Trek: DSC: But to Connect

[dewline]

Done watching "...But to Connect" on Star Trek: Discovery.

That wasn't exactly a bottle show. Close, but not exactly so. There was still a sense of grand scale, scope, stakes on multiple fronts, and events moving at speed. Everyone being true to themselves...and I think this chapter worked. My thanks to the performers and production team!

Comments

[sabotabby]

I was impressed. I liked the Stamets/Culber/Grey/Adira/Zora/David Cronenberg plot much more than the negotiations (Disco needs to work on how to do institutional politics—the Expanse does that much better) but both worked. And I am impressed that they had an Actual Conflict where both sides had a good point and were sympathetic. It was a bit manufactured (as someone on io9 pointed out, the discussion shouldn't have been which strategy to do, but which strategy to do first) but I'm actually on the edge of my seat for the next episode.

[dewline]

I believe the implication that this particular galactic conference was indeed about which of the two strategies to carry out first.

(Sidebar: graphic designer Timothy Peel maintains a Twitter presence, so I'm hoping that he might show us the vote results he designed and animated during those scenes so we know which nations voted which way, beyond the fact of the first-contact-attempt side winning the vote, somewhat narrowly.)

As for Zora...I thought Dr. Kovich - Cronenberg's character - was shown doing the work as an investigator/interviewer/mediator in that dispute. An excellent performance of its own there.

[sabotabby]

I was also really curious as to why Michael got a vote. Did Book get a vote? Who is Tarka representing, and did he get a vote? The President didn't, I'm pretty sure. Did all Federation civilizations get a separate vote or did they vote as a bloc? Were there Klingons? (I watched on a tiny screen because my projector is dead.)

As for Zora...I thought Dr. Kovich - Cronenberg's character - was shown doing the work as an investigator/interviewer/mediator in that dispute. An excellent performance of its own there.

I love him. I have a weakness for shady and mysterious characters on the side of good (I also love the President and Tarka for that reason). I adore that the option he was pondering was not physically force Zora into a new body but kick Stamets off the ship lol. (But then, who would fly the spore drive? Doesn't that mean condemning Book to stay on a Starfleet ship forever?)

[dewline]

Some of my understanding about that vote comes from graphic designer Timothy Peel and the comments resulting from this specific posting:

https://twitter.com/timothypeel1/status/1476953181494120457

My understanding at present is that the Klingons weren't there. No, we don't know why just yet.

As for the next-gen spore drive, the ultimate goal of that project is to free up people like Stamets and Booker from being locked into the role of "piloting" spore-drive ships. I suspect that Dr. Kovich - and by implication, President Rillak and Adm. Vance - are thinking ahead to that goal. The prototype that Tarka stole was "not quite there yet" on the physical linkage of pilots, for all the success the Federation's made on the miniaturization of the drive apparatus.

[sabotabby]

Intriguing. I still don't think Kovich would do anything until they had a rigorously tested alternative, though.

[dewline]

I expect that you're right about Kovich on this point. We'll resume learning more in February, then.