Spoilers Star Trek: Discovery 5x10 - "Life, Itself"

[Kzinti]

Well, I, for one, am going to miss Discovery. Sure, it wasn’t the best show, nor the best Trek, but it will always hold a special place for me as the Trek that reignited my passion for the franchise. With that said, I really wish they would have been granted one last season. alas it wasn’t meant to be. Unfortunately, because of that, the epilogue was rather underwhelming for me, I really wish they wouldn’t have tied in calypso. Poor Zora stuck for a thousand years alone for a reason we’ll never truly know.

 

[Evil Robert]

Late to the party, but here I go.

I don't hate it. In fact I overall enjoyed it. But u just failed to connect to it like I did with some other series finales.

Solid ending and I'm keen to continue some storyline in the 32nd Century (though I would prefer to go back to 24th (well I guess it'll be 25th now! Lol)

Good to see Owosekun/Deitmer back for epilogue. Even if it was a glorified cameo.

The thing is for me, I failed to feel something with the ending. But I cannot blame the writers either. They didn't conceive it as a series finales. Just the season.

I'll blame the Paramount Powers that Be

 

[Evil Robert]

Anybody get shades of Iain M. Banks/Culture Series, of the Federation sending Zora off to Deeep Space to... wait, and wait until a potential day/hour of peril

(Ala the Minds at a certain age going off to a lonely corner of the universe to wait and observe for a day they maybe desperately needed again - in "Surface Detail")

 

[TimeIsAPredator]

A branch of the timeline that our crew avoided. Like the Kelvinverse, that future still exists out there. And the one where Spock died during his kahs-wan rehearsal and he was replaced by Thelin.

Ya but how could they use it ?

 

[Rhodan]

I am really undecided what to think about this episode and about the show as a whole. Was it worthwhile journey for Michael Burnham? Definitely. Did it ignite powerful new era of Star Trek franchise. Yes. But did it ever became really good show? I still don´t know. This year I felt kinda rage towards space opera after I read (for me, anyway) disappointing Darkness Falling by Ian Douglas and this season wasn´t IMHO much different.

Spectacle/action parts were great as usual. As I felt about Breen in the past, Tahal might be important villain in the future, perhaps as a leader of unified Imperium.

The stuff in Progenitors part reminded me seriously a lot of the previous season with meeting 10-C. Yes, its well-written, yes, its grand sci-fi concept but you can see the plot progression from miles away. All the protagonists manage is to prevent it from falling into bad hands.

BTW, don´t you feel that L´ak not being resurrected felt a lot like Tarka never (as far as we know) reaching Kayalise and Oros? The show seems to like to teach its villains to accept reality.

Liked a lot from the original ending, from the Kovich revalation to the wedding.

Admiral Burnham ending was definitely cheesy but thankfully it wasn´t Deathly Hallows epilogue, not by a longshot...
Pre-Calypso, however, felt like a travesty. That Short Trek was exactly counting on the fact that it consisted on elements that were not supposed to make sense to the viewer and writers obviously weren´t trying to make a real story around it.

7

 

[NCC-73515]

They made a big deal about igniting the plasma, but that's been done dozens of times before. "I'm a doctor, not a physicist" made the whole room laugh and applaud. Someone mentioned Stamets wasn't shown jumping the ship, but there is a brief moment with him in the chamber. Burnham said they're "safeguarding" the tech, not destroying it, but then mentions the preprogenitors could simply make a new one if they still exist. The music at the wedding had part of the Inner Light theme in it. And Calypso might only be 100 years away if Zora told Craft her story keeping the secret origin of the ship intact (it being from the 2250s), which the re-prefit suggests is critical.

I was in the middle here

 

[Therin of Andor]

Just noticed that in the Epilogue scenes, SMG is doing a tiny bit of channelling of Gabrielle Burnham. Especially the scene where Leto arrives at the cabin. Nicely done.

Not just a tiny bit. I thought it was Mom, at first! Excellent and subtle work.

Ya but how could they use it ?

Perhaps their attempt to use it without gathering all the clues first was how the Alternate Timeline Breen accidentally destroyed the Federation? Similar to Moll trying to solve the last clue and getting it incorrect.

That was back when it was supposed to be an anthology.

Not that I recall. The way the media release was worded, I (mistakenly) thought the show was going to be about Pike's Number One, and why she was never heard from again after "The Menagerie".

The anthology series would not have tracked one character.

 

[ananta]

No, it was just a nod.

Calypso was going to be addressed in Season 6 if the show hadn't been cancelled:
https://variety.com/2024/tv/news/st...plained-epilogue-season-6-calypso-1236020745/

Ahhh this is interesting; they had a plan. I’m more intrigued than ever as to how this would have panned out. We’ll probably never know. It would be cool though if they got to “do” the planned season six in novel or graphic novel form. I’d snap it up in a heartbeat.

 

[Quantum21]

Not in Star Trek. Happens all the time.

V'Ger is that which seeks the creator.

 

[Quantum21]

That's not what happened exactly actually, but there have been times when Star Trek has made this conclusion. Maybe they save this for the top 1% "most chaotic and dangerous".

The Chase had the Progenitors saying: OK you made it this far look how you got here.

This had them saying along with the scientists: this is what's here still, you can choose what you want to do. Is it worth it to you, and I think the one who was found worthy to make the choice felt it's usefulness was at an end. Maybe a few billion years makes things obsolete.

Others may see it differently, but they didn't make it.

The portal is not destroyed, it's in limbo.

I could see a scenerio where it becomes useful: Another Burn like event...but worse, killing whole planets. A mission is sent to the blackhole to retrieve the portal.

Discovery = NuTNG

I found the finale okay but a little underwhelming. The whole "We must destroy this technology because we can't be trusted with it" felt a little un-Trekky and the whole Daniels reveal felt "Reference for sake of reference" and "Needs elaboration".

We got the cliff notes version. There is more story to tell, what is Daniels protecting us from? Sphere/Zora data having too many potential paths to the past, rogue time travelers? The USS Discovery itself? Did a loop need to be closed after it became a hole in history? They could have gone in several directions.

Ahhh this is interesting; they had a plan. I’m more intrigued than ever as to how this would have panned out. We’ll probably never know. It would be cool though if they got to “do” the planned season six in novel or graphic novel form. I’d snap it up in a heartbeat.

Yes, it might be better left vague. I do like answers but some mystery is great for fiction.

Regarding sending Zora off to spend a millennia on her own, which certainly seems insanely cruel. I actually like the vagueness around the way it was set up; it leaves it wide open to head canon and future story possibilities.

My head canon already has it that Kovich/Daniels has been to some point in time beyond the meeting of Craft and Zora and somehow their meeting is a crucial intersection in the timeline—a something-something paradox, destined to be set up in advance. Somehow their highly unique relationship sets up some bold and exciting new storyline that’ll unfold in the 42nd century if anyone’s ever brave enough to write it.

It’ll never happen. But it would be cool if someday it did.

 

[Quantum21]

Feel bad for Zora, she's a sentient being just being.. left alone for centuries. Wish she had more screen time, but she has what? 2 sentience the entire season?

Well, that's true but sentient organic beings have made sacrifices for the greater good as well. Discovery's crew a case in point: heading 800 years ahead leaving all attachments behind. Maybe Zora rationalized she could do no less. She may also know an Endgame we don't.

Someone put this finale above "All Good Things..." and "WHAT YOU LEAVE BEHIND"? (I must have missed that post.)

I guess if they feel that... good for them. But I can't possibly, in any universe, see how that can be the case.

The nostalgia bias is common, I don't have it.

Yes, it's better and comfortably so.

 

[Fantasy Lover]

-The battle was anticlimactic
- I understand that they had reschoots to fit in Calypso, but the USS Discovery flew back in time, but that must have been after Craft was gone. Sooo, I hope in the new season of SNW that we know that Kovovich finally said to Zora that she was finally able to move and Zora tells Spock "your sister decided to stay in the future along with everyone else on board."
- So Molly had a kid, that somehow didn't die when Molly was shocked, meaning she was pregnant at the time
- And Kovovich is Daniels because reasons

 

[firehawk12]

-The battle was anticlimactic
- I understand that they had reschoots to fit in Calypso, but the USS Discovery flew back in time, but that must have been after Craft was gone. Sooo, I hope in the new season of SNW that we know that Kovovich finally said to Zora that she was finally able to move and Zora tells Spock "your sister decided to stay in the future along with everyone else on board."
- So Molly had a kid, that somehow didn't die when Molly was shocked, meaning she was pregnant at the time
- And Kovovich is Daniels because reasons

Just to note, Molly and Moll are two different beings. Molly is the space worm from S3 - https://www.artstation.com/artwork/lxYLY5

It's just unfortunate that they have similar sounding names.

 

[Fantasy Lover]

Ah, I thought that it was just a nickname he gave to Moll. My bad

 

[1001001]

I enjoyed that, and thought it was a fine ending to the series.

+ 1 for Daniels.

- 1 for the stupid fires on the bridge.

9

 

[TimeIsAPredator]

Ahhh this is interesting; they had a plan. I’m more intrigued than ever as to how this would have panned out. We’ll probably never know. It would be cool though if they got to “do” the planned season six in novel or graphic novel form. I’d snap it up in a heartbeat.

I don't buy it. Details are very vague other than Calypso somehow being involved.

 

[ananta]

I don't buy it. Details are very vague other than Calypso somehow being involved.

I don’t see any reason for her to lie about it. The writers maybe weren’t at the stage where the details had been fleshed out, but they knew the gist of what they were going for.

 

[Fateor]

Perhaps their attempt to use it without gathering all the clues first was how the Alternate Timeline Breen accidentally destroyed the Federation? Similar to Moll trying to solve the last clue and getting it incorrect.

The Progenitor lying to Michael seems more likely given they were very clear the Breen had used the technology as a purposful weapon.

 

[MakeshiftPython]

I don’t see any reason for her to lie about it. The writers maybe weren’t at the stage where the details had been fleshed out, but they knew the gist of what they were going for.

Yup. They had ideas of using the Progenitors in S4 but decided hold off on that until S5 because they thought that deserved a whole season worth of story. I can buy that there was an idea of tying to Calypso, but because the show hadn’t been renewed it never got fleshed out properly, so all we get is an epilogue with a ton of details left vague for our imaginations to fill.

 

[thribs]

They made a big deal about igniting the plasma, but that's been done dozens of times before. "I'm a doctor, not a physicist" made the whole room laugh and applaud. Someone mentioned Stamets wasn't shown jumping the ship, but there is a brief moment with him in the chamber. Burnham said they're "safeguarding" the tech, not destroying it, but then mentions the preprogenitors could simply make a new one if they still exist. The music at the wedding had part of the Inner Light theme in it. And Calypso might only be 100 years away if Zora told Craft her story keeping the secret origin of the ship intact (it being from the 2250s), which the re-prefit suggests is critical.

I was in the middle here

Was that the cruise? I've done 2019 and 2023 of those. The TOS script reading and dubbed sessions are the best parts.