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Star Trek: Discovery 1.08
Hard to judge, since it's evidently the first part of a two parter, and a lot of set up without pay off (yet), but here we go:
Stamets now shows signs of being afflicted by functioning as a living space ship drive that go beyond finding things groovy, and methinks here will be the reason why ultimately, the spore drive won't end up getting used by Starfleet. I just hope it won't end lethally for Stamets. At a guess: he's experiencing time (past, present, future) simultanously when he zones out. Which is why he addressed Tilly as "Captain" directly after getting offline. (BTW, if I'm right, good to know Tilly not only fulfills her ambition but lives long enough to do so, which means she won't get killed off.) I appreciate that the script actually provides a sense-making reason why Stamets keeps this from his partner the Doctor, Hugh Culber, but then again, if Culber isn't a total loss at medicine he's already noticed altered behavior at the very least. Anyway, this gives the show the opportunity to try out new character combinations, which always good, in this case: Tilly and Stamets.
Speaking of new combinations: the Cornell and L'Rell subplot suffers from being all set up for the next part and no pay off the most, not to mention that if the big Ash Tyler theory is right, L'Rell is running two deceptions simultanously, and even if it isn't, she still runs one which we haven't seen the pay off for yet (i.e. come on, who seriously she didn't anticipate Kol acting as he did?), but all this nonewithstanding, letting Katrina Cornwell interact with L'Rell in her Klingon captivity was a good choice. Behold, actual dialogue instead of posturing (even if I think L'Rell was lying about wanting to defect - my current guess is that provided the Ash Tyler theory is right, she wanted Cornwell to bring her to Discovery where she'd trigger Tyler's buried memories and identity, and then she got derailed by discovering Kol is even more of a space waste than she thought and decided to finish him off first). And speaking of guesses, no, I don't think Cornwell is dead.
Meanwhile, on the planet of the crystals: Saru being seduced not by possession or anything the like but by being fear-free for the first time of his life (btw, do we know which bastards created the Kelpie to be afraid all their life? Sounds like something the Dominion would do, but it's way too early for the Founders tos how up) works for me and provides the opportunity for yet more heartfelt scenes between him and Michael. Also, the entire set up of the planet as a truly alien life form and both Michael and Saru trying to understand it was a good homage to Star Trek ideals. Not to mention that it does look like we're in a take on ye olde TOS episode featuring the Organians to me.
For non-TOS watchers: Kirk and Klingons arrive at a strategically important planet with inhabitants seemingly helpless. Lots of mutual posturing and wanting to fight it out. Turns out the Organians are anything but helpless and in fact superior life forms who force humans and Klingons to a peace treaty. Now I doubt the Crystals will do exactly that since it would be too repetitive, but as opposed to Discovery protecting them, they will probably turn out to be more powerful than either party.
Ash Tyler (or is he): if he's not, he's just shown for the first time after effects from his time as a tortured prisoner in the scene where he tells Saru he wants to hurt the Klingons for what they did to him. But I think the hints were flying thick and fast, between Saru's accusation that he's lying when Tyler is holding the crystal (and presumably not just about needing to buy time for Michael Burnham) and his odd lack of knowledge about First Contact protocol.
Other character stuff: Lorca trying his best to save the doomed vessel and his reaction when he can't. As with his behavior in the previous episode during the time loops, this shows his ethical side after his behavior with Cornell has highlighted his dark side. The show clearly wants him to so far stay ambigious.
Stamets now shows signs of being afflicted by functioning as a living space ship drive that go beyond finding things groovy, and methinks here will be the reason why ultimately, the spore drive won't end up getting used by Starfleet. I just hope it won't end lethally for Stamets. At a guess: he's experiencing time (past, present, future) simultanously when he zones out. Which is why he addressed Tilly as "Captain" directly after getting offline. (BTW, if I'm right, good to know Tilly not only fulfills her ambition but lives long enough to do so, which means she won't get killed off.) I appreciate that the script actually provides a sense-making reason why Stamets keeps this from his partner the Doctor, Hugh Culber, but then again, if Culber isn't a total loss at medicine he's already noticed altered behavior at the very least. Anyway, this gives the show the opportunity to try out new character combinations, which always good, in this case: Tilly and Stamets.
Speaking of new combinations: the Cornell and L'Rell subplot suffers from being all set up for the next part and no pay off the most, not to mention that if the big Ash Tyler theory is right, L'Rell is running two deceptions simultanously, and even if it isn't, she still runs one which we haven't seen the pay off for yet (i.e. come on, who seriously she didn't anticipate Kol acting as he did?), but all this nonewithstanding, letting Katrina Cornwell interact with L'Rell in her Klingon captivity was a good choice. Behold, actual dialogue instead of posturing (even if I think L'Rell was lying about wanting to defect - my current guess is that provided the Ash Tyler theory is right, she wanted Cornwell to bring her to Discovery where she'd trigger Tyler's buried memories and identity, and then she got derailed by discovering Kol is even more of a space waste than she thought and decided to finish him off first). And speaking of guesses, no, I don't think Cornwell is dead.
Meanwhile, on the planet of the crystals: Saru being seduced not by possession or anything the like but by being fear-free for the first time of his life (btw, do we know which bastards created the Kelpie to be afraid all their life? Sounds like something the Dominion would do, but it's way too early for the Founders tos how up) works for me and provides the opportunity for yet more heartfelt scenes between him and Michael. Also, the entire set up of the planet as a truly alien life form and both Michael and Saru trying to understand it was a good homage to Star Trek ideals. Not to mention that it does look like we're in a take on ye olde TOS episode featuring the Organians to me.
For non-TOS watchers: Kirk and Klingons arrive at a strategically important planet with inhabitants seemingly helpless. Lots of mutual posturing and wanting to fight it out. Turns out the Organians are anything but helpless and in fact superior life forms who force humans and Klingons to a peace treaty. Now I doubt the Crystals will do exactly that since it would be too repetitive, but as opposed to Discovery protecting them, they will probably turn out to be more powerful than either party.
Ash Tyler (or is he): if he's not, he's just shown for the first time after effects from his time as a tortured prisoner in the scene where he tells Saru he wants to hurt the Klingons for what they did to him. But I think the hints were flying thick and fast, between Saru's accusation that he's lying when Tyler is holding the crystal (and presumably not just about needing to buy time for Michael Burnham) and his odd lack of knowledge about First Contact protocol.
Other character stuff: Lorca trying his best to save the doomed vessel and his reaction when he can't. As with his behavior in the previous episode during the time loops, this shows his ethical side after his behavior with Cornell has highlighted his dark side. The show clearly wants him to so far stay ambigious.
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Not only that, but Michael and Keyla (the red-haired woman with the implant on the bridge, who served on the Shenzou as well - sans implant, I assume she got wounded) would have already know him. That's why I concluded my last reply with "Presumably this would be true for the other Starfleet ship wrecks we see floating through space there as well", i.e. that the wrecks of the other, non-Shenzou vessels we see floating about have their crew manifests on board. Again, timeline: Battle of the Binary Stars happens. Surviving Starfleet and Klingon vessels leave, except for the Ship of the Dead (with Voq and L'Rell on it), which isn't completely repaired until six months later, not least because they seem to have been left on their own while the rest of the Klingon houses duke it out for supremacy mid-war with the humans. L'Rell and Voq go to the wreck of the Shenzou in order to scavenge it for usable parts to fix the Ship of the Dead some more. (That's when we get Voq finding the crew manifest and throwing it away again, as it's of no use to him.) When they return to the Ship of the Dead, Kol has shown up, won over the Ship of the Dead's crew with food and status, and wants to kill Voq until L'Rell, pretending to switch sides, suggests to leave Voq stranded on the wreck of the Shenzou to starve to death. This idea pleases Kol, and it's done. L'Rell then has herself beamed secretly to the Shenzou again as well, and tells Voq they can fix this, she has an idea of how to win the war and have Voq instrumental in this so he can truly become T'Kuvma's successor, but he'd have to sacrfice "everything" for it. And that's the last we see of Voq. Next time we see L'Rell, she's supposedly in charge of a prison ship with one Ash Tyler on it, who says he's been her prisoner ever since the Battle of the Binary stars, all seven months.
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