Spoilers Star Trek: Discovery 2x08 - "If Memory Serves"

[saddestmoon]

10 from me! This ep is all gold - having first watched The Cage a few days ago, and now watching this - I have goosebumps! The Cage is fantastic and surreal - and now Discovery’s If Memory Serves ratchets up the surreality and the ‘eerie’ - through both FX, sound, and character development.

I find little to fault in this episode - loved the Blue-Hum plants, the sound effects, Vina, Pike, Burnham, Spock, Talos IV, and even the longing ‘Noir’ lighting / lens flare if you will - which all gave this episode ‘more chops than a butcher and their knife’

I’d even suggest this episode was a stroke of masterful Trek genius!

 

[cooleddie74]

But will the Klingons pay for them?

Bigly.

 

[StarMan]

Tonight might have been the night Discovery officially arrived.

As someone who has been pretty meh on the whole thing ... I *might* be in agreement. The Talos story was great, to say nothing of the most unexpected opening ever. I was probably sold after that.

But in all honesty, the non-nostalgic aspects were still a welcome change for me. One complaint about Discovery I've had is the pacing. As someone else has mentioned, the scenes in this episode had room to breath. The characters felt more real and fleshed out. And, dare I say it, I'm liking Tilly more. I think she's gained some confidence in her character.

Best episode of Discovery yet.

 

[T'Bonz]

Loved it. Now THIS is a "Valentine to the fans," are you taking note, Berman?

"You really think the beard is working?" LOLOL. Spock needed salve for that burn. Yeah, they're siblings all right. Sorta shut him down for a bit.

Loved the intro. Nice nod.

Really like Pike and Spock. You know, I was never into the idea, but I'd be all over a reboot with those two and others. You listening, CBS?

 

[IMC Headquarters]

Culber has been watching too much Marvel. Does he honestly think Tyler is Bruce Banner? And a little Ash thrash will bring out his inner Hulk?

It doesn't work like that.

 

[Gingerbread Demon]

OMG Where do you start?

A solid 8/10 for me.

This was an amazing episode. We got our recap of past events with the Talosians with a short clip of "The Cage" where Pike and company had met them before. This was a neat addition to the episode and cemented that this timeline is singular, and that those events happened previous to current events in the show. I really loved the attention to detail with this that they gave to this episode.

Cue Vina, OMG Vina... That was a real surprise and full credit go to Melissa George for making her come to life again, as she did such an excellent job of portraying her. But this time around I didn't feel much menace from the Talosians as I had from The Cage, they seemed far meaner then than they did in this episode. Seems they fixed Spock too. Michael's memory was painful to watch and everyone did such a good job.

The Culber stuff was really well handled, and that fight while I knew about all this it still felt like something of a surprise to actually see it all happen. He's a brand new person so yeah there are going to be problems, and while he may posess all of hs old memories his internal feelings might be totally different so yeah that's understandable as was his rage with Tyler.

Spocks visions of destruction, was that the frosty ice planet we saw in JJ Trek 2009? If so I wonder if we're supposed to be stopping the destruction of Vulcan and Romulus and somehow resetting parts but not all of the timeline, which wouldn't change much but maybe things like Nero never happen, just a thought. I mean I've read wilder ideas about this so who knows, or maybe things happen just the way they were meant to happen and nothing changes, but it was definitely some world Spock saw being destroyed, and a whole bunch of other worlds, and as he said all life in the galaxy?

What were those little drones that were flying around the Discovery? Is that how the ship cleans itself? Maybe this is what Riker meant in "Up The Long Ladder" when he said the ship is self cleaning.

This is really one of the best episodes of this current season. Things are going to get more exciting as we head to the finale. I can't wait.

 

[DEWLine]

10-11 (the orange dot top right is SB11)

No, that's Starbase 47 (post-Vanguard novels) you've got there. You're looking coreward, rather than anti-spinward.

 

[F. King Daniel]

This was a really good episode for a hard-core TOS and Disco fan. But it felt like one of the Capaldi-era Doctor Who fanservice overload episodes. If you've never seen "The Cage", would it work nearly as well?

"The Cage" footage was cute... I guess they really do see Disco as direct sequel to it and prequel to TOS, which is IMHO far more trouble than it's worth, but whatever.

Saru allowing the fight in the mess hall was funny, as was his conversation with Pike afterwards. I have a feeling Ash and Culber just became friends.

Section 31 aren't Starfleet Intelligence as I've previously said, they're the SS of the Trek universe.

Pike didn't seen so fond of Vina in "The Cage" that he'd get choked up seeing her again (although his immediate panic reaction was gold)

The Spock/Michael stuff was great as always, the catty comments and animosity, and the reliving of their falling out. With the Red Angel's time travelling and attempting to alter the timeline, lots of questions are floating around my mind as to whether Michael belongs in the TOS universe. Also the unknown aliens destroying worlds in the future look familiar. Are they the baddies from the "Hive" comic series, the worse-than-the-Borg guys?

 

[Gingerbread Demon]

This was a really good episode for a hard-core TOS and Disco fan. But it felt like one of the Capaldi-era Doctor Who fanservice overload episodes. If you've never seen "The Cage", would it work nearly as well?

"The Cage" footage was cute... I guess they really do see Disco as direct sequel to it and prequel to TOS, which is IMHO far more trouble than it's worth, but whatever.

Saru allowing the fight in the mess hall was funny, as was his conversation with Pike afterwards. I have a feeling Ash and Culber just became friends.

Section 31 aren't Starfleet Intelligence as I've previously said, they're the SS of the Trek universe.

Pike didn't seen so fond of Vina in "The Cage" that he'd get choked up seeing her again (although his immediate panic reaction was gold)

The Spock/Michael stuff was great as always, the catty comments and animosity, and the reliving of their falling out. With the Red Angel's time travelling and attempting to alter the timeline, lots of questions are floating around my mind as to whether Michael belongs in the TOS universe. Also the unknown aliens destroying worlds in the future look familiar. Are they the baddies from the "Hive" comic series, the worse-than-the-Borg guys?

"Hive" sounds like friends of the Borg. haha

 

[Agony_Boothb]

10/10 all the way. Absolutely loved this episode. The 'Last time on Star Trek' was a beautiful touch and I can't help but feel it was a massive 'fuck you' to everyone bitching about how a show made in 2019 doesn't look like a show made 55 years ago. It's like the showrunners were saying 'we told you this was prime timeline and we meant it and yes we know it looks different, deal with it'.

God damn this episode was brilliant.

EDIT: The pacing of this episode was bang on. Like other have said, characters felt more real and fleshed out. Scenes were allowed to breathe and moments were allowed to land. I also like that we didn't start off with a monologue but a fantastically done Captain's Log. It's evident to me that a lot of discovery's problems lay with Harberts and Berg and I'm glad that they are no longer around.

Further EDIT: I loved Tilly's 'Step into my office' line.

 

[Tosk]

But it felt like one of the Capaldi-era Doctor Who fanservice overload episodes.

Right down to a Previously On that goes all the way back to episode 1. I wish the Cage stuff was edited more seriously rather than the goofy way they did it, but I still respect that they were willing to show The Cage footage more or less as it really was.

 

[Campe]

I rarely have the time for a Disco rewatch. I’m going to make an exception for this one and make the time.

 

[The Habs Fan]

EDIT: The pacing of this episode was bang on. Like other have said, characters felt more real and fleshed out. Scenes were allowed to breathe and moments were allowed to land. I also like that we didn't start off with a monologue but a fantastically done Captain's Log. It's evident to me that a lot of discovery's problems lay with Harberts and Berg and I'm glad that they are no longer around.

Agreed, this is probably the first episode with any fraction of involvement from Berg and Harberts and I loved that some scenes were allowed to breathe. I don't mind the high-octane action sequences either, but a mix of both would be perfect.

 

[Jadeb]

Right down to a Previously On that goes all the way back to episode 1. I wish the Cage stuff was edited more seriously rather than the goofy way they did it, but I still respect that they were willing to show The Cage footage more or less as it really was.

I was so caught off guard by it that I initially thought it might be a commercial.

After a first season built on not-so-shocking twists, they really got me with this. I was thrown for a minute -- I couldn't believe what I was seeing.

 

[Manchester]

So is the Federation being ran by AI?

 

[thribs]

Loved it. Now THIS is a "Valentine to the fans," are you taking note, Berman?

"You really think the beard is working?" LOLOL. Spock needed salve for that burn. Yeah, they're siblings all right. Sorta shut him down for a bit.

Loved the intro. Nice nod.

Really like Pike and Spock. You know, I was never into the idea, but I'd be all over a reboot with those two and others. You listening, CBS?

Berman? He was the guy who did that Nirror Enterprise episode which was a way bigger tribute than this.

 

[thribs]

So is the Federation being ran by AI?

We don’t know yet. Certainly sounds like Section 31 at least is.

 

[Reyman]

Some possible telegraphing I noticed in the episode.

Burnhams face and voice appearing during Spocks attempt to mind meld with the red angel.

Airiam sitting in the captains chair and looking very comfortable.

 

[Manchester]

We don’t know yet. Certainly sounds like Section 31 at least is.

Honestly, Section 31 being so well known that they can be identified by their badges, as well as several Admirals knowing about them, bothers me more than the existence of the Spore Drive.

I'm also bothered by Leland giving Pike orders. Who does Leland think he is?

 

[Tuskin38]

No, that's Starbase 47 (post-Vanguard novels) you've got there. You're looking coreward, rather than anti-spinward.

It is Starbase 11

Honestly, Section 31 being so well known that they can be identified by their badges, as well as several Admirals knowing about them, bothers me more than the existence of the Spore Drive.

Kurtzman says it will be explained.