Discovery 2x09: Project Daedalus

[rivendellrose]

Here's your belated discussion post for Discovery 2x09: "Project Daedalus."

As always, there will be spoilers within the comments. Enjoy!

Comments

[tptigger]

How dare they kill Airiam! I can't help but wonder about all those downloaded memories though...

[nenya_kanadka]

Same on both counts! I really want her to get better somehow and for them to be able to give her her memories back. (Shades of Talia on Babylon 5, where they should've done that but then the actress quit so they didn't...)

*sigh* I really love the Airiam we got to see in this episode. It would be a pity if we don't see her again ever.

I may in fact need an Airiam icon now. *sobs quietly*

My review

[selenak]

So we return to an s1 habit I did not miss. Otoh, Kat Cornwell is also back, much more satisfyingly than in her first s2 appearance, and Michael and Spock continue to do their best to push my dysfunctional siblings button.

Though while they both go for each other's weak emotional spots, I note Michael, being a nicer person, withholds the obvious rejoinder when Spock says she could never know Sarek's mind. Good choice, Michael. When Spock finds out Picard mind-melded with Sarek in Unifcation, he kept implying this impaired Picard's judgment pretty much for the remaining mission. And that was a "normal" mindmeld, not a shared katra. Though it occurs to me Michael will tell him about the katra business before the season is out, because it might be where Spock gets the idea from when he dumps his on McCoy.

Anyway, before I move on from this week's installment of our Vulcan/Human family saga, let me just say the writers obeyed the key role of writing dysfunctional siblings whom I believe to be still fond of each other (which, say, the writers of The Umbrella Academy didn't quite manage, imo as always): to wit, giving me indications of caring along with the bickering. Spock doesn't bring up Michael's series of traumas and guilt for the same of being mean, he does it to point out she's always trying to take on the responsibility for everything, and that this simply isn't true and will break her. When he brought up that there's nothing she could have done when her biological parents were killed, I exhaled the breath I didn't know I'd held because that's the kind of thing I'm talking about.

But this ongoing subplot aside, the episode mainly moved forward the seasonal arc story and killed our first recurring character since s1. I think the show has a bit of a pacing problemat times - just like the Tilly & Mae story would have worked better if instead of Tilly being in distress for three epis in a row we could have seen her bonding with Mae along with said distress, here the scenes fleshing out Airiam, and showing us her relationships with Tilly, Detmer, Michael, would have felt less obviously a signal that Airiam is dooooomed if they'd been been spread across the season. Not that they didn't work for me, they did, and they gave the actress finally the chance to show her stuff instead of being colorful background with one or two lines, if that, per episode. Also, I didn't quite catch whether the episode bothered to provide us with a line of explanation as to why they couldn't just beam Airiam on board Discovery once she'd been airlocked, just like it had happened with Tyler in the Mirrorverse last season. Or, come to think of it, why the transporter wasn't used on Michael, Airiam or Nahn once things started to haywire in the Section 31 center. Though I assume it was one of these "mumble field repelling too much transporter use* technobubble things that come up if the plot demands it in any ST show.

Speaking of the plot: Section 31 having framed Spock for murder surprised no one. Otoh we did get a pretty big reveal as it turns out Section 31 is currently led not by anyone with a pulse but Skynet an evolving AI which killed off the leading Starfleet admirals supposedly in charge of supervising that still legitiimate organization, and that Skynet Control will end up wanting to eradicate all organic sentient life. With presumably John Connor the Red Angel intending to stop it. Does this make Spock Sarah Connor? Otoh, Michael strikes me as more the Sarah than the John type. (Haven't budged from last week's speculation that a future version of her is the Red Angel.) I'm not opposed to playing out a Terminator plot on Star Trek per se, but I muist say, if this also serves as an explanation as to why Section 31 went from shady, yet still within Federation parameters to beyond the pale, I'm bummed. I'd much rather blame Pippa.

Meanwhile, the show's favourite admiral and mine proves she isn't as on board with Section 31 right now as she'd appeared to be earlier and hears Pike & Co. out as well as taking Spock's explanations seriously without immediately accepting them, either, given she has that supposedly undoctored footage of him killing people. Which strikes me as a fair attitude to have. Cornwell also enlisting our gang to break into Section 31's centre to reset their computer while she's there is a beautiful example of practicality (also she effectively changed their being on the run into them doing a mission for her which means later on she can explain the whole thing away as them following her orders, which bodes well for everyone's future in Starfleet). Of course, then she finds herself classified as a mutineer along with them by Skynet Control disguised as a a Vulcan admiral who for some reason is a logic extremist and in the supervising the shady intellegence service comittee, which, what? Isn't this putting a climate change denier in charge of the state department design to protect... never mind. She's dead anyway.

"And this is where we're reminded that Kat's speciality is psychology" moment: when she turned PIke's potential "J'Accuse" smoothly around by complimenting him on his ethics in a way that also made Starfleet Command look good. Nicely done, Admiral.

I'm not sure because Jeri Taylor wrote some Voyager tie-ins and was also in co-charge of the show, so there might be precedent, but I think that shout out to Una McCormack's novel about Tilly was a first? (When Tilly alluded to what happened when she was 16.) Anyway, nice touch.

Lastly: So, "The Daedalus Project". On a Doylist level, i.e. why would the writers choose this particular Greek myth: him. Daedalus main claims to fame were: a) being a brilliant inventor but also one not fond of competition, so when his nephew and student starts to surpass him, he kills him in a jealous rage and gets banished (and will be haunted by the deed). b) Going to Crete in his exile where he ends up having to first find a way for Queen Pasiphae to have sex with a bull, then having to construct a labyrinth to hide the Queen's offspring with the bull in, and c) constructing wings for his son Icarus and himself to escape from Crete, leading, most famously, to Icarus' death. Farscape called a season 3 two parter after Daedalus and Icarus, respectively, starring one of the Ancient Ones (wearing the body of Crichton's dad) as Daedalus, and John Crichton (Talyn edition) as Icarus, but somehow I doubt Disco will do a father/son thing as well. It'll be more likely Daedalus the constructor of labyrinths they'll be going for.

Re: My review

[nenya_kanadka]

It's totally Skynet! :D

I really loved Kat's appearance and her everything in this one. Ahh, it makes me so happy when she's onscreen, especially when she's saving the day and also using psychology on people. Loved her debriefing/scanning Spock, too.

My thought on Daedalus was simpler: wings, ie, something to do with the origin of the Red Angel. (And I wonder if Control will save Airiam somehow and give her wings and turn her into the Red Angel??? IDK.)

Re: My review

[selenak]

Hm, a resurrected/saved Airiam as the Red Angel hadn‘t occured to me yet, but now that you bring it up, it would totally work. Presumably she could access Control‘s data and thus in the far future build herself a time travel suit, then go back. Airiam as Catherine Weaver, basically! I like it.

Re: My review

[nenya_kanadka]

Teasers for next week are making me think it's probably Michael, but Airiam would make sense on that level too! IDK. I just don't want her to be dead, despite the final-sounding end of last episode.

[alethia]

Lots of nice stuff in this episode, some of which could really have used more time to breathe. Airiam being the big one; her death would have been far more impactful if we knew her at all prior to this.

I'm bummed they didn't really explore the repercussions of what it means to be on the run, especially since that was framed as the final, triumphant decision in 2.08. For being the last choice, it was wiped away incredibly quickly, with Cornwell contacting and finding them off-screen, then essentially drafting them for her own purposes at the very beginning of the episode.

Cornwell points out that Pike is the paragon of Starfleet...one who just decided to commit treason against Starfleet...and yet they didn't have a scene or a moment or an anything of Pike reflecting on that. If they were just going to erase it, why bother?

Michael and Spock's sibling rivalry is fun. You can tell Spock still cares because he's trying to address some of Michael's issues (taking on responsibility for things she's not responsible for). If he had totally written her off, he wouldn't bother.

[lynnenne]

her death would have been far more impactful if we knew her at all prior to this.

I agree. Until this episode, I didn't even know whether she was human, android, or another cybernetically-enhanced species. We never saw any interactions between her and the rest of the crew prior to this episode, so her friendship with Tilly kind of came out of nowhere. (Though Mary Wiseman did a great job of selling it, as always.)

Poor Michael, always blaming herself for everything. I loved Spock calling her out on that.

[alethia]

We never saw any interactions between her and the rest of the crew prior to this episode, so her friendship with Tilly kind of came out of nowhere. (Though Mary Wiseman did a great job of selling it, as always.)

Very much so. And to be fair, this may be a consequence of the showrunner change mid-season...but even giving them that leeway, this episode tried to do a lot to make us care. That they were at all successful is a credit to them, but as long-form storytelling...it's rough. I'm hoping we see more serialized build from here on out.

[sysann]

So “Control” gets to grab another formally trusted and cared for crew member from a sci-fi crew? I must admit that as much as I hate Ariam’s fate, it’s still better than Talia’s? Being forced to remain under Control’s reign while she tells your girlfriend that she was just a fun way to get closer to the Command structure? At least Ariam gets a voice when she’s forced into this horrible situation. And she gets to tell her people she loved them and gets to die to protect them. Being forced to remain prisoner in your own body as Control walks all over everyone you cared for... --- Still, I wished the writers had found a better way to deal with this. :(

Is anyone else worried that we might have too many complex character issues by this point? It feels that soon enough we can set up a self-help group for characters with major identity struggles? I hope Kat stays on to look after these guys. It feels like we could spend five-ten minutes of each episode just on getting everyone in a circle to talk about what it feels like to be ripped from everything you knew and to no longer know just where you fit in?

I’m loving Spock & Michael talks more than I thought I would. It kinda broke my heart when he pointed out that it’s difficult to be there for someone who shoulders all burdens and tries to take the blame instead of allowing themselves to grieve for the horrible things that have happened. - Yes he’s lashing out. But he’s lashing out as someone who cares and who feels helpless in the face of what she’s going through, just as she starts to realize that she cannot help him while he’s not sure what he needs to do. ---

Also very interesting in context is this little conversation Spock has with Paul:
Stamets: I know you’re angry with Burnham, but she risked her life to bring you here. She loves you.
Spock: If I may make an observation of my own. I saw Dr. Culber moving out of your shared quarters. You seemed quite upset.
Stamets: Yes, he said he needs distance.
Spock: I submit that your assessment of the situation may be inverted. Perhaps he needs distance from you not because he no longer has feelings for you, but because he no longer knows how to feel about himself.

And of course by the time Michael’s in trouble we have Spock pleading with her to open the airlock to protect herself. Pike’s ordering her to do it. Spock’s going “it’s you or her, do this”.

May I just state for the record that I’m glad that Michael couldn’t do it? She’d already been in that situation with Saru a few episodes ago and she’s getting understandably tired of being asked to kill her friends? I’m really sorry Cmdr. Nhan was forced to do it (and still mad that there was supposedly no other way out). But it was good to see Michael fail at it when she’s still reeling from all the stuff that’s been happening to her lately. I’m all for Michael failing at taking logical steps after she’s introduced the idea that using random patterns on the bridge saved them from the mines. (And yes I’m obviously aware that that’s where she got that idea.)

Seems Sarek’s kids are teaming up for their search of meaning outside their logical upbringing? It saddens me to think that Spock is doomed to live through all the stupid jibes at his logic and lack of feeling a few years from now.

[nenya_kanadka]

I really loved the Spock & Stamets conversation--one of those great bits of writing that sheds light on two separate situations that are more similar than they at first appear.

And I see you've also drawn parallels between Airiam and Talia.

Man, poor Spock. I didn't expect to have Spock feels this season but...yup. Apparently.

[sysann]

Yes, it's neat when that works! But I still worry that we have a few character with severe problems too many to take proper care of them. We'll see how it works out. (I'm just jealous, I can't write that many conflicted characters and I know it.)

Well "Control" was a pretty big connection, I'd say? *sigh* I wished that term was less "oh no, please go away" inducing in my head.

Yeah, I was surprised, too. I expected I'd be more annoyed to have attention drawn away from Michael and the rest of the crew, but my heart goes out to the poor guy. I think it might help that he does still care about Michael. --- I'm also currently doing a full TOS watch and it's heartbreaking in that context, too. After all that's his future unless we eventually learn that we're in an alternative timeline after all.

Completely random observation I made the other day - did you realize that S1 of Discovery is basically set around the same time as "In the Beginning"? March of 2256 sees the construction of B5 completed while May offers us the Battle of the Binary Stars. https://babylon5.fandom.com/wiki/2256 / https://babylon5.fandom.com/wiki/2256 --- Although maybe that's only interesting to those of us who've been pondering potential crossovers.