I've been trying to think of when I found Mark Does Stuff. I think near the end of Last Airbender? I know I didn't comment until Buffy (I'm one of these people who reads something forever before finally daring to comment.)

I know I've learned from Mark, from the comments, and my life is different because of this place. No less important, it's brought lots of joy to my life over the years, seeing Mark discover all these shows, bringing humor or new perspective or just delightful unspoiled shock, which everybody in the comments just amplified.

I'm sure we could all list favorite memories or moments. Kristen Bell crying at sloths. Mark Plays. Gargoyles! I've never seen anybody else watch Gargoyles, and it was great! And all of Star Trek, too. It took so long they made more, and then Mark watched it too, and loved it!

But all good things...yet I'll continue to enjoy Mark's posts, and the comments. Often I'll reread a post after I rewatch an episode, and I've gotten distracted for hours rereading comments before, and no doubt I'll do it again. And I still have a bunch of Mark's reactions I can watch anytime. Plus there are things Mark's read and watched I haven't yet, so I might have yet more to read here.

So thank you Mark. Thanks for all your hard work. I'm glad it's helped you, and I wish you the best. Thanks to all who work to make this community work as smoothly as it does. It's been awesome.

First, my thoughts on Discovery. I think every Star Trek show has had its strengths and weaknesses. So what are Discovery's? I agree with the discussion last post: great visuals, focus on a few characters (especially Michael. Man, I remember when people complained Enterprise concentrated on the main characters too much, but even Mayweather got a backstory episode.), and strong overarching plot. Which is which depends on personal opinion.

So what's mine? As a Lover of Backstory, I'll always want more about the characters. The big emotional moments usually worked for me, though. I could usually use more plot explanations or just more plots, although I think that's more of consequence of the shorter seasons. It's ironic that we're getting such nice overarching plots and character changes earlier Trek lacked but now don't have the longer seasons to explore random episode ideas or just little character stuff.

I think the second season was my favorite, maybe followed by the third? I might change my mind if I rewatch; I can't remember the last time I watched something for the first time with Mark.

And I still haven't had a chance to watch the reactions. I used to have the time to watch all those before the reviews went up. Ah, where did the time go?

I mean, I can think of explanations. They know the route to the planet now, and the Federation has reason to apply resources and thought to ways to safety mine the dilithium despite the nebula and radiation. But this is the kind of thing I would like the show to explain more about rather than just offer blithe assurances it's happening.

So, did Michael ever get her radiation sickness and leg stabbing and all that treated, or is it just ignored ala action movie logic? I admit all the punch-kick stuff drags for me.

I'm okay with Tilly telling Michael to do her plan unheard if it's "Your plans have been working so far, just keep doing what you're doing." I'm not if it's "I've clearly screwed up, so you be in charge." It could be a bit of both, of course, and might be something to explore next season.

I was kind of enjoying not having the main character be the captain, though I understand, since she was Saru's second-in-command and Tilly was only temporary, why she would be the choice.

I really didn't understand Admiral Vance's praise at the end, though. It's great that the Emerald Chain's been taken down and neat that they've discovered the source of the Burn, but the latter doesn't really solve anything. The dilithium planet will certainly help, too, but there are certainly going to be some logistical issues getting it. And it was all definitely a team effort.

Saru explaining the challenges and exploration of the outside world to Su'kal was a beautiful summary of discovery.

Like Mark, I suspected that Su'kal had caused the Burn when his family died. So it wasn't much of a twist, but that's okay. There is satisfaction in a well-told and foreshadowed story.

A tremendous cry of grief from a lonely child broke the galaxy, and now he finally finds connection again. And that's been theme of the season: rebuilding connection after loss. From the broken Federation with its scattered worlds, to Michael, giving up on Discovery and then unsure how to join them and the Federation again, to isolated Earth, to Nhan, coming to the future and finding her relationship to her people again, from Adira and Tal and Gray, to Ni'Var, and so on.

So the literal monologue stating such really wasn't necessary; sometimes I think Discovery doesn't trust its audience enough. (Then again, I could use more explanation about plot sometimes...) I'll post my thoughts on Discovery as a whole Wednesday, as well as (sob!) Mark Watches.

I liked this episode because it's been awhile since the show called Discovery has gotten to explore a strange scifi mystery, and a long marooned ship with a sole survivor in a holographic environment on a dilithium planet is certainly a cool one.

Poor Tilly. Getting attacked by the head of the Emerald Chain almost immediately during your first time leading the ship is REALLY rotten luck.

I think this might be the first time I've seen Doug Jones act with his own face! But what really struck me as poignant about the elder hologram was not just that Saru has never seen an elder that old, but that their age is not a fanciful imaging for the program, just probably perfectly natural for the Kaminar of that time. And Saru is part of the reason why.

It occurred to me that the eyeshadow fashion in the Mirrorverse actually makes a lot of sense, given their genetic eye condition.

My issue with going back to the Mirrorverse for these episodes (besides having kind of had my fill of it from season one) is the same issue I had with Enterprise's Mirrorverse episodes: the fun of the Mirrorverse for me is in our universe's characters' reactions to it. Just seeing different versions of the characters act all evil isn't interesting to me.

The inverted credits were neat, though. It reminded me of Fringe. But that also reminded me I could be watching Fringe instead.

But yeah, not excited by Georgiou's imperial adventures. I really didn't find Michevil that interesting a character, and the first part this episode was really rough going for me. But then there was the vahar'ai scene and finally getting a sense of how that insidious root beer quality of the Federation has changed Georgiou (excellent music in that scene, too.)

It feels like the Guardian of Forever has become a lot more genial since TOS, which is weird since that wouldn't seem to be that long by his perspective, or however a spacetime portal views time. But he's picked a name and everything...that portal back in the first season of TNG didn't even have a name (although to be fair, the TNG crew rudely never asked, I think. I wonder if Portal and Carl ever chat. I like to think all of the Star Trek godlike beings keep in touch.)

I have to admit, Ossyra's plot was by far the least interesting of the episode to me. She didn't really grab me as a villain and Kyheem's anger at Book for his integrity really irritated me (but at least he and Kweijian were attractive to look at.) But I thought things picked up with Discovery engaging Ossyra in orbit.

I'm loving Stamets and Adira and Culber's relationships, but it did raise some questions for me. Do we know what happened to Adira's parents? How did they go from being on a generation ship with Gray going away from Earth (I assume, since that's where Admiral Tal started) to being a sixteen-year-old Earth Defense Force member? Am I forgetting dialogue or scenes that explained this?

Ryn's perspective on the Federation was interesting. We don't know if it's held by Andorians officially, of course, but if so, that's three of the four founding Federation worlds that are now out of it (I wonder what's up with the Tellarites?)

Okay, I loved this episode. It was definitely my favorite of the season thusfar, and might well be up there for the show as a whole; we'll see.

I loved how it drew on elements from multiple shows and movies and wove them into a coherent, emotional story building on previous character and canon. This is the delight of a large fictional universe, to me.

And Tilly! She and Saru have been working well together all season, and that's important in a captain and first officer. And clearly she works well with the rest of the crew, as their endorsement of her shows. There's more to being first officer than that, of course, but I like plots about people dealing with unexpected responsibility. And I like Tilly in general, so I'm all for this.

I didn't think of it before, but the fact that Spock eventually ends up in a past alternate timeline by trying to get rid of red matter now feels kind of like he was following the bizarre family tradition.

I love that you used their character names, because it makes me imagine Star Trek characters sitting around playing D&D.

I remember that line now that you mention it. (I liked Saru and Burnham's fallout conversation. And Vance's, for that matter.) It still seems weird no one brought up sending an away mission, though.