Imagine if your own intelligence services had tracked down an incredibly powerful alien technology. A technology that could both create and destroy life and thus be an all-powerful weapon in the wrong hands. A weapon that could turn the civilization of an entire planet to dust, perhaps push entire species to the brink of extinction and forever change the balance of power in the galaxy in favor of expansive new alliances. The United Federation of Planets could hardly do anything to counter such a new opponent, they could only watch helplessly as they would slowly but surely fall apart. Starfleet would be doomed. The long-standing peace between many species would give way to war, death and destruction. Breen, Klingons, Romulans or even the Borg... whoever manages to hold this weapon in their blood-stained hands in the end will rule the galaxy. And in all probability not with moral superiority but with the iron fist of oppression.
And what would you do if you, as the United Federation of Planets, had allies on your side, with billions and billions of living beings on countless planets? Send out an armada of warships to find the weapon? Send agents in all directions to follow the clues? Gather the best archaeologists, cryptologists, mathematicians, physicists, xenobiologists and whoever else with a lot of book knowledge to decipher all the puzzles? Of course not! You would of course only send out ONE ship. And of course it would be the loveboat of the fleet. And you wouldn't send trained soldiers after the two criminals who always seem to be one step ahead. No, you would put the fate of the galaxy in the hands of a whiny captain and her ex-lover - who isn't even a Starfleet officer!
When I watched this episode, I wondered what happened to Star Trek when the word "love" appeared more often in an episode than the words "calibrate," "scan," "warp," or "Jefferies tube." Even though the ship only has minutes left before it implodes, there seems to be enough time to talk about dead fathers, true love, and self-sacrifice for one's loved ones.
Otherwise, the episode is once again a copy of the worst aspects of DIS: People just do their damn job and are then praised in front of the whole crew (woohoo great job!). Adira stutters something that no one cares about. Stamets tries to seem smart by spouting technobabble, but again just comes across as a pompous, self-absorbed loudmouth. And Tilly drinks cocktails again and sinks into fake emotionality as she offers her fat shoulders for her gay friend to cry on.
And even a Star Trek noob could have predicted at the end of the second episode that L'ak is Breen. Surprise, surprise! And let's use some CGI on their faces, which, while pointless, at least justifies the production cost of this episode in which nothing really happens. By the way: In the last episode, our two criminal lovers cold-bloodedly poisoned a guy. But hey, everyone makes mistakes. No reason not to treat them like two lovers who just want to be together and who need a few tearful speeches from Burnham and Book for emotional support und guidance.
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