Spoilers Star Trek: Discovery 3x08 - "The Sanctuary"

This is one of the main reason I watch less and less.

 

What was the problem between Mulgrew and Ryan to begin with?
I remember that there was something about Mulgrew being upset by the staff who decided to fire Jennifer Lien over Garret Wang (who was proclaimed one of the sexiest people in 'people magazine' or something like that) and she had misgivings towards Ryan who got the part because she was Braga's (or the other guy's) gf at the time and focusing more on her?

Then again, Robert Beltran was treated very poorly by the higher ups and he definitely ended up a 'token Indian' on the show for whom there was limited work and whose character development was in.... 'freefall'?.

But arguably... look at how the actor from Enterprise was treated (ensign Mayweather).
His role was reduced to just a forefront face with minimal lines and no actual role to do (until season 4 where his role increased). Yet he was still considered part of the main cast.

 

I don't know why Frakes hasn't had a stronger directing career. After hitting it out of the ballpark with First Contact, you'd think he'd be up there leading the Marvel films or even getting into Star Wars like JJ Abrams did (he'd probably have done better than JJ too).

Frakes has said in interviews that he was put in "movie jail" for Thunderbirds, but I don't think most of the general public has even heard of that film. Having a clunker is not the worst thing in the world. Jon Favreau got a flop with Cowboys and Aliens and he's doing fine.

Mulgrew was supposedly belittling Ryan on the set. Ryan never said it was Mulgrew but it was pretty obvious to sharp fans who her complaints were about. My understanding of the timeline was that Ryan had no choice but to date Braga after coming aboard to get "protection" from Mulgrew.

 

To be fair, that's true of any show - or any story, for that matter.

However, one of the things that sets serialized TV apart from "normal" TV - or any narrative art, for that matter - is how essential character is.

It the biggest thing that sets DISCO (or PIC) apart from DS9, for example. And I say that as someone who's pretty ho-hum about DS9, for the most part.

DS9 put its characters first beyond all other things. Most of the time, its concept was nothing more than glorified setting. However, DISO (and PIC to a lesser extent) puts its high-concept first and its characters second.

I think a good example of what I mean is, with all the build-up she got early on, Detmer deserved an episode that focused mostly (if not all) on her -- something akin to "The Wire" or "Waltz". But she never got one.

 

Mulgrew was very aggressive toward Ryan in Ryan's first season. According to Mulgrew herself, she felt that using Seven of Nine as a sex symbol undermined the prominence and authority of her character. She did many things to make Ryan feel uncomfortable on the set, and once attempted to organize the rest of the cast to march up to Berman to insist Ryan be fire. Ryan started dating Braga in the fifth season, which may have protected Ryan to some extent. Nevertheless, relationships on the set were already poisoned.

 

The other stuff I knew, but I did not know this. I have no words. I never heard anything bad about Jeri Ryan that would even remotely justify this.

 

She also insisted that Ryan not be allowed to pee for up to 8 hours at a time, purportedly it took too long for her to take the catsuit on and off to go to the bathroom, forcing the rest of them to remain on set doing nothing.

 

I agree with Mulgrew on the premise that using 7 of 9 as a sex symbol was rather misguided, but, her directing those misgivings towards Ryan was also misguided and unjustified as Ryan herself wasn't the problem. It was the higher ups.

I can honestly say that Mulgrew didn't handle that well at all and there was no need to take it out on Ryan... but as we know, they did manage to patch things up.

Seems like misdirected rage. That was really poor thinking on Mulgrew's part (if she actually did that).
Denying someone the ability to relieve themselves (a basic biological function) is really uncalled for.
It wasn't Ryan's fault the higher ups decided to put her in a catsuit, and if I remember correctly, even Ryan complained about the initial catsuit which ended up choking her if she tried to move her head/neck too much (which is why they changed it to a much more comfortable one later on).

Meh, again, its all in the past and they did manage to resolve the the issue eventually - which I think is what matters here.

 

It would tie in with the theory that the Nexus ribbon will make an appearance somehow. It was due to return about now.

Given the amount of Trek tie-ins with all the previous shows, it honestly wouldn't surprise me. And then a dapper and young Captain Picard will suddenly come storming out of the Briar Patch to save the day after spending the last 800 years on the Insurrection planet. And Crusher's ghost friend visits Georgiou for the B-Plot.

 

Huh?

Spoiler: Picard spoiler

Picard's consciousness was transferred to an Android body in the final episode of Picard season 1. And it also came with a time limit on it - he wasn't made immortal... though I suppose its possible he might change his mind and end up override that programming to allow him to live indefinitely.

 

I can't comment on current matters with Mulgrew/Ryan, but I've noticed in my real life experience you still need to watch out for people who have done harm in the past. They'll use your lenience towards their past actions as justifications to make a similar attempt at harm in the future, unless they clearly come to the conclusion that what they did was wrong, period.

 

Sometimes it's funny to think if it wasn't for Star Trek: Voyager Barack Obama might not have been president.

 

If I recall correctly, Ryan herself was not exactly happy about that either. She was a huge Star Trek fan and playing a regular on a ST series was like a dream job for her. And they used her unabashedly as eye candy. But what is she supposed to do? Walk off the set of her dream gig? If they only used her for eye candy, I could see getting frustrated and leaving after a season or two. But to their credit, the writers turned her into what was easily the best character on the show.

It definitely helped that she was a tremendously talented actress and could get viewers to see her character beyond the skin tight outfits. Not an easy feat.

 

Yeah. Jeri's ex-husband was Obama's opponent for the Senate, and when the info on how he mistreated Jeri that led to their divorce became public, Obama won.

Hopefully with Picard, Jeri can have a more positive Trek work experience going forward.

 

Yeah, I watched Picard. My comment was supposed to be tongue in cheek.

Spoiler: Picard spoiler

But, seeing as how his new body seems to be indistinguishable from human tissue programmed with DNA, I could believe that the Insurrection planet still has an effect on him.

 

Considering the kind of environment humans live in, which is based around competition, it usually generates negative behaviors, and its always wise to be cautious when dealing with people in such a lousy system (aka Capitalism)... however, people are also capable of recognizing those behaviors and changing themselves as a result... or as a result of living in a better/different environment, it would fundamentally change them anyway.

The fact that Mulgrew publically apologized and both her and Ryan consider each other friends changes the setting... this DOES happen.

 

To take this all back to Discovery, let's say there were villains in that Nebula that caused the Burn after forcing a Starfleet ship to make a distress signal.

Unless these villains are still alive, what is Discovery going to do? Beat up whoever's there over something their grandparents did?

 

The incident is raised in Fifty Year Mission, and I assume that it appears elsewhere. As far as I can tell, the only allies that Ryan had at the time were Beltran and Wang. Mulgrew has recently made some apologies.

 

Biological immortality is not a novelty in reality (and it will actually soon become reality)... it would be a piece of cake for Star Trek to pull it off since mid 22nd century really using regenerative medicine only... plus a LOT of people could even have very large lifespans in general in the 32nd century.

I think this has more to do by examining who or what caused the Burn so as to prevent a problem like that from happening again. They only discovered a point of origin... not who or what is responsible (and Starfleet certainly didn't know).

 

They must've shot the exterior scenes with Burnham & Book first. Those scenes look like they were shot on-location and not on a CGI Set. Season 3 was shot from July 2019 to February 2020. This is the eighth episode or roughly passed the half-way mark. That tracks with November 2019.

The foliage could be late-October, early-November. I like that it's fall foliage. It's not too often you see that.