With an awesome title, I had hoped that episode 4 will be just as awesome in it’s delivery as well. It was pretty good but I felt that it didn’t match upto the previous episode. And also, they kill off the Indian female connection in the show. Bad Star Trek!

Episode Synopsis:

Lorca assigns Burnham to study the creature from the Glenn to find a way to use its biology as a weapon. Starfleet orders Discovery to relieve the dilithium mining colony of Corvan II which has come under Klingon attack. Stamets is reluctant to make such a long jump using the spores, and when the drive is activated the ship nearly collides with a star. Commander Landry is sent to keep the research on track, and attempts to sedate the creature to cut off its claw, but it escapes and kills her. Burnham approaches the creature with a spore cannister and it remains calm. Noticing the creature’s reaction to the jump and its symbiotic relationship to the spores, Stamets and Burnham transport the creature to Engineering, where it connects to the drive and calculates the navigation coordinates, allowing the ship to jump to Corvan and save the colony. On T’Kuvma’s flagship, Voq and L’Rell scavenge the dilithium processor from the Shenzhou. On their return, Klingon commander Kol has convinced Voq’s crew to mutiny and exiles him to the Shenzhou to die. L’Rell transports aboard and tells him they can win the war themselves.

Faced with the unenviable task of recusing the miners of Corvan II is the big challenge for the crew of the Discovery. As Lorca notes, if the planet fell to the Klingons or got destroyed then a lot of Starfleet’s dilithium supply would be lost. The closest ship was 84 light years away so Lorca’s quest to use the spores and the mega-tardigrade to get the spore drive online and reach the planet in time to fend off attacking Klingon ships.

The thing I hated about this episode was the rather dumb choice that Commander Landry did – one of the demands Lorca had for Michael and Landry was to figure out how to weaponize the tardigrade’s talons or whatnot, since the animal received no damage from Klingon weapons. Letting the creature loose and then trying to stun it did not go down well. She was attacked and mauled to death. Killing off my Indian connection to the show pissed me off, though I kinda knew that her role would not last long.

Stamets gets a talking down from his captain, who clearly hates him and boy is the feeling mutual. In front of his mate, Dr. Hugh Culber, Lorca berates his officer to the point of us feeling sad for this character. Stamets didn’t sign on for war and looking for ways to win at war – he came on to peacefully explore and study. But in a time of war, especially with such a formidable enemy as the Klingons, all exploration and pursuit of science for knowledge goes out the airlock and science is used to make weapons or make weapons more efficient. In this case, also to speed up the ship’s transport.

With Voq’s leading T’kuvma’s people on the ship which requires repair and them starving as their supplies run out, his stubbornness about scavenging the Shenzhou for power has put his followers at even greater risk. A rival Klingon name Kol from the House of Kor, takes advantage of the situation and taunts Voq – is that a little racism I hear – and brings food and supplies to the rest of the ship. L’Rell too seems to have abandoned Voq as she sides with Kol but after the albino is beamed abroad the Shenzhou to starve to death, she secrtely beams herself in as the other leave.

She tells him that she did it to save him; the deception as all to keep Voq alive so she could transport him to the matriarchs of her clan. With them, Voq can learn everything he needs to know about leadership. But he’ll have to give up everything. At the end of the episode, Michael learns that she has been willed Captain Georgiou’s family heirloom, an old telescope that she clearly cherished.

What is in store for Voq, Burham and the Discovery’s crew. I have become so entranced by this show – despite it’s flaws and all – and want to know more and more.