Star Trek Discovery: 3x11 (Su'Kal)
Dec. 29th, 2020 02:29 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
4thofelevenIn which Osyraa gets everything she wanted for Christmas.
There's a lot to like here, but also a lot that I'm a bit sceptical of, and a few things that I'm reserving judgement on until they're resolved.
For example, the reveal of the cause of the Burn avoids a lot of the pitfalls I was fearing; it's not some deep, dark secret that Starfleet and the Federation has been covering up. Nor is it something caused by Discovery's time jump, the Red Angel suit, or anything else that would make the universe seem like it revolved around the main characters and nobody else, or that would put the blame for this catastrophe on their shoulders.
At the same time – it's a little unsatisfying, and a little hard to accept. The idea that this random kid has somehow mutated so that when he gets upset, it can destabilised dilithium on a galactic scale... it strains suspension of disbelief, and as the resolution to a season-long arc and a setting-changing event, it feels like it comes out of nowhere. I don't mind a little wackiness and nonsense science in my Star Trek, but it seems like there should have been more effort put into establishing this sort of thing as possible.
(I'm also a little confused about the Kelpian lifespan – if this guy is a hundred+ years old and still isn't considered an 'elder', and there were elders on Kaminar even in Saru's time... how old did they get before the Ba'ul culled them? For that matter, how old is Saru?)
I'm also a little unsure about the Saru plot. It feels like a lot of telling, rather than showing that he's emotionally compromised, and it feels pretty hypocritical for Burnham of all people to be calling him out. If it had been Tilly acting as a first officer, or Hugh as the de-facto ship's councillor, I'd have been happier, but as it is it just feels like an attack on Saru's character that's not really supported by his behavior. He was, after all, willing to put the mission on hold to assist Starfleet in repelling the Emerald Chain; he's hardly obsessed.
And I am concerned given Discovery's habit of giving characters a major role just before writing them out, combined with the short tenure of all of Discovery's captains, that this is going to be Saru's swan song – and I really don't want to see him go.
Still, a lot of that will depend on how this story resolves. What we got was a very entertaining spin on the usual holodeck story, taking the concept from TNG's “Future Imperfect” of a child raised in a holodeck and fleshing it out a lot more, with the sets and lighting giving it the feel of a dark fantasy nightmare. I appreciated the little details of Kelpian culture and history, and the notes that the Kelpians and the Ba'ul did achieve a rapprochement of sorts.
I'd also note how weird and disconcerting it is to see Saru as a human after being so used to his usual appearance; no offence intended to Doug Jones, who presumably doesn't set off such a feeling of wrongness in his day-to-day life!
So, place your bets: What is Adira going to look like once they enter the holographic environment?
2/1: A normal Trill, just to be boring.
5/1: A Kelpian, to maintain balance with Saru.
10/1: A TNG-style Klingon, to confuse things further.
100/1: A TOS-style Klingon. Episode is immediately pulled for use of brownface.
1000/1: Species 8472, who joined the Federation just before the Burn.
There's a lot to like here, but also a lot that I'm a bit sceptical of, and a few things that I'm reserving judgement on until they're resolved.
For example, the reveal of the cause of the Burn avoids a lot of the pitfalls I was fearing; it's not some deep, dark secret that Starfleet and the Federation has been covering up. Nor is it something caused by Discovery's time jump, the Red Angel suit, or anything else that would make the universe seem like it revolved around the main characters and nobody else, or that would put the blame for this catastrophe on their shoulders.
At the same time – it's a little unsatisfying, and a little hard to accept. The idea that this random kid has somehow mutated so that when he gets upset, it can destabilised dilithium on a galactic scale... it strains suspension of disbelief, and as the resolution to a season-long arc and a setting-changing event, it feels like it comes out of nowhere. I don't mind a little wackiness and nonsense science in my Star Trek, but it seems like there should have been more effort put into establishing this sort of thing as possible.
(I'm also a little confused about the Kelpian lifespan – if this guy is a hundred+ years old and still isn't considered an 'elder', and there were elders on Kaminar even in Saru's time... how old did they get before the Ba'ul culled them? For that matter, how old is Saru?)
I'm also a little unsure about the Saru plot. It feels like a lot of telling, rather than showing that he's emotionally compromised, and it feels pretty hypocritical for Burnham of all people to be calling him out. If it had been Tilly acting as a first officer, or Hugh as the de-facto ship's councillor, I'd have been happier, but as it is it just feels like an attack on Saru's character that's not really supported by his behavior. He was, after all, willing to put the mission on hold to assist Starfleet in repelling the Emerald Chain; he's hardly obsessed.
And I am concerned given Discovery's habit of giving characters a major role just before writing them out, combined with the short tenure of all of Discovery's captains, that this is going to be Saru's swan song – and I really don't want to see him go.
Still, a lot of that will depend on how this story resolves. What we got was a very entertaining spin on the usual holodeck story, taking the concept from TNG's “Future Imperfect” of a child raised in a holodeck and fleshing it out a lot more, with the sets and lighting giving it the feel of a dark fantasy nightmare. I appreciated the little details of Kelpian culture and history, and the notes that the Kelpians and the Ba'ul did achieve a rapprochement of sorts.
I'd also note how weird and disconcerting it is to see Saru as a human after being so used to his usual appearance; no offence intended to Doug Jones, who presumably doesn't set off such a feeling of wrongness in his day-to-day life!
So, place your bets: What is Adira going to look like once they enter the holographic environment?
2/1: A normal Trill, just to be boring.
5/1: A Kelpian, to maintain balance with Saru.
10/1: A TNG-style Klingon, to confuse things further.
100/1: A TOS-style Klingon. Episode is immediately pulled for use of brownface.
1000/1: Species 8472, who joined the Federation just before the Burn.