Do tell about the road trip!
Right, itās the last episode of Season Three, I was fucking pissed off by the last episode of Season Two. This is the long awaited and much dreaded Star Trek Discovery review.
Let me start with the nitpicks. How much other stuff do you want to rip off, Discovery? Last episode and the first couple of acts of this one, I was wondering this. A small list.
- Star Wars
- Sphere robots look just like prequel repair bots.
- The general conceit of something having to blow up at the end of every story (which is why Empire is so great).
- General tomfoolery on the top of moving objects
- The Matrix
- That last scrap between Ossyra and Michael.
- Superman III
- That last scrap between Ossyra and Michael.
- Captain America : Winter Soldier
- The scrap in the lift
I will also say that the last couple of episodes have been full of deux ex machinas, whether itās the sphere robots or Bookās newfound ability to smash spore drive travel. There were so many easier ways to have Stamets have done that. Again, they wrote themselves into a corner. Just bloody needless.
So onto the bits I liked. Pretty much everything else, and some of it I fucking loved. Iāve never really hated on the characters; they are the best thing about Discovery - itās just the ridiculous shit the writers have them doing.
We have not had a āridiculous shit freeā season. However, it has been far less ridiculous on its own terms than :-
- Season 1 - Breaking all canon
- Season 2 - Making sure Season 1 did not break all canon. Fucking badly, I might add.
This season has been easy to watch by contrast. They still do ridiculous shit, but I can forgive a lot of it because theyāve finally given us a Federation we can believe in again.
This yearās Federation eventually became the antidote to Picardās ultra-paranoid version, even though it starts in a broadly similar place, on the defensive and trying to consolidate.
Iāve liked each visit to the home planets, thought they did each proper respect, and Iām bloody glad they didināt do the thing they did last season and have everyone bail them out. Iām also glad that theyāve left a lot for Discovery to do next year.
A lot of people have moaned about the source of the Burn but I thought something key would be on that planet the moment I saw all the dilithium and realised there were only two episodes left 
I actually thought it a neat touch. Gave the away team a lot worthwhile to do.
I loved the resolution of the captainās chair. It has been coming, it is deserved and it has been quite the arc. Iām not sure what the message is. If you donāt follow orders everything will work out 930 years later?
We could have started here. Episode 1 of season 1 could have been Discovery, an experimental Federation starship, from the 24th century, in a place where itās not going to do any canon bother by the end of the two-hour pilot.
We are where we are, and where we are is that a Trek show finds its actual direction in the third season. It wasnāt perfect, but itās good enough so that I wish theyād bin the other series off and do more stuff in Discoās new playpen.
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Faint praise Pap, but sort of know what you mean, though Iām not coming from a purist perspective. Looking forward to seeing where it goes next.
I am coming from a puristās perspective and what Iām saying is that it got a little bit purer.
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They earned the after show moment this series.
Trek has always been bonkers & full of plot holes.
Iām surprised @pap missed the BIGGEST one (no spoiler until Monday).
I along with most reviewing trekkies HOPE we can have a new season without āa bad guyā and just build on what we have.
I thought Oded Fehr was the most likeable & empathic Mossad agent in Hollywood history in The Blacklist.
He plays exactly the same character-Admiral Vance in Discovery & adds so much. Tired of his impossible job, yetā¦
There are updates but for now they are spoilers & must wait for family CS.
The only thing missing?
Ossyra in a Bikini, dancing at the endā¦
Ossyra was a throwback and I suspect, just there to have a gigantic bitch fight with Burnham. Not a compelling antagonist and by extension, they never really landed what they were going for in the Emerald Chain, a sort of opposite to Federation values.
Perhaps itās because they revisited the mirror universe. We got the real shit.
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She was too hot to be a real baddie.
Much like Tia Carrere in True Liesthat I just had to watch
Another critical point you missed. Thank fook I rewatched the Calypso short trek - welcome Zora
Oh, andā¦
When in the programmable matter, did she swallow?
I donāt remember this episode of TNGā¦
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Not disagreeing with you fella. Weāre enjoying it in our own ways and thatās good, right?
Tāwas good. 
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I originally posted this as a bit of a jokey joke, but having watched it through quite a few times now I think it is a brilliant piece of audiovisual modern art. With fart jokes.
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I laughed to begin with then realised how long it wasā¦despite Covid restrictions
Worth investing the time?
Depends how much you like weird stuff mixed in with next generation nostalgia. And fart jokes.
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Fart joke? Iām in!
Still better than most of YouTube init.
I feel like Iāve watched most of YouTube.
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Have you seen Auralnauts edit of the Star Wars saga? Itās very good, totally changes the original story with lip reading overdubs and clever editing and dance offs. They also manage to take a very vanilla character and make them the absolute star.
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Star Trek TNG, Data & Brexit?
The ābannedā episode becomes relevant again