Star Trek Discovery. [SPOILERS WITHIN]

How is that analogous to coal and oil? Coal and oil are absolutely worthless to anyone or anything UNLESS you use it (by consuming it), whereas this mycelial network is useful apart from consumption of it.

What in god's name would even lead you that conclusion?

How is it useful to Starfleet if they aren't using it as the fuel and transit conduit while also polluting what's now been established as impractical as a renewable resource?
Further, how is it useful to SF if to utilize it for either if to do so requires cybernetic augmentation and genetic manipulation?

It's not clear yet if the network IS impractical as a renewable resource. Under normal circumstances, the network self-repairs/restocks. Discovery's spore drive isn't a threat to it, it was MU Stamets attempt at turning it into a weapon - by "damming" the flow of energy so it backed up and could be explosively released - that caused toxins to build up and threaten the network.

Now, whether there would be a similar effect if Starfleet was to equip a whole fleet of ships with spore drive remains to be seen - but Discovery had enough spores aboard to make 133 jumps (albeit micro-jumps) and still have enough left for a hop across dimensions AND to load up their torpedoes with enough power to destroy a mini-star... WITHOUT access to their spore garden. Used for the odd "jump outside known territory and then use warp to survey the region" they should last a long time, so I'm not sure the "finite resource" idea is what is going to end up being the reason Picard, Sisko and (especially) Janeway don't have spore drive...

It was in one of William Shatners Kirk novels.

I was hoping Lorca was a freedom fighter fighting to

I forgot about the opening credits of an episode of ENT which I haven't seen in years.

are you kidding?
it was one of about maybe 6 out of the entire series worth remembering.

Clearly the mirror universe earth existed well before the first contact with the Vulcans.

It's heavily implied through the entire opening of war and military scenes that this Earth is not like Kirk's Earth. This Earth we see has more conflict and fighting and it's likely that the Terran Empire did land on the moon but had not yet conquered all of Earth. Later there was a nuclear war and that's when we see Cochrane and the Vulcans. He's not a good guy. He's a Terran Empire scientist. His Warp Drive and than later capture of the Vulcan ship probably gave the Terran Empire the technology it needed to finally unite the planet under the Terran Empire by force. Much in the same way that MU Hoshi Sato used the USS Defiant to install herself as Empress of the Empire.

I wonder if there's not sort of a common mentality though that in times of conflict, doing a dumb/reckless/irrational thing is only really noted as such if it fails. if it succeeds you're a great hero and there's a disincentive for critics to say "yeah but you were still an idiot"

That is, whether in fiction or IRL

What is the 'succeed' scenario for taking the Empress to our universe?

more that she succeed in getting Discovery back, or at least making it possible. Bringing the Emperor would be tangental to that.

I am not really clear on why Burnham needed the Empress for that in the first place. But I was mostly talking about taking her along to the Prime Universe.

Here's the point where I reassert my commitment to the idea that First Contact created the timeline in which Enterprise occurred and, likewise, Discovery. It is not radically different like the Kelvin timeline (in which people are inexplicably born in different years and Sulu becomes Korean and shit) but more just more advanced technologically because of stray Borg tech.

oh I don't disagree that in a vacuum an objective observer would ask WTF that was about.

I'm suggesting that in the overall context of the whole effort to get the ship home, her actions taken as a whole would be painted as heroic and thus that would plaster over some poor choices (that wasn't the only one - not reporting Tyler's unfitness is at least one other example)

What are people's expectations of/for season 2 of Discovery?

Every drop of cum emptied from my balls and onto the walls.
All of it.

Probably for the war to be going badly for the remnants of the UFP as they consolidate their forces and resources eventually ending in a reset just before they're over run.

Returning Georgiou to the MU after she's seen some sort of light about Federation ideals (and has a plan to retake the throne), or at least says she'll think about it... the return trip might also be their deus ex to send Disco back to the right point in the timeline.

We might get Prime Lorca or MU Burnham in the mix of universes.

Admiral whatsis takes command and bumps Saru back to 1st officer. She'll die. Saru will be back in the chair.

Burnham gets a pardon to confirm her brevetting to Lt. Becomes first officer under Saru's second command.

Tilley gets promo'd to ensign, swears a few times.

Stamets-not sure. Lots of mourning Hugh. He has to regrow the shroom network, or at least Dsc's supply of it. Hugh'll somehow be back, either in visions or after the reset.

V'oq/Tyler-Betrays the crew to Klingons, dies saving them.

L'rell-Provides the means for V/T to sacrifice himself. Might become buddies with Georgiou and go back with her.

character exposition episodes for Detmer and the navigator chick.

Several explodey space battles, likely an episode or two of covert ops. Cadet Spock/Captain Pike/1701 cameo on view screen. Aliens appearing: Tellarites, Andorians, Romulans, Tholians. Also a chance for a Denobulan, Cardassian, and crew ancestors from other series-i.e.: Sarek and T'Pol scene, Yeoman Janeway, etc...

Time travel shenanigans - they'll go back to just before Battle of the Binary Stars and kamikaze the Discovery into the sarcophagus ship before the beacon is lit and the other ships show up.

Um, yeah.

You should probably stick to the badly-written fanfic stuff.

at one time the report was that they were saying they wanted to wrap the war arc up in season one. If so, that might indicate that Season two would have some sort of "post war problems" basis, particularly since the war has gone so badly.

OTOH, I'm still not convinced that they won't time-travel the losses out of existence because it's hard to process some of the TOS situations not provoking discussion of a war that was almost lost just 10 years earlier.

Actually, this might explain why the the post-scarcity society of the Federation didn't always seem it in Kirk's day... supply shortages and rebuilding following a major war.

PTSD might explain the number of barmy Admirals too.

Wow!

I wonder how long Georgio will stay around?

still loving it. Basically every scene.

Burnham mutiny! Burnham mutiny 2.0!

Nice twist and I'm kind of hoping she's back to stay. Pretty sure she'll die in the finale which sucks because it'd have great implications for all the future lore. Also kinda supports what Matthunter is saying about barmy admirals.

Hating to think that they'll probably give us a cliff hanger. It jsut seems so unnecessary to viewer retention over the 6-7 months until season 2 drops.

Oh Gawd, so much of this latest episode was a train wreck.

We got to see SJW Hollywood intersectionalism writ large. Since Tyler is a symbol of a sleeper Islamic cell in the West, everyone must go out of their way to make him feel welcome while pretty much tossing Stamets under the emotional bus.

Sure Paul, it may have been sad to see your completely innocent husband brutally murdered and all, but as we saw in Orlando, the Islamists rate higher on the "I'm Oppressed" totem pole than gays. We have multiple scenes where everyone needs to be nice to Tyler and not one so far that I recall where anyone shows any concern whatsoever for Stamets.

And likewise, intersectionalism shows itself with Mirror Georgiou being placed in the Captain's chair. For those saying Admiral Cornwell is "strong and decisive"... err, no. We see her having a meltdown of indecision, followed by a childish tantrum (phaser the cookies) followed by abject stupidity.

Yes, she places one of the most evil mass murderers in Star Trek canon in the Captain's chair. But with intersectionalism, that doesn't matter. She is a female person of color, and likewise the only known Terran in the PU, and therefore the most under-represented and she must be put in charge! Hilary now commands the Discovery.

The Burnham / Tyler scene was painfully boring and irritating. The motherfucker tried to choke her to death. It would make sense that Harvey Weinstein's Hollywood wants to send the message to battered women that they are the ones who need to shape up and "fix" their abusers by showering them with love. Barf. Barf. Barf.

Hot take, since we're just going with whatever stupid theory now: Klingons are the terrorists, MU Terrans are the alt-right. Starfleet is America, so scared of the Klingons that they'll hand power to Georgiou. Next episode it'll blow up in their faces. Michael is Mueller, she'll take down Georgiou and remind everyone not to abandon their fancy Starfleet principles.