{"id":8925,"date":"2022-03-06T09:10:17","date_gmt":"2022-03-06T09:10:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pabconference.com\/discovery-raises-serious-doubts-over-books-judgment\/"},"modified":"2022-03-06T09:10:17","modified_gmt":"2022-03-06T09:10:17","slug":"discovery-raises-serious-doubts-over-books-judgment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wijhha.com\/index.php\/2022\/03\/06\/discovery-raises-serious-doubts-over-books-judgment\/","title":{"rendered":"Discovery Raises Serious Doubts Over Book’s Judgment"},"content":{"rendered":"

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WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Star Trek: Discovery Season 4, Episode 11, \u201cRosetta,\u201d streaming now on Paramount+.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

When Michael Burnham first arrived in the 32nd century, the character that helped guide her through this vision of the far future was Cleveland \u201cBook\u201d Booker, with Burnham eventually embarking on a romance with the dashing courier as they cruised through the cosmos. Book began Star Trek: Discovery<\/em> Season 4 enduring a devastating loss, with his home planet Kwejian consumed by a dark matter anomaly that led him to pursue obsessively ways to destroy it. And while this direction is completely understandable, Book’s continued objective choice in partners to carry out this has directly called his sense of judgment into question.<\/p>\n

Burnham led the United Federation and Starfleet to adopt a more diplomatic strategy to deal with the anomaly, insisting on making formal first contact with the species responsible for creating the anomaly. In contrast, Book was determined to destroy the anomaly, despite the Federation voting against this strategy as it involved illegal weapons technology and could bring about an all-out war with the anomaly’s mysterious creators. Assisting Book on his rogue mission is Ruon Tarka, a Risan scientist from a different dimension who has his own personal motive in destroying the anomaly. Partnering with Tarka, despite the swarmy scientist’s actions, sees Book truly working with the most informative character introduced in Discovery<\/em>.<\/p>\n

RELATED: Star Trek: Picard’s Jeri Ryan & Michelle Hurd Bring Their Romance to the 21st Century<\/span><\/p>\n

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Ever since his debut, Tarka has been one of the smuggest characters in recent Star Trek<\/em> memory, constantly mocking and belittling those around him for not living up to his own intellect. Whenever Tarka doesn’t get his way, he manipulates, deceives and generally fumes until he finagles a way to achieve his own selfish goals. For all of his grandstanding, Tarka is a bonafide genius and has developed a weapon capable of destroying the anomaly, albeit causing permanent subspace damage to the immediate vicinity in the process. This is what prompted Book and Tarka to join forces, stealing a prototype Spore Drive so they could maneuver Book’s starship into position near the anomaly to avoid its harmful effects.<\/p>\n

What makes Book’s alliance particularly questionable isn’t Tarka’s intentions \u2014 over the course of Discovery<\/em> Season 4, he’s given two separate sympathetic motives for wanting to destroy the anomaly \u2014 but the fact that he is simply not a team player. Every time Book tells Tarka to do or not do something, the Risan proceeds to do whatever he thinks is right anyway, constantly exacerbating a given situation. Whether it’s refusing to stay silent during tense meetings or failing to respect Book’s wishes by activating his weapon, Tarka is with Book only to use him for his illegal vessel. On some level Book is aware of this but, for unknown reasons, continues to work with him, even as he endures Tarka upstaging and ignoring him left, right and center.<\/p>\n

RELATED: Star Trek: Picard Debuts New Season 2 Photos of Patrick Stewart, Whoopi Goldberg<\/span><\/p>\n

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This, of course, isn’t intended to be a dig on the performances; Shawn Doyle does a phenomenal job in what is an admittedly tricky role. Tarka is a character that’s meant to both drive the story forward and provoke the characters into conflict while instilling a greater sense of interpersonal drama. The observation here is why Book, a character that is initially resistant towards working with others as he feels they will serve as liabilities, would continue to work with Tarka after he’s been manipulated and outmaneuvered every step of the way.<\/p>\n

Tarka’s latest impulsive act crosses the line between him and Starfleet once again, kidnapping the USS Discovery’s engineer Jett Reno while infiltrating the starship. Book’s full reaction to this act has not yet been revealed but he continues to tolerate Tarka’s bad behavior even as he nears reaching the civilization behind the anomaly. And given Tarka’s history, if Book does end up meeting the anomaly’s creators with Tarka nearby, things are likely going to go from bad to worse as Book remains with the worst possible partner in Discovery<\/em> Season 4.<\/p>\n

Created by Bryan Fuller and Alex Kurtzman, Star Trek: Discovery releases new episodes Thursdays on Paramount+.<\/em><\/p>\n

KEEP READING: Star Trek: Picard’s John de Lancie Teases a Deliciously Dark Return for Season 2<\/span><\/p>\n

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About The Author<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Sam Stone
(8722 Articles Published)<\/span>
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Sam Stone is a 10th level pop culture guru living just outside of Washington, DC who knows an unreasonable amount about The Beatles. You can follow him on Twitter @samstoneshow and ask him about Nintendo, pop punk, and Star Trek.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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