Spoilers Star Trek: Discovery 2x04 - "An Obol for Charon"

I just realized that there was another religious theme this week — the crew was literally speaking in tongues. Then add Saru, who had the “scales” fall from his eyes and will now become a “new man” without fear who wants to bring a message to his people and essentially tell them their religion is a lie.

I’m not sure where they are going in the next episode with May the mushroom species. I suppose it could all be leading up to a story about them meeting the Preservers along with another nod to a deity. But the symbolism is an interesting storytelling device.

 

Needs of the many outweight the needs of the few after all.

 

He's not beating them, he's just got a very good head start. And shuttles do have warp capability, and ones using warp sleds probably can put on pretty good speed.

 

I expect these are mostly from TNG era fans, where they packed a whole 30 minutes of story into 45. That old pacing meant they could do 15 minutes of other stuff during their viewing with no issue. But, when you're packing 60 minute worth of stuf into 45, that does create problems for such sensibilities and suddenly requires a bit of brain readaptation. .

 

Well, when Saru was welcomed onto the bridge, it was "Welcome to the Tower of Babel..."

 

Me too - I definitely mean that in a good way!

 

Would be cool to see one of these

 

Alright, I'll try to make something coherent about the notes I've scribbled as I was watching this week's episode.

I gave it a 10 again, because it was a veritable emotional rollercoaster and it was actually the first episode this season that managed to bring tears to my eye; twice, actually. The first was when they finally figured out what the sphere wanted and were able to fulfill its dying wish in the very last moment, and it pushed them clear of the explosion and even showed were Spock went, out of gratitude. The second was when Saru survived after all. I've found both sequences cathartic, and it was helped greatly by the stellar performances from the entire cast. Number One's role was a bit shorter than I expected, but it did turn out to have a huge impact.

Saru at first theorized that the Vahar'ai was induced because his empathic biology responded to the sphere dying. But as it turned out that he was merely undergoing what can be best described as the Kelpiens' version of puberty, I began to wonder if this was the sphere's intention all along. I also wonder if there are other Kelpiens hiding in remote regions of their homeworld who have also underwent the same thing.

Random observations I've made:

• "I don't think Enterprise will ever have a chief engineer more in love with his ship." - they just couldn't resist, could they? I also loved how they immediately went to talk about throwing the whole holocomm-system out the airlock. Almost as if the writers expected the fan outrage from last week's "only people still using viewscreens" joke.
• Number One's scene itself was a textbook case of why one shouldn't dismiss an unresolved storyline as a mere plothole. It's not the first time that something that bugged many viewers was addressed in the very next episode. Spock murdering his doctors is too unbelievable and out of character? Well, our heroes continue to think so as well and they even suspect foul play and a coverup just like many of us already did.
• Linus. Oh, poor socially awkward Linus. His "I had a cold last night" bit had me cringing, not because it was poorly written (it might have been though), but because it reminded me of all my failed attempts at joining conversations in the office cafeteria. I've had way too many jokes and anectodes fall squarely flat because I once again forgot that not everyone had the same reference pools as I did.
  
• This episode made me very, very confused about how the Universal Translator works. Are you actually supposed to hear the language your speech is translated into, or was that simply a consequence of its malfunctioning?
  
• And bottom line, after this all ends, Tilly needs a huge hug.

 

Is this not the same guy who will attempt (and believe he succeeded) to murder his best friend and superior officer?

 

Thanks, I was in need of the correction.

 

Stop it. No it hasn’t.

Anyways a majority of tech in TNG came from TOS.

 

Bingo...for the win.

 

I like this episode. After over 50 years of leaning on the universal translator for story convenience we actually see the crew all speaking different languages when it's out of commission.

The thing with the sphere communicating its legacy is something distinctly Star Trek too.

 

The UT was still running, the virus was just mixing up the translations.

 

This was a great episode. Discovery using things we take for granted in Star Trek is awesome - maybe we'll see the replicator pump out chicken burgers instead of beef next week - and the classic 'good probe not bad' storyline is pure TOS. I really liked Number One. The whole episode actually reminds me of a lost script named 'To Attain the All' where Kirk basically has to play the game of an alien civilization and gets a vast repository of knowledge as a result of winning.

 

TIY
RTT
AOY

Maybe it needs a math thing attached to it, to keep it straight.

Sine = o/h
Cosine = a/h
Tangent = o/a

Christopher = TIY
Sargon = RTT
Zarabeth = AOY

The whole thing immediately reminds me of 'Watership Down'....anyone else make that connection?

I gave the episode a 5. Not having any initial theory that it was trying to communicate just seemed like a contrivance to amp the drama....and Pike was the worst offender.

The episode did have a distinctly Next Generation feel, to me, more than Discovery. Although, I will say that I got somewhat of a Fesarius vibe for a while and what Pike was going to do seemed almost like making good on a corbomite-type threat.

I didn't hate the episode, by any means, but a lot of it seemed quite contrived.

I had no problems with the music, whatsoever. But, I enjoy most music except for some Rap that goes into quite vile depths, and some Country that whines a little too much for my taste.

 

Those images show up on Chrome, but not Firefox.

I do wish we had a clearer view of the text.

 

Spock's family is connected. We've established that for decades by now, right?

 

I assume Discovery is faster than the shuttle. So warp to the last coordinates Spock is located, then require his shuttle from there.

 

Spock's hanging out with Luke Skywalker...