Star Trek: Discovery 5.05

[selenak]

In which we get the Ballad of Moll and L‘ak, and also find out what became of - but that would be telling.



Given that s3 established universe hopping between the Mirrorverse and the Primeverse had become impossible 900 years into the future, I hadn‘t really expected them to touch on the Mirrorverse again, but then, it makes sense for a final season and things becoming full circle. Finding the ISS Enterprise in an extra dimensional pocket as part of the seasonal treasure hunting quest was an elegant way to do it, as was not encountering any Mirrorverse characters (who are dead by now), but finding out what became of Mirrorverse Spock and Mirrorverse Saru anyway via computer data. Given DS9 had established Mirroverse‘s Spock‘s attempt to reform the Terran Empire (i.e. the conclusion the original TOS mirrorverse episode hints at) had failed (or rather, had resulted in his assassination, and a brand new dictatorship, this time with the Terrans as underdogs, you‘d think there wasnt much they could do without retconning it entirely, but no, Disco has Mirrorverse Spock loyalists essentially escape into the Primeverse via help of Rebel Saru and friends, with one of them, (female) Scientist Cho, even making it into Starfleet, teaming up with the Romulan and Trill scientists on the Progenitor quest and hiding the ISS in the interdimensional pocket. This strikes me as a good balance of optimism of the „yes, people can change for the better and can work together, even former enemies“ type with „but system reforms can fail, and brutally so“ realism, and made for some touching acting by our leading lady as she reflects on her brother and Saru in two incarnations.

But of course, the main gist of the episode was providing the audience with flashbacks to how Moll and L‘ak met, fell in love and teamed up, and what drives them (other than adrenaline and profit). I stand by my claim Disco is the DS9 friendliest of the newer Treks, because it turns out L‘ak is a Breen. The Breen were introduced as pseudo Mandalorians literally a faceless menace for our heroes to occasionally fight against on DS9 (memorably, Tora Ziyal spent years of her life as their prisoner), but no other Trek had bothered with them, so I think it‘s neat we get an important character to flesh them out now. The story itself - young Courier Moll, already with a huge chip on her shoulder due to parental neglect on the previous Cleveland Book‘s part, encounters Hamlet the nephew of a royal Breen Uncle who is somewhat oppressing him, they fall in love, things go pearshaped, he choses her over existence of a Breen prince and now they‘re on the run with a death bounty o them as result - is standard fantasy, but well executed and well played, and Moll and L‘ak continue to be good antagonists, sympathetic with hope of redemption but undoubtedly very dangerous and not easy to approach due to their utter lack of trust and concern in or for anyone else. Also? Neat double bluff on Michael‘s part re: the clue.