Tilly found an archaic hard drive with a folder call "My Napster Downloads".
Spoilers Star Trek: Discovery 2x04 - "An Obol for Charon"
- Thread starter Commander Richard
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Tilly found an archaic hard drive with a folder call "My Napster Downloads".
+10 for 'an adult size music' lol!
Well, this week. Wow. I bounced around all over the place.
This was a story where endings were better than beginnings, and the whole was more than the sum of its parts.
Setup didn't really grab me. Very TNG - Disaster, Conundrum - space whatjamaflip causes the ship to have a range of seemingly devastating problems. A few too many, in fact, which left me wondering where to focus. Ship's falling apart, we're losing Spock, Saru is dying, Tilly is dying, engineering is electrified, translator doesn't work, all got a bit cluttered for me. A lot of the scenes worked really well, especially the Tower of Babel bit, but I think one less problem here would have helped the focus.
Then the story took a while doing little problem solving scenes which mostly took the role of filling time until it was time for the reveal and laying down lines which would become eerily prophetic later.
Then the episode came together in spectacular style. The main story became a wonderful traditional Star Trek story of "communicate with the strange life form" but with an interesting and poignant twist. I loved the execution of it, Pike's trust in his officers, and the scientific bent of the resolution - talking, not shooting - which is old school Picard style Trek. Great stuff. Saru's story ended really well too, and avoided the temptation to just have him recover and be the same after facing death. Then we had what is presumably the beginning of the end for the spore drive as we learn May's reason for hitching a ride (and making Stamets' defence of the spore drive seem suitably ironic).
A strange experience to have watching it, really, a 5 at the first third point turned into me wanting to give it a 9 by the end. I still don't know what to score it!
This was a story where endings were better than beginnings, and the whole was more than the sum of its parts.
Setup didn't really grab me. Very TNG - Disaster, Conundrum - space whatjamaflip causes the ship to have a range of seemingly devastating problems. A few too many, in fact, which left me wondering where to focus. Ship's falling apart, we're losing Spock, Saru is dying, Tilly is dying, engineering is electrified, translator doesn't work, all got a bit cluttered for me. A lot of the scenes worked really well, especially the Tower of Babel bit, but I think one less problem here would have helped the focus.
Then the story took a while doing little problem solving scenes which mostly took the role of filling time until it was time for the reveal and laying down lines which would become eerily prophetic later.
Then the episode came together in spectacular style. The main story became a wonderful traditional Star Trek story of "communicate with the strange life form" but with an interesting and poignant twist. I loved the execution of it, Pike's trust in his officers, and the scientific bent of the resolution - talking, not shooting - which is old school Picard style Trek. Great stuff. Saru's story ended really well too, and avoided the temptation to just have him recover and be the same after facing death. Then we had what is presumably the beginning of the end for the spore drive as we learn May's reason for hitching a ride (and making Stamets' defence of the spore drive seem suitably ironic).
A strange experience to have watching it, really, a 5 at the first third point turned into me wanting to give it a 9 by the end. I still don't know what to score it!
This episode was a major "step down" from the first 3.
This thing with Tilly feels like a distraction from the main storyline at a time when the show doesn't have the luxury of telling such "filler"-type stories, and the "A" and "B" plots were things we've seen done - and done better - before.
It also felt like they were just throwing characters into the episode simply for the sake of having them there. Nhan and Linus had no real purpose in the episode, Tig Notaro and Anthony Rapp don't have any onscreen chemistry, which hurt their part in the episode even more, and Rebecca Romjin was wasted in a pointless appearance as Number One.
I'm going to rate it as a 5 simply because I don't want to go any lower than that, but this one just wasn't very good or interesting.
This thing with Tilly feels like a distraction from the main storyline at a time when the show doesn't have the luxury of telling such "filler"-type stories, and the "A" and "B" plots were things we've seen done - and done better - before.
It also felt like they were just throwing characters into the episode simply for the sake of having them there. Nhan and Linus had no real purpose in the episode, Tig Notaro and Anthony Rapp don't have any onscreen chemistry, which hurt their part in the episode even more, and Rebecca Romjin was wasted in a pointless appearance as Number One.
I'm going to rate it as a 5 simply because I don't want to go any lower than that, but this one just wasn't very good or interesting.
the Romulans hackers interfered in the election!
Yeah, agree. During the watch, I thought the parallel storylines of the dying planet thing and dying Saru were a bit too on the nose. But then they tied them together in an interesting way.
Similarly, I thought the dialogue between Michael and the dying Saru was pretty leaden, and the connection between them felt unearned. But then I really liked how they resolved Saru's impending death. That felt like a brave character decision -- and was a twist I actually didn't see coming.
Overall, as you say, more than the sum of its parts. I might watch it again.
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i wonder whether the ba'ul (we haven't seen them yet) are ganglia-less kelpians and those they 'take' are not for the sunday roast but the next to evolve into ba'ul.
i don't remeber the words exactly but i think it was about they are taken to sustain the ba'ul. ba'ul might no longer be fertile ...
the empress just had them as roast because she believed that stuff.
I'm suspecting we will see her again.
And I'm really liking the theory that she will be the Discovery's new captain next season.
I was clock watching throughout this episode. Neither of the storylines were very interesting. The evil blob is dumb as hell. This warranted a b plot in one episode instead of being dragged out for weeks. The other story was by the numbers Trek, which is fine, but I never believed anyone was in any real danger so the melodramatics were over the top.
Sonequa is a really bad actress. She is incredibly stilted and wooden. Doug Jones under all that makeup put in a more moving performance. Not a fan of the sarky engineer's acting either. She isn't likeable enough to overlook how bad she is.
Pike was great as always, Number One appeared far too briefly to really judge, the bridge crew are woefully underused but enjoyable, the Spock storyline is dismal and the focus on Burnham every week is killing the show. Roll on, Georgiou and Picard.
Sonequa is a really bad actress. She is incredibly stilted and wooden. Doug Jones under all that makeup put in a more moving performance. Not a fan of the sarky engineer's acting either. She isn't likeable enough to overlook how bad she is.
Pike was great as always, Number One appeared far too briefly to really judge, the bridge crew are woefully underused but enjoyable, the Spock storyline is dismal and the focus on Burnham every week is killing the show. Roll on, Georgiou and Picard.
She'll be back.
I gave it a 6.
I liked the dying sphere plot, even if it was a tad obvious (and so very Star Trek) that the sphere was trying to communicate.
I enjoyed Saru's back story and the parallels with today's social issues, but I didn't enjoy at all the very long "Saru is dying" part of it.
Even if Saru is my favorite character, I didn't feel a thing about his situation or moved by Burhnam 's emotional reaction, which for me is a proof on how bad / poorly these characters and their relations were (not) developed in the 1st season. I guess they will build all this properly with time.
To my surprise, for the 2nd week in a row, Tilly's story was quite interesting. And Space Oddity? Loved it even if I am wondering if the writers googled it or really appreciate Bowie.
Doug Jones is a frakking hero for being able to act so well under a ton of prosthetic (whatever this thing is) on his face and body. He deserves all the TV awards in the world.
This episode sparked a bit of a fantasy, imagine a musical DSC episode about the origins of Bowie, I mean we all know the guy was an alien. Right?
I liked the dying sphere plot, even if it was a tad obvious (and so very Star Trek) that the sphere was trying to communicate.
I enjoyed Saru's back story and the parallels with today's social issues, but I didn't enjoy at all the very long "Saru is dying" part of it.
Even if Saru is my favorite character, I didn't feel a thing about his situation or moved by Burhnam 's emotional reaction, which for me is a proof on how bad / poorly these characters and their relations were (not) developed in the 1st season. I guess they will build all this properly with time.
To my surprise, for the 2nd week in a row, Tilly's story was quite interesting. And Space Oddity? Loved it even if I am wondering if the writers googled it or really appreciate Bowie.
Doug Jones is a frakking hero for being able to act so well under a ton of prosthetic (whatever this thing is) on his face and body. He deserves all the TV awards in the world.
This episode sparked a bit of a fantasy, imagine a musical DSC episode about the origins of Bowie, I mean we all know the guy was an alien. Right?
Maybe a future episode of DSC could have a character mention the Rolling Stones' "2000 Light Years from Home."
I prefer to believe that they are just another group of humanoids that evolved on the same planet
Saru's saga is totally Eloi. Can't wait to see if he tries to save his people, and ends up being the catalyst for their complete eradication by fearful harvesters.
'cause fearing to be no longer warned will lead to more fear (of being helpless) and cardiac arrest?
All the talk about music reminded me that I didn't share my thoughts on Tilly and Stamets singing David Bowie's Space Oddity. I loved it, I've always been a bit annoyed that all of Trek's culture references were from 2 or 3 hundred years ago today, so it was nice to get some modern references for once.
Even centuries from now, Zora the computer's favorite film is 1957's Funny Face, and Craft seems to be fascinated by Betty Boop.
Indeed. Saru and Burnham weren't even speaking at the start of season 1, but "there will never be judgment between us"....
But the way they resolved the Saru plot was interesting, and tied the Short Trek into the episode nicely.
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