give away. Another one, while he was held prisoner in the Mirror Universe, he should have grown a goatee (or even just a beard with Goatee influence). The big joke from TOS is Mirror Universe people all have Goatee. Giving him one during his prison stint, would have been a funny evolution into the true reveal.
I also like how it wrapped everything together, because the whole Mirror Universe arc initially just felt like a kind of weird, random nod to the idea at first.
With a bit more of a spoiler wrap-up for Season 1, the final was, ok, but it moved a bit into the “Non Trek” zone again. The Klingons have basically conquered Federation Space in a few months and then they all just decide to leave? And Tyler’s whole half Klingon half Human bit. It’s weird and handled weirdly. It’s a bit funny, for my part, because I have a character I use a lot for my own concepts, who has essentially the exact same “dual memory/identity” issue going on. In Ash Tyler’s case it seems badly done, or maybe just, kind of poorly explained. Did they skin Voq and put Ash Tyler’s skin on his body?
It’s weird.
Also we are seemed to be expected to just forgive him for what he did to Culber?
Speaking of that, I kind of feel like there could have been more done with that, especially since I am pretty sure Tyler is not coming back anytime soon if at all after this season. Stamets is a nice guy, but when Tyler shows up again, I really expected more of a reaction. Even more so when Culber comes back. Him exploding on Tyler in the commissary was great, but that seemed to be the end of that.
Also, I am a bit iffy on Culber returning. I really enjoyed Stamets and Culber as a couple, and Culber is getting more characterization now, but the way he returned really felt a lot like the showrunners getting backlash and then they sort of, used some “magic spore bull shit” to revive him. I feel like it was not originally in the cards. Watching Stamets grow and move on could have been an interesting plot line.
Speaking of more characterization. Captain Pike shows up to take command, and everyone does a round of introductions, because basically, we have no idea who most of the bridge crew is, at all, and I don’t think most of them even had names before this moment.
Also amusing for the bridge crew. The robot chick gets killed off only to be replaced by herself, minus the makeup, with a new name. I guess the actress got tired of the robot getup. Though at the time of her death, Airiam was being played by another actress than season 1 Airiam, who was the person who “returned”.
There was some real, “Two Beckys on Roseanne” energy going on there.
Just to keep up with cast members, as previously mentioned Pike takes over as special Captain this season. This is really really weird since I have already watched through what’s available of Strange New Worlds. This Pike feels like a bit more of a hard ass, but also still pretty likeable (Pike is probably my second favorite character on SNW). Discovery is a lot more serious of a show than SNW though. He is not the only SNW cast member though. Number One shows up a few times, and she doesn’t even have a name yet (she never had one in TOS).
Spock also shows up. The entire theme of the season is “What if The Search For Spock was a giant MacGuffin Hunt?”
Spock doesn’t really show until halfway through or so. And he has a ridiculous looking beard. Spock was driven a bit crazy by the mysterious “Red Angel” who turned out to be a time traveler version of Burnham’s mother (or maybe just Burnham). Basically, in a goofy causality loop, Burnham set in motion the events of the series so Discovery would chase after Spock and these special events. All of the events end up being relevant tools needed later to send what can only be described as this massive sentient data dump, to the future.
An evil AI system named Control wanted the dump somits could become sentient. The data could not simply be deleted and at one point, with The Enterprise, they even tried to just, blow it up.
The data dump plot line felt… Kind of weird. It’s not clear it would have been found in the first place had it not been for the events set in motion. At one point Control manages to steal like, half of it, but from what we can tell, it can’t just be copied, so was that data half in Control’s possession and Discovery only had half?
Also Control starts taking over people, but it seems like it only controls one person at a time, and only exists in that person, because when that person is finally killed, all of the ships under the control of Control, just sort of give up.
Once Control was killed, did they really still need to go ahead with their time travel plan?
Why could they not simply Spore Jump to some place tens of thousands of light-years away, effectively hundreds of years at Warp into the “future”, then find a way to secure the data that does not require such a dramatic time travel plot.
It just all felt… Sloppy.
For the most part though, the season did feel a bit more Star Trek like, except for the final battle. Where suddenly Discovery and Enterprise produce some thousands of small shuttles and drones(????) that are all a match for the fleet of Section 31 ships, all of which are full on Star Ships?
Then it becomes a Star wars battle where the Enterprise and Discovery are taking a zillion hits and pods and shuttles are exploding everywhere and WTF is even going on here??? How many people are dying over this convoluted plot?
It just all felt very, “Not Star Trek.” Again.
Another iffy elements here, is the Time Crystals themselves. Time Travel is not a new concept for Trek at all, and it’s almost always very handwavey, but now we have this weird suit tech that creates time wormholes and it’s powered by these magic crystals that only Kings control, but it’s also special Klingons living alone on a special planet that guard them.
They also had that funky baby Klingon plot, which felt important, but then kind of just, went nowhere. The baby Klingon grew up super fast thanks to the Time Crystal Monks, that’s about it. It felt dramatic and went nowhere.
Anyway, at the end of the season, they took a wormhole 900 some years in the future. So now the show that feels too futuristic to be Trek, really in in the Future’s Future.
They also close out by clearing up a big annoying hole in the overall narrative in a really clingy way. The question being, why does Spock never mention his sister. Also, why does no one ever mention Discovery or the Spore Drive?
Spock, during the final debriefing about the climactic battle, makes a statement along the lines of “Discovery and the time travel technology is dangerous, and I propose that no one be permitted to mention it, or it’s crew, ever again, under penalty of treason.”
Basically, Spock suggests it becomes illegal.
