Spoilers Star Trek: Discovery 2x04 - "An Obol for Charon"

Kelpian Helper™. That glove isn't just for handling threat ganglia.

 

Pollard is a Lieutenant JG.

So I guess we still don't know who the CMO is.

Number One would have her Hamburger Kelper with habanero sauce.

 

Bashir was a Lt. Jg.

 

^ Yeah, but DS9 was a backwater outpost in the middle of nowhere, so it makes sense that its CMO would not be that high of a rank.

Discovery, OTOH, is a major ship of the line, so its CMO would be higher up on the totem pole. Also remember, Hugh Culber was a LCDR, and he wasn't the CMO either.

 

Good point.

 

Did we ever learn Dr. Boyce's rank? He seemed pretty old by Starfleet standards and he was seen wearing his uniform with rank braids on the sleeves, but unfortunately the TOS pilot ranks were pretty much impossible to determine by simply looking at the sleeves on each shirt. Everybody had just one braid or none at all.

 

and bashir could chose his assignment

 

The Enterprise-A had three Captains serving aboard the same ship and all as part of the senior staff.

 

there's no reason to consider her part of the crew - as far as we know all these rescued people could still be in sickbay and reno still be 'hitching a ride'

 

Starfleet has never done this, ever. It started out as just Captain, lieutenants and crewman. Then there were no enlisted and on and on.

Figuring it out and expecting consistency is rather strenuous, at best.

 

You are assuming that these are character who are permanently assigned to the ship, not just people who are temporarily assigned because the fleet hasn't sent them somewhere else, or that the Temporarily assigned Captain says give me that person for this special assignment. And when exactly has Starfleet ever followed the strict rules of modern naval protocols when it comes to the ranks of those manning ships?

 

US aircraft carriers often have 5-7 Captains on board.

 

And many of them are just bottles of Captain Morgan's

 

i'm all for pouring that back into the horse

 

I had to rewatch this.

I'm going with a 9. I was going to originally go 6 or 7, but I really wasn't in a good place when we watched this the first time. I missed a lot and wasn't really taking it in.

This was a really good episode. It was Star Trek at its core, while also being uniquely Discovery. The "sphere plot" was really good. Typical Trek stuff, but very well executed. The emotional beats hit just right, and the performances of Doug Jones and SMG sell the Saru arc beautifully.

Very good stuff. I'm glad I gave it a second look before rating it.

 

I agree. This had all the hallmarks of a great Trek episode. The near death scene between Burnham and Saru was really well done by both actors.

 

I just re-watched the episode and cried even more. Just so many emotional beats to react to. Great build up and pay off. The sphere trying to initiate Last Contact just resonates with me. Then you add on Saru/Michael's farewell scenes and the Space Oddity moment with Tilly and Stamets and you get an episode which is rich with emotion and regret.

Seeing the crew stand at attention for Saru when they all thought he was about to die was heart-warming, albeit bittersweet.

 

Nope. We didn't even learn whether he was the CMO or just a random physician (that is, Pike's physician). I mean, yes, he was the one to represent the medical dept in the big meetings, but as we so often see in DSC (but also in VOY and TNG), this really isn't telling; the Chief might not be bothered with mere kowtow with the CO.

And everybody wearing this one braid was called Lieutenant. Which is just as it ought to be, in terms of the rest of Star Trek.

In theory, and in terms of (lack of) dialogue, Nhan could be the current Chief Engineer of the Discovery, from "Obol" on, having assumed the post when it got confirmed the Enterprise was down for the count and this Louvier character would be taking care of her.

In practice, most probably not.

RL navies don't do science ships where 300 shady experiments are being run concurrently to discover a war-winning formula. Perhaps the Discovery is up to her Bussards with high-ranking MDs and engineers not because of the needs of the mere 130+ crew or the maintenance-light ship, but because Starfleet wants its bioweapons and supershields ASAP?

We have seen one medical character who was a full Commander - the guy had an, uh, repeating role in "Magic" as the first victim of Harry Mudd's phaser rampage. In addition, there have been at least three people in medical white and with pips to their badges, including Culber. Some of these might be there for patient care. Others might be there for the anti-Klingon properties of biomimetic gel. Although the unnnamed CMO did engage in medical care at least once, digging out that Andorian's tonsil. Or then he was perfecting dental torture techniques for the war effort.

Timo Saloniemi

 

Better late than never:
Here is my little review of "An Obol for Charon", without having read any of the previous pages (so sorry if I open up debates that have already been going on for 60 pages ):

An Obol for Charon
It was a good episode.

Not a great one. In my opinion it felt into almost all of the traps of the by-the-numbers "Weird space wedgie threatens ship via indirect means, turns out to be benelovent, and gives crew a shit-ton of data as a result that is never seen or mentioned again". Like, really, we have seen this plot a thousand times already. What I was hoping for was a unique DIS-spin on the material - being connected to the overall story-arc or red-amgel mystery, or making use of the characters in a way no other show could. But alas, the main plot was really by-the-numbers and predictable.

What elevates the episode way above mediocrity was the shit-ton of great scenes sprinkled throughout: Cute and funny little character moments, but also scary and emotional ones! Despite the main plot being pretty forgettable - many of the character-scenes aren't! They all felt very important to either the characters, the on-going arcs, or - even better - for both. So far, I'm hooked into season 2.

What I liked:

• The ship really felt "like a spider in a web" - the vfx were amazing, and the situation of being trapped palpable
• Tilly - Like last episode, her acting blew me away, and damn, I loved her electrocuted hair!
• The Jet Reno and Stamets -chemistry: They really hit it off in the battle of the charming snarks!
• Saru's quarters with all the plants in it: It's only a minor thing, but it adds SO much to his "alien-ness".
  
• Also, Saru's aknowledgement of is "refugee-status": Writers, take note: THIS is how to do political commentary without being on the nose or self-congratulatory about it! Very well done.
• "Space Oddity"! Damn. They DO know their audience!
• Lots and lots (really, SO MUCH) of great acting from Doug Jones, Mary Wiseman, SMG, Anthony Rapp et. all in many emotional scenes.

Neutral observations:

• Lots of questions about the space wedgie: Where did it learn to programm computer viruses? And why does it has collected objective data about political wars between humanoid species? I would have liked it much, much, much more if the entity had planted it's subjective experience to the DIS: It's encounters with other beings, maybe seeing his own species die out. As a big blob in space, being an encyclopedia made little sense. (Nitpicks!!!)
• Saru loosing his fear boner: On the one hand, it was great that "alien crewmember got sick because of weird alien encounter" had a lasting impact in this episode, and won't be simply forgotten by the next one. On the other hand - his constant fear (but still being a functional being with it!) was kinda' the point of the character, and what made him interesting in the first place. Imagine if in TOS, Spock, in season 2, suddenly started having emotions and leave his logic behind? I have to see where this plot threads leads us. But I hope the core of the character will remain intact.
• The universal translator malfunction - putting directly other languages in the mouth of people. I'm not so sure if I like it. I would have prefered it if everyone switched back to their native language. How it was depicted was kinda illogical (-), but also really weird (+). What irked me was that they weren't able to read their controls anymore - A pilot on a 737 can fly a 737 with Chinese controls - the controls remain the same. But that's reaaally nitpicky of me.
• Soooo... they met the Enterprise in the opening teaser? To get Nr. 1 one board? But didn't show her, only the transporter pad? What? Why?

What I didn't like
(mostly small little things - nothing severe)

• The prime directive shouldn't apply to the Kelpians being harvested by the Ba'Ul: This is NOT "interference in internal issues" - The Ba'Ul already ARE breaking the prime directive towards the Kelpians, by harvesting a pre-warp society. Since TOS "A private little war", TNG "Redemption" (and numerous other Trek episodes, the newest being ENT "civilisation") - it has been established it is okay for Starfleet to "police" other species if they interfere in the internal matters of others.
  
• Cpt. Pike didn't felt like a character this episode - he was an obstacle t overcome for Burnham.
  
• The ticking clock - Spock breaking out of his cell, flying away with the shuttle, and getting out of sensor range - that entire plot was "told", not "shown". Thus it had no impact at all, the episode didn't need it. It should have been a stinger at the end ("Oh, Spock escaped! Next episode we have to track him").
• The snapchat-filter on their faces in the anomaly. Yeah.
• Rebecca Romjin as Nr. 1. She wasn't bad per se. In fact, her acting was much more in line with Majel Berret, than Anson Mount is to Jeffrey Hunter. But overall, I think there was nothing added to the character, and thus it just felt like forced fan-references instead of being natural. And then I always wish the show would stand more on it's on feet, and focus on it's own characters -- they could have had the same scene with Admiral Cornwell or Ambassador Sarek, and then we wouldn't even have the problem of the Enterprise not being shown

Conclusion
Overall, a nice little Trek episode. I think this one was a bit cluttered - it would have been better to focus on only one or two of the plot arcs, and delve into them a little deeper. Instead all of them felt a little hollow, and especially the main Plots (space wedgie and sick alien crew members) felt like we already have seen them a thousand times.

That being said, all the character scenes were great, Tilly's subplot continues to be interesting. And I really like the direction that season 2 has taken so far! In fact, I think they can get a bit more experimental in the future again! I think a more conservative approach is the right one when tackling intimately familiar characters (Klingons, D7, Spock, Pike), and everything that's new (red angels, weird space wedgies) should be balls-to-the-walls madness!

7/10