CaptainCrunch67
Registered User
- Aug 23, 2005
- 6,472
- 1,063
There were some aspects of this finale that I did like. It was ernest and it had a lot of action, and frankly Doug Jones as Saru is a real strength in this show when they don't make him the worst Captain in the Federation.
The problem is two fold. First of all the writers seem to be determined to throw everything at the wall at a break neck pace, and by doing that, it feels like they lose track of key story elements. The second element is that they went so long with really making everyone other then Michael, and Tilly and Saru and maybe Stamets that when they hint at their end you're like, I'm not really connected to this character so whatever.
At the end of this episode, there was really no sacrifice, I never felt tension or fear, I knew that Michael would prevail and over come everything with no real help. Its the great flaw of Discovery in that its a fairly pretty package, but what's inside just isn't interesting.
Even the Villains at the end Osyras and the Pirate King didn't feel like they were a threat of lived up to the challenge. When she was basically shot, I felt more empathy for the data cubes that Michael puked up then with her, when the Pirate king fell and bounced off of the elevator I didn't really feel that emotional fist pump that you usually feel when the villain dies.
As far as disconnected bits, they built up the Sphere droids to take back the ship, and in the first battle you see them getting shot to pieces, and while the last one saved the arm chair of the bridge from being blowed up and died, you just don't feel it. With Stamets, they have him in two scenes, so everything that was built up with him in the last episode went in the, meh that wasn't important bin.
Really the best part of the whole episode wasn't Michael or the battle scenes, but Saru simply having a conversation with SaGul or whatever his name was.
Like I said there were really things to like here, but without pacing, or actual story, or a credible story line (The Burn will go down as one of the worst long term stories in Star Trek history to me). The series and the episode itself will always be mediocre at best.
With the shows track record of good first half and a major falling off in quality in the second half through its first three seasons it makes you feel a bit vexed about any kind of time investment.
Random thoughts
So is Gray a force ghost, a new version of the Great Gazoo? I don't know its just a strange concept
So going outside of the holo deck and you get insta sick from radiation, but this is forgotten later when the holo deck is turned off.
I knew that they were going to make Michael the Captain, but they bludgeoned us over the head with the Cringeworthy Tilly going "We need you to lead us, that's an order" At that I mentally could see the brick leaving my hand and going through the TV. Tilly is just a flat un interesting milquetoast character, and her ascension to First Officer and Captain was plainly done for the conclusion that nobody could be Captain but Michael.
So they're running out of O2 in minutes and have time to have a lengthy yak session, followed by a Tilly pep talk, and later armchair( I name most of the characters after furniture because that's what they are) runs out of oxygen just as she goes to plant the bomb. I literally laughed out loud at that bit of stupidity. Then later they have a 4 minute conference on the bridge as the enemy is blazing away at them. That to me is just bad writing because its fracking annoying.
"Lets Fly" that's the new catchphrase, The only thing that would have been worse was if the Catch Phrase was "Hippity Hoppity".
So now the discover goes from a science vessel to allied Van Lines. I would assume that they're going to try a more episodic approach next year as they cargo haul fuel from world to world.
I defended Michael against the mary sue label, but my god, I don't think I could defend against it in this episode. Why the admiral would trust her with so much at stake, when mere seconds before he was utterly committed to protecting the spore drive from The Emerald Chain, is beyond my understanding? The show forgoes logic and character motivations simply to force a positive character moment for Michael, but it doesn't feel earned.
Certainly Star Fleet officers are paragons, and borderline mary sues in general. But the contributing factor for Michael's mary sue label more apparent than any other trek show is that Michael is the protagonist. Meaning the writers spend every episode, every season, either building up to or delivering character moments for her at the expense of other characters. Just this season 3 finale episode alone denied other characters their moment.
The vast majority plot resolves or character development belongs to Michael. In Next Generation secondary characters got time to shine and at times at the expense of Picard. Same for Original with Kirk, even The Voyager with Janeway. The only ones that come close is Saru. The Bridge Crew are cardboard cutouts meant to fill the room; I'd love to know more about them through the show but the writers are not interested in things that don't involve Michael.-Booker was suppose to have his moment while he was being tortured, but instead of building his character, Michael is there and instead the scene makes it about her resisting Booker's torture and making him talk. And she's the one who helps them escape.
-Tilly should have had her moment to prove herself as a leader, coming up with a plan while trapped with life support. Maybe the writers could had her find a way to talk to Michael and coordinate a plan to stop Ossayra(spelling), but instead it's Michael who comes up with the plan of action and is the one who actually leads the ops.
the spoiler stuff is what bothered me too.
They make a big to-do about Burnham disobeying orders and being stripped of her first officer status by Saru, who treats it like this heart-rending decision because he's personally and professionally hurt by her betrayal of his trust. But then two things happen.
1) Burnham basically says to him that she supports his decision and it's the right thing to do. This serves to undercut the severity of the punishment because when you have the punished party advocating for its necessity and correctness you pretty much remove its impact as "punishment". Instead it serves as a platform to make her look like the superior person because of the grace with which she accepts it and turns a moment that should be "damn, Burnham sure did screw up and is paying for it" into "what a saint Burnham is for allowing Saru to punish her in that way and then take said punishment with dignity and humility. What a hero she is.
2) It amounts to sweet f***-all because she pretty much doesn't act any different afterwards. In all 3 episodes I watched tonight, in spite of her no longer having a position of command authority, she routinely not only makes unilateral decisions on her own that effect the entire ship and crew, but she butts in and takes over decision-making authority from actual crew members present who are in charge/have real rank-and-position authority and uses sheer force of awesomeness to just hold the floor and get what she wants.[/spoil]
One other thing: How the hell old is Adira supposed to be? Their relationship with Gray/Grey/Trill-ghost-dude is portrayed as relatively adult-level (relaxed, mature intimacy, living together, were they actually married? I can't remember), but when we get all the Stammets/Culber/Adira subplot around going down to the planet to find burn-kid (which was sooooo dumb but that's another story), Stammets and Culber are suddenly acting like Adira's a literal child. Like when Culber sees Adira and says "Does Paul know you're here?" with all the sternness of the house down the street finding your kid over playing with their friends and asking "do your parents know you're here?" to check if you had permission to come.
Honestly if the show jettisoned Burnham and Tilly they actually have the makings of an interesting crew.
Saru - inexperienced captain eager to prove himself but caught between the cautiousness/timidity of his race and his newfound desire to explore
Stammets - genius asshole who's indispensable nature covers for the fact that he's crap at dealing with people (even though he's not nearly as much of a twit as he plays at being)
Detmer - ace pilot with PTSD and a bit of a rebellious/rock-star type streak
Owosekun - comes from a luddite colony and seemingly has a wide variety of unexpected skills as well as something of a curiosity/connection to the high-tech universe that people can find endearing
Adira - wunderkid who can do the whole Trill thing of "an old soul in a young body" but is also sort of Starfleet-but-not so is still learning the ropes of how to fit in. Can balance between being something like the Cadet/Wesley sort of role and the best parts of Dax.
Booker (if you wanted to keep him) - Roguish plays-by-his-own-rules type but with a good heart and literal excessive empathy.
Reno - sarcastic comic relief character but also a highly capable engineer. Kind of a more flippant Scotty, but would have to be used in smaller doses to avoid burning out on that sort of "jaded snarker joke-factory" aspect
Culber - Is also there.
If you could've added a still-living Airiam to this mix (a sort of "reverse Data") and the Barzan security officer (because we don't know a damn thing about the Barzans, so there's a buttload of space to explore there) and boom, you've got more than enough characters to carry an ensemble show for years. But nope, we have to plow all of those people to the side so we can get Sarek's-better-than-most-Vulcans foster daughter and her amazing independent perfectness teamed up with ensign cheery jitters and her alternatingly hyperactive/maudlin inability to get anything done without constant external reassurance.
where did spock and picard go? where they not on the ship that went into the future? i think season 2 ended with those 2 inside the discovery?
How drunk/high did you watch this show?
where did spock and picard go? where they not on the ship that went into the future? i think season 2 ended with those 2 inside the discovery?
The fact that he remembers anything from it suggests that he wasn't drunk/high enough.How drunk/high did you watch this show?