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"Red Directive" & "Under The Twin Moons" — Star Trek: Discovery Episode Discussion
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this post was submitted on 04 Apr 2024
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Fire up the inertial dampeners, retract all moorings and clear space dock. It's time to boldy go where no one has gone before!
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I'd just like to say, after spending the previous four season of Disco on "everything sunny all the time always" /r/startrek, it's real refreshing to be able to come to an episode discussion and see one of the top mods just straight up going "child, what the fuck was that?"
Glad I'm not the only one bugged to hell by the "This is a Red Directive." "Hi, audience here, what is that?" "idk bro you figure it out lol" routine. This is the, like, fifth damn synonym for "super-duper double-dog extra important top-secret thing" you've come up with, guys, just pick a lane already, or else five years from now we're gonna end up with a season-long arc about a General Order Black Code Double-Red Priority Level One Section Alpha 31 Critical Omega Alert Directive.
I'm not sure which would be more obnoxious: if "Red Directive" turns out to just be exactly what I've already inferred from context, making all the sinister cryptic vagueness completely unnecessary; or if six episodes from now they pull the rest of the context out of their ass and try to act like it's a major revelation, like, "ooh, haven't you forgotten captain, if you fail a red directive mission it means you go to space jail and we blow up your ship???"
They've got what could be an incredibly significant story arc going here, and I'm gonna be a little miffed if they spend the bulk of it getting repeatedly pantsed by a couple of horny street urchins instead of, like, pondering the vast untapped mysteries of the ancient cosmos or some shit.
Yeah, it's just frustrating going into what should be a final victory lap for the whole show, one last grand send-off for the crew, and:
A) having to wait until the very end of the episode before you even get a clear answer about what the plot is you're supposed to care about, and
B) having the whole episode center around a conflict that is only an issue because the characters keep making dumb mistakes that we know they're way too smart to make, and that only gets progressed because they keep stumbling into favorable contrivances like being shot through the hull of a warbird at just the right angle to spot a cloaked ship taking off.
Ideally you'd want it the other way around, smart protagonists driving the plot forward with their smart decisions and a competent antagonist that's unpredictable enough to stay a few steps ahead. That's why the last four seasons worked, really, the bulk of the overarching conflict came from the crew being made to punch way above their weight class, and having to just stop and puzzle out how to take down an entire alien crusade or a time-travelling cyborg or some Cthulhu monsters that are so far ahead of the rest of the galaxy that they literally don't even notice that they're vacuuming up inhabited planets. Not as much fun watching a seasoned Starfleet crew getting routinely bodied by shots we've seen easily dodged a half-dozen times already. How long have we been playing "whoops, the bad guys got away and we can't track them" game, at this point, and they're still falling for it? Or the "whoops, Burnham thought she knew better than the people in charge and the bad guys used it to sucker-punch us" game? Like, c'mon, it's the end of the show, I think you can let the character development stick just this once.
Also? Kinda annoyed that like half the crew is getting sidelined for Burnham and Book to have just-like-old-times-adventure #17 featuring some crusty old rando sniping from the peanut gallery. I'd like to spend a little more than one scene per episode with the rest of the supporting cast before the end of the series, maybe that's just me. So far it feels like there's been more Stamets in this comment thread than there's been Stamets on the show.