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Star Trek to return to the small screen.

bileduct

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17,832
Man, I was convinced that Michael was going to be the red angel right up until the moment Tilly said it was her. I thought there's no way they'd just reveal it like that, it seemed really underwhelming.

Nice plot twist.
 

Willow

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108,132
Bloody heck...the late 1970s, when cocaine was flowing freely.

Ah, the Shat. A special talent. He could take the piss out of himself and folks would clap. Anyone else and they'd be yelling "get off!"

Happy birthday James T... wherever you are.
 

bileduct

Coach
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17,832
Have a look at his twitter account. The dude is very active, responds to lots of normies and gives zero f**ks.
 

bileduct

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17,832
So I think we just got the beginning of an explanation as to why Spock never mentioned Michael Burnham before Discovery.

It is mentioned that it would take the power of a supernova to sever old Mrs. Burnham from her timeline. We know that the Klingon raid that was thought to have killed Burnham's parents happened as a supernova was imminent. Next week's episode has them travelling to a Klingon planet.

What's the bet that they're going to get their hands on another one of these time crystals at the Klingon planet, go back in time and use the supernova to yank old Mrs. Burnham back? If she ends up living through the whole process then Michael won't get shipped off to Vulcan to become Spock's sister, explaining why he presumably has no memory of her.

Also, some of the visuals and lines of dialogue in this episode were pretty heavily implying that Control is evolving into the Borg.

Oh yeah, I still can't stand Sonequa Martin-Green's acting, or should I say overacting. It surpasses the depths of The Shat's overacting highlight reel.
 
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jargan83

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14,883
So I think we just got the beginning of an explanation as to why Spock never mentioned Michael Burnham before Discovery.

It is mentioned that it would take the power of a supernova to sever old Mrs. Burnham from her timeline. We know that the Klingon raid that was thought to have killed Burnham's parents happened as a supernova was imminent. Next week's episode has them travelling to a Klingon planet.

What's the bet that they're going to get their hands on another one of these time crystals at the Klingon planet, go back in time and use the supernova to yank old Mrs. Burnham back? If she ends up living through the whole process then Michael won't get shipped off to Vulcan to become Spock's sister, explaining why he presumably has no memory of her.

Also, some of the visuals and lines of dialogue in this episode were pretty heavily implying that Control is evolving into the Borg.

Oh yeah, I still can't stand Sonequa Martin-Green's acting, or should I say overacting. It surpasses the depths of The Shat's overacting highlight reel.

I got the Borg vibe back in the eoeisode where the probe attack the shuttle with Pike and Tyler on board but figured the writers wouldn’t go down that route but the scene where Leland was being held by control and then injected by something that looked awfully like nanoprobes.
 

Timbo

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Dunno how I feel about control evolving into the Borg, but it seems an awful lot like that's what's happening. I did not care for their unnamed introduction in Enterprise, and if this is another wink at the audience I don't know if I appreciate it. I'm really enjoying this season otherwise, but I do agree that Martin-Green's acting (particularly her hurt/emotional acting) is up there with some of Shatner's overacting. I do like the character otherwise, and I'm loving Mount as Pike more and more as the season goes on - it's just such a shame he canonically has to leave the crew at the end of the season to head back to the Enterprise.
 

bileduct

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17,832
Other than the occasional bit of silliness like the mine field horseshit, I think this season has done a really good job, particularly when it comes to respecting the established Star Trek canon. The Pike backstory has been fantastic, with the Talos IV adventure and Pike accepting his fate being stand outs. I was reviewing a previous episode from this season with Rebecca Romijn and picked up on a line I'd missed earlier in which Pike explains why the Enterprise is so low-tech in appearance when compared to Discovery. Klingons suddenly growing hair is still stupid though.

So today's episode wasn't really all that surprising, especially the bit about picking up another time crystal from the Klingon planet which was obvious from the preview. I still think we're going to see them heading back in time to yank old Mrs. Burnham back using the supernova that was imminent before the Klingon attack. If that ends up being the case I think the foreshadowing in that line from Stamets was waaaaaay too obvious.

The preview for next week's episode looked interesting. That was definitely the Enterprise sitting next to Discovery and firing off some torpedoes (you could see the 1701 designation pretty clearly and Number One was at the con). If they do end up abandoning Discovery it may explain the events preceding the Short Trek episode Calypso.
 
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jargan83

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14,883
I assume I don't need the spoiler tag?

Anson Mount has completely owned the role of Christopher Pike, the scene where he was flashed forward in time was brilliant and heartbreaking.

2 episodes to go (I think), I really hope they don't do a Borg Origin story for Control.

I'm going to have to watch those Short Trek's which is something I have neglected to do thus far.
 

Timbo

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It’s confirmed that Mount is leaving at the end of this season, which sucks. The scene where he sees his future, has the option to change it and chooses not to for the greater good is some of the best acting I’ve ever seen across all 31 seasons of Star Trek.
 

bileduct

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17,832
I wasn't really feeling it this episode despite seeing the Enterprise in action again which was probably the only really enjoyable part. Oh, Georgiou was awesome, as was Pike as usual. The wink and smile when Georgiou told him about the mirror universe was interesting. Maybe that will open the door to seeing him again at some point in the future?

Question... Isn't the spore drive still operational? I'm pretty sure they even used it this episode. If it's still operational then why are they having issues outrunning the Section 31 ships? They could jump to another f**king quadrant if they wanted to.

Am I missing something about the seven signals? I thought they already knew where they all were. Isn't that what Spock's map was about? Didn't Starfleet already have their own map of them which matched Spock's? But it seems they're waiting around for them to appear?

The AI switching off the self destruct sequence could be seen coming from a million parsecs away.

This episode reeked of last minute solutions to complex problems. Section 31 is an hour away, so lets just fabricate a new red angel suit in that time. f**kin' easy!

Michael was unbearable, once again. Has there been an episode she hasn't cried in? This is the same chick that was brought up by Vulcans, right? Yet she's the most emotional person ever to appear in any Star Trek series! The love interest angle with Ash Tyler is lame as f**k. He's almost as bad as she is.

I think there's too much to resolve with just one episode left, so I'm expecting the season to end with a cliffhanger with the story about mummy and daddy Burnham continuing into next season.
 
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bileduct

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17,832
The documentary What We Left Behind: Looking Back At Star Trek: Deep Space Nine is finally about to drop. I am so looking forward to this! DS9 was the absolute height of Star Trek as far as I am concerned.

They've remastered a bunch of scenes in HD for the doco. The space battles look incredible.


The short battle scene from the trailer appears to have been taken from this:

 
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Timbo

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I wasn't really feeling it this episode despite seeing the Enterprise in action again which was probably the only really enjoyable part. Oh, Georgiou was awesome, as was Pike as usual. The wink and smile when Georgiou told him about the mirror universe was interesting. Maybe that will open the door to seeing him again at some point in the future?

Question... Isn't the spore drive still operational? I'm pretty sure they even used it this episode. If it's still operational then why are they having issues outrunning the Section 31 ships? They could jump to another f**king quadrant if they wanted to.

Am I missing something about the seven signals? I thought they already knew where they all were. Isn't that what Spock's map was about? Didn't Starfleet already have their own map of them which matched Spock's? But it seems they're waiting around for them to appear?

The AI switching off the self destruct sequence could be seen coming from a million parsecs away.

This episode reeked of last minute solutions to complex problems. Section 31 is an hour away, so lets just fabricate a new red angel suit in that time. f**kin' easy!

Michael was unbearable, once again. Has there been an episode she hasn't cried in? This is the same chick that was brought up by Vulcans, right? Yet she's the most emotional person ever to appear in any Star Trek series! The love interest angle with Ash Tyler is lame as f**k. He's almost as bad as she is.

I think there's too much to resolve with just one episode left, so I'm expecting the season to end with a cliffhanger with the story about mummy and daddy Burnham continuing into next season.

I enjoyed it, but it was very much in the service of setting up the next episode.

Also, as for the auto destruct - couldn't they just put a timer on a photon torpedo or something?
 

jargan83

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14,883
I’d read elsewhere that season 2 was originally only going to be 13 episodes and got extended to 14 episodes as the producers felt 13 wasn’t enough to get to where they wanted to go but the latest episode felt like they were treading water trying to set up the final episode.
 

bileduct

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17,832
I’d read elsewhere that season 2 was originally only going to be 13 episodes and got extended to 14 episodes as the producers felt 13 wasn’t enough to get to where they wanted to go but the latest episode felt like they were treading water trying to set up the final episode.
According to this article it was to recover production costs after schedule and budget overruns...

Extending the season to 14 episodes is not entirely surprising. Shortly before production began in April, TrekMovie first reported that season two was scheduled to run 13 episodes, however, three months later one of the reasons cited for the dismissal of showrunners Gretchen Berg and Aaron Harberts was “leadership and operational issues” which included overruns, both in budget and timeliness. Over the summer it became clear the production was running behind, which is likely the reason why Jonathan Frakes ended up directing the ninth episode instead of the tenth, as originally planned.

Production on the second season was originally set to wrap in early November, but it has continued, picking up again after the (American) Thanksgiving holiday. The local Toronto TV and film production union website confirmed Discovery (under the codename “Green Harvest”) has been extended by nearly a month, to December 21. With the schedule slippage, CBS has already needed to extend their time at Pinewood Studios, so tacking on another episode would allow CBS to amortize the cost of production over more episodes. Discovery season 1 was expanded mid-production by two episodes for similar reasons.

https://trekmovie.com/2018/12/08/an...ry-season-2-has-been-extended-to-14-episodes/
 

bileduct

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17,832
I enjoyed it, but it was very much in the service of setting up the next episode.

Also, as for the auto destruct - couldn't they just put a timer on a photon torpedo or something?
There's just a lot of shit on this show that doesn't make sense.

Just in this episode alone:

1) The spore drive is still operational, meaning they could have jumped away from Section 31 to anywhere in the galaxy and had more than enough time to charge the time crystal.

2) The evacuation corridors, never seen before on Star Trek, are entirely unnecessary given that the ship has multiple transporter rooms and shuttle craft.

3) Section 31 somehow disrupts subspace communication stopping Discovery from alerting Starfleet about the Section 31 threat, but Discovery is still able to communicate with Enterprise when they are light years away.

4) They are on the run from Section 31 but Sarek and Amanda manage to just show up all the way from Vulcan just to say goodbye. That entire scene could have been achieved using the telepathic link Michael and Sarek both have from the mind meld.

5) Sarek could have resolved issue #3 by relaying a message to Starfleet himself, but doesn't.

That's just off the top of my head. I'm sure there are more issues.

J. Michael Staczynski wrote entire seasons of Babylon 5 by himself because he recognised that handing individual epsiodes off to different writers would make long story arcs too difficult to put together. This season of Discovery has had about 20 different writers, some of which seem to have no f**king idea about Star Trek at all. I know I keep harping on it, but that minefield episode was just sheer stupidity written by someone that had no idea Federation starships have weapons with mine clearing capabilities.

Pike has been an absolute revelation, thankfully taking some of the focus away from Michael Burnham. As much as I don't think Star Trek needs another series based on the adventures of the Enterprise, he truly needs his own show. I would have loved to actually see more of the relationship between Stamets and Culber, but instead they commit the writing sin of telling instead of showing which is another huge issue with this show.

Ugh... This show has too much JJ Abrams influence in it. He sets up compelling situations but then can't deliver a pay off. Last season ended with a dull fizzle, and with Pike's departure I fear more of the same. Michael Burnham is just such an unlikable piece of shit despite the intent of the writers, and there's nothing redeeming about the character whatsoever. I understand the creative decision to have a show that isn't centered around the captain, but they've really failed to execute on that concept here. She completely undermines Saru who may as well give up the first officer role to her. She is consulted about and has an opinion on absolutely everything and always get the final say. They throw her into scenes just to say "hey, I trust this guy implicitly and that's why you should do what he says!" as if her judgment is what the captain must always rely on.

Even previous Star Trek shows had episodes that barely involved the character the entire show is centered around, but not this one. Michael has to be front and center every time and it's just ridiculous. The show suffers because of the terrible writing of her character and the extreme levels overacting from an overly emotional Sonequa Martin-Green who is supposed to be playing a character raised on Vulcan. I can't feel anything at all for most of the other characters because they get so little time to breathe and come across as little more than glorified extras, and even when something happens to them (like when Tilly got kidnapped by the fungus blob) the focus is always all about how Michael feels about it.

I mean, holy shit... Spock's parents turned up to say goodbye to Michael and not their own son!

I don't want to make it sound like I hate this show, because I really don't. I always wanted to see Star Trek take the same approach as the Battlestar Galactica reboot did with multi-season story arcs and a high budget. Now that we're actually getting it I can look past some issues like occasional really bad writing and a loathsome character like Burnham, but it could be soooo much better than it currently is.
 
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bileduct

Coach
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17,832
Just one other thing... With Spock joining them on their mission to the future it absolutely means they are going to retcon the entire Discovery timeline.

For Michael to go back and create the signals that have been leading them around all season means that either the time crystal isn't exhausted by the jump in next week's episode, or they find another way which is what I suppose genius Queen is sticking around for. Either Burnham will die with her parents, or they will all live happily ever after and she will never meet Spock.
 
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