Star Trek: Discovery (TV Series) Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum (2017) User Reviews

Episode 8

[bobcobb301 · 7/10 · 22 December 2017]

A classic Star Trek premise in this one with the gang visiting another planet only to have someone controlled by its power. It wasn't a bad episode, but it was really nothing we haven't seen before.

The Klingon drama wasn't working for me early on, but that is starting to suck me in. The language can be annoying, but I am curious where that ends up in next week's finale.

I really liked this one

[jojoleb · 6/10 · 5 November 2017]

Finally! An episode of actual Star Trek. Although it was far from perfect, this episode was the best showing from STD so far.

For those who may have thought I was just using this as a forum to slam STD, this is not the case. I really want to like this show and, with this episode, I finally have a reason to. For me, at least, this is the first solid episode of the season.

THE GOOD: 1) MORAL DILEMMAS: the landing party has to confront a number of moral dilemmas after beaming down to the planet Pavan and making contact with the Pavanins.

2) GROUP EFFORT/CONFLICT RESOLUTION: Our captain and crew actually seem to get along and solve problems rather than snarkily shouting epithets and threatening one another. This started in a smaller way in the last episode and has carried over here. Whether the conflicts were Burnham-Saru, Burnham-Tyler, or Tilly-Stamets, they were legitimate conflicts that all parties tried to solve together.

3) OPTIMISM: Meeting up with a race that thrives on and wants to transmit universal peace and harmony... we're finally home, baby.

4) STAMETS: Anthony Rapp is an incredible actor and still deserves better than what has, so far, been written for his part. That said, they gave him enough so that he had a chance to nail it this week, and he did. I'm not really fond of where the Stamets thing is going but Rapp is handling the character well.

5) BURNHAM WAS TRULY HEROIC: Underutilized, perhaps, but heroic this time. Oh, and this week she seemed to understand the chain of command.

6) CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT: we're starting to see some humanity from the characters. I think in past episodes the writers confused backstory with character development. Now that our heroes are actually interacting meaningfully with each other, they are starting to develop some depth.

THE BAD: 1)THE PLOT: The main plot to this one struck me as more akin to a Star Trek Animated Series episode than a mainstream, live- action episode. The idea of a living/breathing planet where all life forms sing a song together was both flimsy and a little Kumbaya for my tastes. Worse, the objective of the landing party--to get the Pavanins to allow them to harness the power of their of their incidentally important bio-inorganic, 'natural,' space beacon--was weak and contrived. I figured how the whole thing would go down with the landing party on the planets' surface once Saru made contact with the alien life form. On the positive side, at least the plot (this time) was original.

2) LAME-O SIDE PLOTS: They really didn't flesh out the Stamets mood-swing thing. Tilly is perceptive but still way to gawky to actually believe that she was a Starfleet Academy graduate; the authors still don't know what to do with the Klingons. Was L'Rell, the female torturer Klingon, actually trying to help Cornwell escape or just trying to extract information. It's still not clear... If there was some deliberate misdirection, things need to be clear enough so that the audience is actually misdirected. At this point, it's not clear to me that the authors know where they were going with this.

3)THE KLINGONS: Yeah, they're supposed to be bad, but I still have no idea how Klingons this disorganized and back stabbing could ever have developed the technology for interstellar travel let alone the cloaking device. Their costumes are still Game-of-Thrones-meets-Pennywise and so stiff that it's hard for the Klingons to walk. Again, the full facial make up makes it impossible for the actors to emote except by rolling their eyes or moving their jaw.

4) KLINGONESE: I'm not a fan. They hobble the actors' expressions by near-total, facial prosthetics and clothing so stiff that they can hardly gesture. To top it off, they have the actors break their teeth over Klingonese, causing the actors to speak slowly and making it even harder for them to express themselves. Once again, Romans in all TV miniseries seem to have British accents, but I don't think any of us actually believe that the Romans spoke to each other in the Queen's English. A few words here or there, fine. Or in front of human characters, okay. But if Klingons spoke in English to each other, we would suspend our disbelief enough to imagine that they were conversing in Klingon.

5) FULL FACIAL MAKEUP: Again, this hobbles the actors from expressing themselves. In the present episode this caused major problems for Saru. Doug Jones expressions cannot be seen behind all the plastic and this was an episode where his emotions were important. Ditto for the Klingons. It would be better to have less alien looking aliens and allow for more acting.

6) RETURN TO EPISODIC TV: the overarching story is getting subordinated by self-contained episodes. That said, I'd take an episode like this over anything that preceded it so far.

7) THE TITLE, HMMM: To his or her credit, someone must have majored in classics in college. However, I don't think the episode really reflect the sentiment of the Latin adage, 'If you want peace, prepare for war.' Maybe they were trying out some irony or it will become clear later on...

THE UGLY: 1) SURPRISE: I don't have any 'ugly' this week. I do, however, have something to say about CBS.

I am still genuinely ticked off that even after paying you need to sit through commercials. Some may get added value from CBS All Access, but there's really nothing here I want to watch other than STD. So the rest of it is a wash. And if I'm paying, they really need to fix their streaming problems.

Fans of the old shows get what they want. Now they suddenly don't want it.

[Atlas_Redux · 8/10 · 9 November 2017]

There will be spoilers. Not incredibly major spoilers, but if you have not watched, perhaps skip it. I would personally have read my thoughts and review of it without ruining the episode.

A major complaint from fans has been that the show has gone too far astray from the original and TNG (despite the show closely resembling my favorite series, the fantastic DS9). Well, here it is. An episode that is truly in spirit with TNG. And what does the fandom say? They don't like it. It's sad, since I am a hardcore fan myself. I know way too much about the Star Trek universe than anyone have any need of. I loved this episode.

The main plot to start off with is pure techno-babble. That is what a lot of the complaints are about. Strangely, when talking about TNG, the master series of techno-babble, that's not an issue! When it's TNG, it's apparently just fine. But enough of that.

This goes in the spirit of a true TNG episode when it's at its best. We have a completely unknown form of life, with wildly different ways to not only look at life, but exist in life. We get to see a conflict of morality which the fandom has been asking for. And AGAIN, "fans" complain now that we get it. The only issue I had with it, is that it's handled too quickly. This could easily have been a two-parter, there is a lot to work with here. It also brings a satisfying conclusion, that (without spoiling) makes perfect sense. It doesn't look like it's coming, and if it was TNG it would have stopped earlier. That is a flaw in TNG, not this show. Discovery thrives on CONTINUATION. We get the satisfaction of seeing nothing being forgotten, but we will most likely never see this species again, which is how TNG liked to do it. And what people now are complaining about. Again, it's strange how the fandom likes to hate on Discovery for doing things differently, but when they get what they ask for, they suddenly hate it more than any of the other episodes.

In conclusion, a terribly underrated episode because of a terrible fandom. They yell for a "true classic" episode, and when they get it, they hate it. Again, I'm an insane nerd of Star Trek myself, but the fandom in general is terrible.

Overall, 8/10. A classic style episode done correctly, without most of the frustrating flaws of the classic era.

At least there's finally some discovery...

[TheDonaldofDoom · 22 January 2018]

After many so-so episodes, we get another so-so episode. But there is something quite positive about it that hasn't featured up until now, which is that there's some actual discovery. Instead of getting bogged down in the Klingon war it spends most of its time on a beautiful alien planet, discovering a new alien species that has a new way of communicating. Now I won't overstate it, it's not like this is some great turning point in the series, but it's nice to at least have some discovery in Star Trek: Discovery.

The plot isn't that strong. Most of the time spent on Pahvo is entertaining enough, even if it isn't particularly deep, and Saru's behaviour is amusing. The moral/philosophical theme of peace and harmony is not exactly subtle, but it's a breath of fresh air in a series so obsessed with being dark and gritty. Unfortunately the episode had to find a way to link to the Klingon war, which is a shame. This is the problem with making something like Star Trek overly serialised. When there's a story that would be great on its own, it always has to link back to the Klingon war in some way, usually with the question "Does this kill Klingons?"

Klingon politics is the weakest element again because it's just hard to care about it. Who cares if there's enmity between J'lakbuth and K'hrorh'lor (or whatever their names are)? All of the Klingon politics that STD keels returning to is funny because it's so contrived and a laughable attempt to add "depth". Seeing a Klingon turn against her own race by helping break out a prisoner (who then dies anyway)... I have no words.

Decent filler episode

[bnevs18 · 7/10 · 6 November 2017]

Nothing great about it, nothing terrible...a sort of interesting plot device to move the story further. Not every episode can be awesome, but this episode seems to have set the table well for the "Fall Finale".

I will use the rest of this review to address some of the critiques of it. Per Jojo, #3/4/5 Kligon(ese); you are correct, the speech pattern is very unappealing to me...but in terms of the discord; many times, the greatest technological advancements in human history came during war. Episodic TV: You need some semi self contained episodes. The two greatest works of plot-driven scifi (Babylon 5 and BSG) had to have them as well, where the main plot is secondary but gets moved forward. The "All Access": Yes, its annoying, but we need to keep in mind that these projects require money. With the internet and 80 ways to watch everything for free, people forget that things require money. Martin: Bad Writing: Kol can say that its for unifying everyone but be lying about it. JRBW: Just the same as above, they can say they are for peace but it may not be that simple...logic requires skepticism. Master: Science: Science and scientific fact are fluid things, someone from the 14th century could watch our scientists and say "thats not science, its fantasy!" SciFi at its core has the "Fi" part in it. Payoff: Ah, so you want a complete payoff for everything 9 episodes in? What was paid off in the first 9 episodes of any of the other Treks? A whole heck of a lot less than Discovery. VFX Action romp: This is something thats actually legit. Perhaps you focus on this rather than letting this blind you on everything else. The 80s and 90s was the golden age of Sci-Fi...I agree that the writing is substandard to those classics, but it is IMO the best we have now. 2nd season: This isn't netflix; being that its a subscription service to view you cant hold it to the same rules as broadcast TV.

Decent episode more in the spirit of the original shows

[snoozejonc · 7/10 · 15 January 2021]

Discovery heads to the planet Pahvo in an attempt to counter the Klingon cloaking system.

I enjoyed this for being close to the original series mission statement as it attempts to seek out new life and a new civilisation. Unfortunately it's all in the name of the war effort. It also has some reasonably solid character development.

The plot aligns well with the episodes themes regarding war being the only path to peace in certain instances. It was refreshing to see an away mission in a peaceful location and this contrasted well with the scenes depicting the Klingon sub-plot. Some of the dialogue again was a bit too exposition heavy for my liking and the technobabble felt quite awkwardly written.

Performances were solid, particularly Doug Jones as Saru who was in heavy focus.

It does a good job of setting up what feels like major conflict in the next episode.

Target: Saru

[XweAponX · 10/10 · 21 November 2017]

Saru has become a very interesting character. From a race of "prey", he has developed abilities that help him determine who or what is a threat, and what to do about it. But he is always living with that adrenaline ready to pump, ready to run, his senses always scanning for threats.

But this planet "Pahvo" has a transmitter that, if modified, could help Starfleet see all of those Cloaked Klingon Ships that got a free Cloaking device for pledging Fealty to Kol. But of course, that sounds "too easy".

But what about The Pahvans? They assimilate Saru and show him peace for the first time in his life. But is that a positive thing? Because he is acting very uncharacteristically.

So Tyler and Michael have to carry out a small mutiny to keep Saru on track, and all that causes is that we get to see just how fast Saru can run. Which is, "Extremely".

And, will the Pahvans actually let Michael adjust their magic crystal tree? Or do they have other ideas on how this conflict between Qonos and Starfleet should be handled?

Is it that some cultures are flabbergasted when coming into contact with a species that would bombard their planet with Disrupters? Or even when contacted by a culture that professes "peace" and The Prime Directive?

These Pahvans, we really never find out why with them. I hope we get to revisit Pahvo at some point.

Between the Lines

[Hitchcoc · 7/10 · 7 February 2020]

I'm not writing the series off. I'm just saying that things often happen without preparation. We have this supposedly utopian planet where there appears to be sentient, peace loving air. They (whoever they are) want an end to war and the Federation and the Klingons are at the center of all that. So let's get them together. I haven't seen one iota of peacefulness from these Klingons. Let's see what happens. I'm intrigued...I think.

Star Trek RULES

[leecun1701 · 10/10 · 6 November 2017]

Best Star Trek ever. I love everything about it from the new unorthodox ship to the highly flawed captain to the not even in StarFleet lead character. He visuals are great, acting is good and stories are interesting.

What I'm not impressed with are the fans. Or maybe the trolls that are on here leaving they're poorly written reviews hacking down a billion dollar franchise. I mean, can you imagine, making a TV show and expecting to make a profit? Making a show to attract new viewers?! Crazy talk.

If you don't like it fine. Don't watch. Please. If your ashamed of where the new Trek is going, don't worry. We're all ashamed of you as well.

Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum

[Prismark10 · 5/10 · 8 November 2017]

This is truly a divisive episode. It starts off in a thrilling fashion with great special effects as the Discovery does battle with the Klingons in order to save the Gagarin.

Frustrated by the Klingon cloaking technology, the Discovery send a landing party to the planet Pahvo a type of living planet with some kind of natural antennae which could use sonar to pierce the Klingon's cloaking device.

This bit did not make sense. How does the Federation know that the Pavho are not sentient beings? What about first contact protocols? Why is the planet being dragged into the conflict and put in danger? How do they know that antennae will work? Oh my the planet looks a little familiar, it is similar to the spore drive.

Once they land on the planet, it seems the Pavho are in fact an entity at one with the planet and Saru initially finding the noise emanating from the planet infuriating later becomes enchanted and entranced as he overcomes his natural fears.

We also find out more about what happened to Admiral Cornwall as the Klingon L'Rell wants to help her and defect to Starfleet.

It was entertaining but also nonsensical. some character development for Saru as well, it was his turn this week to have a weird running action which was speeded up. I think Saru could run an 100 meters race in 5 seconds.

Saru Going Crazy...Is A Sight!

[gab-14712 · 8/10 · 24 May 2022]

After last episode's reprieve, "Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum" jolts us back to the war with the Klingons. I am not enamored 100% of the time with focused on the Klingons, but there is potential. L'Rell is an interesting character. The writers make the right choice in not overusing her character. I believe she is going to be an important factor in the outcome of this war. This particular episode has the Discovery front-and-center in the battle to start with. As someone looking in from the outside, I see what a lethal force Lorca's ship is in battle. I also see what a forceful weapon the Klingon's "invisible cloak" can be. The main mission of the episode is for Burnham, Tyler, and Saru to stop this invisibility so they can track the Klingons and figure out when they will attack. Saru has the best lines and the best moments. He eventually becomes crazed in his desire for peace. He is a strong fighter too, apparently. The scene where he shows off his speed as he chases after Michael is a good, ol' classic "omg" moment.

As I articulated, Burnham, Tyler, and Saru are on a mission. This high priority mission takes them to the planet Pahvo where they need to learn the science behind the Klingon's advanced cloaking technology that keeps them invisible during warfare. It turns out the locals, these small, glowing, sparking cloud-like creatures are the drivers behind the technology as they create frequencies beneficial to the cloaking technology. These creatures, ironically enough, are all about living in a peaceful existence. They seduce Saru whose Kelpian race always live in constant fear. One cannot blame Saru for taking the opportunity to find peace...and keep it. Even if that means disposing of Burnham and Tyler.

Like the series that came before Star Trek: Discovery, I am happy that the series remains interested in science, biology, and stuff of that sort. It is always a good experience to discover new, unique creatures even if they were to betray the crew. Yup, they sent a signal to the Klingons. That means next episode will be a fun adventure. We did not spend too much time with the Klingons, but I am interested in what is going on with the Admiral. She is presumed dead because she is in the corpse room. I think we will be in for a surprise. Compared to the last episode, this episode was more inconsistent. But it is still an important, high-stakes episode.

My Grade: B+

Well someone tried.

[keith-umsted · 2/10 · 7 November 2017]

Putting aside that the characters are still unlikable and display no professional respect for each other nothing has changed. They are still shallow. Character development is restrained to restating, because you surely didn't get it the previous umpteen times they told you, the same old lines about themselves. I am beginning to think they should just put MB in a Superman outfit because it seems she is the only person that can do anything in the series while maintaining her hateful condescending attitude towards everyone. Actor performances are weak, unbelievable, and boring. It seems they make the same statements over and over, even from other episodes. By the end of the show I found I cared even less for the characters, and hoped that some would be killed off Game of Thrones style.

This episodes we look a bit more at the mumble race. I guess they are suppose to be Klingsons. Yeah, watched it and thought, to myself so what and who cares. The Klingon parts where no different than commercials on television. Just a few minute distraction from the story.

As for the "We love MB" story I found it to be a yawn-fest. I think each of the series has this story, but executed in such ways that the viewer was not only entertained, but encouraged to think. In this case, I found myself looking at my phone and wondering how will I describe this for IMDb without ranting about poor acting, writing, and what not?

On another note, graphics were nice.

James Cameron: Veni, Vidi, Vomiti

[d.rust · 6 November 2017]

Here we go with the good old fashioned rule in Television which says, "If there was a really successful movie, let's make an episode just like it."

So, we get STAR TREK: AVATATION, a bluish mess set in some previously unheard of (to us) planet called Turkey. Errr, I mean PAVO. (Don't worry kids, the Latinos will get it.) To save money on makeup, there aren't really any life forms on Tur... Pahvo (keep the H in there to make it "otherworldly". Who named this planet, anyway?) so Glenn and his group don't get paid any extra bucks for ridge-painting and tooth-filing.

What do we get in this week's mess? Louey Ash, Burn'em and Mr Suru get beamed down 30 kilometres from a crystal antenna, so they have to bond while walking human speed to the set. That in itself is pretty damned stupid because there are such things as "shuttle craft" that could have been used to set them right down at the proper point. BUT NOOOOOOO. The morons in charge of writing this garbage forgot about shuttles.

I want to address something that REALLY BUGS ME. Suru's height. Is he about seven feet tall or so? Or is he just as tall as Louey Ash - who Silly Tilly established as being "Oooooh, you're tall. Can I go to bed with you now?" But all during this particular mess on Planet P, he's just an inch or two taller than Burn 'em. Above all, extremely noticeable when they spend time in the Avatarian Tent (which by the way, was built by... who?).

Well, Sic transit Gloria Mundi through Sunday, there's another visit with the Klingots... isn't that how you say it? They haltingly complain about something... I don't know, I wasn't listening. And I got tired of reading ALL CAPS ON SCREEN WHICH PROBABLY MEANS THEY WERE SAYING SOMETHING IMPORTANT. One of them Klingon "Babes" who we can call Phaser Phace, because I have no idea what her name is, rambles on about using Admiral Cornhole to get her revenge on Kol, or Kor or whatever the nasty head Klingon is... Where are the Duras Sisters when you need them: they had bad teeth, but they gave you something to fantasize about with those chest cutouts... yum, Barbara March and Gwynyth Walsh!

See how bad the writing is? I can't even name who the main Antagonists are! I'll tell you why. BECAUSE WE DON'T CARE ABOUT THEM. They are a non-threat. Sure, in Kirk's time, they'll be nasty puertoricans in gold lamé (hat tip to Voltaire), but at least they're not cannibals. Or maybe they are. Soon, they may learn to read Shakespeare, but until then, you can't get any Stratford actors to run down the 401 to spout poetry about some "P'tach" --CRASH-- geez, an ANVIL fell on someone! An anvil almost hit me with the SS Yuri, but they named it Gagarin instead. Damned RUSSKIES!

Please, someone hit the RESET switch and claim it was all a cordrazine hallucination!

Something bugs me about the scene with (I dunno, is it Rattlesnake Point?) the ravine... didn't I see that same view on THE ORVILLE?

I get it: you want to scream at me that his name is SARU. I know that. And you're screaming, "Stop calling him Louey. His name is ASH!", yeah, but he's a LOOTENINT (Lieutenant).

-This episode looks like Avatar .

[marian_the_nightman · 10/10 · 6 November 2017]

-I saw a review where a fan complains about the Stargate feeling of the episode and i want to say Stargate SG-1 especially has too great characters and is too optimistic and has too many sane stories to be compared with this wannabe Star Trek series. My rating reflects the quality of the series only as a sc-fi show,because it is the only one actual sci-fi show i can stand to watch.I really want to ask Roddenberry's son if he really saw an entire TNG or DS-9 episode with Klingons in his life ,before accepting to be a producer for this fake Star Trek ,where a dude wanted to mark his territory like a dog,changing the Klingons with this stupid version of bald lizards.I really hope some day a rich and real trekkie producer will make another ordinary Star Trek show without changing any TMP or TNG race at all just because he is a REAL fan,not a money lover.This episode looks just like Avatar,without the best part ,the first one,which is not a bad thing for a sci-fi production,but this series is (named) Star Trek ,although the Vulcans are the only one Star Trek species which appears in the show.This gay-sadomasochistic show becomes more and more hard to watch by a normal person.If you want something dark ,not something gay-sadomasochistic , you should watch Space Above And Beyond, because those producers know the real meaning of the word 'dark'. I'm so tired to see all kinds of ancient alien cultures with weird religions replacing modern alien races ,modern futuristic cities and modern cultures.

How a Klingon should look

[doug_bones-75827 · 10/10 · 30 July 2018]

I know some (few but vocal) fans wanted a change because they don't like fat and funny (sometimes) Klingons redesigned since TMP,but IMHO instead this new (unliked) version of them,the producers should hire tall bodybuilders for the Klingon characters and they should mantain the old TMP Klingon look,i would like to see them like a Thor version for Star Trek.

What did I just watch?

[Shutupwesley · 1/10 · 5 November 2017]

I don't understand what happened in this episode. It looked like Stargate and I don't get what it was all about. I watched the entire thing and if feels like I've missed crucial scenes. I literally have no idea what the plot was supposed to be about.

Science fiction is based in science, but so far all I've watched is magic, fantasy and aggression in STD, and so my pop science brain can't really join the dots from scene to scene.

I'm starting to truly believe that STD has no science advisers in the writer's room. You can't be a sci-fi show without science. Bottom line is that STD isn't sci-fi, it's fantasy fiction with no grounding in science whatsoever. Nothing. Zero science. Maybe the writers think that Sci-Fi is something completely different? Like, you write and spin a story and then add some science-sounding dialogue to make it sound like it's science for idiots?

Uh? Hello? Anyone there? You realise this is a franchise that kids watched and grew up to launch rockets in to orbit and send robots to Mars, right? Is star trek something completely different to you money grabbing buffoons? Is it just a trademark to be exploited with bombastic action sequences? I can not understand how or why you think this garbage would pass as Star Trek to all but the most uninformed and hapless viewers.

They just make stuff up from one episode to another. There's no episodic payoff, just one long and incredibly boring narrative that drifts from topic to topic and we're all supposed to thank you for the privilege?

It's made for stupid people who think they are watching Star Trek, having only watched the cancelled reboot movies, and are in fact watching Lord Of The Rings. These idiots are apparently that target audience in abundance and really keen to sign up to CBS AA, or so they claim.

Can we please go back to science fiction because I really hate that Trek has turned in to Avatar. It's not what Trek has been about, and no amount of ramming VFX down my cake hole is going to provide what the franchise is actually about.

--How dare you turn an intellectual masterpiece in to a vfx action romp--

Did you really think this is the way to move the franchise forward CBS? Are you out of your vulcan minds?

Perhaps the plan is to completely rewrite Star Trek under the false pretension of "modernizing" it. If that's the case I'd rather stick with 80's and 90's Trek because this is too much a radical departure, and really an insult to the intelligence and suspension of disbelief if STD thinks that this is what Trekkies hoped to watch.

You have to ask yourself why STD announced mid season that there will be a 2nd season in 2019. Isn't that what the PR people do to try and bring more viewers when the viewing figures are flat lining, because it's so good that it's been renewed already so you better hurry up and watch the first season? Come to think of it, there's absolutely nothing on Netflix that has ever, EVER given the green light 6 episodes in to the first season.

Remember the week that Star Trek Beyond opened and Paramount told everyone that the script for the 4th movie was being written. Beyond bombed and cost paramount over $50m in losses. I can see a pattern here.

An open letter to Glenn Hetrick

[phychele_meoh · 10/10 · 7 August 2018]

I think it's time for you to renounce of 3D technolgy you use to create aliens and costumes and you should use a more classic way to create things because your work until now it's below average .I tell you this as a friend ,your creation are too different from all things used before in a trek show and NOT in a good way.If a thing it is made by a more complex machine it doesn't mean it will be better than something made by a human being.A more complex thing is sometimes worthless compared with a simple one.You should stop watching for inspiration to things rejected by Gene Roddenberry before and you should concentrate to do things more simmilar to the ones used in the previous series.Because of your incompetent work many fans are disgusted by the new series.

Feels like Trek for the First Time

[Nominahorn · 4/10 · 12 February 2020]

Desperate for a way to circumvent the Klingon cloaking tech, Starfleet sends Discovery to a planet called Pahvo, which they think can be harnessed like a giant sonar to reveal cloaked ships. Instead, the landing party encounters the planet's sentient occupants and Saru is affected deeply by his contact with them

This was the first episode where I felt like I was actually watching Star Trek. There was exploration, first contact, moral dilemmas, and Prime Directive invocations aplenty. But more importantly, there was a Roddenberry-eque sense of wonder and optimism that has thus far been absent from DSC.

Unfortunately, the story itself is kind of weak. The writing continues to be inadequate for delivering on the show's large scope. The Pahvans are difficult to get a handle on, and Saru going crazy and then back to normal again is not adequately explained. It just sort of happens and you're expected to go along with it. A below average ep overall.

THE GOOD

-The Pahvans are interesting in concept at least. In execution not so much.

-Finally we get to go to a new planet and see some new stuff. Considering the show's name, it's ironic that everything so far has just been rehashing old ideas/places/characters rather than any discovery whatsoever.

-Saru is kind of awesome. His exuberance at first contact reminds me of Daniel Jackson from SG-1. And his super sprint ability is pretty cool, if a little goofy looking.

THE BAD

-The plots here are a mess. The actions of the Pahvans and Saru are not really explained. And the entire B plot with the Klingons and the admiral made absolutely zero sense to me and seemed completely pointless.

THE UGLY

-As I reflect more on the show I realized that there isn't a single human who isn't American. The show managed to check all its political correctness-mandated quota boxes. They have their "ethnic woman" lead (the showrunners' words, not mine), they have an asian character, they have a special needs character, and they have not one but two gay characters (who are of course hooking up with each other), but not a single non-American? TOS had a Russian and a Scot, TNG had a Frenchman with a British accent, DS9 had an Irishman and a Brit (according to Memory Beta, Bashir was born in London). Why no non-Americans on DSC? Shazad Latif and Jason Isaacs are both British; why make them do American accents on the show? Do the showrunners really think so little of their audience to believe we would have an issue with a non-American human on the show? It makes no sense.

The first Trekkian episode of Discovery

[blancaseubo · 9/10 · 15 February 2019]

The first truly Trekkian episode! Although it probably doesn't deserve the 9 stars I gave, I'm just glad the writers decided to use the original Star Trek formula for a change, a.k.a. moral dilemmas and discovering new & very different worlds. I'm not sure why the ratings has been so bad on this...

Star Wars: Discovery

[SamRawr · 1/10 · 10 November 2017]

I'm Michael Burnham. You're Michael Burnham? Yes she's Michael Burnham. Correct, I'm Michael Burnham. Not THE Michael Burnham, the mutineer? Yes, I'm Michael Burnham

I swear to god I'm going to kill a man.

In this episode our obtuse captain wannabe visits Avatar's planet Pandora, where everything lives and breathes through big trees and crystals and stuff. Everyone knows that crystals and tribbles will win the non-canon war.

The Scaredy-cat lanky Freddie Krueger Saru gets an opportunity to gallop across the countryside, only it's not really him, it's a really bad CGI version straight from 2003's "The Matrix Reloded", badly rendered skin tight Lycra nd all (at least bother to texture it next time). There were a few scenes in which his badge was on the wrong side. What happened? Did they forget to film that part by mistake and then have to make it again in post production?

Burn'em is now sexing it up with Voq. I mean Ash, while refusing to do what she does best - mutiny against a ludicrous hell bent captain who doesn't belong in Star Trek, much less a starship captain.

Bla bla bla, something about another reboot "klingon" defecting, the end.

And so we continue this farce in to another week of plagiarism and intellectual property abuse, pleasing none but the lowest common denominator of viewers, no actual science, no intellectual social commentary, and nothing to leave me wondering about my place in the universe.

On the plus side there were only three fights and one space battle in this episode between the pedestrian predicable pacing, so here's hoping that the conflict pew pew battle ridden teaser for next week's travesty delivers more meat-headed cliché we've come to expect from this utter catastrophe of a once-loved highly intellectual franchise being run in to the ground by 2nd rate writers and executives who apparently believe this is actually the star wars universe.

Let's be clear – This is Star Wars: Discovery. It's trying to cash in on that audience. Star Trek on TV has always been a difference beast to the Films, even more so since J J Abrams tried to turn Trek in to Star Wars, then ran off to the actual star wars. At this point CBS thought it would be a good idea to make a TV version of Star Wars.

The writers and actors can convince themselves till the cows come home that this is a "modernisation" of star trek, yet the fans of Star Trek are politely telling them to take a hike and go find a job with Disney. There was no real difference between TOS and TNG when it came to stories, and no real difference to any of the other TV spin-offs. What on earth do they think this abomination has to do with what has come before?

It's poor, shallow, pathetic junk TV dressed up with Netflix's money as some kind of masterpiece we should all instantly love. Well, we've got news for you – respect is earned, it's not given away. Your respect rating has dropped to an unrecoverable level. Find another project while you still can.

The First Away Mission, Finally!

[Samuel-Shovel · 5/10 · 18 August 2020]

In "Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum" the Discovery is tasked with trying to connect to a planet's natural satellite dish in order to detect the Klingons' invisibility cloaks. While on the planet's surface, Suru experiences complete happiness and comfort and wants to stay forever, holding Michael and Tyler there with him.

This is sort of the show's first away mission on a planet's surface but what exactly happened and what their objective is was beyond me. It's a very convoluted plot. I thought Suru got taken over by the planet's mystic beings but apparently it was him the whole time? Weird stuff...

Nonsense is the only way I can describe STD

[silver_hedgehog · 1/10 · 10 November 2017]

I have no idea what this episode was about.

The Klingons have managed to equip most of their ships with their cloaking technology. Whereas the Federation can't manage to replicate the magic mushroom drive so only the Discovery has it.

3 crew members beam down to a planet they know nothing about except it has a crystal transmitter. They want to obtain sonar technology to detect cloaked Klingon ships. I have a bit of basic science news – sonar will not work in space… Then we get a long rambling section with the vocally challenged Klingons. Who now seem to be butchering each other? Probably because they are so tired of waiting for individuals to finish a sentence.

Considering that they a spending the same amount of money on this series as Game of Thrones - CBS are not getting value for money.

I Kenna Break the Laws of Physics, Captain

[inexile · 1/10 · 6 November 2017]

Well, except in this version of Star Trek. As the series progresses it is fast becoming the worst written show on television.

The problem is the show is being run with a political agenda. Whether their agenda is right or wrong is irrelevant. The fact the agenda is being deployed with a hammer and has taken precedence over the Star Trek universe is. The negative effect of this choice on the writing is destroying the series.

One of the goals of the Cultural Marxists that have invaded & over-ran the Arts departments of the West's universities is to do the same to the Science departments. The trouble is both Math and Physics are impervious to post-modernism, so the thrust is being attempted through the Biology department.

Fill out this new Bio-rulz world with New Agey concepts and you have the "physics" of the new Star Trek universe. An impossible world governed by California spiritualism.

And when you then hear the repeated mantra by every guest of After Trek that they care deeply about canon, despite blatantly obvious fundamental changes, you begin to wonder if this STD is *actual* propaganda. Spores driven at the audience.

And because this world can't possibly exist and has little correlation to the world of the other series, it requires a ton of expository. This need for expository has weighed down the story by stealing time from stronger elements.

And this agenda leads to bad choices like the re-design of the Klingons, like subspace mind melds, like creating a spore drive reliant on sub-sub-sub atomic biology despite the impossibility of the notion, like creating a space whale that, even though it could possibly exist in a complete vacuum, would then certainly be destroyed by being in a ship's hold. These are just the tip of a very large iceberg when it comes to the show's slipshod treatment of science. Not to mention contrived story-telling.

This why we get petulance and hissy fits, a Vulcan-trained main character who acts mostly out of emotion, immature Starfleet officers that seem not at war but rather molded by a campus safe space.

And we take side trips into environmentalism and animal welfare and talk of "souls" and other forms of virtue-signaling, despite these having little to do with the central plot of War. Sun Tzu would be betting on the Klingons to win. Fortunately for Starfleet the Klingons are written by the same idiots that write the humans.

The series suffers from regular bad writing too...

The story has been moving in a soap opera-ey direction, always a danger when there is one ongoing story. Or in the case of DS9, when there is one location. The bumping of characters up against each other can't get more important than the overall arc. At a lot of time has been spent on domestic scenes, not to mention sex, and the prior Star Trek ship series never felt the need to dwell there.

The series has been caught in a chuggy episodic telling, despite its proclamations of being about an ongoing story. These episodes have no connection to each other--goals are ethereal in the long term and only one episode long in the short term, so there is no narrative drive from one weekend to the next. Writers are caught in no man's land between an ongoing story and episodes. At least find some way to tie the episodes together better. The writing at this level seems especially weak.

The titles! Who writes these things? The last few titles have had nothing but a glancing relationship with their episodes. There's a term for weak but overly-fancy writing... pretentious.

You know what, you want people to like gays in space? Make them deeper characters, better Starfleet officers, stronger people, less stereotypical, interesting not for their gayness--for what the heck is interesting about someone's sexual choice--but for all the other things they bring to the world. Stamets--the gay showrunner's avatar in this Trek-verse, according to the showrunner--is horribly written.

The show is doomed. There is no escaping the hole the writers and producers have dug for themselves. This voyage is condemned to mediocrity because its politics take precedence over a love of Star Trek and of good story-telling.

Sorry, but you kenna break the laws of physics.

A Senior Trekker writes...................

[celineduchain · 5/10 · 13 December 2021]

"If you Want Peace, Prepare for War"...........well, that's debatable but setting that aside for a moment......

.......this episode gives us a fairly Trekkian away mission to the Blue Planet of the Ethereal Beings of Cosmic Harmony. As a welcome break from the oppressive atmosphere aboard Discovery and the internecine politics of the Klingon ship, it serves its purpose quite admirably.

Three characters: Burnham, Tyler and Saru get to run around in the fresh air, build a shelter and communicate with some weird floating alien things while undergoing an essential mission. Not too shabby.

Doug Jones gets to add some range to his character as the aliens take him over and influence him to fight the other crew members but I'm not sure that the writers know what they are doing with his character as his courage is so often questioned and he is made the butt of too many jokes.

Whilst the Vulcan's now have their Logic Extremists and the Klingons consider diplomacy an anathema, the Federation is supposed to be tolerant of all sorts of differences. Senior Trekker long since gave up hoping for any narrative continuity with earlier Star Trek series (paradoxically set in the future of this one) but expected some continuity of values.

It isn't just the hyper-realistic piles of dismembered corpses that are making me feel slightly nauseous.

(And on that last point, why do so many commentators overlook all that carnage and references to torture while complaining so bitterly about a couple of profanities?)

This will probably be the last episode I review.

[GraXXoR · 4/10 · 10 November 2017]

Probably... But it is certainly my shortest review. This show has absolutely no idea what it wants to be:

gritty sci fi discourse on religion vs enlightenment SJW all-inclusive festival teen drama awkward situational comedy Star Trek...

And then, this episode decides to add some loopy Avatar nature fest which did nothing at all to push either the story or the characters along...

Utter tripe.