Spoilers Star Trek: Discovery 2x05 - "Saints of Imperfection"

Therapy works. Bringing back from the dead? I don't know. But, in fairness, Kirk wasn't dead for very long.

 

Yep and people being brought back from being "mostly dead" isn't unheard of either.

 

Precisely so. And often overlooked aspect of the Space Seed story that McCoy managed to figure out in that episode.

As McCoy points out. But, as Nerys points too that blood therapy and blood doping are part of real-world science now. The idea of extrapolating to the idea that harvesting Khan's cells that regenerate themselves to replace damaged tissues from radiation are about as Star Trek and SF as it gets.

 

I honestly feel like Stamets as a character is almost solely built on the premise of him being unable to even accept loss, so he'll rather vanish (abandon starfleet) when confronted with the feeling than continue being himself (a scientist by calling), which we were shown in the beginning of S2.

I bet he'd find another way to continue having Dr. Culber at his side, even if he died on him again.. Maybe upload his conscience into Discovery's computer from an old teleport signature or something like that. At least I would hope for the most believable romantic couple TV had to offer me in the past few years to continue granting me the great pleasure of letting me partake in their philosophical journey through the depths of each other's psyche among the stars.

 

This would make the Short Trek about the abandoned Discovery floating adrift a thousand years in the future even more bittersweet, seeing as there's no Culber mind residing in it.

 

It really does. At first I was annoyed to see them giving her a speech spouting this kind of revisionist self-justification for continuing evil, but I realized that it reveals a lot about her character that makes the end of Season 1 less of a "how can she go along with this?" and more of an "of course she did" moment. It also recontextualizes her interactions with Lorca, and that he was more right than he knew to send her out of his way. We don't know if her alliance with S31 existed pre-war, but if it did it's likely her threats to him to turn him into Starfleet Command would have instead gone directly to her puppet intelligence arm.

I hope more than ever she gets some comeuppance for betraying her oaths to the Federation, but I'm still on the fence about whether or not Discovery's producers actually believe in this message... in which case, she'll continue getting tacit approval by plots that require S31 to "rescue" our heroes from their naïveté.

 

They didn't retcon Cornwell into a horrible person. She already was, Remember? She's an admiral who uses her skills as a psychologist on the subordinates she sleeps with. Think about how unethical that behavior is.

 

I keep saying, you'll see Cornwell again in TOS as someone calling herself "Lethe"

 

Point taken. Definitely not a great first impression.

At the time it seemed like a fun coincidence, but as we see more of her I think this may have been the eventual intent. Whether the new showrunners will follow through, who knows...

 

People have pointed out that she can't be Lethe because of reasons I can't remember.

 

I see what you did there.

 

That wasn't on purpose

 

Eddington was right about the Federation.

 

Eddington was probably right about several things, but for the wrong reasons and at the wrong time.

 

Yeah. I know that feeling bro.

 

I can't imagine what those "reasons" could be, considering all we are told of "Lethe" in "Dagger Of The Mind" (TOS) is:

ADAMS: Lethe came to us for rehabilitation and stayed on as a therapist—and a very good one too, I might add.
LETHE: [blankly] I love my work.
ADAMS: [gesturing to Kirk] Go right ahead, Captain.
KIRK: [to Lethe] Before you came here?
LETHE: I was another person. Malignant, hateful.
KIRK: May I ask what crime you committed?
LETHE: Does it matter? That person no longer exists.
ADAMS: Part of our cure, if you will, Captain, is to bury the past. Why should a person go on living with unbearable memories...​

Adams' "neural neutralizer" does seem rather similar to the Terran "memory extractor" Section 31 was going to use on Spock, too.

I'm not saying they've ever necessarily intended Cornwell to be her, but it's certainly within the realm of possibility.

-MMoM

 

The therapist bit certainly fits. I do wonder about what crime demanded that she had her mind wiped.

 

Could be part of Section 31 "covering its tracks" per "Inquisition" (DS9), et al.

It's a better 'theory' than Lorca turning out to be Garth of Izar somehow, as I recall some proposing around the same time, and which might be the one @Tuskin38 was thinking of.

-MMoM

 

Ah yes! One of my favorite deepfake PhotoShop jobs! I didn't originate the theory, though...

 

...unless of course, it just now occurs to me, Cornwell dies. (Frustratingly, I haven't yet been able to watch tonight's episode, and won't be able to for another hour, so I've been entirely avoiding the episode thread so as not to be spoiled! If this turns out to be an unintentional spoiler I'll come back and put it in tags once I know it is...or a mod can feel free, obviously.)

-MMoM