Star Trek Discovery Review: “Will You Take My Hand?”

The season finale feels a little like Star Trek: The Role-Playing Game. Once again, it moves quickly, and it imparts a kind of direction on the season, towards a more familiar Trek.

Titles: “Will You Take My Hand?”

Directed by Akiva Goldsman
Written by Gretchen J. Berg, Aaron Harberts, and Akiva Goldsman

Cast
Sonequa Martin-Green as Michael Burnham
Doug Jones as Saru
Shazad Latif as Ash Tyler
Michelle Yeoh as Nega-Georgiou
Anthony Rapp as Paul Stamets
Mary Wiseman as Sylvia Tilly
James Frain as Sarek
Patrick Kwok-Choon as Rhys
Jayne Brook as Admiral Cornwell
Mary Chieffo as L’Rell
Emily Coutts as Keyla Detmer
Wilson Cruz as Dr. Hugh Culber
Clint Howard as sketchy Orion Man

Premise:

The Federation’s desperate plan proves even more desperate than we realized, but it does allow for cavorting on an Orion-run spot on the Klingon homeworld, which permits humans even while a war rages.

High Point:

The episode has a strong concept. Our characters have seen where the Dark Side takes us, and they cannot allow their Federation to follow that path. They find a solution, and we find ourselves looking at something like the classic Trek ethics.

Low Point:

The entire plot would be more powerful if we had experienced a little more of the war, and understood what pushed the Federation so far in this genocidal direction.

Just as every pop detective has to visit a strip club in the course of an investigation, every pop SF franchise has to visit a place like the Orion’s den. It raises a number of issues, however, including the lack of surveillance by the Klingons.

The Scores:

Originality: 3/6

Effects: 6/6

Acting: 5/6

Production: 5/6

Story: 4/6

Emotional Response: 4/6 I’ll say one thing for that ending: the fans will be arguing about it for months, and I’m sure we could have a debate here about how much Pike’s Enterprise should play into next season, and whether or not it’s a good idea. Fan service or important development: discuss.

Overall: 5/6 So, while some of the more critical fans may regard the finale as less “Will You Take My Hand?” than “Will You Hold My Hair While I Barf?” I remain cautiously optimistic about Season Two. I just wish the series had done a little more to earn its new direction.

Of course, I didn’t think much of NextGen‘s first season, and that show turned out.

In total, “Will You Take My Hand?” receives 32/42

4 replies on “Star Trek Discovery Review: “Will You Take My Hand?””

    • I thought it was a bit too much, but as long as it’s only fan service, I’m good. They don’t have to make the entire next season based on it, or even an episode. Season 2 can start on Vulcan discussing cast additions and they can casually refer to that time they stopped to help someone with a throw away line somewhere in season five.

      As for the whole episode, I enjoyed it, but it did feel rushed. I thought it was a bit un Klingon like to have them call off their war, where they were clearly winning, just because someone claims to be able to blow up their homeworld.

  1. The lack of surveillance may not be as much of an indictment of the Klingons as it first appears. Remember that without something like the spore drive, noboby was likely getting close to the Klingon homeworld without running some sort of gauntlet. Also, given that there are a couple dozen factions (nations?) involved, I rather expect there to be a lot of intrigue afoot all the time and this probably just looked like more intrigue to whomever was actually watching.

    That’s not to say I didn’t have some reservations about exactly how things went down. Just that the darker, edgier Mos Eisley itself isn’t a big one.

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