Spoilers Star Trek: Discovery 4x02 - "Anomaly"

This. Sometimes too much visual shorthand is a bad thing, and this was one of those cases.

 

Shaving your head is a thing.

 

See... You say that... But 98% of the people we saw on screen were hollywood level beautiful/handsome.

 

Massive thread to local space sure, but not galaxy destroying.

 

What would a ricocheting bullet, at constant speed, do to the inside of a B-17, despite the smallness of the bullet itself?

Again, 5 light year black hole, larger than any black hole known in existence today, larger than the black hole at the center of our own galaxy, thousands of times larger than the largest black hole ever found, moving through the galaxy at faster than light speeds in seemingly random directions. What might it be doing to the fabric of the universe itself?

Think big. Don't think in "5 light years isn't that big" terms because a black hole the size of 5 light years is that big, it's truly pants-shittingly enormous, even in the span of our galaxy. The gravitational effects of something that large would do more than just disintegrate planets, it would change the directional pathways of entire solar systems, fling stars away from each other, scatter solar systems. A 5 light year black hole passing Alpha Centauri would obliterate us.

It would be more than just a threat to local space.

Here is a comparison chart of TON 618, the largest ultramassive black hole we currently know about in the known universe. It is 2,606 AU in diameter, which is 0.04 light years. You would need 125 of these put together to equal the anomaly in the episode.

(click it for full size)


The dot in the center represents our solar system, 80 AU across.

If this bastard were roaming the galaxy moving at faster than light speeds, it would be a galaxy wide problem. Honestly, I think the DSC folks went way too large. WAY too large for this thing. A 5 light year wide black hole that moves at faster than light speeds would do a hell of a lot of damage to our galaxy, which is only 100,000 light years across.

 

I think the problem is there no build up to the technologies we see, and too much reliance on having seen the previous season and other Trek.

Gray being a brain ghost is kind of blink and miss it if you don’t see season 3, and the reason for a body is even less explained, just taken for granted. We have no call back to how unique Gray and Adira’s situation is and why a body is the best solution, or at all relevant to anything going on.

Knowing season 3 we also have to wonder why if the holodeck tech is easily installed in Burhnham’s quarters then why not the med bay? Do they not have an EMH? My point being, it had to be easier to just have the holodeck give Gray a body to communicate directly with Culber.

The hologram-Stamets comes out of no where because it’s easy not to make the connection to the holodeck tech in Burnham’s quarters or the interfaces. We also lack context for the mind machine interface allowing the setup to work. We don’t have context for the programmable matter either, with just season 4, so when Burnham wants the gravitational wave hologram made into programmable matter interface it muddies the utility of solid holograms even with the context of season 3 involved with 4.

They at least explain the PIC body to some extent, but that came off more like fan service, while simultaneously invalidating the technology.
I know Trek is infamous for introducing one off technologies, but never encountering something again is different from a statement of impossibility.

They go to the future for a fresh start and don’t even embrace cool culture changing technologies like immortal robot bodies.

 

What if it's only moving at STL while in our universe and just dives into what-ever realm it came from and occaisionally pops out into our realm randomly for reasons we haven't figured out yet?

 

Here is my own personal observations and what I think currently plagues new Trek. They are terrified of the fans and so steer in to tried and true conventions, similar to how Enterprise played largely with TNG style conventions, but under the auspices of a prequel. You had "phase pistols" that were pretty much phasers, and hull plating that still had shield style percentages. It lacked a punch to it to make its stamp in terms of distinction of a prequel period.

Now we journey to the future, arguably to avoid criticism, but the future tech is the same to engage familiarity. Phasers are still phasers, shields still shields. The transporter is slightly different, and technology pretty much works as the plot dictates. It is presented as inoffensively as possible, while trying not to exposit the audience to death because they also fear pursing away new comers and making these series feel inaccessible as past Trek has felt to outsiders.

Now, this creates an interesting conundrum. On the one hand, it is highly appealing to someone like me who prefers the character interactions, how people engage, emote and explore with each other over technological word salad. On the other hand, it is by and large ignoring the portion of the fan base who love the technical explanations, who would prefer the long technical explanations outlining the way things work in favor of character moments, which can appeal to casual goers and people who don't speak technobabble speak daily. On the other, it has not fully formed this era's identity to make the technology stand out.

It is trying hard for the middle ground of inoffensiveness and that is a dangerous game to play.

 

Yes, I think you've hit on some of the issues I have with not only this episode, but the way DSC handles the future of the future. For me, some of it isn't even necessary, like hologram Stamets. Just have Stamets there. Yeah, Booker knows he's actually alone, but it's played as a one note, and whiffed (in my opinion) because Booker's right, and Stamets life isn't in any danger at all, only the data. So when Stamets says "we're all here with you" it's like, yeah, I get the sentiment, but no, Booker really is the only one who will die if something goes horribly wrong.

It's like Discovery seems to clap on the 1 and the 3 instead of the 2 and the 4 beats.

Well they know its actual heading because they can track it, and unless the nearest star system is only a few light days away, they shouldn't be in a panic to evacuate star systems near any of the affected areas. I honestly think they made it too enormous, and forgot the actual distances between star systems in our galaxy. So you have "evacuate the area," but it's like, most star systems are, on average, about 5-6 light years apart in this part of the galaxy, so it has to be actually moving through space at FTL speeds to warrant that kind of urgency.

So I think they made the black hole far, FAR too big, and made the distance between solar systems smaller than they actually are, which kind of messes with the scenario for me.

 

I think the Spatial Anomaly pops back into whatever realm it came from, and is able to move at FTL speeds relative to our realm and then pop back out whenever it wants to do it's thing.

Which causes massive damage to a Star System.

But until you can figure out what direction it's generally going or how to track it, it becomes a major issue since it seems to be a unknown spatial phenomena as of this moment.

 

The anomaly is the Kelvin Universe trying to seep into the Prime. Crossover baby!!!!

 

His new body will look different

Spoiler

It would be interesting if Adira doesn't like the changes... that's what their reaction hinted at, that it's a little overwhelming to see the person you fell in love with change physically, knowing that's how they wanna be, but preferring their look they had when you fell in love. Could be great scenes coming up, let's hope they do it well...

 

The new look is an improvement. It has more character.

 

True! Totally forgot about that promo pic..! Like it!

 

I like the new look too. Definitely a step-up.

 

Stanmets’ hologram needed an H on his forehead. To make it clearer he was a hologram

 

He had a diode on his left temple.

 

agreed!

 

I liked this episode more than the first one. This one seemed to have more heart and character to it. I liked Saru coming back to Discovery and how he now acts like a mentor to Burnham again, while serving as his XO. The anomaly mystery has me intrigued, so hoping to see more next week.

Have they announced how many episodes there are on this season? Anyway, 8/10 from me for this episode.