Star Trek Discovery S4, Ep 3: With the Bad Comes the Good
I don’t know Olatunde Osunsanmi. I couldn’t pick him out of a crowd. But I do know that he directs a lot of episodes of Star Trek Discovery. He’s even an Executive Producer now, along with like 21 other people. And what I also know is that every time he isn’t the director, there’s a chance we get a good episode. Or at least one that’s well-lighted, well-paced, and appropriately frames character-based scenes. So, hey, correlation isn’t causation, but sometimes a cigar is a cigar is all I’m saying.
This week’s episode is one of those — it’s well-directed, well-acted, well-plotted, and even successfully manages to thematically weave together A, B, and C plots into a satisfying resolution for all the characters involved. In short: it’s a Star Trek episode. Sadly, in the world of Star Trek Discovery, this is a notable accomplishment.
Too bad I was immediately put off by everything about the episode. The episode title is “Choose to Live” which immediately gave me anxiety flashbacks to Picard. And then the opening scene is a bunch of ninjas attacking a Starfleet ship, killing a bunch of officers who try to fight back with jiu-jitsu. I’m not having a great time…
