Spoilers Star Trek: Discovery 1x09 - "Into the Forest I Go"

[eschaton]

I was actually surprised to revisit "Captain's Holiday" recently and like it! All subsequent visits to Risa were so catastrophically bad, I forgot the first time there had some charm (to me, anyway).

It was an okay episode, largely due to Patrick Stewart making anything better due to his acting acumen. Definitely slow paced for a Trek outing. But much better than what followed, which is why I said boring or awful.

 

[Saul]

Lorca, if they are setting him up to be the Ultimate villain of the show they are doing a damn great job. Lot's of bad stuff going down with people on the Discovery.

I loved the part with 'Lorca' saying "fire". It seemed like he was going to say "fuckin fire!"
Wicked man. Solid episode.

 

[eschaton]

Now I'm wondering, if the went to Risa, who would actually take advantage of it? Burnham and Ash are paired off, as are Stamets and his bae, and I don't think Trek's ready for polyamory. Maybe Tilly needs to sow some wild seeds?

 

[The Mighty Monkey of Mim]

Maybe Tilly needs to sow some wild seeds?

Sounds like something Data would say.

"If you prick me, do I not...leak?"

Why am I making so many sex jokes today?

Was @Guy Gardener mind-sifted into me in my sleep?

Probably.

 

[cultcross]

Now I'm wondering, if the went to Risa, who would actually take advantage of it. Burnham and Ash are paired off, as are Stamets and his bae, and I don't think Trek's ready for polyamory. Maybe Tilly needs to sow some wild seeds?

After the moral calamity of her having a drink and complimenting someone's appearance from a couple of episodes back?

I don't think we've unclenched enough for Risa just yet.

 

[dahj]

I don't think we've unclenched enough for Risa just yet.

Mirror Risa then... galaxy's premiere destination for chastity holidays

 

[eschaton]

After the moral calamity of her having a drink and complimenting someone's appearance from a couple of episodes back?

I don't think we've unclenched enough for Risa just yet.

There's always been this weird current in Trek fandom which has hated depicting female trek characters as being open to casual sex. Jadzia in particular got a lot of vitriol over this.

 

[NaughtyTrekkie]

Agreed. Exactly this.



Then why did Lorca say “we’re going home”. Supposedly they were heading for a Federation starbase. The Starbase (46?) ain’t anyone’s home.

Maybe it said that figurately and he meant time to return to section 31.

I may be wrong, but I understood they had to go to starbase 46 and lorca changed the jump coordinates from his chair

 

[Noname Given]

Um, no. The only thing Lorca showed (once again in Ep.9) is that he’s a master manipulator.

^^^
So yeah, Starfleet Captain. (Kirk did it a lot too.)

 

[Saul]

If Lorca is from an alternate Universe then maybe Burnham was his lover in the alternate universe and that's why he is so protective of her here.

 

[Captain of the USS Averof]

Or maybe he’s just using her and her abilities just like he’s using everyone else for his own hidden personal agenda.

 

[eschaton]

^^^
So yeah, Starfleet Captain. (Kirk did it a lot too.)

Yeah, using persuasion to get what you want done is what good leadership skills are all about. It's really only manipulative if you're purposefully deceiving the person involved. So far the only confirmed deceit on the part of Lorca is that he somehow faked his psych exams, which he may have really believed was for the greater good.

 

[OpenMaw]

There's always been this weird current in Trek fandom which has hated depicting female trek characters as being open to casual sex. Jadzia in particular got a lot of vitriol over this.

I think it's less that people have an issue with female(or any character for that matter) having casual relationships, but more in the fact that it isn't often handled maturely by the writers. When they write those scenes for females it often feels like they're snickering going "Teeheehee she's gonna f*ck someone, teeheehee...!"

 

[GeekUSACarl]

I think it's less that people have an issue with female(or any character for that matter) having casual relationships, but more in the fact that it isn't often handled maturely by the writers. When they write those scenes for females it often feels like they're snickering going "Teeheehee she's gonna f*ck someone, teeheehee...!"

If I could like a post a thousand times, it'd be this one.

 

[matthunter]

I'm going to be the one to point out that, in terms of effectiveness, the stun setting is actually ideal in this kind of situation. For one thing, there's the strong possibility that the Klingon ship has sensors such that firing on a higher setting will set off a security alarm or something (see "Undiscovered Country"). This occurred to me last night when I noticed an alarm sounded in the background (for a few seconds) ONLY once the Klingons actually fired back, and yet when Burnham uses her phaser on the bridge, there's no alarm, just one really startled Klingon who yells "intruder alert!"

But beyond that, there's the fact that the stun setting can mission-kill a Klingon from even a glancing blow. The higher disruptor setting requires prolonged contact with the phaser beam to vaporize them while a short pulse will only blast a chunk out of whatever part of them you hit. Between Klingon armor and redundant organs, that would have the effect of wounding them but NOT rendering them unconscious and possibly even failing to immobilize them. So while the stun setting might leave you with a snoring Klingon on a 60 minute wakeup timer, the kill setting might leave you with a pissed off howling Klingon with a weapon still in his hand.

Switching to "kill" on T'Kuvma makes sense in this case because the Captain has a knife in her chest, his back is to her, and he fucking deserves it at this point. Considering this one lapse of judgement pretty much landed her in the slammer for life, it's not a mistake she's likely to repeat in the future.

This. I saw the "why are they using stun?" posts and immediately thought "well, maybe a higher energy output triggers alarms?". After all, if these are supposed to be the same Klingons as in TNG, they use painsticks on each other as part of rituals! A phaser on stun is probably about the same output, so you don't want alarms going off just because it's T'ed's birthday.

As for Burnham's use of kill on T'kuvma, did we SEE her switch to kill, or did the phaser switch when dropped and she didn't notice when she retrieved it?

 

[GeekUSACarl]

As for Burnham's use of kill on T'kuvma, did we SEE her switch to kill, or did the phaser switch when dropped and she didn't notice when she retrieved it?

No matter if we saw that or not, I think the intent by the writers was pretty clear,

she was pissed and she wanted death.

 

[matthunter]

Re: Lorca's interest in Burnham. Her speciality is Xenoanthropology. If you want to figure out the differences between alternate realities, you ask someone who predicts how species X (or person X) acts differently if exposed to stimulus Y or Z.

Edit: Ooh. Oh. Lorca seems overly pleased at having taken a crew of scientists and made them warriors. Perhaps looking for validation if he IS from an alternate universe? Confirmation that it's NOT just him? That anyone would "turn" given the right circumstances?

 

[Grendelsbayne]

This. I saw the "why are they using stun?" posts and immediately thought "well, maybe a higher energy output triggers alarms?". After all, if these are supposed to be the same Klingons as in TNG, they use painsticks on each other as part of rituals! A phaser on stun is probably about the same output, so you don't want alarms going off just because it's T'ed's birthday.

As for Burnham's use of kill on T'kuvma, did we SEE her switch to kill, or did the phaser switch when dropped and she didn't notice when she retrieved it?

We saw her flip a switch.

 

[jaime]

I think it's less that people have an issue with female(or any character for that matter) having casual relationships, but more in the fact that it isn't often handled maturely by the writers. When they write those scenes for females it often feels like they're snickering going "Teeheehee she's gonna f*ck someone, teeheehee...!"

I have never bumped into this phenomenon. Mind you...I only bothered with fandom as such when I joined here a while back. On the other hand ‘Man Of The People’ is something I can see driving people a bit potty one way or another. I sat through it a lot thanks to the VHS with Relics on.

 

[Vger23]

So was Kirk when he deliberately blew up his own ship just to kill Kruge's boarding party, then beamed down to the planet and shot (and killed) Kruge's remaining guard, then eventually killed Kruge himself. In fact, the only Klingon Kirk DIDN'T kill was Maltz, and then apparently because Maltz specifically asked him to.

Let's not forget the Paragon of 24th Century Federation Virtue Jean Luc Picard leaving Ru'affo to die on the collector ship in a horrible explosion...or snapping the spine of the helpless Borg Queen... or shooting his own crew dead believing "there was no way to save them" when he himself had been de-assimilated.

But, if you don't like DSC...you can hold it, its writers and its characters to a different standard. Don't forget that. That's the key to everything.