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Oct 25, 2017
8,617
but then why was that tech buried and never attempted again
i will have to rewatch that episode
The tech was buried because it was torture to the water bear, that's why Stamets used the experimental tech to become it's navigator and that's what he and Tilly are trying to fix now, finding a new navigation system so Stamets doesn't have to be the one.
 
Oct 25, 2017
14,651
The tech was buried because it was torture to the water bear, that's why Stamets used the experimental tech to become it's navigator and that's what he and Tilly are trying to fix now, finding a new navigation system so Stamets doesn't have to be the one.
there's no need to torture any more animals, they already figured out how to take a DNA sample from one and upgrade a crewmember, right?
plus stamets seems to handle it like a champ with no ill effects (unless he's fucking abused like lorca did), the only reason they need a new system is so that they have reliable redundancy (in case stamets was out)
torture-free reliable spore travel seems to remain totally attainable in 2258

and I had assumed their reason for abstaining was due to travel causing damage in the network as its residents had claimed
 

ArchedThunder

Uncle Beerus
Member
Oct 25, 2017
19,068
there's no need to torture any more animals, they already figured out how to take a DNA sample from one and upgrade a crewmember, right?
plus stamets seems to handle it like a champ with no ill effects (unless he's fucking abused like lorca did), the only reason they need a new system is so that they have reliable redundancy (in case stamets was out)
torture-free reliable spore travel seems to remain totally attainable in 2258
Stamets splicing himself with Tardigrade DNA was illegal. The only reason they were allowed to use the spore drive in season 2 was to investigate the signals.
 

nekkid

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
21,823
It had already happened before their arrival. Why at that point and not any other in history?
Michael arriving a year before Discovery shows that more temporal shenanigans are well within the realms of plausibility.

As long as it happened during their passing, it would absolutely work. In terms of specific timing - well that's artistic licence (far enough in the past to have changed the galaxy, but close enough to have a raw personal impact).

Don't you think this sort of dramatic twist is in keeping with the writing we've seen in Discovery so far? And time/spore network interaction causing all dilithium to explode is probably less contrived than a lot of other writing we've seen!
 

Quinton

Specialist at TheGamer / Reviewer at RPG Site
Verified
Oct 25, 2017
17,283
Midgar, With Love
Loved the episode yet again but the very Euro-centric "Dark Ages/Renaissance" thing from Saru was... I mean, I get it. It's something a large portion of the audience will recognize. But there's something very awkward about being aware just how Euro-centric that is and then listening to an alien cite it in such a global manner, lol.
 

ArchedThunder

Uncle Beerus
Member
Oct 25, 2017
19,068
so some timorous old eugenics era law was the only thing between starfleet and instantaneous intergalactic travel? even while voyager was stuck in the delta quadrant? sorry kat, you're on your own, we could but we wont
All information on the spore drive was destroyed after season 2, by the time of Voyager Starfleet never new it existed.
Don't forget that the Discovery was already hush hush because of the spore drive, but after the time travel it was completely covered up because of the Sphere data. It's easy to understand why Starfleet went ahead with covering up the spore drive along with the Discovery at Spock's request when it was already a problematic technology.
 
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Oct 25, 2017
8,617
Loved the episode yet again but the very Euro-centric "Dark Ages/Renaissance" thing from Saru was... I mean, I get it. It's something a large portion of the audience will recognize. But there's something very awkward about being aware just how Euro-centric that is and then listening to an alien cite it in such a global manner, lol.
That's just a problem with Star Trek in general, remember Klingons reciting Shakespeare lol
 

Dr. Mario

Member
Oct 27, 2017
13,883
Netherlands
Great episode. "Are you prone to emotional exaggeration" had me howling. Burnham is so much more palatable in her new toned down more grounded role. Also really liked the back and forth between Cronenberg and Philippa, great writing.
 

Irminsul

Member
Oct 25, 2017
3,040
Loved the episode yet again but the very Euro-centric "Dark Ages/Renaissance" thing from Saru was... I mean, I get it. It's something a large portion of the audience will recognize. But there's something very awkward about being aware just how Euro-centric that is and then listening to an alien cite it in such a global manner, lol.
I was annoyed because even through an "Euro-centric" lens it's just completely wrong. It's a meme especially loved by certain kinds of atheists (saying that as an atheist myself) who want to use the apparent "darkness" of the European Middle Ages as some kind of proof how we can't have nice things due to Christianity. A good portion of them probably also believes people believed the Earth to be flat during that time. Or that witch burning wasn't mostly a thing of the oh-so-bright Renaissance time.

The whole analogy doesn't work for a whole lot of other reasons, but I don't want this to become an anti-Renaissance / pro-Middle Ages rant, so I'll leave it at that 😅

As someone who really didn't like prior seasons all that much but thinks the current season is pretty good, things like this are a bit annoying because they're also so unnecessary. Nothing really bad of course (even though that post might make it look differently), but annyoing nonetheless.
 
Oct 25, 2017
14,651
i was happier when i believed that the spore drive was buried for legitimate environmental concerns, and not just because the logs got deleted and literally nobody ever tried to reproduce them independently ever again, even though they already knew it worked and a method to due it humanely

Great episode. "Are you prone to emotional exaggeration" had me howling. Burnham is so much more palatable in her new toned down more grounded role. Also really liked the back and forth between Cronenberg and Philippa, great writing.
S3 Burnham is best Burnham for sure
 

sangreal

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
10,890
star trek loves having aliens wax poetic about earth history (ancient to them), and it is always weird
 

ArchedThunder

Uncle Beerus
Member
Oct 25, 2017
19,068
i was happier when i believed that the spore drive was buried for legitimate environmental concerns, and not just because the logs got deleted and literally nobody ever tried to reproduce them independently ever again, even though they already knew it worked and a method to due it humanely


S3 Burnham is best Burnham for sure
I mean after the destruction of all knowledge of the spore drive how likely would it really be for some scientists to invent the same technology again without already knowing about it? It was a wild, out there concept.
But it was environmental, they didn't want to torture the Tardigrade and gene splicing was (still?) illegal.
Genetic manipulation continues to be outlawed in the TNG era shows too, it really is a big deal in the Trek universe.
 

Deleted member 5028

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
9,724
I mean after the destruction of all knowledge of the spore drive how likely would it really be for some scientists to invent the same technology again without already knowing about it? It was a wild, out there concept.

Genetic manipulation continues to be outlawed in the TNG era shows too, it really is a big deal in the Trek universe.
See: Julian Bashir
 

Entryhazard

One Winged Slayer
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
2,843
they had literally stopped using the spore drive because it fucks up the spore environment and they got attacked in revenge for what they were doing to spore folk

although it does seem like the show quickly forgot about that and now it doesnt matter, which feels weird
like i get that they need to use it right now due to dilithium shenanigans but delivering that tech to all of starfleet seems like a big no no, I don't think so
no, it was the reactor from the Terran megaship Charon that was destroying the spore environment. After that the following season they attacked because the revived Culber in their space was using poison to protect himself from the spores trying to disassemble him, but everyone was fine after he was teleported back to the normal reality

the spore drive itself never was an issue to them
 

StallionDan

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
7,705
True -going with the latter route could be a good way to ensure that we don't end up with a whole fleet of 1000-year more advanced spore-jump capable ships making Discovery redundant.
Just throwing it out there that Voyager and STE showed us tech from the future that makes spore drive redundant.

Episode was fine, but like other episodes this season very slow, we are 5 episodes in and barely anything has happened.
 

chrominance

Sky Van Gogh
Member
Oct 25, 2017
13,641
I have a few nits to pick, pretty much all of which have already been mentioned, but overall I liked this episode. The drama was pretty grounded, the whole "learn a bunch about a previously mysterious crew member only to see them leave" thing worked a lot better than it did with Airiam, and the concept of the seed vault ship was cool. The current-day Federation was also pretty neat, though I do wonder what the deal is with the shroud. I mean, people know where Federation HQ is, right? Does the shroud actually help?
 

Eoin

Member
Oct 27, 2017
7,103
The current-day Federation was also pretty neat, though I do wonder what the deal is with the shroud. I mean, people know where Federation HQ is, right?
Seemingly not, except for a small number of people. The knowledge is uncommon to the extent that Burnham couldn't find it within a year (which included some time at an actual Starfleet facility) and United Earth didn't know apart from Adira and only because she has a symbiont whose former host was a high-ranking Starfleet officer.

There may be others out there who know, but from what we've seen so far it seems like they're mostly hidden.

Does the shroud actually help?
Looks like it, but even if it doesn't help keep them hidden, we don't know whether we've seen all its functions. It could be that if Discovery had just blindly flown through it, it'd have been atomised. That'd be helpful even if people knew where Federation HQ was.
 

chrominance

Sky Van Gogh
Member
Oct 25, 2017
13,641
Seemingly not, except for a small number of people. The knowledge is uncommon to the extent that Burnham couldn't find it within a year (which included some time at an actual Starfleet facility) and United Earth didn't know apart from Adira and only because she has a symbiont whose former host was a high-ranking Starfleet officer.

There may be others out there who know, but from what we've seen so far it seems like they're mostly hidden.


Looks like it, but even if it doesn't help keep them hidden, we don't know whether we've seen all its functions. It could be that if Discovery had just blindly flown through it, it'd have been atomised. That'd be helpful even if people knew where Federation HQ was.

Yeah, I wonder about that. It makes more sense if we learn that Federation HQ is mobile, but it sounds like it's not. So once someone discovers its location, those coordinates could go out to a ton of people. Maybe the real twist is that people could find out where Federation HQ is but not that many people care because they either can't get to it or don't have anything to do once they're there?

If the shroud has other defensive capabilities then I suppose that makes more sense. Plus, I guess if the number and configuration of ships inside it is unknown, that alone might be a good tactical advantage to have.
 

Pizza Dog

Avenger
Oct 25, 2017
1,477
Episode was fine, but like other episodes this season very slow, we are 5 episodes in and barely anything has happened.
I know you don't like the show, but a fair bit has happened in the last few episodes. Two ships crashed onto planets, there was a brawl in an old west space saloon, we had a visits to Earth and Trill complete with resolving differences between warring factions and a journey into the mind, and in this episode we are introduced to the current state of the Federation/Starfleet, explore a seemingly abandoned ship full of plantlife, and rescue a man who is caught out of phase while coping with the death of his family.

I know that your thing is that you don't like any recent Trek and that's fine, but I think it's a little facetious to say barely anything happened.
 

Deleted member 5028

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
9,724
I know you don't like the show, but a fair bit has happened in the last few episodes. Two ships crashed onto planets, there was a brawl in an old west space saloon, we had a visits to Earth and Trill complete with resolving differences between warring factions and a journey into the mind, and in this episode we are introduced to the current state of the Federation/Starfleet, explore a seemingly abandoned ship full of plantlife, and rescue a man who is caught out of phase while coping with the death of his family.

I know that your thing is that you don't like any recent Trek and that's fine, but I think it's a little facetious to say barely anything happened.
Great recap. This series is even taking a step back from the high energy Kelvin approach we saw in early seasons.
 

Chiaroscuro

Member
Oct 25, 2017
3,695
i have been wondering. Since the burn isolated planets, they could technically find another Federation out there, with slightly different mindset.
 

nekkid

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
21,823
I hope the season doesn't end with them jumping back to the "present."
It won't. They had to stretch believability with how they wiped any mention of Discovery and the spore drive from the rest of Trek, so they won't be shoehorning it back in now.

Besides, the new Pike show will fill that time period.
 

19thCenturyFox

Prophet of Regret
Member
Oct 29, 2017
4,309
Loved the episode yet again but the very Euro-centric "Dark Ages/Renaissance" thing from Saru was... I mean, I get it. It's something a large portion of the audience will recognize. But there's something very awkward about being aware just how Euro-centric that is and then listening to an alien cite it in such a global manner, lol.

It has all the weirdness of Klingons quoting Shakespeare but none of the schlocky charme. This also put me off. I always liked when in past Trek shows the characters referenced multiple historic events and threw in a few alien ones or ones that took place past the year 2100.
 

Entryhazard

One Winged Slayer
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
2,843
The worst reference this show made still is the Elon Musk one, salvaged only by the fact that the character praising him turned out to be a MU Terran Nationalist so you can pretend the writers intended it to be a hint all along
 

Chiaroscuro

Member
Oct 25, 2017
3,695
Possibly but it wont be a federation. More like the Orion and Andorian syndicate entity.
Why not? If there is no contact between distant regions, there could be several survival parts of the Federation in different places. Obviously if they share the same mindset/standards they will rejoin the others when possible, but considering the history of the Federation mad admirals or/and a a branch more towards section 31 or not they could be arguing who is the real Federation soon.
 

StevieP

Member
Oct 27, 2017
3,276
I know you don't like the show, but a fair bit has happened in the last few episodes. Two ships crashed onto planets, there was a brawl in an old west space saloon, we had a visits to Earth and Trill complete with resolving differences between warring factions and a journey into the mind, and in this episode we are introduced to the current state of the Federation/Starfleet, explore a seemingly abandoned ship full of plantlife, and rescue a man who is caught out of phase while coping with the death of his family.

I know that your thing is that you don't like any recent Trek and that's fine, but I think it's a little facetious to say barely anything happened.

Getting stalliondan to say an episode of discovery was "fine" should actually be a good indicator that the episode was damn good. Lol. I also tend to lean toward TNG era trek as peak trek, but Disco has been great this season. As I mentioned earlier in the thread, this past episode is the closest I've felt to a classic trek episode setup with a modern Disco production on top. And aside from a couple shcmaltzy moments even the writing has been on point thus far. Haven't been a giant fan of Sonequa's portrayal of Michael thus far either, and she's killing it this season as well. It's like the stars aligned for the front half of this season and it's producing Peak modern trek now. Let's hope the back half is as good. With the trek 3-season curse clearly in play here, I bet it is.
 

StallionDan

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
7,705
I know you don't like the show, but a fair bit has happened in the last few episodes. Two ships crashed onto planets, there was a brawl in an old west space saloon, we had a visits to Earth and Trill complete with resolving differences between warring factions and a journey into the mind, and in this episode we are introduced to the current state of the Federation/Starfleet, explore a seemingly abandoned ship full of plantlife, and rescue a man who is caught out of phase while coping with the death of his family.

I know that your thing is that you don't like any recent Trek and that's fine, but I think it's a little facetious to say barely anything happened.
I should have said barely anything of consequence, literal stuff has happened on screen yes but for a show that does one big season long story most of what has been on screen could be cut with no loss to the main narrative. This is the first episode to actually move anything forward. The pacing for a season long arc is terrible and mainly wasted on filler.
 

nekkid

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
21,823
Is it me or does this show lean far too much into story progression via "space magic"? Trek's always had that, but it felt fairly well balanced with science before Discovery.
 

StallionDan

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
7,705
Is it me or does this show lean far too much into story progression via "space magic"? Trek's always had that, but it felt fairly well balanced with science before Discovery.
There is a lot of that in these new shows, with no science thought put into the technology. The worst offender imo being that magic hand device in Picard that can do anything you think of. It just creates hundreds of visual copies of Picard's ship from nothing, to compare when Voyager wanted to do something similar it needed fix holo projectors on the outer hull, and they required significant amounts of the ships power, for like two holo ships...
 

nekkid

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
21,823
There is a lot of that in these new shows, with no science thought put into the technology. The worst offender imo being that magic hand device in Picard that can do anything you think of. It just creates hundreds of visual copies of Picard's ship from nothing, to compare when Voyager wanted to do something similar it needed fix holo projectors on the outer hull, and they required significant amounts of the ships power, for like two holo ships...
Yeah this is how I feel. It's like there's at least one deus ex machina every single episode.
 

Poodlestrike

Smooth vs. Crunchy
Administrator
Oct 25, 2017
13,496
Is it me or does this show lean far too much into story progression via "space magic"? Trek's always had that, but it felt fairly well balanced with science before Discovery.
This is 100% nostalgia illusion, IMO. Trek has always been almost *purely* space magic. No real grounding in science to speak of.
 

Wrexis

Member
Nov 4, 2017
21,247
I think both the old and news shows had space magic, so I'm not going to fault Discovery too heavily.

That said, I do think there were more temporary consequences on DS9 and VOY - enhance shields, loose power on a deck. Boost weapons, burn out arrays on half the ship.
Those issues were always fixed at the end of the episode anyway so maybe DIS writers thought it didn't matter.

I do kinda miss the "we cannae do it!" attitude though.
 

nekkid

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
21,823
Similar to how Voyager used the time reset regularly to resolve issues
I'm not saying the other series didn't have it. But Discovery has this shit multiple times an episode. They feel like they took the transportation equation bullshit from the JJ verse and felt it was such a good idea that that sort of thing needs to be used at every available opportunity.

Slightly different thing, although it stems from the same lack of appreciation of what Trek is, but I almost burst out laughing at the dramatic music and wildly over-engineered retrieval of those seeds. I mean come the fuck on lol.
 

nekkid

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
21,823
Define that please as it feels like it changed a lot since TOS through each iteration
Things clearly changed a lot after ToS, but the vast bulk of Trek was the TNG era (plus Enterprise) where any drama has felt earned, any solution to a challenge has felt like it was considered by the crew and therefore justified. Discovery just bounces from over dramatic set piece to set piece, random solutions to impossible situations multiple times throughout the episode, and a sprinkling of cheap emotional shots that also just don't feel like they've been earned or just fall completely flat.

It's not that I haven't enjoyed a lot of it, it's just that it's taken too much inspiration from the wrong source (JJ Trek).
 

gofreak

Member
Oct 26, 2017
7,736
Feels like the season has found its groove. Was surprised (pleasantly) that they leaned in so quickly into a resolution about where the federation is, where starfleet is, what the lay of the land is. Half expected they might drag that out over the season. Instead it seems we might have the parameters here for a - perhaps? - more traditional, 'mission-of-the-week' format, within a persistent arc.

Georgiou continues to be marvelous.
 

DarthMasta

Member
Feb 17, 2018
3,937
I'm enjoying it, better this season than trying to fit into the sidelines of the canon that already existed, gives the series room to be itself without bumping into previous stories.

Bugs me a bit that in 900 years nobody ever managed to replicate a tech that would very much be useful, especially taking into account they're making time travel something that's possible but illegal, but it's not like Star Trek didn't have a bunch of "don't think too hard about it" stuff.