Spoilers Star Trek: Discovery 2x01 - "Brother"

[Uhura's Song]

Solid start.

On some of the Tilly observations: the bet here is that she is in a McCoy/Search for Spock situation and will have odd behavior & outbursts around Stamets for a reason.

Was not as impressed with Pike/Mount (good not great) as others. Nor am I a fan of the ST09 tone. Which I found too silly by half.

 

[Ithekro]

I don't, but I would like it a lot if s/he/they got an editor; such howlers as "I will avail myself to you" (Sarek--and he's married to a teacher, so has no excuse) should not make it to the screen. Every episode of Discovery so far has unfortunately contained at least one really awful misuse of English. Seriously, folks, just give the final draft to an English expert to check over. This is painful, and jolts one's enjoyment of an absorbing story. I have been a devoted Trek watcher since it began, and am still fascinated by how the Trekverse is developing. Stop misusing the language, folks, it hurts.

Sarek is into some weird things with a human woman. Maybe he likes red pens and wants the strict teacher to fail him and hold him after school.

 

[Tim Thomason]

Remember: English is Sarek's SECOND language.

Sarek is having a private conversation with Burnham. They're both probably speaking Vulcan.

It's the universal translator (in our TV) that's making the mistake.

 

[Tosk]

I don't see anything wrong there, but then English isn't my first language. What have I missed?

It's actually a very small margin of error that they're talking about rather than a big one.

 

[Vger23]

It's the universal translator (in our TV) that's making the mistake.

Too bad it didn't make the mistake during the S1 Klingon dialogue scenes.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Sarek is having a private conversation with Burnham. They're both probably speaking Vulcan.

It's the universal translator (in our TV) that's making the mistake.

Never buy one second hand from Harry Mudd.

 

[cooleddie74]

Too bad it didn't make the mistake during the S1 Klingon dialogue scenes.

Sheesh, thanks for reminding me. If there's ever a Trek award for most incomprehensible dialogue given in an episode or film the Klingon mumblefest from Season 1 of DSC would be a strong contender.

 

[Lord Garth]

Never buy one second hand from Harry Mudd.

Harry Mudd might not be reputable but the shop is now Under New Management with Leo Walsh.

 

[CorporalClegg]

Never buy one second hand from Harry Mudd.

Funny, because Mudd has clearly bought a second hand for himself.

And a third hand. And fourth hand.

 

[cooleddie74]

Harry Mudd might not be reputable but the shop is now Under New Management with Leo Walsh.

"You won't be dissatisfied with one lousy thing...thing...THING..."

 

[Ithekro]

'The Dirty Klingon Phrase program is available from the Regent's Press Shop on Rigel IV for 3 slips of gold-pressed latinum.'

 

[Awesome Possum]

Sarek is having a private conversation with Burnham. They're both probably speaking Vulcan.

It's the universal translator (in our TV) that's making the mistake.

Maybe English has changed somewhat over the centuries like it has in the past. Futurama even used to play with that as a joke by having "ask" replaced by "axe". Mainly because one of the head writer's mother was an English teacher and it was her pet peeve.

 

[Spot261]

Why, do you have a problem with her characterisation in the first episode?

Not at all, but at no point was she referred to as autistic, that's something people have imposed onto a tabula rasa.

"Social difficulties" (which is the term I think she used, must check) covers a whole spectrum of possible interpretations, only a few of which involve the autistic spectrum. Even there only a few are actually diagnosable as autism per se.

 

[catshadowsi8]

I really enjoyed the episode. I gave it an 8 only because the 'Berman is amazing' gets kind of annoying after a while but, honestly, this was really enjoyable. I love Pike. The actor did a wondeful job and i totally enjoyed having the entire bridge crew introduced. About time! It was exciting and more 'exploring the unknown' which i like. The character i really felt nailed it was the doctor/engineer on the crashed ship. Loved her. Hope she stays.

I was on the fence after season 1 but season 2 is looking up. Hope it continues.

 

[Hythlodeus]

Too bad it didn't make the mistake during the S1 Klingon dialogue scenes.

Oh come on, I REALLY loved that. Paired with the fantastic make up job, it made the Klingons feel truly alien, which hasn't happened in Star Trek ever. If anything, I want MORE subtitles and more reimagined make up jobs in that fashion. I want alien cultures to feel alien instead of 'guys with weird latex foreheads #34'

 

[MakeshiftPython]

I don't see anything wrong there, but then English isn't my first language. What have I missed?

Basically if you have a large margin of error, that means you have a higher chance of succeeding. What Riker should have said was that it's a small margin of error, meaning there's a high difficulty to achieving success.

 

[saddestmoon]

Just watched it now: fantastic stuff!

I gave it a 9.

Different tone from season 1, but a change for the better, I feel.

 

[Tim Thomason]

Maybe English has changed somewhat over the centuries like it has in the past. Futurama even used to play with that as a joke by having "ask" replaced by "axe". Mainly because one of the head writer's mother was an English teacher and it was her pet peeve.

Most certainly, but there's no reason for Sarek to be speaking English in that scene. Unless you don't think Burnham speaks Vulcan, which I find unlikely, given her acceptance in the VSA.

 

[Grendelsbayne]

Having not been able to keep up with the thread, I'll just add my thoughts on the episode rather than the discussion.

Brother was a good episode, but hardly an amazing one. As a season opener it was very low impact and not much was really made clear about the stakes or direction of the story.

The tone was fine. Slightly lighter, but hardly the total polar opposite of season 1 some people apparently want it to be - which isn't a problem for me as I never took issue with season 1's tone. Most of this come's down to Pike's friendly neighborhood starship captain demeanor, since most of the actual jokes that were made in this story were generally poor. (Sneeze joke looked idiotic in the trailer and turned out to be even more idiotic in the show, Jett Reno felt more like a sitcom character who wandered into a Star Trek Episode and Saru's line about (I guess?) his ganglia didn't even make any sense.)

Tilly was amazing as always, except they took her introduction to Pike a little too far/long (seemingly part of the bad jokes problem mentioned above, except her joke would've been fine if they simply cut it off a little faster).

I was glad to see more Tilly/Burnham and Burnham/Sarek. SMG is still great and the character stuff was the best part of the episode, though it was a fun rescue party sequence as well. Also nice that Stamets hasn't completely forgotten Culber, although Stamets was largely immaterial to the episode.

I liked all the new characters, except Jett Reno needs to be toned down some. (And Connelly was an ass, but he's already gone, so, good enough). I was also glad to see there was an actually solid explanation for meeting the Enterprise via distress call, which really felt like a ridiculous cliffhanger when I first saw it.

Overall, it seems like a clear recovery from the absolutely terrible final arc of last season. But it's not even close to the best episode of the series, and I remain cautious about the rest of the season since the things that were botched so badly last year were all long term story and characterization screwups, so one episode with very little story content doesn't really guarantee the problems are fixed.

 

[Sakonna]

Well, "Brother" did make me relieved anew that these showrunners are gone in a few eps time. Whatever positive aspects of Discovery they're responsible for, it's clearer with each passing week that they are not and were not up to the task of fixing Disco's problems. The dialogue in particular was remarkably shoddy, I'm not sure there was a single exchange in the full hour that didn't have some aspect jump out at me in it's falseness. (Pike: I don't want to hear your rank. Seconds later: "Lieutenant Commander Airiam" Just so she isn't answering with just "Airiam", to then set up Saru's dumb "Saru -- just Saru" joke following. It's all so tortured!)

But, also as usual with Disco, there were compensatory pleasures, and they were mostly found in characterization. Pike was great, Mary Wiseman was on fire more than she's ever been, the Stamets grieving beats almost completely rehabbed the character from the trashing he suffered at the end of S1 (but please, for the love of God, find something else to reference besides Caseelian opera! As far as I can tell, the entirely of their relationship was a discussion of the pros and cons of Caseelian opera. They probably talked about at least ONE other thing at some point!)

This show is just such a frustrating experience. They've hit a home run with the hardest things to get right (cast & characters), and remain completely incompetent at the easier, more basic tasks (story plotting, dialogue craftsmanship). Fingers crossed for better things to come as the BtS merry-go-round continues!