If Memory Serves

 ***(3 illusions out of 5)

Showing me real footage from “The Cage”, albeit chopping it up like a paper doll puppet show, made me briefly happy, then they dropped me back into wildly spinning cameras in the dark and redesigned holographic Tellarites before I got too nostalgic.

Why are Section 31 taking orders from Starfleet brass? I thought in Section 31 the chain of command was: “We have chains to hit you with, so we’re in command.”

Over Michael’s objection, Spock takes their shuttle straight into an amazing-looking black hole- oh, wait, welcome back to Talos IV where you can’t trust your senses and the spindly locals are barely this side of wanting to breed you in cages as workers.

The singing plants are charming. Spock is unable to deal with time as a fluid and I fully empathize as nobody makes the rest of this look like it did in 1965. Why redesign the Talosian heads and robes? Why is mangled Vina barely twisted at all and obscured by lens flares? 

Spock saw and heard the Red Angel in childhood, and melded with it a few months ago, sharing the Angel’s apocalyptic nightmare. And the entire universe, as always, is at stake. 

Having been murdered by Voq, Culber attacks Ash in the lunch room, which fearless Saru allows to play out for catharsis while Pike makes tut-tut sounds. Let’s see where this goes and if anyone’s shirt comes off. Culber has taken “till death do us part” literally, and moves out on Stamets to get his head together.

Vina appears to Pike and tells him she’s shacked up with his illusion- a lifetime together in these few years. Oh, and sends an untraceable S.O.S. from his buddies, it’s either romantic or awkweird.

Section 31 has invasive neurologic tech from or based on the Terran Empire. They love things from the Terran Empire! Georgiou tells Leland how she did a genocide on the Mirror Universe Talosians. Talosians allow 31 to capture Michael & Spock’s vanishing projections as Michael and Spock return to Disco by shuttle.

Nhan takes Ash off the bridge. Discovery disobeys 31s orders and turns fugitive to save the galaxy.

I cried at Michael and Spock’s miserable emotional rift, very well performed, very painful.

This episode won an Emmy for outstanding makeup, proving that I am petulant for wishing they’d honoured Star Trek’s original designs.