Spoilers Star Trek: Discovery 4x09 - "Rubicon"

[StarMan]

Random musings ...

Is Book close to Saru? Let me think. They *have* talked on more than one occasion. But I'm going to go with "nope". Perhaps the more prudent course of action would have been to hand over command of Discovery to Saru from the get go. If you need special ops overseeing Burnham to ensure she does her duty, then perhaps she isn't the right person to command the ship on this particular mission, for glaringly obvious reasons.

Burnham making the distinction the DMA is not a weapon is besides the point - and still supposition; millions have been killed. Sentients of the galaxy have every right to defend themselves. On the one hand, destroying the DMA might provoke a hostile response. On the other, the damn thing is still going to mow down inhabited solar systems unless someone goes and talks to the damn 10-C already. What's this talk of "fast tracking" first contact? It wasn't already super-duper-fast-tracked? I mean yes, we had that nice little bit of technobabble as to why they couldn't easily communicate with them. FFS, just jump to the galactic barrier and try the classic "hail on all frequencies"!

Burnham knows her man - she can discern which attacks on Discovery and her crew are his, and which aren't. Cool. Well, whoever *is* firing might just kill you, the crew you're entrusted to protect, as well as the ship's incredibly precious spore drive. But instead, she hesitated, with everything hanging in the balance. And, right on the precipice of her having to make the hard call, Stamets pulls her ass out of the fire.

Any other ship or captain, Book would be dead. I would prefer to lay this at Starfleet's feet. Of course she's going to be screwed up shooting down the man she loves.

- The Breen gambit ... enough with these.
- Where the hell is Grudge?
- Come on, Saru. Do we really have time for this? Didn't need it.

Anyhoo, it was cool to see 10-C just casually drop in another DMA, evidently unphased by the destruction of their previous controller. I am starting to wonder if they won't go down the misunderstanding path but instead go with my preferred "they just don't care" option.

As mentioned up thread, this is starting to feel dragged out. It's par for the course with this show, unfortunately. People are often enthused at the beginning of a season with a sparkly new mystery box. But as we hit the home stretch is when things always start getting a little rickety. Anyway only 4 episodes left, which is about when they start putting the foot down on the plot.

 

[eschaton]

I should note also since we now know the power source to the DMA is on the far side of the wormhole, the explosion did...absolutely nothing? I'm not even sure it would warrant a hostile response TBH. It was basically the equivalent of having a power outage for a few minutes, not the destruction of any key infrastructure.

 

[eschaton]

As mentioned up thread, this is starting to feel dragged out. It's par for the course with this show, unfortunately. People are often enthused at the beginning of a season with a sparkly new mystery box. But as we hit the home stretch is when things always start getting a little rickety. Anyway only 4 episodes left, which is about when they start putting the foot down on the plot.

This is the first season arc of Discovery that I think could literally be told in a single episode of Berman Trek easily. I mean, stripped down:

• Anomaly destroys planet, threatens galaxy
• Crew figures out how to contact/confront makers of anomaly
• Crisis is resolved.

There just isn't much plot here. In the first half of the season they sort of covered it up, because multiple episodes (Choose to Live, All Is Possible) barely even dealt with the DMA. But the focus has been solely on it for the last three episodes or so, and it's getting tired because the "Book and Tarka vs. the world" thing is now overdone.

If we don't make contact with 10-C next week I'm going to have a very hard time keeping interest in the remainder of the season, what with Picard episodes dropping at the exact same time.

 

[StarMan]

This is the first season arc of Discovery that I think could literally be told in a single episode of Berman Trek easily. I mean, stripped down:

• Anomaly destroys planet, threatens galaxy
• Crew figures out how to contact/confront makers of anomaly
• Crisis is resolved.

There just isn't much plot here. In the first half of the season they sort of covered it up, because multiple episodes (Choose to Live, All Is Possible) barely even dealt with the DMA. But the focus has been solely on it for the last three episodes or so, and it's getting tired because the "Book and Tarka vs. the world" thing is now overdone.

If we don't make contact with 10-C next week I'm going to have a very hard time keeping interest in the remainder of the season, what with Picard episodes dropping at the exact same time.

Yeah, each important tidbit that gradually unpacks the mystery box - it doesn't move like a natural object, it's artificial / has a power source, "it's a mining rig!" - would have been taken care of in about 25 minutes between engineering and the briefing room.

 

[eschaton]

Yeah, each important tidbit that gradually unpacks the mystery box - it doesn't move like a natural object, it's artificial / has a power source, "it's a mining rig!" - would have been taken care of in about 25 minutes between engineering and the briefing room.

I just cannot see how, when they've amped things up so much already, they could have four episodes worth of plot left. The most I could see is three (making contact next episode, and then the obligatory two parter dealing with 10-C itself).

I'm also having a hard time seeing how they will come up with the requisite "big action finish" to end the season unless Species 10-C is hostile. Like, is Tarka going to pull an invasion fleet from his home universe out of his butt or something? There have been no personified antagonists this season has delivered other than him and...well...Book. I wouldn't have an issue with ending the season on a quiet note, but after Season 1, I get the idea that CBS doesn't want to do that anymore.

 

[tomalak301]

I really liked this episode and gave it a 9. I liked the cat and mouse game between Burnham and Book, even though I did roll my eyes when Tarka fired, as we all knew he probably would. However there were two scenes which I kinda laughed which helped this episode. The first was Stamets asking if Burnham would accept any answer other than yes. It was a quick snappy dialogue moment that we really don't get a lot of in this show. The second was the scene with Saru and Culber. Saru and the president are a cute couple.

 

[Sakonna]

In perhaps an ominous portent for the episodes to come, I loved "Rubicon" for most of the running time -- until that ending totally dropped the ball.

It is beyond bizarre that the mission was a complete, calamitous, disastrous failure, ending in the Worst Case Scenario, and there is not one moment addressing that. Most of the episode had "failure will destroy our civilization" tension -- until the moment they did fail, and then it switched to a shrugging "hey, ya win some, ya lose some."

I liked the idea of using the tension between Michael's duty and her love for Book as a dramatic element in theory. However, in practice, it just doesn't work out. Part of it is how completely loving/accepting the two of them still are despite their differences. Relationships are boring without tension, and it really would make sense if one or the other of them was a little...I dunno...angry and resentful maybe? Keeping their overall commitment is fine, but there's not even a smidge of hurt feelings, or even irritation here.

I hadn't realized this, but that's dead-on.

Another moment I totally hated was the fight between Rhys and Bryce in the shuttle. The idea of it, great. The dialogue scripted for it, terrible. I hate how often Discovery allows the modern language for it's issues to be used as the actual dialogue (Bryce's line here about not "comparing pain"). If the Star Trek line could also be today's tweet, the line should be rewritten till it expresses the same sentiment in a way that makes sense for the distant future, and not for current social media.

On the plus side, the exceptional thing about the DMA story is that they finally have a season arc that can be dramatized episodically. Season 4 has possessed individual episode stories that are much stronger and much more cleanly devised than in previous seasons, and that has made the journey much more satisfying.

I was impressed with how alien and threatening the DMA felt. I was thinking back on the disappointment of those season 4 trailers when they started teasing "the big bad is a gravitational anomaly!" The space anomaly trope has a long legacy of providing many of Trek's most formless & uninspiring threats, but this season they've gotten tons of juice out of it.

 

[Finn]

I suspect species 10-C actually has more than one DMAs. They are incredibly advanced. I'm wondering why they feel the need to conceal themselves. Do they see the UFP, etc as "pre-industrial" and not sufficiently advanced enough for first contact?

 

[Char Kais]

Star Trek Discovery has de-evolved from an incoherent mindless action show into an incoherent mindless action young adult space melodrama show that is dragging on.

Michael Burnham's whispering this episode was over 9000.

 

[Finn]

It always has been like this, with the story arcs. Even the Dominion War storyline seemed to drag on too long when I did rewatches of DS9 (which had more than two times the episodes per season)

 

[Lord Garth]

For the first time in four-and-a-half years, CBSAA/Paramount+ acted up on me. Putting on this episode now.

Based on the reviews here -- the legitimate ones, not from you know who -- I'm not going in expecting too much. Here's hoping I end up disagreeing...

 

[cooleddie74]

Two weeks in a row the series has delivered well above average. A 9. The constant presence of Nhan in the ready room to talk about things got old but for the most part this was a solid, interesting episode. Culber pulling a Dr. McCoy and calling Saru an "idiot" genuinely made me LOL. We need more scenes where Culber is the "F around and find out" kind of Chief Medical Officer and isn't afraid to call superior officers fools.

Now we know the DMA originates outside the galaxy and you can't just destroy the device at will. This ups the stakes.

 

[rahullak]

I enjoyed this episode.

I do agree with some of the points made about Tarka definitely firing/transporting his weapon (and Book who knows Tarka better than anyone else being oblivious of what could happen), and also the zero consequence ending. At the very least there should've been a dressing down of Burnham and even Nahn for following the "middle-ground" plan and failing.
Y'know Culber even mentioned that Tarka is the wildcard, and somehow neither Burnham nor Nahn planned for the possibility that their "middle ground" plan could be upstaged by Tarka?

Also, about 10-C. They're extremely powerful. I mean, their mining equipment lays waste to entire systems. Given this, there's really no way they're gonna be antagonistic toward our heroes, because there's no way our heroes can overcome such a powerful foe (unless a Deus Ex-machina). So they're either gonna be "Oops sorry, we'll leave your galaxy alone." or "We don't care much about you, we're gonna take what we can. Shoo," and our heroes have to find a way to convince them that life in this galaxy matters and could they please leave in peace.

 

[cooleddie74]

I want to see the Galactic Barrier next week or I'm gonna be pretty disappointed. Deliver after talking about something for weeks in a row.

 

[Deks]

Better than last week, but still, not Discovery's finest.

I'll start with the positive I guess. Once again, this is a cohesive episode which tells a simple story, and (aside from the little romantic subplot between Saru and T'Rina) there's really no fluff here to muddy things. The paring down of the core crew to Michael/Saru/Stamets/Culber makes this show feel might tighter. I suppose having Nhan come back is a good thing?

I find Saru and T'Rina to be an interesting pairing, but it seems like Saru is dancing around the issue too much despite the fact he went through the Vaharrai.
His sheepish apporach seems more in line with his pre-Vahharrai persona... but after it seems a bit out of place.

I like Stamets/Culber pairing, but the execution leaves a bit to be desired if I'm being fair. It seems somehow 'too fluffy'?

I liked the idea of using the tension between Michael's duty and her love for Book as a dramatic element in theory. However, in practice, it just doesn't work out. Part of it is how completely loving/accepting the two of them still are despite their differences. Relationships are boring without tension, and it really would make sense if one or the other of them was a little...I dunno...angry and resentful maybe? Keeping their overall commitment is fine, but there's not even a smidge of hurt feelings, or even irritation here. Real long-term relationships do not work that way. It would be vastly more interesting to see something like Miles and Keiko at loggerheads in a major crisis than this is.

I can see what you mean.
Michael and Book are a couple, fine, we get that, but he also ended up stealing a Spore Drive prototype with the intent of destroying the DMA which would have unknown consequences for trillions of lives.

But the worse aspect is the writing tells us Michael is right, even though she's clearly wrong. It is clearly a flaw if you cannot put your personal feelings aside when it comes to duty, but Michael continues to say "there must be a middle ground!" And the story almost gives it to her, until Tarka decides to take solo action. At that point it's clear the mission is a failure - Michael had the chance to kill Book clean, and couldn't do it, so now the Federation must suffer with the consequences of her sentimentality. Yet Nhan doesn't point this out to Michael, instead having a weird heart to heart, and implying that she made the right call in the end. WTF?!? I mean, we know as viewers that all is not lost here - that Species 10-C will not destroy the Federation - but why not let Michael's actions have some negative consequences in the short term - even if it's just a dressing down and her standing falling in the eyes of Starfleet. This mission was a failure, so let it end on a sour note.

Even TNG, DS9 and VOY had negative reprecussions (to varrying degrees) due to actions of the crew or their captains.
I also thought that the mission ended up a failure, so I was surprised to see her getting away with it... and like you said, I at least expected Nhan to reprimant Michael because of allowing her emotions to get in the way... and lets face it, Nhan has been MORE than generous in finding alternatives, but Burnham still refused to act like she said she would.

I'm all for finding different solutions to problems, but this was exceedingly difficult situation to work with, and then Michael has a great compromise for an idea (which I still wonder how she would get approved to begin with... because I'm pretty sure SF would have at least thrown Book and Tarka behind a forcefield for stealing a prototype the moment they returned to HQ and would have said Burnham had no authority to promise something like that).

Also, again, why the big issue behind a prototype?
Don't they have the data on the thing which recorded every single minutia of detail on the thing you know from when they were making it?
Is SF/UFP just making stuff without making any records of how the technology was made, etc?
Literally, the schematics for a WORKING v2 Spore drive would be heavily encrypted and updated with relevant data. That way, it could be replicated at a moments notice when getting approval.

But the way the show makes it sound as if the Prototype is the only thing in existence and there are no schematics or records of how the thing works.

Are the writers that dumb?

A minor niggle, but the way they shoehorned in Nhan also bothered me. We already weirdly have two captains on a single ship, and now a commander giving orders to a captain? The writers don't really care about rank at all do they?

It was ok seeing Nhan, but I wasn't really bothered by her leaving Disco or returning.
As for Nhan being a commander and giving orders to a captain... I think SF gives discretionary powers to certain officers if they are conducting special ops or something to that effect... which would give them the right to overrule a Captain.

Having 2 captains on a ship is not too unusual.... Spock and Kirk come to mind... though it IS a waste of resources if you ask me because I think Saru should have been given his own ship (maybe Voyager) and then conduct joint missions with Disco (VOY could have been equipped with the prototype Spore drive).

Like some others, I'm tiring of the season arc. So little has been revealed about Species 10-C to date, which is because the writers are way more interested in the interpersonal dynamics between Michael and Book than they are the threat itself. I'm preparing myself to be underwhelmed - finding out it's some misunderstood humanoid species that had no idea they were hurting anyone. But I'm still hoping maybe they're dark matter aliens or something more interesting instead.

I don't mind the season arc... but the writers have made a bad call by not really pushing it forward.
Its as if they 'established' it... then occasionally mentioned it since then and not really moved the story forward too much... too many interruptions and inter-personal relationships drama being shown.

They could have developed inter-personal relationships (character development) while moving the main plot forward.
Right now, the story barely moved forward.
It was similar to how the Burn storyline was done. Introduced at first, then spend majority of the season aimlessly doing all other things except finding out more about what caused it, and then suddenly give you the last 2 or 3 episodes which dump a whole lot of info on you... with other stuff shoehorned in.

If the seasons were longer (say 15 episodes), then sure (especially if the main plot and character arcs were moved together in a symbiotic relationship of sorts), but as it is, there isn't enough time to do a whole bunch of separate things at the same time and this is what causes the main plot to grind to a halt.

 

[eschaton]

Another thought: They should have had either Bryce or Rhys die when the shuttle exploded. This would be a case where a death would have great dramatic impact, as it would mean Book's choice had a real consequence that there was no turning back from. The sunk cost fallacy might have caused him to recommit even further. But no, we get a completely bloodless (literally) conflict instead.

Also, I'm getting tired of all of the suppositions Tarka - who is a supposed super-genius - has. He had everything figured out, but didn't consider for once the possibility that the power source was on another side of a wormhole? Also, neither he nor Book really think about the possibility that 10-C could easily generate a second DMA. I mean even without a wormhole being involved, it's kinda silly to presume that essentially taking away the "toy" of an advanced race will end the danger forever.

 

[Sakonna]

It was fantastic to see Nhan again. I kept waiting for someone to point out the best reason Nhan is the woman for this job -- because they have gone through literally this exact situation before! Nhan was the one who had to save the universe by killing Airiam, when Burnham was refusing to do so because of her personal feelings.

But instead the reason was racism -- "hey, she's a Barzan, you know how they are!"

Also, poor Nhan. What a lousy role to be forced into, following around Michael and making the deadly calls that she is too emotional for! How many more will Nhan have to kill for Burnham by the time this series ends?

 

[Lord Garth]

So far I'm liking this. I'm glad Nhan's back. And she's made the tough call when Burnham couldn't before. So this is nice character continuity.

I'm up to where Saru is meeting with T'Rina. I had to pause to say I love Saru's quarters and I still get a kick out of his feet. The last part is a strange thing to type, but there you go.

 

[Sakonna]

Saru & T'Rina is pretty spectacular, I have to say. Disco is the most romantic Trek. Pike/Vina, Michael/Ash*, Stamets/Culber, Adira/Gray**, now Saru/T'Rina...

*Obviously Michael/Ash had some huge missteps when the writers got confused about who/what Ash was, but their dancing at the party in "Magic To Make The Sanest Man Go Mad", the holo-discussion in "Point Of Light" -- INCREDIBLE.

**If Adira/Gray do not actually kiss before the end of the season, I am going to lose my goddamn mind. That's probably the biggest storytelling mistake this whole season for me -- how did these two not make out when Gray finally gets his body back!

 

[eschaton]

I find Saru and T'Rina to be an interesting pairing, but it seems like Saru is dancing around the issue too much despite the fact he went through the Vaharrai.
His sheepish apporach seems more in line with his pre-Vahharrai persona... but after it seems a bit out of place.

I like Stamets/Culber pairing, but the execution leaves a bit to be desired if I'm being fair. It seems somehow 'too fluffy'?

I talked about this earlier in the season, but I feel like a major shortcoming of Discovery is that essentially all of the characters are written to be loving/supportive allies all the time. Doesn't matter who we're talking about, or who they're talking to, if they need a shoulder to cry on they'll have it. This is...boring. It makes me miss Georgiou TBH, because at least someone on the show used to be a dick on purpose. Now we only get Stamets doing it occasionally on accident, and even then, he apologizes.

I can see what you mean.
Michael and Book are a couple, fine, we get that, but he also ended up stealing a Spore Drive prototype with the intent of destroying the DMA which would have unknown consequences for trillions of lives.

It was just ridiculous when the ships were in literal combat and each of them in turn said "no really, I trust my bae."

I'm all for finding different solutions to problems, but this was exceedingly difficult situation to work with, and then Michael has a great compromise for an idea (which I still wonder how she would get approved to begin with... because I'm pretty sure SF would have at least thrown Book and Tarka behind a forcefield for stealing a prototype the moment they returned to HQ and would have said Burnham had no authority to promise something like that).

I will say this: The compromise idea threw me for a loop and made me doubt whether the explosion would go off for a second. I went into this presuming that it had to, because...four more episodes and all. But a week of additional time is enough of a ticking clock to theoretically fit four episodes, so for a few minutes I was actually fooled into thinking the outcome was in doubt.

Which made the explosion happening a bit of a whipsaw. Not to mention the tone afterwards was just all wrong, ending with the heart-to-heart with Nhan and more Saru/T'Rina relationship drama. I honestly think a cut to black after the explosion would be much better, with a few of those scenes held over till next week.

Also, again, why the big issue behind a prototype?
Don't they have the data on the thing which recorded every single minutia of detail on the thing you know from when they were making it?
Is SF/UFP just making stuff without making any records of how the technology was made, etc?
Literally, the schematics for a WORKING v2 Spore drive would be heavily encrypted and updated with relevant data. That way, it could be replicated at a moments notice when getting approval.

But the way the show makes it sound as if the Prototype is the only thing in existence and there are no schematics or records of how the thing works.

Are the writers that dumb?

Nowhere near as dumb as the Sphere data can't be copied, or destroyed IMHO.

Honestly, Trek is littered with world-changing technologies which are abandoned immediately after when they are introduced. It's not the way tech works, but given Trek tech only exists for story purposes, I can understand it. Even mundane parts of the Trek universe like replicators have created huge issues for Trek writers, as they eliminate all plots based upon resource scarcity (which is why they were ignored for things like latinum, deuterium, dilithium, etc).

I don't mind the season arc... but the writers have made a bad call by not really pushing it forward.
Its as if they 'established' it... then occasionally mentioned it since then and not really moved the story forward too much... too many interruptions and inter-personal relationships drama being shown.

They could have developed inter-personal relationships (character development) while moving the main plot forward.
Right now, the story barely moved forward.
It was similar to how the Burn storyline was done. Introduced at first, then spend majority of the season aimlessly doing all other things except finding out more about what caused it, and then suddenly give you the last 2 or 3 episodes which dump a whole lot of info on you... with other stuff shoehorned in.

I actually think Season 3's arc worked better in a way because it was a linear story, but not a single arc. Episodes 1-2 were about reuniting the crew. 2-5 were about finding Starfeet and integrating within it. 6-11 were about finding the cause of the Burn (with added side quests). 12-13 were just about defeating Osyraa.

This season, the main plot was introduced immediately...and it's all that's going on, other than the crisis of the week.