Spoilers The ending of the season, and the "tacked on two"...

[eschaton]

Like many others, I found the end of the season last night very underwhelming and rushed. I wondered how it could possibly be that they didn't have a more concrete ending for the season, and it was all such a big asspull.

Then I remembered the "tacked on two."

Let's roll back the clock. Discovery was originally supposed to end the season at 13 episodes. On May 17th, 2017, it was announced that the first season was being expanded to 15 episodes. We don't know for certain what those episodes were, but we do know that filming of the season didn't wrap up until late October.

I had earlier hypotheses about what the "tacked on two" might have been. One was that the prologue was originally shot in part or in total as flashback, but later stretched into a full two-parter. Another was that Magic to Make the Sanest Man go Mad was one of the tacked on ones, because (aside from some Burnham/Tyler romance) it was pretty self-contained and not critical to the show. Some have suggested it was Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum, but I find that unlikely, given the Klingon arc from that episode transitions cleanly into the mid-season finale.

Considering the 13th episode ends with a cliffhanger - as if it was meant to be the season-ending show, I am left with the conclusion that maybe that was meant to be the end of the season, with the Klingon War finishing up in the second season (meaning they didn't fully know how they were going to close out the arc yet). Only someone high up in CBS realized, before the show even aired, the redesigned Klingons weren't working out (and maybe Burnham wasn't either) and basically commanded Berg & Harbets to wrap up all of the Season 1 arcs in two additional episodes, so they could start with a clean slate and do a more conventional Trek show in the second season.

Thoughts?

 

[Cyrus]

I think they always said the Klingon war arc will end at the end of the season. The writers probably told the execs they need 2 more epidodes to finish the arc, and they got it.

I don't think they added any specific episodes. They may have extended the mirror universe arc since both the writers and actors seemed to have loved that part.

 

[Visitor1982]

They always knew how they wanted to end the first season...

 

[STR]

Yeah, they definitely reworked the pilot and pulled it out from what ended up as "Context is for Kings".

The 2nd new episode was probably the 33 minute mirror episode.

 

[eschaton]

They always knew how they wanted to end the first season...

I can buy, perhaps, they know what they wanted to end the season with, but I can't buy that they knew how they wanted to end the season, not after last night.

I'm trying to give the writers more credit here. If they expected to not write the arc's conclusion until the second season, and then were told that they needed to work their way out of the corner they wrote themselves into on very short notice, the very underwhelming end to the arc is more understandable.

 

[eltel99uk]

I think @cultcross says elsewhere something I buy into - that the start and finish were written and the "extra stuff" was added later (I'm paraphrasing but think that was the point). We already know the MU was meant to happen earlier in the season but was pushed back - I think once Fuller left they weren't sure what the overall structure was meant to be and only knew what the start and end were. After all, if you ignore the plot-holes, there is a certain "closing of the arc" with Burnham.

I honestly think the last few episodes were broadly there from the start. It was stuff in the middle (probably some of the MU stuff) that got added.

 

[Mudd]

"A big asspull" succinctly describes the plotting overall on STD.

 

[DigificWriter]

There were no "tacked-on" episodes. Discovery's writers/producers knew they were getting 15 episodes long before it was publicly announced, and planned accordingly.

 

[fireproof78]

I'm trying to give the writers more credit here. If they expected to not write the arc's conclusion until the second season, and then were told that they needed to work their way out of the corner they wrote themselves into on very short notice, the very underwhelming end to the arc is more understandable.

"Underwhelming?" Starfleet almost committed genocide and had to be pulled back from the brink. They found an unlikely ally in the Klingons to at least attempt for peace, allowing for the Cold War style tensions in TOS.

What would be preferred?

 

[eschaton]

"Underwhelming?" Starfleet almost committed genocide and had to be pulled back from the brink. They found an unlikely ally in the Klingons to at least attempt for peace, allowing for the Cold War style tensions in TOS.

What would be preferred?

Where do I start with what was wrong with the denouement of the season?

1. The nearly canon-breaking decision to have Klingon ships in the effin Solar System. Martok said in DS9 the Klingons never even tried to attack Earth directly. Of course, this can be retconned that Klingons suppressed the knowledge because it's viewed as a failure, but still, they didn't need to do this.
2. The idea that the Federation would willingly attempt genocide, and no one (aside from Very Special Burnham) thought it was a bad idea.
3. The idea that blowing up Qo'noS would stop the Klingon assault - that they would all just reteat back home to airlift the survivors rather than destroy Earth first in fury.
4. That Burnham convinced Admiral Cornwell of the wrongness of the decision just due to sheer force of will
5. That Burnham convinced MU Georgiou to stand down, mainly because she intuited that Georgiou wouldn't kill her. She's from the freaking MU and was willing to kill Burnham only a few episodes ago. It made no sense.
6. That the Discovery crew trusted L'Rell with the bomb - someone who in the exact same episode was perfectly fine with the Federation being destroyed.
7. That L'Rell basically told the Klingon houses "I have a bomb that will blow up Qo'noS if you don't do what I say" and they all believed her.
8. That Burnham was considered a hero, when for all we know the withdrawl of Klingon forces was just a temporary reprieve.

There were aspects of last night's episode I liked, like the Ash/Burnham closure, and the exploration of the "Orion embassy." But man, the war was wrapped up with some lazy garbage writing.

 

[fireproof78]

Where do I start with what was wrong with the denouement of the season?

1. The nearly canon-breaking decision to have Klingon ships in the effin Solar System. Martok said in DS9 the Klingons never even tried to attack Earth directly. Of course, this can be retconned that Klingons suppressed the knowledge because it's viewed as a failure, but still, they didn't need to do this.
2. The idea that the Federation would willingly attempt genocide, and no one (aside from Very Special Burnham) thought it was a bad idea.
3. The idea that blowing up Qo'noS would stop the Klingon assault - that they would all just reteat back home to airlift the survivors rather than destroy Earth first in fury.
4. That Burnham convinced Admiral Cornwell of the wrongness of the decision just due to sheer force of will
5. That Burnham convinced MU Georgiou to stand down, mainly because she intuited that Georgiou wouldn't kill her. She's from the freaking MU and was willing to kill Burnham only a few episodes ago. It made no sense.
6. That the Discovery crew trusted L'Rell with the bomb - someone who in the exact same episode was perfectly fine with the Federation being destroyed.
7. That L'Rell basically told the Klingon houses "I have a bomb that will blow up Qo'noS if you don't do what I say" and they all believed her.
8. That Burnham was considered a hero, when for all we know the withdrawl of Klingon forces was just a temporary reprieve.

There were aspects of last night's episode I liked, like the Ash/Burnham closure, and the exploration of the "Orion embassy." But man, the war was wrapped up with some lazy garbage writing.

There is not a single thing that I see in that list that I consider "garbage" writing.

 

[eschaton]

There is not a single thing that I see in that list that I consider "garbage" writing.

Everything I listed were basically contrivances - first to up the stakes to a ridiculous level, and then to resolve the stakes (and the season) as quickly as possible. While the end of the narrative might flow out of the themes of the season as a whole, the execution left much to be desired.

What would you consider garbage writing?

 

[MvRojo]

There were no "tacked-on" episodes. Discovery's writers/producers knew they were getting 15 episodes long before it was publicly announced, and planned accordingly.

Exactly. It's not like the producers and writers found out about the extended season when we found out. So it's not like they suddenly had to figure out how to make two more episode. They didn't just tack on two episodes at the end, or extracted whole episodes. Instead they were given more time to tell the story they wanted to tell.

 

[fireproof78]

Everything I listed were basically contrivances - first to up the stakes to a ridiculous level, and then to resolve the stakes (and the season) as quickly as possible. While the end of the narrative might flow out of the themes of the season as a whole, the execution left much to be desired.

What would you consider garbage writing?

One, it didn't feel contrived. It built upon relationships and events within the season as a whole. Two, Burnham as basically demonstrated some growth by being willing to step up for her values and the values of the Federation as a whole. Yes, she had to through sheer force of will, largely because Starfleet leadership was afraid. Fear makes people do irrational things.

The idea that blowing up Kronos would stop the war makes sense. Guess what, Praxis explosion brought the Empire to the negotiating table due to resources in decline. It flows fine from what we know in canon. Same with Martok's statement. One person must obviously be right because a defeat like that would never be erased from the history books?

What would I consider garbage writing? Transformers, ignoring consequences like Voyager liked to do, and the like.

 

[eschaton]

One, it didn't feel contrived. It built upon relationships and events within the season as a whole. Two, Burnham as basically demonstrated some growth by being willing to step up for her values and the values of the Federation as a whole. Yes, she had to through sheer force of will, largely because Starfleet leadership was afraid. Fear makes people do irrational things.

Burnham has been willing to step up for her values from day one. First it was her value to "shoot first" in the pilot - which was a bad decision for her personally, but from what we see onscreen, would have potentially averted the war. Later it's to free the tartigrade, save MU Georgiou, then stand up to the Federation when everyone (except for her) is willing to go along with genocide. From where I stand, she basically just kept following her heart until the writers decided that rather than blowing up in her face, her decisions would start being the correct ones.

The idea that blowing up Kronos would stop the war makes sense. Guess what, Praxis explosion brought the Empire to the negotiating table due to resources in decline. It flows fine from what we know in canon. Same with Martok's statement. One person must obviously be right because a defeat like that would never be erased from the history books?

Blowing up Qo'noS might stop the war eventually, but it wouldn't stop the war immediately. I mean, if you want to use the Hiroshima analogy, the U.S. only started dropping nuclear bombs on Japan after Japan all but lost the war and no longer held significant territories outside of the home islands. Bombing Tokyo when the war was at its height would almost certainly not bring an immediate end to hostilities. Certainly it wouldn't stop a battle which was planned for only hours in the future. And Klingons are not (modern western) humans - they care much more about honor and glory and blood oaths and the like. If they heard that a big terrorist attack had blown up their home world and killed their kin, their goal would be vengeance, not running home to save as many civilians as possible. Certainly, due to the fractured nature of Klingon government at this time, some of the houses would not choose to bail on the attack even if others did, as they might be able to consolidate their position when the cowards fled the field of battle.

 

[Hythlodeus]

"A big asspull" succinctly describes the plotting overall on STD.

did SM-G rape your puppy or something?

 

[Hythlodeus]

1. The nearly canon-breaking decision to have Klingon ships in the effin Solar System. Martok said in DS9 the Klingons never even tried to attack Earth directly.

and, as shown last night, they didn't. they backed off at the last minute

2. The idea that the Federation would willingly attempt genocide, and no one (aside from Very Special Burnham) thought it was a bad idea.

The whole crew of the DISCO thought it was a bad idea...and Admirals going rogue is an often used Star Trek trope

3. The idea that blowing up Qo'noS would stop the Klingon assault - that they would all just reteat back home to airlift the survivors rather than destroy Earth first in fury.

of course, if UFP is so stupid to admit to a war crime the comitted, yeah, the Klingons would take revenge. but this was a covert operation, all the Klingons would have known, was that their homeplanet was destroyed

4. That Burnham convinced Admiral Cornwell of the wrongness of the decision just due to sheer force of will

or...she came up with a different solution that not conflicted with Starfleet ideals, backed up by the crew of her ship

5. That Burnham convinced MU Georgiou to stand down, mainly because she intuited that Georgiou wouldn't kill her. She's from the freaking MU and was willing to kill Burnham only a few episodes ago. It made no sense.

interpersonal relationships, social skills, emotions... concepts Star Trek fans should look into sometimes.
Burnham saved MU Georgiou, because she looked like PU Pippa, MU Pippa didn't kill Michael, because she reminded her of MU Burnham...this is not rocket science but basic human behaviour

6. That the Discovery crew trusted L'Rell with the bomb - someone who in the exact same episode was perfectly fine with the Federation being destroyed.

yet, Tyler had Voqs memories and knew L'Rells motivation

7. That L'Rell basically told the Klingon houses "I have a bomb that will blow up Qo'noS if you don't do what I say" and they all believed her.

Real Life (TM) has provided us with more supid decisions...Some guy with a 4th grade intellect promised to build a wall and was elected...

8. That Burnham was considered a hero, when for all we know the withdrawl of Klingon forces was just a temporary reprieve.

A Klingon armada retreated from the Sol system, Earth already in visible range....because of Burnham's actions and decisions. Kirk got pardonned and given a new ship, just because he kidnapped two whales

 

[cultcross]

then stand up to the Federation when everyone (except for her) is willing to go along with genocide.

It's hardly "everyone". They kept the plan secret for a reason - top brass knew about it, and probably not many of them. They only worked it out because Tilly broke into the 'drone' box. When Burnham exposes the plan, nearly everybody except Cornwell thinks its an awful idea.

From where I stand, she basically just kept following her heart until the writers decided that rather than blowing up in her face, her decisions would start being the correct ones.

And from where I stand, she has moved from a place where her decisions are driven by fear and xenophobia to a place where they are driven by upholding the values she claims to hold. Here she has the fear that she had in the pilot - they even explicitly reference it through her story to Tyler - but she still chooses the right thing, unlike in the pilot where she chose the wrong thing out of that fear. She stood up to authority again in the finale, but to argue for the moral choice - her and Georgiou had swapped places, in essence. This aspect of the arc I certainly have no issues with. It's a very classic Star Trek theme, the idea that we will be who we say we are, even when it is to our disadvantage. Georgiou tried to teach Burnham that in the pilot, she learnt it in the finale.

4. That Burnham convinced Admiral Cornwell of the wrongness of the decision just due to sheer force of will
5. That Burnham convinced MU Georgiou to stand down, mainly because she intuited that Georgiou wouldn't kill her. She's from the freaking MU and was willing to kill Burnham only a few episodes ago. It made no sense.
6. That the Discovery crew trusted L'Rell with the bomb - someone who in the exact same episode was perfectly fine with the Federation being destroyed.

She didn't convince Cornwell out of 'sheer force of will' at all, she presented her with little choice because by exposing her plan she had turned the crew of the one ship she could deploy to Qo'nos against her.

The whole 'dare you to kill me' cliché with Georgiou was silly, I certainly agree with that, but that wasn't the whole story - Georgiou's goal wasn't to blow up Qo'nos, it was to complete her deal and win her freedom. She was given that goal, and told that Starfleet had backed out of their little plan, so at that point it was safer and better for her to not blow up the planet she was stood on, and disappear into the night.

L'Rell with the bomb - well, so what? The worst she can do with it is blow up Qo'nos. She can't retrieve it and even if she managed that, it's little use unless she can deploy it in an active volcano on an enemy world. The only real risk was that L'Rell would continue the war, so the worst case scenario was 'everything is as it was'.

 

[XCV330]

Where do I start with what was wrong with the denouement of the season?

1. The nearly canon-breaking decision to have Klingon ships in the effin Solar System. Martok said in DS9 the Klingons never even tried to attack Earth directly. Of course, this can be retconned that Klingons suppressed the knowledge because it's viewed as a failure, but still, they didn't need to do this.
2. The idea that the Federation would willingly attempt genocide, and no one (aside from Very Special Burnham) thought it was a bad idea.
3. The idea that blowing up Qo'noS would stop the Klingon assault - that they would all just reteat back home to airlift the survivors rather than destroy Earth first in fury.
4. That Burnham convinced Admiral Cornwell of the wrongness of the decision just due to sheer force of will
5. That Burnham convinced MU Georgiou to stand down, mainly because she intuited that Georgiou wouldn't kill her. She's from the freaking MU and was willing to kill Burnham only a few episodes ago. It made no sense.
6. That the Discovery crew trusted L'Rell with the bomb - someone who in the exact same episode was perfectly fine with the Federation being destroyed.
7. That L'Rell basically told the Klingon houses "I have a bomb that will blow up Qo'noS if you don't do what I say" and they all believed her.
8. That Burnham was considered a hero, when for all we know the withdrawl of Klingon forces was just a temporary reprieve.

There were aspects of last night's episode I liked, like the Ash/Burnham closure, and the exploration of the "Orion embassy." But man, the war was wrapped up with some lazy garbage writing.

1: Martok's tales probably change over time, and depending on who he is bragging to, and how drunk he might be.
2: This is the same organization that has General Order 24. How is that any different?
3: The ability to blow up Q'onos means Starfleet has assets that can do the same thing on numerous Klingon Worlds. Yep, they'd rush their ass back to defend every major world.
4: Cornball isn't very stable. She cussed out and shot a bowl of cookies for crissakes.
5: Trek plots always have sensible resolutions. You're quite right.
6: They know what L'Rell wants. She's still part of the Torchbearer Cult, and if she cant get control of the empire, dozens of warlords in disunity have no meaning for her.
7: Would you like 15 minutes of the analyzing to verify where her bomb is?
8: Temporary enough that they are building a new Starbase in Earth Orbit by the end of the episode.

 

[eschaton]

The whole crew of the DISCO thought it was a bad idea...and Admirals going rogue is an often used Star Trek trope

This isn't admirals going rogue. This is the entire leadership of Starfleet going rogue. Mostly because they want to set up for a dramatic ending where everything is saved by the One True Burnham. Thus in order to make her very, very right, everyone else must be very, very wrong.

or...she came up with a different solution that not conflicted with Starfleet ideals, backed up by the crew of her ship

Do you seriously think it would sound convincing for her to say to Starfleet "I'm going to convince Georgiou to give me the detonator, then hand it to this Klingon fanatic in exchange for assurances that she'll get the troops pulled back?" She needed to say something more concrete, IMHO, to get the offical Starfleet "pardon" or whatever Georgiou got.

interpersonal relationships, social skills, emotions... concepts Star Trek fans should look into sometimes.
Burnham saved MU Georgiou, because she looked like PU Pippa, MU Pippa didn't kill Michael, because she reminded her of MU Burnham...this is not rocket science but basic human behaviour

But MU Georgiou almost did kill Burnham in Vaulting Ambition when she thought it was the MU Burnham who betrayed her. She only stopped once Burnham spilled the beans on being from the Prime Universe! She was ready to kill her literal adopted daughter - why wouldn't she kill someone who just looks like her?

yet, Tyler had Voqs memories and knew L'Rells motivation

We didn't really see any interaction between Tyler and L'Rell in this episode, so this is just headcanon.

Real Life (TM) has provided us with more stupid decisions...Some guy with a 4th grade intellect promised to build a wall and was elected...

Bluffing your way to winning an election is different from bluffing your way into being in total control of a race where people routinely murder their political enemies.

Kirk got pardonned and given a new ship, just because he kidnapped two whales

You're assuming I think that movie is good.