Star Trek Discovery

[Drunk Monk]

Short Treks e2 was great. One of the best Disco eps so far. Brilliant short story telling and an ominous foreshadowing for season 2.

I just rewatched this for the 3rd time and it no longer holds up. ‘Calypso’ was the short Chabon wrote and I loved it on the first and second viewings but given S3, why are the warp drives attached? That makes no sense now after Discovery’s upgrades. Maybe the reboot set them back (that was a deus resolution to blow one off and then it’s fixed quickly afterwards, just like that stabbed leg).

[Drunk Monk]

Star Trek: Discovery Returns November 2021

Captain Burnham and the crew return
BY 
STARTREK.COM STAFF
SEPTEMBER 8, 2021 6:40 PM PDT

 

StarTrek.com


Star Trek: Discovery released the first image from the upcoming fourth season during a Star Trek Day panel featuring season four cast members Wilson Cruz (Dr. Hugh Culber), Blu del Barrio (Adira), and Ian Alexander (Gray) and showrunner and executive producer Michelle Paradise. The panel was moderated by Wil Wheaton.

StarTrek.com

It was also announced that season four will premiere in the U.S. on Thursday, November 18 on Paramount+.
Season four of Star Trek: Discovery finds Captain Burnham and the crew of the U.S.S. Discovery facing a threat unlike any they’ve ever encountered. With Federation and non-Federation worlds alike feeling the impact, they must confront the unknown and work together to ensure a hopeful future for all.

Star Trek: Discovery season four cast members include Sonequa Martin-Green (Captain Michael Burnham), Doug Jones (Saru), Anthony Rapp (Paul Stamets), Mary Wiseman (Sylvia Tilly), Wilson Cruz (Dr. Hugh Culber), David Ajala (Cleveland “Book” Booker) and Blu del Barrio (Adira).
Check out the teaser trailer for season four below, and continue to celebrate Star TrekDay at StarTrek.com/Day. Share your season four theories with us in social!

---

Star Trek: Discovery streams on Paramount+ in the United States, airs on Bell Media’s CTV Sci-Fi Channel and streams on Crave in Canada, and on Netflix in 190 countries.

[Drunk Monk]

My Paramount subscription expires around the time the first ep drops. Maybe I'll renew. We'll see...

[Drunk Monk]

S4e1 is titled the Kobayashi Maru. 'nut said, right? It explores the theory of the KM a bit, and the parallel KM here is a bit of a surprise. 

Disco is like Trek on steroids (or whatever McCoy used to bump up Kirk when he had to fight lustful Spock). It ramps up its design and effects to be on par with Star Wars, MCU, and all the other fantastic shows, all while trying to maintain the prime directive of sorts. The gratuitous lens flares and swirling cinematography give it a style that's an acquired taste. The characters are cool tho - very colorful and inclusive. And the music is over the top orchestral. 

No Tig so far tho. I think she's out which is a damn shame. 

Interesting reference to Picard (the new series). It tips the hand for what S2 there might bring. 

e2 is titled Anomaly which tells you what S4 is about. An anomaly. A gravitational anomaly that eats planets. Disco is the only ship that can save them. 

Lots of explosions. Lots. Who knew the bridge had so many bits that could explode? 

The new uniforms are sick.

[Greg]

I wish they would find something else to talk about besides the Kobayashi Maru. It was a cool idea thirty five years ago. Not so much now.

[Drunk Monk]

E3: SWORD FIGHTS!

Okay so the Kobayashi Maru was to remind us that this is still Star Trek by evoking the most awesome ST movie ever, the one that refueled the entire franchise. E2 was setting up the big threat to the quadrant for the season. Now E3 brings us back to the Disco. 

For the uninitiated, there’s a lot of catching up to do by the 24th century. SPOILER ALERT: All the dilithium exploded in ‘the burn’ which collapsed the federation. Vulcan and Romulan reunited and changed   Vulcan (the planet) to Ni’var. The Discovery time travelled to this century and has a spore drive that permits them to travel all over the quadrant using the mycelium network in an instant. Michael. He am is now the captain of the Disco and they lead the fleet in restoring the Federation. That’s where we are now END SPOILER

But what about those sword fights? In the 24th, there’s a cult of Romulan ninjettes. I mean it’s like the writers read my mind or something. They dress like ninjettes and wield swords. The Qowat Milat. Michael’s mom is one. One goes rogue stealing dilithium. And then there’s a ‘that’s no moon’ ship that pulled an space 1999 escape from an exploding sun filled with aliens in stasis (could they poach more sci-fi?).

There’s some ridiculous Vulcan - I mean Ni’var - floating architecture but when you can beam anywhere without transporters, that’s allowable. There’s a good old mind meld. There’s a side story about a trill getting a synth body that’s a thinly veiled metaphor for gender transition (portrayed by a genuine non-binary because Trek is gratuitously inclusive now, refreshingly so), which is akin to Matrix (yeah, they can poach more sci-fi). There’s tricky federation politrix because Ni’var stands outside the federation and the president is a female cardassian.

Still with me? Trek has gone where no one has gone before. 

Disco is so overdone. The effects are sumptuous all-u-can-eat, so you feel bloated after. The characters are too damn loving, espousing Trek morality at every pause, preaching to the choir here. I find it all rather entertaining, like a comfort food. Tilly, the token star fleet nerd, even eats Mac and cheese in this do. It’s deep in its own twisty wormhole and that’s fine with me. If only the Qowat Milat included Orion women…

That all being said, the sword fights were mediocre. I miss Kirk Fu. 

[Drunk Monk]

E4 began sort of episodic with Tilly taking some cadets on a training mission that goes wrong and becomes like TOS the Galileo incident, but instead of lurch in a carpet, it’s a tentacled giant starfish. Then there was the Ni’var politrix. 

But then it went a totally different direction. Well played disco.

Nice cameo from David Cronenberg.

[Drunk Monk]

E5: The Disco crew is pretty neurotic. This ep had landmine rhino beetle bots that tossed shuriken circle saw blades. That was silly. The anomaly eats a colony. There’s a prison rescue. There’s an asshole brilliant scientist from Risa. Then it spins to an immigrant allegory.

Most of all, Tig is back. I missed her. She needs her own spin-off.

2 more eps until the half season break.

[Drunk Monk]

E6: Zora (Disco’s computer) becomes sentient but instead of going all HAL logical, she gets…neurotic.

Capt Burham does something captainly finally, earning her seat in the chair. Escaping the anomaly. 

The ol’ pattern buffer deus ex machina

---

E7 was a lot of talk. Too much talk really. Zora is declared a new life form and joins star fleet but given that short trek, we knew it was coming. The cliffhanger is okay. I’m still in but this season is drifting. The anomaly (dma = dark matter anomaly) is a Covid metaphor. I’m kinda not into it. I need more escapism.

E8 is Feb 10

[Greg]

Click for full picture.

[Drunk Monk]

And we’re back.

Disco is getting absurd with its drama and overblown effects. In this ep, they try to do a trek cantina, complete with a ring for nhb matches and tellurite poker. Now we think the dma is a trawler for Illenium or some space talk for the new dilithium. 

Still okay, still watching because it’s trek. But falling away from it for now.

[Drunk Monk]

S4e9 (13 eps for this season) The return of Nhan who was a major character I completely forgot about until I looked her up and the synopsis jogged my memory. Disco is dense - almost too much sometimes - like ST on trimetadizine. It gets to be too much, especially lately with this DMA story arc. The characters are okay but now the federation mentality, particularly the preachiness about compromise and teamwork is getting overdone. The ships are cooler than ever and the sets are huge. Spectacular special effects. Still hanging with it but ready for the next ST series to launch.

Lower Decks is still the best ST series of this decade. Picard was good. Disco lost a lot of speed when Georgiou left. Prodigy was weak, but has potential.

[Drunk Monk]

And we’re back.

Disco is the gayest Star Trek yet. 

There. I've said it. Not that being gay is a bad thing. I know, I know, we put that 'no poofters' clause in the original D00M charter but it was an homage to Monty Python and you just have to understand the times back then. Besides, given the orientation of youknowwho, we should let go of that. 

S4e10 was a lot of talk about sharing and supporting each other. There was hugging. Prisoner hugging. There's heterospecies romance. There's the mycellium network that Disco travels on, which is surely code for undeground gay clubs. There's breaking free from the galactic barrier, or something out-of-the-closet like that. It's called Disco. I mean, who calls a Trek Disco? 

Actually, as I've said before, Disco has one of the most heartfelt gay relationships I've ever seen on TV - the engineer and the doctor. It's quite sweet. And it also has real life non-binary actor who goes by they/them pronouns playing a Trill named Gray Tal. They have been written out of this season more or less but Adira Tal (also played by a non-binary actor) is still a major player in engineering. The gay engineer has taken them under his wing. 

I currently only own one Star Trek shirt. It says Disco. 

This series is still amusing, but after Georgiou left, it lost a lot of fire. I have three more episodes of this season.

[Drunk Monk]

s4e11 The Disco recipe now is for something to happen, and then a lot of talk about it, and that ends with one character dropping some chunk of wisdom in a preachy way about being yourself, or being part of the team, or finding your place, or looking for the good in others, or remaining positive, or whatevs. It gets a bit tiresome. 

The DMA is like Vger or another huge nameless advanced entity at the edge of the galaxy, and it's threatening Earth, Ni'Var (or the world formerly known as Vulcan), and Titan (but who cares about that?) The good guys want to use diplomacy but it's a species so advanced that they don't know how to communicate. The bad guys...well, bad guy, it's one psycho genius, he wants to use the energy to fuel his transporter to another dimension to find his prison lover. 

Thank the maker for Tig. She comes back into play in this ep and takes over, redeeming all the dramatic feeling sharing with her ascerbic deadpan wit, and saves the ep.

e12 Everyone has to face making the ultimate sacrifice to save everyone else. Lots of space jargon. Some cool special effects. Still heavy on the swirling cinematography, enough to make me space sick, and so many lens flares. The home worlds are about to be destroyed and the alien #1 is playing footsie with the Ni'Var president? Oh come on. Thankfully Tig is still in play and even more ascerbic. Every snappy comeback she drops is spot on. She is my fav Disco character, even when she's talking about the death of her wife. 

e13 The s4 finale...will they stick the landing? Oh so close. Those self sacrificing choices need to be made now. And they are. And it's sad. Super sad. Capt Burnham shows she can indeed act. But just as that was settling in.. oh no. A disney death. Wait, another disney death. Dammit Jim, did anyone really die? And then the kicker - if this show wasn't super liberal leftist - there's that cameo. I forgot I had heard about it so it caught me off guard and made me giggle. Okay, alright, that's pretty funny and cool in a way that made my libtard parts tingle. 

This series could end here. It's a happy ending - everything is resolved and no cliffhanger. But...

[Drunk Monk]

This series has run its course but I'll still watch another season, if we keep P+