Star Trek: Discovery Boldly Returns to Remind Us of the Burden of Hope - Gizmodo

Discovery chose to sacrifice their livelihoods in the 23rd century by catapulting themselves into the 32nd, they did so on the promise that they would themselves be hope: hope that a future would be there for them to arrive in the first place.

“That Hope Is You, Part 1” is Star Trek: Discovery’s third bold relaunch of itself.

With the Discovery itself in absentia for this episode, she alone is the hope it represents in a future that desperately needs it.

Because, as we also see, Book knows the danger of holding hope in your heart as Michael does, in spite of everything she’s gone through.

Over the course of “That Hope is You, Part 1,” any time we see him even begin to contemplate what Michael represents, an avatar of the Federation That Was, he pushes it aside, almost telling her and us alike “Oh no, you will not get me invested.” Eventually, he’s broken down, not just because the hope she represents is too intoxicating, but because he can see that if she doesn’t share her burden with someone, literally anyone, it’s going to tear her apart in this world she has to adapt to.

It’s only after sharing the load of their separate responsibilities that they manage to move forward; by putting their faith in one another instead of bearing it on their own shoulders, Book and Michael find a still-functioning (albeit barely) Federation outpost staffed by a solitary, waiting Federation civilian.

Sahil’s enduring belief that there are others out there like him in similar stations—good citizens hoping what’s left of the Federation is still out there, waiting to reunite with its shattered parts—is a powerful thing, one that galvanizes Michael even as she learns he cannot find any trace of the Discovery in the 32nd century.

It’s a hope that she chooses to emulate, inviting him to join her and Book as an official communications officer that can keep tracking in the hope that one day, the Discovery will arrive.

Three seasons in, and able to cast aside the indulgent shackles it had regularly leaned upon in its status as a predecessor to the original series, Star Trek: Discovery has truly found itself in “That Hope is You, Part 1”.

Hope’s greatest power is when it is given and burdened between people, and now that Michael Burnham has found new friends to carry that hope for the future with her, she’s ready to adapt and thrive in this strange new world she finds herself in.

Whether it’s the shadowy subterfuge of Section 31, Picard’s assertion that Trek values failed in the face of the synth attack, or this season jumping forward to a time when the Federation is broken and there’s no society reflecting secular humanist values, the writers/show runners just don’t seem to trust that there can be a compelling show about mostly good people from a mostly good society confronting a troubling problem.