User Reviews

I'll just put some bullets together as we'll see how this all pans out in the last 2 episodes.

• Good lord, how much work do they have to do in an attempt to justify the lunacy of the Tilly to #1 selection? Seriously... are they setting her up for failure or is this designed to make Saru look like he's incompetent? This is all making Vance look like an idiot as well. He should have installed a Captain and #1 when Saru chose Tilly. (neither should have been Michael)

• I'm about done with the Stamets/Culber thing. They are both commanders acting like folks that don't have any Star Fleet training. Suck it up for gods sake. No one else going on dangerous missions get the blubber fest these two give us.

• The Adira/Gray thing is wearing thin as well. Blu del Barrio's acting is getting worse and Gray can't figure out what? He was a trill for gods sake.

• Ossarya actually has now come across as a bass ass. How the hell did she know where Discovery was? hmmm... did her boy Ryn place beacon on board, or is he a beacon? This should prove interesting. So Discovery's new shields couldn't prevent them from beaming aboard?

• Tilly just got her ass handed to her. Yes, sitting in that chair is more than acting like "Killy".

• Burnham has to go to keep our Captain objective? Good lord, someone fire him. It was proven she DID need to be there too.

• Pretty cool, the species change thing... A good shooting day for Doug Jones I'm sure.

• Michael's performance and insight dealing with the child was outstanding and I found it to be touching as well.

• So, the child had a tantrum and all the active dilithium in the galaxy went inert? Really???? I certainly hope this isn't the explanation we've spent all season waiting for. More please.

• The visuals continue to be amazing.

They've got a lot of work to do to make sense out of all this. I guess we'll see how it pans out. It will be action packed and full of tears I'm sure.

The Emerald Chain seemed more than formidable this time.

The idea for this particular episode is more in the vein of what I like to see from Star Trek, and it's not without it's good moments. The banter between Osiris and Tilly being particularly enjoyable, its nice to see her character developing more and more when its given a chance.

Burnham has a good scene preparing Tilly for command too. Well written and genuinely felt helpful.

But its also an episode with flaws that prevent it from fulfilling its potential.

The child is now a maguffin that somehow bonded in-utero with all the dialithium in the galaxy...as far as explanations for 'the burn' go, that's exceedingly lazy and nonsensical.

The entire engineering section is captured in seconds and no one gets off a single 'intruder alert', similarly the Discoverys computer (bolstered by an ancient and incredibly powerful AI which is trying to protect them), also fails to notice this entirely.

While this is all going on, Tilly (who was doing a decent job in command until now) simply keeps radioing engineering with silence as a response. Doesnt send a security team, doesn't take any other remedial measures like restricting command codes...she just keeps radioing and expecting a different response. These are basic responses that we have watched other crews employ countless times before.

And lastly is the ridiculous scene between Culber and Stamets, where Stamets tells him that he "can't go" on the away mission because it might be dangerous...

Dude, you are both in the damn Space Navy. Do you think the captain is handing out suggestions when he picks the away team? Did you not realise that dangerous missions were a part of the job? And if so, why are you only now realising this? Your husband literally died on the ship in season 1!!!

I'm not sure who that scene is supposed to cater to but it cheapens both characters, but Stammets in particular, if he can't simply tell him to be careful on an away mission that he's watched hundreds of others go on. You are starfleet officers, be professionals about it.

Crusher might have worried about Wesley but she didn't start telling him which away missions he could go on after the captain gave orders. Wesley didn't start trying to override Picardy when he needed doctors for an away mission either.

Sisko might have laid down the law with Jake a few times but (a) Sisko was actually in command and (b) Jake wasn't a starfleet officer anyway.

Before I get into the episode, I have to remark on the many 1 Star reviews that are clearly coming from people with an agenda. How many times do I have to read "I'm done" from people who are there again reviewing the next episode and giving it another 1 star? Politics are in play, per usual. Yes I get a little tired myself of the woke messaging and over-diversification of the show (not a single straight white male on the entire Discovery at this point, is that representative diversity?) but that doesn't make it a bad show. Still interesting plot lines, big time tech plus-up this season, and best yet CGI on Trek TV. To say any of this is a 1 Star is ridiculous.

Anyway on to the episode - I enjoyed seeing Tilly completely F things up and lose the Discovery to Osyraa the enemy. This is what happens when you promote an Ensign with chronic self doubt and inability to act decisively or communicate concisely. I'm sure she will probably redeem herself in future episodes and get the ship back or save the day somehow, but for one episode I enjoyed the fruits of Saru's dumb decision to make her number one.

It was also nostalgic to get back to the days of completely lax Starfleet security. Apparently they forgot to backfill Nhan as security chief when she left the show a few episodes back? Let's let those baddies just beam right over into the most sensitive areas of the ship and take control without so much as a shot fired. I haven't seen security this lax since Worf let a Ferengi crew of four take over the entire Enterprise. Fun times!

The Burn origin reveal was a bit of a dud. "The Child" somehow caused it? Because he was afraid of a holo monster? I hope they do a better job of explaining this in the next episode because it felt like a McGuffin Fail.

I didn't get nearly enough Burnham whispering or crying in this episode. Barely a tear shed as she gave Tilly her pep squad talk, what a wasted opportunity.

Good episode, live long and prosper.

The Burn being caused by a toddler throwing a temper tantrum is an absolutely HORRID plot twist. Who comes up with stuff like this? I can't BELIEVE how bad this season has been.

This review contains spoilers, so proceed at your own risk.

• the events aboard a planet are a big letdown compared to my expectations based on a trailer, I expected some deep scifi, instead we got mixture of worn Trek tropes, which were not executed very well. On the other hand, I suppose that had I not seen the trailer, that part could be considered acceptable.

• Osyraa taking over the ship...man, so bad. I mean, one of the officers ask if the Discovery got the cloak during the retrofit??? Weren't you brought up to speed on what your ship can do before they sent you out there? And no one puts up a fight while being boarded??? They could learn a thing or two from Kirk or Archer's crew.

• Tilly was actually somewaht decent as a acting captain. Her banter with Osyraa was entertaining, but her inexperience is clearly seen. And placing her as XO comes through as another one of Saru's bad calls. IMHO, Owo would have been a much better choice.

• Dr. Culber is great and he should've been given much more screen time

• There are some threads started in this episode that might prove significant for the final two episodes, and the cause of the Burn was not completely explained, (as it stands currently, it's rather stupid) so I might revise my rating. Currently, I'm giving it six out of ten, but depending on the next two episodes, I might revise it down to four, or raise it, but not above seven stars.

Suggestion for the producers: make it more like traditional Trek ensemble show, and since it's obvious that Burnham is the centerpiece of this show, just make her a Captain, and limit the cast to her, Owo as XO, Culber as CMO, Stammets as Chief Engineer and Book as an outside observer. And give them more screen time so that we can finally get to know them.

So 'The Burn' is caused by a child who became one with subspace, via getting roasted by deadly subspace radiation in the womb, but somehow gained superpowers instead of dying. And obviously, because he is next to a dilithium planet, everytime he gets upset all the dilithium in the Milky Way is destroyed via his subspace connection. I wasn't really paying attention tbf, so may have got it wrong. I hope I got it wrong.

I did however enjoy Tilly's 5 minutes in the Captains Chair. Exchanged pointless insults with the enemy, then proceeded to quickly lose the ship. And crew. At least that part is an accurate portrayal of her abilities. For this I give a star.

At first glance I'm not thrilled about this "child" being the cause of The Burn, however, they aren't done telling the story yet, so I'm considering this a nitpick.

Everything else about this episode is great. Stunning visuals, nutty holograms, decent acting. The people complaining that this is Harry Potter also probably complain that this isn't true trek, however they're literally going someplace no one has gone before, so why nitpick?

Seems like Michael might get the chair though...

Look, I wasn't a huge fan of the previous two episodes because the mirror universe stuff has gotten old to me but the episodes before those where great. That said, this episode was fantastic and I'm psyched for the next two.

Some of these other reviewers owe me some eye surgery because my retinas detached when my eyes rolled back too far while reading their 1star reviews.

Honestly, this whole season has me excited because it's made Star Trek seem new again.

The technological advances in this century are fantastic and they look fantastic. Booker's ship is a joy to watch.

The character development in the show is great and I'm sorry, but I like the emotional stuff. I love that the characters openly care about each other, which has been a staple of Star Trek for many years.

Part of this episode was like something out of a Guillermo del Toro flick and much of it was visually stunning.

I suppose it's ok because we are woke and it's a woman - so The lowest rank in the ship is an obvious choice for commander.

The cause of the Burn is unbelievably stupid. There's been decades of science fiction to draw upon for ideas and this was the best they could come up with?

Also, perhaps if the crew wasn't spending all their time crying and being overly emotional they'd have better luck in preventing their ship from being taken by space pirates. Or perhaps the problem was Tilly didn't whisper enough....because apparently whispering solves everything in this show.