Spoilers Star Trek: Discovery 5x04 - "Face the Strange"
- Thread starter Commander Richard
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A refreshingly Discover-flavored take on a "greatest hits anomaly" akin to Voyager's Shattered, best exemplified in how the focus is on convincing the crew through their shared experiences and familiarity, with the technobabble serving as a backdrop, while Voyager used the interactions with the past as coloring to the sci-fi dilemma. They even followed up on Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad and included Stamets once again as the one crew member existing outside of natural time. The one thing I'm missing is the cheeky "or is it?" allusion to the crew maybe-or-maybe-not retaining some memories after the episode seemingly set up a scene with Rayner buying Reno that ice-cold Vesper Martini at Red's she asked for "in Season 3". Especially given Paul's technobabble about the time jumps that describe the timeline-overwriting effects as very much like a video game - the "game" is "saved" whenever you jump so only the last jump wouldn't stick. That means Reno should remember Rayner's drink offer, right? Anyway, now we even got a glimpse into what would happen if the Breen get their hands on the Progenitor technology, in the form of a time jump 30 years into the future that at first fooled us into thinking they jumped into Calypso.
The episode serves well as a character development piece to Rayner, who, while he has many good ideas, starts out as far too inflexible, and, by his own admission, stubborn, treating the chain of command as a rigid linear line where everybody beneath him should only follow his orders and report to him and only him, even if the captain is also physically there. I was never in the military, but I don't think this should matter, considering how Star Trek has always played fast and loose with how close to an actual military Starfleet is, and Discovery has actually been acknowledged in-universe as a crew less inclined to strictly follow the chain of command than most. If one wanted an in-universe reasoning, I'd say it might have something to do with all the eggheads on the ship from a crew originally put together to run who knows how many experiments at once. Starfleet has often operated fairly similarly to a mix of NASA and a research university, and Discovery should be the purest manifestation of that concept.
I liked it that at the end, he took it all in stride and acknowledged his error, even mentioning that the entire incident almost seemed like the universe conspired to make him realize it, and I was also glad Burnham basically admitted he's an injection of much-needed fresh blood into the crew lest they grow complacent and lose focus because of how tightly knit they've become. Him using the trivia he learned about Rhys to defuse the situation at first seemed like a refutation of Tilly's point that you have to get to know your crew, not just learn bullet points about them, but then he had to convince Past!Michael too, and that was where he finally learned Tilly's lession, not just repeating what Present!Michael told him about her first days on Discovery, but also giving her a pep talk based on it. But even beyond the plot forcing him into these learning moments, he seems to be warming up to the crew on his own too, having built a nice rapport with Michael, Paul and (unsurprisingly) Reno.
The random stuff:
The episode serves well as a character development piece to Rayner, who, while he has many good ideas, starts out as far too inflexible, and, by his own admission, stubborn, treating the chain of command as a rigid linear line where everybody beneath him should only follow his orders and report to him and only him, even if the captain is also physically there. I was never in the military, but I don't think this should matter, considering how Star Trek has always played fast and loose with how close to an actual military Starfleet is, and Discovery has actually been acknowledged in-universe as a crew less inclined to strictly follow the chain of command than most. If one wanted an in-universe reasoning, I'd say it might have something to do with all the eggheads on the ship from a crew originally put together to run who knows how many experiments at once. Starfleet has often operated fairly similarly to a mix of NASA and a research university, and Discovery should be the purest manifestation of that concept.
I liked it that at the end, he took it all in stride and acknowledged his error, even mentioning that the entire incident almost seemed like the universe conspired to make him realize it, and I was also glad Burnham basically admitted he's an injection of much-needed fresh blood into the crew lest they grow complacent and lose focus because of how tightly knit they've become. Him using the trivia he learned about Rhys to defuse the situation at first seemed like a refutation of Tilly's point that you have to get to know your crew, not just learn bullet points about them, but then he had to convince Past!Michael too, and that was where he finally learned Tilly's lession, not just repeating what Present!Michael told him about her first days on Discovery, but also giving her a pep talk based on it. But even beyond the plot forcing him into these learning moments, he seems to be warming up to the crew on his own too, having built a nice rapport with Michael, Paul and (unsurprisingly) Reno.
The random stuff:
- I loved how Season One Linus was so weirded out by the future uniform that he could only comment on the color
- I've chuckled at how Michael's 32nd-century tech can readily interface with the 23rd-century PADD Paul grabs in Engineering. Exactly the kind of thing I would expect from Starfleet, back-compatibility will never end.
- It was interesting to see Moll specifically paying evil unto evil with the Annari arms dealer. I wonder if learning what the Breen plan to do with the Progenitor tech would cause her to rethink her plans, especially as L'ak seems to be getting stressed from living on the run. And could Book eventually get through to her, I wonder?
Calypso and Calypso, what IS Calypso?
Well... this episode happened. So, they can build a time bug, which can do all that, but they can't just make something that will completely destroy the ship and stop it forever?!? 
The engineers of the time bugs must have been hardcore fans of Wile E. Coyote.
The engineers of the time bugs must have been hardcore fans of Wile E. Coyote.
Krenim Chronophage. Brilliant name! Exciting callback!
Annorax's wife must have been named Helen. The face that launched a thousand temporal incursions!
I wonder if someone tried to take out Annorax in the early days of the Temporal War.
Annorax's wife must have been named Helen. The face that launched a thousand temporal incursions!
I wonder if someone tried to take out Annorax in the early days of the Temporal War.
Well no, not for me. But this episode really demonstrated to me something that the series really needed: someone who challenged Burnham's values and actions constantly on an individual level, and forced Burnham to defend her convictions and show why her way of doing things is right. Raynor didn't buy Burham's management style on the bridge, but through the course of his adventure with Burnham he came to see the merits of how she operates, even if maybe he isn't 100% convinced. I think having a character like him right from the start would have done a lot to tone down the perception that Burhham acts unilaterally and the narrative contorts to support her actions.
Chief Lt. Crewman O'Brien.
Maybe.
I doubt it, because I can find examples of Burnham style decision making with various other captains who are proven right, and yet don't have to defend themselves for their decisions.
"The Captain's word is God" has always been the silent mantra of Star Trek, but Burnham didn't start out as a captain, and so her actions always being justified "just because" seemed to rub people the wrong way.
If it's not too far in the future from DSC S1, and if they do more than one S31 movie.......
™Rube Goldberg. He might also have the rights to the turbolift funhouse.
I just don't feel like Burnham was always right either. I think, like the tearfulness, it has been overblown over the last 5 seasons. But, then, I don't have a problem with tears or emotions, and I found Picard's decisions of being "always right" to be more aggravating than Burnhams, so what do I know?
The problem isn't Burnham being right, it's the universe bending over backwards to make her right.
Take the second episode of this season, we had a magic rock avalanche from a relatively small mountain accelerate to the maximum front velocity of a snow based avalanche in seconds and then travel dozens of miles across flat terrain that had a number of rocky breaks in it to wipe out a town.
I just don't feel like Burnham was always right either. I think, like the tearfulness, it has been overblown over the last 5 seasons. But, then, I don't have a problem with tears or emotions, and I found Picard's decisions of being "always right" to be more aggravating than Burnhams, so what do I know?
You'll get no arguments from me.
I mean Star Trek wouldn't be much of a science-fiction/fantasy show if the protagonists didn't have a least a higher-than-average success rate than most humans during crises, so I give them a lot of leeway.
Same. There are so many other decisions by captains that I question so hard, but probably Picard gets it the worst (because I actually engage with some his stories more). But, Riker having the powers of the Q and not saving a little girl and the plot basically saying, "Yup, Picard was absolutely right by telling Riker to not use the powers." It comes across so painfully forced that I didn't watch it for a while afterwards.
That's the one that stands out to me the most when its' said "Oh, the plot is forcing them to be right."
Yeah, and that's bad or different how?
Yeah and their initial smugness about the girl's death is pretty grotesque. Like they're glad they got some bragging points over the galaxy's most powerful concern troll. That was more important than the dead girl.
I finally got to see this today and, once again, it was fun! SO nice to see Stamets gets stuff to do again. A well-done bounce through the ship and crew's history, especially showing how much Michael has grown. Very enjoyable. Rayner is a blast.
I think the use of the time bug was because Moll doesn't want to destroy Discovery. I'm not sure why - she certainly is capable of killing. Maybe it has to do with Book?
Speaking of, the scene with Michael and past-Book was All The Feels. I hope we get those 2 crazy kids back together!
I think the use of the time bug was because Moll doesn't want to destroy Discovery. I'm not sure why - she certainly is capable of killing. Maybe it has to do with Book?
Speaking of, the scene with Michael and past-Book was All The Feels. I hope we get those 2 crazy kids back together!
JAYSUS
So no Tzenkethi.. bummer
Hope they bring back Ryneer for The Academy show
Hope they bring back Ryneer for The Academy show
The Previously On recaps on SNW have shown footage from Disco episodes already.
It's a reference to Calypso. Zora tells Craft that it's Taco Tuesday, he asks "what's that?" Zora explains what a taco is, Craft then asks "and what's a Tuesday?"
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