Spoilers Star Trek: Discovery 1x06 - "Lethe"

[Tosk]

^On Vulcan.

 

[Jono]

Still hate the hyper-mind meld that can Force heal people. Despite that I liked the episode. We got to see more of Burnham's past and Lorca continued to do what Lorca does. The odd thing for me at the moment is the war. It doesn't really feel...real. Is the war even really needed to drive the plot?

Oh, and it felt weird that we didn't really go further into what Stamets did last week. Did they not need him for the jump this week? What actually happens when they do jump? Is he still stabbed by those large needles? Is he in pain like Ripper? How does he steer the ship to its location? I wanted to see more of how things work now.

Loved the DISCO shirts. My only disappointment is they don't have they in a size that would fit my might K'mpec-like frame.

 

[Guy Gardener]

Traveller told you about it 30 years ago.

Space, time and mind are all connected.

 

[Longinus]

I just don't see the need for it to be Sarek.

Well, actually this episode demonstrated pretty well why they wanted it to be Sarek. I think it worked nicely.

 

[cultcross]

Well, actually this episode demonstrated pretty well why they wanted it to be Sarek. I think it worked pretty well.

I agree this is the first time that any other Vulcan couldn't be drag dropped in his place. It's nice that they incorporated something to tie Burnham into Sarek's ongoing story because otherwise I was really beginning to wonder why he was chosen.

 

[Tosk]

Still hate the hyper-mind meld that can Force heal people.

Who got healed by it? All Burnham did was give Sarek a physic slap across the face to wake him up. It didn't help him with his injuries at all.

 

[Longinus]

It's weird. Why would a secret organization deliberately scar their members so that they're easily identifiable by any opposing spy agency?

Yeah, it really doesn't make any sense. But he has done it before.

 

[cultcross]

Who got healed by it? All Burnham did was give Sarek a physic slap across the face to wake him up. It didn't help him with his injuries at all.

Burnham got healed by it (resurrected in fact) as a child.

 

[Longinus]

Burnham got healed by it (resurrected in fact) as a child.

I'd imagine it to be more like forcibly kick starting the nervous system.

 

[Tosk]

Burnham got healed by it (resurrected in fact) as a child.

Oh. That.

 

[cooleddie74]

Was it just me or did the writers and producers realize the screwup of the "D7" in the previous episode and tried to alleviate the problem in the dialogue of this one? At one point somebody on Discovery refers to the ship that captured and was holding Lorca as a Bird-of-Prey. Now, we know that continuity within the Trek universe isn't spotless and never will be and both B&B and Abrams f'd up and called Klingon warships by the wrong name ("Warbird"). I guess we could always look at this as a producer correction or a happy mistake that will now let us handwave the prison ship away as a class of Bird-of-Prey and not a D7 battle cruiser.

Hey. Works for me. Unless the producers say otherwise this line of dialogue might solve the issue.

 

[Tomalak]

I really want a Disco t-shirt!

 

[Grendelsbayne]

Was it just me or did the writers and producers realize the screwup of the "D7" in the previous episode and tried to alleviate the problem in the dialogue of this one? At one point somebody on Discovery refers to the ship that captured and was holding Lorca as a Bird-of-Prey. Now, we know that continuity within the Trek universe isn't spotless and never will be and both B&B and Abrams f'd up and called Klingon warships by the wrong name ("Warbird"). I guess we could always look at this as a producer correction or a happy mistake that will now let us handwave the prison ship away as a class of Bird-of-Prey and not a D7 battle cruiser.

Hey. Works for me. Unless the producers say otherwise this line of dialogue might solve the issue.

There's no reason to believe the ship that captured Lorca was the same ship that was holding him, is there? It was specifically referred to as a 'prison ship' - which would not be my first choice of ship to take behind enemy lines to kidnap a high value target.

 

[Longinus]

There's no reason to believe the ship that captured Lorca was the same ship that was holding him, is there? It was specifically referred to as a 'prison ship' - which would not be my first choice of ship to take behind enemy lines to kidnap a high value target.

I'm pretty sure it was the same CGI model.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

I really want a Disco t-shirt!

It has VERY on the other side, doesn't it?

VERY DISCO!

 

[Refuge]

I really want a Disco t-shirt!

That was so obviously marketing. Shameless.

 

[Gonzo]

My perspective on this is different. For one, what the admiral did was prima facie evidence of entrapment. She's a trained psychiatrist, she sleeps with her patient, and then, rather than empathise with him, she blows the lid, accuses him of being broken, goes ballistic, and doesn't even follow-through on her threat right there and then. If you believe your patient is a threat to him/herself, you have an ethical--and, in some States, legal--obligation to report. She left him in command pending a formal complaint to--what?--Starfleet command? Chief of Starfleet Medical? Not sure. In any case, her actions, at least in my estimation, clearly indicated she came there under false pretenses and she found what she was looking for, however thin a fig leaf it was. That's horribly unethical, at the very least.

And what did she find? That Lorca has scars. That he sleeps with a phaser. That he reacts negatively when someone touches him--without his permission, mind you!--in bed, whilst he's asleep. That's hyperarousal, yes, and one of the symptoms we look for in PTSD. But it's not like she did a full evaluation right there and then. It takes more than a knee-jerk response to give a proper diagnosis. Also, PTSD symptoms do not present themselves immediately. They take time. And, more to the point, I'm not seeing him with a full complexus. He's demonstrated only two items, only one of which is a symptom: he's had a stressor--obviously--and he's shown hyperarousal. But, since it's only been one week--if you believe Cornwell--since Lorca's gotten the conn back, he hasn't shown the requisite amount of time needed to diagnose PTSD, which requires (as of DSM-5) more than a month of symptoms that--and this is key--have a negative effect on his performance or subjective experience. If it's less than a month--and, again, it has to have a negative effect on his performance or his subjective experience--than it's what we call an acute stress disorder.

In other words, she had no call to do what she did because he has not demonstrated marked deterioration in behavior, hasn't admitted to marked subjective experience, and, basically, seems like he's coping with it rather well, thus far. He's more resilient than others, mentally.

No, to me it looks like she came there to prove something, found what she wanted and, perhaps to cover her embarrassment at the awkward position she was in--at the wrong end of a phaser after she did a big no-no and touched someone in their sleep whom she suspected may have had an issue with stress--she quickly came up with her threat.

But, mind you, she didn't execute it. Why? She knew she had nothing to stand on. She'd read his evals and even if he admitted to fudging them--and, really, trust me, no one goes into that kind of test wanting to be COMPLETELY honest about it because they know what's on the line and even the psychometrists administering them know to take that into account--it's still privileged information. So...she never let the boom fall. She didn't immediately relieve him of command--which she could have done--but instead delivered a hollow threat. Until he's given a proper evaluation by an uninterested party--not someone you have a history with and with whom you've slept with!--his situation is actually pretty safe.

I suspect Lorca probably knows this. Hence his willingness to do things a man who felt threatened wouldn't do. Like reinstate Michael. On further reflection, though, he knows he walked too close to the line and, in the end, pulls back. Better to make sure his actions are impeccable than prove Cornwell's point.

As I mentioned in my episode 6 comments I was instantly suspicious as soon as Saru informed Lorca that she was actually there in person, she must have been keeping track and following Lorca using standard warp drive from the start.

Her reason for being there was bull as well, she was on a fishing expedition and I think Lorca knew that full well from the look on his face when he is told she is parked right outside.

Very unethical for a practicing Psychologist but as an Admiral on Star Trek its par for the course really as they can do pretty much whatever they want.

I liked the episode a lot because there was a complete lack of black and white from Lorca, everything he does is shades of grey and can be taken so many different ways.

 

[cooleddie74]

I'm pretty sure it was the same CGI model.

It was. It was the same ship that abducted Lorca.

 

[Tomalak]

That was so obviously marketing. Shameless.

It's hardly marking if the product isn't available!

Whereas you can buy a Discovery replica uniform, which makes the costumes shameless marketing?

Edit - scratch that, it is available! Rejoice in the marketing goodness!

 

[Ovation]

Is he still stabbed by those large needles?

Don’t recall his exact words but Stamets says something to the effect that once you get past the stabbing bit, the experience is amazing.