Synopsis
A new signal brings the Discovery to a distant planet, Terralysium, that is inhabited by the descendants of human survivors of World War III, which was fought on Earth 200 years earlier.
Review
Star Trek: Discovery is continuing to be experimental with its second season. Following an exciting, action-packed opening episode (reviewed here) we’re now got something much more akin to Discovery’s Star Trek brethren.
At its core the franchise has always revolved around it’s opening statement. The Federation exists to explore strange new worlds and new civilisations. That is something which has so far eluded the crew of the U.S.S. Discovery.
This episode puts that right but does so in a Discovery manner. Following on from, the previous episode the ship, under the watchful eye of the perfectly cast Anson Mount, use the spore drive to jump to the coordinates of one of the mysterious signals.
Arriving at a previously unexplored planet the crew find a community of humans ripped straight from the present day. Their ancestors were transported to the planet by some mysterious force generations prior and they have made the planet home.
It merges the worlds of the classic and the new to create a kind of hybrid episode. There are flashes of The Original Series and TNG here. But there is also much of what has made Discovery its own success.
The episode was directed by none other than Will Riker himself, Jonathan Frakes. As such you can feel it steeped in classic Trek lore. The cinematography also jettisons some of the bells and whistles to create a more static, classic look.
Whilst the episode ultimately exists to further the mystery of the season it still stands on its own thanks to a well crafted story.
It doesn’t quite explore the prime directive and the moral implications of it deeply enough. But it certainly takes steps to show that Discovery is able to recreate the aesthetic of Trek’s past.
Verdict
“New Eden” feels like a very classic Trek episode. Finally we see the crew of Discovery exploring new worlds and new civilisations in a way which Gene Roddenberry would be proud. It’s still contemporised but I can’t argue that this feels like a major step (further) in the right direction for the series.
More episodes like this please.
8/10
In the next episode…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hC1kS4OxFR0Star Trek: Discovery is produced by CBS Television Studios in association with Alex Kurtzman’s Secret Hideout, Bryan Fuller’s Living Dead Guy Productions and Roddenberry Entertainment. Alex Kurtzman, Bryan Fuller, Heather Kadin, Gretchen J. Berg & Aaron Harberts, Akiva Goldsman, Rod Roddenberry and Trevor Roth serve as executive producers.
The series airs on CBS All Access in North America and Netflix internationally.
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