Fan reaction to him makes no sense. It's pure bullshit.
Spoilers Star Trek: Starfleet Academy 1x06 – “Come, Let’s Away”
- Thread starter Commander Richard
- Start date
I want there to be a group of Klingons who are more obsessed with Oklahoma and Sound of Music instead of Shakespeare.
"Maria is a true Klingon warrior, able to resist fascism with the power of her voice. The hills ARE alive with the sound of murder!"
Now I want to see young Klingons singing "I am 16, going on 17".
Not sure why anyone cares about that dipshit from Chicago.
He was a complete ass to Seven, deadnaming her and berating her. Him recommending her for promotion makes absolutely no sense based on everything we see of him during the season.
I think the reason people came to like him is the character clearly KNEW he was an asshole and struggled with it.
Mind you, I thought he made the recommendation right before he died.
Hot damn, that was solid tension throughout. The Furies were legitimately creepy. Braka was fucking excellent here - no longer chewing the scenery, but establishing himself as someone legitimately dangerous and deadly. This episode was a perfect showcase for why Paul Giamatti got cast in Academy. The character drama was once again deftly handled. Even though we've got another episode coming next week, it feels like this is gonna be the longest fucking week to wait for episode seven.
The moment we see Nahla order the killshot on Braka this or next season, it's gonna be so goddamn emotionally satisfying.
A TEN, a very palpable ten!
The moment we see Nahla order the killshot on Braka this or next season, it's gonna be so goddamn emotionally satisfying.
A TEN, a very palpable ten!
He did. Captain Tuvok's recording of Shaw was made not long before Picard and the others defeated the Borg Queen and the rogue Founders.
I know you already understand you made a blunder now. But back to the reusing of sets. Reusing sets from Star Trek has been a thing forever. It should be the least of our concerns. I remember when they used Ten Forward in Star Trek the Undiscovered country for the Presidents office. They reused the TNG Enterprise Hallways (which many were originally the motion picture but refurbished) for the Enterprise A Hallways in Star Trek the Final Frontier. Which thankfully they didn't use for the Undiscovered Country.
Reusing and redressing sets is fine. I.was worried they were going to show another 23rd century ship and show the snw enterprise bridge as its bridge. But the ship they encounter is only 100 years old. I'm glad they did that. The redressed bridge is ok. It looks like they just hung black plastic everywhere. Lol. But as long its mot another 23rd century kurtzman bramd ship im fine with it.
I thought that was quite good.
I like the whole idea of exploring Betazoid culture more, especially how they dealt with the burn. Tamira could be a really interesting character.
That last speech by Nus Braka was awesome.
Giamatti is chewing the scenery with the best of Star Trek villains.
9
I like the whole idea of exploring Betazoid culture more, especially how they dealt with the burn. Tamira could be a really interesting character.
That last speech by Nus Braka was awesome.
Giamatti is chewing the scenery with the best of Star Trek villains.
9
I liked Amanda Plummer in PIC Season 3. I love Giamatti in this.
That's not likely to happen.
Ake ordering Brake's death would be Braka winning. It would be justifying his whole way of looking at the world.
No, if Braka dies it will be because he refuses to let Starfleet save him.
Amazing what happens when the writing lives up to the level of the actor, innit?
I am not talking about reused and redressed sets specifically. I was worried they were going to use a 23rd century ship again like in the STD episode. The redressing is fine and it was a 31st century ship. So im ok with it.
But SNW 23rd century bridges look a lot like 32nd century bridges.
I was worried with how this one started... yet another teen drama between Caleb and Tarima. It's just one aspect of this series that turns me off. I get that this is a part of the series itself, but it just doesn't work for me. Same with the music... just not my style AT ALL. (That has been an issue with this show for me since the pilot, and it has been present in every episode.) The scene went on for quite a while, a bit longer than was needed to get the message and point across to the audience.
I will credit the scene for two things. First, it helped establish within the episode how Tarima would be able to do what she did when she connected to Caleb later. Second, I like how Caleb called her out on how invasive telepathy is. This is something that the franchise, as a whole, completely glosses over. Telepaths entering someone else's mind IS an invasion, not just of privacy but of the one single domain that truly belongs to a person: their mind. (Even Q calls out how invasive this is: in "Deja Q", not only does Troi empathically sense what Q is feeling on the bridge when he first appeared, but she ANNOUNCED IT to the entire bridge. "How rude", indeed. Or in "The Wounded", when the Cardassians are beamed aboard, she gives a look at O'Brien... a look that makes him look away from her. Things like that are an invasion of privacy, because O'Brien never gave her permission to sense his emotions.) This is something that BABYLON 5 gets right, or at least addresses more realistically, when they have organizations like the Psi Corps. They have measures that help protect the non-telepaths from that kind of invasiveness, despite Psi Corps having its own flaws. (Which brought some good stories because of it.)
I like how SFA is remembering that Academy training also consisted of field duty. Nog was assigned field duty to DS9 during his second year as a cadet, and we learn Sisko did exactly that when he was a cadet. And it makes sense. I like how it's done early enough in their training to see if they have what it takes to work in the field as an officer, but not so late in training that it wastes resources by keeping those that don't really belong in there longer than needed. Second year makes sense: cadets learn the basics of operations and protocols in their first year, and they try them for real during their second. Then they can figure out what field they want to focus more on in those last two years... science, command, engineering, medical, etc. Obviously, we are seeing a compressed timeframe of training here, since they are clearly not second year cadets yet. Either this is a new thing they are trying or this was an adjustment years before due to the Burn (or perhaps something else decades or even centuries before) to get cadets trained as Starfleet officers more quickly.
One thing about the trap: how did it get sprung so quickly? In the pilot, Caleb's signal brought Braka. Here, they just appeared out of nowhere. Two possibilities come to mind. First possibility, I am thinking this could be the result of years of planning ahead since the War College has been here for 5 years. If they do this at around the same time each year, that creates a pattern an enemy can follow. Second possibility, they have an informant aboard the Athena. This seems like a loose end that we don't get to see, but I can forgive it because we might get something later this season to explain this. Plus, the episode moved pretty well... well enough for me to not dwell on this until the episode ended.
The fields surrounding the away team members reminded me of the force field belts from FARSCAPE season 4. Whether that was intentional or not, I liked that anyway. Frankly, all away teams SOULD be equipped with these things, no matter where they are going. These also put me in mind of the life support belts from TAS.
The corridor that the team entered gave me EVENT HORIZON vibes from it.
The Furies: as I said earlier in the thread, they reminded me of the Drakh ambassador from BABYLON 5's "Lines of Communication". That phase shifting with their face and body immediately made me think that. In a good way... I always liked that look. It was eerie, creepy, and offputting enough to give a sense of foreboding just looking at them. I do like how they simply enjoy eating their enemies. The horror fan in me appreciates this aspect of them and the episode. Seeing the end result of Lt. Cmdr. Tomov was good to see, for several reasons. First, it establishes just how ruthless the Furies are. Second, it makes them unlike most other races we have encountered.
But the most important reason was this: it helped bring back a sense of professionalism with the adult officers. I say this because when that happened, the cadet who ate her combadge was losing it. Ake, Thok, and Vance immediately saw this, and Thok had her simply leave the bridge and go to Sickbay. No shrink session like we saw so often on DISCO; no handholding. Simply remove the disruptive element off the bridge so the rest of the officers can get back to work on the task at hand. Why couldn't DISCO have done this on the countless occasions that bridge crew were breaking down or having emotional issues in the middle of a crisis?! I am SO GLAD they did this here! I was finally able to take these 32nd century Starfleet officers seriously as professionals! That alone makes SFA better than DISCO.
And also, some more sense of decorum and professionalism... Ake wore shoes! Clearly, the producers see this is a trait of hers for the camera shot to be focused on her shoes walking down the corridor as long as they did.
I loved the scenes with Braka and Ake. Both Hunter and Giamatti were great. Braka makes a great point about the Federation: quite often, they talk AT others and look down at them for not being how the Federation wants them to be. DS9 illustrated this many times with Quark, Garak, and others. The Federation IS arrogant and high and mighty on their moral high horse. But the interesting thing about this era and the 24th century is that during the 24th century, the Federation had 150 worlds to back up that arrogance. (And probably got even more so as they got more worlds to sign up, with over 300 before the Burn.) Now? With Betazed and their worlds coming back in, they are maybe 60, 70 worlds strong... much weaker than they used to be. So the arrogance is going to come back to haunt them. I have a feeling that Braka represents one of these groups... maybe an alliance of anti-Federation worlds who were just fed up with the Federation. If this is true, there's a lot of story potential here.
I have liked Genesis from the start, and she has been shining in every episode she is in. I can't wait for her episode to arrive, whenever that will be. Professional, smart, thorough, great instincts... she BELONGS in Starfleet.
Even Reymi has improved since the pilot. I like how he has gained a bit of humility and sense of teamwork, illustrated here with him crediting Genesis with the lion's share of the work.
I love how we the force field disarmed, literally, one of the Furies. Nice bonus trick!
Love that the NX-01 got a great closeup shot! ENT is getting more love in recent years, and that makes me happy.
Interesting bit about Ake's son, how she sacrificed him to save others. This is similar to how Opaka sacrificed her son and the resistance cell he was part of to save 1,000 Bajorans.
Also interesting bit about Tarima: her powers caused her father to be deaf. This adds another layer to why she joined the War College instead of Starfleet: of the two organizations, the War College is likely to be the one to be more disciplined and teach self-control. And she wants that.
Having Vance in an episode is always a plus. One of the few things about DISCO I really liked.
I was worried that Sam would be somewhat invincible, given her photonic abilities. Glad to see she CAN be damaged... this opens up more story possibilites.
B'Avi sacrificing himself to save Caleb... clearly that will be a catalyst for him to truly take the Starfleet way to heart, and not just be at the Academy simply because it's better than prison. (Same with Tomov, as he sacrificed himself to give them all time.) Particularly since Caleb made very clear he has anti-Federation feelings, mentioned several times at the beginning of the episode.
I love how Braka won. It's realistic that the bad guys win sometimes.
Vance was right... not only was the decision to try for Braka his call, but it was his idea to begin with.
Overall, this was the best episode of the series thus far. The pacing was good. The plot worked well enough. Everyone looked better by the end of the episode. The cadets were better. The adults were actually being professional. This felt like the series finally got past the kid phase and got more adult. The series grew up a bit.
I give this an 8.
I will credit the scene for two things. First, it helped establish within the episode how Tarima would be able to do what she did when she connected to Caleb later. Second, I like how Caleb called her out on how invasive telepathy is. This is something that the franchise, as a whole, completely glosses over. Telepaths entering someone else's mind IS an invasion, not just of privacy but of the one single domain that truly belongs to a person: their mind. (Even Q calls out how invasive this is: in "Deja Q", not only does Troi empathically sense what Q is feeling on the bridge when he first appeared, but she ANNOUNCED IT to the entire bridge. "How rude", indeed. Or in "The Wounded", when the Cardassians are beamed aboard, she gives a look at O'Brien... a look that makes him look away from her. Things like that are an invasion of privacy, because O'Brien never gave her permission to sense his emotions.) This is something that BABYLON 5 gets right, or at least addresses more realistically, when they have organizations like the Psi Corps. They have measures that help protect the non-telepaths from that kind of invasiveness, despite Psi Corps having its own flaws. (Which brought some good stories because of it.)
I like how SFA is remembering that Academy training also consisted of field duty. Nog was assigned field duty to DS9 during his second year as a cadet, and we learn Sisko did exactly that when he was a cadet. And it makes sense. I like how it's done early enough in their training to see if they have what it takes to work in the field as an officer, but not so late in training that it wastes resources by keeping those that don't really belong in there longer than needed. Second year makes sense: cadets learn the basics of operations and protocols in their first year, and they try them for real during their second. Then they can figure out what field they want to focus more on in those last two years... science, command, engineering, medical, etc. Obviously, we are seeing a compressed timeframe of training here, since they are clearly not second year cadets yet. Either this is a new thing they are trying or this was an adjustment years before due to the Burn (or perhaps something else decades or even centuries before) to get cadets trained as Starfleet officers more quickly.
One thing about the trap: how did it get sprung so quickly? In the pilot, Caleb's signal brought Braka. Here, they just appeared out of nowhere. Two possibilities come to mind. First possibility, I am thinking this could be the result of years of planning ahead since the War College has been here for 5 years. If they do this at around the same time each year, that creates a pattern an enemy can follow. Second possibility, they have an informant aboard the Athena. This seems like a loose end that we don't get to see, but I can forgive it because we might get something later this season to explain this. Plus, the episode moved pretty well... well enough for me to not dwell on this until the episode ended.
The fields surrounding the away team members reminded me of the force field belts from FARSCAPE season 4. Whether that was intentional or not, I liked that anyway. Frankly, all away teams SOULD be equipped with these things, no matter where they are going. These also put me in mind of the life support belts from TAS.
The corridor that the team entered gave me EVENT HORIZON vibes from it.
The Furies: as I said earlier in the thread, they reminded me of the Drakh ambassador from BABYLON 5's "Lines of Communication". That phase shifting with their face and body immediately made me think that. In a good way... I always liked that look. It was eerie, creepy, and offputting enough to give a sense of foreboding just looking at them. I do like how they simply enjoy eating their enemies. The horror fan in me appreciates this aspect of them and the episode. Seeing the end result of Lt. Cmdr. Tomov was good to see, for several reasons. First, it establishes just how ruthless the Furies are. Second, it makes them unlike most other races we have encountered.
But the most important reason was this: it helped bring back a sense of professionalism with the adult officers. I say this because when that happened, the cadet who ate her combadge was losing it. Ake, Thok, and Vance immediately saw this, and Thok had her simply leave the bridge and go to Sickbay. No shrink session like we saw so often on DISCO; no handholding. Simply remove the disruptive element off the bridge so the rest of the officers can get back to work on the task at hand. Why couldn't DISCO have done this on the countless occasions that bridge crew were breaking down or having emotional issues in the middle of a crisis?! I am SO GLAD they did this here! I was finally able to take these 32nd century Starfleet officers seriously as professionals! That alone makes SFA better than DISCO.
And also, some more sense of decorum and professionalism... Ake wore shoes! Clearly, the producers see this is a trait of hers for the camera shot to be focused on her shoes walking down the corridor as long as they did.
I loved the scenes with Braka and Ake. Both Hunter and Giamatti were great. Braka makes a great point about the Federation: quite often, they talk AT others and look down at them for not being how the Federation wants them to be. DS9 illustrated this many times with Quark, Garak, and others. The Federation IS arrogant and high and mighty on their moral high horse. But the interesting thing about this era and the 24th century is that during the 24th century, the Federation had 150 worlds to back up that arrogance. (And probably got even more so as they got more worlds to sign up, with over 300 before the Burn.) Now? With Betazed and their worlds coming back in, they are maybe 60, 70 worlds strong... much weaker than they used to be. So the arrogance is going to come back to haunt them. I have a feeling that Braka represents one of these groups... maybe an alliance of anti-Federation worlds who were just fed up with the Federation. If this is true, there's a lot of story potential here.
I have liked Genesis from the start, and she has been shining in every episode she is in. I can't wait for her episode to arrive, whenever that will be. Professional, smart, thorough, great instincts... she BELONGS in Starfleet.
Even Reymi has improved since the pilot. I like how he has gained a bit of humility and sense of teamwork, illustrated here with him crediting Genesis with the lion's share of the work.
I love how we the force field disarmed, literally, one of the Furies. Nice bonus trick!
Love that the NX-01 got a great closeup shot! ENT is getting more love in recent years, and that makes me happy.
Interesting bit about Ake's son, how she sacrificed him to save others. This is similar to how Opaka sacrificed her son and the resistance cell he was part of to save 1,000 Bajorans.
Also interesting bit about Tarima: her powers caused her father to be deaf. This adds another layer to why she joined the War College instead of Starfleet: of the two organizations, the War College is likely to be the one to be more disciplined and teach self-control. And she wants that.
Having Vance in an episode is always a plus. One of the few things about DISCO I really liked.
I was worried that Sam would be somewhat invincible, given her photonic abilities. Glad to see she CAN be damaged... this opens up more story possibilites.
B'Avi sacrificing himself to save Caleb... clearly that will be a catalyst for him to truly take the Starfleet way to heart, and not just be at the Academy simply because it's better than prison. (Same with Tomov, as he sacrificed himself to give them all time.) Particularly since Caleb made very clear he has anti-Federation feelings, mentioned several times at the beginning of the episode.
I love how Braka won. It's realistic that the bad guys win sometimes.
Vance was right... not only was the decision to try for Braka his call, but it was his idea to begin with.
Overall, this was the best episode of the series thus far. The pacing was good. The plot worked well enough. Everyone looked better by the end of the episode. The cadets were better. The adults were actually being professional. This felt like the series finally got past the kid phase and got more adult. The series grew up a bit.
I give this an 8.
This was the first episode that I truly enjoyed in the series. They toned down the MCU-esque levels of comedy and it felt like it could have been a DS9/VOY episode.
I cared a lot more about the characters and they were given some great stuff to do. There weren't any cut away plot lines that I was bored by. I literally cared about all of them. We learned a lot of background on Ake too. And we finally got Giamatti back.
There is only one thing I dislike - the death at the end of a character. What an absolute waste. Just as I grew to see him more than a stereotypical bully stand in ... SIGH. I know they had to make this high-stakes but I already felt that with the death of another character mid-episode. I already knew they were in danger. Didn't seem necessary to just waste the character.
Other than that - a solid 8 for sure.
I cared a lot more about the characters and they were given some great stuff to do. There weren't any cut away plot lines that I was bored by. I literally cared about all of them. We learned a lot of background on Ake too. And we finally got Giamatti back.
There is only one thing I dislike - the death at the end of a character. What an absolute waste. Just as I grew to see him more than a stereotypical bully stand in ... SIGH. I know they had to make this high-stakes but I already felt that with the death of another character mid-episode. I already knew they were in danger. Didn't seem necessary to just waste the character.
Other than that - a solid 8 for sure.
It made it seem like they were in the midterms of their first semester in the last episode, but it's not clear how time or classes work in the show honestly. Maybe they mention stardates in the show and I haven't been paying attention.
The flip side is that they did this to a minor character no one cares about. Not that the Discovery crew was all that well known either, but like with Detmer she was as close to being regular cast as she ever got when they gave her the mini arc in season 3.
With Jay-Den, they wrote him as ignoring advice for therapy and he "toughs it out".
Seems like an effective death then.
Especially the Golden Gate.. Weird
Fantastic episode. This series really does seem to improve week to week.
Giamatti (especially) and Hunter were both great. Hunter can say so much with just her expressions. And Giamatti going from scene chewing to absolutely chilling was a joy to watch.
The did go with some stuff I wasn’t expecting until closer to the finale. An Academy/War College team up, Tarima weaponizing her her abilities and an unexpected death, even Brakas final message. That’s all season finale type stuff.
The Fury’s were creepy for sure but not really that scary.
Like last week, 9/10 for me.
In what way, positive or negative? Or both?
Giamatti (especially) and Hunter were both great. Hunter can say so much with just her expressions. And Giamatti going from scene chewing to absolutely chilling was a joy to watch.
The did go with some stuff I wasn’t expecting until closer to the finale. An Academy/War College team up, Tarima weaponizing her her abilities and an unexpected death, even Brakas final message. That’s all season finale type stuff.
The Fury’s were creepy for sure but not really that scary.
Like last week, 9/10 for me.
In what way, positive or negative? Or both?
Both.
Phasers being able to permanently damage a hologram has been a thing since Voyager.
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