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Posted in: Paramount+, Review, Star Trek, TV | Tagged: Mary Wiseman, paramount, Review, Sonequa Martin-Green, star trek: discovery, Wilson Cruz
Star Trek: Discovery S05E06 Review: Generic Prime Directive Slog
Star Trek: Discovery's "Whistlespeak" was an uninspired prime directive bottle episode that did little to drive the season's main narrative.
Article Summary
- Star Trek: Discovery S05E06: "Whistlespeak" offers a typical first contact story without advancing the main plot.
- Burnham and Tilly face challenges integrating with the pre-warp society of Halem'nites.
- Dr. Culver grapples with Trill identity, echoing a past existential crises.
- The episode felt too much like filler, wasting an opportunity to better explore an interesting society.
The latest Star Trek: Discovery episode, "Whistlespeak," represents a more traditional non-serial Trek episode as the crew of the U.S.S. Discovery travels to their next clue in their ongoing quest to reconstruct the progenitor device since, you know, it's a race for the future as it feels like every season. This time, we're free of the season's villains, Moll (Eve Harlow) and L'ak (Elia Toufexis), as they made their escape in the previous episode "Mirrors," and we're missing Doug Jones' Saru. In the meantime, Captain Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) and Lt. Sylvia Tilly (Mary Wiseman) go undercover at Halem'no, a pre-warp society to try to mingle with the local Halem'nites and acclimate to the local customs (and adhere to the Prime Directive), while Cmdr Rayner (Callum Keith Rennie) tries to monitor the away team and keep them from dying. The following contains minor spoilers.
"Star Trek: Discovery" Delivers Another First Contact Episode
As Burnham and Tilly get used to the local customs, they get entangled in contests to prove themselves before the inhabitants' deity. The B-story of the episode is Dr. Culver (Wilson Cruz) trying to make sense of his experience as a Trill host which feels a bit like déjà vu because he deals with a similar existential crisis in terms of making sense of his experience having recovered from death in a previous season. It's not as dramatic since this time he involves his spouse in chief engineer Cmdr Paul Stamets (Anthony Rapp).
Directed by Christopher J. Byrne and written by Kenneth Lin & Brandon A. Schultz, "Whistlespeak" is well-intentioned, but it feels unnecessary because most of this episode felt like filler and not in a good way. No gimmicks or risk-taking separates itself from what most consider to be a bottle episode. It felt like Wiseman, Cruz, and Rapp needed something to do with the bare minimum. It feels like as much as we've seen so many first contact/prime directive-type episodes in Star Trek, better time could have been spent revisiting a species the franchise has established a history with like the Cardassians, Ferengi, Andorians, Bajorans, Kazon, or even the referenced Denobulans from the episode.
Martin-Green naturally glides her way through to drive the emotion of the episode, but Wiseman didn't feel like she did anything she didn't already do in previous seasons which is fine but makes it unremarkable and predictable. The same goes for another insecure character in Blu Del Barrio's Adira. June Laporte (Ravah) and Marium Carvell (Anorah) do a commendable job as guest stars as part of the aliens-of-the-week, as primitive, idealistic, and primal. Everyone else in the episode is inconsequential even David Cronenberg's Kovich, whose brief scene barely eclipses a "blink and you'll miss it" cameo length of time. It's not the worst Discovery has put up, but perhaps as pedestrian as it gets. Star Trek: Discovery streams on Thursdays on Paramount+.
Star Trek: Discovery Season 5 Episode 6: "Whistlespeak"
3.5/10
The latest Star Trek: Discovery episode, “Whistlespeak,” represents a more traditional non-serial Trek episode as the crew of the U.S.S. Discovery travels to their next clue in their ongoing quest to reconstruct the progenitor device since, you know, it’s a race for the future as it feels like every season. This time, we’re free of the season’s villains, Moll (Eve Harlow) and L’ak (Elia Toufexis), as they made their escape in the previous episode “Mirrors,” and we’re missing Doug Jones’ Saru. In the meantime, Captain Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) and Lt. Sylvia Tilly (Mary Wiseman) go undercover at Halem’no, a pre-warp society to try to mingle with the local Halem’nites and acclimate to the local customs (and adhere to the Prime Directive), while Cmdr Rayner (Callum Keith Rennie) tries to monitor the away team and keep them from dying. The following review contains minor spoilers.
Credits
Director
Christopher J. Byrne
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