Spoilers Star Trek: Discovery 1x13 - "What's Past Is Prologue"

[Bay17]

Potential Captains:
- Saru - lacks self-confidence, has a biological tendency towards cowardice, tried to kill a couple officers on Pahvo.
- Admiral Cornwell - possibly psychologically scarred, might end up being a crazy TOS character, seemed to be okay with using a Vulcan ambassador to force-meld with people in the trailer
- Michael Burnham - too many flaws to mention, especially for such a perfect never-do-wrong character. Not sure why she'd be in the running at this point
- Emperor Georgiou - no flaws there. She is technically the most decorated Starfleet captain available (if you go by Burnham's crazy belief in mirror parity)
- Cadet Tilly - she might be a tad inexperienced

All the names here are full of flaws (although, really only Saru and Cornwell are likely. Airiam could potentially jump to CO if Saru is taken out). Another probability is a new character introduced as a Captain (Spoeneman who only was heard in the MU is my bet). In that case, probably not until Season 2.

Although I'm not a fan of the idea of a new Captain every season.

There are many things I like about Saru, but the main one is his sense of dignity. In an environment and real world where that’s sorely lacking

Cornwell would be good as captain though as an admiral it’s probably unlikely. I think Saru is a better 2IC than captain in terms of a lead character for the show

I guess we’ll find out

 

[CaptainMurdock]

I'd love to see Saru be Captain. He's really grown into a good leadership role and as a character.

 

[Push The Button]

What if all that's left of Starfleet, besides Disco, is round-nacelled Connies with multicolor uniformed crews at this point?

Garth. Axanar.

 

[Bay17]

I'd love to see Saru be Captain. He's really grown into a good leadership role and as a character.

I always wanted to see Spock as captain for an extended stint and enjoyed the short periods when he was

So similarly I’d be happy to see Saru in the chair, just unsure if the producers will run with that or look for someone more “dynamic”

 

[Grendelsbayne]

There was only one other person who co-plotted the arc (I don't think he had nearly as much influence / say) and that was Kurtzman. And Kurtzman doesn't really seem that involved in the writer's room from what I can see. That seems to be Ted Sullivan with Berg and Harberts.

I'm not making excuses, and I'm not saying that's the sole reason for some of the unevenness...I'm just saying my opinion is that it is a big contributor.

I agree its a contributor to the problems, especially since looking at the Lorca arc as a whole its hard to escape the feeling that most of it was originally written for a different ending that then got completely changed around.

I don't see how its much of an excuse, though. Professional writers should know better than any of us how ridiculously rushed this resolution was and how badly that undercuts the entire arc. And they did have time after Fuller left to do plenty of rewrites. Even if they couldn't give more time to the resolution, they could've at least toned down the set-up significantly so that the two wouldn't be completely mismatched, and they don't need the involvement of the original creator to do any of that.

That is a fair examination of reaction to Lorca. Truth is the isolationist politics and parallels I don't take personally so having him embody such ethic is not what disappoints. He didn't go down in my estimation for more character flaws. He went down because he was rewritten or badly written and it came over as misdirection.

While there were many different possible angles to take that I thought could've been fantastic, I would've been 100% on board with xenophobic Lorca if he had just been given a little breathing room and some time to establish himself and explain himself in a way that would advance the plot and the themes of the show. Just 1 more episode in between the reveal and his death would've done absolute wonders for the arc.

And if they had showed a little more originality in the concept to boot (like, say, Burnham thinks Lorca is MU, but he's actually a prime Starfleet officer who never agreed with Federation principles and came to the MU because he thinks its a better universe), it could've been one of the greatest character arcs in the franchise, xenophobic warts and all.

 

[guyute03]

So long, Captain Space Trash.

 

[Hythlodeus]

I binge-watched the show again over the last two days and I have to disagree with anyone about the unevenness of the story arcs. It all came together very smoothly if you watch the episodes back to back

 

[cultcross]

I always wanted to see Spock as captain for an extended stint and enjoyed the short periods when he was

Although we tend to forget it after so many years of wise Spock, he had a Saru like arc of growing into command in season 1, if you compare his command style from, say, Galileo Seven, to Who Mourns for Adonais, the improvement is very noticeable.

 

[Tomalak]

I binge-watched the show again over the last two days and I have to disagree with anyone about the unevenness of the story arcs. It all came together very smoothly if you watch the episodes back to back

I've been holding off on watching it again - I'm going to wait until the last episode and then go back to the start.

 

[picardjean-luc]

I'd love to see Saru be Captain. He's really grown into a good leadership role and as a character.

Second this. He has my vote too .

 

[picardjean-luc]

Next week ...

 

[Hey Missy]

Saru is probably my favorite character.
If they kill him off for no reason at the end of the season, let's just say I'll be very upset.
#DontKillSaru

 

[cooleddie74]

I'd love to see Saru be Captain. He's really grown into a good leadership role and as a character.

He's definitely a better and more interesting character than Burnham has turned out to be in the first 13 episodes.

 

[eschaton]

He's definitely a better and more interesting character than Burnham has turned out to be in the first 13 episodes.

No, it's that Doug Jones is a better and more interesting actor than SMG. If you look at his lines as if they are written on a page, they're really boilerplate Startfleet stuff. Jones is the one putting all the nuance and gravitas into the role.

 

[cooleddie74]

That helps, too.

 

[eschaton]

That helps, too.

It's amazing, because in some ways, they've given Saru the least to do by far.

Burham - Protagonist, has the most development, and nearly all characters have some sort of backstory/relationship with her

Lorca - Formerly captain with seemingly gray morality. Actually a MU shitheel moron. Oh, and secretly in love with Burnham.

Stamets - Sometimes grumpy spore dude with relatively fleshed out gay relationship

Tilly - Started out as the awkward fresh-behind the ears cadet. Now fills any role the plot needs in a week

Tyler - Thought he was tortured by the Klingons, but was actually just a Klingon. Oh, and had a relationship with Burnham.

Saru - Umm...the XO, and now the acting captain? Used to resent Burnham, but now he's better? Likes salt in his tea?

Jones was given the weakest material. Saru had a few "focus episodes" in Act 1, but now he is basically just his rank. But he's outshining everyone else at the moment.

 

[Paradise City]

Burnham is a bit of Mary Sue character but with the fight success rate of Adam West's Batman, lol. The interesting stigma angle she had to bear went after a couple of episodes. It may resurface with Admiral Cornell back on the scene although Sarek will presumably put a check that. Her supposedly complex pathology over PG's death isn't that interesting. I do think Sonequa Martin-Green does do well with what she's got. It's not a frivolous performance and there's a seriousness to how she does it.

Saru is the thoughtful, nervous guy who's trying and doing well to met the responsibility thrust upon him. He finds that he can give good oratory to motivate the crew. So he finds his inner strength. That's textbook Trek. The touch I noticed with him was that the depth of anger he has towards Burnhnam which is striking given his mild mannered nature. But, again, that angle has elapsed after a few episodes and they were quickly pals again.

Tilly is Wesley 2.0 -- w/o the hippie mysticism. I'm not unhappy with the character btw but she does met that type.

Stamets is a brittle nerd type. I see that character type alot in other shows. They do write some good stuff for him though but he's a hard character to fully engage with. Plugging him into the spore drive...yeah, ok.

Tyler an ex-POW with a heavy bout of PTSD but it turns out he's a Bonnie-Prince-Charlie Frankenstein Klingon!

I like the general idea of a Manchurian candidate but I do hope they have something convincing planned to resolve this. Less said about the Tyler and Burnham relationship the better.

Lorca -- at least before the MU unmasking -- is some sort of brutalised sergeant type plucked from some WW2 film. Then we get the revelation he's an MU guy and he's quickly killed! It's the kind of role Michael Ironside would do as well. But they lost alot of potential by not unmasking him earlier.

So these are largely textbook characters. There's no real bond between them, atm, no TOS triumpharate, no TNG family feel. Not a complaint really but they are quite a downcast crew.



.

 

[cultcross]

Tilly is Wesley 2.0 -- w/o the hippie mysticism. I'm not unhappy with the character btw but she does met that type.

This is a common view and I certainly see where it comes from, but I don't agree - Wesley was the best of everything, better at the senior staffs jobs than they were, out of nowhere. He was a high school kid! His only 'flaw' was that he was just so amazing that he had trouble relating to those his own age.
Tilly shares something of his earnest nature and his "golly gee!" excitement at being on a spaceship, but she is a believable bright-but-green-as-gummy-bears young professional on a grad scheme. She's a fourth year cadet, she's essentially got a degree in what she's doing. She should be good at it. She's believable, and that's the difference. I sit next to a Tilly at work. I've never worked with a Wesley.

 

[fireproof78]

So these are largely textbook characters. There's no real bond between them, atm, no TOS triumpharate, no TNG family feel. Not a complaint really but they are quite a downcast crew.

Which is why I'm so intrigued.

 

[Tuskin38]

What I understand from this weeks AfterTrek, that was on purpose, the crew was new, not a well oiled machine and Lorca also contributed to that fact by not being the typical Starfleet captain, he didn't call meetings of the senior/bridge staff and that like other Starfleet captains. He rarely asked for ideas from anyone other then Burnham or Stamets.

While in this episode, Saru did exactly what Picard would have done. Asked for suggestions from everyone.