Spoilers Star Trek: Discovery 4x01 - "Kobayashi Maru"

The U.S.S. Kirk(?) gets a name drop. Amusing since the Discovery crew wouldn't even know who Kirk was unless they got a history primer after arriving in the 32nd century and know his significance. I hope they did.

 

I'll add this, too: I love the idea that the Federation essentially has to relearn how to do everything. The Federation as we and the Discovery know it, hasn't existed in the lifetimes of the 32nd century characters. It's almost like a parallel between what Enterprise was doing back in the 22nd century, having very little to go on as far as what protocol would tell them.

 

I was surprised how emotional it was when they dropped in Archer's theme. With that I think the DS9 theme is the only "classic" live-action closing theme that hasn't been quoted in the new shows, though maybe they have and I've forgotten it. (Waiting to see if Lower Decks will quote the TAS theme though!)

Anyway, it was a nice tribute to Enterprise. Though looks like they'll up the ante next week when they name an entire episode after an Enterprise episode!

 

The officer from the Deep Space base looked Antaran. They're already being used in Season 2 of PIC so looks like we're getting a double dose of the Antarans in the coming year.

 

I figure they all probably got a basic overview of Federation History with some prominent names thrown out there, including Kirk's. They would've used what happened in the 23rd Century after Discovery left as a starting point, since that's the time period the crew was familiar with. If not that then, at the very least, Burnham would've found out about Kirk if she any went further into looking up what Spock did with his life.

 

Yeah, Spock served with Kirk almost continuously for nearly 30 years and was present with the Captain/Admiral during some of the most dangerous crises of the late 23rd century. The V'Ger incident. The Whale Probe. The assassination of Chancellor Gorkon and the attack on the Khitomer Conference.

 

I really, really enjoyed that. Solid. Good 'Trek' crisis righting a spinning station, lots of stuff for everyone to do. Loving Michael in the Chair.

So the President is a Cardassian/Bajoran blend?

 

^
That's what I think. She's essentially Tora Ziyal but after centuries of the Cardassians and Bajorans being at peace and intermingling.

 

The U.S.S. Kirk was one of the ships from the famous Vietnam war photos of helicopters being pushed off the back of ships.
Maybe they think it's that Kirk

 

There's something happening here. What it is ain't exactly clear.

 

I enjoyed this season opener. Good setup. Burnham is strong right out of the gate and it's balanced out by getting foiled by the POTF. I hope it takes the entire season for the POTF to grudgingly accept Burnham's POV/style.

I hope the cause for the gravitational anomaly is something more substantial than a...sad child. I don't mind if it is a big bad villain/species so long as their POV is natural for them and the solution to the problem for our heroes has unintended consequences/side-effects. Tying it up too neatly at the end of the season means that next season is going to be another big bad galaxy ending threat.

 

I give this one a solid 9. Entertaining almost from start to finish with only a handful of nitpicks to keep it from a 10. The strongest season opener yet for DSC.

 

Strictly speaking, it shouldn't even just be the Burn that's causing people to be wary of rejoining the Federation, but the devastating temporal wars (that they literally had a 900 year warning on thanks to Enterprise) just before that along with the ban on all time travel and destruction of all time travel tech. The Burn isn't really the Federation's fault. All the temporal war stuff may very well be.

Nice to see everything's still made of explodium in the 32nd century.

Rillak is said to be newly elected. Thus Kovich still could've been the president last year.

I actually went in thinking Kaminar was going to be destroyed to get Saru back into Starfleet and as revenge for the Burn. So I was right that a planet does get destroyed, but it wasn't Kaminar and I didn't see that particular species getting wiped out coming.

 

I for one wouldn't mind the Temporal Wars being the reason for what we're seeing in Season 4. Time travel can mean that the attacks and effects launched centuries earlier might not be felt until 3189 or later. The last hurrah, if you will, of temporal agents trying to destroy the Federation or change the timeline or both.

 

A few additional thoughts:

• Detmer's implant got a redesign...err...upgrade. It's way back on the side of her head now instead of by her eye.
• Bryce got more lines in the opening act than in any episode of Discovery to date.
• With how everyone else in the Discoveryverse got a cameo here (even people I didn't expect to see, like Su'Kal and Book's brother/nephew) I'm a little disappointed we didn't see Reno.

 

I freakin' love the "Butterfly People"! Huge Barbarella vibe there! Real alien. Upgraded Menoptera.

So happy Grudge got some proper respect.

The teaser had a distinct Lower Decks flavor. The situation got out of hand quickly.

I take it the Archer Space dock was named after Captain Archer and his father. Loved the closing theme tribute.

 

I think the best way to handle the temporal wars is that the treaty was signed in the past by traveling back before the war stopping it from ever happening.
So basically everyone is told this is what will happen if ye do time travel stuff so don't ever start.
That way Discovery doesn't have the baggage of ENT or VOY to carry

 

Su'kal giving permission to Saru to rejoin Starfleet might have a darker aspect if you think about it. Su'kal may very well have adapted much more quickly to modern/normal life than anyone realized. By having Saru around, it's just a reminder of his painful past of being a man-child trapped in a crashed ship as well as the current awkwardness of being a century old Kelpien referring to the much younger (likely 30+) year old Saru as a father figure.

She'll show up in the opening of next episode with some snide comment of "Whoa, Kweijians sure are hot! You guys preparing for Burn 2.0?", just for Book to whack her a new one.

Except we have multiple seemingly firsthand accounts of the warfare including from the Guardian of Forever and Kovich also implies that he lived through it (maybe lifespans are longer in the 32nd century)?

Extra thoughts--Burnham never went to Starfleet Academy right? She went to the Vulcan Science Academy and then this apparently counted to trasnfer her to Starfleet on the Shenzhou? So when did she take the Kobayashi Maru? On the Shenzhou?

 

And Daniels himself in ENT said that the Temporal Cold War sometimes erupted into open warfare and violence between factions. So they happened. The question is: has the last shot fired yet impacted?