Star Trek: Discovery 1.07
Speaking of unexpected nostalgia: It's a timeloop episode!
The first one I saw was the TNG one, but of course by now many a genre show has done them. (The Buffy version is one of my favourites. "This Mummy hand has ceased to be!") (The Xena one isn't half bad, either.) However, I can recall only one example where the pov wasn't of the "looper", and that's the fantastic Avengers fanfiction story in which at first Steve is the only one looping (or, more accurately, remembering), but the story is from Bruce's pov. So having Stamets as the one remembering while Michael Burnham remains our pov at once made it different from the obvious precedents. It still manages to continue fleshing out Stamets, grooving on mushrooms and all, and the friendship he's developing with Michael. (That dancing scene was adorable.) And it includes the story of how he and his partner met and fell in love. Aw.
(If the m/m pairing needs are served, though, I wouldn't blame Michael/Philippa shippers for feeling that there's a conspiracy against them: first the casual mention of the Klingons having eaten Philippa's body several episodes ago makes it clear that no, really, she's not coming back in any shape or form, and now, in this episode, Michael says she's never been in love in a situation where it's plot essential that she's telling the truth. Mind you, there's always the possibility of "in love" versus "loving someone" verbal quibbling, or the undeniable fact of the "raised by Sarek, or indeed being Sarek = emotional cluelessness" equation having lots of precedence. See also:Spock angsting whether his mother knows he loves her in TOS, Sarek's whole bunch of previously verbally unexpressed emotions coming out via Picard and Patrick Stewart's glorious acting in Sarek the TNG episode, and the two Spock and Sarek conversations as to why Sarek married Amanda in the first reboot movie.)
The show's use of Harry Mudd continues to delight and impress me. He's actually dangerous while still being a conman to the core, and the answer to the "what about Stella?" question the last episode left me with (i.e. how serious were we to take what he says given TOS) is answered in a way that manages to make continuity between shows sense and yet avoids the dreadful sexism of the TOS episode.
Mudd killing Lorca in a variety of ways until getting finally tired of gloating was entertaining but makes me doubt my earlier "Lorca won't survive the season" guess (I think if an actual death scene was awaiting, they wouldn't have gone for a montage of time loop ones). Hm.
Despite a time loop episode by definition resetting everything, this one manages to do quite a bit of character work. (And world building of the everday life type: party!) There's the obvious, Michael and Ash being made to realise their attraction to each other, then there's Michael realising she has more than one friend (though Tilly's scenes are very sweet again), Stamets in addition to what I already mentioned shows the depth of his commitment of saving the crew...and Lorca has another ambigous "so does he mean it or doesn't he?" event when declaring he can't bear to lose another crew. Not to mention that our gang works together beautifully to solve the core conundrum of how to foil Mudd in a way that leaves everyone alive. And Michael showcases both her intelligence and her commitment to self sacrifice when figuring out a way to make her life essential the greedy Mudd, then killing herself in a very painful way in order to force him to reset the time loop.
All in all: really liked the episode. Carry on, show!
This entry was originally posted at https://selenak.dreamwidth.org/1256639.html. Comment there or here, as you wish.
The first one I saw was the TNG one, but of course by now many a genre show has done them. (The Buffy version is one of my favourites. "This Mummy hand has ceased to be!") (The Xena one isn't half bad, either.) However, I can recall only one example where the pov wasn't of the "looper", and that's the fantastic Avengers fanfiction story in which at first Steve is the only one looping (or, more accurately, remembering), but the story is from Bruce's pov. So having Stamets as the one remembering while Michael Burnham remains our pov at once made it different from the obvious precedents. It still manages to continue fleshing out Stamets, grooving on mushrooms and all, and the friendship he's developing with Michael. (That dancing scene was adorable.) And it includes the story of how he and his partner met and fell in love. Aw.
(If the m/m pairing needs are served, though, I wouldn't blame Michael/Philippa shippers for feeling that there's a conspiracy against them: first the casual mention of the Klingons having eaten Philippa's body several episodes ago makes it clear that no, really, she's not coming back in any shape or form, and now, in this episode, Michael says she's never been in love in a situation where it's plot essential that she's telling the truth. Mind you, there's always the possibility of "in love" versus "loving someone" verbal quibbling, or the undeniable fact of the "raised by Sarek, or indeed being Sarek = emotional cluelessness" equation having lots of precedence. See also:Spock angsting whether his mother knows he loves her in TOS, Sarek's whole bunch of previously verbally unexpressed emotions coming out via Picard and Patrick Stewart's glorious acting in Sarek the TNG episode, and the two Spock and Sarek conversations as to why Sarek married Amanda in the first reboot movie.)
The show's use of Harry Mudd continues to delight and impress me. He's actually dangerous while still being a conman to the core, and the answer to the "what about Stella?" question the last episode left me with (i.e. how serious were we to take what he says given TOS) is answered in a way that manages to make continuity between shows sense and yet avoids the dreadful sexism of the TOS episode.
Mudd killing Lorca in a variety of ways until getting finally tired of gloating was entertaining but makes me doubt my earlier "Lorca won't survive the season" guess (I think if an actual death scene was awaiting, they wouldn't have gone for a montage of time loop ones). Hm.
Despite a time loop episode by definition resetting everything, this one manages to do quite a bit of character work. (And world building of the everday life type: party!) There's the obvious, Michael and Ash being made to realise their attraction to each other, then there's Michael realising she has more than one friend (though Tilly's scenes are very sweet again), Stamets in addition to what I already mentioned shows the depth of his commitment of saving the crew...and Lorca has another ambigous "so does he mean it or doesn't he?" event when declaring he can't bear to lose another crew. Not to mention that our gang works together beautifully to solve the core conundrum of how to foil Mudd in a way that leaves everyone alive. And Michael showcases both her intelligence and her commitment to self sacrifice when figuring out a way to make her life essential the greedy Mudd, then killing herself in a very painful way in order to force him to reset the time loop.
All in all: really liked the episode. Carry on, show!
This entry was originally posted at https://selenak.dreamwidth.org/1256639.html. Comment there or here, as you wish.