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

This is the new XO.

 

Burnham: Don't mind him, Dr. Culber has a traumatic history with Klingons.
Culber: Yeah one murdered me. Didn't you read that in my file?

Well apparently there's enough of an audience that this show is the flagship of a streaming network that brought back Sir Patrick Stewart and there's a current global outcry over lack of international distribution to the point that cast members have commented on it. So to say that people are watching it is an understatement.

And I wasn't aware that each universe was supposed to have its own "tone". The goofy Ferengi and the stern Vulcans exist in the same galaxy. The real world has the absurd mixed with the dark. Why should Trek be any different, no matter the timeline?

 

It's haircut makes it look like WWI German Helmet.

Liked the episode, gave it a nine.

 

The last time a starship had a crewmember with that much hair on top he was great at darts.

 

A thing that really bugs me. If Starfleet knew Burnham had a martyr complex from childhood trauma… why hold it against her in her file? Why not try getting her the necessary therapy to overcome it?

You'd think in the 23rd and now 31st century... character flaws wouldn't be marks against you, but things that could easily be addressed. Not reasons to keep people down.

And the more I think about it, the more it infuriates me cause we have the optics of a "white" authority (a Karen, if you will) keeping a Black woman in her place.

 

Is it a true Tribble? We've never seen one move before!

 

Interesting that they haven't said who the XO is yet.

Rhys having the chair while Burnham was on planet in the intro suggests he may be. And (checking back) he was left in the chair again when Michael decided to go out in the worker bee.

 

It looks like it's one that has lived a long time. Since it's bigger. But it definitely made the tribble sound.

 

Starfleet's always had issues when it comes to people with pronounced trauma or mental health issues remaining on duty without getting the help they need. Even if we assume that Deanna Troi and other counselors were on top of Reginald Barclay and helped him as best they could Benjamin Finney a century earlier was clearly disturbed and spent years stewing in anger and plots of revenge against James T. Kirk for one negative incident in his career. By the time of "Court Martial(TOS)" Finney was ready to snap but it's clear nobody noticed or detected his issues or helped in the buildup to the events of that episode.

 

We don't know Burnham didn't get therapy. She may have had tons of it. It's not remotely close to a magical bandaid in the real world (and I've seen one instance in a close family member of it actually making things severely worse, to the point we were contemplating lawsuits, but thankfully the damage wasn't permanent) and it's one of the things I can realistically believe hasn't advanced in the 32nd century (unless mind melds or other mind alteration is involved), unlike the rest of the tech which is really primitive (Detmer should have no implants now, the Kweijian should have emergency transwarp transporters out, etc.)

I don't think there's any racial aspect to the President and Burnham's working relationship at all, and I welcome criticism of Discovery but honestly this feels kind of a stretch to me. Certainly Sonequa would never have done these scenes if she felt there was a racial underdone.

 

I think we did in TAS: "More Tribbles, More Troubles", but I may be mistaken. I think I remember the giant tribble rolling around the Enterprise, but it's been many years so that could very possibly be an invention of my own brain haha.

 

She was just promoted to captain five months ago, which is a huge and rare privilege in itself. I don't really see not giving her a position that would be best suited for an experienced captain as "keeping her in her place," at least not in any negative way.

 

Not to mention that Burnham's lucky to even be considered at all being from 900 years in the past. This would be like us granting captainship of a modern military prototype submarine to a Byzantine Empire general, which would be controversial no matter how much catching up they did.

 

TBH, I find the whole idea that the Federation president can decide who gets command of individual ships kind of...weird.

I mean, I know Trek has always been hazy on the difference between Starfleet and the Federation, and it's the 32nd century, but typically chief executives leave that sort of stuff to the military brass.

 

In America, the president is commander in chief of the military. So I don't think it's entirely out of nowhere.

 

I think they are setting that up for Tilly actually. Voyager is known as the first Trek show to have a female lead so they aren't going to put a male character in charge of a ship that is honoring that series. I think they explored Suru as a Captain as much as they already want. I could see Saru being put in charge of Starfleet Academy and the guy who created the Burn joining up so they are reunited. In fact my theory is going into next season is lots of the characters will be splintered off and it will be built around them all coming back together for a big mission or something like that.

 

It's just way too soon for Tilly to take command of Voyager and would probably add to the controversy she already had last season of being a cadet jumping to First Officer. Saru makes a lot more sense.

 

Don't forget the Husnok.

 

Just from within Discovery's own narrative we've got Lorca, a guy who's official story is he scuttled his own ship and then got a better post, and Saru, a guy with no backbone or leadership skills ever shown getting the same ship. Meanwhile Burnham saved the universe twice and she still needs to prove herself. This is one of two things: a lead in to a story about how Black women can't catch a break even in 1000 years, or a story about Burnham needing to legitimately prove herself yet again with super tone-deaf optics. Either way it is slopping over with race and its implications.

 

They could open next season with a 3 year jump into the future or something like that. While it might seem to much to make her a Captain early I think it's something they would role with. Trek doesn't always do things that make sense but simply roll with it for the drama.