Spoilers Star Trek: Discovery 1x06 - "Lethe"

3/10

Worst episode yet. SMG was extra bad. She's not a good actress. The writing on this show is very amateur.

The big dramatic moments fall flat. This show seems more interested in trying to look cool than anything else.

 

Lorca is a baaad maan. Decent episode 6/10
It's not your grand daddy's Star Trek, but it kinda grows on you..

 

EDITED: short review after one viewing. Watched on my laptop on CBSAA. Excellent viewing experience and no glitches save for one during the taking of Cornwell. I'll watch through the app later.

I'm glad I downgraded my rating for last week's ep to 8, because this is more 8.5-9 material. Major character development for Lorca. He IS what we thought he was -- a bastard and I'm loving it. He also has a major case of PTSD and a persecution complex. Cornwell was a redshirt from the moment she found him out and promised him he'd have to step down upon her "return". My take is that he's going to be pulled from the ship anyway and we will get a [temporary?] captain (either Burnham or Saru).

The Sarek-Burnham story is a clever little treatise on how much of an utter failure Sarek was as a father. It's a neat little scenario that reshuffles the Journey to Babel (TOS) and Sarek (TNG) eps into bows and ties them to the Burnham backstory. I will admit that my previous trepidation about her Vulcan background is a tad bit lessened. Amanda tells Burnham that she shouldn't forget she's human too. Interesting tie-in to the title and all the other "forgetful" arcs in the story.

I found the little convo between Lorca and Tyler in the shuttle interesting. "Bring her back in one piece, or don't come back at all" and the look Tyler gave Burnham afterward.

I think this show is taking off on major legs right now. All the characters are showing greater depth and nuance, and while plotting is still suspect, there is a certain dark fluidity achieved that TNG only had in Season 3 on. This was pretty much a bottle show even w/o being one.

Some quick thoughts:

The woman who played Amanda looks a LOT like Jane Wyatt when she smiles. Cool casting.

James Frain as Sarek is still a problem. I know he's got big shoes to fill, but I still can't think of this Sarek as the Sarek of Journey to Babel (less than a decadeaway, from what I know). I just can't see him as Sarek, and I've been trying.

So Stamets is giving us inadvertent glimpses of "Mirror Stamets"?

The Enterprise and Spock mentions made me smile.

So the Lorca-Landry "scenario" were wrong? ("I'm not used to having someone in my bed") LOL.

I can easily see someone messing with the food replicator's audio output sofware.

How and why does Lorca trust Voq/Ash? Is he THAT naive or is he just handing Voq/Ash rope to hang himself with?

He kind of did. He abandoned them emotionally. Granted, we don't know if that's de rigueur for Vulcan fathers

 

If the Burnan was taken while the crew was asleep, then sleeping with a gun is fine.

Context is for Kings vs. Rules are for Admirals.

Lorca seems insistent that people on the front line have to do whatever is necessary.

 

Being a Vulcan that's normal.

 

I think the problem is she's been told to be Spock and that's asking her to step into the role of one of Star Trek's most iconic characters.

Underacting to act.

Nimoy could pull it off but he also had Shatner and Kelly to play off.

 

TAS showed that holodecks already exist on the Enterprise, so there's no need to complain there.

And just because something was teased last week doesn't mean it has to be in this week. Game of Thrones will references something YEARS later.

 

Poor Sisko. First he didn't get made Captain until a couple years in. Then, when he got made Captain, he had to do an Admirals job. He finally wins the war and has to give up his life to become an incorporeal being. Now his show is being ignored with all the talk about how this is the first time we see the Federation at war and the first time we deep dive into Klingon culture. To top it off, Lorca keeps using his badass Roman quotation catchphrase!

C'mon Lorca, crib some stuff from other Starfleet captains. Sisko isn't the only one, ya know. I want to see you saying "engage" to the coffee machine while wearing a ripped shirt and holding a beagle.

 

Ok, so this almost has to end with a second Burnham mutiny, right? We saw her actions on the Shenzou, which were clearly unjustified and wrong. So that we can see her placed in a situation where it is utterly necessary and correct. And where she will no doubt hesitate because of her failures the first time out.

Lorca is fascinating. He is a bad man. Like future war criminal bad. I really expect him to fully tilt and go all Falling Down at any moment. Discovery in his hands is such a terrible idea.

Of course, maybe there is some context or swerve coming down the road that I just don't see yet.

On the Tyler is Voq theory, how does he know so much about interacting with humans? It seems unlikely to me that he could become such an accomplished deceiver in such a short span of time. Could totally happen, but it feels like there would need to be some missing information to make it work. Though I could totally believe him as a Klingon plant. They're waving that flag really hard. (I suspect Lorca sees right through him, too. Which should be fun if they actually go that route.)

 

Same for me.

 

Hmmm... Based on the comments here, sounds like I made the right choice. I'm still glad I stopped watching after episode 2. I look forward to reading some TNG novels and watching old DS9 episodes. I do miss having new Star Trek to watch though.

 

Sure he's cool, the guy is on mushrooms.

 

Spock knocked up Saviik, and never heard hide nor hair about that kid?

There was a Flash back episode where Tuvok was in Love and had to relearn logic, because he was really into an Andorian girl... The script says that it's a Vulcan master giving him a talking to.

Tyler may not know that he is Voq, if they programmed a copy of the real Tyler's mind into Voq's brain with the mindsifter.

 

The All Access algorithm knows you don't like the show anyway so it is saving the bandwidth for someone who does!

 

Thanks for the update.

 

If this is a mirror hippy Stamets from a mirror hippy universe, them maybe he's too chill to notice that he is on the wrong ship in the wrong universe.

 

Not canon

 

I was thinking he's from a universe without the war.

 

Spock used his cannon 5 or 6 times.