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No Poignant Ironies: Calypso shows us STD is capable of not being terrible

John E. Price
3 min readNov 9, 2018

Well that was a pleasant surprise, wasn’t it?

If you know me in the slightest, you know that I loathe Star Trek Discovery. I’ve even gone so far as to declare that fans of STD are bad people. (Which, of course, they are.) But I have no problem saying when good things are good.

Enter Calypso.

Hey SMG, study this.

The whole concept of “Short Treks” is stupid and is very clearly an even more cynical money grab than the show, which is already a pretty cynical money grab. So in no way whatsoever should anyone take this as an endorsement of CBS, CBS All-Access, or the absurd pyramid scheme they’re calling “Discovery.”

However, if you like interesting, well-written scifi stories, you might like Calypso.

And I’m not gonna lie, the episode doesn’t start out on its best foot. The opening montage is jarring and disorienting (which of course is the whole point, it’s just not done well). Aldis Hodge (Raymond in Die Hard with a Vengeance) wakes up with no clue where he is. Soon he is greeted by “Zora” a sentient computer, and they become emotionally attached. When MC Ren finally leaves to join real people, Zora is left with the holographic memories he gave her. It’s a happy ending for everyone.

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John E. Price
John E. Price

Written by John E. Price

Academic and Trekkie. I talk about the politics of culture, review nerd stuff, and golf a lot. Co-host: @podmeandering, #TopFive, @folkwise13

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