1x08 Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum

Very very poor episode, again. Characters' motivations were all over the place, with bad explanations of why they went against form. (Why would Saru, not under any compulsion apart from fear, which he admits he has lived with his whole life, suddenly do what he did in this episode? Why would pretty-nail-shop-uniform Klingon suddenly want to defect, and then make such a terrible job of it, and when she discovers the bodies not just leave with the admiral as she'd planned?) Contrived conflicts and artificial setups with, once again, bad motivations/explanations. (Why would the Disco need to defend the dog-virus-planet from the Klingons next week on STD? The Klingons know nothing about the planet, and if the Disco acts casual would have no reason to attack it, right? Why would tree-spirit-planet call 2 warring factions together if it wants peace?)

I also question SMG's acting chops, and whether she can cut it as lead, although being given multiple lines of exposition every episode, and very little else, surely doesn't help. The most interesting character by far is the captain and the series should have been developed around him, with Burnham taking a more Tom Paris type role IMHO. The Michael Burnham as focal point just hasn't worked for the entire season so far (with the possible exception of initial double-ep) and doesn't seem likely to as the show goes on either.

[7.2/10] I wonder how long it will be before I start feeling the urge to compare Discovery to past Star Trek series. It’s been a long time since a Trek show has been on the air, and since TNG, each of them felt pretty easily familiar and of a piece with one another, even as they occupied different settings and even different tones. Discovery, on the other hands, feels like the biggest change, the biggest shift, since we went from The Original Series to the cinematic/Next Generation-era of the franchise, and that leaves longtime fans like myself sniffing for the familiar, even as we enjoy what Discovery is doing.

To that end, “Si Vis Pacem. Para Bellum” (a latin proverb that roughly translates to “if you want peace, you should prepare for war) feels like the most familiar episode of Discovery yet. It doesn’t necessarily follow the structure of old school Trek, with two major stories and a couple of minor ones packed in together, but it has premises that feel the most like something we might see Kirk or Picard exploring.

Chief among that is the major plot of the episode, which sees Burnham, Saru, and Tyler beaming down to an alien planet called Pavoh, in the hopes of using its natural resonance to help them detect cloaked Klingon ships. How many times have we seen Federation crewmembers beam down to a planet in search of some technology or resource, only to find more than they bargained for when they make it to the planet’s surface?

That’s certainly the case here, as the previously-thought uninhabited planet turns out to be populated by spores or particles or some sentient swarm of magical bacteria who, per Saru, are the planet. It’s the sort of “new life and new civilizations” mission that good Trek stories are made of, even if it feels a little too familiar for old fans here. For better or worse, the “crew beams down, one crewmember gets afflicted by crazy alien influence, other crewmembers have to save them,” is the type of story that you could pretty well deposit into any of the prior Star Trek* series without having to make many adjustments.

What’s less familiar is the B-story, for lack of a better term, which sees Admiral Cornwall allying with L’Rell (Voq’s accomplice) to try to get away from Kol the bad Klingon and get off T’Kuvma’s old ship. The storyline has some good moments, but it also comes off as pretty muddled at times. Who’s allied with whom, what everyone’s motivations are, and what the point of the story is all gets jumbled up at points.

Part of that is by design. The show intentionally wants you to question L’Rell’s true motivations and whether she really wants to defect or its part of a spy game and whether Kol really trusts her or not. But rather than having the audience question but follow along, the episode makes it rather unclear when she’s playing along and when she’s being true, in a way that makes the viewer scratch one’s head moreso than it builds intrigue.

Still, it offs Cornwall, which conveniently and predictably gets Lorca off the hook for his screwed up behavior. And it creates a ticking time bomb on Kol’s ship, where someone who abhors him is there, potentially wants to defect to the Federation, and definitely wants to get back at Kol for what he did to Voq and her other brethren.

There’s also a couple of other semi-disconnected stories, or at least check-ins, that move the larger narrative of the season. The most heart-pumping is the cold open that sees the Discovery engaged in a battle with six Klingon ships attacking another Federation vessel. It’s a thrilling skirmish, filled with well-done dogfighting, a nice sense of urgency and order to the chaos, and a meaningful loss that underscores the importance of Burnham’s mission that makes up the meat of the episode.

The most compelling, however, is Tilly detecting that something is clearly off with Stamets after his many trips as a tardigrade substitute. For one thing, the show teases hard that Tilly realizes her ambition and becomes a captain, and that Stamets is tripping through time or tapping into some cosmic knowledge when he rides the spore superhighway. But for another, the episode does a nice job of exploring the bind that Stamets’s issues puts him in, where he doesn’t want to turn into a lab rat and be taken off duty, but also doesn’t want to put his partner in a position where the good doctor has to lie for him. It’s just a little hint, not a full story, but it delivers a very humane dilemma to be unpacked.

The main story does a bit of the same. It’s another familiar Trek trope to have gentle or reserved characters be under the influence of some alien agent and go a little crazy and dangerous. Spock’s done it; Data’s done it, and now Saru does it. The bits where Burnham and Ash disagree about what to do with him and reveal their differing viewpoints is a little cheesy, but it’s interesting to see the show turn its most gentle and reluctant character into a threat.

The pod person routine with Saru is scary, both for how his alien physiology means that Burnham and Ash are no physical match for him, but also for his calmness turns from something that makes him seem kind of stuffy and superior, to something that makes him feel impossible to stop or reason with. It’s a nice outing for Doug Jones, and it gives the Burnham character some hard choices.

While I’m not crazy about the tease at the end (can we say Organians, folks?), I do like the explanation for Saru’s turn, for the reasons for his biological reaction to the Pandora-like planet, and for the psychological reasons for his change in demeanor. Like Spock before him, beneath that staid exterior is a well of emotions that Saru doesn’t always reveal. But in the clear light of day, he admits that he spends his entire life afraid, that it’s in his DNA, his evolutionary path, to constantly be on his guard and constantly worry. To have a respite from that, a chance to escape it and be happy and undisturbed on Pavoh, is a pull that no one could understand.

And yet, in her own way, Burnham does. She too has to project an image of strength, of calm, while clearly feeling the stress and strain of all that she’s been through. Like many of those other familiar stories, Star Trek often uses those away missions to find common ground between its crewmen, and this is no exception.

“Si Vis Pacem. Para Bellum” isn’t a groundbreaking episode of Star Trek. It doesn’t bring a time travel story into modern splendor like last week’s episode, or delve into some of the more ambitious serialized storytelling that the show’s engaged in thus far. But it follows the Trek formula more than any other ep in Discovery so far. That makes it feel comfortable, like slipping into an old primary colored uniform, but also like business as usual, and despite the sharp cinematography and better effects, it becomes just another adventure of the week.