Well this season whilst far from perfect has been entertaining and exciting and confusing but despite the faults it has been good, strike that, it has been very good.
Have I been confused at points, yes absolutely.
Have there been plot holes you could drive a bus through, yes.
Have there been strange character variations, absolutely.
Have I ever wanted to stop watching, NEVER.
What this season boils down to for me is that despite the flaws and miss-steps and occasional confusion I have overwhelmingly enjoyed the show and will wait with bated breath and anticipation for the next season and who knows I might even give the section 31 spin off a little look too.
It is easy to be critical of anything from the outside, we don't know the trials and tribulations of the showrunners and writers. We see how it is, not why it became that . Anyone who has ever created anything knows that your creation is a living and evolving thing and no matter how detailed your plans going in, what you get at the end is rarely what you thought you were going to get. It is difficult enough when the project is all your own but when it is a cooperation between many it is very easy to disrupt accidentally and very difficult to get back on track. Because of this I give the people making this complex show with many moving parts a huge amount of leeway.
I love this show, I am invested in the characters even those who are not going with us on the next leg of the journey. Is it perfect, no but it is damn good.
Oh my gosh. Was listening to the pod Redshirts and Runabouts and they actually nailed what would have basically shut everyone up about this ending on either side. Leland is neutralized, but Burnham has already entered the wormhole. And DIscovery has to make a decision. Let her go alone or keep their promise. I could envision Spock on the comm, in his last emotional meltdown begging them to follow her and not let her be alone. Gosh I wish the writers had thought of that.
Anson Mount posted this today and it is just so adorable.
In regards to Leland going into the future with Discovery. Wouldn't the time paradox mean if the data goes into the future before Control gets it, then Control never existed so Leland would cease to exist. I think, should have been explained though.
I'm left with more questions than conclusions at the end of S2.
Why was Leland so ineffectual in hand to hand combat? I would think that his blows should have been damaging given what he was able to do to the spore cage. Why wasn't his nanobots composition used during the battle? Controlling to many resources simultaneously?
What happened to Commander Nahn? I know she wasn't super popular character, but I liked her until the lines she got in this episode.
Number One never gets a name? That is the dumbest thing that has ever been done in Star Trek. The TOS episode Spock's Brain is Shakespeare compared to that.
The whole ending that Discovery can never be mentioned seems very against Star Trek ideals to me somehow. A weak ending to the episode and the season.
So....just saw this. Kind of excited! I'm not a comic book person but I will be getting this.
Having had time to listen to the podcast and re-watch the last episode I have pulled together some thoughts.
The dizzying start with orders being shouted out by the dozen, this doesn't bother me at all. As a former serviceman I find it quite realistic, it happens all the time in the forces and you get used to just plucking the parts relevant to you out of the stream.
l completely agree that Saru's speech was poor and off point and I am sure that the writers simply dropped the ball here. I am sure that someone just needed something sort of military and vague and just plucked a random part of Sun Tzu and stuck it in.
@Valerie we military and former military also love people and are nice just like Starfleet until you attack us. LOL
The huge number of ships has the effect of ramping up the tension and showing the chaos of battle but have a great tendency to pull the viewer away from what should be the focus of the scene which are the characters in which we are invested. Just the occasional wide shots and then perhaps some closer shots of Discovery and Enterprise taking large amounts of damage would have worked better .There were shots of the two vessels taking major hits with hull breaches and casualties but they were submerged in the chaos. It is unusual for ST to give us mass battles just the Borg and Dominion and they were mainly just little glimpses or reports so I guess we might say that this foray into big battles was not the success they hoped.
Po whilst pivotal to getting us to this moment is nothing more than a distraction in this episode her few scenes seem to have simply thrown in to simply give her something to do, had they contracted her for two episodes and needed to fulfill their obligations.
Hitting the group with the Time Crystal was excellent it gave us the tension of injuries setting up the Stamets / Culber scene. It gave a vehicle for Reno to show leadership and it gave Tilly the internal conflict between friendship and duty. I must say that in combat gory is realistic so @Valerie comment of not gory and realistic made me laugh out loud.
I can imagine that after the command crew volunteered for the mission they would need at least some crew. I can imagine the captain asking for volunteers to stay behind perhaps using the worn and completely untrue trope that it will not be held against you if you choose to leave and like any military organization they stepped forward. This is why they appear to have a full crew.
There was a comment that our main cast should be piloting the small vessels but those vessels were left behind, if our crew were on them they wouldn't be in the next series.
I loved the Burnham / Spock scenes they were very well written and acted. I think that what Burnham was trying to get at was that Spock has a tendency to retreat into pure logic and he should find someone who is intuitive and emotional to be close to. This would help him to retain a balance between his human and Vulcan halves.
Culber's sudden appearance on Disco could have used some setup just something to show him making the decision to try to be with Stamets.
Cornwell's death gave a sad and meaningful beat but it also removed another high ranking Section 31 officer clearing away some officers for the spinoff.
The idea that everything that happened could be kept secret is pure sophistry, many of the participants were not Starfleet and not even Federation and they would have no reason to keep it secret this is simply a poor nod towards preserving the canon.
The torture and comments around that were terrible writing and character destruction with absolutely no redeeming qualities whatsoever .
Tyler appearing to klingons complete **** up don't the writing team keep up? What was the showrunner doing? Sleeping perhaps.
Spock's journey which started with him thinking himself unhinged and removing himself from duty is now complete he has sorted through his internal demons and with the help of Burnham and his parents has now come to a place of peace and this is symbolized by his feeling it is time to return to full duty and put on the uniform he now feels worthy of.
I would love a Pike spin-off.
I feel that the section 31 show will concentrate on just a small team rather than any high ranking positions. @G.L. McDorman Tyler was a Lieutenant when found so Lt Cdr is only one rank up and Cdr two.
Season 3 is now in a time after any other ST iteration and so now has a free hand. The end of the season will likely bring us back to season 2 timeline as Giorgiou needs to be back for the Section 31 show.
For @Valerie H.
First off... Glenn, your tribute to Gene Wolfe was really touching. I've never read his work, but you inspired me to go read about his life, and now I want to seek out his writing. On a sadly related note, we lost another legendary sci fi writer this month, Vonda McIntyre. She wrote two great Trek novels, plus the movie adaptation novels for Star Treks 2-4, plus a whole lot of other stuff. Our culture would not be where it is today were it not for the sprawling imaginations, solid talents and driven hearts of writers like Wolfe and McIntyre.
As for this s2 finale... well, it wasn't my cup of tea. I've just listened to the Lower Decks episode discussing it, and Glenn and Valerie certainly voiced some of my problems with this episode/season. But now I'm shifting gears - because I am NOT in a negative mood this weekend! (Happy 4/20, Happy Passover, Happy Easter, Happy Earth Day, and/or Happy Happiness to all of you and yours!). Above all my own criticisms, I simply want Star Trek to continue blossoming, even if the smells of some of its flowers don't appeal to me lol. So how about I take a page from Ms. Oprah Winfrey and list things I have loved about "Star Trek Discovery," to remind myself how great I have it? Thus, here is my list:
Season 1
All four Short Treks
"Brother"
"New Eden"
"Point of Light"
"If Memory Serves"
Anson Mount's Pike
Rebecca Romijn's Number One
Doug Jones' Saru
Tig Notaro's Jett Reno (*eyerolling* that name tho)
CBSAllAccess' USS Enterprise, inside and out, muah!
"Discovery's" entire Production Department, everything from props to cinematography to acting to costumes to FX, etc.
Valerie, Glenn, the Lower Decks podcast, and these forum message boards
There, I think I've covered it.
I feel great now! :D
Live long and prosper.