Some Blundering About Star Trek: Discovery 3×08: Sanctuary

I don’t really know how I feel about this one. I like it on paper, but the parts I emotionally connected with weren’t the parts that got the main dramatic weight of the episode. I should probably lay this much out: I don’t object to the character backstory of Michael Burnham, and I don’t think she’s a Mary Sue (a term which is pretty fraught anyway because despite what people say it means, it’s historically boiled almost entirely down to, “A female character who displays the same sort of hypercompetence as a traditional male adventure story protagonist,”). But I don’t like the narrative gravity she has within the show. It’s very clear that the showrunners view her as “The main character”. Most episodes have two main plot threads: the “Michael Plot” and the “Everyone Else Plot”. And invariably, I like the Everyone Else Plot better. This is a subject that needs some caution getting into it, because so much of the discourse about Michael’s role in Discovery is tainted by the misogyny and racism of reactionary fans who can’t stand the “SJWs” injecting politics into their Star Trek.

I bring it up right now because in this episode especially, Michael does very little – yet her gravity is what guides the whole episode. Her role is purely supportive, and yet everything that happens happens because of her. Star Trek works best when it is an ensemble. I realize now that one of the biggest problems with Enterprise was the extent to which Archer controlled the narrative gravity, and this was probably a trend that started with Voyager, which gave Janeway (And later, though to a lesser extent, Seven) outsized gravitational pull. The height of Star Trek‘s imperial phase in the ’90s was marked by TNG and DS9 being very strong ensemble shows which actively resisted becoming The Patrick Stewart Show (Ironically, I don’t feel like Picard – the only series to explicitly be “about” one specific person – gives its title character too much of the narrative gravity) or Sisko and Pals. Voyager didn’t actively try to break from it, but the edict that Janeway always had to be morally in the right nonetheless meant that the universe had to bend to accomodate her. When we get to Enterprise, the combination of half the characters being a bit thin what I assume was a desire to exploit Scott Bakula’s comparative star power pushed the show into centering firmly on Archer more often than not. Fast forward, and Discovery isn’t quite tryng to be The Michael Burnham show, but she’s definitely Slimer to Disco’s The Real Ghostbusters.

That is less flattering than I intended. Anyway…

• I am not optimistic about the appearance of Osyraa and her threat of the Emerald Chain taking on the Federation. The Emerald Chain are not interesting Big Bads and nothing good could come of them actually being the Big Bads. The only way this ends well is if she does indeed show up to take down the Federation and Starfleet complete no-sells it, smacking her down effortlessly because, again, decent people compelled to make bad choices by difficult situations are a “real” threat – nasty, viscious space-thugs are just bullshit that can be dealt with trivially.
• On the other hand, Osyraa’s appearance has me thinking: she’s got strong Wicked Witch of the West energy. Wicked Witch. Emerald Chain. Discovery emerging from a swirly space-thing into a really weird and fantastical world and trying to find a way “home”. Captain who’s genetically predisposed to constant fear but is really quite brave. Cyborg helmsman who’s having emotional issues. Fluffy pet. Is this whole season a subtle Wizard of Oz riff? Holy shit. Please let me be right about this.
• After realizing last week that Book is kinda Tim Curry, it seems his brother is a transporter accident between Budget-Rate Antonio Banderas and Normal-Price Russell Crowe?
• What does the Chain even do with those trance worms? If they’re just using them to murder people, fine, but it seems like a financially unsound deal to set up this financial deal that involves a lot of expensive transportation when the Emerald Chain already has plenty of perfectly good ways to murder people.
• Adira’s announcement that they’re nonbinary is a little clunkier than I was hoping for, but, if I’m being honest, WAY less clunky than I was expecting.
• Are Hugh and Stamets Adira’s Space Dads now? Between their scene together and Hugh’s completely unsubtle dropping to Georgiou that he wants kids, I think they’re setting up for Hugh and Stamets to be Adira’s Space Dads.
• Why is the camera so obsessed with giving me motion sickness? I have never liked the cinematography in this show.
• I’ve seen a lot of pushback about Tilly becoming Saru’s XO. But I mean, who else is he gonna pick? Everyone outranks her, but they’re also all scientists; she’s had command training, and she’s not more useful doing something else. Also, this episode seems to be pretty clear that the XO’s role is basically, “Captain’s secretary”.
• Saru’s struggle to find a Cool Thing To Say When Giving an Order is not funny. I do hope he takes “Make it so” out for a swing though.
• Future Space Medicine and all, but I feel like Hugh did not react sufficiently to Georgiou momentarily glitching out like Carrie Fischer in Rogue One. 
• I get that Georgiou’s plot arc through this episode is setup for next week, but I don’t like the way that it just stops abruptly rather than coming to a cliffhanger or lull; we see her go off to talk with Hugh about her condition, and then she’s gone for the rest of the episode. Hugh comes back, but only for Space Dad stuff.
• The thing with Adira’s algorithm also kinda just stops in favor of Space Dads. I’m glad they have these multi-episode plot arcs, but I find it clunky the way they just stop dead on a per-episode basis rather than finding a natural break-point. We didn’t really need Michael showing the cool lizard man to Book’s nephew; coulda tossed in one more scene of either Adira or Georgiou there to end the B-plots on a cliffhanger.
• I have no real feels about Book deciding to join on with the Federation’s cause. I like Book, especially since I realize he’s Tim Curry. But his journey as a character is not clicking with me, probably because any journey he has is subsidiary to Michael’s narrative gravity.
• At least in principal, “When the two brothers put aside their differences and work together in empathy, along with some Space Magic, the impossible is done and the day is saved,” is a great climax. I wish it had worked for me.
• Who’s taking bets on what the ship at the center of the nebula is? Enterprise? La Sirena? One of the Spare Voyagers still trying to get home? A duplicate of Discovery somehow? Some Random Ship We’ve Never Heard of Before? It’s probably one of those last two.