Discovery 4x01 - 'Kobayashi Maru ' ~~ { ** Spoilers Within ** }

Initial thoughts:

I actually had to google to see if Mary Wiseman was pregnant during the filming of this season, she's gotten ridiculously overweight for the role of a member of star fleet who would be expected to be able to defend the ship in the event of it being boarded or to be able to perform physical tasks on away missions etc. Call that fat-shaming if you like, I wouldn't be having a go if she was playing the role of a frumpy 70's housewife or a young go-getter in New York etc. but going from her character being made to run to get in shape for the command program back in season 1 to her being clinically obese while being a second in command is ridiculous.

In their efforts to be so diverse they seem to have left out one of the largest demographics of the human population: straight white males. They only seem to only exist as the moron of the week while the rest of the cast are defined by whatever it is makes them "special" ("the neurotic fat genius ", "the angry black woman who everything works out for despite her stupidity", "the neurotic gay scientist", "the neurotic non-binary child genius who's so non-binary they literally have a split personality disorder" etc. It leaves you with a crew that's more like the outcast group in a high-school drama for the young-adult genre than the traditional Star Trek group of professionals who happen to be diverse.

I'll give them their dues though:

The 'lets fly' catchphrase is exhausting.

I really thought they might pivot away from Burnham does every task to save every episode, but alas, no, more of the same.

Just watched the first episode and it's rubbish. Why the fook would 'the boyfriend' be on a diplomatic mission on behalf of the Federation??? Pure nonsense.

The rest of the crew are so bland that even after THREE FULL SEASONS, I don't know most of their names!

Why are there so many uniform changes? One minute Burnham is in grey from last season, then brown, then maroon, then red, then blue!!! (Okay I know the last one was a space suit!)

OK. I have been quite vocal about how I actually don't get all the hate aimed at Disco: My main issue is the over-reliance on Burnham.

But yeah.... the worshiping of her is just plain awful now. I don't think there was a single scene with her where someone wasn't casting doe-eyes at her. Even as she is getting given out to. (God, the academy scene). Stamets just running around out of his depth. Really? Tilly just standing there doubting herself (BAU) and everyone else simply orbiting Burnham or being all chipper.

I'll continue to watch it to bide my time to other, more interesting fare.

Was a bit confused by the statement that these were the first cadets since the Burn... but the Burn was ~125 years before, so, like, who's been crewing all the Starfleet ships, and how did they learn their trade?

Seems like they probably just had some sort of training program, and just now renamed it to 'academy', which doesn't feel like such a landmark event as was being made out..

As for the episode at large - I hadn't planned on watching, but curiosity got the better of me. In the end I found myself just sort of drifting out of it, and doing other stuff while it played. A bit of a 'shrug' season opener really, with sudden random moments of "DRAMA!!!" instead of actual storytelling.

I assume most SF crew were experienced already from flying with private crews and volunteered. If they didn't have experience they could just learn like Wesley, Nog or Tilly (has Trek ever had a cadet who wasn't a pain)

They explained the Grey/Adira thing. It's basically why the trill had rules like a new host should not be connected to the old one and why real hosts should have training.

Dax had a host who was so psychopathic he had to be blocked from the mind because he would make new hosts a little killy but Ezri channeled him into a mind ghost just like Grey using space magic.

As for Burnham I am way beyond hoping there will be a change of tone and this will become an ensemble. They have only doubled down on the criticism. The only way I can keep watching is to get over that.

I did.... But it was a slog.

They are going to somehow put Grey in a real body and they are currently working on that in show. What kind of space magic they use to extract Grey's memories and put them in a real body has yet to be revealed but Alexander will be staying as part of the cast.

I was explaining your they need to"explain why he is appearing to Adira" which they did do

Probably not because this is and always has been a one person show they told us that going in. It should be called "Burnham" in the same way as "Picard" but everyone would have been confused

Actually initially there were rumours that it was almost going to be an anthology series. Obviously this would not have worked from a business perspective but initially the rumour was that it would cross multiple timelines and ships and even species. And, in the most interesting season it did focus on the Klingons brilliantly (IMHO of course). And then jumped timeline. Then it did refocus to be a mid level officer. Not quite lower decks. But similar idea. And, had it been this and the focus was as narrow as it is then I would have accepted that..... To a degree. But it almost instantly became about how this demotion was a narrow minded failure by the people who did not know how Burnham can/should save everything. Not just the universe but religious and personal quandaries. I am waiting for her to butt into gender politics. Where would the LGBTQ community be without their hetero saviour. It WILL happen this season.

Look at Lower Decks series. Similar character: Overly experienced/qualified mid level officer. But the focus is not totally on her. The rest get just as much coverage. Provide help, valued opinion, different views and voices. She has genuine friends who's opinions she needs and values. Not doe-eyed yes men. Burnham has never been wrong. There were times when it SEEMED like she was wrong but in the end.....

A previous poster said "why does she need a crew?" And they were right. If she had a holographic crew like yet man on picard she would'nt..... But they would ALL be identical as she is perfect. Not the (intentionality) terrible regional stereotypes that are in Picard.

So, a usual, it boils down to one single fact. The over focus on an unrealistic and uninteresting main character to the detriment of more interesting characters.

My point about Culber and Georgiou was that like Grey they were killed and then had to be space magiced back in because they were popular

Lower Decks isnt a show about 1 character so thats why the focus is spread equally. Its not really comparable to a show like Discovery which is by design about 1 person

"It is hard to lose weight when you can replicate any food you want"

To be honest I thought she looked OK on the away mission, probably later in the filming schedule. I suspect she comfort ate over lockdown, Lord knows a lot did. I just hope you are a bit more subtle with people in real life then you are here about a complete stranger.

Normal anybody can comment on. "Healthy" is best left to the professionals if and when Mary approaches them and gets the relevant numbers and measurements. Nobody "smoke shames" people for lighting up which is just as unhealthy as binge eating , so fat shaming shouldn't happen either. Remember, we've all been locked down to varying degrees for the past 18 months, it affected people differently. If anything I think wardrobe department failed her a bit.

I know it was a comedy line on a comedy show but Keyshons retort to Boimler when he accidentally fat shamed him in his own language which I quoted above goes to show that even star fleet officers get body conscious. If we're trying to help, we need to choose our phrasing better.

So why wasn't Roxanna Dawson or Nana Visitor shown the door when their bumps started showing? Instead their pregnancies were covered or written into the plot. I presume you believe in chivalry or whatever that bull shift is called these days. Discovery is made for a different culture by a different culture then what is normal here in Ireland.

Well fat shaming, be it aimed at males or females is bullying. And you might think that posting a pro fatshaming post on an obscure out of the way anonymous Irish discussion board is harmless, but others can see that and post such comments on Marys own social media pages and before you know it we have another Caroline Flack. People should not be forced to tolerate cruelty as a price to pay to do something they love.

You are some heartless piece of work and a bully. I'd love to have words with your parents to see if they are proud of whatever they've raised here. That is if you even had both parents raise you. Your attitude to human life is absolutely pathetic.

Tilly being overweight is the least of the problems of this show. These starfleet officers are pathetic both physically and mentally in comparison to previous ST crews.

She should keep a check on her weight for her own health and acting career prospects but being outraged about her weight or being outraged about people calling her fat is extreme in both directions.

I did try to take a lighter tone by quoting Lower Decks accidental fat shaming but then they just doubled down on their justification.

As someone with very close contact with suicide I can't just ignore that disease and watch it spread. I didn't survive to ignore others and I shouldn't have to ignore such things in a Star Trek discussion forum of all places. After Hours, conspiracy theories, sure I walk into that if I go there but not here.

@flazio when you have to resort to trying to insult others, you've already lost the argument. If you can't back up your point-of-view, either accept that you're wrong and admit it or bow out of the conversation gracefully.

@~Rebel~ I actually thought Mary Wiseman was well cast in the first season. A character that was a bit over-weight and shown to be trying to get that in check in order to put herself forward for officer training was the kind of positive role model we've come to expect from Star Trek shows (the crew bettering themselves over the course of seasons has been a long-running theme - b'Elanna learning to keep her anger issues under control, Bashir learning to be less of an arrogant twit, Nog overcoming his Ferrengi up-bringing to become a Starfleet officer, Kira moving away from extreme hatred of all Cardasians to referring to one as a family member etc.).

You're right in that my issue is more with the producers/showrunners than with Wiseman herself. It's her body and her life so if she wants to put on an unhealthy amount of weight, that's on her. I'd argue that it was naieve of her to think it wouldn't affect her career (since her career is one that is largely based on looks - yes, there are character actors and even the odd lead who are overweight but being fat is an extreme disadvantage in that profession), then again, such naivety does sort of suit the character of Tilly 😂.

The producers, however, should have addressed her weight gain with her. If she wasn't prepared to at least maintain the weight she started out as, she should have been written out or replaced by an actress who can conceivably portray a "future-space-navy-cadet" as you put it. No need to be ripped for the role, in fact I prefer it that the cast aren't: single digit body fat percentages are pretty much unmaintainable for anyone who has a job outside of the gym. That's fine if the actor in question is playing a demi-god character like Superman or a literal god like Thor, it's ridiculous if the actor is playing someone who'd presumably be on duty 10 hours or more a day.

From a basic continuity point of view she should be roughly the same weight, I know they go all in to give Burnham 432 new hairstyles each season/episode, but the is an active member of the crew as an engineer. Her Discovery crew boss (whoever the hell that is?) should be having a word with her as its impacting her ability to do her job.

As for the episode, it felt like a piss-take for a lot of it. I dunno why it has to be almost slap-stick, its not part of the genre.

It actually felt like one of those cringe starfleet command adverts on youtube.