Star Trek: Discovery S01E14-15 Review: The Captain-Emperor

Star Trek: Discovery, Season 1, Episode 14: The War Without, The War Within; Episode 15: Will  You Take My Hand

This episode wraps up a two-part ending where Discovery wraps up the other big running plot thread that needs to be finished before the end of Discovery (since it technically is a prequel), which is to establish how the Klingon War changed from "Klingons have basically won" to the status quo of the Federation regaining control of the galaxy. It's a bit weird, honestly, as to why they even set this series as a prequel when they're not even going to do anything interesting with the setting. Again, I'm not familiar enough with the bigger Trek continuity to really criticize this series a lot on how it gels with a bigger franchise, but eh. The fact that the end of the war is sort of a foregone conclusion really feels a bit bleh. 

The good part of the two episodes capping off this season, in my opinion, is bringing back Michelle Yeoh as the universe-displaced Emperor of the Terran Empire. After a bit of some fun hijinks with Tilly (her confused Hail-the-Emperor salute is adorable) and some weird cover-up bit, we learn that the higher-ups of the Federation, including Sarek and Cornwell, has commissioned Emperor Georgiou with unleashing some destruction to the Klingon homeworld of Qo'noS via a bomb placed at the center of the planet's volcanic system, something that is anathema to everything the Federation stands for. And yes, it boils down to a superhero-esque "thou shalt not kill, even thine worst enemies" debate, but it works pretty neatly to contrast the otherwise darker tone that Discovery has had. And bringing in Emperor Georgious to enforce this is pretty neat as well. 

Episode 14 is mostly just setup, really. We've got setup of the Emperor meeting with the Federation higher-ups, we get a 'darkest moment' bit with the Discovery finding out that Starfleet's biggest base has been blown up, we get Stamets regrowing a whole ton of spores in a planet, and setting up the Discovery beaming into the underground networks of Qo'noS to map the planet. Oh, and Tylervoq is still around, I suppose, which is just really, really weird because he's essentially Tyler, angsting about how he's done things while possessed by his Klingon half. Why did L'Rell even agree to revert Tylervoq to Tyler instead of Voq? It's really weird. 

And then we get the final episode, which does have a bit of a moment with Burnham, Georgiou, Tyler and Tilly dicking around in a random seedy tavern in Qo'noS for a bit while Georgious splits the party up to plant a hydrogen bomb or whatever in the core of the planet. A good chunk of the episode is sadly devoted to Tylervoq/Burnham drama which I don't think really works at all. But ultimately, Burnham confronts the Emperor, and cuts a deal -- she comes with a way to meet things halfway, getting L'Rell to become the new torchbearer (and the torch she's holding is a planetary bomb). L'Rell wants a unified Klingon Empire and not this weird half-assed 'each clan for itself' nonsense that the Klingons had, while Burnham just wants the war to end. This allows the Kilngon War to be sort of swept under the rug and is over (for now, at least), while Burnham and company gets rewarded by Starfleet (with Burnham's new 'mutiny' being an obvious parallel to her original one in episode one), with Burnham exonerated for her past crimes. Saru gets to be the new captain, we end with themes of hope and optimism, and the final shot has the Discovery meet with the USS Enterprise, leading to a sequel hook. 

But while the plot threads are there, the execution is...  less than stellar. It's not really bad per se, as long as we're not talking about the horrible Tylervoq arc, but taken as a whole, the season of Star Trek: Discovery really feels a bit like a mess. It could be worse, I suppose, and the ending wraps up a good chunk of the plot threads neatly while still leaving behind L'Rell, Tylervoq and Emperor Georgiou as possible returning antagonists, but I dunno. The season has been trying to cram so much stuff into its 15-episode runtime, but the plots all seem to develop not based on organic storytelling, but on checking off plot developments done on a paper. It makes the series feel somewhat lifeless at points, as much as the actors and individual episode directors try their best. Eh. It's all right, I guess, but I'm not sure if I'll ever continue on to season two.