18th April, 2024: an announcement.
It’s officially official.
I’ve spent most of this afternoon explaining Dune to one old friend: and Handbrake settings to another.
Heigh ho!
At any rate … ?
I have the evening free: and dinner is cooking.
And, once that’s done?
I’ll be watching “Face the Strange”: the fourth episode of Star Trek Discovery’s last season.
By the time you read this … ?
My review will be published … !
~≈🖖≈~
19th April, 2024: “Face the Strange”.
Episode 4 — “Face the Strange” — opens with a summary of earlier episodes.
Then shifts.
To fifteen hours before the start of the story, to show us L’ak and Moll (Elias Toufexis and Eve Harlow) dealing with an unnamed arms dealer: and paying him with poisoned latinum.
The pair had been warned the dealer would try something, after all.
And, with the dealer dying at their feet?
The pair now have an advantage in finding the next clue … as they have the one weapon that will slow down the USS Discovery.
The scene shifts again: to now.
And shows us that the arachnoid thing that Moll placed on Adira (Blu del Barrio) sleeve has now transferred itself to the Discovery: and is ever-so-slowly exploring the ship.
On the Bridge, we see Commander Rayner (Callum Keith Rennie) given his new fellow officers a hard time … until Captain Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) angrily calls him into her Ready Room.
To give her First Officer a piece of her mind.
It’s only then that trouble starts: when the pair try to transport back to the Bridge.
And find themselves heading back in time … …
~≈🖖≈~
Now …
What did I make of “Face the Strange” … ?
Did you know that Star Trek, very occasionally, does time travel episodes?
And, usually, does them well.
It’s not that often that the franchise does a time looped episode.
An episode where crew members get sent back in time to point A, see something destructive happen at point b, fail to solve the problem at point C … and, as a result, get sent back to point A and have to repeat themselves.
“Face the Strange” is one such episode.
And that idea, that recurring Groundhog Day idea, is a simple, basic, straightforward idea.
So simple, basic and straightforward that, to my knowledge, the franchise has only ever done it one other time: Star Trek: The Next Generation’s “Cause and Effects”.
Which is a far slower paced piece.
Unlike “Cause and Effects”?
Unlike “Cause and Effects”, “Face the Strange” has a reasonably rapid pace, with plenty of action
And, where “Cause and Effects” initially focuses on Dr Crusher and expands to include her crew-mates, “Face the Strange” focuses on Captain Burnham and Commander Rayner: only coming to include Paul Stamets (Anthony Rapp), as the episode progresses.
Its faster paced, and focussing on less characters.
It also starts with Burnham and Rayner at loggerheads … but, over the course of some fifty minutes coming to a better understanding of each other.
That arc, that conflict?
Is a wonderful thing to watch.
Burnham and Rayner are a pair who have very different styles and beliefs, styles and beliefs built for conflict … but who, in this episode, start to achieve a workable relationship.
That?
Is a very watchable thing to see.
~≈🖖≈~
There’s possibly a few last things to add, here.
The loop, so you know is caused by a left over weapon from the Temporal Cold War seen in Star Trek Enterprise: it’s the device we see Moll and L’ak buying at the start of the episode.
Stopping the bug? Is what our heroes have to do, restore normality.
The scenes where Captain Burnham confronts her younger self are very well played: as are those between Burnham and earlier versions of the Discovery’s crew.
Lieutenant Detmer’s early make up seems very different, five years on.
Seeing Airiam (Hannah Cheeseman), once again? Equally as odd.
Nice to see … but very strange …
But … ? It does leave me impressed with the quality of the cast: both Anthony Rapp as Stamets, and Callum Keith Rennie as Rayner.
But especially, Sonequa Martin-Green.
The three have put in some very good performances!
I have to add something else: the cast — or writer’s —habit of geeking out.
Yes: I am looking at writer, Sean Cochran, or actor, Tig Notaro.
Jett Reno (Tig Notaro) tells Rayner to buy her a Vesper Martini, at one stage.
Yes: that is the drink ordered by a certain well known British spy!
You have to give Cochran or Notaro geek points for that!
And be thankful Q hasn’t turned up.
~≈🖖≈~
At any rate … ?
You’re going to ask me if I’ve seen a good episode?
And if I’m going to keep watching this last season?
The answer to both questions is a positive yes!
I’ll be watching the next episode of Star Trek Discovery — “Mirrors” — on Thursday, 25th April: and posting my written and video reviews of it on Friday, 26th April.
I’ll be seeing you, then!
“Face the Strange”★★★★
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