After a personal story for SAM, we finally get some action in Come Lets Away as the cadets from both the Academy and the War College have to work together for a training mission on board a derelict starship. Of course, disaster strikes as there are deadly enemies just waiting for their moment to strike the vulnerable, unseasoned team…
Writers: Kenneth Lin & Kiley Rosseter
Director: Larry Teng
In a huge shift of tone from last weeks joyful exploration of Sam’s life and struggles, Academy gets a little darker with this one thanks to the USS Miyazaki giving that old haunted house vibe that carries over well into scifi. The Miyazaki was a failed experiment, a test-bed for an experimental warp drive that would bypass the supply shortages of the Burn, but much like every attempt to replace traditional warp drives, it all ended in tears.
Now abandoned following it’s drive meltdown, the War College has been using it as a training base and now they get to share the spoils with the Academy as Captain Ake and Commander Kelric insist on a joint operation to get over the two sides antagonising each other.
Not everyone at the War College is fighting with the Academy. Aside from Jay-Den’s flirting with Kyle, the episode ops with Tarima and Caleb enjoying being young and in love. Though young and in love when one of you is an unstable Betazoid has it’s own problems. Mostly accidentally reviving buried childhood memories for Caleb and freaking him out. Admitedly when watching it, I said out loud “don’t shag him, it means you’ll die now.” So that all ending in a psychic escape gone wrong, with Caleb’s memories of seeing his mother for the last time flooding to the forefront of their mental escapism, felt a little obvious for this ending badly. But it did manage to set up a little bit more than a foreshadow of doom for Tarima.
Aside from the horror setting of the Miyazaki, there’s a lot of nice stuff in the set up to the mission. Mainly with the Athena being used as a travelling base again, which has been nicely restrained so far. The new tactical gear having a one touch personal shield against the environment is also a nice touch and gets us away from bulky (and less budget friendly) space suits which help with the pacing and action a bit more. Plot wise, it’s a bit dodgy. But the way everything set up to fail, the tone and performances far outweigh the plot madness.
Starting with calm playfulness, things get nasty with the arrival of the Furies; human alien hybrids who had taken advantage of the poor-Burn era with random acts of violent pirating and canabalism. They’re tough, they’re terrifying and they’re waiting on the Miyazaki ready to hunt and kill the Cadets. The action side of things is nicely paced considering the cast largely has no experience in combat. While their instructor takes charge of their defences, ultimately losing his own life after being ejected through the airlock, there’s a nice restraint in spending most of the time with the cadets locking themselves in the bridge and trying to out-smart the enemy.
Outside the ship, things get weird. But in a good way. Tarima’s psychic link hasn’t broken with Caleb, so she’s able to communicate instructions to him from the Athena. But with only one person known to have defeated the Furies, Ake’s pushed to give Nus Braka and call and ask for tips. It’s a stupid idea. Vance pushing for it as trhe only option is an even more stupid idea. But it gives us Braka and Ake alone together in a room, with Braka doing his best to make things personal to rattle her and every time those two share a screen is worth more than a little bit of stupid in the plot line.
In the end we learn that all the negotiating he’s doing to get a return on his consulting on the situation is just a smokescreen and he’s engineered everything, with the Furies being his decoy to lure Ake and Starfleet into a poor situation. And we know as soon as his names mentioned it’s going to be dodgy. But his over the top viliany is a joy to watch so I don’t care. It was fun and had a nice level of tension thrown in by how much dirt he has, or thinks he has, to get under Ake’s skin.
Between Braka versus Ake and the cadets scrambling for a way out on the Kiyazami, there’s more than plenty here to keep things tense throughout and it all builds quite nicely. The War College and Academy cadets learn to work together in a crisis bigger than their ego’s, and there’s a shared grief when Vulcan antagonist B’Avi dies in the Fury frenzy on the bridge. Tarima’s part in it all felt a little odd at times, but the build from her introduction on how unstable her abilities are pays off nicely when she rips out her inhibitor to go and unleashes the full strength of her abilities – and showing exactly what she means by unstable, by psychically slaughtering the Furies.
Some things really felt telegraphed in the episode. Things were too happy for Tarima at the start, so we know she’d end up in a bad situation by the end and going full death mode and stuck in a coma fits that nicely. But it was an episode that really did ramp up some nice tension while not going too far. Even surprised like B’Avi, the only War College person with a bit of personality getting red-shirted felt worth it, and yeah, we knew Braka was up to no good, but to get a bigger twist that shows he’s a lot more clever than he seems was a nice touch.
Overall, it was a good episode with some really good elements and a nice way to shake up the tone of the series, pivoting away from the cheer and development to throw something into the mix that’ll push the cadets into a more serious headspace. There’s been a lot of immaturity so far – which makes perfect sense – but this marks one of those episodes where the crew will need to learn to not just grow, but grow up.
EPISODE DISCUSSION & SPOILERS
Highlights
- The Miyazaki mighthave looked a touch familiar. In traditional Trek style, the set was a redress of the nearby Strange New Worlds standing sets.
- While uncredited, it was a nice touch to have a silent performance from Cecilia Lee as Ozolo laying her Vulcan bestie to rest.
- It's nicer to get some closeup confirmation that even though Eaglemoss collapsed, you can still get the models in the 32nd century.
All Connected...
While the Furies are a new element to the Star Trek canon, it’s technically not their first appearance. The species originated in the expanded novel universe. Featured in the four part Invasion series, the Furies were an ancient supernatural myth brought to life. Across the four novels their story was told with their first strike handled by James Kirk and the original Enterprise crew, and would return in th eNExt Generation era to face the crews of the Enterprise D, Deep Space Nine and Voyager.
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