Star Trek is back baby! Welcome back to the new wave of scientific exploration Trekkies! With former Emperor Georgiou joining Section 31, Captain Lorca dead and the captainless USS Discovery coming face-to-face with the USS Enterprise a lot happened at the end of last season. Where will it go from here?
Synopsis: The crew of the U.S.S. Discovery joins forces with Captain Pike to unravel the mystery of seven mysterious red signals that have appeared across the universe. (IMDB)
Writers: Gretchen J. Berg, Aaron Harberts & Ted Sullivan
Director: Alex Kurtzman
Rating: TV-MA
Running Time: 60mins
“Brother”starts off with an exposition-heavy narration by Michael Burnham as she explains her origin story and eventual arrival at Vulcan with her foster parents Sarek and Amanda. Amanda makes her feel a bit more at home before she is introduced to their son and Burnham’s new foster brother Spock. Back on Discovery, the crew is trying to discover why the Enterprise made contact. There are signs of life onboard, but they are unable to make any sort of contact with them. They receive a signal for Captain Pike and two officers to beam onboard startling both Sarek and Burnham who never expected to see Spock again.
En route to the transport deck, Saru and Burnham discuss Spock’s arrival and what that means to her, but she’s focused on the mission at hand. They arrive and are greeted by Captain Pike (AnsonMount), his security officer Commander Nhan (Rachael Ancheril) and Science Officer Lt. Connolly (Sean Connolly Affleck) who isn’t Spock. They ask why he’s there and it turns out on Federation orders he is there to assume command of Discovery to protect the fate of the Federation and all its citizens. As they walk through the ship, Pike brings up the similarities between Burnham and Spock while alluding to his absence.
On the bridge, they DNA-verify Captain Pike’s identity as he tries to convince the crew that he isn’t the bad guy, understanding that they are wary to welcome a stranger into their midst. He briefs their mission: to investigate a strange red energy anomaly that appeared along with six others in the galaxy. As they warp to its coordinates, Stamets uses a device to watch a hologram of his beloved Hugh until Tilly comes and offers Stamets a new lab space. However, after everything that has happened, Stamets has agreed to teach on Vulcan and this was going to be his last mission.
As Burnham reminiscences about her relationship with Amanda, Sarek arrives at her quarters and explains his new role to help Starfleet better understand these energy signals. The conversation diverts to the topic of Spock as they both realize neither of them have spoken to him in years. She questions that Spock taught her the Vulcan way, but what was she supposed to teach him and he replies with human empathy. Unfortunately, Sarek believes he never truly felt connected to his foster sister and disconnected from his human emotion, but she reassures him that Spock’s human side is very much intact.
Back on the bridge, the team is arriving at their destination and after a quick roll-call they come out of warp at an interstellar asteroid with no signal of the original energy source. The asteroid is emitting a weird atmosphere around it and after using a pulse to try to obtain some data, they repel each other like magnets and set it on a collision course. In the mayhem of all this, they notice a seemingly abandoned Federation medical frigate that was assumed destroyed by the Klingons almost a year prior. They look for options to try to search the frigate, but Saru runs the numbers and knows it is near impossible to get down there.
Pike interjects and wants a solution and Burnham has one. They plan to make their way down to the surface and place some projectors, but it isn’t without its risk as they could be torn into a million pieces when trying to beam back. Captain Pike, Burnham and his two Enterprise officers enter gravitation pods to make their way down to the surface. They weave through the pieces of rock hurtling through space, but Science Officer Connolly becomes cocky and becomes the first casualty with Pike’s pod damaged and on a collision course. The team is able to eject the Captain from his pod remotely allowing Burnham to grab him and bring them safely down to the surface of the asteroid.
They make their way to the frigate where Burnham reports signs of an incoming target. Salvage robots scan them when a woman’s voice tells them to follow the drones to her location. Upon reaching the medical bay, they find Commander Jett Reno (Tig Notaro), the frigate’s engineer, who has been trapped on this rock trying to keep the remaining crew alive. She wasn’t even aware that the war was over. Unfortunately the asteroid’s trajectory means this is a time-sensitive mission and they have to try to rescue the remaining crew as quickly as possible.
They set up a transporter signal allowing Discovery to beam up the injured patients while maneuvering through the asteroid field. However on the second round, the power falters and Burnham tries to rewire it leaving her behind. She runs through the exploding frigate, but is blown back and impaled by a burning piece of metal. She sees a blurry figure approaching her and assumes this is the end when it turns out to be Captain Pike who has returned to save her as Discovery beams them back onboard.
Tilly rushes to Burnham’s side to make sure she is alright when they discuss how she tried to bring back a piece of the asteroid, but it couldn’t be brought back because of its energy-rich material. This new discovery causes Tilly and Stamets to use a gravity simulator to attract the asteroid towards them and grab a piece of its unknown material. On the bridge, Captain Pike steps down from the chair and allows Saru to retake control for the remainder of the mission.
Burnham comes to Pike’s office where they discuss his continued joint-custody command of Discovery. She asks for permission to board Enterprise and see her brother, but Enterprise’s lack of involvement in the war took a toll on its crew causing Spock to take a leave of absence. Regardless, Burnham again asks permission to board and Pike grants it. He reassures her that Discovery’s mission this time around will be a lot more fun and she looks forward to it. Onboard the Enterprise, Burnham enters Spock’s quarters and looks over his uniform while remembering her childhood with him. She finds his audio log where Spock alludes to leaving on a secret mission and Burnham is able to decipher his message: he’s gone searching for the other mysterious energy sources.
Questions
- What does Lorca’s last fortune cookie message mean?
- Can Pike truly be trusted?
- What is Spock’s plan?
- What do the red energy sources mean?
- Who was the original choice to take over Discovery?
- Will Stamets be convinced to stay onboard Discovery with the possibilities of a new energy source?
- Will Nhan replace Tyler’s open security position onboard?
- Will Jett Reno assume the role of makeshift medical officer in the absence of Hugh or will she butt heads with Stamets in the engineering department?
- Speaking of, will Tyler or Hugh return in some capacity given their main cast status in the credits?
Overall, Brother was a great season premiere that fired on all cylinders in setting up this new story. With the arrival of the Enterprise, many fans were mixed on what that would mean for the timeline of the universe and the arrival of one of Star Trek’s most beloved characters, but these aspects merely complemented the story at hand. It took no time to get the story going and it propelled forward at warp speed as we were introduced to a replacement Captain, a season-long arc of scientific intrigue, family tension and exceptional sci-fi action all within its 60 minute run-time. The showrunners saw what worked with the previous season, ran with it for the premiere and hopefully that continues onward for the rest of Discovery’s next mission.
Score: 9/10
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