Star Trek Discovery - Season 3, Episode 12

The penultimate episode of a three part finale, episode 12 picked up straight away after last week's excellent cliffhanger with acting Captain Tilly and the Discovery overwhelmed by Osyraa (Janet Kidder) and the Emerald Chain and the wily Orion deceiving the Federation to let Discovery through Starfleet's shields. However, at the last moment Michael and Book (Sonequa Martin-Green and David Ajala) made it aboard so that Michael could do a Bruce Willis. This was a lot of fun, the writer, and director Jonathan Frakes, leaning into the homage - call it Trek Hard - with Michael even ending up barefoot after a particularly dicey sequence in the ducting. There were also shades of the best Next Generation movie as the bridge crew staged their own escape, Tilly rallying after losing the ship after a mere 12 minutes, a fact rubbed in her face by the returning creep Zarah and his crappy ponytail, back to taunt her (though I imagine she'll get the last laugh next week). Though some of that bridge crew look like they'd struggle to knock the skin off a custard, this run has lacked action and some fisticuffs and phaser fire was very welcome. This was also a great episode for Osyraa, the EC leader developing into a far more nuanced character. She had come to the Federation with the plan for an audacious alliance. "I want peace," she urged Admiral Vance. "I want the Emerald Chain to unite with the Federation, to combine the best of what we are." She had even brought a handy armistice to sign, offering up a number of concessions. And who's to say she was in the wrong? Yes, the Chain are criminals but there have been similar alliances that have lead to good things. We're meant to root for Michael and co fighting back but part of me wished Vance has signed and that Osyraa might become a fascinating new element in the show moving forward (or maybe I'm biased as a green Kidder in that jumpsuit appeals to my middle-aged libido). Alas, there was little chance of that by the end of this one, Vance demanding Osyraa go on trial for her crimes. She was soon back on Discovery and zapping poor Rinn (that'll teach you to grow a spine!) even though Book had told her about the dilithium planet in the nebula. 

As for Michael, apart from the Die Hard shenanigans she was once again the person given the week's difficult dilemma. She increasingly reminds me of Clarke from The 100, the leader who has to make the tough choices and spends most of the next season winning people back until she makes the next one they don't like. It's hard not to view Michael as a hypocrite by this stage - more than content to steal a shuttle or disobey orders if it suits her agenda but not prepared to offer that same leeway to others. This of course brings us to Stamets (Anthony Rapp), who spent the first half of the episode with his Emerald Chain opposite, scientist Aurelio. It was Aurelio who helped us see the softer side of Osyraa, the woman having seen his potential and helped him overcome a genetic condition that would have killed him, though consigning him to a hoverchair. Unlike many others, his loyalty wasn't through fear but respect and he shared the same goals as Osyraa, to pool what the two organisations had. Osyraa may be lying (I'm sure that lie detector hologram can be fooled) but Aurelio wasn't. However, Michael decided to put maintaining what she though the Federation was rather than any considerations of what this would cost Stamets and Discovery. Paul was even more hysterical when he found out that Adira - his surrogate child now - was also in the radiation zone with Saru and Hugh. "My whole life is in that nebula!" he wailed but Michael first nerve-pinched him and then shot him out of the ship to Starfleet HQ so Osyraa could not use the spore drive to escape. "We came to the future for you!" Stamets railed. "How can you do this?!" Are the writers brave enough to follow through after this? To have Hugh or Adira die and for Michael to have to face the real implications of the decisions she makes? A last minute save for all three of the nebula trapped officers would feel a bit of a cheat. With the sphere data - using those adorable repair droids - offering to help reclaim Discovery at the end, next week's finale promises to be a belter. 

70s Rating: ****