Discovery 2x03: Point of Light
Jan. 31st, 2019 07:34 pmThis episode was all the kinds of space-soap-opera bonkers, and I am so happy right now.
First off, I love L'Rell dearly, but she is way dumber than I ever gave her credit for (and my impression of her intelligence usually hovers somewhere between "You're pretty cunning, for a Klingon!" and "...Okay, maybe not...") if she thought she could get away with having Ash Tyler play a major role in her government without that causing huge problems. Honey. No. This is not smart. And don't think you're getting out of responsibility for this, either, Lt. Bambi, because you ought to be smart enough to know that this is a bad idea, too, even if it's only from a "former chief of security" standpoint. (Though, admittedly, he was only a chief of security because Captain "I Like Officers Who Are Personally Beholden to Me" Lorca made him one. Back on the Jaeger, he was just a security officer. So...)
All these months I had assumed, without even considering the alternative, that these two were at least clever enough to realize that they'd have to pretend Ash was just a background player of some kind -- a toy or a pity object or a trophy of war -- in order to make his being there work. Boy was I proven wrong.
So, big surprise that the high council is fomenting rebellion against L'Rell. Big surprise that while House Mokai is trying to help her as well as they can, House Kol (in the person of Kol's father, who I am 99.999% sure was played by Kenneth Mitchell in the grand and marvelous old Star Trek tradition of "Eh, they're related, let's just get the same actor again!" (pause for IMDB check... and it's confirmed! I was right that I recognized that voice and those marvelously theatrical gestures! ♥)) is agitating most loudly for L'Rell's (and Ash's) removal. Big surprise... that someone in a very deep hood that looks familiar from the trailers is skulking around among the Mokai crew. Hmm.
Meanwhile, back on Discovery, Michael Burnham has no close relationships with anyone who has never had severe mental health issues (except possibly Amanda, but I'm going to say that an immense guilt complex over how she raised her son and, well, being in love with Sarek... counts). Ash Tyler calls to let her know thathis ex-girlfriend kissed him and he's very conflicted things are not going great with L'Rell's reign as chancellor, then Tilly has a breakdown because she keeps seeing ghosts, and Spock apparently killed three doctors in the mental hospital where he was being held and then escaped. No need to mention Sarek's many issues, I think. Then Tilly has a breakdown on the bridge and tells Captain Pike to shut up (apparently, she was actually telling ghost!Mae, who was deeply upset that the captain of the ship wasn't small, blonde, and very white... which definitely describes someone else on the ship).
Tilly, fortunately, learns from Ash's mistakes of the past and tells Michael that she's losing her mind and can't handle this alone. Michael figures out that Mae isn't acting like a figment of Tilly's imagination but actually like an entity with its own goals and weird obsessions, and that the issue is spore-related, not medical.
Back on Qo'noS, Ash and L'Rell wander into the season finale of one of those Klingon soap operas that
gaslightgallows and I were joking about a few months ago. Well, actually it appears that L'Rell has been living in one of those for months (at least, if not always), but Ash didn't know, becauuuuuuuuse L'Rell got pregnant with Voq's kid back before she transformed him into a Human but she had the baby grown ex-utero (Klingon medical practices are so much more advanced than I ever expect them to be and also damn, can we have that please?) and now they have a baby that her uncle has been taking care of and keeping hidden from Ash and everyone else, but L'Rell hasn't even seen the baby because she doesn't want him to be a weakness. ...Because knowing that he's there but not seeing him will totally accomplish that. This is such classic L'Rell logic that it made me facepalm. She's so bad at this, you guys. Has she ever made a plan that actually worked?
Ash, realizing that he is living in a soap opera, decides "to hell with it," and tells L'Rell that he wants to be with her and raise the baby together. Meanwhile Kol'sha has found out about the baby, kills L'Rell's uncle who's been guarding him, kidnaps the baby, and sends a (marvelously dramatic) ultimatum to L'Rell and Ash telling them to give up their claim to the chancellorship or he'll kill it (or something, I might not have caught the exact details). L'Rell tells him he'll have to kill them both or the one left standing will come after him, which is suitably dramatic for any Klingon opera, and then there is a very epic battle which ends in Kol'sha proving that Kol was the honorable one of the family and zapping L'Rell and Ash with paralytic energy, then printing L'Rell's thumbprint on her abdication in Ash's blood. He's about to execute Ash when, well, someone hiding in the shadows sighs and shakes her head, I assume, having realized that Michael Burnham is going to be pretty pissed off if she allows her ex-boyfriend to be executed by a stupid Klingon. And Emperor Philippa Georgiou rides to the rescue, defeating Kol'sha and his remaining team, then unveils herself in the most charming and dramatic manner possible, because she is who she is and no one understands drama better than Emperor Georgiou. (More of which later.)
And she then corrects Ash when he calls her by that title in the most adorably delicious way.
And then delivers unto L'Rell a few quips about motherhood followed by the most scathing "This plan is not going to work for you, and you cannot have your cake and eat it too" speech. Oh, L'Rell, did you think she was giving you options? No, she's going to tell you what to do.
And then, apparently, write out the whole script for you, because there is no fucking way that "call me a more dangerous name, call me mother" speech was not penned by the hand of The Mother of the Fatherland. I know her style when I hear it, and L'Rell's whole final scene has "EMPEROR PHILIPPA AUGUSTUS IAPONIOUS GEORGIOU" written on it in solid gold ink and a big flourish. Watch the queen conquer, indeed. I had thought that L'Rell would want to look to Admiral Cornwell for mentoring in female leadership -- it had not occurred to me that an even better, more terrifying, and more appropriate guide for her might exist. And yet here we are. (Do I ship it? Let me think about it for a bit, but, Reader, I might.)
Up aboard the Section 31 vessel, Ash finally figures out who the Emperor is working for (okay, no he doesn't, she tells him) andThe Emperor makes googly eyes at the baby and then pretends she didn't because she's way too bad-ass for that he has also decided that he's going to send his baby down to grow up on the Klingon monastery moon of Boreth, raised by the monks who serve Kahless. Okay, cool. He'll be safe there, he'll never meet his parents, but he'll be safe and raised by good Klingons who serve the old ways, and... apparently at this time in history nobody ever leaves Boreth and only people who belong there go there. Okay, sure. Somehow it was this detail (and trying to remember the previous canon that has touched on Boreth, which I believe was the TNG episode where Kahless returned?) that made me think... huh. This poor kid still doesn't have a name. And he's going to be raised with no family. And... he's an albino.
Hang on, a nameless albino Klingon is a thing we've seen before.
The Albino from "Blood Oath" was apparently already a pretty infamous Klingon criminal by 2290, and Disco's first season was set in 2256, which would mean that by the time Kang, Koloth and Kor are sent after him for the first time, L'Rell and Ash's son would be 34. A totally reasonable age for a Klingon to have established followers and a reputation. So, I'm calling it -- I don't give a crap what future canon may or may not decide re: this kid, I am saying here and now that L'Rell and Ash's son is, in fact, the murderous criminal known as The Albino, who raided Klingon colonies, vowed revenge on the three captains who tried to apprehend him and broke up his power base, infected each of their firstborn sons with a genetic virus (aww, he takes after his mummy!), and was eventually taken down in in 2370 (at the grand old age of 114, which is reasonable since Kang, Koloth and Kor cannot have been much younger, if not being perhaps even older) by those three captains and Jadzia Dax, the Trill host successor of their blood brother.
This makes me unreasonably happy, and while I feel faintly apologetic toward Ash and L'Rell... I don't feel sorry enough to give up this absolutely brilliant little piece of connection between my two favorite Star Treks.
Anyway, The Emperor is certain she'll recruit (or, really, she claims she already has recruited) Ash into Section 31, and... I can't be surprised. Or doubt her. That is classic Ash. Out of the frying pan, straight into the inferno.
Oh, and Stamets sucked Mae/the spore entity out of Tilly and then it started roiling around in the science bay because classic Star Trek. It was last seen bouncing off a containment field while Saru called for security.
Next week: Saru is dying of Kelpien plot device (presumably we will need to go to his homeworld and retrieve his sister in order to solve this), the spore entity gets out and tries to engulf Tilly, Tig Notaro is back (hooray!) and the Discovery is caught in a web of some kind. "Like a spider's web," says Pike. "Do you mean a Tholian web?" say I in return. Only time (a week, specifically) will tell.
First off, I love L'Rell dearly, but she is way dumber than I ever gave her credit for (and my impression of her intelligence usually hovers somewhere between "You're pretty cunning, for a Klingon!" and "...Okay, maybe not...") if she thought she could get away with having Ash Tyler play a major role in her government without that causing huge problems. Honey. No. This is not smart. And don't think you're getting out of responsibility for this, either, Lt. Bambi, because you ought to be smart enough to know that this is a bad idea, too, even if it's only from a "former chief of security" standpoint. (Though, admittedly, he was only a chief of security because Captain "I Like Officers Who Are Personally Beholden to Me" Lorca made him one. Back on the Jaeger, he was just a security officer. So...)
All these months I had assumed, without even considering the alternative, that these two were at least clever enough to realize that they'd have to pretend Ash was just a background player of some kind -- a toy or a pity object or a trophy of war -- in order to make his being there work. Boy was I proven wrong.
So, big surprise that the high council is fomenting rebellion against L'Rell. Big surprise that while House Mokai is trying to help her as well as they can, House Kol (in the person of Kol's father, who I am 99.999% sure was played by Kenneth Mitchell in the grand and marvelous old Star Trek tradition of "Eh, they're related, let's just get the same actor again!" (pause for IMDB check... and it's confirmed! I was right that I recognized that voice and those marvelously theatrical gestures! ♥)) is agitating most loudly for L'Rell's (and Ash's) removal. Big surprise... that someone in a very deep hood that looks familiar from the trailers is skulking around among the Mokai crew. Hmm.
Meanwhile, back on Discovery, Michael Burnham has no close relationships with anyone who has never had severe mental health issues (except possibly Amanda, but I'm going to say that an immense guilt complex over how she raised her son and, well, being in love with Sarek... counts). Ash Tyler calls to let her know that
Tilly, fortunately, learns from Ash's mistakes of the past and tells Michael that she's losing her mind and can't handle this alone. Michael figures out that Mae isn't acting like a figment of Tilly's imagination but actually like an entity with its own goals and weird obsessions, and that the issue is spore-related, not medical.
Back on Qo'noS, Ash and L'Rell wander into the season finale of one of those Klingon soap operas that
Ash, realizing that he is living in a soap opera, decides "to hell with it," and tells L'Rell that he wants to be with her and raise the baby together. Meanwhile Kol'sha has found out about the baby, kills L'Rell's uncle who's been guarding him, kidnaps the baby, and sends a (marvelously dramatic) ultimatum to L'Rell and Ash telling them to give up their claim to the chancellorship or he'll kill it (or something, I might not have caught the exact details). L'Rell tells him he'll have to kill them both or the one left standing will come after him, which is suitably dramatic for any Klingon opera, and then there is a very epic battle which ends in Kol'sha proving that Kol was the honorable one of the family and zapping L'Rell and Ash with paralytic energy, then printing L'Rell's thumbprint on her abdication in Ash's blood. He's about to execute Ash when, well, someone hiding in the shadows sighs and shakes her head, I assume, having realized that Michael Burnham is going to be pretty pissed off if she allows her ex-boyfriend to be executed by a stupid Klingon. And Emperor Philippa Georgiou rides to the rescue, defeating Kol'sha and his remaining team, then unveils herself in the most charming and dramatic manner possible, because she is who she is and no one understands drama better than Emperor Georgiou. (More of which later.)
And she then corrects Ash when he calls her by that title in the most adorably delicious way.
And then delivers unto L'Rell a few quips about motherhood followed by the most scathing "This plan is not going to work for you, and you cannot have your cake and eat it too" speech. Oh, L'Rell, did you think she was giving you options? No, she's going to tell you what to do.
And then, apparently, write out the whole script for you, because there is no fucking way that "call me a more dangerous name, call me mother" speech was not penned by the hand of The Mother of the Fatherland. I know her style when I hear it, and L'Rell's whole final scene has "EMPEROR PHILIPPA AUGUSTUS IAPONIOUS GEORGIOU" written on it in solid gold ink and a big flourish. Watch the queen conquer, indeed. I had thought that L'Rell would want to look to Admiral Cornwell for mentoring in female leadership -- it had not occurred to me that an even better, more terrifying, and more appropriate guide for her might exist. And yet here we are. (Do I ship it? Let me think about it for a bit, but, Reader, I might.)
Up aboard the Section 31 vessel, Ash finally figures out who the Emperor is working for (okay, no he doesn't, she tells him) and
Hang on, a nameless albino Klingon is a thing we've seen before.
The Albino from "Blood Oath" was apparently already a pretty infamous Klingon criminal by 2290, and Disco's first season was set in 2256, which would mean that by the time Kang, Koloth and Kor are sent after him for the first time, L'Rell and Ash's son would be 34. A totally reasonable age for a Klingon to have established followers and a reputation. So, I'm calling it -- I don't give a crap what future canon may or may not decide re: this kid, I am saying here and now that L'Rell and Ash's son is, in fact, the murderous criminal known as The Albino, who raided Klingon colonies, vowed revenge on the three captains who tried to apprehend him and broke up his power base, infected each of their firstborn sons with a genetic virus (aww, he takes after his mummy!), and was eventually taken down in in 2370 (at the grand old age of 114, which is reasonable since Kang, Koloth and Kor cannot have been much younger, if not being perhaps even older) by those three captains and Jadzia Dax, the Trill host successor of their blood brother.
This makes me unreasonably happy, and while I feel faintly apologetic toward Ash and L'Rell... I don't feel sorry enough to give up this absolutely brilliant little piece of connection between my two favorite Star Treks.
Anyway, The Emperor is certain she'll recruit (or, really, she claims she already has recruited) Ash into Section 31, and... I can't be surprised. Or doubt her. That is classic Ash. Out of the frying pan, straight into the inferno.
Oh, and Stamets sucked Mae/the spore entity out of Tilly and then it started roiling around in the science bay because classic Star Trek. It was last seen bouncing off a containment field while Saru called for security.
Next week: Saru is dying of Kelpien plot device (presumably we will need to go to his homeworld and retrieve his sister in order to solve this), the spore entity gets out and tries to engulf Tilly, Tig Notaro is back (hooray!) and the Discovery is caught in a web of some kind. "Like a spider's web," says Pike. "Do you mean a Tholian web?" say I in return. Only time (a week, specifically) will tell.
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Date: 2019-02-01 01:44 pm (UTC)I like the idea that their kid grows up to be a menace to the Klingon empire.
I'm not sure how I feel about the whole thing where a fungus tries to manipulate Tilly for reasons we don't understand yet, except that I am HUGELY RELIEVED that she wasn't possessed by the mycelial ghost of Culbert as I had feared.
Next week: Saru is dying of Kelpien plot device
I hear that plot devices are often complicated, but rarely fatal.
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Date: 2019-02-01 06:32 pm (UTC)VoqAsh!" and Georgiou just rolls her eyes and sighs and is like "Okay, sure, let's get that fantasy out of the way. And when you're ready to act like a grown woman instead of a whining child, I will tell you exactly what you're going to do. Are you ready now? Because we don't have much time."I like the idea that their kid grows up to be a menace to the Klingon empire.
I'm a terrible person, clearly, because I find this idea far too amusing. I should be invested in believing that the child of two of my favorite characters lives a good and peaceful life. But... nope!
I am HUGELY RELIEVED that she wasn't possessed by the mycelial ghost of Culbert as I had feared.
Yeeeeeah, I'd assumed that was going to be the case from the minute the little green spore settled on her shoulder and disappeared, and I thought it was a little too easy, as well as potentially super awkward. So hooray, not that!
I hear that plot devices are often complicated, but rarely fatal.
Yeah, it's going to be really hard to take this at all plotline seriously. "Oh no, he's dying. Wow, this seems entirely like a thing that might happen and not at all like something that will be resolved by the end of the episode or maybe the next one if they're really feeling expansive. I'm so emotionally invested..."
I love Doug, and I'm sure his and Michael's relationship getting some time will be very nice, but... come on, dudes. The time when you could convince me (quite easily!) that you might kill a regular was last year. And didn't ever involve Saru.
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Date: 2019-02-02 12:10 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-02-02 12:11 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-02-03 10:46 pm (UTC)Kelpian pon farrthe disease that everyone gets? Idk, I'm just spitballing here. If it gives us more with his sister and the Kelpians generally, though, I'm happy. I don't expect to actually fear for his life. I mean, if they kill him I'll be pissed, but I don't think they will.no subject
Date: 2019-02-03 11:24 pm (UTC)I'm looking forward to seeing his sister again, and more Kelpiens in general, I just thought it was a bit funny to compare my reaction to them threatening to kill Saru here to my blind panicked certainty that Ash would not survive the end of the first season. There's no real reason to assume that Disco will never kill a main or seemingly-main character again (...okay, apart from the fact that Bryan Fuller was never at all involved in anything past the end of S1, which I'd say absolutely is a legit factor), but I apparently have decided that the time of danger is past, and that they wouldn't telegraph a real death this broadly anyway. XD
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Date: 2019-02-04 06:32 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-02-04 06:29 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-02-02 01:29 am (UTC)BWAH. Agreed, especially about the being in love with Sarek part.
there is no fucking way that "call me a more dangerous name, call me mother" speech was not penned by the hand of The Mother of the Fatherland.
You're right, it's Emperor Phillipa through and through!
I'm totally blanking on my Trek canon because I haven't seen the other shows in years. What's Section 31?
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Date: 2019-02-02 01:40 am (UTC)Oh, you asked the right person about Section 31! They're from DS9 originally, so they're 100% my wheelhouse. They're a sort of secret black-ops group that functions outside the normal Starfleet and Federation chain of command and therefore able to use methods that Starfleet and the Federation don't approve of. Technically their thing is protecting the Federation at all costs, but especially when they showed up in Enterprise (so, about a hundred years prior to Discovery) they had a distinctly Earth-oriented focus, and that continued at least subliminally, I think, through their later incarnations.
Being recruited by them also tends to lead to people having crises of faith and loyalty, because they inevitably want you to do things you don't want to do, and not tell your captain or fellow officers. Tyler is going to regret hooking up with these people big time.
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Date: 2019-02-02 01:50 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-02-03 11:25 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-02-04 06:31 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-02-04 05:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-02-03 10:38 pm (UTC)So much dramz. I am here for it. These poor assholes. (I twigged to The Albino as soon as L'Rell said "he has his father's skin", because people had been speculating that *Voq* might be the Albino, ages ago. I feel terrible for L'Rell but I am also convinced it's him, so.)
Everything about Pippa's everything in this was delightful. If this is what the Section 31 show is gonna be like, consider at least half of my objections to that as a show setting withdrawn. Gah, she's amazing (and terrible). She totally saved Ash's ass for Michael, not the good of galactic politics. I kind of love how Emperor "Klingons are animals" Georgiou is all "freaks have more fun!" when she's trying to recruit the bi-species guy with mega issues over not fitting in. She's SO much better at this than a) Leland, b) L'Rell. L'Rell at least has a suitable sense of the dramatic, and might be able to learn? Maybe? ???
Also: JET! YES!
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Date: 2019-02-03 11:36 pm (UTC)"These poor assholes" indeed. I swear, just... I don't even know what to say, just that.
I kind of love how Emperor "Klingons are animals" Georgiou is all "freaks have more fun!" when she's trying to recruit the bi-species guy with mega issues over not fitting in.
YES. She's so smart about that kind of thing, and so willing to be flexible on whatever she claims to think, I doubt anyone except Michael will ever really hear her say her complete heart's truth again, you know? And even that truth, I wonder a lot of times how deep it goes. How much of her cruelty is her, and how much is a show? How much of her making googly smiles at Voq and L'Rell's baby and then immediately turning off the smile when Ash sees her is a show? Where does the display she puts on for other people end and the real woman begin? I have no idea, and it fascinates me.
And L'Rell, omfg. She's so... she tries, gods bless her. She really does. But she is so bad at all of this. The sense of drama is there, for sure, like you pointed out, and she's not afraid to be tricky and cunning, but she's no good at it on her own -- she thinks she is, but in reality she's too honest. And yet she's learning. And learning, now, from the most abjectly terrifying of all possible teachers. If she can take half of what the Emperor gives her to heart and yet still keep the core of herself untouched, she'll be amazing. But I don't know yet if she's strong or clever enough for that, and I don't know if I'm more afraid of her not being tough enough to stay alive, or if I'm more afraid of her going too far with the Emperor's way and becoming someone totally different.
And Ash is just not going to do well as a Section 31 agent. Michael is going to have to rescue him before he gets too deep in, and I can only hope he has the sense to run to her before he gets stuck.
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Date: 2019-02-04 11:12 am (UTC)I mean, somewhere under there somewhere she must have genuine reactions. And the most complicated explanation is not always the real one. But, given that she rose to the absolute top in the cut-throat (literally!!) Terran Empire, she must be thinking seventeen moves ahead at all times and be extremely aware of every signal she's sending out. She doesn't do things casually or thoughtlessly.
And then I think, has being in Section 31 actually let her relax slightly? It's kind of ridic that I'm concerned for the mental health of the evil cannibal slaver queen of evil, but hey, the show called her Philippa Georgiou so they started it. :P But like...if she's ever going to make slightly less terrible choices (which I do hope for), I think living in an environment where she doesn't have to be hyperalert every single second would probably help. She's already someone who seems to make pragmatic choices rather than cackling-evil choices, which is a start. And I do actually believe in her affection for Michael and her occasional ability for limited emotional honesty. And also she's playing everyone all the time--she saved Ash for Michael and because she thought she could use him in Section 31 and to remove a destabilizing factor from Q'onoS...
TL;DR: Everything is Georgiou and nothing hurts. Well, not much. Well, today... XD
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Date: 2019-02-07 03:46 am (UTC)THIS. They knew we would love her, they set us UP to love her, and they have succeeded so hard it hurts. She's a terrible person a lot of the time, but all she has to do is smile (or roll her eyes... or just, like, look amazing and terrifying...) and I turn into a puddle of goo.
And I do actually believe in her affection for Michael and her occasional ability for limited emotional honesty. And also she's playing everyone all the time--she saved Ash for Michael and because she thought she could use him in Section 31 and to remove a destabilizing factor from Q'onoS...
Exactly - I do believe she 100% loves Michael. (However we may choose to interpret that love...) That doesn't necessarily mean that she won't double-cross Michael or do things that hurt her from time to time, but the love is there. And I do totally believe she saved Ash's butt for Michael. She was disappointed when L'Rell said she wouldn't kill him, but she was also not surprised -- that was a test she (quite reasonably) did not expect L'Rell to pass. But he had to go away, or Qo'noS would fall to pieces again. Conveniently, she can take him. And use him. And if the fact that he's alive makes Michael happy as a side benefit, well, then, she's earning brownie points she can redeem the next time she does something Michael thinks is terrible. XD
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Date: 2019-02-07 11:35 am (UTC)Perzactly!!
...I need S2 Georgiou icons. Clearly. The Mirrorverse ones with the weird hair aren't doing it for me anymore. :D Hopefully something will come out of this week's episode.
("Ssssss." XD)
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Date: 2019-02-04 11:14 am (UTC)I don't know if I'm more afraid of her not being tough enough to stay alive, or if I'm more afraid of her going too far with the Emperor's way and becoming someone totally different.
^^^ This. ^^^
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Date: 2019-02-07 03:48 am (UTC)She is my beautiful stupid queen and I both love her and want to shake her and tell her to be smarter about what she's doing.
...Which would be a terrible idea as I'm nearly a full foot shorter than her and a total and complete wimp. But, y'know, figuratively. :P
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Date: 2019-02-07 11:30 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-02-04 06:28 am (UTC)I didn't like the episode, but I love the way you recounted it.
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Date: 2019-02-04 05:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-02-07 03:17 am (UTC)I will flail at you more in emails tomorrow. :D
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Date: 2019-02-07 03:40 am (UTC)It's also been adapted into no fewer than three operas by DS9 era. Two are generally regarded as crap, but the third is actually pretty popular among people who are okay with opera set in almost-contemporary times.
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Date: 2019-02-08 02:19 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-02-07 07:26 am (UTC)I admit, when I was watching I was mostly hiding my face at it all because I'm too much of a sensitive soul... but I did cheer when Philippa deus ex machina'd into the fray for some puppet-stringing (and to whisk Ash away from the soap opera).
So, thank you - I can appreciate some things a LOT more in hindsight after reading this.