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Spoilers Star Trek: Discovery 3x12 - "There Is A Tide…"

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THE DROIDS DID THE VULCAN SALUTE BEST STAR TREK EPISODE EVER 10/10

Ignoring that for a second, a very good episode 7/10. Loved the negotiations. Good John McClaine Michael Burnham. I too am wondering if the future Federation is a military dictatorship run by Vance.

They seem to only have 3 fingers, so I didn't think about it being the Vulcan salute. Looks more like Hang Ten, or an incorrectly done "devil horn" or "maloik"
 
He's forgetting that Saru has switched his condition of submissive prey to predator (with the whole Vahar'ai thing remember?) so even he could be qualified as "beta male" before, he's now an alpha male in his own right.

Also, he's the one who makes even Vulcans purr. I don't see Vance having any luck there, at least so far.

As for sadism, it's sorta hilarious that Burnham has to tell Stamets "I only stunned them". She's worked up quite a rep by now, now hasn't she? First, she ignites a border fight so that 8,000 people die. She then switches phaser settings so that a hundred thousand more die. Admittedly, she kills Emerald Chain enforcers on Hima by the dozen only because she's drunk. But in this very episode, she displays mastery of of nerve pinch and packs a stun gun, yet chooses to kill one enforcer by strangling and three by suffocating...

I can't wait for the boss fight next week.

Timo Saloniemi
 
It ought to be someone that alarms the Discovery crew (and possibly audience). Borg would be a little outlandish. Founder, maybe, but the Disco guys know nothing of them.

So I'm leaning towards the mysteriously absent Klingons. A carefully designed Klingon President (probably evocative of both the TNG style and S2 Disco style) is the best bet. And the President will congratulate Burnham and crew and shake hands with Aurelio over some voice over about enemies becoming friends.

perhaps Picard show spoiler
a certain bald captain who was given a fully artificial body...:devil: Break glass coffin with deactivated Picard in case of emergency. Data got a reattached head that was like 450+ years old
 
I suppose the Mycelial network may not be a fixed map as such, I get the impression navigation is based on a near infinite number of destinations and also factors in things like probability - possibly each time you do a spore jump you have to start from scratch and everything needs to be recalculated. Depending on the length of the jump this may take next to no time - so during that 130 something jump sequence in Season One there was no issue since we're only talking about a few thousand meters between each one.
 
Do you guys think Ken Mitchell’s character falls under the evil disabled person trope?

Ive seen some mumblings online about it from some disabled people. People who actually the show, not the haters.
If he was actually evil, that might be true. Since he's (so far) just someone manipulated by Ossyra, no.
 
Not the way the Egyptians built them. Their techniques were something different from what ours would be. (link)

Someone already tried to pick a fight with me about this earlier. He felt like he was really gunning for it too. Basically the last thing I was expecting. So I thought, "Yeah, if I knew he was going to come on this strongly, I wouldn't have said anything at all because this isn't how I want to spend my New Year's Eve!" It caught me off-guard. So it's not exactly a rabbit-hole I want to go down again.

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But my main point was it's not just level of technology, it's also resources available and knowing how to harness those resources to actually get the Spore Drive. Any data the Federation used to have was wiped out. Presumably in 2258. So now they're trying to figure out "How did they do it before?"

In an ideal situation, they would've assigned Stamets off Discovery. But because Discovery can't operate its Spore Drive without Stamets, they had to have him stay there.

The technology for the Spore Drive was invented in the 23rd Century but never perfected. So in the third season, Starfleet had to pick up where it left off 930 years ago but with all the tools rearranged and some of them no longer available.

The key thing that made the Spore Drive work was Tartigrade DNA. But they've established that Tartigrades are now extinct. So that's a major missing piece.
Here's two real world, space related examples to buttress your point.

Rocketdyne (now Aerojet Rocketdyne) built the mighty F-1 engine of the Saturn V's first stage between 1978 and 1973. From planning to first firing, it only took a few years. Several dozen were produced for Apollo Flights, Skylab flights and testing. And then in the early 1970s, with the end of the Apollo program, no more were made. The line ended.

Fast forward 50 years, in the mid 2010s, NASA began looking into what would be the "Advanced Booster" for the Space Launch System (still forthcoming) that would replace the 5 Segment Solid Fueled Rocket Boosters inherited and modified (from a 4 segment configuration) from the Space Shuttle in the mid 2020s. That competition is still ongoing. Aerojet Rocketdyne's proposal is the F-1B engine that would reimpliment something F-1 like, but be considerably different. It would have far fewer parts, a more simplified cost effective design, and an entirely different construction approach. The wields done for the Apollo program were essentially artistry in part, honed by master level wielders who learned their craft during World War II. Modern fabrication simply doesn't do wielding like that anymore because things are built different and and joining pieces is done differently (and often lighter). The F-1B would share the name and kind of resemble the F-1 in performance, but would be an all new engine. And it's development cost would match it: 5 years and at least $2 billion. Because even with modern technology Aerojet could not straight up impliment something they did 50 years ago.

A similar example is with the J-2X engine as part of the cancelled Constellation program a decade ago. Constellation was the SLS's predecessor. The J-2X was the engine desinged to be used as the 'Earth Departure Stage" engine for the Ares V and the upper stage of the Ares I. The J-2X's heritage was the J-2 Engine used on the S-II and SIVB stages of the Saturn I and Saturn V rockets. That was its foundation. The J-2 was also the direct predecessor of the Space Shuttle Main Engine, the RS-25D. But the J-2X, despite having general design heritage, turned out to be a very different animal. It was far more efficient and simplier to build. It had far fewer parts and better cooling. Like the F-1B example above, it used modern construction methods and joining approaches (wields) rather than replicate what was done with the J-2. The cost of it? About four years and $1.5 billion.

Here's a slide showing just how the "modern reimplementation" of the J-2 ended. You can see some of the similarities, but there are far more differences.
j2x-status-and-progress-5-728.jpg

And that's just 50 years. That was the result of Aerojet Rocketdyne getting out of the F-1 / J-2 manufacturing business, losing that floor knowledge, moving onto new business and new technology (and engines) becoming their focus. So when the time came to try and re-impliment their old designs, a straight up redo was out of the question and a heavily modified modern engine that borrowed the still relevant elements was the only answer.

So in Star Trek Discovery, after 930 years, Starfleet not having done anything with Spore drive technology is entirely believable. Unless it kept at it the entire time, it wouldn't be any better off than 22nd starfleet. Its means of manufacturing an eventual drive may be far superior and its final design more elegant and efficient. But the process of understanding the science and engineering behind it and implementing a basic 32nd century version would be as painful as in the 22nd century, or in 2010s our reality with these very real engines.

One thing I would like to see Discovery touch on more though is Quantum Slipstream. Book mentioned it offhandedly in the first episode. I always thought that Quantum Slipstream was Voyager's most sigificant legacy from the Delta Quadrant... the breakthrough propulsion technology that 250 years later was finally a real advance over the Cochrane Warp Drive. That finally provided a way to explore and travel further and faster that the failed Excelsior Transwarp Drive project attempted. Warp Drive opened local space, but with Slipstream, the entire galaxy would be open to Starfleet.

I always liked the books approach of Warp Drive being relatively local space propulsion and Quantum Slipstream being for long haul travel. I hope we find that's what Starfleet eventually did. It would be a little bit disapointing to find that their 31st century and 32nd century ships are capable of just Warp 9.9999 utilizing an engine technology that has enjoyed evolution, but not revolution, in a millennium.

If only Discovery didn't bind the "Jump" drive concept of next-gen propulsion to the asinine "galactical mycelial network" nonsense that exists because Bryan Fuller read about real life scientist Paul Stamets on wikipedia and decided to make a character about him.
 
Was the courier network meant to be slipstream? The officer at SFHQ only said Book's ship exited subspace, it reminded me of the 'underspace' corridors that Vaadwuar had in Voyager.
 
The last episode discussed Osyraa's means of travel from her home turf to Verubin, and Book referred to a "transwarp tunnel" as the likeliest method. This must be the same tunnel, only Book is traveling in the other direction.

So in Star Trek Discovery, after 930 years, Starfleet not having done anything with Spore drive technology is entirely believable. Unless it kept at it the entire time, it wouldn't be any better off than 22nd starfleet. Its means of manufacturing an eventual drive may be far superior and its final design more elegant and efficient. But the process of understanding the science and engineering behind it and implementing a basic 32nd century version would be as painful as in the 22nd century, or in 2010s our reality with these very real engines.

The stories sort of undermine that logic from the get-go, though - in "Far From Home", Kal effortlessly duplicates ancient technology with this programmable matter. All it takes is skill in operating programmable matter: understanding of what you are doing isn't required.

So there could easily be five Discoveries at Vance's disposal, to be operated, studied, or dismantled for (templates for) spares. All of them would have the gamma-welding defect committed by that hung-over worker back in 2256, faithfully replicated in perfect detail. But all of them would work just as well as the original, too.

Timo Saloniemi
 
I liked the negotiation scene between Osyraa and Vance quite a bit, but, it just opens up a whole new box of questions for me.

Exactly how large is the Emerald Chain and what is their influence? They were originally presented to us as a sort of gang of thugs, but, clearly they are large enough to have a government structure and a science division. So, this implies it's at least comparable to the Federation at one time. Where is their homeworld? If Osyraa isn't their leader, then who is? What is their society like, since Vance seems to suggest some type of jealousy towards it.

What is the true status of Starfleet and the Federation? While I had no doubt the Federation president is still there in the background someplace, this is the first time they are brought up. Where are they? What is their mandate? Do they have a mandate?

Clearly the show wants to depict the Federation and the Emerald Chain as rivals, but, IMO, I don't think we ever get a good sense of that beyond the few fleeting run-ins in the Disco crew has with them and the fact that Vance (or someone else in Starfleet) mentions they are conducting "military exercises."

While all my questions may just be semantics, if I'm going to fully buy into the drama here, I want to know what the stakes are. Is the Emerd Chain encroaching on the Federation and trying to, essentially, "rule the galaxy"?
 
'Beta male'? Yawn. I suppose you're chopping down trees with an axe and eating raw meat with your bare hands? :lol:
Seriously what does it even mean!?
Only yesterday I was arguing passionately that the criticism of female characters was honest on this site and not driven by politics.
Then along comes " beta male" :brickwall:

Unless of course he is just talking about Romulan men
 
The Emerald Chain was a strong influence at Hima, which was apparently on the other side of the galaxy from Earth, and next door to Terralysium. Osyraa's bunch are galactic-scale players. And clearly the Feds used to be, too. It would be quite plausible for both of them to strive for total dominance of the Milky Way.

But my bet is that no, she isn't a supreme leader, although perhaps she really is a "minister".

Timo Saloniemi
 
Great episode, incredible acting from Anthony Rapp. Main complaint is that we didn’t see anything of Adira, Culber, Saru, and Su’kal
 
I rather think the Prez simply isn't important enough to make an appearance in the show, and Vance "acting on his, her or its behalf" is just storytelling convenience, not a profound sign of militarism in this future Starfleetederation. (I mean, the original setup is militaristic enough already!)

This is the Show Without Bosses, after all. The ship has no captain, Engineering has no Chief, Sickbay has no Chief, Security has no Chief, the XO is Acting... Surely the Federation can do without a President for at least one season?

Timo Saloniemi
 
I'm still waiting on Chekhov's Paw to come into play.........the mention of Grudge's Paw from last week, I figured it HAD to be a foreshadowing of something.........
I’m still waiting for the Borg cube from Picard to do something... Chekhov’s gun with latest gen on Trek writers doesn’t seem to mean much.
 
Uhhh.... :/

Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country

Sorry. That one popped into my mind instantly.

Undiscovered Country. The Changelings on Earth two-parter in DS9 Season 4.
Both were nearly use bureaucrats (make of that what you will) and "mattered" in so far as being pawns to elements of Starfleet. Plus, two stories out of how many?
Yeah, I don't see the President mattering here now.
 
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