Spoilers Star Trek: Discovery 1x08 - "Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum"

yeah but didn't CBS basically say it was getting into the chinese food business?

they kept comparing discovery to game of thrones and trumpeting the benefits of the streaming platform. but then they cut these things like they need to fit them into an hour time slot with 18 minutes of commercials.

 

At this point it's too late but hey, an episode or two with mostly Klingons? Sure, why not.

 

I would definitely try a Mexican restaurant that serves Chinese food. Sounds fun, and confusing.

 

Yeah I agree with others that it feels like the episode was poorly edited. If they needed it to be twice as long, why not just make it twice as long? Who cares, it's all online.

 

Even in DS9, which was the most serialized and character-focused Trek, they had to come up with bullshit B plots (or sometimes single scenes) to shoehorn in the main cast who weren't needed for the story in a given week. I can't possibly see Discovery having entire episodes without a single main character being shown.

 

Your ideas intrigue me and I should like to subscribe to your newsletter...

 

I loved the episode but I'm kinda disapointed that Kirsten Beyer wasn't credited as Kirsten MF Beyer...

 

Fully agree on the arbitrary run times. This is an episode that could have used more airtime, and there's no reason why they couldn't have made this 10 min longer. I can only imagine that perhaps the time crunch maybe dictated that no re-shoots on subpar takes would be feasible, and they cut the subpar material rather than air it?

 

This.

My guess? By keeping the times the same as broadcast television, they make it possible to run it on their regular channels in the future, with commercials, should they wish to do so and without cutting anything.

 

Obviously. I was just saying the exact same thing.

 

6/10. This single episode EASILY could have been a two-parter. They clearly had a lot more footage and dialog and whittled it down to make a shorter episode and it doesn't really work from a narrative standpoint. I suppose one of the producers was concerned about pacing or something, but this comes off as incredibly rushed. L'Rell could have afforded to spend more time interrogating the Admiral and definitely more time discussing the nature of the war and where they all fit into it...

Anyway, I just chalk it up to "TV episode that should have been a novel." I'm used to it, so I still enjoy it, but I wish they could do better.

 

Exactly. It's VERY obvious that they ran out of time and compressed it down to make it shorter... but WHY? Your episode is on a streaming service, it can be however long you want it to be. Even the people who actually have to watch commercials still have to sit through to the end of it, right?

 

The planet scenes were disappointing and it is those I would've cut. Michael and Ash's tender moment just to remind us Discovery has romance. The Pahvan's floated around much like the spores do. Two trick pony, I hope I don't get them mixed up. The colours though on the planet were at times Avatar like and quite pretty. It was nice to see some colour pops to relieve monotone scenes.

I guess the gist of the matter was that the Pahvans who like balance are going to be critical to both sides. Yeah.

 

Yeah, the both the Pahvans and the spores (and for that matter, the space life in the third episode) being blue suggests one of two things. One is that the writers want us to see a connection even if the characters cannot see it. Another is they're lazy idiots who don't say "Hey guys, let's do gold or green this time!"

I prefer to think the former. Admittedly, it may just be a stylistic choice rather than a plot-driven one.

 

Actually, yes it does. Invisibility requires a perfect bending of light and other wave lengths. If it's not done perfectly, it's not invisible, just harder to detect.

And that's what was seen in the latest episode. They sort of knew the Klingons were there but not precisely enough until they became visible.

 

I thought the same thing! Like they forgot what show they were writing

 

So you would've cut half the episode?

I think you missed the point of the narrative.

 

The balance is tipping as more Klingon house's join Kol and receive cloaking devices.

 

I know Kirsten Beyer has the skills to pull it off. But she's not the only writer, so....

NEXT.

 

I liked the harmonious planet with a consciousness concept. Nice to get back to some exploring.

But this episode has a big problem.

NONE OF IT MAKES ANY SENSE WHATSOEVER?!?

Oh hey, there’s L’rell and the admiral joining forces... Good stuff! But oh noes! The bad Klingons show up! They start fighting, L’Rell says the admiral is dead, despite us hearing her gasp, so she offers to “get rid of the body” by taking her to the storeroom where Klingons apparently keep corpses*?!?
And next scene with L’Rell she’s all “whoops, sorry boss! The corpse escaped!”

*(How DID they ever manage to become a spacefaring species?! It’s a miracle they haven’t been wiped out many times over, with such poor hygiene?! If Starfleet wants to win the war, the most prudent course would be just to kick back, and let epidemics wipe out the Klingon fleet!)

The A-plot of the episode doesn’t fare much better. After discovering the planet is sentient, Burnham & Co. can’t use their crystal transmitter without getting permission from the planet. All of a sudden Saru avoids the question whether they GOT permission and is all “Yeah, sure they’ll let us do whatever!”

Burnham and Tyler are convinced Saru “has been compromised” so she runs off to use the transmitter. If Saru “got compromised” then how do they know they really got permission? Why can’t Saru know about their plan? NONE OF THIS MAKES ANY SENSE!!