All Things Star Trek

[Samson]

I agree. I don't really need to know what happens to Tyler-Voq and L'Rell, but I wouldn't mind seeing more of Georgiu. Unless I blinked and missed something in the final episode, it seems like they just left her to her own devices on Q'onos. I could easily see her becoming an Orion pirate queen or something.

Keep watching.

 

[EgonSpengler]

One little bit I liked in the closing scene of season 1 was when the comms guy is reading the ID signal from the mystery ship, "N-C-C-1-7-", and then the camera moves away. It was like a little preview for the nerds watching, 10 seconds before the ship was revealed anyway. I had already heard that the Enterprise under Pike makes an appearance, but I liked the little wink at the audience. I haven't started season 2 yet, so I can't say for sure, but Anson Mount and Rebecca Romijn seem like good casting. I've never seen the guy who plays Spock, so I have no preconceptions about him, going into it. But I guess it must have been reasonably successful, if they're giving these folks their own spinoff show.

 

[Synobun]

One little bit I liked in the closing scene of season 1 was when the comms guy is reading the ID signal from the mystery ship, "N-C-C-1-7-", and then the camera moves away. It was like a little preview for the nerds watching, 10 seconds before the ship was revealed anyway. I had already heard that the Enterprise under Pike makes an appearance, but I liked the little wink at the audience. I haven't started season 2 yet, so I can't say for sure, but Anson Mount and Rebecca Romijn seem like good casting. I've never seen the guy who plays Spock, so I have no preconceptions about him, going into it. But I guess it must have been reasonably successful, if they're giving these folks their own spinoff show.

Strong disagree on Rebecca, but strong agree on Anson. Pike is a great character. You're going to love him.

Spock's actor is also quite good. Met my expectations for a young Spock.

 

[warpus]

I'm one of those people who doesn't like it when the Mirror Universe gets too entangled in "regular" episodes. I preferred MU episodes to be fun standalones, the way DS9 and Enterprise did them. I always found the concept of the MU itself a bit silly. How come there's always a 1-to-1 analogue to every single character of note? That's too convenient for my tastes - a parallel universe would not function like that at all. So for fun standalone eps, why not, but.. integrating this MU into the story? I tend to not like that. It's just a cheap way to get the same actors to play evil characters.

With Discovery, I actually liked what they did with the MU at first. But all these characters crossing isn't great. If it's so easy for these characters to do that, why hasn't it happened before? Everybody always ends up back in their own universe, the episodes have always felt like one-offs, and they also created this feel that our universes crossing over like that was pretty rate. But now it feels like it's pretty common, which sort of breaks my whole head canon of the MU being a "silly fun episode generator". Now it's a part of the Trek reality at large and it just feels weird.

So we'll see where they take all of this, because in the end it is the story that is the most important to me. If the story works out, I'll accept this well enough. For now they're just sort of using it in a gimmicky way still

 

[Synobun]

But now it feels like it's pretty common, which sort of breaks my whole head canon of the MU being a "silly fun episode generator". Now it's a part of the Trek reality at large and it just feels weird.

To be fair, a lot of what you think is "part of the Trek reality at large" is based on your own conspiracy theories about the Burn and not actually confirmed canon.

 

[warpus]

I do not have any theories about the Burn, though.

 

[EgonSpengler]

I'm one of those people who doesn't like it when the Mirror Universe gets too entangled in "regular" episodes. I preferred MU episodes to be fun standalones, the way DS9 and Enterprise did them. I always found the concept of the MU itself a bit silly. How come there's always a 1-to-1 analogue to every single character of note? That's too convenient for my tastes - a parallel universe would not function like that at all. So for fun standalone eps, why not, but.. integrating this MU into the story? I tend to not like that. It's just a cheap way to get the same actors to play evil characters.

It is one of the tropiest of sci-fi tropes, isn't it? But I don't think Star Trek has done it worse than anybody else, and they may have been among the first to do it. The Man in the High Castle predates Star Trek, and iirc, there's a suggestion in that story that it's an alternate universe and not merely an alternate history. I thought Fringe did well making the trope the spine of the whole show - when they moved away from it in the final season, the series collapsed, I thought - and I've heard good things about Counterpart, although I haven't seen it yet.

With Discovery, I actually liked what they did with the MU at first. But all these characters crossing isn't great. If it's so easy for these characters to do that, why hasn't it happened before?

I thought that was part of the point to Lorca's story - that it had happened before, and not just in one direction (e.g. it wasn't just people from the "prime" universe visiting the "mirror" universe, but the reverse could happen too).

 

[Synobun]

I do not have any theories about the Burn, though.

Que?

Spoiler :

That's really the only thing I can think of, when she sent her suit back through the wormhole. But like, what if it's a mirror universe version of her caused the burn? There's some possibilities. It's entirely possible they just named it the burn while giggling how we're going to talk about it for no reason.

 

[warpus]

That's not me saying: "I think this is what might have happened" it's me saying: "I think there's some relation, but I have no idea what. Here's some random thoughts"

It is one of the tropiest of sci-fi tropes, isn't it? But I don't think Star Trek has done it worse than anybody else, and they may have been among the first to do it. The Man in the High Castle predates Star Trek, and iirc, there's a suggestion in that story that it's an alternate universe and not merely an alternate history. I thought Fringe did well making the trope the spine of the whole show - when they moved away from it in the final season, the series collapsed, I thought - and I've heard good things about Counterpart, although I haven't seen it yet.

It would have worked a lot better (IMO) if the mirror universe didn't always for some reason have a 1-to-1 correspondence to our characters... and evil versions of them. The way they set the MU up, it's all a silly episode generator, pretty much. So doing anything else to it feels "wrong" to me, when I'm watching these eps.

It's tropey but it just doesn't make much sense to be set up like this IMO

I thought that was part of the point to Lorca's story - that it had happened before, and not just in one direction (e.g. it wasn't just people from the "prime" universe visiting the "mirror" universe, but the reverse could happen too).

I meant that in previous Trek shows the "feel" was always that this was super rare, and nobody ever stayed behind (IIRC). I could be wrong about this always being the case on previous Trek shows. In Discovery it's like they opened the floodgates, compared to previous MU episodes in other Trek shows.

 

[Arakhor]

It wouldn't be much of a Mirror episode if we didn't have 1:1 correlation between the characters. The key's in the name of the concept, there.

 

[Synobun]

Also, we're no stranger to there being consequences. DS9's mirror episodes certainly involve a great deal of meddling. Discovery's difference is that the MU was incorporated directly into the storyline, rather than just being a side plot that's quickly forgotten.

 

[warpus]

It wouldn't be much of a Mirror episode if we didn't have 1:1 correlation between the characters. The key's in the name of the concept, there.

That doesn't follow. The way things are named isn't always the literal meaning of the word. Otherwise "The Burn" would have to involve fire.

As an occasional fun episode vehicle it works, but as a "part of the Trek universe/story" it falls apart for me. It doesn't make any sense why there should always be a 1:1 correspondance to the characters who happen to be important. It's so silly they don't even try to explain it with technobabble.

 

[Samson]

That doesn't follow. The way things are named isn't always the literal meaning of the word. Otherwise "The Burn" would have to involve fire.

As an occasional fun episode vehicle it works, but as a "part of the Trek universe/story" it falls apart for me. It doesn't make any sense why there should always be a 1:1 correspondance to the characters who happen to be important. It's so silly they don't even try to explain it with technobabble.

My problem is how can it be a mirror universe if the people can just swop?

Spoiler For later episodes :

For example Georgiu, what is her equivalent in the MU now? What happens if she has a child? Who would that child meet when they swop over? New idea: Is it her swapping that made the MU unreachable?

 

[warpus]

I don't mind the swapping. After all, if you can manage to get from one universe to a parallel one.. it makes sense to me that you'd be able to stay.

It's just so silly to me that okay.. I could buy that when the TOS dudes went into this universe, that they found counterparts of themselves. Lucky chance and/or silly episode. Okay, whatever. But then hundreds of years later another crew ends up in the mirror universe.. and .. they happen to run into their own doubles too? And whenever a crew happens to end up there.. they happen to find their own doubles there too? And they look exactly the same, plus a beard? Makes no sense. (unless you ignore the contradictions for a fun episode, which I don't mind doing)

Also, to touch on one of your points @Samson

Spoiler :

In one of the Discovery episodes it is said that the MU'aeans have a slightly different atomic.. something... something.. about prions? I can't remember, but it's possible to scan people and see which universe they are from (it seems)

 

[EgonSpengler]

I was planning to take a breather from Trek after blazing through season 1 of Discovery, but I looked around last night and there wasn't really anything I wanted to watch as much as season 2, so I went ahead and watched the first 2 eps. Anson Mount is pretty great as Christopher Pike. He's a throwback to the Kirk-style space cowboy, a bit informal with his crew, charges headlong into danger, more interested in results than form. "I was expecting a red thing. Where's my damned red thing?" Although I thought his resolute adherence to General Order No. 1 on the planet felt a little inconsistent. I actually thought the scene at the end when he gave the guy the thing seemed more in-character. Spock and Number One haven't appeared yet, although just from the voice-recording that Burnham was listening to, I thought the guy who plays Spock did a better job of evoking Leonard Nimoy's performance than Zachary Quinto did. Nothing against Quinto's performance, he wasn't trying to follow Nimoy is all I'm sayin', and this new guy seems like he might be, just from the voice recording.



[EDIT: (Again with the parentheses. I dunno what's wrong with me lately. (Ah, [shoot].))]

 

[warpus]

I liked the latest Discovery ep, with some reservations

Spoiler :

I quite like Adira as a character and I found the scene with her and Stamets, where she "comes out" really good. I'm not an expert in this by any means, but these "pronouns" can really seem quite impersonal and strange when you first hear about them. It took me a while to really come with grips with that stuff, it's not anywhere in popular media. That's slowly changing but not really. To see a character like that go through this, and seeing it in such a ... personal way, really made me feel for them and it seems that it will educate others about this issue as well. My only problem is that the English language makes it a bit annoying in that "them" leads to my brain naturally assuming the plural. So I will have to get used to that. But seeing a character live this life and seeing this sort of personal thing up close. It makes things feel a lot more real, if that makes sense. It allows me to understand that position better, probably because I quite like her character. It basically puts me in a position where I want the best for her, so if this is what she wants, then it's really important to me too. Contrast this with the vague notion of pronouns - you can easily dismiss something like that as "weird", when you first hear about it.

So like I said I'm not an expert, and I tried to put down my exact thoughts on how I felt about their approach. I see that some people do not like that they went through this spiel, i.e. they are saying that it shouldn't be a big deal in the future at all. The way I interpreted that scene - This is a 16 year old correcting an adult (who is their superior) . That can be pretty intimidating! And her character is not really one to correct people easily. And the way Stamets responded was great too, I thought. Plus you know there's tons of people watching who have no idea about pronouns.

That wasn't a major part of the episode, but it stuck out to me.

I didn't like Tilly's plan to use Book's shuttle to attack the other ship, or at least the justification for it. Clearly that other ship would have seen Book's shuttle depart Discovery and would have been on the defensive - against 2 ships and not just 1. The writers got around this by never panning back to Discovery during the battle, hoping we'd temporarily forget it exists. If this really happened then the enemy ship would be firing on Discovery too - but that never happened. For some reason.

Stupid plan, but it sets up some story elements nicely, so I can see why they did it this way. Still don't like it, but I get it.

It seems that the melody relation to the burn is getting some attention too. One thing I dont like is these "Short Treks". I haven't seen any of them, I don't see them up on ctv.ca anywhere, they aren't on youtube.. They aren't anywhere. They are supposed to be a part of the story? People are referencing "Calypso" and like. I've never seen that. Where can I watch this crap legally? Jesus...

 

[Arakhor]

Calypso, along with the other three Short Treks from series one, is available on international Netflix, but the series two ones haven't appeared yet.

 

[warpus]

It's annoying that CTV doesn't have these, for some reason. I haven't logged into netflix in a long time, I guess I'll have to

 

[Synobun]

It's annoying that CTV doesn't have these, for some reason. I haven't logged into netflix in a long time, I guess I'll have to

It is not on Canadian Netflix. It's on Crave.

 

[warpus]

Great, so if I don't have Crave, I have to seek out.. uhh. yeah. okay fine.

I will probably just not watch these. This annoys me more than it should, but if it's a part of the show it should be on the streaming service where the episodes are.