Star Trek: Discovery 3.12 Review: Ups And Downs From There Is A Tide

1. Sending Away The Only Chance Of Escape?

This is one that we have gone back and forth on, because there are actually good arguments on both sides for how it comes across. Let us present both. Stamets is effectively the Discovery's warp core (well he's not, but potato, potahto), and therefore he is easily the most essential member of the crew. Without him, Discovery must operate on normal propulsion, making her just another Starfleet ship.

Burnham evacuating him, while still inside Starfleet HQ, is a bit of a baffling decision. Her thought process may have been thus: removing him from the scenario effectively deprives Osyrra of the advantage of the Spore Drive, and will prevent her from jumping back to the Nebula. OK, and that's not a bad idea overall.

However, Burnham blows him out of the ship, protecting him with a forcefield. He is picked up by a tractor beam, as anticipated. However, this leaves him inside HQ, making HQ a very tempting target for anyone with a starship and a full compliment of photo torpedoes at their disposal. Like Osyrra has. And she is about ten feet away from HQ, with her battleship directly outside the barrier.

What may have been an idea with merit is lost in the murk of the scene, and therefore it gets a DOWN from us.