The crew travel to and investigate the mysterious anomalies, which could be any classic plot-of-the-week on your standard Star Trek. It's a two for one deal, because in doing so it's also that classic " two characters who don't like each other are forced to go on an away mission together, which goes wrong and they learn to have an understanding of each other by the time To be sure, it is. Discovery is giving itself the chance to be a Star Trek show, for the first time in a while, between the high-stakes end of season three's finale and season four's contemplative, but still highly dramatic opening last week.
This is still Discovery, and it has to be on it, and the "it" here is "incredibly high stakes stressful drama oh god everything." That is what Discovery brings to the table in a different way than its predecessors. We have been taught that the crew of the Enterprise or theVoyager are calm, collected, and very interested in Space Stuff. Discovery has a similar crew and new captain, but over the last three seasons they have been allowed to be more human about it. The crew is put through a physical, mental, and emotional wringer when things start to go sideways in "Anomaly."
This sounds like a bad thing, and it could be that some people still don't like that Discovery's bridge crew aren't that prim-and-proper about the wild nonsense they've put up with. Lower Decks has proven that there is a kind of charm and catharsis to watching Starfleet officers reckon with the insane, cool, science-y, and cataclysmic stuff they face week in, week out. Discovery is going to be a show where the stakes are so high that the only reward for exploring is to discover that the anomaly is a threat to the entire galaxy.
For most of the time, it's called "Anomaly." Even before things get bad as Discovery sends Book's ship to explore the anomaly for more data, Michael is struggling to connect with Book himself, still devastated by the loss of his homeworld. The lessons she struggled to articulate with President Rilak in the premiere of "Anomaly" became the basis of the film. Michael is given the blessing of the return of the first officer to the Discovery, an emotional rock that helps her through the danger of navigating a stellar object that could, at any moment, fling her crew and ship apart in a hail of sound and fury. Finding those rocks among the crew is crucial to the success of the ship and to the survival of the crew.Stamets, dragged along for the ride to acquire scanning data in Book's ship, desperately tries to make his rock the disgruntled Kwejian, who rightly points out that they Adira is still processing their perceived failures last week on that same mission, which is why she almost breaks snapping at Tilly, who is trying not to crack under the pressure elevated on her by her promotion and the aftermath of her rescue-mission-gone- wrong last week. After the death of his homeworld and family, Book struggles to find his rock, not until it is too late.
In showing all these fractured points with these characters, Dr. Culber is able to heal gaping head wounds and cracked ribs almost instantly. We can joke about how crazy it is, but Discovery shows just how dangerous Star Trek can be. When the threat is over, our heroes make it out of the anomaly in one piece. Over the closing minutes of the show, we get to see characters like Book, Stamets, and Adira release the intense emotions they have just built up and had to let go of over the course of the show.
Discovery's current overarching plot is not advanced by "Anomaly" and its ability to turn even the most simple of Trek premises into high-stakes, cinematic action wildness might be too exhausting for some. It makes sense to acknowledge the stresses of those stakes every now and then within the text and within its characters, and remind us of the need for this crew to lean on each other to get through the act of just existing in Star Trek: Discovery's world.
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