Star Trek: Discovery - Unification 3 Review

DIS "Unification 3"

Why "Unification 3"? That's because the first two parts of this story aired during The Next Generation's fifth season in 1991. And now, 29 years later on a different show, the story of Romulan-Vulcan reunification continues. Incidentally, while "Unification 1" was technically the second Star Trek episode to air after creator Gene Roddenberry's death, it bore a tribute to the Great Bird of the Galaxy. Arguably Roddenberry's most famous creation, Spock, made it the life work of his later years to lay the groundwork for unification, and being in Spock's far future, Discovery finds that his work came to fruition. The show, and the characters within the show, honor Roddenberry and Spock by continuing this storyline. This feeling of deep connections within Star Trek canon, made personal by Burnham's story, defines the episode.

Discovery finds that Vulcan of the 32nd Century is now called Ni'Var, and like Earth, this founding member of the Federation is no longer in the fold. The apparent burden of causing the Burn through advanced propulsion experiments contributed to the surprising withdrawal. The planet is shared by Vulcans and Romulans; Romulus was destroyed in the 2009 film Star Trek, and the aftermath looms large in Picard. As the legendary Spock's sister, Burnham is chosen to open diplomatic channels, and in order to obtain Ni'Var's experimental data, invokes a traditional crucible called T'kal-in-ket, a forum in which she can explain her scientific need for the data. 

As part of her future history download, Burnham watches a recording of Leonard Nimoy's Spock from "Unification 2". The invocation of Trek history, plus Burnham's connection to a person she only knew in his younger years, is enough to make any Trekkie, including this one, cry. As per tradition, an advocate is assigned to Burnham for the T'kal-in-ket from the Romulan order of the Qowat Milat, as introduced in Picard, bene gesserit-like warrior nuns who follow the precept of absolute candor. The USS Yelchin is given a shout-out, named after tragically deceased actor Anton Yelchin, Pavel Chekov in the latest three Trek movies. Thus, earlier seasons of Discovery, the original series, The Next Generation, Picard, and even the Chris Pine feature films, are all thrillingly connected.

But all this is secondary to Burnham's emotional story. Triangulating Burn origin points is reminiscent of triangulating the mysterious signals from Season 2, and that's not the only connection to that season: Burnham's Qowat Milat advocate turns out to be her time-traveling mother Gabrielle. This development is given appropriate weight, but is almost a side note because there's so much going on. The dynamic of the T'Kal-in-ket is like an undergraduate defending her thesis before a skeptical board, in this case consisting of three quorum members.

From a scene-blocking perspective, it's just people standing in a room and talking to each other while fixed in place, a director's nightmare, but this never becomes an issue. It's a sometimes contentious display. At one point, the Romulan quorum member N'Raj laments that Vulcans spuriously take a position and bend logic to justify it, and he has a point. Recall the Second Doctor's words in Doctor Who: "Logic, my dear Zoe, merely enables one to be wrong with authority." Eventually, Burnham withdraws her request for the data but an impressed Ni'Var President T'Rina gives Discovery the data anyways.

In the subplot, Saru offers Tilly the first officer position on Discovery. To be fair, there's not really a better choice onboard, even if she is an Ensign. The subplot, like the rest of the episode, puts the focus on emotional development. That focus makes all the inside baseball stuff land all the more, making for an episode rich in character and canon. 8/10.

Power Rangers Beast Morphers: Fossil Frenzy Review

PRBM "Fossil Frenzy"

While Evox gets to full strength and lays the groundwork for a climactic confrontation in the background, Zoey has a run of the mill, episode-of-the-week focus story in the foreground. Her brother Mike, an amateur paleontologist, has discovered a new species of dinosaur he dubs vulturesaurus (which sounds like a zord naming convention), and Zoey is determined to help him leverage this into a scholarship. Imagine how Mike would react if he knew that Zoey has been to another dimension where dinosaurs never went extinct...

Mike gives a fossil to Zoey so she can use Grid Battleforce resources to comprehensively analyze it. Zoey accidentally melts the fossil down to nothing, so gets a different fossil from the same hard-to-reach site. To reach the site, Zoey free solo climbs up a rock face that looks like it belongs in Wild Force's Animarium. But the episode's logic blows up when Mike's unverified finding, that he was so crestfallen to lose before he could show it off, makes the front page of the newspaper...!?

Elsewhere, Roxy uses the vulturesaurus DNA to upgrade herself yet again, this time to such an extent that she can kaiju herself up to zord size. But her hubris is her downfall. The upgrade process destroys Scrozzle's Robot Maker equipment, meaning that if Robot Roxy or Blaze are destroyed, they're gone for good. (Dramatically speaking, this is a welcome development to add some stakes.) Also, Dino Roxy is doing a fine job kicking the Rangers' asses on the ground, but pushes her luck by taking it into zord scale, where she's outclassed and killed. Robot Blaze, in all his malevolence, has a bit of a moment when he witnesses this and seems to genuinely mourn.

The episode's dialogue is even more on-the-nose than usual. Mike tells Zoey his "entire future" rests on the fossil. Roxy soliloquizes to the camera that she "has to prove herself". It's an episode precariously balanced between a final reckoning with Robot Roxy, and a genuine desire to tie that in emotionally with Zoey's small character story. In the end, Roxy's end feels anticlimactic (after all, we've seen her dispatched so many times), and Zoey's story covers familiar points and the newspaper beat defies all logic. 5/10.

Stray observations:

- When Devon swings to the rescue from Zoey's zord, he cuts a Spider-Man-like figure.

- If Power Rangers was merchandised beyond action figures and the like, they could sell the Grid Battleforce-branded dog onesie featured in this episode.

Star Wars: The Mandalorian - The Siege Review

MND "The Siege"

This week's chapter returns to Nevarro for dynamic action on a bigger scale than the first season, while veritably littering the episode with easter eggs and self-reflexive jokes. Reconnecting with Greef Karga, Cara Dune, and former quarry Mythrol, Din is enlisted to take out an Imperial Remnant facility. It all adds up to the most purely adrenalized action episode the show has featured so far.

The episode begins with a comedy bit of Din exasperatedly trying to get the Child to follow technical instructions. Comparisons with Rocket desperately trying to get Baby Groot to press the correct button in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 are unavoidable. Afterward, the show features its most 2020 moment yet: Din lifting his helmet slightly to drink something.

On Nevarro, Cara is a Marshal in her own right (after this season's titular "Marshal", Cobb Vanth) and Greef is a Magistrate. The former hive of scum and villainy now hosts a school, with a protocol droid giving out the kind of geographical exposition you usually only find in tie-in reference books. And from the very first episode, Mythrol is back, admittedly a character I struggled with back then. His contemporary quality was something I had to get over when acclimating to the show.

Once our heroes have infiltrated the Imperial base, things take a turn for the stranger. This is Dr. Pershing's lab, home to misshapen genetically engineered bodies not unlike the infamous vat of Snokes on Exegol in The Rise of Skywalker. A recording of Pershing makes clear that he was trying to inject blood into these vessels with a high "M count", namely the Child's blood. Almost certainly, that M stands for midi-chlorians.

A comforting and exciting array of classic Star Wars action ensues. The stormtroopers even say, "Blast 'em", like they're in Mos Eisley's Docking Bay 94. There's the corridor blasting like we got last week, but also a chase through a canyon featuring speeder bikes and TIE Fighters. This type of action, filled with derring-do followed by whoops and cheers, feels different for this show, more in line with the saga films. There are multiple "theme park ride" moments - even the Child raises its hands during a roller coaster-like dogfight.

Actors have done good work directing this show, notably Bryce Dallas Howard. With "The Siege", Carl Weathers gets in on the act, and interestingly, in directing himself he seems to have tamped down his own grandly theatrical impulses that made Greef such a huge personality in Season 1. This is a Greef of more authority and less showmanship. But as an episode, "The Siege" isn't lacking in showmanship: a solid action chapter with weirder touches on the fringes. 7/10.

Stray observations:

- Last week, the show once again joked about stormtroopers being lousy shots. This week, it's the lack of guard rails in Imperial architecture. 

- The protocol droid teacher mentions the Akkadese Maelstrom outside Kessel, where Han made the Kessel Run in Solo. Also the current New Republic capitol on Mon Mothma's home planet Chandrila - but since the capitol is designed to periodically cycle through different homes, it's on Hosnian Prime when the First Order's Starkiller Base destroys the seat of government in The Force Awakens.

- The untrustworthy engineer employed by Greef is Mimbanese. This species was introduced in Solo on the planet Mimban; recall Han's sergeant calling them "the hostiles" and Han retorting, "it's their planet, we're the hostiles". Recently one of the New Republic pilots in the Squadrons video game was Mimbanese.

- The reveal of Moff Gideon's mid-size cruiser is, of course, reminiscent of the Star Destroyer in the first shot of A New Hope. In that cruiser, he's got rows and rows of... they don't seem to be Death Troopers, they're not TIE pilots, it's not Vader armor. They look like something new.

- In last week's review, I perversely did not bring up the fan-galvanizing mention of Ahsoka Tano, who will likely appear later this season (!); if the structure of Season 1 is any guide, three closely connected episodes are followed by three that relatively stand alone, leading into a big two-part finale. Perhaps Ahsoka will appear in the final two episodes of this season.

Star Trek: Discovery - Scavengers Review

DIS "Scavengers"

"Scavengers" affords Burnham and Georgiou the opportunity for a buddy adventure, rescuing the wayward Cleveland Book from a scrap facility run by the Emerald Chain. An unsanctioned mission (with Burnham, it would be surprising if it wasn't), the operation is sandwiched by scenes of humor and heart with a light touch - that is, until the consequences of Burnham's actions come into focus.

The episode begins with more 32nd Century technology porn. Discovery detaches its nacelles like they're Bluetooth accessories, the USS Le Guin gets a shout-out, and the Disco crew get new Starfleet badges that do quadruple-duty as communicators, PADDs, tricorders, and personal transporters. (That's not how selling toys is supposed to work! Items sold separately, not all in one purchase!)

After hearing of Book's capture by the same Andorian-Orion syndicate from the season premiere, Burnham and Georgiou spirit away in Book's ship to collect him and a ship's black box from the time of the Burn. This action element of the episode is quite compact and familiar. Indentured workers with decapitating chips in the head, an off-puttingly square-jawed Orion taskmaster, a scrappy uprising. Seeds are planted for later this season, as surely the unseen Oryssa, who owns this facility, will not be happy with this turn of events.

Punctuating the mission are romantic interludes for Burnham and Book, and Georgiou's debilitating Mirror Universe flashbacks. Perhaps these are a symptom of her disconnection from her native reality? There's certainly an air of palpable familiarity to the plot device of Burnham going rogue (in the tradition of crusading cops and spy movie heroes). In the end, we understand why we're re-treading old ground: Saru disciplines Burnham by relieving her of the First Officer position on Discovery, demoting her to Science Officer while still keeping her rank at Commander. It's kind of a lateral move, but the pain of both parties is clear.

Meanwhile, Stamets and Adira find unlikely and uncanny shared life experience, Tilly corrals Grudge the cat, and Linus continues to be this season's tertiary comedy swiss army knife. These scenes strengthen the episode, but they also give it a puffy structure. There's a fitted-as-standard, chase in a sci-fi quarry feel to the episode's A-plot, but the quasi-familial odd couple of Burnham and Georgiou make it their own. 6/10.

Stray observation:

- Burnham obfuscates by saying that Georgiou is on the hunt for self-sealing stem bolts from the late 24th Century. Those being the very same knick-knacks that Jake and Nog were nonplussed to acquire a large shipment of during their inauspicious entrepreneurial career, as seen in the first season of Deep Space Nine.

Power Rangers Beast Morphers: The Silva Switch Review

PRBM "The Silva Switch"

"The Silva Switch" is a body-swap episode, but the hoary old trope is animated by a character reason: to explore the poignancy of Steel's wish to understand the (fully) human experience. The fairly light episode also uniquely features a full-blown musical number (!), indicating a healthy experimental strain late in Beast Morphers' run.

To illustrate the switch, Nate and Steel's voices are switched as well, presumably as a kid-friendly tool to avoid confusion. I idly wonder how it would've gone to have Abraham Rodriguez imitate a Steel voice and Jamie Linehan a Nate. After all, Rodriguez does his usual mugging when venturing outside the Nate characterization.

Steel is a goofy character, albeit one with the classic wistful Pinocchio desire for a rounded human experience, and that goofiness flows into the decision to include a song. The song sequence kicks off at the gym location. A tracking shot makes clear that the show's entire human cast with the exception of Commander Shaw is there (including Roxy and Blaze). Soon it becomes clear why: it's all hands on deck for the production number. And given the Commander's attitude to artistic pursuits, it's clear why she's not there; she wouldn't approve! In Power Rangers' 27 seasons, it's flirted in the direction of a musical episode before, for instance in Zeo's "Another Song and Dance". While the song featured here is a little "elementary school recital", I welcome such a bold step toward the dream of a full musical episode.

Meanwhile, Robot Roxy and Blaze's arch bickering is on particularly fine form this week. Jealous of Roxy's upgrade, Robot Blaze gets one of his own, resulting in villainous accessorizing. A hipster scarf, a cape, and a rapier complete the upgraded Blaze's look. He's even arrogant enough to kill his own Robotron when it gets in his way!

"The Silva Switch" is largely a run of the mill exercise through a standard TV cliche. But the musical number, complete with magical costume changes, does a lot to make the episode stand out. 6/10.

Star Wars: The Mandalorian - The Heiress Review

MND "The Heiress"

The third episode of The Mandalorian Season 1 got a lot of mileage by featuring a cadre of Mandalorians jet-packing in to save the day. Now, the third episode of Season 2 does the same. Leaving a trail of righteous fanservice in the sky, "The Heiress" features high adventure, guest starring a beloved Clone Wars and Rebels character making her live-action debut, and provides meat and potatoes thrills all the way through.

Din successfully delivers Frog Lady to her companion and makes a deal with a Quarren crew to find other Mandalorians. It's a trap, but those very Mandalorians rescue Din and the Child from a death on the high seas. And Katee Sackhoff, who voiced this role on the aforementioned animated shows, appears as Bo-Katan Kryze, a punch-the-air moment for Star Wars fans. In animation, Bo-Katan is an intense, bitter character. Sackhoff brings a lighter charisma to her in live-action, that being part of her default screen presence.

When Bo-Katan and her companions casually take off their helmets, Din freaks out and smugly looks down on their disregard for the Creed. It becomes clear that Din and the Mandalorian covert from Season 1 are a fringe orthodox cult with their own stringent code on never removing their helmets in the presence of another living being. A few things are going on here. On one hand it's writer Jon Favreau's idea of Mandalorian mystery coming into conflict with new canon's (read: Dave Filoni's) face-front Mandos, and finally reconciling the two.

It's also a slick move on the show's part to cast the Mandalorians the show's been following in a different light. Their certainty of purpose can look like reverent conviction or fanaticism. And in a way I'm put in the interesting position of not being on Din's side here. Here's Bo-Katan, the rightful ruler of Mandalore the Great, and Din is acting like an asshole.

Star Trek's Worf, a Klingon orphaned and taken in by human parents on Earth, overcompensates for this by acting "more Klingon than Klingon". He insists on Klingon tradition all the more rigorously, precisely because he is the product of a human upbringing. A similar thing characterizes Din. A foundling rescued and recruited into a strict Mandalorian Creed, Din holds onto such an ethos to a fault. The Way did save his life, after all.

Bo-Katan's mission is some standard Imperial Remnant sabotage, with the aim of stealing weapons and a cruiser. This is straightforward swashbuckling fare in a cool Star Wars context. But the dynamism of the episode's action is inconsistent. Bo-Katan's rescue scene on the space-boat is a quick, solid setpiece with some variety of technique, but much of the action on the cruiser boils down to her cadre running and gunning in a straight line down an Imperial corridor - or more accurately, walking and gunning. Granted, this is core Star Wars DNA stuff (from the Death Star corridors to Finn, Poe, and Chewbacca blasting away troopers on the Star Destroyer Steadfast in The Rise of Skywalker), but not as dynamic as the earlier boat rescue.

"The Heiress" of the title seems to refer to Bo-Katan Kryze, heiress to the rule of Mandalore. It is her presence that gives the show one of its most fan-pleasing episodes yet. And aside from some reservations on the strength of the climax, this is a fine, down-the-middle action episode that complicates the show's Mandalorian world-building. 7/10.

Stray observations:

- Check out the uncannily Earth-like fisherman sweater that Mon Calimari is rocking in the image above. The bustling port environment he works in is based on early Takodana concept art, at least by eyeballing The Force Awakens art book - before the Takodana market concept (codenamed "Exotic City") became Maz Kanata's castle. 

- "Everyone seated needs to eat", the tavern worker says to Din Djarin. What is this, Oga's Cantina at Galaxy's Edge? The Disneyland establishment requires each guest to order something.

Star Trek: Discovery - Die Trying Review

DIS "Die Trying"

"Dysfunction is the team." - Jett Reno

In which Doctor Culber cures COVID-89, Nhan leaves Discovery for her home planet, and Star Trek gets its version of midi-chlorians.

After we could be forgiven for thinking virtually nothing of the Federation still exists in the 32nd Century, "Die Trying" reveals much more Starfleet infrastructure than was at first apparent this season. The episode lays the groundwork for a bumpy but ultimately fruitful integration of Discovery into Starfleet, and gets some episodic energy from a compact (generous word for underdeveloped) virus plot. While reaching for and not quite matching the emotional impact of previous episodes this season, "Die Trying" is a fine transitional episode with some interesting touches.

As Discovery takes in the spectacle of Federation headquarters, the crew nerds out about all the future ships and tech on display (including the Voyager-J!). It's a sequence of pure wonder, akin to the similar, even more gorgeous "Night on the Yorktown" sequence from Star Trek Beyond. The good will is slightly tempered by finding a Starfleet on the back foot, surviving without necessarily thriving, and a bureaucracy that isn't ready to trust Discovery with open arms.

This leads to a humorous sequence where the crew are interviewed for their backstory over the past couple seasons. Matter-of-factly laying out bizarre sequences of events is part of the fun of discussing any science fiction show (especially, say, Doctor Who), and the crew is getting in on that action. They also acclimate to some more little touches of the status quo: Beaming is near-instantaneous, the Temporal Cold War from Enterprise is actually relevant, and both Saru and Nhan have a bit of a moment where they learn their planets became Federation members after their time.

Most intriguing of all is Georgiou's interaction with a shady debriefer played by David Cronenberg (!), who has an interest in her since he's a connoisseur of Mirror Universe history. That's right, the director of The Brood, Videodrome, eXistenZ, and A History of Violence is on Star Trek, revealing that Mirror Universe Terrans have a special "evil" component in their cells! As alluded to before, we're definitely getting into midi-chlorian territory.

The bones of the plot are more of a skeleton to hang Nhan's departure on, which wouldn't be much of a surprise if Rachael Ancheril wasn't credited as part of the main cast. Elsewhere, there's a hilarious scene where Starfleet observer Audrey Willa is amused by Stamets, Tilly, and Reno's bickering. And on an enigmatic note, there's a mysterious melody that disparate people know against all odds - aside from evoking Battlestar Galactica's Final Five reveal, it's hard to predict where that's going.

"Die Trying" is doing a few different things, and isn't as crystallized in focus as the past couple episodes. But it does provide a base to potentially give structure to the season going forward, and plenty of opportunities to pull out the Star Trek fanfare. 6/10.

Stray observation:

- The Voyager-J reveal recalls the Enterprise-J reveal from a temporal flash-forward in Enterprise.