‘Star Trek: Discovery’ Recap – ‘The Sound of Thunder’

 Written by John Edward Betancourt 

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If there is one constant in the universe that is applicable to all human beings, it’s that fear is something we all have to live with and work to overcome and let’s be honest, literature and film and television have all pondered upon what mankind might look like if we were free of our fear because deep down we know that this powerful emotion often hinders us, and we could likely achieve wonders if we were free of it. But while a vast majority of those stories feature people working to shed their fears, only a few have ever shown us precisely what the end result looks like, and it just so happens, that Star Trek: Discovery felt the need to explore the latter of these two options during last night’s episode, ‘The Sound of Thunder’.
 
Because if you recall, last week Commander Saru came to discover that the Vahari, a process that was believed to lead to death on his world, was instead nothing more than an evolutionary moment wherein a Kelpien sheds their threat ganglia, effectively removing fear from their mind and their body and that discovery was quite relevant to this tale because of the unique situation that Saru and the crew found themselves dealing with. For another signal from the Red Angel arrived on the ship’s sensors, sending the Discovery to Kaminar (Saru’s home world), to investigate and well, all of these elements helped to bring together a fascinating and heartfelt story that was filled with quite the surprise.
 
But before we dig into that surprise, let’s talk about the more emotional aspects of this story, since part of returning home, meant that Saru would need to speak to his people to see if by chance the Red Angel appeared to any of his kind and that in turn brought forth a beautiful reunion with his sister Siranna and this was just touching to see since his return revealed to her the wonder and majesty of the fact that there was more to life in the universe than just waiting for The Great Balance. But despite the fact that Siranna learned all kinds of incredible facts about the galaxy and what Saru had been up to for the past eighteen years, fear of reprisal from the Ba’ul cut the reunion short and brought about a fascinating confrontation between Starfleet and this mysterious species, one that revealed more facts about Saru’s people. 

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Because rather than see his friends and family hurt, Saru surrendered to the Ba’ul and his captivity forced Burnham to investigate exactly why this mysterious species seemed so concerned about Saru surviving Vahari and with Tilly and Airiam’s help she was able to learn, via the dying Sphere’s data, that a long time ago, the Ba’ul were nearly hunted to extinction by the Kelpiens, and by ‘culling the herd’ they were able to preserve their own lives and maintain balance on the planet. That information gave her quite the idea when it comes to this conundrum in that, it might be helpful to level the playing field in order to keep Saru safe and the Discovery worked to induce Vahari in every Kelpien on the planet in the hopes that it would bring the Ba’ul to the negotiating table.
 
But alas, all this move did was motivate this mysterious species to put an end to Saru’s people in one fell swoop, and that’s when the surprise came into play. For just when it seemed as though the situation was hopeless, the Red Angel quite literally swooped in to save the day, and its ability to shut down the Ba’ul weapons network saved countless lives. But the more important part when it comes to this mysterious creature, is the sheer fact that Saru got a good look at this being, and came to realize that it is indeed a humanoid of some kind in a space suit, leaving all of us to wonder exactly who or what this being truly is and why it’s continually dragging Discovery into situations where the crew needs to save lives and well, time will tell us its true intentions, but this was quite the revelation when all is said and done.
 
But for now, at least we know this creature has a sense of benevolence since it does keep focusing upon saving lives and speaking of those lives, it’s quite wonderful to know that everyone on Kaminar is now getting a fair shake, and that after thousands of years of oppression, the Kelpiens can forge a new path, one free of free of fear and it would seem that by removing it from their lives (and perhaps our own)…peace and prosperity is what awaits the liberated. Also, it was just a joy to watch Saru take control in this tale and exhibit his newfound strength and abilities and in the end, this was just a delightful episode to watch through and through. It really had something for everyone since there was plenty of drama and action, and even a touch of horror with that creepy reveal of the Ba’ul and now that this mess has come to its close, there’s no doubt in my mind that Commander Burnham is going to focus on finding her brother, which means it might be Spock time at last and I cannot wait to see this icon arrive on the series. Until next time.

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