Star Trek Discovery S4E5: “The Examples” review

Star Trek Discovery reveals secrets of the anomaly and morality.

There’s more bad news on the Dark Matter Anomaly (DMA) front in the latest episode of Star Trek Discovery, “The Examples.” The DMA can disappear from one point in space and reappear in another, indicating it was deliberately created. The Federation has dubbed the DMA’s unknown creators Species 10-C.

To glean clues about Species 10-C’s tech and how to stop it, scientific genius Ruon Tarka (Shawn Doyle)—who’s been building the next generation of spore drive, based on Stamets’ now centuries-old work—comes aboard Discovery to simulate the DMA. Tarka’s simulation requires massive, ever-increasing amounts of power. By the episode’s end, it threatens to destroy the ship. Stamets and Tarka want time to gather more data, but Saru orders the experiment shut down.

While Tarka, Stamets, and a reluctant Reno (Tig Notaro, finally making her welcome return) flirt with disaster in the science lab, Burnham and Book try to evacuate six prisoners, the “Examples” of the episode’s title, from a prison colony in the Radvek asteroid belt before the DMA arrives. Sentenced to life imprisonment for minor crimes, the Examples don’t want to be among the Akaali who incarcerated them. They refuse to leave unless Burnham can guarantee them freedom.

Unable to do so without violating Akaali sovereignty, Burnham offers the Examples political asylum. Five Examples accept and beam to Discovery. The sixth, Felix (Michael Greyeyes), will not leave. He was imprisoned for killed a man, and believes serving his sentence is appropriate penance for his crime. He is determined to stay behind, despite the DMA’s impending arrival. He gives Burnham the lalogi orb he took from the man he killed—a small object containing a record of the man’s heritage—and asks her to return it to the dead man’s family for him. Respecting Felix’s choice, and over the objections of Book, who wants to save as many lives from the DMA as he can, Burnham leaves Felix behind.

The DMA hits, destroying the Radvek belt. Burnham keeps her promise to Felix, giving the dead man’s daughter the orb. The Akaali leader is outraged Burnham hasn’t put the Examples in the brig. Burnham reminds him he and all his people are now refugees, “seeking shelter and grace. I hope you find a more just society than the one you had a hand in creating.”

Star Trek Discovery serves up a strong morality play

As a morality play, “The Examples” would be right at home in the original series or Star Trek: The Next Generation.

Greyeyes delivers a calm and compelling performance as Felix, patiently and eloquently explaining his ideas about repentance and justice to Burnham and Book, insisting they recognize and respect his moral agency. “It is my life,” he says, “my debt to pay.” Because Discovery has delved so often into shades of gray where morality is concerned, Felix’s clear-eyed, sincere acceptance of responsibility for his wrong, no matter the consequences, feels especially powerful.

The subplot involving Ruon Tarka is unevenly successful. Doyle delivers an intriguing and enjoyable performance as a conceited, self-aggrandizing scientific superstar who smacks of such memorable TNG guest characters as Kosinski (“Where No One Has Gone Before”) and Paul Stubbs (“Evolution”). Anthony Rapp makes Stamets’ sense of resentment toward and rivalry with Tarka palpable, even as its obvious he finds Tarka’s aggressive scientific method appealing on some level. But the subplot indulges all of Trek’s worst technobabble tendencies, and ultimately advances this season’s DMA storyline very little.

I did appreciate the episode’s last scene, in which we see the scar of a now-gone Emerald Chain implant on the back of Tarka’s neck. It shows us why he is angry. He tells Book anger can be a “productive emotion.” Given, as we saw last week, Book still feels anger about Kweijan’s destruction, as well as the anger he expresses to Burnham about her choice to respect Felix’s decision, I suspect Tarka and this theme of how to channel anger in productive ways will return.

This episode also includes a welcome subplot in which Culber, who’s been providing therapy to so many shipmates, seeks out help for himself from Dr. Kovich. David Cronenberg is delightful in this role. His blunt but not unkind reminder to Culber that we can’t successfully care for others if we’re not caring for ourselves is wisdom it can be hard for caregivers to hang on to. It’s also one of this season’s several well-placed statements about living mentally and emotionally healthy lives.

Finally, “The Examples” offers us the timely social commentary for which Star Trek has long been known. The Akaali leader’s indignation that his “law abiding citizens” must now share space with the Examples raises important questions about when social distinctions between “us” and “them” become barriers to a better life for everyone. As Burnham admonishes him, the Akaali are all now homeless, and at the mercy of others. To recover from the wreckage of their past, they must face their future together.

It’s wise guidance from Star Trek Discovery, if we will take it, for building back a society after catastrophe strikes.