Thread by @STvSW

@thejohnprice So they executed the Stopped Clock Maneuver?

@thejohnprice Okay, saw it. It's basically a more maturely written #OnceUponAStarTrek, which is still a pejorative but much improved for the more mature style. There were several moments where they had me and several where they lost me., along with missed opportunities.

@thejohnprice - The Saru assisted suicide thing was the biggest missed opportunity. They had a chance to have the #StarTrek Philosophical Conversation™ about it, but skipped it, which is weird because they only got to it with a super-contrived "I'm too weak to do it" seconds after he wasn't.

@thejohnprice - The Universal Translator quasi-weaponization here was conceptually brilliant, and well played by all, though it seemed as if people sometimes heard *themselves* in the wrong language which isn't how it should work at all.

@thejohnprice That bit was completely undercut by the end, however, in which the computer is translating the sphere's records regarding alien histories. If the sphere could see and understand local humanoid squabbles and transmit data on normal frequencies, the whole virus thing was absurd.

@thejohnprice In other words, it'd be like me monitoring and understanding the whole history of China, only to have them find me in the international waters of the South China Sea (poke!) and instead of a hearty nǐ hǎo I decide to upload a virus and talk in invisible fireworks.

@thejohnprice And by the way, I thought Voyager not monitoring basic EM in the 1100 kHz (+/- 600) range . . . AM radio, for instance . . . was a bit of stupidly bad writing in "The 37's". However, #StarTrekDiscovery topped that by not having anyone ever looking at frickin' UV light.

@thejohnprice (Even when prompted!)

- The episode's Spocktease of the week was also its artificial time limit, insofar as a warp signature that would suddenly go from readable to out of range (at one point, in minutes), at which point he'd be lost to them forever.

That's . . . awful.

@thejohnprice That's basically like having a mobile AM transmitter broadcasting radio waves (which absolutely should not have been able to penetrate the shuttlebay door and get picked up by an effing 1930s Ford truck radio, FFS, and how the hell did it start anyway?… but I digress), which…

@thejohnprice … somehow you will suddenly lose completely and forever if it gets more than a mile away. That's insane on two fronts. First, can you not extrapolate at all? Second, even if you can't, you go where it last was and see if you pick it up again. But no… that'd make sense.

@thejohnprice - What really ripped me out of the episode was that Stamets, who last ep literally ripped a blob out of Tilly's delightful chest with no apparent medical pondering or consult, was suddenly claiming said blob mustn't be cut from its new home of her forearm's exterior because…

@thejohnprice … ermagerd it's a symbiotic lifeform and cutting it off would kill her. Huh? It was *inside her* like yesterday.

Maybe Reno was supposed to be the ripper from last episode, which would match her behavior this time, but they bumped the intro to this ep?

@thejohnprice - Speaking of time-wasting, "Number One" served no purpose here. She hand-delivered information that could've been sneakily transmitted. And, near as I can tell, she should've been trapped on Discovery. At sublight she was finishing a burger as Pike ran off to a briefing…

@thejohnprice … and after a brief Tilly scene we see him arrive at a briefing on the "red angels", dismissing everyone anyway, and the ship's been at warp the whole time, by his order. When did she get off the ship? Burnham claims to know she's en route to Spacedock, but huh?

@thejohnprice If it was a different briefing, what the hell was the first one he was late for about if not the mission, and why was he late/unavailable for a second one that's definitely rather primary to their mission?

@thejohnprice @threadreaderapp please unroll