Star Trek: Discovery 3.12
In which Osyraa really does surprise people, but so do Michael and Tilly.
Part Star Trek: Die Hard, part Star Trek: Nixon Goes To China, which I really had not seen coming. I continue to be intrigued. No scenes with Saru and Adira this week, which means the episode can focus on the hijacked Discovery and Federation Headquarters. It's also the first time we see more of Osyraa than Evil Overlady, which Stamets when talking to Aurellio the scientist sums up with "I believe you when you say she's more than what I see, but in other ways, she's exactly what I see". I am intrigued, though I am now wondering if and when someone is going to bring up that the Emperor was guilty of everything Osyraa did yet Starfleet let her become a member (of Section 31, but still) as opposed to putting her on trial. Now this happened 900 years before Vance's time, he can't be accused of double standards, and for all we know the next episode will reveal Osyraa pulled a fast one on the lie detector hologram and really had in mind nothing but a hostile takeover the entire time. But in-universe, I want someone of the Discovery crew bring the Emperor up once they learn of Osyraa's negotiations with Vance anyway. And I find it more interesting if Osyraa meant what she said. Remember that moment in Waterhship Down when Hazel suggests to Woundwort not just a truce but an alliance, a getting together with mutual respect, and Woundwort has a heartbeat where he truly gets that idea, can see why it would be a good thing, and has the chance to be truly the leader of genius he imagines himself to be, but in the next discards it because he's really a selfish old monster unable to want anything more than power for himself? In a way, what Disco seems to do here is letting a female Woundwort who takes the other road be the one to suggest the idea to Hazel. And that truly is fascinating. Especially since the show also doesn't ignore the enormity of what Osyraa has done in the past, just this very season alone. And I thought Vance's reactions throughout were just right. I doubt he was only playing for time in the hope the Discovery crew manages to liberate themselves. He doesn't dismiss Osyraa's idea out of hand, he does take her seriously, and he does mean it when listing the positives. But he also means what he says re: the necessity of any future figurehead of such an endeavour being smoeone able to operate independently from Osyraa herself, and b) the necessity for Osyraa to stand trial, especially given how she's harmed many of the remaining members of the Federation. Slavery and genocide are not minor misdemeanors. (Not in the Emperor's case, either, of course.)
While all of this is going on at HQ, we get the action movie stuff on Discovery as Michael does her best Bruce Willis while Tilly & Co. use their moment for a counter rally. I have to admit that the regulators being floated into space shocked me. I mean, it's in-universe justified in that Michael's last two experiences with Osyraa involved seeing Osyraa's people brutally torture and kill, her ship had been taken and she had no way of knowing Osyraa was busy negotiating with Vance as opposed to doing the same to the Discovery crew, not to mention that Michael is wounded and with very limited options. It was a very effective move in a war like situation. But these were still sentient beings killed, and that did make me swallow.
Otoh, Michael getting Paul Stamets off board despite his protests was one of those scenes where you can see both povs, and still think she's right. Unless Adira and Stamets have by now managed to finish their attempt to create an alternate means to use the spore drive, Stamets is still the only person who can use it, Osyraa has already proved she can force him to do so with that circlet gimmick, and in this time when normal warp drives can't be used safely, he is literally the current most indispensable person in the fleet when it comes to the future of space travel. Definitely a case of the welfare of the many overriding that of the few. At the same time, given Michael's own tendency to go on rescue missions for people she cares about, other considerations be damned, it's spectacularly unfair. (And yet not, given Michael isn't Stamets and not quintessential in the same way, see above.)
In terms of pure emotion, it also worked better for me than Stamets in the earlier scene with Aurellio mentioning Adira as his child. I mean, I'm all for found family, but really, this is way too fast. I'll fanwank it as Stamets trying to get to Aurellio based on Aurellio mentioning he was a father first.
Lastly: I learned that Aurellio is played by Ken Mitchell, who earlier played two different Klingons in Discovery's first and second season respectively, Kol, the dastardly Klingon leader, L'Rell's and Voq's enemy, and Kol-Sha, their son, in s1 and s2 respectively. Mitchell was diagnosed with ALS in 2018, and the role of Aurellio was written for him with this in mind. This entry was originally posted at https://selenak.dreamwidth.org/1425940.html. Comment there or here, as you wish.
Part Star Trek: Die Hard, part Star Trek: Nixon Goes To China, which I really had not seen coming. I continue to be intrigued. No scenes with Saru and Adira this week, which means the episode can focus on the hijacked Discovery and Federation Headquarters. It's also the first time we see more of Osyraa than Evil Overlady, which Stamets when talking to Aurellio the scientist sums up with "I believe you when you say she's more than what I see, but in other ways, she's exactly what I see". I am intrigued, though I am now wondering if and when someone is going to bring up that the Emperor was guilty of everything Osyraa did yet Starfleet let her become a member (of Section 31, but still) as opposed to putting her on trial. Now this happened 900 years before Vance's time, he can't be accused of double standards, and for all we know the next episode will reveal Osyraa pulled a fast one on the lie detector hologram and really had in mind nothing but a hostile takeover the entire time. But in-universe, I want someone of the Discovery crew bring the Emperor up once they learn of Osyraa's negotiations with Vance anyway. And I find it more interesting if Osyraa meant what she said. Remember that moment in Waterhship Down when Hazel suggests to Woundwort not just a truce but an alliance, a getting together with mutual respect, and Woundwort has a heartbeat where he truly gets that idea, can see why it would be a good thing, and has the chance to be truly the leader of genius he imagines himself to be, but in the next discards it because he's really a selfish old monster unable to want anything more than power for himself? In a way, what Disco seems to do here is letting a female Woundwort who takes the other road be the one to suggest the idea to Hazel. And that truly is fascinating. Especially since the show also doesn't ignore the enormity of what Osyraa has done in the past, just this very season alone. And I thought Vance's reactions throughout were just right. I doubt he was only playing for time in the hope the Discovery crew manages to liberate themselves. He doesn't dismiss Osyraa's idea out of hand, he does take her seriously, and he does mean it when listing the positives. But he also means what he says re: the necessity of any future figurehead of such an endeavour being smoeone able to operate independently from Osyraa herself, and b) the necessity for Osyraa to stand trial, especially given how she's harmed many of the remaining members of the Federation. Slavery and genocide are not minor misdemeanors. (Not in the Emperor's case, either, of course.)
While all of this is going on at HQ, we get the action movie stuff on Discovery as Michael does her best Bruce Willis while Tilly & Co. use their moment for a counter rally. I have to admit that the regulators being floated into space shocked me. I mean, it's in-universe justified in that Michael's last two experiences with Osyraa involved seeing Osyraa's people brutally torture and kill, her ship had been taken and she had no way of knowing Osyraa was busy negotiating with Vance as opposed to doing the same to the Discovery crew, not to mention that Michael is wounded and with very limited options. It was a very effective move in a war like situation. But these were still sentient beings killed, and that did make me swallow.
Otoh, Michael getting Paul Stamets off board despite his protests was one of those scenes where you can see both povs, and still think she's right. Unless Adira and Stamets have by now managed to finish their attempt to create an alternate means to use the spore drive, Stamets is still the only person who can use it, Osyraa has already proved she can force him to do so with that circlet gimmick, and in this time when normal warp drives can't be used safely, he is literally the current most indispensable person in the fleet when it comes to the future of space travel. Definitely a case of the welfare of the many overriding that of the few. At the same time, given Michael's own tendency to go on rescue missions for people she cares about, other considerations be damned, it's spectacularly unfair. (And yet not, given Michael isn't Stamets and not quintessential in the same way, see above.)
In terms of pure emotion, it also worked better for me than Stamets in the earlier scene with Aurellio mentioning Adira as his child. I mean, I'm all for found family, but really, this is way too fast. I'll fanwank it as Stamets trying to get to Aurellio based on Aurellio mentioning he was a father first.
Lastly: I learned that Aurellio is played by Ken Mitchell, who earlier played two different Klingons in Discovery's first and second season respectively, Kol, the dastardly Klingon leader, L'Rell's and Voq's enemy, and Kol-Sha, their son, in s1 and s2 respectively. Mitchell was diagnosed with ALS in 2018, and the role of Aurellio was written for him with this in mind. This entry was originally posted at https://selenak.dreamwidth.org/1425940.html. Comment there or here, as you wish.