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Aaron Tveit spoke with us about the Todd Komarnicki and MGM+ apocalyptic survival series Earth Abides and what attracted him to the series.
Posted in: CBS, Review, Star Trek, streaming, TV | Tagged: david ajala, paramount, Review, Sonequa Martin-Green, star trek, star trek: discovery
Star Trek: Discovery Season 4 E07 Review: A Failure to Communicate
One of the major recurring issues in the Star Trek franchise is how it handles its galactic-wide threats. In the case of seasons three and four, Discovery has been tasked to deal with them with considerable resistance. The third season involved investigating the cause of The Burn before learning that the source was from Kaminar in Su'Kal. No intention was ever assumed aside from the accident he caused making all the dilithium in the galaxy unstable. With the season four threat of the dark matter anomaly, the crew discovers there is a sentient & previously-unseen conscious life form behind it so Starfleet is forced to address how to confront it.
The Starfleet of the 32nd century tries to remain stoic, but the events of the Burn left all the warp-capable species and member factions traumatized having just recovered. The feeling of fear of the unknown is still prevalent especially when they still haven't confirmed outside of theories who was responsible in the episode "…But to Connect". This is where Discovery shines as Capt. Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) is probably as neutral of a party as you can find, allowing her to still be the shining beacon the franchise needs her to be. She pleads her case to the Federation that first contact needs to be made and empathy is needed to greet those behind the threat in hopes to stop them from hurting the localized galaxy any further.
Book (David Ajala) finds himself at odds with the simple greeting works with ambitious and abrasive scientist Ruon Tarka (Shawn Doyle) to try to stop the threat by nearly any means necessary to neutralize it. The moral question then becomes "How do you confront such a force that controls the kind of power that can end existence in nearly any part of the galaxy?" with all your principles intact? As sympathetic as Burnham is, as Book sees it, she hasn't dealt with the tremendous loss he has.
The second major arc concerns Zora (Annabelle Wallis), who's gained more sentience as the Discovery's computer to the growing concern of Starfleet. Evoking shades of Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "The Measure of a Man," the crew along with Dr. Kovich (David Cronenberg) try to assess the intention and potential risk the self-aware AI has- especially when it hides potentially invaluable information. Can't really say the argument is more nuanced per se, because it asks the typical hypothetical questions while trying to acknowledge the potential for its sentience. Zora even devises a "kill switch" in case she goes rogue. While it doesn't break any serious ground, it's always an ongoing discussion worth having.
Directed by Lee Rose and written by Terri Hughs Burton and Carlos Cisco, "…But to Connect" does a solid job in establishing firm arguments on how the Federation should deal with a threat that makes a strong case for remaining true to one's core values no matter what, in even the face of uncertain odds. Martin-Green's Burnham and Ajala's Book have such chemistry together that it vibes whether or not they're sharing screen time together. A solid effort covering familiar but still important thematic grounds. Star Trek: Discovery season four returns in February.
Star Trek: Discovery Season 4 Episode 7: "...But to Connect"
6/10
Directed by Lee Rose and written by Terri Hughs Burton and Carlos Cisco, Star Trek: Discovery Season 4 “…But to Connect” does a solid job in establishing firm arguments on how the Federation should deal with a threat that makes a strong case for remaining true to one's core values no matter what, in even the face of uncertain odds. Sonequa Martin-Green’s Burnham and David Ajala’s Book have such chemistry together that it vibes whether or not they're sharing screen time together. A solid effort covering familiar yet still important themes but it's ground that hasn't been covered before.
Credits
Director
Lee Rose
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