Sunday 17 January 2021

Star Trek Discovery — Series 3 Episode 11 — Su’Kal — A Review

16th January, 2021.


I have to admit, I’m getting the hang of a couple of things.

The first?

Those introduction videos.

Saying that … ?

I may need to do them slightly differently.

Just a straight “I’m having dinner, then I’m going to watch TV,” seems to be … well …

Not quite doing myself justice.

At any rate?

Yes: I’ve had dinner.

Pasta: with home made bolognese sauce: with added spring onions, as I had some begging.

It was certainly fragrant, cooking.

And yes: I’ve seen episode eleven of Star Trek Discovery’s third series.

~≈🖖🏼≈~


17th January, 2021.

Episode 11 — Su’Kal — starts with the traditional summary of previous episodes.

But tells us something that we didn’t know.

The distress signal from the Kelpian ship trapped in the Verubin Nebula is from Dr Issa (Hannah Spear) … 

And it doesn’t take Saru, (Doug Jones) to realise that Issa … was pregnant at the time she recorded the message … that her child could be surviving somewhere in the nebula.

Once the Discovery gets inside it?

It finds there’s a planet: one that’s almost solid dilithium, home to the crashed Kelpian ship … 

And home to one Kelpian life sign … 

There’s only one thing for it.

 Saru, Michael (Sonequa Martin Green) and Dr Culber (Wilson Cruz) need to pay the planet a visit.

~≈🖖🏼≈~

So … what did I make of Su’Kal?

I have to admit to a lot of things.

A liking for too many chocolates.

The occasional craving for a cigarette: I gave up ten years ago, though, so today is not the day.

Toast with Marmite* … 

And, occasionally, episodes of Star Trek Discovery.

The last few weeks?

I have to admit, there’s been one or two episodes that have been a little too dialogue focused for my liking.

Unification III, episode 7, in particular.

The Sanctuary , episode 8, had far more action: and was far more to my taste.

So where, I hear you wonder, does that leave Su’Kal?

Frankly?   Much more in The Sanctuary’s field.

Yes: there’s dialogue, and different looks for the landing party: the environment has disguised them, so they don’t scare anyone.

Yes, there’s a theoretically slow plot.

But one laced with horror: the crew have to deal with the holographic monster haring down the stairs at them, the seriously locked doors at the top of those stairs, radiation sickness … and a  a frightened child living in a nightmare holographic world that it can’t escape from.

Even given that, there’s action: plenty of jumping around, plenty of good old fashioned confrontation … 

And a nice big cliffhanger at the end.

I’ll confess, I was concerned a bout the lack of Philippa Georgiou.

I needn’t have been: Su’Kal is a fine little episode.

One with enough of a cliffhanger to see me wanting to come back for more.

I’ll be seeing that, next Saturday, and will have my review done on Sunday.

I hope you’d care to join me.





*        We admitted we were powerless over Marmite: that our lives became unmanageable … 

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