I'm really pissed off that I've been left behind with this rewatch and recritique I spent March to August isolating in a house with no Netflix for a reviewing, then 5 weeks in Spain Now I'm back I'm self consumed by my Enterprise rewatch and reviews, so catching on DSC seems a forlorn hope. I find it difficult to watch and note at the same time, it spoils my enjoyment of something I like. Some good views on this thread though, I think there's much more good than bad about DSC and I think that's reflected here.
When I post my thoughts, it's after I watch the episode. I agree with you that taking notes and watching at the same time is crazy. I'm behind on this too. Real Life is evil. I just finished the fourth episode yesterday.
I'm not so good at retaining names, places, events in order, if I wait till I've watched the whole show. I used to do it that way, but as I became more involved in character and story development I found myself almost critiquing every scene, as I said, it became all consuming with Enterprise and the summaries just got longer and longer. The likelihood of catching up on Discovery are unlikely.
I just went in on a second watch of season 1. By and large, I enjoyed it, nitpicks and all. I've certainly developed an affection for the characters, and want to see the writing live up to what I feel they deserve. As first seasons go, I feel they stuck the landing better than most of it's predecessors, from TNG onward. I still have this nagging feeling that the show I really wanted to watch is Captain Georgiou aboard the Shenzhou, with her human born, Vulcan raised new officer, Michael Burnham, coming to terms with her humanity.
"Choose Your Pain" I love the back-and-forth between Lorca and Cornwell after the briefing at the beginning of the episode. More on that in the next episode. Moving on for now. I'm glad they didn't go somewhere they could've gone with the Tartigrade. Using it to run Discovery's spore drive always reminded me too much of "Equinox" (VOY) where Ransom wanted to use those aliens to power Equinox's warp drive. So when Burnham said this is wrong, I was cheering her on. Burnham is trying to make her case, then Culber backs her up, and then Stamets goes along with Burnham and Culber, taking it one step further and giving himself an injection that allows him to be able to navigate the Spore Drive. At the beginning of the episode, Cornwell tells Lorca that she wants more ships with Spore Drives and then the end of the episode shows that they can't power it with Tartigrades and the one thing that's compatible with operating it besides a Tartigrade is a Homo Sapien with genetic manipulation (because half their DNA is the same as fungus from back before the animal kingdom evolved). And, of course, genetic manipulation is banned within the Federation, so that answers why Discovery is the only ship that can have a Spore Drive. Humans have enough mental processing power to guide a Spore Drive and they don't have artificial intelligence powerful enough to do it yet. I'm guessing that in the 32nd Century, that would no longer be a problem. In the third season, they could have an artificial intelligence guide the Spore Drive, if one is installed into Discovery. Maybe Zora? This the first episode where the Stamets/Culber relationship goes into focus. We also get to see Saru regret not having the chance to be Georgiou's First Officer on the Shenzhou. He's furious at Burnham for how her recklessness led to Georgiou being killed and deprived him of getting to learn how to be a Captain. Over the course of the episode, Saru learns that he's a better commander than he worried about. But one thing he needed to learn was to not follow rules so rigidly and learn how to adapt his strategy to new information he found out. When Culber made it clear he wouldn't be able to get the Tartigrade to operate the Spore Drive, he should've begun thinking about what else he could do, without it. I think it's just as well that Stamets didn't tell Saru or Culber what he was planning to do when he hooked himself up to the Spore Drive. Now they're spared of whatever action could've been taken against them, if they knew and would've agreed let Stamets go through with the plan. Harry Mudd is a piece of shit. He pretends to try to stick up for the little guy caught in the middle of Starfleet's wars but all he cares about is himself and what's in it for him. Even though Lorca's really from the Mirror Universe and Tyler unknowingly has Klingon within him, they make a good Starfleet team. After Mudd pulled a fast one on them, stole food from them, and relayed information to the enemy, I love how Lorca and Tyler pulled the rug out from underneath him and escaped while leaving him behind. I still don't have an issue with Tilly saying "That's so fucking cool!" It's something she just blurted out in excitement. It's not even the only swearing in the episode. Stamets backs her up saying, "It is fucking cool!" and Tyler said "shit" earlier. Discovery took a lot of flack for swearing in this episode but, later, Picard would take it and run away with it. The Mirror Stamets appearing after Stamets and Culber brush their teeth is still weird, strange, mysterious, and ominous at the same time. The End.
I've just finished rewatching Saints of Imperfection, and it still mystifies me that anyone could believe, based on actually watching the series, that the narrative trajectories of the first two seasons were in any way affected by the abrupt departures of Bryan Fuller, Gretchen J. Berg, and Aaron Harberts.
I just started rewatching Discovery and watching Context is for Kings. I see this early Lorca and I really hate what they did to the character in the back half of the season. They basically Gul Dukat'ed Lorca just to fit in the mirror universe story. I still contend that early Lorca was not a bad guy (He wasn't a good guy either, but like I said, I saw him more along the lines of Season 1-5 Gul Dukat, or the first half of Khan from Into Darkness). He was the guy you needed to win a war. Landry on the other hand? Total Bitch.
^ We know that Lorca was always going to be from the Mirror Universe and that Jason Isaacs knew that bit of info from Day 1, so your opinion about the character is incorrect.
Wait, at the time this episode aired we didn't know they would be going into the Mirror Universe. Also, we find out Issacs knew after the season aired, or at least that's what I read. How can my opinion be "incorrect" when it's an opinion?
Because we know that Jason Isaacs knew that Lorca was from the Mirror Universe when he filmed Context is for Kings and every other episode in which the character appeared, that knowledge invalidates the notion that the writers' decisions regarding the character were not predetermined in advance. Also, Isaacs first revealed that he knew what was really going on with Lorca in an intervew with IndieWire that was published on the very day that Episode 1x13 of DSC aired, January 28th, 2018, and did so by admitting that he had been lying through his teeth about Lorca in interviews, during interactions with fans, and even in private conversations with members of his own family since September of 2017 and offering an apology for said lies. https://www.indiewire.com/2018/01/s...iew-dead-spoilers-mirror-universe-1201922065/
Haven’t had the compulsion to rewatch it. I still recall why they went to future, even though it made no sense and Control was killed before they went anyway.
For me, that's the most important 'problem' I have with all the new Trek seasons since DSC: Not that I wouldn't like them (or big parts of them), but I don't have the desire to rewatch them. In the case of PIC, it's e. g. because of the poor finale, and so I think, that it's somehow a problem with the 'serial-ishness' of the seasons.
The first time I watched Season 2 in its entirety, I did so without having seen any of the Short Treks that are relevant to its story, and, although I had the chance to incorporate them into this rewatch, I ultimately decided not to do so, but even without the added context that could've been retroactively provided, the episode I'm currently on, The Sound of Thunder, is still just as affecting and powerful as it was the first time I watched it. I love the juxtaposition of the Prime Directive applying to Kaminar despite part of its population being warps capable, the complications for Saru as a character, and the interplay between him, Michael, and his sister Siranna. It's also interesting to watch the episode knowing why the signal led Disco to Kaminar in the first place, which is knowledge I didn't have the first time.
I'm going to strategically work them into my re-watch when I get to them. Not necessarily chronological order, but where I think it makes the most sense to watch them next to a corresponding DSC episode. I'm watching "The Escape Artist" after "Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad", just to keep everything dealing with Harry Mudd as close together as possible. I'm watching "Runaway" after "Saints of Imperfection". The storyline with Tilly seeing Mae is resolved. Culber is back. Everyone knows Spock is out there. They haven't gone to Kaminar yet. So it's the first between-episodes opening in the season that I can work it in. Anywhere else would kill the momentum going from one episode to the next. Then I'm going right into "The Brightest Star" and watching that right before "The Sound of Thunder" because it makes a good prequel. I'm not bothering with anything from the second season of Short Treks. And then I'm watching "Calypso" right after "Such Sweet Sorrow, Part II" as it's our only glimpse into The Future that's been released.
Fine, so that was planned. I can still say going from Context is for Kings to finding out the revelation late in the season was poorly executed and made him into a cartoony villain. By the way that was a common complaint in various threads around here at the time as well. Heck, after Into the Forest, people (like myself) were asking where did they go. It was a great cliffhanger that would have been ruined had we known before the episode aired that they were going to the mirror universe.
We did know that they were going to the Mirror Universe before Into the Forest I Go aired. Jonathan Frakes revealed that the Mirror Universe would play a part in Discovery's first season in mid-September 2017, shortly after the series premiered. https://www.cbr.com/star-trek-discovery-mirror-universe/
Well, I'm good at avoiding spoilers then. I don't bemoan the show for going into the mirror universe. I just wish they had handled Lorca better when they got there.
Correction: Frakes revealed that Discovery was going to visit the Mirror Universe two days before The Vulcan Hello had even aired.
Watched episode 4 today. I really loved the scientific exploration stuff with the Tardigrade. That feels like Star Trek to me, and it's been something that was missed in Picard. Ok, so maybe Lorca is kind of a bad guy, but I do remember he does some good things as well. I am realizing Tilly was kind of annoying, and Stamets so far might be my favorite character on this show. I just love his reactions to everything. The Klingons really do slow everything down and I am not a fan of the early season 1 look.
"Lethe" Discovery is nice and spacious compared to other ships we've seen in previous series. Makes for a lot of room for a good jog, like Burnham and Tilly do. And I liked the target practice in the simulator with Lorca and Tyler. When Tyler tries to pretend he made 22 kills instead of Lorca's 24, then Lorca sees he really made 26 kills, something about it reminded me of the Dirty Harry films. When Sarek is about to make his trip to a neutral world for diplomatic relations with the Klingons, a Logic Extremist tries to stop him. We saw them in "Gambit" (TNG) and they were introduced in Diane Duane's 1989 novel Spock's World where they wanted Vulcan to secede from the Federation. If Discovery had stayed in the 23rd Century, I would've liked for them to follow up on that storyline, since it's only about 15 years before Spock's World. When it's revealed that Sarek was forced into choosing between Spock and Burnham for who could be admitted into the Vulcan Science Academy and he chose Spock, who later decided to go to Starfleet Academy, it adds another wrinkle in Sarek's disappointment over Spock's career choice. The fight sequences in Sarek's Mind and the dreamlike non-reality/reality of it reminded me a little of The Matrix, especially when it gets down to the Vulcan Martial Arts. But none of that makes it one of my favorite episodes of the first season. No. What really sells it for me are the Cornwell/Lorca scenes. She's trying to evaluate him while still trying to be a friend and more-than-a-friend at the same time. Lorca takes advantage of that and they have a date. They had the idea that Lorca wasn't who he said he was at least as far back as this episode, if not earlier; and here they play it up for its maximum effect. The dine to a nice glass of whatever they're drinking, Cornwell starts talking about The Old Days, it looks like Lorca doesn't remember, and he dodges by saying, "I can't believe how long ago it was... " She buys it. For now. Then they go off to have off-camera sex. And Cornwell later says it wasn't "like it was before" and when Lorca pulls a phaser on her out of reflex, after she scares him while he's asleep, she realizes Lorca's mental state is even worse than she thought. And she's on the right track when she says she can't leave Discovery in the hands of a broken man. She'd be completely right if she realized she can't leave Discovery in his hands period. Sarek is still recovering from his injuries when the Logic Extremist tried to kill him and he's in no shape to go on his diplomatic mission, so Cornwell goes in his place. And this was where the Klingons were the scariest they've seemed since Star Trek: The Motion Picture back in 1979. When Cornwell went to meet with them, I thought, "Oh no! She's fucked!" and then her two guards were decapitated and she was taken prisoner. When Saru asked Lorca if he wanted to go rescue her, I thought Saru was right. Waiting for what Starfleet says and doing everything by-the-book isn't what Lorca does. He used the book to get out of rescuing Cornwell so she wouldn't take the ship away from him. He was covering his ass by saying his hands were tied. After Burnham wants to talk to Sarek about why he didn't tell her the real reason why she was rejected from the Vulcan Science Academy and it goes nowhere, I liked the little beat where Burnham tells Tilly to find her own path. In this case, her own path toward command. And Tilly says, "I already have." Moral of the story: Don't let other people dictate the direction of your life. Don't let them make you feel like you're lesser.