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Magic to Make the Sanest...confirmed "bottle episode"

*ducks bit of broken truth flapping about after hearing snapping sound, pirouettes around insult because hey, why not*

I think you exaggerate how commonly it was reported, and do Trek fans a dis-service. Though you are of course entitled to your opinion. 2012 was a busy year for me, so my general news reading was low, and my science reading more so, but I haven’t come across it in the usual places we get the ‘hmm that’s I teresting’ stories show up. So maybe it wasn’t that big a news for anyone with a passing interest in science. Regardless, as that’s not my point, my point was that ‘time crystals’ sounds like Hokey sci-fi concept.
It was last year actually. A simple Google search shows it on most popular news sites that even vaguely deal with science, even io9 mentions it. Vice did a whole series on their Motherboard site. I don't think you should attack the show because of your own scientific illiteracy. Especially when even googling "time crystals" leads to news articles about it instead of a Trek wik or fanfiction.

Honestly it's a fairly simple term for science and makes sense. We know what time is and we know what a crystal is, time crystal is a perfect description for what they found. Maybe it can't create time loops that people can be in, but nothing in Star Trek is realistic. I'm glad the writers took an effort to use actual science and maybe inspire some future scientist to research actual time crystals because they saw that episode.

Not as fun as time balls though, it sounds like magic, but I'm sure there was a technobabble explanation for it that people can claim makes sense.
 
It was last year actually. A simple Google search shows it on most popular news sites that even vaguely deal with science, even io9 mentions it. Vice did a whole series on their Motherboard site. I don't think you should attack the show because of your own scientific illiteracy. Especially when even googling "time crystals" leads to news articles about it instead of a Trek wik or fanfiction.

Yeah I did a google on it. Looks like it was reported heavily, so I retract my comment on that. What can I say, parenthood and studies make for busy times, and science stories disappear of the front pages damn fast in today’s world....there’s outrage, and warfare, and politics, all flowing everywhere over the page. No on died in Time Crystals, and they did t offend anyone, so they kind of drop off the radar I guess.
Still sounds like seventies Doctor Who
 
I'll never understand how people can be cool with star trek portraying sound in a vacuum and yet get all worked up about something being called a time crystal.
Wait until you get to the canon discussions about the different sound waepon effects in DSC and TOS.that logically shouldn't exist at all.
 
I was making a joke based on your joke then :D. Jokemate.

Jokergeddon. Unless we destroy this thread, the entire multiverse that sits atop the humour network will be destroyed....but...I am all out of punchlines...
 
Calling it a "time crystal" rather than some polysyllabic, multiword nonsense was one of the few ways the show actually reminded me of TOS.

Good point. How is "time crystal" hokier than, say, "stardate" or "photon torpedo"?

Neither of which, let it be noted, were ever actually explained on the air.
 
You're saying that the spore drive was the sole plot driver in season 1. I maintain that it wasn't the sole plot driver in any episode. If you disagree, please name the episode(s). The spore drive was never anything more than a plot device, albeit more important than the warp drive or transporter, but a plot device nonetheless.

The importance of the drive, it was being prepped to be a major tool in the war, was stressed from the first time we see the Disco. As a plot device, it was used similarly to the way a brand new type of ship or other piece of new tech in Star Trek. Think of the slip stream drive in Voy or the Defiant in DS9. A certain amount of time was devoted to the spore drive in certain episodes, which led to crew interaction, which in turn provided a vehicle for character growth, drama, and storytelling. But this was only in certain episodes.

In other episodes it was some other plot device, like the magic time crystals, or the MU, or the Klingon shrine, or Georgiou's telescope, or the Tartigrade. But none of these were the sole point of any plot in any episoe. As I said, if you disagree, please name the episode(s) that you think fit your discription.

The spore drive was not the main plot line in Discovery, except for perhaps episodes 3-5 where the drama of getting the drive working properly (and the ethics of using the tardigrade) was central to the show. However, it was present in some fashion in basically every episode. Indeed, aside from being "the gay character" all Stamets did was the Spore Drive. In Act 2 in particular, aside from like two scenes where he got to look sad about Culber dying, he was basically all spore technobabble all the time.

Regardless, my point was the spore drive is only inherently slightly more ridiculous than dilithium crystals. But the ridiculousness of the concept was repeatedly thrown in our face because it became one of the central arcs which carried through the whole season. It wasn't like say red matter in ST09, which was stupid, but we were meant to forget about almost immediately to focus on the personal drama.
 
The spore drive was not the main plot line in Discovery, except for perhaps episodes 3-5 where the drama of getting the drive working properly (and the ethics of using the tardigrade) was central to the show. However, it was present in some fashion in basically every episode. Indeed, aside from being "the gay character" all Stamets did was the Spore Drive. In Act 2 in particular, aside from like two scenes where he got to look sad about Culber dying, he was basically all spore technobabble all the time.

I will be curious to see how they characterize Stamets in season 2. In season 1, the character existed as a function of the plot -- the irascible non-engineer pressed into service, then the loopy spore drive victim, then, for the briefest of moments, the bereaved partner. As with Burnham, I couldn't tell you what his personality is supposed to be like at this point.

I liked Stamets (and the actor), so I hope he gets more to do than mourn and search for Culber in season 2, even though I thought they did his character a grave disservice by not devoting more time to his loss.
 
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