Star Trek Discovery: Season Three

[Asvarduil]

How could they have "quickly rebuilt" with only sublight travel...?

The same way they've rebuilt space travel in the setting as is? We had multiple non-dilithium systems in the setting as is, starting with the Fungus Drive but also including the Romulan singularity drives. They also have set up dilithium is still in use.

Besides, if they only have sublight travel period, then the difference between "sudden explosion" would be "mass starvation and trillions dead due to interdependent planets collapsing."

Which is 100x worse.

The Burn blew up all the existing starships but is far far less horrifying than losing warp speed.

I know I keep bringing up Quantum Slipstream travel, which is limited by Benamite, but that's an even more powerful form of FTL than conventional warp drive.

[CharlesPhipps]

How could they have "quickly rebuilt" with only sublight travel...?

The same way they've rebuilt space travel in the setting as is? We had multiple non-dilithium systems in the setting as is, starting with the Fungus Drive but also including the Romulan singularity drives. They also have set up dilithium is still in use.

Besides, if they only have sublight travel period, then the difference between "sudden explosion" would be "mass starvation and trillions dead due to interdependent planets collapsing."

Which is 100x worse.

The Burn blew up all the existing starships but is far far less horrifying than losing warp speed.

I know I keep bringing up Quantum Slipstream travel, which is limited by Benamite, but that's an even more powerful form of FTL than conventional warp drive.

Here's the thing: they've MENTIONED and INCORPORATED quantum slipstream travel. Book's ship has it.

It's just apparently something that requires dilithium too.

Space travel hasn't gone away. It's there and people use it. It's just people are scarred and isolationist because they don't know when another Burn might happen.

[Al-1701]

I've been silent here, but I've been liking Season 3 so far. The setting is something truly new to Star Trek and yet thoroughly plausible. And it has been good to see the major civilized planets have maintained themselves well in this aftermath. And being more isolationist is again plausible since help is unlikely to ever come.

As for the Burn and the dilithium situation, it was the antimatter reaction losing control that destroyed the ships, not the dilithium itself. They claimed their warp core was offline at the time to justify not being destroyed. And warp cores have been the primary power system of ships across the galaxy. Even non-warp driven ships likely have an antimatter reactor to power it.

The spore drive is unique in that it can tap into an external power source for its jumps. Think of an electric train receiving power from the grid instead of a diesel-electric which has its generator on board.

Really, I kind of wish they had started with this. It finally feels like DISCO has found its niche.

[Link8909]

I've been silent here, but I've been liking Season 3 so far. The setting is something truly new to Star Trek and yet thoroughly plausible. And it has been good to see the major civilized planets have maintained themselves well in this aftermath. And being more isolationist is again plausible since help is unlikely to ever come.

As for the Burn and the dilithium situation, it was the antimatter reaction losing control that destroyed the ships, not the dilithium itself. They claimed their warp core was offline at the time to justify not being destroyed. And warp cores have been the primary power system of ships across the galaxy. Even non-warp driven ships likely have an antimatter reactor to power it.

The spore drive is unique in that it can tap into an external power source for its jumps. Think of an electric train receiving power from the grid instead of a diesel-electric which has its generator on board.

Really, I kind of wish they had started with this. It finally feels like DISCO has found its niche.

Agreed, while I personally like seasons one and two for what they are as they did have good ideas and moments, and I like that the events of those seasons are still referenced and even play apart of season threes story rather than being ignored, I do feel that with hindsight that Star Trek Discovery should have been set in its own unique era from the start, similar to when The Next Generation began, I'm not opposed to prequels in themselves, but I do feel that when Discovery started it tried to be too many things at the same time, and didn't have enough time to flesh those ideas out properly.

I also really like the setting of the 32nd Century as well, and also how the galaxy has adapted to The Burn, with major worlds being self-sustaining but more isolated, with the rest of the galaxy having a wild west feel to it, rather than a Mad Max style post-apocalyptic setting, there's still civilization, it's just everyone's looking out for themselves.

And while the science of the Spore Drive is crazy, I've always like it from the start, and while the past seasons have shown the applications and repercussions of it, because of the prequel nature it wouldn't have lasted long, but now it has a real chance to shine, and I 'm looking forward to seeing how it plays out, maybe even having the future Starfleet ships using it to replace Warp Drive.

[TGLS]

If the their solution to Burnham being overpowering is to making Tal overpowering instead I'm going to be upset.

[Asvarduil]

If the their solution to Burnham being overpowering is to making Tal overpowering instead I'm going to be upset.

Having just seen S3E6...

First, it doesn't look like Tal is being overpowering at all. In fact, they were barely even present this episode. If anything, I'm concerned that this interesting character who has a lot of context about the setting won't be made use of. Of course, it's also true that Adira Tal is still a teenage human, even with the lifetimes of memories of the Tal symbiont. I hope they make more use of her.

In the last few posts, my theory about the "Burnham Fastball Special" being something that everyone on Discovery is afraid of...has panned out in a few different ways. First Saru had to talk Michael out of a harebrained scheme. Next, Lt. Naan stayed behind to short-circuit another self-righteous harebrained scheme (that she gets to escape the potential for Burnham to violently fuck something up isn't mentioned, but I'm willing to classify that as "a bonus"). Lastly, Michael crept fucking close to outright insubordination with the Admiral a few times, because of course she did. She really does not fucking understand socialization on a basic level.

Also, similarly to last time, once again Saru sent Michael off to deal with an immediate problem, presumably to preempt any Burnham Fastball Specials. An idle Burnham, is a dangerous Burnham.

While this was a tense episode, though, honestly not a whole lot really went down. Sure, the debriefings of the DISCO crew were entertaining (especially Reno), but I think we're going to get an Emperor Georgiou arc this season! Apparently, the bit when Georgiou was being interrogated wasn't just a shrewd interrogator having to work with a most uncooperative subject - just as something was visibly off with Detmer at the start of the season, Emperess Georgiou appears to be in a rough spot of her own. With that said, I think that that's stupid, because this is building off the premise that Terran humans are different from Prime Humans on a biological level, which was one of the dumber S1 retcons.

Similarly, it seems that Detmer is in fact getting a C-plot for the season of her dealing with her PTSD. With that said, she has friends, colleagues, and allies to help her with that. Hell, the Federation's own sensors clearly showed that Detmer is off!

I do like that Discovery's "rebuild the Federation" arc saw Discovery basically trying to prime the Federation itself to rejoin the interstellar community. In fact, if this season has a theme, it's dealing with unhealed trauma - first in Michael, then Detmer, the worlds and peoples that Discovery visits, and next apparently the Emperor. I think this also explains why S3 is of the relatively high quality it is, too - the writers have chosen a theme, are sticking with it, and are executing it using strong character work and a lot less flashy action sequences.

Put differently, S3 is so far the best DISCO season, because it has substance, and isn't relying on SFX to carry the day. I'm glad someone figured that out.

Lastly, I think the Federation is keeping the NCC-74656 Voyager around as a strategic weapon. The last time it was loosed on the galaxy, Janeway left a trail of destruction across the better part of an entire quadrant of the galaxy. Anyone who makes the Federation lose patience will be summarily hit in the face with a Janeway Pi.

[TGLS]

If the their solution to Burnham being overpowering is to making Tal overpowering instead I'm going to be upset.

Having just seen S3E6...

Eh, this is what happens when I write a post before seeing the whole thing. "We're beaming over the Captain, First Officer, and the person who dominated last episode" reads a little as, "Let's make Tal important."

I think we're going to get an Emperor Georgiou arc this season!

I think we're getting a springboard for Star Trek: Section 31.

[Thebestoftherest]

If the their solution to Burnham being overpowering is to making Tal overpowering instead I'm going to be upset.

Having just seen S3E6...

Eh, this is what happens when I write a post before seeing the whole thing. "We're beaming over the Captain, First Officer, and the person who dominated last episode" reads a little as, "Let's make Tal important."

I think we're going to get an Emperor Georgiou arc this season!

I think we're getting a springboard for Star Trek: Section 31.

Hope not Section 31 should be the bad guys.

[Thebestoftherest]

If the their solution to Burnham being overpowering is to making Tal overpowering instead I'm going to be upset.

Lastly, I think the Federation is keeping the NCC-74656 Voyager around as a strategic weapon. The last time it was loosed on the galaxy, Janeway left a trail of destruction across the better part of an entire quadrant of the galaxy. Anyone who makes the Federation lose patience will be summarily hit in the face with a Janeway Pi.

Really? That actually happened in voyager.

[CharlesPhipps]

If the their solution to Burnham being overpowering is to making Tal overpowering instead I'm going to be upset.

Having just seen S3E6...

Eh, this is what happens when I write a post before seeing the whole thing. "We're beaming over the Captain, First Officer, and the person who dominated last episode" reads a little as, "Let's make Tal important."

I think we're going to get an Emperor Georgiou arc this season!

I think we're getting a springboard for Star Trek: Section 31.

Hope not Section 31 should be the bad guys.

I think that ship has sailed when they are getting their own show.