Spoilers Star Trek: Discovery 4x02 - "Anomaly"

[Deks]

It was also hilarious that Tilly couldn't connect their own actions with the anomaly's change in direction given that was the only new variable.

Yup I noticed that too...
Like I said: Drama and feelings trump everytihing else on Discovery. These writers seriously need to be fired and replaced with people who know what they're doing and won't dumb down technology for the sake of 'drama'.
I don't mind people displaying emotions or having decent drama that WORKS with the setting in a convincing capacity... but the amount of emotional spewage on Disco and dumbing down has grown bigger than that Anomaly.

 

[jackoverfull]

Hunting the whales to extinction happened. Kirk had to undo that.

His mission was definitely not approved by Starfleet, though. They decided to go with it after the fact, but they wouldn’t have authorized it.

And I agree with whoever said the Adira/Gray lovefest is too much. I'm here to watch Star Trek, not Love Boat.

Star Trek is a franchise that literally had whole episodes dedicated to love issues of a given character. If it is well done I have zero issues with it and, at least in this episode (and not always in the previous seasons) I felt that side of things were well done.

It amuses me greatly that the people on Discovery are so dense they can't even think to just have a couple monitoring probes follow the anomaly around and announce it's location.

This is a valid objection, imho.

By the way, something I really like is Culber being around and treating people as the action went on. It’s something that was really missing in previous Trek, especially when the medical officer was just standing there doing nothing in the middle of a battle.

 

[jackoverfull]

Yeah, I kinda asked myself... why not launch a probe or a hundred?
But that's Disco writers for you. Drama over everything else...

well, they mentioned that shuttles were too small to survive the anomaly or whatever, since probes are even smaller it stands to reason they wouldn’t do either.

And yes, I immediately thought that the anomaly might have changed direction because of Discovery’s arrival as well.

 

[Fateor]

Also... Why is Discovery using a centralized Artificial Gravity Generator instead of Gravity Plating?

Starships used Gravity Plating for the very reason shown in this episode... IE you only get local failures instead of ship wide...

 

[fireproof78]

Here's the exact lines:

Gray:
- This is 800-year-old technology?

Adira:
- Maybe I should get a synth body when I die, too?
- We could live forever:

Culber:
- Well, not likely.
- But the process was attempted a number of times after Dr. Soong first used it on a… a StarFleet Admiral
- Picard was his name… but the success rate was so low that eventually people just stopped trying.

Adira:
- What… Should we be worried?

Culber:
- Well, the fact that Gray's conciousness has already survived transfer to a new host once seems to be a good sign.
- But we should ask Guardian Xi once the synthetic body's ready.

So the question I want to ask is what rate of success is so low that people would stop trying if they're on or near their death bed?

Assuming they're trying to stay alive when near death and not just want to pass on?

I'm going to throw a percentage of ≤ 9% success rate for transferring one's conciousness from their original organic mind to a new Synth body. The success rate will vary based on the state of the original mind and the circumstances upon transferring.

What low percentage % rate of success do you think would be needed that most people would just give up?

What if a failure is extremely painful?

 

[Fateor]

well, they mentioned that shuttles were too small to survive the anomaly or whatever, since probes are even smaller it stands to reason they wouldn’t do either.

And yes, I immediately thought that the anomaly might have changed direction because of Discovery’s arrival as well.

You don't stick the probes in the anomaly... You have them follow behind it and report it's location and movement so people know to get out of it's way...

Like the trackers marine biologists stick on dolphins and whales.

 

[Deks]

well, they mentioned that shuttles were too small to survive the anomaly or whatever, since probes are even smaller it stands to reason they wouldn’t do either.

And yes, I immediately thought that the anomaly might have changed direction because of Discovery’s arrival as well.

Programmable matter.
They could have (for example) clumped 50-100 probes together (which would also be networked together) to form several large ones (the size of Booker's ship) once outside Discovery and surround the anomaly and even possibly tether each other to have some inside - if need be, operate on them remotely if automation fails (this would have been perfect maybe to use Zora for)

 

[Deks]

What if a failure is extremely painful?

Pain can be dulled/nullified (in the case of a synth body, programmed to not feel it). And also, if the alternative is death... I'd say its still worth the effort. If it becomes TOO unbearable, the patient could have left prior orders to terminate the procedure if they're in constant pain... although for the life of me I cannot imagine WHY it would be painful (it certainly wasn't for Picard or Ira Graves - for Ira it may have been STRAINING because he had to supress Data, but other than that... nope).
Also, it wasn't painful for Denara Pel... or for Bashir and O'Brien who went into the mind of a S31 operative to retrieve the cure for Odo (well, obviously, it was painful because Sloan was intentionally torturing them... but the synth body would be empty with no other minds present to torture its new occupant).

 

[Nerys Myk]

It amuses me greatly that the people on Discovery are so dense they can't even think to just have a couple monitoring probes follow the anomaly around and announce it's location.

Probes are boring TV.

 

[Fateor]

Probes are boring TV.

Then the writers shouldn't write problems that can easily be solved with probes in a universe where such probes have been commonly used for a thousand years.

 

[Deks]

Then the writers shouldn't write problems that can easily be solved with probes in a universe where such probes have been commonly used for a thousand years.

Correction, Disco writers shouldn't be writing Trek stories. They suck at doing it correctly.
Although, yeah, your description means pretty much the same thing.

 

[Yistaan]

Starfleet bridges have always had some explodium but Discovery's bridge seems to be made of nothing but explodium

 

[Nerys Myk]

Then the writers shouldn't write problems that can easily be solved with probes in a universe where such probes have been commonly used for a thousand years.

Nah. The characters will always be at the forefront of any "problem". Probes are only good for one thing, getting destroyed.

 

[jackoverfull]

Also... Why is Discovery using a centralized Artificial Gravity Generator instead of Gravity Plating?

Starships used Gravity Plating for the very reason shown in this episode... IE you only get local failures instead of ship wide...

who said they were? It was an artificial gravity malfunction, not a shutdown. And in fact they mentioned that some areas of the ship permanently lost gravity at a giv en point, so it stands to reason that they were using gravity plating and some of it eventually broke down.

What if a failure is extremely painful?

indeed. And hard to predict and detect initially, often leading to crazy and threading behavior. After a while the public opinion might be so against the procedure that it becomes unthinkable to try it.
Let’s remember that genetic engineering has been banned for centuries after it lead to a war...

You don't stick the probes in the anomaly... You have them follow behind it and report it's location and movement so people know to get out of it's way...

Like the trackers marine biologists stick on dolphins and whales.

But I said this was a good objection: they should have left probes on the outskirts to track it.

It’s using probes to get nearer to the anomaly to gather data that wasn’t possible.

Programmable matter.
They could have (for example) clumped 50-100 probes together (which would also be networked together) to form several large ones (the size of Booker's ship) once outside Discovery and surround the anomaly and even possibly tether each other to have some inside - if need be, operate on them remotely if automation fails (this would have been perfect maybe to use Zora for)

do we even know that programmable matter can be used to build something that big? Also, you’d need to program it to do something like that and that takes time.

 

[fireproof78]

Then the writers shouldn't write problems that can easily be solved with probes in a universe where such probes have been commonly used for a thousand years.

Star Trek always ignores convenient tech.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Correction, Disco writers shouldn't be writing Trek stories. They suck at doing it correctly.
Although, yeah, your description means pretty much the same thing.

Nah. They're doing what Trek writers have always done. Focusing on people rather than tech or the pseudo science.

 

[Deks]

It’s using probes to get nearer to the anomaly to gather data that wasn’t possible.
do we even know that programmable matter can be used to build something that big? Also, you’d need to program it to do something like that and that takes time.

Eh, programmable matter by its very nature can make things (or rearrange matter) quickly (as we were shown).... also, Disco has probes... and were able to make how many smaller vessels for their fight against Control in Season 2 using 23rd century technology on the spot?
Come on...

 

[Deks]

Nah. They're doing what Trek writers have always done. Focusing on people rather than tech or the pseudo science.

I agree that as Trek progressed, more dumbing down occurred... but even VOY and TNG retained a level of consistency with technology they had.
Was it perfect? Hardly.
But, come on, its easy to find this info in this day and age.. and write a convincing story to work with the advanced setting.
My word, you have Trek fans that can write better Trek stories than Disco writers.

I'm kinda sick of writers ignoring advanced technology (which is part of Trek) for the sake of focusing entirely on drama and 'feelings'.
There needs to be a decent balance... Disco seems to have ignored that.

 

[cooleddie74]

Star Trek always ignores convenient tech.

This is a franchise where a ship named Enterprise is all to often the only vessel within range of a significant emergency and the rest of Starfleet is either 500 light-years away or being overhauled in a garage. I'm not shocked when convenient tech is overlooked to make things harder.

 

[jackoverfull]

Nah. The characters will always be at the forefront of any "problem". Probes are only good for one thing, getting destroyed.

well, given how many times a probe is lost or destroyed in TNG they might have decided to get rid of them entirely!

Eh, programmable matter by its very nature can make things (or rearrange matter) quickly

we don’t know if there are size or programming limits, though. We literally don’t know at this point in the series.

d were able to make how many smaller vessels for their fight against Control in Season 2 using 23rd century technology on the spot?

I’d rather avoid countering something I feel is absurd citing something that was even more absurd.