Discovery Trailer

Wow. That final episode was awesome. I wasn’t so keen on last week, but this one more than made up for it. Plus they’re using the universal translators to have the Klingon actors talk English, which will please some people.

So they’ve teleported somewhere but the don’t know where. And there’s lots of Klingon debris there. And it looks the spore drive is dead for now.

I do with that bloke Burnham likes (I forget his name) would sort out his beard. He really needs to trim that higher up the neck!

Yes, this episode definitely made up for last week's rather lacklustre set-up. Very much a mid-season finale, and very much Star Trek through and through, with the crew going against Starfleet orders in order to save a species and defeat a stronger opponent by executing a daring and unorthodox plan.

The ending was maybe telegraphed a little too much - Stamets's "just one more jump" was pretty much the narrative equivalent of the soldier who pulls out pictures of his wife and kids before heading out on "just one last mission". I'm a little concerned about the direction they're taking Ash's character - it seems to match with certain fandom speculations that I was really hoping weren't on the mark - but I'm definitely looking forward to the continuation of the season in January.

David Mack, whom I think is an excellent Trek writer, has written a new adventure for Discovery:


Star Trek Discovery - Desperate Hours

MarkB said:

Yes, this episode definitely made up for last week's rather lacklustre set-up. Very much a mid-season finale, and very much Star Trek through and through, with the crew going against Starfleet orders in order to save a species and defeat a stronger opponent by executing a daring and unorthodox plan.

The ending was maybe telegraphed a little too much - Stamets's "just one more jump" was pretty much the narrative equivalent of the soldier who pulls out pictures of his wife and kids before heading out on "just one last mission". I'm a little concerned about the direction they're taking Ash's character - it seems to match with certain fandom speculations that I was really hoping weren't on the mark - but I'm definitely looking forward to the continuation of the season in January.

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True. But then, if you looked at the runtime of the episode, you knew something was still going to happen anyway.

The thing I am not sure about is whether the anti-cloaking algorithm is now unavailable to the Federation until the Discovery can get back, because they suggested it would take several hours for the algorithm to be transmitted (whether it would take that long to transmit, reach them, or to be refined for fleet-wide use and where that happens seemed unclear. But considering zero-delay visual subspace communication, I figure the refinement of the algorithm for fleet-wide use must be what takes so long...)

As a bubblegum action series, it works. (It actually more than works, with that budget it's spectacular)

It's just that everything Trek about it just makes my head hurt.

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Mustrum_Ridcully said:

True. But then, if you looked at the runtime of the episode, you knew something was still going to happen anyway.

The thing I am not sure about is whether the anti-cloaking algorithm is now unavailable to the Federation until the Discovery can get back, because they suggested it would take several hours for the algorithm to be transmitted (whether it would take that long to transmit, reach them, or to be refined for fleet-wide use and where that happens seemed unclear. But considering zero-delay visual subspace communication, I figure the refinement of the algorithm for fleet-wide use must be what takes so long...)

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It may simply be that they didn't want to risk transmitting the data over an open channel - not when they can instantly arrive to deliver it in person.

I simply presumed that several hours had passed before they made the final jump. After all, there had been enough time to offer Lorca a medal and for him to suggest giving it to the doctor. I thought that time had just passed in the interim. It's not like the show runs in real time.

But, I love how they are tying up loose ends. Why didn't Klingons have cloaking at the beginning of TOS? Well, they did, but, Star Fleet figured out how to break the cloaking and it isn't until the Romulans get involved with their superior cloak that cloaking becomes a thing again.

Why aren't they using the spore drive? Well, either you enslave and murder a sentient species like the Tardigrade, or it kills your pilot/drives him insane/possibly does all sorts of bad things. Oh, and if that doctor dies, pretty much everyone who actually knows how to make and maintain a spore drive is dead. But, you can pretty easily see it coming why spore drives are a bad idea.

And I love how they expanded Lorca's character. He is a Star Fleet Captain in the old tradition, but, the war and his pretty deep psychological issues make him look like he is just a war monster. The back and forth about using the Spore Drive to explore was fantastic.

I look forward to a second half of the season looking a lot like traditional Trek with lots of exploration and whatnot as they try to get home.

On a side note, I do think it's very interesting that they've now made going home for pretty much every main character a very bad thing. Lorca will be courtmartialed and certainly removed of command, Michael goes back to jail, the doctor, if he survives, becomes a lab rat, his husband will lose his position because of the genetic manipulation that the doctor did. About the only character that actually has a reason to go home is Saru.

Hussar said:

On a side note, I do think it's very interesting that they've now made going home for pretty much every main character a very bad thing. Lorca will be courtmartialed and certainly removed of command, Michael goes back to jail, the doctor, if he survives, becomes a lab rat, his husband will lose his position because of the genetic manipulation that the doctor did. About the only character that actually has a reason to go home is Saru.

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Tilly's got great reason to go home. After the rest of them meet their various fates, she'll be able to just waltz in and take over as Captain.

And it's back.

Interesting take on a Mirror Universe episode, though I'm hoping we see more of the actual universe next episode. Aside from the last part, it was very much a slow, expositional introduction to the concept, very different to the usual 'thrown in at the deep end' fare. I'm not sure that approach really did them any favours.

On the other hand, it did at least give them all time to get into character, and into costume. 'Captain Killy' was definitely a highlight, and I hope we see more of her, though I fear for the original universe if the mirror-Discovery under her command is running loose there. If they take too long to get back, she may have conquered both the Federation and the Klingons by the time they return.

Still not a fan of the direction they took Ash's character - both too obvious a twist and too convoluted in practice. Also, seriously, how stupid was the doctor? He discovers that Ash appears to have been surgically altered and personality-overwritten by Klingons, and his next step is to have a quiet word with him in private? It's a damn shame he was killed, but that's seriously Darwin Award behaviour there.

I am getting a bit concerned that they are taking a Game of Thrones approach to this series. At this rate for all we known "Captain Killy" is also going to end up "Captain Killed" . First the old chief of security, now the doctor. Not to mention the chief scientist has gone off the deep end, perhaps permanently.