Spoilers Why Didn’t Lorca—

[XCV330]

 

[Mark 2000]

If this had happened there would have been fans who would have said "how convenient that an alternate universe to which Lorca was ACCIDENTLY transported, to have just the extraordinary tech needed to defeat Georgiou.

Except that the tech exists in both universes and in both universes he’s involved with it.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

I think the only reason he protected the Gagarin was to maintain his cover long enough to acquire the necessary telemetry from the 133 spore jumps to return to the MU.

I don't agree.

Yes, this version of Lorca is from the MU. Yes, his ultimate ambition is (understandably) to return home. But there's no reason why he would have to throw away his cover, as it were. He has no reason to put anything less than 100% of his effort into anything that would not hinder his ultimate goal.

I mean, he hates Klingons as much as anyone, amirite? So he'd be as emotionally invested in winning a war against them as anyone in the prime universe would. (Even if they are, technically, not HIS Klingons, and it's not HIS war.)

And in the end...perhaps Lorca was nonetheless still affected by his time in the prime universe, and somehow came to sympathize with its people and with their struggle against the Klingons. He is only human, after all. Maybe he's not as thoroughly evil as he seemed?

 

[Timo]

Sure is awfully convenient (for the writers) that the number of jumps necessary to figure out the weakness of the Klingon cloak just happened to correspond to the number of jumps necessary to calibrate the drive to return to the MU and the number of jumps necessary to push Stamets to the point of quitting.

I don't think this is actually true. Nothing says 133 jumps would be needed to figure out the trans-universe travel - we only know that 133 jumps suffice for that. And Stamets wasn't pushed past a tipping point with 133 jumps - he reached his tipping point long before those 133 jumps were completed, according to his team of batsmen, and Lorca just kept pushing him to complete the set.

Except it wasn't an either-or choice. The Discovery had just rescued Admiral Cornwell, and it took the time and trouble to send her on her way back to UFP space before it set out to make its next jump. It would have been simplicity itself, and an eminently reasonable precaution, to send a copy of the cloak-detecting algorithm along with her, just in case... something... y'know, happened to the Discovery. It would have taken literally zero additional effort; no skin off Lorca's nose at all, no threat to his plan. Indeed, it's amazing that Cornwell didn't insist on it.

Whether an "unanalyzed", raw dataset could be transmitted via shuttle or via other means is something for the writers to decide (they seem to be saying no) and for us to rationalize (that is, we now have to figure out why not).

We more or less have to accept that the Discovery is the think thank of Starfleet at this time, with an exceptional collection of eccentric geniuses aboard a ship exceptionally well equipped for their research. It might be possible (that is, we can decide to make it so) that the ship can bite just as much as she can chew, but she can't swallow until after chewing a bit: the raw data just plain can't leave the ship's computer until processed, being way too vast, way too proprietary to the onboard systems.

It need not be a sharp, hard limit, either, just enough of an obstacle that Starfleet won't insist. After all, they think the ship is returning home - and Cornwell is probably still way too doped to care.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Ovation]

Cornwell was sent to a different facility (some sort of medical facility), not Starbase 46. So sending the info with her would not have been pointless.

 

[gblews]

I don't agree.

Yes, this version of Lorca is from the MU. Yes, his ultimate ambition is (understandably) to return home. But there's no reason why he would have to throw away his cover, as it were. He has no reason to put anything less than 100% of his effort into anything that would not hinder his ultimate goal.

Can you clarify this a bit? I'm not sure I follow.

I mean, he hates Klingons as much as anyone, amirite? So he'd be as emotionally invested in winning a war against them as anyone in the prime universe would. (Even if they are, technically, not HIS Klingons, and it's not HIS war.)

Yes, you are right, to an extent. The difference for me is that killing Klingons in the MU directly benefits Lorca in that it helps maintain an empire which he wants to eventually rule. But killing them in the PU would only benefit him if it protected his cover or somehow got him back to his universe. In other words, in the PU his hate fueled desires would be tempered by other priorities.

And in the end...perhaps Lorca was nonetheless still affected by his time in the prime universe, and somehow came to sympathize with its people and with their struggle against the Klingons. He is only human, after all. Maybe he's not as thoroughly evil as he seemed?

This is a nice thought and if we'd seen it on screen I certainly would not have been mad about it. But I don't think that's what we were being told.

 

[lawman]

I think we did see it on screen, frankly. That's how Lorca came across to me all season. His heel turn was clichéd and thoroughly unconvincing.