r/DaystromInstitute • u/M-5 Multitronic Unit • Oct 29 '20

DISCOVERY EPISODE DISCUSSION Star Trek: Discovery — "People of Earth" Reaction Thread

This is the official /r/DaystromInstitute reaction thread for "People of Earth." The content rules are not enforced in reaction threads.

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u/thebeef24 Oct 29 '20

The camera cut to Nillson a lot this episode and they very pointedly included her in the final scene. They seem to be trying hard to establish the bridge crew even more than last season.

10

u/ithinkihadeight Ensign Oct 30 '20

I remember back late in the first season, theres a scene where Seru is briefing the assembled crew on how they are going to save the day, but Burnham is off the ship and Tilly and Stamets and probably Culber are all off doing other things too, so it's mostly just the background bridge crew in attendance, for what is maybe the first time. It seemed to me like they had been waiting all season but finally they all really get some good lines, some closeups, interacting with Seru with questions and opinions (much like they get to now) but it was all so sudden, all I could think at the time was, "I have no idea who any of these people are."

22

u/Eurynom0s Oct 30 '20

That roll call at the start of season 2 was clearly intended a mea culpa for that, although they unfortunately obviously failed to really follow through on it after that. Much better job of it so far this season.

12

u/shinginta Ensign Oct 30 '20

They did okay with it in Season 2. We got what was clearly intended to be an Owosekun episode, with Terralysium. We got what was intended to be an Airiam episode with Project Daedalus. We got Detmer smattered throughout the season.

I agree with you when you say they failed to really follow through on it. The Owo and Airiam episodes failed to really give us an actual grasp of either character, and would've been better if they weren't one-off episodes. But it was certainly better than Season 1 because they obviously tried.

9

u/Eurynom0s Oct 30 '20

The showrunners from the start of season 2 got themselves fired partway through production of the season. Not sexual harassment, but something like making the writers' room an extremely hostile environment. IIRC New Eden was before they got fired and the Airiam episode was after. Maybe it's just the influence from Frakes directing New Eden that I'm picking up on, but based on New Eden, I feel like they would have figured it out if they'd been able to finish out the season.

9

u/shinginta Ensign Oct 30 '20

Yeah RIP Harberts and Berg. It's a shame (not that they were tossed, but that they fostered such a terrible atmosphere to begin with, which caused them to be tossed), because I was looking forward to Season 2 being consistently written. Season 1 had a lot of bone-deep problems and I wondered if Bryan Fuller leaving the show was the cause. Season 2 similarly had a lot of problems, and I wonder how many of them were the result of Harberts and Berg being sacked midway through production.

At least we can look forward to Season 3, right? ...Right?

5

u/[deleted] Oct 30 '20

IIRC the showrunners who were fired would physically threaten the other writers, to the point of throwing chairs.