• Home
  • Movies
  • Music
  • TV
  • Video Games
  • Wrestling
  • Topics
  • Latest Comments on Cult of Whatever
Search
Cult of Whatever logo
  • Movies
    Featured
    • The Living Daylights: Timothy Dalton as James Bond

      The Living Daylights is still awesome, thirty-five years later

      By Matthew Martin
      | March 28, 2022
      Movie Blogs
    Recent
    • The Muppet Christmas Carol: Michael Caine as Scrooge

      The Muppet’s Christmas Carol remains the gold standard for the book

      By Matthew Martin
      | December 20, 2022
    • Nightmare Before Christmas 1993 1

      2022’s Christmas Movie Watchlist!

      By Matthew Martin
      | December 18, 2022
    • Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio Poster

      REVIEW: GDT’s Pinocchio is my favorite film of the year!

      By Matthew Martin
      | December 14, 2022
    • Troll: Ine Marie Wilmann as Nora

      REVIEWS: TROLL and TROLL HUNTER -A giant creature double feature!

      By Matthew Martin
      | December 5, 2022
    • Harry with The Hendersons

      Harry and the Hendersons is still awesome, thirty-five years later

      By Matthew Martin
      | December 1, 2022
    • Fantastic Four Poster

      The five best “rogues galleries” in superherodom! (part 3)

      By Matthew Martin
      | November 28, 2022
  • Music
    Random
    • Elvis

      Elvis's final New Year's featured his last great show

      By Matthew Martin
      | December 31, 2016
      Music Blogs
    Recent
    • The Beatles: Get Back

      What GET BACK reveals about the Beatles

      By Matthew Martin
      | December 15, 2021
    • Simon And Garfunkel at Feyenoord Stadium in Rotterdam1982

      The Boxer is a song about being conned

      By Matthew Martin
      | July 4, 2021
    • Lady Gaga: Chromatica Album Cover

      Lady Gaga’s discography is totally out of order

      By Matthew Martin
      | June 3, 2021
    • Michael Jackson Thriller Album Cover

      Thirty years ago music fans said “Nevermind” to Michael Jackson

      By Matthew Martin
      | March 21, 2021
    • Queen II Album Cover

      On Queen’s The Miracle, and the importance of track ordering

      By Matthew Martin
      | February 16, 2021
    • Linda Paul Mccartney 1976

      50 years ago, McCartney dropped “Lennon” and went solo…

      By Matthew Martin
      | June 5, 2020
  • TV
    Featured
    • Big Sky S03e05: Kylie Bunbury, J. Anthony Pena and Katheryn Winnick as Cassie Dewell, Mo Poppernak and Jenny Hoyt

      Big Sky S03E05 Review: Flesh and Blood - Glamping!

      By Salome G
      | October 22, 2022
      TV Blogs
    Recent
    • Big Sky S03e10: Gang

      Big Sky S03E10 Review: A Thin Layer of Rock – Break time…

      By Salome G
      | December 11, 2022
    • Rick And Morty: S01e03

      Is Beth from Rick and Morty a bigger sociopath than Rick?

      By Jason Collins
      | December 7, 2022
    • Big Sky S03e09: Dedee Pfeiffer and Cree as Denise and Emily

      Big Sky S03E09: Where There’s Smoke There’s Fire – Stalling

      By Salome G
      | December 1, 2022
    • The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special: Dave Bautista and Pom Klementieff as Drax and Mantis

      REVIEW: The GOTG Holiday Special is a sweet prelude to next year’s finale

      By Matthew Martin
      | November 27, 2022
    • The Midnight Club S01: The Gang

      The Midnight Club S1 Review – A series of unfortunate events

      By Salome G
      | November 24, 2022
    • Big Sky S03e08: Reba McEntire as Sunny Barnes

      Big Sky S03E08 Review: Duck Hunting – I love a weirdo.

      By Salome G
      | November 19, 2022
  • Video Games
    Featured
    • Arkham Knight

      Batman: Arkham Knight - A fitting end to a trilogy

      By Tom Farr
      | July 18, 2015
      Video Game Reviews
    Recent
    • Splatoon 3 Screenshot

      A trio of Nintendo Switch reviews!

      By Matthew Martin
      | September 28, 2022
    • Nintendo Switch Logo

      Looking ahead to the Switch 2: Predictions and Wants

      By Matthew Martin
      | August 15, 2022
    • Legend Of Zelda

      Can a Legend of Zelda movie work?

      By Matthew Martin
      | April 6, 2022
    • Super Mario 64

      Which system had the better launch: A battle of four Nintendo consoles

      By Matthew Martin
      | December 1, 2021
    • Luigi's Mansion

      Happy twentieth to Nintendo’s underrated gem, the Gamecube

      By Matthew Martin
      | November 18, 2021
    • Metroid Dread

      Metroid Dread – Post Game analysis and sequel needs

      By Matthew Martin
      | October 29, 2021
  • Wrestling
    Featured
    • AEW All Out 2022: Keith Lee. Anthony Bowens, Max Caster and Billy Gunn

      AEW All Out 2022 - Review and (wild) Speculation!

      By Matthew Martin
      | September 5, 2022
      AEW
    Recent
    • WWE WrestleMania 38: Cody Rhodes vs. Seth Rollins

      Was 2022 the wildest year in wrestling history?

      By Matthew Martin
      | January 4, 2023
    • AEW Full Gear 2022: Young Bucks and Kenny Omega Elite Entrance

      AEW Full Gear 2022 – A needed reset at the end of a tough year

      By Matthew Martin
      | November 22, 2022
    • WWE Survivor Series 1997: Bret Hart

      The Montreal Screwjob – Twenty Five Years Later

      By Matthew Martin
      | November 8, 2022
    • AEW Grand Slam 2022: Jungle Boy and Rey Fenix

      AEW GRANDSLAM 2022 showcased the present and future of the promotion

      By Matthew Martin
      | September 25, 2022
    • AEW All Out 2022: CM Punk

      AEW All Out Fall Out: All the CM Punk drama that’s fit to print!

      By Matthew Martin
      | September 5, 2022
    • AEW Dark: Ricky Starks (22/09/20)

      The future of the AEW World Championship

      By Matthew Martin
      | August 14, 2022
  • Topics
    • site logo
    Latest
    • Was 2022 the wildest year in wrestling history?
    • The Muppet's Christmas Carol remains the gold standard for the book
    • 2022's Christmas Movie Watchlist!
    • REVIEW: GDT's Pinocchio is my favorite film of the year!
    • Big Sky S03E10 Review: A Thin Layer of Rock - Break time...
    • Is Beth from Rick and Morty a bigger sociopath than Rick?

    Star Trek Discovery S01E11 & S01E12: Offers up a Tale of Two Treks

    By Matthew Martin
    | January 22, 2018
    TV Blogs

    Discovery’s two most recent episodes could not be more separate from each other in terms of how effectively they accomplished their goals. In the “chapter two” (as CBS is calling it) premiere, the show got its feet wet in this new “mirror” universe, played around with the new environment in both funny and thrilling ways and effectively kicked-off the arc that will carry through at least until the season-finale next month.

    The next episode, “The Wolf Inside” effectively builds on the previous week’s foundation with an episode that’s layered and engaging. The storyline is focused, with teases for the future (a staple in serialized TV) sprinkled around like seasoning, while the actual hour-long plot is allowed to take center stage.

    That’s a far cry from the episode that followed.

    “Vaulting Ambition” is scattered. It’s a mess of an episode totalling only thirty-seven minutes (the shortest in live-action Trek history), filled to the brim with revelations, twists, teases for the future and moments meant to advance the “lore” of the show. What it criminally lacks is an actual “plot.” That’s not to say things don’t happen; it’s just that there is no easily-navigable “beginning-middle-end” to it. Instead it’s box-checking, meant to wrap up old rumors and lay an exposition-heavy foundation for the rest of the season (despite it being three-episodes into the six-episode “chapter two”).

    Star Trek Discovery S1e12 Michelle Yeoh Sonequa Martin Green Michael Burnham Captain Philippa Georgiou

    Back to “The Wolf Inside.” It’s an episode built on two levels.

    On the one hand there is the big picture that we’re only just coming to grips with. The Mirror Universe is the new normal going forward and though a lot of the “rules” of this universe (cut-throat, be bad for badness’ sake, vulcans have pointy goatees) are well-known to Trekkies, it’s new terrain for DISCO’s crew. The episode does a good job showing us this lived-in universe that the crew has to clunkily-navigate.

    On the other hand there’s the isolated plot of this episode, which builds off the big picture by exploring it with a single character: Michael. She is forced to contend with the mirror rules and how they clash with her Federation ideals. Considering how Michael herself is a captain-assaulting mutineer, she’s well-versed in conflict, but that’s what’s so great about it: Before now Michael was conflicted between the Federation she idealizes (the one fans have idealized for fifty years) and her own un-Federation actions. It’s made her a tough nut to crack and a hard lead-character for long-time fans to get behind. Throwing her in an environment where everyone is as un-Federation as you can get forces Michael to be the kind of Star Trek heroine we are used to. It pushes her and the show into being more “traditional Trek.” There are layers to this episode, giving it a depth few others have achieved in the series.

    There’s a B-plot, filled with a lot of technobabble about using the spores to bring Stamets back from his coma. It’s very superficial and slight, but being a B-plot it’s more forgivable. Battlestar Galacitca’s first season nailed the way to handle these serialized shows. Have the A-plot change week to week (for the most part), while following a connective arc, and have the B-plot be more of a single, long-running story that you cut back to throughout the season. In BSG it was the Helo/Sharon story on Caprica, which rarely had a definitive beginning, middle or ending in each episode, but it worked because it was a change of pace from the A-plots on Galactica each week. Had Discovery followed a similar template with Stamets it might have worked.

    Star Trek Discovery S1e12 Doug Jones Anthony Rapp Mary Wiseman Saru Paul Stamets Sylvia Tilly

    Instead by the next week—“Vaulting Ambition”—they abandoned it.

    Instead of layers of plot to digest in the A-plot, “Vaulting Ambition” throws out four different stories with equal attention paid to each, none of which offer anything more than a series of scenes where exposition is dropped to pave the way for the episodes to come. Saru struggles to help Ash, enlisting the aid of Discovery’s Klingon prisoner (who happens to be responsible for his condition in the first place). We learn some mumbo jumbo about what she did to him, and in the end there’s some quasi-surgery performed but it’s not clear what happened. It’s more about moving the pieces around to make the real move next week (or the week after). Meanwhile, Stamets searches for a way out of his spore-enhanced subconscious, gets closure with the recently-departed Dr. Culber, and…that’s it. He comes out of his coma and…we’ll have to wait till next week (or the week after) for him to actually do something. Lorca suffers in the agonizer, gets released by his tormenter (conveniently) for extra torture, and then escapes. Find out next week what actually happens as a result! The presumed A-story belongs to Michael and Emperor Georgiou, which ends up being a series of loosely-connected scenes filled with either exposition (their first meeting), gore (Georgiou killing her guards) or horror (eating Kelpien!). But there’s no there there. It’s all box-checking. No beginning, middle and end plot-telling.

    The individual moments are great, but the story that links them is non-existent.

    Whereas the previous episode was filled with great touches too (Ash’s breakdown and the reveal of his true nature, Michael being kind to Mirror-Saru, who repaid her by saving her life, Georgiou’s reveal, Stamets meeting his double), they are—as mentioned—just seasoning. “The Wolf Inside” had meat on its bones. It was about something. It managed to tell an effective story while also confirming a bunch of theories all at once, which should have allowed the show to explore more open territory going forward. Instead the follow-up doubled-down on twists and turns and shocking reveals.

    Star Trek S1e12 Vaulting Ambition Discovery Michelle Yeoh Captain Philippa Georgiou

    STRAY THOUGHTS

    There remains a weird contrast between the intense teaser before each episode, with dark lighting, cinematic camera shots, brooding angst and more…and the bright, classic-Trek opening theme song and visuals. It’s the weirdness of the show in a nutshell: It’s Trek…but not; it’s not Trek…but is.

    Amazon Prime is the way to watch the show (legally). If you’re already an Amazon Prime member, and you don’t mind paying for CBS AA, you can watch Discovery on Prime in full 1080p with no stuttering, no buffering, no signal-quality dips, and most of all no commercials. It’s technically a double-dip in price but just think of it as paying for the privilege to watch Discov—er, on second thought don’t think that. It will just make you mad that CBS is holding the show hostage on their dead-on-arrival service.

    Despite “Vaulting Ambition” being a failure of an “episode” it was still an “effective” show, in that it confirmed the Mirror-Lorca theory and raised the stakes now facing Michael. There are enough lingering plot threads left to be explored and, as far as I can tell, no more unanswered theories to be revealed. Hopefully that part of the show is done and we can get back to telling stories again and letting the plots drive the emotional beats, not the twists. If so then this show is just a necessary evil on the road to better days ahead (still doesn’t excuse it’s faults, however).

    What is the end-game to this season? Is it Lorca becoming Emperor of the Terran Empire? If that happens and Disco goes back to its universe, what have we gained? The whole season becomes a big shaggy dog story.

    The Mirror-Lorca twist is ultimately a character-weakener. Before, he was just a morally-twisted captain, distraught over the death of his crew, driven a little off-kilter to see the Klingon war won. That’s depth. Instead he’s revealed to be just a mustache-twirling mirror universe baddie. That’s shallow. That said, hat tip to Jason Isaacs: A British actor playing an American character playing the mirror universe version of himself pretending to play the mirror universe version of himself while actually being his real—mirror universe—self. And along the way being a British actor faking an American accent faking an Irish accent. Bravo.

    Star Trek Discovery S1e12 Jason Isaacs Lorca

    “The Wolf Inside” earns a 10/10 for its great, layered plot, spiced up by occasional big reveals and twists. More of this, please.

    “Vaulting Ambition” earns a 6/10 because these serialized shows still need to have a plot to go along with their big season-advancing reveals. Less of this, please.

    Share this article:

    Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on Pinterest Share on Reddit

    Tags

    Star TrekStar Trek Discovery

    COMMENTS

    Please read our Commenting Policy before you join in with the discussion.

    Note: If you have email notifications enabled, please check your email spam folders to ensure emails are not missed.

    Subscribe
    Connect withD
    I allow to create an account
    When you login first time using a Social Login button, we collect your account public profile information shared by Social Login provider, based on your privacy settings. We also get your email address to automatically create an account for you in our website. Once your account is created, you'll be logged-in to this account.
    DisagreeAgree
    Notify of
    guest

    Connect withD
    I allow to create an account
    When you login first time using a Social Login button, we collect your account public profile information shared by Social Login provider, based on your privacy settings. We also get your email address to automatically create an account for you in our website. Once your account is created, you'll be logged-in to this account.
    DisagreeAgree
    guest

    0 Comments
    Inline Feedbacks
    View all comments

    You might also like

    • Star Trek Discovery S01E10 returns with its strongest episode yet

      By Matthew Martin
      | January 8, 2018
    • REVIEW: Star Trek Discovery, season one (first half)

      By Matthew Martin
      | December 13, 2017
    • Star Trek Discovery: Into the Forest I Go – Midseason finale review

      By Matthew Martin
      | November 13, 2017
    • Discovery discovers its inner Trek

      By Matthew Martin
      | November 6, 2017
    • Star Trek Discovery Season 1 Review: Episodes 3-4

      By Matthew Martin
      | October 9, 2017
    • Star Trek Discovery boldly sets up its table…and then shockingly flips it

      By Matthew Martin
      | September 26, 2017
    • Star Trek Discovery has reached the “barometer” stage…

      By Matthew Martin
      | October 24, 2017
    • Discovery is a big risk for both CBS and Star Trek.

      By Matthew Martin
      | June 8, 2017

    FIND THE TOPICS YOU WANT...

    TV Topics

    Recommended for you

    • Big Sky S03E10 Review: A Thin Layer of Rock – Break time…

      By Salome G
      | December 11, 2022
    • Is Beth from Rick and Morty a bigger sociopath than Rick?

      By Jason Collins
      | December 7, 2022
    • REVIEW: The GOTG Holiday Special is a sweet prelude to next year’s finale

      By Matthew Martin
      | November 27, 2022
    • The Midnight Club S1 Review – A series of unfortunate events

      By Salome G
      | November 24, 2022
    • Doctor Who 2022 October Special Review: The Power of the Doctor – Lackluster

      By Jason Collins
      | October 25, 2022
    • Can the Doctor regenerate into a previous incarnation?

      By Jason Collins
      | October 23, 2022
    • Is the Tardis more sentient plant or machine?

      By Jason Collins
      | October 10, 2022
    • Star Trek Strange New Worlds – Season two wishlist!

      By Matthew Martin
      | September 14, 2022
    • Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Every episode ranked! (Part 5/5)

      By Matthew Martin
      | May 30, 2022
    • About Us
    • Contact Us
    • Privacy Policy
    • Affiliate Disclosure
    • Cookie Policy and Settings
    • Terms of Use
    • Photo Credits
    • RSS
    All Cult of Whatever articles, logos, illustrations and graphics are copyright CultOfWhatever.com. All other trademarks, logos and copyrights are the property of their respective owners. © 2021 CultOfWhatever. All Rights Reserved.
    • facebook
    • twitter
    wpDiscuz