Star Trek: Discovery

[CliffHanger2]

Kinda think they needed Terran Georgiou to balance out the feels on this show. But guess we''ll see what happens.

[Shadowras]

Episode 11 was good, so the burn was just an accident.
Osyra seems to know a lot about Tilly, and she was able to masked her ship as a federation vessel. I think she has a mole in the federation, maybe it's Vance
Rating 4/5

[nx01a]

'Su'Kal' kept reminding me in a very good way of Gormenghast, and The Hobbit scenes where Gandalf fought the orcs and Sauron as well as where Galadriel and Saruman and Elrond fought the Ring Wraiths and Sauron. The SFX was that good and that creepy.

The 'leave Tilly in charge' and 'evil woman takes over the ship', however, were far less impressive.

[CliffHanger2]

I kept thinking of Grogu when they said "the child,the child. I like this Osyra chick, I think she's gonna be the one to bring out the Capt Killy in Tilly.

[Cyke]

- This season is doing a great job of changing my mind on Stamets. He went from one of the more annoying crewmembers to my actively cheering for him. His moments with Adira started to curb him more towards the light, then validating Adira's experiences and Gray's existence pushed him over to the positive, and then we get the kicker of his thinking of Adira as his child (cute!), but his standing up to Burnham in the face of her hypocrisy was something of a slam dunk. Thank you, Stamets. I may not agree with Stamets' own choice, but somebody had to say it to Burnham.

- On the other hand, Stamets gets knocked out soon after he's revived. Tough luck, man.

- Also, technology has clearly advanced by leaps and bounds over the 930 years, but they still can't get replicators right, for some reason.

- ...I think it's too little, too late to have the Emerald Chain seem a bit more sympathetic, both with the scientist and Admiral Vance thinking Ossyra's demands are actually quite reasonable. The problem is that the Emerald Chain's been depicted as pretty blatantly and under no uncertain terms as villains. Now, could that sympathy just be a ploy or another trap? Sure, but if so, it makes you wonder how anyone's even buying into it just a little bit, given that half of Vance's dialogue all season was his continually warning Discovery *not* to fall into this very trap. I mean, heck, the episode already has an example: Burnham vs. Stamets both have legitimate points. Now if only Vance vs. Ossyra (in particular Ossyra) had a similar build-up.

- Hey, it's Die Hard on a ship! But wait, wasn't that Under Siege? But wait, wasn't that Starship Mine? But wait, wasn't that Die Hard?

- I'm calling the inept creepy henchman as Wish.com's Tim Roth.

- I knew the Sphere Data was going to play a role. I would just like to keep the super-sentient AI concept and the cutesy R2D2 droid concept to remain separate concepts, thank you. (the only time I'd want those droids to play a bigger role besides basic maintenance is if they're upgraded into the 32nd century descendants of DJ Roomba)

- Speaking of droids with a purpose, I really hope S4 shows the bridge crew as more than just the collective sidekicks of Tilly. Detmer and Booker was great, for example. But even newcomer Adira gets more screentime outside their circle of Stamets and Culber, interacting with Booker and Saru. It seems the main characters are just that, and if you combine the bridge crew into one being, they would be considered a single main character, too. They're individuals, dammit.

- Though next week's preview shows plenty of ship action, it's hard to believe that even when Discovery is hijacked by the bad guys, she *still* hasn't fired any of her upgraded weapons so far this season. As if the bad guys honored some kind of embargo.

- But also it's nice to see that they continue the crew's proud tradition of not closing the biggest door on the ship, for some reason.

[Anthony W]

The Guardian was just an Sentient Archway in TOS the human Avatar is a Disco thing.

That is what I'm talking about. When they have him the human avatar it felt Whovian, especially with all the bad jokes and outdated clothes.

[Anthony W]

Tilly comes off more as Saru's secretary than first officer, of course this was going to end in disaster. I find it weird that no other bridge officers wanted the job, but then again would you want to be second in command of that circus? What was interesting is that Booker was acting as Tilly's first officer.

So that is how the Burn happened? Anyone disappointed? I was getting ready to be disappointed for Michael somehow being the cause of The Burn but was disappointed by something else entirely. Consider my expectations subverted.

Now we are doing a Die Hard homage? Uh...okay?

So they finally get around to telling us why Starfleet can't make more spore drives. You would have thought they would have tackled this in an earlier episode.

The Admiral asking the Emerald Chain ringleader to stand trial for her crimes if she really wanted peace is meant to be powerful...until you remember that he was cool with Discovery hanging out with Philippa. Knowing him he had no intention of making a deal and probably said that because he knows that the Emerald Chain is just a bunch of thugs at heart and it would make them walk away from the deal.

Stamets sees Adria as his child? Uh...no. Too soon show.

Did someone cry? Of course! It's not an episode of Discovery until someone cries!

[basbash99]

Despite my mixed feelings about this show, definitely down for a die-hard tribute and kinda wish the episode had leaned into that a little more. They even managed to find a reason for michael to be barefoot lol.

Also Stamets going off on Michael at the end was pretty awesome, even though i don't really like Stamets much either.

At least the Burn wasn't caused by Michael, but having it be the result of a crying kid isn't much better imo. I kinda hope Saru, Adria, and Culber all end up sacrificing themselves to prevent Burn 2.0 or something. Not that Doug Jones hasn't been giving it his all, just kind of tired of his character. Never liked Adria or Culber to begin with so no big loss if their story concludes with S3. Somehow i don't see them killing off Adra just yet tho.

[G. Boney]

The Admiral asking the Emerald Chain ringleader to stand trial for her crimes if she really wanted peace is meant to be powerful...until you remember that he was cool with Discovery hanging out with Philippa. Knowing him he had no intention of making a deal and probably said that because he knows that the Emerald Chain is just a bunch of thugs at heart and it would make them walk away from the deal.

It's a safe assumption he was more invested in this long time Federation enemy organization than one (kind of) member of this time displaced crew that he barely knew.

[nx01a]

I really enjoyed 'There is a Tide...'. It had heart, optimism, and a (ahem) die hard attitude.
>I was thrilled to see Jefferies tubes, and the Die Hard references only kicked in once the boots came off.
>My favourite scene sums up what Starfleet and the Federation should be willing to do for their principles. It's also the best and most appropriate use of cursing in the series to date. Tilly's cursing when Saru told her that Michael had left the ship without authorization a few episodes ago also felt unforced and appropriate. What a change! I still don't like it but I'll accept it very infrequently if it works well like these examples.

>Osyrra mentioning to their superior Vance how inept Tilly was in command and basically saying how stupid Saru was for leaving her in command? Perfect.
>Stamets, damn! A bit too soon to be calling Adira your kid but I get and appreciate the point. His desperation to save his hubby and unilaterally adopted child felt real, as did his rage at and feelings of betrayal by Michael. No shortcut back to the dilithium nebula now! Right?
>Thank goodness there are those convenient courier network tunnels and randomly left over Borg subspace corridors that lead everywhere, especially right from the dilithium nebula straight to SF Command! *rolls eyes* To quote Janeway, "And people are always saying that space is so big." :P
>Kenneth Mitchell honestly broke my heart as Aurellio since the actor is really confined to a wheelchair thanks to ALS.
>It's the 32nd C and there aren't available cures for genetic diseases? You'd assume the Chain lacks the Fed's laws against genetic engineering, and should have it available for its most important members. If Osyrra really wanted the scientist to be in her pocket, keeping him in the chair seems like a way to do it, though. Maybe she made sure he didn't pass it on to his kids?
>The Emerald Chain really needed more depth before now to make us believe all this diplomacy now, all their honest business and scientific progress.
>The Federation being forced to endorse capitalism? LOL!
>Are there no telepaths in the 32nd C? We need truth serum? The Chain has a mind control device able to make Stamets do a complex task but doesn't have one to make Book type in the coordinates for the dilithium planet? Yes, it's a plot device to make the scientist realize how truly horrible the Chain's methods are but it's a plot hole.
>The Sphere data in those DRDs... sorry... DOTs is so cute!
>I assume the ship will be stripped of its 32nd C upgrade and hidden in a nebula for a millennium, making the Short Trek featuring it actually take place in the (gasp) 42nd C!
>Will the crew use the Guardian of Forever to go back to the 23rd C? Will Michael stay in the 32nd?
>Will the gravity field surrounding SF and the Fed's headquarters get destroyed? Will they have to look to Ni'Var or Earth as a new base of operations again?
>The preview shows Discovery firing on Voyager J! This is the fight I want to see!
disvj.jpg
>I also need to see 32nd C Vulcan/Romulan hybrid ships coming to the rescue! Why else would Michael's message to her mother, conveniently on Ni'Var and now with the ear of its president, have made it through?

I really enjoyed this season. I can't believe this is the same show I detested in season 1, and which I still haven't watched the s1 Mirror episodes of out of disgust. I'm actually sad there are only 13 episodes. This was shockingly so much better than ST: Picard. Bring on the finale!

[Anthony W]

I really enjoyed 'There is a Tide...'. It had heart, optimism, and a (ahem) die hard attitude.
>I was thrilled to see Jefferies tubes, and the Die Hard references only kicked in once the boots came off.
>My favourite scene sums up what Starfleet and the Federation should be willing to do for their principles. It's also the best and most appropriate use of cursing in the series to date. Tilly's cursing when Saru told her that Michael had left the ship without authorization a few episodes ago also felt unforced and appropriate. What a change! I still don't like it but I'll accept it very infrequently if it works well like these examples.

Question about the apples scene. Vance said that he never ate a "real" apple. Yet, when Discovery finds Starfleet for the first time in the episode titled "Die Trying" at exactly 4:42 we can see that they have an entire FLYING RAINFOREST! So you mean to tell me they aren't growing anything?!

It kind of ruins the entire scene.

[Cyke]

Question about the apples scene. Vance said that he never ate a "real" apple. Yet, when Discovery finds Starfleet for the first time in the episode titled "Die Trying" at exactly 4:42 we can see that they have an entire FLYING RAINFOREST! So you mean to tell me they aren't growing anything?!

It kind of ruins the entire scene.

Wait, all the underlying tension and exchange of knowledge in that scene and what both figures represent (mission vs. compromise), and that's your takeaway? That's what ruins the scene?

I mean, I've been far from Discovery's biggest cheerleader in writing this season, but that seems like a trivial thing to take someone out of the scene.

But if you really want to expand upon it, whenever an apple is used in fiction (Trek or not), it usually denotes knowledge of some sort thanks to tropes from Adam & Eve, like Kirk eating an apple in the Genesis cave to signify that he knew more than Khan and thus outwitted him, or even how apples were Riker's first clue that something was wrong with Farpoint Station. That the apple is made of ****, or that Vance never had a real apple, could point in a certain direction. If anything, Discovery tends to be pretty heavy handed with its symbolism. Subtle they are not.

I could also go on about how maybe real apples are a delicacy and thus relatively rare, the same way how jackfruit is fairly common in grocery stores but most adults in the West don't try it out until adulthood, or even middle-age.

[nx01a]

I had the same thought, and we actually see two of these habitats in the wider shots. I'm also wondering why the 32nd C Fed can't just use the mapped genetic sequence for apples to create apple seeds and grow apple trees which will then grow apples with seeds to make more apple trees. Or could it be that they use that technique but remove any genetic imperfections, making all the apples 'perfect' and the same as opposed to tasting different thanks to natural variation?

Maybe he was simply using psychology on aka lying to Osyrra. Notice how the AI Lie Detector (hilariously named Eli) isn't present, though I suppose it's not programmed to tell Osyrra when Vance is lying, anyhow.

[Anthony W]

This...felt like an episode of a generic big budget space action show. Anyone tired of the droids? Remember when I said Tilly would crash and burn and Michael would be number one again? Well, apparently Tilly still gets to be number one and Michael gets to be...captain?!

My favorite parts of the episode.

Michael telling the Emerald Chain thugs to let go of her. And they do! She then escapes with Booker. Even Stormtroopers are like "we would never be that stupid".

The Sphere Data is a big fat liar. Remember how Discovery had to go to the future because the data had become a part of the ship to the extent that it refused to let Discovery be destroyed? Well apparently it can download itself into droids. Apparently it wasn't in the ship because they actually show them going through the hassle of repairing the droid that housed it.

Saru taking a vacation and promptly being replaced as Captain of Discovery. If I were him I would go to HR, lol. I would rather they have killed him. Talk about your fates worse than death. Have fun babysitting that psycho! How did they convince Kaminar to take him?! The exchange probably went something like this....

Discovery:: Hey, we just beamed something down for ya'!
Kaminar:: Wait, What?
Starfleet (Jumping away):: Bye! You can keep Saru as well he is the only thing that keeps the little freak calm.
Saru:: Wait, I was just taking a vacation. A VACATION!

The fate of the bridge crew....whose names I can't remember. They were in danger!

Booker joins Starfleet...but not really.

Michael comes up with a catchphrase!

Stamets still being low-key mad at Michael. Better watch it buddy, anyone that doesn't join the cult of Michael dies.

[nx01a]

Our best look yet at Starfleet of the 32nd century!