I’ve really, really, really been enjoying the Star Trek: Discovery season so far. I love how much the focus has moved to the crew trying to find its way in a future so far, the show can functionally do whatever the fuck it wants with world building, so they’re just having fun. The quest to rebuild Star Fleet is an obvious parallel to the crew trying to rediscover their place in the world and a new mission for themselves after they’ve completed the one-way trip of their final assignment.
And I’m going into paroxysms constantly about Saru as captain, because the show is really leaning in to the importance of kindness and empathy generally, and Saru is the perfect captain for that because his thinking continually emphasizes the wellbeing of the whole. Also, him getting to interact with Hugh, whose superpower is also empathy even if he applies it with a lot more frankness, is excellent. They’re letting the bridge crew become more developed characters, because there’s space for them to do that. We’re getting a meta plot that can string together more episodic shows. I am pleased.
The one thing I’m feeling conflicted about is honestly the second queer relationship we’re getting in the main cast. To be clear, I am beyond pleased that we’ve got a nonbinary character (Adira) and a trans character (Gray) and they make an absolutely adorable couple. I didn’t think we’d get cuter than Stamets and Hugh, but here we are. Where I’m less happy is the state of the relationship, as in
SPOILERS FOR S3 EPISODE 4 ONWARD