Star Trek Discovery 4.12 'Species 10-C' REVIEW & BREAKDOWN

Star Trek Discovery reached it's season 4 penultimate episode as it finally confronted Species 10-C, while Jet Reno and Book deal with Tarka.

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▶Mail: Jessie Earl
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Seattle, WA 98145

[EsKpistOne]

This entire episode feels so Arrival-esque, and that really works perfectly in both reflecting Trek's grounded side (METI, the reference to the Kardashev Scale, etc.) and the themes of connection/communication that I think Discovery has really been thriving on and highlighting ever since the start of Season 3. A bit cautiously optimistic on how it's all going to be resolved, but it's still a great episode!

[tjzambonischwartz]

This episode was the Carl Saganiest thing that ever Carl Saganed, and I am SO HERE FOR IT. This season is giving me tons of stuff I want out of Star Trek.

[Jayjay-qeum]

I'm happy that Jett Reno finally have some big role in this season.

And that light communication thing is very reminiscent of the "Close Encounter of the Third Kind", minus the music tones.

[Brooke-rwrc]

The scream therapy scene is actually VERY timely and makes sense for them to do it right then. There was an old manual on wilderness first aid, and it prescribed a detailed checklist of what to do if you find someone injured in the wilderness.

Step 1: Light a cigarette.

This is a literal medical manual for what to do in a life-or-death scenario. Stop, do something physically and emotionally calming, and give yourself time to collect your thoughts and control your mental state. Because going into a high-stakes, high-pressure situation with a poor mental state is FAR more dangerous than waiting 30 seconds. Of all the "stop and therapy" moments this season, Saru and Michael re-centering themselves before entering into the egg was was actually a proper way to go about the situation.

[okamiseven]

Also I am extremely here for the Saru and T'Rina romance! They're both so careful and controlled but clearly smitten, it's one of the few romance plots in shows that doesn't feel forced or annoying to me

[adagraves]

I actually really liked the bit about Zora trying to figure out what is off. It showed that even when you do your best to work on something, or solve a mystery, sometimes your best efforts are not enough to overcome an obstacle. Very Kobayashi Maru. A good reminder that the best intentions and the best effort from even the best and brightest the universe has to offer doesn't always succeed. Everyone has failures, and we just have to hope that we can endure the consequences.

[TheKentWhitaker]

I think you nailed my whole problem with Discovery - and I do like it and I watch it. But, sometimes things just drag out as wheels spin. It's almost as if they had 4 episode ideas and needed to stretch a few more episodes out to complete the number needed for a season. Thanks for another great video.

[goodwillhumping]

it's scary and awesome how species ten-c are "only" class two in the kardashev scale

[Omniann]

This entire series is well acted and probably my favorite trek so far

[simonterlecki]

Agree with pretty much everything you have said here, it was a great episode that was slightly diminished by the season's reluctance to take Book and Tarka out of their status Quo until now, no matter how many time Tarka had betrayed Book's trust (which makes me have some serious issues with the show's probable path of trying to redeem Book's actions this season).

As for Tarka, the show must be doing something right because I have never seen red as many times because of a villain's actions than I have because of this selfish piece of ...
Anyway, what I was going to say is that I don't think it's a case of Tarka not thinking the diplomatic talks will succeed in time, quite the opposite. I see it more as he knows that if and when the talks succeed, he will no longer have a reason, legitimate or not, to justify going after the power source which is the only thing he cares about because the only thing he cares about is himself, no matter what he claims.

[bloodink]

General Ndoye’s character has been unfortunate since they introduced her as a trigger happy paranoid irrational cop character and then tried to shoe horn her into a leader of earth. The actress does a good job showing how frustratingly dumb a character that sees all things as threats while pretending to be practical can be. Good acting for a bad character. Well good character but in the wrong job.

[kikorivera]

Overall....found this episode's focus on the attempt to communicate with 10-C very interesting and i hate the Book/Tarka subplot ..it seems so forced and unbelievable that Book, who has years of experience dealing with unscrupulous types as a courier, would be so easily deceived by Tarka....IJS

[RainbowMarc]

One of my favorite Star Trek episodes ever! 😍🛸

[ivorybooker]

The problem with Discovery is that it sprints to the finish to fill in the lack of depth throughout the season. This was a really smart First Contact episode as far as Trek is concerned. How they used their heads and not be snarky, without being over the heads of the audience with pseudo-science
Book's idiocy is starting to get out of hand. How can someone as savvy as him fall for Tarka's B.S. If he stole Book's ship it would've made more sense to the plot and the writer's writing it. For a final note, if Saru and T'Rina don't hook-up...I swear to God. To paraphrase Captain Janeway " There's slash fiction in that nebula..."

[anvalisok]

I love how the 10-C assume humans natural home is on the bridge.

[plewis]

This was the episode I was waiting on! I agree with wishing this episode happened sooner, like last week. I was so into it and was MAD when it ended lol! Excited for next week. 😁

[Donnagata]

10:42 "I feel bad, but I don't know if it's anxiety or if I'm actually sick".
I feel you, girl, I so deeply feel you... LLAP! 🤗🤗

[GPNguyen]

This episode was a prime of example of "if you're going to steal, steal from the best." Lifting inspiration from Arrival and Contact and putting a Star Trek spin on it was a great move.

[euterpe]

I loved this episode and your review as well! You were right. Working through the puzzle of how to communicate with the 10C was so very, very Star Trek! I did not feel, however, that Burnham and Saru's little discussion was out of place. They were waiting for Stamets and Zora to rig up a programmed device they could use to take with them in the pod instead of Zora so they would otherwise just be standing there waiting. Besides that, this is the first time we have ever seen Burnham really unsure and frightened. She really needed a hug. 😊It was a reinforcement of what General Ndoye told Book. I felt that Tarka's actions were inevitable since we just found out that the 10C were sympathetic to the pain their DMA caused and we all could see he was manipulating Book all along even if Book couldn't. Without that problem, the first contact would have probably gone smoothly, and the problem would have been solved. It is sort of like a dramatic requirement that there should be a couple of flies in the ointment. Drama thrives on conflict. On the whole, though, I felt this played fairly well as far as getting fans to continue to watch since now I absolutely need to know how they will manage to get out of this Tarka-inflicted conundrum, save Book and Reno and still get the 10C to stop the DMA in time. The writers even made me sympathetic for the 10C -- will Tarka's horrible plan destroy their hyperfield? I am very much looking forward to the season finale!
Thank you for the effort you put into all your reviews, Jessie

[nathanielraefraughton]

I'm a sucker for a good story about communication so I loved this episode. The entire process of figuring out how to communicate with 10-c was wonderfully engaging. I enjoyed the screaming scene here way better than I did the original with Tarka but it was in a weird spot. The suspense and dread knowing how Tarka's plan was going to screw up the diplomacy was great, even if it was pretty obvious that they wouldn't be able to stop Tarka it still felt engaging to watch.

The one part that bugged me was the find Reno storyline and that it took them so long to figure out that she was missing. They did cover the how well enough with the biometric data and all that but just the fact that no one noticed the chief engineer on the ship was not actually there and working seemed unusual. Did no one need to consult with her the entire time while all the ships systems were down? Stamets outright says he's been looking for her but apparently didn't even do the thing Hugh did which was ask Zora where she was because he would have noticed pretty quickly that she wasn't right there in the room he would have been working in. Also Hugh walking down to ask Stamets to waste even more time when he could have just used the communicator, like how he tried to contact Reno literally seconds before. The whole sequence just felt like massive feet dragging so that they'd only realize she was gone when it was too late.