Okay my brain like split right down the middle during this second-to-last ep. My higher brain functions were just absolutely capital-S S c r e a m i n ', but the lizard part actually enjoyed it.
There were a lot of scenes of people just talking. Talking in a hallway, talking in a briefing room, talking in their quarters, talking in the mess hall. I liked that a lot. That doesn't happy very often in this show. It seems insane that I'm saying that about a Star Trek show but here we are.
I really like the Admiral and the guy playing Sarek, so, great seeing a lot more of those two. The scene with Michael and Sarek was delightful. The scene with the Admiral just being straight with absolutely everyone about how fucked up their situations are was refreshing.
In a similar vein, that scene between Michael and Tyler was really well-acted and genuinely affecting, which is insane considering how dumb Tyler's entire side of the conversation was (and how dumb it felt that Michael would let it get to her). Sonequa Martin really is great in this role, even when they give her nothing at all to work with.
Terraforming sequence was wonderful in a very Star Trek way. I'd love to see a lot more of that, with some kind of big constructive scientific project as the "action" of the episode, and a lot less ships shooting at each other.
As utterly shlocky as it was, I did like the idea of Sarak and the Emperor having a talk about their dimensionally-displaced, twice-adopted common-law daughter.
Nice seeing more Andorians and Tellerites in this one - been feeling like there's not a whole lot of non-humans in Starfleet proper up until now.
So that stuff was good.
The context for absolutely everything was maddening.
The entire episode is them talking about how fucked up the klingons are, carrying out suicide bombing attacks on star bases and like, destroying the atmosphere of a planet to slaughter everyone on it, etc. The Admiral talks to that klingon woman in the prison and she tells them "we are unable to stop, we have no control over ourselves, and you must stop us," which is like the final nail in the coffin for any hope we had for an interesting klingon race. It's wild that they've taken away the only defining trait of that star trek race - their honor - and turn them into savage hypocrites.
Starfleet decides that their tactics aren't working and that they need something completely different in order to survive, which I think makes sense dramatically (what was that Quark line about humans only being civilized so long as they had their creature comforts), but it in the story arc of the show, it just goes to further show what hypocrites humans are, and yeah, as VC said, makes this entire universe no more interesting or unique than any Good Guy race vs any Bad Buy race in any shitty sci-fi show.
VC wrote:(Michael jesus christ, is she just the embodiment of plot movement or what?)
Michael, boy howdy. VC is on the money here, but like, taken in its own universe under its own terms, one thing that's really been grating on me is how obsessed everyone is in Michael - Lorca, the Emperor, Saru, the klingons, Starfleet - and how special and unique she is. How 'nobody but her could've done what she did'. Beyond her ability to remain stoic while acting in the mirror universe, it doesn't feel at all like she brings anything to any situation but competent military ability and a commitment to not get pulled off-mission. Think of every major challenge she's faced, and she's succeeded by following a pre-set strategy that Saru or Tilly/Stamets put together. The living planet, Kor's ship, the ISS Charon rebellion - she has succeeded by simply not being the one who fucks up the plan. Now that is incredibly valuable in a war, but it isn't like she's got some unique trait on the level of Picard's diplomacy, Sisko's strategy, Janeway's absolute all-in resourcefulness, etc. She doesn't think differently in any way, she's just good at keeping on-task, which sucks as the 'thing' that makes her a hero.
VC wrote:If Lorca is supposed to be a bad guy, then we are supposed to retroactively look at his behavior and go “yeah, that was bad guy stuff and we as people should be above warmongering etc.” But Lorca’s behavior fits in just fine with the rest of Starfleet, which is apparently a huge military organization.
Yeah, stuck with me that if this is what Starfleet is currently valuing, Michael is basically just a lesser version of Lorca.
Lorca was doggedly on-task to the point of suicidal, which I guess is what everyone is looking for?
I won't get into the fact that bringing the genocidal Terran Emperor over here has immediately, within one day, resulted in Starfleet electing her into the captain's chair for what I'm going to assume is a genocidal plan to destroy the klingon homeworld. They could not _wait_ to get another mirror universe warrior into command, apparently.
Yeah I dunno.
Sleazy: Not to enable your desperate hope that any of this could fit in-canon, but... had a thought. Tyler and Vok are now one being. Imagine if the virus idea was true, but the virus changed them into a hybrid race like Tyler - Klingon on the inside, but human-looking on the outside. That would be their solution to the war - making the alien race literally more like them.
Which would be all kinds of fucked up, but, this is Discovery.