Spoilers Star Trek: Discovery 1x03 - "Context is for Kings"

Yep!

 

For whatever reason, I get the feeling that Stamets and Burnham will at the least, gain respect for each other, if not actual friends. They have a love for science in common.

Reminds me of Archer's approach to the Xindi mission in season 3 of Ent (except for the charismatic part).

When I watch this show which looks totally different from all of the previous shows, I think, 'but this IS Trek', and I get excited.

The actor who plays Tilly was on After Trek and I swear it looked like she had even more than she did in the episode.

 

Sorry up front for not reading the whole thread, only got through the first 27 pages or so, so if I cover somethi,ng that has been hit already, apologies.

Generally speaking I have been pleasantly surprised. Pilot was a little clunky & rushed as they had to force the Kilngon's motivation & the relationship between Burnham & Georgiou. Second episode was much better. Better than the first 3 hours of any of the others. I mean, they made Roddenberry redo the Pilot for TOS.

Still, a couple things I don't get. One in universe and one with fandom. In universe first.

Why do they all think Burnham started the war? This makes no sense at all. None. T'Kumva promised to talk & then rammed the Europa. Then aired a message that made it pretty clear what their intentions were. Regardless of weather Bernham touched down on their ship or not. Or killed the torchbearer or not. Or beamed over & killed T'Kumva or not. The die was cast. Though the last one is a possibility.

The only people who seem to have actually thought about what she did in a meaningful way are Georgiou, Sarek, and Lorca. One forgave her enough to go with her to try to capture T'Kumva & the latter wanted her aboard because of what she did. Has no one in 6 months thought what would have happened if they would have shot first?

I also don't get the fandom reaction of everyone being unlikeable. Bernham certainly isn't. If so, why? She tried to avert a war & was willing to sacrifice her freedom & her career to do it. And later, her life. Lorca saw it for what it was.

As for the others, Tilly is very likeable. As is Saru. Even Stamets is understandable. It is not as if every character has been warm & fuzzy (Worf, Odo, Tuvak, Seven, etc). Everyone being ticked at Burnham is totally understandable, for the mutiny if not the war.

And it isn't as if we haven't had mutinies before (Search for Spock, The Cage, Data) or characters disobey orders (entire TOS crew, Data, Dr. Krusher, Paris, Seven) or even turn on Starfleet (Roe, Kim, Chackotay, Kira, Odo, Worf). But Burnham is unlikeable?

Ditto for the security officer. Kirk & crew were openly rascist. No issue. Kira, Chief, & Worf as well. Vulcans towards humans. And a take out the garbage remark makes her unlikeable? (Obviously trying to provoke Burnham on directions from Lorca).

Lastly, it is war. Happy shiny people are hard to find. DS9 was dark.

End of rant.

 

I have to laugh at the "unlikable" complaints too, to be honest.

Think back to TNGs first few episodes. Picard was a total dick and behaved completely like an angry, inflexible old man. Riker was a jackwad...like the guy you work with but frequently fantasize about punching in the groin. Dr. Crusher was cold and awkward. Tasha threw an emotional fit in the courtroom like an unhinged, unprofessional crybaby. Troi sensed "paaaiiiinnnnnnn" every 5 mins.

In DS9 Major Kira was almost more intolerable than having someone cram horse feces up my nose. Later- became my favorite character.

I mean...holy shit people. If you can get through some of that...I think you can deal with what we've been dealt with in DSC thus far. Let's try to be objective and keep things in realistic and relative perspective.

 

"Fire everything!"
"Aye sir!" *crawls into torpedo tube*
"That's not what I mea-"
*fwoosh*

 

The shapes resemble the TNG era Klingon, its just a different 'font'

They used this font in other promotional material. I remember them announcing the Klingon cast with it.

The character posters, with the Klingon emblem on their faces used the TNG font.

 

This would be super easy to do too. Especially for someone as seemingly intelligent as Lorca

*All hypothetical dialogue below would be Lorca interacting with captain of Glenn*

1st status report/repartay with Glen captain:

"Youre already jump lightyears!? That's mighty impressive, stamets has us at hundreds of kilometers at a time....."

2nd report:

"I can't believe how well your crew is doing. I hate to admit it but I sometimes feel like i got the short end of the stick personnel wise."

3rd report:

"Keep this up and you're going to hit admiral soon.atleast a commendation."

4th report:

"I say if you think you can do it, do it. Your crew has proven time and time again of being capable of miracles. We need to end this war, and you may be able to do it."

Glenn explodes.

Very doable. This is now my head cannon

 

Ramming Speed!

We come in peace...
Shoot to kill!

 

But sir we're all out of rams! I can load up a lama, perhaps an alpaca?

 

Is a lama a rebooted llama?

 

If the showrunners are as sticklers for "canon dates" as they appear, this makes sense, as the Enterprise is over a decade old and the Discovery is brand new. The Discovery can serve as a test bed for all sorts of tech, while ships of the line like the Enterprise rely on the "tried and true". I wouldn't be surprised if this rationalization is how the showrunners reconcile the issue. Works for me.

 

Except that the 1701 gets a refit, between the two pilots, and another refit just before V'Ger, and then is out right replaced in Star Trek IV.

 

Pffft, it wishes it was a rebooted sheep. A Lama in reality although trying to be a sheep (a pale pale imitation) retains nothing of what makes a sheep a sheep. It loses that sheep quality....that essence.

 

If the shows were concurrent I would agree. But "Day of the Dove" would be somewhere around twelve years after "Context is for Kings". It seems like the tech would make its way to the rank-and-file ships in that amount of time.

And Burnham doesn't seem shocked or flustered by the idea of site-to-site transport.

 

The first refits that occurred during the 5YM may have been intermediary steps where the space frame and infrastructure weren't compatible with anything that might have come from Discovery. The TMP refit was "an almost entirely new Enterprise" where she was literally stripped down to the frame and may have been more readily able to receive the new tech.

As for getting replaced, I suspect that was because, despite all the new advancements and new skin she received, it was still the same 20-plus year old space frame that has endured a lot more than most ships of her class and age. The ST IV Enterprise was likely a whole new build based loosely on the refit design, judging by the completely different interior configuration. By that time the Discovery-based tech had likely become generally obsolete.

 

That's the one! Interesting, yes I see it now. It's so different in its presentation that it didn't register to me it might be the same thing. I hope we get to see the whole font in its entirety. Really a cool variant.

 

The font on the steps of the sarcophagus ship and the on the armour of the torch barer is the TNG style font. I’m not sure why they made that stylized one

 

Yup. This bugs me both in-universe and in fandom (though the fandom issue is a direct result of the in-universe issue).

Burnham attacking her captain in pursuit of a plan that didn't even seem likely to work has turned a lot of people off an otherwise likable character.

Everyone seems convinced Lorcas is a murdering fiend. (I really, really hope they aren't going to be that predictable. But I don't know.)

I think a few prickly characters who we'd warm up to is fine, it's just that everyone did something horrible, or might be planning to do something horrible, or is prickly, or is possibly going to be really annoying (though I also like Tilly so far).

 

If they made TNG today all the characters would be Pulaski.

 

I thought this episode was a large improvement on the first two. The show still feels like glorified fan fiction to me, but it's interesting and fun to watch.