Thursday 26 October 2017

ST:Discovery - AfterTrek (S01E05)

First: yes, I haven't written anything in a year. I'll get back to that in a modelling-related blog.

Second: today we're talking about StarTrek - Discovery, the new series. If you don't know what that is, stop reading :-).

I did not want to abbreviate it in the title as STD, which feels ... icky. Not sure what the common abbreviation will become. DSC, ST:DSC, ...?



If you didn't know already from my huge collection of Star Trek scale models : yes, I was a BIIG Star Trek fan throughout the entire series. I was too young for TOS, but saw the reruns, and TNG, DS9, VOY as it was released. For some reason, ENT never makes it to the initial list, but always as an afterthought. Maybe I should give it another chance.

Now, I've been watching the new episodes (6 now) with great anticipation. It feels different than previous Trek, but I'm liking it stil. More action, but enough TechnoBabble and SciFi-stuff to quench my thirst.

I've also been watching each episode of AfterTrek, which discusses the episode we've just seen and invites one or more actors or writers. The only downside is that it takes 40 minutes, which is like watching another episode, while I feel it could easily be handled in 15.

Discussing Star Trek around the lunch-table at work (I love - some of - my coworkers :-)) is something I appear to have really missed, but I learned that I got a lot more backstory-material from watching AfterTrek than just watching the episode.

So, for those who did not spend the time to watch it, I will summarize what we learned from AfterTrek that you may not have spotted or simply missed altogether in episode 5 (more blogs to come when I feel they're "needed").
  • The female captain of the Klingon prisonship (the one who tortures Lorca) is L'rell. This is the same person that went into Exile with Voq (The albino Klingon, Torchbearer) on the - now derelict - USS Shenzhou.
    It only took her 3 (4?) weeks to go from stranded to being Commander on a Prisonship. I have no clue where Voq fits in the picture. One can assume the story will be revisited in later episodes.
  • The mirror-scene at the end : Lt. Stamets turns around and walks away from the mirror, while his mirror image remains standing for 10 more seconds before also walking away.
    I guess we should know not to inject alien DNA into our bodies.
    To be explained later, I guess...

  • The tardigrade was originally going to make it as a member of the crew, actually becoming Stamets' boss. A uniform and workstation was designed, but the storyline was abandoned (CGI-costs too high?)
If you have noteworthy additions to this list, feel free to send me a comment.