Spoilers Star Trek: Discovery 3x05 - "Die Trying"

[Yistaan]

Burnham: Admiral, I wonder if I could have something to read during my stay. I was once a scientist of sorts. I would be most interested in studying the technical manuals on your headquarters.
Vance: Yes, I understand. You have nine hundred years of catching up to do.
Burnham: Precisely.
Vance: They're available to any guest on the viewing screen. Lieutenant Willa will show you how to tie into the library tapes.
Burnham: Thank you, Admiral. You are very cooperative.

(much later)

Burnham: Your headquarters is mine. I have shut off the life-support system to your deck, and jammed up your exit routes. I am willing to negotiate.
Vance: Flood all decks with quantum distortion.
Willa: Impossible. Intruder control systems inoperative. Commander Burnham was very thorough in her study of our tech manuals.

 

[Nerys Myk]

I just don't understand Burnham's and the Discovery crew's mindset. Why are they so bent on doing everything themselves? They all went through what anyone will agree was a traumatic experience, so why are they

Because that's the show. And hour of them in group every week isn't really the show we're tuning in for. Nor is them watching the future Starfleet having adventures.

 

[Yistaan]

Because that's the show. And hour of them in group every week isn't really the show we're tuning in for. Nor is them watching the future Starfleet having adventures.

That's why we can have things like time jumps between episodes. No one insists each week of Discovery has to be a week in the lives of the crew. Burnham herself got a year time jump, we certainly could use one for the crew between episodes to give Discovery a full 32nd century refit, time for the crew to catch up, etc.

 

[TimeIsAPredator]

Burnham: Admiral, I wonder if I could have something to read during my stay. I was once a scientist of sorts. I would be most interested in studying the technical manuals on your vessel.
Vance: Yes, I understand. You have nine hundred years of catching up to do.
Burnham: Precisely.
Vance: They're available to any guest on the viewing screen. Lieutenant Willa will show you how to tie into the library tapes.
Burnham: Thank you, Admiral. You are very cooperative.

(much later)

Burnham: Your headquarters is mine. I have shut off the life-support system to your deck, and jammed up your exit routes. I am willing to negotiate.
Vance: Flood all decks with quantum distortion.
Willa: Impossible. Intruder control systems inoperative. Commander Burnham was very thorough in her study of our tech manuals.

I have to say though that energy Dyson Sphere was really cool looking

 

[plynch]

Yeah, Stafleet takes a working THOUSAND-year-old ship pretty in stride.

Running with the Norman ship example above (my ppl, by the way, Normans were Norse given that region as payoff not to sack Paree, iirc): a Norse ship with full complement of Vikings appears out of the fog and ask to be deployed in the war on Covid, staying together and doing the missions they 'd like.

And the Minister of War sort of believes them, maybe not, but expresses no awe at a seemingly real viking ship. The Minister's skepticism and a threat made to a man who claims to be a Viking causes posters on navybbs to think him cranky and rude.

??

If I'm CIC Starfleet, I'm inspecting that thing stem to stern. I mean, there've been just a few mindf*cks in Fed history when something turned out to be not what it seemed.

Then if it checks out, I'm duplicating the spore drive. Crew goes i to therapy and helped to find new places in this new world. I think the admiral we saw was soft and/or daft.

 

[Yistaan]

I think the admiral we saw was soft and/or daft.

Federation President: We lost contact with Discovery. Our study of their spore drive is incomplete, so unless we find them then we've lost the only way to rebuild the Federation.

You really let a thousand year old ship with outdated defenses go on missions without replicating its magical drive that could save the Federation? Really?

Admiral Vance:

 

[plynch]

"Oops."

Good point. He'd be in the Admiral doghouse a long time.

 

[Vger23]

May I steal that for my signature?

As long as you add “...and I will hold all versions of Star Trek equally accountable for nonsense”

 

[unimatrix7]

This season is shaping up - for me - as the best season of Trek since DS9 season 5.

What an incredible bit of world-building, character work, and classic-but-not-cliche Trekkian storytelling this episode was.

I'm particularly loving the way it's setting up a host of interesting mysteries - Georgiou, the music, the Burn, Detmer - which is something no incarnation of Trek has ever been good at it. Disco had a crack it last year for that brief period when the Red Angel shaped up like a really cool sci-fi mystery and a gateway into some interesting faith/science discussions - then it was just Burnham's mum in a dumb robot suit.

...which leads me to the nagging feeling in the back of my head that The Burn is linked to BURNham somehow. If that's what they do I'll be...unimpressed.

 

[thribs]

Where is the USS Boimler?

 

[Iconian]

Thought it was a pretty cool episode. Nice to see the new ships. I wish more time was spent on the Federation/Starfleet's HQ than on the retrieval mission. Given its importance, why not bring the Tikhov to the HQ? Did Georgiou catch Detmer's flu or is something else going on? The burn and the music seem to be connected somehow. I wonder how long it will take before the new ships get their spore drives.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Where is the USS Boimler?

Third starship to the left in the upper quadrant of the Burned ship scene.

 

[fireproof78]

Where is the USS Boimler?

Lost.

 

[ThreeEdgedSword]

Admiral Vance appears (so far) to be human and we've been told Earth is very much not a member of the 38 Federation worlds anymore.

Good point.

As long as you add “...and I will hold all versions of Star Trek equally accountable for nonsense”

All those I'm watching, sure.*
I'm certainly not going to preface every bit of criticism with "... and possibly TOS or TNG did that, too, but I'll have to rewatch them first, and if they did, then it's totally ok for DSC or Picard or whatever to do it and I am not allowed to criticize anything that any other incarnation of Trek has done before."

* Of course, two shows doing thing X does not necessarily mean they are doing it exactly the same way. Context is king.

 

[eschaton]

I do have to say, the outrage onscreen - and the outrage we were supposed to feel - when it was suggested that the Discovery crew be broken up and assigned to different ships was just...weird.

I mean, I'm not someone with military experience. But I know enough about the military to know that rotation is not just common, but considered to be an absolutely necessary part of maintaining the chain of command. Servicemembers left with one another for too long will begin to feel the ties of mutual solidarity can outweigh the orders given. It also makes corruption in the ranks much more likely to happen (which is why the military, unlike the police, doesn't have to worry about malfeasance by one individual being covered up by others).

Basically, the most self-evident thing for Starfleet to do would be to break up the crew. I realize the needs of the story require that not happen, but the reaction of the crew should not have been "OMG No!"

 

[Gingerbread Demon]

I'd love to see a Xindi-Reptillian walking around in the 32nd century and as a member of Starfleet. We already know the Xindi were Federation members by the 26th century and the Reptillians were probably the most dangerous species among the Xindi during ENT.

Yes please and Xindi were serving on the Enterprise J

What I am missing is the awe that Captain Picard had for a thousand year old Promellian battlecruiser.

Yeah but then he blows that thing up instead of getting it safely towed to a museum. That episode shit me off. They could have easily found a way to tow the ship out of there.

 

[Nerys Myk]

I

Basically, the most self-evident thing for Starfleet to do would be to break up the crew. I realize the needs of the story require that not happen, but the reaction of the crew should not have been "OMG No!"

Why not? They are strangers in a strange land. Why wouldn't they want to keep together?

 

[eschaton]

Why not? They are strangers in a strange land. Why wouldn't they want to keep together?

I mean, if that was stated, I would have had less of an issue with it. But they are Starfleet officers. Their first loyalty is to Starfleet and the chain of command, not to one another.

 

[Nerys Myk]

I mean, if that was stated, I would have had less of an issue with it. But they are Starfleet officers. Their first loyalty is to Starfleet and the chain of command, not to one another.

They are human(oids), not soulless automatons. Being loyal to Starfleet and the chain of command doesn't change that.

 

[fireproof78]

I mean, if that was stated, I would have had less of an issue with it. But they are Starfleet officers. Their first loyalty is to Starfleet and the chain of command, not to one another.

That sounds very robotic.