WiC Watches—Star Trek: Discovery season 2
Episode 202: “New Eden”
“New Eden” features yet another visually stunning moment that lets you know CBS is pouring money into this show. Each episode feels like a mini-movie.
“New Eden” opens with Captain Pike and Michael Burnham listening to Spock’s voice recording about the red signals the Enterprise was sent to investigate. As it turns out, Spock has been having the same nightmares about a red angel since he was a child, and he drew a star map showing where each one could be found, using a red dot to indicate their locations.
He did this long before the Enterprise received its directive from Starfleet, meaning these red angles are connected to him in some mysterious way. Pike pulls up the Starfleet map of the seven red signals, and it matches perfectly with Spock’s drawings.
When Burnham suggests they find Spock, Pike reveals that he is in a mental hospital. Apparently, the seven signals and his need to find their source and invhas driven him a little insane.
Side note: Ethan Peck’s voice has the same perfectly smooth and baritone pitch Leonard Nimoy had in the original Star Trek series, and as a long-time fan of the franchise (don’t call me a Trekkie), I can appreciate that.
RELATED PRODUCT
Milwaukee Brewers Ryan Braun Game Of Thrones Night's Watch Bobblehead
Buy Now!
Buy Now!
Meanwhile, Tilly is trying to take a sample of the asteroid sitting in Discovery’s loading bay. She’s trying to find a sustainable source for the ship’s spore drive so Stamets will no longer have to interface with the drive using his own body. The last time he did that, he saw his dead boyfriend Dr. Culber, so he’s not eager for a repeat. It seems as if there is a way to bring Culber back using the spore drive, but they can’t quite connect the dots. Also, Tilly is seeing a stranger that no one else can see. She figures out it’s an old friend from her high school days, someone who’s been dead for a while. Something weird is clearly happening with the spore drive, you guys.
Speaking of Tilly, it’s refreshing to see a lead character that doesn’t fit Hollywood’s standard hero mold. Actor Mary Wiseman is vibrant and fun, and puts her personality into the character. Her hair is red and super-frizzy, her body slightly on the bigger side, and she’s neurotic about everything…and I am so into it. Without Tilly, Star Trek: Discovery wouldn’t be as fun to watch.
Back to the show: Saru calls Pike and Burnham to the bridge and tells them the ship is picking up a distress call that lines up with one of the seven signals. Using the spore drive, the Discovery jumps to the source and finds a planet on the verge of an extinction event; an asteroid field is heading directly for the planet’s surface.
Burnham finds out there are humans living in settlements all over the planet. They don’t have power. After further inspection, the crew finds out that the humans have been there for 200 years, meaning they settled the planet before the invention of the warp drive, making it impossible for them to be there. Pike, Burnham and crew member Joann Owosekun (Oyin Oladejo) go the planet’s surface to investigate.
Pike reminds Burnham and Owosekun they have to stay under cover and keep their advanced technology hidden, as the settlement doesn’t know about Starfleet. They cannot break the Federation’s General Order 1: “No starship may interfere with the normal development of any alien life or society.”
The team finds a church and discovers that it is from Earth, somehow. The people here combined several religions to create their own faith. Just as Pike is starting to learn how the people got to the planet, a local scientists pegs them as outsiders. They are taken to the leader of the settlement, who tells the story of Earth’s World War III and how a diverse group of people took shelter in the church as nuclear bombs began to fall. Just as it seemed they would be destroyed, a red angel appeared and transported the church to the planet they currently inhabit.
It’s now becoming clear that the seven signals and the red angels are connected, and they are meant to be calls for help. In the premiere, the first signal drew the Discovery to an asteroid where a medical ship had crashed. And this second signal called the ship to save the planet from a cataclysmic event.
Here’s where it gets fun: In order to stop the asteroids from colliding with the planet, the Discovery makes a doughnut maneuver and ejects the asteroid in its loading bay, pulling the falling asteroids away. The CGI is stunning. I say again, this is like watching a big-budget movie.
In the end, Pike reveals himself to the scientist and tells him he was right: the Earth survived World War III and is now part of an intergalactic federation of planets. He gives the scientist a renewable battery that will provide power for the settlement in exchange for a broken helmet camera from one of the soldiers who was in the church when it was transported.
Once on board the Discovery, Pike and Burnham repair the camera and see that just before the church was transported, an angel appeared, glowing red. Whatever these creatures are, it’s clear they aren’t human and have unknown powers they seem to be using for good. Two signals down, five to go.
“New Eden” was another brilliant episode of Star Trek: Discovery. The leads are fun and the effects are absolutely stunning. I can’t wait to see how the rest of the season unfolds.