S01.E09: Into the Forest I Go

[tpel]

Yes, it could be two generations. It could be three. It could be four, if some generations procreated on the young side. With advances in medical technology, it could conceivably be only one generation. I'm still confused about what the objection is here. I joked that Georgiou could be Hoshi's "descendant". That seems consistent with all of the above definitions of "generation".

We seem to have gone beyond the actual episode in our discussion. I'm going to try to start a more open-ended thread.

On 11/14/2017 at 5:24 PM, marinw said:

Dr. Culber must have examined Ash and cleared him for duty. Or maybe not, as Culber treats his own boyfriend and yet doesn’t notice how Stamets using the spore drive is affecting him. No wonder the Admiral was ordered away in a “Medical Shuttle” which I assume is some sort of warp-capable space ambulance. I like Hugh Culber as a character but I’m wondering about his efficacy as chief medical officer.

The fact that Dr. Culber treats Stamets bugs me. It would be one thing if Culber were the CMO, and therefore would be ultimately responsible for all treatments and might feel he had to take point on the most freaky ones. But he's not; he is one of the ship's doctors. And he is the patient's partner/husband. So why hasn't the CMO bumped him from the case? There might be a good reason, relating to the specialties of the doctors available. It would be nice if they mentioned said reason.

[marinw]

1 hour ago, tpel said:

But he's not; he is one of the ship's doctors.

Really? Who is the CMO?

[tpel]

I don't think they've ever named the CMO. But there was one point when Dr. Culber mentioned that he needed to assist the CMO with something -- I think an Andorian tonsillectomy -- which implies that he is not himself the CMO. I generally don't mind the "view from the lower decks" we're getting, even if that means we are never really introduced to important players on the ship. It only bugs me when it makes the behavior of the characters we do know seem puzzling or inappropriate. 

[paigow]

On 11/13/2017 at 3:51 PM, tpel said:

 

2. He is not MirrorLorca, but he wants to get to a mirror universe. Why? Because that's where he left the Buran.

Kirk needed an ion storm to reach the Evil Universe... How did Lorca get the Buran to cross over? Does that mean he destroyed a Mirror!Buran?? 

On 11/16/2017 at 0:39 PM, marinw said:

Really? Who is the CMO?

Jethro McCoy...The adopted cousin Leonard McCoy never talks about....

[starri]

On 11/15/2017 at 4:17 PM, Emily Thrace said:

Georgiou could at most be Hoshi's daughter and even that would mean Georgiou was born when Hoshi would have been at the very end of her child bearing years. Also Hoshi was Japanese and Georgiou is Chinese.

Interesting that you say that.  We know from "In a Mirror, Darkly" that Hoshi was killed by Kodos the Executioner during his culling of the population.  The forthcoming Discovery novel Drastic Measures is about what Georgiou and Lorca were doing while that was happening on Tarsus IV.  

I rewatched the episode (I think it's the first time I've done that), and damn, it's just as good the second time.

They had originally planned to have Cornwell not survive the episode, but the producers liked Jayne Brook so much they decided to have her be rescued.  So it sounds like we'll be seeing her again, if/when Discovery gets back home.

Michael wasn't scripted to cry when Ash told her about being tortured, but SMG thought it was so powerful, she improvised it.  And then it made everybody on the set choke up, and they knew that was the take they were using.

[John Potts]

Lorca was right - they need to fight for the Pahvans. Shame he dropped Stamets in it, but he did have to come up with some excuse.

Lorca knows what bait to lay before Stamets - and Stamets had said (well, lied) that he was unhurt by using the Spore Drive, so Lorca had the perfect excuse.

Have they spore jumped from warp before?

I get that Discovery has usually jumped in and destroyed the Klingon vessels it encountered - but did it always defeat all the Klingons in place? Haven't they left the battlefield with some enemy ships still active (or at least, disabled but not destroyed)? And even if they didn't, have the Klingons not retrieved any data from the destroyed ships? Because they seemed genuinely surprised that Discovery could jump!

Must be awkward having those lights next to your eyes. If only starfleet had night vision goggles...

I'd forgotten about the "personal" connection between Tyler and L'Rell (assuming he is Tyler).

Starfleet couldn't come up with something a little less obvious in a bug?!?

Glad Michael didn't win the knife fight - that would have been ridiculous

How heavy a sleeper is Michael? I wake up if somebody rolls over in the next room - Tyler was having a full on nightmare after (presumably) having sex and just lay there!

"Just one more jump..." is so like "One day before retirement!"

On ‎13‎/‎11‎/‎2017 at 4:42 AM, dwmarch said:

it's established Star Trek canon that Klingons do not smell good under the best of circumstances so that dead one that's been sitting there should smell like a sackfull of Targ buttholes with all the good ones picked out. The human crew should not have been able to function in that room because of the smell.

You can put up with a lot if you have to, though it would have been nice to have Burnham/Ash comment on how awful the smell was only for the Admiral to say that she'd stopped noticing it.

On ‎13‎/‎11‎/‎2017 at 8:16 AM, 2727 said:

If Cornwell was still on board Disco, couldn't she have taken command in alt-wherever they are?

Actually, no - at least not if Starfleet Regs are anything like the US Navy (which is usually a good rule of thumb). Captain is God on his ship unless/until officially relieved of command (I don't think an Admiral can do this for no reason - though they might well try). Of course, going against an Admiral is not a good idea for your long term career prospects.

(I should say that I don't know this from direct experience but from comments have made about other Trek shows, so take it with as much salt as you feel is necessary!)

On ‎14‎/‎11‎/‎2017 at 7:11 AM, Zuleikha said:

Why exactly is there a war with the Klingons anyway? (no, seriously... Burnham killed T'Kuvna but how many of the Klingon houses cared about him anyway? And his core followers were left starving and abandoned on the Ship of the Dead until Kol remembered it had useful cloaking technology... so which Houses were fighting the Federation? and why?

I think it's more that the Klingons don't want to stop a war once they've started it without winning it.

Edited February 1, 2019 by John Potts

[rmontro]

I'm admittedly slow on the uptake, but I only just noticed in this episode that Stamets was being played by the guy from Rent, Anthony Rapp.  I knew he looked familiar.  And in the very next scene after I realized it, they gave the reference to La Boheme, which Rent is based on.  Interesting timing there.

Good episode.  I keep wondering when this is all going to go south, because it's been pretty good so far.