Why didn't they just self-destruct?

[Timo]

But an underdog Federation would not need to pretend that it's squeaky clean... Instead of a shady Section 31, they would have the Frontline Death Squad's Genocidal Extortion Division, with the cool uniforms dyed with enemy blood. Although chiefly because they can't afford the laundry.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Spot261]

Why ask me? You might instead ask the crew of the Excalibur...

Yet they engaged numerous such vessels in the next installment, vessels whose AI was tactical in nature rather than a repository of future tech.

I do agree though, the sphere data's importance was arguably overplayed.

 

[Amasov]

What bothered me about this was the fact that the Enterprise couldn't destroy Discovery when it's clearly established that the Enterprise is a heavy cruiser and its participation in the Klingon War would have been a last resort. That tells me it's a far more heavily-armed vessel than Discovery is.

Also, with the sphere data protecting itself, it's curious it decided to not protect itself during the final battle with Section 31. Discovery was taking huge hits and even Leland boarded her to get the data. Yet, the data wasn't "protecting" itself then.

 

[Ar-Pharazon]

What bothered me about this was the fact that the Enterprise couldn't destroy Discovery when it's clearly established that the Enterprise is a heavy cruiser and its participation in the Klingon War would have been a last resort. That tells me it's a far more heavily-armed vessel than Discovery is.

Also, with the sphere data protecting itself, it's curious it decided to not protect itself during the final battle with Section 31. Discovery was taking huge hits and even Leland boarded her to get the data. Yet, the data wasn't "protecting" itself then.

"protecting itself" is still limited to the resources the ship had. The heroes gave up after a few photons when the Enterprise tried to destroy her, but S31 never let up.

Given more time, the Sphere Data™ probably could've upgraded the shields and weapons.

 

[Timo]

Yet, the data wasn't "protecting" itself then.

Probably because the heroes didn't let it do so, having moved to melee distance and making it harder for the data to do tricks without also doing harm, which it seemed hesitant to do.

Jumping to parts unknown would have been a logical move for the data, but the spore drive had just been taken offline in an utterly daft maneuver... Why not jump to another galaxy and then rig the spore drive into a time crystal charger? It's not as if the heroes were planning on entrapping Control, or had a plan that would protect the Enterprise from its wrath somehow - so the Discovery fleeing and leaving the Enterprise behind should have occurred to them.

But having the data on your side, even if passive, is vastly preferable to having it at odds with you. If Pike kept firing, it might have chosen to flee, perhaps to the waiting arms of Control.

...Although another fairly obvious move would have been to talk to it. Or, with Spock again sane, meld with it.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Ar-Pharazon]

I just now rewatched the scene. Enterprise never actually fired torpedoes. Burnham had the flash-forward and stopped them from firing. Though the first and second "attempts" didn't work.

 

[TPezz]

Jumping to another universe would be pointless, as Control would exist there too, then also armed with knowledge of how to jump universes, so it could destroy all life in all universes.

Also, no matter how smart the Sphere Data is, unless it could get a hold of a zoo of tardigrades, the Spore Drive wouldn’t be able to jump all over the place by itself. I wouldn’t be surprised if we see a storyline in the future where they strap Stamets in and go to use the drive, only to have the ship decide to ignore the input coordinates and jump to somewhere else.

Just as a guess, I would assume if Enterprise had continued firing on it in an attempt to deplete its shields to destroy it, Discovery would’ve warped away before shields got to zero? Knowing where the ship is, if it can’t be destroyed, is rather important.

 

[Ghel]

What bothered me about this was the fact that the Enterprise couldn't destroy Discovery when it's clearly established that the Enterprise is a heavy cruiser and its participation in the Klingon War would have been a last resort. That tells me it's a far more heavily-armed vessel than Discovery is.

Also, with the sphere data protecting itself, it's curious it decided to not protect itself during the final battle with Section 31. Discovery was taking huge hits and even Leland boarded her to get the data. Yet, the data wasn't "protecting" itself then.

Agreed. This is one flaw of the episode that just needed to be accepted for the whole thing to make sense. In reality, there are probably a ton of ways to destroy a ship from simply disconnecting the engines and tractoring the vessel into the nearest star to battering the unmanned vessel until the shields were toast, to simply grabbing a hammer and going to town on the inside of the vessel. I assumed (pretended) that the AI was smart enough to give Discovery "super shields" or was otherwise able to render any attack from Enterprise useless. Since they waited until they were off Discovery, the manual destruction methods were off the table perhaps?!? Of course they did re-board later . . .

 

[F. King Daniel]

If they jumped to the other side of the universe, even Control would've had issues finding and getting to it.

Since there is no evidence you can track a spore jump, leaping 5 galaxies over would have solved all their problems immediately.

Dialogue aside, Discovery (and screen graphics in early episodes) seem to treat the spore drive as if it's limited to the Milky Way galaxy, which puts Section 31 75-100 years away at most.

 

[Timo]

Also, no matter how smart the Sphere Data is, unless it could get a hold of a zoo of tardigrades, the Spore Drive wouldn’t be able to jump all over the place by itself. I wouldn’t be surprised if we see a storyline in the future where they strap Stamets in and go to use the drive, only to have the ship decide to ignore the input coordinates and jump to somewhere else.

Well, the heroes originally lacked a map. The tardigrade had a one in its noggin. With the stuff from the Sphere, the ship now most probably has a sufficiently complete map, too. But whether it's accessible to our heroes remains unknown.

Indeed, they now have a pretty clever lifeform inhabiting their ship but obviously not fully cooperating. This ought to be a key plot element in S3 (possibly going by the name Zora). Unless this lifeform decides to leave the ship now that nobody is trying to eat it, that is...

Just as a guess, I would assume if Enterprise had continued firing on it in an attempt to deplete its shields to destroy it, Discovery would’ve warped away before shields got to zero? Knowing where the ship is, if it can’t be destroyed, is rather important.

Better not assume. The ship would know not just a trick or two, but hundreds of millennia of accumulated tricks. If the heroes got really antagonist towards it, they might well find themselves turned inside out or something.

Heck, perhaps the refusal to help fight Control was punishment the Data was dishing out to our heroes for their hostile attitudes?

Timo Saloniemi