Spoilers Star Trek: Discovery 1x08 - "Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum"

An Easter egg is mentioning Jonathan Archer or Robert April on a readout. When you're adding a twist to one of the most famous scenes in sci-fi you're well beyond that term. Its, at worst, an homage.

 

I disagree, because any good plot isn't about the destination, it's about the journey. There's plenty of examples of great works of literature where the conclusion was foreordained, like Milton's Paradise Lost. Not to mention that outside of a few modern genres (like horror) unhappy endings are very rare, so enjoyment must involve suspension of disbelief. Also, the showrunners have been clear Discovery is really about Michael Burnham, not the war, and we of course don't know how her story will end.

 

8/10

 

Another really good episode. I don't think I've been disappointed in an episode yet. Some I do like more then others but would vote this an 8. A good away mission, good character moments, nice action, and a good setup for the mid-season finale next week.

 

Woah...where did this "feeding room" thing come from? I wasn't left with that impression.

 

One final thought before bed: Burnham and Tyler have zero chemistry together as a couple. I find myself hoping that Voq gets unmasked relatively soon so I don't have to watch any more scenes with two actors feigning attraction to one another.

 

Joke by Guy Gardener.

 

I honestly had high expectations for this episode and obviously wanted to like it more than anything that came before, but... 6/10

1. I liked the planet, both aesthetically and the idea. Although it was just the Pandora from the Avatar. Yes, I acknowledge that they wanted to do something classically Star Trek, but it didn't materialize. Not enough insight into the Panava. Very little in terms of the story, just some dragged out scenes. It's not enough for the episode to be good in theory, it needs to actually be good.

2. Best Klingon scenes on the show. Don't get too excited, it's still not good, but at least wasn't putting me to sleep.

3. The first minute(s) of the fighting action was dynamic and I thought "this can only get better"

4. Worst ending of any Star Trek episode. When the preview started, I was like - this can't be it, can it? Felt like I watched 5 minutes into an episode, was kinda into it, but then nothing happened, except for a cheap cliffhanger "hold on, it's going to happen in the next episode" ... okay... then just make a longer episode, or cut out the dragged out scenes, but make it an exciting episode to watch. Very disappointed by the ending.

The good thing is that it looks like they're trying to go in the right direction (exploring alien worlds, introducing sci fi ideas) but they're not doing a very good job at it. And the bad thing is that STD broke its arguable streak of every episode being better than the one before. I'm also worried that they're going to be tying all "exploration" episodes into the overall boring arc, limiting them to a very narrow story beat. If this planet was explored without any connection to the stupid Klingon arc, it might have been very good. The difficulty of establishing communication with the alien planet, understanding how they evolved, their culture, etc. could've all been fascinating to explore and instead.. it just wasn't. I would've given this a 7 if it had some kind of a resolution at the end. Again, just a terrible ending.

Overall, if the Magic episode was a stupid idea with a good execution, this was a good idea with a crappy execution. On the other hand this was still second best STD episode.

 

Double fisted hammer punches FTW!

 

If that was a feeding room, it would have been a terrible place to hide Katrina.

Central to the room is one of those caskets they put on the hull. (Is it also a torpedo?)

Which might mean that all of those dead klingons were supposed to have been put into caskets and bonded to the hull, but had not been since the change in leadership, because the duty roster had gone to shit. It's still the corpseroom, but the morticians who put these warriors to rest, are not doing their jobs, so the corpse mutilation is probably just from random rat-like vermin that hides in the walls and crawlspaces taking advantage of improperly stowed meat.

Were they "wasting" food on Katrina? Considering how quickly they revert to famine conditions, can they waste food on a prisoner, they might space at any moment?

From scavenging the battle of the binary stars, if Klingons can only eat life food, they might have stockpiled plenty of freeze dried human food... But I can also see them trying to feed the woman a small bucket of excrement twice a day.

 

Most likely because the Klingons have begun mass producing the cloaks.

 

8/10. I doubt I'm going to go any higher on the ratings. There are pretty much an even mix of things I love and despise about this series. That balance doesn't look to change anytime soon.

She's the only even halfway interesting Discovery Klingon. I wonder how she and Martok would get along.

Pandora.

She is the most compelling female on the entire series so far.

*sigh* Maybe that trend will even out by season 2?

That's a very Star Trek turn of phrase.

Well, she certainly has a better chance of making captain than Burnham, now doesn't she?

Romance? What romance? I have a lot of difficulty reading nonverbal cues, and even I can tell this is fake as hell. Sonequa Martin-Green needs someone better to play off of. Not saying Shazad Latif is a bad actor, but he has ZERO chemistry with her. Just saying.

 

We've seen the physical device that is a cloak twice.

Kirk was able to carry a cloak that wasn't much bigger than a small sack of sweet potatoes, meanwhile Rom and Quark carried an invisible box that seemed footlocker sized a hundred years later... But where were the thousands of miles of cables and and thousands of shield emitters?

I don't think that a cloaking shield, is an original piece of technology, more so that it is a filter that teaches a ship's pre-existing shield to act in a weird unplanned manner above original specifications, which makes the ship invisible.

Which may explain why the klingon fleet was not dry docked for months.

 

They're invisible.

 

And weighed nothing, or Kirk, Quark and Rom are each as strong as a Kryptonian?

 

Future metals weigh nothing.

 

6/10 for me. It needed an extra 20 mins and more breathing space, plus the Klingon scenes fleshed out more. The planetary stuff was breathtaking though!

 

Agreed I feel the same way. I can't bring myself to give more than an 8 until I feel warm and tingly inside. No tingle yet. A 10 would be near impossible. A 10 would be like super bowl, 4th & 1, with a second left in the game, then your team wins type of enjoyment

 

I did just seem to be contrived, it's rather sacrosanct to the ending of TWOK. And, for me, it's hard to hear outside of the context of the scene between Kirk and Spock.