#and in the end he has to talk to stamets

[bagog]

Star Trek: Discovery Narrative Highlights

So I really like Discovery, but differently than I like other Star Treks. My love for Voyager, for instance, is based off the sense of found-family in the face of sci-fi shenanigans. I could pick out favorite episodes, but my favorite episodes don't necessarily represent the epitome of what I love about the show, y'know?

It's different with Disco. There are concrete moments from through out the show that made me go "Okay, I like this, I want this. More of this." Here's some of them! This is indulgent and all from memory

Season 1 - Klingons Speak Klingon

In a story about Klingons fearing the Federation as an institution which will irrevocably alter their culture, the Klingons actually speak Klingon. Love it. Season 1 - Gabriel Lorca

I loved seeing a Star Fleet captain who seemed to have ascended because of his skill at war: a trait which ordinarily would not elevate one within Starfleet service, per se. It made him interesting. Your mileage may vary on where this went, but. He's still a big appeal on rewatch.

Season 2 - Queer People Helping Queer People

The introduction of Jet Reno is one of my favorite hallmarks in the show. I love Jet, and I love the way she serves as a foil to every other character. But best of all, I loved the scene when she is talking to Hugh Culber about how distant he's been from his husband (since coming back from the dead, so, you know) and helps him by relating her own story about her wife, who is now passed. To say I'm happy to see queer stories on Star Trek is a massive understatement, but this was the moment it locked in for me. In the world of the Federation, there's no difference between being queer or straight and anyone could've talked Hugh out of his funk. But in our world, it's usually queer people helping queer people make sense of their experiences. Recognizing the importance of that distinction and going with the queers-helping-queers take is a really big deal for me.

Season 2 - Amanda

This is hands-down the best representation of Amanda we've ever been given and she is so wonderfully human and warm that it helps you understand Spock and Michael so much better. I don't know what to say other than that, I love her.

Season 3 - The Future

I love that they went not just into the future, but further into the future than any mainline trek lore has gone. Hell yes. I'm bummed it's kinda a post-Utopian mess, but I get storywise why that's the case. I love the future starships, I love the future technology, I like that we just "BZP" to wherever we want to be in the ship now. In a show increasingly steeped in centuries of canon lore, it's smart and challenging to try to do "a millennium in the future."

Season 3 - Queer Family

Queer Family! Queer Family in Star Trek! This is my queers-helping-queers point but dialed up to 11. Love it, would do anything for it.

Season 4 - Artificial Intelligence

The ship is alive and she's named herself. This comes to a head in an episode in Season 4 where Paul Stamets feels very hesitant about this, after the plot of Season 2 was trying to stop AI from destroying the galaxy. There's this whole Measure of a Man but Not Quite Because Its the B Story thing going on, but at the end of it, there's a twist. Paul eventually learns to accept his new crewmate, but then he asks the person in-charge of the inquest "What would you have done if I said I wasn't comfortable serving with an AI?" and the dude goes "I would've assigned you to another ship. This was never about whether she has a soul or whatever, it's about if you can learn to accept that with you 22nd century brain." And that's.... that's great.

Season 4 - Mental Health

Mental Health is a thread running through some of Discovery (Season 2 flirts with Spock's neurodivergence, for instance) but never more than in Season 4. Hugh Culber, the ship's ray of sunshine and de facto counselor, is in bad shape, mentally, and he needs help. But the best moment is when the away-team is beset by chemical memories of panic and basically rendered useless with fear... except for Detmer, who helps them all get through it. When asked why she was unaffected, she says "Oh I totally was affected, but after my grievous injury during the war, I went to therapy for the PTSD and learned some coping strategies" AND THAT'S WHAT SAVES THE GALAXY.

Anyway, this is very indulgent and probably nobody reads this, but thanks if you did.

[whovianwatchingstartrek]

A Whovian Watches Star Trek for the First Time: Part 115 - Starship of Babel

Star Trek: Discovery - Season 2 Episode 4 - An Obol for Charon

Today's episode opens with not a resolution to any of the immediate ends to what was happening last episode, but with Discovery beaming Pike's First officer on board, "Number One" from the Q&A Short Trek and also went unnamed in the Cage. She still doesn't get an actual name here.

We get a bit of an update about Enterprise's situation, things are still in desperate need of repair, and we find out that Number One has also been doing a bit of digging into Spock's situation, however Pike is drawn away before details can be discussed.

Down in Engineering Paul Stamets and Sylvia Tilly are looking after "May". The creature still seems to be clued into Sylvia's emotions in some way, which is interesting. Sylvia goes on a mini speech about how she wasn't the best friend to the real May as a kid, and the fungal creature reaches out and sort of forms a hand. It's a scene kinda touching and kinda creepy. I'm really interesting in this Fungal creature and what motives are, and how it works.

In the ready room, some of the staff are discussing the Red Angel. No federation known species matches it's appearance. Apparently Saru is suffering a cold. This conversation is a nice bit of recap, but it doesn't really amount to much that we didn't already know about the Red Angel. Pike enters and dismisses everyone except Michael, so can finally talk about Spock stuff. Apparently Number One had retrieved the path that Spock's shuttle took after escaping the psychiatric facility, and Discovery is already on an intercept course. Michael immediately asks to be excused from this mission, due to the unknown trauma she caused him. Pike starts a bit of a pep talk to Michael, but Discovery is then slammed to a hault, and left in front of this giant red swirling ball of something.

And then the intro plays. I've noticed this a lot with Discovery, but it's Cold Opens are really long.

After the Intro, we gather to discuss what this thing is, and then suddenly everyone is speaking different languages! This fun little premise, and I kinda wish the whole no-one can understand eachother bit lasted a bit longer, but after a bit of confusion, Saru is called to the bridge. It's previously established that Saru knows a lot of languages, so he's definetly going to be the MVP here. Of course, he still has a cold, so he's gonna have to fight through that. He gets the Universal translator back online, but the rest of the Bridge's systems are still scrambled through other languages.

Apparently the rest of the ship is unaffected though, Engineering is still perfectly functional. We get a fun little spat between Paul and the more traditional Engineer we picked up in episode 1, which I thought was fun. As everyone scrambles to repair Discovery, the Computer Virus runs through more of the ships systems. Paul, Sylvia and Reno end up trapped in the Spore Drive control room, with the "May" Creature, which latches onto Sylvia. The Bridge is loosing control of everything, and Saru's illness take a turn for the worse. Internal communications are also knocked out

I've said it before with Enterprise, but I love how Star Trek depicts chaotic all hands on deck moments, where everyone is dashing about in the background trying to stabilise things. This is no exception, and I'm absolutely loving how we're seeing this confusion across the entire ship, more than just The Bridge and Engineering, which was often the case for Enterprise.

Down in Sickbay, Saru is really anxious to report any symptoms to the ship's doctor. After a bit of coaxing however, we find out this is more than a simple cold: Apparently it's a unique condition among Kelpiens, and apparently it's going to kill him. This ties into his Short Trek from before we Started Discovery. Apparently, whatever the sphere is, it's causing the same response as that crystal which selected Kelpiens to be slaughtered. This process is called Vahar'ai, and will either kill him, or make him succumb to madness. Saru has an idea on how to fight back against the computer virus, albiet in a very weak way, but it would slow the progress and give the crew a little bit of time to regain control, and Michael moves off to enact this digital antibody plan. Saru accepts that he is dying, and moves out to help Michael out.

While Michael and Saru are working on this, we get a really nice heart to heart between them about the nature of Saru's culture and how he thinks he just isn't built to keep fighting in the way Michael does. This is probably the best time to note that I love what the make-up department have done with him this episode. The way he walks with kind of a weird lean this episode, the perspiration on his face looks just great. This one on one scene was definetly the best part of the episode for me, I love digging into characters like this and Saru's unique relationship with the universe as a member of a species that are basically livestock animals is so fascinating to me.

With the spore-drive gang, May is apparently influencing May's thoughts. Apparently it's pumping a hallucinogen into her to calm her, although Paul and Reno have different ideas of what it's motives are. Michael ends up heading to engineering to ask them reactivate shields, unaware of their current situation. Engineering of course can't do anything at the moment, they're locked out of all systems, and Sylvia is dropping in and out of conciousness. Paul has a great idea. What he's gonna do is rework a part of the spore drive interface to let may hijack Sylvia's nervous system, and this is explained better in the episode and makes more sense there. But it will let us communicate with may, and Michael thinks something similar might be happening with the sphere, and the Virus could be a form of communication.

Michael shares this theory with Saru, and he deduces that the Sphere is trying to communicate the fact that it was dying, and wants to be remembered. Pike accepts this, and lowers the shields to accept the transmission, but I love that he still has a back-up plan in place.

Meanwhile with May, the process isn't working, and they start proposing makeshift surgery to make the communication process easier, and the whole trepanning thing felt like unnecessary trauma for my poor Neurodivergent girl, but the episode goes thankfully is quick with it. Once communication is established, May reveals her motives. Apparently she views the Discovery's use of the Mycelium network as invasive, and plans to kill Paul, and is now effectively holding Sylvia hostage to that end.

Unfortunately, Saru is still suffering symptoms, and I actually thought they fully kill him here and I was crying, him reminiscing about his sister while asking Michael to sever his Ganglia, and paralleling his relationship to his sister with Michael's relationship to Spock broke my heart. I don't particularly like death fake outs, but I love Saru, so I'm kinda happy that happened here. Also, it means were might be able explore a new side of Saru soon, because apparently without his Ganglia fear is no longer his primary drive, so I'm excited to see where they take him. Also on a side note, I love the design of his quarters.

At the end of the episode we're left with Sylvia being taken into the spore network by May as our cliffhanger.

This has been my favourite episode of Season 2 so far, it had a lot of fun moments, I loved parallel situations between the Bridge crew and the Engineering crew. The many touching scenes with Saru here were great. I loved this one.

[thewomancallednova]

General spoilery thoughts on "Red Directive"

I really like how happy Burnham is in this first episode. I recently rewatched "The Vulcan Hello" and it's a really nice contrast to "Red Directive", she's so much less restrained and seems so much more content with her job.

Veyr cute marriage proposal, also very very happy to have an entirely non-human inter-species romance in Trek.

Glad we get to keep Book and Tilly.

Admiral Vance continues to be the best admiral.

Do we actually know what the red directive is? Because non of the charcaters seem to go "Wha, I never heard of that," like with the omega directive in Voyager, so I assume it's a known, if rare Starfleet thing?

I'm glad they didn't keep us in the dark about what exactly the mission is for any longer than the first episode.

The start of the episode had very strong "we're all going our seperate ways and this is our last hurrah" vibes. Which, I maean, that is what it is.

That Tilly trying to hit on that poor other officer scene has to be one of the most awkward moments in the whole show

If anything happens to Fred I will kill everybody in this room and then myself.

Oh no.

It wouldn't be an episode of Discovery without a camera spinning engineers talking about how to fix a problem scene, wouldn't it?

I need more Adira and Reno.

Raynor is a really interesting addition. IMO every good show needs a massive jerk, just a huge dick that no one likes and who is entirely annoying to every other character so I love that he exists. Also very happy to see more cultural like diffusion.

Very excited for Stamets having a new thing to be nervous about this season, but I am kinda disappointed that the spore drive won't be mass produced for Starfleet ships (at least it seems that way). I'd love to see how radically different the Trek universe would look like if instant ship transport like that were feasable.

The Progenitor name is originally from either a book or a video (Memory Beta isn't good at citing things, it could be from Captain's Glory, Hidden Evil or STO) so that's a neat little canonization.

I really love the red uniform, it reminds me of the monster maroons.

The Tholians are a republic now and I wish my little crystal spider babies all the best and a very shedai-free world <3

In general really fun episode and entry to the new season. I'm excited to see where the search goes and where all our little guys will end up.

[fortheloveoflatinum]

Disco Thoughts

Hey there, don't let me be the one to spoil it for you. Click at your own discretion, because here there be spoilers for Star Trek: Discovery.

When are we going to see Detmer and Owosekun? Are they even going to come back for the finale? I feel like we have a whole new bridge crew and as much as I respect the idea of the Bajoran pilot - what was her name again? - she's just a stand-in. She has had a few lines of sub-standard dialogue by this point and I am unimpressed. Detmer at least had some tension to her - she was a very angry character, to the point where that was her defining character trait (I can't remember the episode but I can't forget the scene where Saru is leading the crew in a dinner and Detmer makes up a rhyme about Stamet's blood. I think it was shortly after they jumped to the future.) 💔

Um since when are so many Commanders allowed on one ship? And why were they all passed over for promotion, having loyally followed Michael into the future - as Paul reminds us right before she blasts him out of an airlock - so she wouldn't have to be alone? Rayner seems like a wild card. I would have loved to see one of the original bridge crew who followed Michael to the future get a chance to shine as her Number 1. Just because Rayner needs a second chance doesn't mean that others don't deserve a first! 🌻

Who else loved seeing Bryce command the ship? That was a first I think, and speaks to my earlier point that he would have made a great Number 1. He stays level and calm - unlike, ahem, a certain Commander *coughs* Rayner. 😂

Part of me really wants to see Michael save the galaxy yet again, but don't you think it would be more fun if, say, she failed and Stamets did it single-handedly for a change? 😉

I was talking with my neighbor (he's also a Trekkie) and we were thinking about the choice to make the Breen liquid. Why? Well, because of the Founders, of course. If all the changeling-like, Founder-esque species allied together during the Dominion war, this adds exactly no layers of nuance to DS9 canon because one can throw one's hands quite neatly in the air and say, "Heh. Our old enemy, xenophobia strikes again. Thank goodness we have our own personal savior conveniently captaining a ship capable of going anywhere in the galaxy at the press of a spore drive button, right?" 🙏

Also I personally think answering the question of, "What does a Breen look like under their helmet?" takes away from their mystique. And their fearsomeness. It humanizes them, okay, and that was the one thing the Breen didn't need. They're Breen! Also, heheh, green. ❇️

Just kidding. Imma miss the ever-living daylights out of Disco when it's gone. I was kind of hoping for it to end with a bang, but it seems a whimper is all we'll get. 😭

[mylittleredgirl]

the comet ep was a DELIGHT! 💗💗💗 class clown sam kirk. uhura singing!! spock’s pep talks. both aliens had super cool looks, too. and the open flame on a starship is just the 23rd century equivalent of the yule log on tv and can’t hurt me 😌 (i was stressing out about that)

i was 🤨🤔 throughout at pike’s strange absence of respect for the alien religion. like of course he’s going to still do what needs doing, but the “lol are they for real?” attitude seemed so at odds with his whole deal as a person going into season two. not to mention everything about the epic red angel journey we all just went on!! so it was a relief to see a little flicker of that return at the end with uhura’s reveal. the depression and flashbacks are obviously a result of The Trauma; the casual flippancy might be too?

not to be all disco-brained but i miss pike, spock, and michael all being in the same room so bad. like i SO BAD want pike to have the chance to have a five minute heart to heart with michael about his fate, especially the captain burnham she becomes!! because like WHO ELSE could be better for this?? she saved the galaxy and spent so long alone waiting for discovery and then had to go through her own journey…….. like PLEASE.

speaking of the future, i am very curious, only because every single named object and almost every person on the show so far has been an easter egg why none of the cadets pike will save have familiar names. (please correct me if my lore is insufficiently deep)

AND… jumping back an episode… absolute gut punch that the shuttle in the pilot ep was called the stamets because the disco crew are all dead and engineers are naming ships after them. i hope someone in starship assembly carved a little 🍄 somewhere on the hull for his mycelial engineering theory that dare not speak its name.

i’m going to put these season one snw posts under my trekathon tag.

[biblioflyer]

Discovery S5E1 first reactions (spoilers)

Every season, Star Trek's ugly duckling starts finding its footing a little better. I'm actually sad now its at its end.

I was prepared to be grumpy. For the first half hour or so, I was a little bit of a sourpuss. All the classic Discovery sins were on display in full force.

The main character syndrome. Burnham is leading from the front. Again. Didn't we have a whole season character arc about how captaining means sometimes you have to delegate?

Okay, okay, don't at me. The reasons for her to Kirk it up in the thick of things were reasonably well thought out.

I'm really torn between appreciating the whole "Iron Man" sequence in space as a smart, logical extrapolation of the technological development of the series and just being somewhat numb and feeling like the whole thing was rule of cool from start to finish.

They better not skimp out on Raynor's backstory and motives, because thus far every call he's made has been even more devoid of compassion as Captain Shaw, but critically none of his hard man making hard choices directives make sense. He's being set up as an Ahab type character.

Now this isn't the first time we've have a Starfleet Ahab. Ben Maxwell was just such a character. Critically though, he was a renegade that our hero characters were called in to hunt down like a mad dog precisely because, understandable motives or not, he was so far outside the bell curve for acceptable Starfleet standards for rules of engagement, compassion etc. that he was on the verge of provoking a war with the Cardassians.

A war that a lot of revisionist fans, mapping Cardassia and its ultimate alliance with the Dominion to Russia and the invasion of Ukraine, have come around to thinking a preventative war was good and cool, rather than risking an apocalypse. I've talked about this a few times, but the fact that the protomatter, temporal, isolytic, trilithium, biological etc. weapons haven't been deployed in quantity in the wars that have been depicted in Trek means everyone got damn lucky. Strange New Worlds has even seen fit to remind us that even with just conventional weapons, its not hard for casualties to run up into the millions given the scale of the civilizations butting heads.

But that's a rant for another time.

So Raynor being within spitting distance, if not wholly inside of the Section 31 anything for the mission mentality, is irksome. I'm probably not doing my due diligence by complaining without watching episode two yet, but still its a bad look. Its a nasty callback to depictions of casual jerkiness and military caricature from Picard's third season and Discovery's first.

Also I don't care about Burnham and Book’s relationship. I just don't. Nor am I particularly interested in Tilly finding love. They’re all fine and interesting characters without needing to inject relationship drama into the mix. This show has really started to feel like it doesn’t need to rely on cheap sources of melodrama. Finding love isn't the only pathway to character development. I don't watch this franchise for NCC-90210 storylines.

And I'm also a raging hypocrite because if anything happens to Saru and T'Rina, I will be even grumpier! Same with Culber and Stamets.

I may have a soft spot for warm, lived in, tender relationships and minimal patience for stories about relationship drama among the stars.

Also, I do appreciate that at least in the first episode, the Burnham - Book "ship" feels less overwrought. The awkwardness between them reads as a more mature, more nuanced incarnation of the relationship. Even when they inevitably patch things up, I really hope its less showy and melodramatic, and more cozy.

Grumpiness aside, I have to compliment the cast, writers, and crew enormously. This show has matured so impressively in the sense that the cast are able to find the characters in a natural and seamless way. The writers are putting better dialogue in their mouths even if I don't always necessarily want to see the specific storylines playing out.

Its a testament to the idea that art is a thing you practice and the human beings involved in producing this stuff need time and space to get it right. By legacy TV standards, Discovery is only just starting the equivalent of its third season. We used to talk about the two season rule for legacy Trek. The idea that it really only got good, not merely watchable if you have a good tolerance for cheese, but actually good in the third season.

The action sequences, mostly, were really good too. Well composed, clear and easy to follow while having a decent amount of drama and uncertainty to them.

The chase sequence really managed to capture the power and physics of having starships operating inside the atmosphere of a planet and what they can do. Although I'm sure the tech fans will froth at a number of obvious inconsistencies in scaling, at least we actually see some interesting consequences of ships interacting with planets.

Additionally it also accidentally portrays one of the world building problems with the version of the Star Wars universe depicted by the Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith Incredible Cross Sections books. Yes, I'm one of those kinds of fans who has argued both sides of that particular controversy. I've always found Dr. Saxton's attempts to quantify just what is going on and then contrive explanations for how its possible fascinating, but ultimately it presents serious world building problems. Like the idea that one scoundrel with one relatively diminutive ship, like the Falcon or Slave I, could utterly wreck a populated area in seconds causing thousands, if not tens of thousands of casualties if they're having a bad day. Such are the elemental forces and energy levels at the disposal of even common riff raff in Dr. Saxton's depiction of Star Wars.

In Discovery, we see what happens when a couple of scoundrels have their back up against a wall, and it comes within a hair's breadth of tragedy.

BIG SPOILERS

The callback to the Progenitors is also really interesting. I'm curious as to what the MacGuffin will ultimately be, because if you scrutinize the various technologies of the week in Trek, most of the mature space faring peoples already seemed to have the capacity to do what the Progenitors could do: seed a planet with life and then guide that life across billions of years of evolution to a desirable endpoint. The main thing that is missing is the ability to ensure, in the style of Expanse's Protomolecule Builders, that your project can babysit itself without direct intervention for all that time.

Also kudos to Discovery for its cutesy storytelling device of grabbing a background character and turning them into someone of great significance. This is something that can be overdone, see also: Star Wars, especially the Legends continuity; but I have a soft spot for lore nerds.

Also speaking of Lore, I'm a little curious as to whether this is the last we'll hear of Fred. Synth "death" is kind of an ambiguous thing. They were able to harvest usable data from him, but perhaps there's a meaningful difference between the systems responsible for consciousness and memory storage? Perhaps the ocular memory is a sort of buffer in which information is triaged, analyzed, and then either committed to long term memory or deleted.

[sshbpodcast]

Star Trek Parents Just Don’t Understand (Part 2)

By Ames

Last week, you’ll remember we covered a whole lot of parents from the classic Star Trek series and just how much they tended to ruin their kids’ lives. Well, this week A Star to Steer Her By is finishing out the topic with parental units from currently running Trek series and the Kelvin movies. Expect this one to not be nearly as far reaching, partly because SPOILERS WILL ABOUND below the cut and partly because we’ve not covered much of this on the podcast yet, so frankly I don’t remember a good deal of it.

But some of our major players have or are noteworthy parents to talk about in this period of wide-screen Trek (seriously, everything looks like a movie now and it’s impacting my screengrab game). Give your parents a hug for us as you see them listed below and also in probably the most spoilery episode of the podcast we’ve ever recorded (discussion starts at 59:37). They only raised you from tadpoles.

(Again, some mega spoilers for Star Trek 2009, Discovery, Lower Decks, Prodigy, Strange New Worlds, and especially [seriously!] Picard are below.)

[Images © CBS/Paramount]

Kelvin George Kirk

George Kirk was a parent to literally newborn James for all of thirty seconds before saving his life, Winona’s life, and the lives of the crewmembers of the USS Kelvin. While we have no idea if he’d have been any good at raising the youngster had he lived (apparently so since this alternate Kirk ended up being quite the ruffian compared to that walking stack of books from The Original Series), we know what he valued by his actions, his sacrifice, and his refusal to name him Tiberius.

Kelvin Sarek

In pretty much all timelines, Sarek is a bit of a hypocrite when it comes to raising a half-Vulcan, half-human son like Spock. Why he can’t get it through that Vulcan bowlcut of his that having a child with a human will dilute that cherished green blood of theirs is absolutely beyond me. I thought you hobgoblins were supposed to be logical, after all. Maybe if Amanda hadn’t blown up, things would have gone better for Quinto-Spock.

Discovery Sarek

Speaking of Sarek, in Discovery we actually see that he very much seems to prefer raising his ward Michael Burnham to raising either of his natural sons. Go figure. Apparently all his progenies had to do was follow in his footsteps, join the Vulcan Academy, and literally have a chunk of his katra from a past mindmerge-thing for daddy to love them.

Gabrielle Burnham

Michael’s relationship with her birth parents is something much more complicated. This is Discovery, after all; “It’s complicated” is the subtitle of the series! When we learn that Gabrielle is still alive, having saved Michael by becoming the Red Angel, it’s a bittersweet reunion that can only be made stranger by their second reunion in the 32nd century when momma has become a space nun of some kind. As if Michael didn’t have enough of this Vulcan stuff growing up!

Voq and L’Rell

On the subject of space nuns, we learn that Voq and L’Rell’s child Tenavik got to be raised by some time monks in the Boreth Monastery. Which, frankly, is probably the best that kid could ask for! The combative Klingon Empire was no place to raise a baby, and good on his parents for finding a child-rearing solution that, at the very least, kept him alive. Ya know, after just a little bit of faking his death. Q'apla, I guess!

Stamets and Culber

What is sweeter and purer than two gay space dads mentoring a nonbinary sorta-Trill sorta-not adolescent? I didn’t realize that Adira is supposed to be 16 when we meet them (probably because the actor was like 23), but regardless of age, they are struggling with their identity in enough ways to make a Vulcan weep, and having the support of a nurturing queer family is just what they need.

Ephaim

An easy example of a good parent from the Discovery era comes in one of the Short Treks, “Ephaim and DOT.” Sure, she’s a tardigrade and mostly just following that biological impulse to keep one’s seed alive, but she does better than a lot of other Trek parents. Go, tardigrades, go!

Raffi Musiker

Moving on to Star Trek: Picard, we see another negligent parent in the conspiracy theory–obsessed Raffi Musiker. She might rival Worf as a parent whose absence has screwed up their kid the most, as we see that Gabriel is downright hostile to her when she tries to reconnect. And then in season 3, she yet again chooses Starfleet over her family. Perhaps we’re lucky we haven’t seen Alexander in Picard, since he and Gabriel could have some stories to tell.

Troi and Riker

Say what you will about the Troi-Riker relationship, but they seem to be doing pretty okay raising their daughter Kestra. She’s a nifty kid with her head on straight, so they must be doing something right. Also, it’s very clear throughout their appearances in Picard that these parents did everything they could to save their son Thaddeus from his mendaxic neurosclerosis, and his loss affected them in the way only losing a beloved child could.

Maurice and Yvette Picard

We were teased a bit in TNG with just enough information about Jean-Luc’s upbringing to let us know his relationship with his father was strained and that with his mother was loving, but then the second season of Picard had to go spelling things out for us in ways we didn’t really need. Maurice becomes that much more terrible because he evidently did nothing when Yvette was going down a dark path. And Yvette… what the hell were the writers trying to say about Yvette? Freakin’ yikes. 

Adam Soong

Also in season two of Picard, we get YET ANOTHER Soong ancestor for Brent Spiner to play, ya know, for reasons. Evidently all the Soongs except Data (see last week’s inclusion!) are just terrible parents because they’re effectively just trying to prolong their own legacy instead of actually caring for the needs and wants of the child. Kore, in this case, lives a life so sheltered she can’t even go outside without bursting into flames. Much like that whole damn season…

Teresa Ramirez

We do, however, get one solid parent in season two of Picard, and that’s Teresa Ramirez, the divorced mother who Rios is totally thirsty for. Actually, we don’t see a lot of children of divorce in Star Trek, do we? As we established last week, it’s far more likely to have one parent get killed off than it is to have people amicably separate because, of course, that makes for more drama. There’s Torres’s parents, and Rom and Prinadora but that’s just their Ferengi contract, and that might just be about it? Anyway, Teresa’s cool.

Jean-Luc Picard and Bev Crusher

Season three, however, is just a straight up family reunion show with lots more literal family members that get introduced to boot! Somewhere after Nemesis, evidently Bev and JL got down to clown and then Bev ran away and hid the pregnancy from him for however many years this boy is old. Sure, we all agree Picard would make a father that might rival Worf’s awkward sense of child neglect, but is Bev any better never telling him? Discuss amongst yourselves.

Geordi La Forge

Geordi’s been busy too, cranking out at least two daughters. Like Sarek’s relationship with his various kids, it seems much easier for Geordi to play favorites. Alandra is the favored daughter because she followed in his footsteps and seems like she was generally passive, while Sidney is the black sheep of the family and La Forge has trouble connecting with her because she can’t just be controlled like certain holoprograms I could name.

Carol Freeman

Let’s get out of Picard and into some animated stuff. The relationship between Captain Freeman and her daughter Beckett Mariner is at the core of Lower Decks, so much so that it’s kept secret from the rest of the crew for the drama of it all. Most of the show treats their relationship like ones we’ve seen before in which the child lashes out because they don’t want to follow in their parent’s footsteps. There is love there, but their failure to communicate does dominate.

The Diviner

In our other animated Trek, The Diviner definitely falls into that category of just the worst kind of parent because he will sacrifice Gwyn a hundred times over to get his way. He never listens to what she wants, chooses the Protostar over her, and leaves her to nearly get killed on vine planet. All this and the only reason he created her in the first place was to continue his work. Rude, bro.

Joseph M’Benga

Finally, we have Dr. M’Benga in Strange New Worlds, whose dedication to caring for his sick daughter Rukiya is admirable and incredibly sweet. Every time he reads fairy tales to her in sickbay is a beautiful little scene, and the end of “The Elysian Kingdom” is a tear jerker that we were honestly surprised to get so early in the run of the show. I kinda hope we see more from Rukiya in future, but who knows what’s written in these fantastical pages?

— We’re ducking out from this family reunion before someone whips out the photo album. Catch us next time for more, and definitely keep listening to our watchthrough of Voyager over on SoundCloud or wherever you get podcasts. You can also post family in-jokes on our Facebook and Twitter, and would it hurt to call once in a while?

[almalvo]

STAR TREK: DISCOVERY | S1E10 "Despite Yourself"

[I will react to each episode individually and in full, raw reception and then post as is unrevised here onto my tumblr for the full span of every and all NuTrek episodes and series that have been and will be released. If this falls under your field of interest - I welcome your company in joining me. Enjoy the ride.] -------

wow first time the android dint have a bass sfx XD saru's tendrils - oml when he covers them is kinda cute i like owosekun's hairrr vulcans with weapons powered? bruh r we in mirrorverse we're in mirrorverse. 100%. yup. it was obvious from the end of last episode esp with 2 DISCOs showing mhmm. yeah these cuts need improvement still but alright bring it DISCOs turn for mirrorverse antics. lets go. haha this ep writen by someone named "sean cochran". zefram? jkjk tribble backk so cute give me one i wonder what its name is

ok this spinning scene of lorca and burnham and saru talking is spinning way to fast for too long how long are we going to keep spinning. its actually making me busy and hte cuts are not consistent in momentum so it didnt feel seamless it sholdve been takien in one shot and the camera needed to stop WAY sooner. thats how you wouldve actually shot a scene of that type. but "idk" ig, im just a mortal 😭 OK STAMETS. NOT ME SENDING PEOPLE 10 METRES AWAY FROM A TAP OF A FINGER sylvia saying "oh my god" then resuming like nothing happened was such a fast tone change i see those piercing marks on doc's ears. i always get this thoght of, whenever i see that on someone, im like BRUH PUT THEM BACK IN some of these camera ratios, rule of thirds, etc., are like. not done great? idk the eye is not reading the shot how it should a lot cuz the entity is not in an advantageous spot onscreen. tyler is going THROUGH it. damn. i think tyler's actor does well with representing traumatic fear oh interesting. i love these tactile sounds like the sound of the device tyler is wearing on his hand to control the ship's arm i like lorca's rbf XD

shit. poor tyler. thats never ok. her violating u like that. ugh. this makes me uncomfortable oh interesting. oo his klingon inflections are so good oh shit this is a weird scene its such a MIX of implications i like the acting i it actually it felt actually kind of complex, though the idea is simple nice this was actually decently shot. i like the way tyler's hair sits on his head haha looks nice nice swoops man these inconsistent camera transitions (one pose in the last cut, but a diff pose in the other) tylers acting doing p well actually his emotional expression is p decent yeah good ash x burnham is still an f no for me feels so empty it prob always will to me oo the gore effects of the cuts on hishand from the broken glass look relaly good faceless emperor. im so curious who.

"mirror disco". yess. ooo what do their mirrorverse selves look like SYLVIA. oml oh my god oml this is coo,ll oml SYLVIA LETS GO BEAT HER ASS. NOOOOO WHAT THE HECK HECK HELL HOLD YOUR HORSES?? WHAT THE CRINGEEEE oml please sylvia pull through lorca coaching her lmao WHAT THE FUCKGKKHKH O9H NMY GODDDDDD CHIEF ENGINNEERRRRR AND LORCA DOES A PASSASBLE SCOTTS ACCENRTTTTT????@?!??! YOURE FUKCING KIDDDIDNGGGG GET THE FUCK OUT OH MY GODDDDDDD/???? LORCA I MIGHT LIKE YOU MORE OML H GHGJAIHO THIS PREMONITION FUC KKKKKKKK lorca has a type of voice that sounds nicer when its quieter if that makes sense? it almost sounds strange when he yells? idk maybe its just me or maybe thats the way audio was edited oml the way saru was saying "well thats not very clever" was so emotive its beautiful oml their uniforms are oml so cool man the mirror badge man ill say not to be a shit but i love to always see this TOS/star trek root-type episodes where they reminisce on such a classic trope from og trek - but at the same time, i wihsh trek didn tdo it so much to just solely rely on TOS to make its relevance stronger, no matter how sensible that seems? while star wars feels preety big and expansive and busy with a lot of overlapping lore star trek is literally just "TOS, the expanded version" it feels so small. in that, nigh everyhing will forever and always just be/because of TOS. and i love tos. dont get me wrong, its my all time favourite forever. but trek i feel like never can develop significantly newer stuff? OH MY GOD USS DEFIANTTTT LOOK AT HERRR god i cant wait to see this ship design.. but yeah idk if people understand what i mean. that something so ideologically massive as trek is so small as a creative work in its "relevant lore". sure tng has its things, so does ds9, voy, ent - but it all comes back to tos. which is a double edge sword. a good thing. but also a bad thing. for if it were without tos, then much of trek doesnt really hit like that. yes be great hubby hugh love your mans ?? oh for a second i was like his eyes oh wow seeing sylvia with sstraight hair oh wow it compliments her head and face shape ngl she looks great in the armour. they all do ooh lorca in a leather jacket and black t shirt? okok works on him oooo sylvia lets GO GET IT YES KILL IT BRUH DO IT DO IT oo this dark lipstick works great on burnham oo i wonder when we will see sylvia really a captain

wtf. lorca for real? yo ujust did that to yourself? for blood? bruh we couldve done make up also yes of course, big runny red line down side of face. oooooooooooooooo MEAN BURNHAM lorca is an oddly good prisoner. hmMmmMM damn yall sass. ugh i really really really want more trek games. is he not human. is tyler not humnan. is tyler not originaly human. SO TYLERS A FUCKING KLINGON? i love his look of dejection hes relaly good at it. dude. hes a fucking klingon UH UHHHHH UHHHHHHHHHHHH??????????? DID YOU JUST FUCKING KILL HUGHHH??????? WHAT THE FUCK????? WAIT GAY COUPLE IS GONE DEAD NOW ITS OVER??/ WHAT I THOUGHT I THOUGHT STAMETS AND HUGH LAST LONGER? WHAT THE FUCKING FUCK? IM SO CONFUSED?? WHAT THE FUCK? WHY DID HUGH HAVE TO DIE ESP LIKE THAT? WHAT THE FUCK. what the actual fuck. its always the poc who dies. fuck you. idk. if he rly died or what. but fuck you. and trek still in the closet fuck this internalised homophobia. its been 6 FUCKING DECADES. GET OVER YOURSELF. KIRK AND SPOCK FUCKING EXIST. JUST COME OUTTA YOUR RAINBOW DOORS & BE DONE WITH IT. FUCK. (and no im not condoning invasion of privacy of one's sexual/gender orientation at all. i just mean if you said your gay. then own it. cuz trek has said it. its called seasons 1-3 of TOS, TAS, ST I-VI, AOS I-III. so own it. fuck.)

burnham does this role relaly well in a way she fits THIS mirror burnham more than her default. also damn lorca hahaha what i say, he gets kicked around a lot but its intersting that hes cap in this kind of role damn burnham you angery. i like this gold foil look on their armour. oo get him burnham get him get him decent choreo ooo ok ok yeah decent choreo oh yeah oooo nice i love this blade design oh shit burnham sonequa did well in her reaction to stabbing him. u can read the shock aand regret in her eyes forget klingons mirorverse starfleet is literally death. bat'leth? more like batshit. also this bridge oo whoa her bridge is on the bottom of her ship ooooo her warping oooo captain burnham but not how i thoughbt itd happen i feel like sonequa is better in this its crazy i feel like her as mirror self is better?

yes those HIGH boots sharp black and gold ugh. i love love LOVE the art department behind DISCO. hmm i feel like i see definite glimpses and glimmers of really quality stuff and quality delivery in this show but htey are very sporadic. spaced apart y inconsistencies and discrepancies. i think this sho wcouldve been much better ash and burnham - im sorry but who actaully, ACTUALY cares about them together. snoreeee s n o r e e e e e e um. lorca. is actually getting tortured. dude whta did i TELL yall. hes literally the one who gets pissed on fr fr 😭 damn. seeing lorca screaming. damn. id be surprised. but then again. he gets bashed all the time so. eh. ngl i feel like lorca gon die. but i wonder how.

damn.

[witchyfoxelf]

[tv review] discovery 3x11-3x13 (2020-21)

3x11 “su’kal”

acting. captain. tilly.

i know osyraa takes the ship from her (and is pretty hot in the process, ngl), but the way she holds her own in their first few confrontations was pretty badass. and i love, love, loved michael’s pep talk to her and everyone being so completely behind her.

this episode starts a three-episode arc that wraps up all of the season’s plot lines in a satisfying way while also just being an extremely well-structured story as its own entity. saru, michael, and culber go on a rather unique away team mission with a ticking clock. by the end of the episode, the away team is actually saru, culber, and adira after book swoops in to bring michael back to discovery and adira stows away because they’re a badass.

this episode is definitely more about setting the stage for the last two episodes of the season, whereas those episodes are more about all kinds of shit happening omg, but it still manages to be a damn good episode in its own right. a-rank

3x12 “there is a tide…”

michael burnham IN space die hard.

also, admiral vance and osyraa’s negotiations are badass. the conflict between the emerald chain and the federation is made explicit when osyraa actually says the word “capitalism” out loud. vance and the federation are actually totally interested in peace with the chain as long as osyraa steps down and faces justice for her many, many crimes.

acting captain tilly really, really shines when her crew stages a jailbreak. she’s just totally on top of everything, and issuing orders like she’s been doing it her whole life.

but, yeah. space die hard starring michael burnham is the main attraction here, and it totally works. and it’s fully justified by the narrative.

you guys, season 3 managed to do the same basic idea that drove me crazy in season 1 (michael burnham vs. the world), and make it actually good??? this is how you do an individual hero story. by making her part of something more, and not having that thing be an abstract idea that everyone around her should theoretically agree with. instead, you make her part of a family, and have her explicitly fighting for them.

even the heart-wrenching bit of storytelling where she sends an unwilling stamets off the ship for his own protection and he explicitly describes this as a betrayal while begging her not to contributes to this. it explicitly morally imperils burnham by attaching the stakes to her family.

it also shows her making a difficult command decision. the kind we’re told over and over, including by michael herself, that a captain needs to be able to make.

hmmm. s-rank

3x13 “that hope is you, part 2”

captain michael burnham.

in a way, this was always where this was going. this whole show, i mean. it still surprised me the first time i saw it, i had just kind of come to accept the status quo of her being the central character of the story without being the captain. but looking back over the series as a whole leading up to this point… what else could it have been leading to?

the idea of michael having a command of her own is introduced in the very first episode of the series. it’s explicitly what phillipa was preparing her for. and this season has been all about michael’s growth, getting her to the point where she was really, truly ready for the center seat.

the moment when acting captain tilly insists on michael taking command is perfect. “you need to lead us. you. but, um, if it helps, that’s an order.” and then admiral vance asks her to take command officially and it just feels so completely right. my favorite part of this being the admiral explicitly saying that michael has been waiting too long, that she deserves this.

but to make this okay, we need something for saru that’s more important than the center seat. and he finds that in su’kal, the lonely, traumatized kelpian boy who caused the burn. it’s very sweet seeing saru patiently establish trust with him. despite the urgency of their situation, he knows not to push too hard too fast. it makes their bond feel extremely earned.

also also also, gray gets a (temporary, holographic) body!! and gets to meet hugh and they’re such a great family and hugh explicitly promises that they’ll find a way to bring gray back permanently and aaaaaaa.

so, uh, yeah. that wraps up… maybe the best single season of any star trek show… ever? it’s hard to say, because we’re talking about over 40 seasons. but… yeah. regardless, this one really stood out.

i’m so grateful this show eventually became this. s-rank

[defendglobe]

thanks for voting! the correct answer is actually "an interstellar conflict is resolved through a game of poker." everything else actually happened. explanations/specific episodes listed below for anyone who is curious:

a character yells incoherently about pepperoni pizza = "threshold" from voyager (S2E15)

for some reason, tom paris goes faster than warp 10 and ends up mutating into a lizard. at one point during this transformation, he yells about wanting pepperoni pizza. threshold is often considered to be the worst episode in all of star trek, but it also won an emmy award.

a plot to overthrow the federation involves a video game that makes you cum = "the game" from the next generation (S5E6)

bit of a trick question here, since the word "cum" itself is never used, but unfortunately, this one really did happen. the crew of the enterprise-D gets addicted to a video game that riker brought back from risa. this game "stimulates the pleasure centre of the brain" when they beat a level and the characters literally walk around moaning like porn stars. it turns out this game is actually an alien plot to take over the entire federation.

a character swaps bodies with their partner during diplomatic negotiations = "spock amok" from strange new worlds (S1E5)

spock and his fiance t'pring do a vulcan meditation ritual to try and understand each other better, but it goes wrong when they accidentally swap bodies. to make things worse, the enterprise is in the middle of negotiating an alliance with the r'ongovians, who refuse to talk with anyone but spock. since t'pring is stuck in spock's body, she has to go through the negotiations while pretending that she's actually spock and everything is fine.

a character accidentally killed someone while playing soccer as a kid = "let he who is without sin..." from deep space nine (S5E7)

worf goes to risa (the sex and partying planet) and spends the entire time being grumpy and uptight while everyone else is relaxing. when his gf calls him out for ruining everyone's good time, he explains that he acts overly reserved because of a childhood incident where he got too excited while playing soccer and forgot about his superhuman strength, resulting in him accidentally killing a human teammate.

the ship's computer has a panic attack and has to be calmed down by the crew - "stormy weather" from discovery (S4E6)

in seasons 3-4 of discovery, the ship's computer ends up becoming sentient, develops emotions, and even gives herself a name (zora). this particular episode involves discovery flying into a subspace rift to gather information and they end up getting trapped inside. zora becomes so overwhelmed by the situation that her external sensors completely fail, making it harder for the crew to figure out how to escape. gray ends up having calm her down by playing a trill game with her.

a character finds his own decapitated head lying around = "time's arrow" from the next generation (S5E26/S6E10)

at an archaeological site, data's severed head is found buried with a bunch of artifacts from the 1800s. data concludes that somehow, he is destined to go back in time and die there. he does end up accidentally time travelling (where he gets stalked by mark twain, but that's another story) and eventually loses his head but is revived when the crew makes it back to the 24th century.

a character injects himself with alien DNA so he can talk to mushrooms = "choose your pain" from discovery (S1E5)

the crew finds a giant alien tardigrade thing that has the ability to communicate with the mycelial network. because of this ability, it's used to power the ship's experimental spore drive and to help navigate the network. over time, they start to realize that the spore drive is actually harming the tardigrade, but with the klingon war going on they can't just stop using it. in the end, paul stamets injects himself with the tardigrade's DNA so that he can take its place and communicate with the spores directly.

an interstellar conflict is resolved through a game of poker = the fake one!

although there are many star trek episodes involving poker (especially in the next generation, where the crew had weekly poker games), it was never used for large scale conflict resolution.

a character's brain is stolen by aliens but he's fine by the end of the episode = "spock's brain" from the original series

this episode fucking sucks.

a family road trip ends up causing the roswell UFO incident = "little green men" from deep space nine (S4E8)

quark gets a new ship, which he uses to help his brother drop his son off at starfleet academy (and also sell contraband on the way back). the ship turns out to be fucked and ends up blasting all three of them back in time, where they crash land in roswell 1947 and get interrogated by the US military.

[federsturm]

I had a revelation.

Tarka doesn't want to talk to Stamets because STAMETS HAS EVERYTHING TARKA EVER WANTED.

I mean it's canon that they're the more or less the same character wise. They both know this. And Tarka obviously did his research on Stamets. He learns that Culber was dead. And that he came back.

And suddenly it all makes sense. Why Tarka sent Aurellio to be their middle man. He does not want to see Stamets. Because he got Culber back. And Stamets is happy now. This could've been him. Stamets and Culber could've been Tarka and Oros - if they'd have made it out. That must have been like a slap in the face.

Stamets has everything. The love of his life. His spore drive that he dedicated his life to (just like Oros life's work was the interdimensional transporter) and made it work. He has friends. A family. People that care about him.

And Tarka? Has nothing. Not even a working interdimensional transporter.

He doesn't want to talk to Stamets because Stamets is happy.

I am not okay.

[bisexualbuck]

STAR TREK CREATOR CHALLENGE

Week 4 - Favorite Mirrorverse

The cosmos has lost its brilliance, and everywhere I turn, there's fear.

[inspo]

[Image description: six gifs in constrasting blue and red from Star Trek: Discovery, focusing on the Mirror Universe.

Gif 1: Blended gif of Emperor Georgiou and Mirror Burnham. Georgiou is wearing a large crown that resembles the sun, while Burnham looks tensed as she turns to look at Georgiou.

Gif 2: Blue gif of Burnham being put in an agonizer which is a cylindrical cell. Two guards walk away from the agonizer, and Georgiou steps forward.

Gif 3: Blended gif of an overhead shot of the Imperial throne room. Burnham is dragging Lorca toward the throne, the crowd watching in. On the right side of the gif, Lorca is talking animatedly.

Gif 4: Red gif of an overhead shot showing Stamets laying in a pool of his own blood, dead. He is holding a dagger in one hand, and there are ribbons around him.

Gif 5: Blended gif of Owosekun and Detmer. On the left, Detmer is talking, she seems proud of herself. On the right, Owosekun watches something, her suspicion growing.

Gif 6: Blue gif of Tilly sitting on the captain chair of the Discovery, she is in full Mirror gear, her hair straightened. She is talking to someone off-screen.

/end image description]

[reginaldqueribundus]

The “If I Fought This Star Trek Discovery Character, Would I Win?” Post

Michael Burnham

End Fight Probability: There is a 1000% chance Michael knocks you out. 

Listen. Michael has seen some shit. She killed a Klingon in hand-to-hand combat, in an EVA suit, by accident. She’s been to prison, she’s been to the mirror universe where she had to win a surprise knife fight in an elevator, she spent a year as a courier getting chased by the Emerald Chain. Even if you best her in physical strength, she can outwit you with her razor-sharp mind honed by years of Sarek’s disapproving perfectionism. Also, she’s got main character powers. You don’t stand a chance. Do not fight Michael Burnham.

Saru

End Fight Probability: There is a 300% chance Saru knocks you out. 

No. Please no. You might think he’s a pushover and you can startle him into submission like one of those fainting goats, but the man can run like a gazelle and crush communicators with his bare hands, and that was BEFORE he went through double puberty and lost the ability to fear death. Don’t let his friendly exterior fool you. He’s 8 feet tall and can shoot spikes out of his face. If you even look at him he'll stomp you to death with his hooves. Please don’t fight Saru.

Sylvia Tilly

End Fight Probability: There is a 50% chance Tilly knocks you out. 

Sure, you could fight Tilly, but why would you want to? She's a ray of fucking sunshine, you heartless bastard! Plus when she gets cornered she will remind you why the Terrans call her Captain Killy. And you’re going to end up with Admiral Vance, the entire crew of Discovery, and a horde of pissed-off Starfleet cadets on your ass. Don’t bother trying to fight Tilly.

Paul Stamets

End Fight Probability: There is a 0% chance Paul knocks you out.

Yeah, you could absolutely beat Paul Stamets, but you really shouldn't. Paul doesn't want to fight anyone. He's so tired. He just wants to hang out in engineering with his tools and his mushrooms and his alien children. He's been shoved through the mycelial network and had his brain turned inside out so many times he probably doesn't even register pain anymore. Just don't.

Hugh Culber

End Fight Probability: There is a 100% chance Hugh knocks you out and a 150% chance Paul sends your ass to the mushroom dimension.

Not a good idea. This man is shredded. He was dead for half a season and spent the entire time doing crunches, then came back to life just so he could fistfight the fucker that killed him. He will kick your ass, Hippocratic Oath notwithstanding. Don't make him write you a prescription for those hands. Maybe schedule a therapy session with him instead, talk through whatever it is that's causing you to try to fight him and all of his friends. Otherwise his husband might smear your atoms across the multiverse.

(former) Emperor Philippa Georgiou

End Fight Probability: There is a 1000000% chance Georgiou straight up kills you.

HOLY SHIT ARE YOU CRAZY? GEORGIOU GREW UP DODGING 26 ASSASSINATION ATTEMPTS BEFORE BREAKFAST. SHE GOT SHOT POINT BLANK WITH A PAIN GUN AND GOT OFF ON IT. FOR THE LOVE OF FUCK DON'T TRY TO FIGHT HER!!! NOT ONLY WILL YOU DIE BUT IT WILL HURT THE WHOLE TIME YOU ARE DYING.

Ash Tyler

End Fight Probability: There is a 200% chance Ash snaps your neck.

Absolutely do not fight Ash. He's part Klingon, part Space CIA Agent, all crazy. He probably knows 87 different ways to kill you, and his Section 31 pals will make it like you never existed — and that's if his ex-girlfriend doesn't kill you and eat your face first. Please, do not fight Ash. The universe already beat the crap out of him way harder than you ever could.

Christopher Pike

End Fight Probability: There is a 1701% chance Pike knocks you out.

You might think Pike is a pushover but he walks into every fight with the brazen confidence of a man who has seen his own future. And on Talos IV he learned how to fight with spears and shit. Don't fight Pike, you won't even muss up his hair.

Cleveland Booker

End Fight Probability: There is a 250% chance Book knocks you out.

You really, really don't want to fight Book. He has Disney Princess powers. You try to fight him, you might get eaten by a giant space worm. He killed a dude for dissing his cat. Don't fuck with Book, man.

Keyla Detmer

End Fight Probability: There is a 100% chance Detmer knocks you out.

Absolutely under no circumstances should you fight Detmer. She flew a starship out of an explosion into a completely different universe. She flew through the Galactic Barrier and a toxic void in space. She has nerves of literal steel. Don't fight Detmer.

Joann Owosekun

End Fight Probability: There is a 500% chance Owo knocks you out.

Listen. You don't want to mess with people who live on Star Trek Future Earth and still choose to be Amish. Did you not see her punch out that huge guy in the casino episode? Hell no. Don't fight Owo.

Adira Tal

End Fight Probability: There is a 480% chance Paul and Hugh come and knock you out.

Sure, you could probably take Adira. They're small and awkward and a big nerd. But they've also got two dads who will absolutely annihilate you from this plane of existence if you lay a hand on their little nerd baby. Fight Adira at your own risk.

Gabriel Lorca

End Fight Probability: There is a 40% chance Lorca shoots you.

Yeah, he's tough and he's got a bunch of weapons on his wall, but you're morally compelled to fight him because he is The Worst™. He kidnapped Michael because he was her other self's creepy uncle and he tried to overthrow the genocidal space Emperor because he thought she wasn't racist enough. Please, please, fight his disgusting, skeevy, murderous, predatory ass.

(shamelessly copied off this brilliant post by @shevathegun)

[starryeyes2000]

That Night In The Cave: Chapter 24

Read on AO3 or FFN

Rating: Teen

Genre: Hurt/Comfort, First Love, Romance

Pairings: Pike & Tilly; Una x OMC; Saru x OFC

Word Count: 2.4k

Chapter Summary: Kayleigh offers comfort to Saru. Overnight Tilly tends Pike's rising fever.

Excerpt: Kayleigh hesitated at the doorway to the ready room. As a botanist she had little interaction with the ship’s commanders, senior staff, and operations officers. Except for Saru. Their mutual interest in flora and fauna had deepened into friendship and was now, perhaps, after a few low-key dates, she hoped, morphing into a romance.

They had not spoken since Discovery had to leave the Captain and Ensign Tilly behind on the planet. Since the rescue mission that ended in a disaster. Since their jump in pursuit of the third signal.

She was having an argument with herself.

Don’t bother him.

But maybe he needs someone to talk to.

He has a staff. A staff that can give him actual information that is useful.

But he doesn’t have to be strong and resolute with me.

Yes, he does. You are a member of his crew, and this ship is facing an emergency.

That’s not fair, he cannot be expected to be strong all the time.

That is what being a Captain means. It’s the price of the chair.

Continue Reading on AO3 or FFN

Story Masterlist | OC Masterlist | Author Masterlist

Story Summary:

Discovery’s crew is curious about Christopher Pike's background, especially his early missions shrouded in secrecy and his atypical medical skills. After all why would a starship captain be honored with the prestigious Carrington Award bestowed by the Federation Council for a lifetime’s excellence in medicine?

Tilly has a serious and secret (so she believes) crush on Discovery’s temporary commander, Christopher Pike. Saru’s Vahar'ai has triggered his species version of puberty with Pike serving as a stand-in father figure. Pike has a second and secret mission on Discovery in addition to sorting out the mystery of the seven signals. Restless while Enterprise is docked for repairs, Una takes a vacation.

This is hurt/comfort story of dangers, heroics, rescues, awkward situations, getting to know your crewmates, friendship, dating, romance, and the trajectory of first love for a young girl as she finds her place in her chosen profession. As well as the stranded in a cave during a storm trope. Pike whump. And a shirtless Pike stripped to his underwear.

Characters: Pike, Tilly, Saru, Michael, Reno, Detmer, Pollard, Stamets, Na’an, and the rest of the Discovery crew, Una Chin-Riley, and original supporting characters.

Taglist: @arrthurpendragon @ocappreciation @ocappreciationtag

[vulcanhello]

okokok discovery s3 thoughts

i LOVED IT. fr loved it. i really feel like discovery hit it’s stride this season. i have almost nothing negative to say about it i seriously ate this season up

michael is seriously the best character of all time ever and she means the world to me and i’m so so happy she’s finally captain. it’s what she deserves!! i love her and book, and her friendships with tilly and saru are so real and good. i wish she and tilly had spent more time together this season but what we did get i appreciated. i’m also glad that the bridge crew got their own mission in the finale! their individuality is finally coming across and i think i really like joanne owo and kayla detmer— i’d love to see them more together! and tilly leading their mission despite her failure as acting captain i think shows a lot of courage and character growth that girl is finally confident in herself as she should be!

the whole mystery of the burn was really interesting to me too, and i think the fallout of it was really well done. the orion leader i didn’t really care about but she wasn’t a terrible villain- in her peace talks at the end you can really see her point and the multitude of reasons why she operates the way she does. one thing i will say is that the andorian who escaped from her only to be killed in the final battle to reclaim the ship is never really mentioned again after the fact, which made me sad. i really wish this show spent more time on emotional fallouts / character interactions rather than interactions based soley on speeding the plot along.

sukal was probably my favorite of the new characters, and the scene in the finale where it shows him accidentally causing the burn made me cry a lil tbh! i think his story was perfect for saru’s character arc as a whole and i hope we get to see a little of them in season four! it would be cool to see kaminar and other worlds in this future. speaking of other worlds, i was disappointed we didn’t get to see michael’s mom or the leader of nivar again! that episode was probably one of the best this season and when michael made her distress call i was sure we’d get to see gabrielle again. maybe next season…

speaking of new characters i thought adira was fine but the whole thing between them and grey is a little boring to me. in the beginning i thought we were going to have a friendship between adira and michael be important but it was kind of dropped after they left the trill planet. also, stamets was annoying in the finale i’m sorry and i get it but no one has sacrificed as much as michael you don’t get to say these things to her!!! just trust her to find a way it’s not like she was going to let anyone die you know this!! i thought he was going to apologize at the end but he didn’t so he’s in my bad books. season four cold open is stamets 50min apology for pissing me specifically off or i will never watch again (real) (true)

overall this season was wicked awesome and really showed that michael is ready to be the best captain starfleet ever had. she always had the courage, the intelligence, the leadership, but i think after truly regaining her place among the crew and figuring out this mystery despite the setbacks and the mistrust solidified her as the best and only person for the job. she worked for that seat and she deserves it! you can’t say that about anyone else on the crew. michael is hope personified. captain doesn’t even feel like enough to describe her importance to the ship she is their heart and soul. i am so so looking forward to season four and seeing what she does next!