Star Trek Discovery hits a rough patch with “Anomaly.”
After a promising start in “Kobayashi Maru,” season four of Star Trek: Discovery hits a rough spot, literally and figuratively, with “Anomaly.” While a strong science fiction plot forms the episode’s backbone, many of the character moments overlaid on top of it feel forced and overly familiar.
Discovery jumps to the Riscot system for an up-close investigation of the gravitational anomaly that damaged the deep space outpost and destroyed Kweijan (last week, in the season four premiere). Burnham and crew quickly realize Discovery can’t get close enough to gather the information they need.
Book volunteers to take his ship into the anomaly and collect the data. Burnham worries Book’s grief for Kweijan, and for his lost brother and nephew, will compromise both his and the Discovery’s safety. Book reminds Burnham he isn’t Starfleet personnel and doesn’t need her permission.
As he takes it into the anomaly, Book’s ship is physically tethered to Discovery, and is also linked to Stamets via holographic interface. Rocky debris and violent, unpredictable gravitational waves buffet both ships. Stamets says he needs more time to collect more data. Ultimately, however, Burnham must release the tether and pull back.
Book’s sensors and engines lose power. Tilly and Rhys think Book could “catch” one of the gravitational waves and “ride it out” of the anomaly. Using a programmable matter form of their analysis to feel the moment Book should make his move, Burnham guides Book through a safe return to Discovery.
As the episode ends, Tilly shares disturbing news with Saru (who rejoined the crew at the episode’s beginning): The new data reveals the anomaly’s future direction is random and unpredictable: “It could go anywhere, at any time, and we may not have any kind of warning at all.”
Rushed character moments made “Anomaly” feel crowded
During these past two pandemic years, we’ve heard a lot about following science. The great strength of “Anomaly” is its depiction of what following science looks like. It means working with whatever data one has, working hard to get more, double- and triple-checking one’s work (Tilly makes this point to Adira when feeling stressed, but her stress makes it no less true), and accepting and acting on the conclusions reached, whether they match what one hopes to hear or not. As Tilly says, “The math doesn’t lie.”
For all the strength of its scientific analysis-driven storyline, “Anomaly” doesn’t quite land most of the character moments it’s attempting. It’s probably trying too many of them for a single episode. Any one of them might have been satisfying and convincing on their own. But together, they give the hour a crowded, rushed, unfinished atmosphere.
The interaction between Book and Stamets’ holographic avatar is the biggest example.
Having watched the series’ third season twice in fairly close succession, I was mystified as to why Stamets should feel the unease he does about and around Book. The engineer’s supposed “bruised ego” because Book can also operate Discovery’s spore drive, and his confession that Book reminds him of how “helpless” he felt when he almost lost Hugh and Adira last season, seem shoehorned in so the writers have an excuse to write a conflicted relationship where viewers had no reason to think one existed. And having Stamets and Book hash out their attitudes toward each other in the midst of a dire emergency simply felt like lazy scripting.
I do appreciate Star Trek: Discovery’s willingness to deal with trauma and its very real effects on people. Representing Book’s trauma visually as his continued visions of Leto was a powerful and moving choice.
But I didn’t feel “Anomaly” had anything to say about trauma that Discovery has not told us already, and more powerfully, last season, as the characters recovered from the trauma of jumping through time, and as Su’Kal recovered from the trauma of having caused the Burn. I especially found Tilly’s desire to “talk-talk” with Culber about her trauma too close a copy of Detmer’s interactions with Culber last season.
Encouraging people to talk about their trauma is important. But I hope, should this plot thread continue, Discovery will develop it in new ways.