Another thought: They should have had either Bryce or Rhys die when the shuttle exploded. This would be a case where a death would have great dramatic impact, as it would mean Book's choice had a real consequence that there was no turning back from. The sunk cost fallacy might have caused him to recommit even further. But no, we get a completely bloodless (literally) conflict instead.
I don't know if either of their deaths would have any significance.
Bryce's death maybe... but Rhys?
I'm afraid both were a bit underused throughout the series (along with the blonde commander).
Also, I'm getting tired of all of the suppositions Tarka - who is a supposed super-genius - has. He had everything figured out, but didn't consider for once the possibility that the power source was on another side of a wormhole? Also, neither he nor Book really think about the possibility that 10-C could easily generate a second DMA. I mean even without a wormhole being involved, it's kinda silly to presume that essentially taking away the "toy" of an advanced race will end the danger forever.
I talked about this earlier in the season, but I feel like a major shortcoming of Discovery is that essentially all of the characters are written to be loving/supportive allies all the time. Doesn't matter who we're talking about, or who they're talking to, if they need a shoulder to cry on they'll have it. This is...boring. It makes me miss Georgiou TBH, because at least someone on the show used to be a dick on purpose. Now we only get Stamets doing it occasionally on accident, and even then, he apologizes.
I'll say this, one of the better things of older Trek was that the crew didn't leave an impression as if they need to be coddled all the time.
They appeared as mostly strong, competent/capable people. Sure, they occasionally needed a friendly shoulder to cry on, and that was fine (because it wasn't overdone like it is on Discovery)... but what Disco is doing is effectively babying its crew to the point where you think they are going to break down if the situation gets just a little bit more difficult.
This I think is a 'reflection' of increasingly over-sensitive society we also live in... so I think Disco goes out of its way to create a loving/supporting environment... which is fine... but you can have that would treating people as if they are made of glass at the same time (because, if you do, it just does more damage than good).
It was just ridiculous when the ships were in literal combat and each of them in turn said "no really, I trust my bae."
That felt out of the blue I have to admit. Don't get me wrong, it was nice to see, but given they were on opposing sides, it did feel quite absurd.
I will say this: The compromise idea threw me for a loop and made me doubt whether the explosion would go off for a second. I went into this presuming that it had to, because...four more episodes and all. But a week of additional time is enough of a ticking clock to theoretically fit four episodes, so for a few minutes I was actually fooled into thinking the outcome was in doubt.
To me what Burnham proposed as a compromise seemed a bit absurd in itself.
At first I even wondered if she could even back this idea of hers and why woud Vance support it?. The UFP can be forgiving yes and they remain accurate to their word (They aren't really in the business of lying to people - and I like that), but up until now, they basically treated Booker's and Tarka's stealing of Spore Drive prototype as a huge offense/crime... and went on a self appointed mission to destroy the DMA without considering how this could impact the greater galaxy.
I mean, how did Burnham expect Vance and UFP to go along with her proposal? She was also not seen clearing this with Vance or anyone in UFP (not even a mention).
I know SF captains can grant asylums and all, but this is a bit different. Also, how could she guarantee that the UFP would BACK them in destroying the DMA if they failed to make FC with the species in the next week?
Which made the explosion happening a bit of a whipsaw. Not to mention the tone afterwards was just all wrong, ending with the heart-to-heart with Nhan and more Saru/T'Rina relationship drama. I honestly think a cut to black after the explosion would be much better, with a few of those scenes held over till next week.
Heart to heart with Nhan was definitely out of place... in fact, there's too much of heart to heart happening on Disco to the point where it seems really fake and forced.
I didn't mind Saru/T'Rine relationship drama, but I would have thought theur relationship would have progressed further already once Ni'Var was admitted into UFP and they went for that tea after the talks.
Talk about 'milking it' (but then again, VOY did something similar with Torres and Paris which stretched out for much longer - although that relationship arose from intiial friendship and given the circumstances, I guess it developed in a bit more organic capacity).
Here in Disco, both Saru and T'Rina were giving off clear signals to each other... and then Saru acts as if 'is it or not?'
I mean, he could have just ASKED her.
Nowhere near as dumb as the Sphere data can't be copied, or destroyed IMHO.
Copied? That was already done in Season 2. Destroyed is more difficult because of a comprehensive adaptive AI algorithms that worked with obscure languages to protect itself.
I mean, a more easier method would have been to destroy the ship by pummeling it with continuous torpedoes... and yet, back in Season 2... they fired one or two torpedoes at Disco, and then found out that the Sphere Data erected its shields and gave up?.
I mean, come on... you could have continued firing at it to erode the shields... but then again, I guess the potential danger was that the S.D. could have fought back and disabled or destroyed the Enterprise in turn.
Honestly, Trek is littered with world-changing technologies which are abandoned immediately after when they are introduced. It's not the way tech works, but given Trek tech only exists for story purposes, I can understand it. Even mundane parts of the Trek universe like replicators have created huge issues for Trek writers, as they eliminate all plots based upon resource scarcity (which is why they were ignored for things like latinum, deuterium, dilithium, etc).
This is what I hate about Trek.
UFP is clearly capable of making massive advances in short periods of time all on its own, but yet the writers don't move the needle forward.
That's why I was disappointed with the 32nd century. It seemed less advanced than the 24th century to be fair (sans maybe programmable matter - and even then replicators already do pretty much the same).
By the 32nd, UFP should have been a Type III civilization on its was of becoming Type IV (and spreading to other galaxies and harnessing them via Dyson Swarms for example and using TW beaming for a LOT of things, with power sources vastly different from what we saw in the 24th century and FAR more powerful - I mean, realistically, Dilithium and M/AM would have been abandoned by the late 24th century or mid 25th at the latest given everything we saw in TNG, DS9 and VOY even).
I actually think Season 3's arc worked better in a way because it was a linear story, but not a single arc. Episodes 1-2 were about reuniting the crew. 2-5 were about finding Starfeet and integrating within it. 6-11 were about finding the cause of the Burn (with added side quests). 12-13 were just about defeating Osyraa.
This season, the main plot was introduced immediately...and it's all that's going on, other than the crisis of the week.
I kinda got the impression both S3 and S4 main plots were done in a pretty similar capacity.
Oh and Osyraa shouldn't have been much of a threat even with a UFP diminished to only about 35 member worlds (but the whole Burn plot was very dumb if you ask me in universe wise).
I wanted to see Trek pushed forward... to explore far more advanced UFP spreading into the universe and dealing with say 'higher concepts'.
