Spoilers My main suspects for the anomaly.

[WarpTenLizard]

Please, let it be anything, literally anything, but another cosmic-Lennie killing trillions with a temper tantrum.

I'd love if the Anomaly somehow ends up being part of a storyline that retcons that awful ending to the Burn arch, and gives us an acceptable explanation for the Burn.

 

[fireproof78]

Amplified emotion as a destructive force is not acceptable?

*looks sideways at TNG*

 

[Dukhat]

I'd love if the Anomaly somehow ends up being part of a storyline that retcons that awful ending to the Burn arch, and gives us an acceptable explanation for the Burn.

I highly doubt that’s going to be the case. The Burn’s effects are now over; there’s no reason to now spend an entire season retconning its reason for being created.

 

[Agony_Boothb]

Please, let it be anything, literally anything, but another cosmic-Lennie killing trillions with a temper tantrum.

I'd love if the Anomaly somehow ends up being part of a storyline that retcons that awful ending to the Burn arch, and gives us an acceptable explanation for the Burn.

The reason for the Burn is probably one of the most TOS-like and trekkian things Discovery has done. It's a much better reason than having some big bad enemy causing the burn to kill the Federation as so many were predicting. It will never cease to amaze me how some of the fanbase can be so emotionally stunted that they confuse grief and pain with a 'temper tantrum'.

 

[Unimatrix Q]

This is nothing at all like what Rillak said to Burnham. Rillak clearly thinks of Burnham as highly competent otherwise, she would not have been on the Voyager shortlist. Rillak just thinks that Burnham needs more experience in certain areas.

She's a politician, so she most likely wouldn't be so blunt. Especially with all the goodwill toward the crew of the Discovery in the Federation, because of solving the mystery of the Burn and playing a big part in the restoration of the UFP.

But these are the vibes i got from her about how she thought of Burnham in "Kobayashi Maru".

 

[Dukhat]

The leaps in logic are truly amazing about how some dialogue by Rillak equates to a space monster from 600 years before in a forgettable TNG episode.

 

[Unimatrix Q]

The leaps in logic are truly amazing about how some dialogue by Rillak equates to a space monster from 600 years before in a forgettable TNG episode.

I never said that she was an avatar of Nagilum, although he impersonated Data and Troi in that episode.

I'm just thinking that creating a apparently unwinnable Kobayashi Maru like galaxywide scenario fits in his modus operandi and the way the anomaly appeared as a big eye like manifestation kinda reminded me on his appearance, just with better sfx.

And there are actually people who love this "forgettable" TNG episode and the writers already proved a lot of times that they have an extensive knowledge about canon, especially with Kirsten Beyer being part of the writer's room

 

[Coops]

Nope and nope. It’s not going to be a shameless pile of fanwank like bringing back V’Ger. I can’t even figure out where people get this idea from. It will be it’s own thing.

You heard it here first. Take it to the bank now. #mytheoryrulz

Just be grateful nobody suggested there's a Borg cube in the middle of it, yet.

 

[TimeIsAPredator]

It's the Nexus and Books family are not dead but just stuck in a never ending Christmas

 

[Dukhat]

I never said that she was an avatar of Nagilum, although he impersonated Data and Troi in that episode.

I'm just thinking that creating a apparently unwinnable Kobayashi Maru like galaxywide scenario fits in his modus operandi and the way the anomaly appeared as a big eye like manifestation kinda reminded me on his appearance, just with better sfx.

And there are actually people who love this "forgettable" TNG episode and the writers already proved a lot of times that they have an extensive knowledge about canon, especially with Kirsten Beyer being part of the writer's room

Just because one has an extensive knowledge about canon doesn’t mean that it’s the best idea to resurrect a space monster that the audience doesn’t really care about.

 

[Vger23]

Just because one has an extensive knowledge about canon doesn’t mean that it’s the best idea to resurrect a space monster that the audience doesn’t really care about.

It's most certainly not Nagilum...or V'Ger...or any other such nonsense. I think people are really reaching here. It had none of the qualities of these phenomenon (save a slight resemblance to the blue-grey cloud formation....that we all know turned out to be a very different thing). My guess is that it's a naturally occurring phenomenon, or something entirely new that we haven't seen before if there is a sentient presence involved.

My big question is how does it move faster than the speed of light? If it's roaming around and killing planets in different systems, it must be a FTL phenomenon.

 

[Unimatrix Q]

Just because one has an extensive knowledge about canon doesn’t mean that it’s the best idea to resurrect a space monster that the audience doesn’t really care about.

"Where Silence Has Lease" doesn't get nearly the credit it deserves. That episode was weird, intriguing, exciting, unsettling, and even had a great philosophical moment with Picard and Data discussing death, and what might lie beyond.

^^this



The first half is spectacular. Starting with a throwaway with Worf's exercise program, which is surprisingly good or at least sufficiently engaging and not overly long, once they get past the credits, the real mystery starts - with the big blob in space that has no resemblance to the one in "The Immunity Syndrome", and even Data isn't pedantically trying to find through the Federation database the one Kirk found. This is conclusively proven the moment they're engulfed in the anomaly. The tone and style of these scenes help sell it well enough... then once they get on the inside, it really takes off. And it only skyrockets from there with numerous unsettling moments that pack a great dramatic punch.

Steeped in atmosphere and weirdness that only sci-fi can do, then Nagilum appears -- as a partial and presumably disembodied head, and was quite the moment. The episode sells fairly well the "differences" shtick, since Nagilum's species(?) probably doesn't reproduce the way all these pesky Earthian mammals do (the same way humans have observed numerous smaller and often edible species to then post on Wiki with probably lurid detail, and how did humans first sample various things to discover if they're edible or not)...

The Picard/Data scene is truly first rate and told so maturely it makes up for all of season 1's jocular fluff. Even "Justice"'s overt flagrancies...

However, the episode is not without its share of flaws, so I'll just hone in on the biggie: Wesley apparently needed his bathroom break at just the perfect moment, since there's no other way to explain why he's in one scene, then is not present with a standby in his place - the one who, you know, is experimented on - then in the next scene Wesley is back, complete without residual wet spot cuz he's that good at everything, go figure.

There are a number of things that they could have followed up on, and a number of new stories to tell.

A few follow ups I’d have liked would have been to the “Conspiracy” Parasites, Nagilum, those trans-dimensional aliens from “Schisms,” and maybe to the new life-form from “Emergence” that arose from the Enterprise itself. That last one in-part because I actually couldn’t stand that episode, and I’m a sucker for ideas that salvage something and making it something strangely great. Like, I think there’s a far-out follow-up story there. Questions to raise about how the Enterprise is treated by the crew (a Cylon story?) and how unusual a consciousness the life-form born from it might be…maybe something Solaris or 2001-like even.

Oh, and…given that Tom Hanks wanted to "play a Romulan when it’s time at last to make peace with them," how about getting him in a two-parter…maybe that’s when you bring in the afore-mentioned Ambassador Picard for a guest-spot, too. And Leonard Nimoy leading the Reunificationists, and maybe even James Doohan there to help his friend...like when Han Solo returns with the Millennium Falcon at the end of A New Hope to save Luke during his final pass at the Death Star. ...All that would have made for one Hell of a two-parter. People would be breaking down the door to be in that one. Andreas Katsulas could be back as Tomalak on the eeevil Romulans side, along with Denise Crosby. Maybe Admiral Mendak comes back on the side of the moderates.

I could see the story be sprawling. Maybe this could be Trek’s first three-parter, not The Circle Trilogy that opened DS9 season 2. Could we see the Romulan Senate? Is Hanks the Emperor or a reformist senator? What would Reunification look like? Does the Star-Empire dissolve and then you see chaos among the newly-free subject-races? Is there an interim state between the Romulans and Vulcans that’s neither in the Federation nor out? Would this make the Klingons saber-rattle?

An idea I’d have for completely new stories is one in which the episode...runs backward. We start off with something cataclysmic, like the destruction of the Enterprise (or something else we care about) and go from there all the way to the beginning. And what if we see the story unfold through the eyes of an anti-time being….maybe the "Schisms" aliens or Nagilum again or something? And it all just looks bad and getting worse as we get closer to the start -- the point at which they'll set the cataclysm in motion. Only, we find that our (the viewer's) perspective was off and the cataclysm we saw at the beginning of the episode wasn’t what it seemed at all.

…I wonder if this would be the “Move Along Home” of TNG for some people lol. Well, maybe if the anti-time aliens are just as surprised as we are at what happens, and now they'e more interested in doing being evil than ever after seeing how close to destruction our heroes came. And maybe at some point in the episode Troi is in command... That’d scare some fans, and give her opportunity to shine, too.

And i read a lot of posts on Reddit and on other forums from people who really liked "Where Silence Has Lease". So i guess the episode isn't as unpopular as you seem to think.

 

[Dukhat]

And i read a lot of posts on Reddit and on other forums from people who really liked "Where Silence Has Lease". So i guess the episode isn't as unpopular as you seem to think.

It’s not about the episode being unpopular. It’s about the utter pointlessness of Nagilum being the reason for the Anomaly. Why would the audience care about Nagilum?

 

[Starship]

Is this gravitational wave granddaughter or great granddaughter of the nonsensical Nexus that appeared in Generations (and never came back after that)?

 

[fireproof78]

It’s not about the episode being unpopular. It’s about the utter pointlessness of Nagilum being the reason for the Anomaly. Why would the audience care about Nagilum?

Exactly. Please establish why Nagilum would be additive to this story?

 

[Agony_Boothb]

She's a politician, so she most likely wouldn't be so blunt. Especially with all the goodwill toward the crew of the Discovery in the Federation, because of solving the mystery of the Burn and playing a big part in the restoration of the UFP.

But these are the vibes i got from her about how she thought of Burnham in "Kobayashi Maru".

Rillak didn't SAY it which is what you said Rillak did. Rillak was more than willing to call Burnham out in front of her crew, the President would absolutely be blunt enough to shut Burnham down hard and say all those things you're attributing to her because of 'the vibe' if she genuinely didn't like Burnham.

 

[TimeIsAPredator]

It’s not about the episode being unpopular. It’s about the utter pointlessness of Nagilum being the reason for the Anomaly. Why would the audience care about Nagilum?

The were supposed to care about a screaming Kelpian child.
Pah'wraiths is my new wacky joke guess.

 

[Dukhat]

The were supposed to care about a screaming Kelpian child.

But the Kelpian child actually has something to do with DSC, unlike Nagilum or V’Ger.

 

[Agony_Boothb]

My big question is how does it move faster than the speed of light? If it's roaming around and killing planets in different systems, it must be a FTL phenomenon.

I assume it might be like the graviton ellipse from voyager in that it travels through subspace and re-emerges into normal space at random

 

[TimeIsAPredator]

I assume it might be like the graviton ellipse from voyager in that it travels through subspace and re-emerges into normal space at random

Like a giant space sand worm