People forget that there was a key story point in the redesign of the Klingons--the disguise of Shazad Latif playing both Voq and Ash Tyler. If they had gone with the traditional Klingon look (see for example DS9: Apocalypse Rising), it would have been blatantly obvious that Ash was Voq (and as it was the internet quickly caught on anyway). Once the need for that gimmick was overwith, they toned down the Klingon redesign to the point in SNW they look recognizable as Klingons again. So I can let it slide since there actually was a reason for the re-design in that it was necessary for the surprise reveal to work (unlike say the current SW franchise where they change things for the sake of changing them with no real reason, i.e. changing the touching original backstory of Han freeing Chewie from the horrors of slavery out of compassion into just trying to escape getting eaten to go find his Game of Thrones girlfriend in the Solo movie)
My guess would be they were done in a hurry after the strikes last year so were shorter to speed up production.
Things that kind of worry me this season…. - hardly any Saru… - we will never hear or see anything about the state of the Klingon Empire in the 32nd century….. Other than that I am loving this season!!!
IMHO the antagonists have not been threatening one bit this season, because they haven't won a single round. We have a key with five bits here. Discovery managed to grab four out of five so far, despite a few complications being thrown their way, and are on their way to grab the fifth. Discovery will clearly solve the final bit next week, then go to the tech, and there will be some sort of Breen intervention at the end of the 9th episode which throws everything into doubt. Think about how much better all of this would have been if Moll and La'k had 3 out of the 5 key bits by now! Then Discovery would be on the back foot, desperately trying to race to the finish here.
Were they supposed to be threatening? I thought they were supposed to be sympathetic and we're supposed to feel sorry for them.
I don't think they were meant to be scary, per-se, but they were set up to be challenging. At the beginning of the first episode, they were ahead of Discovery, having access to the diary. But as time has gone on, they've fallen further and further behind.
I don't it would be. I think the journey with the characters, learning about our antagonists rather than just barriers to our heroes, is more enjoyable.
TrekCore says Saru has been absent most of the season because Doug Jones was busy filming Hocus Pocus 2 Although, Wikipedia doesn't seem to agree. It says HP2 filmed from October 2021 to January 2022, while Discovery Season 5 filmed June to November 2022.
\ Doug Jones said he was promoting Hocus Pocus 2 not filming it. https://trekmovie.com/2024/05/05/do...tar-trek-discovery-and-confirms-sarus-return/
I had thought about that as a potential complaint. Moll and Lak just haven't been a threat. But that's pretty realistic. On one side, we have a spore jumping starship that can be anywhere instantly that has the full backing of the United Federation of Planets. They have a full array of specialists to call upon. Including Kovich who somehow got the list of scientists, without which the previous clue would not have been solvable. On the other side, you have a petulant teenager on the run with her boyfriend to get away from his own people. They have a basic ship and no support from anyone. It's not a fair competition. Shoot, the one time they got the edge on Discovery, they F'd up and didn't find the extra verse. And it occurs to me, the writers never meant Moll and Lak to be actual competition or a threat. Moll was there as a plot point for Book. And Lak was there for the Breen angle. And they provide a little bit drama and motivation along the way. But they've mostly been non-factors.
they are keeping options open for future writers. They know the Klingons aren't going to do anything important this season, so don't restrict future story lines for no good reason.
It was clear that the writers had Bonnie and Clyde in mind when they created the characters of Moll and L'ak; however, they didn't understand these historical figures all that well. I am including a link to an article about this couple Bonnie and Clyde: 9 Facts About the Outlawed Duo (biography.com). One of the key things about this couple was that they weren't lone wolves committing crimes. They were the leaders of a gang and had close family connections. Both of these elements could have played into the narrative for season 5 of Discovery. The Discovery could have been in a race with gang of criminals who had deep connections in the criminal world, who had a wide variety of skills and experiences in their tool chest, and who were doing this for a variety of reasons, like maybe supporting a family as we know that the galaxy was in a deep slump after the Burn. Instead, we get characters as plot devices. What we have seen of Moll, she acts like an amateur criminal, yet her criminal record shows that she is a professional criminal. And L'ak. It is not clear why he rejected the beliefs of his people, that they were a superior race, and why he is opposed to being the leader of the Breen Imperium.