Star Trek: Discovery 1.14
Feb. 5th, 2018 11:07 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakIn which we're set up for a finale by everything moving into place.
Saru getting the double shock of a Philippa Georgiou - whom he adored as much as Michael did - appearing and then the revelation that this one regards him as dinner (and has, in fact, dined on his people together with Michael Burnham the previous day) as a great opening scene which managed to both get exposition out of the way amd offer character stuff: Saru needed to find out quite how vicious this Georgiou is, and the audience a reminder that just because she fought Lorca doesn't make her less a fascist. And the closing scene with MirrorGeorgiou assuming command of Discovery underlines just why it's so important Saru got filled in so drastically on the Terran Emperor. Because to me, it looks like the set up for what people have speculated would happen in the season finale ever since the third episode - that Michael Burnham would have to conduct a second mutiny, only this time with the support of the crew, including Saru. Only the speculation then was this would be a mutiny against Lorca, when in fact it will be a far closer a mirror image to her original mutiny.
It also ties with the overall theme of Michael Burnham embodying Starfleet values, and the conversation she has with Tilly in this episode. Now remaining true to those values in the Mirrorverse hadn't been easy. But it's going to be infinitely harder when you're on the losing side of a war and your own leadership has decided to compromise and give up on said values to achieve victory. I like that Cornwell and Sarek aren't painted as typically evil megalomaniac officials who lose it and are defeated within the space of one episode. It's made pretty clear that the situation really is that desperate, and Cornwell's conversation with L'Rell (which I loved, I had so hoped these two would have another scene together) was both one last attempt on Katrina Cornwell's part to think of another solution and her getting the grim assurance for her own conscience that the Klingons would not stop. (Mind you, I think she's wrong there, but then I have the advantage of knowing ST continuity.) Now, whatever MirrorGeorgiou is planning that the Federation officials just signed off on presumably will entail not just "millitary targets" but wholesale genocide, at a guess, blowing up Qu'onos from within or something on that magnitude.
On DS9, the last phase of the Dominion War entailed the revelation that Section 31 had manufactured a bioweapon against the Founders intended to wipe them out. Our heroes drew the line there, but it affected the outcome of the war regardless - the Female Founder surrendering did depend on Odo's return to his people to cure them. Since this episode rather pointedly revealed the Klingons aren't united but each house out for its own glory, my money is still on the actual end of the war being caused by both L'Rell and TylerVoq returning to the Klingons and assuming leadership. The Cornwell-L'Rell conversation laid some groundwork there, and Tyler being accepted as Tyler and forgiven by all but one of the characters in this episode as well as his conversation with Michael when she says that it's hard work to crawl your way back indicates to me what his true challenge/atonment will be. Not living as Tyler among humans (otherwise he wouldn't already have been basically embraced), but to live as Voq among Klingons despite now being Tyler by personality with Voq's memories. (Again, there's the Odo precedent.)
Since as far as the other Klingons are concerned Voq is a disappeared outcast and L'Rell a deserter, they would clearly need some major accomplishment to justify assuming leadership and completely reversing policy, and that's where I speculate MirrorGeorgiou's genocidal plan will come in. Saving Q'onos would do the trick.
But enough speculation, on to the episode proper. Cornwell torching MirrorLorca's fortune cookies cracked me up in the middle of the dire situation, while her phrase "my Gabriel" made me aww a bit. Also, her certainty that no Starfleet officer could survive on his own in the Mirrorverse for nine months sounded like another set up to me, so my money is currently on LorcaPrime's continued existence being revealed in the season tag scene. But maybe I'm just kidding myself and it was simply said to wrap up that storyline and tell the audience it's over. After all, finding out the ISS Discovery got destroyed by the Klingons served a similar purpose. (No Captain Killy in the Primeverse.) I already mentioned I loved Cornwell's scene with L'Rell. As to whether she'll balk at the last minute once MirrorGeorgiou is about to push the proverbial button or whether she'll be part of whom Michael has to mutiny against - no idea.
Sarek's conversation with Michael was downright heartwarming, for Sarek, and he said all the right things for once. Once she figures out he signed off on whatever Georgiou's evil plan is she will be all the more crushed, but such is this family's lot. In the meantime, this was probably the one untormented moment she had in this episode. As with Cornwell, one Sarek moment in the middle of all the drama cracked me up, and that was his reply to MirrorGeorgiou's equalizing of their Burnhams: "If I understood correctly, my ward saw through the man who brought down both your daughter and your empire. Best not to make comparisons." No one disses like a Vulcan.
Mycellium terraforming: looked cool, but if they can already do this ten years before TOS, what was the big deal about Carol Marcus' Genesis invention?
And speaking of Trek continuity, when Cornwell pointed out they'd be the first humans on Q'onos since Captain Archer a century earlier, I flashed to the relevant episode which I watched yesterday, and was reminded all over again of the mystery of the Klingon look, because the Enterprise-era Klingons looked just like the TNG/DS9/Voyager era Klingons will, hair and all. In conclusion, something must have produced the more reptilian look of the Discovery Klingons. If it was a Federation genetic scientist, it would at least explain T'Kuvma's paranoia about Klingon heritage and purity. Just kidding.
Saru getting the double shock of a Philippa Georgiou - whom he adored as much as Michael did - appearing and then the revelation that this one regards him as dinner (and has, in fact, dined on his people together with Michael Burnham the previous day) as a great opening scene which managed to both get exposition out of the way amd offer character stuff: Saru needed to find out quite how vicious this Georgiou is, and the audience a reminder that just because she fought Lorca doesn't make her less a fascist. And the closing scene with MirrorGeorgiou assuming command of Discovery underlines just why it's so important Saru got filled in so drastically on the Terran Emperor. Because to me, it looks like the set up for what people have speculated would happen in the season finale ever since the third episode - that Michael Burnham would have to conduct a second mutiny, only this time with the support of the crew, including Saru. Only the speculation then was this would be a mutiny against Lorca, when in fact it will be a far closer a mirror image to her original mutiny.
It also ties with the overall theme of Michael Burnham embodying Starfleet values, and the conversation she has with Tilly in this episode. Now remaining true to those values in the Mirrorverse hadn't been easy. But it's going to be infinitely harder when you're on the losing side of a war and your own leadership has decided to compromise and give up on said values to achieve victory. I like that Cornwell and Sarek aren't painted as typically evil megalomaniac officials who lose it and are defeated within the space of one episode. It's made pretty clear that the situation really is that desperate, and Cornwell's conversation with L'Rell (which I loved, I had so hoped these two would have another scene together) was both one last attempt on Katrina Cornwell's part to think of another solution and her getting the grim assurance for her own conscience that the Klingons would not stop. (Mind you, I think she's wrong there, but then I have the advantage of knowing ST continuity.) Now, whatever MirrorGeorgiou is planning that the Federation officials just signed off on presumably will entail not just "millitary targets" but wholesale genocide, at a guess, blowing up Qu'onos from within or something on that magnitude.
On DS9, the last phase of the Dominion War entailed the revelation that Section 31 had manufactured a bioweapon against the Founders intended to wipe them out. Our heroes drew the line there, but it affected the outcome of the war regardless - the Female Founder surrendering did depend on Odo's return to his people to cure them. Since this episode rather pointedly revealed the Klingons aren't united but each house out for its own glory, my money is still on the actual end of the war being caused by both L'Rell and TylerVoq returning to the Klingons and assuming leadership. The Cornwell-L'Rell conversation laid some groundwork there, and Tyler being accepted as Tyler and forgiven by all but one of the characters in this episode as well as his conversation with Michael when she says that it's hard work to crawl your way back indicates to me what his true challenge/atonment will be. Not living as Tyler among humans (otherwise he wouldn't already have been basically embraced), but to live as Voq among Klingons despite now being Tyler by personality with Voq's memories. (Again, there's the Odo precedent.)
Since as far as the other Klingons are concerned Voq is a disappeared outcast and L'Rell a deserter, they would clearly need some major accomplishment to justify assuming leadership and completely reversing policy, and that's where I speculate MirrorGeorgiou's genocidal plan will come in. Saving Q'onos would do the trick.
But enough speculation, on to the episode proper. Cornwell torching MirrorLorca's fortune cookies cracked me up in the middle of the dire situation, while her phrase "my Gabriel" made me aww a bit. Also, her certainty that no Starfleet officer could survive on his own in the Mirrorverse for nine months sounded like another set up to me, so my money is currently on LorcaPrime's continued existence being revealed in the season tag scene. But maybe I'm just kidding myself and it was simply said to wrap up that storyline and tell the audience it's over. After all, finding out the ISS Discovery got destroyed by the Klingons served a similar purpose. (No Captain Killy in the Primeverse.) I already mentioned I loved Cornwell's scene with L'Rell. As to whether she'll balk at the last minute once MirrorGeorgiou is about to push the proverbial button or whether she'll be part of whom Michael has to mutiny against - no idea.
Sarek's conversation with Michael was downright heartwarming, for Sarek, and he said all the right things for once. Once she figures out he signed off on whatever Georgiou's evil plan is she will be all the more crushed, but such is this family's lot. In the meantime, this was probably the one untormented moment she had in this episode. As with Cornwell, one Sarek moment in the middle of all the drama cracked me up, and that was his reply to MirrorGeorgiou's equalizing of their Burnhams: "If I understood correctly, my ward saw through the man who brought down both your daughter and your empire. Best not to make comparisons." No one disses like a Vulcan.
Mycellium terraforming: looked cool, but if they can already do this ten years before TOS, what was the big deal about Carol Marcus' Genesis invention?
And speaking of Trek continuity, when Cornwell pointed out they'd be the first humans on Q'onos since Captain Archer a century earlier, I flashed to the relevant episode which I watched yesterday, and was reminded all over again of the mystery of the Klingon look, because the Enterprise-era Klingons looked just like the TNG/DS9/Voyager era Klingons will, hair and all. In conclusion, something must have produced the more reptilian look of the Discovery Klingons. If it was a Federation genetic scientist, it would at least explain T'Kuvma's paranoia about Klingon heritage and purity. Just kidding.
no subject
Date: 2018-02-05 07:59 pm (UTC)I think the difference is that the Genesis Project created a planet that was fit for human(oid) life, with diverse biospheres like a natural M-class planet. The Mycelium Moon is just a big fungus garden.
no subject
Date: 2018-02-06 04:42 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-02-06 01:26 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-02-06 04:45 am (UTC)