Short Treks is a new series format that was originally conceived to bridge the time between the first and the second season of Discovery. The series consists of episodes of only 10 to 15 minutes, each of which focuses on one character. These are pretty lightweight, so I'll handle them in a single post rather than dragging this out any longer than is necessary.
RUNAWAY: The first of these has the feel of a "DVD extra" deleted scene, but it goes on to tell a complete story with its own beginning middle and end. It features Sylvia Tilly, who has slowly developed into my favorite character on the show, back at the beginning of her ensign days. This episode is about a brilliant 17-year-old runaway who has developed a method to recrystallize dilithium. [SPOILER] She ends up being the heir to the throne. [END SPOILER] The series is off to a good start.
CALYPSO: This is the one the last episode of Discovery bent over backwards to work into continuity even though the result didn't make a lick of sense. They should have just left well enough alone.
THE BRIGHTEST STAR: The "origin" of Saru. The Kelpians (they harvest kelp, get it?) are a pre-warp civilization. This episode shows us nothing we haven't seen before in multiple episodes of TOS in general, and of this society in earlier DIS episodes in particular. The highlight of the episode is that Michelle Yeoh reprises her role as Captain Lt. Georgiou.
THE ESCAPE ARTIST: Oh! At some point after watching DIS season one and this "Short Trek" I watched the entire run of The Office for the first time, and I immediately realized that the same guy who played Dwight on The Office plays Harry Mudd on neo-Trek.
Q&A: Ensign and Number One stuck in a turbolift his first day on the ship. I find myself looking forward to the return of Strange New Worlds, the "best" (he said, damning with faint praise) of the neo-Trek. I try to imagine what I would think of SNW if I had never before seen any Star Trek (or was familiar only with TOS). As Captain Comics recently posted: "Today’s younger viewers are watching Star Trek … as it exists now."
THE TROUBLE WITH EDWARD: The "origin" of Tribbles. Watching this one I had to continually remind myself that this is a rebooted universe. In TOS, the Tribbles reproduced so prolifically because, on a homeworld full of predators, that was the result of evolution; on neo-Trek, they were genetically engineered. It's well-done for what it is (and provides a nice set-up for the final zinger), but it's still pretty jarring for Trekkies (not "Trekkers") to watch. While I'm at it, the "roller-coaster" style turbolifts are on display in "Q&A", making Enterprise basicall an empty hull.
ASK NOT: This one is based on a twist so obvious I had it pegged a minute in. Still, I won't spoil it for anyone who may not have seen it and wants to be "surprised."
THE GIRL WHO MADE THE STARS: This isn't really a Star Trek episode at all, except for the framing sequence, in which a father tells his little girl a bedtime story of an African folktale. It is not even supposed to be true within the Star Trek universe (unless we are to believe it took place at a time when there were "no stars in the sky"). It is animated in a "Pixar" style and not worth watching.
EPHRAIM AND DOT: This is an extremely frustrating short to watch. It is animated (in classic, i.e., non-"Pixar," style) and incorporates scenes from many episodes of TOS (plus two of the movies), but with absolutely no sense of continuity at all. For example, not only were the episode scens present wildly out of order, but the Enterprise depicted was the refit of the movie era, not the ship of TOS. I was willing to overlook most of the continuity "errors" (really, I was), but the ship depicted displayed the call letters NCC-1701-A, which was a bridge too far. (The movie scenes shown were from Star Trek II & III.) No reason to watch this as long as TAS exists.
CHILDREN OF MARS: The touchiest/feeliest of all possible Star Trek episodes.
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