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

[Sakonna]

Heroes journey dude. Frodo returning to the shire was bittersweet. Luke at the end of ROTJ was bittersweet. You should come out of an epic serialized story a changed person who realizes that you really cannot go home again.

For me, this is a too-narrow conception of what an interesting character story can be. I mean, sometimes you can even make riveting drama out of complete stasis -- my favorite example being "The Sopranos", every emotional arc is just about people trying to change, and always failing to actually change.

 

[firehawk12]

If anyone was to be killed off, I think the "right" one would have been Ndoye. She's peripheral enough that her death would not specifically shatter one of our regular heroes, and she fucked up soooooo severely that it makes sense she is compelled to sacrifice herself as penance, and we know and like her enough that her death would have meaning. I did think they missed their window for "consequences" with her.

But then it was so lovely to see her moment with President Stacey Abrams that I was even relieved Ndoye survived!

If no one was going to bite it, I feel like they could have given Tarka a "happy ending" as well by basically having him stay with the 10-C to learn from them or to try to make piece with himself, similar to ST:TMP. Just end it on a completely positive note.

I assume Tarka's death was meant to parallel the death of the prisoner on that planet early on that Booker was mad about, but it's the same result... and it's like he stopped caring the moment he was transported off the ship.

 

[ThreeEdgedSword]

In fiction, choices need permanent consequences to be meaningful. It doesn't have to be death, it can be a sundered relationship, losing a job, any number of things. But the character arcs that stick with us the most are not the ones where the main character gets to "have it all" at the end, which is pretty damn close to what we got here (since Book's community service could be finished by next season for all we know).

I agree with all of this.

Book's comeback from the presumed dead was the most important example, dramatically speaking. But the objective height of not-consequence, for me, was the Earth general. Just do something heroic and suffer a mild, friendly rebuke, if that, for whatever you did before. Redemption! Many shows and movies do this, of course, but it rarely works for me.

 

[eschaton]

I agree with all of this.

Book's comeback from the presumed dead was the most important example, dramatically speaking. But the objective height of not-consequence, for me, was the Earth general. Just do something heroic and suffer a mild, friendly rebuke, if that, for whatever you did before. Redemption! Many shows and movies do this, of course, but it rarely works for me.

I hadn't thought about it, but it is really surprising that Ndoye avoided imprisonment, discharge, or anything similar when she actively compromised the security of a Starfleet vessel.

 

[Yistaan]

If no one was going to bite it, I feel like they could have given Tarka a "happy ending" as well by basically having him stay with the 10-C to learn from them or to try to make piece with himself, similar to ST:TMP. Just end it on a completely positive note.

I assume Tarka's death was meant to parallel the death of the prisoner on that planet early on that Booker was mad about, but it's the same result... and it's like he stopped caring the moment he was transported off the ship.

As I said right from the start, considering Tarka only had half an idea of what he was doing, he should have just waited for first contact and, you know, ask the super powerful aliens to take him to the other dimension and go on a rampage only after they said no. What was the rush for him? He wasn't terminally ill that we saw.

 

[Ar-Pharazon]

I hadn't thought about it, but it is really surprising that Ndoye avoided imprisonment, discharge, or anything similar when she actively compromised the security of a Starfleet vessel.

We don't know that she did avoid some sort of punishment. They just didn't make it into a scene. She may end up facing a court-martial.

 

[fireproof78]

As I said right from the start, considering Tarka only had half an idea of what he was doing, he should have just waited for first contact and, you know, ask the super powerful aliens to take him to the other dimension and go on a rampage only after they said no. What was the rush for him? He wasn't terminally ill that we saw.

Neither was Soran. People grossly underestimate what grief can do to a person, and the level of anxiety and dissociation it can generate. Tarka felt he had one chance, was the smartest person in the room and the only one who could get it done. He acted accordingly.

 

[Noname Given]

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.

^^^
I tend to agree with most of this, but I still gave it a 10 because on a Star Trek scale, yeah this was a very Star Trek 'at it's finest' episode.

The interesting thing is, You can tell the writing staff isn't sure a Season renewal is a sure this as the final episode (IMO) of the 3rd season and ESPECIALLY this finale in the 4th season sure came across as a series finale in the way it wrapped up - not to mention the fact it was a full hour long (with no commercials - may have been longer for someone with the P+ 'commercial' plan.

But yeah, hope they either come up with a more exciting (in that said excitement and the stakes can be sustained over 10 episodes, because sorry; this one didn't really manage that for me - and while I appreciated they tried to show a more 'in depth' first contact scenario; this one was still too quick and a little too convenient in spots for my taste.

Also I just have to add - did Warp Drive tech go BACKWARDS in the last 900+ years. It would take them DECADES to Warp back to Earth/Federation space? WTF?

The SS Valiant did it 200 years before Kirk showed up at the Galaxy Edge - and it was one of the first episodes we saw with Kirk and Co. and they were back in the 'Federation Neighborhood' by the next week.

If the Producers are going to re-work the way Warp Travel looks - they should also go back to the TOS era where you could get across the Galaxy in a few days or months. Especially by the 32nd century.

 

[fireproof78]

Also I just have to add - did Warp Drive tech go BACKWARDS in the last 900+ years. It would take them DECADES to Warp back to Earth/Federation space? WTF?

Warp tech has gone backwards since TNG Season 3. There was this intense need to limit things down, and Voyager pretty much put the nail in the proverbial warp core to limit it.

If the Producers are going to re-work the way Warp Travel looks - they should also go back to the TOS era where you could get across the Galaxy in a few days or months. Especially by the 32nd century.

Agreed.

 

[Roald]

I loved the episode throughout, but since it’s rarely mentioned: enormous shout out to Jeff Russo’s score…..! It was fantastic..!

 

[Fateor]

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.

Because the maximum on screen shown warp speed was 8,766 times the speed of light.

And that was by Voyager in the 24th century.

 

[eschaton]

Just because they got to the galactic barrier quickly in TOS at warp doesn't mean Discovery would. The barrier is after all presumably around the whole galaxy. The Enterprise just went to the closest portion of the barrier, while Discovery may be near the Delta Quadrant.

 

[Kamen Rider Blade]

Also I just have to add - did Warp Drive tech go BACKWARDS in the last 900+ years. It would take them DECADES to Warp back to Earth/Federation space? WTF?

No it didn't go backwards, I already estimated how Fast Discovery was going once it hopped out of the Mycelial Network and headed to the Galactic Barrier over in Trek Tech.

It's actually not bad IMO, not amazing, but it's fine as a improvement to basic Warp Drive.

If Discovery could cruise at Wf 57-58 indefinitely as long as it had fuel & enough Dilithium Crystals, then on my Wf Version 3.0 scale (My Wf 3.0 scale is TNG scale with the hand drawn curve to infinity after Wf 9 removed, I let the original formula run to infinity), Discovery can easily cover 712,700.835189967 ly in < 1.0 Gregorian years.

Discovery would've been home in < 1 year, regardless of where the hole in the Galactic Barrier was located at on the Edge of the Milky Way Galaxy.

I've already stated the size of the Milky Way over here. Even in a worse case scenario, it would've been closer to just under a full year to get back.

Luckily 10C gave them a short cut so they didn't have to take the long way home.

 

[Fateor]

I've already stated the size of the Milky Way over here. Even in a worse case scenario, it would've been closer to just under a full year to get back.

So the Discovery Crew are just idiots...

Yea, I can buy that.

 

[Sakonna]

I mean, the truly ridiculous part will be next season when they are totally capable of reconstructing the Disco spore drive that blew up in this episode, and yet somehow still unable to replicate it on any other ships. "Tarka had all the plans with him!"

 

[Mr Awe]

I gave it an 8. Definitely an improvement over recent episodes. The conclusion was overall satisfying but not a great ending. It had some great elements in it. Definitely a fitting Star Trek finale. But there was also a lot of standing around talking to each other about feelings and also pontificating about them with 10C. Sure, that's ok to include but there was too much of a focus on it for a survival situation.

I also noticed that the linguistic barriers with the 10C conveniently came crashing down. LOL. In the previous episode, they could barely make simple sentences. In this episode, they could just free form say complex thoughts! Oh, and T'Rina could just mind meld with them too. Maybe she should've tried that earlier given the clicking tock. Yeah, I know, they mentioned an improved algorithm, but they basically went from barely able to communicate to entirely fluent in the blink of an eye!

In the end, there was just not enough story to sustain this arc for a season. The Tarka/Book storyline really marred it too. It's basically TOS' Devil in the Dark expanded to 13 episodes. The writers weren't up for it. It should've been 4 parts.

1. Introduction of the DMA and destroying Book's world
2. Identifying and tracking down 10C
3. Traversing the barrier and exploring the planet
4. Resolving the conflict with 10C

I'm glad Book and Tarka are gone. I've lost all respect for Book. He and Nydoye should've been locked away. They almost caused the destruction of two worlds and probably more as the DMA continued. That was all whitewashed away though.

LOL, anyone thinking Earth and/or Nivar would've been destroyed! And, if we had any doubts that Tilly will be on a Academy show, this episode made it clear!

As for next season, it looks like they might be out and exploring. Hurray! I miss that aspect. I'd hope that the writers do what ENT did in its final season. Have several mini-arcs that are around 3 episodes in length rather than one overall arc.

 

[JRoss]

It was fine. Happy to see love for Kenneth Mitchell.

 

[Mr Awe]

I agree that it was a bit silly for 10-C to not know that we are sentient, developed species.

That is a major bit of silliness! Plot convenience in addition to all the other conveniences in this episode.

I was thinking that they were going to make 10C be some utterly alien species from another universe with different physical laws, which would be why they were behind that shield of theirs. They just came to our universe only to mine but were so alien that they couldn't understand the biological processes of our universe.

But, no, they went with a different, less alien concept which didn't really work. I mean, 10C are a cool alien concept, but you can't buy that they wouldn't be aware of other intelligent species in their own galaxy.

 

[fireproof78]

I can. "Intelligent" life has a limited definition depending on perspective.

 

[Mr Awe]

Well, Discovery finally did it...they stuck the landing. Not to say there aren't issues with how they decided to end it, but there are no nonsensical plot holes

I agree that they stuck the landing. But "no nonsensical plot holes"?! Trust me, if you didn't notice them this time around, you'll see them later on!

But it was a far better season finale than the past several. I was glad for that! It felt satisfying.