historylover820

No episode of Discovery features very little Michael.

I hate Discovery. The less I can think about Discovery and stupid Michael the happier I am. The only two seasons I liked of Discovery were the first season (because I really enjoyed Jason Isaacs) and season 2 (because, of course, it introduced Anson Mount and Ethan Peck). So, I'm perfectly happy saying that Spock forgot how to read Federation Standard.

I liked it. Best episode of this season so far (and I liked Ad Astra) Yeah, it was ridiculous, but most shows dealing with temporary amnesia is. And I started smiling when they mentioned going to Rigel VII. I remember that mention. Pike was brooding about it in The Cage and The Menagerie, saying it's not fair that he has to b the one who picks who lives and who dies. (Heh. A reviewer I like does Star Trek reviews, and when he was reviewing that episode, after Pike says that, the reviewer goes, "Yeah, who do you think I am? Jesus Christ? And that's for the 5 of you who will get that reference." And I'm one of the 5 to understand that reference). So, this felt very old school to me, which I like. And, yes, I like seeing Pike front and center. Welcome back, Anson Mount! We've missed you! And count me in on wanting to see more Ortegas. Oh, and I loved Pike blocking the "phaser blasts" with a serving tray. Ha!

I think... and I can't remember which episode it is... but I think there's an episode this season that Superman didn't appear at all. It was just Clark. I can't remember the episode, and my CW likes to freeze and lose signal, so it's possible that I missed seeing Superman in this one episode. But your comment reminded me of this thought.

I didn't care much for this episode. I liked alt-Kirk. I did. I wasn't all that woo-hoo about Paul Wesley as Kirk in the season 1 finale. And I laughed at Kirk thinking he was in New York, because Toronto doubles more for New York than it appears as itself. So, can someone actually explain this for me? I know Khan is La'an direct ancestor, but he's only one of several, right? Say, La'an's dad is Khan's direct descendant, judging from her shared last name, but what about her mother? And, she's got four grandparents, only one who is Khan's direct descendant (say her dad's dad). But were her other three grandparents direct descendants? Because, the DNA scanner, which is 21st Century technology, somehow got La'an's Khan DNA across all those generations. Not a fan of this episode. Going back up to read other comments.

Yeah, I know. But I'm just surprised.

Well, we know Superman will be all right. They're not going to kill off Superman in the opening five minutes of the season premiere. But, still really liked that Lex created Doomsday out of Bizarro Zombie Superman. Yeah, the CGI was a little dodgy, but it still looked better than Batman V Superman's version of Doomsday, and on a tremendously smaller budget! (Although, honestly... I started laughing at the fight on the moon, because I was so having Superman IV images with Supes battling Nuclear Man). I agree with the poster above -- no public proposals. Who else is very surprised that Jordan didn't get involved in the fray to save his Dad? Especially when he said that he doesn't hear Clark breathing. I was expecting Lois to say "Go." It did kind of feel like "Well, let's wrap up the supporting characters here!" finale.

Yep

Well, in the TOS episode, Court Martial, Kirk's prosecutor was a former girlfriend of his. Now, there's a conflict of interest.

No doubt

Yeah, but Gene Roddenberry isn't alive to object to Lower Decks being canon or not being canon. He made that statement when he was trying to get Phase 2 and then the Motion Picture and then TNG off the ground. Now, whether or not you want to accept TAS as canon, that's up to you. Me? I personally don't want to get into a debate about why Tribbles are uniformly pink, that The Infinite Vulcan is canon or not, why the Enterprise has seat restraints, but only in TAS (which it should ALWAYS have seat restraints!). I mean, the debate about the Klingon's appearance is bad enough.

Well, TAS actually isn't considered canon... There are things that do come out of TAS that is now canon. "Tiberius" being Kirk's middle name came out of TAS. I think Yesteryear is officially canon, but that's the only episode that is. An early holodeck episode comes from TAS. And now, Robert April is the captain of the Enterprise before Pike. But Roddenberry declared it as not being canon like two years after TAS was cancelled, and I don't think a lot of fans go "Well it should be..." But, then again, there weren't a lot of fans screaming that Star Trek V should be canon, and, thanks to SNW, it is. Of course, DISCO had me first go, "Well, this isn't the first time that we've known that Spock has a crazy sibling he'd like to forget. And, great, that gets me going 'Final Frontier is canon!'" For the record, I find Start Trek V a blast to watch. I laugh and laugh and laugh.

So much better than the premiere. I kept thinking that Gene Roddenberry is probably rolling in his grave, because he famously made a rule in season 1 of TNG where there would be no personal conflicts, no arguments among the crew (forgetting, of course, how he wrote the arguments between Spock and McCoy), and the Federation is a utopia. A paradise. I like that it's not. While I don't like just dour and gloom and doom, I like a nuanced version of the Federation -- it has problems, prejudices, and it's run by flawed humans and flawed aliens. 2254 is only 200 years away from us. That's not all that long. Neera may be trying to change the law, but we know that law won't be changed, even in DS9's time. Doesn't mean that anyone should stop fighting and trying to change it. And, yeah, there was some real tension, because Una is not in or referenced in TOS as a whole (she's in the unaired pilot and thus in The Menagerie, but that's it). She really could have been drummed out of Starfleet, given a prison sentence, died. Because nothing is known about her in TOS. So, yeah, there was real tension. Hee. Those Vulcans arguing like that. C'mon, Spock, you're making a scene. And hee to Spock outing Una as having an affinity to Gilbert and Sullivan. I really liked that Short Trek. I like that SNW will resolve most storylines pretty quickly. Yeah, we have the season long arc that was introduced last episode, but most storylines get resolved very quickly, and I like that. Also, yeah, I'm a sucker for courtroom dramas. Bring on more of these episodes! And again, so much better than the premiere!

Yeah, I think most Star Trek fans either completely disown that episode or figure that Kirk was just placating her. "Yeah, Starfleet doesn't allow female captains. Sure, you lunatic. Oh, don't want to say 'lunatic.' Yes, you're right, you totally 'sane' person. It's too bad Starfleet doesn't allow female captains."

I'm from Kansas, and I know people who would stand and gawk at a tornado. Yeah, Jonathan and Sarah have a right to be upset and frustrated at their parents. While I can see Clark and Lana were trying to do good (Jordan needs to cool the "Look at me! I'm a superhero!" and I get that Clark would want to fight for Jonathan), they went about it the wrong way. Particularly Clark's meeting with Kyle. Unless how Kyle treats Jonathan really does become a problem, let Jonathan fight his own battles. This is growing up. Jordan's issues with his parents is different. I get where Jordan is coming from -- sometimes validation is great, particularly since you keep being told by everybody that you're in the wrong for doing what you're doing. But, he's still growing into his powers. Just the last episode, he developed x-ray vision. As Sam said, he's not as cautious as Clark. He has really no concept of balancing his secret identity of normal, but socially awkward teenager and superhero. The socially awkward is probably the biggest problem. From what we've seen, Clark seemed to be a well-adjusted teenager, he seemed popular enough for a small farming town. He matured into someone who can keep Clark Kent, regular dude, and Superman separate. Jordan craves validation. But, the craving is a problem, and it might be too late to dial it back. It won't be hard for Junior to start connecting the dots, even with Jordan's stupid costume. They figure out Jordan is Frog Boy (I like that), it's not going to be too hard to figure out that his father is Superman. That's going to be dangerous for everyone. Particularly since Lex Luthor is now out of prison. Part of Clark's anger is that Jordan is not listening to him. He just jumps in. Also, him not speeding away but letting himself be put all over social media is just asking for trouble. But, Clark should not have confronted Kyle about Jonathan's treatment.

Oh, yeah, I'm not going to edit my post again, but I'll post a new one-- I can't tell you how much I didn't like M'Benga and Chapel's action scenes. I don't watch Star Trek due to John Wick-style action. I watch John Wick to see that. I was strangely bored during those action scenes. It may be because I know they'll be fine -- their characters are on TOS. This episode kind of fell into the biggest problem I have with nu-Trek in general -- it's dark. It's moody. It's oh so serious. Which is why I absolutely loved first season SNW -- it was episodic, it was goofy, while it had dark episodes, it wasn't dark and moody. I'm positive after this episode, it will go back being what I like. I have no doubt on that. Also, can anyone explain that weird camera flip when Chapel and M'Benga went through the trap door thing to a lower deck? At first, I thought there was some sort of gravity glitch that I thought I missed. Now I don't know what that flip was about. It just made me go, "OK. I'm watching a show." And that when I kind of checked out of that plot.

I just watched. I read parts of your posts. Haven't read the other parts yet. I thought this was a mixed bag. Mostly I wasn't into it. 1. I badly missed Pike. Next week's episode better show what he was up to. 2. They really need to cool the Spock/Chapel thing. In TOS, which isn't that far in the future of SNW, Chapel had the badly unrequited crush on Spock. Absolutely not the other way around. Everyone who's watched TOS knows that this ain't happening. So, why are they pushing it so strongly? ETA: I've caught up on your posts. For the record, I like this characterization of Chapel. Have her be a feisty, badass character. Just like Uhura. I'm down with it, because I recognize that they were limited the female characterizations in the '60s. I'm just talking about this weird romantic thing between Spock and Chapel. This aspect needs to stop. 3. Like all prequels, it's hard to really get worked up if legacy characters are in danger. You know Chapel and M'Benga are in TOS. So, their jump through space did not affect me at all. 4. I did laugh at Spock's "I want this ship to go. Now." Hey, it's better than Michael's "Let's fly." 5. I do understand Spock's hesitation at command. In TOS, he didn't like the thought of command. In the movies, he was seldom in command, although he was a captain. Heck, even his Mirror counterpart didn't like the idea of command because it put him in danger of assassination. So that rang true for me. 6. Spock disobeying orders rang true, although I do question it being for La'an. Heck, he'll do it several times in the future, notable for Pike in The Menagerie. 7. Maybe Chapel will do that two month sabbatical thing she was talking about and come back engaged to Korby. Heck, I'll even welcome a time jump. "Christine, how was the archeological trip?" "Great! I met someone! His name is Roger Korby, we just hit it off, and, look! I'm engaged!" 8. I don't want to see a war with the Gorn. In TOS, which, again, isn't too long in the future, the Federation didn't even know what the Gorn looked like. Just like Romulans, everyone was shocked to see a Gorn in Arena. Wouldn't fighting a war with them kind of make people know what they look like in 10 years time? 9. So far, not feeling Carol Kane. To be honest, she's hit or miss with me anyways. Taxi? Fine. The Princess Bride? Loved her, but she's also working with Billy Crystal. I don't really like her in anything else, but I haven't seen a lot of her work. Apparently, she's supposed to be a Guinan-type character? Eh. So far, not enthused. 10. To Nichelle. That just kind of hits you in the feels, doesn't it? I thought it was a beautiful dedication.

15 years passed, and it was Javi's 16th birthday. Because Gary's last video was for his 16th birthday.

So, some thoughts, some defenses, some criticisms -- 1. Gary's "top-secret" legal work: I really think it's the estate planning that Catherine mentioned to Eddie in this episode. She shouldn't have even told Eddie that, because of attorney-client privilege and confidentiality laws. And why not have something super secret that's mundane? That was more for the audience than anything. 2. Hair not changing. Heh. This is off-topic, but this is the first thing I thought of-- There's an early, early, early Best Picture Oscar winner, I think from 1932, called Cimarron. I've seen it, although I can't remember when this movie came out, and it's a bad movie. Really, watch it among people whose tastes bend to bad movies and have a few drinks. You'll have a ball with it. But, the main character, who is overplayed by a silent movie actor, has a bad haircut. Just awful haircut. He not only keeps this hair cut for like 40 years from when the movie started until when the movie ends, but he passes the bad haircut to his son! I mean, it has to be in the son's genetics, because Daddy is gone exploring for most of the movie and is not around to inflict his bad taste in hair onto his son. Yet, his son has the exact same hairstyle! That's kind of what all this bad hair talk reminds me of. I laughed at the above poster mentioning that David Guintoli is probably a vampire because he doesn't age. You're not lying. So, I was tickled at seeing him looking exactly the same "15 years later." 3. The dinner scene: I may be mistaken, and that's extremely possible, but my mind decided that the dinner scene was actually taking place after Gary died. I know usually when scenes are cross-cut like that, they're supposed to be happening simultaneously, but I was reading that the dinner scene was sometime after, like days or weeks, after Gary's death. Maybe even after Gary's funeral. But, Gary would have liked the gang to tell funny stories about him while he died. But, in my head, it wasn't happening at the same time. After all, this episode was full of time skips, so I'm happy to believe that this was also a time skip. Again, I could be completely wrong. 4. The coffin scene. Didn't need it. Didn't need a bizarre closure of Jon not being able to get a flight on 9/11. Didn't need to know that Sophie was named after the flight attendant. But, I think most people who know they're going to die will plan for getting a coffin. Heck, I think a lot of people do purchase a coffin if they're planning their own funerals! I don't think they necessarily want to leave it up to grieving family and friends. Why add more stress? 5. Theo's ageless wisdom Assisted suicide is a nuanced topic for adults. There's a lot of factors to it, a lot of points of view. It's not a black and white issue. It's gray and charcoal. So, if adults can't wrap their minds around it and successfully argue pro and con, a 13 year old would NOT be able to understand. I'm not saying that 13 year olds aren't intelligent or anything. But, if adults can't wrap their minds around it, with more experiences with nuanced topics, a 13 year old wouldn't be able to. 6. Sophie being pregnant after 16 years. I didn't get the feeling that this was Sophie's first child. Was there dialogue I missed saying it was her first? 7. Danny being with his high school boyfriend I know people who are married to their high school sweethearts. I'm OK with it. 8. Javi going to the Bruins game with Danny, Tyrell, and Theo Man, I hope he has high school friends. But, I'm OK with him going to a game with his "cousins." Even if they're quite a bit older than him, they probably helped raise him. But, yeah, I hope he has high school friends. 9. Gary's videos not continuing past Javi's 16th birthday Yeah, that's weird. He was obviously still healthy at that final video. Had a full head of hair and a healthy beard. There really should be a video for high school graduation, getting his driver's license, getting a girlfriend. A later video about having a child and a baby. Even maybe a later video about marriage. Obviously that video is not the last filmed, because last week, he was filming a video about how to shave. So, yeah, that was weird. 10. Rome and Eddie being stupid Yeah, I've already talked about this briefly. They're stupid. 😄

I'm wondering what parts James Roday Rodriguez wrote, because he co-wrote it with DJ Nash. I've always been fascinated by how two writers write together. Do they come up with everything, sitting in an office, bouncing ideas and dialogue together? Does JRR go to Nash and say "I have an idea of how to end Gary's story?" and the two run with that? Does Nash write one part and JRR write another part and they edit each other's work? I find that fascinating.

My immediate thought: Colin laying on Gary's bed whining while Gary died KILLED me. I mean, I sobbed. I'm still tearing up just thinking about that. (And, yes, Rome and Eddie were idiots just waltzing into the clinic, "Hey Kevin! Got anything to assist in Gary's death? What? Illegal! How dare you want to keep your job!")

One thing I do know-- I'll miss talking about this series with you all. I know I won't miss the series.

My dad didn't lose much weight when he went through chemo.

Well that was depressing. I can't really criticize it, but, damn, do I feel depressed. Even if that wedding was sweet, and, for once, I didn't want to throw things at the TV when I see Delilah. Well done episode. But I'm very sad now and I'm going to bed. At least I don't have to work tomorrow.

That's my guess as well.