Spoilers Star Trek: Discovery 4x01 - "Kobayashi Maru"

[nic3636]

Rillak: Burnham, why can't you be a less reckless captain and more like Picard? You put the whole ship at risk!

Burnham: So one day, Data has been kidnapped by the renegade Borg. When the Enterprise D traces him to a planet that the sensors can't search, Picard orders most of the crew to beam down and search for him. For one crew member. He leaves Dr. Crusher in charge of the ship with an inexperienced skeleton crew that doesn't even trust her. While a Borg ship is around and could attack any time!

Rillak:

Yeah they pretty much all make highly questionable choices. And on the pod experience thing, I think it depends on many hours experience Burnham has over Detmer. If Burnham has 1000 hours vs Detmer 50, then yeah Burnham should go as the experience gain is worth the additional risk. But if it's Burnham 1000 hours vs. Detmer 900, then Detmer should go.

 

[Sci]

Yeah they pretty much all make highly questionable choices. And on the pod experience thing, I think it depends on many hours experience Burnham has over Detmer. If Burnham has 1000 hours vs Detmer 50, then yeah Burnham should go as the experience gain is worth the additional risk. But if it's Burnham 1000 hours vs. Detmer 900, then Detmer should go.

But what if she needs Detmer at the helm as the most experienced possible pilot to help Discovery evade as much space debris as possible?

 

[Ryan Thomas Riddle]

I would love to see a Horta Starfleet officer though!

The 80s Trek novel My Enemy, My Alley by Diane Duane featured a Horta officer, Lt. Naraht. A character she later used in the issues of the DC Trek comic she wrote.

 

[fireproof78]

Best character.

 

[valkyrie013]

Was a book with a horta crew on a Starfleet ship that was made for them. Post tng timeline. Ships inside was rock!

 

[nic3636]

But what if she needs Detmer at the helm as the most experienced possible pilot to help Discovery evade as much space debris as possible?

Hmm yes that is also valid.

 

[fireproof78]

Was a book with a horta crew on a Starfleet ship that was made for them. Post tng timeline. Ships inside was rock!

Rock music inside ships finally made a comeback.

 

[BigJake]

But what if she needs Detmer at the helm as the most experienced possible pilot to help Discovery evade as much space debris as possible?

Yeah, like again: she mentions EVA hours when talking about qualification. Not piloting. They're different things, and Detmer is extremely clearly working hard as hell to keep Discovery out of the path of space debris at the moment she says it. I don't feel like there's some subtle puzzle, here.

Also: Burnham was immensely charitable not to just boot the Prez from her bridge when the latter started "just asking questions" about her in-the-moment orders in front of the crew. Immensely self-controlled and charitable, for anyone trying to talk about her "emotional incompetence" or whatever in the later scene. I like the Prez as a character, don't get me wrong: but that was out of line.

 

[Char Kais]

but yeah, because RMB was involved with a small Trek fandom related film "Free Enterprise" - and his past involvement with the continuing Fan Film disaster (and total ripoff for money) that is AXANAR - yes, somehow he feels he's an "Expert of True Star Trek™"

I think you forget a few things:

https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Robert_Meyer_Burnett

Yes, Robert Meyer Burnett is an expert of True Star Trek.

 

[fireproof78]

Then I trust he is an expert on Discovery.

 

[BigJake]

I think you forget a few things [etc.]

I'm pleased to have more context for his career.

Doesn't alter my perspective on his "critiques" of DSC, personally. I wasn't at any point interested in whether he was a "Trek authority" or not: the core code of Trek has its own problems, and the obsessive misogynoir that swirls around Sonequa and Michael is not very surprising given those preconditions.

 

[Lord Garth]

I think you forget a few things:

https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Robert_Meyer_Burnett

Yes, Robert Meyer Burnett is an expert of True Star Trek.

He's got nothing on Larry Nemecek.

He's no more of an "expert" than any of us here. He just happened to take what most of us consider to be a hobby and got some gigs out of it.

And, no, I would never want to work on Star Trek. I don't want what I'd make to be compared to a dead guy.

 

[Locutus of Bored]

Okay, but did he program it in the sense of, no version of the Kobayashi Maru test existed before him, or did he program it in the sense of, he programmed version 10.17.2?

The other test administrator said "How did he beat YOUR TEST?" He was stated as having "programmed" it. He was evaluating its performance and administering it at the Academy. He filed formal charges against Cadet Kirk for cheating and reprogramming the test and beneath his Vulcan calm seemed to take personal offense at Kirk beating it, especially through what he considered to be underhanded means. He was called to the hearing as an expert witness on the purpose and meaning behind the no-win scenario and mentioned Kirk's father as an example of a captain facing certain death, which given its significance in the Kelvinverse, may have served as a catalyst for him to create the test.

I think, short of Word of God from a writer/director/producer saying otherwise, the clear implication of the scene was that, at least in the Kelvinverse, Spock was the creator of the Kobayashi Maru test. It's rare to get more supporting evidence than that for a one-off reference in a movie (not counting TWoK and Primeverse TV shows, just ST09), and yet we still generally accept those things as true unless explicitly stated otherwise.

 

[Jadeb]

The 80s Trek novel My Enemy, My Alley by Diane Duane featured a Horta officer, Lt. Naraht. A character she later used in the issues of the DC Trek comic she wrote.

Hold on, is this Horta supposed to have a *face*? What’s up with that?

 

[Nerys Myk]

I think you forget a few things:

https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Robert_Meyer_Burnett

Yes, Robert Meyer Burnett is an expert of True Star Trek.

Prolific. Not sure that makes him an "expert".

 

[fireproof78]

Hold on, is this Horta supposed to have a *face*? What’s up with that?

It's a comic.

 

[Jadeb]

It's a comic.

Funny, I’d have thought one of the advantages of a purely visual medium like comics, unfettered by the need for actors or makeup or budgets, is that aliens could be alien and not just forehead appliances of the week. But I guess that’s just the talking point for TAS, which is different ... somehow.

 

[Galaxy]

Imo this was the strongest season opening Discovery has had. Really enjoyed this. The uphill climb that started in season 3 is continuing. Love the new uniforms, the bridge crew are no longer background characters, the story had me engaged. I have been complaining a lot about the visual effects in Discovery, they stepped up to the plate here, maybe not quite what Disney is doing, but still visually great and exciting.

 

[Turtletrekker]

I'm still humming "Archers Theme".

 

[Locutus of Bored]

I think you forget a few things:

https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Robert_Meyer_Burnett

Yes, Robert Meyer Burnett is an expert of True Star Trek.

He may be an expert on talking about the production of Star Trek in its various forms, but as far as determining what is or is not "True Star Trek", he isn't any more or less of an authority on the matter than any other fan, which is to say, not at all. The only ones who get to determine "True Star Trek" in any practical sense are the rights-holders and showrunners. Everything else is just subjective opinion.

Also, being an expert on production of Trek in some form doesn't eliminate any negative personal biases or behaviors one may have that may cause people to not want to listen to their opinion or take it seriously, which I believe is coming into play here. It's not so much the criticism in and of itself that's the problem, it's the racist, sexist, defensive white fragility undertones and indeed, direct commentary at times, that is creating so much friction.

Now, all that being said, Robert Meyer Burnett is one guy with an opinion on Twitter (where opinions are like assholes, yet get treated as newsworthy assholes for some reason) who has gotten way more attention than he deserves in this thread, so how about we all just move on?