This week on Star Trek: Discovery, the crew learned Georgiou’s deterioration was a result of her traveling through a timeline that is not her own. After the Sphere data revealed the cure for her condition possibly lay on Dannus V, Georgiou headed there with Burnham, and discovered a portal that seemed to return her to her days as queen of the Terran Empire.
“Terra Firma, Part 1”
Teleplay by Alan McElroy
Story by Bo Yeon Kim & Erika Lippoldt & Alan McElroy
Directed byOmar Madha
1. First Nod to the Kelvin Timeline
While diagnosing Georgiou’s problems with Culber, Kovich reveals Starfleet has seen these problems before, during the Temporal Wars, when a soldier named Yor appeared from 2379 of an alternate reality created by “the temporal incursion of a Romulan mining ship.” That was the inciting incident of the first Chris Pine movie, and it was great to hear its timeline being acknowledged by the TV universe. The pain became so great for Yor that he eventually begged to be euthanized, and it’s possible this dangerous cocktail of temporal and crossdimensional travel was why the older Spock passed away fairly soon in the film universe (Eric Bana’s Romulans seemed fine after 25 years, but they were a hardy bunch of miners).
2. A Good Death
The cold open touches on the theme of, if you’re dying, what do you and your loved ones do? Vance asks Burnham and Saru what they’re prepared to do if Georgiou becomes a complete danger to herself and those surrounding her, citing the report on Burnham’s hesitation to kill Airiam when she wanted her to. More importantly, Burnham persuades Georgiou not to give up, and go to Dannus V so that even if they fail, at least Georgiou can say she earned a glorious death — it’s quite fun seeing one human encourage another to have a Klingon-like attitude towards their imminent demise on Star Trek.
3. Carl the Q?
On Dannus V, Georgiou and Burnham encounter a door frame, and “Carl” (CSI veteran Paul Guilfoyle), presumably a non-corporeal being who appears as an elderly, bowler hat-wearing American man from the mid-20th century. His mysterious abilities and predilection for bad puns strongly imply he’s a Q, like the one played by John de Lancie that was a constant thorn in Picard’s side. He may not be though: he’s probably the weirdest lifeform who’s appeared on Discovery yet, but his appearance also brings to mind many other energy beings from the show’s history, like Trelane, the Organians, and the Guardian of Forever (who also guarded a time portal). It is interesting how, lately, Star Trek has avoided introducing these types of characters — until now.
4. Home, Sweet Home (Not)
Georgiou walks through the door and is greeted in the ISS Discovery‘s docking bay by Mirror Tilly and her crew, on the day her flagship the Charon was christened — the day Lorca, and her Burnham, attempted their coup. Throughout the sequence, which occupies the second half of this episode, I was convinced Georgiou being reminded of how cruel and worthless her Burnham was would make her realize she prefers our version, but this being Star Trek, it’s clear the Federation’s optimism has rubbed off on her, to the point that she decides not to execute her for her betrayal. (No such luck for the Mirror Stamets during his assassination attempt though.) This being a two-parter, we’ll have to wait to see the consequences of Georgiou altering her own past.
5. Burnout
Adira finally decodes the distress signal from the Burn’s point of origin, after Stamets points out a simple error they made that caused the algorithm to keep crashing. He notices Adira’s not been getting enough sleep, to which they explain they’re angry and upset they’re no longer able to hear or see Gray; it’s very familiar feeling, which anyone who’s ever stayed up late because of something upsetting they’ve seen will recognize. (Their simple mistake also feels very topical given the recent discourse about how “crunch culture” in technology has been normalized.)
Thanks to their caring mentor, Adira discovers the distress call came from a Kelpien ship a few years before the Burn took place. I suppose we’ll seen if this thread is picked up next week, or afterwards.
Continued belowBonus Thoughts:
– Terra Firma was the name of an anti-alien terrorist group introduced in Star Trek: Enterprise — it’s an apt name for this episode though, given how xenophobic the Terran Empire is.
– Burnham and Lorca were an item in the Mirror Universe (weird): never gonna watch season one the same way again. Other stray Mirror Universe observations: Rekha Sharma returns as Mirror Ellen Landry, as does Hannah Cheesman as Mirror Airiam; almost everyone wears eyeliner; they have those cute new drones well ahead of schedule; and the Tantalus field is used for sadistic fun and games.
– It was surprising seeing David Cronenberg again as Kovich, but since his first appearance, I’ve learned he’s been more active as an actor than director lately (including a role on Alias Grace), which is understandable, given his age.
– On that note, the gross opening shot of Georgiou’s medical scans being constructed as an anatomical hologram felt like a piece of body horror from his films.
– It’s amusing how Saru tries to be the good lieutenant and passes on going to Dannus V, while Vance turns out to cool with sending Discovery elsewhere.
– I laughed out loud at Tilly hugging Georgiou goodbye, especially after how Georgiou lashed out her; the ensign’s warmth continues to be a steady source of surprises.
– Booker is still struggling to find his place on the ship.
Well, that’s all for now — see you next week for Part 2.
