Spoilers Star Trek: Discovery 4x06 - "Stormy Weather"

I don't remember anything about the Kelvans other than Barbara Bouchet as Kelinda. I bet if Kelinda showed up Book would be all like "You know what, I'll join you Kelvans, I hated my homeworld anyway". (On that note nice to see the writers finally remembered Book was supposed to be on very bad terms with his family)

So isn't a computer that has emotions and gets scared a very bad thing? Does Starfleet not remember how Geordi was kidnapped by Soran all those centuries ago? And they're treating Starfleet AI gaining sentience as a brand new thing. Someone bring in Voyager's Doctor please to jog everyone's memory.

 

Wasn't as high on this episode as many people, but it was still another enjoyable outing. Absolutely loved all the Book stuff, though. Just think David Ajala brings so much to the screen and he's always just such a pleasure to watch.

 

A cameo from the EMH backup program from "Living Witness(VOY)" would be cool. He left the Kyrian facility around 3074 and could still be around post-Burn. It'd give Robert Picardo a chance to cameo in a series set hundreds of years too late to interact with the rest of his old VOY castmates.

 

The M5 experienced scarred Starfleet for a long time.

 

Between Control in 2258 and the M-5 disaster in 2268 Starfleet was probably very skittish around most AI for decades to come.

 

But it's all the Zhat Vash's fault right? They sabotaged Control and probably drugged Dr. Daystrom with psychotic drugs. While posing as Vulcans at Starfleet Command.

Stiles was right.

 

Daystrom ended up traveling back through a temporal portal to the late 20th century, lost his identity and became The King of Cartoons. Something clearly happened to the man!

 

‪‪I believe that, Lakenheath first mentioned in this thread, that Saru was referring to the Enterprise-D in S07E09 Force of Nature and their experiences with a subspace rift therein.

‪‪I believe the Voyager reference was made in regards to VOY S02E10 Cold Fire, where they deal with a subspace rupture.

 

And nobody ever went into subspace ruptures again for 800 years obviously. Man, and I thought the Marvel movies were bad where literally nothing happens for years between films and the only missions the Avengers ever talk about are the Battles of New York and Sokovia (they apparently did nothing else of note). Now in Trek nothing noteworthy happens for centuries unless a tv show or movie covers it.

 

This has been Trek's MO for a long time. I absolutely love SF Debris commentary about it in Angel One episode where the Federation hasn't had contact in 60 years. "Oh sure, nothing happens in 60 years. Why, on our own planet, in my country (USA) 60 years ago a black man couldn't use the same water fountain as a white person and now we've elected a black man president...twice."

Time frames and space distances are a lost cause in fiction.

 

Today's Discovery is the best yet of the season, despite flaws. Somebody's seen both TOS- The Immunity Syndrome and Dr Who- Warriors Gate...

 

This one gets a 10 - which I don't give out lightly here.

I really like that this wasn't just another TNG-esque "Go into the anomaly, find something to scan, and create a particle of the week that solves the issue in the last 5 minutes..."

There was some mystery, and the crew as a whole worked together to figure things out and get out of it but is was done in a way that held the tension, and beyond the fact that this is a TV show, and you KNOW overall the leads will survive (or most of them ) - there was still a sense of real danger here that harkens back to the original Star Trek and I really appreciated and enjoyed that aspect of the episode.

I also liked that there was some real and substantial character development on many of the characters, but it was natural and didn't feel forced because of the needs of the plot. It was organic and worked well.

And the fact wasn't lost on me that after 55+ years of 23rd century era Captains (of which Burnham is still of that era) talking rogue A.I. down to destruction to prevent a catastrophe/genocide/whatever -- here we had a 23rd century era Captain talking to support/cheer on/help a still somewhat rogue A.I. (IE - no one expected 'Zora' to manifest itself as it has) through a major crisis and keep it online to SAVE the ship and it's crew.

I also liked the way Book continued to work through his emotional issues here and the way the too was presented.

My two nitpicks:

1 - With 32nd century Transporter tech the way it is, that ensign who was sucked out into the void should have been able to have been beamed to safety; so that particular plot element to 'ramp of the feeling of danger for us the audience' seemed narratively forced, especially with how they used the Transporter tech to keep the crew alive later in this very episode.

2 - The same goes for Burnham's situation in the EV suit as things 'heat up'. Once Zora has accepted the command and the responsibility, Burnham should have been transported into the pattern buffer by Zora make sure she too survived.

So yeah, two very good episodes of REAL Star Trek in a row by this current writing staff...I hope they can continue this trend.

Edited to add:

Also I loved the incorporation of Star Trek's 'Galactic Barrier' into this storyline in a neat way here; and the fact the 'evil protagonists' seem to be from outside our Galaxy = unique aliens the Federation has most likely not encountered before.

 

After 900+ years, sorry but it should be the U.S.S. Enterprise 1701-Ω²

 

I think you're being paranoid, our satellite's literally flew right through the Heliopause. That's why we know it's as hot as it is.

 

So of course now the computer is working through their emotions, this is Discovery after all. Pretty soon the computer will be crying and fit in perfectly with the rest of them

Joking aside, I rate this episode a notch below the previous two. The idea of Discovery's AI gaining consciousness isn't a bad one and the writers did a nice job tying that into Gray getting a new body (and thus being able to contribute to solving the problem), but I found it hard to stay engaged. Zora singing the song was so unbearable I had to skip through it. Not my cup of tea. It also calls into question the competence of everyone for ignoring signs of Zora's evolution when it is very clearly impacting even basic ship operations. Anyways:

- Book's story was great and David continues to impress

- I liked they are giving Adira a bridge assignment.

- This episode is further proof that Burnham works so much better in the Captain's chair. And I really like Saru as first officer. This should be the structure going forward.

- I rolled my eyes when everyone held hands before going into the pattern buffer. Not as ridiculous as the "say yes" scene or the overt emotional displays, but still a little too sappy for my tastes.

Still a solid episode though, I rate it a 7.

 

The Ship's Main Computer / Primary functions should be seperated from Zora.

Zora should get her own Server Room that is seperated from Discovery.

If all her background processes are taking so many compute cycles that she's missing sensor read-outs, then she really needs more Server Racks of computers to stretch her background process legs.

Zora should be able to "Assist" the ship's main computer, but not have absolute control over it.

 

So am I the only one who thought whale probe as soon as they brought up sonar? I'm probably wrong and would very much like to be, but considering we have no idea what the probe's origins are, it's a possibility. Although I do feel V'Ger is a more likely candidate.

 

My first 10 of the season.

 

Agreed.
Though, this has kinda been on my mind ever since we saw the 24th century... and even 23rd century.
Why aren't crews that get accidentally sucked out automatically beamed back to the ship?
A few seconds of exposure to space won't (exactly) be fatal... certainly not with the technology they had in the 23rd and 24th centuries.
In the 32nd... it really didn't make sense the crew would be in danger of a hull breach.
Zora herself could have simply beamed the crewman the moment she had to erect the force field to the other side of it so he'd be saved.
Even if he was sucked out, his commbadge would have kept the lock on him. Or Zora would probably be able to detect his biosigns... or a tricom would have been programmed to detect the sudden change in environment and beam the crewman to safety.

In the 23rd and 24th centuries... I can understand if transporters went down due to damage... but in a lot of the situations we saw, the sucked out crew should have simply been beamed back aboard instantly.. and in the 24th... the shuttles could have been brought online in dangerous situations only for the purpose of using their transporters as 'lifelines'.

Yeah, I also wondered about this too... but Trek is full of these inconsistencies.

Overall, the episode was pretty good with Zora's development... but yeah, Disco's hull has apparently become weaker than it was in the 23rd century... and that shouldn't have happened.

That was an interesting twist.
Made me think of the same civilization that may have initially sent the Planet Killer which SF dealt with in the 23rd century (I still maintain the UFP would have developed Neutronium as a direct result and made sensors and weapons to be able to interact with it as well by the 24th century)... and the Kelvans... might be another connection that could finally tell us what happened in Andromeda galaxy after 930 years - though to be fair, SF should have had numerous expeditions and bases of operations in that galaxy due to Quantum Slipstream drive v2 that allowed 10 000 Ly's per minute (would get a ship there in about 4 hrs).

 

Uh oh, looks like not everyone came out of the transporter pattern buffer the same way they went in. The new Voyager is going to have to swing by to kill separate Mr. Grru.