S05.E04: Face the Strange

[paulvdb]

Quote

On the way to the next clue, the U.S.S. Discovery is sabotaged by a mysterious weapon, leaving Captain Burnham, Rayner, and Stamets as the only crew members who can possibly save the ship in time.

Premiere date: April 18, 2024

[AnimeMania]

[dwmarch]

I liked this episode. Over the history of Star Trek there have been a bunch of episodes where characters bounce around in time but this still felt unique since it was three characters bouncing around together.

I wish we could have seen Lorca again although it was cool to see Airiam.

The Krenim Barking Spider was way too loud! Adira almost heard it and Stamets heard it instantly which was a nice touch. Stamets knows what his Engineering section is supposed to sound like and he automatically knew that thing wasn't supposed to be there.

Brave of Moll to tell their contact that they poisoned the thing he is holding onto with a poison that was used on her people. If I were that dude, I would have thrown that brick of latinum at her face after she said that.

[MissLucas]

Prime Cat's Log, 7th life, day 2259

• Underlings still on cookie cutter quest.
• Suddenly realized time going wonky.
• Underlings tendency to talk gobbledygook increases dramatically when faced with time-travel shenanigans. 
• Decided to spare myself the ennui and take a nap until they've figured it out.
• Time's back to normal. Wonkyness apparently caused by tiny spider-like creature.
• None of this would have happened had underlings installed security protocols to vaporize on sight anything with more than four legs inside hull. 
• Not sure why said security protocol has not been installed as underlings love to watch gruesome tales about all kinds of creatures with more than four legs eviscerating them on a regular basis.
• Time-travel shenanigans obviously been used by *sigh* first underling's mate to brainwash new underling of the red pride. Too bad - I liked him.
• Mischievous kitten still on the run.

[Stardancer Supreme]

6 hours ago, dwmarch said:

I liked this episode. Over the history of Star Trek there have been a bunch of episodes where characters bounce around in time but this still felt unique since it was three characters bouncing around together.

I wish we could have seen Lorca again although it was cool to see Airiam.

The Krenim Barking Spider was way too loud! Adira almost heard it and Stamets heard it instantly which was a nice touch. Stamets knows what his Engineering section is supposed to sound like and he automatically knew that thing wasn't supposed to be there.

Brave of Moll to tell their contact that they poisoned the thing he is holding onto with a poison that was used on her people. If I were that dude, I would have thrown that brick of latinum at her face after she said that.

 

 

Time Travel shenanigans always give me a headache (TM Janeway).  I did like how Stamets saw the spider immediately. My arachnophobia would have gotten us killed! What I didn't understand is how Zora didn't immediately sense the spider's presence... 

It must have been harrowing for Michael to face her younger self and knowing she would have to fight her. Linus telling her that red is her color made me chuckle. Does his people have experience with time travels? The fact that he was the only one to sense that this was Michael, but not his Michael was a nice touch. This was also a hell of a way for Rayner to learn how being connected to your crew could make the difference between life and certain death. 

I wonder if L'ak and Moll took the pieces Michael already had? How would they know where to go next? (Actually, they could have gotten the information Discovery already had from the unauthorized message.) I like that L'ak and Moll aren't as unintelligent as they seemed; but they would still have to explain how she got into that Trill ceremony undetected...

Airiam!! I wonder if it is the same actress? It's a nice touch since we won't see Nilsson this season.

ETA: Let's not forget the connection to that Short Trek! I'm going to watch it again.

Edited April 18 by Stardancer Supreme

[Chit Chat]

2 hours ago, Stardancer Supreme said:

This was also a hell of a way for Rayner to learn how being connected to your crew could make the difference between life and certain death. 

I think it's good for Rayner to get to know the crew and understand them on some level, but I don't like the heavy-handedness of how that idea is presented.  He seems to be an old-school military type who doesn't have time for the "I get you bullshit" (loved that line) when he's trying to save the ship.  However, I do think it's important to respect one's crewmates and not act like a jerk, but not everybody wants a deep, personal relationship with their co-workers.  This is what I find so annoying about this show.  Quit beating a dead horse!  We get it!  Feelings matter, blah, blah, blah!  

Quit talking so much and just save the damn universe!

 

[txhorns79]

2 hours ago, Stardancer Supreme said:

ETA: Let's not forget the connection to that Short Trek! I'm going to watch it again.

A little bit.  Though if I remember right, in that Short Trek, Zora had been abandoned for hundreds of years, but was still operating without much issue. 

I know Zora is just AI, but there was something very touching and sad when Zora asked Burnham if she was real or if this was just a dream.

[thuganomics85]

"Time bump."  I do kind of love it whenever Trek (or any sci-fi show) just combines the word time with some other random word in order to explain a new situation involving some form of time-travel.  In this case, it's thanks to a bug planted by Moll that Discovery keeps randomly flipping to new timelines every few minutes.  Effective enough, but luckily for Discovery, not only is Stamets self-aware about it due to his history, but Michael and Rayner just happen to be attempting to teleport when it happens, so they are able to keep their memories as well.  If not for that, it might have gone on for days or maybe even weeks!

Atypical timey-wimey silliness aside, I did enjoy revisiting some of the previous looks (and situations) again, and I thought they actually did a solid job at not going too broad with the differences, but still seeing how these characters changed.  In particular, Younger Michael and Current Michael are clearly the same woman in so many ways, but you can see how much more of a hothead and emotional Younger Michael was compared to Current Michael.

Loved how Stamets initially kept claiming that a "spore breach" was happening to clear out engineering, but for the oldest timeline, he just simply bemoaned "I'm very angry right now!  Leave!" and everyone bailed.  Yeah, Stamets might always be a crank, but he really has mellowed out compared to the early seasons.

Speaking of cranks, not surprised this ended with Rayner coming around to realizing that personal connections can be good things amongst the crew and seems to making an effort now.  At least they did acknowledge this his stern old-school approach might still have some merit in certain situations.

Cool to see Airiam again and the Lorca reference, even if we couldn't see him.  That would have been cool.  Or maybe a Georgiou sighting.  Hell, I would have liked to have seen Pike.

I wonder if we'll ever a holo/android version of Zora before the end, just to get Annabelle Wallis on screen one time.

[vibeology]

I kind of think its unlikely that for six hours they kept popping into the ready room over and over and not once did they bump into any of our past captains. I really assumed we'd get Saru at the very least since they already put Doug Jones in the makeup for such a short amount of screen time.

Pike would have been helpful. Lorca would have been a major problem. Any version of past Captain Michael would have been fine but weirded out.

It's not that I disagree with it entirely, but I do hate how heavy this show leans on the "feelings are good and the most important" thesis. Sometimes they are. But also sometimes its good to be disciplined and run on systems. A balance is what is ideal. But it always feels like the feelings side is 100% right on this show and the other side is always wrong.

The Rayner who helped Tilly solve a problem wouldn't have dismissed Reese offering up a pretty logical theory. But we needed Rayner to be the bad guy and learn a lesson so that's what we got. In the little time we've had with him, he's clearly mission focused and someone offering up a theory about the mission is something I think he'd value.

Once again, Jet Reno is the best and I always wish we'd get more of her. I know Tig is very busy but knowing the show is working its way to the end, it bums me out when we don't see Jet more.

[marinw]

1 hour ago, vibeology said:

The Rayner who helped Tilly solve a problem wouldn't have dismissed Reese offering up a pretty logical theory. But we needed Rayner to be the bad guy and learn a lesson so that's what we got

IMO Rayner is not an asshat the way Jelllico and Shaw were asshats, I think he's a good person. Being gruff does not automatically make a person bad. I know a lot of gruff yet nice people IRL. Rayner's method of interviewing the crew was unusual, but demonstrated that he genuinely cares about and is interested in the crew. Rayner is a great addition to the crew, and Michael made a good decision to make him her XO. I look forward to seeing what he does next.

Edited April 19 by marinw

[Affogato]

This was a fantastic way to remind us of the distance discovery and its inhabitants have traveled, changed, while making many nods to star treks past. 

[millennium]

On 4/18/2024 at 6:23 PM, Stardancer Supreme said:

What I didn't understand is how Zora didn't immediately sense the spider's presence...

The writers beggared belief in similar fashion during  Picard Season 3, when the ship's sensors -- which even in Kirk's time could single out a lone heartbeat in a particular section of the ship -- failed to detect a rotting human corpse inside a crewman's closet.  

 

18 hours ago, marinw said:

IMO Rayner is not an asshat the way Jelllico and Shaw were asshats

I liked Jellico.  He got the job done.

[marinw]

12 hours ago, millennium said:

I liked Jellico.  He got the job done.

It says a lot that we are still talking about Jellico thirty years after Chain of Command. And he got Troi in a normal uniform.

Edited April 20 by marinw

[tennisgurl]

On 4/20/2024 at 7:03 AM, marinw said:

It says a lot that we are still talking about Jellico thirty years after Chain of Command. And he got Troi in a normal uniform.

For that alone he's a hero in my book!

I love that Jet got a badass hero moment, always a treat to see her.

I liked this episode, I'm a sucker for those "travel throughout the shows past" types of episodes and that we got three people all traveling around through time. It was a fun way to celebrate the show's history before we wrap things up and see some old characters, even if it would have been cool to see Pike, Landry, or especially Lorca again, but I know it can be hard to get so many actors back again for just one episode. 

It was fun seeing first season Michael fighting against present Michael, I almost forgot what a hot head she used to be, always being ready to come in hot instead of the calmer more mature Michael of the current timeline. Even beyond the hair they had such different vibes. 

Stamets really did used to be quite the grump, he's really chilled out a lot. Not that he's Mr. Perky Happy Time now, but he's certainly not the guy who screamed at his staff for any old thing. I too am concerned by his staff believing that a "spore breech" is a thing when its apparently not. 

I think there is something to be said for a traditional hierarchy in a vessel like Discovery, especially with them being on such an important mission, but it would be in Rayner's best interest to at least somewhat adjust to how Discovery does things. He does clearly care about the crew and doing what's best for them, he's just gruff and has his old school military way of doing things that he thinks his best, ideally he could find a middle ground of some kind. 

Edited April 22 by tennisgurl