Okay, not gonna lie... I thought that this episode was excellent. In fact, I think it may be my favorite Disco episode by far. There was just so much that it got... right.
The A-plot has a rogue Qowat Milat going after dilithium and killing a Starfleet officer in the process. I think this is also the first time that we see a 32nd Century ship besides Disco going about its business. Turns out that the Qowat Milat had taken on the "lost cause" of defending a culture in stasis that was being grave-robbed literally because the species had latinum as part of its biology. Great acting and writing for Tilly, Gabrielle, and yes, even Michael. Although Vance and Rillak weren't around too much, I'm still liking their interactions with each other and everyone else.
Book and Stamets continue to make a great pairing as they head to Ni'var to try to make headway on the Anomaly. We do indeed get more T'Rina who also has some great interactions with Book.
Gray gets a new body! Also, pretty sure they name-dropped the ritual from DS9's "Facets" that lets host personalities enter other bodies. Again, great writing and great acting from Gray, Adira, and Culber.
Also, the fact that this species converted its moon into an escape craft? That is so TOS that it hurts and I loved it.
If this episode had any faults to it, I think it would be that the A-plot was wrapped up a bit too easily. "Why don't we just wake up the aliens so they can fend for themselves?" Well, duh. The rogue Qowat Milats are engineers enough to run a moon-sized engine but not to fix a stasis system? Still, a minor quibble.
Posted by Shik (Member # 343) on :
• Why do all ships look like Disco internally? Yes, I know, set reuse, but I mean...change a little, yeh?
• Stamets needs to learn he can't solve everything. He's not the smartest man in the universe, & the petulance is getting old. If I was emotion tuned as Book, I wouldn't want to be around him much either.
• Gray's synth body arc is most def a trans allegory. Or it would be if it was subtle enough to be an allegory. "Trans actor's character has quasi-trans evolution" is about as suave as a hammer to the brainpan. Also, it's "zhaan-tara", not "zee-an-tara"; don't these guys get pronunciation guides anymore?
• Even the Qowat Milat has Ensign Ricky types, I see.
• Speaking of, I didn't like them in Picard, I don't like them here. They bother me in an undefineable way, like Wash's mustache bothered Zoe.
• FANDOM ALERT: use of the word "arie'mnu", coined by Diane Duane in her novel "The Wounded Sky". It's the name for the Vulcan suppression of emotions, & literally translates as "passion's mastery". I hope she got paid for the use.
• The Tilly train continues. This isn't foreshadowing, it's Rob Liefeld shadowing. I hope it doesn't end up with a miraculous "Tilly realizes she's where she should be" denouement. I'd rather she realize that she should be elsewhere, maybe a less direct-action or stressful post.
Posted by Lee (Member # 393) on :
USS Creedence, or USS Credence? MA says the latter. Rather hope its the former, love me some CCR. Registry is visible but very short, CC-xxxx, -250x? Perhaps a letter.
Also David Ajala is killing it right now.
Someone on Twitter suggested pandemic filming limitations have led them to dial down on the bombastic stuff. Could be something in that - we've had three solid eps dealing with science and small-D discovery. They've sought out strange new worlds, and new civilisations, and not killed them. This latest one wasn't even wall-to-wall the Burnham Show (maybe because there were two of them in it, har har).
Posted by Lee (Member # 393) on :
Someone who presumably downloaded the 1080p version has established it’s NCC-2804 and appears to have nacelles reminiscent of the original unrefitted Crossfield-class. Hmm. An older ship brought back into service?
Posted by Shik (Member # 343) on :
Captions say Credence as well. Also, it looked like that weird 4-enginer we saw before.
Posted by Lee (Member # 393) on :
It’s possible it could be whatever class the USS Europa was - oh, Nimitz-class - if that’s the one you’re thinking of. But if so it’s been heavily refitted. I don’t think it’s the same as the 32nd-century ship with the four floating nacelles. But it’s hard to tell from just one angle. It also reminds me a bit of the Springfield-class.
Posted by Shik (Member # 343) on :
No, I was thinking of one with a pointier bow, but this looks to be totally new & totally wrongly numbered.
Posted by o2 (Member # 907) on :
The design of the USS Credence looks to me like a starship from the 23nd century, not one of the 32nd. Where are the detached nacelles that have been introduced in the last season? Why is the registry not in the realm of 32xxx? Last season we've got 10 new star ships designs, but for this episode the producers had to create yet another one that does not fit the design rules established for the 32nd century? Come on! And beside this, the interior of the USS Credence looks more like the USS Discovery to me than a ship from the 32nd century. In this respect the low registry makes sense to me... *irony on* By the way, can't wait for S5 to see the new uniforms, according to the old saying: Never use a uniform twice. *irony off*
Posted by Lee (Member # 393) on :
Apparently the grey ones introduced at the end of the last season caused problems in filming on all the grey sets. I wonder whether they binned them all, or just dyed them? It might explain why the replacement Science division uniforms are SO dark blue..!
And the Credence could be a de-mothballed refitted early 24th century ship. The period between TOS and TNG remains very much unknown territory; there are quite a few ship classes that came from that period (including one or two named but never seen), but comparatively fewer than we can ascribe to better known time periods.
The question then becomes why introduce such a class when they have as Shik says ten period-appropriate classes to play with? Unless it was to use the older-looking Disco sets rather than build a ship corridor set that looks suitably Fourth Millennium.
Posted by Shik (Member # 343) on :
All they had to do was redress the SFHQ set with some console bits to make a 32nd-century ship. And god, I hope it's not mothballed ship. Who does 900 years of mothballs? That's some hoarder shit. That'd be like present-day running cargo with the Gokstadskipet.
My love of the one-scene grey unis will never die. Should've kept the costumes & painted the fucking ship.
Posted by Malnurtured Snay (Member # 411) on :
If you consider that starship registries went from four digits to five between TOS and TNG, it's not unrealistic to consider that Starfleet just decided to restart the numbering system.
Perhaps there's the Starfleet version of a VIN number, corresponding to the actual production number, while the registry number actually is more of a license plate.
Posted by Shik (Member # 343) on :
That would be insipidly atrocious.
Posted by Lee (Member # 393) on :
It feels like it’s already hard enough to reconcile the way Starfleet seems to chop & change ranks and uniforms seemingly at commanders’ will, so trying to have two different numbers representing a ship seems hopelessly complicated. The current registry system sort-of works as an indication of a ship’s age if you don’t worry too much about a few specific deviations (mostly down to production errors).
It just remains very, very strange that after going to all the trouble of introducing all these new incredibly futuristic-looking ship classes, and taking the time to do the math as to where the registry system might be up to after 900 years, they introduce another, relatively-conventionally-designed, ship with a howlingly unsuitable registry.
![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)