Star Trek: Discovery #2, set phasers to stunned.

[red snow]

new episode was fine - felt a bit more trekish to me. one off mission that allows a character to learn something.

Not entirely sure what the fuck any of starfleet were thinking sending the admiral with two red shirts to a klingon sit down. With the excpeption of Lorca who couldn't beleive his luck

As for the theory of who Ash might be, the link does provide more evidence. Especially given the non-existence of the other actor. 

I'm a bit torn - on one hand there's loads of hints with Ash's first meeting with Michael and several of his lines. But then there's the fact he knows so much/behaves so human it seems a bit implausible. Unless they are trying to point out that humans and klingons aren't that different when it comes down to it. The good news is that Lorca definitely suspects him so there's that.

38 minutes ago, Ser Scot A Ellison said:

I really wish they'd put it on regular TV.

They might throw you a bone once the current batch is done. I could imagine a xmas treat of the first 9 episodes on regular TV in an attempt to coax people to pay for the second half.

[Maltaran]

So, this episode pretty much confirms Lorca is the Mirrorverse duplicate, yes?

[red snow]

12 minutes ago, Maltaran said:

So, this episode pretty much confirms Lorca is the Mirrorverse duplicate, yes?

maybe? Seems a bit of a cop out if the morally dubious characters are mirror universe. Or

was that gun a callback to mirroverse tech?

[karaddin]

4 hours ago, red snow said:

As for the theory of who Ash might be, the link does provide more evidence. Especially given the non-existence of the other actor. 

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I'm a bit torn - on one hand there's loads of hints with Ash's first meeting with Michael and several of his lines. But then there's the fact he knows so much/behaves so human it seems a bit implausible. Unless they are trying to point out that humans and klingons aren't that different when it comes down to it. The good news is that Lorca definitely suspects him so there's that.

 

Spoiler

Yeah this is far and away my biggest complaint. Nothing we saw of Voq suggests he is remotely capable of putting up this act of being human. He's a religious fanatic, not an educated spy. Ash being a human spying for the klingons? Believable. Ash being a different klingon that has been turned human to spy? Possible. Ash being Voq? That's going to strain my suspension of disbelief. Did he even definitively know English? He certainly didn't have the knowledge of small town Washington to pull off the act. Unless there is more of a time jump than it seemed, he also hasn't had time to learn much.

 

[red snow]

5 hours ago, karaddin said:

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Yeah this is far and away my biggest complaint. Nothing we saw of Voq suggests he is remotely capable of putting up this act of being human. He's a religious fanatic, not an educated spy. Ash being a human spying for the klingons? Believable. Ash being a different klingon that has been turned human to spy? Possible. Ash being Voq? That's going to strain my suspension of disbelief. Did he even definitively know English? He certainly didn't have the knowledge of small town Washington to pull off the act. Unless there is more of a time jump than it seemed, he also hasn't had time to learn much.

 

I agree, as it was only a couple of episodes ago when we last saw Voq and that was after the several month time-jump. Unless it's something weird like they've fused Voq into an actual human it just doesn't seem possible. The most glaring thing is that Ash actually has charisma and is likeable which is a far cry from Voq. If the two are the same, he should just remain as Ash

[karaddin]

Lol agreed. 

Spoiler

Voq is so stiff in personality, I just can't see him acting like this even if he had the knowledge for the cover story.

 

[Maltaran]

14 hours ago, red snow said:

maybe? Seems a bit of a cop out if the morally dubious characters are mirror universe. Or

  Reveal hidden contents

was that gun a callback to mirroverse tech?

 

I was thinking more of how the Admiral says he’s changed

[red snow]

5 hours ago, karaddin said:

Lol agreed. 

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Voq is so stiff in personality, I just can't see him acting like this even if he had the knowledge for the cover story.

 

Maybe the twist will be

Voq realises how much he enjoys being human, how Klingons have always treat him like shit and says "fuck it" and stays human?

[Toth]

25 minutes ago, red snow said:

Maybe the twist will be

  Reveal hidden contents

Voq realises how much he enjoys being human, how Klingons have always treat him like shit and says "fuck it" and stays human?

That would be indeed an interesting and uplifting angle. Though I would find it easier to believe if he wouldn't be on a ship full of dipshits.

And why is it in spoiler tags? Isn't all of this at this point only speculation?

[red snow]

2 hours ago, Toth said:

That would be indeed an interesting and uplifting angle. Though I would find it easier to believe if he wouldn't be on a ship full of dipshits.

And why is it in spoiler tags? Isn't all of this at this point only speculation?

Folks can be super sensitive about spoilers and given this one has been sparked largely by IMDB/casting and at this point seems more likely to be true than not. I'd say it was almost up there with leaked info rather than people working it out on their own.

It's not like me thinking Sarek is manipulating Michael via their mind-link and that her actions in the pilot were due to Sarek triggering a programmed response in her. It would be more like the actress playing Michael accidentally saying "it's hard pretending to be possessed by Sarek"

The other reason is simply because this isn't a spoiler thread and those poor americans who are being deprived of the show may not have seen any of the episodes yet. To be honest I'm not sure why it isn't a spoiler thread given the general discussion.

[Rippounet]

Hmmm... I'm torn. I generally like every other episode, but this time I even have my doubts about the last one I saw.

I like a lot of things about the show, but it still feels like it's not living up to its potential.

After some time thinking about it, I think I figured it out: it's the bridge. I really don't like a Trek series where most of the scenes don't take place on the bridge, where you can understand what's going on (without it feeling contrived).
Maybe I'll be happier with the next episodes.

Apart from that, hmmm... I prefer the Vulcans to the Klingons, hands down. Michael annoyed me at times, because I felt she should have showed respect for Saru (he's XO and she's not even a cadet anymore!) ; instead she was quite patronizing. I like how dark Lorca is, that's something interesting for a Trek series. I don't like the new guy, and I'm hoping against hope that he's not a spy because hot damn that's way too obvious.

I think the show still has a lot of potential if it can figure out where it wants to go. Because right now it feels like there's a bit of everything: darkness, humor, a big picture (war), character development (I'm thinking of cadet Tilly), science, relationships between species... Except some of these things don't work all that well together, not in such a short time. I think the show's writers are trying to do everything at the same time, as if trying to please everybody... Or get the ratings.
I wouldn't be surprised if the 2nd season were better.

[fionwe1987]

Tonight's episode was definitely the best one yet. The crew finally felt like a crew, I found the character interactions to be fun, and the overall story was good too.

If they continue to have the Klingon war as a backdrop for this kind of storytelling... this can actually become quite good!

Also:

Spoiler

I'm more skeptical now that Tyler is Voq. His interactions are too smooth, especially with Burnham. He could be a plant, though. And his budding relationship with Burnham at least makes the "spy/plant" theory more interesting.

 

[Arch-MaesterPhilip]

1 hour ago, fionwe1987 said:

Tonight's episode was definitely the best one yet. The crew finally felt like a crew, I found the character interactions to be fun, and the overall story was good too.

If they continue to have the Klingon war as a backdrop for this kind of storytelling... this can actually become quite good!

Also:

  Reveal hidden contents

I'm more skeptical now that Tyler is Voq. His interactions are too smooth, especially with Burnham. He could be a plant, though. And his budding relationship with Burnham at least makes the "spy/plant" theory more interesting.

 

They seem to be getting better and better. I'm glad I decided to check it out. I'm really starting to like the crew. 

[RumHam]

I liked most of the episode, but the ending was weak. Mudd was thwarted way too easily and the "con" they pulled on him wasn't remotely interesting or clever. 

Ash being a spy makes no sense. As others have said it does not seem feasible that he could have gone from speaking broken English to pulling this off in the space of a few weeks. Yet I'm pretty sure that's where they're going with it. Obviously there was a real Ash Taylor so maybe the Klingons captured him and did some sci-fi thing to merge their two brains or something, but that would still be really dumb. I would be quite relieved if the Albino Klingon popped up next week. Ash could still be a spy, he just should not be a Klingon.

Also I'm more and more convinced that Lorca is from the Mirror Universe. I think we'll eventually get a flashback to the destruction of the Buran that involves a transporter malfunction bringing him over before the ship is destroyed. I hope they keep him around though and don't just dispose of him after the reveal. It doesn't seem like he's trying to bring down the Federation or anything especially evil. He just has different values.

[red snow]

I enjoyed this episode a lot once I accepted they were using Mudd as a shameless stand-in for Q. Q would have made more sense as Mudd's device seemed far too powerful to just have on the black market. I mean, wouldn't said crystals be perfect for a ship like Discovery in any tricky battle scenarion where you could just "edge of tomorrow" it until you got the best outcome?

I really liked how Burnham had the sense to go through another reset when to succeed would mean losing members of the crew - i don't think I've seen that angle played out in a groundhog day scenario before (it's a while since I've seen "edge of tomorrow" which maybe did that at some stage).

It was also refreshing that the story wasn't from the POV from the character who could remember each iteration of the cycle. It was nice to share in the confusion of someone having to relearn each time what was going on.

The ending was a bit rushed and convenient - I think I'd have preferred them suggesting their solution required a few more repeats but I guess that happened throughout the episode anyhow.

Good effort and very trekish.

I didn't like the office party. Either Pickard had strict rules on parties or starfleet culture changed a lot. From dancing and making moves on coworkers to poker nights or taking part in a hologrpahic mystery novel.

The Tyler conspiracy theory becomes even harder to make any sense at all with this episode. I mean his speech fit but the rest of his behaviour is such that the only way it could make sense to me now is if

he doesn't even know he's a klingon and is buried under an artificial personality that will only activate once he has all the secrets he needs in a true sleeper agent way

 

[The Knight of Flours]

1 hour ago, red snow said:

 they were using Mudd as a shameless stand-in for Q.

  Reveal hidden contents

he doesn't even know he's a klingon and is buried under an artificial personality that will only activate once he has all the secrets he needs in a true sleeper agent way

 

 

Yes - I thought he was too powerful and said 'Q-like' in another forum

[lessthanluke]

I am enjoying the show. Maybe it is because I don't give a shit about established canon or what Klingons are "supposed" to look like.

[Werthead]

Concept art for the new Federation starships introduced in Discovery.

[Werthead]

The developer of a 2014 webgame called Tardigrades is a bit annoyed with Star Trek: Discovery. I'm not surprised. I find the idea of two projects coming up with using giant mutant tardigrades for FTL travel independently to be slim, but some of the additional similarities with the characters is bizarre.

[RumHam]

Wow. I wonder if it was one of those situations where the writer had read about the game but forgot about it and later thought it was an original idea. I just can't see how anyone could think they'd get away with ripping something off like that in this day and age. CBS should probably throw some money at the guy and wrap up the spore drive plot this season.