Well now we've got a show! Captain Lorca is kidnapped after being told by Star Fleet at a conference that he can't use the spore drive anymore without their authorization, because they're killing the tardigrade, and because they're not being secret enough about their secret weapon. On the Klingon prison ship, he meets a savvy human space traveling wheeler-dealer by the name of Harry Mudd. I don't know why, because it's not like Mudd was ever one of my favorite characters, but I was very excited to see this reference from TOS. The Klingons have a way of dishing out pain that particularly fucks with your brain (Oh ya, Star Trek says "fuck" now, so I can too). You can either take a beating every now and then yourself, or pass the experience on to another prisoner. "Choose your pain." An apt expression, because it is just that- your pain being inflicted on someone else. (Also, our prayers have been answered, and the Klingons speak English around the humans, no more subtitles!). Mudd has done well in captivity with this arrangement, as he has no problem putting himself above others. Eventually Lorca and another Star Fleet prisoner turn on him and are able to escape.The first thing that is fantastic about this whole sequence is that I truly believed that this would be the end for Lorca. The escape was both unexpected and exciting to watch. The second is his confession, drawn out by a keenly knowledgable Mudd. Mudd accuses him of being a bad captain, as on his previous ship, he was the only one that escaped a Klingon attack. The captain should have gone down with the ship, Mudd points out. But Lorca tells him it was actually worse than that. Anticipating the Klingons capturing and torturing the whole crew, he escaped and then destroyed the ship himself, killing the crew to save them from the Klingons. He tells this in a way that is both shameful and proud at the same time. Now, we've seen captains ready to destroy their ship and everyone on it rather than turn it over to enemies before. But this idea of the captain getting away is certainly new, and not noble. I mean, just set the self-destruct and wait it out. Can you imagine Janeway not going down with her ship? Add another hashmark in the "bad guy" column for Lorca for sure.
Meanwhile, back on Discovery, Saru is uncomfortable with his role as Acting Captain. He's going through star fleet files to see if he has any of the traits that the great captains did, and asks the computer to monitor him in his new role, watching him for any hint of those traits. By the way, the greatest captains have familiar names like Jonathan Archer, Phillipa Georgiou, and Christopher Pike, and there were a couple that I was not familiar with but hope also have Star Trek canon significance. Burnham comes to him pleading on behalf of Ripper that they not use the spore drive. Saru explains that their number one goal is to find the captain, and he can't be bothered with giving up their only edge on accomplishing that. On this point he is particularly stubborn, given what we know about how far Star Fleet will go to protect unknown life forms, and also Saru's gentle nature. We can assume that the message had not been passed on to him that Star Fleet had already ordered the spore drive be temporarily shut down. On the other hand, Saru has already said that he would do better at protecting his captain than Burnham did, and this is his chance to prove it. It's an excellent moral dilemma, well played out, with both sides making decent cases. But in the end, the viewer falls squarely in the Burnham camp. As do the doctor and Stamets, who have the spore drive offline when Saru needs it. They are working their hardest to figure out a way to use a substitute for Ripper. But Saru puts the hammer down, orders it back in service, and sends Burnham to her quarters.
They jump into the area just in time to rescue Lorca and the other Star Fleet prisoner, right at the split second their ship is being destroyed. The jump has taken its toll on the tardigrade, however. It has puked out all its moisture and gone into some kind of shriveled up protection mode. Saru and Lorca don't care, and when they need to jump, Stamets tells them that they're ready. Somewhat predictably though, when they go to check on Stamets, it's him in the chamber flat on his back, not the tardigrade. He has injected himself with the tardigrade DNA and did the jump himself, rather than further endanger the alien. There is a moment where we actually think that he's dead, but then he takes a startled deep breath and begins laughing. These are the moments that set this series apart. In one single episode, I was completely convinced that both the captain and chief science officer were dead. This would never happen in other series. They might play with the viewer and fake a death, but you always knew it was bullshit. In this series, we just have no idea what might happen next. Then we have great character moments like when Saru goes back to the computer to see how he measured up to the greats, but has a change of heart and doesn't look at the results. This could mean that it that he knows he hasn't measured up, or knows that what he did was right regardless if it's what others would have done, or that it really doesn't matter anyway. At any rate, it's an interesting look inside Saru. To me, that's what makes this a Fantastic episode of Trek.
In the end, it's revealed that Stamets and the doctor are a couple. This is not a surprise for anyone that's been paying attention. What is much more interesting is that Stamets walks away from the mirror, and yet his reflection is still there, looking rather menacing. Clearly, something is off now that he's been plugged into the universe. Oh and, Burnham gives the old telescope to Saru. In return, he tells her to do whatever it takes to save the alien's life. She gives it some spores, and launches it out into space. It immediately puffs back up, and takes off for a far away land. The end. Upon reflection, this is maybe why this episode stands out so profoundly for me. Despite longing for a serial-type structure all these years, I think it's the more episodic nature of "Choose Your Pain" that makes it work so well. It has a beginning, middle, and end. Well done!Published October, 29, 2017
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