the breen one is 5x07
Spoilers Star Trek: Discovery 5x06 - "Whistlespeak"
- Thread starter Commander Richard
- Start date
I really loved this one. I think Disco’s biggest sin the past couple of seasons has been its inability to juggle multiple plot threads in the same episode. Usually one of the plots ends up feeling undercooked or superfluous, but I genuinely feel this is the first time in a while where everyone got something to do and it all felt necessary and compelling.
So good to have Burnham and Tilly together again. One of those pairings that worked so well early on and then kind of got shafted when Wiseman left the show.
It’s hardly the most original Trek plot, but I just loved how it was executed. Easy 9 for me. My favourite of the season.
So good to have Burnham and Tilly together again. One of those pairings that worked so well early on and then kind of got shafted when Wiseman left the show.
It’s hardly the most original Trek plot, but I just loved how it was executed. Easy 9 for me. My favourite of the season.
Kirk would have fixed the other 4 towers, or, he would at least have had tower 5 working since he had to go there to get the next clue.
I voted it a 9.
So you turn the power to the tower off and it comes back on again.
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Canada?
Germany, but visiting Canada. Yeah I read in the other thread that Paramount released the wrong one.
Well, a two Episode week then.....
For what it is worth, I predict next week will be a good one.
Letztes Jahr war gar Canada. Aber Hoyerswerda.
Breen there. Done that. Bought the tee shirt.
So...Burnham and Tilly visit descendants of the Clangers. Cute.
Catching up with the season. I found this one boring, though it was in the vein of an old school Trek episode.
I don't get why Burnham didn't have all the weather machines fixed to give the planet more of a chance. The cat was already out of the bag regarding the Prime Directive.
Bits of the classic Trek "computer inadvertently alters the course of a culture" , interspersed with TNG style character development moments. I'm not saying it's impossible, but in a world where Q exists, along with countless other fantastical elements of technology, it's difficult to believe that Dr. Culber is having an existential crisis, particularly after having been brought back from the dead. (Though Wilson Cruz gives a fine performance. ) I'm not sure why willful suspension of disbelief is more difficult this go 'round, but those were my initial thoughts. (That, and that pesky old Prime Directive violation, which I doubt we'll see any ramifications to.) Not unenjoyable, but not great, either.
Done okay but somewhat of a trektrope. Maybe I should embrace that? In which case I'd give it an 8 not a 6.
The use of an everyday retail memo pad was both ridiculous and inspired.
Decidedly mixed feelings here, on the whole. In a lot of ways, it was like a latter-day Berman Trek episode ported into Discovery. This isn't necessarily a good thing in all ways, as the trope of the alien planet with bland humanoids with only one weird thing distinguishing their culture has always left me a bit cold. But it was an effective, average episode of Star Trek. I also give it kudos for not even having a perfunctory action scene this week, and feeling confident the story itself could carry things.
The connection to the arc as a whole is very, very limited. Moll and La'k are mentioned a few times, but not seen. The MacGuffin itself - the next puzzle piece - is nabbed offscreen at the end of the episode. Frankly, even the mystery of how to find the puzzle piece gets sidetracked for Michael and Tilly's planetside adventure.
But before turning to that, let's go over the shipside stuff, where not much happens. Adira is still inexperienced and unsure, and Rayner is a little curt with them, but seems to be settling into his position as XO. Book is still upset he's not on the trail of Moll, trying to redeem her, and sad that he isn't with Michael (the way he refers to love in the past tense continues to confuse me).
The meatiest stuff is Culber's wrestling with "finding God" or whatever. I don't have an issue with this, save it seems so damned random. Culber literally died and came back from the dead, which seems weightier than what he's wrestling with now. Stamets' inability to relate to his partner also seemed kind of preordained by the plot, given he's had the whole mystical connection to the mycelial network thing going on for years now. It all feels both like a holdover from Season 2, and something that only makes sense if you forget about what the characters went through in Seasons 1 and 2.
Which brings us to the uncontacted pre-warp culture, and Michael and Tilly's misadventures here. I think this stuff was...fine. It's nothing we haven't seen numerous times before. I'm also a bit let down with how it plays out because despite a few efforts to tie it to them more directly (like Tilly discussing her work at the Academy), the roles they both take here are interchangeable with any other members of the crew.
I personally didn't mind Michael's cavalier violation of the prime directive at all. Other than a few cases in TNG, the Prime Directive exists to be broken in story terms - it's just there to add some tension which is inevitably let out as the story progressed. I had a lot more of an issue with why the Denobulans, in particular, would have saved the locals with the moisture towers to begin with, as this goes entirely against the ethos that Phlox elucidates in Dear Doctor, but perhaps either Denobulan culture evolved, or he really was just a psychopath.
So yeah, on the whole, I could 100% see this being an episode of say Season 6 of Voyager, with only a few superficial changes. There's nothing infuriating here, but there's also very little which actually hooks you in. It's just Trek comfort food.
The connection to the arc as a whole is very, very limited. Moll and La'k are mentioned a few times, but not seen. The MacGuffin itself - the next puzzle piece - is nabbed offscreen at the end of the episode. Frankly, even the mystery of how to find the puzzle piece gets sidetracked for Michael and Tilly's planetside adventure.
But before turning to that, let's go over the shipside stuff, where not much happens. Adira is still inexperienced and unsure, and Rayner is a little curt with them, but seems to be settling into his position as XO. Book is still upset he's not on the trail of Moll, trying to redeem her, and sad that he isn't with Michael (the way he refers to love in the past tense continues to confuse me).
The meatiest stuff is Culber's wrestling with "finding God" or whatever. I don't have an issue with this, save it seems so damned random. Culber literally died and came back from the dead, which seems weightier than what he's wrestling with now. Stamets' inability to relate to his partner also seemed kind of preordained by the plot, given he's had the whole mystical connection to the mycelial network thing going on for years now. It all feels both like a holdover from Season 2, and something that only makes sense if you forget about what the characters went through in Seasons 1 and 2.
Which brings us to the uncontacted pre-warp culture, and Michael and Tilly's misadventures here. I think this stuff was...fine. It's nothing we haven't seen numerous times before. I'm also a bit let down with how it plays out because despite a few efforts to tie it to them more directly (like Tilly discussing her work at the Academy), the roles they both take here are interchangeable with any other members of the crew.
I personally didn't mind Michael's cavalier violation of the prime directive at all. Other than a few cases in TNG, the Prime Directive exists to be broken in story terms - it's just there to add some tension which is inevitably let out as the story progressed. I had a lot more of an issue with why the Denobulans, in particular, would have saved the locals with the moisture towers to begin with, as this goes entirely against the ethos that Phlox elucidates in Dear Doctor, but perhaps either Denobulan culture evolved, or he really was just a psychopath.
So yeah, on the whole, I could 100% see this being an episode of say Season 6 of Voyager, with only a few superficial changes. There's nothing infuriating here, but there's also very little which actually hooks you in. It's just Trek comfort food.
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Really well done standard Trekking. the b-plot was kinda nothing though. It might have been interesting in closer conversation with early TNG's take on spirituality but it came across to me as too tepid. It's a crime that we only get the occasional "Jinaal" and instead mostly waste Wilson Cruz wandering around with stuff like this instead.
Gave this one a 7. Slightly better than last week.
I hope there is more to Cronenberg's character beyond being just a quirky and mysterious guy.
Not everything needs to be explained. Indeed, deep, immersive worldbuilding in a setting requires some things remain unexplained on the margins.
I gave this an 8, enjoying it more than last week.
It felt like a classic Trek story involving a pre-warp civilization, with the added intrigue sounds iof the race were making to communicate.
I also enjoyed all the Tilly and Burnham scenes - their freindhsip is something i've loved in the show all the way back in S1.
It's also fascinating what is going on with Culber since the Zhian'tara back on Trill.
It felt like a classic Trek story involving a pre-warp civilization, with the added intrigue sounds iof the race were making to communicate.
I also enjoyed all the Tilly and Burnham scenes - their freindhsip is something i've loved in the show all the way back in S1.
It's also fascinating what is going on with Culber since the Zhian'tara back on Trill.
Agreed. But maybe a science team can be sent back to fix the other towers without even tipping anyone off. Discovery is kind of "on the clock".
At the end, was Book playing.....Asteroids???
I gave this one an 8. Better than it looked like it was going to be and definitely an old-school ST type episode.
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