Tonight is the finale…
I’m calling it now: Transplanted Georgiou will next pop up as head of the Orion Syndicate.
Green. Orion. Slave. Butt.
So that happened.
Enjoyed this episode. It had some gratuitous sex and profanity but it felt like a Trek adventure with a Trek moral at the center. I know a lot of people dislike the show but after a muddled pilot episode it won me over this season. Very curios to see who they get for a new captain.
I also found it interesting that when they showed Pike’s Enterprise they updated the look of the ship whereas when the Trek shows of the 90s showed the 60s Enterprise they used then modern techniques to replicate the look of the 60s model, specifically the smooth surfaces and lack of details.
I have to admit that the end to the war seemed a bit sudden, perplexing, and a tad too neat and convenient, for me.
While other fans were saying that they did not like how dark this iteration of Star Trek was, the “about face” in and with Burnham’s Starfleet idealism seemed jarring to me. Burnham’s speech to the Assembly did not reach me, dramatically or emotionally, for some reason.
But overall, I very much enjoyed this season. (The production values seem top notch, too me.)
I hated Star Trek Discovery at the beginning of the season but it has quickly grown on me. I think the grittier tone and moral ambiguity of its protagonists works for the new show and is more satisfying, at least for me.
The above stated, I did not at all like how the end of the episode fell back onto old Trekkian tropes. Burnham’s speech was classic Star Trek glurge, adherence to which would help to destroy a real-world Federation over time. Georgiou was prepared to kill Burnham 3 episodes ago but suddenly sentimentality prevents it? I found it unbelievable for the Klingon/Federation conflict to be wrapped up so cleanly/quickly. And L’rell meekly accepting a command to lead her people by a human and her sickly pathetic “But…I am no one” were both awkwardly uncomfortable.
And why the fuck would the Klingon fleet listen to L’Rell being that close to ‘ultimate victory’ and earth? And why was there no fleet/defenses from earth side? So now, the Klingon’s will just all go back to their side of the line and give up the territory they took?
It fell flat - no real drama, although Tilly’s “I’m really high right now, but you need to listen to me” was worth it.
And I have to admit a little excitement as they teased the Enterprise, and Captain Pike.
I loved the use of the original theme at the end during the credits. Forgot to mention that.
I don’t mean this in a mean or nasty way but if you don’t like the hopeful optimistic take on our future, what is it you like about Star Trek?
Also I submit you are wrong about a real Federation being impossible. In the sense that people can be better than they are now. I believe that is possible. Difficult and maybe even unlikely perhaps, but possible.
I do agree the end of the war seemed very neat and tidy but I think they kind of wrote themselves into a corner there.
Between Ash, Philippa and Tilly, the one I found least trustworthy was Tilly. Not the away crew I would’ve picked!
I’m still trying to figure out if it’s a good thing or a bad thing they didn’t end with a reset. Maybe they’re saving it for the series finale.
Clint Howard and “You were asleep. I’m Orion” was pretty funny though. Too bad it was the best part of the episode.
By making Burham the clear main character, the showrunners seemed to want to make a character-based show instead of the usual ensemble plot-based shows of the past. But then they went ahead with a main character-focused plot-based show. We only truly got the full explanation for how and who killed Burnham’s parents in the season finale, which is the one backstory that would have somewhat put into context her emotions overwhelming her (well, if it had been written that way) in the pilot episode which led her to mutiny.
Burnham’s journey of redemption was built on a false premise - she already believed in Federation/Starfleet ideals, she just thought that the principle of non-violence and diplomacy won’t work as a starting point to maintain peace with the Klingons since they viewed it as weakness. And in the end, they used a variation of this idea to have L’Rell threaten the rest of the Klingons into peace and unity since they were able to make this pitch from a “position of strength” with a bomb ready to go off. The very first scene from the pilot showed her belief in the tradional ideals by helping the alien race facing the drought and showing compassion.
It seems like the real starting point of the “needs redemption” arc should have been her unilaterally scrubbing the mission to capture T’Kuvma alive by executing him rather than the mutiny. But all of the other characters and the show itself only focused on the mutiny and never mentioning her killed T’Kuvma, which clearly didn’t help start the war, since the Klingons were already planning on attacking the Federation once some agreement could be obtained from the other houses.
Weird ep. Very strange pacing. It almost feels like they edited down two or even three episodes into one. Considering the series’ chaotic production, I wouldn’t be surprised if that was the case.
But it was a ‘reset’ button - just not a timey-wimey one - they reset the klingon war and ‘unification’ back to the premeir episode state - just alot of redshirts in between.
agreed.
I can’t point out Burnham’s “ah HAH!” moment. Characters who are on a journey of self discovery (willingly or not) usually have an epiphany based on the experiences they have while the plot unfolds, and we the audience can then understand the characters better.
What changed Burnham? What made her decide to rigidly adhere to the idealistic Federation values, at the risk of the very Federation itself? Was it her exposure to the Terran Empire, Terran Captain Lorka, and/or Empress Georgiou, and how they behaved culturally?
I hate how I sometimes need to be hit with a clue-by-four in order to understand movie/TV plot & characters.
Maybe Georgiou thought that Cadet Tilly would be too timid to open the equipment case on her own. She’s naïve & inexperienced, and would follow orders without question (or introspection).
PS: I think Georgiou was the one who conceived and planned this altered mission, and she presented her modified plan to Admiral Cromwell and Sarek, going over Saru’s head.
“Uh, so basically let’s forget all of this season ever happened. Here, let’s celebrate! Also, fanservice!”
I wonder if the spore drive is ever mentioned again… And I wonder whether it’s not the best idea not to.
And yeah, this episode felt horribly disjointed—as if the ‘attack on Qo’Nos’ bit was merged with an entirely different ‘get intel from space pirates’ episode in some freak transporter accident. I have a hard time believing that humans spotted on the Klingon home world during a war would really be invited for games and chat, particularly with these Klingons.
Anyway, I’ll just hope they do something interesting with the basically clean slate they have now next season.
I’m suspicious of clean slates. I like to see some continuity with what went before. I was excited about this series going in, and Lorca was certainly interesting, but to me, the series really seemed to drag toward the midseries finale.i didn’t like the new look for the Klingons, the bridge was on the underside of the saucer section, everything seemed literally too dark, and though there were more female characters on the bridge, none spoke any lines and I still don’t know their names. Unlike the Orville, which played like classic Trek.
The second half was more promising, culminating with the death of Lorca (did not see that coming), but I didn’t understand how they would for one second trust Mirror Giorgiou. They also trusted Ash/Voq way too much in my opinion, especially after learning who he really is. I’m not convinced that the storytelling really got that much better by the end, or if it was just an improvement, and I don’t why Burnham doesn’t yet know she has a little brother named Spock. This takes place only ten years before TOS after all; Spock would at least have to be a teenager by now.
(bolding mine)
Burnham absolutely knows about Spock - as he is the reason that Burnham was not sent to the vulcan science acadamy - Sarek had to make a choice as to which of his ‘experiments’ would get to go. This was covered in one of the first half of the season episodes - I think the one where Sarek was injured on the shuttle.
Spock has been mentioned on the show. And IIRC, he was mentioned about serving on the Enterprise. Which is why–I assume–Mikey and Sarak reacted to the name.
I’m more or less referring to a big picture time travel one, but really just whatever will do the job to better connect this past with what we know about the future.