As the episode begins, Kovich (David Cronenberg, who is somehow a recurring player on Star Trek nowadays!) is meeting with Dr. Culber (Wilson Cruz) to discuss Georgiou’s deteriorating condition. He relates her malady to that of one Lieutenant Commander Yor, a time soldier who traveled from the year 2379 -- complete in Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 1 duds apparently -- to the future, while also traversing universes. Apparently, the body just can’t handle that dual shift in its natural order, and that’s why Georgiou is in such distress. (Kovich’s reference to a Romulan mining ship is of course a reference to the incident in 2009’s Star Trek that created the alternate Kelvin universe where Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto’s versions of Kirk and Spock exist.)
Luckily, the Disco has that fancy new database of Sphere knowledge, so when Cronen-Kovich says there is nothing to be done for Georgiou, Culber just asks the computer. And that sends Georgiou and Michael on a mission to the only world where the ex-Mirror U’er has a chance at finding a cure. All of which results in Georgiou, and the viewer, returning to her home universe… kind of.Which, as done as the Mirror Universe kind of is at this point, is an idea that I like. Perhaps one of the things that has been missing from Star Trek: Discovery over these past two-plus seasons is the show’s ability to focus fully on secondary characters for an episode here or there. Whereas Trek used to be in the range of 26 episodes per season, nowadays we get about half that. So an episode like “Data’s Day,” or the Chief O’Brien-centric “Hard Time,” for example, are just harder to pull off. With less standalone episodes and a season that always is at least partially focused on the bigger story arc, Michael is almost always front and center, and folks like Saru, Stamets, and Tilly are relegated to B-storylines.
And so at the halfway point for “Terra Firma,” after the cigar-smoking, dad-joke-telling, sorta-lifeform Carl explains that Georgiou must step through the (metaphysical?) door he has shown up with, Yeoh’s character finds herself back in her original world as Emperor again. And the episode becomes hers. We don’t cut back to what’s going on with the Discovery, or with Michael on the planet. Instead, it becomes one of those old secondary character stories, with Emperor-once-more Georgiou back on the throne and dealing with the intrigue and deceit of her subjects.
Of course, the Disco cast is still around, playing their Mirror meanie selves, and Martin-Green still has a juicy part as Mirror Michael (who we’ve never actually seen before). But this becomes Yeoh’s episode through and through, and it’s not only a nice return to that old Trek format, but also feels like a primer for the oft-discussed Yeoh-starring Section 31 series (indeed, the story for this hour is by Bo Yeon Kim, Erika Lippoldt, and Alan McElroy, and Kim and Lippoldt will be the showrunners on that spinoff).It seems pretty clear that this is all going on in Georgiou’s head, or in some other meta-reality way (for one thing, Mirror Stamets dies here, which shouldn’t be possible because he has yet to die the way we saw he did in Season 1). But the real question is how will this experience affect Georgiou? Yeoh does a good job conveying with a glance or a look how her character is now more merciful than her past self, and how she is suddenly aware of the cruelty and violence around her in a new way. Will reconciling her past self with her present self be the key to her cure? And her redemption?
Questions and Notes from the Q Continuum:
- The unfortunate time- and reality-displaced Yor was a Betelgeusian, a race first glimpsed in Star Trek: The Motion Picture.
- So why is Yor wearing an old-fashioned TNG uniform if he came from the year 2379, which is when Star Trek: Nemesis and Star Trek: Lower Decks are set? Could be a production mix-up, or maybe they just had a different TNG-era uniform timeline in the Kelvin universe. [Pushes up glasses.]
- And what is his deal, anyway? He’s from Kelvin 2379 but he became a time soldier when he landed in the future? And not to belabor all the Yor lore, but how does Cronen-Kovich know about the Romulan mining ship that created the Kelvin timeline? Would that have been common knowledge in Yor’s world? Like, you learn about it in history class as a kid?
- Lorca! So many Lorca mentions! Could Jason Isaacs be showing up for a cameo next week?
- Speaking of which, Rekha Sharma is back as that nasty Landry. Continuity in the Mirror U.!
