The maneuver in the opening moments of this episode did more to endear Lorca to me than the entire series thus far, and also felt perfectly, importantly Star Trek
EDIT: Laaaaawl fuck this show, I cant believe they wrote that exchange into this show
EDIT: Laaaaawl fuck this show, I cant believe they wrote that exchange into this show
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Enjoyed tonight's episode. Easily a setup for the mid-season finale next week though. That said the Opening battle and the time on the planet were great. I need more away missions the next season if this is what we're going to be getting when it comes to alien worlds.
I'm almost hating that we're getting a break because some things are clearly not going to be covered until after the break.Glad they added episode 9 to this half. I enjoyed tonight's episode but this would have been a weak finale. Also going by the preview next episode is going to have a potentially much stronger ending and possible cliffhanger as well. So good call making episode 9 the break point.
I'm almost hating that we're getting a break because some things are clearly not going to be covered until after the break.Glad they added episode 9 to this half. I enjoyed tonight's episode but this would have been a weak finale. Also going by the preview next episode is going to have a potentially much stronger ending and possible cliffhanger as well. So good call making episode 9 the break point.
Saru wasn't mind controlled or altered? Just had a taste of something he'd never experienced. Damn, son.
Between this week and last week, I like how they manage seemingly stand-alone stories that still play into the greater narrative.
Also, once again, Tilly da bes.
Stamets being bitchy and wants to be left alone? DGAF grow up, mushroom boy. Future Captain Tilly on the case.
Stamets being bitchy and wants to be left alone? DGAF grow up, mushroom boy. Future Captain Tilly on the case.
It's not necessarily that he grew up in some sort of hellscape, it's that his species evolved as a primary prey animal.
No seriously, Lorca making the split second decision to drive the Discovery into the path of fire to take the brunt of the hit and try to save the fleeing vessel was exactly what I needed for that character to be, well, frankly more than a borderline villain still
The show finally finds it's footing and the season is going to end! It should have kept going for a few more episodes argh.
That was good. He's not evil. He's shady and questionable but still wants to do the right thing and protect those around him. However the Discovery's shields are not strong they drop quickly.
It's not ending. Episode 9 is next week and then episode 10 should release in January 2018. It's just going on a break for the end of Nov and all of December. The remaining episodes aren't done. Post-production work is still being done as they just finished filming the final episode of the season two or three weeks ago.
It surprised me that I found the Klingon side of the story the most interesting this week, given how I generally respond to those scenes. Or maybe it's because the planet-side story felt sketchy and unfinished. As one of the shortest episodes so far (37ish minutes if you take out the "previously on", main titles and "next time on" scenes), all of these scenes could have used more development and time to breathe. I was especially let down because as a Saru episode, this didn't really tell me anything about him I didn't already know. And "possessed by alien" stories are a dime a dozen on Trek. I was pleasantly surprised by the Tilly/Stamets scene, because both characters need development that exists outside of Michael.
I am at least hoping that the admiral survived because this show has a very bad habit of killing off its strong female characters.
I am at least hoping that the admiral survived because this show has a very bad habit of killing off its strong female characters.
I really liked this episode except for the inexcusable use of the "...or the one." It undercuts the context of the original source and it wasn't worth it for a callback. It was just cringey.
However, this was definitely one of the stronger episodes and it was great to get off the ship.
However, this was definitely one of the stronger episodes and it was great to get off the ship.
Not a great episode. Like two ideas smashed together ungracefully making the whole thing undercooked.
Im just happy there was an away mission so I'll take it. To explore strange new worlds, not to explore strange new hallways.
Im just happy there was an away mission so I'll take it. To explore strange new worlds, not to explore strange new hallways.
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Rewatching the episode but just had a thought. I really hope when the blu-ray for season 1 is released that episodes 1 and 2 flow right into each other with no break. If you purposefully select episode 2 you should get the opening but if you start at one I think it should just seamlessly move into episode 2. Cause they're really one big episode. It looks like the same thing is going to happen where episode 8 is going to flow right into 9 to the point likely should no break between them either. I have to imagine the finale two or three episodes are going be like that as well.
So Saru just assaulted two Star Fleet crew members and basically committed mutiny. They had an opportunity to just paste over this plot wise and say the aliens controlled his mind like in plenty of other star trek episodes and purposely chose not to.
That's almost as "bad" as what Burnham did but I have a feeling they will just ignore that plotwise and that's weird.
I get that you could argue he was being influenced because they effected his natural fear state but still...
That's almost as "bad" as what Burnham did but I have a feeling they will just ignore that plotwise and that's weird.
I get that you could argue he was being influenced because they effected his natural fear state but still...
Can someone explain what was going on with L'Rell?
Why did she gain the admiral's trust, then do absolutely nothing with it and (presumably, unverified) kill her? Was it just like, ah shit they caught me, gotta kill you now? And what was with the "you were not what I expected" lead-in to their fight?
I dont really get what she was getting at. I saw nothing gained by anyone. What did I miss?
Why did she gain the admiral's trust, then do absolutely nothing with it and (presumably, unverified) kill her? Was it just like, ah shit they caught me, gotta kill you now? And what was with the "you were not what I expected" lead-in to their fight?
I dont really get what she was getting at. I saw nothing gained by anyone. What did I miss?
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I feel like that episode was borderline incomprehensible? Like, I think I pieced together what happened by the end, but the editing really didn't do the episode any favours, more so than the usual Discovery episode.
- So they're on this planet that might have sonar capabilities to detect Klingon vessels. What? How did Starfleet figure this out? Why haven't we ever heard about this before? Clearly this doesn't work, since by the time we get to TNG we still don't have a great way to detect cloaks. So what is all this anyways? And why did they send three bridge personnel to handle this? But whatever, maybe this is the one big thing you just have to accept, and the rest of the episode makes sense from there.
- So the away team discovers this weird blue thing that turns out to be the whole planet and also it's sentient so now it's first contact time. At first, it's very hard to converse with the away team because they don't have the right vocabulary. Okay. But then at the end of the episode, everyone's just having a friendly conversation with the blue thing and laying out their reasons for wanting the transmitter. ARE YOU TELLING ME WE COULD'VE JUST HAD THIS TALK ALL ALONG AND EVERYTHING WOULD HAVE BEEN FINE? But never mind that;
- Saru goes apeshit and no one knows why. It's only until Saru tells everyone in sickbay that we realize why he went apeshit. But damn, could've fooled me. I feel like the episode was trying to have it both ways: have Saru be brainwashed by the planet so you think it has nefarious aims, but surprise, it really isn't the planet after all, it's Saru being addicted to not being scared? I dunno, I feel like there could've been just a tiny bit more to support that, as opposed to Saru just turning into the Terminator and apparently being ready to murder Tyler in the name of peace and harmony?
- Discovery getting to the planet immediately is fine, because that's kind of Discovery's whole thing. How the fuck did the SHIP OF THE DEAD get there so fast? Isn't that in enemy territory for them? Did they just blow through a giant fuck-off blockade and cross a whole bunch of star systems in the time it took to write this sentence?
- Speaking of the ship of the dead. L'rell wants off the ship because Kol sucks. And also she wants on Discovery specifically, which of course adds to the whole Voq/Tyler theory thing. Whatever. Let's talk about Cornwell, because as far as I can tell, she:
a) decides to help L'rell escape;
b) gets caught by Kol;
c) tells L'rell how surprised she is by her while L'rell's all "back at'cha" like this is part of some plan or whatever (but seriously what did that conversation even MEAN);
d) fights L'rell and apparently DIES (but of course she's not dead, how telegraphed is that not-death);
e) gets dragged to some kind of auxiliary coffin dispenser room where they prepare Klingons to be attached scale-like to the side of the ship (shouldn't that be reserved just for Klingons? don't they, like, eat humans? but she's not actually dead so whatever?)
f) apparently gets revived and escapes off screen? haha that was the plan all along?
Okay. So what the fuck happened to Cornwell? Did she escape? Is she dead? How did she escape, if so? If she didn't, why is L'rell pretending that she isn't dead?
I dunno, this episode felt all over the place, and that's not even discussing Tilly and Stamets, which whatever I'm sure that gets picked up later but is an odd inclusion in an episode that already feels overfull and rushed. It was confusing as heck and I think it might be the first actual bad episode of the series for me.
- So they're on this planet that might have sonar capabilities to detect Klingon vessels. What? How did Starfleet figure this out? Why haven't we ever heard about this before? Clearly this doesn't work, since by the time we get to TNG we still don't have a great way to detect cloaks. So what is all this anyways? And why did they send three bridge personnel to handle this? But whatever, maybe this is the one big thing you just have to accept, and the rest of the episode makes sense from there.
- So the away team discovers this weird blue thing that turns out to be the whole planet and also it's sentient so now it's first contact time. At first, it's very hard to converse with the away team because they don't have the right vocabulary. Okay. But then at the end of the episode, everyone's just having a friendly conversation with the blue thing and laying out their reasons for wanting the transmitter. ARE YOU TELLING ME WE COULD'VE JUST HAD THIS TALK ALL ALONG AND EVERYTHING WOULD HAVE BEEN FINE? But never mind that;
- Saru goes apeshit and no one knows why. It's only until Saru tells everyone in sickbay that we realize why he went apeshit. But damn, could've fooled me. I feel like the episode was trying to have it both ways: have Saru be brainwashed by the planet so you think it has nefarious aims, but surprise, it really isn't the planet after all, it's Saru being addicted to not being scared? I dunno, I feel like there could've been just a tiny bit more to support that, as opposed to Saru just turning into the Terminator and apparently being ready to murder Tyler in the name of peace and harmony?
- Discovery getting to the planet immediately is fine, because that's kind of Discovery's whole thing. How the fuck did the SHIP OF THE DEAD get there so fast? Isn't that in enemy territory for them? Did they just blow through a giant fuck-off blockade and cross a whole bunch of star systems in the time it took to write this sentence?
- Speaking of the ship of the dead. L'rell wants off the ship because Kol sucks. And also she wants on Discovery specifically, which of course adds to the whole Voq/Tyler theory thing. Whatever. Let's talk about Cornwell, because as far as I can tell, she:
a) decides to help L'rell escape;
b) gets caught by Kol;
c) tells L'rell how surprised she is by her while L'rell's all "back at'cha" like this is part of some plan or whatever (but seriously what did that conversation even MEAN);
d) fights L'rell and apparently DIES (but of course she's not dead, how telegraphed is that not-death);
e) gets dragged to some kind of auxiliary coffin dispenser room where they prepare Klingons to be attached scale-like to the side of the ship (shouldn't that be reserved just for Klingons? don't they, like, eat humans? but she's not actually dead so whatever?)
f) apparently gets revived and escapes off screen? haha that was the plan all along?
Okay. So what the fuck happened to Cornwell? Did she escape? Is she dead? How did she escape, if so? If she didn't, why is L'rell pretending that she isn't dead?
I dunno, this episode felt all over the place, and that's not even discussing Tilly and Stamets, which whatever I'm sure that gets picked up later but is an odd inclusion in an episode that already feels overfull and rushed. It was confusing as heck and I think it might be the first actual bad episode of the series for me.
Yeah I felt like this episode was edited to create suspense or leave dangling threads for the next episode but instead it kind of just felt confusing for me and unsatisfying. Instead of feeling like a serial thing it felt like I only got half a episode and the other half is next week.
Wait, did I miss something? Last I saw Cornwell she was lying "dead" (maybe for real dead?) in the corpse room. I saw/heard no indication of an escape.
Kol and L'rell later are talking about the intel she got from the admiral, and Kol's all "not only does this intel suck, but you let the prisoner escape." And then I think L'rell talks about how that could be an opportunity and Kol's having none of it.
Oh, I thought it was just referencing the hallway incident.
We don't know if they'll completely ignore it just yet but I get you. I actually hope it's not. Though alien influence likely will be a factor because it was even if he still believed he was in control.
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Except Saru wasn't possessed. That's what made this interesting, IMO. He was clearheaded and he knew what he was doing. He got a taste of something he'd never experienced and he refused to let it go.
Well the female klingon comes back and says she escaped. If she was really going to defect then it makes no sense for her to be dead. Why would she kill her? If it was just a ploy to get in better with the head of that klingon faction then it also makes no sense because it didn't work and she seemed super upset about those dead Klingons anyway.
While its kinda unclear if she has really been set free or not it makes more sense that way or that she is still on the ship alive.
If the way they handled the whole "tardigrade gets released, Lorca never mentions it again" incident is any indication, I don't expect we'll hear anything about Saru again either. The writing on the show is often quite sloppy in that regard.
That... actually makes more sense than either of my two thoughts. Though now I'm not sure why L'rell didn't immediately follow up with "but she's dead now, and I have the intel, so that's all that matters" to make it obvious. Also, what was the deceit and lying that Kol uncovered, if not Cornwell still being alive? Unless Kol happens to know about the conversation she had with Cornwell before her "demise." But how? Maybe it doesn't matter? But so little gets an actual explanation that it's genuinely hard to keep track of what's going on. Or maybe it's just me.
While I believe that technically could be the case when it comes to how Star Fleet might look at it, clearly he doesn't view it that way. So from a plot perspective, I hope this leads into him dropping his vendetta against Burnham and not having more Saru kind of whining about how evil Burnham is. Because from a personal level he has done something almost equally as bad and he seems to know it and not be making excuses about it. I think a small scene that hints at something like that would be a nice piece of writing.
Seems as though he is now struggling to determine the difference between the present and the future (or, presumably, the past).
Klingons!
lol yeah, the concept of the race is cool but they are not the weaklings you would kind of expect as a prey race.
And early TNG also had many notable episodic scores (mostly from Ron Jones).
To clear up the confusion, L'Rell puts the admiral in the sarcophagus room, and discovers the corpses. That when, I presume, she changes her mind and stays.
As far as whether the admiral is actually off the ship is another question altogether. T'Rell seems to be good at deception, so this may be a play to get back at Kol when he least expects it... Like if the admiral is still stowed aboard the ship.
As far as whether the admiral is actually off the ship is another question altogether. T'Rell seems to be good at deception, so this may be a play to get back at Kol when he least expects it... Like if the admiral is still stowed aboard the ship.
Didn't L'Rell kinda say that with something along the lines of "I didn't let her get far" in response to Kol saying the prisoner escaped? I agree it doesn't make sense that the whole thing with admiral was a ruse to pump her for info though.She really didn't get much considering how risky it was taking her out of the cell.
I thought the idea was that fight between L'Rell and the admiral was a cover so she didn't actually kill her (though she probably did seriously fuck her up) but when she finds the bodies her brethren, L'Rell decides that simply blowing up the ship is too quick a death for Kol and/or destroying the ship would mean desecrating her homes and family? I assume the deceit was that Kol knows she was plotting against him and was trying to defect, instead of the lie L'Rell made up about the prisoner escaping. I dunno, the whole thing was weird.
I agree that this episode felt rushed but since it's obviously part 1 of 2 I'll wait until next week to really judge.
In any case I really liked this one,
The intro battle scene was awesome and Lorca trying to save the other ship told us more about him, he's not a total psycho and I really think he's doing it for the greater good.
Pretty obvious the spore drive is reaching its limit on Stamets.
I think the Admiral is alive and L'Rell has a plan to get her and the Admiral off the ship but not before she wrecks Kol.
I know it felt like they left a lot unexplained during that sequence with L'Rell but I'm sure they'll explain more next episode.
The planet with the blue stuff was cool and I'm glad they're expanding more outside of the ship
Even though this is a two part episode, it still felt self-contained.
I'm gonna miss this show during the break :(
In any case I really liked this one,
The intro battle scene was awesome and Lorca trying to save the other ship told us more about him, he's not a total psycho and I really think he's doing it for the greater good.
Pretty obvious the spore drive is reaching its limit on Stamets.
I think the Admiral is alive and L'Rell has a plan to get her and the Admiral off the ship but not before she wrecks Kol.
I know it felt like they left a lot unexplained during that sequence with L'Rell but I'm sure they'll explain more next episode.
The planet with the blue stuff was cool and I'm glad they're expanding more outside of the ship
Even though this is a two part episode, it still felt self-contained.
I'm gonna miss this show during the break :(