Episode Information
| No. | Episode | Written By | Directed By | Release Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5x01 | Red Directive | Michelle Paradise | Olatunde Osunsanmi | 2024-04-04 |
| 5x02 | Under The Twin Moons | Alan McElroy | Doug Aarniokoski | 2024-04-04 |
Today we embark on the final season of Discovery. I’m going make a simple request: whether you love it, hate it, or are ambivalent about it, it would make me so happy if everyone could just be cool. Online discussions about Discovery tend to devolve into circlejerks or two minute hates, and some see the latter in particular as justification to moderate the places where these discussions happen with a heavy hand.
I’m not interested in that kind of community. Online discussions are healthier when everyone is respectful and moderators only need to employ a light touch. So in the words of an ace pilot from another great sci-fi show: I am a friendly, okay? We’re all friendlies. So, let’s just… be friendly.
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Yeah, it’s just frustrating going into what should be a final victory lap for the whole show, one last grand send-off for the crew, and:
A) having to wait until the very end of the episode before you even get a clear answer about what the plot is you’re supposed to care about, and
B) having the whole episode center around a conflict that is only an issue because the characters keep making dumb mistakes that we know they’re way too smart to make, and that only gets progressed because they keep stumbling into favorable contrivances like being shot through the hull of a warbird at just the right angle to spot a cloaked ship taking off.
Ideally you’d want it the other way around, smart protagonists driving the plot forward with their smart decisions and a competent antagonist that’s unpredictable enough to stay a few steps ahead. That’s why the last four seasons worked, really, the bulk of the overarching conflict came from the crew being made to punch way above their weight class, and having to just stop and puzzle out how to take down an entire alien crusade or a time-travelling cyborg or some Cthulhu monsters that are so far ahead of the rest of the galaxy that they literally don’t even notice that they’re vacuuming up inhabited planets. Not as much fun watching a seasoned Starfleet crew getting routinely bodied by shots we’ve seen easily dodged a half-dozen times already. How long have we been playing “whoops, the bad guys got away and we can’t track them” game, at this point, and they’re still falling for it? Or the “whoops, Burnham thought she knew better than the people in charge and the bad guys used it to sucker-punch us” game? Like, c’mon, it’s the end of the show, I think you can let the character development stick just this once.
Also? Kinda annoyed that like half the crew is getting sidelined for Burnham and Book to have just-like-old-times-adventure #17 featuring some crusty old rando sniping from the peanut gallery. I’d like to spend a little more than one scene per episode with the rest of the supporting cast before the end of the series, maybe that’s just me. So far it feels like there’s been more Stamets in this comment thread than there’s been Stamets on the show.
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