Spoilers Star Trek: Discovery 3x01 - "That Hope Is You, Part 1"

Some thoughts:

A lot of the episode felt pretty paint-by-numbers generic scifi. We got small ships dog fighting in space, a marketplace with strange aliens and holograms. Security guards with lasers that shoot from their fists. We got a lovable rogue character who is a smuggler. It all felt very Star Wars. The floating holo screens from your arm are also pretty standard scifi stuff. The table that morphs and ondulates with hand gestures to control stuff looks cool and and futuristic, but is pretty generic scifi stuff. It kinda reminded me of Krypton in Man of Steel.

There were definitely some far fetched moments like Michael hitting a space ship and then falling through the atmosphere and surviving. For one, space is so vast that the odds of her exiting a wormhole and hitting a space ship maneuvering at high speed is infinitely small. Also, it is mighty convenient that Michael's red angel suit can protect her from colliding with a ship at high speed in space and survive re-entry into an atmosphere even with her restarting the thrusters at the last second. And Book somehow having the ability to summon magical plants that can heal was also weird.

My favorite part of the episode by far was the final scene with unfurling the flag of the Federation. That really moved me. I love the Starfleet guy who waited for 40 years. Very touching. Beautiful scene.

I imagine that the spore drive will allow the Discovery to visit different Federation worlds and help them rebuild. But I am concerned that the entire season might end on a big reset button. After all, if Discovery figures out what caused the Burn and they return to their own time in the past, they can prevent the Burn from ever happening which would make that future never happen. I would prefer Discovery never return to their own time and this future stay fixed but with a new and better Federation.

I am also left with a lot of questions about "the burn". How did all the dilithium just explode? That seems odd. What about other modes of transportation that don't rely on dilithium? Shouldn't the Federation have been able to continue with space travel with other forms of FTL especially since this takes place some 600+ years after TNG. Surely, Starfleet would have transwarp, quantum slipstream or some other forms of FTL not yet invented that do not use dilithium.

Also, a lot can happen in the 150 years since the Burn. Since the Burn apparently destroyed all or most of Starfleet's ships, the Federation would have been virtually defenseless. So did enemies like the Romulans, Dominion or Borg invade the Federation immediately after the Burn?

Also, how big was the Federation right before the Burn happened? Considering that it was hundreds of years in the future, a lot could happen. Did the Federation expand and colonize the Delta Quadrant or the Gamma Quadrant? Did the Federation become a galactic civilization?

Also, I am intrigued that the Starfleet guy said that he could only scan about 30 sectors. That means there could potentially be remnants of Starfleet and the Federation beyond his scans. Maybe in the 150 years since the Burn, parts of the Federation have rebuilt and the starfleet guy just does not know about it since he is cut off?

I am certainly intrigued to see where the season will go.

 

Just a thought - Could Booker be an evolved descendant of Data/Dahj organic synths?

*Not sure if anyone else has discussed this yet.

 

Sahil detected two active federation starships within the 600 light year radius he could scan. So starfleet is still out there.

There is a scene in one of the recent trailers that shows burnham being handed what looks like a data chip with a starfleet registry on it. My guess is she goes looking for one or both of the starfleet ships.

 

It also looked like Discovery was being fired upon by another SF ship, referring to it as "unknown". Strange how a SF ship would fire on another just for being "unknown" as opposed to trying to communicate with it. I'm sure we weren't shown the whole scenario leading up to the fight. Context is for Kings!

 

My main problem with wanting to rebuild the Federatio is the timeline. Burnham is still barely adjusting to this new reality, wouldn't she try to get the whole political pictrue of what is now known space (apparently the whole galaxy)? Maybe some area have wonderful goverments/ organisations. That may not be possible because the place she is in does not seem to have long-range sensors or any contact with remote places.

THEN decide a new Federtion is needed.

Now, she may have done that, but in that case they should have taken us along with her explorations.

Btw., did we ever learn where exactly she is? Or at least which quadrant?

 

Yes, but not through "That Hope Is You". She sends up the angel suit through the wormhole. Then, on the other side, Spock detects the 7th Signal in the Beta Quadrant at the end of "Such Sweet Sorrow, Part II".

 

Does anyone know why it’s called That Hope Is You PART 1..? That seems really odd... since there is no Part 2 in title..? Next ep is called Far From Home......

 

I assumed the graphic is a basic static map of the galaxy, and he can only scan a portion of it.

There's a couple factors here. After all the warp ships were destroyed it would take a long time to build enough new ones to replicate normal interstellar traffic patterns. Also, no one wanted to travel on any of the new ships anyway because they don't know what caused the Burn in the first place, and were afraid it would happen again. By the time enough time had passed for people to assume it was probably a one time occurrence, the new independent planet way of living would have gotten established so there would be no momentum to try and rebuild the Federation. The fact that something is preventing long range communications would just accelerate the move towards independence.

 

I'm assuming they're doing what they did with The X-Files Season 10. "My Struggle, Part I" was the season premiere. "My Struggle, Part II" was the season finale. Or maybe from now on every season will start with That Hope Is You and the premiere of Season 4 will be "That Hope Is You, Part II". This is all guess-work where I'm trying to think outside the box, so take it with a grain of salt.

 

This is interesting, one of the written Alien languages in the episode appears to belong to the Malcorians (the species from the TNG episode 'First Contact')

https://twitter.com/gaghyogi49/status/1317117568784781314/photo/1

 

Part II is the last episode of this 3rd season!

 

She was told - "There's some true believers left; but 'The Federation' no longer exists as a unified body. In here mind (and in her century) The Federation was always seen as a 'force for good'. She still believes IN the principles of 'The Federation' and if she's told there are still like minded 'true believers' -- why wouldn't she want to rejoin/rebuild 'The Federation'?

And no matter what star governments exist; she would see bringing them all together under a new Federation as a good thing.

 

"all Dilithium Exploded" So.. What about Artificial Singularity cores?
You'd think after 120 years somebody would have synthesized a replacement for Dilithium as a catalizer for warp cores..

Love Book's ship! Like a B Wing!

I enjoyed it alot, looking forward to what they have to show!

 

And that's not even taking into account that Burnham just a year ago (from her perspective) was fighting in a war with Klingons who were panicked they would be forced to join the Federation, i.e. the whole "Remain Klingon" bit. So apparently what she learned from all that... was try to force the Federation on everyone again?

 

Not all the dilithium exploded, since they're trying to buy some, just a majority of it it seems.

 

Episode 13 is called Outside. There is no Part 2.

 

No, there is no part 2. Episode 13 is called Outside.

 

All the episode titles for season 3, where is Part 2 of That Hope Is You?

That Hope Is You, Part 1 3x01 301 Unknown 2020-10-15
Far From Home 3x02 302 Unknown 2020-10-22
People of Earth 3x03 303 Unknown 2020-10-29
Forget Me Not 3x04 304 Unknown 2020-11-05
Die Trying 3x05 305 Unknown 2020-11-12
Scavengers 3x06 306 Unknown 2020-11-19
Unification III 3x07 307 Unknown 2020-11-26
The Sanctuary 3x08 308 Unknown 2020-12-03
Terra Firma, Part I 3x09 309 Unknown 2020-12-10
Terra Firma, Part II 3x10 310 Unknown 2020-12-17
The Citadel 3x11 311 Unknown 2020-12-24
The Good of the People 3x12 312 Unknown 2020-12-31
Outside 3x13 313 Unknown 2021-01-07