Spoilers Star Trek: Discovery 1x04 - "The Butcher's Knife Cares Not for the Lamb's Cry"

[Guy Gardener]

My impression of the other convicts was that they were regular convicts, not 'military'/Starfleet ones like Burnham. That doesn't rule out the chance that they have advanced degrees (since this is the mostly evolved 23rd century), but lessens it, especially since they don't seem to be your average 'white collar' criminals one might expect from this era.

In a novel I read, they called it Eugenics War Fallout.

A few thousand men and women as strong as a triceratops, and smarter than a calculator screwing thousands, maybe tens of thousands of regular people, and their babies screwing 10s of thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands of regular people, and their babies screwing mi... You get my point?

Unless the Supermen did not breed with normals, or they were sterilized, or tossed into mass graves, or superhumanism was nonhereditive recessive junk DNA, their continued expression in the gene pool was uplifting, especially as the grand children of different Supermen started falling in love and wondering why their own children could speak 5 languages before they could walk.

 

[Mr Awe]

Really? Because our explanations were more or less the same. So...

Yeah, right, the two explanations were the same as much as TNG and Discovery are the same! SolarisOne is correct.

 

[eschaton]

Please name the 2/3 of the season that had no relationship to the arc.

Here's the entire season:

Core arc episodes: 10 The Xindi, The Shipment, Stratagem, Proving Ground, Azati Prime , Damage, The Forgotten, The Council, Countdown. Zero Hour

Xindi related, but not core: 7 Anomaly, Rajiin, Twilight, Carpenter Street, Chosen Realm, Harbinger, Hachery (some of these episodes would have worked without using the Xindi framing at all (just imagine another random race)

Not connected at all: 7 Extinction, Impulse, Exile, North Star, Similitude, Doctor's orders, E2. Any Xindi framing is completely irrelevant to the core plot of the show.

So you're right, I did overstate it. However, it's wrong to claim that the entire season follows a concrete arc. The "defeat the Xindi weapon" arc is mostly just dealt with in ten episodes.

 

[Mr Awe]

I'm reasonably sure that PTSD is a clinical diagnosis that few people here would be qualified to make. Were there someone in this discussion qualified to make such a clinical judgement, I would submit that she or he would not yet have enough evidence to make a diagnosis.

The point is that some of her behavior is consistent with PTSD. That's different than a diagnosis. But, it does seem to be a likely cause. Maybe the show will reveal more about this? Until then, it's fun to speculate. It *is* a discussion board after all!

 

[anh165]

it looks a lot like that, but what on earth is he doing in starfleet then?

I guess he thought he signed up to explore parts of the galaxy, instead his talents are exploited to help fight off the Klingons.

Pretty much the same goes for many people finding out that their jobs are not like what their contract or job description stated it was.

 

[KirkusOveractus]

I guess he thought he signed up to explore parts of the galaxy, instead his talents are exploited to help fight off the Klingons.

Pretty much the same goes for many people finding out that their jobs are not like what their contract or job description stated it was.

I'm thinking something along these lines, as well. Dialogue from Lorca says that the ship has scientists on it, and Connor on the Shenzhou asks why are they fighting, since they're explorers.

To me, it looks like Starfleet was continuing the exploration and scientific initiatives, but war broke out and the "last resort" weapons now need to be used more.

It's also like the complaint Stamets had, where he was happy with his research in a lab, but the war got him signed to serve on a Starship in war.

 

[Tuskin38]

I guess he thought he signed up to explore parts of the galaxy, instead his talents are exploited to help fight off the Klingons.

Pretty much the same goes for many people finding out that their jobs are not like what their contract or job description stated it was.

He obviously did his Job well enough a Commander rank and XO position.

I'm really interested to see where Voq's story is going. I think I might have enjoyed the Klingon parts the most in this episode.

 

[Tuskin38]

It's also like the complaint Stamets had, where he was happy with his research in a lab, but the war got him signed to serve on a Starship in war.

Well didn't he say the ship was custom built for the Shroom Drive? I mean obviously it was with the spinny parts, and probably the effort it would take to refit an existing ship.

Its more like the ship was drafted with the crew. The ship was most likely under construction when the war started.

 

[Blooded]

I've not got far into the Discovery novel yet, but I believe Burnham was a senior tactical officer before whatever role she was in specifically at the time of the pilot, so I wonder if a certain death might lead to her filling that role on Discovery's bridge?

 

[KirkusOveractus]

Well didn't he say the ship was custom built for the Shroom Drive? I mean obviously it was with the spinny parts, and probably the effort it would take to refit an existing ship.

Its more like the ship was drafted with the crew. The ship was most likely under construction when the war started.

When it was mentioned this past Sunday that the ship was designed for the drive system, I was wondering about it, but it still fits with the line from Stamets in the previous episode.

The ship was designed to test the new drive, based on what Stamets and Straal were working on, with that part being secret from other hostile groups (Klingons, Romulans, Regis Philbin). Even Lorca was saying that now the crew needs to be trained for war and they are no longer a science vessel.

My thinking is that although the Glenn and Discovery were designed and built to experiment with the Spores, it would be a waste to make those ships only for that, so to get the most for their money, they are also science vessels for all sorts of experiments.

 

[Tuskin38]

When it was mentioned this past Sunday that the ship was designed for the drive system, I was wondering about it, but it still fits with the line from Stamets in the previous episode.

The ship was designed to test the new drive, based on what Stamets and Straal were working on, with that part being secret from other hostile groups (Klingons, Romulans, Regis Philbin). Even Lorca was saying that now the crew needs to be trained for war and they are no longer a science vessel.

My thinking is that although the Glenn and Discovery were designed and built to experiment with the Spores, it would be a waste to make those ships only for that, so to get the most for their money, they are also science vessels for all sorts of experiments.

Saru says it can do likie 400 different scientific missions at once or something.

 

[Guy Gardener]

Missions in the same place.

They go to an ocean.

One mission is how much salt, and another mission is how many turtles, followed by 398 more equally as asinine missions.

Science is mostly about measuring or counting stuff, so you can find patterns and constants so that you don't have to keep counting and measuring.

 

[oberth]

Saru says it can do likie 400 different scientific missions at once or something.

300

 

[Kevman7987]

I've not got far into the Discovery novel yet, but I believe Burnham was a senior tactical officer before whatever role she was in specifically at the time of the pilot, so I wonder if a certain death might lead to her filling that role on Discovery's bridge?

I was so happy that death happened. How could she have been so recklessly stupid? That was an earned death, never act that way when you are a character in a narrative.

 

[Tuskin38]

Doesn't Burnham have a badge in some of the pre-release trailers while wearing a science uniform?

Could have that been a mis-lead, or something they changed later?

 

[anh165]

For the optimism and loftiness that TOS and TNG wishes to project to the viewers, I like to think that Discovery is the series that reveals how the UFP got to that stage, so that the likes of Kirk, Spock & Picard have the privilege to spend their prime years in deep space to appease their curiosities.

There is a price to pay for peace and the freedom wander around uncharted 'lands' , it seems people like Saru and Stamets (and possibly thousands of other officers circa 2250) are paying that price - I hope to see just how much...

 

[KirkusOveractus]

Doesn't Burnham have a badge in some of the pre-release trailers while wearing a science uniform?

Could have that been a mis-lead, or something they changed later?

I think she'll have a Science insignia in the next episode or so. They made her getting the uniform an effects-laden opening to the last episode, so I'm sure it will be part of the next episode or two.

 

[BillJ]

I think she'll have a Science insignia in the next episode or so. They made her getting the uniform an effects-laden opening to the last episode, so I'm sure it will be part of the next episode or two.

Maybe next episode they will show how an arrowhead badge is hand-crafted from the finest metals in the Federation. That should burn ten minutes!

 

[Tim Thomason]

I get the feeling that the House of Mokai is going to give Voq the Arne Darvin treatment. Calling it now, Ash Tyler is Voq.

I think Voq the Albino might end up using Mokai genetic technology to turn the whole Klingon Empire into humans. "I can't be a true Klingon? Fine then, no one can be a Klingon!"

And the other Klingons can be like "Not again!"

 

[BillJ]

I think Voq the Albino might end up using Mokai genetic technology to turn the whole Klingon Empire into humans. "I can't be a true Klingon? Fine then, no one can be a Klingon!"

And the other Klingons can be like "Not again!"

I would seriously fall off of my couch laughing if that ends up being the case!