Maybe the one from "Take Me Out to the Holosuite"?
Spoilers Star Trek: Discovery 5x10 - "Life, Itself"
- Thread starter Commander Richard
- Start date
Maybe the one from "Take Me Out to the Holosuite"?
I'm terribly sorry, but to me, this finale was as pointless and meaningless as most of the series.
They had so many chances to let great ideas evolve, and approaches of what could have been, but it always ended up being disappointing.
So, there were always good ideas right from the inception of this show since 2017, but it always resulted in bad writing and being not boldly. It is the most superficial series in any Trek, and to this day I don't even know every name of the characters.
One thing that was consistent over all these years, was this artificially kind of causing emotions. Everything had to be soooooo emotionally. There is nothing wrong with being emotionally, but the way they did it seemed so wrong and out of place all the time.
I'm thankful it is over.
They had so many chances to let great ideas evolve, and approaches of what could have been, but it always ended up being disappointing.
So, there were always good ideas right from the inception of this show since 2017, but it always resulted in bad writing and being not boldly. It is the most superficial series in any Trek, and to this day I don't even know every name of the characters.
One thing that was consistent over all these years, was this artificially kind of causing emotions. Everything had to be soooooo emotionally. There is nothing wrong with being emotionally, but the way they did it seemed so wrong and out of place all the time.
I'm thankful it is over.
I was thinking Mass Effect with the Citadel reveal. We even had the Reapers at the end of season one of Picard.
Enjoyed the episode. Fleeting thoughts:
The whole Moll storyline just kinda peters out a bit once we get to the Progenitor.
This is certainly the most cinematic Trek finale they’ve done yet. VFX were impressive as always.
A bit too much of handheld shots throughout.
The way the writers characterized the Progenitors tech reminded me a ton of the Golgotha Object in the last Evangelion movie. I dug it.
Cool that Kovich was Daniels all along! Also loved that he’s a Trek prop collector.
I liked the epilogue… up until they revealed Disco’s final mission is to be de-fitted back to its 23rd Century configuration as a connect-the-dot to Calypso. Hiding the reasons behind the veil of a Red Directive had me rolling my eyes.
All-in-all, a mostly successful finale. Certainly a high note for a troubled writing staff to go out on. Sad to see the show go; I’ll miss this crew.
The whole Moll storyline just kinda peters out a bit once we get to the Progenitor.
This is certainly the most cinematic Trek finale they’ve done yet. VFX were impressive as always.
A bit too much of handheld shots throughout.
The way the writers characterized the Progenitors tech reminded me a ton of the Golgotha Object in the last Evangelion movie. I dug it.
Cool that Kovich was Daniels all along! Also loved that he’s a Trek prop collector.
I liked the epilogue… up until they revealed Disco’s final mission is to be de-fitted back to its 23rd Century configuration as a connect-the-dot to Calypso. Hiding the reasons behind the veil of a Red Directive had me rolling my eyes.
All-in-all, a mostly successful finale. Certainly a high note for a troubled writing staff to go out on. Sad to see the show go; I’ll miss this crew.
The only way I can stomach TATV is if I view it like an anime standalone OVA episode that gets released after the series wraps, and then it gets tacked on at the end of the DVD. The real finale is Demons/Terra Prime.
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Also wasn't Calypso's premise that Zora and Craft just happened to accidentally find each other after a thousand years? That she was specifically ordered to find him puts all their interactions including, you know, her attempted seduction of him, into an entirely different and disturbing context that I really, really don't think was originally intended by the Calypso writers.
There's a lot to unpack here, given this episode tries to do many things at once. I'll start with an analysis of what I think is the "episode proper" - which ends I think with T'Rina and Saru's wedding. Since Owo and Detmer weren't there, this seems to have been filmed pre-cancelation.
Anyway, episode proper - better than most of the season, but also a let down, because it left almost nothing to surprise. A very Trek-by-numbers experience.
The plot involving Michael and Moll inside the anomaly got off on the wrong foot with me pretty quickly. I absolutely hate it when they have Michael speak aloud for the necessity of the audience, and I don't even think it was needed here. The (admittedly pretty awe-inspiring) CGI setting would have come across as more dreamlike and surreal if Michael was exploring it mostly silent. The fight with the Breen rando was fine, but the fight with Moll was just terrible - both because the quick cuts made me feel ill, and it wasn't clear at all why they started sparring and what Moll hoped to do if she knocked Michael cold.
Then we get to the "tech" proper. The "puzzle" involving the triangles was pretty laughable, if I am to be honest. In a show full of CGI whiz-bang, I'm shocked the prop came down to bits of plexiglass my son played with at a children's museum when he was younger. And I'm still confused how Michael just instinctively knew the cairn was a dead scientist.
The stuff with the living (or whatever) progenitor was good. I liked that they couldn't bring La'k back from the dead - that would have been a cheap "happy ending." I 100% loved the reveal that the progenitors didn't invent "the tech" - that there were even older races, mysteries beyond the scope of the series. I think it's important in speculative fiction that some aspects of a setting remain unexplained in order to keep fans invested in the world, and this was perhaps the single most inspired choice of the entire show.
I am, however, still quite confused as to what "the tech" is. The way it's described, it's just a big biological lab and cloning chamber? That...doesn't sound like the most profoundly new, awe-inspiring thing in the galaxy. It's something within the Federation's power now, only on a more massive scope. Even clone army means little without things like ships and weapons. Honestly, this whole element of the show was super underbaked - as if the writers' room thought it would be a good idea to have a magic tech, but it never quite gelled what it was supposed to be, even by the end.
Turning elsewhere, the stuff involving Rayner & company onboard the ship was a decent example of shipboard action. Tilly's trick to blow up the fighters was a pretty standard Trek move treated as something genius, but I can forgive this as a moment of melodrama. The decision to spore jump the dreadnaught was one of the most creative choices of this episode, even if it involved some of the nuttiest technobabble in Star Trek. I'm happy here overall.
Book and Culber going in the shuttle to try and stabilize the gateway in the accretion disk of the black hole was...fine. When I heard Book was going out for Michael, I had expected he was going to go in after her, since he had unfinished business with Moll within the scope of the narrative. Not to mention we know Starfleet uniforms have built-in spacesuits, and I just expected Michael to jump out into space at the end. But this seemed mostly to exist just to give some sort of resolution to Culber's "spirituality arc" - the resolution is - he doesn't know? The voice of Jinaal whispered to him from the afterlife? Not sure what to take from this. But it felt like there was one scene too many here.
Saru's side adventure (with Nhan in tow, just to give her one final thing to do) initially confused me, because I was unclear how the hell he could intercept a Breen dreadnaught at warp within minutes (where was Vance? Still at Federation HQ). The new primarch was about as unimpressive as I expected, given a few minutes of time on a viewscreen, though she didn't come across as being as much of a fucking idiot as Primarch Ruhn. That said, Doug Jones was awesome in these scenes, giving perhaps the best performance of the show in his final tirade to her. So I'm happy enough with where this ended.
That brings us to the pre-cancelation coda scenes. I'm not surprised at all about Michael's decision to effectively destroy the "progenitor tech." The decision of the writers to put it near a black hole was a big tell of what would happen. Not to mention Trek has a long history of treating universe-shattering tech as something that happens once, is discarded/classified, and never spoken of again (Michael effectively makes an allusion to how this was done with the spore drive). So it couldn't have ended any other way, though I do wonder, if they knew this was the last season, if they might have made a different choice.
Book's final scene with Moll was a bit of a letdown in terms of a resolution of the "arc" he had with her. The established connection between the two meant nothing to the overall plot, or the direction of her character. At least Moll finally washed and combed her hair, though.
I don't mind the reveal that Kovich was Daniels. Sure, it's fanwank, but the kids can have one bit of it, as a treat. And I have basically nothing to say about Saru's wedding. Book and Michael healing the rift between them was a good ending to the season, and I would have been fine if this was the last scene of the entire show.
Then we come to the scenes which were clearly filmed post-cancelation. The extended sequences with an older Michael/Book and their adult son were good. It felt like the beginning of another story entirely. I loved that the scenes took their time, and were slow and deliberate - something I wished we saw more of in Discovery.
The reveal that Michael was sending Zora off to the nebula to set up the events of Calypso was awful, though. I've long maintained that the beauty of that amazing short came about due to the lack of explanation, and attempts to tie it into canon weaken it. It's made worse because it happens in the laziest of ways. Kovich tells them they just need to do it, to make canon ... err ... the timeline work out right. He even knows Zora needs to meet Craft, something Zora didn't know (and it makes little sense, given Craft just left Zora behind at the end of that short.
Michael's reminiscing of when she was younger did give the chance for the cast (including Owo and Detmer, absent for the season) to have one final reunion on set, and I'll admit that I felt the feels. That said, in the moment, it made me wonder if she was stroking out in the captain's chair, and this was the last thing she saw before she died. I also think the scene would have hit harder if they aged Michael up even more - made her 100+ years old, not like 65, and accompanied by her grandson instead. That would imply that most of her crewmates were dead, rather than simply having moved on to different things. Still, I did feel a feeling here, so I cannot fault them for this, any more than could fault DS9 for the really self-indulgent clip scenes in its finale.
The episode was good, by the standards of Discovery. It's probably my favorite of the season finales of Discovery overall, edging out Such Sweet Sorrow by a hair. However, the season arc as a whole came out as a bit of a waste. By far the biggest failure was on the antagonist department. I don't need mustache-twirlers, but Moll was never once a compelling antagonist, and devolved into a lost petulant child stumbling through things by the end of the season. The Breen were an underdeveloped joke (not surprising given it took half the season to even get them involved) and their place in the story could have been taken by the Klingons or any number of other races with little difference. But even beyond this, the story lacked real surprise, following the setup. You can go from Episode 1 to 10, skip the entire middle, and follow the finale pretty well. In the end, it just felt like the season existed to engage myself and fans for a few weeks in discourse (and capture our eyes) and didn't have anything much to say beyond that. As a result, I think it's probably my least favorite season of the show.
Reflecting on Discovery as a whole, it's strange to see the transformation of the show from the most bonkers, off-the-wall show in its first two seasons to Trek comfort food by its end. The producers seem to have gotten really burned by the frosty reception from the toxic elements of fandom early on, and learned the wrong lessons, thinking what we really wanted was Discovery to turn into a latter-day Voyager, with more treacle emotions. I had my criticisms of the show early on, but I really wish that some of that gonzo creativity effused the writers room this season.
Farewell, Discovery. Despite my nitpicks, I'm happy to have spent time with you, and happy you birthed a plethora of offspring, some of which are still with us - hopefully for some time to come. Though as Admiral Burnham noted, all things do come to an end.
Anyway, episode proper - better than most of the season, but also a let down, because it left almost nothing to surprise. A very Trek-by-numbers experience.
The plot involving Michael and Moll inside the anomaly got off on the wrong foot with me pretty quickly. I absolutely hate it when they have Michael speak aloud for the necessity of the audience, and I don't even think it was needed here. The (admittedly pretty awe-inspiring) CGI setting would have come across as more dreamlike and surreal if Michael was exploring it mostly silent. The fight with the Breen rando was fine, but the fight with Moll was just terrible - both because the quick cuts made me feel ill, and it wasn't clear at all why they started sparring and what Moll hoped to do if she knocked Michael cold.
Then we get to the "tech" proper. The "puzzle" involving the triangles was pretty laughable, if I am to be honest. In a show full of CGI whiz-bang, I'm shocked the prop came down to bits of plexiglass my son played with at a children's museum when he was younger. And I'm still confused how Michael just instinctively knew the cairn was a dead scientist.
The stuff with the living (or whatever) progenitor was good. I liked that they couldn't bring La'k back from the dead - that would have been a cheap "happy ending." I 100% loved the reveal that the progenitors didn't invent "the tech" - that there were even older races, mysteries beyond the scope of the series. I think it's important in speculative fiction that some aspects of a setting remain unexplained in order to keep fans invested in the world, and this was perhaps the single most inspired choice of the entire show.
I am, however, still quite confused as to what "the tech" is. The way it's described, it's just a big biological lab and cloning chamber? That...doesn't sound like the most profoundly new, awe-inspiring thing in the galaxy. It's something within the Federation's power now, only on a more massive scope. Even clone army means little without things like ships and weapons. Honestly, this whole element of the show was super underbaked - as if the writers' room thought it would be a good idea to have a magic tech, but it never quite gelled what it was supposed to be, even by the end.
Turning elsewhere, the stuff involving Rayner & company onboard the ship was a decent example of shipboard action. Tilly's trick to blow up the fighters was a pretty standard Trek move treated as something genius, but I can forgive this as a moment of melodrama. The decision to spore jump the dreadnaught was one of the most creative choices of this episode, even if it involved some of the nuttiest technobabble in Star Trek. I'm happy here overall.
Book and Culber going in the shuttle to try and stabilize the gateway in the accretion disk of the black hole was...fine. When I heard Book was going out for Michael, I had expected he was going to go in after her, since he had unfinished business with Moll within the scope of the narrative. Not to mention we know Starfleet uniforms have built-in spacesuits, and I just expected Michael to jump out into space at the end. But this seemed mostly to exist just to give some sort of resolution to Culber's "spirituality arc" - the resolution is - he doesn't know? The voice of Jinaal whispered to him from the afterlife? Not sure what to take from this. But it felt like there was one scene too many here.
Saru's side adventure (with Nhan in tow, just to give her one final thing to do) initially confused me, because I was unclear how the hell he could intercept a Breen dreadnaught at warp within minutes (where was Vance? Still at Federation HQ). The new primarch was about as unimpressive as I expected, given a few minutes of time on a viewscreen, though she didn't come across as being as much of a fucking idiot as Primarch Ruhn. That said, Doug Jones was awesome in these scenes, giving perhaps the best performance of the show in his final tirade to her. So I'm happy enough with where this ended.
That brings us to the pre-cancelation coda scenes. I'm not surprised at all about Michael's decision to effectively destroy the "progenitor tech." The decision of the writers to put it near a black hole was a big tell of what would happen. Not to mention Trek has a long history of treating universe-shattering tech as something that happens once, is discarded/classified, and never spoken of again (Michael effectively makes an allusion to how this was done with the spore drive). So it couldn't have ended any other way, though I do wonder, if they knew this was the last season, if they might have made a different choice.
Book's final scene with Moll was a bit of a letdown in terms of a resolution of the "arc" he had with her. The established connection between the two meant nothing to the overall plot, or the direction of her character. At least Moll finally washed and combed her hair, though.
I don't mind the reveal that Kovich was Daniels. Sure, it's fanwank, but the kids can have one bit of it, as a treat. And I have basically nothing to say about Saru's wedding. Book and Michael healing the rift between them was a good ending to the season, and I would have been fine if this was the last scene of the entire show.
Then we come to the scenes which were clearly filmed post-cancelation. The extended sequences with an older Michael/Book and their adult son were good. It felt like the beginning of another story entirely. I loved that the scenes took their time, and were slow and deliberate - something I wished we saw more of in Discovery.
The reveal that Michael was sending Zora off to the nebula to set up the events of Calypso was awful, though. I've long maintained that the beauty of that amazing short came about due to the lack of explanation, and attempts to tie it into canon weaken it. It's made worse because it happens in the laziest of ways. Kovich tells them they just need to do it, to make canon ... err ... the timeline work out right. He even knows Zora needs to meet Craft, something Zora didn't know (and it makes little sense, given Craft just left Zora behind at the end of that short.
Michael's reminiscing of when she was younger did give the chance for the cast (including Owo and Detmer, absent for the season) to have one final reunion on set, and I'll admit that I felt the feels. That said, in the moment, it made me wonder if she was stroking out in the captain's chair, and this was the last thing she saw before she died. I also think the scene would have hit harder if they aged Michael up even more - made her 100+ years old, not like 65, and accompanied by her grandson instead. That would imply that most of her crewmates were dead, rather than simply having moved on to different things. Still, I did feel a feeling here, so I cannot fault them for this, any more than could fault DS9 for the really self-indulgent clip scenes in its finale.
The episode was good, by the standards of Discovery. It's probably my favorite of the season finales of Discovery overall, edging out Such Sweet Sorrow by a hair. However, the season arc as a whole came out as a bit of a waste. By far the biggest failure was on the antagonist department. I don't need mustache-twirlers, but Moll was never once a compelling antagonist, and devolved into a lost petulant child stumbling through things by the end of the season. The Breen were an underdeveloped joke (not surprising given it took half the season to even get them involved) and their place in the story could have been taken by the Klingons or any number of other races with little difference. But even beyond this, the story lacked real surprise, following the setup. You can go from Episode 1 to 10, skip the entire middle, and follow the finale pretty well. In the end, it just felt like the season existed to engage myself and fans for a few weeks in discourse (and capture our eyes) and didn't have anything much to say beyond that. As a result, I think it's probably my least favorite season of the show.
Reflecting on Discovery as a whole, it's strange to see the transformation of the show from the most bonkers, off-the-wall show in its first two seasons to Trek comfort food by its end. The producers seem to have gotten really burned by the frosty reception from the toxic elements of fandom early on, and learned the wrong lessons, thinking what we really wanted was Discovery to turn into a latter-day Voyager, with more treacle emotions. I had my criticisms of the show early on, but I really wish that some of that gonzo creativity effused the writers room this season.
Farewell, Discovery. Despite my nitpicks, I'm happy to have spent time with you, and happy you birthed a plethora of offspring, some of which are still with us - hopefully for some time to come. Though as Admiral Burnham noted, all things do come to an end.
It was an alright ending, though they did kind of copy Contact by Carl Sagan with the Progenitor reveal.
How many people watched the opening titles? Because they changed them up for this episode, they included bits from all 5 seasons of openings.
Owo was on the ship when Rayner was there.
Also for those who don't follow interviews. Wilson Cruz could not make it to the epilogue shoot, so those shots of him in the hugging scene were probably cut from other episodes and digitally inserted.
Also have to remember it wasn't shot as a series finale. The show was cancelled after they already filmed it, they had no idea it was going to be last. The only new stuff they shot after being cancelled was the epilogue.
She probably took a shuttle, or another ship followed them.
Owo was on the ship when Rayner was there.
Also for those who don't follow interviews. Wilson Cruz could not make it to the epilogue shoot, so those shots of him in the hugging scene were probably cut from other episodes and digitally inserted.
The implication in Season 3 was that the Temporal Wars were over for a century and everyone involved with them, if still alive, had been disbanded and out of the picture, etc. That's why nobody knew anything at all about Discovery's arrival or were expecting it.
Daniels still being alive makes it implausible that a super temporal agent like him who's aware of all sorts of major time travel incidents would not be expecting Discovery's arrival in the 32nd century. Why didn't he tip off Vance etc. to give them a welcome? I doubt even 23rd century classifications of spore drive etc. would be hidden from Daniels who has tech to detect when time travel occurs.
For that matter, what's the point of saying that all time travel tech is destroyed if Daniels is still alive and presumably has that knowledge? He was literally able to build a temporal holographic communicator out of Archer's 22nd century communicator! And he said building such things was commonplace in schools when he was a kid etc.
All time travel tech is destroyed? All a villain has to do is give Kovich a nonconsensual mind meld or whatever, then make a new time travel communicator with any tricom badge hanging around!
Daniels still being alive makes it implausible that a super temporal agent like him who's aware of all sorts of major time travel incidents would not be expecting Discovery's arrival in the 32nd century. Why didn't he tip off Vance etc. to give them a welcome? I doubt even 23rd century classifications of spore drive etc. would be hidden from Daniels who has tech to detect when time travel occurs.
For that matter, what's the point of saying that all time travel tech is destroyed if Daniels is still alive and presumably has that knowledge? He was literally able to build a temporal holographic communicator out of Archer's 22nd century communicator! And he said building such things was commonplace in schools when he was a kid etc.
All time travel tech is destroyed? All a villain has to do is give Kovich a nonconsensual mind meld or whatever, then make a new time travel communicator with any tricom badge hanging around!
Why did you watch it if you hate it?
This solidifies my suspicious that Calypso was just a neat idea they had for a Short Trek but didn't really have any ideas at the time of how it was going to fit into the show proper, or any ideas they did have were scrapped. It's been this thing looming over their heads for a few seasons now that they had to go out of their way to rectify. It forces awkward changes like the ship needing to look like the 23rd century version.
IMHO they should have just re-rendered the external Discovery shots from Calypso to have the detached nacelles. Presumably they're all still on a drive somewhere.
Imagine if Turnabout Intruder ended with Admiral Kirk happily married to Janice Rand, with a kid, sending the Enterprise off on some bizarre mission where it needs to wait in space for 1,000 years. We'd start running into problems as soon as Star Trek 2 (or even TMP).
TMP: We could refit the Enterprise but at some point it has to revert back to its look in the original show's "distant future" epilogue.
WoK writers: Well, I suppose we COULD bring in Carol and David Marcus, but wouldn't that confuse audience members who are expecting Kirk's wife Rand and son from Turnabout Intruder?
SFS writers: We can't blow up the Enterprise! It needs to survive for the hamfisted Turnabout Intruder epilogue.
TVH writers: We can't demote Kirk back to Captain because he's an Admiral in the TOS epilogue.
TFF writers: Kirk should really be married to Rand by now and that kid who showed up in the TOS epilogue has to have already been born. In fact he should've been born during or between one of the previous movies.
And so on. I concede that Calypso kind of took things out of their hands but the additional stuff with Book and their son etc. seems more like limiting future storytelling opportunities. Even if Sonequa is saying "I'm not ever coming back" there's a history of past Trek actors (Nimoy, Stewart, Mulgrew) saying they're never coming back and then coming back years later.
TMP: We could refit the Enterprise but at some point it has to revert back to its look in the original show's "distant future" epilogue.
WoK writers: Well, I suppose we COULD bring in Carol and David Marcus, but wouldn't that confuse audience members who are expecting Kirk's wife Rand and son from Turnabout Intruder?
SFS writers: We can't blow up the Enterprise! It needs to survive for the hamfisted Turnabout Intruder epilogue.
TVH writers: We can't demote Kirk back to Captain because he's an Admiral in the TOS epilogue.
TFF writers: Kirk should really be married to Rand by now and that kid who showed up in the TOS epilogue has to have already been born. In fact he should've been born during or between one of the previous movies.
And so on. I concede that Calypso kind of took things out of their hands but the additional stuff with Book and their son etc. seems more like limiting future storytelling opportunities. Even if Sonequa is saying "I'm not ever coming back" there's a history of past Trek actors (Nimoy, Stewart, Mulgrew) saying they're never coming back and then coming back years later.
Now, I know Kovich saying "Agent Daniels, USS Enterprise" is meant to imply Archer's Enterprise, and it's a mistake by the writers. However, it would be more accurate for him to say Crewman Daniels rather than Agent in that case. There's nothing to say that he wasn't stationed on the Timeship Enterprise-Y in his time period.
And maybe he's just a fan of baseball, and it's not Siskos! A-and of 24th century vision aid technology, and it's not Geordi's...
And maybe he's just a fan of baseball, and it's not Siskos! A-and of 24th century vision aid technology, and it's not Geordi's...
I thought it was a pretty excellent finale.
The problem was I’d kind of guessed all along that the season would end with Burnham deciding that the progenitor tech was too powerful for anyone to possess. I knew we’d essentially end up with a LOTR, “throw the ring into the volcano Mr Frodooooohhh!”
I found it beautifully executed, however, and strangely poignant. The mystical, otherworldly landscape, the graceful performances of Sonequa M-G and the actress playing the Progenitor and the metaphysic undertones really hit the mark for me. At a personal level, some of the dialogue in this episode…let’s just say, I needed to hear it. There was some genuine catharsis.
This was also one of the most visually stunning, utterly beautiful pieces of Trek ever made. I was mesmerised. The directing was too fraught and hyperactive in the Discovery battle scenes but not enough to spoil my enjoyment too much (whoever came up with the bridge flamethrower idea deserves a good, hard slap though). The beauty and execution of the Progenitor sphere though was giving me visionary “2001” vibes.
That scene on the beach would actually have made a lovely ending in itself but I’m glad we got the flash forward. It was schmaltzy for sure, but I found it touching, heartfelt and earned. I honestly never expected they’d make such effort to tie it in with “Calypso”, either. I’m watching that later, what a fantastic addendum that makes to the series. The moment I saw “Calypso” I found it one of the most beautiful and elegant pieces of sci-fi I’d ever seen.
I’ll miss the show. I’ve always been fond of it. Maybe because I’ve always tended to champion the underdog (unless I found it genuinely warranted underdog status). As with other iterations of Trek, I strongly suspect in 15-20 years time the hate will have waned and the fandom will reevaluate Discovery and come to appreciate its merits, of which there were many. Not least the fact it really did try to do something different and bold with the franchise. No, it didn’t always succeed and it never quite lived up to its potential, but I enjoyed the journey.
Farewell.
The problem was I’d kind of guessed all along that the season would end with Burnham deciding that the progenitor tech was too powerful for anyone to possess. I knew we’d essentially end up with a LOTR, “throw the ring into the volcano Mr Frodooooohhh!”
I found it beautifully executed, however, and strangely poignant. The mystical, otherworldly landscape, the graceful performances of Sonequa M-G and the actress playing the Progenitor and the metaphysic undertones really hit the mark for me. At a personal level, some of the dialogue in this episode…let’s just say, I needed to hear it. There was some genuine catharsis.
This was also one of the most visually stunning, utterly beautiful pieces of Trek ever made. I was mesmerised. The directing was too fraught and hyperactive in the Discovery battle scenes but not enough to spoil my enjoyment too much (whoever came up with the bridge flamethrower idea deserves a good, hard slap though). The beauty and execution of the Progenitor sphere though was giving me visionary “2001” vibes.
That scene on the beach would actually have made a lovely ending in itself but I’m glad we got the flash forward. It was schmaltzy for sure, but I found it touching, heartfelt and earned. I honestly never expected they’d make such effort to tie it in with “Calypso”, either. I’m watching that later, what a fantastic addendum that makes to the series. The moment I saw “Calypso” I found it one of the most beautiful and elegant pieces of sci-fi I’d ever seen.
I’ll miss the show. I’ve always been fond of it. Maybe because I’ve always tended to champion the underdog (unless I found it genuinely warranted underdog status). As with other iterations of Trek, I strongly suspect in 15-20 years time the hate will have waned and the fandom will reevaluate Discovery and come to appreciate its merits, of which there were many. Not least the fact it really did try to do something different and bold with the franchise. No, it didn’t always succeed and it never quite lived up to its potential, but I enjoyed the journey.
Farewell.
Imagine if Turnabout Intruder ended with Admiral Kirk happily married to Janice Rand, with a kid, sending the Enterprise off on some bizarre mission where it needs to wait in space for 1,000 years. We'd start running into problems as soon as Star Trek 2 (or even TMP).
TMP: We could refit the Enterprise but at some point it has to revert back to its look in the original show's "distant future" epilogue.
WoK writers: Well, I suppose we COULD bring in Carol and David Marcus, but wouldn't that confuse audience members who are expecting Kirk's wife Rand and son from Turnabout Intruder?
SFS writers: We can't blow up the Enterprise! It needs to survive for the hamfisted Turnabout Intruder epilogue.
TVH writers: We can't demote Kirk back to Captain because he's an Admiral in the TOS epilogue.
TFF writers: Kirk should really be married to Rand by now and that kid who showed up in the TOS epilogue has to have already been born. In fact he should've been born during or between one of the previous movies.
And so on. I concede that Calypso kind of took things out of their hands but the additional stuff with Book and their son etc. seems more like limiting future storytelling opportunities. Even if Sonequa is saying "I'm not ever coming back" there's a history of past Trek actors (Nimoy, Stewart, Mulgrew) saying they're never coming back and then coming back years later.
Given about 30 years happen between the end of the episode proper and the series coda, there's plenty of space for a Discovery TV movie or something if there's a good script/if the cast is willing.
Sure, we'll know Disco isn't going to be destroyed, but we always knew that.
It's probably Geordi's visor since we've never seen any indication of anyone else using it, plus after Geordi got his bionic eyes he probably didn't even know his visor was missing when Daniels stole it.
Maybe they should've just made Kovich his first name and his full name as Kovich Daniels. Kovich as a code name kind of comes out of nowhere.
I think it's just a regular baseball. Kovich said he was a fan of ancient stuff (like the 21st century writing pad) and we Trek fans just assumed it was Sisko's baseball.
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