[Petrarch]

Episode Discussion

"The Galactic Barrier"

US Airdate: 24/02/2022 (Paramount+)
International: 25/02/22 from various sources, may be available to buy/rent on Amazon Prime - moving to Paramount+ in 2022

This thread is for the pre and post discussion of the Season 4 episode "The Galactic Barrier" - this will be a spoiler filled discussion so if you've found your way past the warnings in the activity stream and the spoiler tag on the thread, this is your last chance to turn back, or at least it will be at the end of this first post. You have been warned!

With the announcement that CBS pulled Discovery from a uniform international distribution until early-mid 2022, I'll keep making the threads for those that can see it, but I'll not be including polls for this season.

Following Tarka's actions with the DMA which is now twice as powerful, it heads on a course which threatens the most important worlds in the Alpha Quadrant, including Earth and Ni'Var, with destruction much earlier than it would have originally happened. Aboard Discovery, Stamets works on a solution to allow the ship to safely cross the galactic barrier in an effort to make first contact with Species 10-C.

A review of the episode can be found here.

"The Galactic Barrier" is the Tenth episode, 10 of 13.

Written by: Anne Cofell Saunders
Directed by: Deborah Kampmeier

[darthnovawave]

I thought this was an odd one because out of nowhere they put a limit to the spore drive for this story. Up until this episode the mycellial network was described as intergalactic and multiversal, that Discovery could be anywhere in any universe in seconds. Now however, crossing the great barrier is impossible for the spore drive and nearly so for Discovery in normal space, even though one of the very first TOS episodes showed Enterprise doing the same feat a thousand years earlier with the flaw of creating a few godlike crew running amok. It made for some interesting visual effects for the episode, at the expense of a big departure in Disco's own lore and Trek lore in general. The "superman" effect of the spore drive in general is a writing challenge, but it just felt like really weak writing to take it away this time.

[Bridger]

Continuity is hard and checking Memory Alpha is also too hard.

[Brunocsf]

This episode was really controversial. The difficulty Discovery had crossing the great barrier surprises me honestly, the Original series Enterprise crossed it with rather ease compared to Discovery, and that was literally one thousand years earlier. Also the fact that Admiral Vance said that no Starfleet vessel ever left the galaxy is also pretty incorrect. The Enterprise D crossed 2 or 3 galaxies (with the help of the traveler) and again the Original series Enterprise did leave the galaxy as well.

[JByb04]

This episode was really controversial. The difficulty Discovery had crossing the great barrier surprises me honestly, the Original series Enterprise crossed it with rather ease compared to Discovery, and that was literally one thousand years earlier. Also the fact that Admiral Vance said that no Starfleet vessel ever left the galaxy is also pretty incorrect. The Enterprise D crossed 2 or 3 galaxies (with the help of the traveler) and again the Original series Enterprise did leave the galaxy as well.

Only plausible excuse I can come up with for that is the incidents in question were classified.

But Admiral Vance is the Commander in Chief of Starfleet. Theoretically there's nothing that's off limits to him in terms of information.

This wasn't their best work & giving TOS and TNG the snub, when your writers room is supposed to be full of "canon hawks," doesn't sit well with me.

[Arno12]

I'd hazard they meant purposely since the previous times they did leave the Galaxy it was against their will, when the Kelvans hijacked it, or unplanned, like when the Traveler yeeted the enterprise across 3 Galaxies..

[Morris]

I would be fine with their explanation for why they couldn't use the mycelial network for spore jumping, if they had established that from the beginning, but they did not. They could time travel, jump universes, and presumably they could jump anywhere in our universe as well. Now that they are almost 1,000 years in the future, they are limited to whatever galaxy they are currently in, and not even all of the way to the galactic barrier! It doesn't make sense. I am already mad that the spore drive exists at all. Now, they can't even keep their own story straight!

I also wish that they would rely on more science and less fiction, when writing their science fiction. Since when is there a barrier around the galaxy? I understand that it was well established in TOS, but in reality, all we have is a galactic halo of dark matter, gas clouds, star clusters and lone star systems, extending out for thousands of light years from the edge of our galaxy. The idea of an active, energized barrier around the galaxy makes little sense, given what we currently know. It's a McGuffin to move the plot along, and I'm quite conflicted by the use of it, both in TOS and in Discovery. In one regard, I appreciate that Discovery is referencing canonical material faithfully, but on the other hand, it isn't scientifically believable. CONFLICT!!! My brain hurts. I wouldn't have been all that bothered, if this one time, Discovery had ignored canon. It's not like they haven't done that before!

All in all though, I'm happy that this episode wasn't really a large part of the general therapy session that most of this season has been.