Star Trek: Discovery Season One

[andraste]

So, Star Trek: Disco Edition has completed its first season! It was not perfect, but was a much more auspicious beginning than, for example, the first season of TNG. (Which was frequently downright awful. I feel like many people critiquing Discovery with comparison to the past have blocked the likes of Encounter At Farpoint and Code of Honor from their memories more successfully than I have.)

I love a lot of elements of the show, especially the characters. I have never fallen in love with such a high percentage of a Trek cast so quicky. (I think Saru is my favourite, but ask me tomorrow and it might be Lorca or Burnham or Stamets or Tilly. Especially if Tilly is really high and/or becoming the first person to say 'fuck' and 'shit' in Star Trek.)



Half the internet still seems to be insisting that this is not proper Trek (whatever that's meant to be) but for me the moment I knew it was the franchise I love was when they let Ripper go. I'd been seriously worried that I'd have to drop the show if they were going to keep torturing an animal every week, but no! They did the Starfleet thing! Which in hindsight is a vital indicator of where the season as heading.

Not all of the plot developments worked as well for me - I'm not convinced leaving L'Rell in charge of the Klingons was the right thing to do, although it was certainly a lot more right than blowing them up would have been, and at various points the plotting in the show has frustrated me.

I wasn't enthusiastic about the idea of Voq being Ash, and I can't say the execution did anything to bring me around to the storyline. I never really connected with Ash as a character, and when he tried to make Michael breaking up with him all about his feelings I crossed the line into actual dislike. Still, he did the right thing staying with L'Rell and trying to help both humans and Klingons, so I'm content with the way the whole thing resolved.

By contrast, I also thought that I didn't want Lorca to turn out to be from the Mirrorverse, but rarely have I been so very wrong about a story twist. I changed my mind completely in the middle of the reveal, loved how it was handled and now I am distraught at the idea of never seeing the magnificent bastard again. Since it seems that Georgiou is going to be Burnham's Evil Mirrorverse Nemesis and she probably doesn't need a second one, I will accept surprisingly alive Lorca Prime as a substitute if we can have Jason Isaacs back. (Although that would probably mean missing out on the uniform, sadly.) Or maybe he's hanging around in the magic space mushroom dimension and that's why nobody uses it in the future. ("Look, yes, there's a magical space fungus that makes instant travel possible, but we can't use it because someone threw a space fascist in there and ruined it.")

An idle thought: somewhere in the multiverse, evil Mirror!Jean-Luc Picard is really bitter about Spock losing the Empire and thus robbing him of his opportunity to become Emperor. I mean, he'd have been really good at it, until the ineviable coup. (I do not know who would lead the coup. Riker is a great first officer, but there is no universe in which I believe he could beat Picard at being an evil Emperor.)

Anyway, my other main complaint is that I wish they'd just tell us what is up with the timeline. I find it basically impossible to imagine this as a straight prequel to TOS - it's not just the technology and the uniforms and the Klingon design and Spock having a sister he forgot to mention, it's the whole framework of the show. I have trouble believing that the society that produced Burnham and Georgiou and Admiral Cornwell goes so far backwards in ten years time that there will be no women in command positions and Jim Kirk will be lamenting that his female officers will find the right man, get married and leave the service. I understand not wanting to reproduce the sexism of sixties Trek, but pretending that none of it ever happened and nothing is different is just annoying to me.

And speaking of social attitudes: Maker, the GB (no sign of L or T yet) representation on this show is so frustrating. On the one hand: hey, it exists! Which is more than one can say for most Trek, Rejoined and Sulu in the latest movie aside. On the other hand, I am faintly incredulous than in 2017 nobody seems to have considered the optics on what sure as hell looks like a Bury Your Gays storyline (even though the actors keep saying it isn't) and evil leather pants bisexual Georgiou. It's like the Intendant all over again. (I feel like it would help a bit if we established that Prime Georgiou was also bi, but then, she would still be dead and eaten and not appearing in this show any more while the evil leather pants ex-Emperor is still running around having it off with Orion slaves and then assaulting them.)

Although, a thing I feel compelled to point out: people keep saying Saru is the only straight white guy left in the main cast. While I have no issue counting aliens played by white men as white men, we know absolutely nothing about Kelpian sex and gender at this point, let alone how Saru personally feels about such things. Which is to say that I wish everyone would stop making lazy assumptions about aliens.

(I mean, I know this is Star Trek, which in the past has rarely strayed from lazy assumptions when it comes to this stuff. And has frequently imposed those assumptions on beings that don't have a physical form of any kind, let alone a reason to have two sexes and/or genders. I just don't think we should get ahead of ourselves assuming that 'straight' is even a thing that makes sense to a Kelpian, let alone that Saru is that thing.)

Comments

[selenak]

An idle thought: somewhere in the multiverse, evil Mirror!Jean-Luc Picard is really bitter about Spock losing the Empire and thus robbing him of his opportunity to become Emperor.

OMG, this is so true.

I mean, he'd have been really good at it, until the ineviable coup. (I do not know who would lead the coup. Riker is a great first officer, but there is no universe in which I believe he could beat Picard at being an evil Emperor.)

I would say "Mirrorverse Deanna Troi", obvs (because of "Face of the Enemy"), but we just learned the Betazoids got wiped out before even Lwaxana could be born, so it couldn't have been. So my money is on Data in that timeline where MirrorSpock didn't listen to Kirk. Data canonically proved he could take over the Enterprise whenever he wanted. And well, Lore did it twice (I think?), too, so we have canon on evil Data, too.

Possible alternative: MirrorWesley, who in Diane Duane's novel which was written before DS9 did the Mirrorverse on screen actually tries that to avenge his father.

BTW, what do we think Mirroverse Jean-Luc is up to in canon as is? I mean, MirrorSisko was a space pirate before Kira converted him into a resistance fighter. Maybe MirrorPicard was busy trying to discover the secret of time travel so he could go back and eliminate Spock from the timeline?

[andraste]

I would say "Mirrorverse Deanna Troi", obvs (because of "Face of the Enemy"), but we just learned the Betazoids got wiped out before even Lwaxana could be born, so it couldn't have been.

Which is a shame, because Evil Emperess Deanna would also be great. (Just like Emperess Hoshi in Enterprise.)

So my money is on Data in that timeline where MirrorSpock didn't listen to Kirk. Data canonically proved he could take over the Enterprise whenever he wanted. And well, Lore did it twice (I think?), too, so we have canon on evil Data, too.

That makes sense and would be nicely ironic in true Mirrorverse fashion - presumably Mirror!Picard sees him as a useful tool until Data decides it would be more logical if he just took over himself.

Possible alternative: MirrorWesley, who in Diane Duane's novel which was written before DS9 did the Mirrorverse on screen actually tries that to avenge his father.

I feel like Mirror!Wesley has an elaborate plan to kill Emperor Picard and get revenge that ends with Picard casually killing him because old age and treachery will always beat youth and skill.

BTW, what do we think Mirroverse Jean-Luc is up to in canon as is? I mean, MirrorSisko was a space pirate before Kira converted him into a resistance fighter. Maybe MirrorPicard was busy trying to discover the secret of time travel so he could go back and eliminate Spock from the timeline?

It would also be appropriately ironic if he was trying to go back in time to kill Sarek so Spock would never be born.

On the other hand: if Q ever shows up to mess with the evil version of his favourite human, he might be trying to harness the Borg to take back the empire. Which I imagine would not end well.

[nic]

I feel like Mirror!Wesley has an elaborate plan to kill Emperor Picard and get revenge that ends with Picard casually killing him because old age and treachery will always beat youth and skill.

I suddenly really, really want to see this!

[andraste]

Some version of Wesley might some day get to the point where he could kill Picard, but I feel like any version that wanted to would not be patient enough to wait until he was actually capable of pulling it off.

[lizbee]

BTW, what do we think Mirroverse Jean-Luc is up to in canon as is? I mean, MirrorSisko was a space pirate before Kira converted him into a resistance fighter. Maybe MirrorPicard was busy trying to discover the secret of time travel so he could go back and eliminate Spock from the timeline?

There was a comic just last year that posited him as the frustrated captain of the Stargazer, one of the Empire's last ships -- until he got wind of a secret project to create a Galaxy Class vessel, and, well, kiiiiiinda hijacked it.

(He has Deanna around as his own personal empathic secret police force; I choose to believe that Betazed wasn't outright destroyed, just ... unwillingly incorporated into the Empire.)

[andraste]

Interesting! And of course he would hijack a Galaxy Class ship in a universe where nobody was going to give him one.

(I am glad to hear that Mirror!Deanna exists! I guess if there are still Kelpiens there should still be Betazoids. Although hopefully they are not being eaten for dessert.)

[marcelo]

(I do not know who would lead the coup. Riker is a great first officer, but there is no universe in which I believe he could beat Picard at being an evil Emperor.)

*dies* Besides, mainstream!Riker was notoriously reluctant to get himself a command (he framed it as an strategic career choice, but I suspect it's a combination of psychological issues, preferring the close personnel management, and, well, opportunities for socialization), so perhaps that's a multiversal constant, and evil!Picard got himself a FO who, whether he knows it or not, doesn't really want to move up (uncharitably: who's too distracted by the perks of where he is to be effective at pursuing the next step).

[andraste]

I feel like Mirror!Riker is the character who ends up getting killed by someone he is sharing a bed with, like Mirror!Archer was. (Alas it cannot be Deanna, if Georgiou was thorough about wiping out the Betazoids, but I'm sure there's plenty of candidates ...)

[marcelo]

I suddenly have a strong suspicion that Mirror!Picard likes to put last-of, first-of, or otherwise unique "freaks" in positions of power, as they are likely to lack the external support networks that would help or induce them to attack him. So: the last Betazoid (alone except for her hate of Georgiou, strong enough that she'll do whatever helps Picard), the only android (given power over Terrans, and he knows very well only Picard's survival and backing stands between him and the most torturous disassembly imaginable), the only Klingon officer in the Terran Empire (ditto), a man with artificial eyes (how do Terrans feel about prosthetics? are they pragmatic about it, or would Geordi be pitiable and powerless in any other ship?). All of them competent, all of them bound to Picard because they have no other choice.

And there's Mirror!Riker, who, I agree, would/will totally end up killed in bed. As you said, plenty of candidates (including Deanna), but I can picture him dying in an sleazy-even-for-him situation involving a couple of (formerly Orion) Borg drones, Mirror!Data "making a mistake" about Mirror!Lal's self-defense override codes, or an spectacularly ill-conceived attempt to seduce Mirror!Dr. Crusher to get some sort of leverage on Picard, which backfires as, even if Riker were as good in bed as he thinks he is, what really gets Dr. Crusher going is closer to biomedical experimentation than to kinky sex, and it's certainly much less survivable by her partner. Picard complains, but it's the price of having specialists who are more obsessed about their fields than about power in general — competent and, in their own way, safe, but also nearly impossible to manage when it comes to what they do.

(Besides, leaving aside the bother of having to find another First Officer so perfectly balancing competence and transparency, Beverly is quite useful, and with everybody thinking that he tolerates Wesley to have more leverage on her, nobody pays much attention to the fact that he's getting himself a future and pliable weapons design genius — and who knows what else — capable of building things the rest of the Empire will *not* see coming. And to think that Beverly still believes he humored her by giving her the resources to do those genetic engineering experiments...)

[andraste]

I like your Mirrorverse NCC-1701-D!

And OMG, Picard bitching to Crusher that she killed his First Officer is perfect. (Maybe she can genetically engineer him a new one? Or clone him! I mean, Riker even got transporter-clone in canon. And that way he could be killed by people he was sleeping with over and over again.)

[marcelo]

(Maybe she can genetically engineer him a new one? Or clone him! I mean, Riker even got transporter-clone in canon. And that way he could be killed by people he was sleeping with over and over again.)

That would be incredibly funny! (and practical)

[vilakins]

Sorry, I commented on the wrong post by mistake!

[andraste]

No worries, I have done this more than once due to having too many tabs open :).

[vilakins]

Yep, both Discovery ones!