Star Trek: Discovery -- Season 2 Episode 7 (The Sound of Thunder)

Saru is a bit of an oddity.  He comes from a pre-warp culture, but serves in Starfleet.  He was granted asylum many years ago, but we didn’t know much about the details.  Along comes The Sound of Thunder, wherein one of the Seven Signals is found above Saru’s home planet, Kaminar.

Kaminar is home to another race called the Ba’ul, who hunt the Kelpiens.  This makes visiting the planet tricky, since the Kaminar have warp drive.  Normally, Starfleet would avoid the Kelpiens altogether, but since they already know about interstellar travel, it might not be so bad.  Plus, they need information on The Red Angel.

So, Saru returns to his village with Michael Burnham.  He meets his sister and starts asking questions.  They’ve seen the signal, but not the angel.  Oh, and Saru’s presence has triggered some sort of alarm.

Saru has undergone an evolution his people believe impossible, but it’s not and the Ba’ul seem to know it.  What’s the deal?  Fortunately, the ship came by a vast amount of information that proves useful.  The Ba’ul do actually know more than they’re letting on.

The only thing really cliché about the episode is that Saru steals a shuttle and sacrifices himself.  I suppose there aren’t too many options.  We could have the Ba’ul beam him off or invade the ship and take him anyway.  That’s about it.

There’s also some tension between Saru and his sister.  Since he just disappeared, his village was left to assume that he had been taken by the Ba’ul.  She also realizes that he’s there for a reason and that reason isn’t to catch up.

My big complaint is that Culber is having such a hard time readjusting to life on Discovery and no one is doing anything to help him. The guy literally came back from the dead.  He’s also jumpy to the touch and has been through an ordeal, which might indicate some sort of psychological issue.  You’d think someone would have him talk to a psychologist.  Yet, there’s no indication they even have one on the ship.

However, it appears that what’s happening to Saru is natural and expected.  It’s still not clear exactly how it will play out, but it will be interesting to see what happens.

IMDb page