Spoilers Star Trek: Discovery 4x06 - "Stormy Weather"

[Kamen Rider Blade]

Agreed.
Though, this has kinda been on my mind ever since we saw the 24th century... and even 23rd century.
Why aren't crews that get accidentally sucked out automatically beamed back to the ship?
A few seconds of exposure to space won't (exactly) be fatal... certainly not with the technology they had in the 23rd and 24th centuries.
In the 32nd... it really didn't make sense the crew would be in danger of a hull breach.
Zora herself could have simply beamed the crewman the moment she had to erect the force field to the other side of it so he'd be saved.
Even if he was sucked out, his commbadge would have kept the lock on him. Or Zora would probably be able to detect his biosigns... or a tricom would have been programmed to detect the sudden change in environment and beam the crewman to safety.

In the 23rd and 24th centuries... I can understand if transporters went down due to damage... but in a lot of the situations we saw, the sucked out crew should have simply been beamed back aboard instantly.. and in the 24th... the shuttles could have been brought online in dangerous situations only for the purpose of using their transporters as 'lifelines'.

Again, another death of a random extra via means that shouldn't have been fatal if the AI / crew did their parts on trying to beam him back the moment that Vacuum was detected sucking the officer out of the ship.

Michael Burnham literally survived Vacuum a few episodes ago when the Helmet formed around her a few seconds after exposure.

She survived Vacuum by jumping between two sections of Discovery during Season 1 with the computer releasing the force field and opening it on the other end.

Jonathon Archer survived Vacuum and was beamed to safety.

This death of random extra felt cheap, unearned, and unwarranted.

All it tells me is that StarFleet OSHA protocols are WORSE than the Tal Shiar's OSHA protocols for their assassins in Star Trek: Picard Season 1.

Remember, those guys were going to fall and have their spinal columns crushed by impacting the ground head first.

They were beamed to safety.

Yet the AI / Zora or Discovery's computer couldn't be bothered to save that random crew man?

He didn't lose his combadge.

Talk about cheap danger / sympathy points out of negligence or gross incompetence.

This is what people talk about when there's "Plot Armor".

Instead of a well earned death for a "Extra", they go the cheap route that should be easily avoidable and where the main character, Michael Burnham, has survived on 2x occaisions.

They could've beamed back his corpse and resurrected him via Borg Nano Probes.

But nope, let's leave his body in the void and spend ZERO effort to beam it back and fix him.

Just declare random extra dead because you didn't bother trying to save him.

 

[fireproof78]

RIP random guy.

 

[KennyB]

Again, another death of a random extra via means that shouldn't have been fatal if the AI / crew did their parts on trying to beam him back the moment that Vacuum was detected sucking the officer out of the ship.

Michael Burnham literally survived Vacuum a few episodes ago when the Helmet formed around her a few seconds after exposure.

She survived Vacuum by jumping between two sections of Discovery during Season 1 with the computer releasing the force field and opening it on the other end.

Jonathon Archer survived Vacuum and was beamed to safety.

This death of random extra felt cheap, unearned, and unwarranted.

All it tells me is that StarFleet OSHA protocols are WORSE than the Tal Shiar's OSHA protocols for their assassins in Star Trek: Picard Season 1.

Remember, those guys were going to fall and have their spinal columns crushed by impacting the ground head first.

They were beamed to safety.

Yet the AI / Zora or Discovery's computer couldn't be bothered to save that random crew man?

He didn't lose his combadge.

Talk about cheap danger / sympathy points out of negligence or gross incompetence.

This is what people talk about when there's "Plot Armor".

Instead of a well earned death for a "Extra", they go the cheap route that should be easily avoidable and where the main character, Michael Burnham, has survived on 2x occaisions.

They could've beamed back his corpse and resurrected him via Borg Nano Probes.

But nope, let's leave his body in the void and spend ZERO effort to beam it back and fix him.

Just declare random extra dead because you didn't bother trying to save him.

Wow. Did you mourn every red shirt death in TOS equally?

 

[fireproof78]

All it tells me is that StarFleet OSHA protocols are WORSE

Starfleet doesn't have OSHA. Never has and really never will. I know that plot driven deaths drive many crazy. Sadly, this is now built in to Trek as feature not a bug.

Wow. Did you mourn every red shirt death in TOS equally?

It's times like these were I am reminded of Gene's statements around death. "People don't mourn in the future. Death is accepted as a part of life."

 

[nic3636]

Wow. Did you mourn every red shirt death in TOS equally?

I can’t speak for him but I have a picture of every red shirt who died hanging in my wall. Every night I light a candle and place it in front of my mural because we will never forget their sacrifice.

 

[DaveyNY]

I believe that Zora will probably be haunted by the fact that she failed to realize in time that she could have saved that crewman.
She was still very much distracted when that incident occurred and only just barely managed to erect the energy barrier in time.

Also, the anomaly upon the hull of Discovery when he was sucked out.
He was probably vaporized within a moment or two of hitting it.

 

[Kamen Rider Blade]

RIP random guy.

Let's be fair, he was a random unknown "Yellow Shirt" named 'Cortez' that they FAILED to save due to negligence and gross incompetence.

Owosekun stated that the Void's Deadly Contracting Wall has pushed the Shields right to the hull. So the Shield Bubble is about as small as it could get, but that just means he only has a few seconds. A computer only needs a split second to beam him out before his corpse hits the edge of the shield bubble.

It took ~3 seconds before he was completely sucked out of the hull, he even grabbed onto part of the hull.

Also, Why did Zora erect the force field in front of Cortez and not behind him, there was plenty of room.

That Orange Line that I drew, Zora could've erected the Force Field "BEHIND" Cortez, then he wouldn't have been sucked out.

So many levels of failure in terms of OSHA practices.

 

[Bad Thoughts]

RIP random guy.

Unless they cast Brian Brophy for the part, I'm not concerned.

 

[DaveyNY]

The failure was completely on Zora's part at that point, not on any safety standard.

She was still in the throes of being distracted when that went down.

 

[fireproof78]

So many levels of failure in terms of OSHA practices.

There is no OSHA for Starfleet.

 

[TimeIsAPredator]

I've been saying it all season and believe even more now that Zora needs taking off the ship. It's an absolute joke to have a confused, insecure computer A.I. in charge of literally everything that needs therapy sessions and calming down to do it's fkin job. The anthropomorphising of DOTs bugs me too

Mostly it was a very good episode with a genuine mystery/problem to solve and the pattern buffer was a good idea (although I'm not sure why people were encouraged to go in together holding hands. Surely that increases the danger of Tuvixing). I know it never happens in Trek but for a split second I was thinking man what if Burnham actually sacrifices herself

 

[Kamen Rider Blade]

Wow. Did you mourn every red shirt death in TOS equally?

I don't have to "Mourn them", but I'm disappointed that they let them die so easily for the sake of cheap plot / drama points.

Starfleet doesn't have OSHA. Never has and really never will. I know that plot driven deaths drive many crazy. Sadly, this is now built in to Trek as feature not a bug.

That should change, OSHA is important. Or do you not believe in working in a safe environment for all officers / employees?
We need standards people, high standards.

It's times like these were I am reminded of Gene's statements around death. "People don't mourn in the future. Death is accepted as a part of life."

Gene wasn't right about many things, people not mourning death in the future is one of them.

Also, the anomaly was quite close to the hull of Discovery when he was sucked out.
He was probably vaporized within a moment or two of hitting it.

Only if the Burning Void Wall got past the shields, if the Shields were still up at that time, then Cortez body should've hit the shields on the inside and there would be enough time to beam him back onto the ship.

And the ship still had shields at that time.

Discovery didn't lose shields until 39:31 (minutes:seconds) into the show.

Cortez got sucked into the vacuum at 22:22 (minutes:seconds), so Cortez's body literally hit the inside of the shield and was left there in space, until the shields dropped 17 minutes and 11 seconds later and the burning plasma or burning walls of the void was searing Discovery.

 

[nic3636]

Forgot to mention, the whole Owo / Saru disagreement should have been cut from the episode. Felt out of place and unnecessary.

Owo: "I want to do this random thing"
Saru: "I really need you at your station doing your job"
Later on.
Owo: "Sorry about before, when I was a kid I (blah blah blah) and now I get easily distracted when on duty"
Saru: "Thank you for sharing"
...

What was the purpose of this scene? Was it just to give Owo a few lines of dialogue? Trying to flesh out her background a little more? I know people want more involvement from the bridge crew but my only takeaway from this scene is that Owo shouldn't be wasting Saru's time with nonsense during a crisis.

 

[fireproof78]

That should change, OSHA is important. Or do you not believe in working in a safe environment for all officers / employees?
We need standards people, high standards.

I won't hold my breath on this changing at all. Star Trek has rarely hit my standards.

Starfleet isn't real so my beliefs about safe environment has little bearing on it. In real life I train, drill, and prepare for all eventualities. In fiction I don't.

Gene wasn't right about many things, people not mourning death in the future is one of them.

It's a part of Star Trek though. It varies from show to show but the current runs through it.

 

[DaveyNY]

And the ship still had shields at that time.

Just barely, otherwise the shields would have prevented any damage from happening.
The anomaly was obviously contacting the ships hull at that point.
As soon as 'Goldshirt' flew out he was in direct contact with it.

What was the purpose of this scene? Was it just to give Owo a few lines of dialogue? Trying to flesh out her background a little more? I know people want more involvement from the bridge crew but my only takeaway from this scene is that Owo shouldn't be wasting Saru's time with nonsense during a crisis.

She obviously panicked a bit due to a very unpleasant previous life experience.

Star Fleet Officers are (mostly) only human after all.

 

[Tim Thomason]

Starfleet doesn't have OSHA. Never has and really never will. I know that plot driven deaths drive many crazy. Sadly, this is now built in to Trek as feature not a bug.

It's times like these were I am reminded of Gene's statements around death. "People don't mourn in the future. Death is accepted as a part of life."

https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Starfleet_OSHC

 

[fireproof78]

https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Starfleet_OSHC

Inconclusive

"The abbreviation may stand for Operational Safety and Health Command, which would mirror the modern US OSHA agency. "

 

[Kamen Rider Blade]

https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Starfleet_OSHC

I guess they're called OSHC instead of OSHA.

 

[Vale]

So the plot summary of this episode is... what? "The ship had a panic attack"? Absolute twaddle.

 

[fireproof78]

Star Fleet Officers are (mostly) only human after all.

Since when?!?