Nerd heaven

In the newest episode of Star Trek Discovery, the crew finally locate Starfleet headquarters, in what is a fanboy extravaganza. We see Voyager J and the USS Nog. I love the back and forth between Admiral Vance and Saru and Burnham. Can they convince him to trust them, and is coming back to Starfleet, after so many centuries all they hoped it would be?

Another great episode of Star Trek.

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Welcome to Nerd Heaven

I’m Adam David Collings, the author of Jewel of The Stars

And I am a nerd.

This is episode 42 of the podcast.

Yes. 42. A very significant nerd number. Let’s just take a moment to appreciate life, the universe, and everything.

Ok. on with it.

Today, we’re talking about Star Trek Discovery season 3 episode 5. Die Trying.

The description on Memory Alpha reads

After reuniting with what remains of Starfleet and the Federation, the USS Discovery and its crew must prove that a 930 year old crew and starship are exactly what this new future needs.

The teleplay was written by Sean Cochran based on a story by James Duff & Sean Cochrane.

It was directed by Maja Vrvilo

And it first aired on the 12th of November 2020.

Make it so.

The episode opens with Saru giving a captain’s log. And that’s awesome. I believe it’s the first time we’ve heard him utter those iconic words. The interesting thing is, it’s a supplemental log. Last week started the same way, with Doctor Culbert giving a supplemental log.

A supplemental log is just that … it’s a supplement. The original series used supplemental logs as a little catch-up for those viewers coming in part-way through the broadcast who might have missed the beginning of the episode. In-universe, it’s like an addition to the day’s log. Now it’s conceivable that we would open a story with them supplementing their log, but the things they say just don’t feel very supplemental. They feel like the main content of a log.

The first two seasons of this show often used supplemental logs to good effect, because it meant they didn’t have to quote a stardate, and they had no good system for stardates in the pre-TOS era.

But we’re now in the 32nd century, and we have a good Stardate system. In fact, a stardate is mentioned later in the episode. So why are doing all these supplemental logs at the start of episodes? Feel a little weird.

But anyway, Saru is giving a captain’s log. And I love that.

Discovery is about to arrive at the coordinates where they’ll find the headquarters for both Starfleet and The Federation. And it’s nice to see that the writers are finally understanding the distinction and relationship between those two entities.

There’s a hint of misgiving in Saru’s voice. They don’t know what the Federation or Starfleet look like in this century. Will they be eager to see a 930 year old ship? Will the Discovery crew have a hope of fitting in with this version of Starfleet? Will the common ideals remain enough to bind them together? As they were in the fantastic crossover novel Star Trek Federation by Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stephens. Great book. Check it out if you haven’t read it.

Michael doesn’t just want to know what’s become of Starfleet in this universe. She wants to find out what happened to her mother. Maybe there will be some answers here.

So, headquarters is contained in a distortion field meant to hide it. I’m not sure it’s very effective. It’s this big glow blob thing that must raise a few eyebrows, both visually, and on sensors. But anyway,

Discovery flies in. 

Have you noticed that the shuttle bay doors always seem to be open these days. I know they have a forcefield to hold in the atmosphere, but that’s just meant to be up while the doors are open for ships to come in and out. It’s kind of weird that they just fly around with it open all the time. Very odd. I mean, it looks cool on screen, but it’s not very practical.

This opening sequence is just a massive Star Trek geek-out. We get to see a bunch of 32nd century Starfleet ships, but we don’t get a really good look at them. The lighting in this shot seems designed to obscure them, more than show them off, which I think is a terrible shame. I want to get a sense of these ships.

One of them seems to have really long nacelles, like Discovery. Another seems to be shaped like a donut.

The looks on everyone’s faces is priceless, and kind of matches how we’d all feel if we were suddenly in the heart of Starfleet territory, surrounded by ships.

The crew notice ships with neutronium alloy fibres, organic hulls, ships that are entirely holographic, a new USS Constitution that can sleep a crew of two thousand, detached nacelles, and a flying rainforest.

And then we see the USS Voyager. NCC 74658-J

Which is really cool.

Not all Starfleet ships that re-use the name of a previous vessel get the letters in the registry. Often, they just get a brand new number. It’s only special ships that retain that registry number and add a letter on the end. Enter Enterprise was one example. It seems Voyager is another. And that makes sense. Voyager’s journey home from the Delta Quadrant would be the stuff of legend in this day and age.

We don’t get a great look at the new Voyager, but its primary hull seems to follow a similar shape to the original.

It’s the eleventh ship to bear the name.

Memory Alpha has said that Voyager J is a 32nd century intrepid class vessel. But that doesn’t make sense. The intrepids were a class of ships used in the 24th century. Starfleet doesn’t re-use the class name like that. If it were intrepid class, it should look exactly like the original voyager. Anyway, this isn’t on-screen canon.

And then the big moment, we fly past the USS Nog. NCC-325070

This is a blink and you’ll miss it moment, and honestly, you’ll probably miss it even if you don’t blink. You can barely read the name with all the lense flare going on.

This particular moment was spoiled for me by the internet, because I don’t get Discovery until Friday night, here in Australia. So I spent the whole episode waiting for the USS Nog to show up. I expected it to be a significant part of the story. It wasn’t. It was just a quick visual easter egg.

But, it’s an awesome one.

I love that they did this. Alex Kurtzman has confirmed this ship is named after the character Nog on Deep Space Nine, who was the first Ferengi to join Starfleet. And he’s said this is an Eisenberg class ship.

This, of course, honours the late Aron Eisenberg who played Nog, and who tragically died just over a year ago. In my opinion, Nog was one of the greatest characters in all of Star Trek. He had the greatest character arc the show has ever done, and by all accounts, Mr. Eisenberg was a wonderful human being. So I’m thrilled that Discovery honoured him in this way.

After Discovery hails headquarters, letting them know the USS Discovery is reporting for duty, they ask for the Captain, First office and Tal to beam aboard. Their sensors can detect the presence of the symbiont.

As they are snatched away by a transporter beam, the musical score goes full-on fanboy, which honestly was appropriate for this moment.

We get a decent look at the new Starfleet uniforms. They’re similar, but not quite identical to what we saw in Tal’s memories last episode.

They look like a decent continuation of the style we’ve seen on the USS Relativity, and from the temporal agents in the temporal cold war.

There’s a bunch of different uniforms. The admiral uniform is different, obviously, as it always is. Then there are light grayish blue uniforms with a stripe going up them in traditional TNG-era department colours. But there is another uniform, light dray on the bottom with dark blue shoulders, in a shape I’m not sure how to describe in words. This is worn by the chief of security and at least one other officer. This particular uniform looks the least Starfleet and seems to be out of place among the others.

Oh, and the com badges are not identical to the one worn by Admiral Sena Tal. I actually prefer Tal’s com badge, because the Starfleet delta is a bit more visible. But anyway.

And we meet Admiral Vence, commander-in-chief of Starfleet.

Saru is delighted to learn that Kaminar joined the federation.

We learn about The Omega Chain, a coalition of Andorian and Orions. And we learn of someone called Osyraa, who is becoming more brazen every day. I imagine we’ll learn more of him and his organisation in future episodes. The omega chain gets name-dropped again later.

The admiral knew Sela Tal, but makes it clear that he and Adira are strangers to one another. And then Adira is taken off for a medical diagnostic. And that’s the last we see of her in this episode. I wonder what all of that is about. Maybe they just want to make sure that the symbiant and the human host are healthy with one another. But the Trill themselves would have been better equipped to determine that. 

I’m really curious what that’s all about.

I noticed, on my first watch, there was a little visual easter egg, a mention of the Kazon on a computer monitor. I imagine that before the burn, the Federation’s influence extended into the Delta Quadrant. Maybe even the Gamma Quadrant as well. Distances that were insurmountable for Voyager were probably considered “just next door” before the burn.

This season, and this episode in particular, are making me feel the same way that I first felt when I started watching TNG. This is Star Trek, but it’s a whole new Star Trek. It’s a great feeling.

I enjoyed the first two seasons of this show, but I’m loving this season way more than I was expecting to.

But then we learn about the Kili. Some refugees of a cool-looking new alien race are sick with some kind of disease which is plaguing their world. Burnham is immediately keen to help with that problem, but Vance wants to hear their story first.

And I’m pleased to see they are finally telling someone the truth about their situation. The whole truth. Control, the sphere data, the spore drive. The red angel. All of it.

And I’m glad about that. The whole hiding who they were thing was starting to get a bit old, and well...strange.

The rather annoying EMH notes that Saru may be the last Kelpien who still retains biochemical traces of Vahar’ai.

Which is odd, because Vahar’ai is basically a stage of development, like puberty. So we are to say that the offspring of Kelpiens who have gone through Vahar’ai and shed their ganglia, are born without ganglia of their own, they are are born as “evolved Kelpiens” as the second season episode rather incorrectly called them. That’s weird.

Remember, long ago, there were “evolved Kelpiens,” but the Ba’ul forced them back into their pre-vahar’ai state. None of this has been explained very well.

There are currently 38 member worlds of the Federation that Vance is aware of. There may be other worlds out there that still consider themselves members, but have lost all contact. There were 350 member worlds at the Federation’s peak. I wonder when exactly that peak happened.

And I do still love the floating tables and chairs. They’re cool.

The EMH, Eli has confirmed that Saru and Michael are not lying. But Starfleet records hold no references to Control, a red angel or a spire drive. Thanks, Spock.

So he’s understandably skeptical. He can’t corroborate their story. And the Federation spent most of the 30th century fighting a war to uphold the temporal accords. We, of course, know this as the temporal cold war. Time travel is outlawed. Which means, the Discovery crew’s presence here is by definition, a crime.

This all makes perfect sense. Given their past, the present-day Starfleet would be very uncomfortable with time-travellers, even if they claim to have come from a time far predating the temporal war.

Are the discovery crew here as an attempt by somebody to change the future? He can’t rule that out. And he shouldn’t.

He can’t afford to trust them without evidence.

You’ll notice that Starfleet, and Vance in particular, is the antagonist of this episode, because he opposes Saru and Michael’s goal. He stands in the way as an obstacle to what they want.

Note, that doesn’t make him a villain. This isn’t evil Starfleet. I think a lot of fans have had enough of evil Starfleet lately. No. This is Starfleet being cautious, as they should.

Vane plans to requisition Discovery for analysis and retrofit, and split up the crew.

This immediately gets our heckles up. That sounds terrible. The crew of Discovery are a family. (and yes in this season, they have earned that descriptor). The reason they all left their lives behind to come into the future was so that Michael wouldn’t have to be alone here. If they are split up now, it defeats that whole purpose. They might as well have remained in the 23rd century and let Michael fly Discovery on auto-pilot as she originally planned.

This is really upsetting to all of them, and not something any of them are going to want to take sitting down.

And I’m totally on their side in this.

However.

What Vance is saying makes sense from his point of view. If the Discovery crew are here for some nefarious reason, it decreases the probability of them being able to carry out whatever it is they intend by breaking them up, separating them randomly.

It seems harsh, but I understand why he’s doing it.

Vance asks Saru to put the needs to Starfleet ahead of the needs of his crew.

That’s hard.

There’s a fantastic scene between Saru and Michael, back in Discovery’s ready room. Michael is all worked up about this, and understandably. She makes some good practical points why Vance is wrong. Why the crew should be kept together. They know this ship. They know the spore drive, and if this family is broken up now, some may never recover. All true.

But Saru rightly points out that it’s Vance’s call. He’s the admiral. He’s the commander in chief.

They chose to rejoin Starfleet. They could have just stayed out there as a rogue element, like so many others in the galaxy. They chose to come back and submit themselves to Starfleet’s chain of command.

The balanced, two-sided conflict here is delicious.

Michael is all set to steal information about the Kili, so they can help cure the disease and prove their worth.

Saru has to remind her that Starfleet officers don’t operate that way. A lesson he thought she’s learned by now, after her ill-fated mutiny on the Shenzhou. And I think she had, but she’s been living as a free spirit in this century for a year. She admitted she’d let go of a lot of things. She needs to be reigned in by Saru, and she knows it. Her humble realisation of that is nicely portrayed.

While the crew are interrogated, with various levels of cooperation, Saru and Burnham attempt to request the roster of planets the Kili visited through official channels.

They’re starting to get through to Lieutenant Willa.

Burnham’s unique knowledge of the past helps her to solve the mystery of the Kili Illness. The only way to cure it is to get a hold of some pre-mutated plants from Urna. The only place to find this is a Federation seed vault ship, which still exists today.  The USS Tikhov. It holds samples of every plant in the galaxy. It’s like a vast seed library.

The problem is, the Tikhov is four months away.

The spore drive is the obvious solution. But the only crew-member Vance needs is Stammets.

He’s gonna put a new crew of trusted officers on Discovery.

Burnham makes some valid points in argument, but as usual, her tone is insubordinate.

It takes Saru to find the diplomatic middle-road.

He’ll remain on the station, kind of like collateral.

Burnham will command the Discovery, but Willa and two security officers will accompany them.

You see, Vance is not completely unreasonable. But he does need to be convinced.

So they jump to the Tikhov’s coordinates, but the ship is stuck in an ion storm. They have to reach in and tractor them out.

And this is where we get another great Detmer scene.

As things get tense, she starts to blank out. She’s going all distant again. Because once again, the pressure is all riding on her shoulders.

But Owo notices she's freezing and gives her some reassuring words. “You have time. You can do this.” And it’s enough to pull Detmer back, now that she’s being honest.

I really liked this.

I can see a real friendship growing between those two characters. Kind of like a Geordi / Data thing, or a Tom and Harry thing.

The most interesting part of the interrogations is definitely the Georgiou stuff.

The bit where she shuts down holograms by blinking at them is kinda weird.

The guy who questions her is kind of interesting. He wears glasses because he thinks they make him look smarter. (Remember even in the 23rd century glasses were mostly a thing of the past, unless you’re allergic to Retinax V like Kirk) He reminds me a little of Bill Nighy.

He’s fascinated by Georgiou and the Terrans in particular. They build an empire based on the maxim, because we feel like it. So why did she join a Starfleet crew? He figures out she has a personal stake. She cares, personally, for Michael.

He also figures out that the only way he’ll glean information from her is by the questions she asks him. Nice.

She wants to know who is really calling the shots in the galaxy today. Who caused the burn? Are they the same? You can see that she’s already planning her next move. Is she wanting to take over the whole thing for herself? Maybe set herself up as an emperor again? It’s in her nature.

But she learns that the terran empire fell centuries ago, which we know from Deep Space Nine.

It’s all thanks for mirror Spock’s preaching of peace, as motivated by Kirk. but as Kirk pointed out, the empire could not stand forever. It would fall eventually. This really seems to have rattled her.

WE also learn that the distance between our universe and the mirror universe started expanding after she crossed over. I wonder what caused that. Kirk’s encounter there? Something else? There hasn’t been a crossing in over 500 years. That puts the last crossing at no later than the 27th century. He said over 500, so I wonder exactly how much earlier it was.

And I wonder what the mirror universe looks like now, in 3189.

Different Federation worlds take turns looking after the seed vault. At present, it’s a Barzan family. Nahn is excited to learn that her people joined the federation in the 25th century.

The Tikhov is overgrown with plants, which is a little weird. It’ll be explained later, of course.

They find a holo recording of the Barzan family. Someone is humming a tune. The same lullaby that Adira was playing on the cello.

This appears to be quite the mystery, and we’ll come back to it at the end of the episode.

Don’t let me forget.

While looking through the logs, Nhan learns that something terrible happened here. A light hurt the wife and kids. The husband hoped a cure could be found in the vault. He’s been growing the plants from the seed vault, searching for answers.

Culbert finds the wife and kids dead in stasis.

The husband, Attis is in a weird state. He appears and disappears. He’s out of phase.

Nahn says that Barzans don’t have the same concept of death as humans. But she doesn’t really explain what that means. Attis clearly believes he can find a way to bring his dead family back to life.

I wish they’d explored this concept a little more. Because at face value it doesn’t make sense. What exactly do Barzan’s believe about death?

They can’t get into the seed vault without Attis’s password. So they have to find a way to reason with him.

Stamets, Reno and Tilly figure out that the ship was hit by a coronal mass ejection. Attis was beaming at the time, which is why he survived, but also why he’s out of phase, kinda mid-transport.

But they cure him of this with the transporter.

And Michael manages to get through to him.

He gets her the seeds she needs to save the Kili.

But Attis won’t leave the Tikhov. He won’t leave his family.

I don’t understand. Can’t they beam his family on board with him, while he gets medical treatment.

Is this just a suicidal thing because he can’t bear to live without his family?

Michael wants to force him to come, because if he stays, the seeds will be lost? A valuable part of Federation history. I guess, she assumes if he stays, he’ll keep taking the seeds and growing them, depleting the supplies from the vault.

So Nahn decides to stay behind and watch the seeds, fulfilling the Barzan watch.

She’s suddenly feeling very connected to her people.

Somehow, Nahn again connects this, emotionally, to Arium’s death. I still don’t quite understand the connection.

I was shocked that Nahn was leaving the ship here, because they’ve only just promoted her character to the opening credits of the show. So, I’m convinced we haven’t seen the last of her.

Anyway, it was nice to see her so happy.

So it seems that Michael has proven herself and the Discovery crew to Vance.

He is willing to put them back on the active duty roster.

But Starfleet doesn’t have 5-year missions anymore. Exploration is a luxury they can no longer afford.

Saru argues, via a historical anecdote, that their unique position, from a revered time, might help the Federation to look up, to regain some parts of itself that it has lost.

Vance agrees that Starfleet has been in triage for a long time.

He’s willing to let the crew stay together, but they’ll go where he says, when he says. There’s still a way to go to making the Federation what it once was.

As for exploration, well, everything in this century is a new frontier for the discovery crew, so in that sense, they are exploring.

It’s nice to see them all come to an agreement.

Burnham really wants to know more about the burn.

There are a lot of theories about what caused it. They’ve never found sufficient evidence to support one over the other.

He feels there are no further conclusions to draw unless someone can find additional evidence, but there are more important concerns right now.

I like how Burnham takes this as a personal challenge to find new evidence, but at the same time, acknowledges that right now, it’s not the highest priority.

She’ll keep her eyes open, but she’ll follow orders.

This feels like a big turning point in the season. They’re now accepted into Starfleet. No longer are they doing their own thing. They’ll be receiving missions. It’s a nice little status -quo shift.

Now, back to that music.

Lieutenant Willa says half the people here know some version of that music, including he. Barzans, a Trill living on Earth. They all know this mysterious piece of music, but don’t know why, and yet, they’re separated by vast distances due to the shortage of dilithium.

Willa can’t explain it, but isn’t going to lose any sleep over it.

But it’s got Michael intrigued. And it’s got me intrigued too.

I really hope they can pull off a satisfying conclusion to the mysteries they’re raising this season. The resolution of the red angel thing last season was not all I had hoped for.

But I’m feeling optimistic.

Gorgeous is acting really weird. She doesn’t even notice Michael for a moment.

I think she’s in grief that the Terran empire fell, and that she’s so far from her home, probably never to see it again. But I also think she’s plotting. And that worries me quite a bit. But at the same time, I’m pleased that they’re being honest with her character. As she said, she’s wicked, even for a Terran. In season 2, I think the writers forgot that.

Saru needs to remind Michael to choose her words more carefully with the Admiral in future. If he’d been a less reasonable man, things might not have ended up so well.

I’m excited to see where this new status quo is going to take us. What mission will Vance send the Discovery on next week? It’ll be exciting to find out.

Most Star Trek shows find themselves in their third season. It was true of TNG, DS9, Voyager, and Enterprise. It seems to be true of Discovery as well. They’ve found a good balance that I think will appeal to a wide variety of Star Trek fans. The tone feels way more Star Trek than previous seasons, but there’s still enough character focus to satisfy me. And while I enjoyed the darker tone in season 1, I don’t think they’ve over-compensates. They found a tone that I’m still good with. After all, I already liked Star Trek before it got dark with DS9, Discovery, and Picard.

Personally, I think there’s room for lots of different types of Star Trek, but what they’ve hit this season is the type that will have the broadest appeal, I think.

I’m hoping it wins back some fans who had previously been anti-discovery.

Next week’s episode is called Scavengers. That’s all we know about it so far.

Last year, I wrote a Christmas sci-fi short story, set in my Jewel of the Stars universe. I put it up on Wattpad, where you can still read it for free, but I’ve just published it on all the major eBook retailers, where you can find it for 99 cents. So whichever way you prefer to read it, I’d encourage you to check it out.

It’s a nice little story to get you in the festive mood. Because Christmas does seem to be coming a bit early this year. After a very strange year, I don’t blame people for wanting to hold onto something happy and fun.

Anyway, my story is called The Christmas Star Disaster. You can find it at Books2read.com/christmasstar and that’s the number 2.

See you next week.

Live long and prosper.

Make it so.

In the fourth episode of Star Trek Discovery Season 3, Forget Me Not, we pay a visit to the Trill homeworld, only seen once before in the DS9 episode Equilibrium. There, Adira hopes to find a way to connect with the memories of her symbiont. Meanwhile, Saru tries to help the crew deal with the emotional issues they're facing since leaving their lives behind.

This episode had some fantastic character moments, and I'm loving the way they're developing Detmer's character. It was also wonderful to see Trill again.

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Welcome to Nerd Heaven

I’m Adam David Collings, the author of Jewel of The Stars

And I am a nerd

This is episode 40 of the podcast.

Today we’re looking at the fourth episode of Star Trek Discovery season 3.

For Me Not.

The description on Memory Alpha reads

 Burnham and Adira visit the Trill homeworld while Saru's efforts on the Discovery to help the crew reconnect yield surprises.

It was written by Alan McElroy & Chris Silvestri & Anthony Maranville

It was Directed by Hanelle M. Culpepper

And it first aired on the 5th of November 2020.

Make it so.

This episode follows a fairly classic Trek structure. There’s an A plot and a b plot. But in this case, both are connected to the ongoing serialised plot arc of the show.

To be honest, my favourite part of the episode was not the Trill stuff, as awesome as it was to see a familiar Trek race come back, a DS9 race no less, it was the B plot that dealt with all the emotional baggage the crew are facing as they adjust to their new reality. It was done very well.

And that’s actually where the episode begins.

We get a log entry from Doctor Culbert. The visit to earth has been a reality check for the crew  and it’s all starting to hit them, just how little they have to hold on to. When they first arrived, it was all frantic survival. But now they’ve had time to live with it for a bit, and the reality is starting to set in. They’ve left everything behind. Everyone they ever loved. Everything that was familiar. The personal moments we use to define ourselves. They’ve jumped past all of that. They all feel lost and disconnected.

Culvert is in a unique situation to understand, with all the weird stuff he’s gone through, and overcome. He knows something is going on with Detmer. He saw it back in episode 2. But she’s not yet willing to admit that she needs his help.

A mantra has arisen among the crew. “When we find the Federation.” some find comfort in that. But not all.

I’m really glad they took the time in this episode to acknowledge all of this. It’s important for believable characters. They can’t just go on as if their lives haven’t been turned upside down.

We’re seeing the truth of what a big sacrifice it was that they made.

Now, here’s the big problem. I’ve touched on this a little in previous episodes, but there are so many crew members on the ship. And not just our main characters, who know Michael well and really care for her, but all the extras. The little guys. People like Gene who was cleaning Leeland’s remains out of the spore chamber, or the no-names we pass in the hallway in this episode. How well did these people know Michael? Well enough for them all to willingly give up their entire lives, their families, to go into the future with her? I’m sorry, but I find that pretty unbelievable. 

The truth is, we should have had a small group of people come along, who had a close relationship with Michael. And maybe a couple of others who had nothing to leave behind.

We should have a crew that is barely adequate to keep the ship running. We should be scrambling to find new crew members to come aboard and help. Not only would that add some extra tension to the show, it would be a whole lot more believable. It seems that practically the entire crew of Discovery came to the future. And I just can’t buy that.

And we’re reminded that Adira’s trill symbiont has the knowledge to help them find Starfleet headquarters. But because she’s human, she can’t properly access those memories.

Looking at Adira’s scan, the symbiont seems way too big, but that’s a minor nitpick, and there’s a bunch of ways to explain it. But it looks like what a trill symbiont should look like.

Adira doesn’t remember how she got the symbiont. In fact, she remembers waking up a year ago in an escape pod. Before that nothing. Does she mean literally nothing? As in, no knowledge of her life before the symbiont? I think she does. But there are some things bleeding through, like the ability to make a great Bajoran Hasperat.

They have a quick discussion, but all agree pretty quickly that the best option is to go to Trill. There’s no guarantee the Trill will help, but if they do nothing, nothing changes anyway.

So they arrive and ask for medical help for a host and its symbiont. The commissioner is delighted to help. The symbionts are very important to trill society. They always have been.  They carry the memories of their people. The population was decimated by the burn. It’s not immediately clear whether he’s talking about the host population, the symbiont population, or both.

Saru wants Stammets to investigate an alternative way to make the spore drive work, other than plugging himself into it. This makes a lot of logical sense. With the dilithium shortage in the galaxy, the spore drive is more important than ever. And if anything were to happen to Stammets, like it almost did, they’d no longer have any way to use it.

Stammets is immediately defensive about this. I’m not entirely sure why. I guess he sees the spore drive as his private domain. The science behind it was his baby. And it’s not like he didn’t try to find other ways of navigating it before they found the tardigrade. But as Saru points out, there’s been 900 years of technological improvement.

Tilly brings up her dark matter idea, that she first started exploring last season. Stammets thinks it's a dead end and is surprisingly closed to talking about it. He won’t even give Tilly the time of day to explain her idea. I guess we just put this down to emotional stress from his recent injury, and the general stress that they’re all under, having left their whole life behind.

Michael is so much more human this year. It’s like she’s completely left behind all of her Vulcan upbringing. Sonequa Martin-Green is playing her very very differently. I’m wondering if the writers decided that the whole raised on Vulcan thing was a bad idea and are trying to move on from it.

She definitely laughs and smiles a whole lot more. Sometimes, it’s actually a little unsettling, to be honest. But on balance, I think I like this new Burnham more than the old one.

Culbert wants Michael to accompany Adira to the surface of trill. He thinks she'll be more helpful as a companion than he will, because this isn’t a medical problem. Adira needs the guidance of somebody who has gone through a traumatic life change. (which of course, he has as well. Culbert is at least as qualified as Michael, if not more, in that regard.)

I’m not sure why they can’t both go. But of course, the real reason is that Michael is the lead character of the show, so they have to make sure she is involved in everything.

But Michael does a good job of helping Adira.

I do like it when Culbert tells her she’s a responsibility hoarder. That’s true, although I think at least part of the fault there lies on the writers, not on her personally.

Adira doesn’t want to let anyone down. There’s a lot riding on this knowledge that Tal has.

But the big question is, why the heck are they flying down in a shuttle instead of beaming down? There is no reason given, and I can see no logical reason at all. It’s so odd that it really draws attention to itself.

Anyway, it’s nice to see that some former-Federation worlds like Earth and Trill are still idyllic. Trill is beautiful. I love the blue grass and the flying fish. Little moments like that add so much to the show for me. The wonder they bring is one of the big things I love about Star Trek.

Michael and Adira meet the Trill bigwigs.

And they’re very shocked to learn the trill host is human. Very shocked.

When asked to speak her names, Adira can only say her own name. She doesn’t know the names of her previous hosts. Michael explains that Adira can’t access the symbiant’s memories. They should probably have led with that.

Vos says there hasn’t been a single recorded example of a successful joining between a symbiont and a non-trill.

So ….. Are we ignoring the TNG episode, The Host, then? I’m not saying that’s not a valid option? I mean, I think last week my words were that the episode is probably best forgotten, because of how it doesn’t match up with anything done in DS9.

But there’s another way to look at it. He says “successful joining.” We could potentially argue that Riker’s joining was not entirely successful. I mean, I’m pretty sure the symbiont completely supplanted Riker’s personality. It wasn’t a true blending. Adira isn’t experiencing a true blending either. But in her case, it’s the symbiont that is kind of the silent partner here. I think they kind of left it open for us to decide whether we want to acknowledge the TNG episode or not.

Adira says “the symbiant is part of me.” An idea that almost offends the Trill. She doesn’t fully appreciate what it means to host a symbiont. She doesn’t understand the responsibility. The honour. The subtleties of how they see the relationship.

But of course she doesn’t. How could she? So, “it’s part of me,” is probably an understandable way for her to interpret it, from her limited perspective.

Anyway, Vos immediately calls Adira an abomination, and demands that they be separated, which would, of course, kill the host. The Federation has no say here anymore, so Trill law takes precedence. So would Trill law really support this?

Maybe. They do seem to value the life of the symbiont higher than they value the life of a host.

Guardian Xi explains that the burn decimated the population. Specifically, the host population. It seems Trill is now experiencing a shortage of viable hosts. Which is interesting, because back in the 24th century, it was the other way around. The demand for a symbiont was so high that they had to artificially inflate the requirements to be viable for joining.

He sees this as an opportunity. Adira could be the future. If they considered looking beyond the Trill to see other species as potential hosts, it could solve a lot of problems.

Leader Pav won’t support a forced separation, but she sees this joining as an aberration and so won’t help Adira either. She demands that they leave immediately.

It’s not entirely unbelievable the Trill would act this way. We know they have strongly-held ideals when it comes to the symbionts. For example, they have a very strong taboo against hosts getting involved romantically with somebody they were with in a previous host. Their value and even their spirituality are all centered around this relationship between symbiont and host.

It’s okay to feel uncomfortable when you encounter something that doesn’t line up with your worldview, but the important thing is to maintain your compassion. And that’s what Vos, and to a lesser extent Pav are doing. It’s easy to forget, in situations like to forget that there are real people with real feelings on the other end. It’s okay for people to disagree on what they believe is right, but you can’t lose your compassion.

But Vos isn’t even willing to let them leave. He sets them up to be killed. He won’t let the symbiont go.

Burnham sorts them out with little trouble. And then Xi turns up, offering to help, against orders. He leads them to the caves.

Anyway, Culbert takes his concerns about the crew to the captain. Medically, they’re fine, but emotionally, everyone is suffering. Stress levels are very high. Saru sympathises but he needs a concrete way to help his crew.  The heart of the problem is that they need to feel connected.

So Saru does what he often does. He asks the computer for ideas. He’s not impressed with anything it’s spitting out. And then, something very weird happens. The computer screen flashes with something red, and then it starts speaking in a much more human-sounding voice. It laughs. And suggests humour is what the crew needs. A good laugh. And it’s not wrong. Laughter has known healing properties and benefits.

But what’s going on with the computer? My immediate thought was, is this the beginning of the Artificial Intelligence we saw in Discovery’s computer in the Short Trek episode Calypso? I think there’s a good chance that is the case.

Anyway, the computer offers some logical options. Things that I’m surprised Saru didn’t think of without the computer’s help. Actually. He’s a bit skeptical and asks the computer to run a diagnostic on itself. But he takes the suggestions on board.

Back on Trill, they arrive at the caves. We’ve seen these caves before, on Deep Space Nine. This is where they keep the symbionts. The guardians are responsible for taking care of them. They swim around in pools and communicate with one another through electrical impulses.

It’s a little confusing what they’re trying to do, at first. Adira hops into the pool.

At first, I assumed they planned to have Tal communicate with the other symbionts in the pool. But then, that wouldn’t accomplish anything, because the symbionts couldn’t pass along the knowledge they learn. What they’d really need to do would be to get another joined trill in there so the two symbionts could talk through electrical impulses, and then the other host could report on what was discussed.

But, they don’t have another joined trill. We know that the guardians do not join.

What they’re really trying to do here is get Tal and Adira to communicate with one another. The hope is that here, in this natural habitat for symbionts, that connections will form.

They have a device that will track her isoboramine levels. 

This is a nice callback. Isoboramine is a neural transmitter in trill physiology. It enables the communication between symbiant and host. If levels get below 40% the symbiont will be removed, as to remain would be a great danger to both.

But Adira is human. Her body would not produce isoboramine. So I guess, it must be generated by the symbiont.

The funny thing is, the device doesn’t just have a readout or an alarm or something. No, when levels get low the grass cracks. That’s pretty strangely old-school.

There’s a fantastic scene on Discovery. Saru hosts a special meal with his senior officers, and those he works most closely with. A way to show them his appreciation for what they’ve done to get them this far, but also for them to come to terms with what they’ve lost.

You’ll notice that the mythical chief engineer and chief medical officer still don’t show. After two full seasons, we still don’t know who they are. They should be in staff meetings, and they should be here now. I’ll be honest. This REALLY bugs me. A lot.

It’s interesting that Doctor Culbert is here, but we know he isn’t the chief medical officer. At least, he wasn’t in season 1. Maybe he’s been promoted to that position, which would make him higher ranked than Doctor Pollard, who isn’t even at this table.

It’s very annoying.

Anyway, I said this is a fantastic scene. And it is. It’s full of wonderful character moments. 

It gets a little amusing when they start trying to come up with haikus, following Georgiou’s lead. It’s a nice scene that shows the camaraderie between the characters. It reminds me of that great scene in Avengers Age of Ultron when they were all joking trying to lift Thor’s hammer.

Things turn decidedly dark when they ask Detmer to do one.

And she keeps blabbering about Stammet’s blood.

It makes everyone very uncomfortable, especially Stammets, and Culbert.

It’s so terribly uncomfortable. It’s great.

What I love about this scene is they’re finally developing Detmer as a charter. Remember back in season 1, when none of us could even remember the names of any bridge crew? I still don’t remember many of their names, but Detmer is one they’re really trying to develop. And we find that Emily Coutts is a really good actor, because the writers are finally giving her something to do. About bloomin’ time. We get a lot of insight into what she’s going through by what she says here. She’s feeling crushed under the responsibility of having the entire crew’s lives in her hands when she flies the ship. Specifically when she has to fly the ship under difficult circumstances, like going through the wormhole, or escaping from that parasitic ice.

The argument between her and Stammets is so powerfully performed by the two actors. I love it so much.

Soon the conflict spreads and Tilly asks them if they think they have the market cornered on pain.

And while this is not at all how Saru was hoping this would go, stuff is starting to come out. Stuff that needs to be dealt with. Some deep hurts. 

Once half the table have left, it becomes obvious that the meal is over, and Saru is left alone. Poor Saru. You can’t help but feel for him.

Adira’s Isoboramine levels are dropping. And she’s convulsing. That’s when Pav and Vos arrive.

Vos is still being pretty unreasonable. Pav is not happy, but she’s starting to find that compassion. She allows Michael into the pool, even though she’s not Trill, to try to help Adira.

They use a neural stabiliser to help Michael communicate, mentally, with Adira. It looks like they’re standing in a big void filled with little tentacles.

Michael quickly realises that the threads are like the threads of memory. That’s the symbiont trying to connect with her. It wants her to remember. She has to let the tentacles connect. It’s all kinda symbolic and in her mind.

So the threats connect and Adira is taken back into a memory she has forgotten.

We meet Gray, Adira’s old boyfriend, who is a Trill. They were together on a generation ship, trying to find traces of the Federation. Gray was receiving a symbiont.

Gray was a cello player.

Adira is hesitant to follow through with the memory, she senses there is pain ahead. She has to open the gift, symbolic of continuing the memory, because that’s what happened in the memory, She gave a gift to Gray. It’s a quilt with stories of moments from their relationship sewn into it.

And then, in the midst of that happy moment, the ship is hit by something. Gray is badly injured. He’s gonna die. His biggest regret is that the symbiont will be lost. It will survive if removed from Gray and put into a new host.

But there’s no other host available.

So Adira says she’ll take it. Even though she’s not Trill. The medical robot performs the surgery.

And that’s how Adira ended up in an escape pod with a symbiont and no memory of how it happened.

By accepting this memory and assimilating it back into her conscientiousness, the connections finally form, and she is able to access the symbiont’s mind. She and Burnham see all the other hosts.

Several of them are Starfleet officers, in various different uniforms. One of them is from the Star Trek Picard era, which was really cool to see. There’s a pale blue uniform we’ve never seen before, and another, worn by Admiral Senna. That is clearly the current Starfleet uniform of this era. It’s quite unique. Very different to any other Starfleet uniform we’ve seen before, which makes sense for the time. It looks a bit more military. A bit more naval. I don’t mind it. But we get our first proper look at the new oval-shaped comm badge. We’d only seen it in blurry screenshots from trailers until now. It looks pretty good, actually. I like it.

Senna confirms that while a human joining is unusual, Tal accepts her as well.

And Adira is reunited with Gray, who appears along with all the other hosts.

Michael thanks the Admiral for his message, which gave her hope. But she doesn’t ask about Starfleet. I found it so frustrating. I was practically yelling at the TV, “Ask him where Starfleet headquarters is.” it would only have taken a few seconds to ask.

But she doesn’t.

I mean, this is one of the primary reasons they went through all of this. Not the only reason. They wanted to help Adira too, but this information is vital.

And she doesn’t ask.

It’s not fully clear from the show at this moment, that Adira will now be able to access all of Tal’s memory, but I guess that was the implication. 

Still, if it were me, I’d have asked him if I had the chance, just in case.

When Adira emerges, able to recite the nAMES of all of her former hosts, all Trill are all convinced.

Even Vos says “we were wrong.”

I found the character arc of these Trill to be a bit short and sudden. And Vos, especially, came around too far too quickly. He was willing to murder Adira a few minutes ago. Now he says “we were wrong.”

It might have worked a little better if he had remained of the opinion that joining symbionts with non-human hosts was not generally a good idea, but agreed that Adira was deserving of their help, but Pav fully embraced the idea of non-trill hosts, as Xi already had. I dunno, I just think that would have added a little extra subtlety and depth to the whole thing. But the way they did it was okay.

Pav wants to mentor her, in her new role as a host, which wouldn’t be a bad idea, but Adira feels she is meant to remain on Discovery, and spread the message that the symbionts are a gift for everyone. Pav is even open to rejoining the Federation, should Discovery find them.

It’s all wrapped up a little too neatly with a bow on top.

Anyway, Tilly comes to Saru to console him after the disastrous dinner.

Captain Pike made connecting with the crew seem so effortless. But then, Pike had been captain for a long time. Saru is still very new to the job.

But I laughed out loud when Tilly said “This just looked like a Tuesday at my house growing up.”

Stammets also comes in to try to make amends with the Captain and Tilly. He’s finally ready to listen to Tilly’s ideas, and truly show her how much her help means to him.

And another fantastic moment occurs when Detmer goes to see Culbert in sick bay and admits that she’s not okay. She needs help. It was hard for her to admit. She’s ready to take him up on that talk.

At first, I was worried that they were wrapping up Detmer’s problems too quickly, but that’s probably not the case. Her healing is going to take a long time. I think this is just the next stage. Hopefully they’ll continue to do a good job of exploring this, because I’m loving seeing Detmer turned into a person, and not just the “aye Captain” parrot.

But the crew are all called to the shuttle bay for a surprise.

It’s a comedy film festival. Very old-school type humour. Very slapstick.

I love Linus handing out popcorn.

Then Detmer turns around and sees Stammets.

And it’s a very awkward moment for her. How does she make amends for what she said to him earlier.

And while her face is locked in anxiety and anguish, his unfolds into a smile. And their confrontation turns into a hug. That moment melted my heart and nearly broke me.

Saru and Cubert talk about how helpful this has been. “We just had to begin by admitting that we’re not fine,” Culvert says. “We’re not, are we,” asks Saru. “No. But we’ll get there.”

Saru speculates. The sphere data was sent to discovery to protect it. They have done that. They’ve given up their entire lives to protect it. Now, it’s trying to return the favour. It is merging with their computer and trying to protect them.

It seems pretty clear that my theory about this being the birth of the Zora AI in Calypso is correct. During that scene, the computer was voiced by two different actors. Annabelle Wallis, who played Zora in Calypso, and Julianne Grossman, who usually voices the computer. Interesting.

Senna knew the algorithm to find Starfleet headquarters and Adira has done the maths. They have coordinates. And she starts playing the cello, something both she and Gray picked up from a former host.

The episode closes with a little twist. Gray appears with Adira like a hallucination. A ghost, distinct from the others.

Adira hasn’t told anyone about this yet.

Gray doesn’t know why this is happening.

There is precedent for something like this. Ezri Dax once performed a ritual that pulled the memories and consciousness of one of her former hosts out in a similar way. She could converse with him, but nobody else could see him. Adira hasn’t performed any ritual, but nothing about this joining has been normal. It’ll be interesting to see where this leads.

Another good episode of Discovery. It’ll be exciting to see next week whether they can locate Starfleet headquarters. I wonder what they’ll find when they get there. It should be interesting.

If you’re enjoying this podcast, please consider writing a review wherever you listen, or subscribing, if you’re watching it on youTube.

Can you believe I’ve almost been doing this show for a year? I released my very first episode on the 6th of December.

In one month, we’ll have to do something to celebrate the first birthday of Nerd Heaven.

Anyway, that’s all for now.

I’ll see you next week for the episode “Die Trying.”

Have a great week.

Live long and prosper.

Make it so.

In Star Trek Discovery Season 3 Episode 3, Michael Burnham is reunited with the crew of the USS Discovery. Saru takes his place as the official captain, and they jump to Earth to see what has become of the Federation in this new century. But they don't receive the warm welcome they were hoping for. Time for some good old Starfleet diplomacy. And what's the deal with the mysterious Adira, a United Earth Defence Force inspector who is trying to sabotage the ship?

At the beginning of this episode, I acknowledge the passing of the great Sir Thomas Sean Connery, or Sean Connery as he was known to us. 

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Welcome to Nerd Heaven

I’m Adam David Collings, the author of Jewel of The Stars

And I am a Nerd.

This is episode 40 of the podcast.

Today, we’re talking about Star Trek Discovery season 3 episode 3. People of Earth.

But first, I want to acknowledge the passing of Sir Thomas Sean Connery, or as we more commonly know him, Sean Connery. I learned just last night that he had died at the age of 90. He brought a lot of joy into my life through his acting work, and I’ll always remember him as James Bond, Henry Jones Snr, and King Arthur from First Knight.

He remained married to his second wife, Michelin Roquebrune right up until the end, 45 years in total, which is an achievement worthy of respect among famous actors.

He is also survived by his son Jason Connery.

But, you know, Sean Connery has a Star Trek connection. While he never appeared in Star Trek, he was originally cast as Sybok, Spock’s brother, in Star Trek V The Final Frontier. But he was unable to do it because he was busy with Indianna Jones and The Last Crusade, which honestly, was a much better movie in my opinion. But the mythical planet Sha-Ka Ree was named in Connery’s honour. Which I think is really nice.

So, I’d like to express my condolences to all of his loved ones, especially his wife and son.

So, back to Star Trek Discovery.

The description on Memory Alpha reads

“Reunited with Burnham, Discovery heads to Earth to find out what has happened to the Federation in the last thousand years.”

This episode was written by Bo Yeon Kim and Erika Lippoldt

It was Directed by Jonathan Frakes

And it first aired on the 29th of October 2020.

Make it so

The episode opens with a quick recap of what Michael has been up to during the last year, while she’s been searching for Discovery, indirectly waiting for them to show up. It’s a shame we didn’t really get to see any of her adventures with Book, but I’m sure there’ll be plenty of tie-in media that will be more than happy to fill this gap. She worked as a courier, travelling from world to world making deliveries for a tiny handful of Dilithium.

But the interesting thing is, it does this in the form of a log entry, aimed at Discovery. The voiceover makes it clear that even before the burn, Dilithium was becoming rare. And we get to see a glimpse of some 321st century Starfleet ships. They don’t look all that different to those we’ve seen from other centuries. We don’t see any of them up close, but the basic shape is present in both of them. Saucer section, secondary hull, warp nacelles.

Burnham didn’t give up everything for this version of the future and she’s determined to set things back to how they should be. She’s also searching for answers on what caused the burn.

And we see her hair change over time, visually confirming the passage of time.

She seems to have built a very meaningful relationship with Book, although it seems it’s not romantic as such. And while I think they’d make a great couple, I’m cool with that. I like their friendship the way it is portrayed in this episode. Although It does feel like there’s some romantic tension between them.

But what would a log entry be without a stardate?

In the first two seasons, they just kinda made up random stardates. None of it made any sense because to be true pre-TOS stardates, they’d have to be 3-digit numbers.

The stardate Michael quotes in this episode is 865211.3. This is a six digit stardate. Those in the 24th century, starting with TNG, were 5 digits. Now, I haven’t done the maths, but I imagine this stardate is correct, that they’ve calculated from the TNG system onwards the right number of years. I mean, it looks about right. So that’s pretty cool.

And then we cut to Michael’s arrival on Discovery in the transporter room. And we get a very emotional reunion between her and all of her family. It was wonderful to see. Once again, Sonequa Martin Green’s facial acting really gets across so much emotion. Anyway, I loved this. It was very well done, and it certainly made me feel.

And there’s this look between Burhnham and Georgiou, who stands at the back of the room, unlike the others who crowd around Burnham for hugs. That’s not Georgiou’s style. Especially not the mirror Georgiou. But there’s a little moment there between them. Hard as it might be to believe, coming from the former Terran emperor, Georgiou genuinely feels something for Michael. She’s the closest thing she’ll ever get to her daughter, and this one is unlikely to betray her the way the mirror Burnham did.

Burnham and Saru have a nice scene, catching up as they walk through the ship.

Burnham has promised Book some Dilithium for helping to rescue the Discovery. Saru is more than happy to honour the promise.

Nobody knows whether the burn was a natural disaster, or a deliberate attack. And that’s kind of worrying. Neither option is especially appealing. Either way, millions died.

During her year, Burnham received a transmission from an Admiral Senna Tal. He is waiting on Earth for anyone who still believes to join him. Burnham was never able to follow up on this lead because with Dilithium so rare, Earth was always out of reach.

Now that she has access to a Spore drive, she can go there.

Nobody on Discovery is gonna argue with that. They all want to find out what has become of the Federation.

Michel suggests they jump outside of Earth’s scanning range and pose a starship from this century that was stranded by the burn.

Again, It’s not clear to me why they can’t just be honest with Starfleet about being from the past. Why the deception? It seems unnecessary, especially if they want to earn the trust of present-day Starfleet.

But Georgiou approves of this plan. And I can understand why she would like it. Don’t give away more than you need to. That’s consistent with who she is.

Stamets is waiting for the order to prep for the jump, but he’s unsure whose orders he should be following, Saru’s or Michael’s.

And Saru says “Oh yes, we are due for a conversation.” He wants to discuss with her who is going to be the next captain of the Discovery.

This is a weird hold-over from last season.

Saru told Pike to not worry about who will be captain. They’d work that out later.

But it seemed silly to me that there would even be a question. Saru was first officer. He’s next in line. Obviously he will be serving as Discovery’s captain.

It’s not only logical, it’s well-earned. WE saw that last week. Saru has grown a lot in the last two seasons. He’s gone from the timid first officer questioning his every decision, and asking the computer for leadership advice, to the man that took charge last week.

Michael agrees. There’s no need for that conversation, Saru. It’s you. She agrees that chain of command discates it, and that Saru has proven himself. It seems she and I are on exactly the same page. Saru is captain in the truest sense of the word.

But for Michael, there’s more to it. She’s changed over the last year. She’s had to. She’ll say later in the episode that she had to leave some things behind in order to survive in this new hostile world. I  suspect she’s talking about more than just Starfleet protocol and military discipline. I think she’s had to compromise on some principles. Probably not any big ones, but some smaller ones. It’ll be interesting to learn more about this over time, as I’m sure we will.

Anyway, it was a nice scene.

I’m very happy with how that turned out.

Saru says this ship bears the name Discovery, and never has that been a more fitting or more prescient name. I agree with him, and I’m excited by the possibility that the ship will truly get to live up to her name this season. We certainly got some of that last season, but I think we’ll get even more this time.

And all of that was just the teaser. But we’ve come to expect long teasers in modern Star Trek. DS9 often did the same thing.

Discovery is undergoing repairs. We see a bunch of those repair droids from the opening credits. They’ve got a little memorial for those who died in the crash  (and probably also in the battle with Control). The insignia badges are all on display, in memory of those who wore them. I find it particularly confronting that some of those badges are cadet badges. Just kids.

Things have been so hectic, nobody has had time to grieve, and not just those who have died, but those they left behind.

I like that even though there was that big communal hugging scene earlier, that Miochael gets individual catch-up scenes with those that are closest to her, that being Tilly and Saru.

Tilly is coming to terms that her Mum is gone. Dead. For centuries.

She never had a very good relationship with her, but … it was her mum.

I often wonder how Tilly’s Mum reacted when she got that message from Tilly, saying she was going to the future. 

I wonder how it made her feel.

I wonder if she realised her shortcomings as a mother in that moment, the way she had failed Tilly.

I wonder how that affected her, and if she ever truly recovered from the grief of that realisation, and knowing that she’d never have a chance to make it right?

Or did she remain stone-hearted, and just accuse Tilly of being needy and selfish.

We’ll probably never know.

Tilly is hoping that there’ll be something on Earth that they recognise, after all this time.

I love Michael’s line back to her that cake is eternal. That would make a good tshirt, but perhaps a little too obscure for many people to get.

Tilly points out that Michael seems lighter. And she’s not wrong.

And I’m surprised to find myself saying that I’m liking this lighter Burnham. I don’t mean lighter in the Marvel sense of the word, that she’s all jokes now. No, it seems like a great weight has been lifted from Michael’s shoulders. And I like that.

She’s had to let go of a lot of baggage in this new world. It’s been like a fresh start for her.The ultimate sea change.

You know, I was invited by a friend to appear on his podcast recently. The Christian Geek Central podcast. We talked about the current state of Star Trek. And in that discussion, my friend, Paeter, said he wished that Michael’s return to grace hadn’t happened so abruptly at the end of season 1.

Can you imagine how much more powerful this moment would be for the character if she hadn’t been forgiven her crime of mutiny and given back her commission? If she had remained a technical prisoner, serving her time on Discovery, rather than in jail, for the whole of season 2, but now found herself in a whole new world, where she could truly have a fresh start? A second chance. That could have been amazing.

But it’s still really cool.

Michael was a pretty up-tight person during those first two seasons. Now, she’s something different. And that’s some interesting character development. And it wouldn’t be as cool if we hadn’t had the uptight Burnham beforehand.

For some reason, Georgiu is the one who beams Book aboard. Oh, I get why she’s doing it, she wants to check him out, see who this guy that her daughter has been galavanting around with is, buit, surely somebody else was meant to be on duty in the transporter room. Book was expecting Detmer or Tilly. Which is weird because neither of them work in the transporter room.

Anyway, Discovery has a huge supply of Dilithium, by today’s standards. They cut off a little piece for Book. This is gonna make them a target. They can’t let it become too well known that they’re so stocked.

Michael wants Book to come to Earth with her.  IT could be a fresh start for him. And he’s interested, at least for a temporary expedition. He asks Michael what she gets out of it and she goes all awkward and coy. She can’t just say “You’re my friend and I’d miss you if we weren’t together.” I kinda wish she had. But instead, she says he can help them mask the dilithium. Which is quite true. His ship has a cloaking device.

Book has never been to earth, but in a sense, neither has Michael. Not this earth.

We should talk about Book’s ship.

I like the interior. That’s really cool. But the exterior, well, that’s a bit weird. There are elements that I like about it, but the asymmetry of it really bothers me. I guess I just like things to be symmetrical. It’s a very odd shape.

Saru is now wearing his captain’s uniform. And it looks good on him.

He was shocked that Michael never considered trying to take the captaincy herself. Which as I’ve explained is weird to me. I don’t see why anyone would think she had a claim to it. Yes, she and Saru both held the rank of Commander, but he was higher in the chain of command.

Anyway, dead horse. Sorry.

The point of this scene is that Michael has changed. Saru can see it, and Michael doesn’t deny it.

I’m the same person. And I’m not.

She had to adapt to this world. She did what she had to, to l;earn as much as she could. 

Saru finds it hard to trust Book. He doesn’t know Book like Miachel does.

But for Michael’s sake, he accepts the idea, with some logical security conditions.

Booker joins them on the bridge and they jump into the sol system, just past saturn.

As Discovery approaches Earth, a giant forcefield envelops the entire planet.

This makes sense. First of all, because we are in the far future, and such a technology should reasonably exist. But secondly, because this is a harsher more dangerous time. The people of earth want to protect it. They probably still have a relative paradise down there. We’ll soon see that this is effectively the case.

Two ships arrive. United Earth Defense Force. Apparently, ships are not welcome in the vicinity of Earth. Not any ships.

Not even one bearing a Starfleet registry.

We meet  Ndoye, a captain of the UE Defense Force.

Ndoye can find no mention of the discovery in her records, because of the classified nature of the ship. Saru tried to sell her on the story that they are a long-range ship returning from a very long classified scientific mission. They are the descendants of the original crew.

Personally, I think that would be harder to swallow than time travel. But anyway.

NDoye can pinpoint Discovery to only the range of 23rd to 25th century, based on the metals used in the hull.

Ndoye’s security force beam aboard immediately. A bunch of people on all decks. Again, believable.

Book has to pose as a Starfleet office so as to not attract attention. He hates wearing it, but Michael gets a kick out of it

Book compares wearing the uniform to a time he saveD Michael from a bog filled with leeches., This conversation is very reminiscent of one between Anakin and Obi-Wan in Star Wars Episode 2. But it gives the sense of a long history of shared adventures between these two. The scenes actually serve the exact same purpose in both stories.

This is yet another example of the Star-Warsey feel to this new setting.

It should feel out of place. It maybe should even bother me.

But you know, despite the star-wars esque dystopian setting, this season feels very very Star Trek. And that’s because of Discovery itself.

Imagine the Enterprise got pulled into the Star Wars universe, and continued to carry on it’s mission there. Imagine there was a show about that. The show would have a Star Wars setting, but it would still very much be a Star Trek show.

That’s kinda how this feels. The crew of Discovery make this feel like Star Trek, even though the setting doesn’t.

Gergiou also needs to wear a uniform, and she picks an Admiral’s uniform. This is typical of her character and mildly amusing. But it is good to see a Discovery Admiral’s uniform again. I always liked their admiral uniform.

Georgiou makes some interesting observations, that Michael isn’t sure she fits in here anymore. She’s gotten used to not having to follow orders and be in a chain of command.

Earth has been re-built to be self-sufficient. So it’s still very much the Star Trek earth down there. Beautiful gardens. A world without poverty. But it’s under constant threat. People want what they have. They want their dilithium.

And it’s made the people of earth paranoid and suspicious. Understandably so perhaps.

Right now, their greatest threat is a group of dilithium raiders led by a bloke named Wen.

Ndoye tells them they won’t find what they’re looking for on Earth. Starfleet and the Federation haven’t been on Earth for a long time.

Having Federation headquarters on earth would make it a target.

Earth is no longer part of the federation. And that’s huge.

She says that Admiral Tal left earth years ago but died on his ship.

That kinda sucks.

Adira gives the impression that she is in charge of those inspecting the  spore lab, and that she is really hard and grumpy. She’s only 16 years old. Not much older than my daughter. We’ll find there more to her than is apparent a little later.

But Wen’s raiders have arrived. 

And something is interfering with the personal transporters used by the Earth Defense people. Ndoye claims this is sabotage by the Discovery Crew, something Saru immediately denies.

So this is awkward. Seems they’re all stuck with each other.

Book’s disappointment when he realises that the Discovery only has synthehol is amusing.

But this is actually a canon violation. Synthehol was a 24th century invention. Scotty, in his retirement years, had never heard of it until he found himself in the future on board the Enterprise D.

Discovery should not have synthohol and Michael should have no idea what it is.

Stammets and Tilly quickly realise that the sabotage was Adira’s doing. She has trapped her people on the Discovery, but it seems she was working alone. The show seems to be setting her up as a villain. Perhaps working with Wen.

Michael has a plan. She and Book leave Discovery in Book’s ship without asking Saru’s permission.

Book observes that these raiders are not in good shape. We get more talk of past adventures, and more and more, I’m wanting to experience some of those stories.

Michael appears to be offering to give her dilithium.

Saru is determined to protect Book’s ship. Ndoye won’t allow the dilithium to fall into Wen’s hands. So he says Discovery will take the hit.

This is a very risky move. These are 32nd century weapons being fired. By all logic, they could slice through a 23rd century ship like it wasn’t even there.

Detmer is very hesitant, to the point of almost being insubordinate. But she eventually obeys.

I’m sure this is tied into her weird head condition last week. A lot of people are speculating that Detmer has PTSD, rather than a physical ailment. And the evidence seems to be pointing toward this. This is interesting, because I feel like we were cheating out of the promised exploration of PTSD with Tyler when he turned out to be Voq.

Anyway, I’m kinda with Detmer on this. Taking the hit from these advanced weapons is a terrible idea. In reality. Discovery should have been destroyed. But then there’d be no show anymore.

Their shields are completely depleted by the shot, but the ship itself is undamaged. Yeah right. As if.

But, they can’t take another hit.

The plan is simple. Get the enemy to lower their shields to accept the dilithium, and then beam their captain aboard as prisoner.

It works easier than it probably should have, but that’s ok.

And this is where we get really Star Trek. Saru and Micahel want to get Ndoye and Wen to talk to each other. 

This is where we start to understand how Earth’s isolation has affected others in the galaxy. Wen says that Earth hordes all the dilithium while the rest suffer. They don’t even use their supply because they don’t leave their planet.

Gerogiou is getting bored with the slowness of diplomacy, so she pulls off what is apparently a mask and we see that Wen is human.

Not only that, he was played by Christohper Heyerdahl. He played Todd the wraith on Stargate Atlantis, not to mention two separate roles in Sanctuary. He’s the type of actor that regularly plays multiple roles, both in and out of prosthetics. Anyway, it’s cool to see him.

Ndoye is shocked to learn Wen is human. This is classic Star Trek. Look past the monster to see the humanity beneath. Talk to your enemies .

Wen and his people are not typical raiders. Their home on Titan, one of the moons of Saturn are barely livable. They’re just a group of desperate people trying to survive. Titan is no longer self sufficient. It was an accident that destroyed much of their colony. The first ship they sent for help to Earth, their home planet was shot and destroyed. Wen’s people realised then, they were alone.

Earth has had to protect themselves, but they’re become so paranoid that they’ve lost all their compassion for others. They’ve forgotten what it means to be human, in the Star Trek sense of the word. The negotiations are not difficult, once they start listening to each other, but it took Saru and Michael to make it happen. These people aren’t used to solving problems with diplomacy.

Stamets finds Adira messing about in the jefferies tubes. He puts together that she is curious about their technology but may not be a significant threat. He tells the truth about everything. The spore dive. Even them being from the past. 

Adira became an inspector in the hopes of someday finding a Federation starship. The sabotage was to have more time to spend on Discovery. She wants to join the crew. It seems Adira is one of those true believers Book talked about, and she claims to know Admiral Senna Tal.

The crew of Discovery have now been granted permission to visit Earth.

Ndoye gives Adira permission to leave Earth and join the crew of Discovery.

Adira says he is Admiral Tal.

At first, I thought this just meant that Admiral Tal was a fabrtication by a tennager who dreamed of starfleet.

But no, it’s way more than that.

It turns out that although human, Adira is host to a Trill Symbiont. Burnham didn’t know about them until she met some working at the exchanges.. They were known in the 23rd century. Emony Dax travelled to Earth to judge a gymnastic contest, where she met a young Leonard McCoy. But they were possibly not a well known or understood species to their Federation at the time.

So how does all work? Can a human be host to a Trill Symbiont? Well, there is precedent for that. When we first met them,, in The Next Generation, Riker once served as host to a symbiont.

Very little had been established about the species at that time.

But Adira is having trouble accessing Tal’s memories, being human. I like this. It shows it is possible but problematic.

Of course, Riker didn’t seem to have any problems with his symbiont, but there was a lot that wasn't properly established in that episode. In fact, a lot about the trill changed when they were brought back for Deep Space Nine, including their appearance. This was all because Terry Farrel was an attractive Woman, and they didn’t want to cover her face with prosthetic and lose her beauty. So they said, we’ll, let’s just give them spots, then.

This should bother the heck out of me. The reason it kinda doesn’t is that I never saw that TNG episode until years later. I actually thought that Emissary was the first appearance of Trill for a long time. So from my perspective, DS9 was correct and that TNG episode was wrong, best forgotten.

Saru mentions that Trill hosts can access the memories of their former hosts. What he doesn’t mention is that the symbiont also has a personality of its own, and that personality blends with the host, as well as the memories of former hosts, to create a new individual.

I can understand them simplifying things for the sake of this conversation. I just hope the writers fully appreciate how this species works.

While Saru and Michael are talking, Saru is taking out Captain Georgiou’s old telescope. They don’t mention it at all. It’s just there., Kinda weird. I mean, it was a nice callback, but it seems a bit of a pointless inclusion.

Michael admits she should have told Saru her plan. She’s been out of Starfleet for a year. She’s not used to working in a team like this.

Michael let go of a lot of things during this year, and it’s gonna take her time to pick them back up again. If she can.

But Saru trusts her to grow through this change.

Michael accepts the post as first officer of the Discovery.

Notice that Saru is kind of our very first alien captain.

I know there have been alien captains in Star Trek before, but not regular characters, not on the title ship of the show.

So that’s significant.

Michael has an emotional goodbye with Book. IT seems he’s not staying indefinitely. He’s going back on his ship to live out his normal life.

But I’m sure this is not the last  we’ve seen of him.

We end with a heartwarming scene of several crewmembers down on Earth. They find a tree at Starfleet academy. A tree that still exists from their century. It’s gotta be over a thousand years old.

This is the recognisable thing that Tilly was hoping for. It’s a nice little moment.

Our final shot is a nice pull back over San Francisco, as the Star Trek fanfare plays.

This season definitely feels the most Star Trek of anything we’ve been given in the Kurtzman era of Star Trek so far.

That’s not a knock against Discovery seasons 1 and 2, or Picard. I liked all of them. But this feels more Star Treky. Personally, I don’t mind the way they mixed things up previously. I can appreciate both. But I think a lot of people will be saying “Finally, this is proper Star Trek.”

Anyway, I continue to enjoy what is feeling like a strong season.

Next week’s episode is called Forget Me Not. Discovery will continue their search for Starfleet headquarters by trying to access Tal’s memories. (and yes, I’m assuming Tal is the name of the symbiont, which would make the current host Adira Tal.)

The good thing about being in the far future is that we get to have some references to 24th century Trek.

And I’m very pleased to notice that a lot of it is DS9 stuff. That’s good, because I’ve been wanting some more love to be given to DS9.

All I need now is the appearance of a beloved character like we’ve had from TOS, TNG, and Voyager.

I actually think there’s a good chance this will happen next week, in a roundabout way, but I’ll save that for the next episode.

Have a great week. Live long and prosper.

Make it so.

Star Trek Discovery Season 3 is off to a pretty strong start. I enjoyed "Far From Home" and think it may even be better than last week's installment. This time around, we catch up with the crew of the USS Discovery, and see how they are all coping in this new time period. Saru and Tilly make first contact with some friendly Coridonites and an oppressive courier. Jet tries to teach Stammets what an idiot he's being, and Georgiou finds her self right at him in this more dystopian future. But running through it all is the classic Star Trek idealism and optimism.

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• Jewel of The Stars Book 1

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Welcome to Nerd Heaven.

I’m Adam David Collings, the author of Jewel of The Stars

And I am a nerd.

This is episode 39 of the podcast.

Today, we’re talking about the second episode of Star Trek Discovery season 3.

Far From Home.

I really liked this episode, and may have enjoyed it more than last week’s.

The description on memory alpha reads

After the USS Discovery crash-lands on a strange planet, the crew finds themselves racing against time to repair their ship. Meanwhile, Saru and Tilly embark on a perilous first-contact mission in hopes of finding Burnham.

It was Written by Michelle Paradise, Jenny Lumet, and Alex Kurtzman

It was directed by Olatunde Osunsanmi

And it first aired on the 22nd of October 2020.

Make it so.

So last week, we saw what happened to Michael Burnham when she emerged from the wormhole in the 32nd century. Throughout the episode, she was searching for Discovery, but never found it.

In this episode, we follow the crew of discovery as they emerge from the wormhole. The journey has been pretty hard on them. They’re all unconscious. Saru is the first to wake, as the ship emerges from the wormhole and plunges toward a planet. So is this Teralysium?

There are a whole lot of asteroids in orbit of this world. Discovery crashes through one, which is probably very unrealistic but looks cool.

We get a very cool shot of the ship crashing onto the planet. We’ve had a couple of great crash sequences in Star Trek history. The Enterprise D on Veridian, Voyager on an icy world in the episode Timeless, and this. I think the enterprise D is still my favourite, but still is still an epic and visually stunning sequence.

So the ship is now crashed on the surface of a planet, covered in ice. It doesn’t look like she’s going anywhere in a hurry.

Most starships in the Star Trek universe were not designed to land and take off from a planetary surface. Voyager was rather unique in that it was equipped with landing struts. Even if Discovery is capable of landing, this was hardly a deliberate touchdown.

Anyway, they’re all very lucky to be alive, and it doesn’t take long for them all to realise and appreciate it. It’s all thanks to Lieutenant Detmer’s skills, but she’s not celebrating. She’s definitely not herself. She’s got a nasty head wound. 

Jet points that out Teralysium wasn’t very icy, but, of course, planets tend to be very diverse. Look at all the different climates on earth.

Saru gives a nice little speech. They’re all very interested to know what’s out there. Where and when are they? There’s a whole universe out there to explore, and they’re Starfleet officers. Their curiosity must be running at very high levels. But right now, the priority is to repair the ship. They are needed in here. They can figure out what’s out there later.

Saru has come such a long way. He demonstrates multiple times throughout this episode what a great captain he has grown into. And yes, as the ship’s first officer, he is next in line, so as far as I’m concerned, he’s the captain, until that time, if and when, the show tells me otherwise.

We get a great sense of organised chaos as the crew scramble to work on the ship. The sparks and the extras running about the set give a great sense of activity.

Tilly has determined that there are certain areas on this planet that have higher amounts of oxygen than the rest of the world. These appear to be manufactured settlements. We’ll see one of them later. Saru takes from this that they are not on Teralysium, and that there is life out there. There is life in the universe. This moment is underplayed compared with Burnham’s scream of relief in the last episode, but it was important for the crew of Discovery to have a similar moment. They’ve been successful in their mission to save all sentient life. And while they don’t have much time for celebrating. It needs to be acknowledged and appreciated. It’s a nice moment.

And then Georgiou turns up. I found Tilly’s line “You have some Leeland on your boot” to be darkly amusing, but I really didn’t need to see it. But wait, because there’s more to come.

Stamets is still in sickbay. I like the original series bio bed sound. There’s a very interesting effect they do. The room is empty, and silent, apart from the alarm. When Culbert brings him out of the coma, suddenly, the room is full of people and noise. It was very clever. I don’t always like film-making tricks like that, but this one really worked for me.

It’s quite believable that there would be injured even worse than Stamets, and they’ll need his bed.

Culberty wants to put him in a celular regeneration chamber (though probably not the one invented by Professor Guiger in Deep Space Nine) but Stamets wants to get back to work and help with repairs.

My wife is a nurse and she was watching this with me. She said “Why do people on TV, who are badly injured, always want to get back to work, when they can barely stand? It just doesn’t happen that way.”

And I can well imagine. Certainly if I was in Stamet’s condition, the last thing I’d be thinking about is work. I mean, Stamets is a work-a-holic, but still. It’s a common trope, and one that doesn’t make a lot of sense.

Anyway Stamets and Culbert are very happy. They’ve finally gotten themselves figured out. I wasn’t sure about bringing Culbert back in season 2. IT felt like it cheapened his death, which I thought was well played in season 1. But, they did it well. Not the actual resurrection. That bit was really weird. But after he was back, there were consequences. And it took the rest of the season for Culbert to come to terms with it all. And that was done well.

So Detmer’s head is kinda ponding, and the whole world seems a bit distant to her. But Doctor Pollard heals her wound with a dermal regenerator and tells her she’s good to go.

That’s it? But she doesn’t let on that she’s still feeling really weird.

I don’t know what’s going on with her, but I’m sure it’ll come back to haunt everyone.

Part of me wonders if it’s something to do with her implant.

I think Culbert notices something is off about her.

So there’s a translator, which is part of the communication system. It’s damaged beyond repair. They need to rebuild it, but they don’t have the raw material. This isn’t actually needed to get the ship off the ground, but without it, they’ll have no communications within the ship or without. And they won’t be able to search for burnham. So it’s pretty important.

Tilly has found a settlement and scans indicate they have the material needed.  She’s also noticed the settlements have ships but no dilithium.

Saru feels they should treat this like a prime directive situation and not reveal too much about themselves. I’m not sure I fully understand his point. He says they carry information that could be damaging to a society, whether more or less advanced that they are. Perhaps he’s referring to the sphere data, which Discovery still has. I dunno.

There’s some conflict between Saru and Georgiou. Saru is very much holding to Starfleet principles. Georgeiou, as a former terran empress, is taking a more pragmatic approach. It’s interesting. I mean, I tend to side with Saru. I like Saru’s by-the-book approach. But, Georgiou is right about one thing. They’re in a completely unknown world, a potentially hostile world. Her approach may need to be considered at some point. In the very least, she’s going to fit in quite well in this time period, from what we’ve learned so far from last week.

I think there will be some interesting character dynamics between these two as the series progresses. And probably Burnham as well. It’s going for Georgiou to be subservient to Saru. I mean, to her, he’s a delicacy.

Saru and Tilly are going to the settlement. They’ll need medical treatment to be able to breathe the natural atmosphere outside of the settlements.

And then we go down to Stammet’s lab, where we see somebody scooping body parts, that used to be Leeland, into a bucket.

Honestly, I really really didn’t need to see this. It’s pretty disgusting. I’m not sure why they felt the need.

And honestly, it feels disrespectful for the human being that Leeland was before his body was taken by control. I mean, this was a person once. I found this to be in bad taste.

Stamets is back at work, even though it’s clear he’s in no condition to be working. So Jet takes him under her wing. There’s some really fun interaction between these two in the episode. IT reminds me how much I like Jet. She’s so not your typical Starfleet officer. She’s her own person. I mean, she’d probably rub me the wrong way in the real world, but I love watching her on screen.

As Saruy and Tilly exit the ship, it looks pretty chilly out there. Lots of ice. And there appear to be big rocks or icebergs floating in the sky. I’m not sure of the science behind that but it looks really cool.

At this point in the episode, I began to speculate as to whether this was the same planet Michael landed on last week, because the countryside looks very similar. It’s clear all of this was shot in Iceland just like last week. This will basically be confirmed at the end of the episode. But I’m confused. Michael and Book had no problem breathing on this planet. So what’s the go with that?

Saru is being very sweet to Tilly. He knows that she talks to calm herself, and he says, “please, keep talking.”

She’s not even sure why he brought her along. But he is.

They’re introducing themselves to the future, and Tilly is a wonderful first impression. To be honest, that really melted my heart.

We learn that there is something special about this ice. It’s not just frozen water. Nhan calls it parasitic. It’s rate of growth increases in the shade, so when the sun goes down, they’re going to have a real problem. The ship could quickly become encased in the stuff. IF that happens, they may never get the ship off the ground again, repairs or no repairs.

This is a cool sci-fi element that adds to the strangeness of this new world.

We get a conversation between Nahn and Georgiou about why they each chose to come into the future with Burnham. Nahn could have stayed on the Enterprise where she was arguably meant to be. She says she stayed for Arium. This was her way of honouring Arium’s death. I’m not sure I understand the connection, but I appreciate and respect the heart behind it. Georgiou doesn’t.

Georgiou’s reasons make a lot of sense. She doesn’t want to end up in a desk job running the bureaucracy of section 31. She likes jumping from universe to universe. Our 23rd century was no home to her. It was clear from the beginning she didn’t fit in there, and never would. And while she didn’t know it at the time, we’ve already discussed how she’s going to fit in very nicely here.

And we get to see Linus again. Linus is cool.

Georgiou has an interest I don’t quite understand in his range of vision.

The settlement is entered by way of transporter. Saru and Tilly find themselves in a wild west saloon of sorts.

There, they meet Kal, a Coridonite. Another classic Star Trek race.

We didn’t actually see one of them until Enterprise, where they had some dealings with the Andorians and Tellarites, but the TOS episode Journey to Babel was centered around negotiations to admit Coridon into the Federation.

By the way, remember Cosmo from last week. I called him an ugly alien and said I didn’t recognise his species. Turns out, he was a Betalgeusian, a race that was briefly seen in Star Trek The Motion Picture.

Anyway, they introduce themselves as officers of Starfleet. Kal believes them because he’s already scanned his ship. And we get another classic Tilly line. “My name lacks authority.” I love it.

Kal believes Saru and Tilly will help them. It’s who they are. The bartender isn’t convinced.

Kal says this planet has never had a name, but they call it the colony. But apparently, these people are being terrorised by a bully named Zareh.

Tilly, being intelligent as she is, realises that Dilithium will be valuable to these people, so she offers it as payment for their help repairing the transtater.

Jet makes a compelling cast to Stamets, that he’s not bringing his A game and they need to get someone else to crawl around the jefferies tube, but he doesn’t listen. He’s being pretty stupid.

Kal is repairing the transtator with a nanite style technology. Looks similar to what we encountered last week. He refers to it as programmable matter. Tilly pretends to be familiar with it, but it’s pretty obvious she’s not.

I’m getting a better idea of how things work in this time period. There are ships that can travel through space, but not many. Most people are stuck where they are. They rely on couriers, like Cosmo, Book, and Zareh to bring things to them. Couriers are basically the only ones that can travel through space. They get a small amount of dilithium to complete the job.

This was all written and shot before COVID 19 hit, but it kind of reminds me of lockdown, which is basically over here in Tasmania. Being stuck in one place, ordering stuff online and having it delivered by intrepid couriers. Yeah. Very familiar. Funny that.

Anyway, Zareh killed the last courier and is exploiting these people. And there’s no Federation to speak of to intervene.

They might be taking the wild west metaphor a little too far, as Zareh walks in with spurs clanking on his boots, to a very western sounding music cue. But, I dunno. I kinda like it.

The actor playing Zareh is well-suited to this kind of role. He manages to be intimidating and scary by speaking in a calm, almost friendly voice.

He’s also scanned the Discovery, but notes there is no record of it in his records. So Starfleet successfully classified the ship out of existence.

I like the look of daggers Tilly gives him when he calls her sweetheart.

And he quickly pieces together that Saru and Tilly are time travellers, given their lack of up to date technology.

And then that horrible moment. Kara kills Kal. I liked Kal.

And it looks like a horrible way to go. That phaser of Zareh takes it time and kills him very slowly and his torso burns and blue blood comes out of every crease in his face. Horrific.

Kara can see that KAl has been emboldened by the arrival of Starfleet officers. The guy is going to be harder to intimidate. I guess he figured an example needs to be made.

And have you noticed we’re getting more beam phasers this season, instead of bold phasers. I like that.

Saru is trying to negotiate with this thug. It’s clear at this point that Dilithium is the most prized resource around here, and Discovery has plenty of it.

Of course, Zareh would rather take what he wants than bargain.

And he has a big bargaining chip. The parasitic ice. It’s slowly enveloping Discovery. If they don’t do something soon, the ship will be overwhelmed by it and it’ll never fly again.

And the visual they show, of the ice growing before your eyes looks fantastic.

I like it when Star Trek uses a force of nature like this as an antagonistic force.

Zareh is going to send Tilly out into the cold all alone, to get the Dilithium and bring it back, braving the ice. He tells a story about how he’s seen it go down into someone’s throat. It’s pretty scary stuff.

Sounds like he’s sending her to her death.

And then Georgiou shows up. They found her sniffing around the perimeter. But you have to assume she allowed herself to be captured. I mean, it’s Georgiou.

She says she’s going to enjoy this new world. And I have no doubt about that.

It’s looking pretty bad for her, as Zareh repeatedly shoots her with the tortue gun.

And then, when she’s ready to make her move, she goes kung fu on them.

It’s a good action sequence. Even Saru gets in on the fun, and gets to use his new super Kelpien spikes.

Time for another moral debate between Georgiou and Saru.

She points out that killing Zareh would be a service to the galaxy, and she may be right.

But Saru reminds her, “This is not who we are.”. But Georgiou really isn’t part of that “we” is she?

But the conversation is cut short by Tilly’s realisation that daylight is gone. The ice is taking over discovery. You can see it just springing up. It looks awesome. And the creaking of the metal. It’s evocative of the terrible situation they’re in.

Culbert is rightfully annoyed when he finds that Stammets is in a jefferies tube.

But he manages to get the circuit replaced.

He says “thanks for nothing to Jet.”

And she replies “Back at you bobcat.”

Hugh questions this nickname, to which she replies, “I don’t know. I’m on drugs.”

I tell you, they give Jet the best lines.

I’m glad to see that Georgiou is being allowed to show the ruthless nature she has. This is who she is. She’s not pretending to play by Starfleet rules anymore. I think in season 2, she got a little too easily assimilated with the good guys. This season is gonna let her show her teeth.

But Saru isn’t backing down. He’s being stern with her. He’s acting captain of the ship and she will stand down. It’s a wonderful interaction, and I want to see more of these two butting heads in the future.

Zareh threatens the bartender. Your children will suffocate slowly.

And it looks like he’s gonna set Zareh free.

But then he puts his gun down, allowing Tilly to smash a bottle over his head, giving him back his sweetheart line. It’s a great moment because we thought he was going to betray our heroes.

“Kal always believed that you were out there somewhere. He believed we were part of the Federation no matter what. I get now why he wouldn’t stop talking about you.”

I think Saru has convinced him.

Saru will give them enough Dilithium to help them get free of Zareh’s oppression, along with his ship.

Saru gives Zareh into the bartender’s custody. And it looks like he’s gonna kill him for a minute. He doesn’t directly. He lets him go free. Into the icy cold. He may never last the night. It’s the same deal Zareh offered Tilly.

Despite the Star-Wars-ey dispotian setting, this episode was very much Star Trek, in the truest sense. It’s dripping with Starfleet idealism and optimism.

Saru and Tilly are given a personal transporter to get them safely back to Discovery. They’re ready to try taking off. But the ship is so encased in ice.

Still, there’s a sense of determination, as the music swells and the camera pans across the bridge. And then, the camera hits Detmer, and the music goes all haunting. We are reminded that something is not right with her. Something is not right at all.

Despite her problems, whatever they are, she performs her job admirably, but it’s still not enough. The ice fights back pretty hard. Again, it looks awesome.

They can’t break free. Starships are not designed to lift off like this.

Another ship arrives. Zareh’s more powerful friends?

A tractor beam pulls them out of the ice.

But is rescue at the hands of thugs going to be any better than staying in the ice?

And that’s when they are hailed.

By Michael Burnham.

She’s found them, and rescued them.

The looks on everyone’s faces is priceless. Even Georgiou.

It’s a beautiful moment.

Michael’s hair is different. She reveals that she landed a year ago. She’s been waiting here all this time.

She seems to confirm this is the same planet where she landed, but that still doesn’t explain the whole oxygen thing. Maybe they’ll address that next week.

Anyway, our characters have all been united now. Next week, we’ll get to see them together. It’ll be quite the emotional reunion I suspect.

I have to say, Star Trek Discovery is off to a pretty strong start in season 3 so far.

I hope you’re enjoying it as much as I am.

Next week’s episode is called People of Earth. It sounds like our heroes are going to be investigating, to see what has become of the Federation they remember from their time.

Don’t forget, my Jewel of the Stars books are available wherever eBooks are sold. You can also read the first book free on wattpad, or get it in paperback.

I plan to release books 2 in paperback soon too. Just got to find the time. I’ve been very busy lately. I plan to publish book 3 before the end of this year, so look out for that.

Well, have a great week, and I’ll see you somewhere in Nerd Heaven.

After a long wait, Star Trek Discovery is back. Michael Burnham has succeeded in saving the universe, but she now has to face the fact that the lift she knew is gone forever, and her friends aboard Discovery are nowhere to be found. Worse than that, she learns that the Federation is all but gone in this distant future. What's a Starfleet officer to do? It turns out, this new century might need Michael just as much as the previous one did. 

This is a good solid episode that opens the new season and promises an interesting and satisfying story.

So let's geek out about it.

--

Find my books at

• books2read.com/jewel

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Welcome to Nerd Heaven.

I’m Adam David Collings, the author of Jewel of The Stars.

And I am a nerd.

This is episode 38 of the podcast.

Today, we launch into something new and exciting. We’re covering the first episode of Star Trek Discovery season 3, and we’ll be doing weekly review analysis on each episode until the season is done.

And welcome to my new timeslot. Back when I was covering Star Trek Picard season 1, I’d watch the episode Friday night, then watch it again Saturday morning, taking notes and scripting the podcast. Then I’d record, edit and publish by Saturday afternoon. It got pretty intense. This time, I plan to pace myself a little. I’ll be posted on Mondays, Australian time zone. Probably Monday morning. That just allows me a bit more time to get the episode together and get some other things done on the weekend.

Today’’s episode is called That Hope is You. Part 1.

The description on Memory Alpha reads

Burnham navigates a strange, new galaxy, 930 years in her future, looking for the rest of the Discovery crew. (Season premiere)

The episode was Written by Michelle Paradise, Jenny Lumet, & Alex Kurtzman

It was Directed by Olatunde Osunsanmi

And it first aired on the 15th of October 2020

Make it so.

The end of season 2 was a big game changer, liquifying the status quo of the series. Michael Burnhan and the USS Discovery flew into a wormhole taking them into the distant future. Further into Star Trek’s future than we’ve ever seen before.

And that was an exciting prospect.

So now, finally, we get to see what kind of world they emerge into.

This gives the writers of the show the opportunity they’ve wanted all along, to create something brand new. To establish a completely unexplored era in the Star Trek universe. They must have had so much fun brainstorming ideas. 

Honestly, Star Trek Discovery should never have been set in the pre-Kirk 23rd century, given the kind of creative freedom they wanted. The writers finally realised this and used the second half of season 2 to set up this change.

So … the very first scene shows us a bird, with a digital clock projected on its side. Okay. That’s different. Evidently, this is some kind of futuristic alarm clock projecting a hologram. I kinda like it. I’d wake up to that.

We see a man wake up and leave his bed, which dissolves into a liquid state and disappear. The whole structure seems to be constructed from nanites. It’s very cool on screen.

He cleans his teeth, and a desk and chair are created by the same nanite technology as his bed. The process repeats, giving us a sense that this man’s life is very very routine and predictable.

He’s searching for signals, and he carries a case that bears a Starfleet logo (Oddly, it’s the early 23rd century logo with the split delta.)

When The Next Generation first came out, they designed a whole new aesthetic for the technology. We got the beloved Okudagrams, often referred to as LCARS, although technically, LCARS is the library computer access retrieval system. Anyway, we all love that look.

But for the 32nd century, they needed to similarly re-define the visual look of the Star Trek Universe. This nanite-based technology is both visually interesting and logical. It’s a believable extension from the replication and hologram technologies.We’ve heard the term “Particle Synthesis” from time to time in Star Trek. Arturis used it to fool the crew of Voyager into thinking his ship was Starfleet. Species 8472 also used it to re-created Starfleet Academy in the Delta Quadrant. I can’t help but wonder, is this an advanced form of particle synthesis? The name seems to fit what we see on screen. Later, we’ll see a control panel on a ship. Instead of okudagrams on a touch screen, we’ll see this same nanite technology creating displays and controls. So for the most part, it seems this has replaced the holographic controls we saw in Star Trek Picard. This technology actually reminds me of the Kryptronian technology in Man of Steel. That was kinda similar and also very cool.

Anyway, you could argue that this doesn’t look like Star Trek, but honestly, it shouldn’t. We’re almost a thousand years beyond the world Burnham left, so I think they’ve done a great job. I like it.

Then we cut to a space battle in orbit of an M-class planet. A spinning ship, maybe inspired by the jelly-fish ship in Star Trek 2009, is pursuing a character we’ll come to know as Cleavland Booker, or Book for short.

It seems Book has stolen something from this rather ugly alien. I don’t recognise his species. But whatever it was, the aliens had stolen it first.

Then the wormhole opens and Burnham emerges, in the red angle suit. No sign of Discovery yet.

So is this planet Terralesium? That’s where Michael was expecting to emerge.

I like the little shot of the CG bugs. I always enjoy seeing alien animals . Michael bounces off Book’s ship, causing them both to crash on this planet.

A shield in the suit protects michael. The suit disengages from her, looking way too advanced for 23rd century tech, as always. She can’t reach Discovery on her communicator. The suit tells her she’s in the year 3188. She asks the computer if there are any signs of life. Her face holds so much emotion in that moment before it answers. Imagine if she’d failed. And finds herself alone, the only living being in a universe devoid of all sentient life. That was basically her mother’s life.

But the computer confirms. There are multiple life signs on this planet.

And she gives this great scream of relief, and victory. It’s a powerful performance from Senqua Martin-Green. It really makes me feel her emotions.

She did it! She saved the universe!.

Now, technically, she should already know she was successful. She emerged in the middle of a space battle between two ships. She knows someone is here, although, I guess those ships could have been AI controlled.

In any case, I forgive it because it’s a wonderful moment.

The wormhole is closing, so she has to send the final red signal back through it, letting Spock and Pike know that she arrived safely and successfully.

The red angel suit flies off, on its last mission. The signal is sent and the suit explodes. This is important because it means Michael no longer has any way of getting back to the 23rd century. Her life, her entire world is gone. She’ll never see it again.

And we get another beautiful outpouring of emotion.

Before she can explore, let alone embrace, her new world, she needs to take a moment to mourn the loss of the old one. It’s really great stuff.

All she has is her badge, a tricorder, phaser and ration pack.

She clings to the one other thing she has. Her identity as a Starfleet officer. She doesn’t yet know just how meaningful and significant that will be.

Now we have a new opening titles to discuss. There are no major changes. I suspected they might do a new arrangement of the music, to make it feel less connected to TOS, but the score is unchanged. As with season 2, some of the visuals have changed to reflect what is happening this season.

The first big difference we notice is a huge collection of DOT-7 robots. Those were the things that popped out of the Enterprise Hull last season during the battle. Basically repair droids. Like R2D2. I Wasn’t a fan of this. Oh, they’re cool, but they felt out of place in Star Trek. That’s more of a Star Wars idea. It felt like they were trying a bit too hard there. Anyway, no idea what they’re showing up here. I guess they’ll have some significance this season.

This captain’s chair from the Enterprise bridge is still present, which surprises me. I’d have thought that no longer relevant.

Then we see a phaser. As usual, it pulls apart, but as it goes back together, it forms into a futuristic, possibly alien sidearm like we’ve never seen before. This shot makes the most sense it ever has.

Then we see Book’s ship (I think). It doesn’t follow the traditional Starfleet  design at all. No visible nacelles. But it’s constantly changing shape, like it has moving parts Reminds me of a transformer, actually. I don’t yet have a good sense of this ship.

We see the new oval-shaped com badge. That won’t appear in this episode. And then the three badges on the transporter pad meld into the new shape.

We get some beautiful vistas of this alien planet. They went and shot on location in Iceland for this. I love that. It makes such a difference. We occasionally got location shoots on Star Trek TV shows in the 90s, even in TOS, but I don’t think they ever went to another country just to film. That’s more of a movie-budget thing. Just another sign of the investment they’re making in this show. You can’t deny that CBS takes Star Trek very seriously at the moment. 

Anyway, it makes me want to go to Iceland, because this planet is both beautiful and exotic.

Michael has found Book’s ship. And it can turn invisible. Is this just a cloaking device, or some relation to the particle synthesis tech? 

Watching this episode the second time, I’m picking up on a lot of foreshadowing of Book’s true nature that I didn’t notice the first time.

Book thinks Michael is here to take his cargo. But he’s fiercely protecting it. It doesn’t belong to her.

She tries to explain herself to him but he’s not interested in what she has to say.

They get into a bit of a fist fight. Nicely done action. But the fight ends when she pulls her antique phaser.

This is where we get our first hint related to the new nature of the universe. Book questions the wisdom of ripping space apart, to create artificial wormholes. He says  “It wasn’t enough for you and the Gorn to destroy 2 light-years worth of subspace?”

But ‘you’ I assume he means Starfleet. So something has happened to subspace, and it appears that both STarfleet and the Gorn were somehow responsible.

We’ll talk more about this in a little bit.

When Michael asks if this is Teralysium, he says, it’s “Hima.”

So, is that just a new name for Teralysium, or a different planet? From evidence so far, I think it’s a different planet.

But right now, Michael doesn’t know what sector, even what quadrant she’s in.

I assume she’s somewhere in the alpha quadrant because of the races we meet here. Andorians, Orions, Tellarites, Lurians, and of course, humans.

Anyway, she makes an impassioned plea. I’m all alone in the universe. I have to trust someone, and for better or worse, that’s you.

We get a look at the interior of this ship. We see the particle control panels. Michael is as taken by them as I am.

The dilithium re-crystaliser on his ship was damaged during impact. He can’t fly using quantum slipstream (another technology that Voyager toyed with on their quest to get home) without Benamite, which is apparently very rare. Tachyon solar cells are too slow. It seems there are a bunch of methods of interstellar travel in this time, but not many of them will work, due to lack of resources. What Book needs is dilithium for his warp drive. By now we can already tell this is not the super-advanced utopia we’ve glimpsed in the 29th century, nor the time-travel-obsessed 31st century. This is a time of shortage and challenge.

And that’s when we meet Grudge, the cut. She’s sure to become a fan favourite.

Michael points out she’s a very large cat. And Book replies that she has a thyroid condition.

This is kinda weird.

My wife tells me Grudge is a Mancoon, which are naturally a very large breed of cat.

So …. What put this thyroid line in there. I wonder if that’s going to become significant at some point during the season.

Michael hopes she can trade her antique equipment for dilithium. If she helps him get off the planet, maybe he’ll help her try to contact Discovery.

Then some more gorgeous location shots of a waterfall and moss-encrusted rocks. So good.

Time for some exposition, so Michael, and the viewers, can learn a little about the state of the galaxy.

We learn that the Federation is gone, which is shocking news to Michael. How can the Federation be gone? What is the Star Trek universe without the Federation?

Apparently, there are some true believers out there that still believe in its ideals.

But not Book. He’s a courier. Out for himself. At this point in the episode, he seems like a bit of a Han Solo type. But we may challenge that assumption later on.

Book doesn’t know all the details, but the Federation collapsed a long time ago, after the burn. The burn was the day the galaxy took a hard left.

Everyone has been doing a lot of speculating, since this line was revealed in the trailer.

The most popular theory, by far, is that it was caused by an explosion of Omega Particles.

Omega PArticles disrupt subspace. If one goes off, a large area around it will become so damaged that warp drive is impossible in that region.

Fans surmised that omega explosions have made warp drive impossible, in this time. So everyone is cut off from everyone else. This made a lot of sense, and explained why Discovery’s spore drive would come in so handy.

What Book says is “Dilithium. One day most of it just went boom. Dilithium is the heart of every warp-capable ship

The Federation weren’t sure what happened or why,but after a while they just weren’t around anymore.

So what we’re seeing doesn’t quite seem to fit the omega particle theory.

Warp drive is still possible, and we’ll see it used later this episode. The problem is that Dilithium is very very rare (but not so rare that Book can’t get his hands on some before the episode is done.)

But he did mention damage to subspace in a 2-lightyear radius. And THAT sounds like omega. We’ll also learn later that people in this region of space cannot scan very far out.

This all seems a bit muddy at the moment. We don’t get a full picture of what the real state of things is in this episode. But I’m starting to worry that they’ve taken the concept of the omega particle, but complicated it way more than was necessary. Kind alike what they did with Voq in season 1. The idea of surgically altering someone to look like another species is a very common Star Trek Trop, as far back as the original series. But the show complicated the whole thing with Voq so much that to this day, fans are still trying to get their heads around exactly what happened. They made it more complex than it needed to be.

Hopefully this won’t be a similar thing.

Sonequa is doing a lot of really good face acting in this episode. She portrays so much emotion without saying a word. It’s awesome.

They arrive at a city. A massive city.

When they try to enter the mercantile, some kind of market, they scan Book and Michael. IT seems everyone in this time has some kind of technology embedded in their forearm. Reminds me a lot of the omni-tool in Mass Effect, actually. Because Michael isn’t from this time, she doesn’t have one, so they won’t let her in. I guess it’s like trying to enter a country without a passport, or trying to get a job without a social security number, or as we have in Australia, a Tax File Number.

But whoever runs this place is convinced that what Michael carries could be valuable.

Michael sees people using a site-to-site transporter, or as she calls it, a portable transporter. This technology existed, but was rare in the time of Voyager. It’ll be just like a toothbrush in this time.

And that’s when Book betrays Michael. He frames her as a bank robber and steals her equipment. Seems he’ll need more than just the tricorder to afford the dilithium he needs.

The Andorian and Orion security officers drug Michael to make her talk. It really does feel like the wild west out here. It’s funny, but the current creative team behind Star Trek really do want to make Star Trek feel more wild west. Emphasis on the wild.

Star Trek Picard took us out of the safe comfortable Federation worlds into dingy places where morals were lower and danger lurked around every corner. Places where the peace is kept by Fenris Rangers because there’s nobody else to do it. It all felt a bit more Star Wars-ish to me. That’s feeling like a trend.

Anyway, it makes a lot more sense here, because a world without the Federation or Starfleet is basically gonna be like the wild west of Star Wars.

Michael’s reaction to the drug is mildly amusing.

I do love the line when she says “I have a friend with red hair. You cannot give this to her.”

It’s funny. This drug basically turns Michael into Tilly. So imagine what it would turn Tilly into.

The new round phasers are kinda cool. Michael certainly likes them, her appreciation enhanced in her drugged state. 

As much as I don’t endorse the use of drugs in any way, it’s kind of nice to see a more playful side of Burnham. She’s really letting her hair down, so to speak. I’m realising now, just how much of her vulcan conditioning she still clings to most of the time.

In the end, Michael has to steal the dilithium because Book can’t buy it.

And then we learn that Book has a site-to-site transporter. And so begins a game of cat and mouse and they beam away, and are quickly followed by the guards, only to beam somewhere else again. It’s a great way to show off more of this wonderful location.

And we notice that not all the guards are Andorian and Orion. There’s a Lurian among them. You know, one of Morn’s mates.

The lurian is bald, just like Morn, which is interesting, because we learned, in Deep Space Nine, that most Lurians have hair. Morn lost all of his because he was storing liquid latinum in his second stomach. I think this is a case of “it would be more correct for this lurian to have hair, but who wants to see that? We want to see the familiar bald look because it gives us nostalgia for Deep Space Nine, and Morn in particular.

So I’m okay with it. Afterall, who says other Lurians can’t lose their hair? There are plenty of bald humans in the world.

Then we’re introduced to Book’s super power. He speaks in an alien language, that sounds somewhat like Hebrew, a glyph glows on his forehead, and a plant grows out of the water. The plant produces a substance that can heal Michael’s wounds. Book says that what he was doing was “something like” praying.

He seems to have a connection to nature. We’ll see him use it to command an animal later on.

Book has figured out that Michael is a time traveller. He doesn’t know how she got her hands on what brought her here, but we learn that all temporal technology was destroyed and outlawed after the temporal wars. Nice to get some closure of that temporal cold war thing from Enterprise. Because we are further forward into the future than the time Agent Daniels came from.

This is important because if time-travel was still prevalent, then our heroes could return home. But this was always meant to be a one-way trip for the sake of the story.

They get back to the ship but the guards have tracked them down again.

When the Andorian says “What good is a courier who lets his cargo get stolen” and the dodgy bloke says “I’m the best runner in the galaxy”, it sounded very reminiscent of Han Solo. But then he gets shot.

These guards want Book’s cargo. Book relenets and opens his cargo hold.

There’s an animal in the3re. A giant slug thing,

When they let it out, it eats the guards.

What exactly were they thinking? Why would you come here to take possession of a dangerous animal, but have no way to contain it?

Anyway, after eating the guards, it swallows Michael. But Book uses his magic powers again and convinces the slug, which he calls Molly, to vomit her back out.

I don’t really have any opinion on Book’s powers yet, because I just don’t know enough about them.

Anway, Molly seems very friendly now.

So they’re now flying through space at warp speed. We’ve come to realise the truth of Book’s mission. He’s not just a courier. He’s an environmentalist. He’s rescuing these animals, endangered species, and returning them to their homeworld.

I like the red trees on the transworm planet. It’s a simple thing but it makes a place look suitably alien.

Now that his job is done, Book knows somebody who might be able to help Michael find her ship.

He takes her to see that guy from the very beginning of the episode. Remember him?

He lives on an old Federation relay station.

The guy’s name is Sahil. 

Michael is excited to meet him, but he’s in awe to meet her.

He can’t find Discovery. But we learn there are two Federation ships out there. So not all is completely gone.

But Sahil can’t scan beyond several sectors. Long range sensors failed decades ago.

On first viewing, I thought this was a widespread problem in the universe, but now, I Think it’s just because the long range sensors on this space station are damaged. So maybe this is not related to the burn after all.

But he says he imagines it is the same for all others, so who knows.

It seems Discovery either landed somewhere a long way away, or it hasn’t arrived yet. IT could arrive tomorrow, or in a thousand years.

Sahil explains that he’s not a commissioned officer. Several generations of his family have run this facility, but when Sahil took over, there was nobody left to swear him in.

But what about the two other ships out there? Couldn't he ask them?

Anyway, for 40 years, he’s been waiting for a genuine Starfleet office to come.

Michael is that hope.

Sahil doesn't know how much of the federation still exists, but he does his own little part to keep the dream of it alive.

And that’s when Michael hangs the flag for him. Only a commissioned officer may raise it.

This episode seems to be using the terms Federation and Starfleet interchangeably. But they’re not the same thing. Very closely related, of course, but Starfleet and The Federation are two distinct things.

The  Federation is a political alliance of worlds.

Starfleet is their scientific, exploration and military service.

So, while she hasn’t yet found her friends, Michael has a new purpose. She commissions Sahil. Together, they will seek out others and help to rebuild the dream of the Federation.

So let’s examine this new world we find ourselves in.

The utopia of the Federation is gone. In its place we now have a somewhat dystopian future.

It seems they like to do that a lot. Discovery Season 1 plunged us into war with the Klingons. Our characters had to fight to get their utopia back. Then Picard season 1 turned Starfleert somewhat dystopian by having them be corrupt, due to certain influences. And now Discovery season 3 and yet again given us a Star Trek dystopia.

It’s starting to feel like alex Kurtzman and his team really like dystopia, and are not actually that enamoured with the traditional utopian view of Star Trek.

Deep Space Nine actually pushed back against the utopia a bit, and in my opinion did it more effectively than anything else has since.

There are those out there who are not fans of this trend. I can understand that. I’m not particularly bothered, but I’m definitely noticing a trend.

One question people like to ask is “What would Gene Roddenberry think?

I’m convinced he wouldn’t have liked Star Trek Picard. He was always against Starfleet being portrayed in a negative light. I believe he didn’t even like what they did in Star Trek VI.

But you know what, I suspect he’d have liked this. Why? Because of another show he created called Andromeda. It followed a similar plot to this. An officer from a great utopian alliance was thrust into the future where his government no longer existed. He strove to re-build it.

And that’s the essence of what we’re seeing here. A determination to re-build the ideals of the Federation. There’s a whole lot of optimism to it.

And that concludes the first episode of season 3.

I enjoyed it. There’s a lot we still don’t know. But I’m excited that our heroes have a whole new Star Trek universe to explore, and I’m looking forward to exploring it with them. I suspect this is going to be a good season. It’s the first one that has been produced without massive disruption behind the scenes in the writers’ room, so that alone is promising.

I like Book. He’s a cool character and I’m looking forward to seeing his arc across the season.

Don’t forget, I have a book series out called Jewel of The Stars. It follows the passengers and crew of a cruise ship in space, boldly travelling through unexplored space, after Earth fell to an alien occupation. Just like the crew of Discovery, they’re all on their own.

You can read the first book completely free on Wattpad, or get it wherever eBooks are sold for 99 cents. It’s also in paperback. I’m working on edits to book 3, but I’ve been a bit delayed because my day job has really been kicking my butt lately. But hopefully that’s mostly over, and I can get on with life again.

I’ll see you again next week, when we discuss the second episode of Discovery season 3, which strangely enough, is not called That Hope is You Part 2, it’s called Far From Home.

Catch you then.

Live long and prosper.

Make it so.

Star Trek Discovery Season 3 is about to launch, and I'll be covering it from the next episode, but before we get there, I wanted to look back quickly on the first two seasons and share some thoughts. I talk about what worked for me, and what I perceived as flaws. Overall, I enjoyed both seasons quite a bit, and am looking forward to starting season 3.

Shazam! is the last of the DC Extended Universe movies that I'll be looking at in the current batch. If you've been following this podcast, you'll know I tend to prefer the serious movies. Man of Steel, Batman V Superman etc. So you might be suprised to learn that I really like this movie. Why? For similar reasons that I also like the MCU Spiderman movies. The humour is believable in-universe and comes naturally out of the characters, specifically, it's natural kid reactions to the world around them. The stakes are much lower than the average superhero movie, but given the child protagonist, they still feel like very high stakes. There's something that just works nicely about it all.

So let's dig in and geek out over Shazam!

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Transcript

Welcome to Nerd Heaven

I’m Adam David Collings, the author of Jewel of The Stars

And I am a Nerd.

This is Episode 36 of the podcast.

Today, we’re talking about Shazam.

Before we go on, I just want to give a quick shout out to Scott from Florida who gave me my very first review on Apple Podcasts, my very first review anywhere so thank you very much, Mate. That made my day. And if you are enjoying the podcast, please consider giving a quick review wherever you do listen. I know  that both Apple Podcasts and Stitcher have a review system. Probably a number of other places as well. So, yeah, that would definitely be helpful.

The description on IMDB reads

A newly fostered young boy in search of his mother instead finds unexpected superpowers and soon gains a powerful enemy.

This movie was written by Henry Gayden and Darren Lemke

It was directed by David F. Sandberg

And it first released on the 2nd of April 2019.

The movie begins with a reasonable dark opening.

It’s great because it gives us a lot of sympathy for Thad.

And it was a brilliant move to bring in John Glover, AKA Lional Luthor from Smalville to play his father. He’s great at playing a lousy father. It was a joy to see him in that cameo.

So Thad is disrespected and misunderstood by both his father and his older brother. And then he’s pulled into this magical place where he meets a wizard.

He’s seen something in Thad. But Thad needs to prove himself.

But the seven deadly sins are manipulative, and they know just what buttons to press.

And just like all of us, in the face of sin, he falls short.  He is not sufficiently pure of heart.

The wizard is looking for absolute moral perfection. Well, he’s not gonna find that in the human race.

I like this because we really see ourselves reflected in Thad. And it makes him yet more relatable to us. We’re really feeling for this little boy.

If things hadn’t come to a head, do you think the wizard would ever have been successful in his search? Do you think he ever would have found someone worthy? Someone sufficiently pure of heart? Personally, I don’t think he would. I think it was an impossible quest. Obviously, I’m speaking from my own beliefs and theology.

So he’s back in the car. He’s distraught. He came so close to finally having some power in his life. And it’s been snatched away from him. And that distraction causes the death of his father.

And in his pain, and despair, the sins reach out to him.

Oh, I feel so sorry for this kid.

So then we cut to present day.

Our first introduction to Billy Batson demonstrates just how unworthy he is.

But he’s not just a delinquent for the sake of being delinquent. He’s trying to find his mother. A quest we can all have sympathy for.

I like how the kid is unable to convince the radio room that he’s an adult. He says “walkie talkie” .This movie allows kids to be kids. Some movies overly empower kids. Makes them stronger, smarter, or more world-aware than they should be. Now, this is a useful trope in kid’s entertainment, but for adults, Kid empowerment just doesn’t ring true. So I like how this movie allows the kids to be kids.

In a way, the whole point of this movie is the opposite. Oh, the kids get the empowerment fantasy, and which of us didn’t have a fantasy like that when we were kids, but it actually de-powers the adult version of Billy, because inside that big strong body is the mind of a kid. It’s good stuff.

So as he stares at the house, hoping that maybe this is the one. Maybe this will be his mother, we get the flashback to the day he got lost.

And we feel the same heart-broken confusion that Billy felt. How was he never reunited with his Mum? I mean, any mother would move heaven and earth to find their child. Right?

Finally, he’ll get some answers.

But one look at the skin tone of the woman and it’s obvious she’s not the right Racheal Batson.

It was cleverly done.

So he’s introduced to his new foster parents, Victor and Rosa. And I really like them. They really have created a loving family environment for these kids. Fostering is not something I’m personally connected with, and have no real experience with, so I have no idea what it feels like to be in Billy’s situation, sitting in a car with strangers who are trying to act like parents. It must be awkward for both parties. But I just find these characters really heart-warming.

All the kids in this house are nicely developed with fun personalities, or lack of personality in the case of Pedro. I find myself liking all of these characters.

Freddy turns out to be a big Superhero fanboy. Which I can understand. In the world they live in, where superheroes are real, people would be fascinated by them. They’d want to own a replica batarang, or a genuine bullet that had been fired at Superman. Plus, it ingratiates him with us, because we’re DC superhero fans just like him.

So that’s it. Billy has run out of addresses. So in despair, he throws the notebook away. He’s just gonna have to try to make it work with these people. I think he can actually see that this is a great family, and he could do well to be a part of it. But it’s still not his family.

He still has this need to find his mother. To understand what happened.

And of course he does.

We catch up with Thad, as an adult. He’s investigating people who have had the same childhood experience he did with the wizard. The scientist working for him thinks it’s all a case of mass hysteria she’s investigating. But this latest case has revealed to him the sequence of symbols that will lead him back to the wizard.

The moment when the scientist touches the symbols and burns to ash is dark, but isn’t played as horrific as it really is.

Thad has become super hardened.

And so he releases the seven deadly sins, wanting to claim their power.

But sin is always manipulative. He’s become their slave. A vessel for them to inhabit.

There seems to be a wide age range in this school. You’ve got young kids like darla all the way up to teenagers old enough to drive. Although, admittedly, Americans seem to be allowed to drive a lot younger than here in Australia.

It’s really telling of the character of these kids when they knock a kid over, and their greatest concern is the mark on their car. I know they’re antagonists, but even the biggest jerk would surely feel a little guilt or worry if they literally just hit someone with their car.

To not do so would seem to suggest a very serious psychological condition.

Billy doesn’t stand up for Feddy until they make a crack about him not having a mother. That hits too close to home.

Helping others doesn’t come naturally to Billy. He’s a loner. By definition, his life has been all about looking after his own interests. Because he’s always felt alone.

So he hides in the train and is transported to the wizard.

I really like his movie, but the wizard stuff is the one bit I have an issue with.

As is usual, I tend to compare stuff to Man of Steel, because, to me, that’s the pinnacle of DC movies.

Can I mentally accept that this wizard exists in the same universe as Man of Steel?

It’s a hard mental stretch. It really is. It all feels so cheesy and kinda silly.

Billy’s reactions are pretty natural.

The wizard’s name is Shazam of all things. I mean, they might as well have called him Abra-cadabra. How can you take that seriously? And even in a comedic movie, you still need to be able to take the core concept seriously. Unless it’s an outright parody, like The Naked Gun. Then nothing matters. The movie only exists for the comedy. But this isn’t The Naked Gun. This is a proper story set in the DC universe.

Of course, this is all straight from the comic. They didn’t just make this stuff up. But what do you do when the source material in the comic is fundamentally cheesy? How do you make it work?

Honestly, I don’t know. I’m not sure I can think of a way to make it work much better than they did here.

If I were writing this, I’d probably have to make some changes from the source material.

Like, maybe Billy Had to come up with his own word, so he said “Shazam” as a bit of a joke. I know. Blasphemous.

But there’s still interesting stuff going on here. Billy, like Thad, thinks that the Wizard’s quest for a perfect person, pure of heart, is an impossible quest.

But the wizard no longer has a choice. The sins have escaped. He needs a champion. Any champion. So he lowers his standards and he takes the very next kid he tests. It’s gonna be Billy.

Interesting development.

So he transforms into …. Well, let’s just call him Shazam. Because what can you do?

The powers he receives are:

The wisdom of Solomon

The strength of Hercules

The stamina of atlas

The power of zeus

The courage of cilles

And the speed of mercury.

Notice how so many of DC’s characters are connected to greek mythology?

Apart from Solomon, of course, who was a Israelite King.

And, that’s the one power I’m not sure he actually demonstrates in this movie. He makes a whole lot of unwise choices in his superhero adult form.

Now, we’ll watch and see how his wisdom might grow through the course of the movie, but if the wisdom of solomon really is part of his power set, shouldn’t it begin to manifest as soon as he transforms, like his other powers?

But then, it does take him a while to learn to fly.

When he wakes up, he runs out of the train and bumps his head on the top of the doorway. That was a really nice touch. Because, of course, he’s a lot taller than he was a few minutes ago.

So Billy goes to the only person he can think of. Freddy. He’s really into superheroes.

And just a little note, I can’t quite believe that the term “caped crusader” exists in universe in the same world in which Batman V Superman took place.  I mean, do we really need to reference all the old cheesy sayings?

But the whole thing with these two kids geeking out and trying to figure out what powers he has feels pretty natural.

Interesting thing, Freddy doesn’t actually ask “how did this happen?” That would be the first question out of my mouth.

Zachery Levi does a pretty good job of portraying a child in an adult’s body.

I love the interactions they have with the mugger and the pepper-spray woman. The humour works great because it all feels like natural dialog for a couple of kids trying to navigate this unusual situation.

And then that thought occurs to him. The thought that many a kid would have when suddenly transformed into an adult.

“I’d like to buy some of your finest beer, please.”

So do they really sell alcohol in petrol stations in America? Sorry, gas stations. Or is it just a corner store? Either way, the only place you get alcohol in Australia in a licensed bottle shop. So this feels pretty weird to me.

Anyway, I love how they try the beer and hate it. Then go back in and buy chips and soft drink.

So he goes home, Darla sees him, and he learns he can change back and forth by saying Shazam. I don’t have much to say about this, but it’s all good.

So Thad breaks into the board meeting of his father’s company, and surprise surprise, his father is actually alive. He survived the car crash.

But he lost the use of his legs.

His older brother is a board member.

So just picks him up and hurls him out the window to his death.

That was kind of intense.

The shock of the actors in this scene really sells the emotional reality of the situation. You don’t always expect that in a comedic movie. Very well done.

And then he releases the sins from his eye. One of them ites the head off a board member. It’s pretty intense stuff So Thad’s father definitely gets his comeuppance, for being such a bad father. But I think we can agree that it’s probably more than he deserves.

And the board members, what did they do?

For a minute, I thought Thad was going to let his father live, and suffer with all that he’d lost.

But no, he let’s greed, the sin most associated with the man, eat him.

WE notice that Thad had become significantly darker, more evil. Letting all that stuff into him and corrupting him even further. Brought out the worst parts of him, which were already pretty bad.

Meanwhile, Billy is also using his newfound powers to give some comeuppance to those who have wronged him.

So Billy and Feddy go off to do some more tests, after destroying their school books with lightning power.

Billy does a dance move on camera called a floss. I know it’s called that because my son used to do it. Kids seem to always be doing dance moves these days. 

Anyway, it’s just a little moment to visually show the kid inside the adult body.

These guys feel like they’re acting believably in character though all of these comedic shenanigans. That’s what makes the humour in Shazam work.

If you’ve listened to a few of my DC podcasts, you know I like the serious movies. So you might have been surprised to learn that I really like this movie.

I like it for the same reasons I really like Spiderman homecoming and Spiderman Far from Home.

The humour is natural and believable for a child protagonist.

The kids act like kids. And the stakes are quite low. Especially in the first Spiderman. We’re not dealing with world-ending stakes like Superman or the Avengers would face. But given that these characters ARE kids, the lower stakes still feel like significant challenges for our heroes.

It works really well.

I like how they test a bunch of different powers, some of which he has, and some of which he doesn’t.

I’ll admit, I’m kinda jealous of their youTube numbers.

Anyway.

The montage that follows is entertaining.

One thought about the toilet scene. This is an example of a superhero movie kinda making fun of the genre. Billy has no idea how to get his pants down when in Shazam form. So he changes.

That actually makes sense in his case. The costume isn’t something you put on. It magically appears around you.

But, by extension, this is kind of making fun of other Superheros. For example, how does Superman use the toilet in his suit?

But in his case, we need to remember his suit is alien technology. I have no hesitation in believing that although there are no visible seams, his pants can separate from the top when needed.

I know I’m analysing this way more than the film-makers intend. It’s a joke.

But, I’ve mentioned before how some superhero movies draw attention to the silly aspects of their stories and make fun of it. Marvel does this a lot. But I tend to prefer the other approach, where the movie either makes the thing work, or just drops it altogether.

I like the real-estate scene, but I don’t have anything to say about it.

So the conflict begins between Billy and Freddy. I get why Freddy broke his own rule and bragged that the new Superhero would come to lunch the next day, without asking Billy first. He’s a kid who’s tired of being bullied. It’s a very kid thing to do.

I also get why he feels he’s as much a part of all this as Billy.

Billy did come to him for help, and they have been in this together from the start.

I also get that Billy would be feeling a bit used and unappreciated

It’s all believable teenage behaviour

There’s an ongoing joke throughout the movie where everyone keeps coming up with different names for Billy’s superhero form.

Remember, Shazam is technically the name of the wizard.

This, of course, is poking fun at the fact that the character used to be called Captain Marvel, before DC lost to Marvel in the legal dispute over that name.

So Billy decides to wag school, leaving Freddy in the lurch regarding lunch time.

And there’s a nice scene where he saves Mary and then they have a conversation about her reaction to being accepted into college.

It’s touching because it’s the first time we see Billy really reaching out to one of his new siblings and caring about them, wanting to help them.

But it’s also amusing because unlike the usual wise advice you’d expect to get from a Superhero in a situation like this, he gives her terrible advice that comes out of Billy’s own selfishness. Again, it’s coming from a teenage boy.

Great stuff.

But he tells her that that family is for people who can’t take care of themselves, which really sums up who Billy is at the moment.

You can’t not feel sorry for Freddy when he’s humiliated in the lunchroom.

And then Billy finally realises how his actions affect other people when his lightning show nearly causes the death of everyone on that bus.

So at 1.25 hours in, over half way through, Billy finally meets his villain. Thad.

In all the excitement of saving people and getting paid for selfies, fighting a villain is one thing that never occurred to Billy until now.

Billy is immediately out of his league. Which again makes sense, because he’s just a kid.

But he immediately realises he needs Freddy.

Transforming back into his teenage self to escape was a smart move.

So the other kids figure out who Billy is, and Eugene has identified his real parents.

It seems unlikely that the police couldn’t find his mum, just because she reverted to her maiden name. But I happily forgive that because the scene that follows has so much emotional weight to it.

Wow. So he reveals himself to his mum, and leans in to hug her. And she kind of pushes him away, looking visibly shaken. Already the scene is hitting me deep.

When Billy first let go of her hand and went missing, she panicked, but when she saw him with the police officers, she let herself believe that they could do a better job of looking after him than she could. She believed he’d be better off without her.

So she left.

And she actively hid herself so she wouldn’t be found.

I understand the feeling of parental inadequacy. I feel it a lot. And she has reason to feel it too. She’s 17 years old with a child she’s raising on her own. She has no support. Probably no money. She feels she’s never going to be able to give him a good life.

But the one thing he really needs, she can give him. A mother’s love. That’s what he needs most. That’s what she doesn’t understand.

But to give up your child like that. Man, I could never do that. I couldn’t even comprehend that.

And now, she immediately tries to justify herself by saying “But you’re okay right. You landed on your feet. You look good.”

And Billy, with all the heartbreak he’s feeling, as he realises he’s been completely rejected by the mother he’s searched for all his life, so crushed in spirit, actually spares her feelings by saying he just wanted to let her know he was good, and he’s going back to his real family now.”

He’s the mature one here. He’s the adult in this situation.

He’s the one putting the needs of others before himself, while she’s just looking out for herself.

But I think there’s actually a little truth to what Billy says.

I think he realises in this moment that his new foster family cares for him a heck of a lot more than his biological mother ever did. They can be the family he always craved.

But I think he also realises just how messed up his mother is. She’s not in any better situation now than she was when she was 17. In fact, she’s probably worse. Evidence suggests she may be in a relationship with an abusive partner.  

If they were to re-enter each other’s lives, he’d be the one taking care of her.

And given the chance, he’d probably do that.

But she doesn’t want him in her life. That is clear.

And she doesn’t even remember the compass, which was such a symbol to him all his life.

But he’s right, she needs it more than he does. She’s still lost, whereas Billy is starting to realise what he’s found.

Of course, none of this is really going to dampen the pain he is going through right now.

It’s a powerful scene. Fantastic stuff.

And that’s when he gets the phone call, letting him know that Thad has his family.

But now he’s ready.

He’s just gone through some powerful character growth.

Now he’s ready to be the hero. And now he knows just how much that family means to him.

This is how it’s done. Character growth, overcoming the internal demons equips a protagonist to defeat the external demon. In this case, Thad and his, well, literal demons.

Don’t you just love story structure?

The batarang moment was important because it allows Billy to realise that Thad is vulnerable when the sins are not inside him.

And then we end up in Monsters Inc.

I’m not sure what’s supposed to be behind all these doors.  Other planets? Other realities?

The crocodiles playing cards are kinda weird.

Thad says Billy doesn’t deserve the name Champion. Billy is no more worthy than Thad was as a child. Billy knows that.

But he’s about to show us that you don’t need to be perfect to be a hero.

You just need to learn from your mistakes and do better.

The kids have figured out that Thad is powerless when the sins leave his eye, so, in a true act of bravery, given they have no powers at all, they bait him into letting them chase her.

But he’s gotta keep one in his eye.

At that last moment when hope seems lost, Billy realises his greatest power is enlisted the help of those he loves most.

The thrones wait for his brothers and sisters.

So he transforms all of his siblings, giving them the same powers he has.

It’s a little corny, but it’s all very thematic. And it works, because the movie has kind of earned it.

They do a little bit of the others struggling to figure out their powers, but they learn to use them way quicker than Billy did.

But I guess you could argue that they at least have Billy’s example to know what is and isn’t possible.

The actor that plays adult Darla does a pretty nice job of portraying a little girl in an adult body.

Nice little payoff as Freddy gives the two bullies suitcase wedgies, like they did to him. I didn’t pick up on that detail before.

So now we have the final confrontation. Billy has to convince the sin to come out.

He figures out which one is left and appeals directly to what it is.

And then we have a Disney death, where thad falls on his own, rather than being actively killed by the hero.

Except that Billy saves him. And then traps the sins back in the rock.

So Billy is with his family now. He’s home.

And then we get a payoff to the lunch scene. Freddy is still a pariah, but he doesn't care. Because he’s a superhero.

But Billy shows up and brings Superman, minus his head, since Henry Cavill was unavailable to film the scene.

I mean, it was a fun little reveal. But it’s a real shame we didn’t get to actually see Billy meet Superman, and have Superman give him some advice.

I think there’s a lot of potential for a Tony Stark / Peter Parker style relationship there.

I mean, we’ve all seen the screenshot of the comic with Clark Kent sitting next to Billy, even if we haven’t read the comics.

But films bring in their own logistical challenges.

Maybe we’ll get to see some of that in the sequel.

Not having anywhere near enough comic book cred, I didn’t know what the talking caterpillar was all about, in the mid credit scene, other than …. It seemed kinda silly.

So I asked Google.

Turns out it’s Mister Mind. A worm from the planet venus.

Hmm. That’s gonna be a hard villain for me to swallow.

Not that I’d want to swallow a worm.

Anyway. We’ll see what, if anything, comes of that.

So that was Shazam. A pretty entertaining movie with more heart than you might expect from the comedic tone.

That brings my coverage of the DC Extended Universe to a close.

As I said in a previous episode, I haven’t Birds of Prey yet so I’m not going to be talking about it.

I’ll cover more DC movies as they come out. We’ve got Wonder woman 1984 and Zack Snyder’s Justice League coming. Theatrical movies are gonna be harder for me to cover in this format, as I can’t watch them over and over, pausing to take notes, so I’m not sure how that’ll work with Wonder Woman. I might wait until it is released on Blur Ray.

I dunno.

Next fortnight, I’m gonna give an overview of my thoughts on the first two seasons of Star Trek Discovery.

Then, the next episode after that we’ll be starting on season 3.

Don’t forget you can look me up at AdamDavidCollings.com where you can learn all about my book series, Jewel of The Stars.

Until then, have a great two weeks.

Live long and prosper.

Make it so.

Aquaman is the 6th movie in the DC Extended Universe. In today's edition of the Nerd Heaven Podcast, I delve into this story, discussing what worked for me, and what didn't. Ultimately, while I had been hoping for something more along the lines of Man of Steel, I found there was a lot to enjoy in this underwater tale. And bonus points because they filmed it here in Australia.

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Transcript

Before we launch into today's episode, I just want to acknowledge the passing of Chadwick Boseman, the actor who played Black Panther in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. I've just read that he passed away due to colon cancer at the age of 43. That's just one year older than me. My condolences go out to his wife and his other loved ones. It's really sad to hear of anyone who has died, but someone who is public like this who is loved for his art...yeah I just wanted to acknowledge that.

Welcome to Nerd Heaven.

I’m Adam David Collings, the author of Jewel of The Stars.

And I am a Nerd.

Today, we’re talking about Aquaman.

DC Fandome happened two weeks ago. It was pretty exciting. We Got a teaser for Zack Snyder’s Justice League, which was awesome. It gave the promise of a much deeper weightier version of the film. I’m very excited for it. We learned it will be shown in 4 parts, each episode 1 hour. And then later be edited into a 4-hour movie.

We got reveals of all the characters in The Suicide Squad. We learned the Flash movie is very much focussed on the concept of multiverses.

And we got a trailer for The Batman. And I have to admit, it looks really good.

I’m still mourning the loss of Batfleck, and I’m not sure why we need another Batman trilogy not connected with the established continuity.

But the movie has a lot of promise from what I’ve seen. I don’t doubt Robert Pattison. I’ve always kept an open mind about him.

But speaking of Affleck, there’s a lot of chatter online about him returning to play Batman in The flash movie, although nothing was said about this at Fandome. So … I’m still not 100% sure whether to believe it or not.

Part of me thinks it’ll be one last hurrah to farewell his character, and that they may use the whole flashpoint thing to replace him with Pattison. But who knows.

Anyway, it’s an interesting time to be a DC fan.

So let’s dig into Aquaman.

The description on IMDB reads

Arthur Curry, the human-born heir to the underwater kingdom of Atlantis, goes on a quest to prevent a war between the worlds of ocean and land.

The screenplay was written by

David Leslie, Johnson-McGoldrick and Will Beall

Based on a story by

Geoff Johns James Wan and Will Beall

And this movie first released on the 26th of November 2018.

I love the way they  use the underwater effect over the studio logos at the start. Very effective

We launch straight into the meeting of Arthur’s parents in 1985.

Wow, so that means I’m quite a bit older than Aquaman, and by extension, probably Jason Momoa.

ISn’t that weird. I mean, Jason is a “real man” so I tend to assume he’s older than me.

I love the way Nicole Kidman plays the confusion of her character, Atlanna, in a world that is so alien to her. Going to the surface would kinda be like going into space for us.

It makes some sense that she’d eat the goldfish. She doesn’t know when she’ll get her next meal in this world, although I think it’s mostly played for comedy.

And yet, she speaks and understands perfect english. The ability for characters to communicate is always a challenge for writers of sci-fi and fantasy, so I can understand why it is often just ignored, like in the stargate TV shows,  But I wish they’d had her speak a completely different language upon first meeting. All it would have taken was a quick montage or him teaching her a few words, and then have her use a slightly broken english after that.

As it is, they cut from first meeting to pregnancy. IT would have been a really easy fix.

I like how they point out the significance of the fact that atlanteans and humans are biologically compatible, able to reproduce. That IS a big deal.

She sees this as symbolic of Artuhr’s ability to unite two worlds.

And then the guards show up, wanting to bring her back to the arranged marriage she fled.

I love their laser weapons, and I REALLY love their water-filled EVA suits.

But we notice straight away that she can breathe oxygen? This will be addressed later.

Atlanna returning home in order to protect Artuhur, is somewhat reminiscent of Jor-el and Lara sending Kal-el away to protect him.

It’s a touching scene. But i’m not sure it fully captures the unbelievable, indescribable pain, of saying goodbye to your husband and son for the last time.

The transition from her going home to the aquarium is cool.

And the scene where the fish come to little Arthur's rescue is awesome. And then they all just crowd around him with reverence. Great stuff.

This has to be a purely instinctual reaction on their part since fish are not sapient.

So we see a submarine get hijacked. I kinda like the line “I won’t tell you how to captain if you don't tell me how to pirate”

There’s some interesting father and son stuff with Black Manta and his Dad. Apparently, his grandfather was a frogman in WW2 but after the war, his country forgot him. We’re not really told specifically what this means, but clearly there was  some --- about how he was treated in a post-war world.

I wonder, was it a racial thing? I can well imagine that black soldiers returning from the war were not given the respect they were due.

In any case, it has resulted in three generations of piracy. Quite a legacy that mistreatment created.

So Aquaman shows up This will be our first look at adult Arthur Curry in this movie, but from this point on, the story is set after Justice league.

Already I’m appreciating this character more than I did in the second half of Justice League. 

We’ve got a little of the grittiness back that his early appearance promised. And a lot less of the silliness.

So Black Manta has been scouring the seas looking for Aquaman. And he’s just like “Do I know you?”

What’s not clear to me is why this man has been searching for Aquaman. In a few minutes he’ll have good motivation. But to my knowledge there’s no reason for animosity between them right now, other than the fact that Aquaman just ruined his planned piracy of this submarine. Maybe that’s enough.

I like Aquaman’s response to this guy raising this son into a life of crime.

“Shame on you,” he says, without a hint of irony.

I’m actually seeing a lot of the man-of-stel-eqsue emotional grittiness in this scene. It’ll get a lot chessier later in the film, but I’m loving this stuff.

Despite his crimes, we can really empathise with black manta at this moment, as he’s forced to leave his father behind to die. Aquaman has effectively killed his father.

Now he has strong motivation.

Good stuff.

Very emotional.

Where did David Kane and his dad get the futuristic submarine that looks like a spaceship? Remember, I even found it hard to accept Batman’s troup carrier in Justice League, and that, at least, was developed with Bruce Wayne’s fortune.

I love sci-fi technology, but it has to have a reason to exist.

So Arthur goes to meet his own dad, which provides quite the counterpoint to Manta’s loss.

And while I’ll certainly question the moral choices of the Kane family, I don’t doubt the love that existed between father and son. Both of these men had great relationships with their dads.

Which makes them mirrors of each other, in a sense, but is also a nice change from the stereotypical broken father relationships you often see in fiction.

When Arthur’s dad says “I’ll buy you breakfast,” and then the camera immediately cuts to a massive empty beer glass being slammed onto the bar, I laughed out loud.

The thugs wanting a selfie with Arthur was mildly amusing but also a bit on the nose.

Visually, Atlantis looks amazing. Very impressive visuals.

But there’s definitely a feeling of un-reality to it. They give an occasional bubble out of the mouths of the creatures to hint at this all being underwater, but it really doesn’t look like it is. Everything is too clear. I can buy that in this underwater world, sea creatures would be domesticated in the same way that land animals have been by humans, so rinding on seahorses and sharks. Okay. But the sheer size of these creatures is a big thing to ask of our disbelief. And the way the sharks are controlled. Again, the only way I find I can buy this is if there is telepathy involved. The movie doesn’t outright say this, but I have to employ this as head-canon to make it work.

I like how there is such a big world underwater, with multiple kingdoms. All collectively known as Atlantis. But for all of this to be down there undiscovered by humankind? Sure, I can buy they would be able to hide themselves from us in the great depths of the ocean, but why hide themselves? They seem to have had little to fear from humans throughout most of history. With today’s modern weapons, I guess we pose more of a threat to them. But then, they have water-lasers.

The prevailing opinion seems to be to let the humans destroy themselves, but Orm sees them as a threat, a threat that should be confronted, not hidden from.

And then these ancient ruins are attacked by a submarine. They’ve been discovered. It seems Orm was right to view the humans as a threat. It makes sense that they would be found now. After Justice League, the existence of the mysterious Aqua man is public knowledge. Many will be curious and will be actively searching for the truth behind the legends.

And then Mera shows up to seek help from Arthur.

The whole history between Arthur’s contact with Atlantis is a bit muddy. We know he’s met Mera before. In Justice League, he went down underwater to speak with her. So her had first met her even before that. But he’s never actually been all the way into Atlantis itself. I’d have liked this to be explained a little better. I’m not sure which movie to fault, this one, or Justice League.

Mera wants Arthur to take up the mantle of rightful King of Atlantis. An idea he finds laughable. They don’t want me. They executed my mother. I’m illegitimate and half human.

But a character named Vulko believes in Arthur, and has found evidence of an ancient lost trident he believes will allow Arthur to rally the people behind him.

This is some pretty standard almost cliche fantasy fare here.

Arthur has no interest in being King, but if Orm attacks the above world, he’ll treat him mercilessly. Just as his mother was treated.

And then, the little twist. David, soon to be Manta, is secretly working with Orm’s faction. He hijacked the Russian sub and used it to simulate an invasion from the surface dwellers, so Orm could get the other kings on side. But Manta is very angry that Arthur intervened and killed his father. He cares nothing for helping Orm. He just wants revenge.This also explains where Manta and his dad got the super advanced spaceship sub. I’ve only ever seen this movie once, and there’s some details here that I’d forgotten.

The scene where the giant wave sweeps a battleship toward shore looks fantastic, as does the effect as Mera holds back the water so Arthur can get his dad out of the ute. (what Americans call a pick-up truck. I need to add that become statistics show most of my listeners are American)

Arthur learn’s Mera’s name for the first time, so clearly, they are not all that well acquainted.

Orm has officially declared war. All over the world ships are being washed up, along with rubbish - lots of rubbish - that has made it’s way into the oceans.

It wouldn’t be an Aquaman story without an environmental angle. It’s kind of part of the deal, isn’t it.

My question is, how is this much rubbish ending up in the oceans? Oh, I know ocean plastic is a real issue that threatens marine life. But our rubbish here in Australia is all buried in land fill. We don’t just dump it in the sea. I guess I’m possibly not very informed on this issue. Probably should do some research.

Anyway, as much as Orm is the bad guy, I kinda don’t blame him for dumping all that back to us.

Now we get a childhood flashback, and get to learn more about this character Vulko. He’s the atlantean who taught young Arthur to use his powers.

By the way, have you noticed just how much the atleantean’s clothing resembles the black kryptonian suits? Very similar texture.

We get more great underwater visuals.

Arthur learns that he can talk underwater. This still bugs me, and will bug me all though the movie. There should at least be bubbles. When you speak, you are expelling air through your mouth. I wonder if it would have been practical to make all underwater dialog telepathic. It would make for challenging performances, and they’d have to record all the dialog separately. Yeah, probably impractical, but part of me would love to have seen it tried.

Anyway, I’ve said my piece. I’ll put this issue aside now.

Arthur is willing to help Mera defeat Orm and prevent the war, but after that, he’s done.

He really is a reluctant hero. This mirrors his journey in Justice League.

He wasn’t interested in helping Bruce, but when the war came to him, he had no choice but to help. 

So arthur goes to Atlantis for the first time. When you see all the traffic lined up to get in, you realise just how vast the population of this world is.

Highborns can breathe underwater and in air. Which explains how Atlanna was able to breach on the surface, but the guards who came after her couldn’t.

This actually makes some sense. The whole concept of highborn, or nobility, basically represents a narrowing of the gene pool. In many stories, this narrowing is done deliberately to keep a certain genetic trait from becoming widespread. In this case, a remnant from their time before Atlantis sunk underwater. Of course, narrowing the gene pool can cause all sorts of problems as well.

We get some cool worldbuilding. We see Atlantis while it was still on the surface. How they had a technological society, more advanced than ours, in some ways, in ancient times. I love this kind of stuff. The idea of ancient advanced societies is very compelling. 

In the end, it was their own pursuit of power that lead to the fall of Atlantis.

And Vulko tells of the lost trident of Atlan, first ruler of Atlantis. It was imbued wit the power to command the sea. Vulko has information that will lead Arthur to it.

But before he can embark on his quest, he is captured by Orm’s forces.

Orm baits Arthur into a challenge. If Orm wins, it will solidify his position.

Arthur is confident he can win. But that’s typical tough-guy bravado. 

It was kind of stupid on Arthur’s part. You don’t run into something like this without understanding what you’re getting yourself into.

but then, that’s Arthur. He’s a flawed character. He’s impulsive. And I like that.

And he’s right about one thing. If he wins, it’ll solve all their problems.

They cast both the child Arthur and teenage Arthur pretty well.

I love the flashback, when Orm finally admits to Arthur that his mother is dead, and that she had married Orm’s father. Very emotional. The look on Arthur’s face really hit me. Right in the heart.

Great acting.

Then he says, “Are you saying they had her executed, for having me?”

Wow. What a thing to live with.

Ok. So now we come to the ring of fire.

I don’t know how to tell you this, but fire kinda doesn’t burn underwater.

Now, looking at it, I think it’s supposed to be magma. Ok. But water would cool it and solidify it, right? And if the water’s not cold enough to do that, well, Arthur and Orm would probably be quickly turning into seafood chowder.

And, they’re not swimming. They’re walking around, as if this was the surface.

Everything about this annoys me. I know it’s hard and expensive to shoot everything on wires to make it look realistic, but…..seriously? If we’re not gonna bother to do it right, why are we bothering at all?

In science fiction and fantasy, you have to suspend your disbelief on a lot of things. Men can’t really fly, or breath underwater.

But you have to really think about what you want the audience to believe.

A superhero movie like this asks for quite a bit of suspension on the big stuff. So don’t make us suspend our disbelief on the mundane. With stuff that is …… silly. Dare I say stupid?

When I say I want my superhero movies to be realistic, I don’t mean that every detail must be exactly true to life, because then it wouldn't be a superhero movie anymore. The most important thing tends to me the emotional realism. But stuff like this can be important as well.

And the line is gonna be different for everybody, but for me, this scene crosses the line.

And here’s another thing that crosses the line. An octopus playing the drums.

What? Is this a sapient octopus?

So Arthur’s mother’s trident, the one he wielded in Justice League, is destroyed.

Mera has to interrupt the duel and rescue him to save his life.

Arthur has now lost all credibility. He’s discouraged and a laughing stock.

This has set Mera’s plan back significantly.

He was supposed to have Atlanta’s trident before challenging Orm.

Oops.

Again, I like this because it’s Arthur’s character. And it’s all part of his arc.

We get a fun action scene as the spaceship submarines chase each other through atlantis. All good spectacle.

So hiding inside the whale was clever. It seems Aquaman’s ability to communicate with sea creatures is unique to him, not common to all atlanteans.

And then, suddenly, we go from the ocean to the Sahara. How different can you get?

There’s a nice quiet scene on the plane where Arthur realises how much Mera has sacrificed for him. When she rescued him, she effectively banished herself from Atlantis. Even her own father wouldn’t take her back now.

But in reality, her father still cares and wants her to be rescued, not killed.

Vulko convinces Orm they should be arrested and brought home.

There’s an Indianna Jones aspect to this movie, especially this part. I really like Indianna Jones

They don’t really explain how Mera and Arthur can jump from a plane and land unharmed on the ground. It seems they have Superman-level invulnerability.

The only explanation they really give for the Atlantean’s powers is that they naturally evolved underwater. But invulnerability like that? That’s a little far fetched.

I just don’t think this movie gives sufficient reason for the existence of these incredible powers.

Anyway, Manta has just been armed by Orm with Atlantean water lasers. He uses the Atlantean technology to build himself a suit. And Black Manta is born.

We get some more cool mythology. One of the tribes of Atlantis settled out here when it was still an inland sea.

When the water dried up, they died out.

So now we have the remains of an ancient aquatic kingdom buried under a dessert.

That’s really cool.

And now Mera has telekinetic powers to draw water out of Arthur’s body and make it fly through the air. Oookay.

I’ll admit I did laugh out loud when Arthur said he could have just peed on the machine. Does that make me a bad person?

The idea of a sacred object that can unite a divided people is a common trope. The sword of Kahless from Star Trek comes to mind.

But…..how does that work.

The trident in the wrong hands could be devastating, but in the hands of the true heir, it could unite the kingdoms above the surface and below.

How? Why?

How exactly will the people put aside their differences because some bloke comes along holding a trident? I don’t understand the logic.

Orm really is a bad guy. He kills the king of the fishermen in front of his daughter, and them commands her to rally her armies. She’s not exactly say no, is she?

Arthur figures out the mystery of the bottle. It’s nice to see Arthur portrayed as having a brain, as he’s been portrayed as kinda stupid in recent scenes.

Manta shows up, and they have a big battle.

The line when he says “Call me Black Manta” was pretty cheesy. I don’t think we needed that.

The battle in the town is pretty good, in an Indiana Jones kind of way. It’s not a deeply emotional fight, but the spectacle is entertaining.

But Manta must have some REALLY good shock absorbers in that armour of his.

Arthur has a nice reflective moment.

He had a choice to save Manta’s father. He chose to let him die.

And now he’s made an enemy. It’s a nice relaiseation. I was thinking the same thing during the fight. So nice to see Arthur contemplate it as well. How might this all have unfolded differently if he’d not let the man die?

He still doesn’t think he’d be any good at leading. He doesn’t play well with others.

But Mera sees him as a bridge between people. That’s his strength.

Vulko reveals his true allegiance in front of Orm and gets arrested for it.

Logically, it would have been smarter to keep holding his tongue but I guess he just couldn’t hold it in any longer. He’s been dying to say those words to Orm for a long time. I get that.

So Arthur and Mera are heading for the trench, where horrible beasts reside. The beasts his mother was sacrificed to.

But they show up early and attack the boat.

They’re super creepy. I love them.

There are so many of them. This is a really scary scene. Nicely done.

I just did a quick google search, and apparently flares that work underwater are a real thing. Ok. I can’t complain about that, then.

And then we find this weird air-filled cavern deep under water.

This is hard for me to swallow.

The title on the screen says, the hidden sea. Earth’s core.

First of all, core has got to be a bit of an overstatement.

The heat and pressure at the core of the earth wold be way too much for anyone or anything to survive. I mean, the depths we think of when we talk about going underground, they barely scratch the surface. Our planet is a lot bigger than I think people realise until they really stop and think about it.

I doubt a dry place like this underwater is in any way scientifically plausible.

I mean, it’s cool, but it’s really hard to swallow. And they don’t even try to explain it. This is the difference between a movie like this, and a movie like Man of Steel.

But … they’ve got dinosaurs.

Anyway, we find that Arthur’s mother, Atlanna is still alive down here.

Turns out, you can get into this place, but you can’t get out. The only way of escape is the trident.

It’s guardian will only allow the true king to pass.

Arthur is afraid. I think, because he still doubts his worthiness.

I really like Atlanna’s explanation of the difference between a king and a hero.

A king fights only for his nation. But Arthur fights for everyone.

Arthur didn’t come here because he thought he was mortal. He knows he is not.

He’s not here for selfish ambition.

He’s here to save his home and the people that he loves.

The guardian creature likes this. Finally someone who may be worthy of the trident.

So he gets the trident, and when he emerges from the waterfall, he’s changed clothes.

No explanation is given for this.

But he’s in the traditional Aquaman suit. 

I don’t know if that was really necessary. I just don’t know if the traditional costume really suits Jason Momoa’s Aquaman.

But anyway.

Orm is attacking the kingdom of the brine.

They haven’t accepted his authority.

The guardian creature is massive and pretty scary. But it’s not Aquaman’s noble steed.

To be honest, it’s doing all the work. Arthur is just standing on it’s back looking macho.

But he does call all the dolphins to come join the battle on his side.

There’s too many casualties. They have to end the battle quickly. Oh, but first, let’s have a good long snog.

I mean, I’m happy for them to have found love with each other, but it’s not really the time.

Mera’s father recognises Arthur’s authority by the fact that he carries the trident. That means the guardian has recognised him, and he commands the sea. The creatures of the trench obey his will.

That actually makes sense.

I’m starting to see how the trident can unit the people.

So they have a big fight, and Arthur spare’s Orm’s life. Showing mercy unlike he did with Manta’s father. This is a nice pay-off,

But then Orm learns his mother is still alive

She gives a nice speech, but those words are not going to be enough to sway him. Not in a hurry.

But Arthur is ready to talk, when Orm is ready. I wonder what might become of that.

But Atlanna’s place is not in the sea. It’s with her husband.

What a great moment when he sees her at the end of the jetty, and they are finally reunited.

So there you have it.

I’m glad I decided to cover this movie. I enjoyed it more than I remembered.

It’s not man of Steel, but it’s an entertaining movie. It’s like a Marvel movie.

Well, I hope you enjoyed this trip through Aquaman. It was fun. Next time, we’ll be looking at Shazam. That’ll be cool.

That leaves just one more episode before we launch into Star Trek Discovery season 3. I’ll probably do a recap of my thoughts on the first two seasons.

Don’t forget you can get the first book in my Jewel of the Stars series for just 99 cents at books2read.com/jewel (and that’s the number 2), and the prequel story for free by going to adamdavidcollings.com/free

And I’ll see you next time, on Nerd Heaven.

We've made it to Justice League in our journey through the DC Extended Universe. In this episode, I delve into the theatrical cut of the movie, pulling out what I liked, and discussing what I didn't, which leads into my hopes for the upcoming Snyder Cut. I try to be positive in these podcasts and focus on geeking out over the things I like, so I must admit this one's going to be a bit of a downer, but, with the Synder Cut coming, there is still hope.

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Transcript

Welcome to Nerd Heaven

I’m Adam David Collings, the author of Jewel of The Stars, and I am a nerd.

This is episode 33 of the podcast.

We’ve been working our way through the early DCEU movies toward Justice League, in celebration of, and preparation for, the upcoming Snyder Cut.

Today, we’ve arrived.

Just really quick, before we launch into that, I want to follow up something I said two episodes ago regarding Star Trek Lower Decks. I was saying how I wished somebody like Alex Kurtzman would just break the silence regarding international distribution for the show, rather than just pretending it wasn’t an issue of importance to many fans. Well, somebody did break the silence shortly after, but it was Mike McMahon, which actually makes more sense than Kurtzman, because he’s the show runner of Lower Decks. Basically, we learned that there is a deal being negotiated, but there isn’t a known time frame yet. The main reason they went ahead without an international deal was because Lower Decks was originally supposed to show after Discovery season 3, but COVID messed that up, and they ended up bringing Lower Decks forward.

So I’m very grateful to McMahon for finally breaking the silence, and being open and honest with us.

It’s still a little hard to hear everyone else talking about the show, and know that I can’t be a part of that conversation, but I’ll be waiting until I can watch the show legally and ethically.

Ok.

The description for Justice League, according to IMDB reads

Fueled by his restored faith in humanity and inspired by Superman's selfless act, Bruce Wayne enlists the help of his new-found ally, Diana Prince, to face an even greater enemy.

It was written by 

Chris Terrio and Zack Snyder,

And Directed by Zack Snyder ( but also uncredited directing by Joss Whedon)

The movie first released on the 13th of November 2017

Let’s do it.

So here we are at Justice League.

I’ve talked in recent podcasts about Warner Bros interference. First, they cut the running time of Batman V Superman, resulting in a much inferior theatrical version of that movie, and then they made major changes to Suicide Squad, turning David Ayer’s soulful drama into a comedy.

But this interference is more evident than anywhere else in Justice League.

I don’t know all the details.

We know that Justice League was always going to have a lighter tone than Batman V Superman.

I’m okay with that. I don’t need every DC movie to be as dark as BVS, but ideally, I’d like them all to at least be as serious as Man of Steel. Personal subjective taste here.

We know that Zack Snyder left the project due to the tragic suicide of his daughter. Honestly, I don’t know how any parent could live through something like that. I don’t blame him for leaving. Family is much more important than any movie.

We know that Joss Whedon was brought in to finish off the film. We were told, at the time, that there was just a little bit left to do, and that Joss would very much be following Snyder’s vision and tone.

Over time, it has become more and more evident that it was much more than that. There were major changes to the content and tone of the movie, under Whedon’s direction.

It seems that all the meaningful character stuff was cut, and replaced with silly jokes.

As this became clear, the ReleaseTheSnyderCut movement was born.

Now, if this was all we’d ever got, I’d have been grateful for it. We got to see Ben Affleck’s Batman, and Henry Cavill’s Superman one more time. But I am so glad that the Synder Cut is coming out next year. I desperately hope that HBO Max makes it to Australia before it airs. Seriously, I’m holding my breath in very nervous anticipation here. I don’t want to be watching it months after the Americans. I want to be a part of the conversation as it’s happening.

Anyway, today, we’re talking about the theatrical Joss Whedon cut. So I’m gonna go through it, see what Ican find that was good, and assess what I’m hoping for from the Snyder Cut.

It makes sense to start with a flashback of Superman, since it’ll be some time before we see him again, plus, we’re still living in that world without Superman.

And we see the infamous CGI moustache replacement. I tell you, watching it again this time it’s super obvious and it looks really bad.

We see from the start that Batman isn’t just on a normal hunt for petty crooks. He’s just using the thief. He needs fear, because the parademons can smell it.

Yes, those same aliens we saw in the nightmare vision in Batman V Superman are here. On earth.

I found it a little jarring that they were just here.

I’ve gotta say, it’s so nice to see Affleck’s Batman and Iron’s Alfred together on screen again.

So Lex had notes about the aliens. I can only assume he got his information from the Kryptonian scout ship.

The sad contemporary song over the credits fits reasonably well. It’s a far cry from the hauntingly beautiful opening music from Batman V Superman, though. But the film really drives home that Supermanis head. We see Lois at his monument, and Martha at his graveside. Banners display the House of El crest all over the world.

Then We get to see Wonder Woman in true classic Super hero mode for the first real time, as she foils a terrorist plot.

Wonder Woman could almost give the flash and superman both a run for their money in this scene, as she rushes across the hostages, blocking the bullets.

I don’t mind the scene when Bruce goes to the village, looking for Aqua Man.

I think he knows from the start, that Arthur is the man he’s looking for.

This scene is our first real look at the DCEU Aqua man, a character who has long  been the joke of DC superheroes. Not anymore. This Aquaman is a tough gritty guy you don’t want to mess with.

I don’t think the scene really does a great job of explaining Aquaman’s reluctance to help.

Bruce’s main lead on finding Barry Allen is the fact that he visits his father in prison. 

Honestly, I thought all the scenes between Barry and his father ended up on the cutting room floor, but, there is a conversation between them.

At this point in his life, Barry is just on the run. He isn’t living his life. As much as Henry wishes he would.

Silas Stone is working at Star Labs, which apparently surrounds the Kryptonian ship.

So an object called the change engine was used to create cyborg, keeping him alive when he should be dead. Silas thinks it could interact with the Kryptonian technology on the ship. Victor isn’t happy about what his father has done to him. He sees his father as a monster, for what he’s done.

Cyborg isn’t just part machine, he’s part alien machine. He’s got a language he doesn’t speak in his head. He’s deathly afraid of himself, and of what he might become. Can you imagine fearing that you might in fact be the next invasion. It’s a heavy burden for him to carry. This is pretty good stuff. We don’t explore it in any depth, but there’s definitely potential here.

The Amazonians have one of the mother boxes, like the change engine. They’ve had it for thousands of years. In all that time it’s been dormant. But now it awakes. Enter Stemmenwolf. He beams down in the middle of this room.

And in come more of the flying aliens. The other one Bruce was tracking was just a scout.

I found Steppenwolf a pretty disappointing and forgettable villain. After Zod, Lex and even Ares, he was a disappointment. No depth to his story. To be honest, I don’t even remember much about him.

Steppenwolf makes short work of the Amazons. They’re no match for him. They really need to be using something a little heavier than arrows. He takes the box and beams away.

They light an ancient warning fire as a way to attract Dianna’s attention.

Martha has lost the Kent farm. She was behind in the payments. Lois is back at work, in theory, but she’s doing basic easy stories. Her heart just isn’t in it, since Clark died.

It’s nice to see these two interacting, as mother-in-law and daughter-in-law.

This movie feels a little .. plastic somehow. While the previous films had a reality to them, the way they looked, there is something artificial and glossy about this one.

Steppenwolf lived only to conquer. He turned people into parademons. 

The mother boxes combine to form the unity, an apocalyptic power that transforms planets into the hellscape of steppenwolf’s home planet, Apocolips.

As Dianna tells the story, we see clips of the ancient battle, as the amazons, atlanteans, and even some Green lanterns from other worlds drove him from earth. It all looks very Lord of The Rings. And yet…..it all just feels a bit …… lacking. 

It was nice to see that one tiny little Green Lantern reference, but it would have been even nicer to have a little more. There was a cool line cut from the trailer where Steppenwolf is saying how Earth is an easy target because no Lanterns are protecting it.

The boxes turning Earth into a hellish landscape is similar in premise to Zod’s world engine terraforming Earth. One felt truly epic. But this ….. I dunno. There’s just nothing to it. It falls flat.

The scene where Bruce introduces himself to Barry is nice.

His willingness to jump in and join the team is refreshing after Aquaman and Cyborg’s reluctance.

Barry comes across here as a nerd. He’s very relatable to me. He struggles with people.

I think Ezra miller’s flash had a lot of potential. Potential that is never realised in this movie, and …. Well….his solo movie has never eventuated. Dunno if it ever will.

But I must say, this movie redeemed the concept of Aquaman fairly nicely. He’s no longer a joke. He’s a hard-drinking hard-fighting tough guy with hard-rock music making a suitable soundtrack to his movements.

The underwater stuff feels a little less artificial here than it did in the Aquaman movie. Half of the time, you forgot that movie was even underwater. I mean, they had fire in the water for goodness sake. The way these characters move, you can feel water around them.

A lot of people didn’t like the air bubble that Mera forms around them so they can talk underwater.

I don’t mind it.  It just adds a little layer of believability.

In reality, if these people were to communicate with each other underwater without air bubbles, they should use telepathy. James Wan’s decision to just let them talk verbally underwater may have been practical from a film-making point of view, but it definitely lacked believability.

So now Steppenwolf has two of the three boxes. He just needs to find the box of men now, which was buried somewhere underground. That’s the one that Victor Stone used to turn his son into Cyborg. We don’t get any backstory as to how he came by by it, other than the little epilogue on the Wonder Woman blue ray, where Etta sends the band to find it. It was found near the front, probably dug up while they were making ditches.

We get our first mention of Darkseid. It seems Steppenwolf is doing what he’s doing … for Darkseid.

Barry’s fanboying is perhaps a little overplayed. It’s a cool character concept but I dunno. 

It’s ironic that the only memorable music in this movie is the occasional callbacks to previous versions of these characters, such as the little bit of the Batman 1989 theme we hear as Batman responds to Gordon’s bat signal. Personally, I Think these music cues are completely out of place here. I don’t want to speak out of place regarding Danny Elfman. He has written some memorable stuff, such as that Batman theme, but I was very unhappy when Junkie XL was removed from the film by Whedon. That felt like he was way overstepping his place. This wasn’t his movie.

The parademons are abducting people from Star labs to find out where the box is now.

The whole joke about the league members all vanishing, leaving barry with Gordon fell flat for me. Batman is a master of stealth, so he kinda makes sense. Dianna is fast and can leap, possibly fly. But would she just vanish that quickly and silently? And Victor? He can fly but his flight is slow and noisy.

So they’re off to Braxton Island to rescue the scientists.

Now here’s the one really good thing I think they did with The Flash in this movie. Barry is having a bit of a freak out. There’s a really bad alien down there. In Barry’s words, “I’ve never done battle, I’ve just pushed some people and run away.”

This makes sense. Bruce wants Barry on the team  because of his abilities. But abilities do not make a hero. Super speed does not make somebody a soldier.

Not everybody has what it takes to go into combat. I sure don’t.

We have a somewhat romantic, glorified view of war and combat, which comes from the movies. But to actually be in the midst of that, surrounded by death. Facing the very real prospect of being killed, and if not that, having to take a life. That’s a heavy thing.

This movie acknowledges that. But again, it barely scratches the surface. I wish the movie had explored this a little deeper.

But I like Bruce’s advice. Save one. Save one person. Don’t talk, don’t fight. Get in, get one out.

And then?

You’ll know.

Bruce is good at seeing where people fit in. Barry doesn’t have to do battle, his logical role in this is rescuing the hostages. He’s perfect for that.

The alien origin of Cyborg’s technology makes the things he can do a little more believable.

Steppenwolf thinks he can get under Dianna’s skin by talking about the death of her sisters. But this isn’t the naive Dianna we saw during World War 1. She’s had 100 years to grow and mature since then.

I like Batman’s NightCrawler mech thing. It’s pretty cool.

And I like his line, as he shoots his machine guns. “Sorry, I didn’t bring a sword.”

But it sadly does highlight the absurdity of all this. Steppenwolf is an invader from another planet. And he hits people with an axe.

Ok. So there’s a moment where Barry rushes to move some falling debris that is about to hit Dianna, and he somehow ends up lying on top of her, his face in her breasts.

It’s recently come to light that this scene caused some controversy.

Apparently, Gal Gadot refused to film this scene, and I don’t really blame her. It’s crass juvenile humour. Oh, his face touched her boobies. Oh how funny is that. Seriously? The shot was apparently done with Gadot’s stunt double. I think the scene does Wonder Woman’s character a dis-service.

Apparently Joss Whedon also used this so-called joke in one of the Marvel films as well, but I can’t remember which one.

Steppenwolf sees the blood of the old gods in Dianna. But he points out, the old gods died. He wants to set himself up as a new god. Technically, his species are called “The New Gods” if I understand correctly.

As the water rushes in to fill this underground tunnel, it’s the perfect time for Aquaman to make his appearance. 

He knows Atlantis was attacked, and the box taken. He knows the time has come. He’s needed. Mera has convinced him.

Every now and then we cut to a family somewhere in eastern europe. Their home has been surrounded by Parademons. Near the end we’ll understand why, but, this doesn’t really pay off. Not strongly. 

Yeah, Barry’s fanboying is definitely overdone. As he zooms around the batcave, his eyes about to pop out of his head, it’s really quite annoyingl.

Victor gives the remaining backtstory of the human motherbox. The british found it in ww1 and studied it, but they couldn’t even date it. It was shelved until the night when Superman died when it lit up. Probably because of whatever Lex did on the ship to contact Steppenwolf.

And this is when Bruce gets the idea of trying to use the power of the motherbox to bring Superman back to life. They could sure use his help right now.

Superman is not like a normal mortal. Although, technically dead, there may still be power dormant in his cells. We saw a hint of this when the dirt began to rise above his coffin.

Add to that, the power of a motherbox, enough power to transform an entire planet.

Okay. I’m kinda with that.

But his plan isn’t really thought through. We’ll give him a zap of power from the motherbox.

It’s pretty weak from a science fiction point of view. 

Dianna has some legitimate concerns. The last time somebody tried to use the genesis chamber on the Kryptonian scout ship to resurrect dead cells, the result was Doomsday.

If they do manage to revive Clark’s body, it’s most likely that they’ll simply turn him into a monster, like Luthor did. When Dianna objects, Bruce begins to say “If there’s even a fraction of a chance…” which is an interesting call-back to a previous time he said those words in Batman V Superman. In that case, he was arguing for killing Superman. Now, he uses those same words to argue for his resurrection.

The argument between her and Bruce here is some decent drama.  She thinks he’s doing this out of guilt. But Bruce didn’t kill Superman. Doomsday did.

Bruce calls Dianna out for having shut herself from the world for a century because of Steve Trevor’s death. Superman was a beacon to the world. Wonder Woman never was. Not until she was drawn back out of her reverie by Luthor’s photo.

I do have fears about how Wonder Woman 1984 will fit into this. But I don’t think DC care about any of these movies anymore. They’re trying desperately, to forge some new path. Goodness knows what it is, though.

Aquaman points out that you lose something when you die. Even Superman. Maybe not his mind, but maybe his soul.

I like the acknowledgement here that there may be more to a person than just the physical. If that’s the case, Bruce’s plan could go horribly wrong. Assuming there is a soul, if they re-animate Superman’s body, will his soul return to it? That’s something outside of their control.

Bruce is a little over-confidant here. He says he has a contingency plan for that.

I don’t think this was the originally planned payoff to The Flash’s message from the future, that Lois Lane is the key, but I guess it kinda works. But, can Lois really cause Superman’s Soul to return? That’s a bit of a weak premise.

I don’t think we’re really dealing with the problem of the soul here. Anyway. I’m getting ahead of myself here. We’ll come to that

This is the first time the term “Batmobile” is said out loud in the DCEU. Honestly, I don’t think it needed to be said. We know that’s what it is. That’s what we know it as, but…..when you hear it out loud, it’s pretty cheesy.  The batmobile was in Batman V Superman. They didn’t have to call it that. It didn’t matter. What mattered was, it was there. And it was awesome. Just another example of these movies moving away from their heritage of taking themselves seriously.

Alfred points out that maybe Clark is at peace. Do they have a right to pull him away from that?

But times are desperate. Although, I don’t think this movie has really allowed us to feel that desperation. I mean, compare this to the feeling of the battle over metropolis. This movie hasn’t sold us on the danger that Steppenwolf represents. I kinda felt the same way about Ultron in the second Avengers movie.

It was nice to hear a few notes of the Superman theme from Man of Steel as they enter the scout ship, but it was kind of a case of too little too late. It actually feels really out of place alongside the rest of the music in this movie

So The Flash has to run really fast to build up enough electrical charge to power the transformation.

It feels like a bit of a forced way to give him something to do.

I get the impression that Superman’s resurrection was going to be handled very differently in Zach Synder’s version. I’ll be very interested to see how that plays out.

So Superman is alive. But as Aquaman predicted, something is missing. He’s lost something, and maybe not just his memories.

The Justice League arrives to see whether they’re dealing with friend or foe.

Superman is sizing them up, assessing their threat level. Then Cyborg’s armour fires the first shot. It’s interesting to me that the alien technology in his systems have a mind of their own. Another interesting idea that is not explored in any meaningful way.

Superman doesn’t know who he is. He only knows these powerful beings seem to pose a threat to him.

I do like the moment when the Flash runs around and he realises that Superman is fast enough to see him, even in “bullet-speed”. The looks on both of their faces are priceless.

And we get another inappropriate music cue.

Now don’t get me wrong. I love the John William’s Superman theme. I really really do, but it has absolutely no place here.

That theme belongs to a completely different interpretation of the character, a completely different universe. A completely different canon.

And yes, I know. Multi-verse. The CW Crisis on Infinite Earth’s story has basically put the Christopher Reeve Superman and the Henry Cavil Superman in the same multi-verse.

But you know what …. As fun as it is to see these little crossovers, I’m not really a fan of that concept.

Oh, I’m not opposed to exploring multi-verses in Superhero stories, but the idea of Superman looking like Christopher Reeve in one universe, and like Henry Cavill in another just does not work for me. At all. It’s way too meta. It’s an intrusion of real-world concerns into the movie world.

And I know the comics did this kind of thing. Every continuity reboot in comics is basically only a soft reboot. They’ve been doing that for ages.

But I still don’t like it.

I just wanna keep them seperate.

The tones, the mythology, they’re too different.

Interestingly, I had a different reaction when the Superman theme was used in Smallville. Perhaps it was because Smallville drew so much from the Reeve Superman, or maybe it was just that at the time, Christopher Reeve was still very much my Superman.

But Man of Steel was so different to anything that had come before. It was fresh and new and exciting. This stuff just muddies the water for me. It makes the DCEU less …. Pure...somehow.

Batman reveals himself to Clark. Now, this is someone Clark remembers. This was the guy that tried to kill him.

Clark seems just as angry at Bruce for bringing him back, as he is for trying to kill him.

“You won’t let me live. You won’t let me die.”

So Batman calls in the big guns.

Which, of course, is Lois.

So this is how this movie fulfills the Flash vision. Lois Lane is the Key.

Like I said before, I don’t think this was the original plan. Not by a long shot.

So the power of love helps bring Superman back. It’s a little cheesy. But … love IS powerful.

We can’t take Aquaman’s words about Superman’s lost soul too literally here. The sight of Lois doesn’t cause Superman’s soul to return to his body. It simply helps him overcome the confusion, to remember who he is, and what’s important. To sort through the emotions flooding through him.

And then Batman says “Yes, something is definitely bleeding.”

See, this isn’t the the time or the place for a joke. Not like that.

Realistically, Bruce should be dead. Clark must have held back something shocking not to have killed him. He’s in bad shape. This silly wise-crack just doesn’t ring true as something that Bruce would say here.

The other reason I don’t like this line is because it’s kind of making a mockery of a serious moment in Batman V Superman. Warner Bros pandered way too much to their critics in the making of this movie, and in doing so, they kind of spat in the face of their most dedicated fans. They were so obsessed with saving face they forgot we existed. They forgot that plenty of people enjoyed those previous movies. In the end, the critics mattered more than we did. We who stuck by them and defended their previous films. It felt pretty insulting, to be honest. But this will be felt more strongly when we get to the end.

Meanwhile, the league were so distracted dealing with Clark that they completely ignored the mother box. That was really stupid. As a result, Steppenwolf swoops in and grabs it. Now he has all three.

So Clark takes Lois back to smallville. The Kent farm.

Lois says Clark smells good.

Really?

He’s been in the ground for a long time. He’s literally a re-animated corpse. He’s probably covered with some kind of embalming fluid or something. I don’t know a lot about the preparation of bodies. He’s certainly not wearing any aftershave.

What on earth is she on about? What a stupid line.

And then he responds, “Did I not before?” 

He’s Superman, not Lieutenant Commander Data.

I think Aquaman has written off the whole Superman thing as a big mistake. Whatever Lois may or may not be able to do for Clark, Arthur isn’t counting on getting any help from Superman.

He blames Victor for not being able to control the machine. I have to say, the conflict between the heroes in the first Avengers movie played a lot better than this stuff.

And then before we can do any serious character exploration, we’re interrupted by another stupid joke about Barry’s blood sugar.

The whole exchange between Bruce and arthur about asking the fish to keep an eye out for the mother boxes is awkward.

Fish are not sapient, so … talking to fish is probably not the best way to word it. Maybe it’s more that Arthur can kinda see through their eyes? I dunno. Bruce really isn’t sure what to believe about the mythology surrounding Aquaman.

Ben Affleck’s Batman is a very different character in this movie. I don’t just mean that he’s changed as a person for the better, inspired by Superman’s sacrifice. That’s just good character development. 

No, it’s something else. Something feels off. And I think it’s mostly just the comedic influence of Joss Whedon. 

I’m not a whedon hater. He’s done some great stuff. And I loved the humorous turns of phrase he gave the characters in Firefly. But it really doesn’t suit Batman, especially this version of Batman.

I just don’t feel like I’m watching Batfleck. Even though it’s Ben Affleck playing him.

When Dianna says Clark could have killed Bruce, he replies with “I was willing to make the trade.”

I kinda like that. He finally sees the benefit of Superman. He sees his power in a new light. He no longer views Superman as a threat. Bruce wasn’t cut out for fighting villains like Steppenwolf. He’s just a man. And he’s getting older. When Dianna says “You can’t do this forever,” he says “I can barely do it now.”

These two characters actually have a half-decent conversation. It’s a nice moment. Dianna reflects on her isolation. She’d fight when we was needed (I guess one of those times was in 1984 as we’ll see in the upcoming movie) but she never wanted to step into the light and lead, inspire.

Bruce isn’t a leader either. He lives his life in the shadows, dressed as a bat.

There’s only one person who is really cut out to lead this league.

Cut to Clark standing in a corn field at sunset (or maybe sunrise).

And Lois asks him what coming back from the dead felt like.

And he says “itchy.”

So stupid.

And Lois admits how she’d retreated into herself. She wasn’t strong. She wasn’t Lois Lane Reporter.

Well, of course she wasn’t. The love of her life had died.

If my wife died, I’d be a mess, and I don’t know if I’d ever recover.

Nobody is gonna blame her for not being the old Lois after what happened.

But maybe it’s precisely because she’s Lois Lane that she holds herself to such a high standard. That’s why she’s judging herself.

So basically, all of Clark’s coming to terms with having died and come back, his reunion with Lois, it all happens off screen.

So we get an explanation as to why Stemmelwolf has set up shop in remote eastern Europe. He wants to be somewhere there’s isn’t a lot of internet connectivity to prevent Victor from tracking the mother boxes. Ok. That makes sense.

It looks like he’s already started to re-create apocalypse

But he kicks the process off properly. And it just feels like a pale shallow shadow of the terraforming in Man of Steel.

Bruce’s troop carrier looks more like a spaceship. Unless it’s got some alien technology in it, I’m not buying it.

And then the scene where Aquaman spills his guts because he’s sitting on the laso of truth.

And they just let him keep going, looking just slightly awkward.

Even bruce kinda raises his hand but can’t quite get any words out.

I mean, this is Bruce Wayne. Just say “Mate, you’re sitting on the Laso. stop talking.”

Anyway, another example of comedy that didn’t really work for me.

And this is where the movie really falls apart for me. The climax.

I just can’t help but compare it to Man of Steel.

This is an alien invasion situation. This is the apocalypse. Man of Steel made me feel it. This movie does not.

It all just feels so cartoony. There’s no real emotion here.

There’s no sense of scope.

And here’s another difference between this movie and the previous ones.

You see, there are certain elements of comic book stories that are silly. That make no sense.

An example here is how Aquaman brought a pitchfork (actually a trident) as his weapon to save the world.

Movies like Man of Steel and Batman V Superman interpret these things in a way to make them work, or, if they can’t make it work, they just set it aside.

But this movie (And a lot of the Marvel movies) choose a different approach. They call it out as silly and kinda make fun of it. There was a similar moment in Avengers Age of Ultron when Hawkeye says “I’m here with a bow and arrow. None of this makes any sense”. Realistically, Hawkeye probably shouldn’t be an avenger.

I don’t like it when these movies try to be tongue and cheek and make fun of these things.

Another problem is that Aquaman is having way too much fun for someone in a desperate fight to save the human race. A fight that he admitted a few minutes back that he doesn’t think they can win.

I really hope the Snyder Cut does something more with The Flash than have him make silly jokes all the time.

So Superman finally arrives to help, and he’s making smart-alec one liners like a cheesy 80s action movie star.

So Superman and Cyborg successfully pull the boxes apart. And then Superman laughs uncontrollably for no reason.

And then Wonder woman looks down her nose and calls them children.

I found this moment pretty condescending. What exactly did they do to warrant that? Was it just the laughing? I mean, I find that annoying and out of place, but I don’t think it warrants her statement. And yes, she’s a lot older than the rest of them, but that still doesn’t explain it.

Making Steppenwolf afraid so that the parademons would turn on him WAS  a good plan.

The alien plants growing out of the half- transformed landscape was kinda cool. Though, again, they probably could have made more of it. I mean, think about this, A section of Earth has been partially terraformed, with flora never before known to man. And it’s never mentioned in the DCEU again.

I’m a little surprised Bruce didn’t just help Martha with her financial troubles before she had to sell her house. In fact, the more I think about it, the more surprised I am. He felt responsible for what happened to Clark. He would have kept an eye out for her.

Anyway, it’s fixed now.

So Barry has a job in a crime lab, so he’s on track to become the Bary Allen we know. This is not the way you do a character arc. The movie set it up at the start, and paid it off at the end, but there was nothing in between. Nothing about Barry’s experiences in the movie really helped motivate him. All he did in between was crack stupid jokes. The journey itself needs to tie in thematically with the growth he experiences.

And then we get the voiceover from Lois talking all about optimism.

This was so on the nose.

It almost felt like an apology for the previous films.

Don’t worry guys, from now on, we’ll be optimistic and positive and light and happy. All that dark stuff before was a mistake, but it’s fixed now.

It kinda felt like a kick in the gut to me.

So then we roll credits, with some really bland music. To be honest, there’s not a single memorable piece of music in this movie. The only music that does stand out is the stuff taken from other movies.

And we have a mid-credit scene where Superman and The Flash decide to race and find out who is fastest (spoiler alert, it REALLY should be Barry. After all, he’s the fastest man alive.) 

Anyway, it’s kinda pointless. I thought Smallville did a better version of this scene way back.

And then the after credit scene which shows Lex Luthor has escaped from jail and is forming his own league. His first recruit is Slade Wilson, otherwise known as Death Stroke. I don’t expect this particular thread to ever be picked up again.

So that was Justice League.

It felt really out of place after the last 4 movies.

It was at least as good as an average Marvel movie, but a far cry from the really good Marvel movies.

And frankly, this may be unfair, but I hold DC movies to a higher standard.

Partly because I care more about the DC characters, and probably partly also because Zack Snyder set the bar so high with the first two movies.

When I re-watched the last three movies, taking notes and analysing them, I found I loved them even more than before.

With this one, I think it was the opposite. The other movies are still so fresh in my memory, so the contrast is really glaring.

I have no idea which scenes were Whedon re-shoots. I have no idea what will be different in Zack Snyder’s cut.

I do know that he won’t be using a single frame of footage he didn’t shoot. So we’ll have a much greater understanding of who did what when it comes out.

I’m sorry to finish this on such a downer. 

I can say I definitely like the first half of the movie more than the second half. I think there’s potential here but that potential was just never fully realised. And that gives me hope that the Snyder Cut could be awesome. We’ll just have to wait and see.

.

My original plan was to stop at Justice League and move on to other things. After all, my favourite DCEU movies are those before Justice League. My plan was to start an episode-by-episode look at the two seasons of Stargate Universe. But I realised that with Discovery Season 3 starting in October, I’d only get a couple of episodes in and then have to switch tracks.

So instead, I’m gonna continue with the DCEU, talking about Aquaman and Shazam. Because both of those movies are worth talking about. They’re both good movies.

And that’ll almost take me up to Discovery.

I haven’t seen Birds of Prey, so I probably won’t be doing an episode on that.

I still very much want to cover Stargate Universe, but it won’t be happening immediately. We’ll definitely get there though. It’s an underrated show in my opinio, and one that hasn’t been talked about near enough.

But next fortnight, We’ll be delving into Aquaman.

Catch you then.

In a suprise twist, CBS All Access made the first episode of Star Trek Lower Decks available to watch on youTube worldwide. They geo-locked it not long after, but I managed to see the show in that little window when it was available.

So, here is the review I never thought I'd be able to give you. I present Star Trek Lower Decks "Second Contact".

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Transcript

Welcome to Nerd Heaven.

I’m Adam David Collings, the author of Jewel of The Stars

And I am a Nerd.

This is episode 33 of the podcast.

I wasn’t expecting to do this episode. I thought we’d just be going straight into Justice League next week. But CBS All Access just did something unexpected.

They’ve released the first episode of Star Trek Lower Decks onto youTube to watch for free for a limited time.

And best of all, they’ve not geo-locked it, so it can be watched anywhere in the world.

That means I can watch it and share my thoughts about it here.

So that’s what we’re doing today.

I’m very grateful they’ve done this. I don’t want to sound too entitled, but I almost feel as though they owe us this, after the failure to release the show outside of North America.

Anyway, it’s a nice gesture and I think it was totally the right thing to do on their part.

So thank you CBS. It’s very much appreciated.

*SCRATCHING SOUND*

Okay. Stop the press. This is Adam from the future. You see, we have a problem. The video was only available internationally for a few hours. It has now been geo-locked. So I am far less generous with my praise. Anyway, we’ll get to all that shortly. Back to you, past Adam.

*SCRATCHING SOUND*

So the name of this first episode is Second Contact.

The description on IMDB reads

Ensigns Mariner and Boimler run into difficulty on Galar. Meanwhile, an alien virus infects the crew of the Cerritos.

The episode was written by Mike McMaan.

It was directed by Barry J Kelly and Juno John Lee

And it first aired on the 6th of August 2020

Make it so.

So Lower Decks is such a strange beast. It’s an animated comedy, and yet, it’s so Star Trek. I could already tell this from the trailer, but the show has been mode out of a great love and reverence for Star Trek. The visuals, the sound effects, the music. It’s very trek, and specifically, very TNG.

We first encounter the USS Ceritos docked at Douglas Station, which, like a lot of starbases in the 24th century, is designed like the space dock in orbit of Earth as first seen in Star Trek III. I love that design.

The premise of having a ship dedicated to second contacts was kind of a brilliant idea. It means that even the senior bridge officers are, in a way, lower decks themselves. Just like the ensigns who are the stars of the show, they’re the lowly guys, trying to live up to the shadow cast by the crews of more important ships, such as the Enterprise, Defiant and Voyager.

And we see that, especially in the captain, who is looking for meaning and significance in her job making second contact.

Nice to see they got the stardate correct, for a post-nemesis show.

The opening log entry kind of lulls you into a false sense of security, because the minute Mariner sees Boimler in the closet things ramp up significantly.

And again, we saw this in the trailer. Mariner is so overly hyperactive I actually find it a little hard to watch her sometimes. I feel like I need to give her a stimulant just to keep up. Talking at a hundred kilometers an hour, bouncing around the room. It’s like she’s on a permanent coffee high or something. 

It’s kind of exhausting just watching her. Admittedly, she’s very drunk when we first see her, but even sobre, she’s intense. She’s like that for pretty much the whole episode. She goes from hyper, to extra hyper and back again.

And that ends the teaser.

So … now I have a brand new Star Trek opening theme to talk about.

The music begins very much like the discovery theme, with a variation on the dings from the start of the TOS theme. Then there’s a bit that almost seems reminiscent of the animated series theme.

The main piece of music is not as memorable as any of the 90s Trek shows, but it seems to fit the series. It’s kind of operatic and heroic, which is amusingly paired with imagery of the USS Ceritos messing up and failing in various ways.

I don’t think we’re meant to take these scenes too seriously. I don’t think we consider the opening titles of any other show canon as such.

But the titles themselves use the classic blue TNG font. And the episode-specific credits, like writer, director etc all play over act 1, just link in the old days. This give a really strong Next Generation vibe to the whole thing which I really liked.

And they use the proper warp effect from the TNG days as well.

And this is where we run into a problem.

The way I usually do these, with something I haven’t seen before, is I’ll watch it twice. The first time, I’m just watching for pure entertainment value.

I don’t take any notes.

The second time, I basically write the script for my podcast, pausing frequently as I go through the episode.

I first discovered that this episode had been made available in the evening. Once the kids were off to bed I watched it. I stayed up to start making a few notes here and got as far as the end of the opening credits. Then I went to bed.

I came to continue the work this morning over breakfast, only to discover that CBS All Access had geo-locked the video.

So I can’t watch it the second time.

I’m just going to have to talk about the rest of the episode from memory.

And I’m gonna have to push through my bitter disappointment with CBS and try not to let that colour my thoughts.

This is just another example of CBS flinging their feces at their international fans.

It just feels like they're playing with us.

I have a whole lot of hard feelings built up within me right now, but I’m not going to depordise my family friendly status to fully express them.

I’m one of the lucky ones, I at least got it see it within that window of a few hours.

But I’m afraid I’m not going to be able to do this podcast justice. And for that, I apologise to you listeners. All 4 of you.

Ok, back to the episode.

We see Tendi arrive on the Ceritos with a number of other new crew. 

She’s so wide-eyed about being here. She’s the Starfleet fangirl. She’s kind of represents us, the Star Trek fans

But in a different way to Boimler. He’s got all this promotion anxiety. He’s desperate to move up the ranks. Tendi is just excited to be here. Doesn’t matter if she’s an ensign or an admiral. She’s in Starfleet, and that’s so exciting to her.

We get to see a lot of familiar Star Trek races in this episode. There’s a benzite behind her, complete with breathing thing.

Boiler and Mariner are both in the command division. Which is interesting, because Boimler is currently repairing a broken replicator. That’s a job for a yellow-shirt engineer.

But it raises the question. What does a junior officer in the command division do?

We often see them as helm officers, such as Tom Paris,  the random extras that sat at the helm of the Enterprise D, and Wesley Crusher, for that matter.

Being the liaison for a newly arrived officer does make sense. That’s a good training ground for command.

We get to learn quite a bit about Boimler and Mariner in this next section of the story. Boiler is formal and straight-laced, but Mariner is easy-going and doesn’t care about the rules.

We also learn that Mariner has a lot more experience. She’s been in Starfleet longer, and she’s previously held a higher rank. That’s really interesting.

We very briefly meet Rutherford, but he’ll become more important later on.

So they visit the holodeck, which looks and sounds just like a holodeck should. Note that it’s the older model like on the Enterprise D, not the newer model like on Voyager. But that makes sense. This ship has probably been around a long time.

We learn that Tendi has never seen sand before, so I guess there are no beaches or deserts on the Orion homeworld. She would have spent years on earth at Starfleet Academy, but I guess she never went anywhere she’d see sand.

And I have to say, it’s nice to see an Orion female who is not a sex slave. Star Trek 2009 gave us an Orion woman who was a starfleet officer, and yet, it still managed to have her stripped down to her underwear.

Anyway, it’s nice to see that Orion women in the 24th century can live a normal life.

So we get our first look at the planet Galar, and we see the Galardonians. They’re kind of pig-like creatures with big heads. I’m not sure how well they really fit in with the Star Trek universe. Animation gives this show the opportunity to show some variety in the aliens, so they don’t just all look like humans with bumps on their faces, which is great, but these guys look a little too cheesy, a little too …. Kiddie.

Anyway, first officer Jack Ransom gets bitten by an inspect, which he completely dismisses. That’s a really bad idea. You get bitten by an unknown alien insect on a planet you’re not overly familiar with, you should make sure it’s not gonna kill you. That should be basic Starfleet procedure.

The exchange between Ransom and Stevens, which we saw in the trailer, didn’t feel very Star Treky. It’s not so much that they talk about having a cold beer after a successful mission, it’s just the general way they talk to each other and I dunno, I can’t quite remember, was it high fives, or chest bumps or something. It just didn’t feel very 24th century to me.

Anyway, Boiler is called into the Captain’s office. She sees some potential in him, which is exactly what he’s hoping for. But she gives him a special assignment. She is to report any breaches in protocol made by Ensign Marriner directly to her.

Not only that, but he’s to keep this a secret.

That puts Boimler in a very difficult situation. He’s essentially expected to spy on his friend and covertly pass information on her behaviour back to the captain.

Frankly, I think it’s inappropriate of a captain to ask this of him.

Now these are the kinds of nitpicks that you’re possibly not supposed to make with an aminated comedy. I mean, the rules are different.

And I’m still trying to figure out how to reorient my brain, how to consume this story in a different way. And I’m definitely still figuring out how to talk about it.

There is clearly something going on between the captain and Mariner. So why would the captain concern herself over a lowly ensign like this? We’ll see.

So Boimler and Mariner beam down to help build the subspace relay.  Liked the transporter effect, both the visual and the sound. It very much felt like a TNG movie era transporter.

Rutherford is having a date in the crew lounge with Ensign Barnes, who appears to be a trill. They’re really hitting it off well. But then something weird happens to Ransom. His inspect bite has infected him with some kind of zombie virus. And this is really weird. As they duck for cover behind a table, Rutherford and Barnes just keep talking calmly, getting to know each other. All this stuff between those two was really sweet, and I kinda liked that, but I just don’t know how to take their reaction to the chaos around them. There is one situation where the loose realities of an animated comedy might be pushed too far for me.

Back on the planet, Boiler notices Mariner has snuck some supplies into an argo and drives off. Believing she’s doing something illegal, he follows her.

We meet the ship’s chief medical officer, T’Ana, who is Caitian. Still not sure what to think of her. She’s got less bedside manner than the holographic doctor from Voyager season 1. I’m sure she’s got some compassion we’ve yet to see, but she comes across a bit prickly in this episode. But I can hardly blame her given what she’s dealing with.

So Tendi has to manually massage a guy’s heart while it’s outside of his chest. Again, this was a step too far for me.

It turns out, Mariner is giving farming equipment to some Galardonian farmers. But in the chaos, as Boimler confronts her, an alien animal is released from it’s  barn and begins to chase the two ensigns.

So technically Mariner is breaking the rules. She left her post, and she’s giving this equipment before it has been authorised by the Federation. She believes these farmers can’t wait that long. So, yeah, breaking the law, but her heart is in the right place. She’s genuinely trying to help these people. She’s not just being an idiot.

The farmers need that animal and Mariner isn’t going back until they retrieve it.

We get a bit more insight into Mariner’s character at this point. She was present during first contact with this planet before she was demoted and transferred to the Ceritos.

She’s actually got a decent amount of experience.

She’s a bit of a Kirk. She like to think for herself, outside the strict bounds of starfleet protocol.

Boiler is a sticker for the rules, which sets these two at odds, or maybe not at odds, but definitely opposite ends of thespectrum.

I’ve gotta say, I identify ay more with Boimler. I’m a sticker for the rules myself.

But it’s a nice dynamic between these two.

So stunning the creature will spoil it’s milk (the farmers confirm this).

Mariner draws on her years of experience and comes up with the bright idea of having them both strip down to their undies, and distract the creature with dummies dressed in their uniforms.

I imagine this particular story point was put in here to amp up the sexiness factor.

It kinda works but Boimler ends up in the creature’s mouth.

Turns out the animal is a herbivore and is suckling Boimler for moisture. Which doesn’t make a lot of sense. I mean how much moisture is it gonna get off his skin. A little sweat to start, maybe. But the things keeps sucking him in and out of its mouth for an extended period of time. And Mariner just lets it do it. No further attempt to rescue him. Sure, he’s not in danger of being eaten, but this is clearly a very unpleasant experience for him, so I found her pretty heartless here.

Rutherford and Barnes are continuing to get along great. They seem perfect for each other. But just as she kisss him, he’s distracted by a strange engineering problem. Now we think, at first, that he’s the stereotypical nerd, so absorbed in his obsession that he doesn’t even notice the hot girl hitting on him, but the episode actually twists this trope. As we learn in a conversation with Tendi later, he was well aware of her, and puzzled by her lack of interest in the engineering problem. If she has so little interest in a problem like that, she’s clearly not the girl for him, and he doesn’t plan on seeing her again. Interesting.

Boiler and Mariner beam up to find things really out of control, but T’ana realises the pink slime from the animal can cure the zombie virus. The senior officers protect him at all costs, not because he’s important, but because the slime is important.

The crew are cured, and everything is back to normal.

And it seems Boimler is getting no credit at all for his part in saving the ship.

(although technically, his only contribution was having slime on him. He didn’t actually figure out the slime was useful)

Anyway, having gotten to know Mariner a little better, he chooses not to report her breach of protocol. He protects his friend and lies to his captain.

The captain is annoyed. She was really hoping to have some dirt on Marnier. So what’s her obsession?

It turns out, Mariner is the captain’s daughter. Her husband is a Starfleet admiral. They have no idea how to handle their kid.

So….Mariner is a starfleet brat. When your mum is a captain, and your father is an admiral, you’re probably gonna have some rebellious tendencies.

That’s why she acts up so much.

And yet, she’s not totally against the ideals of starfleet, she just doesn’t like the rules.

Mariner is thrilled he didn’t rat her out and vows to be his mentor and help him reach the rank of captain.

Honestly, I’m not sure she’s the best person to be his mentor, but maybe she’ll be good for him, and maybe he’ll be good for her. They might find some balance between them.

And then she starts rattling off all these famous figures from Starfleet history.

In the end, it turns out that all 4 of our major characters are big Starfleet fans, but all in different ways.

Tendi just loves everything about starfleet. She’s the wide-eyed fan.

Boiler is the rule sticker who dreams of sitting in the captain’s chair.

Rutherford is the techie trekkie who loves all the technical manuals and made up science

And Mariner loves the legends of starfleet, she’s just a bit of a rebel.

At first, I thought Tendi was the character that represented us.

But I now realised, that all four characters represent different aspects of fandom.

And I think that’s really clever.

It gives us all a character we can relate to.

In the end, I was impressed with the character dynamics we got in this show. I like these characters and I’ve love to spend more time with them. I’m sure that I’ll have that chance some day, when they finally organise an international deal for the show.

As I said, I didn’t really connect with this show on a comedic level, but I did connect with it on an emotional character level.

Oh, it’s a show I find hard to take seriously, but it’s not the kind of show you’re supposed to take seriously.

But issues with it have nothing to do with uniforms or the finer points of canon. This show has already done a significantly better job on all that stuff than either Discover or Picard ever have. My difficult just comes from the tone, and from the overly-ramped up nature of some characters (particular Mariner).

While I may have trouble reconciling this wacky cartoon with the rest of the Star Trek universe, I can say that I certainly enjoyed watching it, and would very happily continue to do so.

So well done to Mike McMahon and his team for pushing the boundaries in a very creative way, and giving us a kind of Star Trek none of us would ever have thought to ask for.

I’m very disappointed in CBS’s decision to geo-lock this video after a very short time. I’m so lucky I got to see it in that little window.

I understand there might be a good reason. It may be related to ongoing negotiations over international rights, but I feel they’re just kicking us while we’re down. They keep offering hope and then snatching it away.

And never once have we had an actual apology from them.

I think a “sorry, we know this sucks,” would have been really nice.

Anyway. I think I’ve sufficiently beaten this dead horse.

Next week, we’ll be back to our regularly scheduled episode looking at the Justice League movie. I actually recorded that before this one.

Originally, I was planning to stop there, but I think I’ll probably also cover Aquaman and Shazam. (I can’t talk about Birds of Prey because I haven’t seen it).

That’ll almost bring us up to the beginning of Discovery Season 3.

So have a great week. See you next time in Nerd Heaven.