'Star Trek Discovery' season 3, episode 7 recap: The series' strong start feels like a different show entirely

Entitled "Unification III," this episode is a reference to "The Next Generation" two-part story, "Unification I" (S05, E07) and "Unification II" (S05, E08) in which Ambassador Spock (Leonard Nimoy) attempts to reunite the Romulans and Vulcans, since they were originally the same race. We'll look at the link to this later; in fact this week, our recap is going to be a little less recap and more opinion because as passionate, life-long fans, we are disappointed with the quality of writing on "Star Trek." Again.

Despite the inference of the episode title, this installment is mainly focused on being a vehicle to get Cmdr. Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) to shake off the significant personal and psychological changes she went through after spending a whole 12 months away from the Discovery crew. And we've spoken before about how ridiculous and unrealistic this notion is.

Such a big deal is being made of Burnham's one-year wait and how much she's changed over that time. It's just one year. Twelve months. Three hundred and 65 days. You'd honestly think she'd been through a "Cast Away"-style experience and that was four years. Do people in Starfleet never take a sabbatical? Do students in the 23rd century never take a gap year? To ensure this was more believable, the writers should either have extended the time that Burnham had to wait — even to say, three, or possibly four years — or simply not repeatedly returned to reemphasize her experience.

An added bonus of it being a longer period of time could've been that Burnham and Book (David Ajala) spend more of the series on their own — and likewise the crew of the Discovery— before they all met up. That would've given Saru and the crew of the Discovery a nice opportunity to have an equal share of the plot, rather than having Burnham always being the one driving the story forward. Or two primary plots, rather than a primary and a secondary.

We open with Burnham recording her personal log and reminding everyone that she's uncertain about whether or not she belongs in Starfleet, just in case the viewer was still unclear. And rest assured, by the end of this episode she will have unceremoniously binned Book, who is the best thing that will probably ever happen to her. But first they have to be intimate, because we are meant to believe that they have never shared a single intimate moment in the entire 12 months they were together, despite being in a number of life threatening situations. It's important that they quickly take their relationship up a notch before she choses Starfleet over a life with him in about 40 minutes' time.

And no, having Book hang a lantern (a term used by writers to highlight an issue or inconsistency and then purposefully incorporate it) on Burnham's messianic complex as they engage in post-coital pillow talk does not equate to a "get out of jail free" card for poor writing. If the entire relationship-with-Book sub-story had been effectively – and more evenly – spread out across the previous six episodes, it wouldn't come across as such a rushed plot in this one.

After the obvious set up that Book is headed for downtown Dumpsville at the end of this installment, Burnham goes to speak with Tilly about the data recovered from the black boxes. Turns out that "the burn" wasn't instantaneous across the whole galaxy and so therefore it had an origin, so she and Capt. Saru (Doug Jones) take it to Adm. Vance (Oded Fehr).

Another inconsistent element of recent episodes has been Saru's attitude towards Burnham's new, cavalier attitude; at the end of "Die Trying" (S03, E05) Saru seemed to reach a compromise between his way of thinking and Burnham's, then at the end of last week's episode, Saru reprimands her for going in an unsanctioned mission. Well, this week we're back to approving her actions, possibly because Vance sees her potential, at least in this instance and in fact, soon in this episode we'll see a pretty solid reason why Saru shouldn't even be captain of the USS Discovery.  

Apparently, there was a project called SB-19 that involved lots of scientific sensors spread across many light years of sub-space. The data for this project is kept on a planet called Ni'var, probably better known by its former name, Vulcan. Following the great lengths Ambassador Spock went to in 2368, some 800 years ago, to reunite the Vulcans and the Romulans, it seems his work was eventually a success and both races now live together on Ni'var.

Ni'var was a term coined by Dorothy Jones who wrote a series of "Star Trek" stories for the fanzine T-Negative in the late 1960s and early 1970s. According to Memory Alpha, it literally means "two form." It was also the name of a Vulcan Suurok-class combat cruiser that appeared in the "Enterprise" episode "Shadows of P'Jem" (S1, E15).

Since Burnham is the adopted son of Sarek, she is deemed perfect to be the Federation envoy sent to Ni'var to ask if they may see the SB-19 data. President T'Rina (Tara Rosling) isn't particularly interested in their motives and denies them access. So, Burnham invokes the new-to-canon T'Kal-in-ket, a "philosophical process designed to unearth deep truths, it's credited as being one of the engines that lead to early Vulcan scientific advancement." Once invoked, the request cannot be denied.

While we still don't like the Small World Syndrome notion that Burnham had to be related to Sarek and therefore also Spock that goes all the way back to the first season, we've … er, just about moved past that. However what really grinds our gears is that in the secondary plot, Saru has seen fit to promote Ensign Tilly (Mary Wiseman) to acting First Officer. Now, given that the other members of the bridge crew have hardly had two lines to say between them throughout the whole series — which is really bad script writing — it's pretty damn obvious it was going to be Tilly, but from the perspective of being in the service, it literally makes no sense whatsoever. She has next to zero experience leading a department, no experience leading a team or managing schedules, or personnel reports or day-to-day team problems. Moreover, is no other member of the bridge crew interested in furthering their own careers?!

If Starfleet is to be believed to operate like the Federation's navy, then surely it must follow similar protocols. Saru's decision would — if this is meant to be believable — seriously place the crew's lives in jeopardy. If believability is secondary to what the writer's room thinks is cool, then why not have a sassy, super-intelligent space monkey with a PhD in ancient philosophy emerge from an inter-dimensional gateway take the role of Discovery's number one? (Paws off, Kurtzman, that's mine.)

Even Lt. Wiilla (Vanessa Jackson) would've been a better choice, both from a storytelling perspective and one of chain of command. She could've been Vance's insider on the Discovery, reporting back to him in secret as she gradually understood first hand the unique qualities that the crew possess and offering an extreme right influence to counter Burnham's left.

So, invoking the T'Kal-in-ket means a courtroom style drama as Burnham must present her "case" for wanting the SB-19 data in front of N'Raj (Oliver Becker) — the Romulan elder, who longs for greater self-governance; Shira (Stephanie Belding) — who speaks for the Romulans and Vulcans who are trying to forge a new path here; and V'Kir (Emmanuel Kabongo) — who is the young leader of a sect of Vulcan purists. Out of these three, one is all for it, one is dead against it and one sits on the fence without committing to one side or the other. So all the bases are covered.

To act as her advocate — or "shalankhkai" in Romulan or "sha-set" in Vulcan — will be a member of the Qowat Milat, an interesting addition to "Star Trek" canon introduced in the "Picard" episode "Absolute Candor" (S01, E04). This is a sect of women-only, Ninja-like Romulan warriors where "absolute candor" is the rule, which means only the truth is spoken with no filter between thought and word.

And it turns to be…none other than Burnham's mother, Gabrielle (played by Sonja Sohn), last seen in the episode "Such Sweet Sorrow" (S02, E13). And if there was ever a time for Burnham's Bottom Lip™ to start quivering uncontrollably, this would undoubtedly be it, but unlike every other moment during this episode, she surprisingly — almost uncharacteristically — holds it back.  

So, what starts as a set-up to a tense courtroom-style set piece as Burnham presents her case on behalf of the Federation to share the SB-19 data turns into an open personal therapy session as Burnham's mother – in front of everyone – digs deep into the reasons why Burnham feels like she doesn't belong in the Federation anymore. And in her Oracle from "The Matrix" I-told-you-what-you-needed-to-hear routine, makes Michael realize that she wants to remain on the Discovery rather than go off and have a really exciting life with Book and Grudge. And that's what this whole set piece – and in fact this whole episode – was really all about. You can see what the writers were trying to do, but the execution well and truly falls flat.

Burnham gets fed up with the whole affair – and oddly her feelings mirror our own – and she revokes her T'Kal-in-ket, saying despite the fact that the people of Ni'var won't share their data, she will still share hers. It's a move that suitably impresses President T'Rina, who afterwards secretly permits Burnham to have the data.

In addition to the obvious "Next Generation" throwback, the title "Unification III" could also refer to the rejoining of three separate pairs: Burnham and her mother, Burnham and Starfleet, and Starfleet and the people of Ni'var, but that's probably just coincidence.

The writers of Discovery seem to think that excessive sobbing and over-emotion are essential for good drama, but week in and week out, it's simply repetitive and it's getting tired. In past interviews, showrunner Alex Kurtzman has said that "Star Trek: Discovery" was meant to be a vehicle to not only satisfy existing fans, but also to bring new fans in, but we fail to see how he's accomplishing that by giving us an unnecessary, excessive emotional outpouring in just about every single episode. Do the writers watch the most depressing movies they can think of before brainstorming new episodes? Does Alex Kurtzman make everyone in the writer's room peel and slice 20 raw onions before beginning the morning briefing?  

Granted, it's hard to imagine what the whole season will look and feel like once it's complete and we can see how each episode slots into its place, but as they drop one at a time, week by week, this is all we can go on. However, seeing the whole of Season 2, for example, in its entirety did not change the fact that it gradually descended into utter awfulness. Throughout this season, the story flow has been uneven, with some episodes containing lots of plot and others where not that much happens. And that would be okay if the story arc was running longer than one season, but so far that hasn't happened and it's unlikely that it ever will, since it's considered a bad strategy by the networks now who want to pull in viewers without making them feel like they need to know too much about the story.

We don't know what the viewing numbers are for this season of Discovery, but we can't help but think that the other major sci-fi show airing at the moment is more than likely gaining viewers and this one is losing them. The shockingly bad finale of "Picard" didn't help the cause either, although at least "Lower Decks" was a pick-me-up.

"Star Trek" is many things and in the past it has managed to equally represent these; it's finest moments can be found in "Deep Space Nine" and "Enterprise," but the idea that it also represents escapism and adventure in the stars seems to have been lost and I should definitely not want to watch "The Green Mile" after an episode of "Discovery" because it feels like lighter entertainment. The two very best examples of thrilling — and often extremely emotional — sci-fi dramas are "Babylon 5" and "Battlestar Galactica" and I wish with all of my heart that my favorite sci-fi was at least as good as these, because at the moment it's not even in the same league.

'Star Trek: Discovery' borrows from 'The Running Man' in season 3, episode 6 'Scavengers'

 

The third season of "Discovery" started strong on the streaming service CBS All Access, with one of the best episodes we've seen so far, "That Hope Is You, Part 1." And while no subsequent episode has been as good as that, we have had some great new characters that we want to see more of, like Book (David Ajala), Zareh (Jake Weber) and Kovich (David Cronenberg). We've also had some nice B-plots, that are often more fun than what's happening with the primary plot, like Saru's dining disaster and even the crew's cross examinations last week. Tragically though, opportunities were missed to make the most of these and too much time was yet again spent on overemotional storylines.

And in this week's episode, entitled "Scavengers," there's a lot to unpack, both good and bad, but sadly, mostly bad.

Just seconds into the episode, we see a significant change: the USS Discovery is undergoing a 32nd century refit and is now NCC-1031-A. Starfleet ship registration has become inconsistent to say the least. Originally developed by Michael Okuda, it was meant to allow ships to be identified — regardless of any name change — and indicate when the ship was commissioned, just like ships in the U.S. Navy.

For example, at the end of "The Voyage Home" when the new USS Enterprise was commissioned in 2286, it uses the registry 1701-A and consequently set a new precedent. Obviously a new starship hadn't been built just for them in that short time, it was originally either the USS Ti-Ho (NCC-1798) or the USS Yorktown (NCC-1717) and just renamed, but we don't know which one it was, because the registry was changed too.

The USS Discovery joins the growing number of starships with modified registry numbers. (Image credit: CBS All Access)

But it doesn't end there. Saru (Doug Jones) provides an expositional log entry: "In the past three weeks, Discovery has evolved even more than we could have imagined. Her battle scars have been healed, internal systems updated, programmable matter has been integrated with our pre-burn technology. Even her nacelles are now detached, improving maneuverability and enabling us to be more efficient in flight…"

"Detached nacelles..?" To quote another sci-fi franchise, I have a bad feeling about this.

It's also worth noting that the USS Discovery that Craft (Aldis Hodge) finds in the "Short Trek" episode "Calypso" has the registry number NCC-1031 and definitely does not look like it has "detached nacelles." Moreover, why was this necessary? The nacelles form the essence of the warp drive engines, not impulse, and hardly anyone is going to warp. The Discovery is relying on its spore drive and that doesn't have anything to do with the nacelles.

The radical modifications done to the Discovery suggest it won't be returning to the 23rd century. (Image credit: CBS All Access)

Admiral Vance (Oded Fehr) holds a roll call-style meeting with his starship captains to hand out assignments. Discovery is told to stand by in case the Emerald Chain AKA the Orion-Andorian Syndicate makes an aggressive move to the planet Argeth. Since this means very little to us, we're hoping further explanation will be provided at some point.

The awful advances in technology continue as the crew gush over their new Starfleet badges that now incorporate a comlink and personal transporters, plus hologram user interfaces and a built-in tricorder. The consoles have also been upgraded to incorporate that dreadful-looking new interface tech that Book had on his ship. This all means it's probably time to dial down sensitivity on the technobabble sensors.  

How much time was spent researching future control interfaces? Was any time spent researching future control interfaces? According to Lt. Wiilla (Vanessa Jackson) the programmable matter has been incorporated into the existing console design and adapts to each crewmember. What about thought control? When this far-future tech is exhibited, you literally open the floodgates for possibilities and the real potential is seldom seen. It's a risky area to venture into and is rarely handled well.

"Captain Grudge, personal log, have arrived at Starfleet HQ. Really hope they have tuna treats." (Image credit: CBS All Access)

At this point a signal is received from a ship outside the Federation HQ's protective bubble and it's Grudge, bless, who's flying Book's ship on autopilot. Saru and Commander. Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) watch a prerecorded message from Book. Apparently he's stumbled upon a black box flight recorder from an old starship wrecked by the burn on the planet Hunhau, but he programmed the ship to take Grudge to Burnham should anything happen to him, and this was recorded three weeks ago. According to Burnham these remaining, recoverable black boxes indicate that the burn wasn't instantaneous across the galaxy and thus had a point of origin, which she hopes to eventually pinpoint.

Naturally, Burnham wants to hotfoot it off to Hunhau, which creates yet another predictable clash of personalities between her and Saru, who of course has been ordered to stay put in case of something or other. She goes to Georgiou (Michelle Yeoh), basically the only person who will support her on an unsanctioned mission and naturally she's up to the challenge. Roll opening credits.

As the two of them streak through space in Book's ship, Georgiou questions Burnham about her relationship with the most charming and covetable courier in the Alpha Quadrant and, like we've seen Book react when similarly quizzed, her reaction is more akin to a teenager than an emotionally experienced adult human being. It jars somewhat and in an attempt by the writers to make them both appear enamored with each other, they have instead made them look like 10th grade adolescents. At this point, Georgiou starts having fragmented flashbacks to what looks like the events from her time in the Terran Empire. However, she quickly dismisses them.

Is that the bloodied body of the red angel suit in the Terran Universe in Georgiou's visions? (Image credit: CBS All Access)

As Burnham and Georgiou approach Hunhau, they're contacted by an Orion, Tolo (played by Noah Averbach-Katz, Mary Wiseman's husband, no less) an operative of the so-called Emerald Chain. Georgiou does her big, bold, bad routine and he eventually allows them to land and they fly down to what looks like a giant scrapyard/old steelworks where people who "owe Osyraa" — the head of the Emerald Chain — are imprisoned. They make their way through the run-down facility, past furnaces and "workers" breaking down old tech and pretend they're looking for specific items, offering their dilithium in return. Burnham pretends to be Georgiou's subordinate and uses a device given to her by Book to locate him and we assume he had something similar, which is how his ship found the hidden Federation HQ.

Finally we find Book, who's being held captive and being forced to do manual labor. He's carting some scrap metal about and at the same time trying to offer a Bajoran named Lai (Daniel Jun) — who looks like he's close to cracking — some positive encouragement. He speaks to an Andorian (played by Ian Lake) who's implanting some weird device on the back of all the prisoner's necks. We learn through helpful exposition that he's being forced to do this against his will and he lost both his antennae as punishment when he resisted Osyraa.

At this point, the worse-for-wear Lai tries to surreptitiously steal an extra water ration and his spotted by a guard. The set piece that follows is … bizarre. Book attempts to defend him and as Georgiou and Burnham helplessly look on, Tolo forces the terrified Bajoran to run outside to … er, "see if the security perimeter is operational" shooting in his direction to encourage him to run faster. Left with no choice, poor Lai runs until he passes a perimeter marker and his head explodes.

This whole set piece felt forced and badly placed. It's disappointing from "Star Trek: Discovery." (Image credit: CBS All Access)

And so the reason this is bizarre is because it's practically lifted straight from "The Running Man."

Made it 1987 and directed by Paul Michael Glaser, "The Running Man" stars Arnold Schwarzenegger and was based on an early Stephen King novel about a dystopian America where criminals, political or otherwise, must compete on a gladiatorial TV game show for their lives. Following a brief flashback, the movie begins at the Wiltshire Detention Center in the ruins of Los Angeles following "the big quake of '97." It's a big scrap yard/steel works and inmates are engaged in manual labor: welding pipes and construction of some sort. Escape attempts are prevented by the use of a collar that the prisoners must all wear and an electro-magnetic perimeter that, if crossed while it's still active, causes the collar to explode. Instant decapitation.

Quite often the influences on either the writer or director, or both, are understated and even debatable, and often they borrow from past "Trek," which is nice, but this…isn't even subtle. A homage adds something of value, either a new perspective or a better development. This goes beyond that; the premise is the same, the effect is the same and even the setting is practically identical. Bryce Dallas Howard included a homage to the movie "Apollo 13" in last week's episode of "The Mandalorian" — this is not even close.

Surely an alternative device could've been created to prevent the prisoners from escaping: an ankle bracelet, escort boots, an incapacitation device like Valkyrie uses in "Thor: Ragnarok" or just a collar that doesn't make your head explode. Plus it's not even a quality moment to borrow from; in the movie it's purely to satisfy our morbid fascinations so we can see what happens when some poor soul crosses the perimeter while it's still up. And while we do occasionally like a bit of violence, this feels like a cheap shot. 

We were all aching to see what happened when the collar exploded in the movie "The Running Man." (Image credit: CBS All Access)

Meanwhile, on Discovery Ensign Tilly (Mary Wiseman) has discovered Grudge the cat and worked out where Burnham has gone. Adira Tall (Blu del Barrio) is chatting away to her Trill host Gray Tall (Ian Alexander) in engineering, which is nice — but despite other characters even hanging a lantern on this by reminding us that Adira is only supposed to recall the Trill's memories and not their actual consciousness — it still feels odd. Adira has made some modifications to the spore drive and Lt. Stamets (Anthony Rapp) seems pleased with the results. Their conversation moves to the mess hall where the invisible Gray tells Adira he approves of Stamets as a friend. It's a nice scene but maybe just a bit too fluffy.

Back on Hunhau, Burnham and Georgiou work well as a team and hatch their plan to rescue Ben Richards Book. They fashion a makeshift weapon with the parts they've scrounged, but before they can use it, they're surrounded by guards who escort them back to Book's ship. Meanwhile, Book himself has organized a prison break with his antennae-less Andorian colleague and while he's dodging fire on the ground, Burnham and Georgiou have made their move and are attempting to overrun their captors.

At a crucial moment, Georgiou starts having her weird Terran Empire flashbacks again, but manages to overcome them as Tolo escapes by using his personal transporter. They lift off in Book's ship, use the blasters on the guards shooting at the escaping prisoners and Book and his now-wounded Andorian colleague beam aboard, together with the all-important uplink code black box recorder that's the cause of this pickle in the first place.

However, a split-second frame in Georgiou's flashback clearly shows Captain Gabriel Lorca (Jason Isaacs) falling into the super-mycelial reactor core of the ISS Charon in the Season 1 episode "What's Past Is Prologue" (S01, E13) after Georgiou stabbed him through the back with a Terran sword. We've seen how the mycelial network is not bound by the conventional laws of plot writing, so it's entirely possible Lorca has something to do with the burn.

Georgiou's second flashback shows Captain. Lorca falling into the super-mycelial reactor core. (Image credit: CBS All Access)

Back on the Discovery, Saru confronts Tilly over Burnham's actions and for all the shocks that this episode contains, this one is genuinely refreshing as the young ensign shows an entirely new level of maturity, agreeing with her captain's opinion and understanding his perspective.  Following that meeting, Saru goes to speak to Vance to make it clear that Burnham acted alone and without his knowledge to prevent the whole crew of the Discovery from being tarred with the same brush.

Having returned, Burnham must now face the consequences of her actions, but before that happens, she gets a moment — just about — to finally show how — as we all already know — she feels about Book and they seize the chance for a quick snog in the turbolift. Then she goes to face her destiny. Standing before both Vance and Saru, she is severely reprimanded, but after speaking in her own defense, Vance tells her that the only reason she's not in the brig is that she saved lives and her punishment will be determined by her captain.

Clearly gone are the good old days where risk-taking and "original thinking" were recognized and rewarded by commendations, which is basically how James Kirk became a starship captain. Instead Saru lays the whole I-don't-trust-you-anymore thing down and informs her she will no longer be First Officer. Burnham's Bottom Lip™ quivering, she removes the Starfleet badge from her uniform, despite just being demoted and not relieved of all duties, possibly suggesting she's made her choice, but unlikely. More emotional conflict is inevitable.

Who's going to be the new First Officer? Will Lt. Nilsson (Sara Mitich) finally get her chance to shine? (Image credit: CBS All Access)

This episode is disappointing, to say the least and the whole "Running Man" thing jars and shows little in the way of fresh ideas. The credited writer for this episode is Anne Cofell Saunders and according to IMDb, she has several episodes of "Battlestar Galactica" and "The Boys" listed under her writing accomplishments, so the capability is certainly there.

"Star Trek" tried to reinvent itself with "Discovery" and it feels like it focused on all the wrong things. We've seen glimpses of genius when "Trek's" at its best, but these moments are few and far between. "Star Wars" for instance was released in 1977 and since then the Millennium Falcon has not suddenly sprouted holographic helm controls. There's a reason why things were kept simple and "Star Trek" could learn from this methodology. It doesn't have an issue with maintaining aesthetic consistency, because it doesn't muck about with that most problematic of sci-fi plots, time travel.

Granted yes, the bridge of the USS Enterprise probably needed an update last season, but suddenly we've had smart matter environment suits, starships equipped with hundreds of repair drones, holographic helm interfaces, even a holodeck in the Season 1 episode "Lethe" (S01, E06). It feels like VFX for the sake of VFX and results in lazy story writing, opting to instead dazzle the viewer with bright colors and shapes added in post-production rather than, say, demonstrating creative world-building beyond a bit of Iceland or Burlington Royal Botanical Gardens.

The good news is that a source involved in the show's production exclusively told us that CBS is currently constructing two AR walls for use on both "Discovery" and "Strange New Worlds." This is the groundbreaking new technology that was developed by a number of VFX companies, including ILM and Pixomodo, and implemented on "The Mandalorian." So hopefully these will be used to help create some interesting, new worlds and environments in the "Star Trek" universe.