Star Trek: Discovery Review– “Perpetual Infinity”

The battle with Control continues, and my earlier suspicion as to where this might go almost gets confirmed this week. I don’t really like it, but they’ve already filmed the final episodes, so struggle is pointless.

We do get some impressive character interaction this week.

Titles: “Perpetual Infinity”

Directed by Maja Vrvilo
Written by Alan B. McElroy, Brandon Schultz

Cast
Sonequa Martin-Green as Michael Burnham
Anson Mount as Captain Christopher Pike
Doug Jones as Commander Saru
Michelle Yeoh as Philippa Georgiou
Anthony Rapp as Commander Paul Stamets
Mary Wiseman as Ensign Sylvia Tilly
Ethan Peck as Mr. Spock
Alan Van Sprang as Leland
Sonja Sohn as Dr. Gabrielle Burnham
Wilson Cruz as Dr. Hugh Culber
Shazad Latif as Ash Tyler
Emily Coutts as Lt. Keyla Detmer
Rachael Ancheril as Cmdr. Nhan
Patrick Kwok-Choon as Lt. Gen Rhys
Oyin Oladejo as Lt. Joann Owosekun
Ronnie Rowe as Lt. R.A. Bryce
Raven Dauda as Dr. Tracy Pollard
Sara Mitich as Lt. Nilsson
Kenric Green as Burnham
Arista Arhin as Young Burnham
Julianne Grossman as Discovery Computer

Premise:

The crew have the opportunity to defeat Control and stop the future destruction of sentient life in the galaxy. Everyone should be on board with this plan—but do we detect one chaos agent in their midst?

High Point:

The interplay between the Burnhams, mother and daughter, works well. I applaud their ability to show credible emotion under the strain of the script’s incredible circumstances.

Low Point:

The compromised character turns into a series of tropes, including hokey visual tropes, for unstoppable eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeevil. He felt cheesy rather than dangerous, especially as we know that the entire galaxy, Star Trek Edition, won’t actually be destroyed.

The Scores:

Originality: 3/6

Effects: 5/6 The effects remain impressive, but I’m docking them one for the silly and unnecessary “evil vein” visual.

Acting: 5/6 Guest-star Sonja Sohn gets the nod as this week’s standout performance. How do you depict someone who has witnessed the death of everything she knows, endlessly?

Production: 6/6

Emotional Response: 5/6

Story: 4/6: The story moves along quickly, if somewhat confusingly, though it relies more heavily than usual or needed on Star Trek‘s version of science. I can only assume the transporter has been wired into a Gallifreyan sonic screwdriver; even in Discovery’s era, it can be recalibrated to do pretty much anything.

Overall: 5/6

In total, “Perpetual Infinity” receives 33/42

Lingering Questions

1.

“Struggle is pointless.”

Will Control ultimately become the Borg, after all?

2. Our reality gets called the Prime Universe by someone from the Mirror Universe. Really? Perhaps she’s just using our universe as her current form of reference. But it smacks of Star Trek‘s history, which turned the Federation into an Earth-centered organization which privileges (I know, budget) humanoid species.

3. We know that the excellent Anson Mount will be leaving after this season ends, at least as a regular. So who will sit in the captain’s chair next year?

4. Can Spock just shave already? At least to a goatee? He looks like Coffee House Spock. Then again, will he be staying much longer?

2 replies on “Star Trek: Discovery Review– “Perpetual Infinity””

  1. Will Control ultimately become the Borg, after all?
    Someone reminded me, we saw Borg, generations prior, in Star Trek: Enterprise. already.

    will he be staying much longer?
    I hope not. He’s acceptable, but he’s not quite Spock enough for me, and Spock had his show, stop pandering and let’s explore these undiscovered characters in stead. (This is my same complaint about Supergirl ripping off Lex Luthor and when they let Clark guest star.)

    • It has been established the Borg have existed (in the Delta Quadrant) since at least the fifteenth century (Earth time). However, we’ve seen a good deal of time travel in this series, so that doesn’t really matter.

      But yeah, stop making everything about established characters (I make an exception for Pike, whom we’ve seen little of prior to this series). They have an intriguing crew to explore and develop.

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