Star Trek: Discovery season 4 is off to a bang-up start

Trekkies and science fiction lovers rejoice: season 4 of Star Trek: Discovery has been beamed up for streaming enjoyment on Paramount+ So is the season off to a good start? Let’s get into the season 4 premiere, “Kobayashi Maru.”

The show kicks off with some classic season starter conflict. Captain Michael Burnham and Cleveland Booker meet with a council of aliens, attempting to sway them to rejoin the Federation with gifts of dilithium. However, oh no! A humorous misunderstanding leads to a run-and-gun chase scene. Despite their hostility, Michael assists the aliens in repairing their technology and leaves them the dilithium, like a model Starfleet captain would.

So we have a successful first mission, but peace and victory do not last long. Later, during the opening ceremony for the Starfleet Academy, a distress call comes in from a space station reporting damages from an unknown source. Michael and her team are set to help. President Rillack decides to tag along, although their presence casts doubt on Captain Burnham’s authority to command.

That’s the main story of this episode. Intermixed with that we see Saru back home on Kaminar where he’s attempting to sway his planet to rejoin the Federation. We also check in with Cleveland Booker, who’s returned to Kwejian for his nephew’s Ikhu Zhen ceremony.

“Kobayashi Maru” starts the fourth season of Star Trek: Discovery off right

The main story is a pretty good one. This is my first time watching Star Trek: Discovery, but I immediately like Captain Michael Burnham, which I credit to the writers and actor Sonequa Martin-Green. I’m invested in seeing her mission go well. And the stakes are pretty high. Admittedly, it seems a liiiiitle silly that so many things go wrong all at once, but overall it’s a solid storyline.

“Kobayashi Maru” contrasts this action-packed storyline with the scenes with Saru and Booker, although those bring the episode down a bit. The problem is that it to invest myself in anything beyond the pressing storyline with the space station. We’ll see explosions or hear of incoming disaster, and then cut to Saru talking about how he misses the Discovery. It’s just too drastic a drop-off.

I think this is a problem with how TV shows are written in general, where writers have to find a balance between the episode’s main story and the larger story of the season. If this episode is about Captain Burnham saving the space station, then that’s what it should focus on, and all side stories should revolve in close proximity around it. When you have to cut from the main conflict to something happening in another part of the galaxy, it kills the momentum. Not only that, but it makes the side stories seem less important.

I’m not saying the scenes shouldn’t be there. Looking at the scenes with Saru and Booker without the space station situation, I can see how they are important and would have to be in the first episode of the season, but the show needs to find better sports to include them, or at least transition to them more smoothly, because as it is the show is doing a disservice to these side-stories by pairing them with the main action.

Overall though, I’d say this is a good first episode for the season. It’s a solid stand-alone story that plants the seeds for bigger and badder conflicts to come. Star Trek: Discovery definitely has me interested in what else it has in store.

Grade: B

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