Synopsis: A signal from the Red Angel appears over Kaminar and Commander Saru goes back to his homeworld.
This episode can be seen as an illustration of a tale told by the nineteenth century Hindu mystic Shri Ramakrishna Paramahansa of the tiger and the goats. A tiger was born in a herd of goats and lived as one until a tiger passed by and told it to eat meat and be who it was meant to be.
In “The Sound of Thunder” a signal from the Red Angel appears over Kaminar and Discovery and her crew go there to investigate. When the Ba’ul species do not respond to a hail, Commander Saru and Commander Michael Burnham beam down to the planet to speak with a village priest, to see if any Kelpiens, the other sentient species inhabiting the planet, have seen the signal. The priest they meet is Saru’s sister, Siranna. She is both happy to see her long lost brother and angry at him for leaving her. The Ba’ul become aware of Saru’s presence and demand he come to them. Captain Christopher Pike refuses their demand, but Saru beams down to the planet as is taken to a Ba’ul stronghold. Meanwhile, on Discovery, the archives of the sphere contain information that centuries ago the Kelpiens were the predator species on Kaminar and the Ba’ul barely escaped extinction because of their superior technology. The Ba’ul have been oppressing the Kelpiens since then by killing them off before the Kelpiens reached Vahar’ai, a point in their development where they lose their fear and become aggressive. Saru devises a plan in which a sonic wave is broadcasted planetwide so that all the Kelpiens enter Vahar’ai at once, which causes the Ba’ul to activate their pylons to kill all Kelpiens on the planet. But before they can carry out this plan, the Red Angel reappears and destroys the Ba’ul weapons. The destruction of the Ba’ul weapons will cause a new balance between the species.
In this episode, Saru and the Kelpiens can be compared to the tiger who was born and raised among goats. Starfleet can be seen as the passing wolf that came by and encouraged them to be who they were meant to be. They were not meant to be the prey but the predator, but by circumstance this knowledge was not relayed to them. The mythical tale of the tiger who grew up with goats was borrowed by Joseph Campbell and often used in his lectures. This insight was surreptitiously published in a blog on the Joseph Campbell website just as I was writing this (Melander, 2024).
Reference:
Melander, L. (2024, January 14). Gagging on ‘true doctrine.’ Joseph Campbell Foundation. https://www.jcf.org/post/gagging-on-true-doctrine
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