In a season of Star Trek: Discovery where literally everyone and everything is rediscovering themselves and working to find their place in the 32nd century, Starfleet is no different. And that is where we find ourselves as the series’ superb fifth episode begins.

“Die Trying” is an extremely dense hour of Star Trek, featuring an introductory look at a modern Starfleet Command — sandwiched around a complex retrieval mission, staff interrogations, the departure of a fan-favorite crew member, and an analysis of Philippa Georgiou’s motivating demons that have been building for more than a season.

The episode opens with a deep dive into Trek nirvana that has rarely been seen in 54 years: from advanced tech, flying rain forests, and starships with holographic hulls and detached nacelles, the opening minutes of the episode are a wonder as Discovery approaches Starfleet’s cloaked headquarters and is introduced to a strange new world that is less brave than it is pragmatic.

We also get an emotional glimpse of an unexpected descendent of Captain Janeway’s starship in the form of the USS Voyager (NCC-74656-J), a welcome surprise among all the new futuristic designs in the Federation fleet.

We’ve confirmed with CBS that the Voyager-J is 32nd century Intrepid-class starship — the same class designation as Captain Janeway’s Voyager, but with 800 years of evolution beneath the hull.

The crew’s reaction to all the new technology serves as the perfect stand-in for the fans watching at home. Organic hulls, holographic containment walls, flying rain forests – the crew is all of us in these early moments as Captain Saru (Doug Jones) prophetically trusts that “what matters most will have endured.”

In charge of this advanced metropolis is Admiral Charles Vance (Oded Fehr), Starfleet’s commander-in-chief, who questions everything when meeting the Discovery crew — and rightly puts them through the paces before allowing them to assist in an important search for a galaxy-trotting “seed vault” ship that needs to be accessed to help save some refugees they are assisting. (Told you it was dense!)

From the opening minutes, the episode moves at breakneck speed as Starfleet very deliberately dissects Discovery’s arrival in an appropriately real-world way. The episode rarely gives you a chance to catch your breath — for example, blink and you’ll miss the USS Nog parked nearby, as we detail in our feature on the tribute to the late Aron Eisenberg.

Admiral Vance is suspicious of the Sphere Data, of the ships uncorroborated conflict with Control, and the spore drive – and when he meets Adira Tal (Blu del Barrio), he makes sure everyone knows he is familiar with Tal’s previous Trill host, Senna, but not yet with Adira. In the end, after processing everything in the reports from Saru and Commander Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green), he quite sensibly warns that “two truths now exist in one space; that never goes well.”

Fehr is phenomenal as Vance, ultimately telling the crew when they meet that they “aren’t home yet” — and that their very presence in the 32nd century is a crime, adding even more context to the long-established Star Trek: Enterprise tale of the Temporal Cold War, and agents of the 31st century who fought to subvert the Temporal Accords in a century-spanning battle eventually called the Temporal War.

While suspicious of tales about a Red Angel suit, time crystals, and temporal wormholes, Vance makes it clear that he is working with Starfleet’s end goals in mind, indicating that  after a series of debriefs, the ship will be requisitioned and the crew reassigned.

Those debriefs are successfully played for laughs and include snippets of interrogations with Jett Reno (Tig Notaro) getting snacky, Ensign Tilly (Mary Wiseman) trying to recount her stint as ‘Captain Killy,’ Commander Nhan (Rachael Ancheril) sticking to name, rank and serial number, Hugh Culber (Wilson Cruz) blithely explaining his trip through the afterlife, and Paul Stamets (Anthony Rapp) incredulously being asked if he’s “essential personnel.”

And then there’s Philippa Georgiou (Michelle Yeoh), whose rebellious interview also takes place under the watchful guise of bespectacled, observer Kovich — played by renowned director David Cronenberg in a surprise cameo appearance for the body horror genre auteur. (The character’s name comes from CBS episode information.)

The back-and-forth between Georgiou and Cronenberg’s creepy operative is superb, revealing a number of major Terran details: the subatomic cell variance that makes them “wicked” (a fact Georgiou vigorously dismisses), the fall of the Terran Empire (the aftermath of which we saw in Deep Space Nine), and the fact that there has not been a crossing between the two universes in in 500 years as the two quantum realities drift apart.

In the end, Georgiou is adversely affected by Cronenberg’s character, saying at one point in defiance that “the weakness of people is generally other people,” a fact every observer of Discovery has seen in her relationship to Burnham. It seems now, however, that the former Terran emperor might be coping with this realization for the first time herself.

As for Saru, he is starting to realize that his contrasting style with Burnham is becoming a problem. They push Vance on offering up Discovery to use their spore drive to help find the USS Tikhov (which houses the seed vault), but they do it in vastly different ways. “Our first Federation act will not be to pilfer its property and violate a direct order,” says Saru, chiding Burnham about a lesson he’d thought she would have learned by now.

Burnham has been doing things her own way since we first met her in “The Vulcan Hello,” and this season alone she has already hijacked Discovery’s dilithium in “People of Earth” and quickly phasered a couple of Trill dignitaries in “Forget Me Not.” It’s pretty clear that her year alone in the 32nd century has only intensified her process of doing things on her own terms.

Saru is fully aware of this fact, and that he will be held responsible by Starfleet for her actions moving forward. Despite knowing this, it is Saru that convinces Vance to let Discovery “serve as she is able,” by putting Burnham in command of the mission while staying behind as a bit of Kelpien collateral.

Like the rest of the episode, the mission to the seed vault is crammed with intense moments and interesting story points that could have easily stood on their own as one full episode. There is a great mystery to be solved, a transporter accident, a ship overgrown with vegetation, and a bunch of strong character beats for the Discovery crew.

As seen throughout the season, Keyla Detmer (Emily Coutts) continues to struggle mentally with the ship’s situation, hesitating at a key moment during the rescue operation. Her friend Joann Owosekun (Oyin Oladejo) helps her fight through her trauma in the ship’s attempt to reach the Tikhov, adding a layer of depth to both the bridge crew and the series. (Her trauma is not gone just because everyone shared their true feelings during the epic dinner scene last week.)

This scene, as well as another round of productive banter between Stamets, Tilly and Reno, helps Starfleet realize the crew can deliver when tasked, and is a sign of the maturity and nuance in Michelle Paradise’s run at the helm of Star Trek: Discovery.

We also learn much more about Nhan’s backstory as a Barzan for the first time. (Before Discovery, the Barzan were a race previously only featured once in TNG’s “The Price.”)

It turns out the family taking care of the seed vault is from Barzan, but sadly only the father is left alive — albeit out of phase from the aforementioned transporter accident caused by a solar flare. The Discovery crew eventually secures the material necessary to help save the Kili refugees back at Starfleet, but only through a process in which Nhan rediscovers herself.

We learn that Nhan’s family was devastated by her decision to join Starfleet, and that Barzan’s don’t have the same idea of death as humans. It takes Burnham to help the grieving Dr. Attis (Jake Epstein), the Barzan caretaker of the seed vault, to see past his loss to help other families in need, an act that also motivates Nhan to forgive herself for the death of Airiam in “Project Daedalus,” so she can move on — and move on she does.

With Jefferson Russo’s brilliant score propping up the emotion in the compelling scenes on the Tikhov, Nhan recounts Burnham’s speech at Airiam’s funeral in “The Red Angel,” to “reach for the best in ourselves and each other.” As a popular character who defined the role of ‘adventurer’ since she was first introduced in “Brother,” the former Enterprise security officer decides to stay and take charge in protecting the seed vault, where she will guide the ship to Barzan — so she can see her home again and make sure Attis and his family receive proper burials.

It’s a powerful moment replete with some excellent debate on duty, cultural mitigation and Starfleet’s place in an officer’s personal decisions. The departure for Nhan is a surprise, and while there is certainly potential for everyone’s paths to cross again, it also feels definitive.

If all that wasn’t enough, one more mystery seed is planted when Burnham recognizes a melody being hummed by the Barzan family on a holo-recording. It’s the same one that Adira played on a cello after accessing her Trill memories in “Forget Me Not.” Burnham believes there is something more to it than just being a catchy earworm, a revelation that will bear watching in future episodes.

Other Observations

• One ship in the Federation fleet is the USS Armstrong (pictured above).
   
• Owosekun is excited to see a starship that might hold a crew of 1,000 or 2,000 people; in her own time, Captain Pike’s Enterprise carried 203; by the time of The Next Generation, the Enterprise-D carried 1,014 aboard.
   
• Admiral Vance details that both Starfleet Command and the civilian Federation government both reside in the same hidden “starbase,” addressing some fan concerns that the two entities were being portrayed as one organization this season.
   
• At its peak, there were 350 member worlds in the United Federation of Planets; by Discovery’s arrival, that number has been reduced to 38, including Saru’s homeworld Kaminar, and Nhan’s homeworld Barzan.
   
• “Die Trying” was expertly directed by Maja Vrvilo, who has now helmed three standout episodes of Star Trek in 2020, including Star Trek: Picard’s “The Impossible Box” and “Broken Pieces.” Her distinctive, spare style adds weight to the quiet moments and gravitas to the comedic ones. Her work is impressive.

• The holographic galactic map floating in Starfleet’s command center includes Voyager-established Delta Quadrant locations like the Ankari homeworld (“Equinox”), Ocampa (“Caretaker”) a Kazon Clan Forum (perhaps planet Sobras from “Alliances”), Neelix’s homeworld Talax, the Devore homeworld (“Counterpoint”), and the Silver Blood demon planet (“Demon”) — along with new locations like Federation Deep Space Outpost #36 and #72.
   
• Alpha and Beta Quadrant locations on the map include the Valt system (“The Perfect Mate”), Cardassia Prime, Zetar, Earth, Argus, Tellar, Delta, and Cor Caroli. 
   
• The holographic map also lists the Founder’s first — and fourth! — homeworlds, indicating that the Changelings of the Gamma Quadrant still like to move around every so often for their protection.
   
• The holographic helmets worn by Burnham and Culber when they beam on to the Tikhov are reminiscent of the life support belt forcefields seen in The Animated Series.

• The Barzan Dr. Attis fittingly shares a name with Attis, the Phrygian god of vegetation in Greek Mythology.
   
• The USS Tikhov’s registry number is NCC-1067-M, indicating it is not a 1,000-year old ship, but more likely one that’s been upgraded and replaced over the centuries. The ship was likely named after 20th century Soviet astronomer Gavriil Andrianovich Tikhov.
   
• The USS Cuyahoga is mentioned to have detected Orion and Andorian ships — the ‘Emerald Chain’ cabal — in the Sigma Draconis system, an area of space famous for the episode “Spock’s Brain.” (Episode writer Sean Cochran hales from Cuyahoga County in Ohio.)
   
• In addition to the mention of the Temporal Accords, the episode also references the events of Star Trek: Enterprise’s “In a Mirror, Darkly,” when the Mirror Universe’s Zefram Cochrane killed the just-landed Vulcan delegation with a shotgun.

In the end, Discovery’s successful mission to the Tikhov helps Vance and his staff to finally “look up,” as Saru tells him; the crew is officially welcomed home and will remain together and await their orders from Starfleet on where they go from here.

Of course, Burnham has been singularly focused on finding out what Starfleet knows about The Burn, but Vance has more theories than ships in the fleet. He tells her they have far more immediate concerns, and haven’t had the ability to chase down all the different leads — which immediately becomes a challenge that Burnham accepts to see what she can find on her own.

What did you think of Cronenberg’s appearance? And Nhan’s surprising departure? And how about those tributes to Voyager and Nog? Sound off in the comments below… but don’t let the blinking at your harmonic rate disrupt your holo protocols and create a reference loop that shuts down your program!

Star Trek: Discovery returns Thursday, November 19 with “Scavengers” on CBS All Access and CTV Sci-Fi Channel. International viewers get the episode November 20 on Netflix, in all other global regions.