Star Trek Discovery: Season Three

[Link8909]

Hey Zargon beat me to Episode 8! And, given that he hasn't stopped hating it, I think he actually likes it. For my part, I agree, S3 E8 was actually pretty good, with one rather big exception.

At the start, I was expecting a Burnham Fastball Special, not going to lie. Then, a bit later, I was expecting to the see the very rare Book Fastball Special. Interestingly? Neither came to pass. Both Burnham and Book made very smart decisions. Instead, we merely got a simulated Detmer Fastball Special, at Tilly's suggestion no less. However, Tilly at least thought through the consequences ahead of time.

I think after last episode of being confronted by her uncertainty of whether she belongs onboard, Burnham has learned from her past mistakes and is now moving forward, and she now believes she belongs on Discovery and with the rules and responsibility's that come, so I feel that we aren't going to see many maverick approaches to problems from Michael.

I think this whole command thing is working pretty well for Tilly! She has managed to harness the full destructive power of the Fastball Special, and turned it against the enemies of the Federation. Don't fuck with The Tilly! She literally Burnham'd a cruiser-class starship, which seems somewhat bigger and more powerful than the Crossfield-class Science Spearhead Refit [T12]. I bet it has, like, a bajillion tactical console slots, or something stupid.

Agreed, when it comes to Star Trek storytelling, there's nothing inherently wrong with characters defying orders (seriously, I think nearly every character in the franchise at some point has gone rogue), they just need to know when to do it, and here and I personally feel moral wise that in "Scavengers" were good cases for that.

Also, Number One Tilly is the best.

Also Also, I hope not, I'm still upgrading my actual Fleet of starships to Tier 6-X, I don't need another upgrade for along time.

With that said... interestingly, the flagship didn't attack Discovery right away. For all the Chain's bluster, if they really didn't fear the Federation, they would've just destroyed Discovery and sent teams to the planet to kill everyone (or just glassed it.) They didn't. The Chain is actually probably power-wise equal to the Federation, at least militarily. They have a 50/50 chance of winning a war, and they know it; of course, being an evil criminal syndicate, they don't win battles by direct shows of military force.

I do like that Osyraa and the Emerald Chain aren't this powerful force that dominates the galaxy and want galactic conquest, rather they're a crime syndicate that due to the Burn are just the top dog that maintain what power they have through fear.

Now, Detmer's little attack run on the Emerald Chain flagship isn't exactly how one cures PTSD - if anything, I expect in real life, it would be begging for a sudden attack, which shows that DISCO's writers don't actually understand PTSD, they merely think it's weakness leaving the body, or something stupid - yet, Detmer put Luke Skywalker to shame with her flying and fighting. And she's not even Force-sensitive, or a Druid! I'm glad Detmer got a full-on, A-plot outing, she needs more.

Absolutely agree, I'm glade Detmer got to fly down that metaphorical highway into a zone that was dangerous, I don't think however that she is fully recovered, and that she has just faced and accepted that part of her, well see if she has another attack later on, for now this was a great moment for her to shine as a pilot and give words of wisdom to Ryn, I also enjoyed her regaling her heroics to her friend in the Mess-Hall at the end.

Speaking of high level Druids! I think I may have underestimated Book's character sheet, as Book was able to successfully cast Sympathy/Antipathy with his Brother from Another Mother, which is an 8th level Druid spell, meaning he has to be at least a 15th level Druid. He's probably the highest level character on the show, at the moment; while Burnham has definitely taken levels in Fighter and/or Monk, I don't think she's unlocked all the abilities that class confers.

Interestingly, Book "wanting in" to Starfleet/The Federation is an interesting progression of the S3 "Rebuild the Federation" campaign. Up to this point, we've seen Discovery interact with various worlds, and get them re-interested in the Federation; this is the first time we've seen a direct difference made. Interestingly, that Andorian culture has become so antagonistic to the Federation is interesting, I'm curious what made them go that direction.

Its funny that back in "People of Earth" Book thought that getting him into a uniform was apart of Burnham's long-game, and now he willingly wants to join up, I suppose he was a true believer after all, even if he didn't know it.

As much as I'd like to talk about Georgiou's little B-plot, though...there's not much to say. Sure Georgiou doing Georgiou things is entertaining, but this time there was little substance. I feel like it's more the development section in a Classical music orchestration - it takes the main theme, and builds on it, until the piece reaches a musical climax.

Indeed, I do like that this season has giving more for Georgiou to do beyond snark and hit people.

I also guess this is the episode where Adira Tal's actor came out as non-binary, which is OK. They're treated with respect, and certainly no less love from the Stamets family, and hell, they may as well adopt them as their adopted child (I don't think in English a pronoun exists for a neuter-gender offspring, as far as I'm aware, despite English's Germanic roots.)

That would be interesting, I do enjoy the interactions between Stamets and Adira.

Overall, I feel that Star Trek Discovery has been very good about representation for LGBT people, Paul Stamets and Hugh Culber's relationship feels like a real one and both have great chemistry, same with Adira Tal and Gray, they feel like real people and not walking dated stereotypes.

If I had to level a criticism at this episode, I'd say that there's a more subtle problem (which is MUCH LESS of a problem than anything we had before. Science-Commando Dumbass Burnham.) in that now there's too many characters being given screen time equally. We needed less Burnham, certainly, and that's something that should be kept. However, I'd like for the writers to refer to Star Trek: Deep Space Nine for inspiration. While we don't need a seasonal "(Character) must suffer" plot like O'Brien had, we also had "Bashir episodes", versus "O'Brien", versus "Sisko", versus...well, you get the point. By focusing on a character, and allowing all the other characters to support that plot, you get stronger writing

I see what you mean, I personally feel that season three has been very good about not giving Burnham far to much of the spotlight and giving other character a chance to shine so far, she had her personal story last episode that gave closure to her family issues (which made sense since they were returning to Vulcan) and in this episode she took a light supporting role in Book's story.

I also like that while she retrieved the Black-Box's, that it was Stamets and Adira that found where the Burn started, and Captain Saru discovering the distress signal in the sound, it felt very much more of a team effort.

Also, A Federation distress signal in the middle of the nebula where the Burn started... was the Discovery in the Short Trek "Calypso" hiding in a nebula...? could that pocket of abnormal gravity waves that Discovery hit in the wormhole created a duplicate and sent it back in time?

Now, I've taken the long way to get to this, and I certainly don't want to encourage Zargon - though, that also seems unnecessary - but he has a point that the writing still has room to grow. DISCO S3 is unquestionably better than the first two seasons, by leaps and bounds, yet it can be better still. The good news is that - fina-fuckin'-lee - it's actually reaching for that, despite the writer's limitations. Like confusing PTSD, a potentially deadly mental illness, with fear.

Most of the episode was good. I condemn the writers' lack of knowledge of what PTSD actually entails. Sure, they showed at least proper respect to non-Binary persons, which is legitimately good, but they managed to bitch-slap everyone who has a chronic trauma-induced mental condition while doing it, which is less good. That's a Burnham-grade writing decision, right there.

While I do enjoy the first two seasons of Discovery for what they are, I do agree that season three has been an overall improvement of those last seasons, and I like that the creative team do try to improve and made the series better, I'm sure when season four comes out that it'll also be improving on thing that this season didn't get right.

Overall,"The Sanctuary" was a another great episode for me personally.

[Asvarduil]

I do like that Osyraa and the Emerald Chain aren't this powerful force that dominates the galaxy and want galactic conquest, rather they're a crime syndicate that due to the Burn are just the top dog that maintain what power they have through fear.

I agree that's good. Unfortunately, I also feel like we're seeing Osyraa taking on the role of BBEG (Big Bad Evil Guy/Gal) in this season.

As I said a while back - not every campaign needs a BBEG! I think that Discovery's exploration of the post-Burn Federation, and why certain planets stayed or left, is fascinating. Discovery's efforts to change the status quo are more compelling than having a centralized antagonistic presence. I for one am absolutely OK with the Federation's past being the antagonist. Clearly, the Federation pissed off many worlds in the run-up to the Burn.

I think that a timely, topical message would be that governments need to be introspective when things go wrong, and understand where, when, and why they lost prestige, power, and prominence (even if few governments or government officials are capable of such a feat.) Regardless of one's positions on the specifics of policy that they back, the simple fact is that government exists to serve the many, not the few, and it seems like pre-Burn the Federation forgot that to some extent. One could draw parallels to America in that regard, again regardless of what your specific policy positions are.

Having a BBEG shifts focus away from that very important message, and I think makes Star Trek A) less relevant, and B) more adolescent for doing that. I hope that Osyraa gets neutralized as a threat in the next couple of episodes, so that the climax and falling action of the season can be the resolution of the Federation's pre-Burn problems, and even a happy "ending" in the form of a resurgent and benevolent Federation.

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

So I haven't ordered CBS AA yet. Is this season still pretty much Star Trek, or at least a consistent development with nu Trek?

[TGLS]

Eh, my dad says it's too touchy-feely to be Star Trek. There's a more of that, but I'd say it's still Trek.

[Makeshift Python]

Yeah, I miss episodes that were primarily about dispassionate beurocrats that debated at conference tables for 40 minutes and reacted to emergencies like this. And if we were lucky, there would be a poetry reading at a bar.



youtu.be/gtSmsdoKogM

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

Yeah stuff like "I know that one person at this table has a mind infected by some unknown being but we're gonna figure out how to stop it from destroying the ship together as diplomatically as possible." Like, fuck.

I've seen the first two seasons of Disc btw and Picard.

[Link8909]

I do like that Osyraa and the Emerald Chain aren't this powerful force that dominates the galaxy and want galactic conquest, rather they're a crime syndicate that due to the Burn are just the top dog that maintain what power they have through fear.

I agree that's good. Unfortunately, I also feel like we're seeing Osyraa taking on the role of BBEG (Big Bad Evil Guy/Gal) in this season.

As I said a while back - not every campaign needs a BBEG! I think that Discovery's exploration of the post-Burn Federation, and why certain planets stayed or left, is fascinating. Discovery's efforts to change the status quo are more compelling than having a centralized antagonistic presence. I for one am absolutely OK with the Federation's past being the antagonist. Clearly, the Federation pissed off many worlds in the run-up to the Burn.

I think that a timely, topical message would be that governments need to be introspective when things go wrong, and understand where, when, and why they lost prestige, power, and prominence (even if few governments or government officials are capable of such a feat.) Regardless of one's positions on the specifics of policy that they back, the simple fact is that government exists to serve the many, not the few, and it seems like pre-Burn the Federation forgot that to some extent. One could draw parallels to America in that regard, again regardless of what your specific policy positions are.

Having a BBEG shifts focus away from that very important message, and I think makes Star Trek A) less relevant, and B) more adolescent for doing that. I hope that Osyraa gets neutralized as a threat in the next couple of episodes, so that the climax and falling action of the season can be the resolution of the Federation's pre-Burn problems, and even a happy "ending" in the form of a resurgent and benevolent Federation.

Very true, or maybe Osyraa and the Emerald Chain can be a long term villain like the Klingons, the Romulans, and the Cardassians and Dominion were for previous series.

[Link8909]

Yeah, I miss episodes that were primarily about dispassionate beurocrats that debated at conference tables for 40 minutes and reacted to emergencies like this. And if we were lucky, there would be a poetry reading at a bar.



youtu.be/gtSmsdoKogM

Yeah stuff like "I know that one person at this table has a mind infected by some unknown being but we're gonna figure out how to stop it from destroying the ship together as diplomatically as possible." Like, fuck.

I've seen the first two seasons of Disc btw and Picard.

Don't forget the Poker Games and Concerts...

Also that video... Bloody Hell guys, three people could be death from a massive explosion, and your reacting to the crisis at the speed of nonchalant.

In seriousness, while I still enjoy the older series (with The Original Series and Deep Space Nine as my personal favourites), not every Star Trek series has to follow the same TNG era style story telling to be considered "true" Star Trek, and personally I'd say that modern Star Trek does still have many of the elements of the franchise that made it what it is, commentary on the human condition, a progressive and overall optimistic future of humanity, and a message of trying to be better.

[CharlesPhipps]

A part of me suspects the problem is that certain fans came at DISCO with both barrels and expected it to sink.

Now they're angry it's chugging along stronger than ever.

[Link8909]

A part of me suspects the problem is that certain fans came at DISCO with both barrels and expected it to sink.

Now they're angry it's chugging along stronger than ever.

Agreed, what's funny is that this kind of mentality isn't new and has aways cropped up when anything new is added to the franchise, these are arguments that have been around before I was even born, I'd even bet credits to navy beans that Sci-fi fans from the 60's were against The Original Series for breaking many of the traditions of how other Sci-fi shows were.

This is why I try to approach anything new with an open mind and a positive attitude, not only to not fall into the trap of stereotypical angry fanboy who's arguments should suspiciously like that of Super-Boy Prime's "EVerY tHIng WAs BeTtER On mY EaRTh!", but because whether my opinions change I'd like to look back on my comments and attitude and see someone that was trying to be reasonable and understandable, and not like in Avengers Endgame when they went back in time and Professor Hulk saw his past self.

It's also why I have Captain Picard's line from "The Wounded" as a permanent signature, it's not healthy to be angry all the time, and in the end if one is angry all the time, that's all someone will ever know how to be, and I don't want to be that way.