Star Trek: Discovery 4.05.
Dec. 18th, 2021 09:25 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakWhich feels like a DS9/Voyager crossover (in a good way).
By which I mean that the subplot with Disco's latest iterration of The Excentric Arrogant Scientist trope and the black hole simulation experiment reminded me about of Seven of Nine's pursueing the experiment with the Omega molocule until Janeway puts a stop to it at the proverbial last moment, while the main plot with Burnham and Book rescueing the prisoners only for the prisoners having their own ideas about being rescued felt DS9-ish to me.
Something that continues DS9's optimistic-in-darkness attitude is that Starfleet, as last season, seems primarily engaged in rescue/assistance missions, and that everyone is clear about the need of Federation and non-Federation forces needing to work together in the face of the gigantic threat of the Anomaly. That Michael, upon hearing the Magistrate whose planet Discovery is helping to evacuate, wants to leave the prisoners behind because hey, criminals, they don't deserve to live as much as everyone else anyway, immediately decides they will rescue those prisoners is the kind of ethics I like to see in my Starship Captains, and which I can't help but feel as a reproach of our current attitude towards a lot of refugees left to freeze or drown. Commander Bryce wanting to lead the main evacuation while offering a bit of exposition on his background also feels welcome in the service of fleshing the bridge crew out more, though if we'd actually seen him in action that would have been even better. Maybe next time?
Anyway, Book and Michael having their first disagreement on a principle near the end of their plot to me is classic Trek, because you can see where both of them are coming from. Book is seeing this whole rescue mission as a chance to help where he couldn't help his destroyed home planet, and he doesn't think people should be allowed to commit suicide, so he insists that the last prisoner should be rescued as well. Michael, otoh, has listened to what the man had to say and does respect his wishes (not to mention that Michael is familiar with the burning urge to atone), seeing it as his decision to make. (Plus, in practical terms: they only have a minute or so left to teleport. But she could have, say, knocked him out via Vulcan neck pinch and dragged him through the barrier if she did agree with Book rather than with the prisoner about who has to make the decision re: his life.) That the other prisoners don't just want to be rescued, they don't want to return to the unjust system that condemned them (and would have left them behind) and that Michael goes with that and comes up with a legal way this can happen is again to me a very contemporary comment in rl situations.
Meanwhile on Discovery: I knew it, Hugh Culber is very rapidly nearing a burn-out with his multitasking, and David Cronenberg tells him so. (Complete with shout-out for Georgiou. BTW, Culber going "you were brutally honest with Georgiou! You clearly are the therapist's therapist for me!" made me smile, though I can see the reasoning - anyone who can go mano a mano with Emperor Georgiou and not come out defeated is not going to be fooled by Hugh Culber.) This is also the first scene in a while where we see the Culber/Stamets marriage as a give-and-take partnership (instead of just one of them reassuring the other), as they both offer insight and support to the other. and their domestic routines are as endearing as ever. David Cronenberg's conclusion as to Culber's motivation - massive survivor's guilt and leftover issues from having been dead - also feels like someone looked at s2 and concluded that a physical fight in the mess hall with Ash was maybe not the ideal wrap-up to that plotline.
As for the scientists: any appearance by Jet Reno is of course welcome. I was a bit in doubt about yet another Excentric Scientist, but otoh anything bringing back Stamets' prickly side is also welcome, and I do like the repeated mentions of Aurelian (the handicapped scientist from last season's finale, the role specifically written for the actor in question who already played two of Disco's Klingons in previous seasons), since that's one scientist I do hope we see again. As for New Guy, the episode lets him take insane risks but also, via the scar in his neck, indicates that he spent some time as a slave in the Emerald Chain, so there is backstory. Since this episode concluded what the previous episode had hinted at, that the Anomaly is not of natural origin but manufactured, yet also needs an incredible amount of energy to be powered which no one human could provide, I do wonder whether we're due to another tried and true ST trope, the Superbeing. (Not Q, because Picard, but there are a couple of other possibilities. (Otoh: watching this after the Doctor Who Six Parter has concluded, it's impossible not to make a Flux joke and conclude that clearly, Division as it it again.) I'm not that keen on the idea, because I'm not that fond of the trope per se - Q is different solely due to his relationship with Picard -, but of course, execution is everything. We'll see.
By which I mean that the subplot with Disco's latest iterration of The Excentric Arrogant Scientist trope and the black hole simulation experiment reminded me about of Seven of Nine's pursueing the experiment with the Omega molocule until Janeway puts a stop to it at the proverbial last moment, while the main plot with Burnham and Book rescueing the prisoners only for the prisoners having their own ideas about being rescued felt DS9-ish to me.
Something that continues DS9's optimistic-in-darkness attitude is that Starfleet, as last season, seems primarily engaged in rescue/assistance missions, and that everyone is clear about the need of Federation and non-Federation forces needing to work together in the face of the gigantic threat of the Anomaly. That Michael, upon hearing the Magistrate whose planet Discovery is helping to evacuate, wants to leave the prisoners behind because hey, criminals, they don't deserve to live as much as everyone else anyway, immediately decides they will rescue those prisoners is the kind of ethics I like to see in my Starship Captains, and which I can't help but feel as a reproach of our current attitude towards a lot of refugees left to freeze or drown. Commander Bryce wanting to lead the main evacuation while offering a bit of exposition on his background also feels welcome in the service of fleshing the bridge crew out more, though if we'd actually seen him in action that would have been even better. Maybe next time?
Anyway, Book and Michael having their first disagreement on a principle near the end of their plot to me is classic Trek, because you can see where both of them are coming from. Book is seeing this whole rescue mission as a chance to help where he couldn't help his destroyed home planet, and he doesn't think people should be allowed to commit suicide, so he insists that the last prisoner should be rescued as well. Michael, otoh, has listened to what the man had to say and does respect his wishes (not to mention that Michael is familiar with the burning urge to atone), seeing it as his decision to make. (Plus, in practical terms: they only have a minute or so left to teleport. But she could have, say, knocked him out via Vulcan neck pinch and dragged him through the barrier if she did agree with Book rather than with the prisoner about who has to make the decision re: his life.) That the other prisoners don't just want to be rescued, they don't want to return to the unjust system that condemned them (and would have left them behind) and that Michael goes with that and comes up with a legal way this can happen is again to me a very contemporary comment in rl situations.
Meanwhile on Discovery: I knew it, Hugh Culber is very rapidly nearing a burn-out with his multitasking, and David Cronenberg tells him so. (Complete with shout-out for Georgiou. BTW, Culber going "you were brutally honest with Georgiou! You clearly are the therapist's therapist for me!" made me smile, though I can see the reasoning - anyone who can go mano a mano with Emperor Georgiou and not come out defeated is not going to be fooled by Hugh Culber.) This is also the first scene in a while where we see the Culber/Stamets marriage as a give-and-take partnership (instead of just one of them reassuring the other), as they both offer insight and support to the other. and their domestic routines are as endearing as ever. David Cronenberg's conclusion as to Culber's motivation - massive survivor's guilt and leftover issues from having been dead - also feels like someone looked at s2 and concluded that a physical fight in the mess hall with Ash was maybe not the ideal wrap-up to that plotline.
As for the scientists: any appearance by Jet Reno is of course welcome. I was a bit in doubt about yet another Excentric Scientist, but otoh anything bringing back Stamets' prickly side is also welcome, and I do like the repeated mentions of Aurelian (the handicapped scientist from last season's finale, the role specifically written for the actor in question who already played two of Disco's Klingons in previous seasons), since that's one scientist I do hope we see again. As for New Guy, the episode lets him take insane risks but also, via the scar in his neck, indicates that he spent some time as a slave in the Emerald Chain, so there is backstory. Since this episode concluded what the previous episode had hinted at, that the Anomaly is not of natural origin but manufactured, yet also needs an incredible amount of energy to be powered which no one human could provide, I do wonder whether we're due to another tried and true ST trope, the Superbeing. (Not Q, because Picard, but there are a couple of other possibilities. (Otoh: watching this after the Doctor Who Six Parter has concluded, it's impossible not to make a Flux joke and conclude that clearly, Division as it it again.) I'm not that keen on the idea, because I'm not that fond of the trope per se - Q is different solely due to his relationship with Picard -, but of course, execution is everything. We'll see.
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