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Spoilers Star Trek: Discovery 5x03 - "Jinaal"

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    99
Frankly, with the exception of Season 1, every Discovery season was tied up neatly with a bow, with no established cliffhanger, so it could just as easily work as a series finale.
 
I rewatched that episode and I feel better with my giving it a 5. It maybe could have gotten a 6, but my issues with it were similar to what I said the other day. The only interesting part of this episode for me was Culber and Jinaal, and even in that story, I wish he had talked with Stamets and not Burnham. Stamets has really been regulated to where Detmer and Owo were in Seasons 1 and 2 and that is a shame. He was only in two scenes and it people kind of talking down to him. I did get the Dominion War reference, but I can't help but wonder if the writers didn't understand the Dominion War. They mentioned how it was people seeing each other as the enemy, yet Paradise Lost (DS9, Season 4) went out of it's way to say that yeah the Changlings are here but we are not going to change how we live. Maybe they were focusing more on Section 31, but that was so covert that the common citizen wouldn't know that. It seemed like a War where everyone knew who the enemies were. Also, the cliffhanger scene of this episode didn't entirely work for me because it was a few scenes earlier where they were talking about Trill security. I guess it wasn't up to snuff after all.

I'm hoping each episode just isn't another clue on the trail. It's the beginning of the season but I hope by midseason we might be getting a lot more interesting stuff. Also, please use Stamets more. If Detmer and Owo aren't even to be seen, at least Anthony Rapp is listed as part of the main cast.

I'm really annoyed that we seem to have replaced Detmer with Adira.
Detmer should have been a much bigger part of the show. The only person besides Saru who was on the Shenzou with Burnham, and she was crippled in that battle to boot, but it's never really addressed. And now she's just...gone? Ugh.
 
I'm really annoyed that we seem to have replaced Detmer with Adira.
Detmer should have been a much bigger part of the show. The only person besides Saru who was on the Shenzou with Burnham, and she was crippled in that battle to boot, but it's never really addressed. And now she's just...gone? Ugh.

What I don't understand this season is they've added all these other characters as actual side characters (I don't know their names) and just brushed Owo and Detmer to the side. Ok, so they were not part of the main cast, but like you said, Detmer has been there since Day 1, and I loved Owo's role in "New Eden" (Still one of my favorite episodes). We also had some stories involving both characters, notably Detmer and her PTSD, and now they really have been brushed to the side. For being side characters, they were treated a whole lot more in the prior seasons and now I wish there was a way for Detmer to go back in time and actually get her life back with friends and family. She deserves better, especially for someone who flew the ship.
 
I'm really annoyed that we seem to have replaced Detmer with Adira.
Detmer should have been a much bigger part of the show. The only person besides Saru who was on the Shenzou with Burnham, and she was crippled in that battle to boot, but it's never really addressed. And now she's just...gone? Ugh.
Yes, that's what side characters do.
 
How so? They're not taking Detmer's job or dialog. They've always had more to do than Detmer Detmer's part is being played by the new NDCs

That's my whole point. Time spent on Adira could be spent on Detmer instead.
Adira didn't replace her on the ship. She seems to have replaced her on the cast. Now Stamets interacts with Adira instead of Detmer. Now Culber counsels Adira instead of Detmer. Now some nameless person is flying the ship so that Adira can...do the exact same thing as Stamets, who's also been marginalized.
 
I don't really think any character deserves anything.

I don't mean deserve as in the character is owed something. I mean deserve as in, that character is more deserving of screen time because they have a more interesting backstory, a more unique look, and is portrayed by a better actor.
We, the audience, deserve better I suppose.
 
I don't mean deserve as in the character is owed something. I mean deserve as in, that character is more deserving of screen time because they have a more interesting character, a more unique look, and is portrayed by a better actor.
We, the audience, deserve better I suppose.
I guess I'll disagree still.

I love side characters, but this, to me, is like when I was younger and thought R5-D4 "deserved" to be a bigger deal in the story of Star Wars than R2-D2.

Its not their story. So, I either go along or become dissatisfied. I don't deserve more than entertaining. Sorry it's not entertaining enough for you.
 
That's my whole point. Time spent on Adira could be spent on Detmer instead.
Adira didn't replace her on the ship. She seems to have replaced her on the cast. Now Stamets interacts with Adira instead of Detmer. Now Culber counsels Adira instead of Detmer. Now some nameless person is flying the ship so that Adira can...do the exact same thing as Stamets, who's also been marginalized.
Adira has always been higher on the food chain than Detmer. She's been a plot focus character. Detmer not so much. I don't recall Detmer and Stamets interacting all that much. She's on the bridge and Stamets is usually down in the Spore Drive room. Culber counsels which ever character need the support/advice. That's his role. They haven't given Detmer any problems that need Culber's input recently . (Maybe that's the problem?) Adira doesn't fly the ship, she's been a science type from day one. Adira works with Stamets, they team up on problems and science a solution.
 
Adira has always been higher on the food chain than Detmer. She's been a plot focus character. Detmer not so much. I don't recall Detmer and Stamets interacting all that much. She's on the bridge and Stamets is usually down in the Spore Drive room. Culber counsels which ever character need the support/advice. That's his role. They haven't given Detmer any problems that need Culber's input recently . (Maybe that's the problem?) Adira doesn't fly the ship, she's been a science type from day one. Adira works with Stamets, they team up on problems and science a solution.

I know she HAS been a plot focus. I'm saying she SHOULDN'T be.
If this was an assignment in my creative writing class, I'd tell Michelle Paradise she should cut Adira and Gray and focus instead on Detmer and Owo because both characters are more dynamic by far.
This is compounded by the fact that Paradise took what could have been an interesting story with Adira and made it a footnote, stripping the character of anything unique in the process.
It's bad writing, if you want to be blunt. You, and a few others here, may like Adira and Gray, but that is NOT the general consensus elsewhere. So to sacrifice characters that WERE garnering interest in order to Make room for them is a poor choice.
 
I give this one a resounding "meh". It was fine? I feel like it yanked a ton of the mystery out of the story so early on. "A bunch of 24th century scientists 100% already found this and then *WE* hid it."... ok?

Can Gray go away now? My god that "breakup" scene felt like it went on for an hour. It's not well written, and he's not a good actor. That was painful to get through.

On the other side of the spectrum, Wilson Cruz was an absolute delight in this one and got a chance to shine. His transformation into Jinaal was perfect. He really sold that he was a completely different character.

Raynor gets a meh from me so far. "Grrr i'm hard man!" will get old really quickly. Tilly was pretty ok here.

I like Book alot more this season. And for the FIRST time in Discovery, it took 4 seasons, but Burnham isn't completely and totally insufferable. So... good on that.
 
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