Star Trek: Discovery Season 4 Episode 11 Review: Rosetta
Diana Keng
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The ambition of the entire Species 10-C concept simultaneously intrigues and worries me.
Star Trek: Discovery Season 4 Episode 11 prepares us to encounter a species unlike anything we've ever seen on a Star Trek show.
At the same time, Tarka and Book infiltrating a ship with sentience like Zora's is almost farcical.
Ignoring the fact that we're just supposed to assume Book and Tarka had no problems traversing the Galactic Barrier, how was Discovery not monitoring for their arrival?
For Book's ship to sit cloaked behind some space rock like Wile E. Coyote behind a tree, with Discovery (and ZORA) completely oblivious is stretching my ability to suspend my disbelief.
What kind of idiot would pull a practical joke in the middle of an existential threat?
Reno
And sure, they beamed into a strategic Jefferies tube, masked with some Tarka plot armor, but how were they not immediately detected by a dozen DOT bots?
Honestly, I kept expecting them to be sitting somewhere in a tube intersection, congratulating themselves on a mission accomplished, and a net just falls on them like a Scooby-Doo ghost trap.
Point: Zora.
Adira's return serves to remind us that not everyone on Discovery is at ease in their role or their relationships or themselves.
Adira's hero worship for Detmers kind of comes out of nowhere, but it's a good benchmark for how a newcomer might feel being thrown into a crew that has been through as much as Discovery's crew has endured.
The audience knows that Detmers experienced significant psychological trauma arriving in the 32nd century. Her meltdown on Star Trek: Discovery Season 3 Episode 4 resulted in her seeking Culber's help as a counselor.
Adira knows none of this. So what they see is Detmers's ability as a pilot, confidence in her own skills, and general bad-ass-ness.
With Tilly at the Academy, Stamets making things weird, and Reno being more the sardonic yogi than a mentor, Adira looking to Detmers as a role model of chutzpah isn't that surprising.
The awkwardness with which they try to engage with her is entirely on-brand.
Adira: Hey, fly good.
Detmers: You got it.
The away mission illustrates how far Detmers has come from those days of trying to soldier through the PTSD on her own.
That she credits Culber for his counseling and the strategies he taught her for dealing with stress is some healthy embedded messaging right there.
While, intellectually, I know that our heroes will prevail, I am very apprehensive about how it will play out.
The build-up to the confrontation with the makers of the DMA has been superlative.
Suppose 10-C is as, pardon the denotative nature of the word, alien as the remains on the previous homeworld seem to indicate. In that case, it feels far-fetched (even for sci-fi) that the Federation will find a way to communicate.
I know that they're going to try.
They've got these hydro-carbon pheromones. They've found fourteen different feelings they known 10-C feel as well.
Culber: Sometimes empathy can be uncomfortable.
Burnham: And it's the only way to connect. To find common ground for communication.
They've accessed memories of the planet's destruction as well as the imprinted emotions of 10-C infants.
I have no idea how this adds up to a way to say, "Hey, your intergalactic dredge is destroying our planets. Please stop."
I suspect the solution will end up being a combination of Burnham and Book's approaches.
Tarka's need for the DMA controller's power source and Book's complete inability to predict or mediate his impulsiveness means that diplomacy is already a lost cause.
Now that General Ndoye is working with them, confrontation is almost assured.
Opportunities multiply as they are seized.
Ndoye
As has been the inclination this season, we learn more about Detmers than you'd think the occasion would require.
Like Owosekun, Rhys, and Bryce previously, details of her life before Starfleet emerge as a part of the mission.
I'm a little curious as to when we'll get Linus's share-out.
In the absence of a new season of Star Trek: Short Treks, this is an attempt to flesh out the supporting crew of a series that, for the first few seasons, has been inordinately focused on only the captains of the titular ship.
If we didn't have enough dynamics to track, President Rillak's delegation of planetary representatives presents a multitude of complications.
Hirai: Whether they worry about tomorrow or not, it'll arrive all the same. I'm not sure how we can help with their lack of perspective on that.
Rillak: While I admire your commitment to the long view, my concern is for those who are struggling right now.
Her course correction for Dr. Hirai's "bedside manner" is people management at its pinnacle.
Reminding people under stress that their stress-influenced behaviors cause other people to stress is never an easy conversation to have.
Especially when you're probably more stressed than anyone.
With only a couple of hours to go in the season, I'm still not decided on Rillak.
As a President, she is competent, effective, and strategic.
However, I don't think we've really seen the person inside the president.
Rillak is a political creature.
I'll admit she's probably the most well-meaning politician we could hope to lead the Federation, but she lives and breathes agendas.
The character serves to draw a clear line between what is good for Discovery and what serves at the pleasure of the Federation.
One would think Vance would've been enough, but he's more Starfleet than Federation, so he's turned out to be more warm and fuzzy than first impressions indicated.
As we cruise towards direct first contact with the 10-C, my spidey senses tell me that not everyone will return home if there is a home to which to return.
I want to think that Earth and Ni'Var survive and the DMA is deterred, but I don't believe 10-C will acquiesce quickly or effectively.
So I'm preparing for some goodbyes as the season ramps up for the finale.
What about you? Where do you think the finale will leave us?
Pack your best thoughts and theories into our comments section below, and let's fly!
Diana Keng was a staff writer for TV Fanatic. She is a lifelong fan of smart sci-fi and fantasy media, an upstanding citizen of the United Federation of Planets, and a supporter of AFC Richmond 'til she dies. Her guilty pleasures include female-led procedurals, old-school sitcoms, and Bluey. She teaches, knits, and dreams big. Follow her on X.
