Star Trek Discovery: The Bryan Fuller TV reboot

lol yes i realize it is a sci-fi show with technology, which is why i try not to complain about dark matter or spores solving everything or intermittent transporter interference or an AI just taking over a human body and making it impervious to phasers i guess. but the storytelling in this one was just all over the place and i like internal coherence.

i questioned how georgiou survived not leland, but the torpedoing of the place -- it was not immediately evident that she was transported to discovery at the end, but upon review she was presumably no. 4 in the 'four to beam up'.

and yes there have been hints and actions suggesting that she cares about michael, but given her background as terran empress and the depiction of the terran empire, it seems out of character to me (as was starfleet instantly giving her a top role in section 31, of course). anyway, she's an interesting character with possibilities beyond basically anyone else on the show; it would be disappointing to see her merely become michael's (other) special bodyguard

Yeah, I got strong Borg vibes from Leland's assimilation-in-all-but-name. I still hope that DISCO doesn't go down that route, because I'm already tired of the "everything is connected" and "the fate of the universe is at stake." It's a slavish kind of storytelling that feels so unambitious, and when you combine it with how carelessly they plot the arcs, makes me question their narrative abilities.

BTW, did they say why Dr. Burnham couldn't just get back into the suit when they were deactivating the force fields to let the time wormhole take her BACK... TO THE FUTURE?

I dunno, I like the idea this might be where the borg origin story is! It was noted in Voyager/NG that the reason the borg came to be is a bit unclear, IIRC?

(and yes yes, Guinan said theyd been around thousands of years but I dunno maybe the time travel explains that as someone else noted)

apparently the “control is a malignant AI” is from ST books (!) starring Julian Bashir

lol

btw how did mom save burnham when she showed up? did she locally turn back the clock to before she died or something?

To me that was the biggest discrepancy brought up by this episode... Since we now know the timesuit is not some super advanced piece of technology from the future, rather than something made by Federation scientists 20 years ago, how is it able to do all the miraculous things it has done, like save Burnham from death? Or instantly transfer all those people across the galaxy, from WWIII to Terralysium? Or deactivate the entire Ba'ul offensive system? All of that seems far beyond the capabilities of Federation tech.

I wondered about that too -- but then again this is also the franchise where a Voyager probe became sentient and took on the form of a woman.

Since we now know the timesuit is not some super advanced piece of technology from the future, rather than something made by Federation scientists 20 years ago, how is it able to do all the miraculous things it has done

this

Was the eye needle machine explained?

and this

and this: if the red angel wasn't michael burnham, how did it's neurological signature ***!!!EXACTLY!!!*** match hers?

honestly i don't know how any of the action on this show is visible through all the furious handwaving that goes on.

It is still possible that Michael becomes the red angel. Her mom/Kima Greggs didn't know about the signals, and there's still a suit lying around.

Mommy issues seem to be a common idea in second seasons around now -- Kimmy Schmidt and Jessica Jones also did them. I thought the last two episodes were significantly worse than the season before them.

scene where the s31 dude got stabbed in the eyeballs was good

It is still possible that Michael becomes the red angel. Her mom/Kima Greggs didn't know about the signals, and there's still a suit lying around.

tru dat. i stand by the furious handwaving comment though.

actually no, i just watched it again and the suit gets pulled back... to the future! before her mum does too.

You're right. I thought Section 31 had another suit, but I was misremembering the episode before last.

they'll probably find a spare in a cupboard somewhere.

Was the eye needle machine explained?

If Control = Borg is real, then the eye needle thing could be referencing the beginning of First Contact, where Picard's nightmare within a nightmare includes some closeup eye surgery.

intrigued by the 23rd-century technology that allows leland to keep his beard so consistently rugged

Yeah borg use needles/piercing all the time to insert nanoprobes, I'm wondering why I never saw the possible connection to start with.

Ageed I think suit may come back with someone else in it (ie Michael). Otherwise doc's afterthough "oh well with mothers and daughters its REALLY almost a match so you know" was a bit weaksauce!

Ugh, yeah, that was nonsensical, especially since a few episodes ago they said that it was a 100% match.

I think they said it was “a match”

idk this still seems halfassed and woo

I dunno, i’m enjoying this season and it seems mostly full-assed to me. I didn’t notice any specific plot holes or weird bits this week.

I binged this season up to episode 7 over the weekend and I hit burn out - roughly similar to how I hit burnout somewhere in the middle of Matt Smith-era Doctor Who. I've been liking them, but the drama and curse of the puzzle box plot gives everything an overall sameness. I'm not too emotionally invested, but maybe I can just skip ahead - then I never do and just check this thread to see if anything happens.

I thought what made the least sense what Pippa going along with Leland's plan when he was clearly a different person and advocating a course of action (hijacking the data) that was extremely suspicious. I was hoping she'd be a little savvier but she actually went along with it up until Michael's mom happened to say something that sounded a lot like what Leland had said and that tipped her off. Otherwise most of these discrepancies didn't bother me v much.

this last one was a nothing episode. pretty clear that they're remaking terminator 2 now. I am guessing lizard-faced Linus and JETT RENO were last minute additions to the show as they have yet to add anything to the story.

Unless I missed something, one thing that didn't make sense this episode is that they need the time crystal in order to change the future but if Pike takes it he's unable to change his future.

I assume that the time crystal fantasy elements in this episode will be ignored in future episodes.

I actually enjoyed this episode! It's relatively light on plot but I think that's a good thing, because, first, it gives more space to for the episode to work on character development (the Spock/Burny back and forth in the shuttle bay was cute, Reno trying to fix Stamets/Culber), and second, the characters make a lot fewer stupid plot-driven decisions that have been annoying me.

I also really liked Pike's pep talk to himself, the most/best Trek thing the show has done in a while IMO.

yeah

doug jones really sells that swinging-his-arms-behind-his-back thing

I agree that the character bits in this episode was nice, but the whole Time Crystal thing with the mystical test of a character etc. was just too much Doctor Who style science fantasy. It may work in Who, but Trek is still supposed to be sci-fi with some grounding in the reality, so magical minerals with an apparent mind of their own felt way out of place.

Also, for this supposedly super-advanced AI, Control was far too eager to give Burnham and Spock a proper Bond villain monologue, explaining its internations and giving them time to defeat it. If it only intended to kill and assimilate Burnham, why didn't it do so back when they were on the Discovery shuttle, were both of them were within striking distance and unarmed?

also how would it have crossed the room in 0.8 seconds and broken all the metacarpal bones in burnham's hand when it had no such special powers in leland's body?

also does ethan peck sculpt his beard to look more vulcan or does it just grow like that?

Thought that was a decent setup episode. Burnham is just a lot more interesting when she has Spock to play off. Trek has always been full of mystical magic nonsense, imo.

Trek has always been full of mystical magic nonsense, imo.]

Dilithium.

love to destroy all sentient life in the universe

Failing at basic Dr Who level time travel here. The signals can still be the red angel, who could have made them in your future, her past, Pike.

Pike's assumption is based on Dr. Burnham saying she wasn't responsible for the signals, and the timesuit seemingly being lost, which would mean she can't do them in her future, his past either. Of course we know that someone, either Dr. Burnham or Michael or someone else, will probably locate the suit against all odds and create the signals. But you can blame a character making assumptions based on real-life probabilities instead of the logic of fiction.

I am so very here for the Enterprise bridge

I feel like they have successfully sold trends in interaction! It doesn’t seem retro, it’s like a transition from maximalism into semi-austerity with a red-tinged mid-century modern vibe. So the enterprise seems contemporary but of a trend, something to emulate philosophically

so is the sphere data -- and by extension, discovery -- sentient now? i mean if it can prevent self-destruct and raise shields and everything . . .

I hope the season ends well, as this show is legit fun and good right now, playing into the "it's like TNG, it just needed to warm up" narrative.

Perhaps they'll reassert the status quo, but would be interesting to see the show move into the post-DS9 era.

My current theory - Control really is a borg origin story. And somehow, they will prevent it from obtaining the sphere , but in retaliation Control decides going aorund assimilating all places/knowledge by brute force is the next best way to achieve perfection, if they cant get it from the sphere.

That last epsisode had WAY too much red-herring goodbyes and crying and Sombre Gazes and then no ones leaving anyway arrrrgh get on with it.

I didn’t mind all the sombre goodbyes this time, as opposed to the Saru dying-not-dying episode, which went on forever. Writing seemed better too this time, maybe?

Theory seems pretty legit

the borg origin story angle seems a little too on the nose, but maybe!

there’s a serious causality glitch if Burnham fails to make it through, now that we know with a high level of certainty that it was her in the suit creating the beacons that the discovery has been investigating

control seems pretty conscious already tbh

I didn't expect the show to move towards the "Calpyso" storyline, at least not so quickly.

I am just catching up with episodes now. I got so excited at the start of the Talosian one because I thought it was going to be some cool mashup thing, but it was not good at all. I think every new Star Trek iteration tries to recreate the magic of the Wrath of Khan by revisiting old enemies and scenarios, and that's just not an easy thing to do.

But the Control episode after it was superb. Funny that Tuomas mentions Doctor Who upthread. I thought it had a real Who vibe about it, but without the messianic histrionics.

I am also warming to Spockolas. Jokes help.

i hope tig doesn't get killed off

People Turing up on discovery like they popped round from next door whilst it’s taking 57 more minute for the baddies to turn up is getting really old.

That last episode was pretty good! Little confusing in places (if control got subdued by Philipa with the magnet whyd they even need to do what they did?) but yeah lots of action and tension.

Yeah, that was some v good Trek there! Plot holes aplenty around death of Control but that aside, yes. I wonder how it is going down with the Trekkers.

have we had fighters/drones like that before in trek?

endless plot holes but it sure looked nice. spock should have kept the beard