Amph “Let's Fly!” - Star Trek: Discovery [Paramount+/Netflix/CraveTV]

Yeah, something isn’t adding up.....

 

Alright...it's getting there. Some really cool first contact stuff, some world building while also continuing the arc. I'd go as far as saying that if someone wanted an episode to start with to see if it is the show for them, maybe give this one a go as a sample.

 

i thought the idea of the planet Pahva was too similar to Avatars Pandora. Different, but same vibe, so not too original in my mind.
I watched the whole L’Rell Admiral Cornwell thing again, not much to add. What you see is what you get. Nothing hidden except for the fate of L’Rell.

 

Hate to say it but I thought this last episode was pretty shabby. Some good ideas and pieces but sloppy execution across the board.

I liked the concept of the Saru/Pahvan plotline .... except it was was terribly executed. The pacing of this episode (and the short run run time of ~41 minutes) made this A plot feel stripped down to the bare bone essential (cliche) scenes. Also, the effects on Pahvan looked super cheap.

The scenes with L'Rell and Cornwell were serviceable (L'Rell has been the only Klingon I find interesting) ... except the Klingon scenes as a whole are still dragging this series down for me.

It was nice to see the lesser bridge crew plebes get some dialogue, and I liked the interaction between Tilly and Stamets as the acting was solid and their personalities shined .... except that they (and the Klingon scenes) are just sucking time away from the A plot.

The serialized format did not serve this episode well. It felt like nothing happened. Heck, I'm not even sure I understood the stuff that DID happen. Why did Saru want to force Ash and Burnham to stay on the planet? Why didn't he just say, Hey guys I like it here I'm staying? Was Ash seriously suggesting they botch the mission to continue the war? Cuz it seemed like he really meant it. Did L'Rell's plan change when she saw the (mistreated?) bodies? Because we don't even know what her original plan WAS so how will we really know how much of an effect it had on her. It all just felt like a big sloppy (unintentionally cryptic) mess that was written backwards to do things like get from A to B and insert TWOK dialogue.

And don't get me started on Ash and Burnham. Zero chemistry. I would rather they be friends with Ash helping to mentor Burnham on connecting with her human side (I liked her log comment about how she admired how positive he was despite what he had been through -- to me that would have been an interesting angle to develop their relationship on). Their acting this episode wasn't cutting it either.

 

Saru didn’t want anyone to know about the place where he felt unafraid for the first time in his life so no one leaves.
Ash seemed to be the only one who wanted the mission complete, hence his superior command order to Burnham, he would do anything to “hurt” the Klingons.

L’Rells plot was from the start to get out. She adapted as best she could until caught.

Burnham is afraid of emotion, especially love. Ash is conflicted. His craving for revenge doesn’t allow him to get close to anyone hence no chemistry

$ .02

 

Definitely a come down after last week but ANYTHING was going to be come down after last week cuz it was so very great. The episode was written by prolific ST novelist Kirsten Bayer and was hoping for something a bit more original, however, I am definitely a sucker for old school Energy Beings Whose Powers Are Far Beyond Our Comprehension so that was okay.

I do think we're seeing a solution as to how the Federation is going to defeat the Klingon cloaks with the sonar so I guess eventually they'll be able to break through the cloak, which makes the cloak in Balance of Terror the "perfect cloak".

Gripes aside, pretty standout ep for Doug Jones as Saru (and he's always good) and his "You keep taking things from me!" rant was actually pretty heartwrenching. Cuz he's right! Leave poor Saru alone, Burnham! Even though he's all doped up on Space Being Energy and so forth.

I know griping about continuity is a bit of a losing battle when it comes to Disco but why is there a Vulcan Admiral? Isn't Spock the 1st Vulcan in Starfleet? Did this guy join after Spock and got promoted to Admiral ahead of him? (I know there's a T'Pol Continuity Escape Hatch, she was assigned by the Vulcan high command to Enterprise and then got assigned to Starfleet so maybe this guy came about the same way while Spock started at Starfleet Academy)

 

After Sunday's episode, Discovery will be off for aboot a month and a half and return January 10th for the last 5 episodes.

As for that potential mega-spoiler, more people chatting with the cast doing press and got some fun results

Spoiler

https://trekmovie.com/2017/11/10/st...spreads-as-actors-attempt-to-explain-it-away/

[Latif’s] face dropped when we asked if he’d ever met Javid Iqbal, as if he was personally offended, and his answer seemed a little nervous and rushed: “Javid Iqbal… I’ve met him, yeah. But we don’t see a lot of people… There are so many different sets that you hardly see…”

It’s then that Captain Lorca himself, Jason Isaacs – the actor who we were supposed to be speaking to alongside Latif – burst into the room, joking “Whatever he’s saying is rubbish!”.

Jason Isaacs offered more back up on Twitter last week, talking about meeting Javid Iqbal:
Hey @jasonsfolly you have any pictures of you with Javid Iqbal?
Never had scenes with him- only met him in once in a costume fitting

Iqbal has his own (parody) Twitter account now too!
https://twitter.com/RealJavidIqbal
Hello Twitter, I am real #StarTrekDiscovery#Voq actor Javid Iqbal. Here I am at the real Hollywood debut. I had real good time.

 

Well last night's episode just about made up for that lousy set up from last week.

 

Agreed. Last night’s episode was much, much better than the week before.

 

I'm absolutely sure now that Tyler is Voq.

 

Not sure about that. Possibly, but too obvious IMO

 

Yeah, how do you explain his initial reaction to seeing her on the ship of the dead, other than torture and super weird sex? Also, the scanners in Discovery’s sickbay presumably would have picked up his Klingon lifesigns and anatomy and we know that he was examined by Dr. Culber in the episode before this one.

 

I'm about ... 99% sure at this point. I think he genuinely believes he is Tyler though.

 

Yah, I thought I saw random shots of Voq in the kinky Klingon sex montage as well (Hey, Klingons have nipples, waddya know!). I'm going with he's Voq but has been completely wiped to be Tyler, which will be interesting if A) who is that revealed to B) will he continue on as Lt. Tyler and suppress his Voq-ness so he could always be a live wire. Very much sorta Final Five Cylons on BSG, though.

Good payoffs in this episode and the Klingon Sarcophagus Ship is down and out so I'm assuming that's a big blow to the Klingons. But the good ship Disco can't worry about it cuz they got punted to another dimension. Also there's a screecap of Lorca hitting the override



And lets we forget the Stamets weird mirror shot, foreshadowing of Mirror-verse? Did the Disco just boggie on over to the Mirror-verse? Also I saw speculation that maybe Lorca *is* from the MIrror-verse! Dahhh!!!

I said way back in this very thread I would be totally okay if they had mirror-verse episodes in Season 1 so maybe we will get that. or they jumped to the nearest, convenient parallel dimension.

Although it would be fun to see if Lorca isn't from the mirror-verse then how relatively cuddly his Mirror-verse counterpart would be.

Now I'm not thinking this means Discovery is going to go full Voyager for the rest of it's run as a Federation starship stuck far from home, but I'm thinking wherever they are, it'll take up the back chunk of Season 1. Or, hell, maybe it will be that show from now on (the show has been throwing plot curveballs since the very first episode), but I kinda doubt it. But I don't think they're getting back home anytime soon either.

 

While I don’t like it if he is Voq, I wouldn’t be surprised if this is the introduction to why Klingons looked human in TOS

 

Isn’t the explanation for that interbreeding the Augments? At least I seem to recall that from Enterprise.

 

hahhaa, yeah, that would be awesome if we ended up with two separate "this is why the Klingons look like this in TOS". Retcon-ing the retcon. But, to be fair, Tyler would be a more emotional reason that the Klingon's look changed than the Augment Virus storyline which climaxed with Archer being strapped into a chair and growling as he almost turned into a Klingon. No, really!



But, yeah, let's just say that the Augment Virus clearly didn't affect all of the Klingons like one character predicted (it was 100 years ago) and maybe Tyler / Voq could be another reason.

 

Based solely on the little clips that I have managed to catch on Youtube, I LOVE Star Trek: Discovery.

I was already thinking to myself, that I would not be surprised to see something of this series leading onto Section 31, before I found the Youtube video spelling out that I completely was not alone on that.

 

I swear I heard somewhere that discovery would answer that question. (Why Klingons look human)
But I’ll be darned if I can remember the source........
It was sometime before the premier date was changed.....

 

Two theories that I have heard, are that Lorca would unleash a biological agent upon the Klingons that caused that, or, if Ash Tyler really is Voq, that he somehow leads to human looking Klingons becoming ascendant into the TOS.

 

Yeah since we only have a decade till TOS it will be interesting for sure how this all pans out

 

Assuming the Disco makes it back from where it's landed. But it probably will. Maybe. 80%. The show is unabashedly for hard plot twists.

 

Apparently in the US there's a free month of CBS All Access promo kicking around so if someone wanted to give it a shot and binge the first half of episodes over Christmas and somehow cancel it, go ahead!

Anyway, in various news, apparently Commander Riker gave Captain Lorca some much needed pro Star Trek acting tips

https://trekmovie.com/2017/11/18/ja...and-dealing-with-star-trek-discovery-critics/

Isaacs also spoke about getting some TV screen command officer training from director Jonathan Frakes, a former Starfleet Commander himself:

JI: Yeah getting hit by a torpedo and the ship rocking from side to side without looking like an idiot. One of the big things, weirdly, is what to do with your hands. Because there are no pockets in space and there are no props. Jonathan Frakes, who played Riker in TNG, came to set one episode and he had a top tip. He said “Are you having trouble with your hands?” and I said “Yes I am! How the %$&# did you know that?” He said he did a lot of crossed arms acting, and gave me the tip never to start a scene with my hands on my hips – you won’t get them off.


​

 

Discovery back on Sunday! I saw a new ad kicking about, definitely more of Lt. Tyler going batty seems to be a thing.

As for me, to kill some time on New Years Eve (and the fact it had been over a month since any Discovery) I rewatched "Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad". I could go off on how much I love that episode but suffice to to say, I do quite a lot and easily the best episode of the series so far (and, not surprisingly, it's one of the most self contained of Discovery and done-in-one is where I think Trek is it's best). Especially love Mudd's spaceman bug outfit that he's wearing when he pops up. In fact, I'd say it just elbowed it's way into my Top 10 Star Trek Time Travel Episodes (maybe at the bottom) but considering how dense that list is, that's high praise.

Only gripe I really have about the show is that they need to start putting the episode titles on screen. It's kinda wrong to watch a Star Trek episode without an episode title card. Here's hoping!

 

Spaceman bug outfit?
It’s supposed to be an Andorian space suit.