Star Trek Discovery season 2 megathread

[MissKittyFantastico]

'An Oboe for Charon' (dude's stuck on a ferry all day, he needs something to play to take his mind off things) - so this is the episode they worked on after the premiere had been laid out in detail, and they knew they had Nhan and Jet to play with. I kind of feel like Nhan's 'introduction' was a bit of a wink to the audience on that count, which... I dunno, maybe leave the meta to Deadpool, but I'll forgive it this once. Cute reference to the holos (lack thereof) on Enterprise, and same-but-more-serious setting up for the spore drive to be eventually put in a crate and stored in the warehouse from Raiders of the Lost Ark. (If that is the final reason they decide to nix the whole thing, I'm headcanoning an argument between Janeway and Ransom where she berates him for ignoring that Starfleet actually made a specific rule against powering your engine with genocide, not just assumed everyone'd understand not to.)

I kind of felt a bit of a disconnect between plot threads this one, like up on the bridge they were doing classic Trek while down in engineering they were going full Disco - I didn't dislike the Tilly story, I'm kind of intrigued with where it goes now, but I'm not entirely sold on it either. Nice song choice though. On the other hand the rest of the crew dealing with the Big Ball Of Classic Misunderstood Lifeform felt almost a little too classic, like - I know this is a prequel, but c'mon folks, of course it's attempting to communicate, that's practically Starfleet 101. Still, Doug Jones crushed his side of things, which more than held the episode together.

[technobabbler]

DS9 would've done the entire Trek fandom a big favor if in that "Tribbles" episode, Worf spent the entire episode in 1960's Klingon make-up. As a subtle nudge saying "c'mon everyone---especially canon fundamentalists, TOS Klingons solely looked that way due to budget and primitive 60's makeup effects." (And just say that General Chang looked his way because he was half-Klingon + half-some non-Earth humanoid....it's the Klingon Empire after all)

I don't mind retcons that keep the tone of TOS intact (the Wild West of space exploration---communication with command can take days, etc)....spore drive + sensors with range exceeding thousands of light years + TNG replicators + real-time communication w/Command? gimme a break.

your mileage may vary.

[Worffan101]

DS9 would've done the entire Trek fandom a big favor if in that "Tribbles" episode, Worf spent the entire episode in 1960's Klingon make-up. As a subtle nudge saying "c'mon everyone---especially canon fundamentalists, TOS Klingons solely looked that way due to budget and primitive 60's makeup effects." (And just say that General Chang looked his way because he was half-Klingon + half-some non-Earth humanoid....it's the Klingon Empire after all)

I don't mind retcons that keep the tone of TOS intact (the Wild West of space exploration---communication with command can take days, etc)....spore drive + sensors with range exceeding thousands of light years + TNG replicators + real-time communication w/Command? gimme a break.

your mileage may vary.

This. I completely agree that it would've been better and probably funnier for the original episode in question.

[Makeshift Python]

I don't think the DS9 writers ever thought that there'd ever be a "canon" explanation in Trek beyond the very clever "we do not discuss it with outsiders". It was funny then and still is, but Worf suddenly looking like a TOS Klingon with nobody noticing would have been pretty funny too.

Are there TNG replicators? The food slots seem to be pretty much in keeping with TOS, though it has a microwave ding instead of that 60s sci-fi sound effect.

[kingofmadcows]

It's pretty pointless to even try to reconcile anything with TOS. There's already tons of stuff in TOS that's been retconned.

Just a few weeks ago, Chuck reviewed "The Alternative Factor," in which Starfleet was able to monitor the entire galaxy and pinpoint the source of the space distortions to Lazarus' planet. In "Arena," they're able to travel dozens of parsecs in a matter of hours and the episode ends with the Metrons depositing the Enterprise 500 parsecs away. Heck, in "The Cage," they outright say that Talos IV is on the other side of the galaxy.

Travel distances was never an issue in TOS. If you kept any of the TOS travel times, the entire premise of DS9 and Voyager would be pointless since it'd just take a couple of weeks to get from the Delta or Gamma Quadrant to the Alpha Quadrant.

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

Talk about submersion with Worf going in 1960's costuming, I'm reminded of Captain Proton where they play a whole episode to such tune. It really works for me, but the overtone of the 50's show aesthetic really plays well within the bounds of the convention.

I personally don't think Worf dressing like a 60's Klingon would work as well. I know that Chuck said it would be hilarious, but it would bend things a bit. It is very effective as a celebration episode as Chuck said in the 30th Anniversary Retrospective compared to Flashback. It definitely feels more celebratory than proper with injection of the tribble episode over an actual Trek dilemma, but it doesn't actually break any episodic convention like Simpsons Treehouse of Horror. The DS9 plot is definitely second fodder but the TOS injection is still seamless.

And really, the whole joke about Klingon mutation etc... doesn't even discount the fact that the original Klingon costume was budget constricted. It wasn't a means of satisfying narrative so much as making a joke of the discrepancy. In effect, they were actually ignoring it through witty lampshading.

[Actarus]

'An Oboe for Charon' (dude's stuck on a ferry all day, he needs something to play to take his mind off things) -

It's an obole for Charon. The coin the dead had to pay Charon to cross the Styx River.

[MissKittyFantastico]

'An Oboe for Charon' (dude's stuck on a ferry all day, he needs something to play to take his mind off things) -

It's an obole for Charon. The coin the dead had to pay Charon to cross the Styx River.

Joke - Deadpan Mode.

[TheNewTeddy]

am I crazy or was the last discovery episode the best trek; movie or episode, since 2005

[Enterprising]

am I crazy or was the last discovery episode the best trek; movie or episode, since 2005

Definitely crazy. Though to be fair Doug Jones pulled out all the stops to salvage something of worth from it.