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

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Rather dull. Surprised they considered that as a cliff-hanger for the season break. Might have been suitable to lead into the mid-episode commercial on TOS, but as the hook to convince people to continue paying for All-Access? Weak sauce.

Best scene was the conflict over Saru being compromised. Hope they explore that further.

Doug Jones was quite good, but the Klingon scenes continue to plod.
 
Couple observations. They seem to be able to detect the power signatures of the cloaked Klingon ships but not well enough to fire on them, just know they are in the immediate area. This is less advanced than the Romulans.

The planet was clearly inspired by the blue leaved singing plant in "The Cage".
 
I give it a 9/10.

L'rell is definitely the most interesting Klingon so far and I'm looking forward to her giving Kol what he has coming. Still think Tyler is the albino but it would appear that they may be trying to help the Federation win against Kol.
Hooray for Admiral Cornwall. She reminds me Captain Janeway, strong and determined and not afraid to take a punch. Although she has been getting the raw end of the stick lately. Hope she isn't dead.
Interesting planet. Precursor to the Organians?
Should be a good fall finale.
 
UssGlenn said:
Couple observations. They seem to be able to detect the power signatures of the cloaked Klingon ships but not well enough to fire on them, just know they are in the immediate area. This is less advanced than the Romulans.
Click to expand...

Not quite. In "Balance of Terror," they could pick up the cloaked Bird of Prey on "motion sensors," but not precisely enough to target it. The big deal in "The Enterprise Incident" was that the Romulans had figured out a way to prevent cloaked ships from being detected even while moving.

The planet was clearly inspired by the blue leaved singing plant in "The Cage".
Click to expand...
Speaking of, apparently General Order 7 (or 4) is still in committee somewhere, since Cornwall mentioned there was no death penalty in the Federation.
 
Also inspired by "The Cage" is the use of backpacks for landing parties. Even that fell out of use by "Where No Man Has Gone Before" so the use of surface equipment strapped to a crewman's back feels very pilot-like and a wonderful throwback to an earlier chapter of Starfleet history.
 
I’m giving Discovery my second 10. That episode was awesome. We got to see Discovery fly, we got to go on a planet and the stuff with Suru really helped that character. I also loved L’Rell, as right now she is the most interesting Klingon we have seen.

Well done Bayer. We have a winner and I’m looking forward to next week.
 
UssGlenn said:
The planet was clearly inspired by the blue leaved singing plant in "The Cage".
Click to expand...

I was disappointed they didn't make the planet seem more alien. Felt like a low-budget third season ep of TOS. Looks like Earth, but with this obelisk we knocked up. I am Kirok!

Wonder if the floaty glowing aliens will tie in with the visually similar floaty glowing spores.
 
tomalak301 said:
I’m giving Discovery my second 10. That episode was awesome. We got to see Discovery fly, we got to go on a planet and the stuff with Suru really helped that character. I also loved L’Rell, as right now she is the most interesting Klingon we have seen.

Well done Bayer. We have a winner and I’m looking forward to next week.
Click to expand...
Kirsten is my current favorite Trek author. She's done a great job with the Voyager relaunch. So I was pretty stoked to see her name in the credits.
 
The aliens remind me of a cross between the spores of Omicron Ceti III and the Organians. Corporeal, yet...not.
 
The klingon scenes actually saved this episode for me. I was very hopeful for the planet-side scenes, but was the weakest for me (it's a gut reaction, I can't put my finger on why I feel that way - maybe I'm just tired). I'll give it a generous 7. Without the klingon scenes I would have given it a 6.
 
Things I liked most:

-The spore-like aliens.
-The references to cloaks as an invisibility screen which ties in very neatly with how Kirk and his crew referred to cloaking technology most of the time on TOS. Cloaks still aren't anywhere close to commonplace enough to call cloaks on a regular basis.
-L'Rell. Damn, that Klingon makeup is still gratuitous overkill but she's the one Klingon who's able to overcome it.
-Saru. It was nice to see him overcome by fear as well as anger and demonstrate his species' physical strength.
-Another starship captain, even if he did get blown up along with his vessel.
 
After an extremely shaky start, it feels like Discovery is still stumbling around aimlessly. I'm ready to give it the Roman thumbs down. Wolfe, out.
 
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