Spoilers DSC Starships and Technology - Season Two Thread
- Thread starter Mark_Nguyen
- Start date
Nice to see Trek traditions upheld: the medical shuttle is said to be armed. I wonder whether the one from "Context is for Kings" was, and why Lorca's trigger-happy minions didn't blast the tardigrade with those guns if said beast was the only reason they had to consider leaving this interesting starship in a hurry.
It's a bit odd to watch a workbee scurry between the medical shuttle and the posse that points phasers at it. What was that driver thinking? "I have these important crates to deliver to the other side of this bay, and there isn't a minute to spare, so those armed folks better hold their fire!"? We learn that whatever the indoors drive system of the workbee, it doesn't create any sort of a disturbance beneath, as Burnham's aim never wavers. So no jet blast or gravitic wobble, even if there's some visible stirring of the air. How does this thing float? If Tilly jumped high enough, would she float as well, the grip of the gravity plates perhaps terminating two meters above the floor? (Well, she sorta did when the dark matter hit her, but the ballistics were difficult to judge there. 9.81? 4.7? A full 10.0?)
Timo Saloniemi
It's a bit odd to watch a workbee scurry between the medical shuttle and the posse that points phasers at it. What was that driver thinking? "I have these important crates to deliver to the other side of this bay, and there isn't a minute to spare, so those armed folks better hold their fire!"? We learn that whatever the indoors drive system of the workbee, it doesn't create any sort of a disturbance beneath, as Burnham's aim never wavers. So no jet blast or gravitic wobble, even if there's some visible stirring of the air. How does this thing float? If Tilly jumped high enough, would she float as well, the grip of the gravity plates perhaps terminating two meters above the floor? (Well, she sorta did when the dark matter hit her, but the ballistics were difficult to judge there. 9.81? 4.7? A full 10.0?)
Timo Saloniemi
A tech-light week again. Save for some alien tech.
- No new Starfleet tech at all. Just a reintroduction of the type of holographic interface where you throw a freefloating display across the room with a Mandrake gesture. Can everybody do it, or just Airiam (whose mechanical voice we hear for the first time IIRC)?
- Oh, and a time delay for transporting, set at 60 seconds which more or less plausibly correspond to an onscreen minute. Nothing fancy there, just regular TOS tech but with a closeup on the display. Are those beamdown coordinates on that display? 404.119.381... The same number of digits as in "Mark of Gideon". Saru beamed into a sentry ship - his original aim, or a signal intercept?
- Plus a minor detail: when the computer announces yellow alert, it also delivers a personalized message to Saru and Burnham at their return. It probably does that sort all the time - this is just the first time I hear it do that outside situations where user actions would more directly trigger it (Burnham receiving Gerorgiou's telescope, say).
So, the Ba'ul...
-The obelisks are recognized as monitoring devices by the villagers (of whom we later learn there are exactly 4056 villagefuls of). The one at Saru's is shown in enough detail that we see a shimmering beam beneath that seems to be related to the hovering.
- Ba'ul warp came 20 years ago, and Saru contacted Starfleet 20 years ago. A coincidence? Or did the Ba'ul drop a brand new, recently invented subspace transceiver on Saru's lap at that date, while previously they had only been shedding useless pieces of tech, but in droves that remove the coincidence factor? Why does their tech fall off? Haven't they invented nuts and bolts yet?
- Evidently not: when Saru surrenders to them, they bolt him to the wall, and he just plain rips the shackles off! Why is Ba'ul tech, dedicated to keeping the Kelpien at bay, insufficiently built to do that one and only thing?
- The place of Saru's imprisonment is the least satisfactory DSC set yet, a sorry redress of the transporter room. Perhaps not so damning if the episode featured no transporter action - but that very room is at the hot focus of action in scenes preceding and immediately following the Ba'ul stronghold scenes.
- The stronghold otherwise lives up to its name: the Ba'ul have very powerful shield technology in place. Whether their weapons are any match of Starfleet ones, we can't readily tell, as they have the numbers on the hero ship, which isn't known for her firepower or shield strength anyway. Later on, when Pike fires a single torpedo, it creates half a dozen red kabooms on its way down - penetrating shield layers several hundred kilometers above the surface?
- We see a system map of Kaminar, with intertwined orbits for two inner planets and the previously seen two moons around the planet itself. Very large, very close to the planet, and nevertheless allowing a dense ring to exist inboard of the inner one. A recent cosmic disaster there?
- Also, space near Kaminar is foggy when the Red Thing appears there. A local phenomenon, a feature of Red Emergences, or just artistic license?
- The system map is accompanied by explanatory text. Which is extremely barebones. Basically, Pike looks at it, and then Saru and Burnham read it out for him. The text states the place gained warp "20 years ago", rather than, say, in 2248 or on Stardate 1701 or something more naturally archivalist... So, a hastily written blurb, created by the somewhat distracted Saru for the Powerpoint demonstration?
- But let's get back to the stronghold. It's in "the lake", even though the global map doesn't grant any specific status to any body of water in Kelpien territory. More specifically, it is right next to Saru's village. And it is the very center of the Ba'ul defenses against Kelpien insurgency - beaming out supposed destructive energies in straight red lines that defy the curvature of the planet. The scaling is off in other respects, too - no way the structure we see could be 15 km across. But of course a lot of it could remain underwater.
- So... What is so special about this village? Do the Ba'ul also enjoy extrachronological awareness? Or did they fortress swim to this location as the result of recent observations?
- Or are there more such fortresses, and the one chosen for emerging was chosen because Saru was the threat of the day? We can't rule out that alien psychology would dictate taking the prisoner right back to where he previously posed the greatest danger...
- The disappointment of the set continues in its implications and consequences, although again with the caveat of alien ideas. The center is a tar pit from which the Armus-like Ba'ul can emerge, with windows on one side for observing the outside. Practically the very last place in which to bring prisoners! Who then have to be protected against with forcefields when no walls or even mechanical restraints of sufficient strength are available!
- The windows, covered in lake spray, allow Saru to see when bright red lights signal plot developments. This should not be optically possible. Indeed, when the final red light turns up (yes, an Angel, finally), it's in sharp focus while the neighboring windows are full of reflections and diffractions. Is that just the superior Kelpien eyes at work, allowing the audience, too, to see the Angel is wearing mechanical wings?
- Speaking of the Angel, why is it flapping its hands like the last minute replacement actor of a school play tasked with pretending to be a floating ghost? Hand movement control of supernatural powers? An attempt to maintain balance? The Angel seems almost helpless when sucked back to its Red Realm.
General musings:
- Once again, it seems the Red Thing uses the Discovery in order to trigger a crisis, only this time it's much more in-your-face than in the previous two cases which the heroes still debate at the beginning of this episode. Surely Pike, too, must now see that there would have been no crisis had he not flown to Kaminar?
- The transporter operator of S1 is back.
- The evolved Kelpiens nearly annihilated the Ba'ul 3000 years prior to the events. One of their natural weapons was a series of spikes they can shoot out of their behind-the-ear weapons stations. We still don't learn why these weapons turrets originally hold threat ganglia - are they there to protect young Kelpiens before they are ready to fight? But Saru has been physically mature for two decades; extending the period of helplessness and hiding instincts does not seem evolution-strategically wise. Did some factor extend Kelpien childhood after the last bout of global struggle?
- The heroes speculate the Angel prompted the events so that it could strike at the Ba'ul weapons network when it's at its most exposed. Given the Angel's demonstrated powers so far, this doesn't sound all that likely: why not hit the obelisks at the villages when they are still inert, and then hyperaccelerate the Vahar'ai all by itself? Perhaps it doesn't appreciate the responsibility?
Timo Saloniemi
- No new Starfleet tech at all. Just a reintroduction of the type of holographic interface where you throw a freefloating display across the room with a Mandrake gesture. Can everybody do it, or just Airiam (whose mechanical voice we hear for the first time IIRC)?
- Oh, and a time delay for transporting, set at 60 seconds which more or less plausibly correspond to an onscreen minute. Nothing fancy there, just regular TOS tech but with a closeup on the display. Are those beamdown coordinates on that display? 404.119.381... The same number of digits as in "Mark of Gideon". Saru beamed into a sentry ship - his original aim, or a signal intercept?
- Plus a minor detail: when the computer announces yellow alert, it also delivers a personalized message to Saru and Burnham at their return. It probably does that sort all the time - this is just the first time I hear it do that outside situations where user actions would more directly trigger it (Burnham receiving Gerorgiou's telescope, say).
So, the Ba'ul...
-The obelisks are recognized as monitoring devices by the villagers (of whom we later learn there are exactly 4056 villagefuls of). The one at Saru's is shown in enough detail that we see a shimmering beam beneath that seems to be related to the hovering.
- Ba'ul warp came 20 years ago, and Saru contacted Starfleet 20 years ago. A coincidence? Or did the Ba'ul drop a brand new, recently invented subspace transceiver on Saru's lap at that date, while previously they had only been shedding useless pieces of tech, but in droves that remove the coincidence factor? Why does their tech fall off? Haven't they invented nuts and bolts yet?
- Evidently not: when Saru surrenders to them, they bolt him to the wall, and he just plain rips the shackles off! Why is Ba'ul tech, dedicated to keeping the Kelpien at bay, insufficiently built to do that one and only thing?
- The place of Saru's imprisonment is the least satisfactory DSC set yet, a sorry redress of the transporter room. Perhaps not so damning if the episode featured no transporter action - but that very room is at the hot focus of action in scenes preceding and immediately following the Ba'ul stronghold scenes.
- The stronghold otherwise lives up to its name: the Ba'ul have very powerful shield technology in place. Whether their weapons are any match of Starfleet ones, we can't readily tell, as they have the numbers on the hero ship, which isn't known for her firepower or shield strength anyway. Later on, when Pike fires a single torpedo, it creates half a dozen red kabooms on its way down - penetrating shield layers several hundred kilometers above the surface?
- We see a system map of Kaminar, with intertwined orbits for two inner planets and the previously seen two moons around the planet itself. Very large, very close to the planet, and nevertheless allowing a dense ring to exist inboard of the inner one. A recent cosmic disaster there?
- Also, space near Kaminar is foggy when the Red Thing appears there. A local phenomenon, a feature of Red Emergences, or just artistic license?
- The system map is accompanied by explanatory text. Which is extremely barebones. Basically, Pike looks at it, and then Saru and Burnham read it out for him. The text states the place gained warp "20 years ago", rather than, say, in 2248 or on Stardate 1701 or something more naturally archivalist... So, a hastily written blurb, created by the somewhat distracted Saru for the Powerpoint demonstration?
- But let's get back to the stronghold. It's in "the lake", even though the global map doesn't grant any specific status to any body of water in Kelpien territory. More specifically, it is right next to Saru's village. And it is the very center of the Ba'ul defenses against Kelpien insurgency - beaming out supposed destructive energies in straight red lines that defy the curvature of the planet. The scaling is off in other respects, too - no way the structure we see could be 15 km across. But of course a lot of it could remain underwater.
- So... What is so special about this village? Do the Ba'ul also enjoy extrachronological awareness? Or did they fortress swim to this location as the result of recent observations?
- Or are there more such fortresses, and the one chosen for emerging was chosen because Saru was the threat of the day? We can't rule out that alien psychology would dictate taking the prisoner right back to where he previously posed the greatest danger...
- The disappointment of the set continues in its implications and consequences, although again with the caveat of alien ideas. The center is a tar pit from which the Armus-like Ba'ul can emerge, with windows on one side for observing the outside. Practically the very last place in which to bring prisoners! Who then have to be protected against with forcefields when no walls or even mechanical restraints of sufficient strength are available!
- The windows, covered in lake spray, allow Saru to see when bright red lights signal plot developments. This should not be optically possible. Indeed, when the final red light turns up (yes, an Angel, finally), it's in sharp focus while the neighboring windows are full of reflections and diffractions. Is that just the superior Kelpien eyes at work, allowing the audience, too, to see the Angel is wearing mechanical wings?
- Speaking of the Angel, why is it flapping its hands like the last minute replacement actor of a school play tasked with pretending to be a floating ghost? Hand movement control of supernatural powers? An attempt to maintain balance? The Angel seems almost helpless when sucked back to its Red Realm.
General musings:
- Once again, it seems the Red Thing uses the Discovery in order to trigger a crisis, only this time it's much more in-your-face than in the previous two cases which the heroes still debate at the beginning of this episode. Surely Pike, too, must now see that there would have been no crisis had he not flown to Kaminar?
- The transporter operator of S1 is back.
- The evolved Kelpiens nearly annihilated the Ba'ul 3000 years prior to the events. One of their natural weapons was a series of spikes they can shoot out of their behind-the-ear weapons stations. We still don't learn why these weapons turrets originally hold threat ganglia - are they there to protect young Kelpiens before they are ready to fight? But Saru has been physically mature for two decades; extending the period of helplessness and hiding instincts does not seem evolution-strategically wise. Did some factor extend Kelpien childhood after the last bout of global struggle?
- The heroes speculate the Angel prompted the events so that it could strike at the Ba'ul weapons network when it's at its most exposed. Given the Angel's demonstrated powers so far, this doesn't sound all that likely: why not hit the obelisks at the villages when they are still inert, and then hyperaccelerate the Vahar'ai all by itself? Perhaps it doesn't appreciate the responsibility?
Timo Saloniemi
Not true. Apparently the turbolift now knows where you want to go without you telling it. Saru gets in, says nothing, touches nothing, the lift does all the work.
Ah, but perhaps Turbolift is among the languages Saru has mastered, even if it's a nonverbal one? He seems to twiddle his fingers awfully lot...
I'm sort of willing to believe in turbolifts that have routes. You divert them from those by issuing commands. If you don't, you get places. Such as, from the bridge to the transporter room deck.
It always fails to surprise me that transporter rooms cannot actually be accessed by turbolift. It still amazes. Is this a safety concern of some sort?
Okay, so this isn't the first time we hear Airiam speak. But it's the longest lines we've gotten from her, in an environment without ambient screams and kabooms no less. Would be nice to learn more. (And perhaps better for the writers that we learned basically nothing in the first season.)
Timo Saloniemi
I'm sort of willing to believe in turbolifts that have routes. You divert them from those by issuing commands. If you don't, you get places. Such as, from the bridge to the transporter room deck.
It always fails to surprise me that transporter rooms cannot actually be accessed by turbolift. It still amazes. Is this a safety concern of some sort?
Okay, so this isn't the first time we hear Airiam speak. But it's the longest lines we've gotten from her, in an environment without ambient screams and kabooms no less. Would be nice to learn more. (And perhaps better for the writers that we learned basically nothing in the first season.)
Timo Saloniemi
Discovery never fired, that was the Red Angel(s)* flying down.
*it was unclear if there were multiple Angels, or if we were seeing a single one flying down from multiple angles.
Ahh. Never could have figured that out. I thought Pike gave a direct order to fire, and there was a keypress and all.
So, the multiple miniature red bursts as the Angel fell - a propulsion system, a sign of it penetrating layered Ba'ul defenses, a complex series of time travel maneuvers that made possible the sabotaging of the Ba'ul defense network?
Timo Saloniemi
So, the multiple miniature red bursts as the Angel fell - a propulsion system, a sign of it penetrating layered Ba'ul defenses, a complex series of time travel maneuvers that made possible the sabotaging of the Ba'ul defense network?
Timo Saloniemi
I'm watching these uniformly later than usual now, so lots of the tech observations are already being made. Still:
- I hadn't realized until I looked it up that Airiam is played by a different actor this season. Like we'd have been able to really tell. :P
- They soft-retcon that Georgiou was serving aboard the USS Archimedes when she FC'ed Saru. Thing is, the shuttle she came down on was labeled "SHN 03" in the same nomenclature seen elsewhere for other starships (DSC, ENT, etc.), suggesting she was already aboard the Shenzhou. The shuttle footage seems to have re-rendered the shuttle to simply read "03" in the flashbacks to that minisode, so there's a lot we can opine from this.
- When the Ba'ul pulls an Abyss (1989), the surrounding village is not immediately hit with a fatal wave of displaced water. Or a curious ABSENCE of water, given that an object THAT big would suck up a bunch of the surrounding liquid as the displacement changed.
- We're treated to a from-the-port-nacelle perspective of Discovery at warp, showing again how turbulent this version of warp VFX is consistently shown.
- "Burnham's lab" is not really what it's called. On the OLED display it says "somethingsomethingmetric LAB" in the corner, so it has a name of some sort IMO.
- In the same scene, we are treated to a holo display that both Tilly and Burnham face from opposite sides of the ops table. The "Historical Timeline" counter text however appears in the correct orientation to BOTH of them despite being in the same place of the holo display.
- I'm pretty sure it hasn't been brought up in THIS thread anyway, but the Ba'ul pylon is effectively the exact same shape as a Preserver obelisk from TOS "The Paradise Syndrome", but upside down and stretched a bit vertically. Message here?
- Michael's not-Kelpian camo garb still somehow has to have a Starfleet symbol on it. I'm guessing she just grabbed a Starfleet-issue long-sleeve tee to use as part of her outfit, but in practice I'm sure it's because the costumers this week grabbed something off-the-rack and wanted to make it look less so.
- It's really played like it's Siranna's first time being transported at the end of the episode. But how'd she get up to Discovery in the first place? Using a shuttle in daylight seems to still be problematic, even if the PD isn't a factor here. Moreover, beaming up seems to be the simplest way overall. Maybe Saru wanted to break her into his current situation more visually, and called for a shuttle to show her where he's been living first?
Mark
- I hadn't realized until I looked it up that Airiam is played by a different actor this season. Like we'd have been able to really tell. :P
- They soft-retcon that Georgiou was serving aboard the USS Archimedes when she FC'ed Saru. Thing is, the shuttle she came down on was labeled "SHN 03" in the same nomenclature seen elsewhere for other starships (DSC, ENT, etc.), suggesting she was already aboard the Shenzhou. The shuttle footage seems to have re-rendered the shuttle to simply read "03" in the flashbacks to that minisode, so there's a lot we can opine from this.
- When the Ba'ul pulls an Abyss (1989), the surrounding village is not immediately hit with a fatal wave of displaced water. Or a curious ABSENCE of water, given that an object THAT big would suck up a bunch of the surrounding liquid as the displacement changed.
- We're treated to a from-the-port-nacelle perspective of Discovery at warp, showing again how turbulent this version of warp VFX is consistently shown.
- "Burnham's lab" is not really what it's called. On the OLED display it says "somethingsomethingmetric LAB" in the corner, so it has a name of some sort IMO.
- In the same scene, we are treated to a holo display that both Tilly and Burnham face from opposite sides of the ops table. The "Historical Timeline" counter text however appears in the correct orientation to BOTH of them despite being in the same place of the holo display.
- I'm pretty sure it hasn't been brought up in THIS thread anyway, but the Ba'ul pylon is effectively the exact same shape as a Preserver obelisk from TOS "The Paradise Syndrome", but upside down and stretched a bit vertically. Message here?
- Michael's not-Kelpian camo garb still somehow has to have a Starfleet symbol on it. I'm guessing she just grabbed a Starfleet-issue long-sleeve tee to use as part of her outfit, but in practice I'm sure it's because the costumers this week grabbed something off-the-rack and wanted to make it look less so.
- It's really played like it's Siranna's first time being transported at the end of the episode. But how'd she get up to Discovery in the first place? Using a shuttle in daylight seems to still be problematic, even if the PD isn't a factor here. Moreover, beaming up seems to be the simplest way overall. Maybe Saru wanted to break her into his current situation more visually, and called for a shuttle to show her where he's been living first?
Mark
Quite true. Then again, perhaps this was a designer concern as well, and the unseen parts of the supposedly 15 km installation were clever counterflooding caissons that neutralized the tidal wave coming and going?
The shot ended in this flash-and-woosh effect that made me think the ship had dropped out of warp - but then we got some streaks and another scene where the ship dropped out of warp, prompting me to rewind...
This is way cool, really. Freestanding illusions in general suffer from some pretty fundamental POV issues ITRW, so having the illusion customized for each POV would make sense. And faking partial transparency, from multiple directions but differently, ought to be doable and user-desirable.
Probably of the Red Herring sort, to keep with the color theme of the season. But what could the in-universe connection be? The Ba'ul are unlikely to have been behind "Paradise Syndrome". Could they be beneficiaries instead? Perhaps in stages, so that the Preserver-like antics of the Red Angel in "New Eden" label the Angel as a Preserver -> the Angel once saved the Ba'ul and left behind obelisks to help keep the genocidal Kelpiens at bay -> the Ba'ul co-opted the obelisks as their pylons in a variation of the keep-at-bay scheme?
Good point. But might be the magic of transporting doesn't wear off with the first try yet - indeed, the anticipation would be much greater for the second run.
Timo Saloniemi
Didn't Stamets do this last week? It's something we've seen a few times before.
Lines up nicely. The Archemides was in the area for standard first contact after detecting the warp capability. They got the brush off from the Ba'ul but Georgiou was in the area to pick up Saru. The way he got hold of the transmitter strained credibility. Perhaps the Red Angel had a hand/wing in it?
I took that to mean Saru's change also increased his strength in crisis situations, as well as giving him poison dart shooters. Since the Ba'ul have not had to deal with an evolved Kelpian in 2000 years it's perhaps forgivable that they missed this.
Incidentally, I was expecting the Ba'ul to be evolved Kelpians. I thought they were using Caminar as a nursery of sorts for their people until they were ready for the change. Instead we got Armus, but that was cool.
I liked how Pike just left them to get on with it, like Kirk at Eminiar VII or Picard at Angosia III.
I didn't spot this at all! Normally I'm pretty good at spotting those set redresses.
We don't know how long Kelpians live - Saru could be considered an adolescent in their natural lifespan.
Hmm. I apparently wasn't paying attention. This Nero-style (Ael-style, whatnot) throwing of a hologram across the room is but one way of tactile manipulation anyway: other kinds of grips and twists and pinches are common enough.
Or Georgiou did. But Saru's dad does believe in Ba'ul ships shedding parts. And we now learn the priest have global chats about interesting stuff, so this presumably happens everywhere.
Possibly so, but then again, the entire installation exists for dealing with evolved Kelpians... Wouldn't the Ba'ul rather overengineer, not underengineer?
I sorta wondered if the Ba'ul didn't live in the oceans or something. Would facilitate parallel evolution nicely enough, and perhaps match the underwater technology and the emergence from a tar bath. But the population data from the Sphere shows all parties sticking to dry land, it seems.
They ought to have lost the lit wall bracings, which accentuated the familiar shapes. Put something Nemoesquely ornamental there instead, perhaps? Or dripping black things? Just covering the flat areas with black plastic wasn't enough,
And the pace of his violent puberty was probably accelerated by the Sphere, and those of the rest even more so. It just makes one wonder why the vahar'ai process would not be satisfied with using the Saru of "Brightest Star" as its template - how is Saru of "Obol" or beyond more practical, when he demonstrably isn't getting any bigger, say?
Timo Saloniemi
We probably have the tech for the "grab and throw a display from one screen to another/holoprojector" right now with networked devices or bluetooth, but it's still a cool effect. And yes, we've seen it a few times this series.
We don't have the quality of floating Holo Screen Projector like shown on DSC and many other Sci-Fi shows.
That's literally being worked on right now by various research groups & companies.
That's literally being worked on right now by various research groups & companies.
Sure, but a "flick my iPad screen onto the HDTV" thing is probably workable right now.
It is easily do-able on Android if you have a Chrome Cast Dongle.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chromecast
The thing is you need the OS / Software / TV to be all designed to work together seemlessly.
But since you need a Dongle to do it, it's a Kludged Up system that was built as an after thought.
The subtitles denote the S31 ship as "N-C-I-A-9-3", with the hyphens. Who knows if this is supposed to be analogous to NCC-XXXX or not. Neat.
Mark
Mark
The uninterfered-with Kelplian lifecycle seems to be child, adult, reproduce, then vahar'ai in what would normally be old age. My guess is that the children and parents have the fear response because they weren't able to stand up to the Ba'ul or whatever other threats existed in prehistory, even with their already-impressive strength, speed, and intelligence, and then the elders become the berserker warriors defending the group once their lives are no longer reproductively valuable. It's weird, but, hey, so are sunfish.
It's not really tech-related, but it was another instance of Discovery's seat-of-the-pants plotting I didn't appreciate. Forcing an entire planet to go through early-onset, highly-accellerated Second Puberty seems riskier than they way they treated it. What if post-vahar'ai Kelpians are sterile because they should've already had children? How does it affect the children? I know Dr. Pollard said that aside from Saru no longer having his defining character-trait of an anxiety disorder and growing inexplicable spikes, he seemed to have no differences, but it'd been less than a week, and as she pointed out, he was the only Kelpian she had any information on, and he himself had no knowledge of how the change was supposed to go. So, yeah, kids, female Kelipans, anyone who isn't exactly like Saru got a big roll of the dice, there.
It's not really tech-related, but it was another instance of Discovery's seat-of-the-pants plotting I didn't appreciate. Forcing an entire planet to go through early-onset, highly-accellerated Second Puberty seems riskier than they way they treated it. What if post-vahar'ai Kelpians are sterile because they should've already had children? How does it affect the children? I know Dr. Pollard said that aside from Saru no longer having his defining character-trait of an anxiety disorder and growing inexplicable spikes, he seemed to have no differences, but it'd been less than a week, and as she pointed out, he was the only Kelpian she had any information on, and he himself had no knowledge of how the change was supposed to go. So, yeah, kids, female Kelipans, anyone who isn't exactly like Saru got a big roll of the dice, there.
What if Vahar'ai is unrelated to Reproduction?
Similar threads
