I seemed to like the season finale, "Will You Take My Hand?" better than most folks. Hope and inspiration has always been a cornerstone of this franchise and the episode, mainly towards the end, takes advantage of those feelings to deliver hopeful speech after speech. While well-intentioned, it does feel grating but it is necessary to have these speeches. People also didn't seem to like the absolute ending with the arrival of Christopher Pike and the U. S. S Enterprise, the only ship I have some familiarity with. Do we need to tread familiar ground? For me, I do not mind it. I want more adventures with Pike and the crew! I liked the visual scope of the episode. We were treated to an exploration of Qo'nos, the home planet of the Klingons. I was not surprised about the seedy, underground look. The creature design is also exemplary. I liked the character development of Burnham throughout the episode. She eventually becomes a hero, a complete turnaround from the first episode when she was in exile. She, of course, had to disobey orders yet again. Isn't that a good thing to happen in order to stop genocide?
The crew of Burnham, Tyler, Tilly, and Georgiou land on Qo'nos posing as traders. They landed near a volcano system that would allow them to use a drone to bomb the planet and annilihate all the people, thus effectively ending the war. Once Burnham discovers the drone is a hydro-bomb, she pleads with Admiral Cornwell to do the right thing and not bomb the planet. She goes against the Admiral's wishes and is able to convince Georgiou to hand over the detonator in exchange for her freedom. It is given to L'Rell which will be used to unite the Klingon houses. Tyler decides to go with L'Rell. When the U. S. S Discovery heads to Vulcan to pick up a new captain, they receive a distress call from the U. S. S Enterprise.
This season is a strong season that got me invested into the series. I have seen the later movies and some episodes of the older television shows, but this is what got me into the lore. Older Trekkies don't seem as happy about the show mainly because of its fast pace and more action. There are supposedly some timeline issues, but that does not affect me. The performances were excellent. Sonequa Martin-Green transformed into Burnham as the season went on. Honorables mentions are given to Michelle Yeoh as the evil (and good for one episode) Georgiou and Doug Jones as Saru, my favorite Kelpian. There were some story complications. The season was supposed to focus on the Klingon War but we seemed to have beamed right past it and it was tidied up like nothing, and was not a fan of the Burnham/Tyler romance angle. That said, I am very excited to see what's in store for next season.
My Grade: A-
The crew of Burnham, Tyler, Tilly, and Georgiou land on Qo'nos posing as traders. They landed near a volcano system that would allow them to use a drone to bomb the planet and annilihate all the people, thus effectively ending the war. Once Burnham discovers the drone is a hydro-bomb, she pleads with Admiral Cornwell to do the right thing and not bomb the planet. She goes against the Admiral's wishes and is able to convince Georgiou to hand over the detonator in exchange for her freedom. It is given to L'Rell which will be used to unite the Klingon houses. Tyler decides to go with L'Rell. When the U. S. S Discovery heads to Vulcan to pick up a new captain, they receive a distress call from the U. S. S Enterprise.
This season is a strong season that got me invested into the series. I have seen the later movies and some episodes of the older television shows, but this is what got me into the lore. Older Trekkies don't seem as happy about the show mainly because of its fast pace and more action. There are supposedly some timeline issues, but that does not affect me. The performances were excellent. Sonequa Martin-Green transformed into Burnham as the season went on. Honorables mentions are given to Michelle Yeoh as the evil (and good for one episode) Georgiou and Doug Jones as Saru, my favorite Kelpian. There were some story complications. The season was supposed to focus on the Klingon War but we seemed to have beamed right past it and it was tidied up like nothing, and was not a fan of the Burnham/Tyler romance angle. That said, I am very excited to see what's in store for next season.
My Grade: A-