Discovery 1x03 – "Context is for Kings" [ SPOILERS WITHIN ]

Sad Professor · 01-10-2017 6:29pm #1

As last week, this episode is airing on CBS this evening at 20:30 EST and should be available on Irish Netflix from 08:00 Irish time on Monday morning.

Warning: This thread will contain spoilers for the episode "Context is for Kings". Spoiler tags will not be used, so if you don't want to be spoiled read no further.

somuj · 02-10-2017 9:53am

I liked this episode. Thought the Alice in Wonderland rant was a bit daft. Liking the new captain and dark feel about him.

Is that kitty kat a Klingon Targ?

_Kaiser_ · 02-10-2017 10:52am

Here we go.. episode 3:

- Still don't like the title sequence
- Is it the Discovery or the Pegasus? The entire sequence where Burnham is brought aboard to where she meets the Captain was very BSG. In fact the entire thing is very BSG
- More bad-lighting and moody atmospheres and interpersonal conflict
- I would have flushed roomie out of the nearest airlock
- Beatles reference? Alice in Wonderland? And yet all the **** The Orville gets for the pop-culture references.. hmmm!
- Reference to Amanda and Spock.. unnecessary really

It DID however improve noticeably after she returned from the Glenn, and Lorca shows her what he's up to. Must admit, that was a LOT more like it... As I said though, it's more BSG than Star Trek IMO

degrassinoel · 02-10-2017 11:24am

Well it started off better than the pilot.

Adam Jensen from Deus Ex was the skinny convict, weak actor, excellent voice.
Shuttle pilot just ignored apparently? Whats the bets there's a backstory that Lorca set this up?

Commander Landry is Rekha Sharma from BSG, strong character so far.

First scene with Lorca makes it sound like a warship rather than a exploration vessel.

Black alert - came across like a scene from Lost, thanks JJ.

Saru is by far the strongest character in the show.

The timelapse cut in the lab was disorienting - i actually said wtf?

Immediately liked (science officer i guess) Lt Stamets, shuttle conversation was very cutting.

Away team mission was gruesome in just the right amount - the alice bit, was really contrived.

Saru "You were always a good officer, until you weren't!" LOL!

Discovery appears to be a Military R&D ship.

Was that a tribble in the captain's ready room? Yes, yes it was.

spore travel... i think they've just shown us the trump card they'll use to get out of any tight squeeze the ship gets itself into with that.

5/10

better than the pilot, but not by much. The writing is still pretty dire and there's the pandering to TOS etc.. with things like 'Tribbles. This is star trek trying it's best to be battlestar galactica when it should be star trek being star trek.

Sonics2k · 02-10-2017 11:37am

I enjoyed episode 3 overall.

I actually like that they're developing the characters from the start and not shoveling it in in later seasons.

I'm really enjoying Captain Lorca. You can really tell this is the early days of the Federation. He's not a 'peacemaker' that Picard, Janeway or Sisko are many years in the future. You can see that he still has that internal old human belief of war.

I also liked in this scene that Lorca looks somewhat like a younger Picard, almost like a reflection of who Picard could have been should the war with the Klingons go differently.

We're not in the 'peaceful' days of the massively established and powerful federation, we're in the early days before they claim their place and take control of themselves.

hal9550 · 02-10-2017 11:46am

WELL!

Obvious issues: Canonical issues first - they cant do that, blah blah blah... This biological method of space travel didnt exist in TNG let alone TOS - 90 light years in 3 seconds - etc etc...

This is a DARK show.. IMHO Burnham is correct about captain Lorca, he is definitely above and beyond the 'principles of the UFP' - while i like Saru, i think Lorca is the best character -

But anyway - my opinion/theory is that this is a TV show about a Section 31 ship - Lorca and his Ethos has section 31 written all over it. He will do whatever it takes to win the war - regardless of starfleet regulations - Its Interstellar REALPOLITIK (I studied international relations and Realism/Offensive Neo-Realism certainly applies to his outlook)

and i WHOLE HEARTEDLY APPROVE folks - Im anxious to see where it goes and i am genuinely excited - if it is section 31 then its probably going to get a fair bit darker, and genuinely, last time Star Trek felt so dark was in the final season of DS9 -

Very interested to see what others have to say!

Episode 1: 4/10
Episode 2: 5/10
Episode 3: 7/10

corkie · 02-10-2017 12:02pm

Running around on the away mission, reminded me of Doctor Who, Monster of the week vibe! "Hello Kitty"!?

spore travel

> Dark Matter's Blink Drive comes to mind!

FutureGuy · 02-10-2017 1:21pm

Strongest opening three episodes for any Star Trek series.

People sh!t all over it anyways.

_Kaiser_ · 02-10-2017 3:08pm

FutureGuy wrote: »

Strongest opening three episodes for any Star Trek series.

People sh!t all over it anyways.

It may have had a strong opening (although personally I think they'd have been better off dumping the 2-part prologue and starting with Episode 3), but it remains to be seen whether it's Star Trek.

Star Trek has mostly been positive, optimistic with characters you can get behind. Even DS9 with its slightly darker and serialised format still fit this basic premise for the most part - some notable exceptions like In The Pale Moonlight notwithstanding.

Discovery however is a complete departure from this with a very unlikable main character (I feel), a crew that seems defined by their bickering more than anything (it's very Mirror Universe in that sense), changes for the sake of changes (eg: the Klingons), and the whole thing is just "edgy" cause that's apparently what TV drama is nowadays

That's not to say that it doesn't have the potential to be good in its own right, but as I've said it's definitely more BSG than Star Trek at this point.

Agent Coulson · 02-10-2017 3:24pm

Well went from a "Meh" first two episodes to an eh ok there maybe something here I'll give it a few more episodes.

Sonics2k · 02-10-2017 3:39pm

_Kaiser_ wrote: »

It may have had a strong opening (although personally I think they'd have been better off dumping the 2-part prologue and starting with Episode 3), but it remains to be seen whether it's Star Trek.

Star Trek has mostly been positive, optimistic with characters you can get behind. Even DS9 with its slightly darker and serialised format still fit this basic premise for the most part - some notable exceptions like In The Pale Moonlight notwithstanding.

Discovery however is a complete departure from this with a very unlikable main character (I feel), a crew that seems defined by their bickering more than anything (it's very Mirror Universe in that sense), changes for the sake of changes (eg: the Klingons), and the whole thing is just "edgy" cause that's apparently what TV drama is nowadays

That's not to say that it doesn't have the potential to be good in its own right, but as I've said it's definitely more BSG than Star Trek at this point.

I will say that for all of it's faults, Enterprise did try and maintain the more optimistic view and it just didn't work out.

I think it's a good choice in many ways to try out a new angle, I think we can all agree that throughout Star Trek the most popular episodes are often tied to major events going on, from the Borg in TNG (and Voyager) to the Dominion invasion and Klingon conflict in DS9.

I do agree it's a bit more BSG at the moment, but I don't think that's an entirely bad thing, consider the first two seasons of BSG were great.

_Kaiser_ · 02-10-2017 3:57pm

Sonics2k wrote: »

I will say that for all of it's faults, Enterprise did try and maintain the more optimistic view and it just didn't work out.

I think it's a good choice in many ways to try out a new angle, I think we can all agree that throughout Star Trek the most popular episodes are often tied to major events going on, from the Borg in TNG (and Voyager) to the Dominion invasion and Klingon conflict in DS9.

I do agree it's a bit more BSG at the moment, but I don't think that's an entirely bad thing, consider the first two seasons of BSG were great.

Absolutely.. BSG - till it got too down the rabbit-hole with the Final Five - was great.. but you wouldn't mistake it for Star Trek either is my point.

I also think that going with Burnham as the main focus a mistake.. Trek has always been an ensemble show and I don't like the idea of "disposable crew" we invest in only to see them killed off/written out arbitrarily, but the character is completely unlikable and I'm not impressed by the actress (never watched The Walking Dead so no baggage there!). I think Isaacs Lorca at least has a definite presence on the screen (ditto also Saru), but Burnham just seems to either pout or shout - and that's about it for range.

The second half of this latest episode (as I said above) was a noticeable step up... but that was mostly down to Burnham NOT being the main focus.

silverharp · 02-10-2017 5:02pm

_Kaiser_ wrote: »

Absolutely.. BSG - till it got too down the rabbit-hole with the Final Five - was great.. but you wouldn't mistake it for Star Trek either is my point.

I also think that going with Burnham as the main focus a mistake.. Trek has always been an ensemble show and I don't like the idea of "disposable crew" we invest in only to see them killed off/written out arbitrarily, but the character is completely unlikable and I'm not impressed by the actress (never watched The Walking Dead so no baggage there!). I think Isaacs Lorca at least has a definite presence on the screen (ditto also Saru), but Burnham just seems to either pout or shout - and that's about it for range.

The second half of this latest episode (as I said above) was a noticeable step up... but that was mostly down to Burnham NOT being the main focus.

before it had started some people were accusing it of being Game of Thrones in space (or please don't let it be this way) . TWD is another show where they cull characters from time to time. There needs to be a core team of 4 or 5 that get their own episodes etc. and the show shouldn't be held together by an overpowered Mary Sue, that was never Star Trek. Characters like Spock or 7 of 9 always worked best as par of a team which was why they were likeable.

expectationlost · 02-10-2017 6:34pm

what was even happening when she went? to those different places?

IvySlayer · 02-10-2017 7:28pm

Personally I thought most of the episode was very boring. Particularly the first half.

I don't like Burnham, the CoS calling people trash and rats...

The whole black alert/combadge/secret mission is intriguing and the Captain seems interesting. Thought we would have a scene without Burnham with the Captain on the bridge but no she randomly pops up out of nowhere.

They just about avoided namedropping Spock!

James Brown · 02-10-2017 7:29pm

somuj wrote: »

I liked this episode. Thought the Alice in Wonderland rant was a bit daft. Liking the new captain and dark feel about him.

Is that kitty kat a Klingon Targ?

Good call. I reckon maybe. It seems separate from the experiment gone awry, mind you the captain was happy to have it in his possession. Maybe part of the experiment after all? But wouldn't explain the state the bodies were in, all John Carpenter's 'The Thing'.

IvySlayer · 02-10-2017 7:37pm

Wasn't there an organism that attacked the shuttle in the beginning, maybe related to that.

Or the spore travel thing is turning people into monsters like when Janeway/Paris turned into lizards :P

expectationlost · 02-10-2017 7:48pm

did they teleport a klingon hunting party aboard their ship including their prey?

sounds familiar....

Sarn · 02-10-2017 7:49pm

With the musical score, gruesomely disfigured bodies, black op science, I'm thinking Fringe in space. I like Star Trek and Fringe so no complaints here.

mewso · 02-10-2017 8:33pm

So far for me it's a weird show. I really can't decide if I like it or not. Every episode has good and bad. No matter what messing around you do with the Star Trek universe surely you could let Jason Isaacs use his native accent and add to a more international feel. Am I wrong in thinking it's been US accents all the way so far?

Pelvis · 02-10-2017 8:37pm

Quite enjoyed that episode.

02-10-2017 8:50pm

That was great!

expectationlost · 02-10-2017 8:58pm

redhead character was silly

Littlefinger · 02-10-2017 9:06pm

I like how Netflix have Klingon subtitles for it

02-10-2017 9:35pm

Excellent episode. Definitely the strongest opening episodes of any Trek show. The new captain is great.

server down · 02-10-2017 9:58pm

I love it. I do take the point that it might have been better set in the future, not the past. The enemy could have been some new race. I suppose the only issue would have been that the future federation seems invincible.

Anyway this is dark Star Trek. So be it. Its a dark age for TV. Good, but dark

Avatar MIA · 02-10-2017 10:13pm

expectationlost wrote: »

redhead character was silly

I was thinking redhead was going to be the new red shirt on the first away mission.

Don't get spore travel... I hate when they back themselves into a corner like this. 10 years before enterprise and they're dabbling with far superior technology than displayed in later timelines.

But, enjoying it all the same.

Full_Circle_81 · 02-10-2017 10:22pm

expectationlost wrote: »

what was even happening when she went? to those different places?

I was wondering that too. Was she seeing things the Spores saw? Was she actually ON those other planets? Felt like magic

Avatar MIA wrote: »

Don't get spore travel... I hate when they back themselves into a corner like this. 10 years before enterprise and they're dabbling with far superior technology than displayed in later timelines.

Is Discovery not set after Enterprise but before TOS? The more of this show I see, the more I feel like its in a completely different universe to the Prime one we are all familiar with. If only they called it a "reboot", it would be much easier to hand-wave away all these technological inconsistencies.

Johnny Storm · 02-10-2017 10:41pm

Maybe Discovery is set in the Mirror universe?

titan18 · 02-10-2017 10:49pm

The main character is sort of ruining it for me. She's so annoying

AMKC · 02-10-2017 10:56pm

Johnny Storm wrote: »

Maybe Discovery is set in the Mirror universe?

There was talk that it was set in the Mirror Universe but I suppose since things are so different in it from the Prime time universe we all know and love you can say even pretend that it is in the Mirror universe or even an alternate universe if that makes it easier to watch and get into.

Discovery 1x03 – "Context is for Kings" [** SPOILERS WITHIN **]

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Discovery 1x03 – "Context is for Kings" [ SPOILERS WITHIN ]