Star Trek Discovery: Season Three

[Asvarduil]

... Guess 40% of a shield does not stop transporters.

That...is also a good lore/space magic question. Are partial shields good enough to block transporters?

If Tilly was a half way decent captain, she would have known this.

...And I think that is unfair. Discovery was set up for a rescue/research operation in the nebula. They weren't expecting Osyraa's flagship to be all the way out there. I think, under the circumstances, Tilly did about as good as she could've hoped to - I certainly doubt that Saru, Pike, or even Lorca would've done much better.

Osyraa was - unfortunately for Discovery - in the right place, at the right time. That's a hell of an advantage.

And, no, Tilly isn't a halfway decent captain, and that wasn't the expectation placed on her. She's not the Federation PC in Star Trek Online. She was just holding down the fort while an away team was gone for 4 hours. She didn't get a Klingon/Terran promotion, she didn't get a formal promotion - she was made XO as an interim pick until someone more qualified could be selected.

Given the tone of your prior comments, I'm fairly certain that you don't like Tilly (or DISCO in general), which is fine - that's like, your opinion man! However, there's a difference between "I don't like ${THING} about Tilly", and "Tilly sucks because she was the victim of a well-set and lucky ambush." One is an opinion. One is still an opinion, but made from the place of being a douchebag.

"You were put in an impossible situation, and failed. You suck!" is a pretty petty statement to make.

[Zargon]

...And I think that is unfair. Discovery was set up for a rescue/research operation in the nebula. They weren't expecting Osyraa's flagship to be all the way out there. I think, under the circumstances, Tilly did about as good as she could've hoped to - I certainly doubt that Saru, Pike, or even Lorca would've done much better.

Except Starfleet is a quasi military organization. And at any time the ship might be called in to combat. In fact, in the dumb lore the dinky science ship Discovery is JUST as powerful as the heavy cruiser Enterprise. REAL science ships in REAL Star Trek shows are super weak....because they are non combat science ships.

Discovery has a least a a couple people with more experience then Dumb Tilly. You know like all the bridge crew people who are not main characters?

And sure Saru would have been just as dumb....he is a bad captain too.

Pike...well, he would be written dumb....but what he would REALLY do is simply jump away at the first second they detect the 'Federation ship'. The person says that, Pike says "black Alert, jump to far away deep space point, now!"

And Lorca....well, Lorca would have used the dumb Sphere knowledge by now. Now, sure the "Sphere" whatever is a wimpy non violent thing so it would not give Discovery weapons....but why not super shields? How about a zappy ray that will freeze a foe in time. How about zapping a foe say 100 light years away? Or any of other super high tech things that would not harm anyone.

[Zatman]

Well, to be fair, it was a "science ship" testing a new type of drive intended to send warships all around the galaxy.

[Fuzzy Necromancer]

How dare you insult Tilly. She is the best thing this messed-up show has going for it.

[Link8909]

The think is Zargon, if she had jumped Discovery away, then you would be complaining about how she left the Landing Party on the radiation filled crashed ship alone with Osyraa and a planet made of the one thing that would make her unstoppable, you already hate Star Trek Discovery with a fiery passion, why would that change even if the characters are doing what you personally want them to do?

I'm with Asvarduil on this, Tilly made the right calls, its just Osyraa made her calls faster, and even then Tilly still held her ground, and even isn't letting this get her down by leading the other to retake the ship.

[Mabus]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BE1HriDzlJs
-Discovery writers and producers (and directors) are incapable of writing an action scene to save their lives. The cliffhanger from the last episode with Tillie going Killie? Yup, nope, solved in literally 2.5 minutes. And those bots teasing some cool fight where the bots go full IG-11 on the Chain stormtroopers? LOL, they literally get blasted like clay pigeons. I think the last's episode teaser lasted longer. Same with the space "battle". Oh, the Ni'var fleet is coming, since the Orion ship is outside... nah, who am I kidding, the Discovery way is to give up when you have the upper hand. And ofcourse the entire Starfleet cannot disable Discovery, because then there won't be a (what passes as) plot. Here's a piece of advice: blueballing the audience when things get interesting is NOT how you make an interesting or decent fight or battle. All you do is mock the audience and that's not cool. To put it lightly.
-ENOUGH WITH THE CAMERA SPINNING! You're not distracting anyone with that keychain jiggling from the awful script, dialogue and plot.
-How the hell can't Grinch get the info about how to get to that dilithium planet from Discovery's navigational system, when they have taken control over the ship's computer?! Or now they don't have control over the ship's computer?
-So what, Michael now has that invisible knife that she got stabbed with in the last episode, since before she puts that forcefield in the sickbay, she clearly stabs that guard, since a stabbing sound is clearly heard. Did no one thought to search for any hidden weapons?
-Also, how big is the damn ship? Cause at this point is bigger than the freakin Stafleet bubble base.
-"I was holding my breath for at least 10 minutes by the time I was 10 years old" I guess explains some things about the way characters behave, they all have brain damage from hypoxia.
-And ofcourse Michael has to give ideas to the crew how to disable the ship. You know, the same crew that 20 minutes ago was about to take over the ship! Next season, Michael Burnham reminds everyone how to breathe, as this episode is a foreshadowing that the crew will forget how to breathe.
-So the Burn happened because the kid saw him mom dying and cried a lot. But... didn't the Burn happened over a span of microseconds? The kid must have screamed for hours. And is it a good idea to expose him again to the same traumatic event, even though he's still emotionally unstable, since you know, it takes more than 4 hours of talk to change someone's goal in life? He could have suffered another nervous breakdown, especially since he just gave up his... you know 125 years of his life? Do these writers even know what a life-long trauma even is? And NO, the fact that he's alien doesn't count, since if we're going on that path, then there's no point of emotionally investing in someone who is as different from us as a snake is. The whole point of the damn scene is that this even should be relatable, so he should be emotionally similar to humans... and since everyone in the show has their trauma, PTSD, hate or anger healed in a few minutes or hours, I guess they are about as different from us as snakes are.
-Oh no, the Gray hologram is fading away... how sa... oh wait, if the ship's computer can select Gray from Adira's memories, surely the supergenius Adira can replicate that effect back on Discovery, right? Or at least download Grey from the ship's computer before beaming away?
-So Booker can now activate the spore drive because he can connect with the spores... just like I can control ants by screaming at them. All in 45 seconds.
-And how nice of the Orion ship not to disable Discovery faster than they did in the previous episode. Or at least beam away the warp core before exploding. Also, didn't Burnham told the Federation/Ni'var fleet to get away as far as possible? In the explosion shot, they're right near the ship when it explodes and the blast wave and debris even impacts the ships!
-Burnham saves the day again, because ofcourse she has to. She's even powerful enough to shoot through cheap-ass Minecraft CGI. And then Sillie gives her the captain's chair because everything has to handed to her on a platter. And then everyone praises Michael for not doing anything by the book. Even the freakin's admiral. And then he makes Burnham captain...
Why does this show exist again?

[Zatman]

So, we Die Harded the ship back into the crew's control, angry child just leaves, the Federation is reassembling and mining dilithium...until this source runs out. And Burnham is made captain so the novelty of the main character not being the captain is done. Maybe we'll just call her captain yoyo for how many times she's bounced up and down the ranks. I think my dislike of this season hinges mostly on the source of the burn. It makes no sense, and has been given 5 minutes per episode, until E12, and now it's given another 5 minutes. Do the writers not realize that people actually want coherent plots that actually make sense? That something this major deserves more than 5 minutes of lip service per episode? That every character needs to be actually developed, not simply have their biography told? But no, it's all space battles, ground battles, and crying.
Also, the ship really has a cyberpunk Blade Runner city inside it? That's...ugh...just so stupid.

[Asvarduil]

At last, I am ready.

This final arc of S3 Discovery was decent, but not perfect, in my opinion. While there's a lot to love, I can't sit here and say it was well thought-through, either.

Frankly, I think the plot with Saru was the strong point, as it was the most character-oriented part of the piece, which is where Discovery really shines (when it chooses to. BOFFs.) Having So'kal come to terms with his reality was very powerful, and frankly made the action-y (and worse, video-game-y sequence in DISCO's turbolifts) seem lackluster, because they were lackluster.

I had to agree with the Admiral when he had Stamets evacuated. He was right, that Michael made the right call in evacuating Stamets. While I will happily riff on Michael making bad decisions, I won't riff on two things: A) Michael tends to make better decisions in crisis moments, and B) Whatever else is wrong with Michael, she tends to act from a place of love and compassion (even if she does it stupidly). I don't feel like it was ever in doubt she'd at least try to save the away team.

Speaking of the away team, a stupid moment: Grey Tal becomes a hologram because...(Asvarduil blows a raspberry). While we know that the original Voyager constantly read brainwaves, I don't think that century old, degrading Federation tech wouldn't be able to translate the trippy nature of Adira's joined nature, into a hologram of her deceased lover.

Additionally, something else I consider stupid: Apparently, all Discovery ever needed was a Space Druid to control the spore drive - in fact, Commune with Nature is all that was needed to navigate the spore drive! While I don't mind Discovery having a high-level Druid on the crew, I think that it's awful convenient that Book is able to control the Spore Drive. Of course, it's the season finale, and I interpret the whole plot point as the result of the writers writing themselves into a corner, while also probably allowing for Stamets' actor a chance to move on. It feels contrived and poorly-considered, which even as good as S3 has been, is still a hallmark of Discovery's writing.

At the end, I loved the callout to a Starbase with a gelato machine - someone clearly watches Lore Reloaded too! I'm glad the proud Federation tradition of installing gelato machines has continued even into the disconnected future of the Federation.

Speaking of. "We can now mine the Dilithium planet." Uhmmm...that nebula utterly f@#$s shields! Also, the interesting selling point of the season was that Dilithium was an endangered species. I think that hitting the metaphorical reset button was a mistake for the setting - keeping Dilithium inaccessible would've made a strong hook for Season 4. Additionally, the alternate path of perfecting and proliferating DASH technology could've been taken. Alas, it wasn't. The writers were clearly up against their cosmic deadline.

"The chain fell apart after Osyraa's death". A case of a wasted villain - literally! Osyraa was interesting, because as violent as she was, she was also willing to exercise soft power, in her proferred merger with the Federation. I think dialing down her moustache-twirlingly evil tendencies, and making her a more Dukat-like villain would've been stronger. Alas, the green woman is dead.

Asvarduil's Season 3 Conclusion
All things considered, DISCO S3 is - by and far - the best season of Discovery yet, but I'd say it's still slightly worse than Enterprise Season 3. Despite the strides made by DISCO standards the story is still reasonably weak, with Burnham being insufferable in the first half, Detmer's C-plot being out-and-out disrespectful to the realities of PTSD, and the finale's plot being wrapped up in what is frankly an unstatisfying way. One can say, "Aah but at least it didn't end with time-traveling space nazis!" which, is a point I can only grant, but it's still damnation by faint praise.

Giving the BOFFs more screentime, and diminishing Burnham's role were the two strong things this season did. Additionally, the ruined future of the 32nd century was a great and intriguing setting that was ripe for drama. Had the writers not rushed to hit the reset button, they could've kept much of the drama intact for future seasons, which would've allowed for HUGE diversity of storytelling and plot.

Tilly also notably grew this season. I don't think we've seen the last of Tilly commanding Discovery, though - this outing was rough, and I'd say was her Kobayashi Maru moment. She encountered the unwinnable scenario head-on; she's survived a scenario that was unfair from the start. From here, I believe she'll not only be a better engineer, but a better person and officer.

Lastly, Adira was a great addition to the roster this season. She contributed as the wunderkind, without being a pain in the ass about it. Even her unusual Trill situation added contrast to the story, and was used sparingly enough to be a good detail.

I want to see Burnham grow into a more responsible persona in DISCO S4. I want to see the Federation's woes not be instantly fixed, but for the effort to rebuild the Federation to continue - it was seriously destroyed by The Burn, and should not just automatically weld itself together overnight. I want to see the Chain remnants return, only with a more long-running and cunning villain, if we have to have one. Above all, I want the BOFFs to take the spotlight - Owosekun is by far the most fleshed-out, which is good, but not great. Detmer needed a stronger arc, and Rhys is an untapped source of awesome.

[Mabus]

Forgot to mention that the show skips showing Stamets confronting Michael for tossing him off the ship to prevent him from jumping to the radioactive nebula, to Stamets being on the bridge and being happy that Michael is promoted to captain (MajorGrin pointed that out in his review video).
I guess they kind of forgot about that little plot... even though Stamets appears in the episode for 1 minute and gets put on another ship, against his protests. Oops.

[clearspira]

At the end, I loved the callout to a Starbase with a gelato machine - someone clearly watches Lore Reloaded too! I'm glad the proud Federation tradition of installing gelato machines has continued even into the disconnected future of the Federation.

Are you serious? Did that actually happen? I hate pandering shit like this. And you just know that whoever wrote it was tittering like a little schoolgirl too.