CBS All Access Star Trek: Discovery - Official Thread (4 Viewers)

[Josh Dial]

I assumed the detached nacelles relates to The Burn. Something like (and to be clear: this is pure theory and there is no on-screen explanation) the new warp core design somehow reduces the "risk" of detonation from a second Burn-like event by shifting the critical part of the warp reaction to the nacelles.

Also it looks neat.

 

[Nelson Au]

The stem bolt reference was definitely a fun Easter egg.

I rewatched Scavengers last night. I think the detached warp nacelles on Discovery will come into play for added maneuverability as they stated. So looking at how Book’s ship could fly, come apart and change direction and then reassemble appears to be what Discovery might be able to do.

On re-seeing Georgiou’s flash back, I could see a quick shot of what looks like a mirror universe knife as similarly seen on TOS. And a flash of Georgiou’s face and her hands covered in blood.

It will be interesting to see how Burnham’s job changes now. Similarly in the first season, she’s busted to science officer. She still has her rank though so she’s still an officer. I can’t think of who becomes the new first officer as no one seems at the right level. Nilssen has taken the con a few times as you’ve mentioned. Tilly might be too green. Stamets? On my recently reviewing of season one, it was interesting to see that Detmer was Number One. She was good at it there. But in the Prime universe, she’s the pilot, and a little shaken, so I doubt she’ll get it. Will Georgiou be Number One? I doubt that too. So maybe a new character from the 32nd century?

 

[Josh Steinberg]

They did mention briefly in the episode that detached nacelles would improve “maneuverability”.

 

[joshEH]

On re-seeing Georgiou’s flash back, I could see a quick shot of what looks like a mirror universe knife as similarly seen on TOS. And a flash of Georgiou’s face and her hands covered in blood.

If anyone's read the recent DSC novel Die Standing (written by John Jackson Miller) from earlier this year, you'll probably recognize Mirror Georgiou's childhood friend San from this book, and who is now figuring into this new TV season in some capacity (re: Georgiou's "flashbacks" from this latest episode):

Star Trek: Discovery: Die Standing|Paperback

An all-new novel based upon the explosive Star Trek TV series!No one in the history of histories has lost more than Philippa Georgiou, ruler of the Terran Empire. Forced to take refuge in the Federation’s universe, she bides her time until Section 31, a rogue spy force...

www.barnesandnoble.com

 

[Nelson Au]

Oh yeah, I’ve seen the discussions mentioning San. I didn’t hear her say it on my second viewing though. I’ll have to take another look.

 

[David Weicker]

Hopefully, whatever keeps the nacelles in place is strong enough to withstand the stress of spore drive travel. Obviously this has never been tested.

 

[Tino]

An ok episode. Is it me or does Michael cry in every episode?

 

[AlexF]

I enjoyed tonight's episode a bit more than a few of the last. It made no bones about it being a Michael-centric episode start to finish, but had a couple of nice small character bits for both Saru and Tilly along the way.

It really felt like an episode with an A plot and a small C-level plot.

 

[Sam Favate]

An ok episode. Is it me or does Michael cry in every episode?

Waaaay too much for someone raised on Vulcan.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

DISCUSSION AHEAD (AND POSSIBLE SPOILERS FOR):
3x07 - "Unification III"​

I wish I had taken the title of this episode more literally and watched "Unification" Parts I and II from the fifth season of TNG again before watching this episode. It was nice seeing footage from "Unification II" in this episode, I think the first time we've seen Nimoy play Spock on this series.

It's also another interesting twist on how the massive time jump affects Prime continuity; the show was a prequel and is now a sequel not only to the original series but also all of the other series and movies. Revisiting the idea of the Vulcans unifying with the Romulans, and showing that the task was eventually completed successfully albeit tenuously, gives the "Picard" era interesting stuff to play with; the supernova in 2387 was like a dagger to the heart of the Romulan empire. So far the immediate reaction to that devastation has been even greater paranoia and xenophobia. But events like that that destabilize the status quo have a way of making things possible that once were inconceivable.

Tilly becoming Saru's first officer makes a certain amount of sense in the context of her already being Saru's confidante. But I think it would have played better if the show had been more cognizant of moving her up the ranks before this. It just really stretches credulity that one of the ship's most junior officers would leapfrog the entire hirearchy and become the second most senior person on the ship. If we'd seen her work her way up to Lieutenant Junior Grade, then Lieutenant, and then Lieutenant Commander, taking on progressively more responsibility in the process, it would have felt like less of a leap. But then again, Trek has never been great about ranks.

It was nice to get an answer on what happened to Burnham's birth mother after she was yanked into the future. Sonja Sohn is great in that role; Gabrielle can be as difficult as Michael, but you really feel the love that she has for her daughter.

During her conversations with Saru, President T'Rina certainly hinted that when it comes to the Federation there is something rotten in the state of Denmark. By the end of this episode, she put her trust and faith in Michael Burnham and the crew of Discovery but she did not put her trust and faith in Starfleet or the Federation. Part of Saru's duty as captain is to see to the safety and welfare of his ship and his crew, and that means deepening his understanding of the situation in which Discovery finds itself. Admiral Vance hasn't done anything to arouse Saru's suspicions, but he's also controlled the flow of information to Discovery. Some things need to be learned for one's self.

 

[TonyD]

An ok episode. Is it me or does Michael cry in every episode?

She does a ton of Doe-eye and puppy dog eye acting.

 

[TonyD]

Also The Yelchin.

 

[Josh Dial]

By the end of this episode, she put her trust and faith in Michael Burnham and the crew of Discovery but she did not put her trust and faith in Starfleet or the Federation.

It may be telling that we have so far only seen the Command-in-Chief of Starfleet, and not the Federation President.

 

[TJPC]

Shouldn’t Federation technicians be all over Discovery so they can replicate the spore drive in all the other ships ASAP?

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Shouldn’t Federation technicians be all over Discovery so they can replicate the spore drive in all the other ships ASAP?

Given that they did a complete refit of the ship, I'm sure they have detailed specs on the spore drive as well as the rest of the ship. There probably are Federation engineers working on trying to replicate it.

If I had to guess, I would say the limiting factor at this point is Stamets as the human interface. Until they can either bypass the need for a human interface or figure out a way that other people can serve as the human interface, the lack of multiple Stamets prevents mass manufacture and distribution of the technology.

There's also the issue that the Federation's talent pool is significantly depleted from what it once was. Instead of hundreds of worlds to draw from, it only has a few dozen worlds to draw from. And the shortage of dilithium makes collaboration between those member worlds either costly in terms of dilithium or very time-consuming in terms of non-warp space travel.

Why has Burnham made more process on figuring out the cause of the Burn in a year (and especially the last few weeks) than the Federation or the Vulcans have in over a century? Because the Discovery can hop around the galaxy following up on clues and gathering data. Neither Starfleet (prior to Discovery's arrival) nor Ni'Var had that luxury before this.

 

[Nelson Au]

I will need to see this episode a second time, a lot of stuff I didn’t see coming, mostly Gabrielle‘s return. Her reunion with Michael was complicated. I wanted to better understand that entire quorum sequence. I need to better understand each of the three positions.

Interesting that I literally watched Balance of Terror an hour before watching Unification III. I had no idea. I did watch Unification I and II several months ago.

Tilly being acting First Officer was the last person I thought would be considered. As I said in an earlier post, I thought she was too green. And she said so to Saru. But I can see how Saru can see how much she grew on their very unconventional journey.

I really didn’t expect Vance to push so hard to make Burnham a special envoy to Vulcan, I guess her identity as Spock’s sister was revealed at some point later in his life. That data for that Vulcan/Romulan jump drive must have outweighed his anger and distrust of her.

It was really nice to see Nimoy Spock on screen again!

 

[Museum Pieces]

Unification III didn't disappoint. Just seeing Nimoy again, hearing his voice, and it wasn't forced in the episode, was a treat. I thought this episode did real justice to the work that meant so much to Spock.

I enjoyed watching Michael finally (convincingly) get put in her place. Too bad the character experience probably won't carry over into the next episode. We'll likely be back to the same old song and dance.

That said, this show is making me happy to watch. I feel like I am watching a continuation of the Star Trek I love when I watch DSC these days, and I don't feel it is overly forced or fan service much anymore.

 

[Nelson Au]

Tilly becoming Saru's first officer makes a certain amount of sense in the context of her already being Saru's confidante. But I think it would have played better if the show had been more cognizant of moving her up the ranks before this. It just really stretches credulity that one of the ship's most junior officers would leapfrog the entire hirearchy and become the second most senior person on the ship. If we'd seen her work her way up to Lieutenant Junior Grade, then Lieutenant, and then Lieutenant Commander, taking on progressively more responsibility in the process, it would have felt like less of a leap. But then again, Trek has never been great about ranks.

Adam, I totally agree Tilly jumping from ensign to acting first officer was not realistic. But I also think Saru seeing her as a confidante made it make sense for him. I agree with your assessment though, she should have risen in the ranks and built up experience. But they wrote it such that they felt she was deserving.

But I do have a slight disagreement with your comment that Star Trek was never great about rank. In the history of TOS and TNG, I don‘t believe we ever saw any flagrant rank jumping. Riker had a field promotion to captain after Picard was presumed dead. So that appeared to be a temporary promotion. Seems maybe in reality, they would keep him as captain and force his hand to take a ship. . There were some promotions that seemed to happen off screen such as Data. We did see Wesley Crusher get a field promotion to acting ensign. On DS9, we did see an official promotion for Ben Sisko to captain. Voyager had a rank promotion for Paris from advisor to Lieutenant for his excellent work, then a demotion for his bad Burnham like behavior, then he got his rank back later for being a good officer again. Of course poor Ensign Kim never got a promotion until after Voyager got home.

So I think the only example of flagrant rank jumping is in the JJ Abrams films. I never liked that Kirk became captain the way he did in the films verse how we know the Prime Kirk rose through the ranks to captain. Its really this new generation of Star Trek projects is playing loose with the rules of rank.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

I think a key point is that Tilly is “acting first officer” and hasn’t been permanently installed in the role yet - she’ll have to either earn it or assist in the search for someone to take it on a more permanent basis. On one hand, yes, it’s clearly a “writers writing” choice. Sort of like when C.J. went from White House press secretary to chief of staff in West Wing, which is not a move that would ever happen in real life but serves the TV purpose of having a role with an important script function filled by an existing cast member. But on the other hand, as the dinner scene the other week showed, most of the senior crew members on the ship are not in great shape right now and against all odds, Tilly is. If the position is meant to oversee the fitness and morale of the crew while being ready to lead them at a moment’s notice, at this exact moment Tilly is better suited to fill that void than other higher ranked crew members. And it also seems obvious that she was chosen in part because she didn’t hesitate to side with Saru when Burnham left on her unauthorized field trip.

 

[Chris Will]

I’ve got to be honest, I still can’t fall in love with this show for one reason... Burnham. I just don’t like the character, I don’t think the actor is very good in the roll and I‘m sick and tired of her giving emotional speeches in every episode. I’m still a few episodes behind this season, just watched the one where they find the Federation.

Every Trek series has had some character that I didn’t enjoy much but, it’s never been the central character. I can’t place my finger on exactly why I don’t like this character, I think it is the writing though. One second she is a lost, emotional wreck, longing to belong, the next moment she is defying orders and carving her own path regardless of the rest of the crew. Again, the dang speeches. Why do so many come to her for help, guidance, when she messed up more than anyone?

IMO, this series would be so much better if Burnham was gone and it focused on the rest of the Discovery crew. I love every other character on the show, even the minor ones.