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

[nic3636]

She obviously panicked a bit due to a very unpleasant previous life experience.

Star Fleet Officers are (mostly) only human after all.

Yeah, but there was no specific connection between this event and her past experience, so does she get like this where every time there's a crisis she always wants to do more? Is she constantly suggesting she go do things that aren't actually needed? At least with Rhys last week they tied his hurricane experience into a personal reason why he had a connection to that specific mission of evacuating the asteroid.

This one was just poorly written. Thumbs down.

 

[DaveyNY]

Since when?!?

1966 ...

 

[mswood]

Well in fairness, people don't always react to stimulus the same way. You can experience multiple events that are similar and only two of them you handle just fine and the third is the one that breaks through your reserve. That's basic human nature, we don't always behave rationally or react the same way to stimulus.

When reading several of the memoirs from Easy Company, they talk about how they would suddenly learn something about someone, after weeks of being under similar stresses. So again this really isn't something that wouldn't happen.

But in dramatic presentation it really felt more jarring than what they normally do. Editing of it just felt a little off. Like moments or beats of it just were cut to fit a length requirement for broadcast, but that really shouldn't be a factor today.

 

[fireproof78]

Yeah, but there was no specific connection between this event and her past experience, so does she get like this where every time there's a crisis she always wants to do more? Is she constantly suggesting she go do things that aren't actually needed? At least with Rhys last week they tied his hurricane experience into a personal reason why he had a connection to that specific mission of evacuating the asteroid.

This one was just poorly written. Thumbs down.

Sometimes it is not a specific connection, but just a sense, a smell, or a memory. The human mind is a weird thing and it doesn't always work with specifics.

but that really shouldn't;t be a factor today.

Theoretically yes, but given that the production teams were trained in an older model and still have requirements to work with such things are bound to still happen.

 

[DaveyNY]

So the plot summary of this episode is... what? "The ship had a panic attack"? Absolute twaddle.

It's a smidge deeper than that.
But there's obviously no sense in attempting to convince you otherwise.

 

[mswood]

My favorite episode of the season, my biggest overall complaints about the episode is that I still don't really feel a connection to Adira or to Grey, and those are two characters I really from the get go want to connect with (being LGBTQ, I tend to put a little more pressure to connect to those characters, so it really might just be me). But Trek has always had some characters I just don't connect with. But this was easily Grey best episode, but it kills me that I am far more into Zora then either Adira (though I absolutely did love the work done in the Trill episode of season 3) or Grey. Hopefully that changes.

8.5 to a 9. Six episodes in, this has been the most consistent season of the show, and consistently good at that. Keep it up, please.

 

[nic3636]

Sometimes it is not a specific connection, but just a sense, a smell, or a memory. The human mind is a weird thing and it doesn't always work with specifics.

I suppose, but even if I accept she was randomly triggered it isn't very good storytelling (IMO) and doesn't really do anything for me. So basically:

- Owo had to watch her friend get sick and die and didn't like feeling helpless, so now she always tries to do as much as she can.
- This has never manifested itself previously (on screen at least), but this time it does for a random reason
- She decides the engines need to be reinforced with programable matter and takes the idea to Saru who promptly rejects it. This leads me to believe the idea was complete nonsense to begin with.
- She then panics saying she will do it herself and Saru again says no and sends her back to her station.

It might have worked better if something actually needed to be done and Owo wanted to be involved but was needed on the bridge (and I still think it would have worked better if there was a specific connection between that thing and Owo's past). But she instead reacted by proposing a nonsense idea and wasn't able to see it was nonsense in the moment. That's a pretty big deficiency on her part, makes her completely unsuitable for command IMO.

 

[KamenRiderBlade]

Starfleet isn't real so my beliefs about safe environment has little bearing on it. In real life I train, drill, and prepare for all eventualities. In fiction I don't.

Maybe you should hold the same expectations for your fiction as you do IRL.

Don't let bad writing stretch your levels of credulity in your works of fiction; otherwise the writers get away with WAY too many things that shouldn't be believable IMO.

 

[fireproof78]

Maybe you should hold the same expectations for your fiction as you do IRL.

Haven't done that for 30 years. Not sure why I need to change that right now when it feels very much in line with all that Star Trek has done in the past.

Don't let bad writing stretch your levels of credulity in your works of fiction; otherwise the writers get away with WAY too many things that shouldn't be believable IMO.

It's fiction. I don't need it to work like real life always. Otherwise things like the fantasy novels I enjoy, shows I share with my kids, and comic books would be rather incomprehensible. I don't go to it for soliloquies on real life functionality.

I suppose, but even if I accept she was randomly triggered it isn't very good storytelling (IMO) and doesn't really do anything for me. So basically:

That's a pretty big deficiency on her part, makes her completely unsuitable for command IMO.

If she is showing something that potentially makes her unsuitable for command then that is actually an interesting bit of storytelling,

 

[Nerys Myk]

So there's an Enterprise in this time period. Until contradicted by onscreen evidence I'm calling it the Enterprise-Z.

It was a reference to a past Enterprise. A later line mentions that the Enterprise (and Voyager) mentioned never entered a rift caused by a DMA

I had a huge smile on my face with the reference. Also makes me wonder if one of the characters is going to get Gary Mitchell-ed.

Time for a different type of crew psyche evaluation.

At least we know now this is from another galaxy like the Planet Killer in TOS. Or the Kelvans who came from the Andromeda Galaxy in their long-term mission to conquer our galaxy. At least this isn't some standard Milky Way Galaxy threat we've probably heard of before and can picture in our heads.

To the disappointment of the memberry group

I bet if Kelinda showed up Book would be all like "You know what, I'll join you Kelvans, I hated my homeworld anyway".

Till he sees her true form.

Owo: "I want to do this random thing"
Saru: "I really need you at your station doing your job"

Finally that Trek trope laid to rest. “Captain, let me leave my post to do something else because everyone else must be incompetent. “

Maybe you should hold the same expectations for your fiction as you do IRL.

Don't let bad writing stretch your levels of credulity in your works of fiction; otherwise the writers get away with WAY too many things that shouldn't be believable IMO.

No, I want my fiction to be interesting and exciting. Not the boring version you always seem to push.

 

[KamenRiderBlade]

No, I want my fiction to be interesting and exciting. Not the boring version you always seem to push.

So earned deaths are boring, but pointless / unbelievable deaths are interesting & exciting?

 

[Nerys Myk]

So earned deaths are boring, but pointless / unbelievable deaths are interesting & exciting?

All deaths should be interesting in fiction

 

[Quinton]

This episode would have been a winner for me regardless because the intergalactic origin of the DMA means I never need to think about Nagilum's terrifying face again.

Please?

 

[nic3636]

If she is showing something that potentially makes her unsuitable for command then that is actually an interesting bit of storytelling,

That's fair. I assumed this was the obligatory "get to know Owo" scene with no greater objective. But if this is the beginning of an arc where she realizes she isn't cut out for command and decides to join Starfleet Academy as a swimming instructor (because she can hold her breath for a long time), I will take back what I said.

 

[KamenRiderBlade]

All deaths should be interesting in fiction

I concur, but how it happens is important.

In Discovery alone, Michael Burnham has survived being "Spaced" TWICE.
In season 1, when the ship was damaged and she had to escape the brigs, she lept into the vacuum of space and went from her cell, to the corridor.
In this past season, season 4, her Work Bee had it's cockpit shattered, she held her breath or whatever and the EVA helmet materialized around her to give her air.

Jonathon Archer was exposed to space briefly before getting beamed back onboard NX-01.

Cortez, despite being a trained "Yellow Shirt" in StarFleet, isn't blessed with "Plot armor" and dies immediately by getting sucked out into space, and nobody beams his body up immediately.

Everybody just sits there and mourns, when they could've revived him in the sickbay with Borg Nanoprobe tech.

 

[Nerys Myk]

I concur, but how it happens is important.

In Discovery alone, Michael Burnham has survived being "Spaced" TWICE.
In season 1, when the ship was damaged and she had to escape the brigs, she lept into the vacuum of space and went from her cell, to the corridor.
In this past season, season 4, her Work Bee had it's cockpit shattered, she held her breath or whatever and the EVA helmet materialized around her to give her air.

Jonathon Archer was exposed to space briefly before getting beamed back onboard NX-01.

Plot armor is a hell of a thing.

 

[TimeIsAPredator]

It would have worked a lot better if Zora sent her to the pattern buffer and finished the mission alone.

Maybe that did happen but wont know if it ain't shown

 

[KamenRiderBlade]

Plot armor is a hell of a thing.

Apparently, it's the greatest armor in all of fiction.

Makes the entire crew stupid at the whims of the writer and smart when they need to be.

The computer (Zora) gets emotional and forgets that with a comptuers reaction time, she should've been able to beam Cortez back on board, faster then even Cortez could've realized what's going on.

(Zora), who has control of the computers to some degree, erects a Force Field in FRONT of Cortez, instead of BEHIND him.

If (Zora) was competent, she could've easily saved Cortez's life.

But somehow she got a brain fart in her CPU and screwed over Cortez and spaced him.

On top of that, Cortez was even grabbing onto a chunk of the hull, before getting completely sucked out of the ship.

There's a total of probably 3 seconds while Cortez is in the hull, and a few more seconds before his body would've hit the edge of Discovery's shield bubble.

That's PLENTY of time for (Zora) to save Cortez.

 

[nic3636]

Maybe you should hold the same expectations for your fiction as you do IRL.

Don't let bad writing stretch your levels of credulity in your works of fiction; otherwise the writers get away with WAY too many things that shouldn't be believable IMO.

I didn't find this to be terrible writing. It's more of a structural problem with Star Trek where the transporter is ridiculously overpowered. In theory, the computer should be able to constantly monitor the actions of all the crew and automatically beam them away from any danger (about to be hit by phaser fire, falling down the turbo shaft chasm, about to be hit by an exploding console, etc.) Any other issues with the execution of the scene (forcefield placement, etc.) could be chalked up to Zora not being able to function properly (or maybe he was moving too fast for the transporters to lock on). And I don't think the death was "cheap" in the sense that I'm assuming they need this to continue the story of Zora's evolution (now Zora can feel guilt over letting him die, which will result in Burnham saving the day by teaching Zora how to cry).

That said, I did have some minor issues with the execution of this scene. First we get Zora releasing there's a problem with the hull and she tells Grey but doesn't want to tell Burnham / the bridge? Didn't make sense. Then, we cut to a scene where crew members are aware of the situation and are working on it, but they also didn't tell the bridge? Again, makes no sense.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Makes the entire crew stupid at the whims of the writer and smart when they need to be.

Welcome to Star Trek (and fiction in general)