Spoilers Star Trek: Discovery 2x09 - "Project Daedalus"

[Jadeb]

I could only give this a 7 due to two things irritating me intensely: Burnham completely ignoring Nhan when she was potentially dying on the floor, and the lack of any on screen reason for why Nhan and Airiam couldn't have been beamed back. You don't die instantly in a vacuum either, so it should have been possible to retrieve her even after she'd been blown out of the airlock.

I'm not normally one to nit pick, but when a character is killed off there shouldn't be an easy way to save them that went unexplored for no apparent reason.

It also felt like the sort of situation Trek crews normally find a way to solve. Instead, it was out the airlock with Airiam.

 

[cultcross]

I haven't read the whole thread so apologies if this has already been covered, but how does a computer not already conscious "want" something? Are we assuming that s31 have programmed it to evolve and ended up with something they couldn't handle, like Lore?

 

[seigezunt]

I just with they'd give the Logic Extremists a Vulcan name. It would go a long way towards it sounding more Trek-y to me.

 

[Kor]

I could only give this a 7 due to two things irritating me intensely: Burnham completely ignoring Nhan when she was potentially dying on the floor, and the lack of any on screen reason for why Nhan and Airiam couldn't have been beamed back. You don't die instantly in a vacuum either, so it should have been possible to retrieve her even after she'd been blown out of the airlock.

I'm not normally one to nit pick, but when a character is killed off there shouldn't be an easy way to save them that went unexplored for no apparent reason.

At least she didn't explode in the vacuum of space. That misconception persists for some reason.

Kor

 

[Tomalak]

"Fleet Captain Pike, I'm so sorry about your horrible radiation scarring. The good news is we can reconstruct your body using cybernetics"

"Beep Beep"

"No? Why not?"

"..."

"Oh. Sorry. Is it because you like sitting down?"

"Beep Beep"

"You hate RoboCop?"

"Beep Beep"

(Some time later)

"It's because of that time your officer was taken over by Malware and tried to betray and murder you and your crew isn't it?"

"Beep"

"Ok, we'll stick with the chair. Incidentally, I've got some good news, your old ship is stopping by for a visit next week..."

 

[Greg Cox]

I largely enjoyed the ep, but the Nhan thing did bug me. I get that there were other emergencies going on, but the whole time Burnham was dealing with Airiam, and there was all urgent dialogue and back-and-forth about the airlock, part of me kept thinking "Um, remember Nhan, last seen gasping for breath a few moments ago? Maybe take a moment to check on her . . . ?"

 

[seigezunt]

also pondering the fact that you have a security chief who can be easily incapacitated by pulling the inhaler/retainer dingus off of her face.

 

[WarpFactorZ]

Now, ask yourself why Michael is the only person he lets his control slip with and then ask yourself again how does that make this character a failure of interpretation?

Who of us talks to their family members the same way we speak to our co-workers? Besides, Spock has never spoken well with his family, with the possible exception of Amanda.

 

[dahj]

I largely enjoyed the ep, but the Nhan thing did bug me. I get that there were other emergencies going on, but the whole time Burnham was dealing with Airiam, and there was all urgent dialogue and back-and-forth about the airlock, part of me kept thinking "Um, remember Nhan, last seen gasping for breath a few moments ago? Maybe take a moment to check on her . . . ?"

Yeah that's my only gripe with the episode as well.

It was even more puzzling since she was wearing an EV suit, so why wasn't the life support system in it calibrated to Barzan requirements so she could just pop the helmet back on?

 

[Tomalak]

Incidentally, unless I've missed the dedicated thread, I'm glad no one is going crazy because Pike said "shit storm".

A great improvement over last year's "Fuck yeah"-gate. Well done everyone.

 

[Tuskin38]

I really liked this shot
https://twitter.com/TrekCore/status/1106642549610086407

I think part of the problem is that they have never explained what a "logical extremist" actually is. Like, what is their motivation? What are their views and goals?

They're were against Vulcan involvement with the Federation, and aliens in Vulcan culture

https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Logic_extremist

 

[rocketdave]

DS9 did it for Enrique Muniz, too. Voyager even tried to do it with Joe Carey - they only gave him a family and a bit of personality just before killing him off (and that's after he'd been missing for years). I think Discovery did it better than both those examples, particularly the latter.

Even worse were the couple occasions on Voyager in which we only learned about a crewmember's existence long after they'd been killed off, i.e., Lyndsay Ballard and Ensign Jetal.

 

[eschaton]

It also felt like the sort of situation Trek crews normally find a way to solve. Instead, it was out the airlock with Airiam.

All things considered, once they committed to Airiam in the airlock, I'm happy they actually spaced her. Typical Trek plotting involves putting the characters in a terrible dilemma - a no-win scenario - and then finds some cop out excuse to actually eliminate the dilemma entirely. It's better that the episode had some sort of real consequence, even if it was just killing a mauve shirt.

 

[Tomalak]

They're were against Vulcan involvement with the Federation, and aliens in Vulcan culture

https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Logic_extremist

Yes, and the idea clearly has its roots in the xenophobic Vulcan terrorist group from TNG's Gambit. It's not too far away from some of the insular and repressive Vulcans seen in ENT either.

 

[Jayson1]

At least she didn't explode in the vacuum of space. That misconception persists for some reason.

Kor

You kind of answered your own question. Explosions are cool and humans exploding is double cool!



Jason

 

[cultcross]

Yeah that's my only gripe with the episode as well.

It was even more puzzling since she was wearing an EV suit, so why wasn't the life support system in it calibrated to Barzan requirements so she could just pop the helmet back on?

Yeah that was my thought watching it too - why not just activate the helmet?

 

[F. King Daniel]

Sooooo... Airiam is (was) Trek's version of Robocop?

Enjoyable episode. Sad ending. Angry Young Spock is excellent.

Its all about Michael? Yeeeeesh. She's the Angel.

 

[cultcross]

All things considered, once they committed to Airiam in the airlock, I'm happy they actually spaced her. Typical Trek plotting involves putting the characters in a terrible dilemma - a no-win scenario - and then finds some cop out excuse to actually eliminate the dilemma entirely. It's better that the episode had some sort of real consequence, even if it was just killing a mauve shirt.

Yes, very much this - this is why I liked the ending, I was 99.8% sure they weren't going to go through with it, and they did.

 

[DaveyNY]

This is what I thought too, like, you can't discriminate against her just because of her beliefs, and those beliefs don't make her a terrorist. I guess it's one thing to not want humans in your culture, and another thing that your culture is part of an intergalactic community. But yeah, you would think someone like that wouldn't necessarily move up well in Starfleet. Then again, Admiral Satie was well respected and it took a retired version of her for Starfleet to realize she was a racist old biddy.

Cornwell wasn't dealing with the real Vulcan Admiral though.
Remember the real one had been dead for at least two weeks.
Cornwell was dealing with the Control AI who led her to believe that Patar was an extremist.

 

[137th Gebirg]

Yeah that was my thought watching it too - why not just activate the helmet?

They needed a way to conveniently prolong her being disabled. Both her and Burnham together could likely have stopped Arian. In the heat of the moment, most viewers wouldn’t have thought as much about the helmet. A bit sloppily handled, if not for an otherwise excellent episode.