‘Star Trek: Discovery’ Recap – ‘New Eden’

Written by John Edward Betancourt 

THIS IS THE EMERGENCY SPOILER ALERT SYSTEM...YOU ARE ADVISED TO READ AT YOUR OWN RISK...

The more time I’ve had to think about the season two premiere of Star Trek: Discovery, the more excited I am to see how this season is going to turn out. Because we really are in the midst of one grand mystery when it comes to these mysterious Red Angels and the signal that they sent out to various points around the galaxy and unraveling their secrets should make for one incredible ride this year. But I have to admit, that while I am excited to go on this journey with this crew, part of me wondered after the premiere, as to whether or not the series would dive right into this matter and continue the story arc style of storytelling that was present in season one, or…if it would continue to answer to its critics and pepper in exploration episodes in-between the hunt for the Angels, giving it an Original Series feel.
 
As it turns out, last night’s episode of the show, ‘New Eden’, was happy to answer that particular question by letting us know that the series is going to give us the best of both worlds, since this story offered up some interesting tidbits about the Red Angels, all while living in the spirit of Star Trek. And it accomplished such feats, simply by providing the audience with a carefully woven story, one that took the crew 51,000 light years into the Beta Quadrant to chase one of the signals and well, what the crew of the Discovery found at the signal’s source, was surprising to say the least. For below the ship was a planet filled with human life, something that should have been impossible since this planet was so far away from home. Which meant, that the crew needed answers and the only way to find them was to head down to the planet itself.
 
Which is quite frankly, where things became truly interesting. For this particular tale found a way to dive into the power of religion, something that Trek tends to avoid since it conflicts with the science-based focus of the saga. But here, the story toyed outright with divine intervention, since it was the Red Angels that brought man to this place during the height of the Third World War and well, it was fascinating to see a relative of mankind embrace and unify under the banner of these beings in a religious manner and this little twist, led to quite the spirited discussion on whether or not an offshoot of man applies to General Order 1, a.k.a, the Prime Directive. After all, they are from Earth, the center of the Federation, and they arrived here a mere ten years before warp drive was invented and First Contact took place, leading Burnham to believe that it was fine to tell them the truth about Earth.

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​But it’s an idea that Pike simply wasn’t good with, and he was able to see that such a reveal could in fact destabilize this world and its people and that it would be best to let this pre-warp society forge their own path and really…this was simply some vintage Star Trek right here. Because time and time again, we’ve seen first officers and captains discuss the pros and cons of violating the Prime Directive and by having Burnham and Pike get into a spirited debate regarding the matter, it really allowed for us to get to know the captain better and see some of the elements that made him a legendary leader since he knew where to draw the line and where to compromise and for his balanced way of thinking, he was able to help the people of New Eden prosper, and get his hands on visual evidence of the Red Angels.
 
Which brings us back to the mystery of those creatures, because it’s becoming inherently obvious now that they’re observing and testing humanity since this entire mission was a set-up, in a good way. For while the away team was planet side, a conundrum arose on the ship, in that, the crew had to figure out how to save the planet from an extinction level event and with Ensign Tilly’s inspired thinking, they were able to do just that. But Tilly’s interaction with her old classmate, who is obviously a Red Angel, speaks to the testing notion since this being wanted to see if Tilly could think outside the box and influence the crew to do wonders and I have no doubt that Discovery will continue to be challenged by these beings in the coming weeks.
 
If anything, I love the fact that this episode worked hard to blend together so many plot elements and notions and it was nice to see that the spirit of adventure is still hanging over this new season and that classic elements are finding their way into the plot more and more. But the mystery is what continues to percolate in my mind, because we don’t know the end game when it comes to these enigmatic creatures and that alone will keep me coming back for more. Either way, this was a fun one to say the least, and I’m really enjoying Anson Mount’s performance as Christopher Pike, he’s just plain killing it and the character is such a refreshing foil to the cold and calculated Lorca and I’m looking forward to seeing him help this crew become more as they face what appears to be an incredible challenge. Until next time.  

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