6 Ups & 5 Downs From Star Trek: Discovery 5.6 — Whistlespeak

It's my first ever Ups & Downs, and I'm already drunk enough on power to be mean about tricorders. I've changed, but then so has Star Trek's famous three-pronged scanning device. This was tough, nonetheless, as I really wanted to like the new retinal tricorder mod — the eye-corder, it's an eye-corder! To be fair, and as Seán rightly noted, they are one of the most aptly futuristic things we've seen so far in Star Trek: Discovery after the time-jump, although not without a few problematic privacy issues!

I wonder if, despite now having spent quite some time with Discovery in the 32nd century, we are accustomed enough to the tricom badge to allow for another tricorder to enter the mix. Like your mobile/cell phone, which barely does any phoning, the badge does less communicating than it does the tri-odd other things — holoPADD, tricorder, and portable transporter. Perhaps it's just me who needs more and more time to familiarise with the new-fangled? I mean, I'm not saying I don't want one, nonetheless!

For me, the introduction of the latest in Starfleet wearable tech was just all a bit too quick and convenient to the plot. As Commander Rayner announced over the comm (tri- or otherwise), the new retinal tricorder mod that Ensign Tal has been playing around with "should come in handy if [Burnham and Tilly] need to be discreet". Funny you should say that Rayner, as there's actually a super discreet away mission they're about to go on! Well, at least they hung a lantern on it brighter than three warp core explosions!