Discovery gets some fancy upgrades – and an ‘A’ on its registry which I already knew about coz it’s already triggered a whole bunch of arguments – tbh, I agree, the ‘A’ is usually added when it’s a brand new ship with the same registry, so this shouldn’t count – but I guess there’s a whole bunch of reasons why they might do it, including hiding the fact the ship has time travelled, and to register it as a new ship in the new Starfleet after officially being marked as destroyed. I mean it seems like that annoying inconsistent thing an organisation would do.
It does get some fancy detachable nacelles and programmable matter. No new uniforms tho. Saru interrupts the briefing to give advise on them being sent for a mission instead of another ship and like Saru – tone it down man! You know how the command chain works, honestly I’d be annoyed by someone new like that who just comes in and starts suggesting themselves for missions rather than assimilating first. You can always send him an email after to ask. I agree with the Admiral, Discovery’s jump drive seems something you’d wanna protect close at home for a while.
They do all get new combadges that act as holoPADDS, personal transporters and tricorders, which is GREAT. Seems the natural evolution like we got in TOS to TNG, although still … 9 times as much time, you’d still think it would be much more unrecognisable. They also get transformable matter in their holographic controls.
GRUNGE THE CAT HAILS THE SHIP WHICH IS ALL I EVER WANTED FROM STAR TREK – THAT’S IT, WE’RE ALL DONE.
Anyway turns out Book has gone missing when he went looking for a ‘black box’, so the ship was set to automatically find Burnham. Saru however says Discovery can’t go on this mission as it is needed – which I mean, come on, he is right, Burnham! You are a senior officer on a starship you need to respect the chain of command and be mature. We had rebel Burnham and look how that turned out. The conflict is great but seeing Burnham break her family’s trust isn’t. She goes to speak to Georgiou and if you trust her why not send just her. Georgiou even points out she’s throwing Saru under the bus.
As they travel on their mission, Georgiou has flashbacks to her time in the Terran empire – a bloody flashback (those are back!). Georgiou manipulates permission to land. Grunge is on Tilly’s bed where she is angrily mewing. She is such a beautiful cat.
Burnham and Georgiou find Book, a forced worker. After a Bajoran is caught stealing water rations, he is forced to run past the perimeter fence, at which point his head blows off (ewww). Staments interrupts Tal talking to her ghost (and they are interrupted by Linus, enjoying his new transporter), complaining about the changes to the ship.
Burnham manages to get alone with Book and they hug and talk and I mean that’s all great but like can’t you do that whilst still keeping your cover and pretending to be looking for stuff. Why do people take risks like this. Like risk the hug sure, but then go back and pretend. Stop taking unnecessary risks.
Saru expresses his disappointment and suspicion of Burnham to Tilly. Tilly tells Saru he has to tell the Admiral, to stop the crew taking the fall. Meanwhile Burnham and Book arrange to get what they need and get the slaves out. Burnham and Georgiou get captured (probably deliberately) as the workers revolt. Georgiou and Burnham fight against their captors, but just as Georgiou gets a shot on the Orion, flashbacks incapacitate her. She comes through in enough time to put down the fence allowing the slaves to escape into a transport ship. Ryn is injured and Book stays behind, getting rescued by Burnham and Georgiou with his ship. They warp out (apparently you can warp from atmos now) as they return to Starfleet, with the black box. Burnham confronts Georgiou on her flashbacks, but she doesn’t know what’s happening. She refuses help though.
Tal tells Staments about her ghost, and I mean if anyone is gonna understand it’s him, considering he had a ghost. In return she removes Staments implants, now she has built a new interface for him. Admiral Vance chews out both Saru (for not telling him of Burnham’s idea, as he may have actually approved it, which was unexpected but great to hear him say), but also tells Burnham to chew herself out for her insubordination. It’s a well written scene, I like the maturity of it, whilst acknowledging the rogue mission was maybe useful, without giving Burnham any congratulatory expressions. He ends by telling Saru he has discretion on how to discipline Burnham. Saru painfully demotes Burnham from XO, and she tearfully tells him he is doing the right thing.
Oh Burnham … you’re such a great XO, why do you have to undermine yourself so much … Now I’m sad. Time to go watch something happier I think.
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