"I'm impressed... but not how you think"
-- Captain Kirk to Dr. Korby in "What are Little Girls Made Of"
We and Jonathan Frakes, who directed this episode, so he'd better know what he's talking about, were right: that last mushroom jump pushed Discovery into the Mirror Universe, an alternate universe in which the Federation is fascist and everyone else is a slave. This universe was first introduced in the Original Series episode "Mirror, Mirror," playfully revisited in the Deep Space Nine episode "Crossover," and beaten to within an inch of its life in four subsequent Deep Space Nine episodes that shall not be named here. Unfortunately, Discovery made this mushroom jump before broadcasting its cloak-breaking algorithm to the rest of Starfleet, so the longer they stay stuck in the Mirror Universe (and it looks like the answer to that could be "for quite a while"), the worse the Federation is going to get beaten by the Klingons back home. This is the part where I remind everyone that Admiral Cornwell was safely taken to a Starfleet hospital in a bloody shuttle craft before Discovery attempted its ill-fated mushroom jump. As I've said before: Starfleet is terrible at being a military.
Fortunately, Discovery materializes in the middle of a battlefield where its fascist counterpart (which, presumably, has ended up in the "real" universe) just finished slaughtering some Klingon-Vulcan-Andorian rebels trying to overthrow the Terran Empire (which is what the Fascist Federation calls itself). Lieutenant Tyler, who hates both your tea and your house, salvages the computer core from one of the rebel ships, Specialist Burnham reads it (with almost no effort), and everyone aboard Discovery is quickly brought up to speed on where they are (an alternate universe), what that means (there's a fascist version of yourself out there killing and torturing people), and, somehow, what their fascist opposites are up to these days. As in "Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad," at least the writers did not waste our time figuring out what happened. Say what you will about this show (and I will): at least they don't beat around the bush, except about that one thing, which we will get to two paragraphs from now. The plan that is hatched in response to this intelligence is to pretend to be the fascist Discovery long enough to gain access to Imperial Intelligence. It turns out (how do a bunch of rebels know all of this?) the USS Defiant (not Sisko's Defiant; a 22nd century Defiant) has already tunneled through into the Mirror Universe and encountered the Empire,which means that it is possible to cross between universes without a mushroom drive. Lieutenant Stametz is still in sickbay, recovering from the failed jump that brought Discovery here. If Burnham and company can just get the full Imperial report on that incident, they can figure out how to get home, give the Federation the cloak-breaking algorithm, and win the war. This isn't as crazy as it sounds (yes it is), because Michael Burnham is the Captain of the Shenzhou in the Mirror Universe, so it should be fairly simple for her to infiltrate Imperial Starfleet Command. As we go to black, our Burnham is installed as the Captain of their Shenzhou and we are all told to settle in for a good two-to-three-to-four episode romp through the Mirror Universe.
I'm impressed: the producers have found a way to make this show, already creaking under the weight of a spoiled reveal, even more gimmick-dependent, having spent an entire half-season introducing us to a crew of new characters, apparently just for the shock value of spending another half-season introducing us to their fascist opposite numbers (the "next time on Star Trek: Discovery" trailer promised fascist Sarek; he has the same beard as his son). That is one way to make a science fiction television show. It does not seem like a very clever way, nor is it very respectful of the canon they claim to be a protecting. Now, in addition to "Harry Mudd has the ability to rewrite time," we must add "there is an alternate universe in which the Federation is fascist, and it is fairly easy to get there from here," to the list of things that Captain Kirk clearly did not know but probably should have. At least they have now justified their choice to make a prequel rather than a sequel Star Trek series. At the end of "Mirror, Mirror," our Captain Kirk convinces fascist Spock that fascism is bad and the Empire should probably be collapsed from within. By the time Doctor Bashir and Major Kira return to the Mirror Universe in "Crossover," the Empire has fallen and a sado-masochist alliance between Klingons and Cardassians has gone about enslaving the last surviving humans. If the plan for Discovery has always been to tell a story in the Mirror Universe where the Terran Empire was still in control, they had to do it as a prequel. That is a terrible reason to make a Star Trek series. I hope for everyone's sake that I am being unfair to the creators of this show.
I will say one good thing about this episode: my days of having to think of snide ways to refer to Lieutenant prune juice is that icky thing my grandfather drinks to stay regular Tyler may have come to a definite middle. While harvesting the computer core from the rebel ship, Tyler experiences another PTSD flashback, causing him to confront L'Rell in Discovery's brig. Somehow, L'Rell convinces Tyler to lower the shield on her cell; they almost but not quite make out; then she starts reciting the Klingon Pater Noster. Tyler echoes her in Klingon, but the de-programming doesn't take. Tyler leaves the brig still thinking that he's a human, while L'Rell protests "the prayer was supposed to make you remember!" [shocking piano sting]. Fast forward twenty minutes of show time. Tyler is in sickbay, reviewing the results of a new physical he asked Doctor Boyfriend to run on him. Doctor Boyfriend has found evidence that the scar tissue originally written off as the result of Klingon torture, may have been the result of body-altering Klingon surgery. Doctor Boyfriend spouts some meaningless psycho-babble about alternate personalities layered on top of rather than beneath true personalities and relieves Tyler of duty. "But they need me!" protests Tyler. "You might not be you," warns Doctor Boyfriend, at which point the audience hears a Klingon voice speaking in the distance, and Lieutenant Tyler, who always bluffs, kills Doctor Boyfriend. Our long national nightmare having to pretend that we don't know what we all know may finally be over, but they killed Doctor Boyfriend! I liked Doctor Boyfriend, and now, the first gay couple in Starfleet history (reckoned by airdate chronology) has been reduced to a widower who may or may not still be metamorphosing into the Traveler. It would appear that the only thing wholly joyful left in this iteration of Star Trek is Cadet Tilley, and I doubt that will last, given that her part in the Master Plan is to pretend to be the captain of Fascist Discovery. Insert overused Nietzsche quotation about staring into the abyss here.
A few months ago, as the thirtieth anniversary of Star Trek: The Next Generation came and went, the internet was riddled with "best of Star Trek" lists. Deep Space Nine kept topping the lists, which made no sense to a Next Generation partisan like myself. I asked my best friend, who had recently finished a rewatch of Deep Space Nine, what I was missing. "People have a tendency to confuse darkness with quality," he said. Apparently, the creators of Star Trek series are also "people." It's going to be a rough month and a half.
PS Throughout her exposition dump on the Mirror Universe, Specialist Brunham kept referring to a "faceless Emperor" running the show. In the real world, there have been rumors that Michelle Yeoh is not done on this series. My wife and I would like to call it now (because that is how you win the internet): Michelle Yeoh is the Emperor. Done.
-- Captain Kirk to Dr. Korby in "What are Little Girls Made Of"
We and Jonathan Frakes, who directed this episode, so he'd better know what he's talking about, were right: that last mushroom jump pushed Discovery into the Mirror Universe, an alternate universe in which the Federation is fascist and everyone else is a slave. This universe was first introduced in the Original Series episode "Mirror, Mirror," playfully revisited in the Deep Space Nine episode "Crossover," and beaten to within an inch of its life in four subsequent Deep Space Nine episodes that shall not be named here. Unfortunately, Discovery made this mushroom jump before broadcasting its cloak-breaking algorithm to the rest of Starfleet, so the longer they stay stuck in the Mirror Universe (and it looks like the answer to that could be "for quite a while"), the worse the Federation is going to get beaten by the Klingons back home. This is the part where I remind everyone that Admiral Cornwell was safely taken to a Starfleet hospital in a bloody shuttle craft before Discovery attempted its ill-fated mushroom jump. As I've said before: Starfleet is terrible at being a military.
Fortunately, Discovery materializes in the middle of a battlefield where its fascist counterpart (which, presumably, has ended up in the "real" universe) just finished slaughtering some Klingon-Vulcan-Andorian rebels trying to overthrow the Terran Empire (which is what the Fascist Federation calls itself). Lieutenant Tyler, who hates both your tea and your house, salvages the computer core from one of the rebel ships, Specialist Burnham reads it (with almost no effort), and everyone aboard Discovery is quickly brought up to speed on where they are (an alternate universe), what that means (there's a fascist version of yourself out there killing and torturing people), and, somehow, what their fascist opposites are up to these days. As in "Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad," at least the writers did not waste our time figuring out what happened. Say what you will about this show (and I will): at least they don't beat around the bush, except about that one thing, which we will get to two paragraphs from now. The plan that is hatched in response to this intelligence is to pretend to be the fascist Discovery long enough to gain access to Imperial Intelligence. It turns out (how do a bunch of rebels know all of this?) the USS Defiant (not Sisko's Defiant; a 22nd century Defiant) has already tunneled through into the Mirror Universe and encountered the Empire,which means that it is possible to cross between universes without a mushroom drive. Lieutenant Stametz is still in sickbay, recovering from the failed jump that brought Discovery here. If Burnham and company can just get the full Imperial report on that incident, they can figure out how to get home, give the Federation the cloak-breaking algorithm, and win the war. This isn't as crazy as it sounds (yes it is), because Michael Burnham is the Captain of the Shenzhou in the Mirror Universe, so it should be fairly simple for her to infiltrate Imperial Starfleet Command. As we go to black, our Burnham is installed as the Captain of their Shenzhou and we are all told to settle in for a good two-to-three-to-four episode romp through the Mirror Universe.
I'm impressed: the producers have found a way to make this show, already creaking under the weight of a spoiled reveal, even more gimmick-dependent, having spent an entire half-season introducing us to a crew of new characters, apparently just for the shock value of spending another half-season introducing us to their fascist opposite numbers (the "next time on Star Trek: Discovery" trailer promised fascist Sarek; he has the same beard as his son). That is one way to make a science fiction television show. It does not seem like a very clever way, nor is it very respectful of the canon they claim to be a protecting. Now, in addition to "Harry Mudd has the ability to rewrite time," we must add "there is an alternate universe in which the Federation is fascist, and it is fairly easy to get there from here," to the list of things that Captain Kirk clearly did not know but probably should have. At least they have now justified their choice to make a prequel rather than a sequel Star Trek series. At the end of "Mirror, Mirror," our Captain Kirk convinces fascist Spock that fascism is bad and the Empire should probably be collapsed from within. By the time Doctor Bashir and Major Kira return to the Mirror Universe in "Crossover," the Empire has fallen and a sado-masochist alliance between Klingons and Cardassians has gone about enslaving the last surviving humans. If the plan for Discovery has always been to tell a story in the Mirror Universe where the Terran Empire was still in control, they had to do it as a prequel. That is a terrible reason to make a Star Trek series. I hope for everyone's sake that I am being unfair to the creators of this show.
I will say one good thing about this episode: my days of having to think of snide ways to refer to Lieutenant prune juice is that icky thing my grandfather drinks to stay regular Tyler may have come to a definite middle. While harvesting the computer core from the rebel ship, Tyler experiences another PTSD flashback, causing him to confront L'Rell in Discovery's brig. Somehow, L'Rell convinces Tyler to lower the shield on her cell; they almost but not quite make out; then she starts reciting the Klingon Pater Noster. Tyler echoes her in Klingon, but the de-programming doesn't take. Tyler leaves the brig still thinking that he's a human, while L'Rell protests "the prayer was supposed to make you remember!" [shocking piano sting]. Fast forward twenty minutes of show time. Tyler is in sickbay, reviewing the results of a new physical he asked Doctor Boyfriend to run on him. Doctor Boyfriend has found evidence that the scar tissue originally written off as the result of Klingon torture, may have been the result of body-altering Klingon surgery. Doctor Boyfriend spouts some meaningless psycho-babble about alternate personalities layered on top of rather than beneath true personalities and relieves Tyler of duty. "But they need me!" protests Tyler. "You might not be you," warns Doctor Boyfriend, at which point the audience hears a Klingon voice speaking in the distance, and Lieutenant Tyler, who always bluffs, kills Doctor Boyfriend. Our long national nightmare having to pretend that we don't know what we all know may finally be over, but they killed Doctor Boyfriend! I liked Doctor Boyfriend, and now, the first gay couple in Starfleet history (reckoned by airdate chronology) has been reduced to a widower who may or may not still be metamorphosing into the Traveler. It would appear that the only thing wholly joyful left in this iteration of Star Trek is Cadet Tilley, and I doubt that will last, given that her part in the Master Plan is to pretend to be the captain of Fascist Discovery. Insert overused Nietzsche quotation about staring into the abyss here.
A few months ago, as the thirtieth anniversary of Star Trek: The Next Generation came and went, the internet was riddled with "best of Star Trek" lists. Deep Space Nine kept topping the lists, which made no sense to a Next Generation partisan like myself. I asked my best friend, who had recently finished a rewatch of Deep Space Nine, what I was missing. "People have a tendency to confuse darkness with quality," he said. Apparently, the creators of Star Trek series are also "people." It's going to be a rough month and a half.
PS Throughout her exposition dump on the Mirror Universe, Specialist Brunham kept referring to a "faceless Emperor" running the show. In the real world, there have been rumors that Michelle Yeoh is not done on this series. My wife and I would like to call it now (because that is how you win the internet): Michelle Yeoh is the Emperor. Done.
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