In Review: Star Trek: Discovery (S4 – EP6) Stormy Weather

Synopsis: In Stormy Weather the U.S.S. Discovery ventures into a subspace rift created by the Dark Matter Anomaly. Meanwhile, Book faces a strange visitor from his past.

The Story

In their continued search to find who or what is behind the DMA. The U.S.S. Discovery is ordered to go into a rift created by the Anomaly to see if it holds any answers. Upon arrival, they find that there is literally nothing there but a dark void, but when they send one of their probes out to scan for more information it gets eaten by the void. As Burnham and her crew poke and prod at the void some more they learn that it is slowly moving toward them and is planning to make Discovery its next Happy Meal.  In an attempt to escape Burnham orders Black Alert, but when Book goes to activate the ship’s spore drive he gets zapped by loads of energy.

Now seemingly stuck in the void. The crew must figure out a way of escape. And it seems that some of the particles that zapped book could be the key. But it also seems that Zora the ship’s sentient and emotional computer also holds some answers as well. Furthermore, the crew learns from examining the particles left behind that the DMA has come from beyond the Great Barrier. Meaning that the anomaly and whoever is behind it is from beyond the known galaxy.

The Acting

David Ajala puts in a fantastic performance this week as we see Book start to hallucinate after being zapped by the Spore Drive. Indeed, these visions that Book has are of his dead father, which in a way serves to give him closure. The conversations between Book and his Father are brilliantly done as we learn more about Book’s culture. Additionally, it all serves to give us a great scene at the close of the episode where Saru (Doug Jones) shares the grief that he feels with Book.

We also get a wonderful vocal performance from Annabelle Wallis as the ship’s sentient computer Zora. As a result of being trapped in the void. Zora is experiencing fear for the first time but gets help from Gray Tal (Ian Alexander) who teaches Zora a game to help her focus. As Zora’s focus sharpens. She learns that she can feel the void’s energy signature, which helps Discovery escape. The scene where Zora sings Stormy Weather to a frightened Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) is a great one. As is the conversation between Michael and Zora about controlling their fears.

Overall

Another strong outing for the crew of Discovery. The exploration of the void and the trial and error of the crew finding out about it felt very much like the procedures we would have seen in a TNG episode. Added to that were some strong character moments as we see Discovery’s computer become more of a character on the show.

It also builds on some of the great work that we have seen in previous weeks on the series. Hopefully, things keep moving in this direction.