Into The Woods
For the first time since the premiere, we finally get to see some of the crew of the USS Discovery on a planet. In the premiere, the planet was a desert and it genuinely looked like they were there and, despite them being on the planet for only a short period of time, I was fascinated as to whether the crew was going to go onto planets much this season. Now that they have I kind of hope they just stick to space and their ship.
Episode 8, Si Vis Pacem Para Bellum, starts off with the US Discovery attempting to aid a fellow Starfleet ship that is under attack by the Klingons. After the Starfleet ship is lost Captain Lorca reveals that Burnham, Saru and Tyler are on the planet Paavo to discover a way of revealing the cloaked Klingon ships. On the planet, a mysterious life form takes over Saru and throws the mission into jeopardy.
I was excited when I saw they were on another planet. There is only so much you can do on the one ship and a few more episodes and it would’ve gotten too samey. I would’ve preferred they stayed on the ship. I’m not saying the episode was bad, although it’s probably my least favourite so far, the budget was clearly being pushed during certain moments. The mysterious lifeform looked good but they’re just a cloud of blue matter so there isn’t too much to stuff up there but at the end of the episode there is a scene with Saru running through the forest, and apparently, his species can run really fast, and it felt almost unwatchable. The effect is something that really takes you out of the visually appealing show, normal you’re engadged with it and feel like you’re actually watching inside a ship. I’ve been amazed so far about how much the show looks like the latest movies and each episode is like a small movie because of it. The visuals inside the ship and even space outside the ship have looked phenomenal. The special effect of Saru running, and even just how it was filmed makes you worry about how much the show can handle. After people watch and criticize the special effects of this episode will the show just end up being only on well-designed spaceships? I’ve never liked the design of Saru, I think he sticks out from the rest of the very well designed cast and sets, and I hope this crazy amateur film special effect goes away.
One thing the episode did well was set up next week’s mid-season finale, something that shouldn’t be happening because I think people will be less interested in the show when it comes back in January!!! Game of Thrones is a large show and so is Discovery so why do you have to take two months off? Anyway finally a battle with the Klingons is happening and we’ll hopefully get to see my favourite character Lorca trying to take on the Klingons. I hope next week’s episode has more purpose to it as this week was simply just a set up for the rest of the season and what Saru is going crazy about, oncoming destruction. We’ll see next week, please just stay on the ship next week though.