Star Trek: Discovery (TV Series) Into the Forest I Go (2017) User Reviews

The Pivot point...but to where

[bnevs18 · 8/10 · 13 November 2017]

OK, so first; the episode. First off, the bad: The Kol-Bernam fight was silly...suspension of disbelief is necessary in sci-fi, but this was too far. The only way to realistically make this even a fight is for Bernam to have the upper hand off the bat. But she's playing by Kol's rules; and as such wouldn't have realistically lasted more than ten seconds. The rest of it is pretty good, although instead of 130 jumps it would have been more realistic to be like 60 based on its previous effects. On the other hand, the scenes of Discovery flitting like a bee all over the place stinging the ship of the dead was supremely satisfying.

Now, the future: Discovery has already pulled one rug out from under us (Story about a first officer? Nope, lets let the protagonist get her captain killed and her court-martialed.) Is this another one? A jump to a parallel universe would clean up a lot of the nits about how this show doesn't seem to fit into canon. Why aren't Kirk and Picard black-alerting it all over the place? Well, maybe because the discovery never made it home and the spore drive was chalked up to a failure. Could we be in for the mirror universe? Or perhaps a Sliders-type show (Sliders was a great concept that failed miserably)...which I believe has incredible potential. We will see where this show goes, will its pivot pay off like later DS9? Or will we need 'faith of the heart'?

Finally, an observation on one of the problems people have. The fact that this show is on 'all access' is annoying, but it reminds me of the move that Voyager made becoming the first cable (On the defunct UPN) trek series. I remember the same angst then, but I was lucky to be in a market without UPN, so I could watch Voyager over the air. This has happened before.

Getting far, far better than the beginning.

[cemk-2 · 9/10 · 19 November 2017]

I had written a review of the show at the end of episode 4 and I wasn't positive at all. I am still bothered by the appearance of the Klingons (unless they will change with an incident to what we know of the Original Series), there are still strange mistakes where there shouldn't be any (e.g., why do we have a Vulcan admiral when we all know Spock was first Vulcan to serve in Star Fleet?), however, the show started to feel like Star Trek proper from episode 1x06 onward. Besides, never mind Star Trek proper, it has turned into a really good to watch show. I hope the trend continues after the series' year's end break. I am very satisfied with the show right now as episodes 1x06 through to 1x09 are really good episodes except for the bullshit about Sarek mind-meld and guilt trip. Interestingly, the series I had thought was better, The Orville, is trying too hard to become Star Trek that I am not even bothering to watch it after episode 6. Life is funny like that. Finally, one should really appreciate how great an actor Jason Isaacs is.

The first great episode... but was it worth the journey?

[wolfstar_imdb · 9/10 · 8 January 2018]

This episode was amazing, especially given what came before - it's almost a 10, but I have to settle for 9 due to a couple of minor quibbles (which largely weren't this episode's fault). What a confident, good hour, the show's most cohesive storytelling to date, and the first episode I can wholeheartedly recommend - the writers of this installment deserve a lot of praise for crafting a strong script that made excellent use of the characters, especially Lorca, who really worked well in this episode, quite Sisko-esque. Burnham got to close out her Georgiou arc in a meaningful way that felt earned (though I had my doubts over the credibility of the fight scene - in DS9's The Way Of The Warrior, Sisko and Jadzia were the only ones left standing after the hand-to-hand combat, and they had a background in wrestling and Klingon martial arts respectively). Good understated but effective use of Tilly as capable support. Stamets got meaningful work and it was the show's best handling of the gay relationship to date - I can understand why people had issues with the tooth-brushing scene in an earlier episode (it did almost feel like an awkward "look, they're gay!" reveal) but I can't see how anyone could have a legitimate problem with how their relationship was portrayed in this episode. On the contrary, hearing two mature, professional gay guys in a stable relationship say "I love you" to each other in a moment that matters is kinda revolutionary. (Plus: Star Trek's first male-male kiss.)

Was reaching this point in the arc worth all the poor-quality episodes building up to it? No. Could the journey here have been better? Yep. But this episode deserves its praise, it proves that with the right writers, the show can do confident, coherent storytelling with a strong character core, that's also internally logical and not flagrantly anti-scientific (my issues with the spore drive etc. remain, but Into The Forest I Go didn't create those issues - it merely obeys and exists within the established rules of the Discovery universe. The fact that the Discovery universe isn't exactly the Trek universe isn't this episode's fault).

The few questions I have relate more to the poor coherence of the previous episode than any problems with this one. First and foremost, why was L'Rell just sitting in the room? How and why is Admiral Cornwell OK again? I'm glad she is because she's a good character who was used well in this episode and who adds to the show, it's just unclear due to last week's narrative/editing problems.

We're not at DS9 level, we're not at Enterprise's Azati Prime/Damage/The Forgotten level (not as emotional), but this hour was on the level of an episode like ENT's Anomaly - a really strong hour of arc storytelling with a refreshingly original feel. It was well directed, edited and performed (the strong direction and editing a particular surprise given the issues with episodes 6 and 8), but the strong script was what enabled everything to come together. If the show had been written and executed this well all season, people wouldn't have had so many issues with it.

Fantastic bunch of actors and the story line is too!

[pfadacker · 10/10 · 14 November 2017]

I've been a reasonably faithful Trek watcher for a long time. Love all the incarnation of the Trek universe. Some more than others. So far, I've be mightily impressed with the new Trek discovery. It definitely feels fresh, well acts, superbly produced and movingly directed.

I'm sure for those looking for plot holes and other supposed inconsistencies with previous incarnation of Star Trek will find plenty. For me personally, the diversity of characters in colour, orientation and personality makes this a true Trek show for our time.

Keep it up Discovery, I love where you're going!

Episode 9

[rrovegno · 10/10 · 13 November 2017]

I can finally say an episode of Star Trek: Discovery has left me completely satisfied.

In my opinion, this was the best episode so far of this new series. The plot was well executed and the acting outstanding. It left me looking forward to the future of the series.

If you had any doubts they will be allayed. You will not be disappointed in this show any longer.

Gene would be proud. Bravo to the producers and cast!

The Pahvo sub plot reaches its climax

[spaceas · 10/10 · 14 November 2017]

Suddenly, something different happens. The Pahvo plot reaches its climax, with klingons and Federation command and admiral Terril mixed in.

The Discovery can possibly help the pahavans, but only at a great personal cost for one or perhaps several members of the crew. Can individual sacrifice and human ingenuity save the day when the Klingon death ship joins the fray?

An intense episode with a classic star trek style twist at the end.

Enjoyable and the most intense episode so far.

This is it

[knoopgat · 10/10 · 14 November 2017]

I watched this episode with awe. Great CGI, great acting and a wonderful crafted script/story. And a nice cliffhanger as an extra. I am a bit sad about the negative reviews-I hope it does not mean that this show is going to be canceled like so many other great SF shows. Not many people like this kind of hard SciFy. I also like the Orville, but that is a whole different story...

Fantastic! *Minor spoiler*

[martymasta · 10/10 · 13 November 2017]

Brilliant episode! The best one of the season without a doubt. I saw a reviewer complaining that the klingons suddenly spoke English, he was clearly not paying attention as Michael Burnam explains to the klingons that it is the universal translator that lets them communicate. I see great potential, the captain and Stamets discussing future plans really gives you an idea of where we are going the next time the show airs.

Wow, now that's a twist

[novica83 · 10/10 · 14 November 2017]

Tha last episode in this half of season was more than I expect. This is where I like for Star Trek to lead me. All previous episodes were fine, but this one was phenomenal. There is action in it, there is drama, but most of all, there is a big twist at the end of episode which will make you anticipate next one for almost 2 months. If you like Sci-fi lore, even more if you are Star Trek fan, you have to watch this, unless you would like to regret. My favorite is still Burnham, who is not captain, No 1, or even officer on the ship, but still major factor in all its activities. Best regards and see you in January ;)

Into the Forest I Go

[bobcobb301 · 7/10 · 22 December 2017]

We had a fight scene, we had a cliffhanger, the show gave us all the elements of a midseason finale that you can hope for, yet as a whole they are still missing something. I'm not sure if it is my disdain for them trying to force supercouple relationships down our throats, or a lack of the moral dilemmas the original series had, but this is still missing something.

A good episode, but I hope they adjust the show a bit in the second half of Season 1.

-An excellent episode.

[marian_the_nightman · 10/10 · 14 November 2017]

• It was a good episode although i have doubts about seeing Discovery exploring parallel dimensions and unknown galaxies in the next episodes(excepting the well known mirror universe ,off course),because the show would be too awesome but the war with the new and stupid Klingon cannibals and weird sexual relationships are more interesting than this kind of stuff for the producers and the new fans,but this seems to be a common tendency these days in any sci-fi production,unfortunately.Another thing that bothers me is the inconsistency of cadet Tilly as a character.In the first episode she can't even have a normal conversation and now she is already as a real auntie for the rest of the crew.The look of Airiam is way too goofy ,she looks like a smurf with an iron helmet,more suitable for a parody .

Better Episode--Still Missing Fundamental Concept of What Makes Star Trek Star Trek

[jojoleb · 6/10 · 15 November 2017]

This episode was actually better than the last episode and eminently watchable. We finally get a real story and some sense of humanity from individual characters. However, there was something very, very un-Star-Trek like in this episode that really sticks in my craw. So we'll have to start out with the ugly.. (I've posted this late to assure that everyone has a chance to see the episode before this one hits the net. Sorry. Can't see how to review without the spoilers...)

***NOTE: THERE BE SPOILERS HERE--right at the outset

THE UGLY:

RUTHLESSNESS OF THE FEDERATION: I suppose modern audiences demand mega-CGI, but blowing the Klingons to smithereens at the end of the show was simply NOT Star Trek. Sure, we all got that high-five, just-destroyed-the-Death-Star pleasure out of watching the Ship of the Dead explode and everyone agrees that you gotta do what you gotta do to win a battle, but once it is CLEAR you have won, Kirk, Picard, Sisko, Janeway, Archer, you name 'em, would HAIL the Klingons and offer them terms of surrender. Sure, the Klingons would refuse and would blow themselves up anyway, but every (I mean every) Starfleet captain would give them the chance. (I was going to reference Balance of Terror for a good example of this, but there are too many others.) Maybe Lorca is a bit of a nut, but everyone on the bridge was all 'Yeehah!' about it and Lorca was going to get the medal of honor for his behavior. (For their part, BTW, Klingons blow their enemies to bits, but not out of ruthlessness. From their perspective, they are giving their enemies the honor of dying in battle.)

Not that I don't have sympathy for Lorca's position: he has a major grudge to bear and, unlike SFX for previous captains, the whole thing looks like a shoot-em-up video game, so it's only natural to just pull the trigger and Wham! But, sadly, in an otherwise well plotted episode, this was a major low for the franchise and a red flag that the people involved in this production don't really understand the whole Trek thing.

SHOOTING YOUR WAD: Yup, they did it again. Poor Ash Tyler. It was a good plot point to put him out of commission with an attack of PTSD on the Klingon ship, but definitively demonstrating that he is somehow, secretly enthralled to L'Rell, ala the Manchurian candidate, takes away from anything they decide to do with this subplot in the future. Once again, they're giving away the farm... and for what?

VOYAGER REDUX: Looks like Discovery is now stranded in uncharted, unknown space. And the rest of the season will be devoted to finding their way back home. Sound familiar?

THE BAD:

THE WHO-VAHNS? After Lorca decides to defend the Pahvans, the whole Pahvan thing becomes irrelevant. Which makes you wonder why they even bothered with the goofy, animated-series-worthy alien planet in the first place.

THE PROBES: FYI, if you want to sneak onto an Klingon ship and place spy probes,consider: 1) making the probes small and unobtrusive; 2) disguising them to look like Klingon devices; 3) Not having them light up and blurt out that they are actively communicating with the enemy. Just saying.

FREAKIN' CLOSEUPS: the camera work is still very frustrating. A lot of darkness and lens flare and so close you can see the skin pores and nothing else.

THE KLINGON SHIP: This ship looks like they steampunked the Notre Dame cathedral. If only something--anything--looked like a functional starship it might even be plausible. It does give you a lot of objects to hide behind and interesting geography for hand-to-hand combat...

RUSH ROMANCE: I think we get the Tyler-Burnham romance thing, but it's really happened way too fast. Now we know why: the creators weren't sure they were being picked up for season two. Sigh.

KOR: I didn't like this two dimensional character a bit, but what's the point of having an arch nemesis if he can't come back to haunt you?

NAKED KLINGONS: You saw the scene. If they were going for 'yeech' with this one, they succeeded. Please tell me why this was necessary.

THE GOOD:

BEST PACING AND A REAL PLOT THIS WEEK: 'nuff said. We need more clear writing on this show.

REAL SENSE OF CHARACTERS: this is the second episode where the crew is functioning like a crew to solve problems. We get an idea of the PEOPLE behind the names and the backstories by their ACTIONS. The actors probably breathed a collective sigh of relief: now that they have something to work with.

--BURNHAM: finally a take charge moment for our hero, where she doesn't do something monumentally stupid or insubordinate

--STAMETS: still irascible, but the guy is really starting to grow on me... this week he became more real and heroic

--LORCA: finally, the guy is making some sense and is appearing captain-like. It didn't help that he had to spell out his ploy to his crew; you know, that he really wasn't leaving the Pahvans high and dry... although it was pretty obvious to us in the audience...

TENSION: yes, this is the first episode where they were really able to ratchet up some tension.

CONCLUSION: If the last two episodes had been the first two episodes, fans might not have been 100% satisfied but would have been less aghast at what has been done to Star Trek. Hopefully, the series will start pushing more character-driven plots rather than relying solely on window dressing. The key to any good series is story telling and we finally have this in the last two episodes. In that sense things are picking up. They still need to make this Trek and not, yet another, apocalyptic, shoot-em- up, sci fi series. But we are finally getting somewhere.

They detected the cloaked Klingons with long range sensors, that's how they knew to jump back.

[slayer-24458 · 3/10 · 15 November 2017]

Just think about that for a moment. The last 2 episodes, and really, the entire show, rendered pointless by a simple, but frequent plot contrivance. This is how little effort the writers are putting into Discovery.

This episode resumes where the previous stopped, where a mysterious planet mysteriously learned how to send subspace signals, that mysteriously could be used to detect cloaked Klingon ships (must work, since they found the cloaked ship, which evidently isn't that hard), that mysteriously can't be done by the subspace transmitters all ships in the universe already have. It turns out the Klingons know nothing about fighting, as they cloak their ship, then sit in the same spot. But it's OK, because the federation has had the ability to detect them with long range sensors for an unknown amount of time. Despite all this, and the obvious ways to resolve a space fight with an immobile ship without shields. Lorca decides to send his favorite PTSD victim on a mission to plant transmitters that totally won't be detected by internal sensors on the Klingon ship, these will transmit something about the cloak, that apparently bends gravity now, that the discovery can only figure out, if it makes 133 jumps about the length of the ship. Seriously it jumps roughly forward each time about the length of the ship. It's never explained why impulse power can't be used, but whatever. Oh, and the fact that they can jump around the Klingons perfectly is further proof they can be detected through their cloak. Also, the ability to transport to their ship while they cloak, presents some very star-gate like solutions. Why beam a person when you can beam a torpedo? Or why not beam the devices fully set up into the locations? Discovery writers aren't capable of this basic level of thinking, so we have to pretend it's OK and move on. Anyways, after Lorca chooses Mr PTSD, Burnham is required to argue (That's all she does!) that she should go on the mission because that's what Lorca recruited her for. Evidently Lorca forgot that. Was this scene just to check a box that says Burnham must argue with someone every episode? After a lot of predictable things happen, Burnham engages in hand to hand combat with the Klingon commander. Despite her Vulcan training, she loses and is forced to jump down a hole in the bridge of the ship (Did the Empire from star wars design this ship?) where she is beamed out while falling. Then Lorca blows up the ship anyways, even though he could have done that from the moment the ship cloaked. Or he could have crippled the ship and taken it over, or even towed it back to the federation for study so they could build their own cloak (no treaty yet blocking cloaking technology).

As a side note, despite being techno-babble, gravity bending cloaks makes no sense. If the gravity generated is the equivalent of a black hole, so it can bend light completely around it, then it should effortlessly bend a torpedo around it. The ship would be untouchable. Sometimes too much techno-babble is bad thing when the writers put no research into it. And they clearly don't, since last week they literally had "space sonar".

Sophisticated Plotting

[Hitchcoc · 10/10 · 9 February 2020]

A masterful storytelling with great risk being used to defeat a Klingon attack. It is always nice to have a truly evil adversary with which to do combat. Make him or her overly arrogant and willing to betray anyone to move ahead. This episode also sets up the events heading forward to a major bit of circumstances. Likely, the best of the first season.

"To lose my Mind and find my Soul"

[XweAponX · 10/10 · 21 November 2017]

So, the Pahvans have forced a confrontation between Discovery and The Klingon Ship of the Dead, and eventually between Michael and Kol.

Between Tyler and L'Rell... Between Lorca and Cornwell.

Between Stamitz and himself. And Dr Culber.

Discovery seems to have set up these conflicts within previous episodes. We know Lorca is already running on the edge of sanity, and Cornwell knows it, is ready to perform her Admiral's prerogative. But Tyler, who seemed so.. Stoic? This episode reveals his inner daemons as well, and it is much worse than we expected.

L'Rell seems to have designed events so that she would end up on Discovery. She seems to have made a kind of pact with Cornwell, even while breaking her back. The question is... Why?

Discovery pushes the boundaries of social interaction, which makes it all the more interesting to watch the interactions between different characters develop, especially the relationship between Saru and Michael. He still has some deep resentments toward Michael, and his species, which evolved as "Prey", lives always in Fear. Until the previous episode: For the first time in his life, he had found some peace from that state of perpetual alertness in which he lives, bestowed upon him by the Pahvans. But what were their motives? Saru seems to have accepted Michael as a member of his crew, and no longer as a threat.

And even as Tyler is becoming close to Michael, it is suddenly revealed that he has warp core damage. And now, the cause of that damage is in the Brig.

Star Trek has always been about The Human Adventure, and these explorations into our Psyche's reveal the complexities of that Frontier. And now, Discovery has been shunted "Where no one has gone before", and there is no Traveler, Wesley Crusher, or Kosinski to help them figure it out. But they do have a Stamitz... But his eyes have glazed over and he's gone all "Barrier of the Galaxy" on us.

Side note: Spock was not the first Vulcanian to join Starfleet, it was T'Pol. And The Intrepid was wholly crewed by Vulcanians.

- A new beginning ?

[marian_ciobanu · 10/10 · 14 November 2017]

-I have a new theory ,the events are happening in our reality and the ship will travel in the original timeline ,the one with The Eugenic Wars and The World War III (in that way all the changes from the new show will not screw the continuity),the mirror universe is also another universe which i'm pretty sure it will be used in the series.I observed Burnham tries to appeal to rational thinking for the first time,although she ALWAYS let herself to be guided only by her emotions and feelings which makes her character too look very phony,she doesn't seems to be influenced by her Vulcan culture in any way,her face is always fool of pain,she doesn't have the Vulcan calm.Tilly is still looking like Billie Piper in Doctor Who and i'm still waiting to see her and her piggy silhouette vanishing from the show.

On my way to Grandma's House

[d.rust · 13 November 2017]

Finally, something that moved along. Trekonosis infection has abated for an episode.

Here's one major reason: THE KLINGONS STOPPED TALKING IN UPPER CASE FOR HOURS AND HOURS. Somebody at the production office finally got the memo, which said, "You don't have to go for so much 'realism', it's just a TV show!"

I was talking to a friend who isn't a huge fan, he likes to watch Trek, but his life doesn't revolve around Warp Drives and Romulans. His biggest complaint: KLINGON DIALOGUE that "takes hours". He said that every time they show up on screen, the story screeches to a halt. After he saw this episode, he probably thought our conversation had been overheard by someone.

Meanwhile, back on Dicks-covery, Mr Suru hasn't been chastised for his behaviour in very nearly destroying the Pahvon life forces. Nope, he just goes on as though it was just a headache. RESET!

Anvils have stopped dropping in the scripts as the writers get tired of paying homage to some stupid little TNG or TOS detail by mentioning that Betazoids will read your minds, or that there's some kind of energy barrier, or that Surak is the father of all Vulcan children. So that's a big plus.

But, military/naval discipline doesn't count if you're gay, so when you're about to do your job, you get to play tonsil hockey with the guy you're hiding the Spacey-sausage with off-duty. Silly Tilly still says stupid stuff, so it makes you wonder why this dough-head is helping run a critical system.

CRISWELL PREDICTS: "Incomplete Navigation" will turn out to be "Mandelan Effect" that shows only one possible outcome of many to a situation at Starbase 47 or whatever the number was. It's basically a RESET BUTTON.

LOVE HURTS: Phaser Phace and Louey Ash are going to be parents of a bouncing baby batleth bearer while Burn 'em feels a little Ash burn while doing the Klingon Hustle with Louey.

DO ME BABY ONE MORE TIME: Admiral Cornhole and El Orca get their whale on in a desperate attempt to get her to spread her useless legs in a physio therapeutic experiment. Wink wink.

At least I didn't give this episode a 1.

Entertaining episode with interesting character moments

[snoozejonc · 8/10 · 23 January 2021]

Discovery looks to expose the cloaked position of the Klingons and engage them in battle.

This is an interesting episode with solid action thrills and intriguing character development.

The plot picks up where the previous episode left off and sees the crew plan and carry out an engagement with the Klingons. It is quite action heavy with moments of character drama thrown in, along with plot holes that are pretty apparent. I enjoyed how it ends as it does make me want to see what happens next.

All the action and visuals are mostly very well done. I wasn't fussed on the slow motion sequence but I feel that way about every movie/show that does it for the sake of making scenes look cool. Such an overused, annoyingly clichéd visual.

Many people dislike the characters of Discovery but they are just about starting to grow on me. Lorca is so anti-Trek it feels like there is a big reveal coming that will explain it. Burnham's defiant nature feels a bit forced at times but she has had more good moments than bad so far and in this episode with the Klingons she was great. Stamets is starting to feel like a Trek character in the classic selfless mould that might make him one to remember. The jury is out on the others yet so time will tell.

For me it's a 7.5/10, but I always round upwards.

A great episode with the return of the blingons

[phychele_meoh · 10/10 · 7 August 2018]

This is a very good episode ,excepting the return of the the ugly lame bald creepy Klingons i have just one issue with the story: -a human is not a machine so i really don't understand how 'Smartmets' can do over 166 highly complex actions in a matter of minutes.

Fast-Paced, Relentless Mid-Season Finale!

[gab-14712 · 9/10 · 10 June 2022]

"Into the Forest I Go" is a very satisfying Star Trek: Discovery episode. In line with the previous episodes, there is hardly any room to breathe. I love this energy! We have space battles, the return of Admiral Cornwell from the presumed dead, a battle between Burnham and General Kol (who was not an entirely interesting character), and Stamets making an incredible 133 spore drive jumps. So buckle in and get ready for the ride! I know that people nitpick the series about certain things. Mine would have to be the characterization, or lack thereof, of the Klingons. L'Rell is seemingly the only semi-interesting Klingon because everyone else just grunts, growls, and double crosses one another. So, I guess it is as good as any time for Kol to meet his demise. The battle was thrilling. There is also some closure in terms of Captain Georgiou whom sadly the show seemed to put on the backburner. Tyler also has plenty to do. He is given a secret mission and it looks like his PTSD will be a factor in episodes to come. One can imagine why after watching that uncomfortable sex scene with L'Rell. And the ending! What are all those destroyed Klingon ships? I cannot wait to find some answers!

In this episode, the crew of the U. S. S Discovery is still trying to understand the invisibility cloak that the Klingons feature. Still at Pahvo, Lorca is given the order to stand down and retreat. Sensing a way to destroy the Klingons once and for all, he refuses the Starfleet orders and plans to use the spore drive, 133 jumps to be precise, to destroy The Sarcophagus. Stamets is at the end of the line as it is clear the spore jumps have been getting to him. Lorca sends Tyler and Burnham to the Klingon's ship to perform a stealth mission. If all goes well, Lorca's bold moves will make the Federation victorious.

Relentless is an opportune word to describe the episode. It does not stop. I believe this episode will be the bridge to expand the universe. There is some talk here about how alternate universes exist. Perhaps this is what we see at the end when Stamets dutifully performed his 133 jumps but landed the ship in a floating Klingon ship wreckage? There could have been some more exploration within Tyler's PTSD battle, but that is just a minor quibble. I am excited for the back half of the season!

My Grade: A-

Into the Forest I Go

[Prismark10 · 6/10 · 11 December 2017]

The mid season finale and we get some firsts for Star Trek here. Such as a male gay kiss.

We also get a more honest exploration of PTSD than seen in Star Trek before before such as Picard getting tortured by Romulans with little after effect. Here Tyler gets flashbacks to his torture in captivity which places his and Burnham's mission in peril. Luckily they found Admiral Cornwall in the Klingon ship alive but injured and ready to see Tyler through his trauma.

Captain Lorca disobey orders to save the Pavhans and sees an opportunity to take on the Klingons such as destabilising their cloaking device by getting Tyler and Burnham to infiltrate a Klingon ship. I think Kirk & Co had the right solution in one of the movies. Look for the emissions from the exhaust pipe than the gobbledegook presented here.

Lorca is also a person who knows how to push people's buttons and persuades Stamets to make 133 micro jumps and makes sure he is jacked up for it despite the consequences to his health.

By the end of the episode Lorca and the Discovery crew have made significant inroads against the Klingon conflict but the one last jump by Stamets comes at a price.

There is a lot of action here and a significant development of the Klingon plot line but strands still remain such as Tyler's identity.

Good energy and story

[Nominahorn · 7/10 · 12 February 2020]

The Pahvans' signal has drawn the Klingon Ship of the Dead to their system. Starfleet orders Discovery to fall back but Lorca refuses to abandon the Pahvans to their fate. He and the crew devise a way to circumvent the Klingon cloak, but first it requires Tyler and Burnham to go on a dangerous mission aboard the Klingon vessel.

I enjoyed this one. The plot moved at a nice pace and was fairly coherent. The ending seems to be diverting the show to a new plot line without resolving the Klingon War one completely. We'll see how that plays out.

THE GOOD

-Good pacing, tension, and plot movement.

-For the first time, Lorca is acting like a real Starfleet captain. I hated him a little less during this ep.

-Same goes for Stamet, who becomes a legit hero with his self sacrifice here

-Thank goodness they finally started shortcutting the universal translator stuff. I appreciate what the show was trying to do with the subtitled Klingon dialogue, but it made for a painful experience to watch, especially because the actors seemed incapable of delivering their lines with any conviction whatsoever. Hopefully the Klingons will be more interesting going forward because so far their scenes have been a chore to sit through.

THE BAD

-Some plot holes and silly contrivances, noted below.

-Two words: Klingon boobies. On the list of things I never needed to see in my life, that was pretty high up there.

THE UGLY

-The vulnerability for the Klingon ships while cloaking/decloaking is a massive plot hole. If you can beam aboard the ship during that time, then enemies could just beam aboard a bomb. Or beam the Klingon crew into space. It's a fatal flaw for a ship to have. That said, such a vulnerability has always existed in Trek lore and so it's not really the fault of DSC that it exists, only that they called attention to it.

-The 133 jumps is dumb for a number of reasons. First, what a random and arbitrary number. Second, there's no reason why they couldn't have done those jumps at warp or even sublight. Third, before they discovered the tardigrade, Discovery was able to make short jumps without issue. It was only longer jumps that failed. So they didn't need to use Stamet for the microjumps, a fact that the show apparently forgot about.

-Once again Lorca disobeys Starfleet orders and not only is not punished, but they want to give him a medal for it. No military-esque organization could maintain order if it let officers like Lorca get away with the crap he does.

-When Burnham taunts Kol into fighting her, I really wanted her to call him a coward just because I love the reaction that insult gets from Klingons (cue Worf going bug-eyed with rage). The writers keep missing opportunities like that to make the Klingon characters interesting or memorable.

I'm sorry but the plot holes are ridiculous.

[jacob6875 · 2/10 · 4 January 2020]

If they can't detect cloaked ships how did they detect one on long range sensors heading towards the planet and know to jump back.

Because they supposedly need a new plan to detect cloaked ships they decide to beam on to the Klingon flagship and place a sensor at the rear and front of the ship. To do this seemingly impossible task they decide on a boarding party of 2 people. The guy who just spent 6 months getting tortured in a Klingon prison and the science officer

I guess no one thought to just beam a couple of photon torpedoes on board to destroy the ship or just beam the sensors directly on to the ship.

In any case once on board the Klingon ship they just seem to waltz right through the main hallway since this ship appears to be mostly deserted. They get so bored they decide to go save the Admiral that got captured in a previous episode.

Of course the security chief gets a sudden case of PSTD, but no worries Michael just goes up the Klingon bridge to plant the 2nd sensor without any trouble.

Michael who appears to think the ship going to warp will ruin their plan decides to start shooting people on the Klingon bridge and then challenges their leader to a 1v1. Somehow she isn't instantly killed and they all beam off in the nick of time.

They blow up the ship and start acting like the war is magically over because 1 ship got destroyed.

A Mid-Season Cliffhanger

[Samuel-Shovel · 7/10 · 18 August 2020]

In "Into the Forest I Go" the Discovery uses their spore technology to drop a sonar beacon in a Klingon ship that will allow them to learn how to detect cloaked Klingon ships. This takes hundreds of mini-jumps, which takes quite the toll on Stamets. While hiding the beacon on the Klingon ship, Tyler and Michael happen upon the Admiral, rescuing her and taking a Klingon refugee in the process.

Pretty fun cliffhanger actually. It looks like we're in a parallel universe at the end. The show's slowly starting to make some strides after a lackluster start. They'll need to deliver in the second half of the season though. I'm skeptical whether they'll be able to do so...

Hi, Spent Seven Months in a Klingon Prison

[inexile · 3/10 · 13 November 2017]

First decently written episode of the season. From 10 minutes in till the 1 hour point (with ads) this was very strong. And a decent ending that ties us from one episode to the next.

Understated for the most part for the first time in the season. Wow. What a thing. Do more.

Should have been the first episode, or something similar to it, but we have been dickeying around for many episodes for no good reason. I mean, as a microcosm, why is this the first time we see fingers scaling the transporter board? This is how character should be built, altho' Ash's scenes were weak.

But there are still insurmountable issues. For eg, the focus on romantic relationships. The bad science (and you can tell there is more to come). The dumb politics. Damn, too bad, because if the series had started this way, it had a chance.

Still an actual decent effort. But what, seven episodes in? Don't think I will watch the second half. I'm a busy guy and don't trust these producers one bit.

-2 for coming far too late, otherwise a 7.