The least disliked episode 2021 - DISCO Final Rounds

[BlueStuff]

Season One: Vaulting Ambition
Wild Card: Despite Yourself
Season Two: If Memory Serves
Wild Card: An Obol for Charon
Season Three: Unification III
Wild Card: Terra Firma I

So now it is time for the final part.

*RULES*

Give what you consider to be the worst/your least favourite episode ONE point, and briefly explain WHY. Be sure to copy and paste the list with your point added. When an episode reaches 4 points, it is eliminated. Then a NEW round begins (in this thread) with the numbers restored to 0. Vote ONCE per round. If 48 hours without a vote passes, the episode currently leading in points will be eliminated, and a new round will begin. And enjoy!

Vaulting Ambition - 0
Despite Yourself - 0
If Memory Serves - 0
An Obol for Charon - 0
Unification III - 0
Terra Firma I - 0

 

[Takeru]

An Obol for Charon for the "Saru will die" sub plot because it was obvious he wasn't going to die, then he turned into super saru, they already did a very plot on TNG's Transfigurations.


Vaulting Ambition - 0
Despite Yourself - 0
If Memory Serves - 0
An Obol for Charon - 1
Unification III - 0
Terra Firma I - 0

 

[Seven of Five]

I'll go for Terra Firma I. She's been an interesting character at various points for me, but Georgiou hadn't really earned a big two-part exit episode. It kills the flow of S3 for me somewhat as well.

Vaulting Ambition - 0
Despite Yourself - 0
If Memory Serves - 0
An Obol for Charon - 1
Unification III - 0
Terra Firma I - 1

 

[Jadeb]

What they did to Culber in Despite Yourself embodies a lot of what was wrong with the show in season 1.

Vaulting Ambition - 0
Despite Yourself - 1
If Memory Serves - 0
An Obol for Charon - 1
Unification III - 0
Terra Firma I - 1

 

[oldtrekkie]

"An Obol for Charon" receives my point for being the least interesting on that list.

Vaulting Ambition - 0
Despite Yourself - 1
If Memory Serves - 0
An Obol for Charon - 2
Unification III - 0
Terra Firma I - 1

 

[Sakonna]

I just can't forgive "Despite Yourself" for that Culber death.

Remarkable that the Culber story stands as the most grotesque Kill Your Gays storyline I've ever seen, even though he came back to life! That really says something about just how repellent this plot was.

Vaulting Ambition - 0
Despite Yourself - 2
If Memory Serves - 0
An Obol for Charon - 2
Unification III - 0
Terra Firma I - 1

 

[Vger23]

Vaulting Ambition - 0
Despite Yourself - 2
If Memory Serves - 0
An Obol for Charon - 2
Unification III - 1
Terra Firma I - 1

Unification III was pretty weak. Bringing Burnham's mother back in this fashion felt too contrived and soap-operaish.

 

[Farscape One]

"An Obol for Charon" gets me vote because it was very predictable.


Vaulting Ambition - 0
Despite Yourself - 2
If Memory Serves - 0
An Obol for Charon - 3
Unification III - 1
Terra Firma I - 1

 

[Quinton]

Honestly, not a big fan of "If Memory Serves." Maybe I needed to be a bigger TOS fan, I don't know. It didn't help that it fell mostly flat for my roommates, who have never seen the source material. They even both love Pike.

Vaulting Ambition - 0
Despite Yourself - 2
If Memory Serves - 1
An Obol for Charon - 3
Unification III - 1
Terra Firma I - 1

 

[BlueStuff]

Wish I could help speed this up but as I haven't seen season 3, I feel it would be unfair to vote. I'm sad that An Obol for Charon is on the chopping block - it's my favourite episode of DISCO.

 

[Seven of Five]

Mine too!

 

[Takeru]

Wish I could help speed this up but as I haven't seen season 3, I feel it would be unfair to vote. I'm sad that An Obol for Charon is on the chopping block - it's my favourite episode of DISCO.

It isn't bad at all and I love the sphere plot but everything with Saru feels pointless, it's like when Worf couldn't walk and planned his suicide, we all knew it wouldn't happen and the same is true here, I doubt anyone here was worried it would actually happen. And everything was so drawn out, everyone made sad faces when he left the bridge to die in his quarters and then he gave a speech to Michael and she weeped and cried which all makes sense in universe but the entire time I thought "Just tell he how he survives".
Plots like this just work better with recurring characters or guest stars because there's a significantly bigger chance of them not actually making it.

 

[Sakonna]

I'm a big fan of "An Obol For Charon" as well, despite also feeling it gets ruined by subsequent episodes (actually, now that I think about it, the same statement is true of every Discovery episode I like).

I think the Saru-possible-death stakes worked, in that this was a rare occasion where the show was using the language of Modern Streaming Prestige TV and it totally landed. There's enough shows today doing this episode structure, in which the regular actually does die, so for me it felt like a valid choice. Then, paying it off with a significant change/evolution in the character prevented his survival from feeling like a cheat.

Subsequently, Disco has become infuriating with the frequency with which they're willing to deploy "CERTAIN DEATH LOOMS!!!!!!! oh wait, nevermind". "Obol" was probably the last time it happened without me feeling manipulated by cheap writer gimmicks.

 

[oldtrekkie]

Wish I could help speed this up but as I haven't seen season 3, I feel it would be unfair to vote. I'm sad that An Obol for Charon is on the chopping block - it's my favourite episode of DISCO.

You must have a rule to deal with a situation like that. Like, say, if nobody votes for a certain time (to be determined) the "winner" is the one who got the most votes first... How about that?

 

[oldtrekkie]

I'm a big fan of "An Obol For Charon" as well, despite also feeling it gets ruined by subsequent episodes (actually, now that I think about it, the same statement is true of every Discovery episode I like).

I think the Saru-possible-death stakes worked, in that this was a rare occasion where the show was using the language of Modern Streaming Prestige TV and it totally landed. There's enough shows today doing this episode structure, in which the regular actually does die, so for me it felt like a valid choice. Then, paying it off with a significant change/evolution in the character prevented his survival from feeling like a cheat.

Subsequently, Disco has become infuriating with the frequency with which they're willing to deploy "CERTAIN DEATH LOOMS!!!!!!! oh wait, nevermind". "Obol" was probably the last time it happened on Disco without me feeling manipulated by cheap writer gimmicks.

What I find a bit... odd is that his head-growths were about to fall on their own so I don't see how cutting them off could have caused him to die. That doesn't make much sense. Had Burnam cut them off say one hour before, for example, would that really have made Saru die? If so, why? They weren't fulfilling any vital function, they were dying off!!! Anyway, never mind... There are about a gazillion of things like that in the whole franchise to don't stand a minute of thought.

 

[Sakonna]

You must have a rule to deal with a situation like that. Like, say, if nobody votes for a certain time (to be determined) the "winner" is the one who got the most votes first... How about that?

There is -- "If 48 hours without a vote passes, the episode currently leading in points will be eliminated, and a new round will begin."

What I find a bit... odd is that his head-growths were about to fall on their own so I don't see how cutting them off could have caused him to die. That doesn't make much sense. Had Burnam cut them off say one hour before, for example, would that really have made Saru die? If so, why? They weren't fulfilling any vital function, they were dying off!!! Anyway, never mind... There are about a gazillion of things like that in the whole franchise to don't stand a minute of thought.

This bit actually does track for me -- when Saru is describing to Burnham what she must do and what will subsequently happen, he's just repeating the lies that the Ba'ul told the Kelpiens. Since the Kelpiens are usually whisked away in advance, he hasn't gotten to see it work/not work in person before.

And maybe it actually is deadly to cut off the ganglia mid-Vahar'ai -- interrupting the process may have negative consequences that just waiting for it to complete does not.

Hmm, that could actually be a devious Ba'ul fail-safe -- in case they miss picking up any Kelpiens pre-Vahar'ai, convince them the escape from the suffering of the process is to do something that will actually kill them.

I love fanwanking. Though when you zoom out, I admit I really can't make the overall logic of the Kelpiens/Ba'ul hold together.

 

[Takeru]

You must have a rule to deal with a situation like that. Like, say, if nobody votes for a certain time (to be determined) the "winner" is the one who got the most votes first... How about that?

How about you read the rules I the first post?

 

[BlueStuff]

Time's up and Obol is out. New round:

Vaulting Ambition - 0
Despite Yourself - 0
If Memory Serves - 0
Unification III - 0
Terra Firma I - 0

 

[Takeru]

Despite Yourself, a very good episode but killing Culber was just wrong.


Vaulting Ambition - 0
Despite Yourself - 1
If Memory Serves - 0
Unification III - 0
Terra Firma I - 0

 

[oldtrekkie]

I agree. I like Despite yourself a little less than the rest.

Vaulting Ambition - 0
Despite Yourself - 2
If Memory Serves - 0
Unification III - 0
Terra Firma I - 0