Synopsis
After the U.S.S. Discovery crash-lands on a strange planet, the crew finds themselves racing against time to repair their ship. Meanwhile, Saru and Tilly embark on a perilous first-contact mission in hopes of finding Burnham.
Review
After an unbelievably succinct season opener last week (reviewed here), Star Trek: Discovery is returning to something a little more familiar this week for its second part.
“Far From Home,” is expectedly the other side of the story first glimpsed with Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) last week. There’s a fairly hefty recap which ignores the Burnham side of things to remind us how to crew of the USS Discovery got to where they are now.
With very little warning we’re thrust in to the wormhole as the bridge crew awaken just in time to find themselves thrust in to the universe of 3188 we were introduced to last week.
Where “That Hope Is You” was razor sharp in its focus on Burnham, “Far From Home” takes a much more standard Starfleet approach to the situation. With Saru (Doug Jones) acting as captain, his first order is to get the ship up-and-running. There’s little time to absorb the emotional side of their mission to the future, instead it’s business as usual.
The episode sets up an interesting sub-plot for Emily Coutts’ Lt. Detmer. Though it isn’t outright stated here she is clearly suffering from PTSD. Given the ship has rocked from Klingon conflict, to the mirror universe and now the future, it’s quite understandable. Coutts handles it brilliantly here, appearing almost ghost-like as Detmer wanders around the ship.
The Detmer storyline is endemic of one of Discovery season 3’s new approach to storytelling. Across the episode there are chunks of storyline for a number of often-missed bridge crew. Patrick Kwok-Choon, Oyin Oladejo and Ronnie Rowe are given some great screen time here.
Rachael Ancheril’s Commander Nhan also seems to have a beefed up role this season. Throughout season 2 it felt like her character was at the behest of the story. Now it feels like the writers have a plan for her which could see her take on a more important role in the overall arc of the season.
As Saru, Tilly (Mary Wiseman) and eventually Georgiou (Michelle Yeoh) transition off the ship to explore the ice planet the ship has crashed on, it’s Culber (Wilson Cruz), Stamets (Anthony Rapp) and Reno (Tig Notaro) who carry the lions share of the action on the ship.
Notaro is an excellent addition to the cast. Her interview on this week’s Star Trek: The Pod Directive episode is as enlightening as it is hilarious. Her chemistry with both Cruz and Rapp is some of the best of the series. It’s clear that the darker edges of Star Trek: Discovery have been smoothed out for this new season and the lighter, more comedic tonality is a welcome change in direction.
The action off-ship is so Western inspired that there’s even a villain (Jake Weber) complete with spurs. “Far From Home” does nothing to disguise its influences in this respect, driving home the point that Saru and co. now find themselves out in the Wild Wild West.
The action centres around the MacGuffin required to get the Discovery communications systems back up-and-running. Ordinarily I’d have been more critical of the show for slavishly sending crew out for this reason. But given the fact that Weber does his best moustache twirling, allowing Tilly, Saru and Georgiou to get in to some fisticuffs, it’s all so worth watching.
Once again the VFX team on Discovery is turning out some of the best work in TV. “Far From Home” is equally as cinematic as the last episode. It also utilises more of the crew’s time filming in Iceland. The opening sequence of the USS Discovery crashing down on to the ice planet is some of the best work in the franchise by a long-shot.
If the entire season continues at this level then Discovery has not only found it’s grove, it’ll be carving a whole new one in to Trek history.
Verdict
“Far From Home” find Star Trek: Discovery flexing its new found sense of freedom. It’s action-packed, emotional and features some high-stakes as the crew of the USS Discovery finally arrive in their new future timeline.
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