Spoilers Star Trek: Discovery 3x04 - "Forget Me Not"

[JirinPanthosa]

To me, too. In the sense of "the good stuff of Berman era trek without the bad stuff of Bermantrek".

In some ways I agree with you, in other ways not. The stuff on the ship, I agree, it felt a lot like how the Voyager crew should have reacted to being stranded alone.

Some of the stuff on Trill though felt like "Bermantrek thinly veiled on the nose issue episode".

Also a continuity issue I have a problem with, they ignored what was established in DS9 that secretly about half of Trills can join. If they had said they were running short on symbionts it would have made sense, but they said they were running short on hosts.

 

[Irvy]

OK, my father had tears in his eyes at the end of the DMTrill scene, this is now officially the best episode of Trek ever, just for that reason lol.

And guys, this is a scififantasy show. OK, so Grey is now dead, and a past host to his theyfriend (do we have a term for that yet? lol), and if the character is recurring or regular there's still an actor being employed to do that. Does that performance only count if the actor's playing a corporeal role? They're still adding a character to the story and we'll see that on screen. It's not a cheat to give them a compelling storyline lol.

 

[Timo]

What's this about ignoring? They just reaffirmed this fact: plenty of hosts, but it's forbidden to admit this, so that an economy of scarcity remains in the firm if borrowed hands of the symbionts.

I wonder whether the let's-give-this-human-a-chance faction were all unjoined idealists, while the let's-honor-the-sacred-ways faction were under symbiont control...

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Tirius]

Also a continuity issue I have a problem with, they ignored what was established in DS9 that secretly about half of Trills can join. If they had said they were running short on symbionts it would have made sense, but they said they were running short on hosts.

There's a lot we don't know though - how many unjoined humanoid Trill are left on the homeworld? How many symbionts are there these days? Do Trill still want to be joined as much as they did in the DS9 days? Did something medically change in the way Trills can be joined? The novels did this the other way round by indeed introducing an event that limited the number of available symbionts, but that would not have worked when it comes to finding reasons for Trill to rejoin the Federation later. I agree it's a bit strange, but the dilithium thing showed that Discovery will focus less on explaining a problem than it will on crafting a tale about that that problem caused. So long as the tale is good, I'll let them have that one.

 

[plynch]

I was hoping we might have a true ensemble show going forward. Do we need a main character? Can't "the crew" be the protagonist? I thought with Burnham incorporated into crew, and not on her own, we might be moving that way. But this ep we got super-Burnham almost, again. What a cool ep this would have been to send Culber with Adira. He already had some lines! Burnham was not super-super, thankfully, and still seems more like a real person.

 

[Tosk]

What a cool ep this would have been to send Culber with Adira.

I agree. I was disappointed when the show moved the pieces hard to one side to make sure Burnham went with Adira. Maybe they were trying to make up for the almost Burnham-less ep 2.

 

[ThreeEdgedSword]

It's not just the Trill theme. The writing for characters and their relationships (in the broadest sense) is so much better this season. (Whoever wrote this season is the first time they "feel" it, it's the same for me.) This, for me, is at the heat of any show, no matter which genre. And DS9 usually also did this well.

WIlson Cruz is so good on this show. He just radiates compassion and warmth in a way we've never really seen from other doctors on the shows.

Yes! Maybe he transitions to ship's counselor, or whatever it's called in the 32nd century.

As for the ratio of potential joined trills... I can easily handwave that with "A lot cn happen in 700 years, after The Burn".

 

[NCC-73515]

I felt nothing when Airiam had her emotional episode, after seeing her in several episodes and most of that episode.
But I felt a lot when Gray and Adira had their few minutes.

What a difference the cast & crew can make XD

 

[Seven of Five]

That was excellent! There were a lot of quieter character scenes, which is always welcome.

The scenes with the crew on the ship were good. I loved that Saru's well-intentioned attempt at raising morale went so wrong at first. It's good that the crew are taking the separation from their families quite hard, as they should.

Everything on Trill was intriguing, building up the mystery of the symbiont's history. Seeing the tragic end to Gray and Adira's relationship genuinely bought a tear to my eye.

The computer had some great ideas to help the crew relax - yoga, hyper-baric chamber, therapeutic coloring books, interstellar shopping...

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

On a side note - after the Coridanites, Earth and Trill, it almost feels like Discovery is getting to do the 'founding of the Federation' storyline that Enterprise never got to. It's starting to feel we're collecting planets one by one to put them back together. Great stuff.

Earth is back on board? I didn't know that. Cool!

 

[Yanks]

Very good, but not great. Great "Hue episode". Nice to see him being something other than Stamet's boyfriend. Too many contrivances and unanswered questions with regard to the Trill. Why did Culber want Burham to escort Adira? Why aren't there enough hosts? Can't symbionts just hang around in the pools while hosts are found? It's been 125 years since the burn, if hosts were such an issue you'd think it would have been a priority to make some baby Trills. I like Blu el Barrio and am glad she's part of the show, but I thought Ian Alexander acted circles around her. Ian has quite the screen presence. It was good to address the stress the crew is carrying with them. Stamets snaps at Tilly, Detmer and Stamets get into it... lots of the crew living on the edge. Detmer finally asks for help! Love the movie at the end harkening back to 'Enterprise'. Nice to see the crew laughing. Saru needs to address the "other voice" in the computer. Very "Star Trek" episode of Discovery.

 

[Bad Thoughts]

Some of the stuff on Trill though felt like "Bermantrek thinly veiled on the nose issue episode".

Well, if we strip away the particulars of the episode, this is basically structured like Equilibrium: Trill has problems with memories, the joining society is willing to sacrifice the host for the symbiont, but eventually the experience in the pool brings back memories of a lost host. It's a classic memory retrieval story. Luckily,the episode doesn't necessarily rely on the story structure alone for it to be good.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

Well, if we strip away the particulars of the episode, this is basically structured like Equilibrium: Trill has problems with memories, the joining society is willing to sacrifice the host for the symbiont, but eventually the experience in the pool brings back memories of a lost host. It's a classic memory retrieval story. Luckily,the episode doesn't necessarily rely on the story structure alone for it to be good.

Some of the particulars in the way the Trill reacted reminded me of Outcast and Stigma.

 

[Krog]

I loved the episode. My assumption is that most joined Trills were outside of Trill once the Burn happened, and that is creating a history crisis among Trills. Restore the Federation and they will be fine. Hopefully.
Anyways, my grievance with Discovery is still the same. I am liking season 3 a lot, but I wish we had 20-24 episodes per season to allow for more personal growth of characters and exploration of other Worlds. And also, I wish Adira weren't human - the Discovery crew is way too human already. Why does it stink so much to add more non-humans to it?!

 

[Vger23]

I liked this one a lot. It was very different for DSC, and I almost felt like I was watching what TNG or DS9 would have been if it were produced in the modern era. In that way, I found it absolutely fascinating to watch because, even though I enjoyed the pervious seasons of DSC very much, I always wondered how good the show could be if it tried a different pace, style and tone. This was certainly a departure. Even the directorial style was understated.

Again, that's not to say I don't like the more upbeat, high-tempo style...but I just liked this as a breath of fresh air. The character beats and relationships were spot-on. Past Trek would have had everyone smiling and moving on after having leaped 900 years into the future....but here we get to see real, lasting impacts to people. Burnham's shift in character is amazingly effective and SMG is a radiant and magnetic presence more so now than ever before (although I do wish they had presented the delta in years to be more like 3 rather than 1...but hey....who's counting?). And, I do love that we spent a considerable amount of time on an alien world, learning about their culture and their status and finding our way through that puzzle. Adira is an absolutely fascinating character, and the performance is also very good. I also loved that Hugh Culber and Keyla Detmer got some meaty stuff to do. Emily Coutts is actually quite talented...and has been painfully underused.

Also- this episode was amazingly scored. The music absolutely helped sell this episode.

I've honestly got to put this one up with Context is for Kings, Into the Forrest I Go, New Eden and If Memory Serves as another great moment for the series.

I'd give it a 9 for story, but when I factor in all the intangibles (score, direction, acting, and the tonal uniqueness for a DSC episode)….it elevates it to a 10. First 10 I've given since If Memory Serves...and well earned.

 

[Vger23]

3) Considering Michael beat down the Trills with a quickness, she didn't have a need to use her communicator or request an emergency beam-out at first instance. And once they got to the pool, they weren't going anywhere until they resolved what was up with Adira. If I had a dollar for each time an away party didn't take an obvious and sensible precaution like you're mentioning....well, I'd have a couple fistfuls of dollars.

Right!

Why don't Chekov and Terrell beam out of Ceti Alpha V the moment they realize they are in trouble? I guess TWOK should take a whack for that?

Sometimes people would be better served just rolling with the story. I'm thankful I'm not afflicted with the "Star Trek DEEEETAILS" disease. I'd hate just about everything if I were.

 

[cultcross]

Me: What's this episode about?

The trailer:

 

[fireproof78]

I'd hate just about everything if I were.

I mean, that's why we watch it right? To hate it?

 

[F. King Daniel]

Decent episode. Sweet love story. What's up with a trill being joined to human being so impossible and unheard of yet the ship's Autodoc knew how to do it successfully??

Discovery just became Zora!

View attachment 18689

Wow. Admiral Senna Tal oozes integrity from his spots. Beautiful.

My inaccurate Picard badge which I liked 100x better than the actual series ones is made canon in Discovery's Burn-era!!!!

(but the colours are inverted. Close enough!)

 

[Vger23]

Who says they have to save the Federation on their own? They are currently reaching out to allies and working to figure things out. Do we just want a library episode of them sifting through records?

I have a feeling that, yes, there are actually some people who would want and need to see that scene in order to feel like "tHis Is ReaL!!1!"

Where was this writing in season one? If it had been like thing from the beginning I would have liked it more

I think we have to remember that the earlier seasons (which I personally also enjoyed) were marred by really disruptive behind-the-scenes changes and also tied to Bryan Fuller's original vision and tone, which couldn't just be immediately retooled and abandoned (or you'd risk a jarring and unnatural shift like War of the Worlds S1 vs S2 back in the late 80's). In a way, DSC S2 was kind of a bridge season moving away from Fuller's vision toward a different style. Really, even though it's in it's 3rd season, we've only had 30 episodes (give or take)….so when compared with the earlier series, DSC is still just getting started. It took most of the TOS spin-off series about that long (or longer) to settle in and find an identity.

WIlson Cruz is so good on this show. He just radiates compassion and warmth in a way we've never really seen from other doctors on the shows.

Wilson Cruz is amazing....and Dr. Culber has been one of my favorite characters since his introduction. I honestly wish they would do even more with him. I know he got some good spotlighting in S2 when he returned...but I think he has a great deal to offer this show, and I really hope they leverage him more going forward.