Spoilers Star Trek: Discovery 2x07 - "Light and Shadows"
- Thread starter Commander Richard
- Start date
Good/decent episode.
Loved Amanda. Love Talosians. Pike/Tyler resolution needed to happen. So that was OK.
Stamets needed something to do, but instead of space/time distortion being able to be pierced by Mycellial X-ray vision, perhaps we could have checked in on Wilson Cruz, who was clearly in distress but not mentioned at all.
Six.
Loved Amanda. Love Talosians. Pike/Tyler resolution needed to happen. So that was OK.
Stamets needed something to do, but instead of space/time distortion being able to be pierced by Mycellial X-ray vision, perhaps we could have checked in on Wilson Cruz, who was clearly in distress but not mentioned at all.
Six.
This one gets 9/10.
I LOVED it overall; but it had some minor things I didn't care for and sorry $0 minutes is still TOO DAMN SHORT>!
Liked:
- The way the tension was handled between Pike and Tyler/Voq. (LOVED the line: "The Chair outranks the Badge..." line; and the fact Pike was NOT impressed by Tyler throwing the "Hay, I'm Section 31's liaison, so you have to work with me..." bit. Pike was having none of it and for once we have a Captain that didn't just cry to higher authority (like some other Captains have done in the TNG era a few times in similar situations); Pike just used the Regs and DIRECTLY ASSERTED the authority a Starfleet Captain has.
- That Pike is flawed, not thinking completely clearly and is still PISSED he sat out the Klingon/Federation War and is trying to prove himself to himself (and that he took Tyler along because he figured if they bought it - too birds with one stone.)
- That they did allow Tyler to show/prove to Pike by his actions that maybe he's not such a bad guy, and is more Human than Klingon and can work for the good of the team. Pike still doesn't (and probably shouldn't) trust Tyler fully; but they moved both characters past the "To me, you're the Enemy.." stage in a believable way. (YMMV).
- That overall the presentation of the Time Rift WAS shown as dangerous and unpredictable; and further that the crew on all levels was just freaked the hell out. (And yes, I'm harping on the TNG/Berman era because If this were TNG, we'd still see some simple temporal weirdness and the Anomaly would be something they could have just scan by modifying the Deflector Dish and emitting a 'particle of the week'.) The stuff with the Anomaly here did feel unpredictable and dangerous; and while the solution WAS ultimately "Stamets and his Tartigrade DNA..." - it wasn't a linear standard Trek line solution.
- That whomever or whatever is doing these Temporal Incursions is 'fighting back' (IE The realize the U.S.S. Discovery is doing something that could interfere; so they take their Probe, modify it; and send it back to stop them. It brings up that the whole timeline is in flux and the entities of the future aren't omniscient - and there no 'set path' the timeline seems destined to follow. (I HATED the TCW aspect of ENT - but the way they're executing a similar situation here is sitting better with me. That said, if they start going down the whole 'predestined' route like they did with the TCW in ENT - my view of this plot device in this story could change to a negative one; but at this point I find it intriguing. YMMV.)
- The family tension between Micheal/Amanda/Sarek. That was VERY WELL DONE and interesting. For once we have a family relationship dynamic where the motivations of all the characters make sense - and I like that you can tell Amanda is still really pissed at Burnham because of what Burnham revealed to her; AND she pissed at Sarek because this whole situation has driven home what she sacrificed to be with him (and realizes he WOULDN'T have gone as far as she did for their relationship) - BUT she does still love the both of them and in the end wants what she thinks is best for everyone, including Spock who she is protecting. It was a complex dynamic but it was all played off well (IMO).
[Observation: The casting of 'Amada' is wonderful on all levels. She very much looked like a younger Jane Wyatt in this one and the performance she gave was wonderful too.]
- LOVED Michelle Yeoh 100%. This show is lucky to have her. I LOVED how she's portraying what she's been given to do as the former Terran Empress; and the entire sequence of scenes that involved her and SMG as Burnhan were MARVELOUS. I LOLed hard with some of the staged fight sequence; and LOVED the look she gave Burnham after she shot at (and came close to make it look good) her with the Phaser. (I'd love to see any BTS stuff where I'm sure Michelle Yeoh was giving SMG pointers/choreographing the sequence because yeah, I'm sure Michelle Yeoh had to dial it down so SMG didn't look completely out of her league in the fight sequence on camera.)
- I also like that they have the former Terran Empress still scheming on how to get/consolidate what power she can. The character is NOT being altruistic toward Burnham or Spock in any way, regardless of the reasons she claims to be helping her. Everything the character does is for her own personal gain in some respect - and I like the writers are doing that and not really softening of attempting to overtly Humanize the character.
- That the audience was shown Merriam was OBVIOUSLY compromised by the modified Probe; BUT did it in such a way that it's believable the Discovery crew (because of the situation) didn't notice.
Disliked:
- The Technobabble. Sorry, but I don't need to hear Tilly and Stamets spout meaningless TNG era style technobabble...PERIOD. TOS avoid it to this level for the most part for 80 episodes; and no one ever thought any less of the show for it. It's the 23rd century. Just have the characters do it and not spend minutes theorizing what to do and why it will work. "Stamets your Tartigrade DNA should allow you to make sense of this..." should have been all the audience needed to know.
- That the episode was only 40 minutes total INCLUDING the credits and next weeks teaser. I know they want to have teh episode "run the length that's needed..."; but come on, if you have an 'Hour Format' - said writing staff should be able to at least get 42 - 45 actual 'story' minutes in a single episode. WTF?
Seriously, had it been a bit longer, I might have given this one a 10; but to repeat, it still gets a 9/10 from me.
Alright, alright....fuck it. You convinced me. "Fun" beats "objective level-headedness" any day of the week.
9/10 from me as well!
SOLD!
I agree about Frain's performance. That was about as close to Lenardesque as he's been yet.
I...didn’t like this one all that much.
The Pike/Tyler stuff seemed forced, especially the “make nice” stuff at the end.
So Spock has been learning disabled all this time? It seems like an unnecessary retcon. Although I suppose they never said he wasn’t.
Wasn’t a fan of the Burnham/Amanda/Sarek stuff at all. It is killing me though to know what Burnham told Spock to cause the rift.
So not only is Section 31 not secret, they have a whole fleet or squadron of ships. Ugh.
The Tilly/Stamets stuff was fun. They make such a good team.
A solid 5 for me.
The Pike/Tyler stuff seemed forced, especially the “make nice” stuff at the end.
So Spock has been learning disabled all this time? It seems like an unnecessary retcon. Although I suppose they never said he wasn’t.
Wasn’t a fan of the Burnham/Amanda/Sarek stuff at all. It is killing me though to know what Burnham told Spock to cause the rift.
So not only is Section 31 not secret, they have a whole fleet or squadron of ships. Ugh.
The Tilly/Stamets stuff was fun. They make such a good team.
A solid 5 for me.
ok thoughts on episode
Pike continues to impress. Mount is going to get a Saturn award at the very least, this year.
SMG is hot. It's not pertinent to anything, but I'll say it.
Discovery just lost a shuttle. Looks like they'll soon be picking one that they'll never have time to name..
Could the enemy be the Vedraysh?
They REALLY need to dial down Tilly a bit. I really liked 1st season Tilly. 2nd season Tilly not as much.
Where is Jett Reno, again? We need more Jett Reno.
Saru is being a very good XO again. Glad they're not going to make him all angsty angry puberty-Saru now. Well done.
Reece and Bryce are getting more lines in the last few episodes than the entire rest of the series.
I think we're about to know more about Airiam.
Speaking of former daftpunk members, I think there was a Nilsson sighting, working on something in a corridor this episode.
The Sec.31 ship isn't a one off. Apparently they have a damn flotilla. Assuming Sec.31 uses familes on occasion as agents, sleeper cells, it makes me wonder about a certain couple who took their kid Annika to go follow Borg cubes around about 80 or 90 years later..
Tyler is a jerk. Pike is forgiving but not so forgiving as to not take him on a near-suicide run. Lorca would have just put him on the shuttle alone and waved bye from the hangar bay.
Pike continues to impress. Mount is going to get a Saturn award at the very least, this year.
SMG is hot. It's not pertinent to anything, but I'll say it.
Discovery just lost a shuttle. Looks like they'll soon be picking one that they'll never have time to name..
Could the enemy be the Vedraysh?
They REALLY need to dial down Tilly a bit. I really liked 1st season Tilly. 2nd season Tilly not as much.
Where is Jett Reno, again? We need more Jett Reno.
Saru is being a very good XO again. Glad they're not going to make him all angsty angry puberty-Saru now. Well done.
Reece and Bryce are getting more lines in the last few episodes than the entire rest of the series.
I think we're about to know more about Airiam.
Speaking of former daftpunk members, I think there was a Nilsson sighting, working on something in a corridor this episode.
The Sec.31 ship isn't a one off. Apparently they have a damn flotilla. Assuming Sec.31 uses familes on occasion as agents, sleeper cells, it makes me wonder about a certain couple who took their kid Annika to go follow Borg cubes around about 80 or 90 years later..
Tyler is a jerk. Pike is forgiving but not so forgiving as to not take him on a near-suicide run. Lorca would have just put him on the shuttle alone and waved bye from the hangar bay.
Really enjoyed this ep. Not perfect, as this season has strayed too far into the ‘spatial anomaly of the week’ territory and just speaking for myself that is tired. Was worried this was more of that. This episode had some great character moments and that final scene gave me the chills!
Excited where this is going now. Also can’t wait to see what is up with Airiam and the whole Leland/Georgieau saga.
Always thought Frain was a great Sarek. Did not disappoint.
Excited where this is going now. Also can’t wait to see what is up with Airiam and the whole Leland/Georgieau saga.
Always thought Frain was a great Sarek. Did not disappoint.
I think making Spock dyslexic is brilliant and makes him a role model to many more kids suffering from the affliction. Not that kids should be watching this...
Regarding the probe, I know it was established that someone sent it back from 500 years in the future (so 28th century, the Future Guy's era), but I kinda hoped it was just in the rift for a million years or something, and somehow evolved and cannibalized itself into a squid-like entity.
Regarding the probe, I know it was established that someone sent it back from 500 years in the future (so 28th century, the Future Guy's era), but I kinda hoped it was just in the rift for a million years or something, and somehow evolved and cannibalized itself into a squid-like entity.
It wasn't confirmed directly in Calypso, but IIRC the writer confirmed in a subsequent tweet that "Ved'Raysh" is a bastardization of "Federation." So Craft's human colony were at war with the future Federation.
I felt exactly the same way about Spock overcoming a "learning disability." I think it's a nice reveal.
On the subject of kids watching the show, where are you coming from there? I totally agree that most of S1 is a no-go for my 7 year old, but S2 seems largely harmless.
Maybe Spock's condition is what led him to behave as though he was unfamiliar with cloaking devices in "Balance of Terror....!"
Well, the Klingon episode was a bit of a hiccup there, but yeah it seems to be mostly TV-14 now. Probably best encapsulated by this episode having Tilly publicly censor herself from swearing again.
Didn't D.C. Fontana say that Sarek and Amanda get it on outside of Pon Farr?
Yeah, "Point of Light" would be a skip for my buddy and me.
I've felt like Shazad Latif had been the weak link acting-wise all last season. I chalked it up to his character being packed with too much with the whole Voq/Tyler thing and him trying to bear out that conflict in his performance. The confusion/vulnerability he tried to portray just didn't quite work--at least not for me.
He is very much self-assured in the role his character is playing right now and his performance has improved tremendously.
He is very much self-assured in the role his character is playing right now and his performance has improved tremendously.
Gave it a 7.
I'm wondering if Spock's shuttle disappearing in the Mutara sector has any significance, or just name-dropping.
Liked igniting the shuttle's fuel....now we know who gave Spock the idea that he used in 'The Galileo 7'.
When Pike first sees future events going on in the back of the shuttle....did he see Stamets back there? For an instant, I thought it was Stamets with the phaser. It went by really fast.
I'm wondering if Spock's shuttle disappearing in the Mutara sector has any significance, or just name-dropping.
Liked igniting the shuttle's fuel....now we know who gave Spock the idea that he used in 'The Galileo 7'.
When Pike first sees future events going on in the back of the shuttle....did he see Stamets back there? For an instant, I thought it was Stamets with the phaser. It went by really fast.
The number sequence should have been 8675309...
TALOS! Now do you understand? Wow what a set up for the next episode!!
As for this one, given that it was too much (outstanding) story in too little time, kudos to the director. Maybe this was the episode that added a 14th this season. The Starmets angle seemed a bit contrived, but I am curious to see what the Airiam angle will be. Pike got all Kirk on Tyler too! Loved the Burnham/Spock dynamic and backstory. Solid 9!
TALOS! Now do you understand? Wow what a set up for the next episode!!
As for this one, given that it was too much (outstanding) story in too little time, kudos to the director. Maybe this was the episode that added a 14th this season. The Starmets angle seemed a bit contrived, but I am curious to see what the Airiam angle will be. Pike got all Kirk on Tyler too! Loved the Burnham/Spock dynamic and backstory. Solid 9!
Stress relief. Something to do when not meditating.
i think michael’s big return to vulcan deserved more than just an act, but i feel like that’s always my reaction to these episodes: they speed through stuff that i’d want to spend an entire hour on.
though i guess if “i want more of this good stuff” is the worst complaint i can have, the show is indeed becoming something special.
oh and i’m happy to see some of the threads start to tie together.
though i guess if “i want more of this good stuff” is the worst complaint i can have, the show is indeed becoming something special.
oh and i’m happy to see some of the threads start to tie together.
Last edited:
Similar threads
- Poll
- Poll
- Poll
