WHY WE LIKE IT: The guest stars.
WHY WE DON'T: There's a U.S.S. Janeway, but Picard is some obscure captain?
REVIEW: While the term "DMA" (for Dark Matter Anomaly) was coined a couple episodes ago, but starts getting a lot of use in this episode. From a production standpoint, it's evidently because its nature will start to change from natural phenomenon to artificial to technology, so it becomes less and less "anomalous". A string of letters is boring and generic, and I audibly groaned when they attributed it to Unknown Species Ten-C, doubling down on the dull letters and numbers nomenclature. The nature of the thing is explored by Stamets, Saru and the newly-introduced Tarka, an arrogant and dismissive genius who rubs everyone the wrong way, but is pretty entertaining nonetheless. An intriguing personality for a native of Risa, to be sure. He's ambitious and reckless, and his model for the DMA controller eventually threatens the ship, but it's useful to help the audience understand what the season's big threat is all about and how awesome (in the literal sense) it is. And it's kind of cool for Stamets to get frustrated at a guy who acts exactly like he used to when we met him. And we're definitely supposed to feel dread at Tarka befriending Booker.
The main plot, however, concerns Burnham and Booker penetrating a prison with only a handful of "Examples" in it as the DMA bears down on a "chain" (a string of colonized asteroids) where it doesn't matter what your crime is, you're in for life. This culture doesn't care if the Examples don't make it out, but that's not the Burnham way. While Rhys takes care of the larger operation - he has a nice bit of back story on this point - she and Book get involved in action scenes and negotiate with one particularly difficult inmate who won't budge until he gets guarantees they will all be released. Felix (Michael Greyeyes - one of the good things about filming in Canada is that it gives the show access to solid First Nations actors) IS a murderer, unlike the others, so he's not fighting for himself. He decides to stay and pay the price for his crime. The philosophical rift between Booker and Burnham starts to crack open when she respects the man's wishes while he can't bear to let just one life be extinguished by the DNA. Greyeyes gets a real showcase, getting to tell Felix's story in monologue as he waits for the end. Burnham's tough day is made complete, first by hard tough words to the magistrate who dares speak out against the Examples' release, and second by making amends to the woman orphaned by Felix, on his behalf.
Meanwhile, Culber admits he's struggling in his dual role to Starfleet's Ultimate Councillor, Kovich (I still can't believe David Cronenberg plays a recurring character on Star Trek). As usual, Kovich is incisive, curt and brutally honest, but he brings up Culber's Season 2 issues (having died) and his survivor's guilt, and ironically prescribes getting a life before work crushes him. Guilt is a theme, Culber's finding a mirror in Felix's, while Tarka feels none at all. All in all, the feeling leads to positives more than negatives. Zora, Discovery's data sphere A.I. now feels emotions, so Culber's just gained a patient and doesn't know it.
LESSON: Work is easy. Life is hard.
REWATCHABILITY - Medium: The A-plot shares too much screen time with technobabble, but the guest stars put in memorable performances on each side of the story.
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