Star Trek: Discovery 4.10

[selenak]

Trying to foccus on something other than rl, so, here's my weekly Discovery review.



I had a feeling that T'Rina would be joining the First Contact trip along with Laira Rillak when she didn't reply to Saru's statement. Mind you, I'm not sure how realistic - in terms of sci fi shows and realism, that is - it is for not one but two heads of state to be on the same ship on such a dangerous misision, but okay, handwaving, and also, these are dire circumstances and also I'm glad both ladies are along since I like both characters. Also, Adira is back, and gets a Proud And Concerned Dad moment with Stamets which I liked but now am afraid will cause a thousand "Paul Stamets, abused son" fanfics due to its hint that Stamets Sr. was't much there for him, because that's how fandom rolls.

While I enjoyed the crew working together and Michael and the President navigating their different approaches to information keeping, the B plot with Book and Tarka was the one bringing on the big reveals, with the flashbacks to Tarka's backstory, revealing who his friend is, and why he wants to get to a paralllel universe so badly. I have to say, I'm still waiting for the other shoe to drop because I don't think eitherTarka or the writers already provided all the story in this episode, but I also don't think he lied in what he did tell Book. Now, if you want to escape from Emerald Chain slavery, a parallel universe sounds like a good idea, but surely Tarka must have wondered since whetheer "Kayalise" could possibly be as paradisical as Oros believed. Do I think he cares for Oros so much that he wants to go there regardless of what that universe is actually like as long as Oros is in it? I'm torn. As I said, the way the actor plays it it doesn't come across as if he's lying in the flashbacks or what he tells Book, but... he may leave things out.

In any event, I bet the whole parallel universe quest will end up revealing that "Kayalise" is where Species 10c and the DMZ actually come from, thus connecting the two plots. Now, whether they are aware what they're doing or not, whether their mining operation takes place in our galaxy because they already stripmined their own, or whether on the contrary their own really is paradise but only as long as the mining other places continues, I have no idea. But my gold pressed platinum is on Kayalise as the DMZ origin as of now.

Comments

[lightofdaye]

Now, that you say that it is the obvious solution to join the two plots for Kayalise to be the DMZ source because otherwise they've left it very late to introduce 10-C in person if it's not somehow connected something we've seen somewhere in the franchise.

Speaking of fanfic fuel: the unknowable horrors Kovich is defending them from in secret sounds like a good the start of many fanfic possibilities to me.

[selenak]

hey've left it very late to introduce 10-C in person

Precisely. I mean, there's precedent - Voyager did it when bringing back the Borg while simultanously introducing a new big bad in their s3 finale - but going by how Discovery so far has operated, narratively, I don't think so. I mean, in retrospect for example in s1 it's clear the clues for Lorca being from the Mirrorverse were planted early on, which also signals the Mirrorverse is going to play an important role in the season, we met Vocq in the first episode and he was prominent in the first three before completely dissappearing which is why a lot of people were able to figure out that Vocq = Tyler. So I think the DMZ source must be something connected to characters we already know, even if I'm wrong about Kayalise.

[lynnenne]

I also think Tarka is hiding something in his story. I think Oros is dead and Tarka is somehow responsible, even if indirectly.

[selenak]

*nods* Or: Tarka was originally supposed to spy on Oros for Ozyraas - I've seen too many prison scenarios, I guess - by pretending to be a fellow prisoner, but came to care for him and now feels guilty. My main reason for suspecting this is that he could remove his control device relavtively easily when he did need to, and that he was 100% sure the camp had been abandoned, which made me wonder whether he still has Emerald Chain connections. Like I said, I don't think he directly lied - all the scenes we saw happened - but that he omitted some important context.

[lightofdaye]

I thought they said Tarka was originally there to spy on Oros when they were beating them after the transporter failure?

[selenak]

I honestly didn't understand what they were saying.

[labingi]

I am with you about Tarka not lying but not telling the whole truth, and I'm curious to see where it goes.