Star Trek - Discovery - 3.01: That Hope Is You, Part 1

Dave

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@Droflet has seen this. Beware that spoilers are allowed inside this thread. (Go ahead and do your worst. I'll wait until I've seen it.)

Arriving 930 years in the future, Burnham navigates a galaxy she no longer recognizes while searching for the rest of the U.S.S. Discovery crew.
 
I'll openly embrace the spoilerness: Word is the federation callapsed because 'the burn' has made warp drive impossible. So, questions I'd pose (unless the answers would give away big character developments) are: Totally impossible, or just rare/ much more dangerous and difficult? What about the FTL subspace radio used to communicate? There were hints in a few episodes of next gen and voyager that something like this could happen, but warp drive isn't the only FTL engine be in Trek. A truly slower than light star trek universe would be fascinating, but too much of a big jump I suspect....
 
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Seeing them heading into the future in the mini recap montage made me to think, what they are going to do with the suit? Well, now we know. It's wrecked :LOL:

No need to worry about going back in time or doing any other timey-wimey hocus pocus. Well done STD and Netflix, well done. I, for one, am pleased. And to be honest, seeing the small vessel fight among the discovery-class space junk belt was magnificient, and it wasn't Michael's fall that the big dumpa$$ decided to fly into the anomaly.

"Ooo, is that a way out?"

Thing is, doing that would have earned a five finger salute in the face at the first meeting, even if Burnham ordered the self-destruct. It's the crash landing in the future that could have been softer. In a way, but to be honest, a problem solved is a win.

I just didn't guess it was Book who committed to the act. What I don't get is how did he not have any time to correct the angle and order a path out into the space, because the wormhole was tens of thousands kilometres outside the atmosphere. How did he match Burnham's velocity all so suddenly?

I also don't get how Book's interior could be all level with the horizon, even though his ship was buried in an angle at the lake shoreline? Could they not afford to build a setting in a high 60-80 degree angle?

I also agree with Burnham that it's not a possible for a galaxy wide dilithium 'burn.' It would have to involve that super massive blackhole at the centre to go suddenly all weird. It's the only thing that can send powerful enough, galaxy wide signals. But even then it would be a physics change.

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Look at that. Antigravity docking station for an old school orbital! And Book claimed that Burnham's tech was antique. So how about those neon lights? What are they? Chrome and glass, same thing. Even though this city located in the 'icelandish' settings looks very futuristic, especially if compare it against classic ST San Francisco, it still has a lot of old school technology in it.

I'm also glad to see plasma torches coming out as exhaust from the flying vehicles. If the magic crystals are gone then the fusion is a way to go. Frankly, even if the Federation is gone, it has not stopped space-travel or the subspace communications.

If I remember correctly there is a scene in TOS where they take the dilithium crystal out from the old flip style communicator. So not all of it is gone, and to do the FTL coms, they are going to need the magic crystal to make it work, unless if the future has figured out something else.

Seeing Burnham steeling dilithium from the display proves that it's not all gone. It's just rarer and someone is holding a major trove of it. Besides the point, the future really have figure it out if they can do things like personal transporters and plasma shooting hand cannons.

As a side-note, I really loved seeing plasma burning holes and melting glass instantly. Not talking about the adversaries turning instantly from bolt hit to a miniature mushroom clouds. You need serious amount of power to do that. Instantly and repeatedly.

Just think about it. Today we have High Energy Lasers that need generators with batteries and super-capacitor banks in order to produce 10 to 30 kW beam to melt down objects. They are nowhere powerful enough to turn a person instantaneously into a mushroom cloud. Turn it up to 100 kW and it's the same result.

It ain't happening. Not to us and not tomorrow. But one day it's plausible.

Curious thing, the energy bolts hit the space-worm as known as transworm, but did nothing. Why?

I cannot slow down Netflix for a frame-by-frame shot to confirm. But I'm certain that the aliens hit the worm, at least once, if not twice.

Anyway, I think it was an excellent beginning for a new season and I'm sure USS Discovery will be located in the next episode. After all we've seen the screens, where they are still alive.
 
Before watching, I wondered if this would be a new version of Voyager. The character of Book seemed to be what the character of Neelix should really have been. However, my first thought was, this is Star Wars not Star Trek, but then I thought that Discovery has always been unlike any other Trek. It has always told these "big canvas" stories and has always been specifically about Michael Burnham's story and not about the ship. So, just as the USS Discovery didn't appear in the very first episode, neither did it appear here (in this, a kind of series reboot.) Then later, I thought (with the Federation gone) isn't this actually Gene Roddenberry's idea for Andromeda?

Whatever it is, I did like it.

I also agree with Burnham that it's not a possible for a galaxy wide dilithium 'burn.' It would have to involve that super massive blackhole at the centre to go suddenly all weird. It's the only thing that can send powerful enough, galaxy wide signals. But even then it would be a physics change.
I did wonder about the Dilithium "burn" myself. I thought they were making the properties of Dilthium into some magical, mystical thing again. I liked it much better when the Star Trek: The Next Generation Technical Manual gave it a dilithium crystal structure as 2(5)6 dilithium 2: )l diallosilicate 1:9:1 heptoferranide and went all hard science. However, looking online now, I see that it also featured in periodic tables in some episodes as having atomic number 87 (which is actually Francium) or as being a a member of a fictional hypersonic series of elements. So, since this canon is just as muddled as in any other area of Trek, I don't think we can really criticise some new take on it.
If the magic crystals are gone then the fusion is a way to go. Frankly, even if the Federation is gone, it has not stopped space-travel or the subspace communications.
Not just fusion though. Those Space-Worms can make their own transwarp passages and there were Space-Whales in TNG. Crucially, the Discovery still has the Spore-Drive based upon the Space-Tardigrades, and I think this is where they are going with this idea. If Dilthium no longer works or is being exhausted, then only one ship in the universe has the Spore-Drive.

I was less convinced about Book being the Environmental Conservationist Warrior. How does he pay for what he does if he keeps letting cargo go free? He would be like an African Rhino Poacher who let all the Rhino's survive. The truth is that there are/is Credits/Latinum in poaching and smuggling and no financial gain in protecting endangered species. Michael said that the Federation had protocols to protect species, but now that the Federation is gone then so are the protocols. So, how does Book earn a living, buy food to eat, and fuel for his ship? Maybe we will find out that he has a rich father or owns a Dilthium mine, but at the moment, it doesn't work.

The Federation official who wanted someone to hang his flag - I didn't understand that - Was he a hologram or AI? He talked about taking over from his father and grandfather. Clearly holograms and AI's don't have ancestors.

But those were insignificant nitpicking things to me really.
 
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I was less convinced about Book being the Environmental Conservationist Warrior. How does he pay for what he does if he keeps letting cargo go free? He would be like an African Rhino Poacher who let all the Rhino's survive. The truth is that there are/is Credits/Latinum in poaching and smuggling and no financial gain in protecting endangered species. Michael said that the Federation had protocols to protect species, but now that the Federation is gone then so are the protocols. So, how does Book earn a living, buy food to eat, and fuel for his ship? Maybe we will find out that he has a rich father or owns a Dilthium mine, but at the moment, it doesn't work.

The Federation official who wanted someone to hang his flag - I didn't understand that - Was he a hologram or AI? He talked about taking over from his father and grandfather. Clearly holograms and AI's don't have ancestors.

But those were insignificant nitpicking things to me really.

Book had no issues at all to steal from Micheal and the ugly one (sorry, I don't remember his name), so he may steel from anyone to get anything he needs.

I don't know if that guy was an AI, but I loved how he got rid of his bed in the morning and than make appear his office.

Aren't we suppose to keep the information secret when travalling in the future or the past ? I was surprised to hear Micheal admitting she was from the past.
 
Aren't we suppose to keep the information secret when travalling in the future or the past ?
If you tell people in the past about the future then you may change the future if they know how it turns out. Of course, it may have always been that way (you always told them) or it may be immutable and impossible to change.

If you tell people in the future about the past, then that is just teaching them history. :giggle:

It was interesting that Book mentioned time travel was made illegal and everything was got rid of, because we have seen before Starfleet Time Ships from the 29th Century tasked with altering time and keeping the "Prime" timeline constant. (The so-called "Kelvin" timeline is already different following the destruction of Vulcan). This 3rd Season is set later in time than the 29th Century (3188?) so those Time Ships are disbanded, the timeline is, I'm guessing, open to change. If they were to return to 2259 is change possible now? I don't know, maybe?
 
How does he pay for what he does if he keeps letting cargo go free? He would be like an African Rhino Poacher who let all the Rhino's survive. The truth is that there are/is Credits/Latinum in poaching and smuggling and no financial gain in protecting endangered species.

We don't really know how the economy in that part of the galaxy works. In general we know that there was no money in the Federation, and all of it worked somehow. Everyone was rich and poor at the same time. Some though were privileged to get a winery. But I wouldn't be worried about it, because we know that Book has a heart, and he cares about the species.

The Federation official who wanted someone to hang his flag - I didn't understand that - Was he a hologram or AI? He talked about taking over from his father and grandfather. Clearly holograms and AI's don't have ancestors.

You know how it goes with some families. Your dad had a job, so you had the same job and so on till the end of the days. Even some of the characters in the ST carry that same thing from a series to another. To me, he wasn't an artificial being, but someone who was thought duty and he took it personally, even if it was lonely most of the time.

Thing is some people take their jobs super serious and they try to honour whatever it is, and in this case it was the rare example of the Federation flag. What I found curious that he felt a need to tell that there was nobody he could contact in 600 light year radius. 1200 in total.

That is a big chunk of space and you'd need 12 of them in line to cover a line from one end of the galaxy to another. 24, if you wanted to cover all sectors.

If they were to return to 2259 is change possible now? I don't know, maybe?

It was one way trip. No returns.
 
So, I watched this a second time...

The Federation official isn't an AI, however, if he doesn't try to get out a little more then there will be not be any son to inherit the job from him.

Cleveland Booker saw the anomaly and flew into it. He was directly at fault for the collision, despite blaming Michael later.

I love the Iceland settings and the trading post scenes.

They'll have to explain Book's 'mind over matter' 'communing with nature' connection thing a little more.

It was one way trip. No returns.
They can always come home if the writers want them to. Artistic license is far more powerful than Physics.
 
As I understood it, the flying angel time travel suit's life support failed, but the suit was otherwise functional.
Upon detection of surviving lifeforms on the planet, she programmed the suit, I think, to get to its rendezvous point with her mother before the wormhole closed -- no life support required without its pilot on board. I don't know if that would somehow enable her rescue should she fail to reunite with Discovery.
 
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They'll have to explain Book's 'mind over matter' 'communing with nature' connection thing a little more.
His forehead displays a light pattern when he's doing his nature mind-melding, which makes me think his ability is an add-on. Implant?
 

Fantasy often likes to portray glowing symbols on magically able people. Maybe he's connected. To whatever, but it's clear that he's praying and it is connection him to 'something' and that something then does the thing. So, not implant or at least not one that we can relate to. Meaning cybernetics.
 
I liked it. I'm glad the long wait is over. And I'm very curious about what happened to Discovery. I also want to see what a 32nd Century Federation Starship looks like. Is one of them the Enterprise T?
 

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