Has the Mandalorian Kept Discovery Honest?

Discovery's third season has closed and with it, the most experimental and riskiest season in over fifty years and certainly far from its best.

Before you start gulping raktajinos just to spit them out in sudden disgust, I’m not trashing Star Trek, nor am I making any sharp right turn and vowing never to watch another episode ever again. The rebooting of Discovery meant that season three effectively did the same as the ship and became "-A", beginning the universe building again that was evident back in The Vulcan Hello.

 

The other thing is that it's hard not to compare this year with the return of Disney's Star Wars offering in the form of The Mandalorian, season two. 

After a rather mixed sequel trilogy that started well with A New Hope reboot The Force Awakens, The Last Jedi turned it all on its head brilliantly. Tragically JJ Abrams, who did so well with kicking Star Trek back into life chose to play it super safe with The Rise of Skywalker. 

It looked like Star Trek could get a little cocky. The reboot movies, on the whole, were well received and Discovery, Picard and Lower Decks were opening the franchise to a whole new set of viewers and annoying loads of the older ones at the same time. Yet, it was going in the right direction and attracting a lot of attention.

It was flashy, it was edgy, the effects were incredible and there was clearly a lot of money sunk into the product. Discovery was complex, offering a new mystery each season - Lorca, the Red Angel, the Burn; something for us to follow week on week. Each episode gave a bit more and attempted to question something and tie itself in to modern day issues but it became reliant on you having to keep up each week. Picard might as well have been a political commentary on the state of the US at times which, if you think back, is sort of the lavish, want-for-nothing opposite that The Next Generation pitched up with in 1987.

Discovery and Picard are definitely not The Next Generation or Deep Space Nine just in the way that those shows weren’t the same as The Original Series. It’s ok to love one, maybe like another and perhaps just enjoy watching Enterprise (for example!). So-called Nu-Trek (ie post 2009) at the least continues the tradition of being controversial but may be burying its allegories a lot deeper than even Gene Roddenberry did. 

Discovery is pushing the boundaries, adding transgender characters, an alien captain, the focus on one main character, huge story arcs, that time jump. Perhaps its agenda in that way is more open than any Star Trek series ever before although it’s trying to appeal to everyone and by default may actually be trying that little bit too hard.

The Mandalorian meanwhile is demonstrating the old KISS principle; Keep It Simple Stupid. Set something up, show it, leave it, return and give a one line reminder. Job done. But more importantly you can dip into this series without worrying too much about what's gone before.  However, is that what fans would want from Star Trek or, as I expect, is there a higher bar to reach with its extensive back catalogue and experience? Rumour has it that the Trek franchise is even considering utilising that rather impressive AI wall technology that has given the Mandalorian a stunning visual look and a huge storytelling advantage.

There's no requirement for a deep and intimate knowledge of the story on The Mandalorian because nothing is over thought. As I saw one review state, it's exactly the story you would be telling if you were dreaming something up with your tub of action figures. But let's remember they are two very different franchises and however much I love The Mandalorian, Star Trek still has a firm grip on my affections but that doesn't mean it can avoid my disappointment.

I can honestly say that if I didn't follow each week of this season of Discovery religiously to find out the next bit of information about the Burn or the Emerald Chain, I would find it difficult to follow. It does limit its re-watch potential and that's something that the '66 - '01 era definitely wins at and should be rectified with the introduction of Strange New Worlds which will be more contained to a story per episode.

The age of the binge-watch does suit the arc nature of the show because you'll be in the loop right to the end. In this way, Star Trek is trying to cater to two types of audience within its framework but... with The Mandalorian a dip in and out or a full re-watch are easily possible and it may well be failing to capture the hearts of the established audience to build itself a new fanbase. Being brutal, for longevity this has to happen and Star Trek needs new fans to keep it alive. These new fans don't have the same mentality as the 1966 or 1987 audience and, love or hate it, they are the future.

With a basic set up, each episode of The Mandalorian still remains fairly self-contained with a specific event. Journeys to different planets are done in a screen wipe (something the spore drive in Discovery now helps with) and importantly it knows what it is, an action series set in space. Star Trek - no, specifically Discovery - is trying to be more. All encompassing and perhaps overstretching itself. Even in my reviews of the show I can feel a dissatisfaction in some of its elements. Burnham is over emotional, characters are under-developed and the genuine cool twist of dropping the viewer into the distant future hasn't created quite the buzz I expected.

There's an overreliance on nods to the past - Voyager, Spock (twice!) and instead of carving out that new, fresh path, the concern to bow to the older generation of fans may now be taking its toll and holding the show back. Homages and references are great but the back catalogue may now be proving to be more of an anchor-weight for Discovery than ever before. Season four has to go boldly where no-one has gone before and explore the 32nd Century as well as bringing the Federation back together. Rebuild and solidify the optimism for today. 

I'm enjoying Discovery as a show but the excitement is missing from a great deal of the episodes in what may well be remembered as Star Trek's most disappointing season ever. It came, it saw, it didn't deliver the thrills we were expecting. Osyraa turned out to be one of Trek's most multifaceted villains and is more than just a baddie toting a gun or wanting to recite poetry on every kill. Her plans are wider, her vision bigger however the plot for the Emerald Chain was lacking. It started the season as a sub-plot but grew to overtake the Burn as the priority of the year. Maybe the only thing lacking was a better way of having her switch from baddie to negotiator and back to baddie in the final pair of episodes.

The Mandalorian didn't go too far. While Discovery was revealing that an errant child was responsible for the downfall of the galaxy (sounds like a parallel to the Ewoks defeating the Empire), it remained focused on a simple rescue mission. It was exciting, it was different because the series had done away with any sub-text, attempts at making social comment or being that little bit too clever.

However, with an additional five episodes over the season length of The Mandalorian, Discovery has managed to do a lot more this year than perhaps it tried to do in years one and two. The bridge crew feel a little bit more fleshed out and recognisable. They're been given more to do this year than push a few buttons and arm the torpedoes or raise a hail. 

Even in the finale, That Hope is You, Part II there's a lot going on but we still have time for part of the episode to follow their narrative. Having that burgeoning cast has not been a friend to the show and if you look to The Mandalorian, the main cast is only a handful of characters each week which again declutters the script and the action. Being only 30 minutes long also has the effect of keeping it on the line from start to finish while Discovery's 50-60 minute run time allows for more expansion of character and story. 

I'm not suggesting that happens every week although I do think the jump to the future is a way for the series to up its game, show that the studio are putting decent money into the show and have enough faith in it that they were prepared to start again. It's been a testing year and the show has run against Star Wars directly on its release days which piles even more pressure. The limp few episodes towards the end of season three did Discovery no favours. Georgiou's send off did not need to be a two-parter and elements of the Book storyline with his home world and the Emerald Chain may have helped build a bigger picture of the thuggish organisation but even now I'm not sure if it was all worth it. 

Essentially though there had to be an episode here to fully introduce both Adira and Book to the viewer and to a greater extent it's been worth it when it's come to the later episodes around Gray and that final twist that Book can now work the spore drive. Give it this, Discovery has not in any way played it safe this season - the time, the place, the foes, the twists - all have gone against expectation. If I recall it was the fired previous producers who promised that optimism and it looks like their thoughts for the year were binned (but I can't substantiate that, it's a theory!). That's left us with this grimy, darker season that actually tried new things, went for new character options and did it all in the middle of a global pandemic.  

Finally though, perhaps we ourselves as viewers have come to expect too much from Discovery hence why The Mandalorian has been so refreshing. It has nothing to prove, the franchise's movies have been less than stellar of late and inversely there's nothing to lose from attempting a live action show. 

With that 800 episode total, fans expect perfection and "their" Star Trek. Nay, they demand it and want The Next Generation or for the next episode to be as if the franchise had continued on TV in 2006. But it won't be and y'know I can live with that because it's a new era and once again things change. No-one can be pleased all the time and I can count several DS9's or Voyager's that bombed in my eyes. Discovery is no different and ultimately while I can bemoan the dips in quality, it's unavoidable.

Who is to say that now The Mandalorian has closed off the Grogu storyline it'll be anywhere near as effective? We won't know for two years since Boba Fett is off on his own quest next year but everything has its day, its highs and lows so I'm sticking around with Trek - there are always...possibilities.

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