Fantastic music, sound effects, CGI, cinematography as usual.
Terrible writing as usual.
Minor quips:
But the biggest problem of all, is that there were no stakes at all! Many characters, the good guys and the bad guys, were all heroically willing to sacrifice themselves! And literally none of them died! It might work if it happened once or twice, but it's like, half the episode was people sacrificing (and not dying)! I'm pretty sure my list is incomplete, but let's go:
That's about it. Seriously?
Now let's look at the fate of the baddies:
That's just two aspects of why this episode is bad. The list goes on... I guess the only positive side lies in terms of operational cost saving: They just filmed the wrap party and called it the finale.
Last but not least, for a show that is so heavy-handed with wokeness, the cameraman sure loves to point the camera at Sara Mitch whenever there's an opportunity (or even when there isn't). The showrunners literally killed off the cyborg Airiam (played by Sara) to let Sara show her real face as Lt. Nilsson. If you want to feature a hot female character to attract non-woke viewers, at least give her a real role (think T'Pol, Seven, Kes), no? She's a real actress who has invested years of her career into this show, as did the other bridge crews who stayed on over the years. Least you could do is to dedicate some scenes to them, solo, instead of occasional one-liners playing off only Michael Burnham.
Terrible writing as usual.
Minor quips:
- All of Ni'Var, a reunited people of Vulcans and Romulans, has 86 warp-capable ships in total?
- Since when can Vulcans mind meld through space... and a window?
- Since when do Vulcans hold hands?
But the biggest problem of all, is that there were no stakes at all! Many characters, the good guys and the bad guys, were all heroically willing to sacrifice themselves! And literally none of them died! It might work if it happened once or twice, but it's like, half the episode was people sacrificing (and not dying)! I'm pretty sure my list is incomplete, but let's go:
- President T'Rina, "risked her life" to mind meld with the Ten-C (through space), was completely fine after a few minutes in the sickbay.
- Discovery herself, blowing up the spore drive to escape the orb. Of course she's fine.
- Book gave Reno his badge to beam her out, and stayed with his ship (controls encrypted by Tarka, couldn't beam himself out). Asked Michael to just shoot him out of the sky if she had to. Good news Discovery's weapons got disabled.
- General Ndoye, after being confined to quarters due to her mutiny, was invited to give tactical advice on how to stop Book's ship. Her great idea was, let's ram a shuttle into his ship! Detmer volunteered, but Ndoye volunteered herself too ("redemption" yay, after putting the entirety of Earth, Ten-C, and Discovery's crew at risk). They said it was a suicide mission, there would not be time to beam out. Lol who am I kidding, of course she got beamed out to sickbay!
- Tilly and Admiral Vance. Stayed behind Federation HQ to provide cover fire for Earth's evacuation fleet. Weapon's out, had their "final talk", and... they still had two hours of shields left!? Two hours!?!?!? That's two hours longer than any shields in Star Trek! Surely they survived.
- Tarka, after Ndoye did her ramming, turned off life support to provide power to beam Book out. (What about the encrypted controls though? A "fractal encryption" even he himself couldn't break.) (Oh hey another cheap "redemption"!) His fate remained unknown, but he did suggest that when Book's ship hit the hyperfield, there might be enough energy to power his parallel universe transporter. Not even the baddest bad could get what he deserved.
- Book, whose ship exploded before Discovery could finish beaming him out... Man, for a tenth of an attosecond I thought the writers had balls... then I remembered this list. Of course the Ten-C saved his teleportation signal in stasis and got him out.
That's about it. Seriously?
Now let's look at the fate of the baddies:
- Tarka: Might have made it to the parallel universe
- Ndoye: Got a warm welcome from United Earth's president (hey! A positive body image black female!) after, you know, her being a traitor, endangering the entire Earth.
- Book: Community service.
That's just two aspects of why this episode is bad. The list goes on... I guess the only positive side lies in terms of operational cost saving: They just filmed the wrap party and called it the finale.
Last but not least, for a show that is so heavy-handed with wokeness, the cameraman sure loves to point the camera at Sara Mitch whenever there's an opportunity (or even when there isn't). The showrunners literally killed off the cyborg Airiam (played by Sara) to let Sara show her real face as Lt. Nilsson. If you want to feature a hot female character to attract non-woke viewers, at least give her a real role (think T'Pol, Seven, Kes), no? She's a real actress who has invested years of her career into this show, as did the other bridge crews who stayed on over the years. Least you could do is to dedicate some scenes to them, solo, instead of occasional one-liners playing off only Michael Burnham.