Sarek's shame in this episode explains some of the strain between Spock and Sarek later on. He made a choice that sacrificed one child's hopes in favor of the other, and the favored child turned away from that path. Sarek hurt his adopted daughter for no reason, further deepening his shame. He puts some of that on Spock, leading to a lifelong division between father and son.
Sarek's interaction at 13:50 is such a faithful nod to his manner towards Spock at the end of "Journey to Babel" (which, sadly, was played for laughs at the expense of Amanda) that I get why they chose to do it-it would have been _illogical_ for Sarek's emotional growth to take such a profound backslide back to what we saw depicted in _TOS._
This episode proved to me that while the whole Michael is raised by Sarek and is related to Spock thing may feel gimmicky, the writers actually cared to give it emotional depth and making it matter to the characters and how it effects them all. After all these years to still explore new aspects of Sarek’s character and how his decisions affected not only Michael but also Spock, and just really putting everything into context, it’s a pretty amazing feat. It’s just one of the things I love Disco for doing, always bringing something new even to something familiar.
This episode is what truly cemented for me James Frain as my favorite actor to portray Sarek. He just has such a natural way with the character, he manages to communicate so much through small choices in body language and tone that reveal the depth of Sarek's feelings for his kids. I just love him, he's so good in the role, I'm glad SNW has managed to make it so we'll likely continue to see him more and more.
Frain is phenomenal (as are Peck and Rose-Gooding), and that takes away nothing from Lenard (or Nimoy or Nichols). Especially with the concept of "AI" _Trek_ characters making the news, I hope that the franchise-and industry in general-remembers that _re-casting is okay!_
I’ve avoided watching reviews of Disco or watching it with others because it is so precious to me. I’ll continue to watch your reviews here because you see it as it is (and for its time) and present it with such grace.
When I watched Discovery season one, I knew right away it was different. Conveying thought, emotions, drive, focus, and the strive to be true to who we are. There are so many layers, it deserves acknowledgement more often. I never felt that Disco was not Star Trek, growing up with Next Gen when I was a kid. As an adult, the journey with Disco, it has a different vibe, that I enjoy even more. It paves the way for Picard, and Strange New Worlds, which we learned later. And it is worth the wait
The concept of the Holodeck originated in 1968, when Gene Roddenberry came up with the idea of a "simulated outdoor recreation area" on the Enterprise for the third season of Star Trek: The Original Series. The idea never came to fruition, probably because of budget constraints.
_Discovery_ is also canonically a testbed for all manner of prototypes-Crossfields weren't built _around_ the Spore Drive, just retrofitted so they could use them. Replicators and holodecks were explicitly cast in a "pre-Alpha" state, which allows for a satisfying answer for them not being commonplace throughout the fleet.
I think seasons 1 and 2 of Disco are obscenely underrated. They delivered so much I've always wanted from Star Trek. I really loved this episode in particular. Also this is totally off topic but your current hairstyle is super snazzy and I had to say something about it because it rules.
Great review! yes, the fight scenes in Sarek’s mind are very entertaining. Yes there are concepts that i didn’t pick up on in my first watch. Yes, for someone as cheap/broke as me, my DISCO shirt was a great value. Lovers and even haters of Discovery can benefit from a rewatch of season 1.
“More white… excuse me, more Vulcan.” I would argue that your viewing this a second time has changed because you have changed. We were in a different darkness when it was released compared to now and many of us have grown and learned much through those experiences. What felt too earnest in this show now proves prescient. Well done once again!
i didnt know what it was called then, but I read about the katra connection in a Star Trek novel that followed the pioneering Romulans that left Vulcan. The ones that left we're still connected to people back in Vulcan. They were so connected in fact that when one of the ships were lost in a black hole, the minds of the people back in Vulcan also died with the one's they were connected to.
And *THAT* is the difference between Discovery and almost any other Star Trek show outside of maybe Prodigy and on occasion Lower Decks, Discovery takes a nuanced approach to the Star Trek ideals rather than simply saying "this is what we should do". Discovery shows us how to be rather than _tells_ us, I mean how many episodes of TOS and TNG literally ended with a lecture to camera about the issue of the episode? Don't get me wrong, those are amazing scenes and important scenes to have in Star Trek but you also need the nuance and showing us _how_ to do it, stories not carrying through to the next episode in previous Trek Shows also didn't help. This is where season 1 in particular of SNW excels, the character arcs travel through the episodes whilst we also get our lectures to camera (I do love the Klingon ambassador episode for its thought provocation as well though), but Discovery really just did the showing us how to be so well and did also have some lectures to us in it such as I'm this episode.
in watching these videos, im reminded of how excited i was for the premises explored in this show. In DIS, Katras take on a much more psychedelic quality than they had in the past. Between the mycelial network and the katra network, the show presents a universe where all things are connected. if youve ever taken a healthy dose of psychedelics, youve probably experienced the feeling theyre trying to convey, where you feel like a tendril of a single root connected to the tree that makes up the entire universe. I mean, the fact that they named the Mycologist Paul Stamets shows that they were aware of this idea from the get go lol
With the Sarek calls and how he has limited time. Me and a Friend always joked he was running out of space minutes on these calls. Rather have dumb and goofy but tries something new and experiment than be stuck to dull by the canon numbers.
Interesting that I initially had a bit more of a problem with the training room than I later would have (it's really not a big deal, since the NPCs are clearly inferior to the holodeck characters we'd see in TNG). I loved that this story finally showed Sarek's side of the feud he had with Spock up to Star Trek IV. Here's what I said at the time: This might be the closest we've seen to a stand-alone character piece. It was a quieter affair, where we get some insight into Burnham's relationship with Sarek, Sarek's motives for his conflict with Spock, Lorca's past with Admiral Doctor Cornwell, Tilly's apprenticeship under Burnham, and Burnham and Tyler's introduction. Saying much beyond that would be spoiling things, and I've been trying hard not to do so in these brief recaps. But it was thrilling to see that added depth to Sarek. We've known about his troubled adventures in parenting, and now we have greater insight into why that is. Regarding Cornwell, when she delivered her assessment to Lorca, and its requisite consequences, that suggested a couple of possible fates for her, in an episode that had relatively few deaths. There was a kind of delicious irony in how Lorca's encounter with Cornwell changed his captaining strategy in the short term--well two ironies. On the one hand, by changing his course of action, he amended his style based on Cornwell's advice. On the other hand, by following that strategy, he could possibly prevent her threat from coming to pass. The one canon-centric nitpick I had was that the training simulation was awfully close to a holodeck. I would have preferred at least a bit more artifice to contrast it with the 24th century holodecks.
I really enjoyed Discovery when I first watched it, but I forgot most of what happened in any one episode. Seeing these reviews praise the show like that I think I should rewatch the series at some point.
the common argument I run into about Disco is that tying Burnham to Spock and doing another roughly TOS era show was a bad idea and they ought to have done this in another time period is that I'd hate to lose this episode. It does a lot to shed light on both Burnham and Sarek *and* Spock that just really works for me. This is one of my favourite S1 episodes and one that really solidifies what Disco is about.
Great video Jessie - the episode seems to send a message that exposing your vulnerability is one of the greatest strengths' you can have as person. And thanks to your videos I have discovered "Discovery" - see what I did there ...
I have been a Trekkie since I was little more than a toddler, having watched TOS in broadcast with my father. In my 50+ years of fandom, it has never ceased to amaze me how many self-proclaimed fans clearly have no idea what the show is about. (This is true in many other fandoms, as well, by the way, MAGA Trekkies have nothing on Tory Whovians, for instance.) What I find especially disturbing is that the same people who proclaim themselves to be "purists" and "protecting Gene's vision", clearly have no idea what that vision was. Almost inevitably their favorite movie will be Khan, and their favorite series DS9, the two projects with the least Roddenberry influence in all of Trek history. Roddenberry was pushed out of any real power for The Wrath of Khan and basically spent the entirety of production writing increasingly vitriolic memos protesting its militancy and lack of nuance. DS9 was the first series made after his passing, and the writers who had worked with him have almost unanimously said that it would never have been made if he were alive. Yet the "cannon purists" LOVE those projects while utterly disdaining things like Disco or STTMP, which really are mostly true to the original vision of the show.
i had no idea who the actress playing amanda was, but she does kind of kill it as Amanda. Tho she does fall into the "Aunt May" trope where each time they cast a new actress, Amanda looks younger and younger lol
I like how the season keeps up this comparison of mentor and parent relationships with the reveal later on that Georgiou, Burnham's mentor in the prime universe is actually her adoptive mother in the mirror universe.
I watched the show relatively recently and honestly pretty much everything worked for me. There really is something about watching it now versus when it came out that seems to improve things, based on your anecdotes about coming back to these episodes
3:44 another note about continuity. The Rec Deck is TINY compared to a TNG holodeck and clearly only has a small set of combat training programs compared to the massive storage space of a TNG era Holodeck or even a DS9 Holosuite
holodecks on Discovery?? "Well, whenever you notice something like that, a wizard did it." on a more canonical note, we can just say that a lot of stuff on Discovery was classified in order to write off timeline errors like that lol
I liked the S2 premier conceit that it turned out that all the holo tech ended up having a catastrophically detrimental effect on the Enterprise's systems and had to be phased back out fleetwide, which would then line back up with the TNG holodeck reveal being considered a marvel because they finally got them to work safely and convincingly on starships, as the technology had previously only been found on planets and starbases in the earlier 24th century.
The NX-01 had primitive Protein Replicators and, the NX-01 crew met the group of aliens that pioneered replicators and, holo-deck technology. The Discovery was originally a science vessel used to experiment with alternative ways of travel, they were probably experimenting with reverse engineered replicators and, holo-deck technology.
I was actually sad when Tilly decided not to pursue the captaincy because there have been no Star Trek captains with her bubbly personality type and it was so nice to see a leader who was not about being in charge and in control and was more about collaboration and enabling each crew member to bring their best to the table and putting those people at ease with that silly bubbliness which is layered over depth and competency. Say what you will about toxic positivity and white feminism, people who present as silly are still far too frequently written off as stupid or lacking competency.
0:30 I think the final E in Lethe is supposed to be pronounced. I mean, it’s an Ancient Greek word so the TH would technically also be wrong. Interestingly, not in modern Greek, which has the English TH sound, both the „thing“ and the „that“ variants.
I love Admiral Cornwell; I always enjoy the ever too rare Goodmiral, considering the tendency toward Badmirals that Star Trek too often has (Logicmirals are fairly well distributed). In particular I enjoy that Cornwell is an admiral who has a Ship's Psychologist background which is very Star Trek seeing that Admirals too follow the Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations route in that any Starfleet officer regarless of background can become an admiral, not just straight command-line paths. Cornwell is the best Admiral since Forrest and Ross from Enterprise and Deep Space Nine, respectively.
“I feel angry but I wanna love” and other introspections like it are what made Burnham the Star Trek Captain I far and away relate to the very most of any of them
Fascism, and culture in general, separates people into different group "boxes". In my case, the boxes are labeled Male, White, Straight, Disabled, Legally Blind, Single and Fat. It would be a lot simpler if society placed all of us into one box - Human.
My opinion of Burnham being Sarek's foster daughter is that I think part of the problem is that if she was "just" a human child raised by Vulcans, it still would have probably worked just as well. It didn't have to be Sarek and Amanda specifically to deal with most of what was enjoyable--but I do like all of Sarek and Spock's handling in the story/.
It had to be Sarek and Amanda that raised her for the reason you pointed out. Michael is just a “human” child, with human emotions. Who better to raise her than a human foster mother and a foster father who is the Vulcan ambassador to Earth. Plus this was a; for lack of a better word an experiment to show that a human raised the Vulcan way can excel. In this Sarek succeeded but it didn’t matter because most Vulcans would still see an inferior human amongst their ranks. This episode just adds so much depth to the Spock and Sarek relationship.
I appreciate you really delving into the interesting thematic swings of this season that were certainly overlooked against the hard-to-swallow plots, extremely telegraphed twists, and just odd directorial decisions that weighed down the show from a production standpoint at this time. While I still don't agree that this season was actually good, I'm also an ardent defender of PIC S2 for the exact same reasons you're presenting here, so maybe I'm just a hypocrite.
seeing how good lorca was makes me sad we never got to see the 'real' non mirror lorca in the series after the first. i was still holding on for a surprise appearance in season 5 even
I really like the scenes involving Burnham training Tilly. Firstly it shouldn't be a big thing but I honestly really appreciate that this episode shows a plus sized woman being fit and exercising without ever making it about her weight. It shouldn't be a high bar but in a society that's shitty to fat people it honestly is pretty refreshing (also I recognise that I've kinda just ruined it by bringing it up and therefore drawing attention to it). Moving on though I really agree with you that the choice to have the show focus on Tilly finding her own path is really neat a ties in nicely with season 4. I'd also recommend checking out the Tilly centric novel The Way to the Stars by Una McCormack which similarly explores Tilly finding her own path during her teenage years. It explores her troubles fitting in with her peers and coping with a traditional school setting in ways that ring especially true given her neuro divergent coding. Also the books focus on her finding an educational system that will work for her makes her choice to ultimately become a teacher herself make all the more sense.
I don't have anything to add to this episode, other than I am pretty inline with your thoughts on this episode. I did remember something I thought of from the last episode when you said something to the effect of, "I tend to watch episodes at face value." While that is understandable as a content creator and someone who reviews and critiques things, I feel that is more useful for someone who know little to nothing about the what is being reviewed. Star Trek, is something that is known by many people, and it has established its themes, and styles and motifs over the decades. That is why it was impossible for me to view Discovery in a vacuum. So, while I can better enjoy what is does well, it will suffer for where it fails to be a part of the greater Star Trek ethos. Too much of Discovery felt like a different Science Fiction show. Which is made all the more alienating that it is set in the middle of two eras of existing ST. Though, I have issues with how it handled its departure into the future, it was perhaps one of the only choices, as dissonance the show has been generating is intense. Strange New Worlds, fits a little better, but while I enjoy that show, it certainly has its own issues. So, not to say there is anything wrong with how you do the reviews. Just, that I am not going to be as objective or fair. But, I don't want to be confused with the gatekeepers and bro's. I always recognized things that are good in the show. I just couldn't enjoy them on my first, and even second viewing. Despite Disco still stumbling by the fourth season, I began to feel like it was becoming more of an actual Star Trek show. I look forward to season five. I am, however totally uninterested in a Star Fleet academy show, especially in this ST future. I don't think Tilly can save it. But, I would love to be proven wrong.
Those shirts are THE BEST! I used to live in a very gay urban neighborhood, and whenever I went out to walk to the store with my DISCO shirt on, the reaction was 80% “yeah girl, disco!” and 20% “ohmygod is that a Star Trek shirt???” Excellent reactions either way 😂
I think that Discovery does get Star Trek bot not TOS. The tech stuff in the first season can be explained away by saying that the ship is a test bed for new innovations like the holodeck. The other way things can be explained is that this show takes place in a different universe, which could work because... Wait for it... THIS WHOLE FRANCHISE IS SCIENCE FICTION.
I actually thought that Tyler's "It's called being human" line was far too unsubtle as ironic foreshadowing (bearing in mind that the Trekkie hivemind had already figured out that Tyler was Voq by this point). Like, I watched it, and thought "...as opposed to, say, Klingon. Like, say, some Klingon operative, surgically altered to look human, with the personality of a captured Starfleet POW grafted onto his own. Haha. Anyways..."
I swear social media now of days can sometimes ruin a good show. I was lucky to binge watch the first 4 seasons of DISCO in a vacuum and I’m so thankful for it. I was not aware of spoilers or predictions. I was surprised that Ash was a Klingon spy and Lorca was not from this universe. I just thought they both had a bad case of PTSD and needed intense therapy. Now after reading so much unnecessary hate towards DISCO I have vowed to watch season 5 without reading spoilers or comments about the final season.
I remember when first watching this episode feeling a little afronted at the idea that Vulcans could believe in something as stupid and abhorrent as racial purity. Not only because of how this conflicts with the ideals of the federation but also Vulcan ideals of Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations. One of the things I've always really appreciated about the Vulcans is that despite their (suedo toxic masculinity coded) absolute belief in logic they rarely resort to "facts don't care about your feelings" type rhetoric to put others down but instead recognise that traits like diversity and compassion are logically beneficial even when removed from the emotions that drive them. However as you point out we have seen Vulcans fall into these kinds of pitfalls before such as in Enterprise and as captain Janeway once said logic can be used to justify almost anything. As such Vulcan beliefs becoming corrupted and turning inward makes sense in the context of a galaxy of war and the greater context of the season arc. Also let's not forget that these tensions have been there from the very start with many pushing Spock in TOS to choose between his Vulcan and Human heritage seeing them as opposing rather than complimentary factors that they actually are.
Please make a video about the new quantum leap episode (2.10) it has a nonbinary coming out story that is handled really good! maybe the best on TV so far, and your platform could really help a show not as many people know about. Thank you.
General star trek question. I've been rewatching Deep Space Nine. Is it just me, or do the 'section 31' episodes come across as kinda pro-CIA? Like necessary evil, because we trust they are good actors. I don't know, it's just something I noticed and would love a second opinion on.
Well, no, because that's the argument S31 and its supporters make, and they're presented as being wrong against Bashir's moral outrage over their existence and actions. The audience is meant to take Bashir's side, not Sloan or Ross.
@@posindustries Dude I hope so! Thanks for weighing in. Just thought to someone who agrees with that kind of 'good actors are above the law/accountability mentality would see absolutely no issue with 'section 31'. But I guess if that was the messaging why even phrase the episode like that.. ok thanks for the input lol
Sarek's shame in this episode explains some of the strain between Spock and Sarek later on. He made a choice that sacrificed one child's hopes in favor of the other, and the favored child turned away from that path. Sarek hurt his adopted daughter for no reason, further deepening his shame. He puts some of that on Spock, leading to a lifelong division between father and son.
Sarek's interaction at 13:50 is such a faithful nod to his manner towards Spock at the end of "Journey to Babel" (which, sadly, was played for laughs at the expense of Amanda) that I get why they chose to do it-it would have been _illogical_ for Sarek's emotional growth to take such a profound backslide back to what we saw depicted in _TOS._
4:12 The “Disco” t-shirts also gave the series a much better nickname than “ST:D”
This episode proved to me that while the whole Michael is raised by Sarek and is related to Spock thing may feel gimmicky, the writers actually cared to give it emotional depth and making it matter to the characters and how it effects them all. After all these years to still explore new aspects of Sarek’s character and how his decisions affected not only Michael but also Spock, and just really putting everything into context, it’s a pretty amazing feat. It’s just one of the things I love Disco for doing, always bringing something new even to something familiar.
This episode is what truly cemented for me James Frain as my favorite actor to portray Sarek. He just has such a natural way with the character, he manages to communicate so much through small choices in body language and tone that reveal the depth of Sarek's feelings for his kids. I just love him, he's so good in the role, I'm glad SNW has managed to make it so we'll likely continue to see him more and more.
Frain is phenomenal (as are Peck and Rose-Gooding), and that takes away nothing from Lenard (or Nimoy or Nichols).
Especially with the concept of "AI" _Trek_ characters making the news, I hope that the franchise-and industry in general-remembers that _re-casting is okay!_
I’ve avoided watching reviews of Disco or watching it with others because it is so precious to me. I’ll continue to watch your reviews here because you see it as it is (and for its time) and present it with such grace.
When I watched Discovery season one, I knew right away it was different. Conveying thought, emotions, drive, focus, and the strive to be true to who we are.
There are so many layers, it deserves acknowledgement more often. I never felt that Disco was not Star Trek, growing up with Next Gen when I was a kid. As an adult, the journey with Disco, it has a different vibe, that I enjoy even more. It paves the way for Picard, and Strange New Worlds, which we learned later. And it is worth the wait
The concept of the Holodeck originated in 1968, when Gene Roddenberry came up with the idea of a "simulated outdoor recreation area" on the Enterprise for the third season of Star Trek: The Original Series. The idea never came to fruition, probably because of budget constraints.
_Discovery_ is also canonically a testbed for all manner of prototypes-Crossfields weren't built _around_ the Spore Drive, just retrofitted so they could use them. Replicators and holodecks were explicitly cast in a "pre-Alpha" state, which allows for a satisfying answer for them not being commonplace throughout the fleet.
I think seasons 1 and 2 of Disco are obscenely underrated. They delivered so much I've always wanted from Star Trek. I really loved this episode in particular.
Also this is totally off topic but your current hairstyle is super snazzy and I had to say something about it because it rules.
This was the episode which convinced me that there was a worthwhile reason to have Burnham as Spock's sister.
Sarek's choice, wow!!!
Great review! yes, the fight scenes in Sarek’s mind are very entertaining. Yes there are concepts that i didn’t pick up on in my first watch. Yes, for someone as cheap/broke as me, my DISCO shirt was a great value. Lovers and even haters of Discovery can benefit from a rewatch of season 1.
“More white… excuse me, more Vulcan.” I would argue that your viewing this a second time has changed because you have changed. We were in a different darkness when it was released compared to now and many of us have grown and learned much through those experiences. What felt too earnest in this show now proves prescient.
Well done once again!
i didnt know what it was called then, but I read about the katra connection in a Star Trek novel that followed the pioneering Romulans that left Vulcan. The ones that left we're still connected to people back in Vulcan. They were so connected in fact that when one of the ships were lost in a black hole, the minds of the people back in Vulcan also died with the one's they were connected to.
The thing I been noticing is the set for every new episode is getting brighter and brighter.
I just recently rewatched Star Trek… the J.J. Abrams one; as far as reboots go, still holds up.
And *THAT* is the difference between Discovery and almost any other Star Trek show outside of maybe Prodigy and on occasion Lower Decks, Discovery takes a nuanced approach to the Star Trek ideals rather than simply saying "this is what we should do". Discovery shows us how to be rather than _tells_ us, I mean how many episodes of TOS and TNG literally ended with a lecture to camera about the issue of the episode? Don't get me wrong, those are amazing scenes and important scenes to have in Star Trek but you also need the nuance and showing us _how_ to do it, stories not carrying through to the next episode in previous Trek Shows also didn't help. This is where season 1 in particular of SNW excels, the character arcs travel through the episodes whilst we also get our lectures to camera (I do love the Klingon ambassador episode for its thought provocation as well though), but Discovery really just did the showing us how to be so well and did also have some lectures to us in it such as I'm this episode.
in watching these videos, im reminded of how excited i was for the premises explored in this show. In DIS, Katras take on a much more psychedelic quality than they had in the past. Between the mycelial network and the katra network, the show presents a universe where all things are connected. if youve ever taken a healthy dose of psychedelics, youve probably experienced the feeling theyre trying to convey, where you feel like a tendril of a single root connected to the tree that makes up the entire universe. I mean, the fact that they named the Mycologist Paul Stamets shows that they were aware of this idea from the get go lol
With the Sarek calls and how he has limited time. Me and a Friend always joked he was running out of space minutes on these calls. Rather have dumb and goofy but tries something new and experiment than be stuck to dull by the canon numbers.
Interesting that I initially had a bit more of a problem with the training room than I later would have (it's really not a big deal, since the NPCs are clearly inferior to the holodeck characters we'd see in TNG). I loved that this story finally showed Sarek's side of the feud he had with Spock up to Star Trek IV.
Here's what I said at the time:
This might be the closest we've seen to a stand-alone character piece. It was a quieter affair, where we get some insight into Burnham's relationship with Sarek, Sarek's motives for his conflict with Spock, Lorca's past with Admiral Doctor Cornwell, Tilly's apprenticeship under Burnham, and Burnham and Tyler's introduction.
Saying much beyond that would be spoiling things, and I've been trying hard not to do so in these brief recaps. But it was thrilling to see that added depth to Sarek. We've known about his troubled adventures in parenting, and now we have greater insight into why that is.
Regarding Cornwell, when she delivered her assessment to Lorca, and its requisite consequences, that suggested a couple of possible fates for her, in an episode that had relatively few deaths. There was a kind of delicious irony in how Lorca's encounter with Cornwell changed his captaining strategy in the short term--well two ironies. On the one hand, by changing his course of action, he amended his style based on Cornwell's advice. On the other hand, by following that strategy, he could possibly prevent her threat from coming to pass.
The one canon-centric nitpick I had was that the training simulation was awfully close to a holodeck. I would have preferred at least a bit more artifice to contrast it with the 24th century holodecks.
I really enjoyed Discovery when I first watched it, but I forgot most of what happened in any one episode. Seeing these reviews praise the show like that I think I should rewatch the series at some point.
the common argument I run into about Disco is that tying Burnham to Spock and doing another roughly TOS era show was a bad idea and they ought to have done this in another time period is that I'd hate to lose this episode. It does a lot to shed light on both Burnham and Sarek *and* Spock that just really works for me. This is one of my favourite S1 episodes and one that really solidifies what Disco is about.
Sarek is forced to choose and Michael doesn't get her own sehlat. Tragedy all around.
Did Michael join the family canonically after "Yesteryear"? Either way, tragic that S02 gave us no *_good dogbear_* footage.
I also dig the Disco gear. Wish I can find the burgundy pajama set though…
Great video Jessie - the episode seems to send a message that exposing your vulnerability is one of the greatest strengths' you can have as person. And thanks to your videos I have discovered "Discovery" - see what I did there ...
I have been a Trekkie since I was little more than a toddler, having watched TOS in broadcast with my father. In my 50+ years of fandom, it has never ceased to amaze me how many self-proclaimed fans clearly have no idea what the show is about. (This is true in many other fandoms, as well, by the way, MAGA Trekkies have nothing on Tory Whovians, for instance.)
What I find especially disturbing is that the same people who proclaim themselves to be "purists" and "protecting Gene's vision", clearly have no idea what that vision was. Almost inevitably their favorite movie will be Khan, and their favorite series DS9, the two projects with the least Roddenberry influence in all of Trek history. Roddenberry was pushed out of any real power for The Wrath of Khan and basically spent the entirety of production writing increasingly vitriolic memos protesting its militancy and lack of nuance. DS9 was the first series made after his passing, and the writers who had worked with him have almost unanimously said that it would never have been made if he were alive. Yet the "cannon purists" LOVE those projects while utterly disdaining things like Disco or STTMP, which really are mostly true to the original vision of the show.
i had no idea who the actress playing amanda was, but she does kind of kill it as Amanda. Tho she does fall into the "Aunt May" trope where each time they cast a new actress, Amanda looks younger and younger lol
As a kid in the 70s-80s I always thought it was weird that young Peter's "aunt" looked 60 years older than him, more like a great-grandmother.
I like how the season keeps up this comparison of mentor and parent relationships with the reveal later on that Georgiou, Burnham's mentor in the prime universe is actually her adoptive mother in the mirror universe.
Is the enterprise equivent to the DISCO and RITOS Shirts panties that have "ENTER" written in them?
I watched the show relatively recently and honestly pretty much everything worked for me. There really is something about watching it now versus when it came out that seems to improve things, based on your anecdotes about coming back to these episodes
Mia for me will always be Jenny...and Exotica...and Dracula the series. She's everything.
TH-cam recommending me Steve’s starfleet negligence video right after this particular review is some crazy algorithmic lightning
also just noticed that the Vulcan who makes Sarek pick also played the UN SecGen in the Expanse. Thank you, Jessie!
Interesting review, Jessie!👍
3:44 another note about continuity. The Rec Deck is TINY compared to a TNG holodeck and clearly only has a small set of combat training programs compared to the massive storage space of a TNG era Holodeck or even a DS9 Holosuite
holodecks on Discovery??
"Well, whenever you notice something like that, a wizard did it."
on a more canonical note, we can just say that a lot of stuff on Discovery was classified in order to write off timeline errors like that lol
I liked the S2 premier conceit that it turned out that all the holo tech ended up having a catastrophically detrimental effect on the Enterprise's systems and had to be phased back out fleetwide, which would then line back up with the TNG holodeck reveal being considered a marvel because they finally got them to work safely and convincingly on starships, as the technology had previously only been found on planets and starbases in the earlier 24th century.
Outstanding work Jessie 👏👏👏
The NX-01 had primitive Protein Replicators and, the NX-01 crew met the group of aliens that pioneered replicators and, holo-deck technology. The Discovery was originally a science vessel used to experiment with alternative ways of travel, they were probably experimenting with reverse engineered replicators and, holo-deck technology.
I enjoyed your work here, Jessie! Good job.
Jessie! I would love for you to watch and give your thoughts on Red Dwarf!
I was actually sad when Tilly decided not to pursue the captaincy because there have been no Star Trek captains with her bubbly personality type and it was so nice to see a leader who was not about being in charge and in control and was more about collaboration and enabling each crew member to bring their best to the table and putting those people at ease with that silly bubbliness which is layered over depth and competency. Say what you will about toxic positivity and white feminism, people who present as silly are still far too frequently written off as stupid or lacking competency.
I love Mariner's take on this, sure the institution is flawed, but "I believe in the mission"
0:30 I think the final E in Lethe is supposed to be pronounced.
I mean, it’s an Ancient Greek word so the TH would technically also be wrong. Interestingly, not in modern Greek, which has the English TH sound, both the „thing“ and the „that“ variants.
I love Admiral Cornwell; I always enjoy the ever too rare Goodmiral, considering the tendency toward Badmirals that Star Trek too often has (Logicmirals are fairly well distributed). In particular I enjoy that Cornwell is an admiral who has a Ship's Psychologist background which is very Star Trek seeing that Admirals too follow the Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations route in that any Starfleet officer regarless of background can become an admiral, not just straight command-line paths. Cornwell is the best Admiral since Forrest and Ross from Enterprise and Deep Space Nine, respectively.
“I feel angry but I wanna love” and other introspections like it are what made Burnham the Star Trek Captain I far and away relate to the very most of any of them
Fascism, and culture in general, separates people into different group "boxes". In my case, the boxes are labeled Male, White, Straight, Disabled, Legally Blind, Single and Fat.
It would be a lot simpler if society placed all of us into one box - Human.
My opinion of Burnham being Sarek's foster daughter is that I think part of the problem is that if she was "just" a human child raised by Vulcans, it still would have probably worked just as well. It didn't have to be Sarek and Amanda specifically to deal with most of what was enjoyable--but I do like all of Sarek and Spock's handling in the story/.
It had to be Sarek and Amanda that raised her for the reason you pointed out. Michael is just a “human” child, with human emotions. Who better to raise her than a human foster mother and a foster father who is the Vulcan ambassador to Earth. Plus this was a; for lack of a better word an experiment to show that a human raised the Vulcan way can excel. In this Sarek succeeded but it didn’t matter because most Vulcans would still see an inferior human amongst their ranks. This episode just adds so much depth to the Spock and Sarek relationship.
I appreciate you really delving into the interesting thematic swings of this season that were certainly overlooked against the hard-to-swallow plots, extremely telegraphed twists, and just odd directorial decisions that weighed down the show from a production standpoint at this time. While I still don't agree that this season was actually good, I'm also an ardent defender of PIC S2 for the exact same reasons you're presenting here, so maybe I'm just a hypocrite.
I was amazed how much Mia Kirshner looks like Jane Wyatt in TOS
seeing how good lorca was makes me sad we never got to see the 'real' non mirror lorca in the series after the first. i was still holding on for a surprise appearance in season 5 even
WAIT WHATTT I DIDN'T KNOW AMANDA WAS JENNY 🤯🤯🤯
Hehe, I also have the Ritos shirt.
I like to write-off season one of ST:D is actually season 3 of the OA.
I really like the scenes involving Burnham training Tilly. Firstly it shouldn't be a big thing but I honestly really appreciate that this episode shows a plus sized woman being fit and exercising without ever making it about her weight. It shouldn't be a high bar but in a society that's shitty to fat people it honestly is pretty refreshing (also I recognise that I've kinda just ruined it by bringing it up and therefore drawing attention to it).
Moving on though I really agree with you that the choice to have the show focus on Tilly finding her own path is really neat a ties in nicely with season 4. I'd also recommend checking out the Tilly centric novel The Way to the Stars by Una McCormack which similarly explores Tilly finding her own path during her teenage years. It explores her troubles fitting in with her peers and coping with a traditional school setting in ways that ring especially true given her neuro divergent coding. Also the books focus on her finding an educational system that will work for her makes her choice to ultimately become a teacher herself make all the more sense.
Engagement for the engagement god!
This one is almost good enough to justify the silliness of making Michael Spock's foster sister.
I don't have anything to add to this episode, other than I am pretty inline with your thoughts on this episode. I did remember something I thought of from the last episode when you said something to the effect of, "I tend to watch episodes at face value." While that is understandable as a content creator and someone who reviews and critiques things, I feel that is more useful for someone who know little to nothing about the what is being reviewed. Star Trek, is something that is known by many people, and it has established its themes, and styles and motifs over the decades. That is why it was impossible for me to view Discovery in a vacuum. So, while I can better enjoy what is does well, it will suffer for where it fails to be a part of the greater Star Trek ethos. Too much of Discovery felt like a different Science Fiction show. Which is made all the more alienating that it is set in the middle of two eras of existing ST. Though, I have issues with how it handled its departure into the future, it was perhaps one of the only choices, as dissonance the show has been generating is intense. Strange New Worlds, fits a little better, but while I enjoy that show, it certainly has its own issues. So, not to say there is anything wrong with how you do the reviews. Just, that I am not going to be as objective or fair.
But, I don't want to be confused with the gatekeepers and bro's. I always recognized things that are good in the show. I just couldn't enjoy them on my first, and even second viewing. Despite Disco still stumbling by the fourth season, I began to feel like it was becoming more of an actual Star Trek show. I look forward to season five. I am, however totally uninterested in a Star Fleet academy show, especially in this ST future. I don't think Tilly can save it. But, I would love to be proven wrong.
Are we ever going to hang out with you & fellow nerds on the Livestreams ever again Jessie. 😭😭😭😭
great review!!!
Those shirts are THE BEST! I used to live in a very gay urban neighborhood, and whenever I went out to walk to the store with my DISCO shirt on, the reaction was 80% “yeah girl, disco!” and 20% “ohmygod is that a Star Trek shirt???” Excellent reactions either way 😂
Would the Enterprise PT uniform say “enter” or “prise”
The standard nickname going back WWII is “Big E”.
It would say “Terpr” obviously!
I think that Discovery does get Star Trek bot not TOS. The tech stuff in the first season can be explained away by saying that the ship is a test bed for new innovations like the holodeck. The other way things can be explained is that this show takes place in a different universe, which could work because... Wait for it... THIS WHOLE FRANCHISE IS SCIENCE FICTION.
i did such a double take seeing my name in the title lmao
I actually thought that Tyler's "It's called being human" line was far too unsubtle as ironic foreshadowing (bearing in mind that the Trekkie hivemind had already figured out that Tyler was Voq by this point). Like, I watched it, and thought "...as opposed to, say, Klingon. Like, say, some Klingon operative, surgically altered to look human, with the personality of a captured Starfleet POW grafted onto his own. Haha. Anyways..."
I swear social media now of days can sometimes ruin a good show. I was lucky to binge watch the first 4 seasons of DISCO in a vacuum and I’m so thankful for it. I was not aware of spoilers or predictions. I was surprised that Ash was a Klingon spy and Lorca was not from this universe. I just thought they both had a bad case of PTSD and needed intense therapy. Now after reading so much unnecessary hate towards DISCO I have vowed to watch season 5 without reading spoilers or comments about the final season.
I like but don't love this episode. I may need to rewatch with your analysis in mind. Always love Frain's Sarek, though.
I remember when first watching this episode feeling a little afronted at the idea that Vulcans could believe in something as stupid and abhorrent as racial purity. Not only because of how this conflicts with the ideals of the federation but also Vulcan ideals of Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations. One of the things I've always really appreciated about the Vulcans is that despite their (suedo toxic masculinity coded) absolute belief in logic they rarely resort to "facts don't care about your feelings" type rhetoric to put others down but instead recognise that traits like diversity and compassion are logically beneficial even when removed from the emotions that drive them. However as you point out we have seen Vulcans fall into these kinds of pitfalls before such as in Enterprise and as captain Janeway once said logic can be used to justify almost anything. As such Vulcan beliefs becoming corrupted and turning inward makes sense in the context of a galaxy of war and the greater context of the season arc.
Also let's not forget that these tensions have been there from the very start with many pushing Spock in TOS to choose between his Vulcan and Human heritage seeing them as opposing rather than complimentary factors that they actually are.
Please make a video about the new quantum leap episode (2.10) it has a nonbinary coming out story that is handled really good! maybe the best on TV so far, and your platform could really help a show not as many people know about. Thank you.
I love season 1 ❤
General star trek question. I've been rewatching Deep Space Nine. Is it just me, or do the 'section 31' episodes come across as kinda pro-CIA? Like necessary evil, because we trust they are good actors. I don't know, it's just something I noticed and would love a second opinion on.
Well, no, because that's the argument S31 and its supporters make, and they're presented as being wrong against Bashir's moral outrage over their existence and actions.
The audience is meant to take Bashir's side, not Sloan or Ross.
@@posindustries Dude I hope so! Thanks for weighing in. Just thought to someone who agrees with that kind of 'good actors are above the law/accountability mentality would see absolutely no issue with 'section 31'. But I guess if that was the messaging why even phrase the episode like that.. ok thanks for the input lol
Is this retro already hahah?
FTI it’s pronounced “LEEthee”