With this week’s action-packed “Scavengers,” Star Trek: Discovery appears to be beginning to settle into its new groove, now the ship and crew have joined up with 32nd century Starfleet. Based on this week’s episode, Discovery is potentially setting the remainder of this season — and the show itself — as a whole different story than perhaps we may have been expecting.

During the first few episodes of Discovery’s third season, the show echoed Star Trek: Voyager more than any of its counterparts. The USS Discovery was a ship alone, in a new time that had made the familiar locales of the Alpha Quadrant as alien as the Delta Quadrant was to Voyager. But with contact established with Starfleet, and Saru joining Admiral Vance’s staff meetings, I no longer believe the show Discovery is looking to echo is Voyager…. but rather, Star Trek: Enterprise.

Instead of a ship alone searching for a specific destination, “Scavengers” establishes that Discovery is now about building something new, much like Captain Archer and the crew of the Enterprise NX-01 — only now, Discovery is not creating but helping to resurrect the Federation out of the chaos and bloodshed caused by The Burn, supporting Starfleet in its missions, and finding its place within the chain of command.

“Scavengers,” written by Anne Cofell Saunders and directed by Doug Aarniokoski, opens with the most notable change yet: Discovery has had a massive overhaul to bring the Crossfield-class starship up to 32nd century specs, so much that the ship’s been given a new registry number (NCC-1031-A!) to signify just how significant these upgrades are to the original design — as well as to potentially hide the ship’s time-travel history (banned by the Temporal Accords), making it a “new” Discovery for the 32nd century.

Along with the new registry number comes all-new hull armor and external lighting, new deflector plating, minor changes to the hull configuration itself (removing the support struts between the outer rings in the saucer, angling and cutting large gaps into the secondary hull’s ‘wings’), new impulse engine assemblies…

…and the biggest change of all, brand-new warp nacelles that are physically separated from the Discovery, like some of the other wild new 32nd century starship designs we saw in last week’s episode. We don’t get a chance to see the ship in action this week, which is a little disappointing, but I’m curious how it looks with detached nacelles in motion.

(But I’m most curious to see how Eaglemoss will build their sure-to-come Discovery-A model!)

In addition to all the outer upgrades, the internal workings of Discovery have also been equipped with the ubiquitous programmable matter we’ve been introduced to this season — seen already on Book’s ship, at the Coridanite bar, and at Starfleet Headquarters. As we see more of the ways in which Starfleet and the Federation have evolved in the last several centuries, I am particularly enjoying the imaginative futuristic technology.

Keeping the ship in the 23rd century was always going to limit what the producers could show us to what had been established as futuristic technology when the Original Series was filmed in the late 1960s. Even holographic communications, a logical achievement by the 23rd century by today’s standards, rang hollow in the pre-classic Trek era (given it had never been established before).

But the Discovery production office can now let their imagination run wild, and so far, their decisions have been effective ones. The ships and technology feel familiar, but also so much more advanced — and Discovery can now show us new speculative technology that is genuinely imaginative, echoing back to what Star Trek of eras past was able to accomplish.

And though the Discovery crew do not get new uniforms in line with the Starfleet uniforms of this era — just like Voyager never upgraded to the First Contact designs, for viewer recognition (and budgetary issues, likely!) — they do get new combadges, which combine combadge, holographic PADD, tricorder, and personal transporter tech all into one wearable device.

A nice advancement from today’s tech given everything the mobile phones in our pocket can accomplish!

However, as much as this episode illustrates how Discovery is integrating into Starfleet’s new structure, “Scavengers” is here to remind us that Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) remains far from a model Starfleet officer.

Despite direct orders from Captain Saru (Doug Jones), Burnham enlists the help of Philippa Georgiou (Michele Yeoh) to save Book (David Ajala) from an Emerald Chain prison camp — managed by what seems to be the primary adversary of Starfleet these days, the combined strength of Andorian and Orion forces.

The scenes on Hunhau — a grimy, hostile junkyard world controlled by evil people — nicely contrast with the clean, antiseptic Starfleet Headquarters, reminding us that the galaxy is still an unforgiving place, despite Discovery’s seemingly safe new home with their ‘Federation family.’ The Emerald Chain are presented as rather blandly evil pirate villains, but hopefully they will deepen and become more nuanced if they are really being established as the main villain for Starfleet in this new era.

The episode appears to be drawing connections between Burnham’s decision to go rogue and rescue Book with the year she spent separated from the Discovery after arriving in the future. But this is a fairly well-trodden character beat for Burnham, given the series began with her disobeying her captain’s orders, placing her own judgement above that of the people around her, and getting thrown into prison for her actions.

The simmering trust issues between Saru and Burnham hinted at in “People of Earth” come racing back to the fore off after a dressing down from Admiral Vance (Oded Fehr). And though you might think, on the face of it, that Burnham has shown little character growth by making such a reckless decision, “Scavengers” presents a more nuanced perspective. It is not that Burnham has not evolved, it’s just that she has accepted much more readily who she is.

“You’re doing the right thing,” Burnham tells Saru, as he removes her from the position of first officer on Discovery. I wish there had been a little more time to explore and grow with the idea of being Burnham being the first officer before changing up the status quo again, but I’ve also long since accepted that while I’m comfortable with the plot moving at warp speed, this show sometimes moves at the speed of spore drive. Character developments come fast on this show, and it does not seem inclined to slow things down too much.

And amidst the ship upgrades, with tensions running high in what’s left of the Federation, and Burnham’s betrayal, we also have the latest mystery around Georgiou to solve. Several times during this episode, the Emperor-turned-Section 31 agent becomes incapacitated by shocking visions or flashbacks, which appear to relate to her time in the Mirror Universe (is she saying “Son!”?).

I was able to make out a man in a helmet covered in blood, the Terran Empire insignia, and the iconic Terran knife — but what is happening remains a mystery, perhaps one connected to last week’s encounter with Kovich (David Cronenberg).

OTHER OBSERVATIONS

• Like its assignment under Captain Lorca during the Klingon War in Season 1, the Discovery now serves as Starfleet’s secret rapid-response unit, as the only ship with a functional spore drive.
   
• The recurring gag about Linus (David Benjamin Tomlinson) learning to use his new personal transporter badge was genuinely funny. Discovery has become a much funnier show since Michelle Paradise became showrunner.
   
• Director Doug Aarniokoski loves his crazy close-up shots, as he once again gets right up in an actor’s face: this time Michelle Yeoh, last time Hannah Cheesman (Airiam) in “The Sound of Thunder.”

• Along with the ship’s new tech upgrades, Paul Stamets (Anthony Rapp) also gets a new spore drive interface – one that doesn’t need those pesky arm implants – thanks to Adira Tal’s (Blu del Barrio) ingenuity.
   
• Among the lineup of Starfleet captains is a female Cardassian; the only other Cardassian ever seen in a Starfleet uniform was in one of the alternate realities Worf visited in “Parallels.”
   
• Admiral Vance’s office details some interesting developments for the Alpha Quadrant in the years since we last saw it during Star Trek: Picard — with the absence of the Romulan Empire after its destruction, the Emerald Chain seems to have expanded through much of local space — along with the Ferengi and Cardassians.
   
• Federation Headquarters seems to be nestled between Ferengi and Cardassian territories, very near to the location of Subpace Relay AR-558.

• It’s nice to see Stamets and Culber having their cute domestic scenes again. It’s only been a season and a half — one death, one resurrection, and a whole lot of tortured feelings in between — for us to get back there.
   
• We learn that Burnham spent her year along searching for “black box” data modules from Starfleet ships destroyed by The Burn, theorizing that there must be a spatial origin point for whatever caused the disaster. We saw one of her earlier black box finds in “People of Earth,” featuring Starfleet registry NCC-4774; the one book finds is from NCC-316608.

• Most the ships in the sky above the labor camp date back to the 23rd century – thankfully, they’re specifically called out as “ancient” designs in dialogue — including several ships first introduced in “Battle at the Binary Stars,” and a Hiawatha-type frigate.
   
• The poor Bajoran worker who got his head blown off for crossing the security barrier is a solid homage to The Running Man.
   
• There are some fun canon connections to the 24th century at the labor camp, including a reference to the Deep Space Nine favorite self-sealing stem bolts, the appearance of an antique Voyager-era Type II phaser, and a bucket of badges from 2370’s Starfleet and the Klingon Empire.

• Grudge a very loud cat, who is constantly vocalizing… whether there seems to be a reason for it or not. As a cat owner myself, I’m wondering if this is a meaningful character choice, or simply a sound-design decision made by somebody who doesn’t have a cat of their own?
   
• Another glimpse of the USS Voyager-J can be seen while Discovery is parked at Starfleet Command, now easily identified thanks to this graphic from the official Star Trek account. Thanks to a graphic in Admiral Vance’s office, we also get on-screen confirmation of our report from last week: it’s a 32nd century Intrepid-class.

Overall, “Scavengers” may not reach the lofty heights of the last two episodes, but it’s a solid entry in what has so far been a great third season for Star Trek: Discovery. Though the episode probably asked more questions than it answered, it still provided some good character developments for Burnham, Book, Saru, and Georgiou — as the setup for Season 3’s overarching plot seems to be in place for the second half of the season to begin.

Star Trek: Discovery returns Thursday, November 26 with the tantalizingly-titled “Unification III” on CBS All Access and CTV Sci-Fi Channel. International viewers get the episode November 27 on Netflix, in all other global regions.