Star Trek Discovery "Scavengers" Detailed Analysis and Review

11/22/20 • 27 min

In the latest episode of Star Trek Discovery, Michael Burnham must choose between loyalty to Starfleet, and her captain, and helping a friend. Cleaveland Booker has located a black box that could provide vital information into the source of the burn, but he has been captured. This was a solid action episode with some nice connections to the larger arc, in both plot and character.

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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 43 of the podcast.

Today, we’re talking about Star Trek Discovery “Scavengers”

The description on Memory Alpha reads

After receiving a message from Book, Burnham and Georgiou embark on a rogue mission to find him, leaving Saru to pick up the pieces with Admiral Vance. Meanwhile, Stamets forms an unexpected bond with Adira.

This episode was written by Anne Cofell Saunders

It was directed by Douglas Aarniokoski

And it first aired on the 19th of November 2020.

Make it so.

We begin the episode with a zooming out shot of the USS Discovery, which has undergone an extensive refit to bring it in line with 32nd-century technology. As we pull back, we see the name and registry have been repainted. NCC 1031-A.

Okay. That’s kind of a big deal. So this is now the Discovery A.

But is that valid?

The letter is added to the registry when a brand new ship is constructed and given the name of an iconic ship. But this isn’t a new ship. It’s a refit to the same ship. It’s a very extensive refit, but then, so was the refit to Kirk’s original Enterprise in Star Trek The Motion Picture. But that ship was not the Enterprise A. It was just the Enterprise. The Enterprise A was a brand-new ship that first appeared at the end of Star Trek IV after the original was destroyed in Star Trek III.

So...technically, this shouldn’t be the Discovery A. However, it could be argued that this refit is even more extensive than the one from The Motion Picture. And maybe the rules for registry numbers have changed over the centuries. So ... I think we can just accept it.

I’ll admit that I do get a bit of a kick out of the A.

This refit has taken 3 weeks. They’ve installed programmable matter, which makes a lot of sense.

They’ve also detached the nacelles.

Saru says this is to make the engines more efficient and the ship more maneuverable.

The nacelles are floating next to the ship. I’ll admit, this whole detached nacelles thing is a bit weird to me. My first reaction is, that’s silly and doesn’t make any sense. My second reaction is, 930 years have passed. We SHOULD be seeing things that are so wacky and out there that they seem to make no sense. That’s actually logical. So the more unbelievable it is, the more believable it is.

I assume the nacelles are kept close to the ship by some kind of tractor beam or gravity field. How does the power get to them? Wireless power, I suppose. That’s already kind of a thing.

So ultimately, I approve, even though I think it’s weird.

In the briefing meeting, Saru gets some insight into the kinds of missions that Starfleet is now carrying out.

Helping with food shortages. Delivery supplies. Helping planets that are facing solar flares.It’s all very humanitarian aid, and the distances can cause significant difficulties.

Saru immediately sees where Discovery could help. The spore drive would save a lot of time in helping these people. I like how Vance agrees that he could use ten Discoveries, but since he only has one, he needs them to stay close, ready to serve as a rapid response unit.

When Vance says “Rapid Responder” one of the other captains acts like Vance has sprouted a second head. His reaction seems to be way overdone. I kinda get the feeling that maybe this guy was the previous rapid responder. Maybe he’s feeling outed.

But Vance tells them all about the spore drive. It’s classified information that is not to leave the briefing room.

We’ve never really seen a scene like this, with a bunch of captains getting their assignments from the admiralty. It probably happened a lot during the dominion war.

It’s nice to see that all the captains are wearing a similar uniform to the admiral, but with different rank insignias. It’s good. I really like this uniform. It’s my favourite of all the new uniforms.

Argeth is on Yellow. Alert. The Emerald chain, the Andorian and Orion Syndicate, might be making a move sometime in the next 12 hours. Nobody knows what they want on Argeth, but Vance is determined to make sure they don’t get it. When things come to a head, that’s when Saru needs to jump in and save the day.

So the crew of Discovery are receiving their new com badges. Just like the ones all the other Starfleet officers wear.

But for some reason, they don’t exchang...

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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 43 of the podcast.

Today, we’re talking about Star Trek Discovery “Scavengers”

The description on Memory Alpha reads

This episode was written by Anne Cofell Saunders

It was directed by Douglas Aarniokoski

And it first aired on the 19th of November 2020.

Make it so.

Okay. That’s kind of a big deal. So this is now the Discovery A.

But is that valid?

I’ll admit that I do get a bit of a kick out of the A.

This refit has taken 3 weeks. They’ve installed programmable matter, which makes a lot of sense.

They’ve also detached the nacelles.

Saru says this is to make the engines more efficient and the ship more maneuverable.

I assume the nacelles are kept close to the ship by some kind of tractor beam or gravity field. How does the power get to them? Wireless power, I suppose. That’s already kind of a thing.

So ultimately, I approve, even though I think it’s weird.

In the briefing meeting, Saru gets some insight into the kinds of missions that Starfleet is now carrying out.

Helping with food shortages. Delivery supplies. Helping planets that are facing solar flares.It’s all very humanitarian aid, and the distances can cause significant difficulties.

But Vance tells them all about the spore drive. It’s classified information that is not to leave the briefing room.

We’ve never really seen a scene like this, with a bunch of captains getting their assignments from the admiralty. It probably happened a lot during the dominion war.

So the crew of Discovery are receiving their new com badges. Just like the ones all the other Starfleet officers wear.

But for some reason, they don’t exchang...

Previous Episode

Star Trek Discovery "Die Trying" Detailed Analysis & Review

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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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 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...

Next Episode

Star Trek Discovery "Unification III" Detailed Analysis & Review

In Unification III, Star Trek Discovery gives us a conclusion to the classic beloved Next Generation Story. But can this episode possibly live up to its name? Michael Burnham travels to Ni'Var (formerly Vulcan) where the Vulcan and Romulan people live in peace, thanks to the efforts of her brother Spock. Can she convince them to provide the data that could help understand the source of the burn?

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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 44 of the podcast.

Today, we’re talking about Star Trek Discovery Season 3 Episode 7. Unification III.

The description on Memory Alpha reads

While grappling with the fallout of her recent actions, and what her future might hold, Burnham agrees to represent the Federation in an intense debate about the release of politically sensitive – but highly valuable – Burn data.

The episode was written by Kirsten Beyer

It was Directed by Jon Dudkowski

And it first aired on the 26th of November 2020.

So this is the big one we’ve all been waiting for, ever since the episode titles were released a while back.

Here’s an important guideline for life. If you’re going to name an episode after one of the most beloved and iconic episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation, one that brought Spock himself into the 24th century, you had better make sure the episode lives up to the name.

So...did this episode do that? Let’s talk about it and find out.

In the wake of her demotion from first officer last week, this episode opens with Michael struggling to understand whether she still fits in here. I was talking about this last week. Wondering how much longer Michael is gonna stay in that uniform. She’s asking herself the same question. She believes in the ideals of the Federation, no question. But struggles with the chain of command. She’s the kind of person who wants to get things done. She sees something that needs doing, she’s just gotta do it. Regardless of who tells her not to.

But there’s another aspect to it as well. As much as she wants to be with her family on Discovery, she’s grown close to Book, and she wants to be with him too. He has no interest in joining Starfleet. She’s caught between two worlds who don’t want to collide.

I like how this season is continuing to call out Burnham on her need to take responsibility for everything. They’re kind of portraying it as a character flaw. I’d say this does help to alleviate the whole “everything is about Michael Burnham” problem that the show will probably always suffer from.

So Michael and Tilly have an awkward catch-up. It’s a good scene. It gives some character consequence to the events of the previous episode. Nothing is really resolved, because sometimes things can’t be easily resolved, and Michael has a lot of soul-searching to do at the moment, so Tilly takes them back to the task at hand.

With three black boxes, they have proven that the burn had an origin point. But it’s still not enough data points to fully pinpoint the location. Tilly says the three data points would be enough to triangulate in two dimensions, but in three-dimensional space, they’d need more. I found myself wondering if this was just nonsense, or based on real science. I did a quick look, and according to Wikipedia, Triangulations of a three-dimensional volume would involve subdividing it into tetrahedra (which are triangular pyramids) packed together. So Tilly is actually correct. But the big question remains if Michael is senior science officer, how come she doesn’t know basic geometry? The answer to that, is they need to explain things to the audience. It’s basically a glorified “as you know Bob” conversation.

And we learn the name of the first ship, whose black box Michael got her hands on. The USS Yelchin. This, of course, is a nice tribute to Anton Yelchin, the actor who played Checkov in the Kelvin-verse movies. Who was tragically killed way too young. I appreciate these little moments.

Michael has found a record of an old Federation experiment, SP-19, which had a front-row seat to the burn. They must have valuable information, but they never shared their findings.

Admiral Vance says we don’t have access to their information, because it’s on Ni’Var, a planet that was once called Vulcan.

And this is the part of the episode where we get lots of goosebumps. It turns out, it’s not just the Vulcans who live there now. They share their planet with the Romulans.

Saru and Burnham have heard of the Romulans, but know of them only as the enemy who fought a war with Earth in the 22nd century. Vance quickly breaks the news to them that Romulans and Vulcans were two tribes of the same species that went their separate ways. Correct. Discovery came from a time before Balance of Terror, so they shouldn’t know ...