Monday, February 1, 2021

Star Trek: Discovery - Su'Kal

The final arc of Star Trek: Discovery's Third Season begins with an episode named after the character the ship finds on planet at the epicenter of the Burn. For more than a hundred years, Su'Kal (Bill Irwin) has lived inside a radioactive nebula surrounding an entire world of Dilithium. The sheltered character reacts poorly the arrival of strangers Michael (Sonequa Martin-Green), Saru (Doug Jones), and Dr. Culber (Wilson Cruz) who he takes for programs of the deteriorating holodeck which has been his entire world. Unable to understand the concept of "outside," his extraction becomes complicated. Circumstances aren't helped with the arrival of Osyraa (Janet Kidder) and the Emerald Chain.

The unusual aspects of the holoprogram allows for the writers to have fun with the the travels by changing their race allowing Jones to appear as himself) along with delivering a manifestation of Su'Kal's fears. Along with discovering the cause of the Burn, the episode also gives us Tilly (Mary Wiseman) in the captain's chair and some heroic flying by Book (David Ajala) who is able to rescue Michael but is too late to save Discovery from falling into the hands of the Emerald Chain who plan to use the Spore Drive to sneak into the heart of the Federation. The cliffhanger raises the stakes of Discovery's new future, which seems more fractured than ever, but with only two episodes remaining how will Michael put the pieces back together once more?

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