‘Star Trek: Discovery’ is All Action With “Red Directive” and “Under the Twin Moons”
Star Trek: Discovery begins its fifth and final season with a focus on action and adventure. But it’s the new characters who are the stars.
Two years. That is how long DISCO fans have waited for this moment. If you recall, last season’s plot involved a race to prevent galaxy-wide destruction at the hands of mysterious aliens with unknown motivations. The DMA destroys Book’s world. Book teams up with Tarka to fight back before more worlds are destroyed. And Burnham and the Discovery crew have to stop them.
Star Trek: Discovery season 4 is pretty bleak in places. But it ends on an enormously hopeful note when Discovery and the scientists aboard find a way to communicate with Species 10-C and bring an end to their conflict.
Season 4 is about losing the ability to communicate because of grief. And it’s also about finding a way to work beyond that grief to bring about peace not only with the 10-C but among multiple, former Federation worlds. And it works. Two years ago, the Federation took its first steps towards true reformation.
So. Here we are. The Federation is back. DISCO is back. And so are we. Season 5 is already a vastly different animal from what came before. Let’s talk about the first two episodes, “Red Directive” and “Under the Twin Moons”, the tone they set, what works, and what we hope changes in the remaining 8 episodes.
Courtesy of Paramount Plus
To Boldly Recap “Red Directive”
Doctor Kovich of Section 31 gives Discovery a Red Directive (basically a mission so top secret, only Kovich knows the full details). The gig involves investigating an 800-year-old Romulan vessel. Unfortunately, DISCO is not alone. Two thieves, Moll and L’ak, beat them there and capture a Romulan puzzle box—which is what Kovich wants.
Burnham gives chase on space foot. A third ship under the leadership of Captain Rayner turns up to try and catch Moll and L’ak but Burnham warns him away. Long story short: the thieves escape and head in search of Fred, a Soong-type android who deals in antiquities.
Burnham enlists the help of her (now) ex-boyfriend Book. They team up with a very surly Captain Rayner but arrive too late. Fred opens the puzzle box, finds a diary inside, and reads it only for Moll and L’ak to kill him and dash. Rayner has his ship fire on them, but this gives Moll and L’ak the idea to cause an avalanche that will destroy a settlement full of people. Both DISCO and Rayner’s ship have to stop everything to save innocent lives while the thieves get away. Again.
Fortunately, Fred’s corpse has images of the diary in its neural net which DISCO uses to gain the same info Moll and L’ak have. K0vich reveals that the Romulan scientist who wrote the diary once worked with Captain Picard to locate “the Progenitors”—a race of aliens responsible for the creation of all humanoid life.
It’s Discovery’s job to use the riddles in the diary to find the Progenitor’s technology before Moll and L’ak do.
Courtesy of Paramount Plus
To Boldly Recap “Under the Twin Moons”
Saru is getting married! What’s more, Saru is taking a new gig as an ambassador—and that means he can’t be Burnham’s first officer anymore. But first, he has one last mission—to help find the first Romulan puzzle piece. Meanwhile, Book remains on board to help while Captain Rayner finds himself on the wrong end of a Federation tribunal after his actions last episode. Most importantly, though, Tilly is back on board Discovery for the duration of the mission.
Burnham and Saru head to a mysterious world where they find a number of things: skeletons, giant statues, and some burned-up writing. Moll and L’ak got there first. And what’s worse is that there’s an ancient series of replicating, flying bombs chasing Michael and Saru. While the pair hide for their lives on the planet below, Tilly and Adira get some aid on how to shut down the weapons systems from Rayner.
Ultimately, Burnham and Saru find further writing—things Moll and L’ak have not seen. They find a literal piece of a puzzle and the answer to where they need to go next—Trill.
Saru leaves the ship. Rayner loses his commission as captain. And Michael decides that Rayner deserves a second chance and takes him on as her new Number One. Also, Book discovers that Moll is the daughter of the previous man to call himself Cleveland Booker.
Courtesy of Paramount Plus
To Boldly Review “Red Directive” and “Under the Twin Moons”
What’s so interesting about this two-part debut for Star Trek: Discovery is that the thing that works about it is also the same thing that doesn’t work about it. To put it simply: these episodes are extremely straightforward. The story moves fast, which is great for the action side of things. And while there are quiet moments with our characters, there’s something a little weightless.
In our impressions article, I mentioned that there are moments that feel like a video game. Both these episodes have those, but especially “Under the Twin Moons”. The replicating explosives feel like something straight out of Uncharted or The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. It’s very fun at the moment, but in subsequent rewatches I find there are diminishing returns.
What does work are our new characters. Rayner’s curt attitude makes for a great contrast to the extremely friendly Star Trek: Discovery atmosphere. Similarly, Moll and L’ak make for relatable foes. They are simply trying to survive. They have big “living paycheck to paycheck” vibes which are a lot more relatable than living easy on a big starship.
Both these episodes are good. But what keeps them from being great is that they focus too much on the people we know. If we got to see Discovery from Rayner’s POV as well as Moll and L’ak’s, I think that would’ve built the tension better and given us more intrigue. Rayner being DISCO’s new first officer is easily the best narrative decision thus far. And next week’s episode which promises conflict between Adira and Gray sounds promising, too.
Courtesy of CBS Television
Star Trek: Discovery and “The Chase”
“The Chase” is an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation in which a bunch of aliens who usually don’t get along work together to unravel an ancient puzzle. In the end, humans, Cardassians, Romulans, and Klingons alike discover that, billions of years ago, a race known only as the Progenitors seeded planets across the universe with their DNA leading to the evolution of every humanoid species. In other words: all these enemies are actually born from the same stuff.
Ask any Trek fan what their favorite underrated classic episodes are and “The Chase” invariably comes up. Just the idea that there’s an in-universe reason for all the aliens in Star Trek to have the same configuration is brilliant. And, yes, many fans wanted a return to this concept.
And now here it is. “The Chase: Part Two”. Can I be honest with you? I’m not so sure about this choice, especially if the focus is on the “technology”. Because the point of the Progenitors isn’t the tech, it’s that they are proof that we are all cut from the same cloth. And if DISCO tries to answer the “what is the meaning of life” question in a direct way, I worry that it will ring hollow.
But we have eight more episodes to go (the next two are better shhh don’t tell ’em I told you). And revisiting “The Chase” is intriguing in theory. We’ll see how it goes.
3.5/5 stars
