Spoilers Star Trek: Discovery 1x05 - "Choose Your Pain"

Trust me, they're "together". And even if we didn't "know" this from the cast and the crew (back during Comic Con, and other interviews, esp with Anthony Rapp, etc), it took only one little snarky interchange between Culber and Stamets in an earlier episode (maybe Ep2? I'd have to check) about how Stamets has problems with "feelings" for me to know the what's the what here.

The bigger question in my mind right now is just WHO IS THE CMO?! Culber said something about the CMO and the Andorian surgery. So who is the CMO? Are we going to meet him or her? Is this not a regular character, then? Is this person going to be in the captain's meetings (as in all the other series)? Is the person going to be offed to make way for Culber to become CMO?!

Inquiring minds wanna know

 

It would be funny if never seeing the CMO became a running joke, like how morn was a chatterbox off screen.

Seriously though, my guess is the CMO is going to die probably offscreen and culber will become CMO

 

In theory.

As time goes by and the dullness of the character continues unmitigated despite valiant attempts by TPTB to "make her better", the truth will emerge and this will become more and more an ensemble cast simply because there are AT LEAST THREE OTHER actors who inhabit their characters with better results.

 

I think the only reason she's still the "main character" is because she's still the protagonist. Spock was the true protagonist of TOS, btw, not Kirk. Anyway, if Michael Burnham turns out to be a well-written protagonist, then she will go from a "faux-vulcan with deeply-felt inner conflicts and an electra complex" to a somewhat well-adjusted human woman who succeeds at what she's doing in order to help this show/story find its core.

But we know better. That will never happen because this show is about failure of intent and a darkness of spirit that's manifest right from episode one.

Don't get me wrong: I like this show so far, but I still don't know where the writers are going to take it in its present form w/o radically altering/correcting its direction and premise.

 

I'd have to see Choose Your Pain again but I thought there was something about a confirmation of that fact in that ep. I might be wrong.

 

Chief engineer? An "astro-mycologist" / silvershirt?

 

Shatner.

Or like Chef from "Enterprise" - which was also rumored to be a role held for a Shatner guest spot (up until the "love letter to the fans" ).

 

And/or perhaps he's a lot better with the other tech than we've seen so far, and astro-mycologist is just ONE of his hats.

 

Shatner needs to show up as the CMO. Denny Crane M.D

 

Or his file was reworked to make it not seem odd a biological scientist was working as an engineer. Chief Engineer is essentially his cover.

 

I like this explanation a lot. One would think his cover would be reflected in his uniform, though.

 

The vibe I got was totally confirmed by subtleties and body language that they are in fact together.

 

And the Klingon Raider is the Mazda Miata...

 

I think that's the point.

 

I think since he designed the drive that's propelling the ship he probably has crossover skills and education that lends him to also being an engineer.

I mean if he can use microbiology to design and invent an interstellar propulsion drive I doubt he has a hard time maintaining an already existing drive. A lot of work as a chief anything has a lot to do with delegation and organizing shifts and maintenance schedules anyway. I don't think anything sneaky is happening here.

 

It is apparently a mistake.

https://twitter.com/karterhol/status/920419206843076608
https://twitter.com/karterhol/status/920419431703912448

 

I don't think SMG's version of Burnham is particularyl "dull". In fact, I think she's quite a good actress. For example compared to Zoe Saldana. Saldana looks more like a traditional female lead. But I think Zoe doesn't actually add a lot to the material she's given with her performances. With her, it's usually just the words on the page she delivers. But I see her performances in Star Trek, Guardians of the Galaxy or Columbiana as quite interchangeable, even though these should be very different persons.

SMG on the other hand, IMO, adds to the material, a lot, - most of the time. I think her performance is actually quite comparable to Duncan O'Neil as Nick Locarno/early Tom Paris, only in female. And she does that really nice! I think the only problems with her performance were very early on, when she tried to channel the "Vulcan" role in the scene where Sarek brought her to the ship). That was a role that clearly didn't fit her. But since then?

I think how she performs her redemption arc - as someone she portrays as a person very calm on the outside, but as visibly in emotional turmoil on the inside, is quite noticeable a very good performance, especially considering for something that has to be delivered on a weekly basis, as a lead in a television series, who is in almost every scene until now.

I think she is one of the highlights of this show, and together with Doug Jones' very physical and Anthony Rapps' very understated, calm performances, they make even the more shoddier material in the scripts work on the screen. Really, the acting in this series is IMO top-notch and one of the better ones in all of Trek.

 

Absolutely agreed. IMHO, this show is pretty shitty writing kept afloat by decent visuals and great actors.