Scifi TV Review: Star Trek Discovery Season Three Episode One: That Hope is You Part 1

While I was not impressed with the first season, Discovery Season 2 was, to me, a tremendous return to form.  Not only did we get a fantastic story line involving the mystery of the Red Angel, answers to how Burnham and Spock were related and how everything connected, we also got a chance to experience Captain Christopher Pike in Command of a starship in a way as we never have before.  This, of course, is going to spawn a new series of it’s own but that is not why we are here, we are here to discuss the latest season of Discovery and it’s premier episode. 

When we last left our heroes they went through a rift in time with Discovery, led by Burnham intending to send themselves and the dangerous data they held into the far flung future.  It worked but somehow, Burnham and the rest of the crew were separated with no idea where each other went. All they know is that they are in the year 3188, over 900 years from their previous timeline. So Burnham, fearing the worst, sets out to see if she can find her crew or whatever is left of the Federation itself, if it even still exists.

Is it a ‘Good’ Episode?

THIS is the series I have been waiting for. Since the end of Voyager and the TNG film series, we have been left wondering what happened to the universe we have known and loved.  For the longest time it seemed all that CBS and Paramount cared about was the past and, while we got the tremendous series Picard that finally gave us a chance to see the future of the future, I never dreamed that we would go even further than that.  Sure enough the future of the future is here and it is not at all what any of us could have expected.  In fact, it’s better.

That Hope Is You is like the pilot to a whole new series set in a ‘post-Federation’ universe.  Things have changed in ways we cant even imagine yet and it makes every single aspect of this universe interesting again like I never could have dreamed possible.  What makes it so fun is that this is fresh new territory that is no longer beholden to established canon, this series can now run free unfettered giving us something fresh while still honoring the past.  Familiar species and iconography exist but in a fresh new way, allowing this franchise to regain it’s sense of wonder that was all but lost after being slightly diminished after each new iteration.  

I know this sounds rather sacrilegious coming from a devout Trekkie but until I watched this episode I didn’t realize how much I had become trapped in the comfort and familiarity of the Star Trek Universe  making it so that I could not see past the end of my warp nacelles. You see, after a life time of living Star Trek, expectations are formed that make it hard to accept anything new.  Klingons looked a certain way, the Federation followed specific rules, it was an established universe that, while it had much to explore, was familiar to a fault.   While each new series pushed those familial boundaries, over time this familiarity became more of a white-noise that I stopped noticing giving me a comfort that I never fully realized existed. The problem was, this white noise prevented me from seeing just how much the series had diluted over time, as, when you become familiar with something, you start to ignore it’s flaws no matter how obvious. 

If this premiere is any indication, Discovery Season three has finally broken this mold, this rut, this complacency, allowing this franchise to once again explore the unknown in a known universe.   Everything old is new again and I am more than excited to rediscover the Star Trek that I fell in love with all those years ago as we follow Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) and newcomer Cleveland Booker (David Ajala) in their adventures in the known unknown. 

Gleanings, Questions and cool bits: (slight spoilers here)

• So the Federation was essentially destroyed by an event called ‘the burn’ that wiped out nearly all of the Dilithium in the universe.  .
• We meet Cleveland Booker played by David Ajala who has some interesting powers.  He might be human but I don’t think so….
• Time travel has been outlawed due to the Temporal Wars…was this a direct connection to Enterprise and the Temporal Cold War?  The timeline fits as those events came from the 29th century a few centuries before ‘the burn’.  Maybe The Burn could have something to do with this as well?  Could we see Captain Archer again? Could we finally get a reasonable closure to that series that doesn’t involve Riker on a holodeck?

• It is mentioned that there are two Federation ships still in existence and traveling around.  Who they are and what they are doing is completely unknown at this point.
• Long range sensors have been completely taken out allowing much of the known universe to fall back into unknown territory.  What happened to the Klingons, the Romulans, the Vulcans and many others is completely unknown at this point allowing the series to have the freedom to establish it’s own canon and I am so very excited about this.

As usual, a sneak peek of things to come below.

Until next week…

Thanks for reading the SciFi TV Review,  I look forward to discussing the rest of the series with you! Some teasers of next weeks episode below!

For more reviews: check out the weekly series called Key Movies Of My Life that comes out every Thursday and for more Trek goodness check out our Retro TV Reviews here.

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Late To The Game 10/15/2020

Special Thanks to Memory Alpha as they are one of the best sources for details on Star Trek information available.  Although I have a pretty deep knowledge on the subject, they have proven invaluable as a regular resource.

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