Lethe

This episode's title reminds me of a character from "Dagger of the Mind", played by Susan Wasson: "Lethe" - a word that means either the name of a river in Hell, that drinking from can cause you to forget everything, or it simply means "oblivion" or "forgetfulness".

In that TOS episode, Dr Tristan Adams (Played by James Gregory of the appropriate film "The Mancurian Candidate") says this while the blank expression of the woman "Lethe" stares at us from the background:

(A Toast) - "To all mankind, may we never find space so vast, planets so cold, hearts and mind so empty that... that we cannot fill them with love and warmth."

And this exemplifies Sarek's current condition. He is in an empty place, a Lethe place. His ship was damaged by an attack from a "Vulcans Only" terrorist group, the same group that tried to kill Michael when she was a young girl, when Sarek used the Mind Meld to share his Katra with her and bring her back.

A mind meld that works both ways, now his Katra is calling for Michael.

This episode was very difficult for me to watch. From within Sarek and Michael's Meld, there is a rich history of things that happened, some of which we know about, regarding why Sarek, in TOS, had a strained relationship with his own son. We already knew that Sarek wanted Spock to serve in a more Vulcan way. In TOS, Spock did not attend the Vulcan Science Academy. But here, it is the Vulcan Expeditionary Force. Details are not important, the reasons why are.

So we see here that it was Sarek's intent that both Michael and Spock be involved with Vulcan endeavors. But the Vulcans gave him a choice, and the results of that choice directly relate to the original story of Spock and Sarek.

Masterfully done, and it was done from within a rescue mission for Sarek, while he is drifting away both literally and figuratively in the "Yridian Nebula" (Another reference to "Yuri", there were many references to "Kei and Yuri" in Next Generation, care of artist and designer Rick Sternbach).

Meanwhile, it's revealed here and Lorca has some real issues, he carries a Phaser while having sex with Admiral Cornwell (Jayne Brook, who I did not recognize from "Kindergarten Cop"). She wants to do something about it, but is sidetracked by having to resume Sarek's mission in his stead. And now, she is in a Lethe place. The question is, what's Lorca going to do about it?

Must we do this? Whoever thought it would be a good idea to have actor Mary Wiseman run around the ship's corridors (people are working here, don't they have a gym?) and then get a lesson in nutrition from MB was obviously asleep at the wheel. She's a big girl. Ok, not as big as she's going to get a couple of seasons down the line but this scene is deliberately provocative. It's as if the writers want her to be ridiculed. If its just done to prove a point then it's unworthy of all concerned.

The whole Michael Burnham-was-adopted-by-Vulcans thing never really made any sense to me. She has already been given superhuman powers of.........well, you name it, she's got it, so maybe it was intended somehow to excuse her perennial insolence. Again, the suspicion forms that we are being challenged to dislike her.

I flicked through the rest to remind myself that it was as bad as I'd remembered and checked in with the good folks at Memory Alpha so as to be sure I had not overlooked anything important. I hadn't.

One thing I would love to be able to expunge from my memory, however, was the World's Least Charismatic Love Scene. Jeremy Isaacs and Jayne Brook as Admiral Cornwell manage to hop into bed together while exhibiting less shared chemistry than two strangers discussing the latest football score. It was so bad it desrves some sort of award.

I will admit that as much as I am enjoying STD (What a crappy acronym...LOL) it didn't really pan with the ST vibe: Far too dark, too much politics, too brooding and selfish for Roddenberry to enjoy, I'm sure..

And while episodes up 'till now were fine, as a modern, "trendy" gritty and dark Sci Fi series go, this episode finally brought Gene's ideas of gallantry and selflessness to the table.

Here we see a crew acting far more like their counterparts on the other series than in episodes up until this one.

An all-round pleasing episode.

I thought this was well done. We get to look into the past and get a fix on Burnham's transition to Starfleet. We also see the nutty Captain getting found out. The Klingons are not to be trusted and a trap is set. We also find out who the brother of Burnham is.

-Watching captain Lorca i started to think how much i like an officer like Riker who knows his crew well enough to put his life in their hands in a crisis situation,an officer who can be a good friend but also a good leader in the same time.The complexity of the characters reminds me about the ones from Deep Space Nine,but that series had a dark tone mixed with a dark humor which makes the show much pleasant to watch .Probably this series is one of the best i ever saw ,but ,because the Producers changed the Klingons this series is the worst Star Trek show i ever saw ,even Star Trek:Enterprise is better,because it's easy to re-create something than dealing with certain restrictions due to the parameters imposed by the story (the look and the behavior of the The Motion Picture's Klingons in this case).It's too bad the Producers are not aware about how disappointing it is for the fans too see that kind of changes,because many of us liked even since we were children to imitate the races from shows like Star Wars or Star Trek.For us changing the Klingons is like changing Chewie in to a horse .I still believe this series is a REMAKE of the original universe ,because the changes are becoming bigger.