This continues to be one of the least interesting parts of this season thus far. In fact, the only part of it from this episode I consider worth noting is that we find out Michael and Spock aren't close because Michael treated Spock very very badly. Yes, Michael had a good reason to, in that she felt Spock would be at risk if the two became close. Upon finding out Michael mistreated her son, Amanda is understandably pissed.
The Tilly Plot
Conversely, my favorite part of the season thus far. We find out over the course of the episode that Tilly has been infected by the spore the camera lingered on back in Season 1, and that her "hallucination" is the entity trying to communicate with her. While the entity has been extracted, I doubt we've seen the last of it, considering how it was desperately trying to get Tilly to relay a message to "Captain" Stamets.
The Klingon Plot
After a much-needed break from the Klingons following the Season 1 finale (aka the boatload of stupid), we get back to Tyler and L'Rell. It... wasn't too bad.
Hair on the Discovery Klingons is a mixed bag. It looks fine (maybe even good) on some, like L'Rell. But it looks positively awful on others.
We get the D7 in hologram form as the first planned warship of a united Klingon Empire. Yay, I guess, but didn't they call a different ship a D7 in Season 1? I dunno, I'm not a ship guy.
L'Rell and Voq had a baby, who is also an albino. I do wonder if he winds up being The Albino from DS9's "Blood Oath".
Also, given Tyler's comments here, I'm wondering if there's a possibility that L'Rell both was in a consensual relationship with Voq and violated Tyler (instead of one being mistaken as the other as Season 1 implied).
Section 31 takes Tyler off Qo'noS to shore up L'Rell's regime and tries to recruit him. Hey, if Michelle Yeoh asked me to do something while wearing those tight black leather pants, I'd say yes.
What? She's hot.
-------------------- "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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Shik
Starship database: completed; History of Starfleet: done; website: probably never
Member # 343
posted
She IS hot, but seriously, fuck the entire concept of Section 31.
That D7 was super K'tinga-y.
It looks like next week the May spore tries to eat Tilly. I'm interested to know how it incubated that large. The chef in me was like "that's a hell of a truffle", though.
I, too, an entirely uninvested in the Spock/Red Angel plot. OK, so this things saves or helps save people. Whee. All this unanswered mystery is being built around it & there's gonna be a pisspoor finality becaise it's gonna be some dumb weirdass mycelial/metaphysical jibber-jabber to handwave it away.
One thing I am readily enjoying is the development of Pike as a character. I know the EV comics & some novels have tried to flesh him out, but Anson Mount's portrayal & writing is working out well. He's a different man from what we saw 3 years earlier in "The Cage"; perhaps that encounnter with the Talosians caused him to do some self-reassessment. I like how they've taken the genial command style from Greenwood's AbramsPike & used it as a core. Making the ready room more comfortable, keeping the doors open often, nicknames for some of the crew (e.g., "Owo"), even joking with Tilly. He's a restoration of humanity that wasn't around with Lorca, or even in S1.
Also, speaking of personalities, why is Pippa all of a sudden so willing to do things to protect a Federation that stands for everything she's fought against? The allowance to meddle can't be enough, no matter what she says about "the freaks are more fun".
-------------------- "The French have a saying: 'mise en place'—keep everything in its fucking place!"
Registered: Jun 2000
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posted
First off, she has to be enough of a realist to accept that rebuilding her own little empire in this universe is going to be a tall order. And being a crook/mercenary/rogue demon hunter/etc. living from day to day has to pall a little over time, even for a former empress used to being in mortal danger of betrayal, assassination or overthrow every day.
Second, the Terran Empire bore all the hallmarks of being mostly a humans-only club (and I've not seen much to dent an impression that S31 may be too, though I suspect there must realistically be nonhuman members). Running an empire like that has got to make certain maternal instincts towards the human race rub off on her; she may well want to protect humanity from the scum of the universe, and where better to do that? Rejoining Starfleet isn't really an option, they know who she is and would never trust her.
Take all that together and you have somebody who wants to be useful, and protect her species, but in a no-nonsense, getting things done, ends justify any means at all way. She's an Operative, basically.
posted
Maybe she let I-Chaya out to follow him... (mostly kidding)
-------------------- “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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posted
There was too much going on in this episode. As if 3 plots weren't enough, it didn't help, that almost nothing happened in the first half of the episode.
L'Rell and the other hairy Klingons looked ridiculous. This mishmash just doesn't work for me.
And I could've done without dead baby heads.
-------------------- "Never give up. And never, under any circumstances, no matter what - never face the facts." - Ruth Gordon
Registered: Mar 2000
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posted
According to Disco Twitter, your complaint about dead baby heads is just a clever cover story for you being a fake fan and a bigot, because reasons.
It was a *faked* dead baby head . . . I presume it was grown as a head only, non-viable at any point . . . so it isn't like the issue is with the L'Rell character. It's that the production personnel chose to show it repeatedly, from multiple angles across multiple shots, and before the fact of fakery was presented. That's just shock-factor "storytelling", helping to cover the assorted plot holes.
-------------------- . . . ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.
posted
Given that she'd just drawn down on Mirror Georgieu for suggesting it, yes.
But, in fairness, given that this episode revealed a previously unknown and seemingly contrary sexual relationship between Voq-as-Voq and L'Rell that produced a previously-unknown baby, along with a Klingon blackmailer being unable to remember if he'd begged for paint removal or been attacked over it in a prior scene, there was at least a reasonable doubt.
-------------------- . . . ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.
posted
Yes, it was fake, nevertheless it was a disgusting image I expect in horror movies but not in a Star Trek show.
-------------------- "Never give up. And never, under any circumstances, no matter what - never face the facts." - Ruth Gordon
Registered: Mar 2000
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quote:Originally posted by Guardian 2000: According to Disco Twitter, your complaint about dead baby heads is just a clever cover story for you being a fake fan and a bigot, because reasons.
It was a *faked* dead baby head . . . I presume it was grown as a head only, non-viable at any point . . . so it isn't like the issue is with the L'Rell character. It's that the production personnel chose to show it repeatedly, from multiple angles across multiple shots, and before the fact of fakery was presented. That's just shock-factor "storytelling", helping to cover the assorted plot holes.