Spoilers Star Trek: Discovery 4x05 - "The Examples"

I am so interested by how many "best episode of the season" posts there are. For me, this was the first failure of season 4. I rated it a three.

One thing I've particularly loved about Disco season 4 is that they seemed to have finally vanquished the pacing problems that doomed so many episodes in the first 3 years. But that terrible pacing made a roaring comeback here! The amount of times they stopped their ticking-clock situations dead for a monologue, delivered with great slooooooooooooowness and deliberation...

Also, I've seen many people cite Culber/Kovich as the weak link in an ep they otherwise enjoyed -- but for me, this scene was a high point! I was (pleasantly) shocked by the bluntness of the dig at season 2's writing failures, when Kovich described Culber's reaction to returning from the dead as "stunningly generic." It really was!

I liked the basic setup for this episode, it just wasn't there yet. This script needed another turn or 3 through the rewrite cycle. It also feels like some production failures might have come into play with the scenes in the prison -- that staging was VERY awkward.

Like all Disco eps (except possibly "The War Without, The War Within"), there were some moments I enjoyed here. Burnham telling off the colony magistrate at the end. The scenes of Culber & Stamets at home. The aforementioned Kovich bit.

Mostly this one was a flop for me, though.

 

Why does the DMA jumping around mean it has to be artificial ?
Surely that's a terribly quick assumption to be making in a universe full of weird stuff.
Edit: Later a device is mentioned

Also the memberberry ship names are getting a little tedious for me

 

Little people know but the USS Janeway is named after the Ensign Janeway that was on TNG and went on to do great things in the Federation. Not of course the Tuvix murdering Captain Janeway.

 

.

And the Vulcan ship is named after an 80s band

 

This

Metrons, Nacenes, Iconian survivors, Q!

Name drops!
Reference!

Who needs good writing when you have these? Right?

The entire experiment subplot in this episode does not make any sense.

Unless this guy created the DMA in the first place, how does he have a DMA controller, even if it is only a theoretical mini version?
Why is nobody questioning him?

Why do this high-priority experiment on the Discovery and not in a secure and well-equipped research installation?

 

A few assorted thoughts:

Burnham facing down the magistrate was such a good moment for her growth as a character. She truly felt like a captain. I got the same satisfaction from that moment that I got from previous captains putting a disagreeable guest character in their well-deserved place.

I see some mixed feelings about the Culber scene with Kovich, but I enjoyed the way the show followed through on the question it raised about Culber's well-being last week.

I was afraid the episode might take a predictable route in a couple places, but it didn't happen, much to its credit. Specifically, I worried that the "Don't worry, I have this under control!" B plot would go awry, and that we were going to get a noble sacrifice from Felix in the A-plot. Both plots resolved in more complex ways.

While I'm not a big TOS fan, I couldn't help thinking that the outdoor shots on the prison planet felt delightfully old school. Sure, they clearly weren't in a real location, but the AR wall really did sell the fusion of elements in a way greenscreen likely would not have.

Always good to see Errinwright being likeable but shady.

 

No, you're thinking of Prodigy.

 

Yes, it felt old school, but in a bad way.

Real old school, AKA Paramount stage 16 old school:




You can clearly see where the virtual ARwall set ends:

 

Really? They seemed to have a 16th-18th Century level of technology in the 22nd (the ship we saw was too advanced to be medieval).. That means they should have Earth's 26th-28th Century level of technology in the 32nd...

 

Can anyone explain the significance of Ruan Tarka's scar, which he so pointedly displayed to Book at the end? It apparently proves that he knows how effective a motivator anger can be, but... are we supposed to recognize it? Because my only thought was a Borg tie in, but it doesn't really look Borg...

 

Unless they had first contact with the Emerald chain and gotten most of the tech from them in exchange for their natural resources like Book's people did.

 

Not being able to watch this episode until tomorrow evening, so the verdict is still open for me.

But i have the strong impression, that even if there would be a new episode as great and beloved by the majority of the fandom as TNG's "Best Of Both Worlds", "Darmok" or "The Inner Light", you would still nitpick it to hell and rate very low, because of your "mission"

You would never say anything positive about "NewTrek", Kurzman, the producers and writers

 

Looked pretty medieval to me unless I'm forgetting technology they had that would make them more like Renaissance Europe or Colonial America. But I could be wrong.

As Ralph O Ward III stated above they could have gotten a lot of this tech from the Emerald Chain in return for the Orions and Andorians stripping the Akaali homeworld of its resources.

 

It definitely had some Renaissance vibes. But there were some elements that suggest they were on the cusp of some technological advances Earth saw in the 18th Century. They should be close to the Malcorians in technological and social development.

 

Interesting. It's been a while since I rewatched that one. I do remember that the alien with advanced technology who attempted to interfere with their culture was a Malurian, from the same species that Nomad would later destroy in 2267.

 

Yep. Interesting they decided to name-drop that one....

 

There are loads of ways to Pakled your civilisation in 1000 years

 

Judging from the Malurian in that episode Nomad may have wiped out an aggressor species, though a Federation observer was on their homeworld when Nomad attacked so perhaps the Federation and Malurians had established something of an understanding by TOS.

 

I really don't have issue with that.

From a end user stand point, having a notification message or sound is fine.

But if you're going to treat it like a common appliance, having the replicator fit in a box with a door to open out vertically like a oven and present the food upon completion when the door opens should make more sense.

Obviously the door is Auto-Locked during Replication and is used to prevent ignorant little children from trying to stick their little hands into the replication process while the food is being made.

But outside of that basic design change for end users, I really don't see much issue.

I know during the TNG era, they didn't have doors, but good end user design accounts for worst case scenarios.

 

Probably a removed Emerald Chain explosive security device.
He was an Emerald Chain slave/prisoner.