Review: Star Trek Discovery – Die Trying s03e05

With Discovery finding a home of sorts, episode five of this third season, Die Trying, gives everyone a little hope.  *Caution: Spoilers Lie Ahead*

It has taken a few episodes, but Discovery has found what remains of the Federation and Starfleet.  The crew, especially Burnham (Sonequa Martin Green) knew there would be some debriefing, but they do not get entirely the reception they were expecting.  This is a nice touch and sets up both the plot and crew well, putting them in a mood to prove themselves.

It would have been all too easy to find Starfleet operating pretty much how it used to and Discovery welcomed with open arms.  This would have been a cop out though and denied us the interesting layer of doubt and more realistic edge that we get here.  Principally, Admiral Vance (Oded Fehr – The Mummy, 24, Stitchers) can not find any corroborating evidence for their claims, which is somewhat understandable due to the nature of their mission.  This means that he keeps them at arm’s length initially and is suspicious.  He even goes out of his way to ‘put them in their place’ and informs them he is going to split up the crew.

What is interesting in Die Trying is that the Discovery crew is probably more ‘Starfleet’ than the current crop, as they have not had to live through the burn and may well have therefore retained a more idealistic outlook.  Their experience is certainly disregarded when it should not be.  Saru (Doug Jones) and Michael definitely feel the sting from the Admiral, and it is only Michael speaking slightly out of turn that gives them the chance to prove themselves, or Die Trying; this, we assume is the reference to the title.  The title could also reference the efforts of Dr Attis (Jake Epstein – Degrassi: The Next Generation, Suits, Designated Survivor) however, who appears in the centre of the story when they try to prove themselves.

In Starfleet HQ, a group of refugees is sick with prion disease from ingesting a mutated plant, and the medical team there cannot cure them.  Despite being 900 years behind the curve, Discovery has some insight into the issue, and it is determined that if they can retrieve an unmutated specimen of the plant, a cure might be found.

Slightly incredulously, this leads to Discovery travelling to an ancient ‘Seed Vault’ ship which they know contains samples of all the plants in the galaxy.  The guardians of the ship currently are a family of Barzans, including Dr Attis, who it turns out have been hit by a recent nearby Coronal Mass Ejection.  All the family was affected, except Dr Attis who was transporting at the time, leaving him partly out of phase and desperate to cure his family.

After arriving, Michael, Culber (Wilson Cruz) and Nhan (Rachael Ancheril) find that it is too late for the Attis family, so must first cure the Dr, and then convince him to help them find what they need.  This whole storyline is obviously one huge MacGuffin, and like most MacGuffins there are some angles that do grate a little.  For instance, the seed ship has been floating around for over 900 years without incident, which seems dubious.

What is great here though is that we get to see more of the Barzan culture, and Nhan a chance to come to the fore.  Hopefully, despite the fact that she decides to stay there and help Dr Attis, we will still see more of her, as the character has some interesting elements to explore.  This no doubt will not happen for some time though, and she will disappear for some time, annoyingly.

Elsewhere, they continue to lay the foundation of something happening with Detmer (Emily Coutts), which will surely come to a head soon.  How exactly has yet to be determined, but we hope it is not anything too ridiculous.  Like Nhan, there is a lot of scope for some interesting stories with her character.  One thing the writers are getting perfectly right is the trio of Tilly (Mary Wiseman), Stamets (Anthony Rapp) and Reno (Tig Notaro), whose interactions were a joy in Die Trying.  These scenes not only go a long way to prove to the Starfleet representative, Lt Willa (Vanessa Jackson), that they are a great team despite the dysfunction, but also gives us some fantastic lines and performances.

Also, of note is the debriefing of Emperor Georgiou (Michelle Yeoh), which is conducted by a futuristic version of the X-Files ‘Cigarette Smoking Man’ (David Cronenberg).  Clearly there is going to be a lot made of this character as we go on, and there will be some kind of underlying conspiracy, or connection with either Control or Section 31.  Although interesting, it served mostly as laying groundwork for future episodes, and was otherwise superfluous.

This season is continuing to mine some interesting areas, and with the hints they are giving, looks certain to expand into even more intriguing plotlines.  They seem to have found a good groove, unburdened by slotting into canon, and it is a very welcomed return to form.  Yes, there are some problems, but they stuck with their ‘finding home’ theme for the episode, and transitioned away from being Voyager Part 2.