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

[Gilora]

I think XCV330 put it best that Burnham's hair was probably more due to Sarek's influence on her and less (if at all) about Vulcan society itself. I mean, I think Burnham would have probably used that hairstyle if she were white.

Speaking as someone who has hair similar to SMG's -- you can infer a certain thing about me from that -- I noticed that Burnam's hair was not Vulcaned but still straightened before her prison stint, but no longer in Context is For Kings.

I liked that and the fact that Burnam has kept that style for two reasons: 1) it was realistic that a prisoner would not think about or have the means to straighten her hair, and 2) after her parole, it was a small indication that she is embracing her humanity.

I have, however, silently bashed whoever the hairstylist is for making even Burnham's "natural" hair look fake -- especially in the later episodes of season 1.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

It just occurred to me that those squiggly little ships they used to dart around asteroids in "Brother" would have been quite useful in avoiding mines.

But then how could they get aboard the station? There was no airlock, and the little ships didn’t have transporters.

 

[XCV330]

I put T'Pel down to the real life racial, cultural ignorance of the production team, sadly it still persists.

Seeing that one of three times we see T'Pel, it's basicallt Tom Paris's version of her for a dirty hologram program he made so T'Pol could uh.. take care of Pon Farr in the holodeck (one of the most cringe worthy moments in a series filled with them) , I'm not about to defend the production team, but the idea that straightened hair belies some racial ignorance seems a bit extreme. I think they were just doing their best to make her Vulcan McVulcanhead as easily as possible. In the 90's there were black characters in star trek that did not have straightened hair. T'Pel and Shenzou era Burnham are outliers.

 

[Longinus]

Another thing to note is that Vulcans don't always do the bowl-cut even if they have naturally straight hair, especially females. Saavik didn't,

Saavik most definitely didn't have straight hair.

Anyway, whilst I really don't think that when playing the aliens the natural hair of the actor necessarily needs to be kept, nor do the aliens need to follow similar coalescence of physical traits than the humans do,* Burnham is a human and her natural hair is curly, so they explicitly straightened it.

(*And of course there are a lot of dark skinned humans with straight hair.)

 

[seigezunt]

The more I think about it, the less patience I have with the argument that the story is flawed because they killed off a character that they suddenly gave a back story in one episode.

Star Trek, and TV, does this all the time.

 

[Gilora]

It makes sense that Sarek would have his "experiments" -- Spock and Burnham -- wear the bowl cut.

 

[XCV330]

It makes sense that Sarek would have his "experiments" -- Spock and Burnham -- wear the bowl cut.

Linus needs to walk up to Sarek one day and say "You really suck" and walk off, saying what the audience has needed to tell Sarek for 50+ years.

 

[Longinus]

The more I think about it, the less patience I have with the argument that the story is flawed because they killed off a character that they suddenly gave a back story in one episode.

Star Trek, and TV, does this all the time.

Yes, but usually the character hasn't been around for one and half seasons before that. It is not really that the story is flawed, it is just that it was a missed opportunity to use the serialisation to make an already good story even better.

 

[XCV330]

Yes, but usually the character hasn't been around for one and half seasons before that. It is not really that the story is flawed, it is just that it was a missed opportunity to use the serialisation to make an already good story even better.

Whoever mentioned an Airiam short trek (sorry person. I would quote you but I am lazy) had a great idea on that: That would have taken care of it. I would definitely have traded that for the Tilly Short Trek.

 

[Jinn]

Whoever mentioned an Airiam short trek (sorry person. I would quote you but I am lazy)

I, on the other hand, am bored, so here's the quote:

I know who the Short Trek format would have been perfect for: Airiam.

 

[XCV330]

But then how could they get aboard the station? There was no airlock, and the little ships didn’t have transporters.

And I think they only have one left.

 

[F. King Daniel]

But then how could they get aboard the station? There was no airlock, and the little ships didn’t have transporters.

There was an airlock. Airiam was blown out of it.

 

[Noname Given]

It just occurred to me that those squiggly little ships they used to dart around asteroids in "Brother" would have been quite useful in avoiding mines.

Unless the Pilot's last name is Connelly...

 

[Alan Roi]

Linus needs to walk up to Sarek one day and say "You really suck" and walk off, saying what the audience has needed to tell Sarek for 50+ years.

And yet look at his kids. In both success and failure no one can argue that they aren't spectacular, each in their own ways. Even though they might not respect him so much, and his own dreams for them also failed spectacularly, it's no wonder he seems so smug a lot of the time.

 

[Alan Roi]

And I think they only have one left.

As far as we know it was never flown back to the ship.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

There was an airlock. Airiam was blown out of it.

Oh yeah, that's right. Can't believe I forgot that.

Still, though, they probably decided that the Discovery itself would be better able to defend itself against a full minefield than a bunch of little ships would be. The mines were able to cut into Discovery's hull so easily that I'm sure they would have made short work of the littler ones.

 

[Timo]

We still don't know why our heroes had to brave the minefield in the first place.

I mean, the S31 station was there within visual range. The heroes wanted to beam aboard, and eventually did. What was the point of flying through the minefield first?

Sure, we could argue the station was defended against transport; it was a former prison, after all. Perhaps transporters could only get through the shields from up close for some reason? When our TOS heroes tried to penetrate prison shields in "Dagger of the Mind" or "Whom Gods Destroy", they didn't exactly have the option of flying their ship right next to the shields, even if it would have helped - those prisons were on planets with atmospheres. Then again, starships can demonstrably cope with atmospheric flight and gravity better than they can with mines! (And while Class C shuttles have transporters, they aren't famed for coping with mines. Yet. So it's a good thing our heroes didn't try out that option!)

As for other means of access, the station had airlocks. It also appeared to have a boxy hangar for spacecraft at the very bottom, in DS K-7 style. The place hosted four admirals, and had a dozen levels with life support; surely it had plenty of means for personnel ingress and egress. And plenty of personnel! How Control had gotten rid of everybody is not known: there was that dried blood that apparently didn't come from the admirals, but the AI could also simply have issued orders for personnel to scoot.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Timelord79 (he/him)]

We still don't know why our heroes had to brave the minefield in the first place.

I mean, the S31 station was there within visual range. The heroes wanted to beam aboard, and eventually did. What was the point of flying through the minefield first?

Sure, we could argue the station was defended against transport; it was a former prison, after all. Perhaps transporters could only get through the shields from up close for some reason? When our TOS heroes tried to penetrate prison shields in "Dagger of the Mind" or "Whom Gods Destroy", they didn't exactly have the option of flying their ship right next to the shields, even if it would have helped - those prisons were on planets with atmospheres. Then again, starships can demonstrably cope with atmospheric flight and gravity better than they can with mines! (And while Class C shuttles have transporters, they aren't famed for coping with mines. Yet. So it's a good thing our heroes didn't try out that option!)

As for other means of access, the station had airlocks. It also appeared to have a boxy hangar for spacecraft at the very bottom, in DS K-7 style. The place hosted four admirals, and had a dozen levels with life support; surely it had plenty of means for personnel ingress and egress. And plenty of personnel! How Control had gotten rid of everybody is not known: there was that dried blood that apparently didn't come from the admirals, but the AI could also simply have issued orders for personnel to scoot.

Timo Saloniemi

You have a station being run by an evil AI able to create fake holographic people.
You have a station full of inherently mistrusting people seeing and creating conspiracies everywhere with deadly weapons at their disposal.
I can imagine a scenario where the AI can very easily sow distrust among the crew to the point where they start killing each other like in that one DS9 episode, even without any mind control.

 

[Nyotarules]

Do share.

And I think it's telling that you used snark to respond to that part of comment, when ignoring the rest.

No one expects a white actor, with natural straight hair, playing the part of a Vulcan to wear an afro looking wig do they? There is/was no production reason to straighten the hair of a female black actor, whether its a bowl hair cut or otherwise. All it does is expose the real life racial, cultural ignorance of the production team. If you do not understand my post ask any black female that you know about the cultural pressure of straightening their hair texture, and the traditional, denigration of natural, afro textured, black hair.
There is a reason why relaxers and hair weaves are a billion dollar industry.
When the TNG producers decided that Vulcans were not only light, bright, and damn near (greeny) white there was no reason to give them hair textures different from the real life ethnic origins of the actors. I give them a pass since it was the 90's, its now 2019 they can at least broaden their imagination and stop treating eurocentric hair texture as the default.

 

[Timo]

That's 2010s, though. If bigots like Ben Sisko persist with blowing their fuses over grossly outdated racist ideas in the 2370s, that's their prerogative. Might simply be neither Sarek nor Burnham were particularly racist, nor was there any particular stigma against doing your hair in the 2250s any longer.

You have a station being run by an evil AI able to create fake holographic people.
You have a station full of inherently mistrusting people seeing and creating conspiracies everywhere with deadly weapons at their disposal.
I can imagine a scenario where the AI can very easily sow distrust among the crew to the point where they start killing each other like in that one DS9 episode, even without any mind control.

The problem there is that our heroes didn't spot corpses. Except for those of the four admirals, that is, and they were killed with an extremely blunt instrument - a deckwide and possibly stationwide shutting down of life support.

It would be vastly preferable for the bulk of personnel at that installation to depart, rather than to perish. And Control ought to achieve that easily enough, by telling these people to go places. Traveling is a big part of the contract they signed, supposedly, and not asking questions is another.

Conversely, I doubt the four admirals really lived aboard that installation; they would have been invited in, under pretenses, or would have arrived to kickstart a project that then cost them their lives. Perhaps their arrival is what turned this "forward operating base" into (temporary, but that's cloak and dagger ops for you) "headquarters", justifying Cornwell's weird change of terminology in mid-dialogue?

Timo Saloniemi