As we get closer to the release, there’s been a lot of new information coming out. Lets talk about it!
Regarding the updated set
It looks quite nice that they toned down the DSC influences and are giving the Enterprise bridge, its own style. Although for some reason, part of me wishes they kept those big displays in the back that went all around the bridge.
Uhura video
AFIK, we didn’t know too much about her early Starfleet career, I don’t see why she couldn’t have been part of the crew right from the get go. I hope they explore her character more and emphasize her linguistic skills (kinda like they did with Hoshi).
La’an video
I’m not sure what to make of her origins. Does she know she’s a decedent of augments? Is she one herself but doesn’t know it?
Ortega video
Why is everyone “the best pilot”? I guess it’s better than saying, “I’m an okay pilot” or “I’m just here cause my family pulled some strings to get me onboard the flagship”. She seems alright, we’ll find out soon enough.
The shuttle picture
I agree with ElvenLord, why is it so darn big?
And I’d agree, that was a great episode. My only real complaint might be not getting to see more of some of the people like Una, and the engineer guy.
Might still not be entirely sold on La’an’s ancestry here, but as a character, she’s great.
The doctor was great. “Don’t get the house dressing.” Chapel is great. Uhura was great, just nerding out with the alien a bit there. Spock was… a lot better. And that makes me happy.
I like that they’re giving Uhura more to do here than answer the phone. Kinda Hoshi-ing her up a bit, but it works.
We can see that they are going episodic, but carrying themes through, which is perfect. I’m not even as against a serial format as many others seem to be, but this works really well.
Also, Chapel hitting on Spock. chef’s kiss And I’m continuing to warm up to Ethan Peck as Spock. He didn’t feel right in Discovery to me at all, though I struggle to articulate why. It’s working a lot better here.
That surprise at the end with the doctor was more surprising (to me) than Una being an augment. Definitely an interesting episode kinda feel sad for Una (us as the viewer) knowing that the Federations view of augments doesn’t really change even well, well into the future.
I think they kinda hinted that Number One wasn’t human in The Menagerie, one of the Telosians pointing it out, if I recall. So I thought it was kind of interesting that they went this way.
There were a couple conversations I wish they would have spent more time on, but time is limited on episodes, so I get it.
Overall, I don’t think I liked this episode as much as the last two, but I still liked it. We at least got some fleshing-out of Una, Doctor M’Benga, and La’an.
Finally saw SNW 1x03 and… I dunno if this is a deliberate retcon or yet another example of writers forgetting/not knowing that certain things haven’t been part of Trek forever.
TOS transporters didn’t have biofilters, period. The TNG tech manual and/or writer’s bible “invented” them because (as several TOS episodes demonstrated) it was an obvious problem, with a technical solution. Writers, of course, promptly ignored or started working out ways around them because how dare you try to keep them from writing cheap “a disease gets aboard the ship” plots like, well, this one. But SNW makes a point of mentioning that, somehow, these pre-TOS transporters have biofilters… so that, per above, the disease of the week can somehow slip past them.
/e pauses to beat head against a wall for a moment
Ironically enough, it’d be simpler to just not mention a tech that won’t be invented for another 80 years… but of course, then everyone who doesn’t know that would be asking “but what about the biofilters?”
/e goes back to beating his head against the wall s’more
Honestly didn’t even catch the biofilter part >< so good one there. Though you bring up a very valid point with it. I’m not sure if its a retcon or just ‘whoops that doesn’t go here’ moment.
So this will come off as splitting hairs or maybe reverse nitpicking but it’s worth remembering.
The TNG technical manual isn’t actually a Canon source. It was written by a guy who worked on the show to explain stuff in it but not for the use of the show, it was for himself and fans. It was never a Bible the show had to consult and avoid crossing. And I’m confident a majority of writers never even looked at it, if they managed to line up with it it’s probably cause Okuda (the manual author) was already there to whisper stuff into the scripts.
We, the fans, treated it like it was word of God. It’s closer to Word of Dante (maybe Word of Saint Paul since Okuda worked on the shows*), ascended fanon of a sort we all just took as true. Mostly cause a lot of the time, nothing really contradicted it. Actually a lot of things did but we just chalked that up to smaller issues. Point is, the manual can be contradicted. It’s ok. We can live with this. I can at least.
I don’t feel like treating this thing I like as a monolith that I have up be upset about every time it acts differently than I thought it might. I just want to enjoy my show.
Mostly it bugs me because it seems to me that, like I said (and you did too, in a way), people either don’t know or don’t care about the history of the thing they’re writing for.
(Also because it’s yet another case of writers across all genres ignoring a common (whenever it was “really” invented) technology and/or sensible security practice because it would inconvenience them or force them to actually come up with a better plot that isn’t a hundred years old (or more). For every writer who makes good use of e.g. ubiquitous smart phones with cameras, there’s ten who contrive ways to disable, lose, or otherwise take them out of the picture.)
As a counterpoint, it’s categorically insane for them NOT to have biofilters, and it was never actually established that they were a TNG-era invention. In fact, literally all it establishes is that it’s a standard part of TNG-era transporters, and that they were a common feature in Federation Starships as early as 2346.
Either TOS-era Starfleet actively has worse contagion protocols than ENT (what with the, y’know, decon airlocks), or biofilters existed, and whatever disease of the weak simply was not something that was recognized by the biofilter.
There is only one Star Trek show where we can say with absolute certainty that biofilters are not part of standard transporter operation, and that’s because there’s explicitly a scene where they can’t use a transporter to bring something on board for fear of contagion, so they use the airlock instead.
I will admit, episode 3 was my least favorite so far. It felt a little awkward in some places, and had some important details that were blink and you miss it. I had to watch it a second time to fully understand the story. I still enjoyed it, but felt the previous two episodes were better. Im still overall loving the cast and was pleased to see Una get some major screen time.
which is always the case, 'cause otherwise the episode would be over in fifteen minutes, or they might actually have to come up with a less stupidbetter plot. (See also “security is incompetent/Worf is overruled”.)
Yeah. There are things we just kind of have to accept sometimes, like, ‘none of the security cameras (which do exist and are occasionally referenced) picked up anything that will help solve this mysterious attack/murder that happened aboard our ship in the middle of a hallway!’
I think the big thing is that when Kirk fought the Gorn, it was the first time Starfleet had visual proof that is what a Gorn looked like that they could send back to Starfleet. All the previous times were unconfirmed because no one could take any pictures.
I’m not opposed to the Gorn remaining mysterious in principle, and I’m not saying it’s stupid we didn’t see one at all. I still want to see one, though.
I guess it’s better than saying, “I’m an okay pilot” or “I’m just here cause my family pulled some strings to get me onboard the flagship”. She seems alright, we’ll find out soon enough.
Chapel is great. Uhura was great, just nerding out with the alien a bit there. Spock was… a lot better. And that makes me happy.