Tyler and Burnham saying good-bye in Will You Take My Hand?

The season one finale, “Will You Take My Hand?” starts with the stakes just about as high as they could be. Starfleet has apparently sanctioned the genocide of the Klingon race, and this is shaking our faith in the top brass.

Behind the Camera

Akiva Goldsman is back as director in this gem! We saw him back in the first half of the season with “Context is for Kings” which is still an outstanding episode title. It also has the added benefit of being an outstanding episode, so we lucked out. But this is the guy who weirdly won an Oscar for Best Screenplay for “A Beautiful Mind.” Yeah, that guy is just doing Star Trek now. Feels pretty terrific to have an Oscar winner doing Star Trek, if I’m being honest.

But, come on. He won it for writing and he’s the director, you’re definitely saying in a mocking tone right now. Well, buckle up, dear reader. Akiva Goldsman is a double threat because he also wrote the story for “Will You Take My Hand?” He did team up with show runners Gretchen J. Berg and Aaron Harberts for the story. But the teleplay he left to Berg and Harberts by themselves. Berg and Harberts did get booted off the show after the first season for rumored mistreatment of staff, so I’m not really expecting a lot of writing credits for them going forward. Except they are back for the season two premiere, “Brother.” So who knows.

In Front of the Camera

  • Mia Kirshner is back as Amanda Grayson, and I’m happy about it. I am definitely hopeful we get to see more of her next season.
  • Jayne Brooke returns as Admiral Cornwell, and I’m not sure she’s exactly as contrite as I would like her to be. She just tried to order the genocide of the Klingons. Be apologetic.
  • Michelle Yeoh is just eternally bopping around in our universe now as Emperor Georgiou.
  • Mary Chieffo and L’Rell have taken control of the Klingon Empire, but I’m unsure how they’re going to play into the series going forward. Going to be a recurring guest type thing like Gowron from The Next Generation?
  • James Frain as Sarek also gets a bit of screen time and continues to make episodes better by simply being in them.
  • Unexpectedly Clint Howard is also in this episode, which I found to be a real hoot. He plays a Creepy Orion, and I’m sure is only in this episode as an homage to him playing that terrifying baby in The Original Series.

Listen in as your hosts, Jason and Joe, review the happenings of each episode on our Star Trek Discovery podcast. Released every Monday after Discovery’s release! You might wanna subscribe in iTunes. It’ll improve life and happiness.

Also, check out our other Star Trek podcast that has us going through the franchise in stardate order. It’s fun.

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