Star Trek: Discovery 2.09
Mar. 15th, 2019 06:02 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakIn which we return to an s1 habit I did not miss. Otoh, Kat Cornwell is also back, much more satisfyingly than in her first s2 appearance, and Michael and Spock continue to do their best to push my dysfunctional siblings button.
Though while they both go for each other's weak emotional spots, I note Michael, being a nicer person, withholds the obvious rejoinder when Spock says she could never know Sarek's mind. Good choice, Michael. When Spock finds out Picard mind-melded with Sarek in Unification, he kept implying this impaired Picard's judgment pretty much for the remaining mission. And that was a "normal" mindmeld, not a shared katra. Though it occurs to me Michael will tell him about the katra business before the season is out, because it might be where Spock gets the idea from when he dumps his on McCoy.
Anyway, before I move on from this week's installment of our Vulcan/Human family saga, let me just say the writers obeyed the key role of writing dysfunctional siblings whom I believe to be still fond of each other (which, say, the writers of The Umbrella Academy didn't quite manage, imo as always): to wit, giving me indications of caring along with the bickering. Spock doesn't bring up Michael's series of traumas and guilt for the same of being mean, he does it to point out she's always trying to take on the responsibility for everything, and that this simply isn't true and will break her. When he brought up that there's nothing she could have done when her biological parents were killed, I exhaled the breath I didn't know I'd held because that's the kind of thing I'm talking about.
But this ongoing subplot aside, the episode mainly moved forward the seasonal arc story and killed our first recurring character since s1. I think the show has a bit of a pacing problemat times - just like the Tilly & Mae story would have worked better if instead of Tilly being in distress for three epis in a row we could have seen her bonding with Mae along with said distress, here the scenes fleshing out Airiam, and showing us her relationships with Tilly, Detmer, Michael, would have felt less obviously a signal that Airiam is dooooomed if they'd been been spread across the season. Not that they didn't work for me, they did, and they gave the actress finally the chance to show her stuff instead of being colorful background with one or two lines, if that, per episode. Also, I didn't quite catch whether the episode bothered to provide us with a line of explanation as to why they couldn't just beam Airiam on board Discovery once she'd been airlocked, just like it had happened with Tyler in the Mirrorverse last season. Or, come to think of it, why the transporter wasn't used on Michael, Airiam or Nahn once things started to haywire in the Section 31 center. Though I assume it was one of these "mumble field repelling too much transporter use* technobubble things that come up if the plot demands it in any ST show.
Speaking of the plot: Section 31 having framed Spock for murder surprised no one. Otoh we did get a pretty big reveal as it turns out Section 31 is currently led not by anyone with a pulse butSkynet an evolving AI which killed off the leading Starfleet admirals supposedly in charge of supervising that still legitiimate organization, and that Skynet Control will end up wanting to eradicate all organic sentient life. With presumably John Connor the Red Angel intending to stop it. Does this make Spock Sarah Connor? Otoh, Michael strikes me as more the Sarah than the John type. (Haven't budged from last week's speculation that a future version of her is the Red Angel.) I'm not opposed to playing out a Terminator plot on Star Trek per se, but I muist say, if this also serves as an explanation as to why Section 31 went from shady, yet still within Federation parameters to beyond the pale, I'm bummed. I'd much rather blame Pippa.
Meanwhile, the show's favourite admiral and mine proves she isn't as on board with Section 31 right now as she'd appeared to be earlier and hears Pike & Co. out as well as taking Spock's explanations seriously without immediately accepting them, either, given she has that supposedly undoctored footage of him killing people. Which strikes me as a fair attitude to have. Cornwell also enlisting our gang to break into Section 31's centre to reset their computer while she's there is a beautiful example of practicality (also she effectively changed their being on the run into them doing a mission for her which means later on she can explain the whole thing away as them following her orders, which bodes well for everyone's future in Starfleet). Of course, then she finds herself classified as a mutineer along with them bySkynet Control disguised as a a Vulcan admiral who for some reason is a logic extremist and in the supervising the shady intellegence service comittee, which, what? Isn't this putting a climate change denier in charge of the state department design to protect... never mind. She's dead anyway.
"And this is where we're reminded that Kat's speciality is psychology" moment: when she turned PIke's potential "J'Accuse" smoothly around by complimenting him on his ethics in a way that also made Starfleet Command look good. Nicely done, Admiral.
I'm not sure because Jeri Taylor wrote some Voyager tie-ins and was also in co-charge of the show, so there might be precedent, but I think that shout out to Una McCormack's novel about Tilly was a first? (When Tilly alluded to what happened when she was 16.) Anyway, nice touch.
Lastly: So, "The Daedalus Project". On a Doylist level, i.e. why would the writers choose this particular Greek myth: him. Daedalus main claims to fame were: a) being a brilliant inventor but also one not fond of competition, so when his nephew and student starts to surpass him, he kills him in a jealous rage and gets banished (and will be haunted by the deed). b) Going to Crete in his exile where he ends up having to first find a way for Queen Pasiphae to have sex with a bull, then having to construct a labyrinth to hide the Queen's offspring with the bull in, and c) constructing wings for his son Icarus and himself to escape from Crete, leading, most famously, to Icarus' death. Farscape called a season 3 two parter after Daedalus and Icarus, respectively, starring one of the Ancient Ones (wearing the body of Crichton's dad) as Daedalus, and John Crichton (Talyn edition) as Icarus, but somehow I doubt Disco will do a father/son thing as well. It'll be more likely Daedalus the constructor of labyrinths they'll be going for.
Though while they both go for each other's weak emotional spots, I note Michael, being a nicer person, withholds the obvious rejoinder when Spock says she could never know Sarek's mind. Good choice, Michael. When Spock finds out Picard mind-melded with Sarek in Unification, he kept implying this impaired Picard's judgment pretty much for the remaining mission. And that was a "normal" mindmeld, not a shared katra. Though it occurs to me Michael will tell him about the katra business before the season is out, because it might be where Spock gets the idea from when he dumps his on McCoy.
Anyway, before I move on from this week's installment of our Vulcan/Human family saga, let me just say the writers obeyed the key role of writing dysfunctional siblings whom I believe to be still fond of each other (which, say, the writers of The Umbrella Academy didn't quite manage, imo as always): to wit, giving me indications of caring along with the bickering. Spock doesn't bring up Michael's series of traumas and guilt for the same of being mean, he does it to point out she's always trying to take on the responsibility for everything, and that this simply isn't true and will break her. When he brought up that there's nothing she could have done when her biological parents were killed, I exhaled the breath I didn't know I'd held because that's the kind of thing I'm talking about.
But this ongoing subplot aside, the episode mainly moved forward the seasonal arc story and killed our first recurring character since s1. I think the show has a bit of a pacing problemat times - just like the Tilly & Mae story would have worked better if instead of Tilly being in distress for three epis in a row we could have seen her bonding with Mae along with said distress, here the scenes fleshing out Airiam, and showing us her relationships with Tilly, Detmer, Michael, would have felt less obviously a signal that Airiam is dooooomed if they'd been been spread across the season. Not that they didn't work for me, they did, and they gave the actress finally the chance to show her stuff instead of being colorful background with one or two lines, if that, per episode. Also, I didn't quite catch whether the episode bothered to provide us with a line of explanation as to why they couldn't just beam Airiam on board Discovery once she'd been airlocked, just like it had happened with Tyler in the Mirrorverse last season. Or, come to think of it, why the transporter wasn't used on Michael, Airiam or Nahn once things started to haywire in the Section 31 center. Though I assume it was one of these "mumble field repelling too much transporter use* technobubble things that come up if the plot demands it in any ST show.
Speaking of the plot: Section 31 having framed Spock for murder surprised no one. Otoh we did get a pretty big reveal as it turns out Section 31 is currently led not by anyone with a pulse but
Meanwhile, the show's favourite admiral and mine proves she isn't as on board with Section 31 right now as she'd appeared to be earlier and hears Pike & Co. out as well as taking Spock's explanations seriously without immediately accepting them, either, given she has that supposedly undoctored footage of him killing people. Which strikes me as a fair attitude to have. Cornwell also enlisting our gang to break into Section 31's centre to reset their computer while she's there is a beautiful example of practicality (also she effectively changed their being on the run into them doing a mission for her which means later on she can explain the whole thing away as them following her orders, which bodes well for everyone's future in Starfleet). Of course, then she finds herself classified as a mutineer along with them by
"And this is where we're reminded that Kat's speciality is psychology" moment: when she turned PIke's potential "J'Accuse" smoothly around by complimenting him on his ethics in a way that also made Starfleet Command look good. Nicely done, Admiral.
I'm not sure because Jeri Taylor wrote some Voyager tie-ins and was also in co-charge of the show, so there might be precedent, but I think that shout out to Una McCormack's novel about Tilly was a first? (When Tilly alluded to what happened when she was 16.) Anyway, nice touch.
Lastly: So, "The Daedalus Project". On a Doylist level, i.e. why would the writers choose this particular Greek myth: him. Daedalus main claims to fame were: a) being a brilliant inventor but also one not fond of competition, so when his nephew and student starts to surpass him, he kills him in a jealous rage and gets banished (and will be haunted by the deed). b) Going to Crete in his exile where he ends up having to first find a way for Queen Pasiphae to have sex with a bull, then having to construct a labyrinth to hide the Queen's offspring with the bull in, and c) constructing wings for his son Icarus and himself to escape from Crete, leading, most famously, to Icarus' death. Farscape called a season 3 two parter after Daedalus and Icarus, respectively, starring one of the Ancient Ones (wearing the body of Crichton's dad) as Daedalus, and John Crichton (Talyn edition) as Icarus, but somehow I doubt Disco will do a father/son thing as well. It'll be more likely Daedalus the constructor of labyrinths they'll be going for.
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no subject
Date: 2019-03-17 03:27 pm (UTC)I loved him calling her out on that. It was my favorite moment this episode, and of course foreshadowed Ariam's words just before her death, that all this is because of Michael. Which, of course, Michael believes and internalizes, which is why she can't bring herself to space her friend.
Oooh, good point about the Terminator plot. I've mostly forgotten all those films so I didn't think of the parallels. Perhaps "Daedalus" is the person who builds the wings and the Red Angel is that person's future self/child/parent. That could give Sarek or Amanda a bigger role in this storyline (or even Phillipa, given her familial, mirror-relationship with Burnham).
Isn't this putting a climate change denier in charge of the state department design to protect... never mind.
LOL! I shouldn't laugh at that because it's real life and therefore horrifying, but this made me snort.
no subject
Date: 2019-03-19 03:12 pm (UTC)If they go that route, I bet it's Philippa, since Sarek's and Amanda's fates are canonically fixed. (Well, with Amanda of course we don't know how her Primeverse death comes about, but we do know she's still alive, well and still living with Sarek in the TOS movie era when Kirk & Co. are in their late 40s and then 50s. Given Tilly and Kirk are of an age...
LOL! I shouldn't laugh at that because it's real life and therefore horrifying, but this made me snort.
It was meant to - I mean, many of the current horrors manage to be simultanously ridiculous!
no subject
Date: 2019-03-19 12:41 am (UTC)And using 'you ADORE me' as leverage was very very Tilly, but it's not exactly a 'yellow crayon' moment when we'v never really seen them interact before this ep.
no subject
Date: 2019-03-19 03:06 pm (UTC)Disco's been doing good in terms of developing its core ensemble - in s1, that meant Michael, Saru, Tilly, Stamets, Lorca, Tyler and L'Rell, with Sarek, Culber, Cornwell and MirrorGeorgiou as important recurring guest stars - while this season it's Michael, Tilly, Saru, Stamets and Pike as the regular core, Culber, Tyler, MirrorGeorgiou, Cornwell plus Amanda and Sarek as old recurring (though Amanda and Sarek have switched places in terms of screen time), and Spock and Leland as most important new recurring. All of whom had to be developed or reintroduced in this particular version. That means we're actually somewhat early for getting to know more about the spear carriers in terms of preceding ST shows, though I'm all for it, and took Pike asking for everyone's name during his debut scene on the bridge as an omen in this regard.
no subject
Date: 2019-03-19 03:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-05-06 11:49 pm (UTC)Good point about the many ways they could have solved the problem without spacing Airiam, though.
I also really liked that we found out it was an AI this quickly, as I was certain we were headed this way and thought they might drag out the reveal with Section 31 being the red herring. I should have known that this show, despite whatever pacing problems, doesn't drag out reveals. But this does free Section 31 to be a more interesting wild card/enemy-temporarily-turned-ally, which plays to Pippa's strengths.