Spoilers Star Trek: Short Treks 1x01 - "Runaway"
- Thread starter Commander Richard
- Start date
meh. all humanoids in the galaxy apparently were put there by the Ancient Humanoid race, so who knows.
i do wonder if she gets scared if she puffs up like Sponge Bob's boating instructor
It was OK. The other mini-episodes look more interesting.
So what was the deal with the aliens being born the same time as the planet? Was it, as mentioned, a religious thing and not to be taken literally?
The queen happens to be planet's best scientist too, a little too much?
I liked the predator style cloaking.
Loved the opening shot of Discovery flying through space. I wish they would do more of that in the actual series.
So what was the deal with the aliens being born the same time as the planet? Was it, as mentioned, a religious thing and not to be taken literally?
The queen happens to be planet's best scientist too, a little too much?
I liked the predator style cloaking.
Loved the opening shot of Discovery flying through space. I wish they would do more of that in the actual series.
It was cute and a lot of fun. Not a ton of substance, but that's to be expected from a 15-minute webisode. Tilly was her usual witty and adorable self, but I imagine for those who don't like her they will find plenty to not like here, since she reached peak Tillyness. I liked the introduction of her overbearing mother and the insight into Tilly's character and upbringing that gave us. You can see why she's unsure of herself at times, but then at other times has bursts of overconfidence to compensate and try and encourage herself to excel.
It seemed a little implausible, even on a "night" shift, for the whole mess hall to be empty and for Tilly to be able to escort the totally not the alien from VOY - Night back to her quarters unnoticed, even with the cloaking field. I did like the Leeloo Dallas Multipass... I mean Po character though. Although I kind of wish that even with the UT translating her words into English they had kept her speech patterns and references less obviously human. I really like the bit about her people's belief system contending that they are the same age as their planet and that they are all essentially twins of the planet.
I wonder if the Dilithium Regeneration device and how it will cause her people to likely be exploited will be revisited later on in the show proper. I hope these minisodes are meant to be set ups for something larger.
Anyway, I gave the minisode an 8/10.
It seemed a little implausible, even on a "night" shift, for the whole mess hall to be empty and for Tilly to be able to escort the totally not the alien from VOY - Night back to her quarters unnoticed, even with the cloaking field. I did like the Leeloo Dallas Multipass... I mean Po character though. Although I kind of wish that even with the UT translating her words into English they had kept her speech patterns and references less obviously human. I really like the bit about her people's belief system contending that they are the same age as their planet and that they are all essentially twins of the planet.
I wonder if the Dilithium Regeneration device and how it will cause her people to likely be exploited will be revisited later on in the show proper. I hope these minisodes are meant to be set ups for something larger.
Anyway, I gave the minisode an 8/10.
Someone needs to post a gif of this for use unfortunate souls who live outside the US and Canadia
That was what took me out of the episode. It was like Discovery was running on a skeleton crew and the entire senior staff was on shore leave. Tilly does continue to be adorable though, which was why I just throught this episode was just ok.
Some technical counterpoints, blindfolded and from the hip as I won't be seeing this thing for quite some time yet.
1) Half-empty ship with skeleton crew... Well, that's NCC-1031 for ya. Lorca had less than 200 on a ship twice the volume of Pike's ship. The corridors are empty in most episodes, and the Mess Hall no doubt only gets the attendance we see during the shift mealtimes, not in between.
2) Unauthorized transport in deep space a big deal? I sort of doubt it. I mean, if you can transport secretly at all, it means you have bypassed this "authorization" thing for good anyway. And Lorca was site-to-siteing for frivolous reasons during his tenure; somebody could be doing that during Saru's temporary command, too. This still is a flying lab full of mad scientists with special needs, now isn't it?
3) Intruder alerts down... Now how often did those help Kirk? His ship was virtually never boarded by conventional means (the one time van Gelder snuck aboard, there were no automated alerts and no way to track down the intruder except by telling people to look out for him), and the unconventional apparitions into the ship did not trigger any alarms (Lazarus, say). The alerts of NCC-1031 have never been better than that, as per the Mudd romp.
The rest I suppose is just Tilly being Tilly.
Timo Saloniemi
1) Half-empty ship with skeleton crew... Well, that's NCC-1031 for ya. Lorca had less than 200 on a ship twice the volume of Pike's ship. The corridors are empty in most episodes, and the Mess Hall no doubt only gets the attendance we see during the shift mealtimes, not in between.
2) Unauthorized transport in deep space a big deal? I sort of doubt it. I mean, if you can transport secretly at all, it means you have bypassed this "authorization" thing for good anyway. And Lorca was site-to-siteing for frivolous reasons during his tenure; somebody could be doing that during Saru's temporary command, too. This still is a flying lab full of mad scientists with special needs, now isn't it?
3) Intruder alerts down... Now how often did those help Kirk? His ship was virtually never boarded by conventional means (the one time van Gelder snuck aboard, there were no automated alerts and no way to track down the intruder except by telling people to look out for him), and the unconventional apparitions into the ship did not trigger any alarms (Lazarus, say). The alerts of NCC-1031 have never been better than that, as per the Mudd romp.
The rest I suppose is just Tilly being Tilly.
Timo Saloniemi
It was co-written by Jenny Lumet and Alex Kurtzman, both notable producers of Discovery and the same writing team as the 2017 version of The Mummy (also featuring a young princess from a different culture in political upheaval and rebellion). I think that it was primarily a vehicle to promote the Short Treks concept and tie it more directly with Discovery, unlike the other three eps.
I may need another watch, because I have no idea where Tilly transported Po at the end. And why the UT wasn't working on default. I mean, I guess Po is from a super-advanced monarchy that relies on dilithium mining, and can utilize personal cloaking, yet is in open communication with Starfleet.
Po must have been killed almost immediately by the counter-revolutionaries that killed her family, since it takes another 30 years before someone else cracks the secret of recrystallization.
I think the short running time hurt the story more than it helped it. Granted I'm used to Star Trek's standard four acts, but ... man, it felt like it was missing something. The opening shot was cool AF, the less said about that scene with her mother the best, and then the scene in the mess hall was well written, but after that it just sort of fell apart. A good story needs an antagonist or a problem to resolve, and there just wasn't any of that once we found out Po was a fugitive. It's almost as if they were trying to build a one hour episode, knew how to start and finish it, but couldn't figure out how to flesh it out in the middle and just shipped it off to be a Short Trek instead. It's a shame, because I feel like there could be an interesting episode here. The religious views of the Po character, especially, felt like it could have led to something with more time.
At least Wiseman can charm the pants off anything. She made the chunky dialogue with her mom work and absolutely owned the "meet & greet" scene with the UT. These 15 minutes only reinforce the need to work in as many Tilly one-liners as possible, and gave me two of my favourite Tilly reactions so far (please give us more scenes with Tilly not getting along with replicators and strangers).
On another note, I'm not usually one to harp on canon, but there were a few obvious Treknology gaps that took me out of the story (No intruder alert? Where is she transporting her to?), plus the only scenario where Tilly wouldn't call Burnham immediately is one where Sonequa Martin-Green isn't available to show up.
At least Wiseman can charm the pants off anything. She made the chunky dialogue with her mom work and absolutely owned the "meet & greet" scene with the UT. These 15 minutes only reinforce the need to work in as many Tilly one-liners as possible, and gave me two of my favourite Tilly reactions so far (please give us more scenes with Tilly not getting along with replicators and strangers).
On another note, I'm not usually one to harp on canon, but there were a few obvious Treknology gaps that took me out of the story (No intruder alert? Where is she transporting her to?), plus the only scenario where Tilly wouldn't call Burnham immediately is one where Sonequa Martin-Green isn't available to show up.
I noticed that too. I'm guessing they didn't want to commit to an actress (or maybe didn't find what they were looking for) in case the character comes back, so they just hired a random voice actress.
Po was transported back to her home, which I assumed was her home planet. I assumed further, as the transporter had a maximum range of 40,000 kilometers, that the Discovery was somewhere near Xahea.
At a guess, from what little we saw of the stand-in: They didn't want to waste the reveal of Marina Sirtis as Tilly's mom on a webisode.
Except 40,000 km is a tenth of the distance from Earth to the moon, and that beauty shot at the start of the episode showed no evidence of a planet .
We had close-up views of the Discovery. Nothing like the views of old Trek, where we had a ship gracefully orbit a planet.
I am using what has been established in canon, until Discovery decides otherwise.
Seeing the episode again, there is a charming picture of Tilly hugging Burnham. Best moment to see it is at 1:33.
Seeing the episode again, there is a charming picture of Tilly hugging Burnham. Best moment to see it is at 1:33.
5 shifts / 130 crew = 26 crew per shift.
Although, any one person might be expected to do 2 shifts (almost 10 hours) a day.
So it's likely that it only takes 26 or 52 crew to keep Discovery running.
it's likely that the compliment was smaller because of the top secret nature of the spore dive.
A less secretive stardrive may double or triple the crew on board, even if it's just adding more science labs and ground pounders.
Although, any one person might be expected to do 2 shifts (almost 10 hours) a day.
So it's likely that it only takes 26 or 52 crew to keep Discovery running.
it's likely that the compliment was smaller because of the top secret nature of the spore dive.
A less secretive stardrive may double or triple the crew on board, even if it's just adding more science labs and ground pounders.
Shot Trek #1: "Runaway"
Well, that was.... something? I guess?
The good thing about this short is IMO the tone. It felt both like a genuine continuation of the first season - it's still the same show, the same continuity, the same series - but at the same time it felt a lot more "Trek-ish" than probably any S1 episode (with the exception of "Lethe"). And it's good to get new content, period. The only question I ultimately have is: What was that all about?
So the whole story is about her and Tilly's encounter. Which is good. The problem is that, much like the entirety of Season 1, the episode was plot-driven, instead of character-driven. The focus was - once again - put on each and every plot twist in rapid succession. Not how each of those reflect upon the characters. Don't get me wrong - Tilly in this episode was awesome, and the guest character really, really good. The problem is, neither of them learns anything from this episode. Neither one changes. There was no problem to overcome. The whole story has no impacts on the character. The only lasting effect is a McGuffin - Tilly now has a dilithium crystal in spare.
The short episode was good.
Much better than a lot of season 1, actually. But it could have been much better if it had something of a character theme. Like Tilly having to teach Bo to be brave and face her obstacles (and thus learning she has to do the same with hers...). Instead... everything kinda' just happened.
Nitpicks:
The good:
Overall, I like this short. There's lots of room for improvement. But it hits the right notes, got a lot about the 'Star Trek-feel' right, and had a lot of cute and memorable moments.
7/10
Well, that was.... something? I guess?
The good thing about this short is IMO the tone. It felt both like a genuine continuation of the first season - it's still the same show, the same continuity, the same series - but at the same time it felt a lot more "Trek-ish" than probably any S1 episode (with the exception of "Lethe"). And it's good to get new content, period. The only question I ultimately have is: What was that all about?
So it's about a young queen, that's also a technological genius witht he most powerfull McGuffin of the quadrant, who's running away the night before she get's crowned.
So the whole story is about her and Tilly's encounter. Which is good. The problem is that, much like the entirety of Season 1, the episode was plot-driven, instead of character-driven. The focus was - once again - put on each and every plot twist in rapid succession. Not how each of those reflect upon the characters. Don't get me wrong - Tilly in this episode was awesome, and the guest character really, really good. The problem is, neither of them learns anything from this episode. Neither one changes. There was no problem to overcome. The whole story has no impacts on the character. The only lasting effect is a McGuffin - Tilly now has a dilithium crystal in spare.
The short episode was good.
Much better than a lot of season 1, actually. But it could have been much better if it had something of a character theme. Like Tilly having to teach Bo to be brave and face her obstacles (and thus learning she has to do the same with hers...). Instead... everything kinda' just happened.
Nitpicks:
The good:
- Tilly! It took me a while to get warm with her - but then again, I also needed a time to warm up to Barclay, and now he is one of my favourite characters. Mary Wiseman was awesome in this episode, and the writing for her was really, really good as well.
- The vfx and production values! I thought we were looking forward to 15 minutes in empty sets. Instead, this was produced like a real episode! Well done.
- Tilly hissing back at the alien! Tilly taking no shit from her. Tilly and espresso. "space rabbits". The mess in the mess hall. This short had a lot of great, memorable little moments.
- The references to "Predator": The invisible claw, the Predator noises and clicking, the glowing blood... somebody wsa a fan
- I would DIE if my mother could see my desk when she calls me!
The future really has no privacy!
- "Have a glorious day" - Are we still in the mirror universe?
- The alien make-up really looks like something straight out of Voyager - that is not a good sign! VOY had great production values. In the Nineties. From a modern Trek show, I expect a liiiiitle bit more.
- A "species born together with their planet"? The science on this show is duuuumb. Not as bad as magic glowing time-balls. But still... They should REALLY hire a scientific advisor for this show!
- Kurtzman really LOVES to use the transporter to beam to far-away planets, doesn't he? I did not expect anything else from the writer of "Into Darkness"
- I don't like the "Battlestar Galactica-ization" of the Trek-verse. This show seems a lot more militaristic and brutalistic than any Trek iteration before, and characters needlessly must have secrets from their superiours. In TOS, if McCoy met a strange alien that sneaked aboard, he could call Kirk anytime, and Kirk would have treated the alien with the same respect and caution like him. Here, Tilly has to hide the whole encounter from her superiours in fear of getting demoted/fired or punished for it. That's NOT how you run a science organization! That's not even how you run a good military organization. The whole ship (and especially the computer voice) seem cold and un-caring.
- The distribution of this short. There is NO legal way to watch this outside northern America (cough), and we don't even have a release date announced. That's not how you treat customers! These should have been available at Youtube or something, to garner interest in the show (and even maybe peak the interest of some people wo haven't yet subscribed to All Access!). Instead of creating buzz for the show, they are annoying the fanbase by hiding content...
Overall, I like this short. There's lots of room for improvement. But it hits the right notes, got a lot about the 'Star Trek-feel' right, and had a lot of cute and memorable moments.
7/10
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I mean, I guess the Discovery is hanging around Xahea, probably picking up some sweet dilithium, which is how Po smuggled herself aboard. She was only on the ship for a couple hours, max, before Tilly transported her back to the planet.
Where this is in the timeline is a mystery, atm. Tilly's an Ensign, and Michael is nowhere to be seen (does she have her own quarters now? Tilly has a second bed still). Time will tell whether there's room for this adventure before they pick up Pike, or even if Pike is commanding the ship during this short trek.
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