posted
Well, Disco, you finally did it. You managed to go an entire season without coming up with something so mind-bogglingly stupid that I want to hit my head against the wall. Bravo. That said, I was a bit underwhelmed by the finale to an otherwise good season.
Tilly! And her cadets! And Vance! And Starfleet Command is mobile? And modular? Nifty. Tilly and Vance get a nice scene together.
Saru and T'Rina continue to be the most adorable couple ever, and I am here for every moment of it.
We finally get a good look and the 10-C. Very nifty design. They also appear to have the same sort of mentality as the Formics from Ender's game, in that they initially don't understand that humanoids are individuals and not parts of one whole.
Heh, Grudge's cat door.
Tarka is stopped from destroying the DMA. It is left somewhat ambiguous if he was able to harness the energy of crashing into the hyperfield to power his transporter, or if he just died. Personally, considering how many people he almost just killed, I wouldn't shed a tear if it was the latter.
Book seemingly dies, only to pop back up shortly thereafter. Meh, could have done without.
The 10-C shut off the DMA, and Earth and Ni'Var are saved.
Book is basically sentenced to community service for his role in all this. I've actually been thinking lately about how much Book is really responsible for legally. Stealing the spore drive? Tarka, although Book helped him get away by actually using it. Buying the isolynium? Outside Federation jurisdiction. Firing the isolytic weapon? Tarka. Trying to blow up the hyperfield? Tarka.
Earth is ready to rejoin the Federation. Tellar is confirmed to have never left. Andoria is in talks to rejoin, although I'm guessing that whole Emerald Chain thing they were involved with is gonna be a sticking point.
Yeah, I know, lots that I left out. None of it was bad, just not memorable. I'll probably put together my thoughts on Season 4 as a whole in another post soon.
-------------------- "Kirito? I killed a thing and now it says I have XPs! Is that bad? Am I dying?"
-Asuna, Episode 2, Sword Art Online Abridged
Registered: Mar 1999
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posted
I thought it was quite a good finale. Packed a lot in. Ended the season - that has had a lot to say about grief and trauma and loss, but did it absolutely interminably at times, but also had some of the most-pure Trek moments we’ve seen in a long time - on a high.
I didn’t think Book would be dead. But the manner of his return suggests that if Tarka didn’t die and did manage to trigger his FluffyBunnyUniversinator, it went undetected - or unintercepted - by the 10-C.
But all in all I’m glad it’s over. It was quite exhausting and drawn out in a way that dulls the memories of all those aforementioned pure Trek moments.
I don’t know how many non-Yanks have bothered to watch it on Pluto TV. I didn’t. You can guess how I did. I won’t be signing up for P+. And I’m not alone. They must know this. They’ll know how many used to watch on Netflix. They may know how many used Pluto. Or how much this season was pirated. And eventually they’ll know how many - or how few - sign up to P+ internationally.
And all of the above will go for Prodigy. And SNW. And LDS and PIC if the existing deals mean their season 3s (and beyond, for LDS anyway) don’t get to be on Prime. People aren’t talking about DSC anymore, I’ve noticed. They talk about PIC - because it’s somewhere they can actually watch it.
I don’t know if their strategy will work. It might, because it HAS to - this is the new paradigm. But the mere fact that P+ can’t even bring themselves to not region-lock their bloody promotional material internationally - a market they keep saying they fully intend to open up to, and for which Trek is THE big draw - tells me that at heart they remain CBS. A parochial last-century US TV network, where the domestic audience is the be all and end all. Nielsen ratings. Audience share. Keeping the sponsors happy. Foreign sales? A nice to have.
Shik
Starship database: completed; History of Starfleet: done; website: probably never
Member # 343
posted
These last few episodes have been actually good Trek. I've enjoyed the mystery of the Ten-C, & I hope things develop with them. I like the happy ending, although I was hoping for an actual death, & the heavy use of deus-ex made me make Marge Simpson noises.
For those outside the US, & those in it who don't follow news or politics, this is the big deal cameo for the President of Earth: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stacey_Abrams
-------------------- "The French have a saying: 'mise en place'—keep everything in its fucking place!"
Registered: Jun 2000
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I loved the shippy shoutouts, hearing USS Yelchin and USS Nog in dialogue was nice. And the entire frakkin’ Federation Headquarters warping to the rescue was surprisingly cool.
This whole story was pretty satisfying. A little trite, but that’s kinda the point. It doesn’t have to be a completely new idea, but we need to be reminded that we can change and admit we’re wrong. And reconnect.
I really missed Tilly the last half season. Her being an Academy instructor made great sense for the character, but she really was the soul of the show to me, and her presence left a lot missing. And it takes a certain high-level Starfleet badass (not to mention some pretty good emotional awareness) to stare at a 5-light-year-wide DMA destroying your homeworld and say you have no regrets.
I think Disco also deserves some kudos for completely upending the perennial Trek tropes of “the interfering politician on the bridge” and “the badmiral”. Rillak was well developed, reasonable, and likable even when she was arguing with Burnham. And Vance is still awesome. Even General Ndoye was pretty sympathetic even when she was sabotaging everything.
Tarka was enjoyable as a character, and at least they gave him a good motivation and relationship, but in the end he was still a unlikable scheming sociopath. Because the excuse of being abused by Emerald Chain only gets you so far. And he willingly crossed the line several episodes back for his own selfish goals. (His point of no return was probably when he blew up the first DMA.)
Also, cue the “Stacey Abrams for President of United Earth” t-shirts in 4… 3… 2…
So yeah, overall I'm pretty happy with how this season went. Some of the storytelling feels obvious or trite, but it's still a good story with themes that need repeating.
And now that they’ve finished what in retrospect might have been a three-season arc to completely reboot the show, I actually enjoy Discovery now (even if the writers make decisions I disagree with), unlike how I felt after finishing season one. I’m very curious to see what happens next.
-------------------- “Those people who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do.” — Isaac Asimov Star Trek Minutiae | Memory Alpha
Registered: Nov 2000
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