star trek: discovery books megareview

 “what happened before no longer exists. what will happen next has not yet been written. we have only now.”

star trek: discovery: desperate hours (novel 2017)

by david mack

star trek tie-in novels have never been considered “canon” by anyone with the authority to make such decisions, so i’m not going to make a habit of talking about their breaks with continuity. that being said, the first discovery novel depicts an encounter between the shenzhou and the enterprise that was just immediately reduced to the status of fanfiction by the plot of season 2.

the thing is, it’s really good fanfiction.

star trek: discovery, season 4

4x01 “kobayashi maru”

this episode had a lot to do and did all of it fantastically well.

it gave us our first full episode of captain burnham, and gave her a believable obstacle to overcome as she’s struggling to delegate and to let go. it updated us on the political situation within the federation and it didn’t just do that with lines of dialogue, we got to physically see starfleet academy reopen, discovery delivering dilithium to worlds that have been cut off from the federation, etc. so now we have the overall arc of what’s going on with the federation and starfleet over the next season.

star trek: discovery, season 3

3x01 “that hope is you, part 1”

michael’s cry of joy and relief when her sensors report plentiful organic life is so raw and so beautiful. i think it actually conveys the stakes of last season much better than the peril itself did, and it makes it so believable that michael and her discovery family were willing to do what they did.

michael being hopped up on truth drugs was fucking adorable, and her saying “i am done being reflexively supportive!” while still under their influence is such a fantastic bit of character writing.

the bulk of the episode juggles action and worldbuilding in a way that entertains and informs exceedingly well, and i really do enjoy all of it but besides michael’s aforementioned cathartic cry of joy, my favorite part of the episode is the ending. it is so, so clear how much the federation, and starfleet, mean to sahil.

the first time i saw this i was a bit guarded when it was clearly positioning michael to restore hope to the federation, because i was very worried it was going to do the same kind of exceptional hero, individualistic theming that made the first season feel so un-star trek, but rewatching it now that i know where it’s going i was able to relax and really enjoy what it meant to both of them to have that moment.

star trek: discovery, season 2

2x01 “brother”

now this is more like it!

seriously, i remembered season 2 being a whole lot better, but i didn’t remember how hard it hit the ground running on cleaning up the mess that season 1 left. pike is such a breath of fresh air, and immediately enters the conversation as one of the best star trek captains. i love his extremely picard-adjacent collaborative decision-making process.

star trek: discovery, season 1, part 2

1x10 “despite yourself”

the bulk of the episode is the crew figuring out that they’re in the mirror universe and taking steps to blend in until they can figure out a way to escape. that stuff’s all aces. also a lot of it takes the form of a breezy montage, and you know i’m a sucker for those. this is also where we start figuring out what’s going on with tyler (though it’s possible to make it through most of the next episode without realizing it, which is what i did when i first watched through the series), and the shocking, unceremonious death of dr. culber.

even though that last mistake gets taken back next season, and even though this episode is the start of an arc that’s much better than the bulk of the season, i can’t get over the extremely straightforward employment of the bury your gays trope, nor the fact the this is a pretty awkward transition episode. i kinda hate how often this season feels like it’s just very loudly moving pieces around instead of telling a story. fortunately this is the last time this particular arc feels like that, but it really is a microcosm for the season as a whole. c-rank

🌑🌒🌓🌔🌕🌖🌗🌘🌑

1x11 “the wolf inside”

there are two wolves inside you. one of them is incredible character writing, one of them is really frustrating big picture plot issues and extremely un-star trekky texture. (this obligatory “there are two wolves inside you” joke is about the season as a whole, not this episode or this arc.)

star trek: discovery, season 1, part 1

 we’re rewatching discovery because my boyfriend hasn’t seen any of it, and we need to at least get through season 2 before strange new worlds comes out! also i’d also like to show him the actually-good season 3, and i haven’t seen season 4 myself yet.

so, yeah! here we (boldly) go.

🌑🌒🌓🌔🌕🌖🌗🌘🌑

1x01 “the vulcan hello”

it’s been five years and i’m still mad.

they teased us with an episode of the perfect star trek series, y’all.