Star Trek: Discovery 2.10.

[selenak]

It occurs to me the mid season hiatus is near. In fact, this might be it? Anyway. I spent the last three days at the Leipzig Book Fair, and thus I had little to no time at all for the internet. But now I‘ve watched the episode, and here‘s what my book fair-frizzled brain made of it:



Oookay, I expected them to drag out the Red Angel identity thing a bit longer, but no, they probably concluded (nearly) everyone assumes it has to be Michael at this point anyway and thus has the characters assume it, too. Since this isn‘t anywhere near the end of the season, I should have figured this would mean it‘s not Michael, and the very last scene indeed reveals that... it‘s her biological mother? Did I get that right? Huh. I mean, Between Sarek, Amanda, the late Primeverse Georgiou and the very much alive Mirrorverse Georgiou Michael has a lot of parental figures anyway, but okay, her other mother (tm Neil Gaiman, except I hope not?)... this could be interesting.

The episode prepares this by letting Leland reveal that Michael‘s parents were really working on a time travel device to stop the Klingons from creating a time travel device. Yep, that‘s Cold War justification for developing weapons technology, alright. It occurs to me that just a bit more than a decade later, Kirk & Co. are able to travel back in time if they must, and not just if someone else (i.e. the Guardian at the Edge of Forever, for example) with superior tech sends them, so, okay, fair enough. This „time crystal“ thing sounds like a MacGuffin if there ever was one, btw, and you know what, Leland, when you talked about how the Klingons would totally change history if they could in their favour, I flashed back to the Doctor Who episode The Day of the Doctor, wherein Moffat has Kate Lethbridge-Stewart observe, by way of explanation as to why UNIT doesn‘t share Jack Harkness‘ time travel device with the cousins overseas, that Americans must never get their hands on time travel because „you‘ve seen their movies.“

(A year later, when Moffat wrote the novelisation, he changed that line. Now it was post Trump, and he changed it to „you‘ve seen their news“.)

Aaaaanyway. (For what it‘s worth, so far with had, in ST canon, humans, Borg (who are of course comprised of many original races but with a new identity) and Romulans going back in time to change their present, with the humans by far the worst offenders, but so far, I can‘t recall a single time the Klingons tried it. Not even Dax‘ pals, the orignal Klingon trio, who lost their kids.) (Hang on, I just recalled one obvious exception: the surgically altered Klingon spy who goes back to change The Trouble with Tribbles and thus gives us the wonderful DS9 episode Trials and Tribble-Ations. Okay, but no other time-travelling Klingons come to mind. Presumably all the constant changing of their looks would make it hard to blend into a previous era?) I‘m withholding judgment on both „Michael‘s parents were really Howard and Maria Stark scientists working for Section 31“ and „Michael‘s bio mum isn‘t dead after all but alive“ depending on how they play out.

Otoh, I can say something about what happens in this particular episode. The funeral for Airiam quickly puts the stake into the theory which I rather liked when Nenya voiced it last week, i.e. that maybe Control resurrects her. Btw, I‘m really glad Nahn and Michael spoke; Nahn seems next in line to get fleshed out more, and I‘d rather it should not end with her death, since I find myself liking her, and female security chiefs don‘t have the highest survival quota on ST shows.

The funeral also sets the tone for an angsty episode even before our heroes conclude that the way to get a hold on the Red Angel is by using Michael as bait in a near-death situation. The scene between Spock and Michael was lovely, with Spock now able to reach out to Michael and comfort her in his restrained Spockian way, and I continue to appreciate how this sibling relationsohip unfolds. Not least because having made up with Michael, Spock comes up with this „let‘s pretend to kill Michael“ scheme that makes even Georgiou blanch, which is a Spock thing if ever there was one. (Also, naturally Michael trusts him to ensure everyone actually goes through with it. How these two aren‘t dead a hundred times over with their streak of self sacrifice, I don‘t know.) I‘m surprised that one points out the glaring errror in his logic, though: if Michael is in fact the Red Angel, then she‘d remember this plan.

Meanwhile, Culber has remembered that while Discovery is lacking a psychologist, they do have one currently on board, and unburdens himself to Kat Cornwell. I love the way the show keeps using this background of hers, not least because psychologists/therapists in pop culture more often than not are either presented as useless wusses or as insane geniuses. Hooray for Admiral Cornwell, I say once more.

Otoh, Georgiou deciding to mindmess with Stamets by flirting with him only to be firmly told by him that no matter how MirrorStamets identified himself, he‘s gay and not interested: I‘m with „what just happened?“ (was it Tilly or Culber who said that?) Guys, one thing I did not enjoy about the s1 finale was MirrorGeorgiou joining the Mirroverse club of evil bisexuals.

Leland‘s death: not really surprising. I suppose Georgiou has decided that now he‘s told Michael what blackmail material she had on him, he‘s useless and she might as well.

Comments

[nostalgia]

God I hate how everyone (female) in the Mirrorverse is bi. Or at least the evil ones. At least Discovery has Paul and Hugh so there's some *good* people who aren't straight now, but it's really shady how evil=bisexual in the world of Trek.

[selenak]

If ever a canon needed Captain Jack Harkness as a counterweight....

[trobadora]

no other time-travelling Klingons come to mind

I can only think of one of the old tie-in novels - there's a Klingon time travel plot in Ishmael.

[selenak]

Alas I never got around to reading Ishmael, and it's by Barbara Hambly, too, so I really must do it one of these days.

[trobadora]

It's a lovely book - definitely recommended!

[4thofeleven]

Re: Klingon time travel. There's also Alexander in TNG's Firstborn. And in Voyager's finale, Admiral Janeway gets her time travel device from the Klingons.

Time crystals are a real thing, so it's not just the writers being lazy about naming their mcguffins: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_crystal

[selenak]

Fascinating, to coin a phrase. I didn't know that.

You're right, I had forgotten Alexander, though mind you, that timeline seems to have disappeared given he chose the way of the warrior after all.

[reverancepavane]

I agree wholeheartedly. If modern Klingons had invented time travel they would almost certainly use it to go back in time and join Kahless in his death ride (or any other legendary act of past klingonism. Purely to say that I they too were there too!

For Ford's Klingons (ala DS9) I suspect imperial Security would elimante the device as being too dangerous wrt the Game of Empire. And for old school Space Mexicans, the very idea of the existence of such a device would send shivers down their spines (the leaders are secure in their position - too much so to allow the existence of such an existential threat.

[selenak]

Come to think of it, the TNG ep where a cloned Kahless shows up indicates, among other things, that even the faction who thinks a return of Kahless would benefit the Empire want this to be a version of Kahless they can control, not the original one, and thus it doesn't seem to have occured to anyone to use time travel rather than cloning.

(As for your avarage Klingon citizen, they seem to be content with those Kahless-and-Lukara- holo programs Dax uses in some DS9 eps.)

[felis]

„what just happened?“ (was it Tilly or Culber who said that?)

Tilly! I'm completely with you when it comes to the annoyance re: evil= (bi - or now pan)sexual, they can stop that yesterday, but apart from that, I did love the scene precisely because of Tilly vs. Georgiou and the latter saying that Tilly should learn to relish discomfort instead of trying to diffuse it. Unlike the sexuality bit, this was interesting characterization.

the glaring errror in his logic, though: if Michael is in fact the Red Angel, then she‘d remember this plan

SO STUPID. Honestly, I don't much care about plot holes if I'm on board with the characters, but this was a really stupid plan.

Hooray for Admiral Cornwell, I say once more.

So much. And I love that she is competent at what she does, both as an admiral and as a therapist. Loved everything she said and accomplished in that short scene with Hugh.

I suppose Georgiou has decided that now he‘s told Michael what blackmail material she had on him, he‘s useless and she might as well.

I read that scene as Control infiltrating his ship and killing him. (Or maybe just compromising him somehow?) He was talking to the ship's computer after all.

[selenak]

You're probably right, though it's hard to say how Control would benefit from a dead Leland right now, and it can't take him ever the way it did Airiam since he has no cybernetic augmentations.

[lynnenne]

I read that scene as Control infiltrating his ship and killing him. (Or maybe just compromising him somehow?) He was talking to the ship's computer after all.

That's how I interpreted it, too. The computer took the opportunity to copy and perfect Leland's voice before it stabbed him, so clearly it wants the rest of the crew to follow its orders (at least, until they figure out that Leland is dead).

[vilakins]

if Michael is in fact the Red Angel, then she‘d remember this plan
True, but she'd also remember that she'd set it up with Spock so that she really would die if the Red Angel didn't show. Although ST medical expertise would make that fairly hard, I'd have thought.

There must have been something more than carbon monoxide in that atmosphere because CO doesn't cause pain litke that; just unconsciousness. I suspected they'd do a beat-up on that though.

I'm another who thought that Control took Leland out. Re Georgiou, I'm intrigued that she talks about best intentions to Burnham; I didn't think anyone in that universe had anything approaching good ones.

[selenak]

re: good intentions in the Mirrorverse, well, it depends - MirrorVoq and MirrorSarek both seemed to be well intentioned. If we count other ST canons, MirrorSpock signs on to Kirk's idea of reforming the Empire, though of course that backfires for him and the Terrans on a massive scale. In the case of Georgiou, I think she's serious in as much as she feels true affection for Michael, but then I also think her idea of what's best for Michael is not remotely ethical. I'm pretty sure she wants to use Section 31 to conquer this universe as well, and then she'd love to have Michael as her eventual successor.

[vilakins]

Ah, true! But as good intentions are liabilities in that universe, I'd guess they're pretty rare. Georgiou certainly seems to love Burnham. As an aside, I keep hoping we'll meet mirror Lorca but I guess it's very unlikely.

I've been thinking about the identity of the Red Angel | Burnham's mother. They said the signature was 100% Burnham, so maybe:
- Burnham is a clone of her mother
- or there was some other form of reproduction not involving her supposed father]
- or Burnham is her mother, not literally, but travelled back in time to bring her up, which raises the question of who her actual parents were - someone from the future? - and why she ended up in the past.

[kalypso]

True, but she'd also remember that she'd set it up with Spock so that she really would die if the Red Angel didn't show.

Yes, I thought that Spock's idea was "Michael can't let Michael die or she will cease to exist" rather than "this will fool Michael".

I did enjoy the comedy of Spock and the others arguing about what Michael shaking her head meant: "She wants us to stop killing her!" "No, no, she wants us not to stop killing her!"

My impression was that the anti-Terran alliance in the Mirrorverse were fairly-good guys. And in DS9, Mirror Brunt seemed as mild-mannered and well-intentioned as his counterpart wasn't.

[vilakins]

Yes, I should have said Terran Fleet or whatever they call themselves. I have huge logical objections to the whole mirrorverse thing (e.g. how, if everyone is their opposite in personality and intent, do they all still meet up and have the very same sperm-egg-combo kids) but it must be a lot of fun for the actors. I don't remember previous eps very well at all, unlike you and selenak, but Killer Tilly will forever tickle me.

[lynnenne]

The scene between Spock and Michael was lovely, with Spock now able to reach out to Michael and comfort her in his restrained Spockian way, and I continue to appreciate how this sibling relationsohip unfolds. Not least because having made up with Michael, Spock comes up with this „let‘s pretend to kill Michael“ scheme that makes even Georgiou blanch, which is a Spock thing if ever there was one. (Also, naturally Michael trusts him to ensure everyone actually goes through with it. How these two aren‘t dead a hundred times over with their streak of self sacrifice, I don‘t know.)

I love their sibling relationship so much. It's my favorite thing about this season.

I‘m surprised that one points out the glaring errror in his logic, though: if Michael is in fact the Red Angel, then she‘d remember this plan.

Yeah, that confused me too.

the Mirroverse club of evil bisexuals.

UGH, this trope annoys me so much! Whenever they decide to make a female character evil, they make her bi. And it's not just Trek.

[thefussymuse]

Just to let you know, there's no mid season hiatus this time, episode 11 is next week as normal.