Captain's Blog: Discovery makes a few adjustments and catches its breath before jumping into the endgame. Do they waste the episode, though? "Through the Valley of Shadows"

The Calm Before the Storm. A red light appears over a Klingon planet, but we know less than ever about it's implication. The planet happens to have a bunch of time crystals laying around and they happen to have a green glow and confront their bearers with haunting images of their tragic futures. Pike plays brave after seeing a hint of his invalid future (blink once for yes, twice for no kind of invalid) but he faces his fear and gets the crystal. Meanwhile Burnham notices a Section 31 ship acting funny and Spock decides they need more screen time together (I agree) so they go check it out. An old friend (a blink and you miss it appearance from a Season 1 character) betrays them, turns out to be a cyber-zombie, so they kill him and go home. B-plots: Tig Notaro returns in a sparse couple scenes to meddle in the relationship subplot between Stamets and Culber I thought worked itself out last week. And Lt. Tyler has some soap opera scenes with Chancelor L'Rell over their weird and superfluous backstory.

Not a lot of this matters. Dutch angles and lens flares aren't enough to make this episode feel important. I can tell the story is treading water and ramping up for the climax and I'm glad there's still three episodes left for that climax to play out, but the CGI nano-snakes trying to eat Burnham turned out to be less than compelling. 

All in the ending. And then as Section 31 arrives for battle (presumably under the control of the evil sentient AI called... Control), to steal some data to become... even more sentient? Captain Pike makes the ultimate decision Twitter figured out last week: Blow up the damn ship!  I believe I also made just such a suggestion on last week's post , but I'm not surprised they delayed such a climactic decision for closer to the the season's end. These last few minutes were all I cared about: "Signal the Enterprise to rendezvous with us at maximum warp... and prepare for auto-destruct!" Hard Cut to Roll Credits.

Conclusion: Bleh. Forgettable and otherwise skipable episode except for the dramatic cliffhanger at the end. It'll probably flow fine while binging on the rewatch, but as a weekly series, it's a flat entry that fails to do anything meaningful with any of it's subplots. However, I did like seeing some social banter in the mess hall (including my girl Detmer -- I mean Cyborg-Face girl). I also like what they're doing with Pike's personal journey, and this episode was a small but ominous chapter for him. We always knew tragedy awaited him (see below), but now he does as well.  This season will go down in Trek history for the way it fleshes out so beautifully Pike's life story between "The Cage" and "The Menegerie" (his only two prior Prime appearances). Also, Spock and Burnham are always a joy together and I'm glad they're pals again. But no Tilly? Like none in the whole episode? And what happened to Culber's PTSD plot? Or L'Rell's feminist Klingon regime? Oh well. Can't win 'em all. All my good feelings upon the conclusion of the episode come from the "Next Time" segment, in which the Enterprise returns to the fight, we see Number One at the con, we see the yellow uniforms, we see the bridge, and damn, it's a good time to be a trekkie... At least, it will be next week... See you in seven... Beep once to say Yes. Beep twice to say No. Captain's Blog Supplemental:

I guess Tyler had no problem surviving last week's near-fatal assault (he's so used to nearly dying by now) that he's just fine and dandy this week. Missed opportunity: Culber as doctor having to save the life of the man who killed him, and possibly the only other person who understands him. Better than the drama we got this week instead.

So now they use Stamets and the spore drive to just bop around town? And it's no big deal? Cool. Cool.

So if the evil AI can just dissolve into a nano-snake to assimilate Burnham, why use a syringe in the first place? 

Ok, I understand Time Crystals exist in real world physics, but I'm pretty sure they probably don't exist as glowing green "physical" crystals in a volcanic cave.​ I'd put my money on something more mathematical than mystical.

The D7 Klingon Battlecruiser is almost as iconic as the Enterprise, so of course they have to show again it after teasing it earlier. Sure it looked good, but this was super brief. My money is on the rule of three: Setup, Reminder, Payoff. Episode 3 where they teased it was the Setup. This was the Reminder. The Payoff is coming soon, when one (or more) arrive to save the day... which could be next week from the looks of it! 

Saru suggests his transformation may have been deliberate? Once again, the writers spelling out the obvious and using this episode as little more than a Reminder leading up to an impending Payoff. 

"Thirty ships, almost Section 31's entire fleet." -- Let me guess, does their fleet consist of... thirty-one ships? Don't Forget to Like and Retweet!

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