So, I found this episode to be just OK. A definite step down from last week. Gave it a 7.
Pros:
- Characters stuff - always a highlight for Discovery
- The shipboard stuff, crew working together, Saru and Tilly
- Promoting the values of the Federation or the Federation way; seeing the locals still invested in the idea of the Federation or the promise that it holds
- The bad guy, while a standard Western role, was played a differently and well
Cons:
- The Saloon plot - kind of boring, and like other posters have said, a mixed bag in terms of what it is trying to say about the Federation approach to things - re: the peaceful approach vs neck snapping. The show tries to have it both ways, but in my opinion ends up portraying Saru as a little naive or weak - while also basically giving Georgiou a slap on the wrist for slaughtering guys. I didn't have as much an issue with the deaths in the running gunfight last week (and don't really see these events in the Saloon this week as outside of a justifiable response to the situation), but the rampant violence and the lack of consequences (either emotionally or disciplinarily for the characters) just don't fit with the speechifying of Saru. Either show the characters living up to their own professed standards, or show the consequences of not doing so.
- The show still suffers from a mismatch between good characters stuff and bad plotting: last week the Mercantile was week, this week the Saloon.
- I didn't understand why Culber didn't dive headfirst into the Jefferies tube as soon as he saw Stamets in pain and perhaps bleeding out... why did he just stand around? He's a doctor damn it.
- Empress Georgiou continues to be a terrible character. She is terrible in universe by being an unrepentantly terrible person with no real point of still hanging around. Why would any of this crew still want to hang out with Space Hitler? She is also bad in the context of the TV show in that her quips are often terrible and jarringly out of place in all scenes. Maybe 1 in 10 is funny or appropriately sarcastic, etc. but the rest of the time they are just mean for meanness sake and don't add to the show (much like Nahn's reply of "yum, yum" when asked by Georgiou if Nahn wanted to help hunt down Leland at the end of season 2 - it's just so outside of the mood of the rest of the scene/episode/series). I just can't enjoy them. It is a lot like the Kurtzman-era's approach to gory violence - it may not be needed, and doesn't really add anything to the show (except for providing evidence the show is "gritty" and "modern" and "pulls no punches") but darn it, they are going to continue to shoehorn it in there regardless.
It's very much in the works and not going anywhere. Yeoh is an international star and one of the most popular characters (according to polls).
RAMA
Bah, TPTB keep making a lot of noise about the show still "existing" but every mention of it is how it is getting pushed back in the schedule in favor of other shows. I will believe it when I see it on air.
The Maquis were at war with both the Cardassians and the Federation. The Federation weren't an evil power hellbent on imposing a dictatorial system on the worlds in the Demilitarized Zone.
The Maquis weren't at war with the Federation, they were at war with the Cardies - they just ignored the Federation's demands to stop (and occasionally stole Federation equipment).
There is a certain fourth-wall breaking ni the notion of Universal Translators working or not working as the plot needs them to. People don't look like badly dubbed karate movies as the UT picks up things, it works on first appearance, and it doesn't translate words like p'taq or qapla and so forth. And apparently it fails to translate whatever pidgin the bad guys were speaking.
Discovery's implementation of the UT is inconsistent - like all Trek. They made a big point of not using it in season 1 to translate Klingon until "Into the Forest I Go", and then they specifically call out its function in season 2's "The Sound of Thunder". The rest of the time it fades into the background (like its function in all other non-ENT Trek shows) and works when it needs to and doesn't when it doesn't - plot dependent like a lot of Trek tech.
