Mind Picard it is in full swing of its second season and the expectation for the unreleased is growing Strange New Worlds, Star Trek Discovery 4 ends its run after 13 episodes that in Italy we were able to enjoy for free on Pluto TV, a new, completely free streaming TV supported by advertising, on a weekly basis and only 24 hours away from the broadcast in the United States.
Star Trek Discovery 4, somewhere out in space
We had taken the pulse a Star Trek Discovery 4 with a preview review of the first two episodes that had inevitably served not only as a link with the previous season but also to effectively introduce the new Discovery mission of which Michael Burnham is now in effect Captain. After finding a new source of dilithium, indispensable for interstellar travel and unraveling the mystery behind the cataclysmic Great Fire, in this new future the goal is to reconstitute the Star Federation. Mission will take a sharp turn when a gravitational distortion wipes out Kweijan, Booker’s homeworld.
The event obviously immediately alarms the planets that are part of the Federation also because the anomaly does not seem to have natural characteristics or commonly ascribable to gravitational distortions that respond to the laws of physics. Discovery is then commissioned to investigate and Booker volunteers to penetrate the distortion, which has since reappeared in another corner of the galaxy, and thus collect data.
The little information gathered is not encouraging indeed it is terrifying. In fact, distortion is not natural but artificial, but that’s not all. In fact, its training and the ability to travel lead to the presumption that it is “controlled”: but by whom and for what purpose? While Discovery is engaged in formulating theses and theories that can explain the nature of the distortion and stop it, a rift is consumed in the Federation between those who want to attempt a peaceful and diplomatic first contact and those who want to immediately resort to weapons and tear down what he is quickly labeled as an enemy who hasn’t cared about wiping out a densely populated planet.
Even if the peaceful approach prevails, the fracture is now consumed so much that the expert scientist called by the Federation to support Discovery’s efforts, the mysterious Tarka, finds a kindred spirit in Booker, thus initiating a plan of sabotage that of fact makes them criminals. But if Booker’s motives are self-evident enough, what are Tarka’s?
When the true nature of the distortion and the exact positioning of its “pilots” are finally understood, Discovery will really go where no man has ever been before looking for a complicated first contact not only from the extreme conditions but also from a new one. looming threat directly affecting the Earth. Everything then turns into a race against time and against the plan set up by Booker and Tarka.
Star Trek Discovery 4, I return there “where no man has ever been before”
The good impressions from the first two episodes are confirmed during this fourth season of Star Trek Discovery. Although not without flaws and with some too long, Star Trek Discovery 4 not only sweeps away the disappointing previous season but gives us back a series that will be able to start from renewed and once again solid bases for a fifth season already confirmed.
It is clear that compared to the first two seasons (recovered Star Trek Discovery Season 1 in blu-ray on Amazon) the series has lost its freshness however it is impossible not to notice a more punctual writing in this Season 4 especially as regards the management of the horizontal plot and the aspects more distinctly drama that last season had wrecked miserably in a series of bite-free and decidedly pedestrian subplots especially in an attempt to transport into the future of Star Trek Discovery topical issues.
Precisely this aspect is reabsorbed in some passages of the episodes apparently unrelated to the horizontal plot which, recovering some stylistic features of the past television incarnations of the franchise, mediate in an intelligent way drama, topical issues and narrative needs of the main plot. Although it was not presented in a very original way, the mystery behind it gravitational distortion and the Ten-C not only did they provide a good thread but were reworked during the episodes and phases of the season by the writers in a more or less effective way to re-introduce us to some of the key aspects of positive science fiction of which Star Trek has always been one of the most shining examples.
Indeed, there is no doubt that the most interesting moments of Star Trek Discovery 4 are related the debate between the interventionist faction and the more diplomatic faction of the Federation becoming the thematic core of the season. The relationship with the other, especially when unknown, respect for living spaces, democratic confrontation, the evaluation of costs and benefits are all moments that can be easily translated into reality, especially the dramatic one of recent months. The final culmination of a narrative arc, consisting of the last 3/4 episodes, which draws heavily not only on Deep Space Nine And Voyager (but actually this whole Season 4 does it in more than one juncture) but also from some great examples of modern science fiction like Interstellar or Arrival.
There are also some empty passages in Star Trek Discovery 4. The component drama it is still present and takes over in some examples, breaking the tension a little but also lengthening the episodes and inevitably lowering the spectator’s attention threshold. It is precisely on the timing of the episodes that showrunners should work more intelligently because often 50/60 minutes are excessive for what is actually being told in the episode. At a directorial, photography and technical level Star Trek Discovery now has a style of its own that mixes the influences of JJ Abrams (flares and slightly more daring camera movements) with the classic ones of the franchise (counter-shots on the deck of the ship, close-ups in the dramatic sequences) while much of the budget for special effects is evidently poured into some beautiful sequences starring the spaceships that bring back to mind the legendary second film in the franchise, The Wrath of Khan.
Ultimately then, if you had left the series with the previous season, in Star Trek Discovery 4 you will find part of the charm of the first two seasons of the series, and of the franchise of Star Trek more generally, as long as you have to concede something in terms of tension and punctuality due to a component drama albeit less pressing still present.
