Short Treks - short reviews
“Runaway” – On board the U.S.S. Discovery, Ensign Tilly (Mary Wiseman) encounters an unexpected visitor in need of help. However, this unlikely pair may have more in common than meets the eye. - This is the least effective of the four. The situation is nearly silly and requires Tilly to behave like child. I know her character is supposed to be naive, but this is simply awful.
“Calypso” – After waking up in an unfamiliar sickbay, Craft (Aldis Hodge) finds himself on board a deserted ship, and his only companion and hope for survival is an A.I. computer interface. - This story may reflect some events which are yet to occur on the show. At any rate, the story works. An emotionally wounded warrior bonds with an A.I. personality which has evolved alone for a thousand years. This one is worth watching
“The Brightest Star” – Before he was the first Kelpien to join Starfleet, Saru (Doug Jones) lived a simple life on his home planet of Kaminar with his father and sister. Young Saru, full of ingenuity and a level of curiosity uncommon among his people, yearns to find out what lies beyond his village, leading him on an unexpected path. - An episode that actually fills in background on a key character of the series! This episode is genuinely good. I am amazed at the detail and complexity of the Kelpien world in this short film and can only assume that the series will be dealing further with the setting. Who is exploiting the Kelpians? Is it something the Federation should be doing something about? I figure Kirk would not have simply walked away from that question.
“The Escape Artist” – Harry Mudd (Rainn Wilson), back to his old tricks of stealing and double-dealing, finds himself in a precarious position aboard a hostile ship – just in time to try out his latest con. - This episode has a Star Wars vibe... Not in a bad way. The idea that there are numerous traders, bounty hunters and other non-governmental operators tooling about the space-lanes actually seems like classic Trek, if you think about it. "The Trouble with Tribbles" and "Mudd's Women" (Remember that "Mudd's Women" was one of the stories pitched by Roddenberry as a candidate for the second pilot of ST TOS) give you a sense of how well the basic setup of this episode fits with basic Trek.
I've never been a stickler for continuity and so the explanation of the scam being run in this episode doesn't bother me too much. Current expectations for A.I. and robotics make the seeming novelty of such things in TOS seem rather inappropriate. And... The connection to Harry Mudd's second TOS appearance is rather amusing. You can see how Harry would have really been keen to exploit the planet he discovered in that episode.