Waaaay back in Discovery’s pilot episode, Michael Burnham made a choice to directly disobey her captain’s orders. This choice led to a series of escalating crises which ultimately ended in her captain’s death. It was a strong opening statement for any show, a Trek show in particular. I’m not sure what followed ever really lived up to that opening statement, but at the very least, Discovery has never completely lost sight of Michael’s willingness to prioritize her own decisions over the chain of command. It’s just that usually, that willingness is presented as evidence of her heroism and general excellence. In the years since its pilot, the show has stumbled and fumbled and occasionally triumphed, getting more coherent as it went along, and it’s something of a relief to see that finally, in a third season which has been extremely consistent (regardless of my complaints), that they finally remembered there’s supposed to be conflict.
“Scavengers” has Michael choosing to run to Book’s rescue over direct orders from Saru. She makes a clear, unequivocal choice to value her own instincts and loyalty over her captain’s orders, and while no one dies from her decision, there are consequences. Saru is extremely disappointed and frustrated by her choice, which is to be expected, but even Tilly (the season seems to have settled on “quirky but extremely competent Tilly,” which is probably the best direction for the character at this point) is shown to be sick of her shit. And it’s great, it’s really great. Okay, I wasn’t completely enraptured by Tilly struggling to deal with a very placid and sleepy cat, but everything else? Excellent across the board.
I was a little disappointed earlier this season to see Discovery finding the new headquarters of the Federation so quickly. It seemed like a sign of the show being all too eager to get back to some kind of “normal” again, eschewing the possibilities of the time jump in favor of reinstalling a distressingly familiar status quo. But in the time since, it’s been reassuring to see how the Federation has changed as much as it’s stayed the same. Discovery’s reintegration into its old role (you’ll note that once again it is The Most Important Ship Of All, although given how often the Enterprise saved the universe, I guess that’s to be expected) is awkward without turning either side into obvious villains, and the more we see of it, the more I’m appreciating how the season is establishing itself.
And that goes especially true for Michael. That year she spent away from Discovery is turning out to be even more important for her arc than it initially appeared, underling her individualistic streak while making her even more reluctant to follow along with protocol when she decides it isn’t necessary. When Saru orders her not to go after Book (Discovery is essentially “on call,” waiting to see if it’s needed for conflict), Michael doesn’t even consider obeying him. Instead, she goes directly to Georgiou to ask for her help. What she doesn’t do is tell anyone else on the ship about her plans. Not even Tilly, which is probably a big reason why Tilly is so upset to see her missing.
It’s a terrific dynamic, because it simply restates things we already know about these characters with just enough added pressure to make those things become relevant again. Saru even mentions how he once struggled to trust Michael, a part of their relationship I’d actually mostly forgotten about. Nobody is behaving erratically or randomly just to generate conflict. Even better, there are no clear good or bad people in the situation. I sided more with Saru, but the episode allows for that (might even encourage it) without offering an easy solution one way or the other. Michael succeeds in her mission, rescuing Book and getting the “black box” from a starship caught in the Burn; and she’s probably right about needing to figure out what happened in the Burn before anything can get back to any kind of normalcy. As well, Discovery didn’t end up needing to go into battle after all. But she still ignored Saru’s orders, so he demotes her to Chief Science Officer, in a decision that feels absolutely reasonable and even just.
Discovery desperately needs this kind of story development to balance out its “rah rah everyone loves everyone” vibe. It’s not like the ship suddenly needs to become rife with resentment and internal struggle. But giving major characters different goals, making those goals understandable, and then putting those goals into conflict, helps to ensure that the times when everyone does get along all the more meaningful. One of the show’s biggest failings is in how often the writers will jump to a conclusion without doing the necessary work building to it. You get the big moments, the triumphs, the sudden twists, but you miss all the context that makes those moments more than just memes. “Scavengers” doesn’t get bogged down in details, but it also doesn’t just elide over them where they might prove inconvenient, and that’s part of what makes it so strong.
And hell, it also gives Georgiou a spotlight, which is always a good time. She cons her way onto the planet where Book is being held captive in a labor camp, pretending Michael is her servant and relentlessly browbeating the Orion man in charge of the place, as is her wont. Michael helps Book escape, and the episode finds time to quickly establish just how bad things are in the camp and also introduce a new character, an Andorian who tried to rebel against his masters and lost his antennae as a consequence. In a particularly brutal move, the bad guys then forced the rebel Andorian into the job of putting security discs on the necks of new captors, ensuring everyone would hate him and ignore any new attempt at rebellion.
This is clever and deft, sketched in quickly but affectingly, and it means that when the prison break happens, we’re more invested in the outcome than we would be if it was just a matter of Book and a bunch of nameless extras running away. (I like Book, but the odds seemed pretty good he was going to make it out of this one alive.) The labor camp also establishes the Emerald Chain as major bad guys, and presumably this season’s primary antagonist. They’re mentioned during the Federation briefing Saru attends at the start of the hour as the main cause for a lot of Vance et al’s woes, and I expect we’ll be seeing more of them soon.
All in all, a well done episode in a season that’s proving to be Discovery’s strongest yet.
Stray observations
- The slight, but rather sweet, subplot about Stamets and Adira bonding over the pain of losing a loved one was well acted and affecting. I’m curious if Gray pushing Adira to get more involved with the crew is supposed to be funny or not; the idea of a dead loved one bugging you to have more a life feels like it could be annoying even if it is well-intended.
- I can’t really prove it, but it felt like this episode referenced Discovery’s past more than the show usually does; in addition to Stamets talking about Hugh’s temporary death, and Saru mentioning the Shenzhou, we had Georgiou reminding Michael about her disastrous relationship with Tyler. These are all good nods. The show has been so uneven over the course of its relatively short life that it helps to occasionally remind us that it all still happened.
- I get that it’s supposed to play as friendly banter, but Michael getting super-defensive when Georgiou asks her if she and Book are a couple is odd. You were hanging out with him for a year and you clearly have chemistry, where’s the shame?
- Michael and Book do make out near the end of the hour.
- Oh, almost forgot: Georgiou is having strange, debilitating flashbacks at the worst possible times. When Michael confronts her on this, she admits that it’s been happening for weeks. (Michael’s immediate response: an angry, “Why didn’t you come to me with this?” This is not a good way to respond to a person experiencing trauma, even if her trauma did almost get you killed.)
- The running gag of Linus using the portable transporter to show up at inopportune moments was good.
- Speaking of bad Michael lines: telling Saru he did the right thing in demoting her just rubbed me the wrong way. I don’t think Saru needs her approval in this particular instance.
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I don’t think Michael telling Saru that he did the right thing was so much about showing approval as it was about showing acceptance. She knows she pushed things too far, she knows how hard demoting her is to Saru despite all this, she knows how much she hurt him, so being open about accepting it puts that weight back on her shoulders instead of his.Now whether the writers have her actually hold this and grow with it will remain to be seen….
Haven’t even seen it yet, but when does SJW Mary Sue Michelle ever stay on book. Has there ever been one Starfleet or Captain’s order she followed? SJW trash LOL! Thank god we have The Mandolarian and The Expanse coming back soon.
Myself, I find it tiring and annoying to keep watching Michael disobey direct orders. The show is so Michael centric, they ought to boot her out of SF and let her have a spinoff where she’s a lone operator with Book. And the whisper dialoge things is grating…especially when the people she is talking with all speak in normal volume.
ACTING
Eh. If they had a court martial every time characters in other Trek shows just buggered off with a shuttle with no warning, there’d be no characters left past S2
Great review. Thanks. I frequently like this show more than you do and/or am willing to overlook its faults, but your criticism is usually insightful and fun to read.
There’s something considered off-book in Discovery?! Wow.
Even when Burnham is trying to GET on Book, she goes off-book.
Now that’s an epic bit of wordplay. Bravo!
Waaaay back in Discovery’s pilot episode, Michael Burnham made a choice to directly disobey her captain’s orders. This choice led to a series of escalating crises which ultimately ended in her captain’s death.No, it didn’t. The captain woke up and stopped her and threw her in the brig before she could do anything. Then they made up and attacked the Klingon ship and then the captain died.
jesus thank you. I’ve watched the show through twice now – and enjoy it! – but i never got exactly why everyone blamed her for the Klingon war.
“… i never got exactly why everyone blamed her for the Klingon war.”(see Mrs. O’)
ha! that’s awesome. My family is from the greater Chicagoland area, and she’s supposedly a distant relative.
Having a cow that can type here is way more awesome.
Well, she did kill T’Kuvma when she and Georgiou beamed over to the Sarcophagus to capture him, reasoning that his capture would demoralise the Klingons, whereas their prior plan of killing him with a hand-delivered torpedo warhead would martyr him and enrage the Klingons.
DISCO propaganda
There was the little matter of her killing the Klingon on her space walk… self-defence, but try telling the Klingons that.
Self Sealing Stem Bolts!
Twelve gross of self sealing stem bolts!
That was such a nice extra touch for Nog, I squee’d a little bit…
that one made me laugh
Aunty is going to be pissed.
Anyone familiar with the classic Arnie flick, The Running Man, knew the guy’s head was going to explode as soon as he passed the security pylon.
Haven’t even seen it yet, but when does SJW Mary Sue Michelle ever stay on book. Has there ever been one Starfleet or Captain’s order she followed? SJW trash LOL! Thank god we have The Mandolarian and The Expanse coming back soon.
kill yourself
Please tell all of us how much you hate SJWs. We all enjoy it so much.
Ha! I have more stars than you. And yes, you should enjoy it. It is ruing sci-fi. Between Mary Sueing, casting to meet a checklist instead of the characters, pushing social agenda in determent to story telling and characters that do not stay dead, modern sci-fi is trash. Thank god they haven’t Mary Sued The Mandalorian. He regularly gets his ass handed him. Rey would have kicked everyone’s ass through magic and SJW writing.
LOL at you thinking that because you have more stars than me that means something. Sseriously? People actually care about that?Also, LOL at your obsession with “SJW”. To quote The Princess Bride, “You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.”
I’m not sure how I like Discovery’s retrofit. It’s too new-fangled for my tastes but we’ll see how it grows on me. I think we’re seeing Michael having difficulty adjusting back in to being in Starfleet as another symptom of her needing to take on all the responsibility that she’s did in previous seasons. She feels the absolute need to find out the cause of the Burn because “she saved all the things” and something still went bad. She feels like she is the only one responsible for the state of things and it’s only up to her to fix it. I am curious as where they are going with Georgiou. I mean it’s clearly trying to set things up for the Section 31 show. Her flashbacks though, are they because she is confronted by the fact she actually loves for Michael and her own mental barriers are breaking down? Or is it actually because there is something intrinsic about the mirror universe that inhibits empathy? I hope its more of the former than the latter. She‘s got a long road to go before she finds redemption.
It looks to me like it’s the murder of her mother (possibly by her) — which, when finding out the Terran Empire fell, might cause her psyche to acknowledge “it was all for nothing,” and therefore give her some pretty severe psychological issues…
I thought it was the murder of the original philippa, no?
So, at least one of the flashes (I think both?) she has of the bloodied woman is a Terran dagger laying on the floor.Which had nothing to do with the original Philippa — and the earlier flashes had someone (maybe a younger her? I honestly can’t tell at that speed and paused-screen resolution) in anguish:I have the rough timestamps up there if you want to go check and report back!EDIT: I suppose it’s possible that Mirror-Georgiou killed Mirror-Michael (and just claimed she disappeared)… but (tin-foil hat time) the person on the floor has a suit that sort of looks like a Terran-colored Red Angel Helmet…
I’m not sure how I like Discovery’s retrofit. It’s too new-fangled for my tastes but we’ll see how it grows on me.I keep assuming that this season will end with a big reset, but stuff like this makes it less likely.But I like that this episode finally made a big deal of just how strategically valuable and topsecret the Disco is. And when you think about it that way, then of course starfleet has to soup it up with all of the fancy tech that they can, because they can’t afford to lose it.
Why can’t Star Fleet just retrofit other ships with Spore Drives? I’m sure the technology is easy for them to learn and create, 900 years later.
I’m totally nitpicking here, but I noticed that they gave Disco the “-A” designation after the retrofit…isn’t that reserved for a new ship in the line? In TMP, the Enterprise gets her glorious retrofit but doesn’t get the “-A.”
I mean until the recent episodes the Enterprise was the only ship to have been depicted with a letter incrementation. Current fan speculation is that all of these 32nd century ships with letter incrementations are pre-burn ships that have been retrofitted, each letter represents a whole new generation of technology. They survived the burn because they were inactive just waiting to scrapped. Think how the US military adds letters to new variants and how they can pull aircraft from the boneyards to reactivate. biggest rumor is that based upon on screen depiction of the Voyager-J that states it is “Intrepid class” is that it is in fact the same ship that carried Janeway and crew through the delta quadrant.
The new Intrepid class really does look disappointly similar to the original. The honda civic is more unrecognizable after 50 years than this intrepid is after 800, so I guess that I like the theory.(or 32nd century designers are just cranking out retro styling on everything)
I think that this is a way to distinguish it from the 23rd century ship and records to the32nd century ship records that it will begin to chronicle.
It could be because the official Starfleet story is that Discovery was destroyed and the -A is an attempt to hide the fact that it’s not the same ship.
Considering that the official Starfleet story is that Discovery was destroyed, the -A could be a cover to say that it’s a different ship.
Well- probably according to Starfleet official records, the original Discovery was lost, so even though it’s the same ship it’s a new ship, and I think the fact that they’re from the past is supposed to be a secret, so giving it the A designation makes sense.
I think Glasses Guy is the future’s version of Section 31 and he did something to her that he wants her to think is a consequence of something else to gain leverage over her for some purpose in the future. Just my guess, I just saw this episode and havent seen the others that have come out since.
I somehow missed Discovery being retrofit?
Okay, I wasn’t completely enraptured by Tilly struggling to deal with a very placid and sleepy cat
You take that back. You take that back THIS VERY INSTANT. Everything Grudge was gold.
Grudge is the only character not constantly on the verge of an emotional breakdown, so she’s my favorite.
Yeah, I was having trouble really getting into the emotions of that last scene. Michael and Saru haven’t done anything together all season. She’s got more of a casual friendship with Tilly. She’s making out with Book. She has more banter with Georgiou, for chrissakes. They haven’t even really worked together in a professional capacity much. He was giving her a demotion that she absolutely deserved and seemed to know was coming, from a job she’s had for like two weeks, not sentencing her to die. The tears might have been a bit much.
The show kinda needs to pick a lane with Michael’s insubordination. Either it’s a serious character flaw that is rightfully going to ruin her career, or it’s just what a hero does to get things done, like when every other captain from the other Trek shows did it. It’s sitting awkwardly in this “we take this very seriously, young lady, now go to your room” zone.
I disagree that it needs to pick a lane, because her finding that lane is her character arc. But I agree that they keep pretending that Discovery was also gone for a year instead of it being like two weeks since they were 1000 years in the past. Which is kind of irritating, they could have come up with come way for Disco to be stuck somewhere or at least encounter some real we’re-gonna-die resistance before immediately meeting up with Michael again.
I don’t have a problem with Michael the character wavering between being a maverick rogue agent or a team player. I do think the Federation, and more importantly, the show itself needs a clearer perspective on whether or not following her instincts in defiance of everyone else is a problem or not. Because she does it all the time, and getting a scolding for it is starting to feel kinda silly.
That also speaks to the problem that I keep coming back to again and again…even if this future isn’t as partly utopian as the earlier future…basically nobody we meet in Star Trek is actually free, they’re all in the chain of command. The show wants her to be a Paladin like Kirk (who also got demoted a few times when it got ridiculous)…but in the military they fuck you up if you do that shit, or at least kick you out.
But Starfleet isnt like modern militaries. Starfleet’s pretty consistent attitude to this, which is smart- if you defy orders, it’s a big risk. If you fuck up, you’re done. But if it works out, you get promoted. Actually pretty smart, as you don’t want officers who blindly follow orders, but also only want people taking things into their own hands if it really is the right call. Burnham’s action here was just on that line.
Has far more character development then half the Bridge.
This is painfully true. Could we take two bridge crew from Discovery and let them go to Picard? We’ve got one overpopulated ship and one that’s practically empty.
yeah, if you’re still upset about that, its what disco is. TOS was Kirk, Spock, McCoy, and everybody else. Disco makes a deliberate choice to make the bridge crew secondary characters at best.
I loved Tilly genuinely asking the cat “…did you eat her?”
Given that Mary Wiseman actually IS a cat person, I can imagine Grudge’s audible purrs to be very real, instead of a track overlaid on the screen.
Book was captured 3 weeks before Disco got his message. Which means for those 3 weeks his ship was flying through the galaxy towards Federation headquarters with its only occupant being Grudge.Which means we’ll be getting a Short Trek in the future of those 3 weeks titled “The Adventures of Captain Grudge”.
When Grudge first appears on the viewscreen, she appears to be leaning past the viewscreen, then moves back into focus. Which made me wonder “Did Grudge activate the control to turn on the viewscreen?”
Michael atm is not a fit for SF protocol. She’s spent a year on a mission to find the cause of the Burn but rejoining the Federation has put the brakes on that task. It’s not even a real tension between obeying the chain of command and her big mission. She is better off not being part of a ship. As the Admiral said, she found some valuable intel. She is better off doing her own thing by gathering intel on her own(with the help of Georgiou most likely and Book of course) to figure out the burn and maybe other things along the way w/ Discovery ready to jump in for assistance. Perhaps this way Michael won’t always have to suck the oxygen from everyone else on Discovery while there is still has a focus on her. (weird, not totally precise analogy: Like when Keith in the new Voltron temporarily left to join that ninja group)
Blah. Why doesn’t Saru, as the largest crew member, not simply eat Burnham? Might be the only way she stops whispering and crying through every scene. SMG is terrrrrrrrrible. Her acting ruins the show.
This is true. She was one of my favorite parts of The Walking Dead. But here? I don’t know where the disconnect is. But she’s one of the main reasons I can’t really enjoy this show. Whenever I think it’s getting better, Michael will be there to remind me that I can never love this show.
Shes not that bad.
If anyone struggles, occassionally the actress who Plays Georgiu does, but they give her some very clunky lines and shifts in character.
Well, Michelle Yeoh is bloody brilliant, in general. But yeah. She’s stuck with a lot to carry here. Though she took the Bond Girl role in one of the absolute worst Bond films and ran with it. Made it one of the best Bond Girl performances ever. Don’t get me started on Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.
WE ALL LOVE MICHAEL BURNHAM. SHE IS THE AXIS UPON WHICH DISCOVERY ROTATES. RESISTANCE IS… well, you know. (I agree re: SMG- everything is tears, wrinkly foreheads and intense whispers with her)
I think its more the character itself being flawed. Think back to season 1—-here was somebody convicted of mutiny, *continues* to betray the trust of even people she likes, yet people are still giving her chances to hold power and rank.And Saru—-my lord, he is dumb. After knowing that Michael goes off and does whatever she wants, and even indicates how adamant she was about a close friend in mortal danger, he doesn’t even THINK to keep track of her?Or at the very least, just disable Book’s ship in the hangar?I mean, come on. I like the guy, but you can’t have somebody so clueless as captain of a starship.But I’m drifting off topic—I don’t think its the actress’ fault, its just an at-times really poorly written character.
I think you’re right that she is set up to fail, weekly, by the writers. But, so was Anson Mount. So is Doug Jones. So (and I especially hate, hate, hate her ridiculous character) is Michelle Yeoh. But they don’t fail BEYOND the limits of the writing. SMG seems to have a unique spin on her line reading that makes everything over-the-top, sanctimonious and ankle deep all at the same time. It’s really something to marvel at.
I actually like evil universe Georgiou—-she and that female engineer they picked up last season are the few comic relief characters we have on this show.I figure its no more implausible that she ascended to near the top of a Federation security force than Michael getting to be first officer after being convicted of mutiny.
Saru migh be tall, but he is thin and lanky, like Tommy Tune.
Shouldn’t Starfleet being devoting all their available resources to replicating the spore drive? It’s pretty much the most important piece of technology in the galaxy. Having a fleet of ships with the spore drive would allow them to quickly rebuild the Federation. Heck, just having a few ships with the spore drive can allow them to gain access to sources of dilithium from outside the galaxy, allowing them to restore warp capabilities.
Well, the show’s explicitly staked out that finding new dilithium is a dead end until they can figure out the burn, because if it was some kind of superweapon/sabotage, it could just happen again once the Federation gets too big for its britches.The spore drive, though? Yeah, that’s a TVTrope. It’s the big unique thing. It’s the inexplicably non-duplicable piece of magical technology… until the ratings dip, or they commit to a season-finale-tier villain arc.In other words, it’s just silly, and you just have to go with it. Kinda like how nobody thinks to transition to the Romulan micro-black-hole technology, or even mention it once.
Except dilithium is still a valuable commodity and having it will give the Federation immense political and economic power even if they don’t use it.There are also dilithium alternatives that they’ve even mentioned, like benamite for quantum slipstream.
That’s just it, though: they can’t rule out the possibility that the Federation’s immense political and economic power is what made somebody burn them. While they might not face another genocide-level disaster, they could just suddenly wake up to find their piggy bank exploded out from the inside.The people trading and using dilithium right now are all small-potatoes syndicates who don’t have any grand designs. A galaxy “free” – or weak and divided, or both – potentially suits the perpetrators. There’s no need to literally blow up the currency right now.
the galaxy isn’t under the control of an empire, even if Emerald Chain is trying to be one or the Terrans were, so I’m legit interested to see the explanation for the burn
That’s insanely arrogant of the Federation to think that someone would destroy warp capabilities across the entire galaxy, which would have impacted thousands of warp capable civilizations just to hurt the Federation, which according to Discovery, only had 350 member planets. Heck, anyone powerful enough to blow up dilithium across an entire galaxy is more than powerful enough to wipe out the Federation with ease.
i was thinking about those Romulan micro black holes.
Though we don’t know if they used dilithium in those or not. We don’t know very much at all about how the singularity actually powered the ship, so it might still have used dilithium in some way.
i thought dilithium was a high-density power source, and that the Romulans used black holes to generate energy as well. I might be wrong, or that might’ve been retcon’d.
I believe dilithium helps regulate the energy produced by the antimatter reactor, so instead of putting out 1 unit of useful energy for every 25 units of fuel it’s more like 1 to 2. We know that the Romulans use captive singularities as a power source, but for all we know they still use dilithium to make the process more efficient in the same manner.
This is fitting because Steve Shives just did a video about how often or not other Star Trek protagonists broke the chain of command and in that video he made it clear that Star Trek will often have characters break the chain of command for moral reasons. I really, really enjoyed this episode as I have this entire season. This one, in particular, seems to be launching the second half of the season and I’m excited to see where it goes.
The space-geography in this show has always been a mess. But in this episode in one scene we’ve got starfleet making a big deal about how valuable Disco is, and then in the next Book’s winnebago is warping back and forth across the galaxy (quadrant? sector? Who knows)They’ve got a good premise here, but won’t commit to it. Do those starfleet ships have warp to go along with those nacelles? Is FTL rare-rare? Or is it rare like the way that most cars on the roads aren’t Teslas, but there are still quite a few Teslas?
Book’s ship has pure pre-Burn dilithium that Discovery gave him powering it, so next to Discovery it’s probably the fastest ship around. Every other ship is using re-crystallized (Book says his re-crystallizer broke in the crash in the first episode) or some sort of synthetic dilithium (implied by the way the Orion guy perks up when Georgiou says they have ‘real’ dilithium), so high warp factors are either impossible or probably incredibly risky.
So Book’s winnebago now really is the second most valuable ship in the galaxy (quadrant, sector…), and the space-mafia know that. And they’ve probably known about it for 3 1/2 weeks. But leaving it parked (cloaked) outside the space-mafia chopshop is a total non-issue.A really easy piece of worldbuilding would be a single line of dialogue about sending the winnebago 3 systems over where it would take months for anyone to reach it (and programming it to jump again if anyone comes too close). Because we know that cloaks never truly work, and any highwarp ship should be just the most valuable thing ever. Certainly worth just killing Georgiou and Burnham outright, when their ship is right there.
Certainly worth just killing Georgiou and Burnham outright, when their ship is right there.
Did you miss the part where they decided to just do that?
I guess you missed the part where the spacemafia let the people with the second most important starship wander around being sketchy for half an episode, and didn’t actually do anything until Burnham destroyed a security drone.The show just needs to figure itself out. In one episode earth somehow loses contact with a Jovian moon – not proxima or alpha centauri, but Jupiter which is a few hours away at impulse. In another Nhan stays on a ship that smells like home, even though it won’t actually get her home for years or decades. And throughout this season ships appear in systems that haven’t seen highwarp in a century, and the response is “I would like to subscribe to your newsletter.”Voyager is not my favorite show by any means, but one thing the early episodes recognize is that an advanced ship is a huge target.
You’re really going to use Voyager as an example of a show that doesn’t forget its premise? Come on, how many shuttlecraft did they go through again?
Voyager is not my favorite show by any means, but one thing the early episodes recognize is that an advanced ship is a huge target.How many qualifiers does that sentence need for you to be capable of reading what it actually says instead of making stuff up that isn’t there?
There aren’t even odds available that The Burn was caused by Michael BURNham and her time travel antics because it’s deeply obvious that it’s for sure going to end up being the case, right?
I think being personally responsible for that much death is further than they’ll go but we’ll see…then again the whole universe is about her so
They will absolutely go there. But then they’ll figure out some miraculous way to reverse it, but if she does it, she might be gone forever, and she’ll do it because Michael Burnham is the greatest person of all time, and either the season will end on a cliffhanger of her vanishing and all the dilithium explosions reversing, or she’ll reappear, but we don’t know where.
this again makes me long for Data and Spot. Like, I want extremely extremely low stakes, because these guys already saved ALL LIFE IN THE UNIVERSEI do hope if they do what you say that they point out (spoiler alert for Source Code) that she is saving all those people but only in a parallel universe. There’s likely also some kind of “blowing up the dilithium was the only way to keep the Terrans out” thing.
I’ve seen Source Code, but you really didn’t need to throw that reference in there.They will so absolutely not address any implications of the time travel shenanigans.
Oh my god Source Code! The guy doesnt know how to do his new job! He doesnt know where he lives or who his family are! He doesnt even know where is car is parked!GAH!
Oh, deeply. I really like this show but one mistake it never gets tired of making is that, if there’s a season long mystery, the answer is “Michael did it”. Hopefully they get away from that. The admiral’s facial expressions certainly seemed to hint that he knows more about the origins of the burn than he’s letting on.
Adira is the new Wesley.
I didn’t realize she was a “tween” until Stamets said as much.
is she sixtween? I think that was Stamets misusing the term endearingly
The stuff with Adira/Gray and Stamets this week was nice. But (ignoring all of the realworld, actor-y stuff) we’re really heading towards a female identifying character changing to be non-binary specifically because a spaceworm gave them 2 personalities, aren’t we?
The running gag of Linus using the portable transporter to show up at inopportune moments was good.I realize the whole purpose of the character is for laughs, but I found it cringey and lame as hell.
I got really excited a few weeks ago because they shaded this dynamic: Saru vs. Georgiou as Michael’s polestar. It works because it also pulls Saru towards Georgiou and vice versa (as you saw because her interactions with him have become more and more entertaining). Where we are going with this is likely some kind of breakthrough for Georgiou (which will likely unfortunately end with yet another sacrifice) and for Saru more moments like the one where Spock agrees to sabotage the enterprise with Sex and the City Samantha and that great line: “A lie?” “A choice.” Add to that Oded Fehr’s admiral, who seems to understand we are not in parochial school anymore. I completely disagree that her saying Saru was right was unearned, the show has set them up as having opposed priorities but mutual respect, and it took a long time to get there (even if they are only now trying to retro-notice continuity, it would have been nice if she noticed that Ash has now been dead a thousand years…but then she would just look at the history banks and short-circuit everything that happens in the Pike spinoff).The Stamets/Adira part about the lover who died legit made me tear up, especially because Stamets not immediately being a bastard was a new development. Michael is at her best with Book because SMG isn’t always whisper-acting and the two have hella chemistry. Was the Georgiou stuff a flashback or was she space-kidnapped by Cronenberg right out of starfleet? Or maybe his history with Terrans is like a Jew getting a face to face with Space Hitler (as she has been called) and he exacted righteous revenge somehow…which would reconcile the problems some people have had warming up to space hitler.
I also liked that Saru was having none of it when she said that he was right.
I think the part where Saru also gets a slight reprimand by the admiral, when he says “if you would have told me I might have approved” is worth mentioning. That was a fine monent. There is a strong theme of trust throughout this episode that feels real and lifts it above the straight action that is its face value.As for Gheorgiou (who is also part of the trust theme), my theory is that because the nirror ubiverse is no longer in contact with this universe, she is starting to merge with this universe’s Gheorgiou, receiving memoriesvof her own death. I might be wrong, but it would be a nice development of her character to give her a little more to work with than homicidial dominatrix.
Georgiou’s line, “you had me at unsanctioned mission”, made me think about how wild it would be if we were still referencing a line from Jerry Maguire 1,000 years from now as part of casual speech. That’s not a criticism of the writing—a show that included references to fictional future pop culture would be incomprehensible and bad—it’s the fact that it’s actually kind of plausible that I find amusing. When you learn about the etymology of words and phrases, it’s actually kind of common that there’s an extremely specific explanation for how they came into the lexicon that nobody actually remembers.
Well, Georgiou would have picked that up in the 23rd century and not the 32nd, but she’s also from the mirror-universe, which implies the existence of a mirror-universe version of Jerry Maguire.
“Show me the money…or die.”
“You had me at ____” is pretty ubiquitous in pop culture in general, so even people who’ve never heard of Jerry Maguire would recognize it and what it means.
There’s a Cardassian in Starfleet command!
I really liked the reflection shots of Georgiou.
A little on the nose, but I’m sucker for that kind of stuff.
I’m late to the party here (just caught up on all S3 this weekend). This whole season arc is dumb right?Dilithium isn’t the only warp fuel on Trek. Romulans use an artificial singularity for example. Even if it was, or we argue its popular enough that the Burn would have been problematic, its impossible to think 930 years in the future we would still be so reliant on a non-renewable resource like this. That’s like saying in 930 from today (2950) we are still using fossil fuels. The federation ‘tried’ other means of travel that didn’t pan out? So again, in 930 years, the entire galaxy never did better than warp? No Trans Warp, no Slip Stream, no long-distance transporters, no artificial worm holes? Again, thats like saying in 1400 we never did better than horseback! Similar to my previous point, in 930 years no one in the galaxy every invented a spore drive again? 2 dudes from Starfleet (pre Kirk) invented it and no one else ever did it again? How? Everyone invents warp drive on their own (its the literal trigger for first contact). Yet no one ever invents this?