Thoughts on Star Trek Discovery S2E5 "Saints of Imperfection"

Spoilers...

This was another episode that was alright. I think at this point I will enjoy any episode that doesn't give me headache-inducing editing.

In this episode they continue to tease us with promises of Spock, when Discovery finally catches up to Spock's shuttle only to find Philippa (Georgiou) inside instead. Philippa doesn't come quietly though, but tries to get away from Discovery at first but gets captured. Why she behaves this why isn't exactly explained, but brushed off as "classified", since Philippa now belongs to the super secret intelligence group called "Section 31". They are also trying to catch Spock and it turns out he had abandoned the shuttle already.

Alas, Worf isn't born yet to bless this series.

The whole thing about Spock annoys me a bit, which I already mentioned somewhat in my previous post. The only reason we even care about them chasing this person is because it is Spock, but on the other hand I don't personally care that much that it is Spock. I am not sitting on the edge of my seat, itching to see Spock again. I've never really cared for that kind of fan service, when one character from one ST series shows up in another for little more than a cameo (Worf in DS9 is a good example of where a character is crossed over in a meaningful way and not just as a recognizable face to increase interest in something that isn't all that interesting. In fact I prefer Worf in DS9 over TNG). But we still have yet to see where they are going with all this Spock-business, so I am going to leave my final verdict for now. At this moment it feels like they are waving a Spock-flag in front of our faces to make sure we keep watching. Just make sure your writing is good and you won't need to use big-shot names, mkay?

Anyway... Philippa meets Pike who immediately notices that something is wrong. He confronts Burnham about it a bit later and she promises to spill the beans eventually. There is also a scene with Philippa where she eats an apple, which literally holds no other purpose than to further the concept of her as being a bit of a prick (apple eating is screen-language trope for "bit of a prick). I like Philippa though, or maybe I just really like Michelle Yeoh. I hope they are going to use her wisely, her character is the only real joker-character in the series at the moment and the only one of whom we can't really make out the motivations.

In the last episode Tilly was eaten-ish by a spore-thing-blob (yeah, this is sci-fi alright) but Stamets is refusing to believe she is dead. He comes up with an idea that she is in the network somewhere and that he could put the entire ship halfway inside to have a peek and hopefully pull her out. Pike agrees to the idea which prompts a question I have with almost every episode of any Star Trek series. What kind of protocols are there for what constitutes a reasonable reason to risk dozens of lives to possibly save one? ST VOY that I just watched is a nightmare for this, where Janeway seems willing to risk all ~150 people on board for any one of the bridge personnel in a heartbeat and in the Delta Quadrant she's is somewhat free to write her own rule book. But surely the Federation has rules about this, and surely they can't be this relaxed regarding risking people's lives? It feels like the Federation wouldn't have many people left in it if everyone acted this way…

No one listens to Spock...

Turns out Stamets' guess about Tilly is spot on correct and she alive and mostly well inside the network where the spore-May has taken her to make Tilly help her kill a "monster" that has been roaming inside and killing everything it touches. Tilly agrees, not that she has much option not to. She also learns that the spores calls themselves "Jah-Sepp" for whatever that matters.

Tilly was in fact teleported via the blob into the network and this makes me think about another thing that I probably shouldn't be thinking about because there just isn't a good answer. The regular Star Trek transporters break down a person into atoms and then re-assemble them elsewhere. As I understood it, it doesn't physically transfer those exact atoms, but rather the information about how the atoms were assembled. Which means the "original" you is actually gone. Which also means the "original" you wouldn't even have to be destructed for the "new" you to be constructed, since there is nothing in the transporter that necessitates that one is "destroyed" for another to be assembled (beside ethical reasons), at least the way I've understood it. It is hinted at for instance when Janeway says that the replicators and the transporters are the same kind of system, and the replicators don't need to destruct anything to construct anything. As far as I can recall this is not something that is ever addressed in the Star Trek universe however, but I would love to see an episode themed around this. I guess it is a question the Star Trek writers don't really want to touch upon as the implications are tricky. The movie The Prestige has a similar concept going on.

So question is, would you use it?

Because Discovery found Philippa, they now get to meet the rest of the Section 31 big-shots, meaning Tyler and the guy in command. The guy in command is someone called Leland, which is a name that rings a bell to me but I am probably thinking of Weyland from the Alien franchise. Pike and Leland know eachother since before apparently. Also apparently, Tyler is now the Section 31 liaison to Discovery and that is how he makes it back to the ship. I can honestly say, I don't care for Tyler at all. I feel like everything we invested in his story-arch about Voq didn't really pay off, and I am not interested in making the same mistake again. His relationship with Burnham was also too halfhearted to make anyone care then or now about anything they have to say to eachother. Why was he even recruited by Section 31? Why is he here? Why why why?

Back to Tilly and the crazy plan to save her. Stamets takes the ship into the network and he and Burnham go out to find Tilly. In a matter of minutes, Saru has fixed up a way for them to be able to communicate with eachother though they're going to be in the network. And it's a common and always hilarious theme in Star Trek where they manage to solve seemingly extremely complicated problems in a matter of seconds just because it's convenient for the plot. Another good example is the five minutes or so it takes Stamets to fix new spores for the spore drive in Season 1.

Tilly and May see the ship and go inside to find help. May is sceptical at first but Tilly tells her to trust her, since she's been inside her head she should know it's going to be ok. Then the second after when Tilly goes to pinky swear, May has no idea what that is. It makes me wonder what exactly May does know from having been inside Tilly's head. One second it's assumed May knows everything Tilly knows and the next May's information about human things is very lacking, like the crying in the previous episode and the pinky swearing in this.

Either way, they find eachother inside the ship. And they find the "monster". Which turns out to be... Hugh? Yep, apparently Stamets boyfriend (husband? Were they married? Can't remember) is alive and mostly unwell inside the network and the spores are trying to kill him because he is killing them. He is using some sort of poisonous bark to keep them off him, which they see as a threat. But where the heck did he get the bark from in the first place? Unclear. He runs away from them anyway and Stamets runs after.

All the best monsters were in TOS anyway.

Meanwhile, Discovery is taking a beating from being inside the network and the Section 31 people show up to save them with their fancy technology. It makes me wonder why they aren't the ones with the spore drive?

Inside the network they finally gets Hugh to come along with them and hurry to get back to the "regular" ship. But first of course they need to have a scene in which they explain how Hugh ended up in the network to begin with, that they really don't have time with in that situation and that doesn't really make all that much sense. I'm not going to say that they are trying to retconn Hugh back into the story, because it has been somewhat hinted that he was inside the network all along... somewhat. It's vague and weakly explained though.

They get back to the spore-drive-cubicle that allows them to transverse between the network and regular space only to find that Hugh can't leave. Exciting twist! Hugh isn't really real and has to die anyway (because he is disrupting the spores). I was quite intrigued for half a second.
Except only no, they find a way to bring him to regular space using the spore-transporter that May used on Tilly.

Also right after the reveal that Hugh can't leave the network there was a long ass black pause of several seconds which made me think my ps4 had broken down. Scary.

May doesn't initially want to transport Hugh because that would mean she can't cross over anymore. Why not? Quite unclear. She does in the end anyway, because who can say no to true love.
The episode ends with Burnham voicing her concerns to Philippa about her hunting down Spock. Philippa tells her not to worry, which Burnham of course has trouble trusting. It is also unclear why Philippa is so eager to catch Spock except it being her Section 31 duty and maybe fun? We don't know anything about her agenda in this universe, and while that can be interesting too, I think I would prefer to see more character and story development rather than constantly getting twists sprung in my face. They did that with Lorca and while that was cool, it also didn't really give a satisfying pay-off in the end so no more of that please.