Another episode that I quite enjoyed. I don't know about anybody else, but I've found Season 4 to be such a winning streak so far that I'm rather disappointed the show is taking a break while Prodigy returns.
Half the episode is focused on Zora. Zora determines the coordinates of Species 10C, but refuses to give them out of fear for the crew's safety. We get some really good back-and-forth between Zora, Kovich, Saru, Stamets, Culber, Adira, and Gray about whether or not Zora has achieved full sapience and whether or not she can be trusted. In the end, Kovich determines Zora is a true lifeform, and Stamets suggests actually having Zora formally join Starfleet so she is part of the chain of command. Zora reciprocates the trust by giving the coordinates.
The other half of the episode is focused on the politics of what to do over the DMA. Rillak and Burnham are pushing for peaceful overtures towards Species 10C, while Book and Tarka want to focus on destroying the DMA. We get Tarka's real reason for his cooperation: He wants the DMA's power source to leave the Prime universe altogether. Both Book and Burnham give passionate pleas to the delegates, and the vote ultimately goes to making peaceful first contact. Tarka grabs the new next-gen spore drive, and he and Book leave to destroy the DMA on their own. Side note: Book's ship using the spore drive looked nifty.
Gray is leaving for Trill, and will maintain a long-distance relationship with Adira. This is the one thing about this episode I have some reservation about. It seems like the writers just don't know what to do with Gray now that he has a body, so they're just writing him out.
I am all aboard the Saru/T'Rina ship.
And I spotted Nhan in the preview for the second half of the season! About time!
Posted by Lee (Member # 393) on :
They were doing so well, then they fucked it.
So Asshole Scientist Guy is basically another Soran (and do you think they’ll be able to restrain themselves from mentioning him and the Nexus? Of course they won’t). Wah wah wah, the universe is so MEAN, I want to go to another that’s all rainbows and puppies. And seriously trash the property prices in a large chunk of this galaxy but hey, alternate universe omelette, prime universe eggs, you know?
And then to have Book go along with it? I sure hope he’s being actively played, because it’s the only explanation for what feels like a complete binning of what the character was all about. Why played? “Aww, you were a slave like me, you’ve lost your family, hey, here’s an idea - why don’t you help me blow some shit up so I can go to Fluffy Bunny Universe on the offchance my boyfriend is there?”
Posted by Shik (Member # 343) on :
I really fucking hate when the writers start copying my work. If I find out they based concepts for the Zora plot on my JoAT article (which I've since mined for inclusion in my work), I'm gonna be real pissed.
Agreed on Tarka & Book. It's like Edgelords Gone Wild.
Saru/T'Rina made me squee! They're so cute!
I forget if anyone else here watches Letterkenny, but the butterfly dude is the same guy who plays Jim Dickens on that show, & every time I hear him speak I keep waiting for the auctioneering to start. Another Discokenny connection is that Zora holographic avatar in "Calypso" was played by Sash Striga–she's Aly on Letterkenny.
I am not liking this new thing of "some episodes of a show, then some of another, then back, then a new show". It destroys the flow.
I see SM-G is now listed as a producer. So many producers!
Posted by Zipacna (Member # 1881) on :
Couldn't help but be a bit amused at Tarka's plan to leave for another universe. Sorry mate but as we saw with Mirror Georgiou and that guy from the Kelvin Universe last season, universe swapping can have the side effect of causing a severe case of death...and not the curable kind of death like Spock or Culber had! You may be in for a bit of a bad future if you do manage to swap universes.
Posted by Krenim (Member # 22) on :
quote:Originally posted by Zipacna: Couldn't help but be a bit amused at Tarka's plan to leave for another universe. Sorry mate but as we saw with Mirror Georgiou and that guy from the Kelvin Universe last season, universe swapping can have the side effect of causing a severe case of death...and not the curable kind of death like Spock or Culber had! You may be in for a bit of a bad future if you do manage to swap universes.
Universe-hopping isn't enough to cause that. Universe-hopping + time-hopping is.