I'd watch that program any day, they look really comfortable together. Great chemistry doesn't happen very often and should be embraced with open arms when it does .

@Greg I actually like having to work things out and fill things in. I find that otherwise things become very slow and just one long explanation. Understanding that some things happen off screen and need to be implied is fine with me. It does however mean that to get the most out of the program you have to pay attention and even then sometimes re-watch to understand what happened .

@Karen Chuplis It does open up some interesting possibilities. Does the federation exist what will Disco's relationship with them be what of the time wars, is Burnham's mother there and how will she factor in and will Burnham stay on with her if the rest of the crew return. They will probably be at a tremendous technical disadvantage versus the inhabitants of that time. Plenty of opportunities for fun stories.

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.

Umm not a cannibal she was eating a different species, not her own.

@Karen Chuplis not even on computer over here it's like a major gripe over here.

Yeah love that highly advanced civilization where privacy doesn't exist either personally in your own quarters or militarily in areas where restricted activities are being carried out. Time limits add urgency and tension you don't need to have a one second left on the clock or 99 percent of an action done to make use of the tension of the situation. We got our answers, the writing team are sloppy where science is concerned and showed it big time when it came to the identification of the suit occupant they just couldn't seem to decide how the identity was being made if it was neural scan or DNA or what. That they finally decided on mitochondrial DNA which is identical in all females of a family line is weak . It actually makes me feel disappointed in everyone involved in the determination, they have been portrayed as really smart and in this they look stupid .

@Valerie H. I think that disco actually annoys me more than most. In TNG and DS9 people did break the rules and regulations and there were many instances of the shows giving us the miscreant having a one way conversation with their superior regarding their behavior. In disco we just don't seem to get that, no one gets dragged onto the carpet and given a dressing down for their failure to follow orders or for jeopardizing their crewmates or ship.

Unhappy Brit who hasn't seen them and for which there is no forecast for broadcast . And I must admit to getting annoyed and swearing at the pod and the forum whenever anyone mentions stuff from them.

@G.L. McDorman I'm not a doctor dammit just a history buff with a love of Egyptian history I suppose I should have put a LOL after that comment so it wasn't seen as critical. Love the pod and both of you guys.

@Valerie History 101 the pyramids were not built by slaves. I agree with just about everything you guys said on the pod, there is a huge amount of contrivance going on to get people who have no reason to be in a place there and I think that these and the short beats throughout this episode and this season are an artifact of the fact that the season is actually so short and not 20 episodes as some programs have. This smaller number of episodes makes it necessary to dot these contrivances and beats in to ensure that the various plots are able to be resolved by the end of the season, I really don't think they have much of a choice unless the number of episodes per season is increased.

@Glenn I really think that watching Ariam after she begins to be suspicious is exactly what a security officer should do and she follows this up by going on the away team to continue doing so and well she was right. As they were not being boarded or anything she should be free to follow her instincts.

Personally I think that the episode purpose was only partly the Burnham /Spock interaction. It sets up a lot of things for the rest of the episodes. The Control computer is the antagonist going forward. There is the possibility of improvement in the Stamets / Culber relationship. There is an opportunity for appeasement between Burnham and Spock. I must say that as a veteran the lack of basic military discipline is glaringly obvious and jarring in many situations even given Pike's relaxed leadership style.

I was trying to work out why the death of Ariam was so saddening considering the fact that we have basically only seen her in the background before and that for her sacrifice to have a meaning we have to be invested in the character. I have concluded that the writers did something quite clever here, they make us like her by association. By showing us her interacting with characters we love in a favourable way they attach the affection we feel for the other characters to Ariam allowing us to become invested in a very short time and hence creating the empathy required for the scene .

@pauladz Yes I fully agree that show runners now are treating us like we have more than two brain cells to rub together. I believe that as the average level of literacy and education has risen that they wish to squeeze the very most out of the 42 minutes per episode and feel we are capable of paying attention for more than a few seconds at a time. Unfortunately the complexity and pace of the plot sometimes makes it slightly taxing to watch and does mean that I occasionally miss something and then pick it up on a re-watch which I always do. I watch it first without subtitles and the second time with but I often rewind a chunk and listen to the audio in some scenes to pick up the subtle inflections and nuances that these great actors insert. Actually I really don't need an excuse to watch each episode several times . I am enjoying the show immensely .

@Glenn The Expanse is pretty good, it's one of those programs that you have to pay attention to. You can't just have it on in the background and expect to understand it. The books are great and I am glad that it is continuing . I really like it.

NCIS from JAG

@Karen Chuplis haven't got a clips section using an Android device and app and it doesn't seem to have one .

@Karen Chuplis Totally agree with you that this is a very small group just wanting attention and to be critical of anything and everything. Hopefully they are seen for what they are and ignored going forward. You have to let them run their show the way they want to and everyone else should live by the rule "If you don't have anything good to say then say nothing. " By the way do @Glenn and @Valerie H. Realize that the shorts were not shown outside North America we here in the UK have not seen them. It's confusing when you refer to them for us foreigners.

My though after the episode is that Spock didn't escape but was extracted from starbase 5 by section 31 operatives and it was them who caused any fatalities or that the operatives tried to take Spock and he resisted killing them and then leaving because he was not safe there.