Star Trek: Discovery, Season 3 (Spoilers)

[bilateralrope]

Disco has a really bad case of main characters do everything. And Tilly's promotion can only be attribute to t hat. She's the only main character left that could fulfill the role. Saru's captain, Michael's been fired and Stamets is a vital component of their drive system. They got ride of Commander Nhan as well and they've been building Saru and Tully's relationship all season.

But it doesn't make sense, Tilly just does not have the confidence and experience required. I guess there's a lot of room for coming into command, subplots there I guess.

Yeah. Having a character from the future Federation come in to be the new first officer would make a lot more sense. Start the process of merging the crew of Discovery with the rest of the Federation.

But I'm also a bit annoyed that they haven't switched their uniforms yet.

[Darth Lucifer]

Disco has a really bad case of main characters do everything. And Tilly's promotion can only be attribute to t hat. She's the only main character left that could fulfill the role. Saru's captain, Michael's been fired and Stamets is a vital component of their drive system. They got ride of Commander Nhan as well and they've been building Saru and Tully's relationship all season.

But it doesn't make sense, Tilly just does not have the confidence and experience required. I guess there's a lot of room for coming into command, subplots there I guess.

Yeah. Having a character from the future Federation come in to be the new first officer would make a lot more sense. Start the process of merging the crew of Discovery with the rest of the Federation.

I like the idea about assigning an XO from the fleet, somebody who's from this time that can help the Captain when he needs valuable intel or needs to know about the customs of alien cultures. I know that adding another guest star costs more money to the budget, but let's be honest here, I think most of the guest stars are more interesting than the Discovery crew itself. And it's not like they're using Detmer, Owosekun, Rhys, Nilsson, etc. to their fullest capacity. An outsider would be a great antagonist type character to rub everyone the wrong way, which is what I thought Book was going to be.

Elizabeth Dennehy and Ronnie Cox as Commander Shelby and Captain Jellico (TNG: The Best of Both Worlds, TNG: Chains of Command), outsiders who rocked the boat and upset the status quo, was something that TNG needed. It was a wonderful breath of fresh air and their characters worked so well within the context of their respective stories. I wish they had more appearances than just two episodes. And I wish Discovery's writing team had to the balls to do something like this or utilize the other crew more than they have.

My choice for XO would have been Nilsson or Detmer. On Nilsson, she's been handed off command of the bridge when Michael or Saru weren't around. Also, she was Airiam's replacement and Airiam took the conn in the past also. Re: Detmer...she's from the right department, has more time on the bridge than most and out of universe she's a character that the fans like (because I'm sure that was a factor in Tilly being picked by the writers).

I had also considered Jett Reno; she's has the rank (Commander), but Tig Notaro's guest star status probably has something to do with her not being a contender. Also, in-universe, she's probably needed where she's at since Engineers seem to be in short supply on Discovery.

If Emperor Georgiou wasn't about to be hit with Disease of the Week, I would say she would be an interesting choice to shake things up. She's definitely got the experience of leadership but more importantly, she would bring that element of internal conflict that Discovery needs. I also think the irony of her serving under a Kelpien would be a great personal issue. It would be really cool to see her and Saru come to some kind of mutual understanding and to see Georgiou somehow atone for the way she had treated his people in the mirror universe. Maybe even by dying to save Saru's life, that would be a hell of a way for her to leave the show. On the other hand, Georgiou has been shown to be untrustworthy and just as likely to go rogue as Michael did. And she defintely doesn't have much respect from the crew.

[Crazedwraith]

There's even a reoccurring future federation Lt that could easily slip into that role, the one that accompanied them to the seed vault and explained the new badges.

Weird that Detmer's issues seem to have vanished again, along with Georgiou. (Though I'm assuming Yeoh is a reasonably expensive guest star)

[Crazedwraith]

There's even a reoccurring future federation Lt that could easily slip into that role, the one that accompanied them to the seed vault and explained the new badges.

Weird that Detmer's issues seem to have vanished again, along with Georgiou. (Though I'm assuming Yeoh is a reasonably expensive guest star)

Having said that the next episode brings up both again, though with little progress on Georgiou, aside we know it's possibly fatal and Detmer, who just seems to be kind of... over her PTSD now? Which seems a lackluster end to that arc if it is an end.

Adira comes out as non binary, and Stamets and Culber have a seen of them using their pronoun extensively, even as they're asleep and I know that means a lot to queer fans, both the non-binary bit and Stamets and Culber acting as parents to her.

All in all though the episode seemed just a little meh. Like it should have been bigger than it was.

[Crazedwraith]

*ghetto edit: Acting as parents to them.

I fucked it up already, apologies.

[Darth Lucifer]

Terra Firma was very cool. While we don't get a lot of information pertaining to the arc-driven Burn story, we do get a great episode largely centered on Emperor Georgiou. Her "disease of the week" is caused by the fact that she's travelled across both time and dimensions; there's a wonderful nod to the Kelvin-verse in the info-dump.

Michael and Phillipa take a journey, reprising the opening scenes in the alien desert they had together in The Vulcan Hello. When they arrive at the coordinates, they find a mysterious old guy named Carl. Without any explanation of who or what he is, he speaks in riddles while prompting Georgiou to step through a door, which Carl says is Georgiou's only way to survive. It's not like a portal or stargate or anything we would expect, but an actual wooden door attached to a freestanding frame. I kind of liked this, it had a quasi-creepy TOS/Doctor Who/Twilight Zone vibe to it.

When Georgiou does go through, we're given a real treat to behold. Kudos to the producers for keeping this a secret. I'm done talking. Oh, and look for the Easter eggs. One of the best episodes of Discovery this season. Can't wait for part 2.

[Crazedwraith]

Terra Firma part 1 is an episode that depends on you liking Georgiou, the mirror universe and Michael & Georgiou's relationship. I can't say it's my favourite aspect of the show but it definitely needs it's time in sun. This season Georgiou's kind of been defange, she blusters and snarks a lot but is generally harmless and has positive interaction with the crew.

Now we're seeing just how much the prime!Crew and their values have rubbed off on her, and presumably how horribly wrong it's all going to go now she's shoved back into her old habitat. I really can't imagine how this is going to play out next episode.

Some other random nitpicks:
-Yor's uniform is an really early TNG Variant That was nice to see, but doesn't come from the year he was stated to come from. He is a time soldier though so maybe it was a disguise. He was also apparently from the Kelvin verse which makes the TNG uniform even stranger.

-That was a very very long, Teaser. It was a shock when the started credits went.

-I was just thinking ‘hmm mirror verse and time travel this would be the time to bring back some dead characters’, very next scene Landry pops up.

-Was I alone in getting a kind of Doctor/Time Lord kind of Vibe off of Carl? Maybe it's just the suit and impossible door thing. I wonder if He'll turn out to be original in a known super-alien race. Like a Q or one of the TOS ones.

-I'm curious how close to the original run, Georgiu's redo is. The ending seems to imply her not killing Burnham then is the real difference, but Stamets wasn't dead in the original timeline either.

[Crazedwraith]

Another unrelated Disco thought: given the massive upgrades Disco has had in this series. Were does this leave Calpyso canonically?

They seem to have the sentient computer from that episode but the ship itself is radically different internally and externally.

[FaxModem1]

I usually enjoy Mirror universe adventures, but I felt back in season 1 that Lorca should have stayed on and the Empress should have died. The plotline we're seeing with her now is what Lorca should have had in season 1, but they instead decided to rescue the cannibal, and just kept her here for two more seasons.

If we can keep Michelle Yeoh, can we get prime Georgiou back?

[TrekkieJeff2000]

I liked the idea of having a Terran with them as a regular character. I used to love the mirror universe episodes. Feels to me they closed the door on that kind of fast.

[Crazedwraith]

I usually enjoy Mirror universe adventures, but I felt back in season 1 that Lorca should have stayed on and the Empress should have died. The plotline we're seeing with her now is what Lorca should have had in season 1, but they instead decided to rescue the cannibal, and just kept her here for two more seasons.

If we can keep Michelle Yeoh, can we get prime Georgiou back?

Yeoh's getting her own spin off, I've heard. Hence the necessity of sending her back to the past to separate her from disco.

[TrekkieJeff2000]

I usually enjoy Mirror universe adventures, but I felt back in season 1 that Lorca should have stayed on and the Empress should have died. The plotline we're seeing with her now is what Lorca should have had in season 1, but they instead decided to rescue the cannibal, and just kept her here for two more seasons.

If we can keep Michelle Yeoh, can we get prime Georgiou back?

Yeoh's getting her own spin off, I've heard. Hence the necessity of sending her back to the past to separate her from disco.

I just read about the section 31 spin off. Should be interesting to see how they go about doing this one.

[Patroklos]

I will be shocked if that spin-off happens.

[Crazedwraith]

There seems to be umpteen spinoffs planned. If all of them happened there would be far too much Star Trek on. Arguably there is already with 3 series on the go.

[Grand Moff Yenchin]

Not sure what I make of episode 3x11. The story itself is not bad, with the "away team encounters mysteries on a planet" formula (Captain, Science Officer, Doctor...). However, the weird explanation for the Burn thingy. It's kind of bizarre and comic bookish, or maybe I've got my fill of explanations like these in the past years to appreciate them.

Additionally, I can't get myself to find the detached nacelles and "morphing" ship believable when navigating in harsh environments like the one in this episode.

The means of how Osyrra tracked the Discovery seemed kind of forced, as in the first episode this season it was like long range sensors and communication were limited. Does that mean the Orion Chain is actually nearby? Probably, still kind of odd. This season there has been not enough time to establish more about the Chain.

Some other oddities:
54% shield and those Chainers(?) were still able to beam in as well as use those tentacle thingies to board.

Cloaking and no radio silence. However, they've been doing this since ST6 so I guess it's just me.

[bilateralrope]

Some other oddities:
54% shield and those Chainers(?) were still able to beam in as well as use those tentacle thingies to board.

Clearly transporters can now get through shields. Though that raises the question: Why aren't transporter inhibitors like what Adira did around Earth, not part of Discovery and activated on red alert ?

If Adira can jury rig one in a few minutes, they should have been included in the retrofit. Otherwise ship to ship combat is going to be a lot of teleporting bombs.

[FireNexus]

Just getting to last week’s episode. I have been joking all season that the burn is the plot of Bender’s game. I repeated it at the beginning of this episode before discovering that it was literally the plot of Bender’s game.

[Iroscato]

So, as I understand it, the Burn was caused by a sad Kelpien who had a psychic link to some dilithium (somehow) and accidentally resonated with it which caused a shockwave which destroyed all dilithium in the galaxy? Haven't seen the episode but that seems to be gist of it. Am I broadly correct?

In which case I would love to know what strain of bath salts they've been snorting so that I can fire the entire supply of it into the sun.

[tezunegari]

So, as I understand it, the Burn was caused by a sad Kelpien who had a psychic link to some dilithium (somehow) and accidentally resonated with it which caused a shockwave which destroyed all dilithium in the galaxy? Haven't seen the episode but that seems to be gist of it. Am I broadly correct?

In which case I would love to know what strain of bath salts they've been snorting so that I can fire the entire supply of it into the sun.

Yes. He was "Changed by the radiation"... I had hoped for an experiment gone horribly wrong/right (like they implied with the sb-11 vulcan episode)but DSC writers disappoint again.

[Grand Moff Yenchin]

This week: Die Hard: Star Trek. Too bad they couldn't time the episode so it could be a New Year or Christmas special. At least it's the 800th Star Trek episode.
And the plot gets even more awkward with Osyrra showing up at SFHQ negotiating for peace, unity, and....capitalism(?!) With Admiral Vance pointing out that all the crimes committed by Osyrra she has to be held account for. While described a couple times this season, I feel Osyrra as an evil character wasn't emphasized enough and the distrust seemed awkward.

Some issues:
Finally we get to see the courier (transwarp?) conduits. It's kind of strange that the main powers were unable to put effort in cleaning the conduits up. I guess the handwave explanation would be there weren't enough ships or dilithium.

Replicators in the 32d Century: still can't make things taste like the real deal despite reducing human waste to atomic levels (or, as mentioned in the previous episode, built up from subatomic levels). It really makes me wonder that, in-series, someone put in a glitch on purpose so people could still cherish real food.

Biological science: Finally someone decides to do some old fashioned cell culture to take a look at Stamets' DNA. In a series with numerous equipment which make any modern biologist drool, they have no chance to go back to cell culture.

Emerald Chain scientist calling the (pre?)TOS era "The Golden Age of Science". I assume that this "era" extends to TNG.

[FireNexus]

Replicators in the 32d Century: still can't make things taste like the real deal despite reducing human waste to atomic levels (or, as mentioned in the previous episode, built up from subatomic levels). It really makes me wonder that, in-series, someone put in a glitch on purpose so people could still cherish real food.

Tbh, I’ve always thought that was meant to be read as the people making the claim bullshitting or just being snobs. Or just mistaken. Maybe Mom is not a snob and only thinks the apples “don’t taste like the real thing” because the replicator is replicating an apple cultivar that either is no longer around or she has never had access to. If somebody replicated a Gros Michel banana with perfect fidelity, most people today would say it tasted like a fake banana.

[bilateralrope]

And the plot gets even more awkward with Osyrra showing up at SFHQ negotiating for peace, unity, and....capitalism(?!) With Admiral Vance pointing out that all the crimes committed by Osyrra she has to be held account for. While described a couple times this season, I feel Osyrra as an evil character wasn't emphasized enough and the distrust seemed awkward.

I was expecting the big reveal to be that she had found a way to fool the Starfleet lie detector. The deal she offered was just too perfect. The negotiations would have probably gone just as well for her even without hostages. So I'm thinking that the Emerald Chain is desperate to find a way to avoid what will happen when their dilithium runs out. That's what allowed Osyrra to get them to agree to all that they did before she even talked to the Federation.

I wonder how it will take before she gets assassinated by other members of the Chain if they hear about why these negotiations failed. Assuming she manages to escape the Federation HQ.

Replicators in the 32d Century: still can't make things taste like the real deal despite reducing human waste to atomic levels (or, as mentioned in the previous episode, built up from subatomic levels). It really makes me wonder that, in-series, someone put in a glitch on purpose so people could still cherish real food.

Tbh, I’ve always thought that was meant to be read as the people making the claim bullshitting or just being snobs. Or just mistaken. Maybe Mom is not a snob and only thinks the apples “don’t taste like the real thing” because the replicator is replicating an apple cultivar that either is no longer around or she has never had access to. If somebody replicated a Gros Michel banana with perfect fidelity, most people today would say it tasted like a fake banana.

I wonder if Osyrra has ever eaten a "real" apple.

[Crazedwraith]

So behind on this since they thought christmas day was the perfect time to release a new episode in the UK

[Grand Moff Yenchin]

A lot of interesting issues kind of missed. Osyrra went full bad guy mode and got killed. What was the point of interrogating Book? The Chain already had the route to the nebula, all they needed to do is to locate the distress signal (or Saru & Co as they were constantly calling for help), or, just toss in some probes and map the thing out.

The only issue to handle Sa'kul was just moving him away from the planet also seemed like a missed chance (seriously, I saw people talking about killing him on some forums I frequent).

Not much input from the Sphere data droids despite last week's revelation. Probably the scriptwriters are still developing this plot.

Turbolift fight. Ugh.
Getting drowned in "programmable matter". Ugh.
Adding more (pointless) biobabble to last week's explanation of Su'Kal. Facepalm.
Detached nacelles are due to superconductor magnetics. Facepalm.
Trill previous host consciousness(soul?) getting detected and applied with holograph. Erm...seems like a good one episode wonder but feels not quite right. Maybe I'm getting old to appreciate wild ideas? Quite a few Trek tech involves probing the mind (at scary levels) so it might not be too outlandish for this to happen.

[bilateralrope]

Killing Osyrra is all it took to destroy the Emerald Chain. Really ?
The writers seem to really hate the idea of having a plot that continues from one season to the next.

The sphere data is able to control multiple droids simultaneously, didn't care about zerg rushing with them, and was notoriously hard to delete from Discovery's main computer. Yet somehow the crew were really worried that they lost it because one of the droids got scrambled. I think it would have been better to not have the droids, and instead have Osyrra progressively losing control of Discovery as the Sphere data took over.

The computer core had programmable matter walls for some reason. Yet the backup switched the bridge back to their TOS era UI. So the retrofit updated the walls of the room, but not the software sitting on the backups.

Ni'Var turns up with a huge fleet that they had stashed away somewhere. Then does nothing with it. No mention of how Micheal's mum was able to get them to burn that much dilithium.

Vance picks Micheal to captain Discovery after Saru leaves. Even after her record of not following orders she doesn't like. Is Starfleet really that desperate ?

Aurellio feels like he's going to stick around on Discovery as just one of the many people they collected. Sure, it doesn't make sense, but they never told us why Ryn stuck around for as long as he did either.

Still, at least Discovery finally switched out their uniforms.

Biological science: Finally someone decides to do some old fashioned cell culture to take a look at Stamets' DNA. In a series with numerous equipment which make any modern biologist drool, they have no chance to go back to cell culture.

I have issues with that line. The first is the idea that, when all the tech fails to reconstruct corrupted DNA, nature will somehow be able to. The second is that it's calling all the Federation's scientists idiots for not thinking of it, all to make the Chain's super scientist seem smart.

Fortunately that's not the solution the writers went for with the spore drive. Instead, the scientist just had information the Federation didn't have that pointed to the Kwejian as being able to do it. Which is a solution I like, in part because making them central to operating the one non-Dilithium drive the Federation knows about could lead to some interesting dilemmas.