Star Trek Discovery "People of Earth" - Detailed Analysis and Review

11/01/20 • 30 min

In Star Trek Discovery Season 3 Episode 3, Michael Burnham is reunited with the crew of the USS Discovery. Saru takes his place as the official captain, and they jump to Earth to see what has become of the Federation in this new century. But they don't receive the warm welcome they were hoping for. Time for some good old Starfleet diplomacy. And what's the deal with the mysterious Adira, a United Earth Defence Force inspector who is trying to sabotage the ship?

At the beginning of this episode, I acknowledge the passing of the great Sir Thomas Sean Connery, or Sean Connery as he was known to us.

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Transcript

Welcome to Nerd Heaven

I’m Adam David Collings, the author of Jewel of The Stars

And I am a Nerd.

This is episode 40 of the podcast.

Today, we’re talking about Star Trek Discovery season 3 episode 3. People of Earth.

But first, I want to acknowledge the passing of Sir Thomas Sean Connery, or as we more commonly know him, Sean Connery. I learned just last night that he had died at the age of 90. He brought a lot of joy into my life through his acting work, and I’ll always remember him as James Bond, Henry Jones Snr, and King Arthur from First Knight.

He remained married to his second wife, Michelin Roquebrune right up until the end, 45 years in total, which is an achievement worthy of respect among famous actors.

He is also survived by his son Jason Connery.

But, you know, Sean Connery has a Star Trek connection. While he never appeared in Star Trek, he was originally cast as Sybok, Spock’s brother, in Star Trek V The Final Frontier. But he was unable to do it because he was busy with Indianna Jones and The Last Crusade, which honestly, was a much better movie in my opinion. But the mythical planet Sha-Ka Ree was named in Connery’s honour. Which I think is really nice.

So, I’d like to express my condolences to all of his loved ones, especially his wife and son.

So, back to Star Trek Discovery.

The description on Memory Alpha reads

“Reunited with Burnham, Discovery heads to Earth to find out what has happened to the Federation in the last thousand years.”

This episode was written by Bo Yeon Kim and Erika Lippoldt

It was Directed by Jonathan Frakes

And it first aired on the 29th of October 2020.

Make it so

The episode opens with a quick recap of what Michael has been up to during the last year, while she’s been searching for Discovery, indirectly waiting for them to show up. It’s a shame we didn’t really get to see any of her adventures with Book, but I’m sure there’ll be plenty of tie-in media that will be more than happy to fill this gap. She worked as a courier, travelling from world to world making deliveries for a tiny handful of Dilithium.

But the interesting thing is, it does this in the form of a log entry, aimed at Discovery. The voiceover makes it clear that even before the burn, Dilithium was becoming rare. And we get to see a glimpse of some 321st century Starfleet ships. They don’t look all that different to those we’ve seen from other centuries. We don’t see any of them up close, but the basic shape is present in both of them. Saucer section, secondary hull, warp nacelles.

Burnham didn’t give up everything for this version of the future and she’s determined to set things back to how they should be. She’s also searching for answers on what caused the burn.

And we see her hair change over time, visually confirming the passage of time.

She seems to have built a very meaningful relationship with Book, although it seems it’s not romantic as such. And while I think they’d make a great couple, I’m cool with that. I like their friendship the way it is portrayed in this episode. Although It does feel like there’s some romantic tension between them.

But what would a log entry be without a stardate?

In the first two seasons, they just kinda made up random stardates. None of it made any sense because to be true pre-TOS stardates, they’d have to be 3-digit numbers.

The stardate Michael quotes in this episode is 865211.3. This is a six digit stardate. Those in the 24th century, starting with TNG, were 5 digits. Now, I haven’t done the maths, but I imagine this stardate is correct, that they’ve calculated from the TNG system onwards the right number of years. I mean, it looks about right. So that’s pretty cool.

And then we cut to Michael’s arrival on Discovery in the transporter room. And we get a very emotional reunion between her and all of her family. It was wonderful to see. Once again, Sonequa Martin Green’s facial acting really gets across so much emotion. Anyway, I loved this. It was very well done, and it certainly made me feel.

And there’s this look between Burhnham and Georgiou, who stands at the back of the room, unlike the others who crowd around Burnham for hugs. That’s not G...

At the beginning of this episode, I acknowledge the passing of the great Sir Thomas Sean Connery, or Sean Connery as he was known to us.

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Transcript

Welcome to Nerd Heaven

I’m Adam David Collings, the author of Jewel of The Stars

And I am a Nerd.

This is episode 40 of the podcast.

Today, we’re talking about Star Trek Discovery season 3 episode 3. People of Earth.

He remained married to his second wife, Michelin Roquebrune right up until the end, 45 years in total, which is an achievement worthy of respect among famous actors.

He is also survived by his son Jason Connery.

So, I’d like to express my condolences to all of his loved ones, especially his wife and son.

So, back to Star Trek Discovery.

The description on Memory Alpha reads

“Reunited with Burnham, Discovery heads to Earth to find out what has happened to the Federation in the last thousand years.”

This episode was written by Bo Yeon Kim and Erika Lippoldt

It was Directed by Jonathan Frakes

And it first aired on the 29th of October 2020.

Make it so

Burnham didn’t give up everything for this version of the future and she’s determined to set things back to how they should be. She’s also searching for answers on what caused the burn.

And we see her hair change over time, visually confirming the passage of time.

But what would a log entry be without a stardate?

In the first two seasons, they just kinda made up random stardates. None of it made any sense because to be true pre-TOS stardates, they’d have to be 3-digit numbers.

And there’s this look between Burhnham and Georgiou, who stands at the back of the room, unlike the others who crowd around Burnham for hugs. That’s not G...

Previous Episode

Star Trek Discovery "Far From Home" - Detailed Analysis & Review

Star Trek Discovery Season 3 is off to a pretty strong start. I enjoyed "Far From Home" and think it may even be better than last week's installment. This time around, we catch up with the crew of the USS Discovery, and see how they are all coping in this new time period. Saru and Tilly make first contact with some friendly Coridonites and an oppressive courier. Jet tries to teach Stammets what an idiot he's being, and Georgiou finds her self right at him in this more dystopian future. But running through it all is the classic Star Trek idealism and optimism.

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Transcript

Welcome to Nerd Heaven.

I’m Adam David Collings, the author of Jewel of The Stars

And I am a nerd.

This is episode 39 of the podcast.

Today, we’re talking about the second episode of Star Trek Discovery season 3.

Far From Home.

I really liked this episode, and may have enjoyed it more than last week’s.

The description on memory alpha reads

After the USS Discovery crash-lands on a strange planet, the crew finds themselves racing against time to repair their ship. Meanwhile, Saru and Tilly embark on a perilous first-contact mission in hopes of finding Burnham.

It was Written by Michelle Paradise, Jenny Lumet, and Alex Kurtzman

It was directed by Olatunde Osunsanmi

And it first aired on the 22nd of October 2020.

Make it so.

So last week, we saw what happened to Michael Burnham when she emerged from the wormhole in the 32nd century. Throughout the episode, she was searching for Discovery, but never found it.

In this episode, we follow the crew of discovery as they emerge from the wormhole. The journey has been pretty hard on them. They’re all unconscious. Saru is the first to wake, as the ship emerges from the wormhole and plunges toward a planet. So is this Teralysium?

There are a whole lot of asteroids in orbit of this world. Discovery crashes through one, which is probably very unrealistic but looks cool.

We get a very cool shot of the ship crashing onto the planet. We’ve had a couple of great crash sequences in Star Trek history. The Enterprise D on Veridian, Voyager on an icy world in the episode Timeless, and this. I think the enterprise D is still my favourite, but still is still an epic and visually stunning sequence.

So the ship is now crashed on the surface of a planet, covered in ice. It doesn’t look like she’s going anywhere in a hurry.

Most starships in the Star Trek universe were not designed to land and take off from a planetary surface. Voyager was rather unique in that it was equipped with landing struts. Even if Discovery is capable of landing, this was hardly a deliberate touchdown.

Anyway, they’re all very lucky to be alive, and it doesn’t take long for them all to realise and appreciate it. It’s all thanks to Lieutenant Detmer’s skills, but she’s not celebrating. She’s definitely not herself. She’s got a nasty head wound.

Jet points that out Teralysium wasn’t very icy, but, of course, planets tend to be very diverse. Look at all the different climates on earth.

Saru gives a nice little speech. They’re all very interested to know what’s out there. Where and when are they? There’s a whole universe out there to explore, and they’re Starfleet officers. Their curiosity must be running at very high levels. But right now, the priority is to repair the ship. They are needed in here. They can figure out what’s out there later.

Saru has come such a long way. He demonstrates multiple times throughout this episode what a great captain he has grown into. And yes, as the ship’s first officer, he is next in line, so as far as I’m concerned, he’s the captain, until that time, if and when, the show tells me otherwise.

We get a great sense of organised chaos as the crew scramble to work on the ship. The sparks and the extras running about the set give a great sense of activity.

Tilly has determined that there are certain areas on this planet that have higher amounts of oxygen than the rest of the world. These appear to be manufactured settlements. We’ll see one of them later. Saru takes from this that they are not on Teralysium, and that there is life out there. There is life in the universe. This moment is underplayed compared with Burnham’s scream of relief in the last episode, but it was important for the crew of Discovery to have a similar moment. They’ve been successful in their mission to save all sentient life. And while they don’t have much time for celebrating. It needs to be acknowledged and appreciated. It’s a nice moment.

And then Georgiou turns up. I found Tilly’s line “You have some Leeland on your boot” to be darkly amusing, b...

Next Episode

Star Trek Discovery "Forget Me Not" - Detailed Analysis & Review

In the fourth episode of Star Trek Discovery Season 3, Forget Me Not, we pay a visit to the Trill homeworld, only seen once before in the DS9 episode Equilibrium. There, Adira hopes to find a way to connect with the memories of her symbiont. Meanwhile, Saru tries to help the crew deal with the emotional issues they're facing since leaving their lives behind.

This episode had some fantastic character moments, and I'm loving the way they're developing Detmer's character. It was also wonderful to see Trill again.

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Transcript

Welcome to Nerd Heaven

I’m Adam David Collings, the author of Jewel of The Stars

And I am a nerd

This is episode 40 of the podcast.

Today we’re looking at the fourth episode of Star Trek Discovery season 3.

For Me Not.

The description on Memory Alpha reads

Burnham and Adira visit the Trill homeworld while Saru's efforts on the Discovery to help the crew reconnect yield surprises.

It was written by Alan McElroy & Chris Silvestri & Anthony Maranville

It was Directed by Hanelle M. Culpepper

And it first aired on the 5th of November 2020.

Make it so.

This episode follows a fairly classic Trek structure. There’s an A plot and a b plot. But in this case, both are connected to the ongoing serialised plot arc of the show.

To be honest, my favourite part of the episode was not the Trill stuff, as awesome as it was to see a familiar Trek race come back, a DS9 race no less, it was the B plot that dealt with all the emotional baggage the crew are facing as they adjust to their new reality. It was done very well.

And that’s actually where the episode begins.

We get a log entry from Doctor Culbert. The visit to earth has been a reality check for the crew and it’s all starting to hit them, just how little they have to hold on to. When they first arrived, it was all frantic survival. But now they’ve had time to live with it for a bit, and the reality is starting to set in. They’ve left everything behind. Everyone they ever loved. Everything that was familiar. The personal moments we use to define ourselves. They’ve jumped past all of that. They all feel lost and disconnected.

Culvert is in a unique situation to understand, with all the weird stuff he’s gone through, and overcome. He knows something is going on with Detmer. He saw it back in episode 2. But she’s not yet willing to admit that she needs his help.

A mantra has arisen among the crew. “When we find the Federation.” some find comfort in that. But not all.

I’m really glad they took the time in this episode to acknowledge all of this. It’s important for believable characters. They can’t just go on as if their lives haven’t been turned upside down.

We’re seeing the truth of what a big sacrifice it was that they made.

Now, here’s the big problem. I’ve touched on this a little in previous episodes, but there are so many crew members on the ship. And not just our main characters, who know Michael well and really care for her, but all the extras. The little guys. People like Gene who was cleaning Leeland’s remains out of the spore chamber, or the no-names we pass in the hallway in this episode. How well did these people know Michael? Well enough for them all to willingly give up their entire lives, their families, to go into the future with her? I’m sorry, but I find that pretty unbelievable.

The truth is, we should have had a small group of people come along, who had a close relationship with Michael. And maybe a couple of others who had nothing to leave behind.

We should have a crew that is barely adequate to keep the ship running. We should be scrambling to find new crew members to come aboard and help. Not only would that add some extra tension to the show, it would be a whole lot more believable. It seems that practically the entire crew of Discovery came to the future. And I just can’t buy that.

And we’re reminded that Adira’s trill symbiont has the knowledge to help them find Starfleet headquarters. But because she’s human, she can’t properly access those memories.

Looking at Adira’s scan, the symbiont seems way too big, but that’s a minor nitpick, and there’s a bunch of ways to explain it. But it looks like what a trill symbiont should look like.

Adira doesn’t remember how she got the symbiont. In fact, she remembers waking up a year ago in an escape pod. Before that nothing. Does she mean literally nothing? As in, no knowledge of her life before the symbiont? I think she does. But there are some things bleeding through, like the ability to make a great Bajoran Hasperat.

They have a quick discussion, but all agree pretty quickly that the best option is to go to Trill. There’s no guarantee the Trill will help, but if they do nothing, nothing changes anyway.

So they arrive and ask for medical help for a host an...