Star Trek: Discovery - Forget Me Not Review

DIS "Forget Me Not"

While last week's installment of Discovery took a standard "zippy space conflict" Trek pattern and updated it, "Forget Me Not" takes a more internal character-focused Trek pattern and updates it to emotionally resonant effect. The Adira character gives the show an opportunity to further explore the Trill host/symbiont concept for the first time since Deep Space Nine, this time with a fresh take and with 21st Century resources.

We've been on Trill with Jadzia Dax, we've had previous Dax hosts manifest dramatically in episodes like "Facets", and we've been to these sacred caves before. But in the 90s, those caves never looked like this. Constellation patterns on the walls, an otherworldly atmosphere, and a visceral spiritual journey into the very synapses of a Trill symbiont feature here, making the most of the science fiction elements. The icing on the cake is Jeff Russo's almost transcendent score, helping to accentuate this aspect of Trill culture - even if Adira herself is a human host.

In the subplot, Saru and Culber try to improve crew morale, with peaks and valleys of success. I don't mean this as damning with faint praise, but what I appreciate in both plots this episode is a clear structure, and that is not nothing. Even given the episode's nearly hour-long runtime, the scenes are tight, each one accomplishing something very specific, with no wasted space.

This subplot has a classic thesis-antithesis-synthesis structure. Thesis: Saru and Culber offer emotional support, in the form of a bridge crew dinner and informal one-on-one counseling respectively. Antithesis: a haiku contest at the dinner takes a dark turn, the product of frayed nerves. Synthesis: the crew acknowledges their trauma and comes together, united by common pain and purpose, and the daredevil stunt work of Buster Keaton.

The main plot also hits hard emotionally, as it's revealed that Adira took the Tal symbiont from her lover Gray after an asteroid accident, thus preserving something of the late Gray inside Adira's very being. This repressed memory, once confronted, unlocks the knowledge and memory of the Tal symbiont, which includes possible coordinates to 32nd Century Federation headquarters.

Both plots in "Forget Me Not" hit their mark in the emotional stakes, and the episode has a compact structure that facilitates that payoff. The subplot also gives Culber good material outside the context of his relationship with Stamets. Hopefully the show continues its solid run with a return to what's left of Federation bureaucracy. 7/10.

Stray observations:

- "No one has seen a human host" to a Trill symbiont. Except for William Riker, in The Next Generation episode "The Host"! Granted, that probably doesn't count as a "successful" blending.

- Detmer's acidic words to Stamets have something of the feel of a lower deck perspective vs. senior staff, but more specifically, secondary character vs. primary character.

- It's distressing that the contours of a cinema screen have been all but erased, but it's not unexpected, as I believe the Short Trek "Calypso" also featured this form of film viewing.