Not sure if they should do this sequel without David Bowie. Spoilers.
I mostly enjoyed this episode, which had some good world building with the Archive and good action plot with the Breen. The weak point though is the centre of the episode – the fairly weak and meandering journey of Burnham through the ‘puzzle’ set by the scientists. It fails in the emotional resonance for me, partly because the stakes are never real and partly because her ‘giving up’ at the end doesn’t really feel very earned given the rest of her character.
The other weakness of note is Book. He’s had little to really do this season, and it feels like the writers are stretching to find ways to include him in the story. But my bigger concern is that his relationship with Burnham doesn’t have enough depth to it – we aren’t seeing enough of how he feels working with her again, and don’t have a sense of if he wants things back or not.
Moll continues to be the best part of this season. Heading towards Empress Moll too it seems.
Quick hits:
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Really feeling the ‘masks can’t show emotion’ issues with the Breen here.
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Even in the future sometimes it’s hard to avoid the ‘compulsory video’.
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Some full-on librarians here at the Eternal Archive…
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Nice of the Eternal Archive to give Book a reason to be in the plot this episode.
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Why is it just Burnham studying the book rather than the science crew.
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“How fun to have a book visit me for a change”. LOL.
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I really like the design of the Eternal Archive.
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OMG, Book has such a bad case of ‘let me participate in your plot’. Running off to help the library with its defences…
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Good job making the technobabble fun with Stamets, Adira and Reno.
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A thousand innocent lives in the Archive? Where exactly, we saw no one.
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Smooth takeover by Moll there. Never turn your back on the wife of a Breen as well it seems.
926 down.