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

[The Memetic Susurrus]

I don't see why Lorca's map of the spore network was supposed to be this surprise secret. It seems like something they would have been putting together in Stamets' department as SOP.

Kor

The way I look at it is it's like a sonarman on a sub, slowly building up the COP (common operating picture). A little bit here, a little bit there... Maybe Stamets' nav folks are putting it together, maybe not. But the skipper had better damned well have something like it.

So, like you, I didn't see anything too special about it. Just something that should have been standard operating procedure in a normal ship. Stamets might think that it's special because, perhaps, he wasn't all that familiar with that aspect of ship life, seeing how he's normally in the science department.

 

[Rahul]

To review it myself:

Plot
Shit got real this episode.
All the little plots this season saw some actual development. I was surpised to see the end of Kol and the sarcophagus ship, I saw them as being built up to be the "final villain" of the first season. Oh well. The plot mainly revolved about a rather ludicrous plan to defeat the klingon cloaking device ("invisible screens"), but which was executed flawlessly, and involved literally every major character and followed up on ever major plot thread of the previous episodes.

If the plot has one minor weakness, it's that the cliffhanger seemed a little taked-on, was highly telegraphed (I swear, somebody was holding a picture of his family and telling how he can't wait to see his newborn child for the first time!), and didn't felt naturally.

The characters
Everyone got a moment to shine this episode. The only misstep was Saru during the teaser, still gushing about tha Pahvians(?). Is he still under influence? If so, what's he doing on the bridge? If not, and it was his "true" self, why isn't he in the brig for mutiny? Anyway. Not further important, just a little sore thing sticking out in an otherwise great episode.

Lorca steals the show. He's ruthlessly effective as a leader in this episode, and when he defies the orders to retreat in the beginning, he does so in a very reasonable way. And holy hell, is he great at manipulating people! Like with Burnham in ep3, he tell Stamets exactly what he needs to hear to do what he otherwise wouldn't do. He's kinda' crazy, but hella' effective. I hope there is a good reason for him to manipulate the final jump.

Stamets was amazing as well. Seeing him do the 133 jumps was intense. The Doctor's "I love you too" gave me chills. Beautifully handeled. The scenes between Cornwell and Tyler facing his PTSD/abusive relationship were equally great. I'm seriously excited to see how they further handle Tyler's "secret", and is relationship with Burnham. Who herself got to shine this episode, in a tradtional Trek "fight to the death", but also as a laser-focused protagonist.

Nitpicks

• This was the first time we saw the Discovery at regular Warp
• They are clearly still modifying the Discovery's CGI model. It's sorely needed. It's still an astonishingly plain CG-model, but they are adding further hull details, little bits of exposed technology. And the boxy under-belly now has a much steeper angle than in the previous episodes (and in the credits), which makes it a little bit less ugly
• How the Discovery fought against the klingon ship, "jumping" and firing faster than could be anticipated, was basically the "Picard manoever" which he used with the Stargazer against the Ferengi, wasn't it?
• It seemed Kol was unfamiliar with the Federations "universal translator". Which would be a clear continuity error in regards to ENT, where a predecessor was used to talk with the klingons
• The Tyler/L'Rell sex scene. Oh boy. It was edited horribly. But having sex with a klingon looks like fucking a xenomorph. And all I could think of was: Man, Jadzia & Ezri Dax, Deanna Troi, B'Elanna Torres' father and to some extend Tom Paris must have been into some weird shit.
• So. Tyler can easily walk into the cell where L'Rell is held. Twice. In the end in the Discovery's brig, previously in the klingon cell with Cornwell. Does NOBODY has prison guards anymore? They even had them on VOY and ENT!
• Did the Discovery transmitted their code to look through the klingon cloaking device to the rest of the fleet in time before they got lost on their last jump? I hope so! Lot's of unnecessary lifes lost if not.

Graticious Gore Counter
Thankfully toned down a lot compared to the previous six episodes. But still. Do we really need to see blades cut into flesh in close-up? Even if it's only a flashback, and fastly edited?

Final Verdict
The first WHAM!-episode of the series changing the status quo of the main story arc since the pilot. Also the first episode in which I kinda' liked the overall direction of the main arc. Together with "Lethe" the best episodes of the first "chapter" (aka first half of the 1st season).
Overall, all around a really great, very well-made, enjoyable episde!

 

[Butters]

I voted eight, mostly on account of the full on Klingon mams, totally unexpected.

I guessed the ending wrong. I was expecting Stamets to disappear to the mirroverse, not the whole ship, if indeed, that's where they are.

Liked it. Want more.

Eta: was also expecting to see a constitution class defiant at the end. Maybe next week?

 

[Vger23]

Terrel and Cornwell have had a nice chance to catch up and compare notes on Lorca's crazy rulebreaking. I doubt a champagne reception was awaiting him.

In true Star Trek tradition, he needs to have a wacky adventure to save some whales to redeem himself.

He already saved a whale. The books are cleared.

The more I think about it, the less inclined I am to believe that Lorca willingly tried to sabotage the jump. I mean, he was just as freaked out as everyone else when Discovery arrived, whereever it is.

It's easy to think that he had sinister machinations due to Jason Issacs does an amazing job imbuing fairly neutral dialog with a sense of menace. As a result, no one knows where they stand with Lorca, including the audience.

The other thing that you need to keep in mind is that Lorca has been given the leeway to fight the war "his way" by Starfleet Command. So, SFC must realize at some point that they created their own mess by empowering Lorca with that much leeway.

Lump on top of that the fact that his unorthodox tactics supplied the good guys with a major (dare I say war-ending) victory...and my guess is that they won't be able to throw the book at him quite as hard as you would otherwise think.

Additionally, Cornwall's stance wasn't going to be that Lorca was criminal or insubordinate...simply that he was temporarily unfit, and needed to be re-evaluated and treated. His career (worst case scenario) is definitely not over even in that scenario...he's just due for a little break perhaps.

 

[Beagleman]

Don't get me started on the Burnham/Kol knife-fight. Clearly neither of them are any good at it.

Yes, that took me out of it a bit. What they do is basically look what your opponent does, wait a second, show them exactly what your next move will be and strike at their blade (...in a knife fight), repeat again and again... ugh. They could've got a bit more training, then again I doubt those costumes allow for much movement.

 

[marsh8472]

It probably wouldn't bother me being victimized by that Klingon lady.

 

[XCV330]

another thought did occur to me though about Lorca's motivations. He's shown himself to be extremely protective of Burnham. He may also not want to see her returned to prison.

 

[Vger23]

It probably wouldn't bother me being victimized by that Klingon lady.

Best. Post. Ever...!

Well played, sir.

 

[Noname Given]

I licked this episode quite a bit - for reasons detailed by others above - nice mix of actuion and character and story moments. I gave it an 8, Why not a 10?

Nitpicks (and they are);
- I'm not a fan of overused tropes and I was watching this with a group of friends and when Stamets said too Lorca: "That's okay, I'll do one more jump..." EVERYONE blurted out - "One jump to many..." and "Next stop...Mirror Universe..." Yeah, we ALL knew it was coming so sorry, but I detract 1 point for the MASSIVE obvious trope here.

- Beaming two operatives onto a ship and having them get away with it - okay, I can go with that to a point, not a first here, but not done enough in the past to enter Trek Trope territory, BUT: A HUGE (obvious) 'Sensor' that SPEAKS English when activating and has a clear English display that anyone looking at it would plainly see? Sorry, but that's just ridiculous. I could buy it a little more if they's NOT had the English speaking interface and the display went dark once active.

- Both the Admiral and L'Rell still alive...what happened to "We can unexpectedly kill a character and keep the audience guessing..." Yeah, sorry, they're DEFINITELY in Star Trek trope territory again; and honestly for the TOS era - we're light of 'Redshirt' (well Copper Shirt in ST : D's case) deaths with the one female security officer that was around for a whole episode and a half.

- 136 'jumps' to map the Klingon Cloaking device? Really? Why such a high number as they could have gotten the same story mileage out of less jumps and cut down on the utterly ridiculous aspect of soooo many jumps. Hell, how could the Drive recover so fast and one person (Tilly) replace spore canisters fast enough to keep the 'Jump' pace we saw on the screen going?

- The ENTIRE Klingon Bridge crew effectively stopping everything they were doing to watch Kol beat up Burnham in combat. Yes, TOS film and early TNG (say Season 2 or before) Kingons MIGHT be that stupid - but TOS era Klingons......no sorry didn't work for me. Why didn't Kol have the ship Warp away, and THEN duel Burnham? <--- Because then you'd have Klingons with the Ship of the dead intact and one more Fed prisoner (Ash is Klingon, so he doesn't count. ); assuming of course Kol didn't kill her outright. All done so we could get the "Fire all remaining Photons" bit (which I did like on some level, but it would have been nicer if there had been some tactics involved rather tahan Lorca questioning why it's still just sitting there.

Likes:

- Lorca showing that at his Core, he IS a true blue Starfleet officer and Captain. He is just driven - (probably because of the way he lost his last ship - to put an end the the current War and all the Death/Destrction/hardship it's causing; but yeah, he's still got the classic Federation Captain 'idealistic' streak in him. It just takes a certain situation to coax it to display itself.

- The duel between Kol and Burnham.

- Even given the nitpick above - Lorca giving his eyes a dose so he can watch the destruction of the Klingon Ship of the dead.

- The general pacing of the episode.

Looking forward to January and the 'revelation' that they're in the parallel 'Mirror Universe.

Spoiler

I have to wonder though if their continuity fix at the end will be: We find out 'Discovery' WASN'T taking place in 'our' Star Trek Universe (IE the shared 50+ year 'Prime' Universe we fans love and nitpick to death) - but at the end of the first season, after getting out of the Mirror Universe of course - ENDS UP in the actual 'Prime' Universe (with the Spore Drive tech unusable/unrepeatable/unrepeatable in said Universe due to some slight technobabble reason; and they go forward from that point into 'our' Star Trek Universe?

 

[Vger23]

I thought someone had posted some of the absolutely gorgeous screenshots of the Discovery this past episode...but can't find them in this thread.

I know I said this before...but whoever directed this episode should be back frequently. The camera movements, lighting, cinematography...everything was A+ quality. Made this look as good as (in some cases better than) a feature film. The visual effects were also outlandish.

 

[guyute03]

I thought someone had posted some of the absolutely gorgeous screenshots of the Discovery this past episode...but can't find them in this thread.

I know I said this before...but whoever directed this episode should be back frequently. The camera movements, lighting, cinematography...everything was A+ quality. Made this look as good as (in some cases better than) a feature film. The visual effects were also outlandish.

Page 16 of this thread. Was an absolute joy grabbing those this morning. Just gorgeous stuff.

 

[Kor]

...

• How the Discovery fought against the klingon ship, "jumping" and firing faster than could be anticipated, was basically the "Picard manoever" which he used with the Stargazer against the Ferengi, wasn't it?

...

No, the Picard Maneuver literally makes the ship look like it's in two places at once.

...

• It seemed Kol was unfamiliar with the Federations "universal translator". Which would be a clear continuity error in regards to ENT, where a predecessor was used to talk with the klingons

...

The Klingon Empire has been in disarray for decades. Kol might not have access to some obscure technical logs from a century ago.

Kor

 

[Rahul]

The Klingon Empire has been in disarray for decades. Kol might not have access to some obscure technical logs from a century ago.

Kor

I'm pretty sure the universal translator is something a lot of other species use as well. Or how do all the different species communicate with each other? Because we know they do, from ENT. In fact, if I remember correctly on ENT, they said they used an already existing Vulcan translator (before having the first "universal" prototype in "Terra Prime")

 

[Vger23]

Page 16 of this thread. Was an absolute joy grabbing those this morning. Just gorgeous stuff.

Thank you!

 

[Longinus]

It was a good episode. Again great character moments, Tyler in particular finally felt like a human being (pun intended), and the plot mostly worked. I gave it a seven.

It however again had a lot of plainly stupid things, many of which were just included because the plot demanded them. Lorca was hesitant to send Burnham, but did not anticipate Tyler might have some issues with facing Klingons again due his past experiences? And why did Tyler say they did not expect to find human prisoners? The admiral was captured by Kol just recently, had they already forgotten her? Also, why had the Klingons just left Cornwall and L'Rell in the corpse room? But the absolutely weirdest bit was the Cornwall's shuttle. Why would they send her by the shuttle, and how could it arrive to it's destination before the Discovery would made it in the starbase?

I am also worried about future plot twists about Tyler and Lorca, which could undermine the great character development done with these characters.

 

[Gonzo]

Even more than ENT S4 (minus TATV) ?

By that point the damage was done if you ask me, the worst damage was in season one by far, tv shows these days only really get one season to make their mark.

I don't even bother watching anything on the Scifi channel any more, not much point as it will be cancelled anyway.

 

[Gonzo]

Just a small point of contention, so I fixed it for you

Its certainly not any contention for me, if you preferred seeing Trip pregnant that's entirely your concern.

I just found the show to be boring which Star Trek is not meant to be, the biggest culprits were the Xindi, I would take the Discovery Klingons over them even with the horrible monologue in the first two episodes.

I don't place the blame at the casts door though as they were all great, the scriptwriters had no vision nor showed any kind of bravery either.

Plus the intro theme was just rubbish and dare I say it boring as well so I guess at least it fit the show, who on earth thought it would be a good idea to have a folk song in Star Trek ought to be Tribbled to death.

I like the Discovery theme, its subdued but efficient and you can just tell its planning something clever.

 

[Mr Pointy Ears]

i didn't mind this one,what going on with tyler,is a a Klingon by birth so we seeing the torture he was going thruogh

 

[alex08060]

A very good episode but I now have to wait until next year to watch the rest.

 

[starri]

This was the first episode I've felt compelled to rewatch from beginning to end.
I don't know quite how to explain what I mean by this, but there was a moment at the beginning of the fight between Michael and Kol where she gets up after he knocks her down, and the look on her face was 100% Kira.