And, like The West Wing, it is glorious.
Spoilers Star Trek: Discovery 3x10 - "Terra Firma, Part 2"
- Thread starter Commander Richard
- Start date
I dumped him for Discovery Pike...he's sexier (and won't be irradiated under my watch, I went back in time and rescued him with the angel suit)Thank you for the recommendations Nyota. Hey how's spock doing?
I didn't mind Lorca being from the MU. But it would have been more interesting if they made him a shade of grey, even if a darker one. Like, have him impacted by his time in the PU and realize that non-humans can provide valuable service to the Empire. He still just wants absolute power, but he wants to reform the empire, eliminate the eating of Kelpiens, etc. Then even if the Discovery crew sides against him, there's some sense of pathos to his end.
It's just that one piece of space magic I didn't like. Normally I'm all for it but Voq ruined what could have been an interesting story
Quick note: It's not the entire A Time to... series that features a dodgy politician. Rather, the last three are the ones where presidential politics come into play. A Time to Kill by David Mack and A Time to Heal by David Mack feature Federation President Min Zife of Bolarus ordering a pre-emptive invasion of a sovereign planet and the consequences of that choice, and A Time for War, A Time for Peace by Keith R.A. DeCandido features the subsequent election of Federation President Nanietta Bacco as a subplot. Articles of the Federation is about a year in the first term of President Bacco.
In addition to the above, I'd recommend: A Singular Destiny by Keith R.A. DeCandido, which is an unofficial follow-up to Articles of the Federation; Typhon Pact: Zero Sum Game by David Mack; Typhon Pact: Rough Beasts of Empire, Typhon Pact: Plagues of Night, and Typhon Pact: Raise the Dawn, all by David R. George III, which brings the conflict between the Federation and the allied rival powers to a head; and Typhon Pact: Brinkmanship by Una McCormack, in which President Bacco is not a huge player but damn that book is so good.
So the total rec list would be:
- A Time to Kill by David Mack (President Zife)
- A Time to Heal by David Mack (President Zife)
- A Time for War, A Time for Peace by Keith R.A. DeCandido (President Zife and election of President Bacco)
- Articles of the Federation by Keith R.A. DeCandido (President Bacco)
- Destiny: Gods of Night by David Mack (President Bacco subplot)
- Destiny: Mere Mortals by David Mack (President Bacco subplot)
- Destiny: Lost Souls by David Mack (President Bacco subplot)
- A Singular Destiny by Keith R.A. DeCandido (President Bacco subplot)
- Typhon Pact: Zero Sum Game by David Mack (President Bacco subplot)
- Typhon Pact: Rough Beasts of Empire by David R. George III (President Bacco subplot)
- Typhon Pact: Plagues of Night by David R. George III (President Bacco subplot)
- Typhon Pact: Raise the Dawn by David R. George III (President Bacco subplot)
- Typhon Pact: Brinkmanship by Una McCormack (President Bacco subplot)
- The Fall: Revelation and Dust by David R. George III (President Bacco)
- The Fall: The Crimson Shadow by Una McCormack (you'll see)
- The Fall: A Ceremony of Losses by David Mack (you'll see)
- The Fall: The Poisoned Chalice by James Swallow (you'll see)
- The Fall: Peaceable Kingdoms by Dayton Ward (you'll see)
Were they ever "not gone"?
Trek has never been very trailblazing when it comes to cultural statements. See how long it took them to even acknowledge that homosexuality existed.
It's that kind of storytelling that stops the audience from really getting to know characters intimately. They become caricatures. Michael is the one to spring into action, sometimes without thinking. Stamets is the one with snippy remarks. Tilly is the awkward one. But you don't feel that you get much deeper than that. They are definitely likeable, but Discovery needs to slow down and let their characters breathe.
I don't think the writers feel that they don't have to get to an ending every season. For example, The Burn doesn't need to be solved this year or next year. If I had been planning season three, I would've had a slow "burn" before finding Starfleet. They were obviously going to fly straight to Earth and while I like Adira and their story, probably one of the best parts of this season (hoping I'm getting my pronoun right), she's felt like a MacGuffin to get them where the season needs to go. Through their symbiont, they can find Starfleet. They can analyze the signal and figure out the lion's share of what is going on with it. The mysteries didn't need to be solved every second episode.
The best part of the show for me so far was meeting Adira and the Trill. That was a nice addition to the cast and a great episode.
Terra Firma Part 2
The tenth episode of the third season and the second half of the two parter. The conclusion of Georgiou's test and the revelation that Carl is actually the Guardian of Forever. More on the latter later. There is also the fact they use Emerald Chain technology to gather the data from the ship in the nebula. More on that too. Back to the Mirror Universe Test. That Georgiou would try to reform the Empire is reasonable, given that she had heard that it had fallen (albeit not the exact circumstances).
The characters and the interactions between them were also good. Georgiou trying to change the empire, through compassion (especially to the Kelpians) was a good aspect of the story. The early conversation with that version of Saru about the other Saru surviving Vahar'ai was very good, reflecting the themes of change and improvement. That Georgiou and Mirror Burnham would fight was inevitable, but the battle was well portrayed. The outcome was unexpected with the two killing each other.
The return to the 32nd Century was done well, especially with the reveal of Carl as the Guardian of Forever. The re-use of the audio from the original episode was a rather good idea, adding to the experience. The explanation that the Guardian moved due to it being used in the Temporal War was good. Burnham's farewell to Georgiou was done rather well too. It didn't go on too long. It's obvious that this was to set up the Section 31 show, but I will watch it at least one. More on when she could have ended up in a separate post.
That Burnham would keep the outcome a secret is believable. But there is the usage of the Emerald Chain technology. I'm sure that it would come back to bite them. (Ossyra using it to her advantage somehow.) But at least it was useful, and they have the sensor data from the Kelpien ship. Vance taking Saru to task for it was a good scene. However, I'm ambivalent about the wake for Georgiou. I'm sure that while they would have remembered her for her contributions they would also have remembered the negatives.
But this is still a good conclusion to the two part story. 8.44/10.
The tenth episode of the third season and the second half of the two parter. The conclusion of Georgiou's test and the revelation that Carl is actually the Guardian of Forever. More on the latter later. There is also the fact they use Emerald Chain technology to gather the data from the ship in the nebula. More on that too. Back to the Mirror Universe Test. That Georgiou would try to reform the Empire is reasonable, given that she had heard that it had fallen (albeit not the exact circumstances).
The characters and the interactions between them were also good. Georgiou trying to change the empire, through compassion (especially to the Kelpians) was a good aspect of the story. The early conversation with that version of Saru about the other Saru surviving Vahar'ai was very good, reflecting the themes of change and improvement. That Georgiou and Mirror Burnham would fight was inevitable, but the battle was well portrayed. The outcome was unexpected with the two killing each other.
The return to the 32nd Century was done well, especially with the reveal of Carl as the Guardian of Forever. The re-use of the audio from the original episode was a rather good idea, adding to the experience. The explanation that the Guardian moved due to it being used in the Temporal War was good. Burnham's farewell to Georgiou was done rather well too. It didn't go on too long. It's obvious that this was to set up the Section 31 show, but I will watch it at least one. More on when she could have ended up in a separate post.
That Burnham would keep the outcome a secret is believable. But there is the usage of the Emerald Chain technology. I'm sure that it would come back to bite them. (Ossyra using it to her advantage somehow.) But at least it was useful, and they have the sensor data from the Kelpien ship. Vance taking Saru to task for it was a good scene. However, I'm ambivalent about the wake for Georgiou. I'm sure that while they would have remembered her for her contributions they would also have remembered the negatives.
But this is still a good conclusion to the two part story. 8.44/10.
Personally, I don't think she's such a great actress. It's like she's only capable of expressing one emotion that she uses for all purposes with maybe different degrees of intensity if that.
Discovery, being the first new Star Trek show in over a decade, was a frankenstein's monster of a show.
Let's recall the first concept for the "New Star Trek show". It was going to be an anthology show that would hop around different eras in the time between Star Trek VI in TNG, and maybe before, have a lot of involvement of Nick Meyer, and follow up on plot threads from Star Trek VI. And it was going to pull influence from Planet of the Titans, especially the unused design for the Enterprise refit. And that dramatically changed, but the centrality of the Klingons evidently survived into the final product, which became a show about a new character, on a new ship. The spock element was introduced along the way. And because everything has to be military now and understated, we got those Discovery uniforms. And that just lead to a sprial leading to the Klingon redesign.
And then Bryan Fuller quit the show after getting it started. And then new show runners were put in place. And then they were fired. And so on. Discovery is a show that is cobbled together from the ideas and vision of far more than any other Star Trek show. In a sense, this should not have been surprising. TNG had Gene Roddenberry behind it, and he got together much of the old TOS Gang and some new blood. But he knew "what" Star Trek was. DS9, Voyager and Enterprise were all the product of what the Rick Berman vision of Star Trek was. This created a consistency in storytelling. Many of us ripped on him for years for various reasons, sometimes good ones. But having ultimate decision making power one set of hands protected the franchise from weird turns. Discovery, being the first new Star Trek show in over a decade, exists only because people who watched Star Trek, but (Bryan Fuller aside) had no involvement in ever making it, decided to revive it. They didn't "know" Star Trek. Berman knew it to the point of being a micromanager and having personal approval over starship design. And the production staff were unflinching loyalists to the idea of a consistent Star Trek canon in all things (or as one put it 'Star Trek is a period piece"). But not Discovery's original producers.
That's clearly changed. While in some ways Streaming Star Trek still plays it fast and loose, it's "playing by the rules of the franchise" far more than it originally did. And perhaps that's not surprising. Discovery premiered in 2017. It is now almost 2021. With production time, let's say we're a good 4 years into modern Trek. Look at TNG. When did 24th Century Star Trek start to get internally consistent? I'd say in Season 4. Season 3 was a quantum leap forward from Season 1 and 2, which in some ways were so retro and distinct as to be almost apocryphal. Even as late as the end of Season 3, there were still elements of early TNG. But when the show came back from break, it was really on the creative and production road to Season 5 (widely seen on the best season) and 6 and 7, which started to be more "self aware" about what TNG was.
So what does this mean for modern Trek? I think we're already seeing it with The Lower Decks, with Disco Season 3, and the announcement of Strange New Worlds. We're seeing a redefined internal consistency and a willingness to basically re-impliment the creations of people who haven't worked in Star Trek since the mid 2000s. Witness the very Enterprise design of the Cordians, the appearance of Bajorans and Cardassians, the willingness to do foreheaded and non-foreheaded Romulans and Vulcans. I think the real test is going to be if whenever we see Klingons, either by Discovery following up with what happened to them (inevitable), the appearance of Worf (also likely inevitable) in Picard, or Discovery doing a Klingon story. Will they be the godawful Discovery design? Or will they be the TNG/DS9/Voyager (really the DS9) design?
The good news is, with Avika Goldsman, it's unlikely were going to see the creative tumult that Discovery had in future new shows.
For TNG Gene Roddenberry wanted to completely erase previous Star Trek. The original concept for TNG was it was a generation ship traveling between galaxies. Many people had to talk Gene Roddenberry into doing more of a standard Star Trek show in the vein of TOS.
Also for various reasons the first three seasons had a revolving door of production staff that makes the situation of Star Trek Discovery's staff changes look tame by comparison.
Also, the anthology aspect of Star Trek Discovery which Brian Fuller proposed was shot down by the suits before pre-production began.
Also for various reasons the first three seasons had a revolving door of production staff that makes the situation of Star Trek Discovery's staff changes look tame by comparison.
Also, the anthology aspect of Star Trek Discovery which Brian Fuller proposed was shot down by the suits before pre-production began.
This two parter could have been one episode, you could cut out all the talking about how "you are destined for greatness and something more" "no, I couldn't have done it without you, you've changed" *sniff sniff* blah blah. OK. I friggin get it. The whole episode was that, the whole series has been about how the main character is destined for greater things. You don't need to keep reminding me. Show don't tell.
The mirror universe stuff was interesting but we are left with is it real? is it not? Did I just waste my time watching two episodes about a character self examining herself? Wow, Georgiou has changed for the better in this episode. It's a pity she didn't do any of that in the 3 years leading up to this 180.
We get a big reveal of the Guardian of Forever. The Mandalorian says "hold my beer".
The mirror universe stuff was interesting but we are left with is it real? is it not? Did I just waste my time watching two episodes about a character self examining herself? Wow, Georgiou has changed for the better in this episode. It's a pity she didn't do any of that in the 3 years leading up to this 180.
We get a big reveal of the Guardian of Forever. The Mandalorian says "hold my beer".
Can’t say it was really a “big reveal”, more like “GoF? OK, fine”.
The one on the mandalorian...well!
The one on the mandalorian...well!
Sadly, I learned nothing about the main character in Mandalorian.
Give me DSC. I at least learned about Michael and Georgiou.
Give me DSC. I at least learned about Michael and Georgiou.
And that's fine. And clearly fan service is very entertaining for many. For me, less so. And fan service doesn't endure for me. It makes me smile like a kid and then it's gone. Versus learning about characters, engaging with characters, that's what makes stories worth it for me.
The Guardian reveal would have meant nothing to Michael or Georgiou. The weird thing they didn't understand turned out to be another weird thing they don't understand in disguise
The Guardian reveal would have meant nothing to Michael or Georgiou. The weird thing they didn't understand turned out to be another weird thing they don't understand in disguise
Unless Michael saw a mention of the Guardian when she read her brother's bio.
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