Star Trek: Discovery eps 5.01 and 5.02
Apr. 5th, 2024 07:38 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lizbeeDisappointed as I was when it was announced that Discovery would end with season 5, I'm eight eps into Star Trek: Voyager's sixth season for my blog (only the premiere has actually been posted so far, because I like to have a cushion), and maybe we're better off letting Discovery end before it gets as stale and tired as Voyager was by this stage. There's a lot to be said for short seasons in terms of how they don't leave cast and crew visibly burned out and over it.
Anyway, these are just some freeform notes which I shall attempt to express more coherently when I record the podcast tomorrow.
Rayner is very blatantly "what if season 1 Michael but a middle-aged white man". I love this, not least because Michael needs a foil, and Saru has outgrown that role, but also, a lot of fans are going to show their asses by loving Rayner for all the same reasons they hate Michael.
Speaking of fans who hate Michael, I've been puzzling for years about why people (haters) say she is always "whispering". Then I listened to the new Beyoncé album ... a lot ... and realised that Beyoncé often uses the same speaking tone as Sonequa Martin-Green: not a whisper, but the voice of a soft-spoken Black woman with a deep voice and a southern accent. BASICALLY a woman is talking and men don't like it, but also, you know that if SMG raised her voice more as Michael, she'd be called "shrill".
(You know who does whisper a lot? Kate Mulgrew as Janeway. Any time there's a big emotional scene, she drops her voice. No one complains for some reason.)
We very much have the band back together for season 5, with Tilly returning to the fold, so I'm not terribly concerned that Saru's new ambassadorial role means he's actually leaving the show. See also: his marriage to T'Rina. (I love them so much, but also I do not every want to envision Saru kissing someone, let alone having sex.)
I do need to go on the record as saying that I don't care for Tilly's new fringe, though. Curly hair and fringes don't go together. I know because I've tried.
I'm intrigued by the fact that we're tying into "The Chase", and doing what Discovery does best by taking a fairly silly episode and treating it seriously. I expect the Mysterious Device will turn out to be a sort of Genesis Device concept, but on a biological rather than planetary scale -- but that Michael's personal resolution to the Big Questions she's facing ("Why am I here? What is my purpose beyond Starfleet and duty?") will be her choice to have a baby with Book, who will then be a stay-at-home dad while she continues to command Discovery. I started predicting this in season 4, but obviously Book made some choices that were incompatible with his relationship with Michael. To say the least. But they can repair that damage, and I think having children makes sense for Michael and Book -- who are both profoundly orphaned -- in a way that it doesn't for, say, Jean-Luc Picard.
(No one would ever make the mistake of thinking that biological procreation was an essential step in Picard's character development, right? RIGHT?)
SPEAKING OF STAR TREK: PICARD, Discovery continues to be much more interested in the worldbuilding of its first season than the show itself, with the reintroduction of [Altan] Soong-type synths and the exploration of Michael Chabon's Romulan worldbuilding. I don't actually expect Isa Briones to turn up to claim Fred's body, but I also wouldn't be hugely shocked if she did -- that's where we're at.
But what's important is that Discovery stands alone. There are Easter eggs and references to other stories, but this is a new story, wholly focused on its own characters rather than fan service or nostalgia. And that's what Star Trek needs more of.
Anyway, these are just some freeform notes which I shall attempt to express more coherently when I record the podcast tomorrow.
Rayner is very blatantly "what if season 1 Michael but a middle-aged white man". I love this, not least because Michael needs a foil, and Saru has outgrown that role, but also, a lot of fans are going to show their asses by loving Rayner for all the same reasons they hate Michael.
Speaking of fans who hate Michael, I've been puzzling for years about why people (haters) say she is always "whispering". Then I listened to the new Beyoncé album ... a lot ... and realised that Beyoncé often uses the same speaking tone as Sonequa Martin-Green: not a whisper, but the voice of a soft-spoken Black woman with a deep voice and a southern accent. BASICALLY a woman is talking and men don't like it, but also, you know that if SMG raised her voice more as Michael, she'd be called "shrill".
(You know who does whisper a lot? Kate Mulgrew as Janeway. Any time there's a big emotional scene, she drops her voice. No one complains for some reason.)
We very much have the band back together for season 5, with Tilly returning to the fold, so I'm not terribly concerned that Saru's new ambassadorial role means he's actually leaving the show. See also: his marriage to T'Rina. (I love them so much, but also I do not every want to envision Saru kissing someone, let alone having sex.)
I do need to go on the record as saying that I don't care for Tilly's new fringe, though. Curly hair and fringes don't go together. I know because I've tried.
I'm intrigued by the fact that we're tying into "The Chase", and doing what Discovery does best by taking a fairly silly episode and treating it seriously. I expect the Mysterious Device will turn out to be a sort of Genesis Device concept, but on a biological rather than planetary scale -- but that Michael's personal resolution to the Big Questions she's facing ("Why am I here? What is my purpose beyond Starfleet and duty?") will be her choice to have a baby with Book, who will then be a stay-at-home dad while she continues to command Discovery. I started predicting this in season 4, but obviously Book made some choices that were incompatible with his relationship with Michael. To say the least. But they can repair that damage, and I think having children makes sense for Michael and Book -- who are both profoundly orphaned -- in a way that it doesn't for, say, Jean-Luc Picard.
(No one would ever make the mistake of thinking that biological procreation was an essential step in Picard's character development, right? RIGHT?)
SPEAKING OF STAR TREK: PICARD, Discovery continues to be much more interested in the worldbuilding of its first season than the show itself, with the reintroduction of [Altan] Soong-type synths and the exploration of Michael Chabon's Romulan worldbuilding. I don't actually expect Isa Briones to turn up to claim Fred's body, but I also wouldn't be hugely shocked if she did -- that's where we're at.
But what's important is that Discovery stands alone. There are Easter eggs and references to other stories, but this is a new story, wholly focused on its own characters rather than fan service or nostalgia. And that's what Star Trek needs more of.
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