“Erigah”

Well, this was all "main season plot" and little else, at least. With significant developments. In episode 7 of the season, that is unexpected but welcome.

We get to see Nhan again, even if she is underused and pretty much wasted. It's still nice to have her turn up. She's a better character and better actress than most of the regulars. Will she stick with Discovery next week to help recover her prisoner? I doubt it. We're not allowed to have nice things with this show; or, at the very least, should we somehow get them, we are not allowed to keep them.

Know who we don't see? For the fourth episode in a row? Saru.

The worst part is, there's even a role for him in this episode! He's an ambassador now. He could have filled T'Rina's role in the script. Take a moment and think about what it would have been like if he had. A trial by fire as the newly minted ambassador has to stare down the Breen and avert a war. Character growth! Evolution! What a strong journey it could be for him as we see him wrestle his part in this, find his footing, and then triumph. It writes itself.

Seriously, what is going on? Doug Jones has been the second-billed actor on the show from its start. Usually the actor in that position has certain provisions in his contract protecting him from this kind of treatment (play-or-pay), so I'm wondering if it was his choice. And I hope he's okay.

It must be said however that T'Rina was awesome in this episode and acted circles around everyone else on the screen, even if the role should have been written for Saru. I cannot be upset with the final product because of that. I honestly think with her work in the series to date she is doing one of the all-time best portrayals of a Vulcan in Star Trek, and this episode is a great showcase of that.

. . .

So L'ak is dead. For seriously dumb reasons. That might bother me if all along Moll and L'ak hadn't been so dumb with everything they did, and if I at all cared about the character.

(Did they kill him to save on the makeup? Is the budget this season really THAT fucked?)

The staggering amount of incompetence it would take for Starfleet to let Moll escape and L'ak kill himself doesn't strain credulity, it breaks it. I know the plot has gotta plot. The the writers could have placed them in somewhat more believable circumstances to escape from.

It doesn't matter that it also seems unlikely Culber couldn't repair Breen physiology because Starfleet knows so little about them after 800 years (you want to tell me Section 31, the organization that engineered a virus to kill the Changelings, wasn't dissecting dead or captured Been as soon as they entered the Dominion War?) and needed a special Breen cryo chamber when it's actually really easy to, you know, make things kind of cold, because aliens are aliens and Star Trek can always pull that card. "They're aliens and their alien-ness means if we tell you with our plot that this is how things are, you are obliged to accept it at face value because aliens are alien." Okay. I'm completely down with that and I think, if we're going to watch Star Trek, we all should be.

Even if this one is, on the face of it, kind of dumb.

. . .

And Burnham let the one thing she was absolutely not supposed to let happen, happen. She let the Breen find out about the progenitor tech. And it happens through a staggering confluence of incompetence on her watch providing the highly unlikely circumstances that this happening required in order to happen. But there was never any question it would, right? Plot's gotta plot. Threatened threat's gotta become a threat because it was threatened.

Still. She fucked up. Michael Burnham fucked up, in a big way, but I expect the show to gloss over that. If anything, Vance will probably tell her not to beat herself up over it because she was in an impossible situation, or something like that, which is total horseshit. There were SO MANY ways to stop that happening. Like making sure she was never even in a room with the Breen Primarch, how hard would that have been? Simplicity itself.

. . .

I'm wracking my brains trying to think of how all copies of a professionally published book written in a galaxy-spanning digital age could be destroyed. It . . . couldn't happen. Why not just lead with them needing the actual physical manuscript from the start rather than this dumbness about them not being able to read the book at all because there were no copies anywhere?

Oh, I totally do believe some writers will still write by hand even in that digital future, though. Writers do all sorts of dumb shit like that as part of their "process."

It also strains credulity that anything Jett Reno knew about that world would still be true 800 years later and following a galactic-wide calamity and collapse of civilization, even if it's just enough to point them to the facility they're looking for, and not where it is. But, hey. She at least snarks about it.

. . .

Book had very little reason to be in this episode, actually. If anyone was written out of this script, why wasn't he? Not that I mind. They'd probably have given his screentime to Tilly or Adira and I'd much rather watch Book.

. . .

I'm starting to worry just a little that Rayner's going to have whatever backstory the show requires him to have that week. His Breen history comes out of nowhere and doesn't much feel like it lines up with the character, in my opinion. It doesn't jive with how Callum's been playing him. And on top of that, it's rather understated. How would Kira act if she were Rayner and the Breen were the Cardassians? She'd be wound so tight she might snap (one of their necks, heh).

. . .

Boy the scale of that Breen Dreadnaught was something, eh? The show did a good job of making you feel the threat. And we got to see some new 32nd century Starfleet ship designs, and actually get a close look at them. Can't say I think they were all that cool, but I appreciated the effort anyway.

. . .

Well, all that said:

Overall a competent hour of television even if there were plot contrivances (and an awful lot of them.) I was interested in what was happening. I was engrossed. I was not bored. I guess that's my bar for Discovery now: don't piss me off by disrespecting the spirit of Star Trek, and don't bore me. This episode does neither, so I declare it a success.

For me, another meh episode of this series. This series ranks among the worst in its depiction of Starfleet security. A criminal with a long and violent rap sheet is given light security and the ability to spend her complete time with her criminal partner. Worse, a person whose death could result in the death of many is given access to medication, which in large enough dose will lead to his death.

As for the last clue, it is yet another search through the evidence to find the location of the clue. Yet, amazingingly, the clue is a library card, to a mobile place that is known to the Federation, whose movements are known over a long time. So, no one bothered to ask the computer to identify the metallic clue.

It is good the series is ending. It is weighed down by its faults and can't seem to rise above them.

Responding to Jeffrey's Tube.

According to Doug Jones, he was promoting Hocus Pocus II when Discovery was being filmed.

Rayner's history didn't come out of nowhere. In an earlier episode, he mentioned that he had lost his family at a young age. This episode fills in the details.

There were no new 32nd century designs this week. The designs have been seen before.

@ Colin

Thanks for pointing out that Doug Jones said that, I was unaware. However, it does not track. That's not the way contracts work. Discovery would be in "first position" and, while the showrunners may agree to let him off to film Hocus Pocus II because they want to keep their actors happy, they would not let him off just to do press for the film. They might "write him light," or film scenes later to insert into the episodes, which would be easy since they wrote him into a self-contained storyline this season, in order to let him off to do a bit of press or to work on something else if he asked. But he would then still be in the episodes. At this point, he has not been in four episodes, which is almost half the season. That just would not happen for the reason he says.

Also, Discovery episodes take two weeks each to film. Four episodes is two months. He was off doing press for a film for two months? No, he wasn't. That's absurd. There's another reason he isn't sharing with us.

But regardless of the truth of what was going on, it sounds like this was Doug Jones's choice, and I am glad for that. We don't need to pry. I'm just pointing out the explanation he has offered doesn't pass the smell test, and it doesn't need to go further than that.

. . .

I don't know, that's kind of like a character making an offhand comment of "I used to play tennis when I was younger" and later it turns out he used to play tennis against Kahless the Unforgettable in a Borg unimatrix simulation as soon as both of those things become plot critical that week. It's a vague, generic bit of background fluff that could have meant anything that suddenly gets very specifically defined in a way that feels overly convenient and somewhat incongruous to me rather than something planned in advance. But maybe it's just me, and anyway, it only bothered me a little.

. . .

Well damn. I guess they really made very little impression on me before. Did we see them so close up, too, and I forgot? I've been feeling like ever seen we got to the 32nd century the show has been trying to kind of obscure the designs by only showing some shapes from pretty far away whenever it did fleet shots outside Starfleet headquarters, probably because it didn't have a clear idea of what advanced Starfleet ships should look like. I was excited the show bothered to show us nice shots of the ships that warped in as maybe a sign they would try to do better about that.

Well, that was an episode, for sure.

I'll admit that I perhaps didn't have the best viewing experience, as I had to catch this one on my phone, which may color my response, but consider be firmly underwhelmed. My main issues with the episode boil down to two elements, both of which suggest the script needed a lot more doctoring. First, this is a plot-heavy episode, and it's rife with plot contrivances. Secondly, the dialogue is very stilted and expository.

The episode immediately got off on the wrong foot, by having Moll and L'ak caught offscreen by the Federation. While this does provide a welcome chance for Nhan to come back into the show, it means the "escape" at the end of the last episode - something which already stretched credulity - meant absolutely nothing. They should have, at minimum, had a teaser before they got recaptured if they went down the cliffhanger route. This would have been helpful, because so much hinges on the Moll/L'ak romance, and I still feel this is too underbaked - more show than tell.

Contrivances keep piling up. Moll is kept next to L'ak, because reasons. Starfleet still knows nothing about Breen physiology after 800 years, because reasons. L'ak accidentally kills himself, becaus reasons. Michael manages to completely flip Admiral Vance's plans with a two-minute discussion. The Breen Primarch is bamboozled with the flimsiest of bluffs (must have rolled a 20 on that charisma check). A ticking clock is used - twice. All of this would be fine if the dialogue flowed naturally and the characters felt believable, but the seams of the script show a bit too much here, meaning I can never quite suspend disbelief enough to be engrossed. The highlight of this was the friction Rayner had Michael and the others, but even here, it felt like he regressed a bit for the needs of the plot.

The b-plot involving the next clue was eye-rolling as well, because there's somehow a handwritten book (which is fine) which Zora knows about, but which somehow, in the 32nd century, does not have a digital copy stashed away, except at a super-secret roving base (the idea of hiding knowledge seems so contrary to everything involving a digital age civilization). That said, I give this one more leeway because the scene with Reno was legitimately great.

Then there's the ending, which was a weird letdown, because somehow despite the status quo being upset, and the stakes purportedly being raised, everything is pretty much the same. Moll may be on the Primarch's ship now, due to some vague handwavy idea that the Progenitor tech will allow for L'ak's resurrection (did they even take his body?), but Discovery still has four out of five key bits, and AFAIK Moll didn't get a chance to steal Discovery's data to help the Breen solve the next clue. And we're back to episodic key-hunting next week! I'm sure the show will find a way to get the Primarch involved, but I'm really at a loss, aside from the ship just showing up again at Federation HQ to try and steal it in the final episode, to see how it happens. So in the macro sense, nothing has changed. Before, Moll and L'ak planned to sell the tech to the Primarch to lift the Erigah, now Moll has given the information, and now, Moll is just going to help the Primarch to try and get it. Big deal.

Some ships are more recognizable than others as we have seen them more than others, like the Constitution-class, while others are unique in appearance, like the Dresselhaus-type and the Credence-type.

It was great to see the Credence-type ship again.

Of the new designs introduced in the "get to meet the fleet episode", the rain forest ship is the one that has been seen the least, with it appearing in five episodes and never close up.

I am feeling that this season took a major cut in budget. Are there others who feel this way?

really, really sick of hearing the words "the progenitor tech" instead of an actual cool name. what is it with modern tentpole SF franchises and a total inability to invent new and interesting labels?

Clavin,

Progenitor tech is continuing a long tradition in Star Trek where they don't use more specific terminology to describe something.

Addendum with season-wide thoughts - imagine how much higher the stakes would have been if earlier episodes resulted in Moll and La'k getting say 3 out of 5 of the key bits!

IMHO this is the biggest flaw with the season structurally. The antagonists are tailing Discovery, and obstructing things. But it's not really a race to find the progenitor tech, because Discovery will always "win" the week. This has to happen, unfortunately, given they structured each of the key bits so they include the clue to the next bit. But it means there is literally no possible way for Moll to win it other than swooping in after Discovery finds the tech in the 11th hour.

Sometimes Discovery's writers seem to forget this series started out as a prequel to TOS before it jumped 800 years into the future.

Even by the time TNG got underway, Starfleet knew next to nothing about the Breen. This race should have next to 0 emotional impact with Burnham and her crew.

Also: the Burn severly limited direct interaction with the Breen for decades in recent times. Yet, everyone at HQ is acting terrified like they just lived through the Breen's kamikaze attack on Earth which happened in DS9's run... A good 600 years in the past. And the way they were carrying on you'd think an entire fleet was on its way. But no... It was 1 ship.

And speaking of forgetting what timezone you're from. It's hard to swallow that Reno's checkered past as a smuggler should have amounted to anything useful. And why didn't the all-seeing, alll-knowing Zora suggest this Eternal Archive? It knew enough about its past exploits to extrapolate its current location, after all.

This episode exist because of inconsistencies that get glossed over because the story needs to happen.How else would you explain the baffling decision to let Moll stay at L'ak's side for 'medical reasons'?

Discovery's security is even more laughably inept than Voyager's. We know Dr. Culber works out, but how is he able to last longer than two trained and armed officers?

Fourth episode without Saru. Owo and Detmer are also still missing and this week there's no Linus or Rhys. Reno's appearance is little more than a glorified cameo (again) and can we please find something more interesting for Adira to do than stand around and get pep talked at?

All in all an episode that left me totally cold, even without a biobed that became a cryo-bed (did they really need to jump to Federation HQ to pick it up when admiral Vance could have sent the specs via subspace? Oh, I'm sorry, I know... Because the episode needed to happen!)

@Norvo says: "Sometimes Discovery's writers seem to forget this series started out as a prequel to TOS before it jumped 800 years into the future. "

Indeed, this is why Reno is an expert on "ancient manuscripts" including one written more than a century after she left for the 32nd century and should have no clue about at all. Oh and she specializes in a drink called "Seven of Lime" as a bartender. Wink-wink.

Had this weird feeling (and it would have been way cool but too time consuming and undoubtedly leaked beforehand) that this expert would turn out to be Pelia, which would actually make sense. I suppose it's possible (however vanishingly unlikely) she'll be at Library Alpha (or whatever it is) next week.

Other weird feeling, which may yet pay off as prescient: Moll and Lok were not only married but she is puffed up with pleasure, so there actually is still an heir to the Breen throne.

Norvo - "Even by the time TNG got underway, Starfleet knew next to nothing about the Breen. This race should have next to 0 emotional impact with Burnham and her crew."

You're forgetting - absolutely everything has an emotional impact with Burnham and her crew.

For me, this was the most entertaining episode of the season so far. It definitely had its flaws, but overall I found it suspenseful rather than predictable, with a refreshing minimum of whispering, ridiculous camera antics, and emotional hysteria. I did not expect L'ak to die. I did not expect the Breen to just go away. I thought the bluff was very well played/directed, and I love love love T'rina and her actor. Rayner's background was used well, and whoever snarked at Burnham about how successful her mutineering was deserves a gold medal.

In the past I've let my overall dislike of this series influence my opinion of each individual episode. I'm trying not to do that this year. The underlying production decisions about the entire series are always going to be there, and I'm always going to disagree with them, so I'm trying to go more with my first impressions of each episode. For this one, the above positives are what stood out. The negatives are 1) Tilly's ridiculous excuse for escaping the danger on Disco; 2) the rather sudden popping-up of both the lovey-dovey pair and Nhan; and 3) the ridiculous gigantism of the Breen ship. But none of those detracted from my involvement in the story this time. Even Moll redeemed herself a tiny bit with what seems like a scheme for the future.

I do miss Saru, Owo, and Detmer, but their absence didn't create any holes in the plot. I've lost respect for Saru over the last couple of seasons, so I wouldn't have expected him to add anything to the negotiation that T'rina didn't.

About the CGI, it looked awful this episode. The FedHQ and the two ships accompanying it looked out of place (if I didn't know they were ships, I would think they were grey blobs of matter) and had an odd CGI quality to them. This is made clearer at the end of the episode after the Breen dreadnought leaves.

Yeah, they just gave away the ending. L'ak gets resurrected somehow by the tech, which then gets destroyed because you'd be jumping existence's shark with story devices like that. Moll becomes reformed and everyone lives happily ever after, having ruined any Trek show set before it.

Perhaps like many others, given a seeming decrease in comments here, I have come to be fairly apathetic with the series at this point. I can appreciate that some may be lamenting the series' end - fair to them if this is their favourite or one they very much like - but I'm just seeing it out at this point. Might have had a different perspective if the series started with something akin to seasons four and five, which have been decent enough.

A serviceable episode: not much more, not much less. Three to go.

If I'm not mistaken, the Dilithium offer to the Breen was the first time this season acknowledged that the galaxy is still recovering from over a century of chaos. They at least paid some lip service in season 4 to the notion that the "New Federation" wasn't an entrenched power. 32nd-century Discovery really is an Andromeda remake, isn't it?

@Brandon,
We've seen seemingly game-changing pieces of technology introduced and forgotten before. Just with resurrection, there were at least two episodes of Voyager featuring such technology, once by aliens and once by Seven of Nine. Not to mention the genesis device, which at least had a semi-good reason to not be used again.

Sounds like we're in the frustrating / 'just get to the finale already' phase of the season.

Well that was a big waste of time. And it's made all the more pointless and redundant because the plot thread about Breen royal succession or whatever serves no purpose once the Breen become aware about the Progenitor tech, which as expected, is the one thing they'd take in exchange for dropping their silly erigah. The main beats of the plot would have still happened, but faster and in a less roundabout way, had they known since they would still want Mol and L'ak for their lead on the promised tech.

Some more dumb things:

- Culber takes a phaser blast to the chest at point blank and he's just immediately fine afterwards...? What did they set it to, Gentle Nudge?

- Book's Magical Negro powers keep expanding to satisfy what ever the demands of the plot happen to be. Now not only can be empathically read animals, but he can do Psychometry too. What's next... is he gonna perform a Seance for L'ak?

- So a single Breed ship is so massive that it could destroy the comparatively tiny and dainty Starfleet HQ by just gently colliding with it..? Why hasn't the Breen done this already?

- It seemed kinda ill-advised to lower one's shields when hostile demands are made by a sworn enemy who "doesn't have a word for diplomacy".

- After Mol and L'ak seemingly prove themselves as cunning houdinis time and again, they're ultimately undone by L'ak...accidentally killing himself..? LOL.

- Pretty foolish of Starfleet to just hand Mol over to the Breen, especially since she's about to sick them on the Progenitor Tech trail, which should be the worst case scenario they're trying to avoid. The smart thing would have been to get some Black Ops operative to assassinate her right then there there. I don't care if she doesn't know all the pieces of the puzzle just yet -- even alerting the Breen to its existence is a threat to their security.

Book said in his super sexy inflective voice "this is wrong"..

So, they are going to go with him doing something very stupid again because he wants to save the daughter of his mentor. And they keep letting him in high level meeting rooms.

I dont get the cutting of the secondary cast. Budget is a nice explanation but none of them are high paid stars or anything .What are you really saving by cutting Owo out of half the episodes? I find it very weird to do all that cutting just to save 20 grand an episode or something.

The Breen are basically the Krill from The Orville, just a lot less entertaining.

@Jammer said, "L'ak will be resurrected"

Come on man, no one's ever really gone ;)

https://youtu.be/GrfRNhKYik0

@Jammer

Thanks for the spot-on Fargo reference

Burnham: what's worse than death?
Moll: this conversation for starters.

Now that's hanging a lantern like I have never seen.

This episode felt like a “one step forward, two steps back” situation. Just as I think we’re making progress, the writer(s) find a way to dash my hopes by writing the characters and/or story to be simplistic or incompetent. I feel like the showrunner or writers are not being given the tools to properly understand the Star Trek universe. Or maybe they’re just lazy. (PS: Never mind, I just read an interview where Michelle Paradise said she grew up watching Star Trek.)

@Jammer – as usual, I think you make many excellent observations for this episode.

PROS:
[1] Burnham has legitimate reason to learn more about Rayner, and she makes use of it in the plot. Relative to the rest of the season thus far, I felt this was a huge win for the writers.

CONS:
[a] Rayner doesn’t live up to how he was set up as a character during the season’s first couple of episodes. I liked him as a character in previous episodes, but here, he’s painted as a simple war soldier. So simple he is that he doesn’t care to learn any more information about the Breen’s current motivation or situation; he just wants to fight. But I’m not sure if I don’t like the writing or that the writing of Rayner is reasonably plausible and I don’t like that he’s not a better character.
[b] While I felt refreshed with some smart decisions and good skill use by Burnham, I continue to be frustrated with several other decisions that seem to appear incompetent. For example, why does she think jumping to a far-flung area to keep L’ak and Moll out of Breen reach such a far-fetched idea as the Admiral suggested? That seemed like an incredibly smart idea!
[c] Also, as Moll is busy rattling off what she knows to the Primarch in sickbay, Burnham just stands there and does nothing.
[d] Moll seems like too much of an impulsive idiot to have been a successful smuggler.
[e] Nope. I don’t believe for a second that Betazoid Doctor Marina Sirti— I mean, Derex knew the location of a place where its mandate is to constantly be in a different location throughout its existence.

OTHER THOUGHTS:
[i] It was great to see Nhan again.
[ii] I loved seeing the huge Breen warship and the other Federation ships warp in.
[iii] Why is Book involved in high-level meetings regarding what to do about Moll?
[iv] So Zora’s conclusion for the best expert for Tilly and Adira to go to is… Reno? Literally no one else in the Federation to reach out to that might have more current information available and that actually treats it as their specialty and expertise? Nope. Stupid. Actually, I thought they were gonna bring in Pelia from Strange New Worlds to fill this role.
[v] “Spore drive system is in jump configuration” – is it ever in any other configuration? 🤔
[vi] What library card would not have a mark indicating what library it belongs to?
[vii] I remember in one of the past Zora-focused episodes they discussed her being a sentient being. Sentient or not, she seems competent enough to be able to notice that Moll is attacking the crew and should be able to play a more active role to stop her. I get why writers can’t do that, but it’s an unfortunate side effect of having created the Zora character.

I’ve always just sporadically participated in these forum discussions, but this is the first season where I’ve made an effort to throw in my comments for each episode. I’m already tired of writing commentary on these mediocre outings. I’ve always loved Jammer’s thoughtful, detailed reviews, but I give major props to him and reviewers in general for putting in the effort when they may not want to.

@The Queen – “I thought the bluff was very well played/directed”
@StarMan – “Sounds like we're in the frustrating / 'just get to the finale already' phase of the season.”
@dave – “I dont get the cutting of the secondary cast.”
→ Agreed to all three of you.

There's definitely more good than bad here. I liked the ticking timer to make tough decisions, the pros/cons debated, the implacability of the Breen. But there were the weaker moments like more of the implausibility of Moll & L'ak as a couple and their romance weighs things down. Other plot points were weak like Book's empathic abilities reading the ancient Betazoid card, getting Reno involved (waste of time), Nhan's cameo did nothing.

Trying to figure out what exactly DSC S5 is trying to say re. Rayner who is the only character who is actually interesting, different, anomalous(?) He has a background with the Breen (b/c of course he does) and Burnham initially smacks him down like a child and tells him to leave the room. Then she has to go back to him and figure out a plan using the other Breen primarch (a female and, of course far more reasonable and intelligent than the male primarch). So Rayner is welcomed back into the Federation brain trust to deal with the Breen, and Burnham thanks him at the end of the episode. But Burnham is the hero as the main thinker in all these negotiations, so to me that leaves T'Rina and Vance looking useless. (But admirals on Trek rarely come out looking good.)

As for more details on the Breen -- they remind me of the Kazon. Factions fighting for power, rituals, and that massive ship when initially shown totally made me think of the largest Kazon vessel ("Initiations" I believe). Interesting that DSC S5 chose to use the Breen as the main villain, while SNW is going with the Gorn -- both left pretty much as empty canvasses by classic Trek. I'm pretty much fine with what DSC has done with the Breen but pissed off at the canon violations SNW has engaged in with the Gorn.

2.5 stars for "Erigah" -- this one started out like it could be a 3* episode for me but the ending was not as strong again, though it didn't nosedive like in "Whistlespeak". I feel this season is pushing too hard on the Moll / L'ak romance and it continues to fail to work and has dragged down a few episodes thus far. Even the scene in sickbay, the Breen stand back and Moll is allowed to go see L'ak. But it's a good choice to have him die and not just get well arbitrarily. And that doesn't stop the race from continuing. So we go to the Badlands next -- maybe meet some Cardassians?

So Michael who handpicked Rayner as her Number One, who demanded he got to know the crew had no idea that his family was wiped out by the Breen?
Didn't need a whispering heart to heart, just a glance at his file.
And Admiral Vance, his friend of many years, didn't think it might cloud his judgement in a standoff with the Breen? And this wasn't worth mentioning to his Captain?

Bollocks

Reno, the expert in antiquities(!), is the font of knowledge about a book written over 100 years after she's born. There's no-one else at Federation HQ or even at the Academy with more experience? Kovich?

Bollocks

To say Discovery is a bit of a Curate's egg is an understatement. It's fascinating to see which episodes wind people up and which they enjoy.
The two and three star reviews others are giving make excellent points.

But this one was the tipping point for me. This is not a good TV programme, let alone good Trek. The number of contrivances, people behaving stupidly and cast members appearing and disappearing has taken the enjoyment out of it for me. Doug Jones has limited availability? The why not have Ambassador Saru in the one episode is heavy on diplomacy

This whole season has been hot garbage on a tropical summer solstice. After last season I thought they'd go out with a bang, but no such luck. Only the time travel episode held my interest at all. It's been all down hill from there. Somebody please beam Mol and L'ak into a black hole so they can spend forever together getting spaghettified for their sins against storytelling. Somebody please tasha yar Tilly in an alien oil slick or something.


@Jammer
"Book uses his empathic abilities to read the card's telepathic traces left behind by the Betazoid scientist who originated the clue, which conjures images which, through deductive reasoning, leads us to the Badlands, the apparent current location of the library. (Although, how would this location have been known 800 years ago and imprinted on the card? Am I missing something? Possibly.)"


Maybe I missed something, but Discovery jumped over 900 years into the future to this time. 800 years ago would've been more than 100 years after Discovery's original time. Isn't that close to the time of Voyager? Didn't Voyager begin in the Badlands? What's the objection?



@Bryan
Thu, May 9, 2024, 10:54pm (UTC -5)
"- Book's Magical Negro powers keep expanding to satisfy what ever the demands of the plot happen to be. Now not only can be empathically read animals, but he can do Psychometry too. What's next... is he gonna perform a Seance for L'ak?"


Book doesn't fit that trope. That's Guinan. Book doesn't have any answers, makes nothing but mistakes, and ain't leading any main character down the path they were always "supposed" to go.

That wasn't psychometry. A Beatazoid telepath imprinted a telepathic impression on a chip. Book is an empath. He can communicate with animals specifically and aliens who have telepathic/empathic abilities, like Ten-C. All empaths in Trek can interact on a limited telepathic level like Counselor Troi. The chip was meant to be read by a telepath or an empath. This was right inside his wheelhouse.

Curate's egg..am I the only.one who's never heard that expression before? Is it pretty rare Inguess as I think I'm a pretty well read person?

I just woshbtbis show had mkre newlines and strsngenewworlds every week as this season seemed tp.promise..is anyone else disappointed by that..kf the show could deliver thst, I wish it would go on for a other 5 seaspns..Let's SABE the show so they can leep.learning about new alien life and and anlnalies and new worlds please..and have Steamge NewSorlds do that ALSO, while we're at kt...

@Quincy: "Maybe I missed something, but Discovery jumped over 900 years into the future to this time. 800 years ago would've been more than 100 years after Discovery's original time. Isn't that close to the time of Voyager? Didn't Voyager begin in the Badlands? What's the objection?"

My question is: How would the Betazoid scientist know that in 800 years the library would be in the Badlands? Unless the route was predetermined and somehow the scientist knew this? Maybe that's the case; I don't know. But if the point of moving the library is to keep it hidden from certain people, having a predetermined route that people knew about (going out 800 years and followed even during the Burn!) would seem to be a big security risk.

Could the library card have been set up in such a way that it has a telepathic link with the libary itself? In which case it wasn't necessary for the scientist to know its actual route it just needed another telepath to be able to connect to the library via the card.

@Quincy

"The chip was meant to be read by a telepath or an empath."

Then it's even worse than I thought. The MacGuffin clue trail is supposedly meant to be followed by those worthy and "pure of heart" enough while throwing everyone else off the trail. But what if the good guys didn't happen to have telepathic powers? Seems like they would have gotten stuck while those with less noble intentions caught up to them.

@Jammer

Thanks for clearing that up.


@Bryan

I didn't say that the plot was good. In fact, I said the opposite.

I might have misunderstood the intention behind the telepathic signal. If it was the card itself transmitting the telepathic signal, and not a trace left behind by the long-dead scientist, then it might make sense, assuming the card maintains some sort of link with the library.

Are we going to meet Mr Atoz again?

Nothing about the library card makes sense.

I am pretty certain the psychic traces on it were supposed to be left by the Betazoid author, but that doesn't mean it makes any sense.

Of all the plot holes and contrivances in this episode, the issue of the library card doesn't even crack the top ten, honestly.

I'm reminded of the parable of the blind men and the elephant, except that instead of the elephant representing unvarnished reality that we each can only grasp a piece of, the elephant represents the incomprehensibility of this episode.

In light of the approaching end of this series, I would like to pitch my prediction/preference for the final scene of Discovery:

Micheal is lying unconscious in a hospital bed. Philipa Georgiou and Saru are at her side, looking on with concern. Micheal flutters awake.
Micheal: wha..where is…where am I?

Georgiou: Oh you’re awake! Just relax, everything is going to be all right.

Micheal: did we win the war?

Georgiou: It’s ok honey, there was no war. We negotiated with the Klingons and de-escalated the situation.

Micheal: where’s my father, sarak?

Georgiou: Oh sweetheart, sarak isn’t your father. You’ve never met him.
Saru: And quite frankly he’s out of your league..
Georgiou: Saru! Not now..

Micheal slips into semi-consciousness and begins muttering:
Micheal: the spores..space fungus..the tardigrade is big…

Saru: She’s delirious, won’t be long now..

Micheal: voq..surgically altered into ash…ash…grafted onto voq..

Georgiou: Wait, is Voq Ash or is Ash Voq?
Saru: I don’t think anyone knows.

Micheal: mirror…the emperor..made me eat a guy..saved her anyway..kelpian stew…kinda liked it…

Saru: Excuse me??
Georgiou: Her higher brain functions are shutting down.

Micheal: the red angel..mother..seven signs..the burn..child’s tantrum..must rebuild the federation..broke the warp..

Saru: Wow.
Georgiou: Yikes.

Micheal: 10c..outside the galaxy..live in the atmosphere, communicate with pheromones and light…

Saru: Well that actually sounds kinda cool.
Georgiou: Yeah, that’s a good one.

Micheal: pirates..humanoids everywhere…

In a sudden moment of lucidity, Micheal wakes up and looks around the room.

Micheal: where..where am I?

Georgiou: Just relax. You’re in the medical bay. You suffered an extreme dose of radiation while on a space walk to investigate the Klingon tomb ship. We barely got you back, but now we’re doing everything we can to make you better.

Micheal: Then..it was all a dream. And you were there. And you were there. And..you..were th…

Beeeeeeeeep

Saru: it’s over now.
Georgiou: let’s get the hell out of here.

The end….?

The conundrum of the library card makes little sense as in the real world I can use an app on my phone to identify an item and get a listing of search links. I would expect a 32nd century app to be able to do this with degrees of advancement.

I know it’s hardly a fair comparison, still, convinced a young (early 20s) colleague of mine who thought Discovery was great to watch TNG. They’re into Season 4 and their take, on seeing The Wounded, “This has more going on in 40 minutes than Discovery’s entire season.”

Again, we were BORED. Bored at the action that exists just to pad runtime, bored at the plot contrivances that exist simply to get us to the next episode, beyond done with Moll and L'ak.

Seriously Discovery, you were never my favorite, but despite it all I’m watching. Why are you wasting so much of your final season on these throwaway characters?!? Shouldn’t they be closing the arcs of the main and supporting cast?

At this point I’d rather see an entire episode about Grudge than another scene with Moll and L'ak.

Also, @Jammer, I usually dig the references to previous Trek, but here it’s just a line for line ripoff of DS9 dialogue about the Breen. Picard pulled the same lazy move when they ripped off (err, I mean, honored) the President’s whale speech.

1.5 stars. At least the train wreck is almost over.

When do we get new SNW?

Also, forgot to add, poor Rayner. You have to go back to Season 1 Wesley Crusher to find someone right so often while being regularly dismissed out of hand by those around him.

He could be a really compelling character if he got some of the screen time wasted on Moll and L’ak.

"When do we get new SNW?"

Not until 2025 @Tim!

1. Why is Nhan in this episode?
2. Why is Book in this episode?
3. How does L’ak know how to manipulate a Starfleet sickbay table?
4. How does Moll’s presence help L’ak’s recovery?
5. Why is Moll allowed anywhere near the Breen to negotiate?
6. Why is Moll allowed to bargain in front of Starfleet officers instead of being stunned or phased through the head?
7. Why is there no secondary measure to detain Moll when the shields are removed?
8. How can the Breen follow a warp signature when Discovery uses a mycelium network?

1/4 stars (I’m being generous because it at least moves the plot forwards, albeit in a profoundly stupid way)

Oh also:
9. If the Breen have such vastly different technology, why does the sound of their vital’s deteriorating on monitors sound remarkably similar to a human’s flatlining EKG?

@ Austin

1. Why is Nhan in this episode?

Her actress was at the studio for an unrelated project and wandered onto set and they all just rolled with it.

2. Why is Book in this episode?

Because he's really handsome and charming and the writers don't want him to get bored, realize he could be on a much better show and leave.

3. How does L’ak know how to manipulate a Starfleet sickbay table?

L'ak once did an undercover internship in a Starfleet sickbay as part of his coming-of-age Breen cultural infiltration spying ritual. This is visible in his dossier on one of the sickbay monitors if you squint a lot to make it out. Like A LOT a lot. Basically just close your eyes entirely.

4. How does Moll’s presence help L’ak’s recovery?

It increases blood flow to his penis, which in Breen physiology is a reservoir of healing stem cells.

5. Why is Moll allowed anywhere near the Breen to negotiate?

So that she can tell the Breen about Starfleet's super-secret treasure hunt for a technology capable of galactic apocalypse.

6. Why is Moll allowed to bargain in front of Starfleet officers instead of being stunned or phased through the head?

Because that would be mean! Her feelings might be hurt! She's speaking her truth, only a fascist would interrupt her!

7. Why is there no secondary measure to detain Moll when the shields are removed?

Moll is surrounded by an entire team of Starfleet's very best security officers, all of whom have years of training in the most advanced martial arts technique known to 32nd century science: goat yoga.

8. How can the Breen follow a warp signature when Discovery uses a mycelium network?

Some of the mushrooms have defected to the Breen.

9. If the Breen have such vastly different technology, why does the sound of their vital’s deteriorating on monitors sound remarkably similar to a human’s flatlining EKG?

It's the universal translator. It's truly, truly universal.


See? All questions answered, no plot holes here. Episode integrity 100%.

@Tim

And if the writers quit turning him into such a jackass. They're not even trying to make Rayner believable as a Starfleet old hand.

@Jefrey's Tube.

LOLLL

@Idh2023

Also solid lols. Perfect way to end the show.

This comment section is way more interesting than the show right now

Which is both depressing and hilarious..."deprarious" if you will

It was all a dream….within a TWIST!!

I have never watched Discovery and never will, but I love reading Jammer's reviews and all the discussion. From afar, it sounds like the show is hot garbage.

@IDH2023: Great idea for a series finale. It will go down in history with All Good Things and What We Left Behind. You have also encapsulated in a creative, hilarious way everything that was wrong with DSC season by season. I would like to change one thing however: Instead of getting an overdose of radiation Burnham has been sentenced to death by lethal injection for her mutiny and the resulting lives lost and intergalactic war that has killed millions and counting. Maybe that's too dark, but if the pre-TOS era Federation still practiced capital punishment and had a mandatory death sentence for visiting Talos 4, then I'm sure that mutiny and treason could also incur the death penalty.

By season five, Discovery was essentially the vehicle for Jammer's sarcasm.