Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum

Nothing great about it, nothing terrible...a sort of interesting plot device to move the story further. Not every episode can be awesome, but this episode seems to have set the table well for the "Fall Finale".

I will use the rest of this review to address some of the critiques of it. Per Jojo, #3/4/5 Kligon(ese); you are correct, the speech pattern is very unappealing to me...but in terms of the discord; many times, the greatest technological advancements in human history came during war. Episodic TV: You need some semi self contained episodes. The two greatest works of plot-driven scifi (Babylon 5 and BSG) had to have them as well, where the main plot is secondary but gets moved forward. The "All Access": Yes, its annoying, but we need to keep in mind that these projects require money. With the internet and 80 ways to watch everything for free, people forget that things require money. Martin: Bad Writing: Kol can say that its for unifying everyone but be lying about it. JRBW: Just the same as above, they can say they are for peace but it may not be that simple...logic requires skepticism. Master: Science: Science and scientific fact are fluid things, someone from the 14th century could watch our scientists and say "thats not science, its fantasy!" SciFi at its core has the "Fi" part in it. Payoff: Ah, so you want a complete payoff for everything 9 episodes in? What was paid off in the first 9 episodes of any of the other Treks? A whole heck of a lot less than Discovery. VFX Action romp: This is something thats actually legit. Perhaps you focus on this rather than letting this blind you on everything else. The 80s and 90s was the golden age of Sci-Fi...I agree that the writing is substandard to those classics, but it is IMO the best we have now. 2nd season: This isn't netflix; being that its a subscription service to view you cant hold it to the same rules as broadcast TV.

I'm not writing the series off. I'm just saying that things often happen without preparation. We have this supposedly utopian planet where there appears to be sentient, peace loving air. They (whoever they are) want an end to war and the Federation and the Klingons are at the center of all that. So let's get them together. I haven't seen one iota of peacefulness from these Klingons. Let's see what happens. I'm intrigued...I think.

"If you Want Peace, Prepare for War"...........well, that's debatable but setting that aside for a moment......

.......this episode gives us a fairly Trekkian away mission to the Blue Planet of the Ethereal Beings of Cosmic Harmony. As a welcome break from the oppressive atmosphere aboard Discovery and the internecine politics of the Klingon ship, it serves its purpose quite admirably.

Three characters: Burnham, Tyler and Saru get to run around in the fresh air, build a shelter and communicate with some weird floating alien things while undergoing an essential mission. Not too shabby.

Doug Jones gets to add some range to his character as the aliens take him over and influence him to fight the other crew members but I'm not sure that the writers know what they are doing with his character as his courage is so often questioned and he is made the butt of too many jokes.

Whilst the Vulcan's now have their Logic Extremists and the Klingons consider diplomacy an anathema, the Federation is supposed to be tolerant of all sorts of differences. Senior Trekker long since gave up hoping for any narrative continuity with earlier Star Trek series (paradoxically set in the future of this one) but expected some continuity of values.

It isn't just the hyper-realistic piles of dismembered corpses that are making me feel slightly nauseous.

(And on that last point, why do so many commentators overlook all that carnage and references to torture while complaining so bitterly about a couple of profanities?)

Why are do they keep killing the strong women characters? Come on people we need to keep more than 1, or two strong women in the new and future Star Trek.

Like Wonder Woman we love to see strong female characters, for our daughters, sisters, nieces, and of course the trekkers from the 1960s

Saru has become a very interesting character. From a race of "prey", he has developed abilities that help him determine who or what is a threat, and what to do about it. But he is always living with that adrenaline ready to pump, ready to run, his senses always scanning for threats.

But this planet "Pahvo" has a transmitter that, if modified, could help Starfleet see all of those Cloaked Klingon Ships that got a free Cloaking device for pledging Fealty to Kol. But of course, that sounds "too easy".

But what about The Pahvans? They assimilate Saru and show him peace for the first time in his life. But is that a positive thing? Because he is acting very uncharacteristically.

So Tyler and Michael have to carry out a small mutiny to keep Saru on track, and all that causes is that we get to see just how fast Saru can run. Which is, "Extremely".

And, will the Pahvans actually let Michael adjust their magic crystal tree? Or do they have other ideas on how this conflict between Qonos and Starfleet should be handled?

Is it that some cultures are flabbergasted when coming into contact with a species that would bombard their planet with Disrupters? Or even when contacted by a culture that professes "peace" and The Prime Directive?

These Pahvans, we really never find out why with them. I hope we get to revisit Pahvo at some point.