Spoilers Star Trek: Short Treks 1x01 - "Runaway"

That's cleverly argued, but it seems simpler to go with Cyrus's suggestion that there was just a time cut while the ship traveled to her planet.

 

Or passing close by the system/through it already, I know. It's just another interesting possibility of Discovery's unique properties.

Also, no matter how much more advanced the Gamesters transporters (which they might not be), I think it would be harder to lock onto something 1100 lightyears away and retrieve it from a small object. Than it would be to send something to a much larger target like a planet in an outgoing beam. So the two might balance out in ability assuming there's power enough. (just hypothetically in the show going on).

 

I always find it surprising that people assume the "transwarp beaming" equations that Spock Prime gave to Scotty in ST '09 had to be something newly discovered between Nemesis and 2387, given all the different times we saw long-range interstellar beaming throughout the franchise. In addition to the three or so times it cropped up in TOS, DaiMon Bok had it in TNG: "Bloodlines," the Dominion had it in DS9: "The Jem'Hadar" and maybe elsewhere, and the Nyrians had it in VGR: "Displaced" (plus there was the Sikarian trajector in "Prime Factors," though that was a space-folding system rather than a conventional transporter). So interstellar beaming is something the Federation had known about for over a century, but (as established in "Bloodlines") they hadn't figured out how to make it safe and reliable.

 

Yeap, you are certainly right, Discovery have a great production value...
but my comment was more of the "wow! how tiny was the money to the make up department on this episode?" kind of thing.

The PO character could have been less human looking ...for a new species that grew on symbiosis with their planet.
Its a good concept, bad finished.

 

I didn't really like it, sadly. I enjoyed learning more about Tilly, but that was about it. It moved too quickly, but at the same time I found myself getting bored. I feel like the dialogue was too rapid-fire for me to understand the plot. The alien is a teenage queen of a planet that was born at the same time she was (or at least that's her belief), and she's good with science and invented some new thing having to do with dilithium crystals? Not sure what was going on with that last part. I guess because I didn't understand why she ran away, the whole thing kind of fell apart for me. I swear I was paying full attention, it just felt like the whole thing was moving at lightning speed.

 

We'd never seen FEDERATION made Transporters do that as part of it actual in service function (Assuming they weren't in orbit of her home planet) <-- That was the point and honestly, I'm sure you got that, and you were just being purposely obtuse about it and you know it.

 

There's really no need to be like that. And Federation transporters in standard operation are not what we're talking about when it comes to Discovery. Or regular anything, the ship is almost entirely experimental and meant to do things other ships can't.

I'm not sure how much more season 1 could have driven that home.

 

Did you miss the fact that I winked to indicate I was speaking in jest, or did you ignore it deliberately?

 

Alternatively, whatever ship Po came from was still in transporter range, and she could be beamed back aboard.

 

Fair episode. There was quite a bit of stuff that bothered me, but some good stuff too.

The transporter really bothered me, as did Tilly's lack of concern about a cloaked alien being on the ship. I'm glad I read through this thread though. If other folks are going to assume various offscreen explanations, I guess I can too. And the question of where Po came from at the very beginning can be turned around into a decent enough explanation of the end. Whatever planet or ship she came from must have been nearby.

The conversation/character development did seem way too rapidfire though. I understand there just isn't room for everything in a short like this, but it stood out.

It needs to pay off in the future. If we see more of Po or her planet or Tilly's mom or whatever else in a future episode, it'll make some of this short episode's shortcomings more forgivable.

That said, this episode had a number of good points too. Tilly giving the replicator the eye was the highlight of the whole thing, but the production values (that great opening sequence!) made this episode very watchable. Tilly's quarters looked great, and I'll assume that they just filmed that scene and probably the other crewmembers in the messhall while they were filming similar shots and characters for a "real" episode. Probably that opening too. Though if they filmed that scene just for this episode, well then thanks!


That damn replicator would probably say No to me at least once a day.

 

What is the basic plot?
Po comes aboard hoping to travel as a stowaway since the authorities are looking for her ship? Maybe she was thinking of starting a new identity and life in some obscure place. Then Tilly convinces her to return to her ship (possibly cloaked) and to head home, allowing herself to be repatriated?

Am I right about why Po came on board and why she left?

More Plot Point Confusion
- Was Po's discovery a potential threat to the mining industry on her planet? Or did people simply not believe her? Was she more worried about mining interests suppressing the discovery or someone stealing it?
- Why was there an order to detain her and repatriate her? Is it just because she's under 18? You'd think if she wanted to abdicate the throne someone else would be willing to step up and take that role.
- What was she saying about being twins with her planet? Was that her way of saying her race appeared around the same time the planet did, no delay before the Cambrian explosion as on Earth, and that fact was a metaphor for her desire to protect the planet's environment?

I Can Suspend Disbelief
- Po sneaked aboard with no one finding her but Tilly.
- Tilly was able to hide her for a short time while they worked through Po's issue.
- Tilly was able to return her to her ship or whatever ship, station, or planet happened to be very nearby in transporter range.
- Po not only made a great discovery, but she talked as if it was ready for commercialization. I think this was just Po's lack of experience in how much time and work there is between an promising new lab finding and a commercalizable technology.
- Maybe recrystalizing dilithium is never commercializable because it requires more resources than mining fresh dilithium. But maybe Tilly tells Burnham, who tells Spock, which is why Spock knows about it in the ST:IV.

It seemed like this was a bottle episode with one staring character, as if it were written to be cheap. It relied on dialogue, and I think the actresses pulled it off. That's hard to do. My 10 y/o was bored. "They're just talking," he said. But they made the talk interesting enough to be watchable, which is a hard job. I liked how the actors delivered the dialogue. I just wish they had made the plot clearer. Is it hidden in there?

 

'5'

Like much of Discovery, decent acting with bland, uninspired writing.

 

They didn't actually use the word "replicator," I hope? That term wasn't introduced until the TNG era -- indeed, not until season 2 of TNG.

 

Very weak story.

 

Agreed.

Tilly would certainly have to explain what happened in the mess hall ("hormonal space rabbit" ) and the computer would probably have a record of Po being on board. So Tilly basically had no choice but to inform Saru. Thus I'm sure the Discovery actually travelled to Xahea, there was no need for a long range transport.

One question:

In the transporter room, what are those little rooms with human-shaped cubicles in the walls? They're visible behind the transporter consoles when Tilly is about to beam down Po.

 

I found it fun and sweet. It reminded me of a short story from one of the anthologies. Fairly insubstantial, so I'd hazard a guess that people who are predetermined to dislike DSC won't like it, and it provided amusement for those who have enjoyed DSC.

 

Inconsequential and contains some improbabilities but Mary Wiseman and Tilly are so charming I didn't care. That woman can make almost anything work. I laughed out loud when the replicator told Tilly a quadruple espresso was ill advised. The nanny replicator is a silly running joke, I freely admit, but it cracks me up every time.

 

It has a point, though. A quadruple espresso? That's like a heart attack in a cup.

 

I don't believe they said the word, but it acts just like one.

 

This was very flawed. Someone pointed out that it plays like a fan film, but there are a good few 15-minute fan films that know to how to use the short format to make the stakes clear and have the action decisively pivot on discrete human choices. This... didn't. It was crowded, muddled, and it's not really clear to me why Poe changes her mind (her conversation with Tilly doesn't really make sense either before or after you find out she's queen).

I rather think, budget aside, the Aaron Vanderkley productions did better work in the short format than Runaway. (I'm thinking of The Fall of Starbase One, or maybe Good Men would be a better parallel because it's even talkier than Runaway.)

But this is the first time since Burnham put on the thruster suit in "The Vulcan Hello" that Discovery felt like it was trying to make Star Trek (rather than Edgy Space Adventure #74). As such, it was Discovery's best episode to date. It didn't hurt that Tilly is so darned likable, and Poe was pretty neat, too. The translator trick was a good one; I couldn't figure out how a humanoid could be so primitive (almost bestial), and then BOOM it turned out to just be the language barrier. Like people say, some Trek is better than no Trek, and I've been waiting 13 years for it.

I give it a grateful 6.