Despite Yourself

Despite Yourself is a great episode of Star Trek: Discovery. The crew of the Discovery is in an alternate universe and have to act quickly to fit in to the new universe. I WILL NOT SPOIL IT FOR YOU.

Johnathan Frakes (Star Trek: First Contact) directs this episode and gives it a certain cinematic style that some of the previous episodes are lacking. Also he manages to get better performances out of the actors as well. Especially Mary Wiseman (Baskets) who delivers a stunning performance when her character is forced to act a certain way, which happens to be the complete opposite of her characters personality. Also Jason Isaacs (Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets) unsurprisingly gives a great performance as a captain who is also forced to act a way his character isn't use to and he pulls it off to great effect.

The episode is also the funniest yet, with a certain characters Scottish accent being a stand out. The only downside to this episode is that some of the editing and a couple of moments from the character Ash Tyler aren't executed as well as the rest of the episode.

Otherwise it was the best episode yet in my opinion.

8/10

Longtime Trek fan, all series, movies even the reboots though the last one jumped the shark in terms of just being yet another explosion-filled adventure movie, not Trek at all. And I don't even really care whether the movies or series are 'Trek' or not. Just that they are worth watching. which Discovery decidedly is not, despite my repeated attempts simply due to being a Trek fan. For one thing, what has this crew ever actually, er, discovered? Beyond that, lousy acting, lousy lighting (I don't watch much TV, maybe the shadows and darkness are the current cool thing but doesn't do much for me), lousy stories, lousy characters. Beyond the overhyped and terribly bad actress Michael character (where in hell do people find her a good actress?) I could not name one character in this show without a character list. whereas in all other Trek series, within a few episodes, I and other fans could easily do so. Says a lot. It's frankly just an awful show and I think by this point I'll only continue watching to see how utterly worse it might get, if that's possible. Longtime, and hugely disappointed, Trek fan.

When this series is on, it's really, really on. "Despite Yourself" offers the best of Trek in all it's techie, backstory-rich, high-concept, high-adventure, character-driven greatness. And as always, this show looks amazing. The revisit of a story line that ties this series to a thread started with Classic Trek work effortlessly. Nothing feels forced here. Tilly is used to excellent comedic effect when she has to take on a role she is uncomfortable with. And, everyone shines, really. One of the things I appreciate about this series is that the plot is always moving forward. The writers don't set up a mystery and drag on the reveal for months of twists and turns. This episode is replete with plot movement, making it very satisfying after the cliffhanger before the holiday break.

My only gripe was that the tech and Trek history references were so thick that I had to hit "pause" a few times to explain things to my +1 who is not a Trek fan, but has been watching with me since "Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad" (the one with Dwight from The Office in it haha). A couple times she was like, "Whaaaaattt in the h*** are they talking about?" Yay for smart sci fi. But, man. All the science.

For me, "Despite Yourself" worked on every level. Star Trek: Discovery is earning it's place as one of the strongest Trek outings yet!

This is a reprise of an original Trek episode. A parallel universe finds the crew exchanging places with another Discovery. The problem is that this ship is a warrior ship which is more Klingon than Starfleet. Death and manipulation is a part of life although to succeed there still must be knowledge and expertise. They do a nice job of pulling this off. The acting is cranked up a notch.

This is actually a good episode but the character of Tilly is so annoying, played badly by an actor who is not capable of the role she has been given. I suspect nepotism of some sort. I worry about the rest of the series if she has a prominent role. She's horrible, both as an actor and as a character, and detracts from the overall quality of the show.