If it wasn't for the last sixty seconds or so, this might have been an okay episode. Not great. Maybe not even good. But okay. However, at the last possible moment, the agency of every other character in the show is eliminated when Discovery is unable to break free of the ice despite everything. How do they escape? Burnham ex Machina. Yes, Michael shows up at the last second, tractors the ship free, and congratulates herself at having found the Discovery. Ugh. Just... ugh.
Look, show. I've enjoyed you so far. You've not been the greatest Trek show, but you haven't been terrible either. I honestly haven't seen why folks have been calling Burnham a Mary Sue... until now. The Discovery crew could literally have sat around the whole episode twiddling their thumbs and the outcome would have been the same. Would it REALLY have killed you to let them save THEMSELVES, and THEN reveal the incoming ship was Michael?
Rachel Ancheril got added to the main cast? Don't get me wrong, I like Nhan. I'm glad she's sticking around. But if I recall correctly, Nhan mysteriously disappeared during the fight with Leland/Control, leaving us all to wonder if she was still alive. No explanation is given, she just shows up all okay.
The term "V'draysh" gets thrown around a few times, as a reference to the Short Trek "Calypso".
Reno continues to be my spirit animal.
Oh, and something is up with Detmer.
-------------------- "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
| IP: Logged
Shik
Starship database: completed; History of Starfleet: done; website: probably never
Member # 343
posted
I figure either PTSD or remnants of Control.
A year, huh? Well, that's one way to make an expert on things.
Georgiou is beibg called Commander instead of Captain? And she seems to be an admiral in the trailer? I saw shots of Burnham in gold; is she gonna be execing again or captain?
Zareh is like a low-rent Ian McShane as Al Swearengen clone. That gun seems to work really bad if it takes that long to kill someone.
-------------------- "The French have a saying: 'mise en place'—keep everything in its fucking place!"
Registered: Jun 2000
| IP: Logged
I can make out nine different designs. Going from left to right:
1. Spiky ship with four orange lights 2. Twirly ship that's taller than it is long 3. Triangle ship with four nacelles similar to Section 31 ship, nacelles possibly unattached 4. Flat oval ring ship, possibly Romulan? 5. Starfleet ship that we've previously seen as wreckage near the listening outpost 6. Donut ship reminiscent of the "V" mothership 7. Halo sword ship 8. Horseshoe shaped ship 9. Another tall ship, possibly the same one as #2
There are also two or three ships that are really far away; not sure if they're also some of the above or yet more new designs.
-------------------- "A film made in 2008 isn't going to look like a TV series from 1966 if it wants to make any money. As long as the characters act the same way, and the spirit of the story remains the same then it's "real" Star Trek. Everything else is window dressing." -StCoop
Registered: Jun 2000
| IP: Logged
posted
I’m really curious as to how Discovery manages to hold up in future episodes after crash-landing on a glacier like that. The Enterprise-D saucer made a softer landing than that and was declared a total loss. (I know, production reasons... but in-universe? It makes very little sense.)
Of course, with “programmable matter” it seems like repairs could be relatively easy, at least on a micro scale.
One thing about the story that I appreciate is that the natives that our crew have encountered are no fools; twice in two episodes, we’ve seen people figure out pretty quickly that Burnham, Saru, and Tilly are time travelers.
On the other hand, the half-height swinging doors in the bar were not a very subtle visual hint as to what kind of setting we’re in at the moment. And yeah, the Burnham-ex-machina was really poorly timed from a story standpoint.
-------------------- “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
| IP: Logged
posted
Meh. This episode bored the hell out of me but I'm not exactly a fan of Western films. And the "Stamets in the tube" plot wasn't exactly thrilling either.
-------------------- "Never give up. And never, under any circumstances, no matter what - never face the facts." - Ruth Gordon
Registered: Mar 2000
| IP: Logged
posted
Oh, and I almost forgot the blatant foreshadowing for a future series: Mirror Georgiou joined the Discovery to go to the future because she’s convinced she’d be running Section 31 and didn’t want a desk job. What an ego...
The plot was pretty lame, but I loved all the characters. “My name lacks authority” Tilly, Saru’s calm leadership, even Georgiou’s antics were for someone other than herself this time.
-------------------- “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
| IP: Logged
posted
I mean, there were elements I liked. Even the “friendly alien who’s obviously going to get killed of the week.” And it was genuinely concerning what was going to happen to Saru & Tilly even though it was blatantly predictable right from the start that they’d be totally out of their depth, meet people who’d eat them for breakfast, and Georgiou would defy orders and turn up to save the day.
Nhan or Detmers. One of them has some residual Control, er, in control.
Reno is growing on me. I think they’ve upped the quality of her wisecracks, before it was like JMS was writing her gags. One liners were never his forte.
About that field of starships.. I’ve a horrible feeling at least four of them are Inquiry-class. And I haven’t found the Magee-class yet. And I have no confidence that neither of these only-half-lighthearted suppositions will turn out to be unfounded.
And, I know what Burnham reminds me of. Ever read Scalzi’s “Redshirts?” The box the crew press the button on to provide 99% of the answer, and then take it to the Spock analogue to provide the final vital element? Only the real Spock was never like that. But Burnham is like that.
posted
That field of starships, when in the episode was that?
-------------------- "The Starships of the Federation are the physical, tangible manifestations of Humanity´s stubborn insistence that life does indeed mean something." Spock to Leonard McCoy in "Final Frontier"
Registered: Jan 2000
| IP: Logged
About that field of starships.. I’ve a horrible feeling at least four of them are Inquiry-class. And I haven’t found the Magee-class yet. And I have no confidence that neither of these only-half-lighthearted suppositions will turn out to be unfounded.
And, I know what Burnham reminds me of. Ever read Scalzi’s “Redshirts?” The box the crew press the button on to provide 99% of the answer, and then take it to the Spock analogue to provide the final vital element? Only the real Spock was never like that. But Burnham is like that.
If you’re referring to the pic I posted of the starships, none of them are the Inquiry class, or DSC ships. They’re all new.
-------------------- "A film made in 2008 isn't going to look like a TV series from 1966 if it wants to make any money. As long as the characters act the same way, and the spirit of the story remains the same then it's "real" Star Trek. Everything else is window dressing." -StCoop
Registered: Jun 2000
| IP: Logged
posted
Thanks Lee! I live in Sweden so I'm starved of basically everything. No Lower Decks for instance.
-------------------- "The Starships of the Federation are the physical, tangible manifestations of Humanity´s stubborn insistence that life does indeed mean something." Spock to Leonard McCoy in "Final Frontier"
Registered: Jan 2000
| IP: Logged
posted
To my knowledge, Lower Decks is not available outside US & Canada. Still hoping for Neflix or Prime anytime soon, but I'm afraid Lower Decks will only be available when when this new Paramount+ streaming service will go online in Europe. By the way, I got luck to watch this first episode of Lower Decks 3 month ago when it was online for just a few hours...
Registered: Oct 2002
| IP: Logged
quote:Originally posted by Dukhat: If you’re referring to the pic I posted of the starships, none of them are the Inquiry class, or DSC ships. They’re all new.
Do we have some context to this picture? I guess that only the one design we know from the first episode is a Starfleet vessel, the others are alien, right?
Registered: Oct 2002
| IP: Logged
Printer-friendly view of this topic
