Star Trek: Discovery Season Two Review

After posting my thoughts on Star Trek: Discovery at the start of its second season, I said I would keep watching, hoping that things might turn out better than the mess that occurred with the show’s first season (although I didn’t hold out much hope that I would be a Discovery convert come the end of season two). While a certain fantasy behemoth named Game of Thrones took up the bulk of my time this spring, I finally managed to finish up my binge of the latest Trek series. And, I have to say, I thoroughly enjoyed myself. Sure, it wasn’t perfect (and there are still a few major issues with major characters that I’ll get to later on in this piece), but I found myself emotionally invested in the season arc and eager to see just what happens down the line for the crew of the Discovery as they attempt to get back from the future (because, let’s be honest, we all know they are coming back at some point . . . although, it would be pretty gutsy to just set the show in 900+ years into the future).

My main worry at the start of the season was that the Red Angel arc would lead to the series spending all its time dealing with Spock and Burnham’s childhood drama, to the detriment of the series. In the end, this worry wasn’t completely unfounded, as the show did spend way too much time on this plot point. It turned out that writers were, indeed, using this link between Burnham and one of Star Trek’s most famous characters as a character development crutch for Burnham – a lazy writing choice, but one that ultimately did pay off once the reason for their rift was suitably discussed. The revelation that the original Red Angel was Burnham’s mother was smart, satisfying turn of events (also satisfying: getting that flashback to explore just how they died – and give us tangible proof as to why Burnham is so distrustful of Klingons – something they should have shown us back in season one rather than awkwardly telling us), as was the casting of the excellent Sonja Sohn in the role. It was a bit less satisfying to have Burnham be the second Red Angel, as that particular twist took too long to develop. If there’s one thing Discovery makes clear time and again it’s that Burnham is always going to be at the center of any and all mysteries on this show – for better or for ill.

The heart of the Red Angel plot was the thorny issue of time travel (which, over the past few months, seems to have completely taken over pop culture stories, and I, for one, would love to stop seeing time travel plots for the next few years). Did Discovery manage to successfully navigate all the inherent issues a time travel story can bring? I’m going to say yes, largely because the plot was very simple. Sure, anyone could have seen the “Burnham needs to go back in time to send the signals” plot point coming from a mile away, but it was one of the cleanest time travel arcs I’ve ever seen. The degree of difficultly will instead come in season three, as the actions of Discovery in the past prevented the future Burnham’s mother knew from coming to pass.

So, the world they are heading toward is a complete unknown to all of them – and may not include Burnham’s mother at all. Hopefully, it includes a great version of Starfleet that can send them back home to their rightful time, as I’m not excited to see a season of fish out of water storytelling (it’s cute for an episode, as many Star Trek episodes have shown us over the years with people going back in time, but the last thing I want to deal with is people who don’t understand their surroundings spending episodes on end trying to get up to speed – whether it’s learning new things (aka breaking the Temporal Prime Directive) or trying to stop something sinister from happening in the future that their actions in the past helped create). Based on nothing but the strong back half of season two, I have faith that the series will handle the transition to the future with aplomb, but I still have enough residual fear from the stumbles in season one to worry that such a major reboot might hurt more than help a show that really found its way in its sophomore outing.

Of course, a great deal of the season two success stemmed from the introduction of Anson Mount’s Captain Christopher Pike. Giving one of the most charismatic and, frankly, fun, performances in the history of Trek, Mount managed to do something really impressive: take a known entity and make him new and engaging. I wouldn’t say no to seeing the further adventures of the USS Enterprise under his command as a spin-off. Also really coming into her own this season was Mary Wiseman’s Ensign Tilly. Always good for a bit of comic relief, the show finally started tapping into Wiseman’s other skills, giving her more complicated stories to delve into (while still making sure to never lose the spark of joy that makes Tilly one of Discovery’s best creations). I was also thrilled to see Wilson Cruz back and better than ever as the newly create Hugh Culber. His scene with Admiral Cornwell was one of the highlights of the back half of the season (and it gave Jayne Brook something interesting to play as Cornwell as well – although letting the character have a sense of humor on top of being the most competent ranking officer in the fleet was a pretty cool character development prior to her unfortunate sacrifice in the finale).

Along with the addition of Mount, the best thing to happen to Discovery in season two was the fleshing out of the show’s secondary characters. Getting names for the various members of the bridge crew (and even giving Airiam a showcase episode that made her death matter in a way it wouldn’t have just last year) made a huge difference in making Discovery feel like a family rather than a collection of people. Some of the best Trek moments over the years have been characters simply interacting outside the bounds of their jobs – the poker game at the end of Next Generation, the various meals and holodeck adventures shared by the core cast of characters on Deep Space Nine. These moments of humanity are necessary to heighten the suspense of the show’s battles and make us want to see what happens next for this motley crew. Injecting humor into season two (Tig Notaro was a godsend to this cast and the hilariously measured responses to Georgiou’s troublingly violent problem solving ideas were a hoot) accomplished this in spades.

And that brings me to the shows two most glaring issues going into season two: continually stilted dialogue and the Stamets/Burnham issue. One is far easier to solve than the other: Writers, please work on writing better dialogue for characters and trust that the audience doesn’t need every character beat spelt out for them. Sci-fi audiences are smart. They can catalogue vast arrays of species names and tell you the years in which various space battles occurred. They can handle not having things spoon fed to them on a regular basis. Treat the audience like you would treat the audience of The Wire or Breaking Bad. We can handle complicated stories.

As for the Stamets/Burham issue, well, I’m not sure what to do about that. Season two brought a lot of revelations about the quality of this cast, as the writers gave some bench players more to do and sidelined other characters (rightfully) for long stretches. Thankfully, Ash Tyler was only minimally around for most of the season, often relegated to the background in key moments (although, if the rumored Section 31 spin-off is still a go, I cannot imagine having this bland character as the lead – seeing as how Michelle Yeoh’s much more fun Georgiou is off in the future for the moment, I really hope it’s either dead or simply waiting for Yeoh to front it). Also MIA for a lot of the season was Anthony Rapp’s Paul Stamets. I couldn’t decide if the issue with the character was Rapp’s performance or the character itself, and after season two I’m starting to lean toward Rapp. Nothing Stamets says or does seems organic to the moment or the character. This was particularly on display during his more complex scenes with Culber. While Cruz absolutely hit those beats out of the park, Rapp appeared over matched at every pass. I’m not sure how to rectify this issue at this point in the show, as the series appears to be doubling down on Stamets in the finale, but it’s something that will have to be addressed.

Finally, there’s Burnham. As I’ve said before, Sonequa Martin-Green has the hardest gig on the series: anchor the show with her character and allow the rest of the more colorful personalities to shine. Burnham was never going to be as fun as Pike, as joyous as Tilly, or as devious as Georgiou. She wasn’t going to be fun. But Martin-Green proved this season that she’s at her best when the writing frees her to show us a looser Burnham. Her banter with Spock, the crazy adventure with Pike that rescued Jet Reno, trying to tamper down Georgiou’s more sadistic tendencies were all showcases for what Martin-Green can bring to the show when she’s given more to do than simply state Starfleet regulations. There’s an interesting character and a great performance lurking within Michael Burnham, but the series has to be willing to let Martin-Green be free enough to find it. Burnham needs to either take command of Discovery (which would go against the initial design of the series as not being about a captain), or be given the chance to not be an emotionless wet blanket so often. We’ve played out her Vulcan past just about as far as it can go – time to let Burnham’s humanity take the lead. If that happens, there are no heights this show cannot reach.