User Reviews

This is one of the better looking Discovery episodes. The archive is a great set that contributes to lending much of this story a classic Trek feel. Sadly, the trope "character trapped in their own mind" is also so... classically Trek that in other words it's been done to death, most recently in one of the lesser episodes of Star Trek: Picard.

Most of what follows is still pretty entertaining, but the whole mystery of what exactly the archive's test is ultimately comes down to DSC's go-to resolution: psychobabble. The rationale for it is halfway apropos this time, but why does it always have to be spoken expressions of feelings? Throughout the season Burnham sure didn't SHOW how insecure and self-doubting she apparently is, according to this episode. As such, the admission sounds hollow.

The episode recovers from this with a suitably tense stand-off with the Breen, which are shaping up nicely as antagonists. The ending though is hard to swallow: Moll is now... their leader? After (again) some WORDS? I don't know. Despite that, after a very shaky first half, the season remains on track to end the series of a somewhat satisfying note.

This episode leads us down a path through the maze known as the Eternal Gallery and Archive. This week, we get a flawed episode that suffers from moments of poor writing, sloppy plot development, and lacking character growth.

The plot at the beginning was running all over the place, attempting to build context and complexity, but only made it rather hilarious. The quick addition of Book, the sloppy scene where he talks to Michael, doesn't get its retribution until near the end of the episode. As Michael reveals what has plagued her, we see what our protagonist has been facing. This provides an amazing scene in a mediocre episode.

The plot was also very predictable. This has been done before in many shows, and the spins it attempted to take were mostly for naught.

The character, Hy'rell, who I believe shares the same species as the Federation President from The Undiscovered Country, was rather annoying. She doesn't fit the role of a librarian or historian. She acts more like a popular cheerleader that was forced to do community service.

Overall, this average episode falls on the shorter side of this season. This season hasn't quite returned the formula of Discovery so far. Instead, it feels like a slightly better third season, but this season's lower episodes hit rock bottom (Whistlespeak). In the end, we as treated with another flawed episode as my perception of this season slowly goes more and more downhill. Let's hope this ends well. Riker directs next week!

I still remember the old days when navigating labyrinths and solving puzzles required skill, and they were real, not just a therapy session...

Plot holes:

• There was no need for Discovery to go to the library for the next clue. The Breen don't have any of the clues and they don't know where the next one is. All they can do is follow Discovery. The Progenitor tech is safe if Discovery does nothing! Starfleet could send another ship or just simply wait for the Breen Dreadnought to be far away and then go to the library.

• 32nd century retrofitted Discovery takes too much damage from plasma storms in the Badlands in just a few short minutes. In the 24th century the Maquis were living in the Badlands with much smaller, weaker ships.

• Discovery could've just simply scanned the library for the clue. They know its exact size, shape, and material composite. Scanners are really advanced in the 32nd century, the show demonstrates this multiple times. (The library scans Discovery and identifies Booker as a Kwejian. On the ISS Enterprise they find the clue immediately thanks to the ship's scanners.)

• The Primarch switches to standard language. This is unnecessary because Moll speaks Breen.

• When a Breen weapon shoots the Primarch who's in armor, he dies. When a Breen weapon shoots Booker he just gets a little wound.

• The Breen are a Xenophobic race with a desire for destruction. They are considered one of the most warlike species known to the Federation, and the Dominion wars showed this. They would never side with a human over their Primarch.

• Space is very big! But somehow Starfleet HQ, Library in the Badlands, Progenitor Tech Hiding Place are just 5-6 hours away from each other. The writers are doing this to keep the bad guys in the race...

• Michael knew the Breen were on their way to the library. The smart thing would've been to just leave after finding the book they were looking for. They could solve the puzzle in a safe place.

• The librarian lady leaves to "prepare their defenses". But all they did was just raise shields and nothing more.

• Discovery should've just immediately gone to warp the moment they got the clue. The Breen would've followed them out of the Badlands instead of wasting time destroying the library.

• Venting plasma won't trick a 32nd century ship's sensors, there's not enough debris left to indicate Discovery was destroyed. It just got Discovery seriously damaged and archived nothing more. It was a foolish move from a fool captain!

When did Star Trek become an exposition dumping series. It has gotten worse and worse every episode. They tell you every single thing that you should witnessing. It might as well be an audio book. As per usual, the captain solves all of the problems and has all of the solutions. The Breen who are supposed to be an imperialistic species in the midst of a civil war, but who who value culture and history, would follow their leader in destroying priceless artifacts. The archive just happens to have a piece of Book's home planet's world tree. That's convenient. The bridge of Discovery might as well be Ten Forward because everyone hangs out there. What is Tilly's position? Is she #1's number one. It's bizarre. I wanted to like this show and have committed to watching every episode, but I will be relieved when it's finally done. It has been a tedious journey or Discovery.

The short version: Burnham is playing a boring escape game and instead of solving puzzles to find a way out of a maze, she acts like a defiant child and melts into tearful self-pity - which ends up being exactly the solution to the puzzle! Know yourself and your weaknesses and admit your fears! Touchdown for Burnham.

The long version: Anyone who thinks that an episode called "Labyrinths" is about tricky puzzles, mind games and demanding tasks that require all sorts of technical gadgets is wrong again. And in good tradition, who if not Burnham is the center of everyone's attention in this episode? She alone has to face the challenges of this 800-year-old game of the mind, while the rest of the crew takes the position on the sidelines. Since the showrunners and writers of the series stopped giving a damn about this series a long time ago, the episode is once again a middle finger directly in the viewers' faces. There are no puzzles in the style of National Treasure, no action-packed treasure hunts like in Indiana Jones, no crazy dream worlds like in Alice in Wonderland and no nightmare horror like in The Cell. As always, it all boils down to the fact that the answer to all questions and the solution to all problems are long monologues about emotions, love, fear and self-doubt.

By the way, the topic of labyrinths and mindscapes is nothing new in Star Trek. Take the episodes "The Thaw" (VOY), "Extreme Measures" or "Move Along Home" (both DS9) as examples. In these episodes, the protagonists actually have to find a way out of their dream worlds. And the solution to the mystery in these episodes isn't just a tearful confession of being a workoholic who didn't care enough about the feelings of an ex-lover.

It's really sad. Even a complete amateur could have written an exciting story using the elements of this episode. But the writers of DIS just have a knack for turning gold into s***.