The following solely comprises slight spoilers for the primary episode of season 4 of ‘Star Trek: Discovery.’

Since its debut again in 2017 (and even earlier than then, actually), Star Trek: Discovery has been a divisive present. There was a protracted laundry listing of complaints: the sequence is just too darkish, everyone seems to be imply, everybody cries an excessive amount of, the Klingon designs suck, it shouldn’t be set earlier than the unique sequence, Michael Burnham is an unlikeable fundamental character. While some adjustments have been made to the present over time to easy these tough edges, the elevation of Michael Burnham to the captain’s chair for season 4 has made it clear that Discovery continues to be largely going to do its personal factor, no matter what the fandom thinks.

In the previous, season 4 for Star Trek sequence has at all times been a turning level, the second when a present lastly figures out what it needs to be. Season 4 of The Next Generation began with the riveting “The Best of Both Worlds,” and produced a variety of traditional episodes like “Family,” “Clues” and “The Drumhead.” Deep Space Nine added Worf to its crew in its fourth yr, whereas Voyager bought Seven of Nine. Enterprise’s ultimate season is mostly thought-about its greatest. So followers had been curious to see if the sample would proceed within the Kurtzman period of Trek.

Things definitely regarded promising on the finish of final season. The crew of Discovery had jumped 900 years into the longer term, to a galaxy the place dilithium gasoline for house journey was briefly provide and the Federation was in tatters due to an occasion often known as “The Burn.” Burnham and the remainder of the Discovery crew discovered the supply of the catastrophe and solved the issue in final yr’s finale, opening the doorways to a present devoted to rebuilding the Federation and its beliefs. After three seasons of warfare, it lastly regarded just like the USS Discovery may lastly get right down to Starfleet’s long-stated mandates of science and exploration.

Season 4 begins 5 months after the earlier episode, with the Federation now in excessive gear reaching out to outdated members and allies. That’s the place we be a part of the USS Discovery, as Burnham and Cleveland Booker are trying to present a cargo of dilithium to a species new to the Star Trek viewers. The mission shortly goes awry, strongly harking back to the madcap opening of Star Trek Into Darkness.

The parallels to the weakest of the three Abrams-era movies are usually not solely an accident or perhaps a homage: each Into Darkness and this week’s season premiere had been co-penned by Star Trek head Alex Kurtzman. They exhibit among the excesses of contemporary Trek like an emphasis on frantic motion and quippy dialogue — a minimum of there’s much less lens flare this time round. And everybody appears to be in a great temper, a distinction to when everybody was simply worn down within the twenty third century by years of warfare and secret experiments. 

The season opener is essentially devoted to displaying off a brand new optimistic established order, with Starfleet Academy being reestablished, Booker touring to attend his nephew’s coming-of-age ritual and a brand new Federation president getting sworn in. It all appears moderately staid, however Star Trek has at all times had its share of pomp and circumstance so it was really a pleasant change of tempo for this system. But issues do go awry when the Discovery is tasked with rescuing a station crew and should make just a few onerous selections, thus the title of the episode: “Kobayashi Maru.”

For these unfamiliar with Star Trek lore, the Kobayashi Maru is a check that every one command-track cadets should take at Starfleet Academy. In the simulation, the cadets are confronted with the selection of rescuing a ship stranded in enemy territory. To cross the border to rescue the craft is to danger warfare, however to protect peace means to consign that crew to loss of life. It’s been referred to as a “no win” situation,” and the Academy is excited about how a cadet reacts to it moderately than the precise final result. Kirk is named the one individual to have really overwhelmed it, as a result of he reprogrammed the situation; he cheated.

Like Kirk, Michael Burnham additionally doesn’t consider within the no-win situation. She at all times does what she feels is greatest, and it’s made her crew unfailingly loyal to her over the previous few seasons. But it’s earned her a share of detractors off-screen, as a result of Burnham typically disobeys orders and ignores good recommendation. She’s the insurgent cop who performs by their very own guidelines. Except that is Star Trek, a franchise about teamwork. Michael’s actions — and the truth that they at all times succeed — typically undermine her superiors and even her personal crewmates.

Placing her within the captain’s chair ought to have alleviated a few of this concern, since Burnham is now the one her crew has to hearken to. But even then the present felt it wanted some kind of battle, bringing the Federation president alongside to query Michael’s judgment in entrance of her crew. I couldn’t assist however be reminded of how earlier than the present aired, the producers and writers had been bragging about how they had been going to interrupt one in every of Gene Roddenberry’s key guidelines for the sequence: No inter-crew battle. Watching that in motion on this episode, nevertheless, was mildly uncomfortable and even a bit of embarrassing to see.

Not every thing is rosy by the top of the journey, however it’s nonetheless a greater final result than we’ve seen on the finish of many Star Trek outings. But the brand new “happy” established order is thrown out the door by an anomaly on the finish of the episode. As seen in previews, this anomaly might be an ongoing concern for the USS Discovery and the whole Federation — not simply as a risk to life, however as a risk to the Federation’s efforts to drag itself again collectively.

Unfortunately, this additionally signifies that Discovery gained’t be doing a whole lot of discovering in its fourth season. Fans who love “planet of the week” adventures and had been hoping for the present to embrace that format will come away disenchanted for now. However, whereas episodes one and two are concerned in setup for the continued anomaly plot line, episodes three and 4 nonetheless make room for some vaguely one-shot adventures, albeit ones designed to additional character growth.

But whereas Discovery doesn’t appear all that excited about altering the way it does issues, the atmosphere round it has modified. It’s not the one Star Trek present on TV, due to the premieres of Picard and Lower Decks in 2020, final month’s kid-oriented Prodigy and the debut of Strange New Worlds subsequent yr. All of those reveals deal with the Star Trek universe in their very own method, and are usually not required viewing to know what’s taking place in different reveals (although there are some references to Picard within the first episodes of Discovery). Viewers can select the Trek that fits them greatest, eradicating the stress from Discovery to be all issues to all followers and making it even simpler to only do its personal factor.