One of the most challenging things one can do when creating serial narrative is retroactive continuity, or retcon: filling in a gap or establishing something about a character or situation that was previously unknown.
When done properly, it can bring an entire character into focus. (To use a comic book example, when Magneto was established as a Holocaust survivor.) When done improperly, of course, it can be disastrous. (To use another comic book example, establishing that Norman Osborn raped Gwen Stacey, and she mothered children from that.)
Star Trek has, over five decades, engaged in such retcons any number of times (my three favorites are establishing that Worf accidentally killed someone as a teenager, that Bashir was genetically enhanced, and that Troi had a baby sister who died), and in “Lethe” we have one of their most successful.
Way back in 1967, we first met the characters of Sarek and Amanda in “Journey to Babel.” In that episode, it was established that Spock turned down going to the Vulcan Science Academy, instead choosing to enlist in Starfleet. Because of that decision (which was later dramatized in the 2009 Star Trek), Sarek and Spock stopped speaking to each other.
Now, many might think this makes Sarek kind of a jackass. I certainly did, as this is a crappy reason to stop talking to your own son. But then, in the same episode, Sarek made racist comments about Tellarites and it was also established that he kept the truth about a serious heart condition from his wife. So, while Mark Lenard imbued the character with tremendous gravitas, it doesn’t change the fact that he was a jackass.
Discovery has already established that Burnham was Sarek’s ward. Some have complained that it’s ridiculous that Spock would never have mentioned this foster sister, which ignores the fact that Spock never mentioned that his Dad was a famous Vulcan ambassador until that ambassador was standing right next to him on the Enterprise, or that he was engaged to be married until he was half-dead from the effects of pon farr and then only after practically being put in a headlock, or that he didn’t mention his half-brother until he was standing right next to him on the Enterprise. An open book, Spock ain’t.
In “Lethe,” we get some fascinating revelations about Burnham that do an excellent job of moving her character arc along. But we also get a new insight into the greater tapestry of the Star Trek universe—and, not coincidentally, get the first good reason why this series should take place in the TOS era as opposed to long after the 24th-century spinoffs. We find out that the VSA was only willing to accept one of Sarek’s “experiments” (the delivery of the word with maximum distaste was beautifully done by Jonathan Whittaker as the director of the academy), and Sarek chose Spock over Burnham. And then Spock went and rejected going to the VSA, choosing Starfleet instead.
And, because Sarek is a jackass, he kept that all to himself—just like he kept his heart condition to himself, and just like 100 years later, he’ll keep his Bendii Syndrome to himself—and let Burnham (and Amanda, and probably Spock) believe that Burnham washed out of the program, and then when Spock refused to sign up (something that could even have been motivated in part by the VSA keeping his foster sister out), Sarek just stopped talking to his son.
I absolutely love this development, because it adds texture to the Spock-Sarek relationship, including their later inability to speak to each other as established in the “Unification” two-parter.
Plus, Burnham makes tremendous progress in this episode. She realizes that she’s trying a little too hard to mold Tilly in her own image, and backs off on her rigorous training of her. She also actually smiles (pretty sure this week is the first time Burnham has cracked a smile on screen), and makes a new friend in Tyler.
Tyler is also integrated into the crew, made the new chief of security to replace Landry. There’s a fan theory floating around that Tyler is actually a surgically altered Voq (the actor credited as Voq has done no publicity, has no other credits on IMDB, and his last name is Iqbal, which is Shazad Latif’s birth name—the whole theory of Voq/Tyler is spelled out in this post on Trek Movie), and we get some minor evidence of it here. In the “previously on” scenes, we see Voq conversing with L’Rell, a scene that doesn’t have much bearing on this episode, and Voq nods and then raises his head when he hears something that surprises him. Then, later in the episode, Lorca makes Tyler chief of security, and Tyler nods and raises his head in the exact same way. (Voq did it also when T’Kuvma made him torchbearer in “The Battle at the Binary Stars.”)
It’s a pity the B-plot is such a disaster. The minute Admiral Cornwell threatened Lorca’s position, you knew something horrible was going to happen to her. I honestly expected her to be killed by the Klingons, not captured, and I’m grateful that Kol sees her as a valuable hostage, as I like Jayne Brook’s performance as Cornwell a great deal. But still, this was a really hoary and predictable and lazy writer’s trick to create artificial suspense and then restore the status quo unconvincingly. I also find it impossible to credit that the only reason why Lorca hasn’t had his command taken away from him is because everyone’s blinded by his brilliance except for Cornwell, who’s a lover of his. That just doesn’t track.
Still, it’s good to see Burnham’s redemption arc continue apace. It’s also fun to see the Burnham-Tilly relationship progress, and the new hippy-dippy Stamets (he really does sound like he’s done shrooms—which he kinda has) is hilarious. Having said that, there’s no explanation for how they use the spore drive to get to the nebula, since the tardigrade’s gone. Is Stamets still plugging himself into it to make it work? And I’m extremely disappointed at the lack of Lorca’s reaction to Saru and Burnham freeing the tardigrade at the end of last week. That was a blown opportunity.
Oh, and shirts that say “DISCO”? Really? Somehow, I can’t see Sulu and Chekov jogging through the Enterprise corridors in shirts that say “ENTER.” Or Janeway and Torres jogging through Voyager corridors with shirts that say “VOYA.” Or Kira and Dax jogging through Defiant corridors in shirts that say “DEFI.” Or— Well, you get the idea…
However, this episode does wonders for the main character and does a superlative job of integrating the storyline into the greater tapestry of the Star Trek universe.
Keith R.A. DeCandido has achieved his third–degree black belt. Man, is he tired…
This is the first episode of DSC that’s really staggered me. Why? Because an episode of Discovery about Michael Burnham and Sarek has given us a profound new insight into Spock‘s relationship with Sarek as established 50 years ago in “Journey to Babel.” We finally know why Sarek was so betrayed that Spock went into Starfleet, and it’s so simple and yet so incredibly potent. Things I’ve taken for granted for nearly my whole life are now revealed to me in an entirely new light, and it works, and it’s amazing. This is the power of a prequel expressed in a way I don’t think either ENT or DSC achieved before now.
Not only that, but it also works as a reveal about Sarek and Burnham. As a Trek fan, I was astounded by the unexpected answer to the 50-year-old question of why Sarek had such a bee in his bonnet about Spock joining Starfleet, and as a writer, I was delighted by the deft storytelling maneuver of revealing that insight in a story about a different relationship and having it be an important moment of discovery (interesting word there) for both relationships.
They missed one other opportunity to tie into TOS continuity, though. I kept expecting the doctor to say that Sarek’s injuries had given him heart damage. Even without them saying it outright, it’s easy to connect the dots between his brush with death here and his heart condition 11 years hence.
Also, more than any previous DSC episode, this one (which was co-written by veteran TNG/VGR writer-producer Joe Menosky along with Supergirl writer-producer Ted Sullivan) really felt like a Star Trek episode. It focused mainly on a single science fiction story that was about exploring a character relationship and a theme rather than just advancing a serial plotline. It showed people having good intentions and trying to help and understand each other. It helped to flesh out the ensemble as characters and show us a slice of shipboard life. And it was fun, with lots of entertaining character interplay. The new, more… mellow Stamets is a lot funnier than the old one. I hope we get a lot more episodes like this.
Even Lorca showed a willingness to work for peace, and we got to know and understand him better so that he came off more as a damaged person than just a bastard (although his apparent decision at the end there was pretty rotten). This episode did a lot to define and explain him, to establish that he’s not evil (or a Section 31 agent or a refugee from the Mirror Universe or whatever inane fan theory is circulating this week), but broken, suffering from the trauma of war and losing his way because of it. He’s putting up a brave front rather than getting help, and it’s destroying him. Which is a more sympathetic way of painting him, and it offers hope that he can be redeemed and potentially continue as a series regular in future seasons. It wouldn’t be the first time a show Alex Kurtzman has worked on has featured a lead character seeking redemption for past villainy (Xena, Fringe).
Keith, there was an exchange with Stamets saying the spore drive is okay once you get used to being stabbed with needles, so that implied he’s still working it. His stoner persona here (and the apparent hallucination/time glitch with the mirror last week) suggests he’s being affected by it neurologically, which will probably be a reason why the drive gets abandoned in the future (that and the fact that what he did to allow him to use it is illegal).
I try to be flexible about the portrayal of 23rd-century technology, and I could live with the holograms since they were shown to be translucent and intangible, but this week’s portrayal of what was essentially a holodeck is hard to reconcile. Especially since my recent novel The Face of the Unknown had a whole bit explaining how the holographic rec room from TAS: “The Practical Joker” was a novel, untested technology.
Coincidentally, last night I saw the “Star Trek: The Next Generation” episode “The Measure of a Man” written by then ST:TNG story editor – and noted SF writer – Melinda Snodgrass for the first time in years. I hope the “Star Trek: Discovery” writing team strives to create episodes as memorable and as enduring as that “Star Trek: The Next Generation” episode, especially now that a second season of “Star Trek: Discovery” has been given the green light by CBS. However, after reading Keith’s latest superb review, mine may be an unfulfilled wish.
Just for the record, Sulu and Chekov would jog down the Enterprise corridors in shirts that say “PRISE”. Janeway’s and Torres’s shirts would naturally say “VGER”, and the Defiant probably doesn’t have any corridors long enough for Sisko and Dax to do any real jogging, but if they did their shirts would say “DEFI”.
And if these shirts were theoretically for sale, I would buy one of each.
Nothing to add to the review, but hey, congrats on the 3rd black belt!
If I could run laps inside the saucer section of a starship with a shirt that says “Disco” I would basically never stop.
(Apparently the nickname for the show’s set is “the Disco”, hence the shirts! https://trekmovie.com/2017/07/28/bryan-fullers-original-pitch-for-star-trek-discovery-included-going-beyond-tng-era/)
1. ChristopherLBennett – (and the apparent hallucination/time glitch with the mirror last week)
I don’t see how it could be a hallucination as he had turned away from the mirror and thus didn’t see it or a time glitch since the reflection turned in the opposite direction than Stamets did. Something else is going on here.
I read multiple reviews of STDisco’s episodes each week. Last week I thought you were really off the mark in some respects, but this week yours is my favorite review. It’s very insightful and does a fantastic job of putting last night’s episode in the greater context of Trek canon. I agree that the episode has enriched Sarek’s backstory wonderfully.
I’m also growing more hopeful for this new addition of Trek. If I’m understanding correctly, this season was written without the assumption that there would be another. So I expect story arcs to be more complete (allowing some loose ends, of course), meaning there will be much less of the Lost and BSG effect, where writers just start lazily making up mysteries thinking they will wrap them up later somehow… but then give up trying.
No gratuitous gore and a focus on characters building interpersonal relationships; for me this was one of the more enjoyable episodes so far.
I was quietly freaking out when Sarek revealed that he kept Burnham out of the academy to keep a space open for Spock. If I remember English class right, it was a textbook moment of dramatic irony. Not to mention an, “Oh, Sarek, no!” moment. Vulcans can be so dumb sometimes.
@3 I think Sisko and Dax would have either the full DEFIANT or DEFT on their shirts.
Boldly going…to answer backstory to a 50-year-old episode. I guess that’s something. Not sure it justifies the need for a prequel, but whatever. Sweet t-shirts, guys.
The latest one I’ve heard is that he’s somehow Garth of Izar. I can see some similarities, and it would make sense that if the writers were going that direction, they wouldn’t want to telegraph it by using the name, but I don’t want Lorca to turn into a full raging genocidal maniac. I think it’s obvious that there’s eventually going to be a mutiny on the Discovery with Saru being the one who has to make the big decision, but I hope it ends with Lorca being put in an institution (one without any turntables) to receive the help he needs.
Projected guilt could easily be part of Sarek’s anger at Spock; he hurt his daughter for the sake of his son who TURNED DOWN the opportunity! Aaargh. Of course it’s totally unfair to blame Spock for it but as we all know Vulcans are actually as illogical as anybody just really good at rationalizing. Betcha Amanda doesn’t know about that little deal either.
Oh no, you didn’t! You did not disrespect the DISCO shirts! On the other hand, I had not considered the incredible insight into Spock and Sarek’s relationship this has given us. I mean, I noticed it, but since the episode itself wasn’t that entertaining to me, I did not value how important it was. Thank you.
@11 – princessroxana: Oh no, Amanda has nooo idea.
Couple of nitpicks:
The bone of contention between Sarek and the Academy president(?) is not that she can’t attend. She has already graduated with honors near (at?) the top of her class. Spock is about to begin his studies, so both will have attended the Academy. The problem is that Vulcans are racists and can’t admit “too many humans” (even though Spock is only half) to the Vulcan Expeditionary Force, equivalent to Starfleet. The Pres explicitly says Starfleet has less stringent requirements than the VEF, admitting multiple races, which of course makes them sound like the purist Klingons on the show. This also serves to explain why Spock’s choice of Starfleet, after attending the VSA, displeases Sarek so much. Burnham could have gone into the VEF if her spot wasn’t held back for Spock.
Also, “Norman Osborn raped Gwen Stacey…” No, he acted pathetic around her (don’t remember why) and she chose to have mercy sex with him. Then she flees to hide the pregnancy. Which makes her character much more seriously fucked up than she deserves and still makes that whole plotline a giant stack of stupid.
Giant Stack of Stupid is the name of my next band…….
—Keith R.A. DeCandido
@7/mxplx: “If I’m understanding correctly, this season was written without the assumption that there would be another.”
Not really. It’s more that the initial concept was that each season would be a self-contained story set in a different era of Trek history. But that plan was changed fairly early in the process. They still went with the same basic story that Bryan Fuller had in mind for his seasonal-anthology approach, and the war arc isn’t supposed to last more than a season, but they certainly intended the show to continue.
@10/Sean OHara: “The latest one I’ve heard is that he’s somehow Garth of Izar.”
Which is nonsensical for at least two reasons. One, Garth’s exploits were already required reading when Kirk was at the Academy, and Kirk graduated two years before this show. Two, Garth wasn’t a bad guy until the accident that drove him mad, which is a dozen years in DSC’s future. Kirk described the pre-madness Garth as the prototype for all other Starfleet captains, the ideal they all aspired to. No way is that Gabriel Lorca.
So, about those shirts. Is there a ‘VERY’ on the back?
There’s no reason that Lorca’s exploits couldn’t have been required reading at the academy while he was still active. After all, he charted more worlds than any prior captain.
Also, we don’t know how long he was on Antos. He said his crew mutinied and that he was maimed and dying. His crew could have though him dead on Antos and he was later discovered by Starfleet.
@16 princessroxana: Would that make it “Discovery,” though, or just “very Disco”? :)
Ugh, this episode. So not only are the Klingons and humans utterly unlikable, but now the Vulcans are Xenophobic awful people too. Why should we care who wins this war? Both sides seem utterly reprehensible. Also, the concept of logical extremists seems really silly. Wouldn’t a conversation with one of them go something like this?
Person: Who are you?
Logical Extremist Vulcan: I’m a logical extremist who believes those who aren’t logical are inferior.
Person How is it logical to disparage entire peoples?
Logical Extremist Vulcan: Umm, I don’t know.
Honestly, it’s like something out of Red Dwarf.
Another problem was the portrayal of the female admiral was just awful. Hmm, I think this captain can’t be trusted. I know what to do. I’m going to get drunk and then sleep with him.
About the shirts, once again… did anyone else speculate that they glowed in the dark? & that during black alerts, there were huge parties in hangar bay one? It would explain Stamets odd knowledge of C20th drug culture.
“disco”
What if they just were into ancient Late 20th century music?
@18, LOL. I admit my first thought at the sight of those shirts was; disco really will never die.
@19, Vulcans have always been Xenophobic and rather awful.
Yep, logical extremism is a head scratcher. Maybe it’s the nonalcoholic beer of Vulcan society. It makes no sense, but it exists.
On the subject of Vulcans, I’ve come to the conclusion the most well-adjusted child of Sarek was Sybok, even with the radical religious cult leader stuff. At least the guy knew how to laugh.
I liked the episode, but wish the writers had been a bit more careful about what was established in “Journey to Babel.” Amanda tells Kirk, “He [Spock] chose to devote his knowledge to Starfleet instead of the Vulcan Science Academy.” Now, I guess that could be read as “instead of the VSA as a member of the VEF,” but Trek 09 took it in the sense I think it was intended in the Prime universe – Spock didn’t, in fact, study at the VSA. Oh, well. It’s a minor quibble and not too much hand-waving required, and, as Keith says, it’s an outstanding insight into Sarek’s character.
I thought it was cool that the actor playing Amanda has a faint but noticeable resemblance to Jane Wyatt.
@19/William – I don’t think the portrayal of Admiral Cornwell as poorly handled at all. The episode made it more than clear that the two have a relationship that has gone on a long time, and long before Lorca took a turn for the worse. It’s not as though she just met the guy, didn’t like him, and then decided to sleep with him. People’s logic is uncertain where their loved ones are concerned (I heard that somewhere once…)
I was a little disappointed that we have to deal with xenophobic Vulcans again, after the fourth season of ENT went to such lengths to establish Vulcan as the society we know in TOS. I mean, it’s realistic, I guess, that there would be the disaffected and those who haven’t bought in to “mainstream” Vulcan views on logic, the UFP, etc… but, I dunno. After reading Desperate Hours, I had the mistaken impression it was Klingons who had bombed the Vulcan learning center. I might rather have seen that than terrorist Vulcans!
It occurs to me that other than TOS, that until now the only show to get really into Vulcan culture was Enterprise. Given that a lot of people seemed to have skipped Enterprise and that TOS have been the subject of creative remembering, it’s not surprising that Vulcans-are-jerks comes as a shock to people.
@19/William Wehrs: “but now the Vulcans are Xenophobic awful people too.”
Have you met the Vulcans? They’ve always been like this. T’Pau didn’t like having “outworlders” at Spock’s wedding. Sarek, supposedly a diplomat, cast racial aspersions about Tellarites. Solok in DS9’s “Take Me Out to the Holosuite” devoted much of his career to attempting to “prove” human racial inferiority. And the Vulcans in Enterprise were usually quite condescending toward humans.
“Also, the concept of logical extremists seems really silly.”
Logic is only as good as its starting premises. If those premises are faulty, any logical conclusion derived from them will be faulty. So it is entirely possible to use logic to justify any idea, no matter how incorrect. (Or, as the Doctor once put it in Doctor Who, “Logic, my dear Zoe, merely enables one to be wrong with authority.”)
Besides, logic is simply an ideal the Vulcans aspire to, like a religion or guiding cultural philosophy. As with any such ideal, some people are better at living up to it than others, and some people will inevitably twist it into something harmful.
@24/Mike Poteet: “I thought it was cool that the actor playing Amanda has a faint but noticeable resemblance to Jane Wyatt.”
I noticed that too. The actress is Mia Kirshner, who was a regular in Syfy’s Defiance.
Yeah, plus this particular faction could easily be the descendants of V’Las’ followers, or even the Planetarist movement seen in Christopher’s Rise of the Federation novels (or, realistically, both).
As we’ve seen in TNG, DS9, ENT, and even our own recent history with the Alt-right and Brexit, there are always groups like this, who insist that those who are different cannot coexist. They tend to sound exactly the same while saying it.
i should have said this in my first comment, but the excuse that the vulcans have always been xenophobic means little to me. The Klingons were presented as essentially brutal communists in blackface in TOS, but were radically tweaked in TNG and DS9. They have again been changed for the purposes of Discovery. Therefore, especially in the age of Trump, why can’t we have a positive portrayal of intellectuals rather than presenting them as cold unfeeling bigots. This show clearly doesn’t care about continuity what with all the hologram technology, magic spores that can take you anywhere, and now a mechanical device that function as a mind meld.
@19: Not only that, but “I disagree with you so I’m going to inject myself with something that will slowly blow myself up but give you time to find protection, rather than killing you with a phaser or injecting YOU with the explody-serum.”
And I’m sorry, but to me, this retcon is, at best, still making best of a bad situation, Michael being Sarek’s adopted daughter IS ridiculous. The fact that Spock kept quiet about Sarek, Sybok, etc makes it MORE ridiculous, not less. He’s way over his quota of surprise relatives that nobody (not just Spock, nobody) has ever mentioned. It’s one thing to not know your first officer’s father’s an ambassador. Or that he’s got a half-brother from his father’s previous marriage that’s disowned. It’s another not to know he’s got a human sister who was ALSO in Starfleet and was a famous mutineer only a few years ago. And lest we forget, Sybok was in one of the worst movies, not exactly something praiseworthy. And he (like Spock, Sarek who’s got a piece of his soul intertwined with hers, and Amanda, her mother) also never mentioned Michael, nor has anyone in Discovery mentioned him that I noticed. If you don’t think it’s ridiculous, where does it stop? Would one more surprise sibling be ridiculous? Why not fifty more?
Also, I find myself really hoping Tyler’s not Voq, because being able to insert himself seamlessly into an alien race’s society with presumably just a few weeks of study, for a group who’s whole reason for this conflict is because they want to “remain Klingon” is a) a bit of a stretch believability-wise, and b) I kinda don’t want to play the “he looks just like us and he’s completely integrated with our society but he’s SECRETLY from another culture that fundamentally wants to destroy us” plot out with an actor named Shazid Latif. But I think they’re going to.
This was actually the first episode of Discovery I really liked and enjoyed. Just one bit I hated a little – but not because I think it was badly written, on the contrary – was the fact that this episode made me like captain Lorca for… well, almost the entire episode, actually, when he acted like a decent human being and a surprisingly good captain, but then he just sent admiral Cornwell right into a trap – and he knew it’s a trap. The moment Saru told him, and Lorca refused to do some crazy rescuing, made him – for me – basically cross the line of no redemption. Which makes me sad, because I really like stories about redemption and I hoped this is going to be one.
On the other hand, what kind of doctor Cornwell is to tell him to his face that he’s a psycho and she’s going to take his ship away from him? I mean, that was stupid.
@30 Couldn’t she have at least sent Starfleet a message? If Lorca really shouldn’t be in charge of Starfleet’s secret weapon, she should at least phone it in before going to engage in high-level negotiations.
Completely agree with this review Krad – I always look forward to it every week (plus the added bonus of CLB’s commentary).
Great episode especially that they haven’t already tried to explain/fix the impact of the drive on Stamets or tried to incorporate Ash Tyler into the crew by making him a hero in his first ep aboard (he wasn’t even allowed to volunteer for the shuttle mission which I liked).
My issue is with the Vulcan logic extremists on their method to assassinate Sarek. Their odd logic resulted in getting a member of their group to pilot Sarek and then blow them self up despite a method being available to save Sarek from the initial blast (which he did while the other Vulcan was talking). Is it logical to explain your reasoning to someone who is going to die?
Isn’t there a more logical way to kill someone that would result in Vulcan de-association with the Federation…. maybe some form of “Vexit” vote?
@28/William Wehrs: The Vulcans have not been changed in any way. The portrayal here was quite consistent with the way Vulcan attitudes toward humans have been portrayed for the past 50 years. In addition to the examples I gave, there’s also “Yesteryear,” in which young Spock’s classmates called him “Earther! Barbarian!” and said “Your father brought shame to Vulcan. He married a human.” Those kids were probably repeating things they’d heard their parents say, because that’s how children learn bigotry.
“Therefore, especially in the age of Trump, why can’t we have a positive portrayal of intellectuals rather than presenting them as cold unfeeling bigots.”
We did get positive portrayals of intellectuals — Sarek, Burnham, Stamets. (And implicitly Amanda, since she’s a teacher, although that wasn’t established in the episode.) It was just the guy in charge of the Vulcan Expeditionary Service who was portrayed as prejudiced, and even he was at least paying lip service to agreeing with Sarek but arguing that change had to come slowly.
@32/jlp_bedford: Again, just because Vulcans claim to follow logic, that doesn’t mean that all of them are actually good at it. Extremists and fundamentalists in particular would probably be quite bad at logic — they’d just use the word “logic” as their justification for their crazy, in the same way that so many Americans these days use the word “Christian” for attitudes that are diametrically opposed to everything Christ taught, like bigotry, warmongering, and policies that hurt the poor.
Cybersnark mentioned the similar Vulcan anti-reform movement in my Rise of the Federation novels. In Uncertain Logic, I got into the head of a character much like the extremists seen here, and the way her logic worked was that she took it as an axiom that she could not be wrong in her beliefs, so anything that appeared to call her beliefs into question must logically be either a falsehood or a test — and even when the facts were unambiguously against her beliefs, that just meant that reality was less logical than it should be and she was therefore entitled to convince people the facts were wrong so that they would understand the higher truth that she believed in.
@33 ChristopherLBennett Great point! For me I had this idea that logic is static but actually it can be subverted by anyone. I wonder how far this idea will be taken by Discovery.
I also wonder how much #DISCO will have an impact on the post Enterprise novels (which I enjoy reading!)
@1 I find the portrayal of a “holodeck” game to be part of the continual ret-con of Star Trek, where the series has had to reinvent itself with every iteration to resemble the future. The technology, as presented, is not very far removed from our virtual reality headsets and devices such as Microsoft’s Kinect.
What bothers me more is the misuse of the term eugenics. Stamets did not selectively breed himself. I thought DS9 and Enterprise did well to shift to using the term “Augments,” and its a shame we’ve lost that adjustment.
By the way, I was looking at the top photo, and I realized — Sarek has green eyes now? Oh, well. Several of the Kelvin actors have different eye colors than the originals. And Kelvin Sarek had an English accent. For that matter, the original Sarek and Amanda had the sort of “mid-Atlantic” accent that was common among actors generations ago, that sounds sort of halfway between American and English, while the DSC versions have fairly typical North American accents (even though James Frain is English).
I made the mistake of watching this episode because Sarek was in it.
Boy howdy was THAT a mistake!
Leaving aside the entirely unnecessary retcon that only exists to make The Great Michael Burnham more Speshul, James Frain is quite simply the worst actor that I have ever seen play a Vulcan, including fan cosplayers. He plays Sarek as a robot so forgettable I have trouble focusing on him on screen.
I hate Lorca and don’t want to suffer through the tease of “Ooh, his command might get taken away!” If Discovery had the courage to pull that off (which it doesn’t, because it’s a tired ripoff of The Expanse with all the good parts and subtlety replaced with superficial Trek names), I’d actually like it. As-is, it was a more obvious reset button than the Voyager one.
No comment on “Ash Tyler”. Alex Kurtzman is as subtle as a brick and his work is obvious anywhere. This is even more in-your-face than White Khan.
I don’t care about Burnham, but for fuck’s sake give her some agency rather than trying to build artificial sympathy by having her be the victim of straw terrorists.
Also, those terrorists aren’t very Vulcan, are they? I can get Vulcan xenophobes, people whose thought process is completely logical but who are working from flawed data that states that such-and-such a group all act the same way (*cough* Michael “ALL KLINGONS ARE EVIL SAVAGES WHO ONLY UNDERSTAND VIOLENCE” Burnham *cough*), but blood-and-soil extremists who hate their closest allies so much they’ll commit terrorist acts to keep them off Vulcan? The only Vulcan we ever saw with anything approaching that level of crazy was Robin Curtis’s character from TNG: Gambit, who was so off her rocker that her evil plan was to use a weapon that would vaporize her own allies and leave Vulcans who didn’t support their insane views unaffected! Tl;dr these extremists don’t seem at ALL like the kind of extremists that Vulcan culture would produce. It’s like expecting American culture to produce General Tojo and his bushido obsession.
So, I think I’m among the 41% of people who don’t like this show, because it’s a bleak hellhole full of mean jerks who do mean things and expect to be loved for it. Sorry, I prefer the Star Trek where people always try to do the right thing and talk to each other calmly and with respect rather than talking over each other and trying to make witty quips to justify their racist, hypocritical, and pointlessly nasty actions.
I just realized all three of Sarek’s children have taken control or attempted to take control of a starship at some point—a brood of hijackers and mutineers. I’m guessing the old man doesn’t have pictures of them on his ambassador’s desk. “Kids…don’t get me started…”
So I’m guessing planet Vulcan is run as a meritocracy and the logical extremists are those who got an A- at the academy.
It was interesting to see that T’Khut is bac in canon after they removed it from the directors cut of TMP.
29. ghostly1 hoping Tyler’s not Voq, because being able to insert himself seamlessly into an alien race’s society with presumably just a few weeks of study, for a group who’s whole reason for this conflict is because they want to “remain Klingon” is a) a bit of a stretch believability-wise
Well, Voq had to “sacrifice everything”. If this is Voq, I think his mind has been overwritten with Tyler’s (e.g. using Janice Lester’s mind-swap device), until he gets a Manchurian Candidate trigger. That’s how he can show so much human kindness and emotional insight toward Burnham.
b) I kinda don’t want to play the “he looks just like us and he’s completely integrated with our society but he’s SECRETLY from another culture that fundamentally wants to destroy us” plot out with an actor named Shazid Latif.
Fair point. If he thinks he’s Tyler now, maybe he can choose to remain Tyler.
@41, perihelion “Voq had to “sacrifice everything”. If this is Voq, I think his mind has been overwritten with Tyler’s (e.g. using Janice Lester’s mind-swap device), until he gets a Manchurian Candidate trigger.”
Assuming Tyler==Voq, everyone seems to believe that Voq has been (a) surgically altered and made to look like a really existing human and (b) has the memory and cultural skils of that human uploaded in hin Klingon brain. Both premises need a lot of suspension of disbelief.
But there is an alternative: What we see might be Ash’s body, with no surgery and no risk of tricorders (or tribbles) detecting anything fishy; but Voq’s mind lurks somewhere in the back of Ash’s brain, waiting for the time to take over. This only needs magic technology in one place, and it opens the possibility that Voq can somehow exorcisted away from Ash, and we can have more of Ash (minus Voq) in the second season.
William Wehrs: Not to pile on, but the Vulcans aren’t now xenophobic. The portrayal on Discovery is 100% consistent with how we saw them portrayed on the original series. Watch “Amok Time” and “Journey to Babel” and “Yesteryear” again. For that matter, just watch Spock on the original series. Vulcans are arrogant snots at best, racist shitheads at worst.
—Keith R.A. DeCandido
@24 – MikePoteet: I’m happy that, both with the Klingons and the Vulcans, Discovery is attacking the old “planet of hats” status quo of Trek.
@25 – noblehunter: Hear hear. Also, they skipped DS9’s “Take Me Out To The Holosuite”.
@29 – ghostly1: Yes, because religious fundamentalists who want their culture to remain pure have never, ever infiltrated themselves into their enemies’ society at all. I can understand not wanting to do that with an actor like Shazad Latif, but it’s not a stretch of believability that they could do that, even though their motto is “Remain Klingon”.
@33 – Chris: So that character in your novel just yelled “FAKE NEWS!” when presented with evidence against her beliefs?
@35 – lerris: I agree, plus, it seemed like they were very limited in their movements, and I think they couldn’t actually touch the Klingons, just fire at them (unless I’m misremembering). The weapons weren’t real either, they were “laser tag” phasers.
@38 – Hal: I’m waiting for the flashback novel were Sarek steals a ship.
@41 – perihelion: Have him yell “REMAIN TYLER!” in Klingon.
@32 – A “Vexit” vote (nicely done!) was at the heart of Diane Duane’s novel Spock’s World. The first ever hardcover Trek novel. I believe it cost $18 at publication. Now, trade paperbacks aren’t that much less expensive. What a world, what a world… Anyway, it’s a good book (as I recall).
T’Kuht wasn’t necessarily “removed from canon” in the TMP Director’s Cut – maybe they just decided it wasn’t visible over the Plains of Gol on that particular day, anyway. ;) (Excising it from the sky was an unnecessary change, anyway, since fans had long ago squared it with Spock’s — possibly teasing — comment to Uhura in “The Man Trap.” I was pretty tickled that I got to mention “Vulcan’s sister planet,” though not by name, in my Strange New Worlds II story [shameless plug, shameless plug].)
I don’t deny the Vulcans have it in them to be as racist and arrogant and everything else as humans do. I’m just kind of tired of it. Again, I thought that was one of ENT’s greatest contributions, was moving the Vulcans closer to the species we knew and looked up to. “The Vulcan way is better than ours, Captain,” Amanda told Kirk in “Journey to Babel.” My sense has never been that she was being ironic or sarcastic. Now, I also don’t take that as a wholehearted endorsement of it — after all, so much of TOS is about balancing heart and head — but the main point about Vulcan logic used to be (as I read it) that here was a world that got past so much of Earth’s problems simply by calming down and thinking logically. Now, I feel like the Vulcan way is usually only held up for rebuttal.
All that said, I am in no way a DISCO hater. Really intrigued by and enjoying the show. I think the actor playing Sarek does a fine job. I loved the bit where he told Burnham, “We are not technically related…” That whole scene was a great homage to the end of “Journey to Babel” – “One does not thank logic.”
And when you have Spock himself calling Sarek “one of my ancestors” to Kirk’s face in “Where No Man…,” I think that really pulls a lot of rug out from complaints about “secret relatives.” As someone said up above, an open book Spock has never been. Leila Kalomi never even knew he had a first name until Omicron Ceti III.
And I would LOVE a reference to or even an appearance from Sybok in DISCO! Underrated character, and you can’t tell me otherwise ;)
@44 – Actually, I do, too, and I agree with you. I guess I can’t have it both ways. :) It does make things more interesting.
Amanda gets on so well on Vulcan because she totally accepts their elevated self image. Spock has problems because he, the half-breed, insists on being treated as an equal while Amanda accepts being patronized (because Vulcans are better).
@44: The time frame is my issue on point a) more than the mere fact of attempting to infiltrate. If it wasn’t actually Voq but rather some expert Klingon spy that was hired by Voq, the problem isn’t a problem. If they didn’t do that ridiculous “we’ve been floating adrift for 6 months in the same battlefield as the Shenzou with valuable technology and nobody from either side decided to clean either ship up” plot in the previous episode, maybe I could have bought it as an effort of 6 months worth of intensive study on humans and how they interact, but as far as we can tell the episode Ash was introduced in was mere weeks after the one where he was abandoned alone and on a derelict Federation ship, so if Ash is Voq, himself the most earnest disciple of T’Kuvma suddenly becoming an expert spy and infiltrator after a few weeks of coaching would strain credibility. Though, yes, as someone else suggested, maybe if it’s a technobabble mind-overwrite scenario (which seems even less Klingon than most of the other changes, but whatever, that ship has sailed for Discovery) the problem goes away as well.
Good episode. I’m hoping they don’t take Lorca to the point of no return redemption-wise. I think he’s a great character and has the potential to join the ranks of great captains. I’m also really hoping Ash does not turn out to be a Klingon agent. I like the character and Latif plays him very likable. Burnham’s arc is continuing nicely and Tilly continues to be great.
I’d like to echo that Vulcans have always been arrogant, borderline racist (sometimes minus the borderline) a-holes. Spock included, although I think a lot of his snark was done specifically to tweek McCoy, who himself was kind of a racist a-hole. People who want a kinder, gentler Vulcan should be looking toward Tuvok, and even he had his moments.
1. ChristopherLBennett “whatever inane fan theory is circulating this week”
I just read a theory online that proposes Voq=Lorca, based solely on albino’s sensitivity to light. Inane indeed.
@49/Jason_UmmaMacabre: I would put neither Spock nor McCoy in the asshole category. It’s true that they attacked and insulted each other a lot, but they also protected each other. Spock invited McCoy to his wedding when he was allowed to bring his friends. And Spock could be quite kind too, for example towards Kirk in “The Enemy Within” or “The Ultimate Computer”.
@44/MaGnUs: “I think they couldn’t actually touch the Klingons, just fire at them (unless I’m misremembering).”
I’m not sure about that part. I thought there was some hand-to-hand, but I could’ve been thinking of the clips from last week in the recap. I hope you’re right that the holograms were intangible. That would mean my bit in The Face of the Unknown still works.
@45/MikePoteet: “T’Kuht wasn’t necessarily “removed from canon” in the TMP Director’s Cut – maybe they just decided it wasn’t visible over the Plains of Gol on that particular day, anyway.”
Also, it was “Yesteryear,” not TMP, that first depicted Vulcan with a giant moon-like object in its sky (which was somehow both behind Spock and in front of him at the same time).
50. JanaJansen Ok, so lets call them condescending (Spock) and crotchety (McCoy) :)
Please note, I love both characters and believe that they are an essential part of Trek, I’m just trying to acknowledge their flaws because people keep beating up on new characters because they’re not perfect while holding old characters on a pedestal despite their similar flaws.
This is not directed at anyone here in particular, just a general sentiment that I’ve seen expressed online.
@52/Jason: Okay!
In addition to being crotchety, McCoy could also be downright mean when he was afraid or angry. Usually the victim of his attacks was Spock, but in “All Our Yesterdays” it was Zarabeth, and in TMP it was Kirk.
IMO the TOS characters have exactly the right amount of flaws. They aren’t perfect, but they’re still nice people.
42. Lúthien But there is an alternative: What we see might be Ash’s body, with no surgery and no risk of tricorders (or tribbles) detecting anything fishy; but Voq’s mind lurks somewhere in the back of Ash’s brain, waiting for the time to take over.
But the main reason we’re all taking this seriously is the real-world evidence that they’re played by the same actor, i.e. it’s Voq’s body. Of course, you can come up with still more theories where they’re different characters in-story, played by the same actor.
I’m a bit sorry I saw this theory. I would have liked Tyler and Burnham’s interaction if I hadn’t been predisposed to assume it was all fake.
@54/perihelion: On the other hand, there are countless stories about people who start out pretending to form a relationship with someone as part of a deception and then growing close to them for real. We’ve all seen dozens of stories with exchanges like: “Was any of it real?” “Not at first, but then I really grew to care for you!”
So maybe “Tyler”‘s interactions with Discovery‘s crew will make him realize that humans aren’t so bad after all and will make him question his mission.
Not sure why Tilly would be cozying up to a mutineer. If she’s hoping to get on the command track, hanging out with someone that assaulted her captain so she could take over the ship and then starts a war by killing the one Klingon that she said they had to capture doesn’t seem like the best way to go about it.
Burnham’s relationship with Tyler on the other hand seems interesting since she specifically says that he judges people based on the day. Of course, it seems likely that there’s more to him than there appears so that could be all part of the plan.
It was interesting to see Vulcan in the recent past but did we really need half of an episode to answer an minor question from a 50 year old episode? New worlds, new civilizations and all that.Sure, it adds a bit to the Spock/Sarek dynamic but did it really need to be addressed at all? Oh right, it wouldn’t be Star Trek if someone didn’t have daddy issues.
That’s got to be the stupidest way to detonate a bomb that I’ve ever seen. “I need a bomb that gives me just enough time to make a speech before I blow up.” If you want to kill Sarek, why go thorough all that and just detonate the thing? And then it doesn’t even kill him, even though he’s just a few feet away. If the pilot wasn’t dead I’d suggest he ask for his money back.
More backstory on Lorca and he’s even more unhinged than we thought. So psychologist Admiral decides that the best way to see just what’s going on with him (since she outright states that she’s got a bunch of questions) is to have a couple of drinks and then sleep with him. Yeah, that’s an excellent strategy from a professional point of view.
And then, since the admiral is the only one who can take Sareks place, Lorca decides that now would be the perfect time to start following the book. Of course, we in the audience know that the real reason he does that is he’s hoping that the Klingons will kill her. We’re coming up on halfway through the arc and redemption of Lorca is looking less and less likely.
Why is Stamets still on duty when he’s acting like the hippy dippy weatherman? Does nobody see this as a problem or all they all just amused by his new personality? You’d think that Culber would have him in sickbay. After all, he sees him in their quarters every day. You’d think that he’d be concerned.
@45/MikePoteet: “T’Kuht wasn’t necessarily “removed from canon” in the TMP Director’s Cut – maybe they just decided it wasn’t visible over the Plains of Gol on that particular day, anyway.”
Seeing as it’s the same day, both with and without T’Khut, I don’t see how they’d explain that. And two large planets, that close together would be tidally locked anyway. It wouldn’t move in the sky (although T’Khut does have a small moon that does move as seen in TMP).
A couple of novels (Spock’s World and The Final Reflection) both mention language learning from RNA transfer. Perhaps that’s something else that the writers are borrowing from the novelverse. Taking it a step further, perhaps they’ve got a way to do a full memory/personality transplant via genetic transfer. It doesn’t make any sense scientifically but after magic space mushrooms, I think that ship has sailed.
I like some of the ideas that STD is coming up with but man, sometimes the execution of those ideas just leaves me scratching my head.
@51/Christopher – Also, it was “Yesteryear,” not TMP, that first depicted Vulcan with a giant moon-like object in its sky (which was somehow both behind Spock and in front of him at the same time). – Excellent point. Now, your next novel has to explain how T’Kuht pulled off that neat trick! (If any Trek author can do it, you can.) :)
@56 – I meant (and I was only kidding around anyway) that Robert Wise decided, “No, no, T’Kuht wasn’t visible that day from that place,” meaning that would now be the way it was. Just because the planet wasn’t visible in the Director’s Edition didn’t necessarily mean some decision had been made to remove it from continuity. As Christopher points out, it was still visible in “Yesteryear.” But my comment was meant to be a little joke. (All together now: “Extremely little, ensign.”)
Can I just say how much I am enjoying Tilly? Why would she “cozy up to a mutineer”? Well, for starters, said mutineer is her roomie – you gotta make the most of a bad situation. More to the point, we are now several weeks into Burnham’s time on the Disco, and Tilly recognizes the situation is not as clear cut as “Burnham = mutineer = bad.” Plus, Burnham has been taking an interest in Tilly (advising her on how to get her own command someday, e.g.). Tilly may be my favorite character so far, because I am sure that is how I would be were I dropped into the Star Trek universe: perpetually flustered and trying too hard to make a good impression and needing a friend to tell me to relax.
@55/ChristopherLBennett people who start out pretending to form a relationship with someone as part of a deception: Tyler is already so empathetic, I don’t believe it can be a deception at all. Voq would not have helped Burnham when he could easily stand by and do nothing. Maybe Voq’s personality emerges later, and then he questions his mission. I hope that’s where they’re going.
@56/kkozoriz why Tilly would be cozying up to a mutineer: Burnham admits her mistakes and tries to grow from them (direct contrast to Lorca covering up). Tilly finds a former first officer right there in her own quarters, she’s quite right to jump on the opportunity. And another mentor-student relationship between two women! I can’t even tell you how much I’m squeeing over that!
The title, “Lethe”: What is being forgotten? Sarek didn’t want to share his memory, but he hadn’t forgotten it. Same with Lorca, trying to hide his trauma from others but not from himself. So, Voq forgetting his own name?
58. perihelion – Burnham admits her mistakes and tries to grow from them (direct contrast to Lorca covering up)
And what was one of the first things she did when she came on board? Left her quarters that she was supposed to be confined to when off duty and impersonated Tilly so she could access a room that she was told was classified and that she was not supposed to go into.
Yeah, she’s learning alright.
@58/perihelion: “Tyler is already so empathetic, I don’t believe it can be a deception at all.”
That could just mean it’s a good deception. After all, the whole point of a deception is to convince people it isn’t one.
“Voq would not have helped Burnham when he could easily stand by and do nothing.”
Of course he would have, because he’s playing the long game. He needs to win the crew’s trust if he’s to get into a position where he can achieve his goal. He couldn’t do that if he failed to act in an appropriately Starfleety and empathetic way.
After all, while it’s possible he wants revenge on Burnham, there are simpler ways he could’ve achieved that if he just wanted to kill her. I’d imagine his real objective is the spore drive. And since that’s a highly classified and protected military secret, he needs to work his way into a position of trust and authority (although Lorca’s making that absurdly easy for him by handing out senior staff positions like they were Halloween candy). Getting close to the people responsible for the drive, including Burnham, would be part of that too.
“Maybe Voq’s personality emerges later, and then he questions his mission. I hope that’s where they’re going.”
He could question his mission even if he is just putting on an act. It wouldn’t be the first time a sleeper agent has gone native.
Random thoughts:
– It’s very easy to see that Vulcans and Romulans are kin. I wish we’d see less asshole Vulcans though. It’s getting old.
– The “Sophie’s choice” was well-written and a really cool callback to Journey to Babel, but honestly? There’s no logic in the “titration,” just plain old racism. Poor Sarek, Burnham, and then Spock.
– Disco shirt. Really? Like the IDIC necklace, ka-CHING! Merchandising for the win!
– Tyler….still think he’s Voq. Why not? Arne Darvin anyone?
– Lorca. *hated* his decision at the end. It was like he was hoping something bad would happen to her which turned him from PTSD man to just plain evil, if true.
– Would love to see more of Amanda and Sarek. Frain’s doing OK. I preferred Cross – he had more of an edge to him, but I can accept Frain as Sarek.
– Poor Burnham. No damned luck. Klingons killed her parents; Vulcans killed her. It’s enough to give someone a complex or something.
Well. This was actually a damn good episode. Like you said CLB, it was fun. Burnham actually smiles, and it was so good to see. I’m loving the relationship between Michael and Tilly,and hoping to see more of the easy friendship between Michael and Tyler (Tyler is what you say? He’s actually what? Sorry, can’t hear you! *Plugs ears* La-la-la-la-la).
We find out what caused the rift between Sarek and Spock, and it really wasn’t anything Spock did; it was Sarek’s own guilt. So we find out why Sarek is indeed a jackass, and even see some of the more familiar bastard Sarek with the whole “technically we are not related” line of bullshit at the end.
Speaking of bastards, it’s good to know Lorca isn’t randomly a bastard or crazy, he has space PTSD. I did like his line about bringing Michael back in one piece or to not come back at all, even if his reasons are self-motivated. I really hope Lorca gets the help he needs, as he does have some admirable qualities, and is a compelling character.
The lead character got to lead this week. That’s always fun. And we saw her be, dare I say, human.
Really good episode. Maybe the writers do know what they’re doing, after all…
Oh, and congrats, Keith!
They’re saying S2 will probably get a new captain (Saru?). It’d be nice if Lorca gets help at the end of S1, and S2 picks up some time later, and he’s back on the ship in a “tactical advisor” position, or something like that.
Vulcan have always been semi-racist, xenophobic buttheads. They have ALSO always been curious, involved in both exploration and diplomacy, engaged in the pursuit of reason and the mastery of their own passions, and sufficiently committed to their own ideals to accept Amanda as one of their masters and to honor Spock with the IDIC. Sarek’s family has always been reticent far beyond the point of logic, massively conflicted between Sarek’s obvious adoration of the human women in his life and his commitment to the Way of Surak, and drenched in inarticulate messed-up love. Part of what I have loved about ST:Disco from the second Michael Burnham appeared is that the show is not only faithful to all of that, it is using it to explore and deepen our understanding of that old canon…
Better still, that conflicted canon is at the very heart of their theme and narrative. The connection is not arbitrary fan service to Vulcan groupies. The whole thematic point of the story is the old conundrum about the ideals of peace, the pragmatism needed to cope with a violent, warring world, the ways emotion can throw even the logical and idealistic off the “true course,” and the living struggle to live up to our highest standards: the very heart of both the old Vulcan canonical conflicts, and of the central conceit of Star Trek from its first conception. Disco may be flawed, but it is not a betrayal. I am feeling more at home in this Trek than I have felt in decades. This is the TOS version, in which humans were not meant to ramble around Elysium summing harps, and Vulcan’s still struggled with the legacy of Surak and the older legacy of unrestrained passion.
Unrelated to the episode, but I had not known this previously, and I thought I would share for others who may not have known – Lt. Paul Stamets is named for real-world mycologist Paul Stamets.
I think the ending would have felt less contrived if Lorca had somehow sabatoged the mission instead of it going sideways on its own. This would have been a better way to advance his character’s journey in the direction they seemed to want to take it by deciding to not rescue her and make events character driven instead of happenstance.
It still makes complete sense for the meeting to be a trap, and making Lorca sabotage it would have made his character irredeemable.
@67/samiam2525: “…and make events character driven instead of happenstance.”
How is it not character-driven the way it is? Lorca didn’t know the abduction would happen, but the way he’s reacting to it is entirely character-driven. And it’s more interesting the way it is. Having Lorca set it up on purpose — if that had even been possible — would’ve made him a literal traitor. This just makes him a desperate, broken man who’s acting selfishly, placing his need to be in command above his duty and his friendships (sort of a dark reflection of Kirk). The former would make him irredeemable, as MaGnUs says. The latter gives some hope that he could atone for his mistakes later on, and that seems to me like a more likely direction to take the character, since that’s really the only way he could continue as a series regular.
Who says he’s going to continue as a series regular?
He probably will for the rest of the season.
@70/roxana: I did not state it as a certainty. It just seems like a reasonable possibility. After all, if Lorca were just meant to be a simplistic one-note villain, this episode wouldn’t have gone to such lengths to establish how damaged he is, how his failure to confront and deal with his pain and guilt from the loss of the Buran is making him erratic and unreliable. Now that we know he isn’t intrinsically as bad as he seems, that it’s the result of his damage, that means he can be healed. If he faces his trauma and works through it, he can return to being the better man he was before we met him. His future arc could be about atoning for his mistakes — which, as I said in comment #1, is something we’ve seen in Alex Kurtzman’s shows before. (I see elements of Fringe‘s Walter Bishop in both Lorca and Stamets.)
Lorca didn’t sound very guilty about destroying the Buran. He saw it as a compassionate thing to do and a straightforward part of being at war. Kirk struck a balance between solder and explorer but the only side that gets sympathetic portrayals here is the explorer side. The one guy that’s more a solder is shown as unstable, borderline insane and dangerous. It would be more interesting to see another member of the crew who can see the military side of Stafleet as being important (after all, who wants to be conquered by the Klingons?) and how they slowly come to realize that Lorca is off his rocker.
Landry would have been an interesting possibility if she wasn’t presented as hopelessly militaristic and dangerous as Lorca.
But, apparently the idea was that Landry and Lorca were sleeping together. Which sort of eliminates that possibility. Well, that and the fact that Landry got herself killed by the tardigrade for perhaps the stupidest reason ever for a red shirt death.
“…him and Landry certainly have a relationship that goes beyond, I would think, work.” – Jason Isaacs, TV Guide, Oct 1, 2017
Nope, Lorca is beyond redemption. He may be cured but he can’t undo or repair what he has done.
@72, CLB, seems to me Starfleet’s mental health assessment parameters need serious work. Don’t they realize Captains go nuts when they destroy or see their ship destroyed? Lorca should be getting serious therapy not commanding a key ship of the fleet.
@74/roxana: Admiral Cornwell did say that Lorca had undergone psych evaluations, and she realized now that he’d lied in order to pass them and keep his command. I’d assume that Starfleet’s wartime need for every captain they can get led to some corners being cut, so his eval wasn’t as careful as it should’ve been.
We know that there’s Betazoids around in this time period. How hard would it be to have one give him the old “He’s holding something back./He’s lying?” scan? Or use a psychotricorder and find out that way?
After all, he’s the only survivor of a combat and he lost his ship, even if Starfleet doesn’t know that he’s the one that destroyed it and killed his entire crew. You’d think that he’d get the most rhough going over that they could give hime before putting him back in the center seat on a ship with a top secret research program on it. But Starfleet has never been all that great about people and mental health. Picard was right back to work after the Borg captured him and all he had to do was fight his brother. And let’s not bring up all the other insane captains.
“We know there’s Betazoids around in this time period.”
No, we don’t. There’s no canon evidence for that. We know from TNG: “Eye of the Beholder” that Walter Pierce (born c. 2338 according to his personnel file) had a Betazoid grandmother, but presuming his half-Betazoid mother was in her 30s when he was born, that only means that humans and Betazoids were interacting by the start of the 24th century, some 50 years after this. All other canonical Betazoid characters date from the 24th century. The closest we came to a 23rd-century reference was in the scripted but unfilmed opening sequence of TUC, in which Kirk gathered the crew for the mission one by one, including Chekov, who was losing a chess game to a Betazoid and was admonished by Kirk for playing against a telepath. If that had been filmed, it would’ve suggested that Betazoids were a fairly recent contact as of 2293, or else their abilities would’ve been more widely known.
I must have confused them with another race, Maybe Cardassians. Ah well.
Starfleet Medical seems to do the most cursory of investigations when someone is likely to have sever PTSD and then they ship them right back out to the front lines again. Sure there’s a war on but you’d think that the possibility of a commanding officer losing control at an inopportune time would be something that they’d consider. But then, we wouldn’t have the latest addition to the “A large percentage of Starfleet captains have mental disorders” club. Even with all the supposedly advanced medical technology (along with tricorders that can record your memories)
However, “else their abilities would’ve been more widely known.”
How much of Vulcan abilities are known to the general public? Devinoni Ral hid his abilities. There’s no reason a full Betazoid couldn’t do the same.
@@@@@ CLB: Or Lorca is on the beginning of the opposite path and this is a story of his downfall instead of his redemption…it would make interesting parallels for both Michael (to fail one Captain and then be failed by the next) and Saru (unable to save either captain, one from outside sources, the other from himself) that would be interesting to see drive their characters post war. I have felt this was the direction things were going for a couple episodes, which was my thought process in my previous comment.
Regarding Lorca being right back in command of a starship right after a traumatizing event. It strikes me that he is supposed to be a brilliant captain and they probably didn’t want him to go to waste in wartime, so they stuck him on a science vessel that wouldn’t be on the front lines in order to give him more time to heal. They probably didn’t anticipate the spore drive taking him to the front lines again.
Once again, we don’t know what exactly happened with the Buran. We only know what Mudd and Lorca said.
@79/samiam2525: Sure, they could be heading toward Lorca’s downfall too, but I’m not convinced that’s where they’re headed. I don’t think this episode would’ve made such a point of making him sympathetic and damaged if their goal weren’t to give him a redemption arc. I’m not convinced they’d be willing to introduce and write out two captains in one season. And I’m not convinced they’d hire Jason Isaacs for just one season either. (Okay, Michelle Yeoh’s a bigger star than Isaacs, but maybe that’s just why they couldn’t get her for more than a few episodes.)
Besides, modern TV loves its damaged and morally questionable protagonists, its Walter Bishops and Walter Whites. Lorca is just the kind of character that today’s breed of showrunners would want to keep around rather than get rid of.
@80/Jason: The problem with your suggestion is that, according to Stamets, Discovery was built around his drive experiment in the first place. So Starfleet Command would have to have known how important that ship would be to the war effort if the drive could be made to work. I think Lorca was assigned to it because of the war, not in spite of it. Lorca said a few episodes ago that he’s made a longtime study of war. That apparently makes him rather unusual in the 23rd century. Over in the Kelvin Timeline in the same general time frame, Admiral Marcus recruits Khan to help him prepare for the coming conflict with the Klingons because he believes modern humanity is too civilized and peaceful to have the right mentality for war, so it takes a throwback, a barbarian from a more violent time, to rise to the challenge. Since the timelines only diverged about a quarter-century earlier, they shouldn’t be too different in their culture. So being a Starfleet captain who’s an expert in war must make Lorca fairly exceptional and therefore especially valuable in wartime.
Heads-up for the Tor.com tech people: The copy/paste function isn’t working. Or rather, the paste function isn’t. I’m able to copy text from this site and paste it into a different tab, but nothing shows up when I try to paste any text into the “Post a Comment” window here.
Chris, the paste function is working for me, check if it’s working for you on a different browser, perhaps?
The nature of psychiatric care in the 23rd and 24th centuries might also be a factor; Lorca’s psyche evals seem to have been held on Earth before he was shipped out again, left completely to his own devices. Picard had a trained psychotherapist (and, presumably, her staff) aboard his ship (and in fact sitting at his left hand on the bridge), and was likely having weekly meetings with her even before the Locutus incident.
For all we know, Lorca might be the reason Starfleet assigns ship’s counselors.
My big problem with the Voq-as-Tyler possibility is that the Voq that we’ve gotten to know doesn’t seem smart or subtle enough to pull off this kind of infiltration. Bold and charismatic (and completely under T’Kuvma’s sway), yes, but L’Rell was clearly the brains of that particular partnership. The only way it could work is if Tyler is a completely new personality, with Voq buried in his subconscious.
More on Sarek as a shitty parent from this very site’s own Emmet Asher-Perrin:
“We Can Safely Say that Sarek of Vulcan is Sci-Fi’s Worst Dad.”
—Keith R.A. DeCandido
Although some have evidenced bees in their collective bonnets regarding the holodeck, if you ever watched Star Trek the animated series (1973 – which included the voice work of the original TOS cast and was set in the TOS universe and time) I believe it was in the episode The Practical Joker where the bridge crew was trapped on the holodeck while the computer kept pranking them. So holodeck technology was definitely part of that timeline. I believe the Show can be seen on either Hulu or Netflix.
@78 / kkozoritz: I think the problem here is that Starfleet hasn’t had a real war in a long time, so when it comes to psych evaluations (among other things), Starfleet Medical may not know what to look for. I’m certain information concerning trauma / obsession / etc. in wartime is available in a database, but it might be some time before someone hits on the right entry and realizes the implications of what they’re reading.
Put another way: suppose there was an outbreak of smallpox aboard the Discovery. How long before Culber or his CMO think to look up the disease and compare with what they’re seeing? It’s not like their equipment would be calibrated to recognize that particular virus.
In addition, we know Lorca lied on his evaluations – it’s even harder to properly diagnose something if someone’s deliberately obscuring the trail.
Also: tricorders that can record what now? I must have missed the episode, but where was that first mentioned?
I have no problem with the proto-holodeck, but still, this is set over 10 years earlier than “The Practical Joker”.
@82/Christopher: “Besides, modern TV loves its damaged and morally questionable protagonists […].” – That… explains quite a lot. There probably was never a chance that I could like the show.
“Lorca said […] that he’s made a longtime study of war. That apparently makes him rather unusual in the 23rd century.” – I find that hard to believe. Even if Starfleet is primarily about exploration, its members are also trained as soldiers, which should include learning about military strategy and such. And even in peaceful times, there will be historians and hobbyists who study historical warfare.
“Admiral Marcus recruits Khan to help him prepare for the coming conflict with the Klingons because he believes modern humanity is too civilized and peaceful to have the right mentality for war […].” – I took that to mean that Admiral Marcus is deluded. If you look at episodes like “Arena”, 23rd century humans seem to be quite capable of fighting battles. And wasn’t the point of Kirk’s speech in “A Taste of Armageddon” that humanity had managed to abolish war even though they were no different from their ancestors?
I tend to take shows at face value and not try to over analyze them.
And I enjoyed the episode.
But what bothered me:
1. the holo fight when I didn’t think that technology was around yet. I always thought holodecks with characters that seem real in every way were developed as a result of TOS episode ‘Shore Leave’. (not canon, just my opinion) But I will accept the argument the the holograms in Lethe were just projections and not really holodeck technology.
2. To date, the series has been a lot about going to the rescue: The mining colony, Lorca, Sarek. But now Lorca suddenly uses protocol to refuse to go after Admiral Cornwell, who is his friend and lover, and it’s obviously because she threatens his command. Until now, I was inclined to like him.
My opinion on why TOS and beyond doesn’t have the spore drive: It will turn out to be too dangerous after Stamets (and a few more) goes completely bonkers.
87. Andrew Crisp – “Also: tricorders that can record what now? I must have missed the episode, but where was that first mentioned?”
Wolf in the Fold.
KIRK: Depending on your wife’s empathic abilities is all very well, Prefect, but there’s only one way we can find out what it is Mister Scott cannot remember. Since you find it impossible to let us go back up to our ship, I can beam down a technician with a psycho-tricorder.
MCCOY: Prefect, it will give us a detailed account of everything that’s happened to Mister Scott in the last twenty four hours.
@91 / kkozoritz: I see – I hadn’t watched that episode in a long time, and forgot that line. Still, 2256 vs 2267… perhaps psycho-tricorders were still in the prototype phase?
@91/kkozoriz: We never learn how the psycho-tricorder works. It doesn’t have to be a telepathic machine that can record suppressed memories. Perhaps it uses a combination of advanced hypnosis, brain wave scans and question asking.
Really, it shouldn’t be a telepathic machine. If they had refined telepathic machinery in the 23rd century, why would anyone ever use mind sifters, truth drugs, or mind melds?
In Journey to Babel, Spock says that Thelev has been subjected to both truth drug and verifier scan. Perhaps the psycho-tricorder is also called a verifier. It’s also noteworthy that Thelev did not have an annourney present. Perhaps such things are permitted without legal representation. Of course, the Federation says that people are allowed to not answer questions if they believe the answers may lead to self incrimination. Kind of hard to guarantee that while being drugged and mindprobed
@83/MaGnUs: The paste function doesn’t work for me in either Firefox or Chrome.
@90 – kk: I rewatched the episode last night, it does seem they’re just projections they can’t interact with. Also, it seems like Lorca and Tyler re not actually moving as much as it happens in holodecks (with forcefields and such), and more like the projected environment is switching to make them perceive movement.
@95 – Chris: That is odd, I’ve just pasted this into Chrome.
Watching “Lethe” I couldn’t help but wonder if somehow Lorca knew that sending the Cornwell to the Klingon peace talks might end with her a)dead or b)out of commission so he can keep command of the Discovery just a bit longer. Was he setting her up or am I reading too much into things?
It also makes me wonder where having command of Discovery ranks in the overall scheme of things. I get the impression that commanding a constitution class starship is the primo spot for Starfleet. So where exactly does Discovery fit here?
@97/bigorangemichael: I don’t think there’s any way Lorca could’ve anticipated that turn of events. I don’t think he’s an evil manipulator who deliberately orchestrated her death, I just think he’s a broken man terrified of losing his ship and seizing an opportunity to keep it.
As for where Discovery fits in, it’s supposedly a pure science vessel that was built (or refitted, perhaps, given that its registry number is lower than the fairly old Shenzhou‘s) around Stamets’s experimental spore drive. It has 15 decks and a crew of 136, so it’s substantially smaller than the Constitution class. So I don’t think it would’ve been considered one of the core ships of the fleet until the war catapulted it to prominence.
I am enjoying the backstory being filled in. I really hope they bring in Sybok & Michael’s relationship.
Sybok is supposed to be older than Spock, perhaps he had already left when Michael was taken in by Sarek and Amanda.
77. ChristopherLBennett
““We know there’s Betazoids around in this time period.”
No, we don’t. There’s no canon evidence for that.”
Well, that didn’t take long, did it? This week we find out that Mudd used to brag about robbing a Betazoid bank. So, I return to my original premise. That Betazoids were known in the pre-TOS period.
Sarek’s silent treatment doesn’t need retconing. Disobedience to elders is a serious thing in traditional societies, even a crime. By Vulcan standards Sarek’s response to Spock defiyng his wishes may be mild. While Amanda is clearly unhappy about it she also doesn’t see Sarek as being completely out of line.
princessroxana: What does need have to do with it? When you get right down to it, there doesn’t need to ever have been a Star Trek TV show. It’s a matter of what might make a good story, and this did, and made a situation more complex and interesting — at least to some. :)
—Keith R.A. DeCandido
That is true. At first I did think it was an interesting twist. Now I think it’s more like character assassination. Opinions vary.
princessroxana: Since you haven’t actually watched the episode, I don’t think it’s at all fair of you to condemn it as character assassination.
—Keith R.A. DeCandido
@105/krad: In “Journey to Babel”, Sarek was portrayed as stern, authoritarian, reserved, and discourteous. I haven’t watched the episode either, but according to your review, it reveals that he was also manipulative and willing to make people close to him believe bad things about themselves that weren’t true. It seems to me that this does change his character for the worse. How is it not legitimate to call that character assassination?
JanaJansen: If you interpreted my summary as establishing him as manipulative, then I didn’t explain the episode’s plot properly. Sarek was put in an awful position by the Vulcan Expeditionary Force, and while he didn’t handle it all that well, his method of handling it was consistent with how he was portrayed in “Journey to Babel” and “Sarek” (and The Search for Spock).
—Keith R.A. DeCandido
krad: Thanks for clearing that up! To be honest, I got the impression that he was manipulative after reading your summary, the comments, and the article on this site about him being a bad father. I didn’t mean to imply that your summary was the main culprit. Anyway, I’m glad to hear that my impression was wrong.
I’m glad that impression was wrong too. Sarek felt he had to protect the reputation of Vulcan institutions in the eyes of his wife and daughter?
Sarek was forced to choose either Michael or Spock to go into the Expeditionary Force, not both. He chose to prioritize his natural-born son over his adopted daughter — and when Spock renounced that opportunity and joined Starfleet instead, it meant that Michael had been cheated out of her acceptance for no reason. And Sarek was too ashamed to admit that truth to anyone.
So he told Michael she hadn’t been accepted and gave no reason leaving her to assume she wasn’t good enough? Maybe he thought that would be less hurtful then telling her she’d been rejected for being human or that he’d chosen Spock over her?
princessroxana: We’re not going to be able to tell you exactly everything that the episode convey, neither krad as reviewer, nor us as commenters. I’d tell you to watch it one day in the future when it’s in re-runs somewhere, and you don’t have to pay extra for it; or maybe even pay for a month of CBAA when the season has ended and binge; but it does seem like you’ve already made up your mind about the show.
EDIT: I wonder why of the two comments removed by moderators, only mine is showing the nick and picture. :)
I don’t watch television much these days. Not sure why but I’d probably be giving DIS a miss even if it were free.
Okay then.
100. MaGnUs
“Sybok is supposed to be older than Spock, perhaps he had already left when Michael was taken in by Sarek and Amanda.”
Or he was raised by Sarek and Amanda and Amanda had a greater influence on him, encouraging him to show his emotions. Sarek sees how that turns out and vows to raise Michael and Spock as Vulcans.
Perhaps, yes. Although I would think someone like Sarek would always want to raise his children as Vulcans.
118. MaGnUs I agree that he would, but he may not have been aware of the influence that his human wife was having on his son and it got past him. Once he noticed, he cracked down on Spock and Michael.
I’m just watching for the first time, and something just occurred to me when watching the scenes with the private interactions between Lorca and Cornwell and the cutaway before their coupling – not that there are no handsome people in this series, but I think it’s notable that there has been no attempt to this point to gratuitously sex the show up. The crew wears the same conservative unis regardless of gender, and there is no designated sexpot. Not that, as a younger person, I didn’t enjoy watching Jolene Blalock in that tight skinsuit, but I think that kind of thing would hit a false note today.
Yes, i’ve been rewatching Enterprise, and it’s my kid’s (14) first viewing of the show, and T’Pol’s outfit (and before that, Seven’s in VOY) is a bit out of place; plus the “decontamination gel rubbing scene” early in season one was a bit cringey to watch.
Wow, looking back at my comments in this thread, I feel embarrassed about dismissing a certain “inane fan theory” about Lorca. I’ve been flattering myself with the belief that I wasn’t fooled by the attempts to make Lorca seem more morally ambiguous than he was, but apparently I did get fooled after all, at least in this episode.
Me too, Chris. The theory about Lorca was so bandied about by DIS haters, that I was completely against it.
@123: The irony is, if the DIS haters are using Lorca as justification to dislike the show, I couldn’t disagree more. That character is already (insert Spock raised-eyebrow here) fascinating, largely because of that ambiguity. For my money, he’s the most compelling character in this series, and rapidly rising up the list in the entire franchise. As a comparison, I found Sisko to be insufferably dull for the most part, except when he was causing death and collateral damage in his pursuit of Eddington and in fabricating evidence in order to bring entire races into existing wars because he decided that was a good idea.
As I said, I’m loving this series as I get up to speed. I understand it’s not for everyone, but I just don’t understand the over-the-top antipathy by some people.
@124/fullyfunctional: There are always people outraged when a new show tries something actually, well, new rather than just giving them more of what they’re used to; the whole concept of boldly going and exploring strange new things is lost on them. Every new incarnation of Trek for the past 46 years has offended the purists. People today don’t realize how much hostility there was toward TNG in its first few years — even several of the TOS cast members objected to its existence.
@125: I suppose I understand that, in the sense that people tend to be protective of their favorite shows and characters. I didn’t watch TNG during its original run, but I may have tuned out given the dubious quality of much of Season 1, and because the Captain wasn’t as much of a swashbuckler as Kirk seemed to be when I first watched those shows in syndication as a kid. Now, TNG is by far my favorite among the series – I love those characters.
Anyway, In my view, Discovery is hitting the sweet spot between staying in contact with the touchstones of Trek while moving to try to attract new viewers. I have seen some comments from dedicated Trekkies who say they have washed their hands of this series because it is not consistent with Roddenberry’s vision, but I also think that “Roddenberry’s vision” has in itself been somewhat retconned.
@126/fullyfunctional: Gods, yes — even TOS didn’t fit “Roddenberry’s vision” as it got mythologized in the TNG era. When he made TOS, he was just a TV producer trying to make an entertaining, profitable show that was smarter than average and had something to say. He didn’t start believing he was a “visionary” until the late ’70s and the ’80s.