Mark Watches ‘Discovery’ Wrap-up / Mark Watches Wrap-up

Hi, friends. We have a few things to go through today before I sign off officially, but I just want to start with: I’m glad you’ve been here.

So, before I get all emotional, let’s talk about season 3 of Discovery! Some of my predictions aren’t so bad, but wow, I truly had no idea what I was about to watch.

Predictions for Season 3 of Discovery

1) Okay, let’s start with this: Discovery stays in the future all of season 3. I think the writers are going to commit with this. And I am glad they did!

2) At some point, Michael will be reunited with her mother. HELP I WAS RIGHT AND IT ALSO HURT.

3) Saru will become caption of the Discovery. See? I was pretty spot-on to begin with.

4) Everyone will discover that they did indeed save the future timeline and Control did not wipe out all sentient life. AND THEN EVERYTHING GOT REAL BAD.

5) At some point, Tilly will basically graduate out of her program, which she’ll complete on board the ship. Okay, I’m going to count this because that’s more or less what happened by the end of the season?

6) My guess as to how this season is even going to function: the crew is going to integrate into future society by pretending they were always there, rather than admitting that they traveled from the past. And here’s where I just completely lost track of any potential plot. Though I think this is a pretty solid prediction!!! 

7) We will meet at least one relative of someone from the original time period. I guess technically, Gabrielle counts, but that’s not what I intended with this question, so this is NOT CORRECT.

8) We will not see Pike, Ash Tyler, Spock, or L’Rell this season. I don’t count images from previous episodes, so I was right about this!!!

9) Hugh and Paul will reconcile their relationship over the course of season 3. HELL YES, GAY SPACE DADS.

10) We will get at least one episode that delves into Bryce or Rhys. (Bonus if we get backstories or plots focused on both of them!!!) Unfortunately not!!! More of the supporting cast in season 4!!!!

11) I have completely run out of steam at this point. I genuinely don’t fucking know what else could happen because IT’S THE FUTURE. THERE IS SO MUCH POTENTIAL. TRULY!!!!!!

12) So… there’s a new season-long threat? And it’s in the future? YES! Oh my god, I wasn’t ready. 

13) Um… Georgiou… does something? IDK. Maybe she changes after traveling to yet ANOTHER completely ridiculous place? I mean?!?!? in a roundabout way, this was right, since traveling to the future WAS the ridiculous place. Ugh, I would watch a Georgiou series based on wherever she went.

14) Stuff? So much stuff, Mark.

15) WHAT THE HELL IS SEASON THREE ABOUT???? WELL, NOW YOU KNOW!!!!

I think it’s obvious that I had a blast watching this show, and I’ve said multiple times that this felt like the best show to watch as the final Mark Watches project. I certainly don’t think it’s perfect; season one was all over the place, and I wasn’t a big fan of the Klingon stuff. While I haven’t had time to comment (and kept experiencing intermittent bugs with IntenseDebate, locking me out of my own account), I have been following the discussion. I see things that I didn’t catch or that just didn’t bother me nearly as much, especially pertaining to the some of the secondary/tertiary crew members. As a whole, though, Discovery felt refreshing, exciting, and thrilling to me, especially as someone who had previous watched the five shows that came before it. This iteration of the Trek lore finally did a lot of things I had craved from those original series, and it did it with style, class, and love. I suppose that’s one of the biggest things I got out of it: it rarely felt like the people working on this show were ever approaching Discovery from anything other than a place of love of this universe. 

After all these years, I do believe that doing Mark Does Stuff has taught me a lot about fiction. Y’all know I’m a college dropout with little to no official training as a writer, so I look at these past twelve years—it’s actually 12 years to the date in a few weeks from when this posts—and I see an education. Not just in writing, but in countless other things in the world. I appreciate when people tell me that Mark Does Stuff taught them to see things differently, but it would be arrogant of me not to admit the opposite: That interacting with all of you over the years has taught me countless things about the world. I say all that because picking apart tv shows and books has allowed me a chance to think about why fiction works the way that it does, and I absolutely do not think I would be an author if I hadn’t done this for so long. It helped me refine my taste; it helped me figure out which tropes I’d want to subvert in my own work; it helped me think about the weight of responsibility that a creator has when putting anything out into the world. 

And now, it’s time for it all to come to an end. Sort of. I’ll still be on Patreon as long as folks follow me there, and I fully plan on liveblogging a lot more regularly, including a journey through the show Black Sails first. I’ll post one-off reviews and discussions as I begin to reclaim some free time to watch all the stuff I’ve been missing out on. And it’s where I continue to give a behind-the-scenes look at life as an author, complete with previews of upcoming work and announcements before they’re made public. 

Because that’s really what this is about. For twelve years, this experiment became a hobby, which became a means of living, which became something in between all of that, and in that time, I’ve tried to limit my workload to accommodate the growing demands of being an author. I say “tried” because I’ve obviously and very publicly failed at that before. These last couple years in particular were hard as overlapping deadlines collided with the demands of keeping this place running, and I think I’ve actually burnt out more times than I’ve ever cared to admit.

So. This is me going out on a positive note—gods, I really loved Discovery—and allowing myself time and space. I want to have weekends off again; I haven’t in over a decade, I think. I had a nightmare schedule the first half of this year, wherein I had to maintain Mark Watches while writing—I’m not exaggerating this—three full novels in the span of four months. I would like to not do that again, and having the two days per week back in my schedule will hopefully make this easier. And I need to be kinder to myself throughout this creative process! In the coming months, you’re going to see some announcements regarding these projects I can’t talk about publicly, and when you do, I assure you they’ll shed some light on what’s been going on with me and why I really need to take this time back for myself. Also: my life is about to become very, very ridiculous. 

Anyway, the last thing I want to do is to thank publicly all of you: the mods, the longtime supporters, the readers, the commenters, the folks who came out to any of my public events and tours, the people who bought my self-published books. There’s not a day that goes by that I don’t feel like this journey is the most surreal thing imaginable, and I know that is in part because somehow, thousands upon thousands of you have found something compelling in what I did, and you supported me. I will never not be thankful for what you’ve done for me, how you’ve enriched my life, how you helped me make a living in this world, how you constantly put a smile on my face. It means the world to me. 

Now: I reserve the right to someday just drop a bunch of reviews here, but for the time being? It’s done. I’m done. Thank you for the privilege and opportunity to do this for all of you and for myself. You can find me on Patreon, Twitter, or Instagram.

And this is me, signing out.

Thank you.

Mark Links Stuff

– My third novel (and middle grade debut) THE INSIDERS has been announced! Check out the cover reveal and pre-order links here.
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