Sunday brought us the first season finale of Star Trek: Discovery and we here at TrekMovie are still talking about it. Our review last night discussed many of the references included in the episode and today we take a closer look and literally zoom in to spot some of the fun easter eggs we think the creative team left to find.
Earth Spacedock
In orbit around Earth you can see Earth Spacedock, which fist appeared in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock. For Discovery it appears to be under construction.
Lunar Cities
In Enterprise and The Next Generation it was established that there were multiple cities on the Earth’s moon, Luna, even before the 23rd century. These included Tycho City and New Berlin. The lights of these cities could be seen illuminating the Moon in the finale.
Praxis
When we see the Klingon homeworld Qo’noS we can also see a moon, which would be Praxis, the inhabited moon which exploded in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country.
Klingon Redundant Organs
It has been previously established that Klingon anatomy could be described as “overdesigned” or as Dr. Beverly Crusher put it on The Next Generation: “almost every vital function in their bodies has a built-in redundancy.” Klingons are said to have twenty-three ribs, two livers, an eight-chambered heart…and apparently two urinary tracts. This was evidenced by the two streams created by a Klingon urinating in the Orion Compound.
Ceti Eels
One of the street foods on offer in the Orion Compound were two creatures being fried up that appear to be Ceti Eels. These are Khan’s “pets” from Ceti Alpha V in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan which used to control the minds of Chekov and Captain Terrell.
Trill
Also spotted in the Orion Compound was what appeared to be a Trill woman getting a tattoo. Trill are a symbiotic species in the Federation, known for their spots. They were introduced in The Next Generation and mostly explored through the Deep Space Nine character Jadzia Dax.
Romulan Tent
Another thing to look for in the Orion Compound was a tent emblazoned with familiar looking symbols that appear to be the crest of the Romulan Star Empire. Maybe the Orions let them sponsor a Romulan Ale tent?
Clint Howard’s Tranya
A fun cameo for the Discovery season one finale was Clint Howard, making his fourth appearance in the franchise. His first was as a child in the original Star Trek episode “The Corbomite Maneuver.” In that episode his Balok famously enjoyed to drink tranya, which was served in a punch bowl. And in Discovery, Howard’s Orion also was seen with a punch bowl, and we are guessing it was full of tranya.
Paris
The medal ceremony in the finale took place at a Federation building in Paris. While San Francisco has often been used in Star Trek as it has long been established to be the home of Starfleet Headquarters, Paris is also an important city in Star Trek’s future. Paris is where the Office of the President of the Federation is located, first established in Star Trek VI, and presumably other important parts of the government of the United Federation of Planets.
Triangular Medals
Some of the Starfleet officers, including Admiral Cornwell, were seen with triangular decorations on their uniforms. Triangular medals have been seen before with dress uniforms from in the original Star Trek series.
Star Trek: Discovery is available exclusively in the USA on CBS All Access It airs in Canada on the Space Channel and is available on Netflix everywhere else.
Keep up with all the Star Trek: Discovery news at TrekMovie.
The Nausicaan disruptor pistols are double-barreled, just like the Nausicaan weapons in “Fortunate Son”. The Orion script and Tellarite script was re-used from Enterprise episodes and the Tellarites finally get their own logo. :-)
It seems the Klingons are double-barreled too! *SCNR*
Been that way since the 70s Trek Medical Manual.
Tyler has one now right? looks over at Michael 😒
In front of the UFP building, we can also see the Andorian logo (engraved in glass) from ENT!
Georgiou subjugated Mintaka III (from “Who Watches the Watchers?”) in the Mirror Universe.
Clearly the only way to get through Discovery is under the influence of tranya and volcanic hashish. “It doesn’t help that the grand resolution to this season-long lesson comes down to a doomsday device … This isn’t diplomacy, it’s Rube Goldberg with a nuke. Despite all the nice speeches, Star Trek: Discovery never really found a way to bridge the Federation and the Klingons, so instead they fell back on a literal plot-ending widget. What a baffling and perfunctory end to what was meant to be a nuanced exploration of war.” – Player One. YES.
I do like Discovery – but this episode review is spot on. We were promised a deep exploration of Klingon culture and its relationship to the Federation. We never really got it. The conclusion of the war was a huge letdown.
I think there were major changes when Fuller left. My speculation is, most changes were for the better. But the idea of a deep exploration of the Klingon side of the conflict was something that was clearly altered.
For sure – and to the detriment of the show. I think Season One would have been much more nuanced and interesting with a complex antagonist (although one can argue Lorca was that antagonist). But I’m tired of card-board cutout alien villains on Star Trek. I was looking forward to an alien enemy we could almost sympathize with. T’Kuvma could have been that I think.
Yes I remember when Fuller said the point of the season was to ‘understand each other’ which actually got some people’s panties in a bunch here. But now with the season over, what exactly were we suppose to understand? The Klingons still came off as two dimensional savage villains, they simply ended the war over a threat, not over any mutual understanding….unless of course the understanding is to surrender…or else.
Discovery’s flaw is that it’s so concerned with moving the plot forward, and throwing in twists, that it forgets to actually give scenes the weight and thoughtfulness they need. I’m pretty sure the writers think that the triangle of Burnham, Ash/VoQ, and L’rell constitutes something meaningful about mutual understanding and all that, but to me it mainly come off as a last minute convenience to end the season’s story. Starfleet veered from contemplating genocide to entrusting the federation’s survival to a disgraced officer and a prisoner of war on a whim basically. I get what they wanted to do, but in order to say something thematically they made their world seem less believable.
Absolutely!
Agreed groneikt. I think while all the crazy plot turns got us watching it kind of missed any real introspective. Tyler was probably the most interesting character due to what he went through but all of that was shattered when you realized it was just a Klingon in disguise who used some other guys memories. That twist still makes no sense to me and undermined the PTSD of the character. It would’ve been nice if it was the real Tyler at least.
I think L’Rel is just such a character – one who was totally backing T’Kuvma’s war with the Federation but found humans to be not was she “expected”.
Well, they had to rush off to the Mirror Universe because somebody in the writer’s room got a wild hair up their ***.
It’s a shame, really.
I happen to like the mirror universe. I love the epiodes from all the different incarnations of Trek. Didn’t like it? Your loss.
I honestly liked the MU but maybe thats what the season should’ve actually been about because its clear the producers was way more interested in that arc than the Klingon one.
“Promised”? Nope.
OK – maybe not “promised” – but it was mentioned by Fuller on several occasions.
Umm… Fuller left before the show hot the air.
Agreed Krokus, the plot device of threatening with a bomb felt anti-Trek in many ways. Maybe this would’ve felt cheesy but maybe it would’ve been better if Burnham showed the Klingons what they attempted to do but then decided it wasn’t the way to win the war like if America had decided not to drop an atomic bomb on Japan and said lets figure something else instead of doing that. Again, cheesy, I admit but no more worse than using it as blackmail and then how it just works as if all the Klingons in one fell swoop gave up.
Its just proof the whole Klingon war arc was a mistake to do. It never aligned with canon anyway and they didn’t do anything different we haven’t seen in Trek before. If they wanted to deliver some special message about war, what was it? Other than the threat of WMD’s can make your enemy surrender faster?
One could argue that scenario would have been preferable for the Klingon “hawks”. To die in battle against an enemy would have led to the glorious road to their afterlife – Stovokor, even if it left their homeworld a burning cinder in space. This way, to die in ignorance at the hands of their “sister Klingon” would have been a great dishonor, so giving up was really their only viable solution.
Well ok thats an interesting argument for it. I still think the whole thing was lackluster in general. There were just a lot of problems in the finale for me and it was resolved just felt rushed because they just needed to end the war somehow.
Sorry, but it was not the atomic bomb that drove Japan to surrender. It was the threat of disembarkation of Soviet troops to their territory. Hiroshima and Nagasaki were two cities most destroyed by bombs, full of civilians killed. Still, the comparison is good.
Respectfully disagree. I thought it was good solution to a near “no win scenario” – either commit genocide or suffer military defeat and annihilation! And providing L’Rel with “the power” needed to pull off a forced reunification opened the first door to diplomacy that will eventually lead to the Federation and Klingons becoming “fast friends”. I think some fans will not like Discovery no matter what because it is not TOS. No, Discovery is not perfect but which ST series has been? i.e. SOME TOS episodes were not just embarrassingly bad (The Omega Glory) but some were downright insulting and against everything that the show and its social messaging were all about (Turnabout Intruder)!! I for one am very happy to see new episodes and can’t wait for season 2. Oh btw – I laughed at some of my friends this week who love Discovery but did not thoroughly enjoy the finale because it many ways it reminded them “too much of the old Star Trek”. Haha, I guess you will never get 100 percent agreement.
Nicholas Meyer memorably described Kirk’s era of Star Trek as ‘gunboat diplomacy.’ This was a perfect example.
What? The Enterprise NCC-1701 isn’t an Easter Egg? ;-)
Yep. If you look carefully, you’ll notice that the “Enterprise” is the same ship that Captain Sisko and his crew visit in the DS9 episode “Trials and Tribble-ations”.
Loved the SpaceDock Easter Egg. Was so frusrtated they never decided to go down this route in the JJ KT universe. Kind of a nod to SW:EPIII showing the Death Star under construction. Hopefully we will get to see more of Earth SpaceDock during Discovery’s run…
Considering that a lot was made about the Constitution class ships operating in the deepest reaches of space alone, I’m hoping the opposite, that Discovery will be operating on ingenuity and guile, not having to rely on the fleet riding to the rescue at the first hint of trouble.
Not wanting the fleet to come riding to the rescue either, but nice to see when a starship returns home (as in to Earth) it heads back to SpaceDock….
Some good sports there. Noticed the eels and Spacedock but didn’t realise it was under construction!
Didn’t notice the trill either!
I may be reaching with this one but when Burnham is talking about how her parents died, behind Ash is a row of orange lights that are shaped exactly like the back end of the F-class shuttle from TOS.
You might be right but they were definitely in the DSC Klingon cell where Lorca, Tyler and Mudd where held. They reused a lot of set pieces in this finale.
Didn’t Georgiou mention Bread and Circuses as a quote, which is in fact a TOS Episode name?
When Georgiou first meets Tilly she also says something about Betazed (Troi’s homeworld); probably another slaughter.
I don’t know if Bread and Circuses counts even though it was a TOS episode name, it was originally from Shakespeare IIRC…
Ancient Rome actually – panem et circenses, which is also the source of the name Panem in the Hunger Games. Basically, distractions and appeasements to keep people from revolting against their government. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bread_and_circuses
Heh – today’s social media.
The eels don’t really look like Ceti Alpha eels to me.
What a nasty surprise that would be to a food vendor though! Have one get away and wriggle its way into his brain, and suddenly he goes into a whole ‘nother branch of food service.
They look exactly like Ceti Alpha eels.
Wow completely missed the Trill. It would be nice if we actually see one as part of the story in future episodes. Also didn’t catch the lunar cities. A lot of great stuff, including the Enterprise itself of course.
Did anybody notice that UFP logo in speech scene has “FPU” written underneath? Those smaller letters around the circle are kinda hard to decipher, but it says “Fédération des Planètes Unies”, or “Federation of United Planets”, which is how they call it in French version of Star Trek.
Nice to see French people still defend their language all the way in the 23rd century! ;)
This seems to confirm tiger2’s theory that the logo is adapted according to the location. So on Vulcan we should expect only Vulcan script on there.
:)
Yeah, maybe!
Didn’t Data say that French was an ancient and obscure language?
Not sure about that, but Professor Farnsworth on Futurama said that French was a dead language.
Yeah, but Professor Farnsworth is senile and insane.
Data’s computing power was also obsolete by the end of the 20th century, so it can be excused if he’s a little…slow.
As I recall Data said his processing speed was roughly equivalent to IBM’s Watson winner of Jeopardy. Of course there’s lots of other vastly more sophisticated things going on in Data that a calculations per second measurement doesn’t address.
In universe Data’s whole body must be an engineering miracle – because in a few years every hologram left on too long was considered fully deserving of human rights too. So ironically his artificial mind is not what is special – merely that it can fit in a human sized hardware instead of a starship’s supercomputer.
Among the things mentioned here. Which I noticed, except the Romulan logo and Triangular Medals I also noticed:
Name dropping of River Skrall, Molor (from the Klingon Drinking Song)
A Bolian in the market.
and the USS Enterprise (with NX-01 style nacelles.)
Yeah I noticed the front of the nacelles and the middle were very NX-01 with the back looking like The Cage design except for being lit up. I really liked it.
I loved tho see the Spacedock under construction, one of my favorite from the movies.
Slight Correction: Star Fleet HQ is in San Francisco. UFP HQ is in Paris.
The Federation Council met in San Francisco. STIV.
Probably just a federal court, or a Starfleet court, given the matte shot seems to suggest it takes place on the SFC grounds.
Clever Easter eggs, well played. I give credit when it’s due. But my god these Starfleet uniforms are so hideous! Superfluous silly lines all over the place! They don’t mean or do anything!
I feel next season we’ll begin to see a change in uniform and aesthetic. It’s a new era for Starfleet, an update is in order.
If you look at the crowd scene when the crew are getting their medals, you will see SOME members in the audience are wearing black pants with solid colour tops. The shot are out of focus so there is no detail but it could be a prelude to the future uniforms that we saw in The Cage pilot.
I couldn’t disagree more. The color is beautiful and the styling excellent. I really hope we don’t go to “space pajamas,” not to mention that awful mustard “command” color.
Interestingly (or, maybe not), the color of the command uniforms in TOS is actually avocado. They do mostly come across as yellow/gold/mustard, but that’s a trick of the lighting. Once you know that they are avocado, you’ll start to see it.
If you look at the crowd scene when the crew are getting their medals, you will see SOME members in the audience are wearing black pants with solid colour tops. The shots are out of focus so there is no detail but it could be a prelude to the future uniforms that we saw in The Cage pilot. I agree with you but you should be prepared for that eventuality.
If you look close enough at Federation HQ, you’ll see the Pike era Starfleet uniforms blurred in. “Desperate” something or other the novel tied it in very well so it looks like Command is now approving the Constitution-class test uniforms for fleet integration at the point we see the ceremony at HQ
A “harkening-back” Easter Egg of sorts: Pike is on the Big E so he is obviously not the captain that Disco is going to Vulcan to pick up. However, what if they are going to get another great Starfleet captain? Robert April would be 60 at this time and could certainly captain Disco! Canon would be wide open as very little is known about April from the time he passed 1701 to Pike until he was about 75!
I’m hoping they pick up Captain Matt Decker on Vulcan to take command of the Discovery. This could have been his command before being promoted to commodore and taking over the USS Constellation. It would make his death in Doomsday Machine even more powerful.
I would love to see Decker but I think that we are not going to see either him or Pike because they would have to de-age Greenwood or come up with an actor of legendary Windom intensity. To avoid recasting and the controversies associated with that, April is the best choice. Also note that the producers always like to leave breadcrumbs and April is the first name on the decorated captains list. However I wouldnt be at all surprised to see Prime!Lorca in the chair in S2.
They do start shooting in April 2018 s2 lol
lol well that seals it!!
Since they are re-imaging, they could get almost anyone to be Pike, Decker etc. i.e Sarek, Amanda, Mudd. I like your idea for April though. I know that Anthony Rapp said on Twitter just read Final Frontier by Diane ___ which was about April in command of the Enterprise. hmmmm
PRIME LORCA is the best choice :^)
“PRIME LORCA is the best choice :^)”
I assumed that would be the big reveal at the end. But the Enterprise was OK too.
with or without a goatee lol
I said the same thing on the other site about Matt Decker.
I thought of Robert April as well, but what reason would he have for leaving the Enterprise, going…somewhere and then to Discovery? I suppose he could have been given a newer ship which was destroyed in the war and needs another new one.
again, we are always on the same page. What if SF went to April and said, hey we have this new kind of propulsion and we need someone with the experience to handle it? Also, the fleet is probably short on capable captains at the moment.
I agree. I think the Decker thing would be awesome but Captain Garth might be cool too. We could learn of his fall from grace which, perhaps, happened as Disco’s new captain.
And he can bring his kid on board, so we’d have Will Decker as a Wesley-aged acting Ensign!
Oh wow, I never thought about that. I mean I doubt we’d see a Captain April but that could be a lot of fun.
Perhaps the new captain is Number One? Perhaps the Enterprise dropped her off at Vulcan to await Discovery and then ran into whatever necessitated the distress signal?
Not canon, but I remember in the BEST OF TREK era, fans ‘decided’ Number One left Starfleet because she wasn’t offered a command. Of course that was when folks were interpreting TURNABOUT INTRUDER as an explanation justifying no female Captains.
How about captain T’Pol? She wouldn’t be that old for a Vulcan.
When the Empress beat up the Klingon prisoner I couldn’t help noticing she bled red blood, not pepto bismo pink?
In the awards scene at the end, you can see (although completely out of focus) a few audience members wearing blue tunics and black pants that look a lot like TOS “The Cage” era Starfleet uniforms. Again, they are out of focus and could be anything?
They only reason did pink in ST:VI because red would have been too violent, and would have caused a potential rating issue.
Probably the same reason it was pink/purple in TNG Ethics.
Utter and complete baloney, ARATHORN. The blood color was always and only a plot point, to differentiate human from klingon. I got that straight from the ILM folks who were tasked with doing it, while they were doing it, who got it straight from Meyer, who co-wrote the thing. Everything else you read after the fact, even from Meyer, is revisionism or forgetfulness, or deliberate misrepresentation, which is how I take the Rick Berman remarks on this subject from the early 90s. The only possible ratings issue was over VOLUME of blood, and as the VFX super said, they weren’t about to go squirting around Sam Peckinpah levels of blood, so the ratings thing is a complete and utter non-starter, and always has been. Please stop perpetuating all these examples of ‘print the legend’ — they just play into all the examples of revisionism and spin and don’t trust the facts that seep into our culture at all levels with increasing frequency, JUST BECAUSE THEY KEEP GETTING REPEATED!
Plenty of red blood during TyVoq surgeries too.
You know what blood really ticked me off? Sarek’s neon-green Tempera paint blood in “Lethe.” UGH. Jaysus, what happened to emerald green?
I noticed the (possible) uniforms too! Squinting at them the whole time and thinking “Focus, dammit!” somewhat distracted me from Burnham’s speech actually…
Is anyone else sad that a whole Klingon war in the TOS era and we never saw a CGI enhanced classic Connie take on a CGI enhanced classic D7 battle cruiser? Heck we never even saw a real D7 battle crusier, nor did the Discovery face one despite “Balance of Terror” being the series inspiration. Missed opportunity, hopefully we get to fill in some of the Klingon war in the future.
The whole Klingon War angle was mishandled from Day One. We spent so much time reading subtitles from and about T’Kuvma that we were led to expect a massive Dominion-type war and then all we really saw in action was the attack on the mining colony and a couple of overly short, frustratingly dark, non-descript space battles with completely unknown and unrepeated Klingon ship types. It was all a huge setup and no payoff at all. I also completely fail to understand how L’Rell holding up the iPad made her leader of the 24 houses. Was she going to detonate the hydro bomb and destroy Qo’nos if they disagreed? Sounds more like a Terran ploy than Klingon. And is the order to destroy an entire planet the horrible action Cornwell took to become Lethe? If so, how did Sarek become such a distinguished and respected Ambassador since he shared the responsibility of the decision with Cornwell/Lethe?
Write fast, write hard, damn the photon torpedoes, full hackspeed ahead!
Id love to see Trekmovie do some digging into their sources and give us an article about the changes that happened after Fuller left. As well as the decisions that were Fuller’s, and the decisions that were the new team.
I think the unevenness of this season is due to those changes (not that the changes were bad, just that it had to be difficult to come into an expensive show and have your creative director leave suddenly).
I totally agree TUP. It seems when they say the decision to do whatever was made after Fuller, are the things I think should’ve been different. Most notably that Lorca was just a hard ass and not a Mirror version and going to the mirror universe early and staying there.
I think Fuller’s original idea was Discovery as a Section 31-type ship. Lorca was a hardass who would do anything to win the war.
Perhaps the intent was to wind up with, “this is not who we are” but to get there a whole different way, by examining Black Ops.
Black badges were seen no more after Episode 3.
yep they never did address the badges. I bet that’s why
Yes people keep saying this about the black badges but Fuller had NOTHING to do with episode 3. He only wrote the first two episodes and IIRC, episode 3 was actually rewritten completely after he left so I don’t think the black badge thing was really his or if it was he wasn’t the one who decided to keep it in since only the first two scripts was actually written when he left. And actual filming didn’t happen until months after he was gone so they could’ve changed anything way before then.
@TUP After reading that Fuller wanted to delve into the MU in episode 4 already which is just inexcusable from a characterization and storytelling perspective I have my doubts he would have steered this ship more competently. Him not making Lorca MU evil is more a sign of respect for Trek as a fan than storytelling skills. Fuller is rightfully credited with some of his earlier narrative successes including Hannibal but that doesnt excuse present incompetence and with him dropping out of series left and right, he may find his star is falling quicker than he anticipated (then again, Hollywood favoritism is infamous for keeping incompetents around – Damon Lindelof, I’m looking at you!)
I think digging into the MU early on could have been a brilliant notion, because it is like doing an extended ENEMY WITHIN and a kind of NAKED TIME as well. What better way to reveal your character than to show what is at his rotten core that he keeps suppressed? And you can do that for the whole crew, and by inference all of Starfleet as well? 3 or 4 shows would be enough to give you a snapshot of the real folk, enough to just illuminate the cliches and maybe a truth or two about them, but then a WELL-WRITTEN arc in MU would have them wondering about themselves while showing the audience a lot more.
I’m not one of the folks who worships at the Fuller altar (have only seen a few HANNIBALs but watched most of that earlier fantasy comedy thing that was soon cancelled), but I do keep thinking he might have had a good if perhaps incomplete take on this at some point.
Plus, depending on how you did it, you could fulfill the premise of the earliest visual notion for GENERATIONS: the hero starship in combat with something very much like itself. That’d be almost as good as fulfilling the almost 5 decade wait for a full-on single starship vs solo kling cruiser battle.
“That’d be almost as good as fulfilling the almost 5 decade wait for a full-on single starship vs solo kling cruiser battle.”
Huh? Didn’t we see this in TOS “Elaan of Troyius,” not to mention ST3 and ST6, Generations, and possibly a couple of DS9 and ENT episodes I’m forgetting?
Fighting a BoP is certainly NOT the same thing, at least to a teenager who had a pretty decent photographic poster on his wall (done with what I guess were AMT models) showing a phaser battle between E and what we later started calling a D6. And the K’tinga in TUC getting hit with a couple torps is not a battle. TROYIUS does have some action (and some very very cool music retro enough to sound like it belonged in a good ww2 movie), but is nowhere near what a lot of us have been wanting to see after reading SPOCK MUST DIE!, in which the Enterprise doea a number on several klingon vessels. Triple up ELAAN and then finish with DAY OF THE DOVE and you’ll get a fraction of what I’ve been anticipating seeing since the late 70s.
In fact I was so desperate for a new dose of Action (with a dose of introspective thoght) TREK that by early 1980, I actually wrote about 100 pages of an admittedly horrible post-TMP novel, and that was mostly just to get to a point where they were in a dust-up with three K’tingas. It also had Kirk jumping onto the warp core/intermix chamber and dangling precariously, but outside of those ‘highpoints’ I’m afraid it was just as bad as anybody’s first prose efforts anywhere (by the time I was out of my teens, I already knew that the screenplay format was the only one that would ever really work for my fiction.) It is the only thing I’ve ever written longhand as an adult, and the reason I still keep it is to remind myself of just how badly I can write when driven mainly by passion instead of money.
Oh I agree. I think fans, at first, romanticized that Fuller would have done a better job. But I think we know some of the things he was responsible for:
– Klingon redesign (whereas after he left, the classic aliens looked more traditional – Andorians etc)
– Klingon War (after he left, the idea of the war from all sides was changed)
– Michael’s mutiny (clearly something changed)
– Going to the MU early
– Spore drive
– Lower Decks (this clearly changed too)
– No Enterprise
This is the question omg attitude retro.
The problem with the war story is the STORY not the way it was depicted on screen. We shouldn’t be hung up on how the battles are visually interpreted; after all this is a franchise that’s routinely doesn’t show that kind of stuff.
Subtitles never bothered me (okay they bothered me a *little*)– my real issue is that narratively the war was just a bit sloppily handled, mostly off screen. Which at first I was okay with? But then it was resolved rather quickly *on* screen.
i did, however, really enjoy the Klingon aspects. It was good to finally be able to sympathize with the bad guys, understand them and what made them tick. Even the Founders for all their explained motivation, never really had me sympathizing with them. The Federation never did anything to them, we never heard anything other than “well millions of years ago we were treated badly and so now we hate all solids.”
T’Kuvma was a fascinating character, and I think a wasted opportunity. Should never have killed him off so soon.
My biggest complaint narratively, though, is that The series should have started with Episode 3, and slowly, via flashbacks, they could have filled in what happened on the Shenzou. I think that would have been a lot stronger, and had the audience guessing as to what her crime was, no whether she was good or bad.
If they wanted a solid twist, having the audience presume she was a criminal only to find out she was trying to save the ship by taking down Geiourgiou would have been. Good one.
@SanFranDisco I’d have liked this turn for a character – from worse to better – much better than what they ultimately did with Lorca, which was the opposite and just a horrible message (someone born evil is irredeemable) especially in light of what they claim to be pursuing. As with so many things in season 1 the execution was mighty lacking!
HELP!
Can someone PLEASE explain this Cornwell-as-Lethe reference?
I’m not usually dense, but I don’t get it.
Folks think Cornwall is Lethe from TOS, Discovery had a episode called Lethe in season 1 were Cornwall hints at being a therapist with her scene with Lorca and how he has changed.
http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/Lethe
There is ample evidence that Cornwell a decade in the future becomes Lethe from TOS Dagger of the Mind. They are both Starfleet psychotherapists, and they look very similar. Why else name the episode where she is introduced as Lethe, and there are several other fan connections if you google it.
Not me.
Anyone disappointed by that has their priorities mixed up.
I have zero interest in seeing old TOS recreations and I’m beyond thrilled they’ve retconned out the crappy looking junk from that show.
Lots to dislike about Discovery, lots of valid reasons to complain about this being set before TOS, but you nostalgia obsessed TOS dorks are the ones that make me sad.
I’m disappointed mostly in how the war story was resolved, in how the Mirror Universe ended up having such a massive impact on Trek history, I’m disappointed that Saru didn’t die in battle (not because I disliked him but because it would have made a great conclusion to his character arc), but I’m certainly not disappointed that we didn’t see classic ships do battle.
Battles where phasers are fired from a special office by a guy sitting at a wooden desk who flips a cocker switch.
“Fire Phaser 1.” Peeew!
TOS worked for its day, but was desperately in need of an upgrade. The bridge used paper printouts for gods sake!
That ‘s why I laugh when people say DSC has tech that’s “too advanced! 😂😂
I don’t understand why you think advanced technology = more exciting story. I think the opposite. If everything works, everything is free and there is no conflict, no story. That’s why TNG was so boring some of the episodes would involve going BACK in time in a holodeck. The wild west is exciting because it was wild. That’s how they used to sell Star Trek – Wagon Train in Space because it was a final FRONTIER.
I think he means is the sixties are over already, let it die on Star Trek as well. We don’t need everything to feel like a show that lasted three seasons to keep harking back to it over and over again.
TOS is over. Discovery should be its own thing like TNG and DS9 were and thankfully it is even with flaws.
“10 years before Kirk and Spock”, it will never be its own thing. It wasn’t intended to be. They better use the Spore Drive they invented to free themselves from these shackles – by going 50, 100, 150 years into the future!
What I mean is its not ABOUT Kirk, McCoy and Spock but about Burnham, Tilly and Saru. We don’t need to regurgitate those same characters or their dynamics as TOS did. But yes of course I get your point and that they are doing just enough to market to the TOS fanboys by the low hanging fruit with characters like Sarek and Harry Mudd. Now the Enterprise itself has showed up, which I’m not really bothered by. Only because I know that will be the number one question as long as this show goes on so show it now and then go on to other things.
But they have said we will not see any of the main TOS characters but who knows what will happen if they get to season four and the ratings are dying, they might make Kirk Captain of Discovery if they have to. ;)
But I am hoping Discovery eventually does its own things like TNG did, which is why I respect that show so much. They tried something very different and it worked. And it proved you don’t need the same characters, just great stories and fans will show up for it.
Well said SanFranDisco, well said! Yes lets keep redoing things from a 50 year old TV show. That will keep Star Trek stagnant and backwards. Discovery isn’t perfect but I AM happy that they are doing things differently from all the other shows, thats what we need more of, even if I agree season 1 did have a lot of problems with its arcs.
@Tiger2: ” lets keep redoing things from a 50 year old TV show”
But that’s exactly what they decided on when they went for “Pre-TOS prequel”. It’s not acceptable that just like with Enterprise, they want to have their cake and eat it too. They want the “marketability” of connecting it to TOS and the associated canon- and character connections (“Spock’s sister”), but also do whatever they like. In Enterprise that meant Borg and Ferengi, in Discovery that means Spore Drives and Klingon Wars (just in one season).
So I understand both sides. I think the Canonites are just saying: you made this bed, now lie in it! If they don’t want to be criticized for not aligning with a 50 years old tv show – by all means, just boldly go forward into the future, as Star Trek is meant to be!
I’m not disagreeing with you VS and why I didn’t want a prequel in the first place. They are making a lot of the same mistakes over again both Enterprise and the KT films were accused of (in the KT films case, it was mostly over Khan).
I wanted this show to go forward as well and said plenty of times so many of their problems would be completely moot if this show was in a post Voyager era. That ship is already more advanced than those ships in the 24th century. And they wouldn’t have to ‘explain away’ anything like why there is a spore drive that can teleport them anywhere in the universe (or universes) and why the uniforms are completely different among other things.
Now all that said I do give them credit for not trying to just rehash TOS feeling like an updated version of that show which I REALLY feared they were going to do kind of like what Enteprise tried to do early on. It does feel like its own thing WHEN you get away from all the unnecessary TOS connections like Spock being Burnham’s brother and all of that. But thats also the problem with it because it does feel like it belongs somewhere else so it feels very distracting in that sense and why I understand others when they say they wish they put it in a different universe at least.
If you put it an advance time or a different universe completely I think people would be more accepting of it. Trying to reconcile it to TOS is probably going to just make matters worse based on the reaction of the Enterprise new look. And I like the new look BTW.
My big question is blackened, fried or sous vide Kelpian?
Not at all. Being among the legion of keyboard critics, it bugs me that they wasted a substantial chunk of a short season in the mirror universe. Then again, I’m not on staff, and they didn’t ask my opinion. It tis what it tis…
No. I just wish we got an actual good Klingon war story, not the toothless and bland one we ended up getting.
I can care less about old nostalgia ship battles.
Im sad when people don’t spell out or say “Constitution” and instead use the irritating shortened version “Connie”.
LOL I didn’t people use ‘Connie’ until a year ago. Yeah it annoys me as well (and I hate the term in general) but it is the internet. I mean I just abbreviated ‘laughing out loud’ so we’re all guilty of it now.
Glad they’re looking at canon more closely than they were at the start of the season.
They are? Ummmmm…..
Your definition of “Easter Eggs” is quite incorrect. Things like Space Dock from Star Trek in Star Trek is NOT an Easter Egg but just a normal part of the franchise. If there was a small Tardis or Robbie The Robot, that would be an Easter Egg
In that case let’s just stop using the stupid term “Easter egg”.
The triangular medal decorations on Kirk’s dress uniform always remind me of the Canada ’67 promo material. Am I the only one?
I googled the logo and now I see the similarity.
Has anyone noticed that Starbase 1 is very similar to TNG’s Farpoint Station?
I always love seeing future Paris in Star Trek and I loved seeing it in Discovery. It was beautifully done. The whole closing, from back on Earth to the Enterprise reveal was just stellar!
Re: Paris, oh yeah
– Champs de Mars sacrificed for a multi-level “highway”
– Half of the Palais de Chaillot missing
– An elevated train almost grazing the Eiffel Tower
– Littered with skyscrapers
I thought that Discovery wasn’t supposed to follow the 60s era vision of the future, hence the updated technology and looks (with regards to TOS), but this idea of what a futuristic city should look like is taken straight from 1960s urban planning :>
Totally agreed. You could see this kind of thing around La Defense, but not around the Eiffel Tower. The historic preservationists would have a field day.
To be fair to in-universe-continuity, half of your favorite places you mentioned were probably already obliterated by WW3 :( Then just filled it in with “fast vertical space for many people”. Google Skyscraper factory mass production to understand what I mean.
I caught about half of these on the initial run-through. Looking forward to finding more on re-watches…
And can we please, pretty pretty please with volcanic dust on top, have just ONE thread about Discovery without a lot of complaints from those who clearly will never like the show? This is just about Easter eggs after all.
Yeah it’s getting pretty ridiculous
Haha, the next comment [from El Chup] proves the point!
So people aren’t allowed to comment on the show if they have negative opinions? That doesn’t seem very “inclusive”.
They go to all this trouble…and then make unnecessary changes to The Enterprise. Discovery is so frustrating. It gives with one hand and takes with the other.
What exactly has it taken? You can still flip on Netflix and watch all of TOS with it’s version of the Enterprise all you want.
Yup
Do you really want something like a 1966 tv era Enterprise to appear in a 2018 tv era show? Do you know how ridiculous that would look? You need to update the look but keep the esthetics… which they did.
I honestly cannot believe that’s how people *still* envision cities of the future. In this vision of 2255 Paris:
– Champs de Mars sacrificed for a multi-level “highway”
– Half of the Palais de Chaillot missing
– An elevated train almost grazing the Eiffel Tower
– Littered with skyscrapers
I thought that Discovery wasn’t supposed to follow the 60s era vision of the future, hence the updated technology and looks (with regards to TOS), but this idea of what a futuristic city should look like is taken straight from 1960s urban planning :>
So expert, what is a city of the future supposed to look like?
But there *is* such a thing as historic preservation.
If you know Moscow, think of the quaint neighborhoods inside the Boulevard Ring, and remember that there were lots of neighborhoods like that south of Kitai-Gorod, all of which got demolished in Stalin’s time and later to make room for the Stalin skyscrapers, the old Moscow Hotel (now renovated), the old Rossiya Hotel (thankfully demolished). Or think of Beijing, where historic hutongs are being demolished today.
Now, on the one hand, these examples show that architectural monstrosities can happen. But I think they’re much harder to pull off in democratic societies, or indeed even short of Stalinist-like repression; even in Putin’s Russia, people have mobilized behind historic preservation initiatives, and you’re not allowed to build skyscrapers in St. Petersburg taller than the admirality building (much like DC forbids buildings taller than the Washington Monument, so they all go to Arlington).
So I find it difficult to imagine that the good citizens of Paris would allow an elevated metro line near the Eiffel Tower. We also know from places like San Francisco and Boston that putting highways in a center city can be a spectacularly bad idea.
Just remember between now and the first contact there is WW III. Who knows what happened. It would be like some one in 1995 critiquing a a sci-fi version of 2183 NY stating, where are the twin towers?
I have to say the “new” old Enterprise looks great to me! I hope the uniforms look cool!
Looks like you put all the eggs in one basket…so now you can disregard any future credibility of Discovery.
Yes, it’s that bad!!
What are you going on about?
Happy to see that with showing awesome 23rd century Paris instead of tired old San Francisco, they were throwing a bone to international fans too (and Georgiou hailing from Malaysia instead of being an ABC for the umpteenth time). With international Netflix deals financing Trek for the first time and their declaration of diversity, they have done far too little so far to really put the United Earth into Starfleet – even less than making the Federation less of a “homo sapiens club” (honorary mentions of Andorians and Tellarites high up in the command chain)!
I don’t think this has anything with throwing a bone to international viewers, this is just how Star Trek has been. Sisko visited Paris in DS9 since as stated thats where Federation headquarters is so it would make sense for the Discovery crew to end up there as well.
And Georgiou is Malaysian because Michelle Yeoh is Malaysian. And its Star Trek, its pretty common for its officers to have been born or lived all over the planet. TOS is of course famous for doing that since Uhura was from Africa, Chekhov from Russia and Scotty from Scotland. But in TNG Picard was from France (also had an episode that took place there) and Geordi was from Somalia (true). In DS9 O’Brien was from Ireland. In Enterprise Hoshi was from Japan but lived in Brazil.
In other words this is all par for the course for Star Trek. And it proves this weird idea that Discovery is any more ‘diverse’ than all the other Trek shows is utterly false.
“And Georgiou is Malaysian because Michelle Yeoh is Malaysian”
Just like Chekhov is Russia because Koenig is Russian, Scotty is Scottish because Doohan is Scottish, and Picard is French because Stewart is French?
Given the importance of the Chinese market to Hollywood, I think it’s actually kind of a brave choice that they made Georgiou Straits Chinese/Malaysian, rather than mainland Chinese. Certainly the naming of her ship “Shenzhou” was a tip to China’s space program.
Uh I didn’t say EVERY character was based around the actor’s upbringing, I was specifically talking about Michelle Yeoh herself, thats all. They probably decided to incorporate her personal upbringing in the show, which is pretty common in a lot of shows but no it doesn’t mean they do it for every character either.
The FEDERATION headquarters. Star Fleet ceremonies have always been held in San Francisco where SF headquarters is located. So from an in-universe perspective SF would have made more sense. Picking Paris was a conscious decision to show something different.
Transferring the actor heritage to the character is not at all a foregone conclusion. They could’ve easily made Sulu Japanese as the actor is very outspoken about his heritage and mistreatment in WW2, but he had to hail from San Francisco (though we only learned that in the movies). You mention TOS and TNG, but actually these series have made a conscious effort to appear United Earth. Things have been going down-hill since then. When did we see the last human non-American captain before Georgiou? That’s right – in TNG 30 years ago. Of course in Discovery, they still have the chance to correct course when they fill in the backstory of the bridge crew in season 2. (I’d have really liked a Russian, North Korean and/or Iranian character in Discovery as it is just as timely as in the 1960s and flies against convenient party lines).
Paris is literally the capital of the Federation, strange how few people seem to remember that.
Not at all. But the purpose of this scene was a Starfleet ceremony, no? So showing it in Paris was not at all a given, but a conscious decision on behalf of the writers.
Exactly: UFP seat of government = Paris; Starfleet HQ = San Francisco; Section 31 HQ = London. A Starfleet ceremony in Paris is anything but a given considering you’d expect it in San Fran.
All we know is that the Office of the President is in Paris. They could well have the legislature (the Federation Council and whatever lower chamber of parliament might exist) and Supreme Court in different cities, kind of like what South Africa does today. In ENT, the Vulcans had consulates in Berlin and Canberra, as well as an “embassy” in San Francisco.
HEY! WHAT ABOUT THE ENTERPRISE?!?!?!
That wasn’t an “Easter egg”.
I noted this below but one thing I noticed in the unfocused background shots of the medal scene, some members of the Star Fleet audience were wearing solid color tops with black pants. I may not like it but those may eventually lead to the uniforms we saw in The Cage.
Why won’t you like it? By the way, don’t say you don’t like something about Discovery. It’s not allowed. Shhhhhhh
Very strange. I actually provided a critical review and engaged in enjoyable discussion with many people.
Ofcourse, when I criticize something I have an intelligent, reasonable, relevant and rational point to make. Maybe that’s the difference. Give that a try!
Oh well, with all these “Easter eggs” it MUST be Star Trek.
I am having a hard time reconciling this show with the Prime Timeline. It doesn’t quite add up. Given what I have seen in this show versus the Original series. How in the world does this fit? Spock had a Black Human sister? Where the hell is Sybok in all of this? Did Sarek have more children? He lived a long time. Not to mention the Klingon thing. In Star Trek Into Darkness the neutral zone was already established and Marcus mentioned that war was coming. Not that a war had ever happened. I also saw something where the Treaty of Organia was already in place. So it seems like in the Kelvin Universe they had a treaty without a war.
I am going to give some mindless speculation here: I think L’Rell gets overthrown quickly and I think Ash Tyler will be come the genetic template for the Smooth head Klingons we see on the Original Series. I think they are abandoning the augment cause. Its this Klingon thing that annoys me.
I think this show would have been better served in an alternate reality of its own. The Prime Universe should have been left alone. It would be cool if they found a way to involve the Next gen and Time travel.
Yes the show is not completely true to canon, you would have to be kidding yourself if you think that. I didn’t have a problem with most of it though but the Klingons invading Federation space as they did bothers me. I was OK with the idea there was a war but not to the extent the alpha quadrant was basically over taken. It doesn’t make sense because as someone said do the Klingons just leave all the territory they took?
To be honest I always thought we would see how the Klingon neutral was formed by having the Federation win the war and having the Klingons forced into one area of space. I guess that can still happen later though.
“It would be cool if they found a way to involve the Next gen and Time travel.”
It would be pointless and confusing to all but the most hard-core fans — and this fan wants to see more history of our future, not myriad timelines.
“We will not take shortcuts on the path to righteousness.” – Commander Michael Boring
If you look closely (very closely) you’ll see Barbara Luna watching a hologram of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. This was sneaked in by Olatunde Osunsanmi, covertly acknowledging that one can update the visuals for a contemporary audience while still being respectful of a decades-old franchise. (But as I’ve said, lack of canon-continuity is the least of Disco’s troubles, at this juncture. Oh that it were decent enough to actually merit debating these points, ha.)
In addition to the tranya punch bowl, the glass Tilly is holding looks the same as the tranya glasses from “The Corbomite Maneuver”.
Fun Theory: Maybe Clint Howard’s character is Balok! And he “regenerates” every time he dies, similar to Doctor Who, just without actually changing his appearance (other than his age, of course). His character is similarly flamboyant, seems curious (when he tried to unpack the bomb, it didn’t quite seem like attempted theft), enjoys mingling with other cultures… oh, he was an Orion, wasn’t he? *momentarily in deep thought* Green face paint! Balok was also fond of disguising himself in “The Corbomite Maneuver”… that would also explain his shaggy clothing.
Klingons in the cave at the end of the episode, a couple wore TNG-era Klingon armor without the shoulder pads, wrist gauntlets, but they were there!