Confessions Heal the Soul (More Lorca Mysteries)
(Spoilers for this week’s episode and previous episodes)
Another Monday and another episode of my new favourite show. It’s been quite the adventure so far with Star Trek: Discovery and while last week I thought that the show was heading towards a bit of a lost path, this week the show has been it’s best since the first episode thanks to some mysterious science and my current favourite character Captain Lorca making some huge reveals.
This episode we start off with Captain Lorca being abducted by the Klingons as he is travelling back to his ship after an important meeting with Starfleet. In the Kilingon ship we are intorduced (reintroduced?) to Mud, Rainn Wilson, who is a prisoner on board the Klingon vessel. Mud is one of only a few characters that carries over from other Star Trek series and while we are introduced to him we still don’t know why he is in this series as well. Whilst their captain is abducted the crew of the Discovery are trying to save him and Michael Burnham is trying to save the tardigrade, the alien operating the ship’s jump drive, from dying.
The Tardigrade plot line is a little interesting as we learn more about how it operates and it’s species role in the universe. The science behind this series of Star Trek isn’t as in depth and isn’t a large focus unlike previous series. This is a pretty big relief as the drama and character relationships are in the forefront of the show which will be pleasing to new fans, basically me, but it’s also clearly bugging long time fans, check out the user reviews on IMDB….going more towards Star Wars Prequels mad territories. The show can’t be just about the science and some every episode is different adventures anymore, Discovery, the show and it’s ship, need to stand out from the crowd and be the leading thing going forwards. Much like how the ship is inspiring other ships in the show to be more advanced, the show needs to do the same for other sci-fi shows and thats where my likeness for Captain Lorca and his background comes in.
It’s surpising that Captain Lorca isn’t the main character in the show and in actual fact it says a lot about where the show is going. We are slowly learning about Lorca and his past and who he is yet he isn’t the show’s main focus, that prize goes to Michael Burnham. This tells me that Lorca either isn’t going to last very long or by the end of the season all these facts about his past will boil up to one moment that decides the fate of his character. His interaction with Mud and his debating and sly skills were shown off in this episode and Jason Isaacs acting continues to be really well done. There is one exciting moment that we learn and that is when Mud retells the tale of Lorca’s last command saying that he lost his whole crew. Lorca stops him to tell him it’s not true and tells him the truth saying that he blew up his own crew to save them from the slow painful death of being captured by the Klingons. This one moment is huge for the show and the crew of the Discovery as it has now put every characters’ lives in danger. Who knows what Lorca will do to ensure the safety of Starfleet and stop the torture of his own crew.
It’s hard to gauge how well Star Trek Discovery is doing, these recaps are the most viewed articles on this site but I never see much chatter about the show anywhere. I’m hoping that it’s only a small group of fans that are disliking the show because I’m thoroughly enjoying the character relationships and the drama on the show. Captain Lorca is getting even more cool and crazy at the same time and again…I wish it was all released at once because it would be much better that way, how about that cool Christopher Pike easter egg though that’s pretty damn cool.