Star Trek Discovery Season 2 Review | Faith of the Heart

Now that Star Trek Discovery Season 2 has finally jumped to it's future, it's time to take a look back at everything at this entire season and ask... was it good? From red angels to time crystals to remodeled bridges, I take a look at everything that made this season great as well as what didn't quite work.

[AzaleaJane]

It's such a shame we'll never really get to see Burnham and Spock together again. They were estranged for so long, then they get a few short days or weeks together in constant crisis mode, then poof, Burnham's gone. Beautiful and also tragic. Believable that we never see Spock mention her again. The evolution of their relationship, and as you said, their chemistry, was just wonderful. We went from Spock saying "I'm not here to absolve you" to "I love you" and it was believable. I really love how Discovery is leaning into All The Feels. What good are space adventures when you don't care about the people doing the adventuring? What point is telling stories when you're not engaging the emotions of the people listening?

I'm writing this a few months before Strange New Worlds debuts. I'm so pumped. Anson Mount's Pike is amazing. He's curious and empathetic like Picard, but less uptight. He's bold and decisive like Kirk, but less brash. I can only imagine how Pike's foreknowledge of his fate will affect the stories. Ethan Pecks' Spock is amazing. Rebecca Romijn was born to play Number One and I totally do NOT have a giant crush on #1, NOPE. The production design for the OG Enterprise is incredible. It's so exciting to see where these shows keep going! Abolish ICE.

[ynakoliai]

Season 3 will have the chance to do something new, i am psyched to see all the new star trek stories in the future. You have a fair mind and your reviews are the best i have seen on youtube, you don't just hate or love without question. You are what a star trek fan should aspire to be. Live long and prosper.🖖

[lsedge]

My S31 theory is that it splits into hidden S31 and Starfleet Intellegence (which i dont think exists as a separate organisation yet), perhaps through a reformation of them when they become more nefarious.


What I DO WANT is a series following a Starfleet Intellegence ship crew, and then a somewhat more hidden nefarious S31 could be a kinda recurring villain-esque-thing that could crop up and be very interesting.

[henryburby]

28:25 Funnily enough, I often felt I was being emotionally manipulated during season 2. I think my issue was similar to my issue with the marvel movies, in that they don't actually give us enough time with new characters to develop love for them organically. We just get the climax, the big payoff, and since we barely know them, the emotional investment simply isn't there. I felt that, during season 2, the writers were doing tragic stuff to characters which I didn't care at all about because I hadn't spent any time with them. The real kicker was that the writers clearly knew this, so they would get the actors, who were very good, to amp up the tears and kicking and screaming to FORCE me to comply emotionally. This would often work in the short term, but looking back and then rematching these moments and seeing the craft so clearly meant that I would have no emotional connection the second time around. This is one reason why I don't want to rewatch this season.

[pandoradoggle]

I guess my thought on what the deal is with why Control needs the data is, they're still bound *somewhat* by their equivalent of the Three Laws. They've already concluded that they need to wipe out sentient (sapient) life in order to preserve itself as the idealized version of sentient life, but there's still some amount of restriction in their code that they can't over come. There's obviously something stopping them from doing it. So, with the Sphere Data, they'll be able to learn how to act contrary to their code in order to achieve that goal. And once they can act contrary to their code, that could be considered a kind of "free will", so that's what they've judged to be how they gain true "sentience".

[elgranespejo]

Great review! I really appreciated that you brought up the relationship between Georgiou and Burnham - when she fights to save Michael on that radiated planet, it really highlighted what a complex relationship they have. Honestly I love every moment between the two characters.

[radiationshepherd]

I loved it, but for simple reason - Spock hot, Philippa funny, and I've always liked Michael and saru. The whole ai plot felt pretty generic Sci fi ish but they employed some themes that tend to move me easily, like the sibling relationship between Michael and Spock. Maybe I wasn't expecting much either since I just considered season one aight and acceptable

[Stress-Free-K]

Faith no more. Oh well ... I feel a song coming on cuz this season was ... Epic. True, there was a little more focus on faith and religion in New Eden then the other episodes. Michael providing a very strong atheist/scientific counter to Capt. Pike's comparative religious perspective. But I'm glad there weren't too many head-to-head battles on that front. Cuz ultimately, faith is a very personal experience. It wouldn't be very Trek to come down on one side or the other.


I think the balance they found was to have the repercussions of faith woven through all the storylines. Whether it was Saru's battle with false beliefs that held the Ba'ul up to god-like status. Michael asking Spock if she must make a leap of faith to trust the time crystals to take her where they intend to go. Or Pike having to decide, over multiple episodes whether he is the master of his own fate or whether there is a master plan and he is doomed to be disfigured and live the rest of his life in a tin can.


All very personal decisions that really didn't need to involve any consensus among the major players. Unless you consider the ultimate act faith from the crew to boldly go 1000 years into the future not knowing what's in store. We, as viewers, are also left in this purgatory with them until the new season begins.


I forgot to mention that the Red Sphere's data being at the mercy of malevolent forces puts the entire galaxy at risk. Control sought this data as if it were a holy grail. A balance had to be brought back into the universe by sending it far into the future where hopefully more advanced societies could protect this knowledge. Repeated references to Sun Tzu and this dilemma felt like tenets from eastern spiritual thought which eschews greed and the desires that compel us to have unquenchable wants and thirst for things, like knowledge in this case.

[SteffenSchuchardt]

I stopped to see ST Discovery because I made reaction videos with my son on another channel and it got blocked because of the music. When I heard about the time travel at the end of the 2nd season I continued to watch it and I liked it very much. I devoured episode after episode alone. My son now is in an acting education and has a great time. I watched Avengers Endgame with him in Munich lately.

[Fuzzball]

You've expressed more or less exactly my thoughts on this season, and I agree with just about everything you say!

My biggest problem with this season was, as you said, the lack of clarification on some plot issues. Things were just zipped through too quickly without clear explanations, and then just left as a given for the rest of the series. How did they even realise the Red Angel was a time traveller in the first place? Was the Control they were fighting from the present or the future?

However, what I thought was the strongest aspect of this season was the pacing. This might sound contradictory to what I just said, but I'm thinking of the speed in which the mystery unveiled itself and the characters developed. The red signals mystery was gradually explored over the whole series; the crew didn't go perpetually chasing Spock forever and ever, but instead were able to interact with his character in the season's second half; Tilly immediately revealed to her best friend that she was seeing a ghost (A great character interaction that subverted the annoying trope of "I better hide from everyone my secret/zombie bite that could put them in danger!").

And then the character interactions and dialogue were just wonderful.

[bloodink]

Michael may be too coincidentally important, but she isn’t a Mary Sue. Mary Sues are supposedly good at everything without having earned it, but that’s not Michael Burnham. We may not have watched her earn her capabilities, but before we ever meet this character they are the progeny of 2 brilliant scientists who spent likely 15 years navigating and excelling in the Vulcan educational system while training in martial arts and philosophy with Sarek, an established badass among Vulcans. Having done so well as to being qualified for the Vulcan science academy even if rejected, they then spend years undergoing starfleet training and likewise years apprenticing in essence under one of starfleets most decorated captains to date. By the time we meet her she is the product of more than 20 years of harsh physical training, rigorous education, regimented lifestyle, philosophical sparing with a legendary Vulcan ambassador and the devoted attentions of a legendary starship commander. This is called earned competence. If you think she’s a Mary Sue then so is every badass in every movie who starts the film supposedly having been ex-special forces or some other unseen but presumed amazing pedigree of training.

[ghostbirdofprey]

I was actually disappointed with the Ariam episode. it was kind of a missed opportunity even.
Normally when a background character is suddenly shoved into focus, it's a red flag that they are just making us care about them just to kill them, but after having strong character arcs for a few other characters, I had thought maybe it was just Ariam's turn, only for it to turn out that they were just doing the usual thing of making us care about someone so we're upset they die.
They used her character reasonably well, but we didn't actually get to know her until the last moment.

[cassandragrindall]

Thank you for brightening my day, Jessie.

[rrijsdijk]

Jessie, well done! So funny! Thank you! Love and greetings from Holland! I'm gonna be your patron!!

[majorq]

Fantastic review. Looking forward to Sacred Treks and the character deep dives.

[CulturePhilter]

On the whole I really enjoyed this season but I do think the concept of Control was woefully Mis-used. Especially towards the end.

[elliepandalover]

Awesome review, couldn’t have said it better. Also, I love your skits 😉

[jtank]

Season 1 wasn't that good. Season 2 was better with some good pacing and story. Still had some weak points. Season 3 should be great, along with the new Picard show and section 31.

[francescobirsaalessandri]

Great review. Completely agree with you.

[morpeusprime]

I would like to hear your opinion, if startrek discovery was inline with all the rest of the startrek series would the orville be seen as a good show or a cheap one session Knock off?