![]() ![]() Yes, Book and Tarka have the illicit substance they need to make their bomb tick, and Burnham has discovered a cunning way to track Starfleet’s Most Wanted. Bizarrely the whole charade is no more gripping than one of the regular poker nights on the USS Enterprise-D.īy the time Book walks away with the isolynium, the situation is more-or-less the same as when the episode began. And not a particularly convincing one, either, as Burnham’s over-the-top banter with Book makes it blatantly obvious she’s up to something. But where Casino Royale bolstered its tabletop set-piece with an epic staircase scrap and a near-fatal poisoning, this is – well – just a card game. With a pair of former Emerald Chain criminals buying in, and the fate of the universe in the balance, this is a genuinely high stakes contest. After season 3’s revelation that Owo can hold her breath for 10 minutes, she’s making a case for heading up Disco’s team at the 3188 Olympics.īut the episode’s biggest flaw is the card game that should be its center point. Instead, as he artificially inflates the price of the isolynium, the two factions are forced into strangely mundane money-making ventures – Book and Tarka go looking for a changeling gambling cheat, while Owo becomes an unlikely prizefighter, with Burnham as her promoter. The establishment’s grinning proprietor (played by Daniel Kash, whose role as one of the marines in Aliens guarantees sci-fi immortality) is the kind of guy who’ll play all sides to come out with a profit, yet seems unlikely to intimidate anybody. It’s no surprise, of course, that they’ve found their way to the same den of iniquity as Book and Tarka, a place strangely devoid of intrigue or danger. ![]() Is it the sanitized production design lifted right out of a modern-day nightclub? Or is it the ease with which the ever-adaptable Burnham moves through a lawless world? Even after the year she spent with Book before Discovery caught up with her in 32nd century, it’s hard to buy that a Starfleet lifer who spent her formative years on Vulcan would blend in so effortlessly. When Burnham and Lt Cmdr Owosekun (clearly relishing the rare opportunity to get off the bridge) jet down to the Karma Barge casino, it’s hard to work out what’s more implausible. Star Trek has always had an uneasy relationship with the sort of wretched hives of scum and villainy that have been integral to Star Wars since day one. Jones would never have been allowed to leave his college campus again. Alas, there’s a major flaw in the execution – if Raiders of the Lost Ark had been this flat, Dr. And as they venture into a world of black-market profiteers operating outside Federation jurisdiction, the episode has all the ingredients to be an Indiana Jones-style ‘find the McGuffin’ adventure. Burnham’s prime directive is beating Book and Tarka to a supply of isolynium, the dangerous substance they need to make their treaty-smashing weapon of mass destruction operable. ![]()
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