Star Trek: Discovery review, Episode 407: “…But to Connect”

The location of the extragalactic species responsible for the Anomaly’s creation is at last revealed! Or maybe not, as the Discovery’s computer, Zora, has chosen to withhold the information from the crew. This is bad timing, as the Federation holds a meeting with representatives from all of the Milky Way’s civilizations to determine to determine how to make first contact, and the room stands divided between diplomacy and retaliation.

So I guess I’ve been a good boy this year, because all my wishes from my last review of Discovery have come true! For one thing, there’s no time bomb story this week! Instead, we get some nice internal conflicts. But despite there being no immediate risk to life and limb, the tension this episode is still quite high.

Take, for instance, the main plot. All civilizations in the galaxy gather to discuss how to initiate the first meeting this new species. Michael, ever the idealist, implores the counsel to come in peace and act accordingly with the principles of the Federation. Booker, however, is in no mind to give these unknowns the benefit of the doubt, and favors Tarka’s idea of outright destroying the Anomaly.

Michael and Booker hold strong opposing viewpoints, which provides part of the conflict this week. And the season has done a great job of showing how they came to those views. Booker is still traumatized by the destruction of his home planet. Not only that, but the fatherly visions he had last episode come into play. He must do what he thinks is right, regardless of Michael’s position. And in Michael’s case, it’s interesting to remember a few episodes ago when she was resolute in her desire to arrest J’Vini for the murder of a StarFleet captain, no matter the context. She has learned to consider that bad deeds may not be done with bad intentions; we can see her trying to apply that wisdom here.

Put all this together, and the stakes of the episode feel quite high. We know the characters are not debating viewpoints that they have been arbitrarily assigned; they feel like real convictions.

Both sides of Star Trek: Discovery work well this week

The same can be said for the secondary storyline. After her emotional awakening, Zora has elected to withhold the coordinates of the Anomaly’s point of origin, as she believes handing them over will put Discovery in great danger. Obviously this cannot stand, with the most vocal objector being Lieutenant Stamet. Not only is he against Zora’s decision, he is against Zora in general. I’m sure most can see the danger of a rogue AI on a space ship. So we have another heated debate, now amongst the Discovery crew, over what to do about this.

I liked this dilemma just as much as the one Michael and Booker are dealing with. The writing and performances were strong, and it was fun following the evolution of the conversation as the Discovery crew learned more about how extensive Zora’s capabilities are. Additionally, the writers acknowledged the parallels in the storylines this week by cutting the two climatic speeches together, which I thought was a good choice.

That’s all I have to say this week. We got a pair of finely constructed stories, and SaruXT’Rina gets a little bit more screen time as the cherry on top. What more can you ask for?

The show leaves us on quite the cliffhanger too, just to make this brief hiatus all the more nerve-racking. See you in February, Star Trek fans.

Grade: B+

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