TV Review: STAR TREK: DISCOVERY: Season 1, Episode 10: Despite Yourself [CBS]
Star Trek: Discovery Despite Yourself Review
Star Trek: Discovery: Season 1, Episode 10: Despite Yourself. This Star Trek: Discovery Despite Yourself review finds that the episode capably picks up where the season’s first half left off and plunges us into dangerous, exciting new territory.
As far as unexpected developments go, Sunday night’s episode is positively jam-packed with them. We knew at the end of Into the Forest I Go that the Discovery was in uncharted space, but I doubt very many people guessed that they were in the Mirror universe. I for one didn’t expect the writers to introduce such a beloved secondary part of Trek mythology so soon, but they did so with aplomb. The revelation is made gradually, giving a sense of buildup as the ship’s crew puts the pieces together bit by bit and filling the viewer with a pleasant feeling of knowingness when it’s finally disclosed.
The Mirror universe setting also gives an unlikely character a chance to shine: with her evil counterpart the captain of the Discovery in this timeline, Tilly (Mary Wiseman) is forced to play the part of not only a leader but a particularly nasty one at that. Her initial exchange with the Terran Empire forces is at turns nerve-wracking and hilarious, with Captain Lorca (Jason Isaacs) coming to her aid in the guise of a Scottish-accented engineer (nudge nudge, wink wink) and the Terrans miraculously buying it.
Having to act as they imagine their doppelgängers would injects an interesting new element into the interactions between the characters. It’s particularly interesting in the case of Lorca, who has already been established as being as morally gray as the ghost of Gene Roddenberry would probably allow. However, he doesn’t really get the chance to indulge his darker impulses as he is wanted for treason in this reality, allowing us to see a hint of the vulnerability he so rawly displayed in Lethe when he is locked in an “agonizer booth”.
But the most interesting character acting out-of-character has got to be Tyler (Shazad Latif). As I have stated in reviews of previous episodes of the show, I have found Tyler to be one of the least engaging parts about the show. This has changed though, with the revelation that he has apparently been brainwashed into being a sort of Manchurian (or Klingon, as it were) candidate for the Klingons. Indeed, he actually gets in the biggest shock of the episode when, in his Klingon personality, he breathlessly breaks Culber’s (Wilson Cruz) neck, causing this writer to gasp aloud as it happened. With two compelling storylines to explore, I’m very much excited to see where Star Trek: Discovery goes from here.
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