TV | Superior Realities

I keep wanting to call this episode, “Trek Yourself Before You Wreck Yourself.”

So the speculation was correct: Following a malfunction with the spore drive, the Discovery has arrived in the Mirror Universe. This puts not only the ship in danger, but all of the Federation, as Discovery is the only ship with the intel needed to defeat Klingon cloaking. Desperate to return home, the crew hatches a daring scheme to infiltrate the Terran Empire and gain information crucial to finding a path back to their home universe.

Meanwhile, Lieutenant Tyler’s mental state continues to deteriorate, putting the mission in jeopardy.

I was a little suspicious of Discovery going to the Mirror Universe so soon in the series, and it seems I was right to be concerned. Really, is rehashing old TOS plots all this show can do?

More importantly — and this is a weird thing to say, but it’s true — Discovery is way too dark to make the Mirror Universe work. Yes, it’s the evil universe, but it’s always been the goofy, cartoony vision of evil. The Mirror Universe is supposed to be Star Trek at its campiest. It’s a silly “what if” with no consequences. It’s just for fun.

Discovery’s grim tone sucks all of the fun out of the Mirror Universe. Its lost its all its colour and personality.

But the problems don’t stop there. “Despite Yourself” is a great summation of everything wrong with Discovery.

First, we got plot holes. Of course we have plot holes. It wouldn’t be Discovery without them. Sure, Stamets can’t run the spore drive in his current condition, but what’s stopping them just bio-engineering someone else to pilot it? Yeah, there’d be risks, but is it any less risky than going deep cover in an empire you know next to nothing about?

And why didn’t Discovery just transmit its findings on the cloak to Starfleet? And why is Tyler still on duty despite his obvious mental instability?

Next, we’ve got Discovery continuing to treat its non-white crew members as expendable. This show started with a great diverse cast, but at the current rate it’ll soon just be Burnham lost in a sea of white people. Nice infinite diversity you got there, Discovery.

The next issue is a big one, and it’s a spoiler, so if you haven’t seen the episode yet, you may want to skip the rest of this review. Though at this point you can hardly call it a surprise.

This is a dummy paragraph to give you time to leave if you don’t want to be spoiled.

Okay? Okay.

So, yeah, Tyler’s a Klingon.

Damn it.

Let’s enumerate all the ways this is a terrible idea, shall we?

Well, first, it completely ruins all of Tyler’s character development to date. He was one of Discovery’s more layered and compelling characters, but now he’s just a villain with some screws loose. Either he gets killed off later, or he gets somehow redeemed and goes back to being a part of Discovery‘s crew, which would make no sense on any level. Either way, it’s a waste.

Also, his seeming sexual abuse at L’Rell’s hands is now revealed to be a lie (albeit a lie he himself believed for a time). Considering how actual victims of sexual assault are continually doubted and accused of lying, this is a deeply problematic decision, and breathtakingly tone-deaf in the current climate. It’s stupid, it’s insensitive, and anyone with half a brain should know better.

And oh, yeah, let’s not forget that the only character of South Asian descent has turned out to be a sinister sleeper agent from a violent religious sect. I’m sure that kind of narrow-minded stereotyping is exactly what Roddenberry had in mind.

Frack me.

As for good news? Well, there isn’t much.

Tilly is still a delight. She is the only one evoking some of the traditional lightheartedness of the Mirror Universe as she attempts to impersonate her ruthless counterpart, “Captain Killy.”

Also, the art design continues to be impeccable. Those Mirror uniforms are sexy as all hell. CraveTV has improved its video quality since last I used the service, too, so I can now appreciate Discovery’s sumptuous visuals without it looking like I’m viewing the show through a thick fog. That’s nice.

I am a little curious who the “faceless emperor” turns out to be. It’s kind of reminding me of the Imperial stories in SWTOR, actually. Wouldn’t it be fun if it turned out Valkorion was leading the Terran Empire? I’d feel much better about this arc if that turned out to be the case.

I really wouldn’t past the slimy bastard, honestly. What are the barriers between realities (and sci-fi franchises) to one such as he?

Someone needs to write a fan fic of that. Should include Burnham shouting “KNEEL BEFORE THE DRAGON OF ZAKUUL” at least once.

Ahem, anyway…

In the end this is a very disappointing episode. I’m really starting to think Discovery’s writers just don’t understand anything about what Star Trek is supposed to be, and if I hadn’t just paid money to watch the rest of the season, this might have been the final straw for me.

Overall rating: 4/10 It seemed okay while I was watching, but the more I think about it, the less I like it.

I really wish they hadn’t cancelled the DLC for Andromeda.

Since I already had a Crave TV subscription for Discovery, I decided to peruse their other selections. One show that caught my eye was Lucifer, and while I didn’t know much about it going in, it didn’t take long for it to win me over.

Loosely based on a comic book of the same name, Lucifer focuses on the titular character, Lucifer Morningstar, also known as Satan, Beelzebub, and so forth. He’s the Devil, in other words. After a few thousand years of running hell, he got bored with the place and moved to Los Angeles, where he operates the nightclub Lux and lives a life of decadence befitting the lord of sin.

Lucifer’s playboy life takes an unexpected turn when one of his human friends is murdered. Lucifer finds himself mixed up with the police investigation into her death and develops a fascination with the detective in charge, a former B-list actress turned straight-laced cop named Chloe Decker. Alone of all humanity, Chloe is somehow immune to Lucifer’s devilish powers, and he wants to know why.

And the series pretty much goes from there. It’s basically yet another cop show with a supernatural twist, a standard police procedural apart from the fact one of the “detectives” is literally the Devil.

It’s a pretty basic show. The ending to each episode’s mystery of the week is usually very easy to see coming, and for the most part it’s just following standard tropes. It’s also no stranger to plot holes and is generally not a show you should think too hard about.

What makes it worth watching, though, is Lucifer himself. The actor who plays him, Tom Ellis, is absolutely brilliant. He’s perfectly charming and impeccably witty, and even at his sleaziest, he’s still irresistibly lovable.

He’s got range, too. Lucifer is mostly a comedic show, but on occasion it does have some more dramatic moments, and Tom Ellis absolutely nails those, too, injecting an incredible amount of pathos into the role. It’s amazing how sympathetic Lucifer can end up being (sympathy for the Devil, heh).

A core conceit at the heart of Lucifer’s mythology is the principle of history being written by the victors. God won the war in heaven, so we humans have only ever heard his side of the story. Naturally, he paints Lucifer, his rebelling son, as evil. But Lucifer himself tells a different story.

Devout Christians may be bothered by the idea of the Devil being presented as a sympathetic, if clearly flawed, person (and indeed the show has been protested by some activist groups), but I’m about as far from Christian as it’s possible to be in the Western world, so to me it’s an interesting new take on the mythology.

Also, to play Devil’s advocate (pun intended), I have heard it suggested that the message of Lucifer is, in truth, deeply Christian: the idea that no one is beyond redemption, not even the Devil himself.

Lucifer also feels like a refreshingly different character in some of the ways in which he defies the usual cliches of “superhero” type characters. Whereas normally in shows like this the protagonist seeks to conceal their true nature, Lucifer is quite open about it. He’s happy to tell everyone he meets that he’s the lord of hell. It’s just that people usually don’t believe him, viewing it merely as an eccentric affectation.

The show’s liberal attitude to sexuality can also be refreshing, if at times selective. It seems to me that matters of gender and sexual orientation would matter little to immortal celestial beings, and this is reflected by Lucifer and his demonic lieutenant, Mazikeen, both of whom seduce humans of either gender almost constantly.

We see a lot more of Maze with women than we do of Lucifer with men, so it’s not perfect, but at least the effort was made.

On the downside, Lucifer’s co-star, Chloe (Lauren German), is a lot less compelling. She’s rather wooden and just kind of dull in general. It’s fine when she’s just playing the straight (wo)man to Lucifer’s whacky antics, but in more serious scenes, she flounders.

The rest of the cast is mostly just okay, with no else being as delightful as Lucifer or as dull as Chloe, but I will highlight a couple standouts.

One is Rachael Harris’ “Dr. Linda.” Dr. Linda is Lucifer’s hilariously unethical therapist, and like him, she manages to nail both her comedic and dramatic scenes. She’s a real treat.

The other (and the thing that first drew my attention to Lucifer) is the great Tricia Helfer, who joins the cast in season two to play Lucifer’s mother, the “Supreme Goddess of All Creation.” If Tricia Helfer isn’t enough to convince you to watch a show, what is?

Overall, Lucifer isn’t the smartest show ever, and I wouldn’t expect it to be more than it is, but it’s fun. The sheer awesomeness of Tom Ellis is enough to compensate for the show’s hiccups. I’d recommend giving it a try.

Superior Realities

Tag Archives: TV

Review: Star Trek: Discovery, “Despite Yourself”

TV Recommendation: Lucifer

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