Season 2 Speculation Revived

[Grendelsbayne]

Tangentially, I’m watching “the wolf inside” rn and two things occur. Firstly, this one seems most like a DS9 episode to me - very reminiscent of the DS9 MU episodes (well, at least “crossover”). Secondly, the scene with Tilly, Saru, and Stamets in the lab is very good. I really like those three characters - they seem the most “Trek” like and tend to do Star Trek-y things - like science and that.

Given the mysterious red matter anomalies Pike mentions in the trailer for s2, I hope that the trifecta mentioned above are in more episodes.

Tilly is cleverer than Michael is stated to be. She figures out Stamets’ connection to the mycelial network and how to help him. She’s more endearing than Michael - for an “outsider” type character who has flaws etc - Tilly is much more relatable. Saru is also a natural for a science-y type problem, given his previous position as a science officer on the shenzhou. And Stamets is sort of a bio engineer so it’d make sense to have him involved in the study of the red swirlies.

Michael hasn’t shown any great aptitude for science things in DSC - she seemed more at home in the MU in command of a starship. Probably because she had all those years as XO of the shenzhou. Hopefully the roles of Tilly, Saru and Stamets will be larger in s2 - if anyone can work out what those red things are, they can.

With that in mind my guess would also be that the red things are an illness in the mycelial network -
possibly allowing the other universes from “parallels” to break through.

She did figure out the Tardigrade stuff.

And she figured out most of their secret project just from reading some code. Not to mention other less sciency moments in which she proved her intelligence, like distracting the Tardigrade, convincing the computer to save her life, tricking the Terrns, etc. I think Michael's reputation as an extremely intelligent officer has been reasonably well earned - it's just that the show moved her out of the science position after the tardigrade stuff was done, so everything she gets after that is just more general command stuff. But that probably won't last. I expect she'll officially be the Science Officer in season 2, so we'll see more of that side of her again.

 

[Groppler Zorn]

She did figure out the Tardigrade stuff.

Ah fair point - I’ll have to go back and rewatch that episode then! I seemed to remember it being Tilly that figured out that they could trick the network into thinking the tardigrade was in the spore drive, prompting Stamets to jump in.

And she figured out most of their secret project just from reading some code.

Also fair point - but I guess we’d expect a graduate of the Vulcan science academy to be able to spot patterns in codes.

Not to mention other less sciency moments in which she proved her intelligence, like distracting the Tardigrade, convincing the computer to save her life, tricking the Terrns, etc.

This is where I think Michael is more akin to TNG era characters like Torres or LaForge. They’re also very clever to the point of being ludicrously so - coming up with all kinds of genius solutions to things each week - they should be running the federation with all that brain power!

I get the sense that it happened to be Michael who did those things - not that nobody else could have done them, just that she happened to do them. I certainly wouldn’t have wanted the tardigrade to chase me - she’s perhaps brave in that case but shooting at it then saying “shit that worked” and that she was “trying to piss it off” didn’t seem to be specifically scientifically motivated from my perspective. But...

I expect she'll officially be the Science Officer in season 2, so we'll see more of that side of her again.

I hope this is the case. If Michael is to mirror Spock (a bit like Data in TNG) then hopefully being in the position of science officer will bring that side of her out a little more. I’d love to see her make arguments based more on facts and logic (like a Vulcan) than on her gut feelings (like a human - hopefully s1 taught her to control her human impulses).

 

[Ovation]

shooting at it then saying “shit that worked” and that she was “trying to piss it off” didn’t seem to be specifically scientifically motivated from my perspective.

I took that as a blessed respite from typical Trek technobabble. Much better than “by utilizing a controlled series of phaser pulses at rotating frequencies using a modified Fibonacci sequence, directed at the creature’s outer epidermal armour, perhaps I can stimulate its neural structure to a sufficiently agitated state that it will be induced to pursue me through a series of small passages away from the rest of the crew”.

 

[Groppler Zorn]

I took that as a blessed respite from typical Trek technobabble. Much better than “by utilizing a controlled series of phaser pulses at rotating frequencies using a modified Fibonacci sequence, directed at the creature’s outer epidermal armour, perhaps I can stimulate its neural structure to a sufficiently agitated state that it will be induced to pursue me through a series of small passages away from the rest of the crew”.

That was epic

Ok maybe I just need to get used to Michael’s alt-technobabble...

 

[Nerys Myk]

I took that as a blessed respite from typical Trek technobabble. Much better than “by utilizing a controlled series of phaser pulses at rotating frequencies using a modified Fibonacci sequence, directed at the creature’s outer epidermal armour, perhaps I can stimulate its neural structure to a sufficiently agitated state that it will be induced to pursue me through a series of small passages away from the rest of the crew”.

By the time she finished saying that, everyone would be dead.