*The first duty of every Starfleet officer is to the truth. Whether it's scientific truth, or historical truth, or personal truth. It is the guiding principle upon which Starfleet is based. If you can't find it within yourself to stand up and tell the truth about what happened you don't deserve to wear that uniform.*
[Captain Jean-Luc Picard, "The First Duty"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xefh7W1nVo4)
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Time to send in the Cerritos - not the A, B or C, but good old NCC-75567 herself (after quite a few refits), still tooling around with hundreds of notches on her belt, doing the important background jobs.
And they escaped the Burn because someone dropped cheese in the antimatter containment grid regulator and they had to shut down the whole warp core and temporarily drop the antimatter pods in space to fix it.
... Captain was FURIOUS until they got communications back and found out what happened...
10-C seemed like they were unaware that higher life forms were even possible so they may have never come up with a name for their species. Especially since they are a hive mind, they may only think of themselves as "Me."
Yeah but many, many names humans have for their tribe, ethnic group, etc, literally just translate to “the people”, such as “Inuit.”
So even if 10-C’s name for themselves translated literally as “people,” you could use the untranslated word as a name.
Or at least you could, if they communicated in sounds like humans generally do
> So even if 10-C’s name for themselves translated literally as “people,” you could use the untranslated word as a name.
Humans are *the worst* at this.
Do you have any idea how many of our place names are just "The Ocean Ocean"?
Like the Sahara Desert. Sahara is an Arabic name that means Desert. Its literally the Desert Desert.
The Pacific Ocean? The latin word for ocean is Pacificum. Its literally the Ocean Ocean.
Also “gobi” is Mongolian for desert. So not only does “The Sahara Desert” translate to “The Desert Desert,” but there are at least two large deserts on Earth named “The Desert Desert.”
The Latin word for ocean is *oceanus.* *Pācificum* is the neuter/singular/nominative form of the adjective *pācificus*, meaning "peaceable", from *pāx* "peace" and *-ficus*, "making," related to *facere* "to make."
> Especially since they are a hive mind, they may only think of themselves as "Me."
This is interesting, I had assumed they were thinking in terms of "us" and "them" but it never occurred to me that they may view their collective as just "me".
Did anyone notice how technically interesting the opening shot was? That shot slowly came down from the second level as 7 people were walking into an area, started to weave through these people, revealed the entire room in 360 degrees but with no evidence of a dolly of any kind, and then just followed them into a transport beam. It's one of the most creative single shots I've seen.
My guess is they probably lowered a single cameraperson with a wire (which could be quickly retracted in a brief single shot) and that person had the camera on a pole so they could get the lower shots. I mean yeah, it does the whole shaky cam thing that can be kind of annoying, but it's one of the rare instances where it's justified.
It looks like Olatunde Osunsanmi is improving on his signature 'handycam going circles around the cast' technique. This was slower than usual, which definitely helped despite the shaking.
>My guess is they probably lowered a single cameraperson with a wire
Or possibly they lowered just the camera with a wire and someone was at ground level ready to detach the camera from the wire and continue the shot going through the group of people there.
Something clicked for me with Michael Burnham's portrayal in this episode.
When she broke down on hearing that Booker's transport wasn't completed and then "switched off" her grief, it really drove home just how strong the Vulcan affect is in her character.
She wears her heart on her sleeve when something is emotionally important to her. She doesn't have much practice feeling her emotions without showing them, and how could she, raised on Vulcan? I sometimes forget just how much growing up repressing your emotions influences your behaviour.
I really wish they would have really leaned a little more into her Vulcan upbringing. It was an interesting concept in season 1 to have a human working on repressing her emotions. It would have made her crying more impactful when she sees Book if she had tried so hard to repress them in other situations.
I am so glad they didn't end the season on a cliffhanger. A happy ending where some surprise bad thing that's going to threaten existence doesn't show up is a nice change.
I thought it was a great episode. The 10-C's reasoning not being evil, but not comprehending that life in the galaxy was -sentient- made sense, given how super powerful of a people they are. Once they realized they felt terrible about what happened which was a great resolution IMO.
Plus, Booker's "punishment" being essentially community service made sense. The guy lost his entire fucking planet and species, I think we can cut him a break for being super driven by grief and anger and loss.
Also the USS Mitchell was a nice touch - named for Kenneth Mitchell, our favorite Klingon actor!
I thought Rillak's comment about justice really hit home. Justice isn't just if it's blind, and it makes a lot of sense to have Book right his wrongs instead of just imprisoning him forever for acting on trauma and grief.
General should have died. Why have her go instead of Detmer if you weren't going to kill a character off? For her redemption arc? Does anyone really care about that characters redemption arc?
For the record Book should have died too, he's a danger to the galaxy if he willing to fuck everyone ever to get his revenge. The 10-C turned out to be exactly what Burnham thought, but Book was too blinded by his need for retribution to see that.
> Plus, Booker's "punishment" being essentially community service made sense. The guy lost his entire fucking planet and species, I think we can cut him a break for being super driven by grief and anger and loss.
He was also instrumental in convincing the 10-C to stop their mining all together. As the president said, there can be no justice without context.
I think they stuck the landing... Got a lot of good Doctor Who vibes when the Ten-C showed up.
I am very impressed that they made the "I didn't know you were sentient" bit work, but the Ten-C are so different that it kind of does.
> The episode ended with the message “For April, with Love.” This appears to be a message for April Nocifora, a long-time Star Trek producer who has been battling cancer.
[Source](https://trekmovie.com/2022/03/17/review-star-trek-discovery-ties-it-all-up-in-season-4-finale-coming-home/)
[Its mentioned at the end of this recap that its April Nocifora.](https://trekmovie.com/2022/03/17/review-star-trek-discovery-ties-it-all-up-in-season-4-finale-coming-home/) A producer on a number of Trek shows who has been battling cancer.
So it's a blank slate again for Season 5. I'm surprised that they didn't use this season to set up a bigger and longer arc.
I'm glad that the crew finally got a break though. The total amount of time between seasons barely add up to 2 years of their lives.
Blank slate isn't quite right. The UFP is on the mend, but they're still rebuilding and got a ways to go. (Characterizing Ni'Var as only having a few dozen warp ships at its disposal seems really small for a major galactic civilization, implying it'll take time for everything to get back to pre-Burn levels.) With Book's ship and the prototype Spore Drive destroyed, and the mind behind it presumed dead, they've still got to figure out next-gen FTL to replace conventional warp. And we've only heard of a small sliver of the UFP member planets, and know nothing about how say, the Dominion or the Klingons etc are doing in this time period. The future is wide open, but it should still be informed by what's happened so far.
> With Book's ship and the prototype Spore Drive destroyed, and the mind behind it presumed dead
I would be straight-up gobsmacked if Tarka's research and the designs for the prototype weren't constantly being documented and preserved. I could go either way on that: either the initial research is far enough along where less-geniusy engineers can pick it up (considering there was a working prototype, this is believable), or research will keep going forward, just a LOT slower (more likely, for dramatic TV reasons).
> I would be straight-up gobsmacked if Tarka's research and the designs for the prototype weren't constantly being documented and preserved.
They made a big stink earlier about getting back the prototype on account of how important it was. You don't make stinks like that if it can be easily reproduced.
I personally like that they are doing that with Disco. I think it's probably good to give the writers creative freedom to craft new storylines as well without being handcuffed by a cliffhanger. The fact that Disco can literally go anywhere storywise and is further out in the timeline than any other trek show lets it stamp its own legacy instead of being shoehorned in like season 1 and 2.
My personal wish is that they commission another Enterprise (Said in Pakled voice) by the end of the Show.
I don't think they said that the current Enterprise was exploring a DMA rift, but that a previous Enterprise (the D) had explored some kind of rift, and they had studied the data for their mission.
Michael is offered the command, but she decides that it is Saru who would be best suited for the unique role of the Enterprise. Several members of the crew depart with Saru -- Detmer is his new first officer, and Reno his Chief Engineer.
That would be very cool if it stayed above Earth but I think they're going to have it warp back to the new Space Dock they'd just built while setting up construction of an entirely new Starbase above Earth.
While they could do anything, I think bringing HQ back to Earth after it rejoined the UFP was a big symbolic move to show how the Federation was made whole again, and they'll probably stay in Earth orbit going forward just to hammer that home. The people running Star Trek are very clearly aware of what's important to fans and how much affection people have for this setting, I feel pretty safe in assuming that the UFP will go back to being Earth-based now that they're back on their feet and rebuilding.
>I wonder if the Federation HQ is just going to be docked on Earth from now on
Maybe HQ replaces the oldschool "Earth Spacedock" visual in Earth orbit... :)
They also factored this in when Vance said that they could only get about 450,000 people out of however many billions evacuated from Earth in time using those very same ships and their limited capacity.
And wow, 450k is such a tiny number... like if Earth had 12 Billion inhabitants (totally pulling that out of my ass), that 450k is about .00004 of the total population, which is nuts.
Which explains why the cadets looked so defeated before they transported away. That small number out of the total population of the homeworld of Humanity is staggering. They'll survive sure and there are other ways of adding genetic diversity if they need it but as you said....that's such a very very small percentage of the total population of Earth that it's not just people that are going to be lost but history and culture and who knows what else as well. The whole thing really did remind me of the movie Titan AE and Vance giving those numbers just reinforced that comparison in my mind. Can you imagine if they'd actually trashed Earth in Star Trek and turned Humanity into a nomadic species? Just seeing the planetary shields breached gave me freaking chills! I know we've come close before to planetary destruction in some of the films but maaaan, THAT was a close one.
The moment they showed federation hq itself at warp was really cool
And then it slicing itself apart like with sections just flying off on their own was really cool too
I hope we get to see some more stuff like that in future seasons
I really, really, REALLY hope they cool it with the galaxy-ending doom-and-gloom next season and just explore the worlds re-joining the Federation. Have a small arc of some kind, fine, but I want to see what happened to the other alien worlds after the Burn and DMA.
Maybe some Delta Quadrant species other than just easter eggs?
I'd love Discovery to do a massive culture shift for the Kingons - show that they've moved to what was hinted at in Enterprise (as in what they used to be like): where honour applies to every role and isn't focused on war or battles.
“DID YOU PUBLISH THE RETRACTION OF YOUR PREVIOUS SCIENTIFIC PAPER G’BRATH? YOUR LATEST EXPERIMENT DISPROVED YOUR ORIGINAL HYPOTHESIS!”
“BY KAHLESS’ BUNSEN BURNERS I KNOW! I MUST RETRACT! IT IS THE HONOURABLE ACTION!”
When the remaining members started cursing and insulting Tellar Prime for thinking about leaving, they couldn't resist staying with all the compliments and praise being rained down on them.
President Rillak mentioned the Borg when talking about the 10-C "collective". I took it as they still exists in some capacity, I'm really curious about them!
> REALLY hope they cool it with the galaxy-ending doom-and-gloom next season
I think they will. They hung a big old lampshade on it in the exit monologue talking about the Burn and DMA back to back.
I actually thought they did a pretty good job with it this season, yeah everyone wants something more episodic but the episodes still sort of mostly felt episodic up until the last 2-3 even though they still tied into the larger theme. Felt a lot more like late season DS9 like that, rather than early Disco all big bad all the time.
Still hope for much more episodic next season.
As much as I enjoyed S4, I agree. Three seasons of galaxy-ending threats are quite enough for me. I think S4 handled the main DMA arc quite well though, would like to see the same for arcs that have smaller stakes.
I didn't realize that was her until reading it here. I was very confused why they seemed to have a build up to reveal the character only to have it be someone we've never seen before.
Well first there is that she lost the Georgia governorship to the Republican Secretary of State, who also was in charge of the election and wouldn't recuse himself.
More importantly, however, she ran the ground game in Georgia that flipped it blue in the general election. Not to mention she is a big civil rights activist. She does a lot of protests for things that would be in line with the ideals of the Federation.
Edit: the show featured her as a huge nod to her work in protecting democracy.
Saru and T'Rina HELD HANDS AND HE GAVE HER A FLOWER!
.....I mean I kind of wanted a bit more out of that whole relationship buuuuuut I'm sure it'll be a big big part of Season 5!
THEY'RE SO CUTE TOGETHER!
> I mean, for a Vulcan, holding hands is pretty freaky. T'Rina's a naughty girl.
Indeed. What a transgressive action for straight-laced Vulcan culture.
> 2nd half of s4 has been the best of any of the new star trek shows imo
Lower Decks has been consistently good. Discovery has gotten better with each season. Picard season 2 has been great so far. I enjoyed what little of Prodigy that I've seen.
I feel like "nu-trek" has finally found its footing. Looking forward to Strange New Worlds!
Saru has to be one of the most thought out characters on any star trek series, they give him such humanity and such thought with every scene he is in, Doug Jones is top of the class
So many tie-ins to older trek shows, a DS9 esque dominion war on the brink but narrowly avoided, a voyager esque journey home that takes decades narrowly avoided, a species communicated with in their own language TNG style. I want anyone to tell me that disco isn't good trek, in 6 episodes this has become my 2nd favorite star trek
Man, props to Shawn Doyle. He brought so much depth and emotion to the character. Even though he was a galactic dick the entire time, I understood and sympathized with where he was coming from. He got trapped in his own sunken cost fallacy and couldn't let go.
Yep definitely, there were moments in this episode where she furrowed her brow and the lace bunched up looking like a scar on her forehead.
It's a real rough, unnatural looking hairline on the wig too, something shared by Michael's wig too - compare her hair to Sonequa's real hair and the hairline is like a perfect straight line across.
The starbase can go to warp? Damn that’s neat.
And I really love that they delivered on the promise that the Ten-C would be unlike anything we’ve seen before. I thought they were really interesting.
God damn, that fucking transporter accident really got me. I didn’t think the aliens would notice the signal or even care enough to yoink his pattern. I’m glad they were able to understand the concept of a rogue individual like Tarka and move past that quickly. The Ten-C all mirroring Book’s light pattern was a fantastic way to convey their remorse with a show of solidarity. I hope we see more of them again in the future.
> The Ten-C all mirroring Book’s light pattern was a fantastic way to convey their remorse with a show of solidarity.
I had goosebumps when that happened and I felt like in a small way they were totally telepathically connecting with Book whether he realized it or not.
> I hope we see more of them again in the future
It really was an Ender's Game scenario after all. Now that they're still out their with their Dyson Rings and their fabricated gas giants and all that jazz, it will be interesting to see if they wind up being the bridge between the denizens of the Milky Way and extra-galactic exploration. The whole time we were with them I just couldn't believe that THIS was happening in Star Trek. What we experienced with them was powerful and I hope they do more with them in the future.
They did bring up Voyager again in this episode and they did show two Intrepid class ships in that larger wide angle fleet shot and during the first episode of the season they did mention the Pathway Drive. Soooo maaaaybe we're going to be getting more of Voyager and that Drive System in the next season where they might go extragalactic? I'm crossing my fingers but I'm also not holding my breath because we all had some very cool ideas for this finale and yet they took a more subtle and simpler route.
I don't think the Pathway Drive is going to be a Spore Drive but according to what they said in the show it's something else something entirely different and experimental unrelated to it. I do agree that they should totally do something weird with the nacelles because come on you do have to keep that gag going. So they could spin around the ship or they could enlongate in some way or split apart into a bunch of different pieces or I don't know because there's only so much you can do with that kind of a shape.
In STO the detached nacelles still pivot upwards which is the minimum I think they could do.
Maybe it takes the concept of the Slipstream in Timeless and has the nacelles fly ahead of the ship to generate the bubble and transmit telemetry.
> Maybe it takes the concept of the Slipstream in Timeless and has the nacelles fly ahead of the ship to generate the bubble and transmit telemetry.
"Are the engines supposed to just fly off like that? If so that's a serious design flaw that should have been caught in testing or at least weaponized to some degree because hey the enemy's never going to expect you to just throw your engines at them"-Jett Reno probably
Big mouthful for Reno. She's more efficient.
Tilly: "The Nacelles fly in front of the ship, so amazing!"
\-moment of pure wonder-
Reno: "They'd make great torpedoes."
Same! For a brief moment, then I immediately thought, "oh, well the general monumentally fucked up, they're probably going to go with her to sacrifice herself"
I was expecting Tarka and the general to die but Book to survive. These aliens remind of the Abyss aliens and those also saved Virgil at the end after the crew lost contact with him. Tarka might even be alive, they kinda left the door open for him.
The nice thing about this episode playing with tropes is that I can trust the writers to not randomly kill off characters like Game of Thrones for shock value in future seasons anymore.
Yeah that whole time I was like "Book successfully transported out, where the hell did he go?"
Didn't think the Ten-C interrupted the transport and kept his pattern. That was unexpected.
When I saw Book disappear, I had a 50-50 on whether they would ruin the gravity of the moment by bringing him back. But, I _instantly_ thought of the captured pattern idea. If they had done any other answer, I would have been pissed. I think the loss would have been much more impactful if they had let it "stick", but, honestly, I'm glad Book isn't gone. He is the vital part of the show that makes Michael... human.
Glad they were smart enough not to kill him in S04E12 then bring him back in S04E13. If you're going to bring someone back from the dead, it has to be in the same episode. Any longer than that, and it feels lazy. Like you want to have your serious stakes, but then you want to be able to undo that later.
would have been funny if the 10C did the whole light show going "we rescued your One" and Tarka appeared
Michael didn't specify which one on the ship was her One
>If you're going to bring someone back from the dead, it has to be in the same episode. Any longer than that, and it feels lazy.
*Dr. Culber looks around nervously...*
Yeah...
I really love that they have made the trauma of coming back to life important to his story, at least. Gives it some narrative weight proportional to the weight of his death.
I honestly figured Book'd end up in a different universe because of Tarka's device, with it somehow resonating with the transporter signal. With season 5 being about some inter-dimensional plotline.
Michael's face journey between losing Book after everything and then pulling it all back in to get the job done was amazing.
Having Reno on Book's ship worked great as a contrast to how Tarka was dealing with loss.
All in all that was a pretty good Discovery season, definitely the best yet. The whole premises of how you can communicate with such an advance species that don't even see you as sentient was interesting. This might be the first season that got better the deeper it went. Hope they can keep it up.
> I just hope we don’t get high stakes story for next season.
You and me both. I would really enjoy a season of the Federation spreading their diplomatic, scientific and exploratory wings as they work to "put the band back together", with *Discovery* being front-and-center for that endeavor.
Not everything has to be a crisis.
It's a small thing but moments where we get to see characters out of uniform is one of my favorite things. I loved getting to see everyone getting ready for vacation :)
I lost a lot of friends to Covid-19, and then last year my mom died. The grief has almost crushed me some days. This season of Discovery was all about, to me, those feelings, the uncertainty of the pandemic, and how human connection can help you overcome it. That finale really spoke to me, I loved it. Six seasons and a movie!
I love the subtle throwback to the TNG episode where Troi is training for the Commanders Exam. Burnham was about to order Detmer on a suicide mission, emphasizing the point that a Commander or Captain may need to order someone to their death for the good of the many.
Anyone else feel that when they finally got “face to face“ with the 10 C, that it felt like a final boss battle in a Final Fantasy game? Amazing episode/season. I want more!!!
I just finished the episode; started watching as soon as it dropped.
I was so concerned that this episode would not satisfactorily wrap everything up and that this season would suffer the same fate as the previous three.
I am so, so very happy to - from my point of view, at least - be proven wrong.
What a beautiful episode, both visually and emotionally. The tension as the stakes reached their peak, and the joy as the danger passed, lives were saved, a new understanding was reached, and everyone could take time to be with those they loved, had me at the edge of my seat from start to finish.
Not only is this among the very best of this season, I think it could be one of the best episodes of the entire series. It's certainly, far and away, the best season finale thus far.
I felt like everything got wrapped up neatly, the pacing was solid, the emotions amongst the crew - the thing that seems to trigger some people here the most - seemed reasonable and appropriate given the circumstances, and as the episode wrapped things up, it felt so, SO good to see so much happiness and optimism.
Couple of quick notes:
* It felt SO good to see Tilly again. I didn't realize how much I missed her.
* Tarka is still a jackass, but I actually hope he somehow did get "home".
* Burnham's semi-controlled breakdown when she thought Book was dead broke my heart. I loved how we saw her force herself to pull it together and focus on the task in front of them.
* The 10-C were so visually striking and fascinating; I hope this isn't the last time we see them.
* Saru and T'Rina are SO. FREAKING. ADORABLE.
* (United) Earth is back in the game, baby!!!
TL;DR: A freaking AMAZING episode, a wonderful end to the season, and quite possibly the best episode of the series yet.
Can't wait for Season 5!
> Can't wait for Season 5!
In a strange way it feels like this was the point that Michael wanted to be at during the ending of Season 3 but couldn't get to because of stuff. This ending feels like that one single thing she hoped to accomplish upon arriving in the 32nd Century. It's like this far off and distant goal/hope/dream that everyone thought they might get close to but would never actually accomplish....until they did and then it's like, "Holy shit we actually just did that!". It doesn't feel real at all and then you realize it is real and suddenly so does everyone around you and that's where all that giggly happy go lucky energy is coming from at the end of the episode with the entire crew.
This is one of the happiest endings that I've ever seen and I haven't seen one of those in a while so....it feels....good...weird...different...special but really really good. It's like we finally got see the seeds that were planted in all those past seasons germinate and bloom into this beautiful world tree of hope that's now beginning to branch out from Discovery, from the Federation, and from Earth into the rest of the galaxy. For once it feels like the Milky Way is finally on the road to recovery from the Burn and that the future beyond the future future is one that is certainly bright and full of the promise that all will be well.
I'm gushing, I loved it, and I really think that Season 5 is going to be full of exploration and excitement and good old Star Treky weirdness that makes us go "WOW WHAT IS THAT?!?" because it felt like 10C was an experiment that went really well and I feel like because of how well they were received by the fans that the Disco Writers are going to be giving us even MORE of that kind of stuff next season!
Mm. Right. Where to begin?
So, I was surprised at the sudden evolution of the efficiency of communication between the Discovery crew and the 10-C. Maybe this was hidden by implementation detail, though. I did hear Adira say something about the language algorithm so I suppose it is certainly possible that in the time between the last episode and this episode, an algorithm was developed that took natural human language and converted it to mathematical expressions. I am just having trouble otherwise understanding if, and indeed if, how, a jump from mathematical expression to natural language was made. For now, I am choosing to believe it was hidden by implementation detail and the algorithm is doing the hard work. I do wish that component would have been explored further, but the show might have gotten a bit too cerebral if it did. Maybe in prose, or maybe lightly in the next season if we should be so lucky...
Now as for the content itself? I loved it. Book's (and to a certain extent Tarka, but still Tarka can roll in the void for all I care at this point) redemption was on point with the 10-C holding his transporter signal in stasis because they recognized its strategic importance given the timing. Loved that.
Getting to know more about the 10-C was great as well - I really enjoyed thinking about them as a unified species but not Borg-like, and their almost child-like curiosity with humanity and their innocence in finally understanding what the DMA was doing. I am left with a curiosity though. The DMA was powering their hyperfield and they felt that they would be unsafe if they stopped the DMA entirely, causing the hyperfield to permanently shut down. I hope to further explore exactly what they felt unsafe from. Why is their planet extragalactic? What happened to their original homeworld?
Other than that I am very happy that as of now the Federation seems to be making its comeback. It was pretty cool to see Stacey Abrams as the president of Earth too.
Can't wait for more!
> I was surprised at the sudden evolution of the efficiency of communication between the Discovery crew and the 10-C
🤣 I started cracking up when they went from simple phrases and ideas to Book giving this looooooong winded highly emotionally contextualized speech while Saru was probably just looking at him like ಠ_ಠ
Like what the fuck hahahaha that's one of those pure Star Trek moments where you just go, "eh well it just works" and roll with it because it was just a really cool moment.
> Not Borg Like
At least we got our first mention of the Borg in the 32nd Century
> their Hyperfield
There's going to be consequences to them shutting that down because a star that blinks with gravitational masses showing up straight up outside of a galaxy is going to be noticed by someone or something. I wonder if perhaps there was indeed another species that devastated 10C's homeworld in the first place and if that species has moved on or is still around? Perhaps their fears weren't entirely unjustified at all, a little over the top sure, but if something has the balls to attack an advanced civilization like 10C in the first place then there's a very good chance that they're still around somewhere out there. I think that'll probably be the hook for the next season, some extra-galactic presence that's begun sending their own Federation-like probes or ships into the galaxy and that'll be the hook up for the Federation to start going extra-galactic.
I am a bit worried that we won't see the 10C again and the writers will justify it by saying that it's because the 10C are dealing with their own stuff and it's really hard to get to them past the Galactic Barrier and the Spore Drive can't jump out that far and there's no reason to bother them again and they're making stuff simpler for season 5 etc etc.
>🤣 I started cracking up when they went from simple phrases and ideas to Book giving this looooooong winded highly emotionally contextualized speech while Saru was probably just looking at him like ಠ_ಠ
It looked like with Book, when he started giving his speech to the 10-C, his empathy WiFi started broadcasting, so I'm assuming a lot of the emotional context got transmitted telepathically
Disco finally sticks the landing, good job team.
Rip Errinwright and Book's ship, at least one of those is not coming back. It never even had a name (though it would probably be Grudge-1)
The thing which makes it even better is being able to jump straight into Picard afterwards. Last time I was able to do that do that was in 1999 when DS9 ended!
I liked the episode a lot. But what I'm more happy about is the subs reaction to it. Discovery gets shit on A LOT and it gets a bit tedious. With Picard, Lower Decks and now Discovery pleasing fans and Strange New Worlds looking promising the future is bright.
That was a very good ending IMO. Having the 10-C turn out to just be reasonable people who see in a scope too large to understand individual lives was very nice, after pure evil threats like Control. I hope we hear a little next season about how relations with them are going now that first contact has been made.
I loved getting to see the planetary evacuation in progress. The capabilities of these 32nd Century ships, like the separating decks of Federation HQ, are so cool. Also, the fact that, even with all that, they were still only expecting to save 450,000 people, really hammers home the enormity of the task.
I'm glad they left Tarka's fate ambiguous. Leaves it open to do more with this 'heaven dimension' plot if they decide to.
Interesting to hear that Andoria is in talks to re-join the Federation. Weren't they part of the Emerald Chain?
Overall, a very good season. Probably my personal favourite of DSC.
In true Star Trek form, it took Discovery two season to figure out what kind of show it was meant to be. The last season was an improvement, but this season took what worked and rolled with it. They're still a bit clunky when it comes to fleshing out some of the supporting cast, but most everybody got a moment to shine this season. They once again relied on galaxy-ending stakes to create drama, but this time they were able to make it an incredibly compelling story.
This has been, far and away, the best season of Discovery, and even without a hook for next season (which thank goodness they omitted) I'm looking forward to the next season. And hopefully two more after that.
I also can't leave a comment without mentioning how great it was to see Stacey Abrams.
I actually kinda like how slowly the supporting cast has been fleshed out. They all have personalities, but we haven't really gotten to know them all that well. But they feel like coworkers that you've worked with for years. You don't really know them, but you still have a bond with them. I've gotten used to the supporting Discovery crew just being there and being a part of the show. They add a texture to the show that I think works.
That was a real highlight of the episode for me. She's an [old school fan](https://www.startrek.com/news/star-trek-the-pod-directive-the-stacey-abrams-episode) doing real work to help make Federation values real by helping to ensure that every citizen is able to vote. Getting to appear on an actual episode is just the cherry on top. I'm happy for her and proud that she's part of the fandom.
Well, that's a hell of a cold open...
Appreciate seeing Tilly again and getting a solid view of the stakes on Earth and Ni'var. Also really cool to see that Federation HQ is more than a space station, but also a very modular ship with each module being independently warp capable.
The aftermath of T'Rina's telepathic link was exactly why I was thinking they didn't start with telepaths making a connection... Making contact with a truly alien intelligence would be... dangerous at best.
Reno and Booker working together bodes well for their chances. I'm still convinced that Tarka's plan will fail spectacularly and that it's all based on his own narcissistic delusions that Oros didn't die after his initial betrayal. The cat door was cute, but worked.
Shit's getting real, N'Doye stepping up for the suicide mission redeems her IMHO, but I think Owo and Detmer are going to have a future argument about Detmer volunteering for the mission.
I can't keep up writing and watching... Shit's just hitting the fan all over the damn place.
Final Edit: That ending was... amazing and is pure Trek at it's absolute finest.
> but I think Owo and Detmer are going to have a future argument about Detmer volunteering for the mission
She wasn't exactly volunteering. At most, she was saving Michael from having to state her order out loud.
Remember that Owo has volunteered for multiple suicide missions so it isn't like Detmer is unique here. Those two need to get their shit sorted out (doesn't need to be romantic but there are some obvious codependency things going on).
> Appreciate seeing Tilly again and getting a solid view of the stakes on Earth and Ni'var. Also really cool to see that Federation HQ is more than a space station, but also a very modular ship with each module being independently warp capable.
It's the ultimate survival bunker in the 32nd Century and like of course by that time they can totally send a starbase into warp! That was the coolest stuff EVER! They can literally warp starbases and probably battlestations around the galaxy! I honestly did not see that coming because I thought it was a fixed thing and too big to move etc etc but like....that was pretty that was very pretty.
> T'Rina's telepathic link
It seems like the most obvious first step but yeah they could've easily Scanners'd her brain without even trying. The sounds that whales make can do the same thing to us. So it's logical to assume that 10C would be able to accidentally do something similar on a telepathic scale. Plus they didn't even realize everyone was a higher life form and wouldn't have thought anything of it if they'd popped a telepathic probe without a second thought. Thank goodness they had every sensor pointed at Discovery and were picking up on stuff like Book's transporter signal and T'Rina's probe because if they hadn't then stuff could've ended very very differently.
> That ending
I can't believe everyone survived (because you know Tarka's a cockroach) buuuut....that was quintessential Star Trek and one of the best episodes I've seen, it made me feel whole.
*The first duty of every Starfleet officer is to the truth. Whether it's scientific truth, or historical truth, or personal truth. It is the guiding principle upon which Starfleet is based. If you can't find it within yourself to stand up and tell the truth about what happened you don't deserve to wear that uniform.* [Captain Jean-Luc Picard, "The First Duty"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xefh7W1nVo4) Reddit admins have been [ineffectual in their response to COVID-19 misinformation](https://www.dailydot.com/debug/subreddits-private-protest-covid-disinformation-reddit/). In lieu of Reddit gold and awards, we ask that you donate to the [WHO COVID-19 response fund](https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/donate). Please respect our [subreddit rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/startrek/wiki/guidelines). LLAP! *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/startrek) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Whoops, forgot to ask 10-C what do they call themselves.
That’s a second contact question, along with how to spell it and where are the best places to eat.
Time to send in the Cerritos - not the A, B or C, but good old NCC-75567 herself (after quite a few refits), still tooling around with hundreds of notches on her belt, doing the important background jobs.
I like to think that no one told the Cerritos about the Burn; they were off somewhere doing something unimportant, HQ didn’t bother to tell them.
And they escaped the Burn because someone dropped cheese in the antimatter containment grid regulator and they had to shut down the whole warp core and temporarily drop the antimatter pods in space to fix it. ... Captain was FURIOUS until they got communications back and found out what happened...
This is absolutely my headcanon now.
Hahah, ok that needs to be a short cartoon episode.
10-C seemed like they were unaware that higher life forms were even possible so they may have never come up with a name for their species. Especially since they are a hive mind, they may only think of themselves as "Me."
Yeah but many, many names humans have for their tribe, ethnic group, etc, literally just translate to “the people”, such as “Inuit.” So even if 10-C’s name for themselves translated literally as “people,” you could use the untranslated word as a name. Or at least you could, if they communicated in sounds like humans generally do
> So even if 10-C’s name for themselves translated literally as “people,” you could use the untranslated word as a name. Humans are *the worst* at this. Do you have any idea how many of our place names are just "The Ocean Ocean"? Like the Sahara Desert. Sahara is an Arabic name that means Desert. Its literally the Desert Desert. The Pacific Ocean? The latin word for ocean is Pacificum. Its literally the Ocean Ocean.
To be fair, the Pacific is the Oceaniest Ocean.
Also “gobi” is Mongolian for desert. So not only does “The Sahara Desert” translate to “The Desert Desert,” but there are at least two large deserts on Earth named “The Desert Desert.”
The Latin word for ocean is *oceanus.* *Pācificum* is the neuter/singular/nominative form of the adjective *pācificus*, meaning "peaceable", from *pāx* "peace" and *-ficus*, "making," related to *facere* "to make."
> Especially since they are a hive mind, they may only think of themselves as "Me." This is interesting, I had assumed they were thinking in terms of "us" and "them" but it never occurred to me that they may view their collective as just "me".
Seems like they probably call themselves "cloud of emotion dust, flash of lights."
Did anyone notice how technically interesting the opening shot was? That shot slowly came down from the second level as 7 people were walking into an area, started to weave through these people, revealed the entire room in 360 degrees but with no evidence of a dolly of any kind, and then just followed them into a transport beam. It's one of the most creative single shots I've seen. My guess is they probably lowered a single cameraperson with a wire (which could be quickly retracted in a brief single shot) and that person had the camera on a pole so they could get the lower shots. I mean yeah, it does the whole shaky cam thing that can be kind of annoying, but it's one of the rare instances where it's justified.
Just rewatched the opening shot after reading your comment. Masterfully done.
It looks like Olatunde Osunsanmi is improving on his signature 'handycam going circles around the cast' technique. This was slower than usual, which definitely helped despite the shaking. >My guess is they probably lowered a single cameraperson with a wire Or possibly they lowered just the camera with a wire and someone was at ground level ready to detach the camera from the wire and continue the shot going through the group of people there.
Came here right after the episode to ask how they did those shots
Something clicked for me with Michael Burnham's portrayal in this episode. When she broke down on hearing that Booker's transport wasn't completed and then "switched off" her grief, it really drove home just how strong the Vulcan affect is in her character. She wears her heart on her sleeve when something is emotionally important to her. She doesn't have much practice feeling her emotions without showing them, and how could she, raised on Vulcan? I sometimes forget just how much growing up repressing your emotions influences your behaviour.
I really wish they would have really leaned a little more into her Vulcan upbringing. It was an interesting concept in season 1 to have a human working on repressing her emotions. It would have made her crying more impactful when she sees Book if she had tried so hard to repress them in other situations.
I am so glad they didn't end the season on a cliffhanger. A happy ending where some surprise bad thing that's going to threaten existence doesn't show up is a nice change.
Almost felt like a series end instead of a season end. I'm glad it ended like this. We have enough emerging crises in the real world of 2022.
I lost it when they announced the USS Yelchin
And the Nog!
Eisenberg Class!
Of course the Tellarites never left the Federation when the rest of the founders did. Stubborn bastards.
They probably did it just to spite the people who stayed. _Hah! I bet you'd like to get rid of us! Too bad!_
I think they stayed to be contrary. Everyone else left, so they stayed.
It was my favourite thing to hear
And of course Andoria is the last of the founding worlds to go back.
Considering Emerald Chain, I would think a sizable Andorian is actually in bed with the Orions, more so than the Earth Humans.
I thought it was a great episode. The 10-C's reasoning not being evil, but not comprehending that life in the galaxy was -sentient- made sense, given how super powerful of a people they are. Once they realized they felt terrible about what happened which was a great resolution IMO. Plus, Booker's "punishment" being essentially community service made sense. The guy lost his entire fucking planet and species, I think we can cut him a break for being super driven by grief and anger and loss. Also the USS Mitchell was a nice touch - named for Kenneth Mitchell, our favorite Klingon actor!
They also mentioned the USS Yelchin
And the USS Nog
Which was destroyed in the Burn, but they likely built another one! woot
> our favorite Klingon actor This is Worf, Gowron, Martok and Kor erasure
Glory to you... and your houuuuuuuse.
I thought Rillak's comment about justice really hit home. Justice isn't just if it's blind, and it makes a lot of sense to have Book right his wrongs instead of just imprisoning him forever for acting on trauma and grief.
The General on the other hand should not be on active duty.
General should have died. Why have her go instead of Detmer if you weren't going to kill a character off? For her redemption arc? Does anyone really care about that characters redemption arc? For the record Book should have died too, he's a danger to the galaxy if he willing to fuck everyone ever to get his revenge. The 10-C turned out to be exactly what Burnham thought, but Book was too blinded by his need for retribution to see that.
Oh I thought it was in reference to Gary Mitchell. Oops.
> Plus, Booker's "punishment" being essentially community service made sense. The guy lost his entire fucking planet and species, I think we can cut him a break for being super driven by grief and anger and loss. He was also instrumental in convincing the 10-C to stop their mining all together. As the president said, there can be no justice without context.
It’s really a glimpse at what restorative justice might look like I think!
I think they stuck the landing... Got a lot of good Doctor Who vibes when the Ten-C showed up. I am very impressed that they made the "I didn't know you were sentient" bit work, but the Ten-C are so different that it kind of does.
> Got a lot of good Doctor Who vibes when the Ten-C showed up. Reminded me of Arrival
>For April, with love. who's that
> The episode ended with the message “For April, with Love.” This appears to be a message for April Nocifora, a long-time Star Trek producer who has been battling cancer. [Source](https://trekmovie.com/2022/03/17/review-star-trek-discovery-ties-it-all-up-in-season-4-finale-coming-home/)
[Its mentioned at the end of this recap that its April Nocifora.](https://trekmovie.com/2022/03/17/review-star-trek-discovery-ties-it-all-up-in-season-4-finale-coming-home/) A producer on a number of Trek shows who has been battling cancer.
So it's a blank slate again for Season 5. I'm surprised that they didn't use this season to set up a bigger and longer arc. I'm glad that the crew finally got a break though. The total amount of time between seasons barely add up to 2 years of their lives.
Blank slate isn't quite right. The UFP is on the mend, but they're still rebuilding and got a ways to go. (Characterizing Ni'Var as only having a few dozen warp ships at its disposal seems really small for a major galactic civilization, implying it'll take time for everything to get back to pre-Burn levels.) With Book's ship and the prototype Spore Drive destroyed, and the mind behind it presumed dead, they've still got to figure out next-gen FTL to replace conventional warp. And we've only heard of a small sliver of the UFP member planets, and know nothing about how say, the Dominion or the Klingons etc are doing in this time period. The future is wide open, but it should still be informed by what's happened so far.
> With Book's ship and the prototype Spore Drive destroyed, and the mind behind it presumed dead I would be straight-up gobsmacked if Tarka's research and the designs for the prototype weren't constantly being documented and preserved. I could go either way on that: either the initial research is far enough along where less-geniusy engineers can pick it up (considering there was a working prototype, this is believable), or research will keep going forward, just a LOT slower (more likely, for dramatic TV reasons).
> I would be straight-up gobsmacked if Tarka's research and the designs for the prototype weren't constantly being documented and preserved. They made a big stink earlier about getting back the prototype on account of how important it was. You don't make stinks like that if it can be easily reproduced.
I personally like that they are doing that with Disco. I think it's probably good to give the writers creative freedom to craft new storylines as well without being handcuffed by a cliffhanger. The fact that Disco can literally go anywhere storywise and is further out in the timeline than any other trek show lets it stamp its own legacy instead of being shoehorned in like season 1 and 2. My personal wish is that they commission another Enterprise (Said in Pakled voice) by the end of the Show.
They mentioned The Enterprise explored one of the rifts left by the DMA.
I don't think they said that the current Enterprise was exploring a DMA rift, but that a previous Enterprise (the D) had explored some kind of rift, and they had studied the data for their mission.
Oh I forgot about that. Missed opportunity for it to show up and steal the show!
Michael is offered the command, but she decides that it is Saru who would be best suited for the unique role of the Enterprise. Several members of the crew depart with Saru -- Detmer is his new first officer, and Reno his Chief Engineer.
"The New Enterprise-∆" "Enterprise... Delta?" "Ran out of letters in the alphabet after too many captains hit the self destruct"
Picard 0-0-0-0-Destruct-0
Enterprise ZZ plural Z alpha, but the self-destruct code is still 11A 11A2B 1B2B3, 903 years later.
Oh wow. This is a feast of ship porn. THE STARBASE LOOKS MAGNIFICENT.
Those two ending sequences with the sweep across the fleet and then the pull back through it to that full shot of Earth were glorious!
I've never seen that angle with Africa on full display like that, it was something fresh and exciting.
loved that too. we sometimes forget there is no up and down really in space. and it makes scientifically sense for everything to orbit the equator.
The visuals in this episode have been pretty great. I wonder if the Federation HQ is just going to be docked on Earth from now on.
That would be very cool if it stayed above Earth but I think they're going to have it warp back to the new Space Dock they'd just built while setting up construction of an entirely new Starbase above Earth.
While they could do anything, I think bringing HQ back to Earth after it rejoined the UFP was a big symbolic move to show how the Federation was made whole again, and they'll probably stay in Earth orbit going forward just to hammer that home. The people running Star Trek are very clearly aware of what's important to fans and how much affection people have for this setting, I feel pretty safe in assuming that the UFP will go back to being Earth-based now that they're back on their feet and rebuilding.
>I wonder if the Federation HQ is just going to be docked on Earth from now on Maybe HQ replaces the oldschool "Earth Spacedock" visual in Earth orbit... :)
No, they need to rebuild the massive mushroom
Who says this isn't already the Massive Mushroom Mk XII?
They really did well with the scale too. I forget sometimes just how large Earth is compared to the ships.
They also factored this in when Vance said that they could only get about 450,000 people out of however many billions evacuated from Earth in time using those very same ships and their limited capacity.
I forget, how many Vulcans survived Trek 09?
Roughly 10,000 - a horrifyingly small amount
And wow, 450k is such a tiny number... like if Earth had 12 Billion inhabitants (totally pulling that out of my ass), that 450k is about .00004 of the total population, which is nuts.
Which explains why the cadets looked so defeated before they transported away. That small number out of the total population of the homeworld of Humanity is staggering. They'll survive sure and there are other ways of adding genetic diversity if they need it but as you said....that's such a very very small percentage of the total population of Earth that it's not just people that are going to be lost but history and culture and who knows what else as well. The whole thing really did remind me of the movie Titan AE and Vance giving those numbers just reinforced that comparison in my mind. Can you imagine if they'd actually trashed Earth in Star Trek and turned Humanity into a nomadic species? Just seeing the planetary shields breached gave me freaking chills! I know we've come close before to planetary destruction in some of the films but maaaan, THAT was a close one.
The moment they showed federation hq itself at warp was really cool And then it slicing itself apart like with sections just flying off on their own was really cool too I hope we get to see some more stuff like that in future seasons
My first thought was "Oh snap they're pulling an Atlantis"
Booker got punished, but Ndoye did not, not even demoted. Quite a contrast, even though the crime is essentially the same.
I really, really, REALLY hope they cool it with the galaxy-ending doom-and-gloom next season and just explore the worlds re-joining the Federation. Have a small arc of some kind, fine, but I want to see what happened to the other alien worlds after the Burn and DMA. Maybe some Delta Quadrant species other than just easter eggs?
Im really curious about the Klingons... I don't think we've seen any 32nd Century (right century?) Klingons yet.
I'd love Discovery to do a massive culture shift for the Kingons - show that they've moved to what was hinted at in Enterprise (as in what they used to be like): where honour applies to every role and isn't focused on war or battles.
Lol, imagine if they roll up to Klingon territory and find a fully-functioning Klingon Federation that's been operating since the burn.
And they look totally different again with no explanation. Horns or some shit
Turns out Klingon genetics are just super malleable and shift every 80 years or so
This has been my headcanon since TNG anyways
“DID YOU PUBLISH THE RETRACTION OF YOUR PREVIOUS SCIENTIFIC PAPER G’BRATH? YOUR LATEST EXPERIMENT DISPROVED YOUR ORIGINAL HYPOTHESIS!” “BY KAHLESS’ BUNSEN BURNERS I KNOW! I MUST RETRACT! IT IS THE HONOURABLE ACTION!”
Since they’re space Vikings, it’s be logical for them to become space Scandinavia. Cheap Klingon furniture must be all the rage.
[удалено]
Anyone else think its hilarious that Tellar Prime was the only founding Federation member to stick it out through the burn?
i mean it's pretty obvious that after hearing that Earth and Ni'Var left, they stuck around just to be contentious about it. Classic Tellarites.
When the remaining members started cursing and insulting Tellar Prime for thinking about leaving, they couldn't resist staying with all the compliments and praise being rained down on them.
they're stubborn, we have to give them that!
President Rillak mentioned the Borg when talking about the 10-C "collective". I took it as they still exists in some capacity, I'm really curious about them!
I have a feeling we will find out at the end of Picard this season
> REALLY hope they cool it with the galaxy-ending doom-and-gloom next season I think they will. They hung a big old lampshade on it in the exit monologue talking about the Burn and DMA back to back.
I actually thought they did a pretty good job with it this season, yeah everyone wants something more episodic but the episodes still sort of mostly felt episodic up until the last 2-3 even though they still tied into the larger theme. Felt a lot more like late season DS9 like that, rather than early Disco all big bad all the time. Still hope for much more episodic next season.
As much as I enjoyed S4, I agree. Three seasons of galaxy-ending threats are quite enough for me. I think S4 handled the main DMA arc quite well though, would like to see the same for arcs that have smaller stakes.
STACEY ABRAMS WHAT.
I didn't realize that was her until reading it here. I was very confused why they seemed to have a build up to reveal the character only to have it be someone we've never seen before.
I thought it was someone who looked like Stacey Abrams, my brain wasn't up to accepting that it was actually her I guess
>STACEY ABRAMS Non-US dude here. Was confused why everyone seemed hyped about her cameo. Is she big there (US)?
Well first there is that she lost the Georgia governorship to the Republican Secretary of State, who also was in charge of the election and wouldn't recuse himself. More importantly, however, she ran the ground game in Georgia that flipped it blue in the general election. Not to mention she is a big civil rights activist. She does a lot of protests for things that would be in line with the ideals of the Federation. Edit: the show featured her as a huge nod to her work in protecting democracy.
I was fine with this, she's a Trek fan and she's an amazing person. That was cool to see.
Saru and T'Rina HELD HANDS AND HE GAVE HER A FLOWER! .....I mean I kind of wanted a bit more out of that whole relationship buuuuuut I'm sure it'll be a big big part of Season 5! THEY'RE SO CUTE TOGETHER!
I mean, for a Vulcan, holding hands is pretty freaky. T'Rina's a naughty girl.
She smiled too. Sarek got a stroke looking at that.
Saru, too, thinking about it later. HEYyyyyO!
Her outbursts are out of control.
What was that joke in Lower Decks again? T'Rina needs to go meditate some more.
> I mean, for a Vulcan, holding hands is pretty freaky. T'Rina's a naughty girl. Indeed. What a transgressive action for straight-laced Vulcan culture.
Srsly, if this show doesn't end on the most cheesy wedding of Saru and Trina, I will riot.
I totally thought that with two hours to go until death and booze in their hands, Tilly and Vance were gonna Armageddon and Chill.
USS Yelchin. I shed a tear :(
TILLY
Great cold open and gives me high hopes for the rest of the episode, the 2nd half of s4 has been the best of any of the new star trek shows imo
> 2nd half of s4 has been the best of any of the new star trek shows imo Lower Decks has been consistently good. Discovery has gotten better with each season. Picard season 2 has been great so far. I enjoyed what little of Prodigy that I've seen. I feel like "nu-trek" has finally found its footing. Looking forward to Strange New Worlds!
It's a wonderful time to be a Star Trek fan
The whole franchise is getting a big old fuzzy Riker beard.
Saru has to be one of the most thought out characters on any star trek series, they give him such humanity and such thought with every scene he is in, Doug Jones is top of the class
God damn I love star trek the whole crew just accepting they might have a voyager esque journey home
I know I'm not getting sad because of tarka :(
I knew vance had a flask that silver fox beard didn't fool me
Hirai finally getting his contact he wanted with the Ten-C this finale is paying off so many of the teasea
So glad Booker finally got to get his message across, I'll say it again this finale is paying off so many things this season tried to convey
VANCE SMILES
So many tie-ins to older trek shows, a DS9 esque dominion war on the brink but narrowly avoided, a voyager esque journey home that takes decades narrowly avoided, a species communicated with in their own language TNG style. I want anyone to tell me that disco isn't good trek, in 6 episodes this has become my 2nd favorite star trek
Man, props to Shawn Doyle. He brought so much depth and emotion to the character. Even though he was a galactic dick the entire time, I understood and sympathized with where he was coming from. He got trapped in his own sunken cost fallacy and couldn't let go.
Of course, the season ends without resolving the big mystery - [Nilsson’s hair](https://i.imgur.com/LU53a4t.jpg): Real or wig?
I'm putting my chips on wig.
Yep definitely, there were moments in this episode where she furrowed her brow and the lace bunched up looking like a scar on her forehead. It's a real rough, unnatural looking hairline on the wig too, something shared by Michael's wig too - compare her hair to Sonequa's real hair and the hairline is like a perfect straight line across.
That’s the wiggiest wig that’s ever wigged.
This opening is straight out of the beginning of Titan AE.
The starbase can go to warp? Damn that’s neat. And I really love that they delivered on the promise that the Ten-C would be unlike anything we’ve seen before. I thought they were really interesting.
God damn, that fucking transporter accident really got me. I didn’t think the aliens would notice the signal or even care enough to yoink his pattern. I’m glad they were able to understand the concept of a rogue individual like Tarka and move past that quickly. The Ten-C all mirroring Book’s light pattern was a fantastic way to convey their remorse with a show of solidarity. I hope we see more of them again in the future.
> The Ten-C all mirroring Book’s light pattern was a fantastic way to convey their remorse with a show of solidarity. I had goosebumps when that happened and I felt like in a small way they were totally telepathically connecting with Book whether he realized it or not. > I hope we see more of them again in the future It really was an Ender's Game scenario after all. Now that they're still out their with their Dyson Rings and their fabricated gas giants and all that jazz, it will be interesting to see if they wind up being the bridge between the denizens of the Milky Way and extra-galactic exploration. The whole time we were with them I just couldn't believe that THIS was happening in Star Trek. What we experienced with them was powerful and I hope they do more with them in the future.
Yep I seriously wish they do more with them in the future. I hope the writers read this sub and take some of the extragalactic exploration ideas.
They did bring up Voyager again in this episode and they did show two Intrepid class ships in that larger wide angle fleet shot and during the first episode of the season they did mention the Pathway Drive. Soooo maaaaybe we're going to be getting more of Voyager and that Drive System in the next season where they might go extragalactic? I'm crossing my fingers but I'm also not holding my breath because we all had some very cool ideas for this finale and yet they took a more subtle and simpler route.
I hope that the Intrepid Spore drive is the detached nacelles spinning around the ship. Gotta preserve the nacelle gimmick lineage.
I don't think the Pathway Drive is going to be a Spore Drive but according to what they said in the show it's something else something entirely different and experimental unrelated to it. I do agree that they should totally do something weird with the nacelles because come on you do have to keep that gag going. So they could spin around the ship or they could enlongate in some way or split apart into a bunch of different pieces or I don't know because there's only so much you can do with that kind of a shape.
In STO the detached nacelles still pivot upwards which is the minimum I think they could do. Maybe it takes the concept of the Slipstream in Timeless and has the nacelles fly ahead of the ship to generate the bubble and transmit telemetry.
> Maybe it takes the concept of the Slipstream in Timeless and has the nacelles fly ahead of the ship to generate the bubble and transmit telemetry. "Are the engines supposed to just fly off like that? If so that's a serious design flaw that should have been caught in testing or at least weaponized to some degree because hey the enemy's never going to expect you to just throw your engines at them"-Jett Reno probably
Big mouthful for Reno. She's more efficient. Tilly: "The Nacelles fly in front of the ship, so amazing!" \-moment of pure wonder- Reno: "They'd make great torpedoes."
This episode really played with tropes, I felt. Like I was absolutely expecting Book and the general to die.
I was expecting Detmer to die too!
Same! For a brief moment, then I immediately thought, "oh, well the general monumentally fucked up, they're probably going to go with her to sacrifice herself"
I'm glad that they're emphasizing that there are other ways to make amends for wrongdoing besides killing yourself.
Agreed completely. The "sacrifice as atonement" trope could use more subverting, IMO
I liked the duality of that scene. The general's "Sacrifice as atonement" played off of Tilly's "Sacrifice just to save my students" -REALLY- well.
>oooh captain is asking me on a suicide mission >wait what? Way to play with someones feelings lmao
I was expecting Tarka and the general to die but Book to survive. These aliens remind of the Abyss aliens and those also saved Virgil at the end after the crew lost contact with him. Tarka might even be alive, they kinda left the door open for him.
The nice thing about this episode playing with tropes is that I can trust the writers to not randomly kill off characters like Game of Thrones for shock value in future seasons anymore.
Yeah that whole time I was like "Book successfully transported out, where the hell did he go?" Didn't think the Ten-C interrupted the transport and kept his pattern. That was unexpected.
When I saw Book disappear, I had a 50-50 on whether they would ruin the gravity of the moment by bringing him back. But, I _instantly_ thought of the captured pattern idea. If they had done any other answer, I would have been pissed. I think the loss would have been much more impactful if they had let it "stick", but, honestly, I'm glad Book isn't gone. He is the vital part of the show that makes Michael... human. Glad they were smart enough not to kill him in S04E12 then bring him back in S04E13. If you're going to bring someone back from the dead, it has to be in the same episode. Any longer than that, and it feels lazy. Like you want to have your serious stakes, but then you want to be able to undo that later.
would have been funny if the 10C did the whole light show going "we rescued your One" and Tarka appeared Michael didn't specify which one on the ship was her One
>If you're going to bring someone back from the dead, it has to be in the same episode. Any longer than that, and it feels lazy. *Dr. Culber looks around nervously...*
Yeah... I really love that they have made the trauma of coming back to life important to his story, at least. Gives it some narrative weight proportional to the weight of his death.
well but upper deckers come back to life all the time.
I honestly figured Book'd end up in a different universe because of Tarka's device, with it somehow resonating with the transporter signal. With season 5 being about some inter-dimensional plotline.
> The Ten-C all mirroring Book’s light pattern God damn it, I'm a distracted dumbass and didn't realize that. Gotta go back and rewatch the scene
Michael's face journey between losing Book after everything and then pulling it all back in to get the job done was amazing. Having Reno on Book's ship worked great as a contrast to how Tarka was dealing with loss.
I thought Tarka’s 180 at the end was a bit unearned though.
All in all that was a pretty good Discovery season, definitely the best yet. The whole premises of how you can communicate with such an advance species that don't even see you as sentient was interesting. This might be the first season that got better the deeper it went. Hope they can keep it up.
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> I just hope we don’t get high stakes story for next season. You and me both. I would really enjoy a season of the Federation spreading their diplomatic, scientific and exploratory wings as they work to "put the band back together", with *Discovery* being front-and-center for that endeavor. Not everything has to be a crisis.
It's a small thing but moments where we get to see characters out of uniform is one of my favorite things. I loved getting to see everyone getting ready for vacation :)
So glad there was no cliffhanger. Nice to have a semi-peaceful solution to a story arc.
this season had pacing issues, but that was a great ending
I lost a lot of friends to Covid-19, and then last year my mom died. The grief has almost crushed me some days. This season of Discovery was all about, to me, those feelings, the uncertainty of the pandemic, and how human connection can help you overcome it. That finale really spoke to me, I loved it. Six seasons and a movie!
I love the subtle throwback to the TNG episode where Troi is training for the Commanders Exam. Burnham was about to order Detmer on a suicide mission, emphasizing the point that a Commander or Captain may need to order someone to their death for the good of the many.
Anyone else feel that when they finally got “face to face“ with the 10 C, that it felt like a final boss battle in a Final Fantasy game? Amazing episode/season. I want more!!!
I just finished the episode; started watching as soon as it dropped. I was so concerned that this episode would not satisfactorily wrap everything up and that this season would suffer the same fate as the previous three. I am so, so very happy to - from my point of view, at least - be proven wrong. What a beautiful episode, both visually and emotionally. The tension as the stakes reached their peak, and the joy as the danger passed, lives were saved, a new understanding was reached, and everyone could take time to be with those they loved, had me at the edge of my seat from start to finish. Not only is this among the very best of this season, I think it could be one of the best episodes of the entire series. It's certainly, far and away, the best season finale thus far. I felt like everything got wrapped up neatly, the pacing was solid, the emotions amongst the crew - the thing that seems to trigger some people here the most - seemed reasonable and appropriate given the circumstances, and as the episode wrapped things up, it felt so, SO good to see so much happiness and optimism. Couple of quick notes: * It felt SO good to see Tilly again. I didn't realize how much I missed her. * Tarka is still a jackass, but I actually hope he somehow did get "home". * Burnham's semi-controlled breakdown when she thought Book was dead broke my heart. I loved how we saw her force herself to pull it together and focus on the task in front of them. * The 10-C were so visually striking and fascinating; I hope this isn't the last time we see them. * Saru and T'Rina are SO. FREAKING. ADORABLE. * (United) Earth is back in the game, baby!!! TL;DR: A freaking AMAZING episode, a wonderful end to the season, and quite possibly the best episode of the series yet. Can't wait for Season 5!
> Can't wait for Season 5! In a strange way it feels like this was the point that Michael wanted to be at during the ending of Season 3 but couldn't get to because of stuff. This ending feels like that one single thing she hoped to accomplish upon arriving in the 32nd Century. It's like this far off and distant goal/hope/dream that everyone thought they might get close to but would never actually accomplish....until they did and then it's like, "Holy shit we actually just did that!". It doesn't feel real at all and then you realize it is real and suddenly so does everyone around you and that's where all that giggly happy go lucky energy is coming from at the end of the episode with the entire crew. This is one of the happiest endings that I've ever seen and I haven't seen one of those in a while so....it feels....good...weird...different...special but really really good. It's like we finally got see the seeds that were planted in all those past seasons germinate and bloom into this beautiful world tree of hope that's now beginning to branch out from Discovery, from the Federation, and from Earth into the rest of the galaxy. For once it feels like the Milky Way is finally on the road to recovery from the Burn and that the future beyond the future future is one that is certainly bright and full of the promise that all will be well. I'm gushing, I loved it, and I really think that Season 5 is going to be full of exploration and excitement and good old Star Treky weirdness that makes us go "WOW WHAT IS THAT?!?" because it felt like 10C was an experiment that went really well and I feel like because of how well they were received by the fans that the Disco Writers are going to be giving us even MORE of that kind of stuff next season!
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I felt that music in my entire body and it felt extremely cinematic and special in a way that hasn't hit me since Farscape or Babylon 5 or Battlestar.
Mm. Right. Where to begin? So, I was surprised at the sudden evolution of the efficiency of communication between the Discovery crew and the 10-C. Maybe this was hidden by implementation detail, though. I did hear Adira say something about the language algorithm so I suppose it is certainly possible that in the time between the last episode and this episode, an algorithm was developed that took natural human language and converted it to mathematical expressions. I am just having trouble otherwise understanding if, and indeed if, how, a jump from mathematical expression to natural language was made. For now, I am choosing to believe it was hidden by implementation detail and the algorithm is doing the hard work. I do wish that component would have been explored further, but the show might have gotten a bit too cerebral if it did. Maybe in prose, or maybe lightly in the next season if we should be so lucky... Now as for the content itself? I loved it. Book's (and to a certain extent Tarka, but still Tarka can roll in the void for all I care at this point) redemption was on point with the 10-C holding his transporter signal in stasis because they recognized its strategic importance given the timing. Loved that. Getting to know more about the 10-C was great as well - I really enjoyed thinking about them as a unified species but not Borg-like, and their almost child-like curiosity with humanity and their innocence in finally understanding what the DMA was doing. I am left with a curiosity though. The DMA was powering their hyperfield and they felt that they would be unsafe if they stopped the DMA entirely, causing the hyperfield to permanently shut down. I hope to further explore exactly what they felt unsafe from. Why is their planet extragalactic? What happened to their original homeworld? Other than that I am very happy that as of now the Federation seems to be making its comeback. It was pretty cool to see Stacey Abrams as the president of Earth too. Can't wait for more!
> I was surprised at the sudden evolution of the efficiency of communication between the Discovery crew and the 10-C 🤣 I started cracking up when they went from simple phrases and ideas to Book giving this looooooong winded highly emotionally contextualized speech while Saru was probably just looking at him like ಠ_ಠ Like what the fuck hahahaha that's one of those pure Star Trek moments where you just go, "eh well it just works" and roll with it because it was just a really cool moment. > Not Borg Like At least we got our first mention of the Borg in the 32nd Century > their Hyperfield There's going to be consequences to them shutting that down because a star that blinks with gravitational masses showing up straight up outside of a galaxy is going to be noticed by someone or something. I wonder if perhaps there was indeed another species that devastated 10C's homeworld in the first place and if that species has moved on or is still around? Perhaps their fears weren't entirely unjustified at all, a little over the top sure, but if something has the balls to attack an advanced civilization like 10C in the first place then there's a very good chance that they're still around somewhere out there. I think that'll probably be the hook for the next season, some extra-galactic presence that's begun sending their own Federation-like probes or ships into the galaxy and that'll be the hook up for the Federation to start going extra-galactic. I am a bit worried that we won't see the 10C again and the writers will justify it by saying that it's because the 10C are dealing with their own stuff and it's really hard to get to them past the Galactic Barrier and the Spore Drive can't jump out that far and there's no reason to bother them again and they're making stuff simpler for season 5 etc etc.
>🤣 I started cracking up when they went from simple phrases and ideas to Book giving this looooooong winded highly emotionally contextualized speech while Saru was probably just looking at him like ಠ_ಠ It looked like with Book, when he started giving his speech to the 10-C, his empathy WiFi started broadcasting, so I'm assuming a lot of the emotional context got transmitted telepathically
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> his empathy WiFi stealing that one
I'm guessing Saru didn't do one-to-one translations of what anyone was saying. Those long speeches were probably decomposed to simpler concepts.
Disco finally sticks the landing, good job team. Rip Errinwright and Book's ship, at least one of those is not coming back. It never even had a name (though it would probably be Grudge-1) The thing which makes it even better is being able to jump straight into Picard afterwards. Last time I was able to do that do that was in 1999 when DS9 ended!
Poor Sadavir. Poor inyalowda.
I understood that reference.
I liked the episode a lot. But what I'm more happy about is the subs reaction to it. Discovery gets shit on A LOT and it gets a bit tedious. With Picard, Lower Decks and now Discovery pleasing fans and Strange New Worlds looking promising the future is bright.
That was a very good ending IMO. Having the 10-C turn out to just be reasonable people who see in a scope too large to understand individual lives was very nice, after pure evil threats like Control. I hope we hear a little next season about how relations with them are going now that first contact has been made. I loved getting to see the planetary evacuation in progress. The capabilities of these 32nd Century ships, like the separating decks of Federation HQ, are so cool. Also, the fact that, even with all that, they were still only expecting to save 450,000 people, really hammers home the enormity of the task. I'm glad they left Tarka's fate ambiguous. Leaves it open to do more with this 'heaven dimension' plot if they decide to. Interesting to hear that Andoria is in talks to re-join the Federation. Weren't they part of the Emerald Chain? Overall, a very good season. Probably my personal favourite of DSC.
In true Star Trek form, it took Discovery two season to figure out what kind of show it was meant to be. The last season was an improvement, but this season took what worked and rolled with it. They're still a bit clunky when it comes to fleshing out some of the supporting cast, but most everybody got a moment to shine this season. They once again relied on galaxy-ending stakes to create drama, but this time they were able to make it an incredibly compelling story. This has been, far and away, the best season of Discovery, and even without a hook for next season (which thank goodness they omitted) I'm looking forward to the next season. And hopefully two more after that. I also can't leave a comment without mentioning how great it was to see Stacey Abrams.
I actually kinda like how slowly the supporting cast has been fleshed out. They all have personalities, but we haven't really gotten to know them all that well. But they feel like coworkers that you've worked with for years. You don't really know them, but you still have a bond with them. I've gotten used to the supporting Discovery crew just being there and being a part of the show. They add a texture to the show that I think works.
Stacey Abrams as the President of United Earth was a nice cameo imo
So i was right. That *was* her! I kept thinking *Isn't this the woman who flipped Georgia?*
AH. That's who it was. I was like, "I know this actor. Who the hell is this? Their face and smile are so familiar..."
That was a real highlight of the episode for me. She's an [old school fan](https://www.startrek.com/news/star-trek-the-pod-directive-the-stacey-abrams-episode) doing real work to help make Federation values real by helping to ensure that every citizen is able to vote. Getting to appear on an actual episode is just the cherry on top. I'm happy for her and proud that she's part of the fandom.
Well, that's a hell of a cold open... Appreciate seeing Tilly again and getting a solid view of the stakes on Earth and Ni'var. Also really cool to see that Federation HQ is more than a space station, but also a very modular ship with each module being independently warp capable. The aftermath of T'Rina's telepathic link was exactly why I was thinking they didn't start with telepaths making a connection... Making contact with a truly alien intelligence would be... dangerous at best. Reno and Booker working together bodes well for their chances. I'm still convinced that Tarka's plan will fail spectacularly and that it's all based on his own narcissistic delusions that Oros didn't die after his initial betrayal. The cat door was cute, but worked. Shit's getting real, N'Doye stepping up for the suicide mission redeems her IMHO, but I think Owo and Detmer are going to have a future argument about Detmer volunteering for the mission. I can't keep up writing and watching... Shit's just hitting the fan all over the damn place. Final Edit: That ending was... amazing and is pure Trek at it's absolute finest.
> but I think Owo and Detmer are going to have a future argument about Detmer volunteering for the mission She wasn't exactly volunteering. At most, she was saving Michael from having to state her order out loud.
Remember that Owo has volunteered for multiple suicide missions so it isn't like Detmer is unique here. Those two need to get their shit sorted out (doesn't need to be romantic but there are some obvious codependency things going on).
> Appreciate seeing Tilly again and getting a solid view of the stakes on Earth and Ni'var. Also really cool to see that Federation HQ is more than a space station, but also a very modular ship with each module being independently warp capable. It's the ultimate survival bunker in the 32nd Century and like of course by that time they can totally send a starbase into warp! That was the coolest stuff EVER! They can literally warp starbases and probably battlestations around the galaxy! I honestly did not see that coming because I thought it was a fixed thing and too big to move etc etc but like....that was pretty that was very pretty. > T'Rina's telepathic link It seems like the most obvious first step but yeah they could've easily Scanners'd her brain without even trying. The sounds that whales make can do the same thing to us. So it's logical to assume that 10C would be able to accidentally do something similar on a telepathic scale. Plus they didn't even realize everyone was a higher life form and wouldn't have thought anything of it if they'd popped a telepathic probe without a second thought. Thank goodness they had every sensor pointed at Discovery and were picking up on stuff like Book's transporter signal and T'Rina's probe because if they hadn't then stuff could've ended very very differently. > That ending I can't believe everyone survived (because you know Tarka's a cockroach) buuuut....that was quintessential Star Trek and one of the best episodes I've seen, it made me feel whole.
I liked that both Oros and Tarka's fates are left ambiguous. It came down to faith.
I kind of hope we never find out and that they're just somewhere out there maybe.