Discovery, Season 1: Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum

Discovery, Season 1
"Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum"
Airdate: November 5, 2017
8 of 15 produced
8 of 15 aired

Introduction

Burnham, Tyler, and Saru are sent on a mission with implications for the entire war effort. Meanwhile, Admiral Cornwell is still imprisoned by the Klingons.

Saru lets a big blue bovine one rip.

Writing

Kevin: So this is another is a string of episodes for me where the A-plot is some straight forward, actually pretty high grade, Star Trek that feels completely of a piece with TOS in particular that gets compressed and abbreviated to serve a B-plot that annoys the hell out of me. Part of what made last week's Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad was that there was one story --- and no fucking Klingons. Here, we have two (and a half-ish?) stories and lots of fucking Klingons. But let's start with the good stuff. The Pahvo plot is a story that could have been easily told in TOS. Three crew members alone on seemingly uninhabited alien world? Check. Non-corporeal beings whose idyllic life carries some as yet undisclosed consequences? Check. Same non-corporeal beings interfering in intergalactic politics? Oooh, big check. The problem is none of the beats of the story got the space they needed to breathe. Part of this was a design choice for the Pahvans, but I never got a real sense of what this Gaia-like world was like. We've seen Saru use his unique perspective as a benefit back in Choose Your Pain, so it's not that I think it's impossible he feels burdened by the same skills and experience, that's good drama, it's that we never see him feel burdened by them. Had there been no B plot, the extra 10-15 minutes could have breathed life into the mechanics of the Pahvans and thus given some logic to their appeal to Saru. I liked the idea behind the line "You won't take this from me too." Saru has some well earned resentment and fear of Burnham and if the plot would stop rushing by it, it could be one of the most interesting character pairs in the franchise, a personal redemption arc to mirror the professional one Burnham is on. But as it stands, it's the telescope all over again. Arriving too quickly at a conclusion and hoping the acting papers over the shortcomings.

Matthew: I agree that the Pahvo stuff worked best in this episode, because it tended to allow the characters to reveal themselves in their reactions. I also agree that it was undercut by the fractured nature of the story. But the Pahvo stuff didn't work all that well, even on its own terms. So this is the most important thing that Starfleet can be doing, right? The thing that will undo the decisive tactical advantage the Klingons have? Then why are only three crew members working on it, on foot no less? Come to think of it, how in the hell did anyone notice that the "planetary music" that Pahvo puts out uncloaks Klingon ships? And further, does this music travel at superluminal speeds? Because if not, it won't be very much use until a few hundred years from now. All in all, this plot line suffered greatly from the "we must put the thing in the thing because the script says so" syndrome. I didn't really know why they were doing things. I didn't feel the urgency that they felt, because I did not witness the setup to the plot requirements. It was just all stuff on a page.

Kevin: So is it even a question that Tyler is a Klingon? I mean, that speech about Home and the Thing He Will Do When He Gets Back From the War that has been given in every single war movie ever right before the kid gets hit by a sniper is almost painful in that context. It feels like the writers setting up the twist. You can practically hear Burnham parrot Zap Brannigan's line "Curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal!" in the forthcoming finale. (Credit where it's due, Katharine Trendacosta in the io9 review made that joke first, but it was so on point, I had to use it.) The Klingon stuff with L'Rell actually bolsters the idea that they are working to both destroy the Federation but also get vengeance on Kol, so Tyler working faithfully with Discovery until Kol is defeated even makes sense.

Matthew: If there is not a science fiction mechanism in place to explain how Voq has such detailed, in depth knowledge of human culture, custom, and idiom, I don't know if I can continue to watch this show. Potential mechanisms could be: mind transference into another body (rife with philosophical problems though it may be), or some sort of Tuvix-style hybrid, with its attendant ethical quandaries. There is so much bad science, pseudoscience, and outright magic already in place here, that making Tyler be Voq in disguise without such a mechanism will just break my willingness to go along with the story. But in a larger sense, this apparent trend of developing characters just to kill them or change them on a dime is somewhat distressing, and not in the good Game of Thrones kind of way. Game of Thrones worked even when it killed main characters because the world was so compelling and realistic. This world is not that - it is a mess, rife with problems caused by the inane decision to place it ten years before TOS. So the characters are all we have. To spend screen time on one who will just be killed does a huge disservice to the other characters in the show, and weakens the whole.

Kevin: And...the Klingon stuff. Ugh. I'm still not actually certain what the hell happened. The only piece of data they got out of Cornwell was that the Discovery is the linchpin of the Federation's war effort, but didn't they already know that, and that was the reason they kidnapped Lorca, either to get info from him or plant their operative on the ship? What was that escape plan? Was that fight staged? Is Cornwell really dead? I mean, even if they both decided to abandon the plan and Cornwell was just making a break for it, what was the goal? Even if she killed L'Rell, she would still be trapped. If the fight was staged, why not follow through with the original plan and blow up the ship? What was with all the other Klingon corpses? Didn't L'Rell already hate Kol? It was like that episode of the Simpsons where Bob rigs the election and when Lisa finds out her beloved deceased cat Snowball was on the roll declares "This time it's personal," to which Bart replies, "You know, he has tried to kill me several times." Wasn't it already personal, L'Rell?

And on a point so important, I am giving it its own paragraph: STOP FUCKING KILLING THE INTERESTING FEMALE CHARACTERS ON THIS SHOW. WOMEN MAKE UP MORE THAN 50% OF THE POPULATION. I CAN HANDLE HAVING MORE THAN TWO ON A CAST OF 10.

Sorry. I got carried away, but come on. I get you probably couldn't afford Michelle Yeoh indefinitely. I appreciate that. Landry's death was just plain dumb, but I was willing to overlook it in the name of trying. But if Cornwell is really dead and for no reason at all that I can discern from the plot, I am almost done with the show. It's getting to the point that you are clearly just giving into every dumb plot device of serialized dramas that I watch Star Trek to get away from. That said, it appears that a theory I saw floating around that Cornwell would become Lethe, the numbed psychiatrist and former patient of the Tantalus facility in Dagger of the Mind is not true, and thank fucking God, as that is the only twist I would hate more than Tyler is a Klingon.

Matthew: I don't know where we stand after the Klingon stuff. I kind of don't even know what happened. During the scenes, I was like "ooh, this could be interesting, what if L'Rell is a defector?" But then every potentially interesting development was undercut by confusion of backtracking. And yes, in re: Cornwell, please see my comments immediately prior to this set above. I don't think it is clear yet that she is dead (since nothing in the Klingon scenes was clear at all), but if she is, that is another crime against my ability to invest in this show.

Kevin: And last but most certainly least, the stuff with Stamets and Tilly was...what? What was that? I'll tell you what it was. It was time that could have been better spent on the A plot. We really learned nothing too new, as we already knew that Stamets was experience some personality changes as a result of the jumps. Pointing out the conflict for Hugh is precisely why doctors do not treat family members. It's just fake drama to me. I mean, as just an officer on the ship, isn't Tilly under the same obligation to report that the chief engineer is losing his marbles? I have and continue to champion the opportunities that serialized stories can tell and I think DS9 mined them well. But this kind of stuff is the least effective use, where it is more making sure that boxes get ticked to set up season long stuff at the cost of making this episode less entertaining.

Matthew: There were just too many story threads being jammed into this episode. Perhaps this is a function of the serialized nature of the show. Last episode was by far the best because it developed one plot and one character, and allowed those stories to breathe. Here, we have four different threads competing for screen time, and they all suffer as a result.

Acting

Kevin: I hope they sent Doug Jones a muffin basket or maybe a gift certificate for a day spa or something because they owe him for working the fuck out of a script that wasn't giving him everything he needed. In a vacuum, his almost crying "You won't take this away from me too" is heartbreaking. He is really turning it in every week on this show.

Matthew: Agreed on Jones, and I liked Sonequa Martin-Green's delivery on Federation principles. As muddled as the Pahvo plot line was, their performances made me almost forgive the inorganic nature of it all.

Kevin: Maybe because it comes so close on the heels of last week's abortive attempts at dancing, the kiss felt a little rushed, but I believed the chemistry from Martin-Green and Latif. They weren't given much beyond that to do, but what little they had, they certainly did okay with it. I really like Jayne Brook as Cornwell, but again, she was just marking time through the script. I will say I liked Tilly this time around. She was just the right amount of pushy to show her concern was genuine without tripping in caricature.

Matthew: As much as I hated the Klingon scenes, I really liked Mary Chieffo as L'Rell. She was the first Klingon character here whose emotions I could read in her face and identify with. I was consistently interested by her stance on things, and her chemistry with Jayne Brook was excellent. I wish they had gotten off the ship and had an "Enemy Mine" sort of journey in a shuttle or something. But you know what kind of show we'd need for that to work? An episodic one.

Production Values

Kevin: There was too much blue. I'm just gonna say it. Literally everything in this episode not on a Klingon ship was saturated in blue. It's just not interesting. I liked whatever work they did to make the forest appear to have blue leaves. They did some great outdoor work with some of the long shots, but in the magic blue yurt, everything was just kind of completely sparkly blue. The Pahvans also look like the spore drive to the point I have to wonder if there will be a connection. I question that a needle thing spire of any material could ascend that far unsupported, but I did like the physical object in the close-ups. It had an aura of a TOS set piece, in a good way.

Matthew: I liked the forest locations, too. I felt the same way about the crystal spire - it shoudl be at least stated in dialogue that this must be some serious Future Shit to be able to ascent to neaer-orbital distances. I too immediately thought the Pahvans were mushroom people, which might explain how and why the muschroom drive will be erased from continuity (using sentient spores as fuel or something, a big no-no).

Kevin: The Klingon stuff is the same as always. I was almost thrilled at the scar on L'Rell since it meant I immediately knew who I was looking at.  The corpse room (I can't believe I have to type that) was not my favorite. The half Klingon corpse was another in those "we're TV-MA so we can" that never quite rises to the level of "we should."

Matthew: The corpses were gratuitous and did not really advance any story, either. Who are these Klingons, and why should we care? L'Rell seems to care, but then, she already hated the guy, anyway. Were they going to be eaten? Who the hell knows.

Conclusion

Kevin: Once again, I think there is the skeleton of a spot-on TOS-style story here, with some entertaining enough changes to keep it fresh. All that gets crowded out by the still impenetrable Klingon story. I maybe retroactively knock this down to a 2 if Cornwell is really dead, but for the moment, I think the strength of Doug Jones' acting just pushes this episode into 3 territory. I was engaged by him, even when the story wasn't lifting the weight it should. I really hope as the show embarks on its second season, they realize that Saru's emotional journey is about an order of magnitude more interesting that anything they have done with the Klingons and course correct accordingly.

Matthew: I'm stuck on a 2 here, for a total of 5. I've reached the end of my ability to be patient with half-baked, too fast story lines. Like a mediocre salad, some parts of this work alone. But there isn't enough of the good stuff, and there is no dressing to tie it all together. It's less than the sum of its parts. Who knows, maybe the next episode will answer all of my nagging questions and put on screen the sorts of motivations that would make me care about the scenes that took place in this episode. I seriously doubt it at this point, though. I kind of feel like this is what we're going to get. Quick cut scenes that occasionally feel like Star Trek, but deliver none of the depth or substance we are accustomed to.

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