butterfly tears star trek

• Cast & crew
• User reviews

The Deadly Years

• Episode aired Dec 8, 1967

A landing party from the Enterprise is exposed to strange form of radiation which rapidly ages them. A landing party from the Enterprise is exposed to strange form of radiation which rapidly ages them. A landing party from the Enterprise is exposed to strange form of radiation which rapidly ages them.

• Joseph Pevney
• Gene Roddenberry
• David P. Harmon
• William Shatner
• Leonard Nimoy
• DeForest Kelley
• 31 User reviews
• 12 Critic reviews

• Captain James Tiberius 'Jim' Kirk

• Mister Spock

• Commodore Stocker

• Janet Wallace

• Christine Chapel

• Mr. Johnson
• Yeoman Atkins
• Mrs. Johnson

• Arlene Galway
• (uncredited)

• Lieutenant Leslie
• Enterprise Lieutenant
• All cast & crew
• Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

Did you know

• Trivia The cast wore oversized versions of their costumes as their characters aged in order to give the impression that they were shrinking.
• Goofs At the start of the competency hearing, Spock states that Captain Kirk is entitled to question the witnesses after the board has finished examining them. He then questions four witnesses as well as the ship's computer without ever giving Kirk an opportunity to do so. He even dismisses one of the witnesses from the hearing immediately after her direct examination.

Chekov : [darkly] Give some more blood, Chekov. The needle won't hurt, Chekov. Take off your shirt, Chekov. Roll over, Chekov. Breathe deeply, Chekov. Blood sample, Chekov. Marrow sample, Chekov. Skin sample, Chekov. If-if I live long enough, I'm going to run out of samples.

Sulu : You'll live.

Chekov : Oh, yes, I'll live, but I won't enjoy it.

• Alternate versions Special Enhanced version Digitally Remastered with new exterior shots and remade opening theme song
• Connections Edited from Star Trek: Balance of Terror (1966)
• Soundtracks Theme Music credited to Alexander Courage Sung by Loulie Jean Norman

User reviews 31

• Oct 9, 2006
• December 8, 1967 (United States)
• United States
• Official Facebook
• Desilu Studios - 9336 W. Washington Blvd., Culver City, California, USA
• Desilu Productions
• Norway Corporation
• See more company credits at IMDbPro

Technical specs

• Runtime 50 minutes

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Galactic Journey

[January 2, 1969] Blood, Sweat, and Tears ( Star Trek : "Elaan of Troyius")

On December 23rd, 1968, exactly eleven months after they were captured by North Korea, the crew of the USS Pueblo was finally released, and the world breathed a collective sigh of relief. The USA would not be starting World War III over the incident, and our boys, though they’ve been starved and tortured, are coming home alive for Christmas.

It is thus appropriate that this week’s Star Trek episode revolved around choosing peace instead of war.

In the episode opener, we learn that the Enterprise has been sent to support Petri, Ambassador of Troyius, in his mission to “train” the Dohlman of Elas to be a suitable wife for the Troyian leader. The Dohlman turns out to be a beautiful woman played by France Nuyen, made up to look like Cleopatra in a bathing suit. Her name is Elaan, and she is imperious and demanding, while Petri is servile but contemptuous. They are intractable in their dislike of each other. Kirk quickly becomes exasperated with both of them, telling Petri, “Stop trying to kill each other. Then worry about being friendly.”

In the meantime, the Enterprise is being followed by a “ghost” ship, which eventually materializes and proves to be a Klingon warship. This is a nice callback to Balance of Terror , where the Enterprise played the part of the “ghost ship”, and the recent Enterprise Incident , where we learned that the Klingons now have cloaking technology.

No sooner does the ship reveal itself than Kirk is called away from the bridge again. Elaan has stabbed Petri, who declares that he will have nothing more to do with her.  He also explains to Nurse Chapel that the mysterious “allure” of Elasian women is merely biochemical: “A man whose flesh is once touched by the tears of a woman of Elas has his heart enslaved forever.”

Back in Elaan’s quarters, Kirk is fed up and declares that he will be Elaan’s new teacher. He tells her she is, “an uncivilized savage, a vicious child in a woman's body, an arrogant monster!”

I must admit, my sympathies were thoroughly with Elaan. Despite her imperious attitude in the beginning, it becomes increasingly clear that she has no choice in the political marriage and no desire to be married. At one point she says, “I will not go to Troyius, I will not be mated to a Troyian, and I will not be humiliated, and I will not be given to a green pig as a bribe to stop a war!” And yet, the Enterprise continues on its way to Troyius, regardless of her behavior, her orders, or her protests. It seems she has no true power, but is merely a pawn to be traded, and probably one the Elasians don’t actually care much about.

In fact, I had to wonder if the Elasians didn’t want peace at all, but sent their “Dohlman” to be married as a sop to the Federation. That way they could say they’d tried, and if the Troyians couldn’t handle the Dohlman, well that just proved that peace wasn’t possible between them.

This also nicely sets up the question of why the Federation cares so much about stopping the war between these two planets, to the point of bringing diplomatic pressure and sending one of their best starships to ensure that the wedding and negotiations go well. Scotty blatantly asks the same question in the episode opener, leaving it to rest in the back of our minds as we watch.

The next day, Kryton, one of the Elasian guards, sneaks into Engineering and sabotages the Enterprise . Kirk forces his way into Elaan’s quarters and again begins trying to “teach” her, which mostly consists of wrestling with her and threatening to spank her. She starts to weep, and he wipes away her tears. The effect is immediate, with Kirk’s ire evaporating and transforming into passion.

Kryton is caught, and kills himself rather than allow himself to be subjected to a Vulcan mind meld. Kirk orders Scotty to figure out what Kryton did, then returns to Elaan’s quarters. Elaan tries to convince Kirk to work with the Klingons, but he tells her there are more important things than love: “Elaan, two planets, an entire star system's stability depends on it. We have a duty to forget what happened.”

At this point, those of us who have been watching Star Trek since the beginning already know what’s going to happen: Kirk will always choose the Enterprise over everything else. And indeed, when Spock and McCoy come to roust the captain out of Elaan’s quarters, all it takes for him to leave Elaan behind is to hear that the Klingon ship has changed course and is approaching at warp speed.

Once Kirk gets to the bridge, we’re treated to one of the best combat sequences we’ve seen yet on Star Trek. Kryton’s sabotage, Kirk learns at the last possible moment, was rigging the matter-antimatter unit to blow if the ship went into warp. The Klingon ship therefore starts by trying to bait the Enterprise into going into warp, and that doesn’t work, just firing on them.

The captain sends Elaan to Sickbay because it’s the safest part of the ship. Petri speaks to her there, finally treating her with a modicum of graciousness and respect, and asks her to wear the necklace gifted her by the Troyians, “as a token of respect for the desperate wishes of your people and mine for peace”. She seems genuinely affected by the words and gesture, perhaps realizing that Kirk will truly never sacrifice duty for love.

Back on the bridge, the crew struggles to keep the Klingon ship’s hits to its best shield (Kirk doing a bit of back seat driving as he leans over Sulu and gives him his orders). An impulse-power driven ship is no match for warp, though, and all seems lost.

Elaan appears on the bridge, wearing the Troyian wedding dress and necklace. Spock immediately notes that there are strange readings coming from the necklace. It turns out that the stones, which Elaan says are “common”, are dilithium crystals! (No wonder the Federation and the Klingons are both so interested in this system!) She gives them to the Captain, who has Spock hurry them down to Engineering, where he and Scotty start installing them. Kirk does his best to stall, but the Klingons are unwilling to discuss terms (I imagine that after “The Enterprise Incident” and The Deadly Years , the Klingons have been instructed not to listen to anything the Federation says—or at least nothing that Kirk says.)

The crystals are ready in the nick of time. A photon torpedo at close range leaves the Klingon ship damaged and limping. The Enterprise leaves it behind to fulfill its original mission.

Kirk says farewell to Elaan, who asks him not to forget her. He tells her he has no choice. Nor does she, she replies, only duty and responsibility. It’s clear that she’s come to accept her role, though whether it’s because she realized that her last desperate play to manipulate the captain failed or because her near-death experience made her decide that peace was more important than her personal feelings, we do not know. It is also worth noting that while she goes on to marry into a culture she despises and where she will likely be surrounded by people who hate, fear, and ridicule her (if Petri’s behavior is any indication), Kirk will simply continue doing what he loves. Her choice of “duty” over all else is thus, in my estimation, a far more difficult and admirable one.

McCoy, unsurprisingly (given his track record) discovers an antidote to the Elasian tears. Spock tells him the captain has no need of it, as he’s already found his antidote: the Enterprise .

There were many things to love in this episode, and many things that frustrated me. The “Taming of the Shrew” sequences early on were grating, but the combat was excellent, and to the scriptwriter’s credit, the story did not end with Elaan being “tamed”. In the end, she makes a choice to accept her fate, but she does so with dignity.

The things I liked and didn’t like balanced out pretty well, leaving this a three star episode for me.

The Sum of its Parts

What I found so gratifying about "Elaan of Troyius" was its continuity with the Trek history we've encountered thus far.  Once again, as in "Journey to Babel", the Enterprise is host to a diplomatic mission (though how the ship could house several dozen delegates to the Babel Conference, but Uhura had to give up her room for Elaan, is never explained).  Once again, Kirk shows irritation at having to play nursemaid to a bunch of civilians.  I would find his flip treatment of Elaan demeaning, but it's no worse than he displays to Commissioner Ferris or Commissioner Fox.

I particularly loved the galactopolitical situation depicted in the episode.  Here we have a fairly new Federation system with two hostile planets, abundant with dilithium crystals, perched right at the edge of the Klingon Empire.  What a fraught situation Kirk must navigate!

At first, it was difficult for me to glean the plot behind the plot, but by the end of the episode, the setup was pretty clear.  The Federation, upon learning of the rich deposits on Elaas (and Troyius?) placed a clamp on all dispatches coming out of the system.  Not good enough, though, as the Klingons clearly want the worlds badly, too.  The Feds then explained to the two worlds in the system that they must work things out.  Elaas grudgingly agrees—and then effects two simultaneous plans to queer the deal.

The first is Kryton's sabotage.  By handing the Enterprise over to the Klingons, they get in their good graces (if, indeed, the Klingons have good graces).  Obviously, the savage Klingons are a better fit for for the militaristic Elaasians anyway.

The second is Elaan.  She clearly doesn't want to be there.  Indeed, she does everything she can to get out of it, despite orders from the Elaasian council.  Elaan goes so far as to try to murder the Troyian ambassador and seduce the captain of the Enterprise .  And yet, that scheme fails when Elaan takes a page from Kirk's book, and indeed the example of the whole crew, that duty and the preservation of life trumps all else.  It's a quick, undershown change, but it's there, and I appreciated it.

The episode reminds me a bit of the parable of the peasant woman who shelters a starving prince.  The royal promises to give a gold coin for every fat bubble in the soup she serves.  Greedily, she dumps a huge pat of butter in the soup, which results in one big bubble rather than a myriad of little ones.  Similarly, if the Elaasians had stuck to just one plan, they might have succeeded.  Instead, they double hedged and lost all.

And was the Klingon commander operating with Imperial sanction?  Or was he a rogue skipper with notions of glory?  After all, taking on a starship seems pretty bold given the ever-watchful Organians.

It's not a perfect episode, but it's certainly an engaging one, and I always enjoy seeing Mrs. Robert Culp on the small screen.  Plus, her appearance alongside Shatner is something of a reunion—they starred together in the Broadway version of The World of Suzie Wong .  Plus, I dug both the Klingon ship (which we saw a bit of in "The Enterprise Incident" and "Day of the Dove") and the score for the episode.

Four stars.

Twixt Scylla and Charybdis

The beginning of this week's episode did not seem promising to start, mostly because of the guest characters' first impressions on me. Petri the ambassador seemed childish and reckless in his peacemaking, and Elaan was almost comically uncooperative for royalty sent as a hospitable offering. Looking back, Elaan was possibly playing to her strengths to some end with her antagonistic reactions, and her development with Kirk ultimately became a gripping trial for our captain.

Kirk was the shining star of this episode, which is not something I feel about him often. He was impressively quick-witted against biochemical and psychological manipulation, which really sold his captain qualities for me more than his usual speeches or fights. The way Kirk kept his priorities in check while thinking on his feet reminded me of how Spock left me feeling in " The Tholian Web " when he held the ship together without Kirk. In the short time I have known Kirk, he has struck me as the type to always know what to say and fight when there is no other choice. Kirk managed to unravel the layers of the princess's antics even with serious disadvantages, revealing what his problem solving is like when he is out of sorts. Tension was well-built in this episode on several levels, and the challenges Kirk faced were arguably more dynamic and interesting than Spock's in "The Tholian Web".

Kirk transitioned from acting as a respectful host to a firm authority with Elaan, and his initial responses to her rude behavior were tastefully poised. Once Elaan had seduced Kirk, he still managed to expertly dismantle the Elaisians’ schemes without falling for the Dohlman or her subordinates’ clever tricks. Shatner did a great job conveying how difficult it was for Kirk to maintain his composure, so it was riveting to see just how he would escape the Klingons, prepare the guileful Elaan for her marriage, and get the Enterprise back in ship shape under that level of duress. His allegiance to the Enterprise evidently sobered Kirk; his articulate maneuvering reflected his symbiotic relationship with the ship and her crew. In the end, even Elaan was humbled by our captain, finally submitting to the responsibilities her title bore. I was quite pleasantly surprised by Kirk this week, and the adversities threatening the crew were positively captivating. 4 stars!

Be Our Guest, Do As You Please

“Elaan of Troyius” was this week’s episode of Star Trek.  “Taming of the Shrew” storyline aside, there is one thing that the writers of Star Trek keep doing to twist my britches, and this episode was another example of it.  The Enterprise , powerful symbol of human achievement, has the laziest security imaginable.  Episode after episode, people that wish to do harm to the ship and its crew need only to walk into what should be the most secure areas of a ship to do as they please practically unchallenged.  Areas that on large ships, not all members of the crew are even allowed to enter.  So, let’s delve into some of areas of a ship that guests should not enter.

Let’s begin with the command center of the ship.  The bridge.  The seat of command, where the captain steers the destiny of a ship to complete its missions.  Obviously, a perfect place for a teenage princess to casually enter whenever she chooses.  Elaan pierced the bridge and interrupted the ship’s captain, while he was in the middle of a combat situation.  Good on the writers for making the captain, thanks to Spock’s urging, send her away from the bridge, only to have her show up on the bridge again after a change of clothes.  For an area holding some of the most senior members of the crew, it seems unusual that it wasn’t better protected.  Past episodes showcased singing children, enemy androids, and furry tribbles having free access to the brain trust of the Enterprise.  I anticipate that 15% of Kirk’s problems could be solved by securing access to the bridge to “Bridge Crew Only”.

The next ludicrous pattern that we witnessed in this episode was the open and unguarded access that guests on the Enterprise had to Engineering, the area of the ship that provides all the power, without which the Enterprise couldn’t move, fight, or support human life.  Why did Elaan’s former suitor have a free ticket to stroll into this most vital part of the ship and sabotage systems?  Again, good on the writers for allowing him to be discovered, be it many minutes later, only to allow the discoverer to be summarily executed for his weak efforts to question someone he'd found messing with the thing that keeps the ship alive.  If only this random trespass in Engineering were rare.  Previous episodes sported children again, along with genetically advanced conquerors, self-aware talking space probes, and Klingons traipsing merrily into the bowels of Engineering. 

Where before I said that 15% of Kirk’s problems could be solved by securing the Bridge, 99% of problems could go away if Engineering had a couple guards working shifts to protect the very heart of this starship. 

Historically there have been some areas of the ship that have been kept secure week after week.  Areas that no one can casually walk into without permission (unless you are a floating cloud of space gas that is). Those would be crew quarters.  Even in this week’s episode, crew quarters were better guarded, and their doors are better respected, than what should have been the most sensitive areas of the ship.  Not even Spock and McCoy could casually walk into the room where the captain was passionately kissing Elaan. 

Perhaps future episodes will take the security of the most critical parts of the ship more seriously.  That, or have the crew consider moving the engines and bridge staff to crew quarters, where doors are respected.

For continuing to overlook this easily solvable problem, I offer only 2 stars for “Elaan of Troyius”.  Ignoring the fact that the episode did display some interesting makeup and costumes, and featured a few well-acted scenes, the continued stupidity of the security of the ship is as untenable as its “secure” areas.

[ Come join us tomorrow night (January 3rd) for the next thrilling episode of Star Trek !  KGJ is broadcasting the show live with commercials and accompanied by trekzine readings at 8pm Eastern and Pacific.  You won't want to miss it… ]

9 thoughts on “[January 2, 1969] Blood, Sweat, and Tears ( Star Trek : "Elaan of Troyius")”

Wig Trek: and how Love Trek: if you call it love

Whatever it is I that read and watch science fiction for, it's not this sort of thing.  Like Herman's Hermits sing, "she's a must to avoid, a complete impossibility" and, so far as I am concerned, so's this teleplay.

There are the bones of a really good story here, and they show through once the Kilngon ship reveals itself, but it's all undermined by the beginning and some of the middle.

Elaan is simply too barbarous for a high-ranking member of a society with interplanetary travel. Even the Klingons we've met have better manners. You could argue she's playing things up in the hopes of derailing an unwanted political marriage. Alas, there's no evidence of that, and this seems to be what she's really like. Maybe the council picked her for this just to get rid of her.

Joe is also right that the Enterprise is much too easy to take over. That's mostly an artifact of the television medium, of course. Shows have only so much time to get through a story and lack the room to show more subtle or complicated methods. But I like to think that Khan Noonien Singh wrote a book on how to take over the Enterprise and has covertly sold it all over the galaxy.

Get rid of the Taming of the Shrew aspects (you can still have the culture clash, just less strident) and drop the love potion plot, and the rest is great. The combat sequence was some of the best Star Trek in a long time. I'd also like to acknowledge Jay Robinson's delightfully smarmy turn as Petri. That might be the best thing he's done since he played Caligula in "The Robe."

All in all, I guess I agree with Janice. The good and bad balance out quite equally.

I should have mentioned that the "Helen of Troy" allusion in the names Elaan of Troyius is distracting, constantly reminding us that we're watching a made-up story.  This sort of arch wink at the audience dispels "suspension of disbelief."  Star Trek has won a fan base by building a picture of a future world, kind of like Tolkien built a picture of an imagined past of our world.  Just imagine if Tolkien had named Aragorn "Arthur" and Gandalf "Merlin."  We would not be able to keep up our sense of a "real" world of its own.

Please be careful, you guys.

One of the sillier problems in the "Whom the Gods Destroy" episode is — how does Garth's ability to change his molecular structure to look like anyone include the ability to change his clothes at the same time

Clearly,, the clothes are his skin, Ruth!

Among the backstory that may or may not be known to GJ folks (I imagine hardcore Trekkers have caught up with it…maybe) was that this was not the first project in which Nuyen and Shatner worked together. As LIFE magazine profiled Nuyen in 1958 as the Broadway star of THE WORLD OF SUZIE WONG, she notes such data as that her co-star Shatner "needs" a massage from her before every performance. Rings all too likely.

BTW, Nuyen among those who have kissed "inter-racially" on US tv drama before Uhura-Kirk coerced face-rubbing…on I SPY with her future husband Robert Culp…one can only hope Nuyen and Culp never left her drinks unguarded during any dinners with his co-star Bill Cosby…

I don't think the clothes can be part of his skin. He takes off his scarf at one point and drops it — if it were a part of him should think when removed it would revert to what it was or disappear or some such. Similarly with the fur cloak that is put on him at one point and (if I'm remembering correctly) is gone at next morphing.

A comment more offered in jest than anything else. Consistent attention to details is not one of the strength of ST, particularly the mothership ST.

Or, even, strengths. Typos in such a comment always a good sign of grogginess, as well as a good launching pad for the offended.

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55 years ago: Science Fact and Fiction

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Star trek: discovery season 4's butterfly aliens explained.

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Star Trek: Discovery Makes Lower Decks' Renaissance Faire Planet Live-Action Canon

Star trek: discovery introduced a better vacation spot for picard than risa, star trek: discovery’s neelix reference reveals what happened after voyager.

Here's everything we know about the mysterious - and painfully literal - butterfly aliens glimpsed in  Star Trek: Discovery   season 4's premiere episode. There's no shortage of outlandish and offbeat aliens in the  Star Trek   universe, and  Star Trek: Discovery  blends old favorites (Klingons, Orions, Vulcans) with fascinating new additions such as Saru's Kelpien race. When Michael Burnham et al moved into the Star Trek  timeline 's far future, fans wondered how many exciting new species might surface in the 32nd century, but season 3 could only explore brave new worlds and civilizations so far thanks to the pesky Burn.

Now that dilithium supplies have been replenished and Starfleet is boldly going into the galaxy once more,  Star Trek: Discovery has license to introduce more fresh alien races to Gene Roddenberry's ever-growing canon, and season 4 begins as it (hopefully) means to continue. On behalf of the Federation, Sonequa Martin-Green's Captain Michael Burnham and David Ajala's Cleveland Booker tackle a diplomatic mission to Alshain IV, giving the locals dilithium in hopes of building friendly relations.

Related:  Star Trek: Is There A Tribble On The Discovery In Season 4?

The Alshain are visually striking, culturally unusual, and surprisingly violent considering their affinity for butterflies. Have the Alshain appeared in  Star Trek before? How does their unique biology work? And are they official members of the Federation now?

The Alshain's History In Star Trek: Discovery

Star Trek: Discovery season 4's premiere ("Kobayashi Maru") marks a franchise debut for the Alshain race. These strange folks haven't been seen or heard of before in the Star Trek  universe, but Burnham does suggest Alshain IV once fell within United Federation of Planets jurisdiction. Addressing Alshain leader Emperor Lee'U, the Discovery captain expresses her desire to " reconnect ," implying that while this species is new to  Star Trek 's audience, they're familiar - albeit estranged - allies to the Federation. That theory is supported by Lee'U's familiarity with Earth culture - Burnham begins explaining the meaning behind humanity's "no strings attached" phrase, but the Alshain have heard the idiom before, demonstrating some level of interaction with human colonies in the past. Given how we've never noticed the Alshain, first contact must've occurred during the 25th-32nd century time jump.

Though it's not clear whether the Alshain were official members of  Star Trek 's Federation pre-Burn, Sonequa Martin-Green mentions their " strained " relationship. Lee'U, meanwhile, alludes toward the Federation acting less-than honorably back in the day. If the Federation once screwed Alshain IV over, that might account for why  Star Trek: Discovery season 4 's new-look Starfleet is so keen to build bridges there.

According to Burnham, Alshain IV has hosted absolutely no visitors - Federation or otherwise - since The Burn happened. That means the Alshain have existed (and, apparently, prospered) for over a century in total isolation. That says something about the Alshain's resourcefulness... and perhaps also their unerring stubbornness.

Related:  Star Trek: Discovery - Is Another Burn Possible

What Star Trek: Discovery Season 4 Reveals About Alshain Biology

Aside from their metallic teal skin shade, the Alshain are characterized by insect-like eyes - the small pupils resembling something you might see under a microscope in high school biology. And like many  Star Trek species, the inhabitants of Alshain IV possess facial ridges - akin to a Cardassian, but with a more artistic flair.

As well as the Alshain themselves, Alshain IV is home to glowing butterfly creatures that emerge from cocoons, similar to their dimmer counterparts from Earth. The planet's population shares a symbiotic relationship with these creatures, which accounts for Lee'U and company's subtle insectoid features. Members of the Alshain species can seemingly summon the planet's butterflies at will, bunching the creatures together to form functional wings and masks that presumably heighten eyesight (since Alshain don't seem the types to do  anything  just because it looks cool). Lastly, Discovery's parent-child science duo of Stamets and Adira speculate that the Alshain possess an innate bird-like magnetism to help navigate during flight.

What Star Trek: Discovery Season 4 Reveals About Alshain Culture

Despite their harmonious relationship with nature, the Alshain are highly advanced in technological terms. Alshain IV's atmosphere is surrounded by geomagnetic compensators to allow flight without getting lost. Like everything else, these run on dilithium, and the Alshain haven't yet mastered the art of flying without satellites... if they want to go in a straight line. Lee'U also suspects the Federation is looking to exploit his planet's " technological bounty ," which means Alshain IV's lush forests and animal life must hide some cutting edge tech that even Starfleet would love to get its hands on. Their phasers certainly pack a punch, and Stamets' Romulan whiskey joke implies Alshain IV is somewhat renowned for its scientific prowess.

The Alshain (or at least the ones in  Star Trek: Discovery 's season 4 premiere ) all wear highly functional, no-frills uniforms that match their silvery skin. These outfits suggest a Vulcan-like dedication to function over form, and that's not their only shared trait with Spock's species. The Alshain's complete disregard for jokes, joviality and time-wasting - not to mention their hilarious literal thinking - has more than a whiff of Vulcan about it. When Burnham begins explaining the meaning behind "no strings attached," for example, Lee'U shuts her down with an exasperated hand wave, uttering " we're familiar " in a weary tone. It's no stretch to imagine Sarek doing the same. Unlike Vulcans, the Alshain also have a blunt manner of doing business, yielding little faith in the " niceties of politics ," and coming across surly compared to Spock's logic-loving Vulcans .

Related:  Star Trek: Why Burnham (Like Kirk) Doesn't Believe In The No-Win Scenario

By taking offence to Booker's cat Grudge, it's implied there are no meat-eating animals living on Alshain IV. This futuristic veganism fits with how Star Trek: Discovery 's butterfly aliens are deeply connected to their surroundings when they aren't blasting the forest to pieces trying to kill Starfleet captains. Either way, the mere presence of a carnivore on their home world is, apparently, an insult.

While their dedication to nature is plain enough, the Alshain's leadership structure is anything but. Burnham refers to their spokesman as " Emperor Lee'U " and that title should, in theory, denote the planet's highest possible authority. When the Alshain mistake Grudge for an actual queen, however, their frenzied attempt to liberate this "imprisoned" monarch could mean the planet has a royal family of its own. On the other hand, their respect for kings and queens could simply derive from "monarch" butterflies.

Will The Alshain Return In Star Trek: Discovery Season 4?

Not exactly a heart-on-sleeve species, the Alshain offer little indication of future plans for  Star Trek: Discovery . By fixing Alshain IV's satellite array and dumping a case of dilithium - despite being repeatedly pelted with phaser blasts - the Discovery crew seems to have ignited a spark of trust between the Federation and Emperor Lee'U, even if he's not rushing to sign an official alliance just yet. Nevertheless, it'd be hugely surprising if the Alshain were a one-time deal, given how much effort  Star Trek: Discovery  season 4's premiere puts toward building this new civilization. The forthcoming gravitational anomaly will inevitably affect the entire galaxy, potentially forcing Starfleet and the butterfly people to join forces if they're to prevent both sides collapsing completely.

Indeed, the Alshain may prove key in preventing Star Trek: Discovery season 4 's gravitational cataclysm. The species has developed compensator satellites that alter Alshain IV's natural gravitation field. Starfleet applying that technology on a far bigger scale could prevent galaxy-wide destruction, but only a bridge between the Federation and Alshain, where ideas and technology are freely exchanged, can bring that solution to life. And should the Alshain-Starfleet alliance halt another Burn-esque apocalypse, the galaxy would owe yet another great debt to Captain Michael Burnham - the woman who refused to accept defeat when her hosts gave an extremely rude welcome.

More:  Star Trek: Discovery Repeats J.J. Abrams' Worst Story Obsession

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Review: ‘Star Trek: Discovery’ Passes The Test In Season 4 Premiere “Kobayashi Maru”

| November 18, 2021 | By: Anthony Pascale 135 comments so far

“Kobayashi Maru”

Star Trek: Discovery Season 4, Episode 1 – Debuted Thursday, November 18, 2021 Written by Michelle Paradise & Jenny Lumet & Alex Kurtzman Directed by Olatunde Osunsanmi

SPOILER-FREE REVIEW

Discovery returns with a bang, delivering an action-packed season opener that sets up high stakes and new character arcs for the season.

WARNING: Spoilers below!

“It’s what we do”

Picking up after some time has passed, we find Captain Burnham on a genuine strange new world, taking on the task given to her at the end of season three. This first post-Burn visit to a former Federation world with an offer of free dilithium and peaceful cooperation meets a skeptical audience with the don’t-call-them-butterfly-people, the Alshain. Boyfriend Book is along for his “empathy thing,” but after the locals scan a certain Felis catus lifeform on his ship, a comedy of errors and misunderstanding of Grudge’s regal nature turns this tense reunion into running and phaser gunning, which is sort of second nature for Michael and Book. While he is ready to meet fire with fire, Michael and the team on the Discovery science out a gesture of goodwill by fixing a local dilithium-starved satellite network. After some more fun banter, they are back on the Disco with a more amenable Emperor Lee’U calling, now open to accepting the Federation gifts, no strings attached. Mission accomplished in this cold open full of sci-fi action, alien humor, Treknology, and good old teamwork. Discovery is back and ready to take on the galaxy.

Back at Federation HQ, Captain Burnham’s new calm confidence is on display as she addresses the first Starfleet Academy class since The Burn. The Federation is coming out of hiding with new president Laira Rillak, who announces Starfleet’s return to the mission of exploration. Drilling the point home, she unveils a new spacedock named for Captain Jonathan Archer and a program of new and updated ships with new post-warp technology. But all the nostalgic feels, inspiring speechifying, and admiring of fancy new dress uniforms is cut short by a distress call from a distant space station. Admiral Vance orders the Discovery to check it out, and the President invites herself along, much to the chagrin of a skeptical captain who doesn’t want to give joyrides to politicians looking to “tick a box” for space action on their resume.

“I know you want to go home”

They arrive at Deep Space Beta 6 to find it tumbling out of control. Together the bridge crew comes to life to sort out the problem (a gravitational distortion) and work out a solution requiring programmable matter and some impressive-looking maneuvering. In this, Captain Burnham is a competent conductor, letting the crew play the high notes. After Owo and Detmer affably align the ship, Tilly and the newly minted Ensign Adira—doing an admirable season one stammering Tilly routine—beam over to fix the station with a remarkable amount of technobabble. With gravity literally upside down, the station’s Commander Nalas is understandably a bit prickly, but Lt. Tilly leads the away mission with some diplomacy, and they get the station stabilized…  just in time for a new crisis: giant frozen methane space boulders start tearing the station apart.

Now a desperate rescue mission with a deteriorating shields ticking clock and no working transporters (because reasons), the only way to save the station crew is for someone on Discovery to Top Gun a Worker Bee over to free the escape pod, and Captain Burnham volunteers herself! After explaining to the president that she is contractually obligated to do some space hero stuff in every season opener, Michael heads out. Sure enough, it isn’t long until the worker bee is destroyed, leaving the captain to go full Super Michael as she flies in to free that pod. She also gets an assist from the President who has to talk down a now phaser-toting crazed Commander Nalas into awaiting the fix instead of doing something stupid.

“It is hard to be away”

While all this action is happening on board the Discovery, a couple of key members of the crew are off on their own adventures. Book has left the ship to return to his homeworld–which happens to be close by to the station having the crisis–so he can participate in the Ikhu Zhen, a sort of Kwejian Bar Mitzvah, for his nephew Leto. His brother Kyheem is there and they have a lovely time tapping into the World Root with an ancient ceremony and some hints of Book’s backstory. But something is amiss, as they noticed the birds have all gone a bit crazy, which is never a good sign. As he flies up in his ship to find out what’s going on, Book sees something destroy Kwejian’s moon and then all hell breaks loose, including exploding programmable matter consoles. The more things change…

On Kaminar, Saru is now a counselor and an “esteemed elder” where he guides the insular Kelpiens and Ba’ul with wisdom and an effective 32 nd century PowerPoint presentation, helping them see they are part of a larger galaxy and a “new era.” And in a nice, if not a bit heavy-handed, quiet moment, it is his charge Su’Kal doing the guiding, seeing that Saru is torn between his responsibilities to this cause of The Burn, and his longing for his old friends and ship. But Su’Kal is no longer the fragile man-child found at the end of season one. He has friends and acceptance and is ready to give Saru permission to find his own Great Balance by returning to the Discovery; just don’t forget to call home.

“You cannot defeat the mathematics of loss”

Thanks to the president’s clever pandering to a distraught Nalas, Michael has the time she needs to fix the pod, riding it back to the ship Slim Pickens in Dr. Strangelove-style , with Tilly, Adira, and Nalas left behind to ponder what they are all going to do after this sparks-flying crisis is over. With four minutes of life-saving shields left and five minutes needed to rescue the last survivors, Captain Burnham decides to get bad at math and Rillak is not happy. Cutting it too close, the pod arrives followed by a huge space rock as the ship spores away, leaving the shuttle bay in shambles and Tilly mourning three dead, including Commander Nalas. Once he started talking about going home you knew he wasn’t going to make it.

Highlighting what has rapidly become a complicated relationship, Rillak consoles Burnham while admonishing her at the same time. These two formidable women don’t see eye to eye as the president tells the captain she has failed this particular Kobayashi Maru. Her visit to the ship wasn’t to tick a box, but to see Michael in action… and she has some notes. Apparently, the Prez has been binge-watching the previous seasons, praising Michael’s “undeniable” bravery while pointing out that as captain, her “pathological” savior complex could end up getting her whole crew killed. Still in command of the Discovery, Michael is deemed “not ready” for one of the newer, fancier ships coming out of Archer Spacedock.

But before they have time to wrap things up, a shaken Book shows up, desperate to use the Discovery to find out what happened back home—but his planet isn’t where it should be. In shock, the president and crew find what’s left of Kwejian in another part of the system, and it’s disintegrating before their eyes. “They’re gone. They’re all gone.”

Welcome back

With a good mix of action and emotion, “Kobayashi Maru” met the challenge of catching us up on the new state of things while setting out a whole new set of challenges for our characters as well as the Federation itself. Given that it was written by showrunners Michelle Paradise and Alex Kurtzman (with an assist from Jenny Lumet), it’s no surprise that the heart of this episode was an exploration of Michael Burnham literally being tested in her new role as Captain. The introduction of President Rillak as a sort of foil allowed for an examination of how Michael’s past messiah complex may not be the best fit for the captain’s chair. Ably played by Chelah Horsdal, Rillak can go toe-to-toe with Burnham, now embodied with a new sense of confidence by Sonequa Martin-Green. All of their moments were illuminating, although the choice to have Michael ring up Rillak for another mini-confrontation in the middle of an intense action sequence was dubious.

The episode still found a good amount of time for some character development, or at least for setting a marker for the arcs that will play out this season. With the little time she was given, Mary Wiseman delivered a subtle performance showing that Tilly is still shaken over the confrontation with Osyraa—and losing Commander Nalas didn’t help. Blu del Barrio was delightful stepping in as the overtalking nervous smart ensign, with a quick sidebar with the ghost boyfriend to remind us that getting him a body is a thing. Anthony Rapp’s Stamets was left standing in for Engineer Jett Reno (as Tig Notaro’s time is somewhat limited this season), running around his spore drive lab pretending it was main engineering and talking about Heisenberg Compensators, but he did get a nice subtle moment in when asking about the fate of his adopted child Adira. The visit to Kaminar offered some good insights and Doug Jones showed good range, but the moment with Su’Kal was a bit heavy-handed and rushed, intended to get the character quickly back to the Disco guilt-free. As for everything that happened on Kwejian, it was a heartbreaking counterpoint to the fun had with the superb David Ajala’s Book at the episode start with the Butterfly People.

The production team also continues to up their game, with the visual effects for the space station sequences being a standout. And Gersha Phillips’ costume team must have been working overtime to deliver all the new uniforms and outfits required in this episode, with some great new additions to the canon like the new Starfleet dress uniforms. We can also see how the new AR Wall set is a great tool for the production, literally putting the actors into virtual locations seamlessly. All of this was held together by executive producer/director Olatunde Osunsanmi who now has a gravitational anomaly to let his love for the spinning camera fly.

A new threat for a new era

For the first time, a Discovery season starts with a bit of a time gap, and this allowed for a bit of a reset. In between all the action and character bits, there was quite a bit of worldbuilding going on here, especially with a reenergized Federation. While the speeches may have made this clear, there were subtle touches like the return of Vance’s family and a brief mention of peace with former enemies (likely season three’s big bad, the Emerald Chain). The opening tease with the Alshain also nicely set up how things have changed by introducing a delightfully weird alien species and getting back to some good old-fashioned cultural clashes and subsequent diplomatic resolutions.

The biggest sign of the new state of things came in a density of fan service with the Cardassian/Bajoran/Human president introducing Archer station (with his theme), the USS Voyager-J nestled inside, and her mentioning “the next generation” of ships. Not subtle, but we get it. The Federation is back in business, which helps set up the drama for the new threat in the form of the Gravitational Anomaly. We also get a hint of an environmental message here; even though the Federation now has tapped into the Saudi Arabia of dilithium, it might be time for them to move on to something new. That Pathway Drive sounds pretty interesting—hopefully that isn’t the last we hear of it.

Killing off Book’s family and his whole planet was a bit of a daring choice but established the stakes in a big way. We have a big new mystery, but it’s not one of those “we’re keeping a secret from you” things the show formerly indulged in.

Let’s fly

While there wasn’t much hype in the run-up to this season, “Kobayashi Maru” may still be the best opener of the series yet. Strong performances, an intriguing mystery, and a world-class production add up to a welcome return for this series, showing again why it is the flagship show of the new Star Trek Universe.

Random bits

• It’s been five months since the end of season three, but unclear if it’s still 3189.
• The opening title sequence has a couple of minor changes, including a graphic of the anomaly destroying a planet and a waveform analysis-looking thing.
• Book’s ship has a two-person pod he called “the little guy.”
• The Discovery once again has a tribble on board, because of course it does.
• Before finding the dilithium planet, the Federation had 38 member worlds. Now it has 59.
• Stamets and Culber have been promoted to Commander and Tilly has been promoted to Lieutenant.
• The station crew included a Lurian , the first seen as a member of Starfleet.
• Commander Nalas is an Akoszonam , this is the alien species first seen in Short Treks “Children of Earth.”
• New character Lt. Christopher (Orville Cummings) has temporarily replaced (now Lt. Commander) Bryce, who is consulting on the USS Curry (and appeared at the Academy ceremony).
• All the other bridge crew have also been promoted to Lt. Commander (Detmer, Rhys, Owosekun, and Nilsson).
• Burnham spoke about the Kobayashi Maru scenario as if she had experienced it, even though it doesn’t appear she attended Starfleet Academy, having transferred to the USS Shenzhou after attending the Vulcan Science Academy.
• While never stated, it appears that Rhys is currently the first officer.
• Former Tal host Jovar liked birds.
• With Kwejian destroyed, who will navigate all those new spore ships?
• Technobabble of the week: “polyhedronic quantum data devices” used in a “multiphasic processing unit.”
• Tilly of the week: “You know there are people out there who don’t have to put up with spacetime shenanigans.”

More to come

Every Friday the new TrekMovie.com  All Access Star Trek Podcast  covers the latest news in the Star Trek Universe and discusses the latest episode. The podcast is available on Apple Podcasts ,  Spotify ,  Pocket Casts ,  Stitcher and is part of the TrekMovie Podcast Network.

New episodes of  Star Trek: Discovery premiere on Thursdays on Paramount+ in the U.S. and on  CTV Sci-Fi Channel  in Canada, where it’s also available to stream on  Crave .  Discovery  will debut on Paramount+ in  45 countries around the world in 2022 .

Keep up with all the news and reviews from the new Star Trek Universe on TV at TrekMovie.com .

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I really like the Byzantium arc – the restored Federation with new sources of dilithium heading out into the galaxy. Rediscover the diversity of the Federation races and rekindle the exploration and development of the frontier. In some cases help worlds suffering from the fall of the Federation – like of like General Belisarius returning to Rome and finding it now “the frontier”. I hope there is some of this in the season and not just off screen. Wish the council was more Journey to Babel / Star Trek IV, diverse and different. But that can be part of the arc, returning to an age of differences, diversity and learnings in the face of hardships.

Except the Byzantine “reconquest” of the Italian peninsula did far more lasting damage to the area than the Goths ever did…

I like Venice. That being said, doesn’t “Calypso” pretty much declare the Federation will fall / become the V’darysh?

I feel like I saw a different episode than the reviewer. I have loved Discovery since it started and have championed it to the naysayers. I need to point that out because I am definitely not someone who would be called a hater when it comes to Star Trek; I’ve enjoyed every single show so far. Even Prodigy is very much growing on me, despite my dislike of the pilot. But this was easily the worst season-opener. For me, it fell flat, right across the board. I truly hope the rest of the season gets back to form, because this was nothing but cheesy dialogue, lots of angst, way too many cast reaction shots, and the regurgitated “Oh, no, the universe is in peril and only the Discovery can save it” plot they do every year. What a huge disappointment, and I truly hate to say that. This is the first Discovery episode I’ve considered boring. Without Pike or Saru on the Discovery, it’s actually kind of a boring bridge cast now.

I felt the same way. Same old dilemma, new rubber foreheads. And I realize that Burnham is the star of the show, but even brash beam-down-to-every-planet Kirk made his decisions with the aid of Spock and McCoy… too many unilateral decisions made by Burnham (as usual). I was far more engaged in this week’s “Star Trek: Prodigy”.

Kirk relied on Spock and McCoy. He trusted them equally.

Really? Fair enough. I thought it was the most solid Discovery premiere — and probably episode, period — that I’ve seen yet.

I was leery about the anomaly — and it might prove to be yet another lame big bad — but this was way better than I’d expected (except for yes, all those reaction shots grated almost as much as the fire bursts — Discovery, write for the bridge characters instead of using them as props).

It set the scene for the season without overpromising — and it did it way more efficiently than in previous seasons.

Luckily, there wasn’t much time for Burnham’s breathless “Because we are Starfleet” routine. That Archer thing was pretty shmaltzy, though.

If the show was better I actually would have thought the Archer thing combined with the Enterprise cue to be a nice touch. But that is the problem with the show overall. The main core of the show is so very bad that even something that might otherwise seem like a nice idea comes across as cheap.

I would sum up this episode as “typical Discovery”: some fine work here and there, a lot of utterly forgettable moments, and something that ultimately doesn’t add up to a coherent whole. I loved the dynamic between the president and Burnham, and their final scene was easily the best of the episode. It’s high time someone called out Burnham’s impulsiveness and headstrong command decisions. (Yes, Kirk suffered from the same weakness, but at least he never assaulted his commanding officer and mutinied. And…Hollywood isn’t the same place it waws 50 years ago. Writing is more sophisticated these days.) Does she even have a number one to bounce ideas off of?

If you thought that the JJ movies suffered from FX eclipsing and plot character work, well, this episode featured that on steroids. The visuals are just too busy, too frenetic; you can’t take the time to savor them. (This was something PICARD more or less got right, particularly in “Nepenthe.”) Notably, the final scene between Burnham and the president took place on a conventional set, not one that featured the super-duper AI wall. They’re clearly having fun using it, but it’s becoming the center of attention and waylaying good writing.

The set of characters continues to become duller and duller with each passing season. It appears that Tig Notaro won’t be around much anymore, which was a shame. The wise-cracking Jett Reno was one of Discovery’s most memorable creations. Airiam and the Barzan character are gone; we don’t even know who the first officer is. In their place, we’re getting Adira and their ghost boyfriend. (A *ghost*. On a *science ficition* show.) Owosekun and Dettmer continue to be underused.

Your final paragraph was dead on. The lack of Notaro is a problem. She brought a bit of life to that lifeless ship. I’m guessing that Tilly is still the 1st officer? Regarding Adira, it’s one thing to represent the former Trill manifested as an actual person she speaks to in her head. It’s quite another if their goal is to get Gray to actually physically return in the flesh. Which is where I think they are going, sadly. But I would expect nothing less from this show.

You hone in on something I thought about last season: For ten to fifteen episodes per season the show has too many characters it cannot possibly serve well. So many characters are underutilized and underdeveloped because there are simply too many. That is even true for Burnham. Her character arc last season (from almost fired to become captain of the ship) was hardly plausible because very little time was spent on this development.

Totally agreed. I hated most of the dialog. The tone of the show just feels way off at this point — it feels like a CW show. I loved the beginning of season 2, it felt like Star Trek. Now the crew are way too emotional. And can we have just one scene without music? I enjoyed the Kaminar scenes but everything else…

Me too, Lorna Dune.

I had a lot of eye roll “oh brother” moments watching this but i’ll keep watching the show anyway.

Please Trek Gods, let Strange New Worlds be better than this.

Saru is the only character that is even semi interesting and in this episode even he was dull.

The finale of Season 3 was one of the most poorly written Treks I’ve ever seen; this one, unfortunately, is just as bad. It’s dumbed-down Trek. I liked the Burnham character from Season 1; a serious and believable character. Now she seems as though she’s always high. A huge disappointment.

This is my favorite season premiere of the new era. It surpassed my expectations in almost every category. Absolutely loved this episode!

I felt the same way.

I agree. Each season is better than the last. I can’t wait until next week!

Overall I liked it, but I could really do without the flamethrowers on the bridge making it look like a Ramstein concert.

Flamethrowers are the rocks of the 31st Century :D

There were still rocks on books ship. and yeah, the flamethrowers really took me out of the episode. Like… it looked so fake that I though to myself, they spent so much money on this show and then take really weird shortcuts?

Also… why is everything the Heisenberg compensators?

Though thanks to programable matter, the rocks finally have an explanation for the first time in the franchise.

I thought that also.

DïsköDëthMëtal!

Yeah, they totally jumped the shark on the pyrotechnics. WAY over the top.

I just had to laugh reading this, because while watching it I thought as well, “Rammstein could to a concert on the Discovery Bridge now”. :-) :-) It was really overdone it that sequence and looked funny after a while.

Haha. It was so dumb — especially since they seemed to just be on a timer.

Ah, I see both TrekCore and TrekMovie kicked off their reviews from the first day with new episodes of two different Trek shows since the ‘90s with their Discovery reviews. I was wondering whether one might lead with Prodigy .

I like this review because it didn’t come off as pandering the the will of Paramount+

Haven’t been a fan of this series but I thought it was a decent episode minus some dialogue choices that come off as too silly. This show does seem to keep reusing a lot of the same tropes from previous seasons: running through the forest while being shot at, ships always getting hit with rocks, planets getting destroyed, galaxy ending plots, etc.

I would say DS9 shouldn’t be considered the “dark Star Trek” I would say this series is.

Agreed. I love DS9 so much. Getting to see another Morn species was cool though.

NO SPOILERS – For all fellow Canucks north of the border, I noticed CTV Sci-Fi Channel has picked up the documentary The Centre Seat – 55 Years of Star Trek. It will debut tonight after the season premiere of Discovery and the new episode of Prodigy. I may have to skip the Leaf game haha. Should be a fun evening.

Thanks, from a fellow Canuck.

Thanks, I was wondering if we’d get it here!

To top things off, they started with an episode of DS9 I had never seen before, Accession. It was like getting three brand new Star Trek episodes followed by the documentary.

The Laffs suck. Go Habs! :p LOL

I was wondering if I should hop over to the Raptors game, but glad I passed on that.

Man, they have done you international viewers so wrong.

“This first post-Burn visit to a former Federation world.” — Did they actually say that? They’ve been taking dilithium around for at least five months already, presumably wearing out their gray uniforms we saw at the end of S3. “3189.” –Seems like it should almost be 3190, indeed. Other points: –You don’t have to go to Starfleet Academy to take the Kobayashi Maru. It’s done for those standing for command down the road, or on a command path. I’d suspect Burnham did it at some point during her time on the Shenzhou? In any case, maybe they’re just all familiar with ‘those old scientists’ and how Kirk passed it, in two timelines… –Bryce’s actor Ronnie Rowe is one of the leads in the new series, _The Porter_. They’ve left it possible for him to return, which is cool. I’d rather not see any of the bridge crew get Chuck Cunninghammed. Hoping we’ll start to see them get into more stories…. . Overall, a rather decent season start with a cliffhanger at the end. I don’t agree with reviews elsewhere which compare the Burn’n’Book diplomatic mission to Kirk at the start of Star Trek Into Darkness. Due to the misunderstandings and a bit of slapstick, it has more in common with the start of Star Trek Beyond. The teaser here was unique… there’s the “strange new worlds” everyone gripes we don’t get — the damn season opens with one!!

David, you must old af to make a Chuck Cunningham reference. Bravo!

RE: first post-Burn visit It was stated this was first visit to this world. They of course have visited others during this time, as noted by how many other new members there are in UFP. Sorry if that was unclear

“…Chuck Cunninghammed….” I think you win the internet today.

I so want to be positive, but this episode did nothing for me. Burnham continues to be the savior of everybody and everything. I know there is a counter to that statement in this episode (I’m staying away from spoilers) but despite what the dialogue says, she continues to be lifted up by the narrative in a way that feels constantly contrived and that she’s infallible, even when she does inexplicably risky things. As for the Kobayashi Maru and it’s apparent continued use in Star Fleet Training.. can anyone think of anything similar that is in use today that’s 1000 years old? Also, the name drop of a character from canon that they did just because they think we continually have to harken back? This continues to be Trek Canon’s greatest hits. Apparently 1000 years wasn’t long enough to throw them. Season 1 was weird, but I liked it, Season 2 course corrected, Season 3 went off the rails, and it seems like we’re staying off of them now. I know.. one episode and all, but the formula is there and unchanged. We’ll see. Hopeful this will change.

Religious practices – Catholic and Orthodox liturgy, classical Islam, etc.

No comment on whether a damn computer game is on par with that.

Burnham continues to be the savior of everybody and everything. 

I have a feeling this set up her arc for the season where she is about to make the wrong choice with devastating results and then learns how to make a Tough Choice right.

I find the concept that they implied the Kobyashi Maru was still being used hundreds of years later also makes no sense. It was already getting pretty famous and once everyone knew about it the effectiveness of the test drops to nothing.

I enjoyed this episode reasonably well. I wouldn’t say much more for it than that, but for an episode of Discovery it was pretty good.

On the whole I enjoyed it (after I pirated it). The universe still seems small so I was hoping for a bit more exploring this season but I guess I’ll have to wait for SNW will be doing that. It’s a shame because I think a bit of far future exploring would be really interesting I was also hoping the crew would be a bit more “Starfleet” by now – I still find them a far too casual. Finally the invisible boyfriend has outstayed his welcome now, either get him real or get him gone. Other than those gripes it was a good first EP and better than any of the previous season openers.

The start of the episode was reminiscent of the start of Beyond, to me

Overall, a good episode!

Was Burnham really calling the president while she was still in space… to aks her if she just lied… seems legit…

The worst part of the episode. Made Burnham look like a real prick after the President had just skillfully talked Nallas down.

The President’s response that it didn’t matter because her role was to support Burnham in de-escalating the situation was right on the mark.

The true question is what kind of Captain is Burnham that she was incapable of de-escalation?

In fact, her status as captain and authority to negotiate under crisis conditions was one of the viable reasons for her not to have been the one to take that worker bee.

The President successfully took on that role in her absence, and Burnham’s response was a kind of micro aggression that completely missed the point and demonstrated that she doesn’t understand what her job is.

Every joke landed, every optical effect blew me away. The story is so incredibly interesting. I hope I don’t get phasered for wondering just how much more of our galaxy would be left to explore after 1,000 years (minus The Burn’s 200 or so of non-travel) of space exploration. Maybe a galaxy jump is just what we need at this point (besides, this one’s too small to contain the awesomeness of Trek’s greatest captain, Michael Burnham).

There’s just nothing else like this on TV and we’re lucky to have it. Welcome back, Discovery!

“Every joke landed”. Yuck. The comedy should be left to ‘Lower Decks’, which is smart and funny. ‘Discovery’ is neither of those things.

More jokes have landed on Star Trek Discovery (thanks to Reno) than LDX could ever hope to have. One funny episode out of 20 is not a good ratio.

The opening of the episode with a botched contact reminded me of the last two Kelvinverse opening scenes. As always, the show looks great. Im not as keen on the quick rebuild of the Federation. It would have been interesting to see the Federation winning hearts and minds. The Saru storyline is pointless because we all know he’s not going to stay away for long.

Still, I’ll watch and see where they take this season while anxiously awaiting Strange New Worlds.

Yeah the opening really did feel like a combination of both Beyond and Into Darkness. The botched first contact speech and then of course all the running and jumping off cliffs as the natives tried to kill them.

I also have to agree, I don’t want to see the Federation totally in tact by the season finale. That said they still have a loooong way to go. The Federation had 350 members before the Burn. They are at 58 members now. So that’s still a little off of 300 members and I think this will be a continual story line through the rest of the show’s existence. At least I hope so.

They seem to be lifting things from the KU lately. There is this botched contact and there was the weird warp “tube” on Prodigy.

Overall, I enjoyed the season premiere. There were a few things that didn’t work for me, though:

• The opening diplomacy mission was a bit embarrassing to watch, but at least they turned it around in a rather smart way, which I appreciated.
• The butting of heads between Burnham and Rillak felt heavy-handed at times, especially when Michael questioned her about how she talked Commander Nalas down. I felt like we didn’t need that moment, especially considering the urgency of the situation they were facing.

There were some stand-outs for me that I really loved:

• It’s so nice to see Tilly come into her own more and more. She’s still very much the same Sylvia Tilly, but she keeps a much cooler head and knows when to stand her ground. I love that.
• I loved the “Archer Spacedock” moment. That was a lovely nod to Captain Archer and Enterprise.
• It’s great to see the Federation and Starfleet start to recover from the Burn, but they’re not 100% there yet.
• Book has really grown on me as a character, and I felt his anguish as he saw his homeworld destroyed. To me, that made the stakes more personal this time around, even though it is yet another “anomaly threatens the whole galaxy and Discovery has to fix it” situation. It is grating, but at least they’re not pointing phasers at it and going pew-pew. They have to investigate and research and DISCOVER what it is and where it came from and what they can do to stop it. That’s what bring the Star Trek element for me when it comes to Discovery .

So, yeah, I dunno. Discovery has adjusted course, tinkered here and there, altered the premise but has never been on firm footing since it launched and has never really covered since the missteps behind the scenes those first two seasons.

It set up Brave New Worlds and will likely set up a different series set in this era but Discovery will always feel a bit lost.

This season 4 opener was a mike drop for me! I enjoyed just about everything about this episode, the look, the story, the humor, the action, the uniforms and costumes in general. Also it was just more Star Trekkie to me. But it was Captain Burnham for me mostly. I really thought she just rocked it. I can’t wait for the rest of the season if we are in for more of this. More please more! 

Overall a good episode, if not a great one! I really did love the beginning in so many ways. As many already pointed out, it took a lot of it from the beginning of Beyond which made me smile. I thought the first half was just really good, especially the scene back at Starfleet headquarters and the new cadets. I always love to hear anything about Federation business and politics; especially in this era since we still know very little. The new Federation President looks like she will be interesting and correct me if I’m wrong, but this is first one we seen since Deep Space Nine. And was SO happy when she finally discussed building future spore drives. It was so weird how it was just ignored first season.

The gravitational anomaly stuff was interesting, but still not very excited about it. But seeing Kwejian wiped out was a big shock for sure and had some good emotional stakes. But watching this episode it does show why it was a great idea to move this show to the 32nd century. It really does feel like it’s own show now and it FINALLY has its own mandate which is rebuilding the Federation. No one is talking how out of place it feels like the first two seasons while building its own mythology. And it just so much more interesting because everything is practically new.

Man, I like those dress uniforms way, way better than the duty uniforms.

Disco has great season openers. I’m keeping my expectations in check since S3 was mixed for me. I actually enjoyed the first 2 seasons.

I’m hoping to see more federation ships, especially the Voyager-J. I’m interested in the pathway drive. I’m also hoping to see more world building and learn why some world’s were pulling away from the federation pre-burn. Lots of room for storytelling.

Oh and I’m hoping for that Trek message that reflects our time.

Overall, great review and great episode.

Oh yeah great reminder. I forgot to mention that in my OP too, but I really want to see Voyager J in action this season. I think some fans felt let down (certainly me) last season that they referenced her but we never got to see her do anything. But I think with so much emphasis in the very first episode showing her again in the space dock and then mentioning equipping her with a new drive is foreshadowing they are going to really show her off this season. That would get the fans excited! In fact I have a feeling we may end up seeing TWO Voyagers next year when Prodigy comes back, but I’m getting ahead of myself as usual lol.

Someone even mentioned on another site Saru could end up being it’s Captain by the season finale. I don’t see that happening, but I would love to be wrong. ;)

BTW, did anyone catch the latest Ready Room episode yet? There was one segment that was really interesting. It discussed the new Federation President going over her Cardassian/Bajoran heritage but then gave a brief history going into a lot of detail about the Bajoran and Cardassian conflict from TNG and DS9. If you haven’t seen it, I queued up that part if you want to have a look:

https://youtu.be/r-suqvMtg9M?t=1405

I bring it up because I wonder will this be a regular thing going forward and will give newer fans a perspective into what is happening with Discovery and all the past canon? Since it takes place so far into the future, they can’t just reference things the way other shows can without it feeling so forced at times. They were able to get away with it in Unification III for obvious reasons but it may be harder for others and especially why it’s a monumental moment to even have a Cardaassian and Bajoran President. This is a smart way to tie in events from the 22nd/23rd/24th centuries and how they affect the present day 32nd century. I hope they keep it up!

Of course, it’s also just another way to get new fans to watch the classic shows since the clip literally tells people to stream those specific episodes of DS9 and TNG even giving them the season and episode number. ;)

So, not sure how this could work with Doug Jones continuing as main cast, but what do folks here think of the possibility that Saru is given the captaincy of the Voyager J?

Love that idea! I actually mentioned it myself on this thread responding to someone else. I doubt it will happen, but who knows? And I just don’t think we need another situation of two Captains on the same ship like we got in the TOS movies (but kind of resign to it). And it would be nice to continue the Voyager legacy in a real way.

I swear that I thought of this independently! :)

Plenty of ways it can work; there was Capt. Hernandez in ENT, Worf commanding the Defiant in DS9, and of course Capt. Sulu in TUC.

Well, if all of us are picking up the possibility from the episode, it seems as though it will be something that is explored one way or other this season.

Maybe Discovery will become an anthology show like they planned for TNG if they had left Riker as a Captain. Their plan was one week would have been Enterprise and the next Riker’s ship.

I mostly liked this episode. It did seem like the presidents admonishment of Burnham was pretty much a page of dialogue from Pike to Kirk in Into Darkness. There at least has to be 4 sentences in there that are not changed more than a couple words.

I don’t like the president involved with picking ship crew. With 59 worlds in the Federation, that’s a pretty big job, and why is she picking Captains? I saw some comments yesterday about not liking that she is in uniform, and it’s clear since she has a fairly dramatic suit change, that she is not wearing any uniform– overall I liked the President, but I really liked Vance. I don’t know why we will need another big boss in the show – and I hope that she isn’t made evil, we’ve done badmirals to death in Trek.

Also, I am not seeing it mentioned elsewhere, but does Culber have super strength since coming back, or is he not human? Him lifting the slab off in the shuttle bay seemed to give that he is disproportionally strong.

It does have an air of micromanagement about it, akin to Pres. Johnson personally picking bombing targets in Vietnam. Nonetheless, I think her rationale is that these new captains are going to spend much of their time rebuilding the Federation; they’re as much diplomatic emissaries as anything.

There is the air of pointedly restoring civilian and democratic control over Starfleet in the President’s actions.

Which is something that leaders in democratic societies need to do after protracted crises. All of the captains will have come up through Starfleet under drastically different circumstances.

The civilian authorities will need to ensure that the captains reaching out to new civilizations will represent the Federation and not just themselves.

Can’t say that Burnham and Book represented the best of the Federation in that opening sequence.

I don’t like how Starfleet and the Federation are seemingly merging into one. Seems very autholitarian (especially versus the debate and diversity filled Federation Council seen in Star Trek IV). Maybe that contributed to some member worlds leaving the Federation? I hope they address this as an emergency situation and maybe have an arc about the Federation returning to being a Federation with Starfleet being just the navy as the Burn crisis is over (and maybe have some opposition by the military, bring back some of that old is Starfleet exploration NASA vs. military Navy debate) for drama (answer of course isn’t clear cut, embrace the drama).

Dear directors, could you please stop shaking the camera? Leave the f**** camera still. Thanks!

Agreed. They probably think it creates action and drama, but it’s way overdone.

And lens flairs. Enough with the lens flairs.

Yes. Exactly. It makes the show even more tedious to watch.

🥱 another galaxy wide threat .

And as usual Berhnam (?) is the only one who can save the day. 🤔

Talk about a Mary Sue

Good point about the overdone “galaxy-wide threat.” Just curious though: as you had to be on the interwebs to share your wit and wisdom with us, could you not have opened a new tab and looked up the proper spelling of the character’s name? (It’s Burnham). I think it’s also spelled properly in the article you’re currently commenting on.

Agreed, so predictable. This is why I stopped watching this show halfway through S2. It’s ALL about her. I liked SMG on The Walking Dead, but on DSC, she has too much hubris, imo.

Of course it’s all about her. It’s her show. Always has been and always will be.

The show’s creators have said since before Season 1 that the show would focus on Burnham.

I liked it. The scene with Archer spacedock got me thinking though, it’s too bad they did skip the arc this season and just focus on the rebirth of the Federation. Like a parallel to Enterprise S1 of getting (back) out there.

Also, Saru for captain of the VOY-J.

For me, the best part of the episode. Archer spacedock with his theme playing…..brought a tear to my eye. Ok, not really, but if it was going to happen, that would have been when it did.

I commented this on another article, so I’ll just copy-paste it here:

Given the reveal of a new shipyard with an explicit connection to Star Trek: Enterprise due to it being named after Jonathan Archer (or possibly his father Henry, or both), including the end-credits theme (Archer’s theme) being played, while the Federation president was talking about Starfleet getting back to exploration, I suspect that may all be foreshadowing Saru being given command of a newly-constructed Enterprise (NCC-1701-Z? NCC-1701-AA? NCC-17001? They seem to get through those letters faster than most ships) at the end of the season.

is it just me or is the lighting more akin to a Broadway play than a tentpole series? Especially noticable in the image in the story w/ Burnham and the Prez on the bridge. It looks like that time the Frasier cast join a starship for a Star Trek celebration on stage.

“Star Trek: Discovery” – now on stage at East Bumpkin High School. Tickets available at Jo’s Seed and Feed.

Discovery is Hamilton in Space. Its like they gave the kids at Julliard the keys to the franchise and let them run wild.

I like it but I’m against the complete destruction of planets to serve character development and plot purposes. That’s major extinction, and in real life larger than any one person can adapt to. Narratively this makes Book/Han Solo into… Leia? But to what end? Or is this like Dr Who when Gallifrey was left in a time bottle for a few seasons? In the Kelvin Universe, they totally punted any serious consideration of of the destruction of Vulcan and I am pretty sure they will do that here. It already feels wasted.

Another prediction I’m making now: that “world root” or whatever gets replanted on a new planet (“New Kwejian” or whatever) in the final episode of this season.

Are Kwejian’s inhabitants supposed to be human, or aliens? I’ve never quite understood this point.

Well, exactly. Book’s ethnic characteristics are open to interpretation so we know no reason why Kwejian is interesting.

For example… Vulcan was only interesting because of Leonard Nimoy, and the casting of Book had potential. Now… wasted.

I honestly don’t get the choice to blow up a planet, to kill a culture, ever. Ever.

I wonder if that mention of USS Voyager-J is an example of “Chekov’s (the playwright, not the TOS character) Pistol”. This theatrical axiom holds that if a gun is in the first act, it will be used by the end of the performance. Since we learn from dialog that this Voyager version is in spacedock being equipped with a spore drive, what are the odds we’ll see her in “Black Alert” action before the end of the season?

It very much looks like the show still has the same problem. But to be fair it is such a huge problem that if they address it it would change the ENTIRE show. Which I guess they have no interest in doing but as a fan I would endorse it. That problem is the lack of interesting characters. In fact, these characters are all so very bland that I just have a huge disconnect from them. I mean, Book’s planet is destroyed and my reaction was, “meh.” What happens next? I never cared about his nephew or his personal connections because I just didn’t care about him. And it’s not that there is NO empathy for the characters, really. It’s the overall tone of the show just leads the viewer to not really care. It’s what they have done over 3 seasons. It’s very hard to care at this point.

Case in point… In the beginning when we were watching them work together on the bridge and all that incessant smiling they gave each other was ridiculous. It reminded me of that scene in “Airplane!” of the stewardess singing “River of Jordan” and all the passengers looked at each other and smiled in a cliche sappy way. That was the joke. How lame that sort of thing is. And now Star Trek Discovery just did it FOR REAL. Not as a joke. That sort of thing would be better placed on LDX. It would have been a funny gag.

And yet another issue is that they are 900 years in their future and they are STILL using dilithium and a warp system that they were using 1000 years earlier. It would be as if no one on Earth worked on cars or airplanes and in 2000 we were all still riding horses and sailing ships with wind and oars. And I just find it impossible to buy that after 900 years NO ONE has duplicated the spore drive.

All these things just get in the way of the rest of the show. Sorry. At this point I’m thinking this show needs to change characters, writers and producers and directors to get better.

Certainly weird about the propulsion.

Book’s ship was said to have Quantum Slipstream drive early in season 3, but it’s never brought up again, for ANY ship.

Thank you, ML. Thus justifying my refusal to subscribe to P+ yet again. I stepped out on DSC halfway through S2, and no regrets. I will sign back up to check out SNW, but as you have said in the past, my hopes are dampened given these showrunners’ history. PIC was just ‘ok,’ imo, and now he’s AI, so not terribly interested. At least Prodigy is getting good reviews. I’m in no hurry to see any of it, though. Cheers.

I don’t agree with all of this but yeah the two things that STILL bothers me about this show is the dilithium thing and believing no one has worked on another spore drive in all that time. It would be one thing if the prototype didn’t work or had a lot of bugs with it or something, but it works perfectly lol. The thing hasn’t had one major problem. So why has no one has simply made another one…in 900 years? And what’s MORE frustrating is that the guy who helped d-e-s-i-g-n it, is there on the damn ship. Why not work with him to, I don’t know, MAKE MORE???? It’s absurd in a future where FTL speed was crippled for a century, they don’t have Stamets and a thousand engineers picking his brain to come up more of them the day Discovery arrived. That should’ve been his number one job once he got there.

I just can’t really buy that at all. But it’s a TV show and you have to suspend your disbelief. But with Discovery you’re doing that practically every episode. ;)

I have grown to like the characters for the most part though. Not in love with them like a lot of the other shows yet, but they are at least at the likable phase for me now. But if you feel differently about them like you do the TNG characters, completely understandable.

If you had watched the episode you would’ve known that Starfleet is working on a “next generation spore drive” that will be equippped on new ships constructed in the Archer Spacedock.

Also, all records of the spore drive were erased at the end of Season 2, because:

1) You need to either enslave a sentient creature, or augment a person to operate the drive. 2) Starfleet believed the drive was faulty and as a result the Discovery was destroyed.

Lastly, the spore drive has actually had a major problem – an entire ship and all its crew were lost in an accident (USS Glenn).

They did say that but look… It’s been 900 years! Even if there was no record of it remaining it is ridiculous to think that not one person or scientist in the Federation would have considered the concept. Hell, someone already did! If there was record of having been tried and failed, it is also ridiculous that no one wondered, “why did it fail?” and work on it.

And that doesn’t even speak to the silliness of them still using dilithium powered warp drive. In a near millennium there was NOTHING discovered that was better? I call bul***it on that.

“If you had watched the episode you would’ve known that Starfleet is working on a “next generation spore drive” that will be equippped on new ships constructed in the Archer Spacedock.”

I did watch it Mike. In fact if YOU read my review post I wrote on this thread last Thursday, you would’ve seen I actually said just that here:

 And was SO happy when she finally discussed building future spore drives. It was so weird how it was just ignored first season.

So yes, I directly acknowledged it after the episode aired. My ONLY point was, as I alluded to in the second line, it was still ludicrous it was completely ignored in the first season. And even if I bought the idea no one worked on it because it was considered ‘faulty’ it’s still a weak excuse. A lot of inventions, especially dealing with transportation, people have died trying to create them. People who tried making planes, trains and automobiles have all suffered fatalities due to ‘faulty’ construction. And yet we still have all of those today in abundance. Didn’t people die in the Apollo space program trying to be the first people to the moon? There was a lot of ‘faulty’ problems in that program too but they kept persisting just the same because they felt the goal was worth it.

I don’t see how inventing a teleporting ship to literally anywhere in the galaxy in seconds wouldn’t be an absolute dream for anyone traveling in space in the 23rd century and wouldn’t have worked on it for probably decades even if it didn’t work the first few times around (although we know it DID work).

So yeah I don’t buy it.

But even it that was a reason to stop making more in the 23rd century, its ridiculous to believe by the 32nd century when you have an active one there. You’re talking about ships that hasn’t been warp capable in over a century. And then a 1000 year old ship show up with a piece of technology that can not only get them anywhere in the universe at the flip of a coin, the guy who invented it was also on the same ship.

My only point is they should’ve at least been studying the thing to see if they CAN adapt it and no one even suggested it. Isn’t that why the Emerald Chain highjacked the ship, so they can make more? Why were they thinking ahead but the Federation wasn’t?

Burnham and her boyfriend are the only people on the away mission re-establishing contact with other worlds. Burnham’s boyfriend’s planet is affected by the anomaly. Burnham attempts a recue using a 23rd century robotic-arm vehicle, has time to ask the President if she lied, and is unaffected after a few seconds of explosive decompression in space… The ship, with 31st century deflector dish and shields is under attack from gas in space. The same gas you get as a result of BS. Fitting… Dialog was cheesy. But previous Trek shows took 4 seasons to “find their feet” so this show will get better they say.

Burnham is the captain and was a key person in figuring out the Burn and reigniting the Federation. It makes sense that Starfleet would make her its representative. Book was with her, because he has a special ability that can be quite useful in communicating with alien races.

The Discovery wasn’t under attack by gas, but by huge chunks of ice. After her shields were extended to protect the station, they became weaker. And as we all know, ice is pretty hard.

Burnham still Wonder Woman, Mary Sue-ing across the galaxy.

Only good scenes were with Saru. How can writers/producers not see he was the perfect choice for Captain and leading the show.

Something tells me final scene will be a precursor to the final scene of the season…perhaps something like this:

Season finale excerpt: President: “I misunderestimated you Captain” Burnham: “It’s ok, sometimes my greatness is too hard to recognise, you are forgiven” President: “Thank you Captain”

Crew exchange glances and start crying tears of joy.

What does Mary Sue mean? Are you like five years old or something?

Perhaps you should learn what a Mary Sue is first.

A little research before making a condescending comment like that would go a long way. Here, let me help….

https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Mary%20Sue

I don’t understand why the “Mary Sue” accusation couldn’t be made against Picard or Kirk.

If you don’t understand that I would argue that you don’t understand the concept of the ‘Mary Sue’ to begin with.

Probably because Kirk and Picard are white men, so people expect them to do amazing things. Burnham is a black woman, so if she does something incredible it must be bad writing.

Captain Michael Burnham is NOT a Mary Sue.

She is a Q.

She just doesn’t know it.

My overall take was that this episode was probably 3.5 stars. Nothing majorly good or bad. I liked the intro that reminded me of the Kelvin movies and I liked the story with the new President who didn’t just turn out to be a mindless pompous bureaucrat. Of course the scene with the new Archer space dock was great.

I know that some really detest the idea that for each season, Discovery has had a galactic threat to deal with (understandably that must grow tiresome for some), but that has always been something that serialized Star Trek has relied on, whether it was fighting the Xindi and eventually the spherebuilders or the Dominion. It’s just too bad they have to do this every season. I personally prefer episodic shows, so I am looking forward to SNW and I like Prodigy, but that doesn’t stop me from enjoying Discovery or Picard.

Finally, Discovery has slowly evolved into something that for me is much better than the first 5-6 episodes from S1. Best of all, with FIVE shows now in production, it no longer has to try to be everything to everyone. For example, LDs is never going to be my favorite and that is okay. IMO it is okay that Discovery is never going to be what some fans what it to be – but I do hope the producers keep trying. Maybe S5 can be episodic or they could break it up into 3 or 4 multi-part stories. I bet the cast wouldn’t mind a change of pace.

Why do they continue to show Pike’s chair in the opening credits?

I was thrilled that the president gave Burnham a much-needed talking-to. I think Rillak is absolutely right. I’m reminded of the TOS episode “The Immunity Syndrome,” where Kirk wonders aloud, “Which of my friends do I condemn to death?” Sometimes a captain has to make that kind of choice, and it doesn’t seem that Michael is capable of it. I hope she grows into that over the course of the season.

Kurzman blew up Vulcan during the first reboot movie, and now he wants to blow up Kwejian? Does this guy not like planets or something?

Olatunde Osunsanmi, please, PLEASE lose the spinning camera! The director is supposed to serve the STORY, not be saying, “Look at meeeee!”

This is way off topic, but thought this was the best place to post it!

For any Americans who was looking forward to seeing The Center Seat tonight, looks like you’re out of luck. They pulled the episode. I was sitting down looking forward to watching it at this hour and even had it set to record when I noticed my DVR didn’t record anything. I looked it up and all the episodes tonight are suddenly gone. It looks like the ratings are not doing what History was hoping because they relegated all the episodes to Monday night instead, where you can also catch episode 4. And that’s it! No other viewings for the rest of the week.

So if you wanted to watch the next episode, you now have to wait until Monday. They will show all four episodes in one sitting at least and the rest will be on History Vault from that point on I’m guessing.

I noticed it wasn’t on my DVR Friday night. I looked and noticed it was moved to Monday. Not sure why the move. Can’t imagine it’s viewers as Fridays to this day are not as strong viewing days as Monday’s even today.

Also noticed there was no article about the TAS episode that aired last week on the site. Would have liked to leave comments on it.

Sadly it still looks like only 4 episodes are going to me on THC. But I did notice it is listed on On Demand. I don’t like using that because you can’t FF the commercials. But I guess it’s better than subscribing to the streaming service.

Yeah, but they also got rid of episodes running OTHER days as well. The reruns for the first two episodes were not just on Friday, but also Sundays, Monday and I think Wednesday. It was multiple viewings. Now it’s just regulated to one day.

Or maybe more people were just streaming it on the regular site and didn’t see a need to air it more. That’s possible too. I do think ratings had something to do with it though.

As far as the other episodes, they are actually already on History Vault. I went and had a look and there are five other episodes. I was going to wait for the four to air on TV and then just subscribe for a month to watch the rest. It’s only $5, I’ll live! And the first week is free so if I get through the rest in the week I can just cancel then.

But I’m also guessing if they make more episodes, it will all just go to the History Vault, especially if the ones on THC didn’t do great.

Looks like the burned the other two episodes Monday. They aired after a rerun of part 2.

I’m still getting a kick out of this thing. Liked seeing the Xon footage. In all my years I have only seen stills. Not footage. So it seems they have indeed found SOME new stuff.

I loathe to watch on demand but that seems to be the only way to watch the remaining episodes. Haven’t seen “Trek Goes to the Movies” yet. But will have to psych myself up for sitting through commercials for the rest.

Is it strange that we still don’t know for sure how many episodes there are this season? I know IMDB is hardly a bulletproof source at the best of times, but it has stuck with 11 for weeks.

It’s almost certainly 13 just like season 3. You’re right though it’s unusual for them to not confirm the number.

I feel like they have a missed opportunity to name drop Kirk with the mention of the Kobayashi Maru test.

That was over 900 years ago. He just cheated on the test, he didn’t invent it.

True but Burnham does have a connection to Kirk in a small way. She has never met him, but her brother sure did. His solution was “unique”

Her brother met Kirk after Burnham had departed for the future.

Even if she has had time to review all of Spock’s logs, it doesn’t seem like something she would bring up.

It was dreadful. I love Star Trek, I couldn’t love this. So disappointing.

Agreed. I’ve watched all 3 seasons (and enjoyed most of the first two and a few from the third season). But this ep. was my last. It, together with the awful finale of Season 3, has totally extinguished any enthusiasm I had for Discovery.

A nice nod to James T. Kirk beating the Kobayashi Maru would have been nice. But then again by this time he may not have been the only one to beat it.

I find it ridiculous that test is still a thing 900 years later. Everyone knows about it now. How effective could it possibly be?

I just realized that the opening scene could be interchangeable with one on ‘Lower Decks’. Cartoonish. Using a lot of present-day banter. But on ‘Lower Decks’ it actually would have been entertaining and funny rather than cringe-inducing.

Michael has saved the multiverse, saved Earth, saved Kronos, saved all sentient life in the galaxy, saved the Federation, in addition to lots of other bits of saving, and we’re supposed to take seriously a scene in which she is chastised for having a hero complex. 

Remember to the President, Burnham is a newcomer to the 32nd century and quite honestly despite her 23rd century accomplishments, is probably seen as someone who can easily be chastised. Just imagine meeting someone from the 12th century today – they would been seen as a primitive oddity from another era.

I felt this episode was not that bad. It was interesting that this president was putting Michael in her place. Michael has been way to cocky of a character for me to fully enjoy but seeing the bit of dialogue at the end was surprising and well needed for her character. Hopefully Michael does face failure instead of winning all the time. Without conflict, without character trouble, there isnt much of a character.

There were a few decent moments but the whole of the episode just didn’t land for me. Again, it’s the writing, dialogue, science fantasy instead of science fiction, style over substance. I suspect the cringe parts of the episode were Kurtzman’s contributions as the opening action scene was right out of his bag of tricks.

I work at a game development studio and the level of professionalism in my office could almost be dropped into a starship. lol If I had to work with the likes of Stamets, babbling and mouthing off in a dire situation, I would ask for a transfer or quit. lol

Why can’t the crew behave like professionals anymore?

Definitely, TNG was the management ideal of professionalism.

More, by all accounts, Kurtzman is himself that kind of workplace leader and so is Sonequa.

So, why don’t they want to give what they know is good leadership and workplace behaviour to us onscreen?

Please somebody help me out here: So does the Federation now have the monopoly on dilithium? That should be its own story arc. Who decides who gets dilithium and who doesn’t. If the Klingons are naughty they’re not getting any, but if Ni’Var gets its act together they’re getting some? Basically the Federation is capable to decide who remains in the galactic stone age and who can advance. That’s quite some responsibility to say the least. Maybe this would be more a Picard story.

Logic does not exist in these nu-Trek shows.

Mission: Butterfly

• VisualEditor
• View history

• [ Focused Assault Training Manuals ]
• [ Console - Science - Temporal Disentanglement Suite Mk XII ]
• [ Temporal Phase Overcharged Warp Core Mk XII ]
• [ Temporal Phase Overcharged Singularity Core Mk XII ]
• [ Omni-Directional Antichroniton Infused Tetryon Beam Array Mk XII ]
• [ Antichroniton Infused Tetryon Turret Mk XII ]
• [ Chroniton Torpedo Launcher Mk XII ]
• 2.1 Mission Text
• 2.3 Objectives
• 3.2.1 Dominion
• 3.2.2 Borg Collective
• 4.2 Enemies
• 5 Accolades
• 6 Accolades
• 7 Walkthrough
• 8 Scenarios
• 9 Mission Replay

Summary [ | ]

The Krenim - Iconian Resistance collaboration has succeeded in constructing the timeship weapon. Captain Nog is coordinating the joint efforts of first modelling, and then executing the temporal incursion. After testing three scenarios in the holodeck of the Kyana Research Station , the K.I.S. Annorax commanded by Nog and escorted by the player's ship as well as the R.R.W. Lleiset , performs a temporal incursion aiming for the third model scenario. After finding Romulus completely assimilated by the Borg Collective , Nog and the others are forced to reset the new timeline, however, not without inadvertently causing the Tuterian civilization to be extinct by 2410 .

Outline [ | ]

Mission text [ | ].

The research teams in the Kyana System require your assistance.

They have been running thousands of temporal incursion simulations of how to use the Krenim weapon, but I need an officer with field experience to evaluate the project and its feasibility. You will participate in a focused test of the most promising options.

A blade cuts both ways. We must be sure that what this weapon can do to the Iconians does not cause greater harm to us.

Objectives [ | ]

Kyana Research Station

• Speak with Researcher A'dranna
• Speak with Captain Nog
• Speak with Alpha Team Leader Soffen
• Speak with Crewman
• Stabilize Crewmen (0/3)
• Answer Hail
• Get Data from Simulation Console
• Speak to Alpha Team Leader Soffen
• Speak with Beta Team Leader Noye

• Speak to Ambassador Sugihara
• Speak to Talaxian Representative
• Speak to Malon Representative
• Use Console to Conduct Research
• Speak to Benthan Representative
• Speak to Hazari Representative
• Return to Ambassador Sugihara
• Download Data from Console
• Report to Beta Team Leader Noye
• Speak with Gamma Team Leader Jelen
• Speak with Commander Temer
• Seal the Door
• Disable Tal Shiar Listening Device
• Speak with Commander Temer Again
• Unseal Door
• Confront Lieutenant Selan
• Listen to Temer's Speech
• Speak with Conn Officer
• Report to Gamma Team Leader Jelen
• Consult with Captain Nog and Commander Jarok
• Beam to Your Ship

The K.I.S. Annorax

Romulus , 20 years after it was assimilated

• Go To Romulus System
• Fly into Scanning Range
• Scan Romulus for Data Centers
• Defeat Squadrons of Borg Ships (0/2)
• Hail Captain Nog
• Board Borg Unimatrix Node
• Go To Borg Unimatrix
• Override Security Measures
• Continue Toward Node
• Defeat Drones
• Join Jarok at the Door
• Cover Jarok
• Access Knowledge Node
• Defeat Assimilated Romulans
• Console Alpha
• Console Beta
• Console Gamma

Secundus of Borg

• Download Data
• Return to Your Ship
• Escape Romulus System
• Fight off Borg Ships
• Compress Datalogs
• Modulate Subspace Communications Array
• Open Secure Transfer

Being pursued by the Borg , the Annorax fires its weapon on a Borg transwarp gate.

• Escape and Fly to the Kyana System
• Go to Conference Room
• Speak with Commander Jarok
• Speak with Lead Researcher Noye

• Return to your Ship
• Hail Captain Kagran

Allies [ | ]

Enemies [ | ]

Dominion [ | ].

Borg Collective [ | ]

Npc starships [ | ], accolades [ | ], accolades [ ], walkthrough, scenarios [ | ], mission replay [ | ].

This mission is repeatable through Mission Replay , although the Rewards for completing may be reduced.

• [ Current Lock Box ]

Notes [ | ]

• Butterfly was released on August 13, 2015 as part of the new Iconian War arc. A special event is held until September 3. During this time, the mission has a minimum rank of 10 and rewards a new special [ Featured Episode Weekly Reward ] once per account, per week for an effective event total of three. The Reward Box contains a choice of either one [ Enhanced Universal Tech Upgrade ] , or one Specialization Point (claimable by all, but only usable on Level 50+ characters).
• The mission is named after the Butterfly Effect .
• This is the only mission of the Iconian War story arc where the player does not directly engage Herald forces or Iconian servitors.
• The Borg drones the player faces on the assimilated Romulus are both the "classic" and "modern" varieties, making it the first mission outside of a Special Task Force where the player encounters the former version.

Remastered Delta Recruitment confirmation of "Butterfly"'s on-screen date.

• With the remaster of the Delta Recruitment , "Butterfly" replaces “Cold Storage” in having the on-screen date given as "June, 2410. One year from now...". Players participating will meet their factions' temporal investigations contact in the Research Lab after speaking with the officers in the Conference Room. Speaking with this contact will begin a cutscene that brings the events of the Delta Recruit story full-circle.
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Published Feb 3, 2023

On Star Trek, Death Has Evolved

As Star Trek has changed, so has the franchise's attitudes towards memorializing those they've lost

StarTrek.com / Rob DeHart

As Benjamin Sisko stood over the coffin of his lifelong friend Jadzia Dax, he did what so many people do when confronted with loss. He asked her why she was gone now, now when he needed her the most. He spoke to her as if she was sitting across from his desk in the commander’s office at Deep Space 9 . Even with a futuristic coffin draped in the flag of the Federation, Jadzia’s death reminded me of being at my grandmother’s wake. It was a Chicago Cubs blanket over her wooden casket, but I still had questions I wanted her to answer.

StarTrek.com

Death is as much a part of Star Trek as it is our own reality, but early on, deaths were often brushed to the side. In Star Trek: The Original Series , death happened and then wasn’t discussed. The Red Shirt Trope emerged for a reason. Some unlucky ensign would join Kirk, Spock and Bones for an away mission, and would inevitably be sacrificed to the alien of the week and never mentioned again.

Even in the early days of Star Trek: The Next Generation , red shirts died and weren’t mentioned again. Ensign Haskell was at the conn when the Enterprise encountered Nagilum, who wanted to see a human die. Haskell had a GIF-worthy death. The crew moved on without another word about him.

As the Star Trek franchise matured, the characters’ reaction to death matured, as well. Death was dealt with, even for so-called red shirts. Enrique Muniz appeared in three Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episodes. We got to know him mostly as someone who helped out Dax or Miles O’Brien. But when he was killed in “ The Ship ,” the crew treated him with the kind of respect that showed how important he was to them, as Worf and Miles stayed with Muniz’s body for the journey home. The crew’s reaction to his death said more about Muniz than we ever learned from his appearances on the show.

Star Trek even started to show what happened when a character didn’t mourn the loss of a colleague. Star Trek: Voyager 's “ Latent Image ” showed how the Doctor, a hologram, was even capable of feeling the pain of death. Ahni Jetal showed up in flashbacks, and only in this one episode. Her death was the result of a choice no doctor should have to make. Instead of chalking it up to another “red shirt” death, the loss of Jetal left an indelible mark on the Doctor’s programming. With this episode, Star Trek put its entire legacy of red shirts behind it.

The growth of the franchise is likely one of the reasons Star Trek changed its attitude towards death. Each subsequent show takes on more sophisticated issues, and allows for new strides in character development. As its characters grew to become more fully fleshed out, their emotions towards death were bound to become more sophisticated as well.

Two friendships in particular stand out to show this. Kirk’s eulogy of Spock in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan , is not just one of the most touching moments in Star Trek history, but in all of American cinema. Kirk’s tears carry weight with viewers not just because of the selfless way Spock died, but because of how their friendship had grown over the years.

Spock’s death had to hurt — both to the members of the Enterprise crew and to the audience. He had earned that pain with every eyebrow raise, every logical barb, every adventure. Kirk and Spock’s relationship stood at the center of the series, so the memorial service had to be strong to show that. To understand what it means for Kirk to call Spock “human,” you have to know their relationship, just as anyone at my grandmother’s wake had to know she was an 80-year Cubs fan to see why that blanket was on her casket. But when you did know, it meant so much more than some words on a screen or a logo on a blanket.

From the first time they met to the very end of Data’s life, Picard was challenged by Data in a way he had not been by any of his other crew members. Even Data’s understanding of his own death, first talked about during “ Time’s Arrow ,” was different than anything else encountered by Data’s colleagues.

His death in Nemesis gave rise to the entire purpose of Star Trek: Picard . We learned what exactly happened to Data’s digital consciousness, and how he directed one final query to his longtime captain and friend, Jean-Luc Picard. In a 24th Century version of a ‘Do Not Resuscitate’ order, Data asks, in a poetic way, to be allowed to die.

“I want to live, however briefly, knowing that my life is finite. Mortality gives meaning to human life, Captain. Peace, love, friendship, these are precious because we know they cannot endure. A butterfly that lives forever is really not a butterfly at all.”

Picard’s quest to find Data’s daughters, and save them, was the best way he could memorialize his friend.

Picard’s determination to honor his friend is a beautiful reminder that in the 24th Century and beyond, Starfleet deaths aren’t mourned solely by burials or sitting at a mausoleum. Just as we need rituals to get through loss today, those rituals are needed by the Star Trek family.

This article was originally published on May 22, 2020.

Maggie Hendricks is based in Chicago and has covered sports and culture for more than 10 years for USA Today and Yahoo Sports. She co-hosts a weekly radio show on 670 the Score, and sneaks in Star Trek references into the sports world as much as possible. Follow her on Twitter @maggiehendricks.

Star Trek: Picard streams exclusively on Paramount+ in the U.S. and is distributed concurrently by Paramount Global Content Distribution on Amazon Prime Video in more than 200 countries and territories, and in Canada, it airs on Bell Media’s CTV Sci-Fi Channel and streams on Crave.

Stay tuned to StarTrek.com for more details! And be sure to follow @StarTrek on Facebook , Twitter , and Instagram .

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Butterflies from Rigel X

Clinica Las Mariposas ' logo

Alshain preparing to fly with the aid of butterflies

A butterfly was a diurnal insect characterized by a slender body, knobbed antennae, and four broad, conspicuously colored wings.

Rain Robinson 's van , which was a Volkswagen Type 2 , had a butterfly sticker on the passenger side window behind the front seat . ( VOY : " Future's End, Part II ")

The medical clinic Clinica Las Mariposas was named after the Spanish word for butterfly. ( PIC : " Assimilation ") The same was true of the SS Mariposa . ( TNG : " Up The Long Ladder ")

Female dancers seen on Rigel X in 2151 ate butterflies as part of their act. ( ENT : " Broken Bow ")

The holographic baseball park holo-program where Captain Benjamin Sisko trained the members of his baseball team, the Niners , in 2375 , contained a simulation of a white butterfly that flew in the infield behind the pitcher 's mound. ( DS9 : " Take Me Out to the Holosuite ")

In 2376 , when Icheb was preparing to meet his parents for the first time since he had been assimilated , he told The Doctor that he has a strange feeling in his stomach. The Doctor jokingly replied that he had butterflies in there. Icheb, never having heard that expression, told The Doctor that he in fact had " never assimilated butterflies before ". ( VOY : " Child's Play ")

Butterflies could be hunted with a special net, which became a metaphor for a trap to catch somebody. On Omicron Ceti III in 2267 , Dr. Leonard McCoy asked Captain James T. Kirk if he wanted to use a butterfly net on a colonist who was refusing to leave his home for evacuation. ( TOS : " This Side of Paradise ")

By 2399 , Dr. Altan Soong had created synthetic butterflies while on the planet Coppelius , simply because he had missed seeing them. They resembled the butterflies found on Earth , with the additional trait of color-changing wings. While conversing with Jean-Luc Picard in a complex quantum simulation , Data used Soong's butterflies as an example of why he considered death to be an important part of life, saying that " A butterfly that lives forever is really not a butterfly at all. " ( PIC : " Et in Arcadia Ego, Part 1 ", " Et in Arcadia Ego, Part 2 ")

The Alshain lived in close association with a species of bioluminescent butterfly, which they could summon to form masks and wings that enabled them to fly. ( DIS : " Kobayashi Maru ")

Types of butterflies [ ]

• Mordian butterfly

See also [ ]

• Butterfly pasta
• Clinica Las Mariposas

External link [ ]

• Butterfly at Wikipedia
• 1 Marlys Burdette

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http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS06E26TearsOfTheProphets

Recap / Star Trek: Deep Space Nine S06E26 "Tears of the Prophets"

Edit locked.

The Gratitude Festival is in full swing in spite of the ongoing war, and spirits are high. With the Romulans as allies, the Federation is looking to take a more aggressive posture, with Sisko as the lead strategist. Admiral Ross, Sisko and Martok discuss the importance of getting the Romulans to commit. The Romulans are cautious but eventually bow to the pressure from both their allies to plan an invasion of the weakly defended Chin'toka system. Little do they realize that Damar is planning to bring some new automated weapons platforms online to defend the planet. In addition, the outcast Gul Dukat arrives to claim that he's figured out how to win the war and needs only an old Bajoran artifact to accomplish it.

Meanwhile, Dax and Worf announce that they intend to have a baby. This seriously bums out Bashir and Quark, who still hold a candle for the Trill. They go to a holosuite and get a pep talk from Vic Fontaine, who tells them there are plenty more women out there. Odo has his own love problems when an irate Kira castigates him for arresting a Vedek over a trivial infraction.

Sisko gets a message from the prophets telling him not to accompany the allied assault on Chin'toka, but Ross forces Sisko to finally make a choice: is he a Starfleet officer or the Emissary? Sisko decides to join the mission. He learns of the weapons platforms and decides to strike immediately before they can come online. Everyone going on the mission say their goodbyes. Kira explains to clueless Odo that they only had a fight, and their relationship isn't over. Worf and Dax kiss goodbye, and Worf tells her that she is always in his heart. Jake also joins the attack as a war reporter.

A huge allied invasion force fights the Dominion defenses of Chin'toka, receiving heavy losses from suicidal Jem'Hadar attacks stalling for time. The allies manage to destroy a number of offline weapons platforms before they suddenly activate and start shredding the allied ships. Sisko's ship identifies a central power source for all the platforms and attacks it.

Dukat has discovered that the wormhole is the domain of the Bajoran prophets and plans to ally with the Pah-wraiths to attack the Bajorans' gods. He breaks a Bajoran artifact and is possessed by a Pah-wraith. In the midst of the battle, he teleports to Deep Space Nine and makes his way to the Orb of Contemplation. Dax, who has just received good news about the possibility of a pregnancy, is praying at the orb to give thanks to the prophets. The Pah-wraith in Dukat shoots her with a red energy beam, knocking her unconscious, and transfers itself into the orb, turning it black. The wormhole instantly seals shut.

Sisko feels a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of Prophets suddenly cried out in terror, then were suddenly silenced ; he goes faint, leaving Kira to take command of the assault. The allies trick the weapons platform to fire on their own power source , knocking them out of commission and winning the battle. Weyoun is furious that the battle is lost and that the wormhole is closed to future Dominion reinforcements, but Dukat assures him that sealing away the Prophets has benefited the Dominion.

Back on the station, the crew of the Defiant rushes to the infirmary, where Bashir informs them that the Dax symbiont can be saved, but Jadzia is mortally wounded. Jadzia tells Worf that their children would have been beautiful before she dies. Worf howls in anguish and begins singing a Klingon mourning song. The crew plan a funeral for Jadzia, and Sisko confides to her casket that he blames himself for her death because he did not heed the Prophets' warning. He resolves to take some time to get his head straight. He leaves the station, taking his baseball with him. We last see him grimly washing clams at his father's restaurant, uncertain of what to do next.

This episode contains examples of:

• Affably Evil : Weyoun is as affable as always while planning the battle. When Damar unveils his weapons platforms, Weyoun immediately gushes, "I like them!" After Damar manages to get the weapons platforms activated, Weyoun heartily apologizes for doubting him.
• Apologetic Attacker : Dukat after the Pah-wraith possessing him mortally wounds Jadzia. Dukat: I know this is small comfort, but I never intended you any harm.
• Call-Back : Sisko's baseball once again serves the Rule of Symbolism . At the end of the previous season, he left it on his desk, as a message to the Dominion that he would be back. Here, he takes it with him, not sure if he is coming back.
• Cannot Keep a Secret : Jadzia, when Bashir and Quark wonder what she and Worf were talking about in the holosuite: Worf: It is a private matter. Jadzia: We're thinking about having a baby! Worf: It was a private matter.
• The Cassandra : The Prophets warn Sisko not to join the battle, but he ignores them, and everyone suffers.
• Chekhov's Gun : Odo points out the Orb of Contemplation in an early scene when trying to change the subject. It gets attacked by the Pah-wraith in the end.
• Curb-Stomp Battle : Zigzagged . When the allied ships reach Chin'toka before the weapon platforms are online, they easily destroy the platforms. Then the platforms activate and begin tearing into the allied ships—until O'Brien tricks them into destroying their power source, at which point they go dead. The Alliance then easily takes Chin'toka.
• Da Chief : Admiral Ross gives Sisko quite the dressing down for being indecisive following the Prophet's warnings. It's not cruel and Ross notes he's bent over backwards for Sisko before regarding his status as Emissary , but that's at an end. He forces Ben to choose: is he the Emissary of the Prophets or a Starfleet captain? Sisko chooses his captaincy... and pays the price.
• Death Wail : The return of the Klingon Death Roar, under particularly horrible circumstances.
• Downer Ending : Sisko doesn't heed the warning of the Prophets and Jadzia is killed by the Pah-wraith possessed Dukat, and the wormhole is sealed shut, cutting Sisko off from the Prophets. Even the Federation's major victory doesn't nudge the episode into bittersweet territory due to Dukat's confident assurance that the Federation is worse off than when they started. A distraught Sisko departs Deep Space Nine, heading back to Earth to return to his father's restaurant, and doesn't leave his baseball behind on the station to indicate he will return.
• Dropped a Bridge on Him : Jadzia dies rather casually and arbitrarily, with it not even being clear until her actual death scene that Dukat did anything other than just render her unconscious. note  (Mostly because the producers didn't believe Terry Farrell would actually quit the show and wrote the episode under the expectation that they'd change it at the last minute to Jadzia just being knocked out, thus leaving them with no time for a more thorough rewrite when it turned out that Farrell wasn't bluffing) This becomes a plot point in the next two episodes, as Worf grouses about Jadzia not getting an honorable death and tries to ensure a great victory is accomplished in her name.
• Easily Forgiven : Dukat bears Damar no ill will for what happened to Ziyal, insisting that it was instead Sisko's fault.
• Fantastic Racism : The mutual loathing between Romulans and Klingons is on full display between General Martok and Senator Letant. Both deliberately antagonize each other over their perceived racial failures, stupidity and foolhardiness for the Klingons, being sneaky cowards for the Romulans.
• Fictional Holiday : It's Bajoran Gratitude Festival season again!
• Heroic BSoD : Sisko goes into one after Jadzia dies and the Prophets disappear. Bashir also looks like his world just ended. Next season will reveal Worf's struggle with Jadzia's death.
• Hoist by His Own Petard : The Cardassian weapon platforms are nearly impervious to attack, but are being fed power from a central source. O'Brien uses some sensor trickery to make them fire on it, turning them into little more than floating metal once their power source is gone.
• Humans are Leaders : In reference to the Federation's alliance with the Klingons and Romulans, Sisko describes the three powers as "Klingons, Romulans and humans." This is one of many times that the Federation is cast as a human institution rather than a, well, federation of many species.
• Hypocritical Humor : Weyoun: Pah-wraiths and Prophets...all this talk of gods strikes me as nothing more than superstitious nonsense. Damar: You believe that the Founders are gods. Weyoun: That's different. Damar: In what way? Weyoun: The Founders are gods.
• Keystone Army : Taking out the defense grid's power generator shuts down all the weapons platforms at once.
• Kill Sat : The Cardassian orbital weapon platforms.
• Killed Off for Real : Fan-favorite Jadzia Dax is murdered in cold blood by a Pah-wraith-infested Dukat.
• My Significance Sense Is Tingling : Sisko nearly collapses when the Pah-wraith invades the wormhole.
• As long as the weapon platforms and their power source have their Deflector Shields up, the allied ships can't even scratch them.
• The Defiant takes several hits from the platforms while the ships around her are being torn apart.
• Also the Galaxy -class Took a Level in Badass after being used for The Worf Effect back in "The Jem'Hadar": two GCSs in the task force, the Galaxy and the Venture , are able to take everything the platforms throw at them even though their allies' asses are getting kicked.
• Nothing Personal : How Dukat views killing Jadzia. He was only targeting the orb, and she was in the wrong place at the wrong time.
• Poor Communication Kills : After Sisko is ordered to lead the assault on the Chin'toka system, the Prophets appear to him to warn him not to leave. Naturally, though, they don't actually give him a concrete reason, only a vague warning of danger, which unsurprisingly isn't enough for Admiral Ross. Sisko goes off to Chin'toka and, sure enough, disaster strikes once his back is turned. Whether he'd have been able to stop Dukat isn't certain, but Sisko is left blaming himself .
• Pyrrhic Victory : Cardassian territory has been breached by the joint Federation-Romulan-Klingon forces. But they've lost many ships in the attempt, Jadzia is dead, the wormhole is gone and Sisko leaves the station.
• Ramming Always Works : The Jem'Hadar fighters ram Martok's ships to buy time for the defense grid to activate.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech : Weyoun gives one to an unimpressed Dukat , who doesn't seem to care. Weyoun: We're in the middle of a life-and-death struggle for the control of the entire Alpha Quadrant and all you care about is quenching your petty thirst for revenge. You haven't changed a bit, have you? Dukat: On the contrary. I'm a new man . I no longer have a need for conquest or power. I'm far beyond all that . I exist in a state of complete clarity, a clarity I intend to share with the universe . Weyoun: You're right, Dukat, you have changed. You've gone from being a self-important egoist to a self-deluded madman . I hardly call that an improvement.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning : When Dukat is possessed by the Pah-wraith, his eyes turn red.
• An Excelsior -class ship gets a heavy dose of The Worf Effect by getting a nacelle hit by a disabled vessel, then taking several more disruptor hits as it lies adrift in orbit.
• An Akira -class ship has a nacelle destroyed, followed by most of its primary hull , as it gets sent pinwheeling end over end past an orbital defence platform.
• A Miranda -class ship blunders in front of an entire row of orbital defence platforms, which unleash enough Beam Spam on it that its primary hull basically disintegrates in seconds.
• Talking to the Dead : Sisko speaks to Jadzia's coffin near the end of the episode. Sisko: The funeral service is due to begin in a few minutes, Jadzia but I need to talk to you one last time. When I first met you, you told me that my relationship with Jadzia Dax wouldn't be any different than the one I had with Curzon Dax. Things didn't work out that way. I had a hell of a lot of fun with both of you, but Curzon was my mentor. You, you were my friend and I am going to miss you. I should have listened to the Prophets and not gone to Cardassia. Then maybe you'd still be alive. Dammit! Why aren't you still here, Jadzia? I need you to help me sort things out. Something's happened to the Prophets, something that's made them turn their backs on Bajor and I'm responsible. And I don't know what to do about it, how to make it right again. I've failed as the Emissary, and for the first time in my life I've failed in my duty as a Starfleet officer. I need time to think, clear my head, but I can't do it here. Not on the station, not now. I need to get away and find a way to figure out how to make things right again. I have to make things right again, Jadzia. I have to.
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork : The strategy meetings show how tenuous The Alliance is, with Sisko playing referee between General Martok and the Romulans.
• Unfriendly Fire : O'Brien tricks the weapon platforms into firing on their own power generator.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom : Kira saying a prayer for the success of Dax and Worf's fertility treatments leads to Dax being in the temple of the Prophets to thank them when Dukat, possessed by a Pah-wraith, appears, resulting in Jadzia's death.
• Voice of the Legion : Dukat gets a second voice layered over his normal one when initially possessed by the Pah-wraith.
• Wham Shot : Sisko takes his baseball with him when he leaves the station. note  When Sisko previously left the station before the Dominion took it over, he left his baseball behind; a tacit warning that he would return. Taking his baseball with him leaves whether he will return in question.
• Major Kira takes over command of the Defiant when Sisko cannot continue in the wake of the Prophets' disappearance. It doesn't make a lot of sense as Worf, the nominal first officer of the ship, should really be the one taking command — but he was busy at the tactical station and Kira may have been assigned as the Number Two specifically for the battle.
• Not long thereafter, the Defiant gets a message from DS9, but it's from Dr. Bashir , who would presumably be the next-ranking Starfleet officer on the station with Jadzia having been incapacitated (and mortally wounded).
• Star Trek Deep Space Nine S 06 E 25 The Sound Of Her Voice
• Recap/Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
• Star Trek Deep Space Nine S 07 E 01 Image In The Sand

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Where to find and farm Smotherwing Butterflies in Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (TotK)

In The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom , even small animals and insects go into the pot as you prepare a variety of tasty dishes and useful potions to help you on your adventure. Many common ingredients can be used in a wide variety of recipes. Some of the most useful potions require you to locate uncommon varieties of plants and insects, however. Here is our guide explaining where to find and farm Smotherwing Butterflies in The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom .

Tears of the Kingdom – where to find and farm Smotherwing Butterflies

The best places to find the smotherwing butterfly are Death Mountain and Eldin Canyon  regions. My recommendation is the Eldin Canyon region, due to the fact that there are less enemies in that area. In order to farm them, you will have to wait for them to replenish after the Blood Moon and then head back to these regions to collect them.

The Smotherwing Butterfly is a valuable insect because it is one of the primary ingredients you will put to use once you learn how to make Fireproof Elixir . Unfortunately, it can be a bit difficult to track down unless you know where to look.

Related:  Where to find and farm Fire Keese in Tears of the Kingdom (TotK)

Screenshot by PC Invasion

Above, see the map outlining one location where the shy insect is confirmed to appear. The path leading near the hot springs in Eldin Canyon is my favorite place to farm Smotherwing Butterflies. I once came across four of them during a single visit to the area, which is a pretty good rate for such a rare insect. Once you find the few that are available, you’ll need to wait until the next Blood Moon . Then you can return to find the supply replenished.

Nearer Death Mountain , the Smotherwing Butterflies seem to appear along the route that follows the tracks north from the Bridge of Eldin to the Death Mountain West Site (see above map of location). The supply is spread out a bit, however, and there are more enemies to worry about. Their presence makes it more difficult to sneak up on any of the Smotherwing Butterflies you might be attempting to farm. You may also find the Summerwing Butterfly in this area.

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom  is available for purchase from the  Nintendo Store .