Spoilers Star Trek: Discovery 4x13 - "Coming Home"

[Lord Garth]

Got to the end. 3:30 AM as of this typing. I'm crazy. Now I have to get up off of this sofa, but I don't feel like it.

Okay. I'll regret this "tomorrow", but screw it. Onto Picard. One thing I miss about my 20s: I could pull an all-nighter no problem. But in my 40s? Trying to pull it off is certifiable.

 

[Turtletrekker]

Oh yeah, this is Star Trek at its finest.

 

[Awesome Possum]

I liked it.

 

[Turtletrekker]

BOOK!!

Of course the 10 C would not deprive Queen Grudge of her favorite human.

 

[NCC-73515]

The bridge flamethrowers are back -.-
USS Yelchin!
Suddenly they can send complex sentences and concepts... poor Saru who had to type all that in real-time
Was that Representative Stacey Abrams? XD
It would be the perfect end to the series. No Season 5 needed that could potentially ruin it...

 

[Turtletrekker]

Wow. Just... Wow.

Amazing. Easily Discovery's best season finale.

 

[Turtletrekker]

A Ferengi bartender!!!

 

[Kzinti]

that was pretty good and i was sure book had bit it but thankfully he didn't,

i wonder what season 5 will be about

 

[NCC-73515]

A Ferengi bartender!!!

we've seen him several times before

 

[trek.]

Dsc was renewed right? This felt like a series finale not a season finale.

 

[Tiberius Jim]

Eh. A lot of this episode just seemed really...convenient.

Tarka, having been determined to get where he's going to meet his friend this entire season...is talked out of it within seconds by Book. Convenient!

The mission to stop Tarka and Book from breaching the casement is a suicide mission that will surely kill the pilot, Tarka and Book. Until it's not and they're all fine. Convenient!

The crew could previously only talk to the 10-C through rudimentary math equations to communicate basic concepts but now....Saru is able to translate entire monologues from the President and Burnham. Convenient!

The stakes were raised when Stamets' solution for breaking out of the containment bubble means frying the spore drive and thus turning their return tip home into a Voyager-esque journey back...until the 10-C just opens a wormhole and poof, they're home. Convenient!

I hate to be a "I saw that coming" guy but...I totally saw it coming that the 10-C intercepted Book's transporter signal. I guess they were just keeping him in there until someone asked about him? Again...very convenient.

I did smile at the USS Yelchin, and I really do like the Saru/T'Rina 'ship. But as far as a finale goes it could have used a lot more follow through on the stakes it went to such lengths to raise rather than just hand-waiving them away a moment later.

 

[thribs]

Why would it take decades for them to get home? How slow is their warp drive?
That line was rather dumb

 

[mswood]

Why would it take decades for them to get home? How slow is their warp drive?
That line was rather dumb

Well do we know where they are in relationship to the galaxy. We know they are outside it, but do we know where in relationship to Starfleet or planets like Earth. Because they might be anywhere from 8,000 or so light years away to over 100,000 light years away. We also have no knowledge on how fast ships can travel at this time, though warp is still vastly inferior to things like trans warp drive. So yeah depending n where they are it absolutely could take decades.

 

[Aragorn]

That felt like a series finale.

 

[firehawk12]

Hah, a cut and paste my stream of consciousness thoughts from another forum.

This was what I hoped S3 would be, but I guess being a year late is fine since we got there eventually.

If I turn my brain off a bit, I can accept that they'd be able to translate complex ideas and thoughts in a matter of hours using 800 years of xenolinguistics learning that Picard and co didn't have when they were making first contact. I mean, I get it because you want the characters to give speeches and there is only so many things you can do. I don't think it would have been better if they went the Arrival or Contact route where they basically talked to another person at the end instead, and I guess they didn't want to go with the 2001 or Interstellar route where the "understanding" was completely metaphorical and abstract.

It's the safe choice, and it still worked, but I can't help but think they could have done something special or unexpected with the actual conversation between the crew and the aliens.

But rebuilding the Federation, Earth rejoining, a final episode where NO ONE FIRED PHASERS AT EACH OTHER... it's like they finally get what Star Trek can be and delivered it.

A couple of nitpicks/thoughts:
I was disappointed that there were no real consequences. No one died, except for the villain, who they probably didn't need to kill off anyway. I was really hoping Detmer would have been the one to make the sacrifice, because it would have paid off the earlier plot point of Michael being "unfit" for command because she couldn't make the hard choice.
She finally does make the hard choice, and it's immediately undercut by the General taking Detmer's place... and in the end, nothing happens anyway. They didn't even want to kill off Booker, so it's like she beat the Kobayashi Maru without learning anything.
(I suppose Kirk did too by saving a reincarnated Spock in the movie trilogy, but hey, we didn't know that after Wrath of Khan).

The "Nog" and the "Yelchin" were nice callouts, but if they were going to do that, why not call the ship the Eisenberg? Or call the other ship the Chekov? I guess they were afraid no one knew who played Nog?

What was up with Tig Notaro? Was she basically green-screened in like in that zombie movie Zack Snyder directed? It was almost like she wasn't in the same place as any of the other characters.

Anyway, the end of S3 left me a little optimistic but S4 leaves me excited. I don't even care what happens in Picard anymore. A hopeful, joyous, "found family" Star Trek is back on TV and it's finally not a cartoon or a Seth MacFarlane "homage".

 

[thribs]

Well do we know where they are in relationship to the galaxy. We know they are outside it, but do we know where in relationship to Starfleet or planets like Earth. Because they might be anywhere from 8,000 or so light years away to over 100,000 light years away. We also have no knowledge on how fast ships can travel at this time, though warp is still vastly inferior to things like trans warp drive. So yeah depending n where they are it absolutely could take decades.

At this point in time, warp speed should be fast enough that it should only take a few weeks to get from one side of the Galaxy to another.

 

[Turtletrekker]

@firehawk12 we first saw the Eisenberg class USS Nog in season 3.

 

[Ghel]

For me this finale was just ok. Not great, not terrible.

First, the episode felt relatively consequence free. Terrible thing happens. . . yoink, just kidding. Aliens made it better.
Bad guy ready to kill everyone and everything to get what he wants? A two minute speech and a hug will fix it.
(As pointed out by other's previously) One minute we can't even use concepts like "us" and very shortly thereafter, everyone can communicate complex concepts and ideas.
Aliens have maintained a power source and barriers for who knows how long? It's ok. Just tell them of the unintended environmental side effects of their device and they will never use it again.

That said, I did enjoy the human general stepping up and admitting her mistake, as well as the readmittance of Earth into the Federation. Overall, it was about a 6 for me as there were some amazing moments, but they get bogged down in some very convenient and predictable plot devices. In addition, without stating specifics for those that haven't seen it, story elements that should have had major ramifications were simply wiped away before the episode's end.

 

[Precious Tritium]

This one did not work for me, but that’s okay, no big deal. Usually my thoughts settle after a rewatch so I’ll reserve a rating until then.

I will say the scene between Vance and Tilly where they’re drinking was wonderful. I really miss her presence and I hope she won’t be absent for too much, if any, of season five.

 

[mswood]

At this point in time, warp speed should be fast enough that it should only take a few weeks to get from one side of the Galaxy to another.

Why? Why should warp drive not have a functional limit that it can proceed beyond, just like so many other technologies we have reach a limit. And certainly just the passage of time doesn't mean technological advancement must grow at a certain speed. Between the the start of the 25 century to this period we have no idea what sort of events might impact the powers of the galaxy. Now you could argue that various other forms of travel should have been developed, things like subspace hubs, or trans warp technology or any of the other various forms we have seen that are far superior to warp drive. But we have no idea on how even the events we have a tiny fraction of knowledge about have impacted society. For example what was the damage caused by teh time wars? Did it just impact time travel or did it cause massive impacts on the 29th century and the various technologies that existed up tp that point. And that's just one event.