6 Ups & 5 Downs From Star Trek: Discovery 5.6 — Whistlespeak

11. UP — New World, New Civilisation

There is something we've been saying on the channel for a while now, about another series in particular (shout out to Tom on the Podcast!): Where are the 'strange new worlds?' To a large degree, Star Trek: Discovery has done well to introduce us to a range of new alien species — the Kelpiens, for one, the Osnullus, for my personal favourite — and its previous season was all about a mysterious, very alien, alien race, the 10-C. Nonetheless, the essence of Discovery, and this is a neutral observation, has not been to follow the 'new alien' and/or 'new planet' of the week model.

Whistlespeak had a notably different quality to it, however. When we sat down to discuss it in TrekCulture's very own 'Infinity Room' (a lot less tidy than the Kovich one!), Seán noted that he got "Original Series vibes". On the whole, Whistlespeak did feel like a classic instalment of Star Trek, applying the Kirk-ian (then Picard-ian, then Pike-ian) mandate "to seek out…" of the opening titles. Whistlespeak gave us both the previously unknown species, the Halem'nites, and their increasingly dusty planet, Halem'no.

In its premise, Whistlespeak also draws comparisons with episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation, notably Who Watches the Watchers in which things go a smidge awry on Mintaka III. Whilst it doesn't quite reach the heights of that episode (literally, if you're a Halem'nite versus a Mintakan), Whistlespeak is a perfectly good Prime Directive episode, and a solid entry into the Star Trek canon.