REVIEW || Star Trek: Discovery 1x04 - 'The Butcher's Knife Cares Not For The Lamb's Cry
It's that time of the week, folks. It's Star Trek: Discovery review time. I am later than I have been previously with these reviews. I simply became occupied just hadn't found a chance to sit down and watch it. Better late than never.
I have said it in every review so far and I will say it again in this one; the CGI is absolutely incredible. I could not believe that the first scene, which appeared to be something akin to some kind of planetary annihilation by some kind of super-weapon, a landing sequence like that one in Wall-E or a cave during an earthquake, was actually a replicator cycle. Burnham was replicating, or in this case 'synthesising' her Discovery uniform. I was absolutely blown away by that entire scene which was only about 10 seconds long but oh-so-magical. It's different from any other replicator cycle in any other Star Trek series.
Within 1x04, I found Lorca becoming ever more fascinating. There were some profoundly insightful moments when it came to people discussing Lorca and even Lorca speaking too. Saru's, "[the] Captain keeps his own counsel," when discussing Burnham's remaining on Discovery much to Saru's surprise was profound and indicative of a number of Starfleet captains. I was fascinated by his collection of the deadliest of weapons from other cultures because he felt that he could learn from the best; "I study war." Even with that, when Stamets voices his objections and frustrations that he's a scientist and didn't sign up for this was onboard Discovery, Lorca simply tells him to get off the ship. No other captain has been so brutally honest.
Landry had an interesting insight into Lorca in that she said that Lorca isn't interested in what someone can do but rather, "what you can do for him." This is particularly relevant to his treatment of and possible weaponisation of 'Ripper'. He wanted to find something in his claws or skin that they can utilise to up the ante with the Klingons.
As the episode progresses and Burnham finds the use for Ripper, you see how vulnerable the creature is. He is a living and breathing entity who can feel pain and has his own threat response. Which brings me to how utterly stupid Landry is. As soon as I heard her tell the computer to release a sedative into the containment pen, I knew she was going to die. She knew what Ripper was capable of, she saw that in the previous episode. She named him and yet she thought a sedative would work on this alien life-form that they had never before encountered. What kind of security officer is she? At times I wonder if George R.R. Martin and Joss Whedon are involved on the writing staff due to the amount of people they're killing off.
The darkest element of using Ripper is that it physically pains him to assist the jump technology. He's not being asked if he wants to help or if he's willing to help. No. They're just taking him and using him for their own personal gain simply because he is a creature and not a talking being. The machine they hook him up to pierces his skin and the viewer sees the pain in his features. If I know my Star Trek and I'm pretty sure that I do, this is against the Federation charter. Then again, Lorca is one of these people that will do whatever he feels is necessary to win this war with the Klingons. That is where the power of the episode title rings its true power. You don't understand the impact of the episode title until Burnham is caring for Ripper after the successful jump; the butcher's knife doesn't care for the cries of the lamb.
This jumping technology feels very akin to the jump technology of Battlestar Galactica. I heard Gaeta tell Adama or Tigh that a jump is an extremely time-consuming and time-sensitive matter and now I'm hearing it echoed in Stamets. Calculate wrongly and you risk ending up in the gravity well of a star and that's exactly what happened. With the jump sequence, I actually noticed that the saucer section actually has a revolving section. Interesting. Or to quote Spock, 'fascinating'. Additionally, the CGI of the jump itself was phenomenal. I was blown away by that.
The Klingon sub-story did not hold my attention. I've fallen out of love with the Klingons speaking in Klingon. I'm sorry but I'm over it. It was fun at first but the need to read subtitles at every utterance takes my attention away from the set, the makeup, the acting and the overall ambience of the scene. I quickly read over it and then look up but by the time I take in the scene, it's time to read the next line. Even with that speed-reading, I feel like I'm missing something from what they're saying and because of that, I felt like I missed what was actually happening because I tried to take everything in so quickly. I appreciate what they're doing with them speaking in their native language, but it's too cumbersome.
In the opening credits, I have found that they contain a spoiler any time they use 'Michelle Yeoh's name. I understand that Michelle Yeoh deserves that placement in the main opening credit but what frustrates and infuriates me is that when Yeoh is included in the main opening credits, I'm expecting her to make a decent appearance. For the vast majority of the episode, Georgiou made appearances as a holographic photograph and said nothing. I was expecting her to say something, do something, interact with someone. It wasn't until Burnham is watching her holographic Last Will & Testament recording that I actually get a good Georgiou appearance. I liked it and it was a nice nod to Tasha Yar's memorial service from The Next Generation. Yet still, it left a sour note. I wanted more.
What has frustrated me the most about Star Trek: Discovery is that Michelle Yeoh was a massive presence in the marketing and continues to be as magazines and social media accounts share those marketing and promotion images of Yeoh with Jason Isaacs and Sonequa Martin-Green. I expected a new female captain being featured heavily alongside Isaacs. I expected someone like Michelle Yeoh to be able to show what she's made of and I appears to me that Star Trek is seemingly cashing in on that ability and her name to draw in new fans. I heard from a recent convention that Yeoh herself said that Georgiou will come back but if it's solely in holographic form, I'm going to be very disappointed. I read Star Trek: Discovery Desperate Hours by David Mack and this character has so much potential.
With all of that being said, it was a decent episode. For me, it's a 5 out of 10 stars. I did enjoy it, it was good but it didn't wow me. It made me laugh-out-loud when Stamets broke his nose hitting it off a console. That has never happened in any Star Trek incarnation and I'm not ashamed to admit that I cackled when that happened. Sorry, Stamets.
What were your thoughts on the most recent episode of Star Trek: Discovery? Let me know in the comments below and I'll be back next week with a review of the next episode.
** All gifs from Tumblr.
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