Spoilers Star Trek: Discovery 1x09 - "Into the Forest I Go"

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"Bypassing Starfleet's orders, Lorca uses the USS Discovery crew's ultimate asset, the ship itself, in an effort to end the war with the Klingons once and for all." - Memory Alpha

The show will resume on January 7, 2018 for a 6-episode run, completing the first season. - Source

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That’s a lovely poster.

 

Broken mirror? Promised Mirror Universe at last?

 

^ It's a reference to something else. I'll say what it is once the episode has aired.

 

Is "into the forest I go" a reference to Alice in Wonderland?

 

I don't think so, not specifically, anyway. Many, many fairy tales have their magic take place in the woods, and Alice in Wonderland (and Through the Looking Glass) both use that fairy tale structure. Think Little Red Riding Hood, Beauty and the Beast, Hansel and Gretel, Snow White, etc - in all these tales, the mundane world is left behind when the protagonist enters the woods, which tend to be a sort of fantasy/magic mirror version of the obstacles they are actually facing in the real world. So, the reference could be to any fairy tale, really, and the promise that Michael, or whoever, is about to enter a magical mirror version of the real world.

 

Very nicely done...

 

Looks like this ep may be longer than usual. SPACE Channel here in Canada has it slotted from 8:00 - 9:05. First time it's gone over 9pm.

 

So, do you get a full network TV experience? That is, commercials and all? Can you make a reasonable guess as to how long that would make the episode?

 

About 50 minutes, I’d guess, based on the commercial to show ratio I’ve seen the rest of the time on Space.

 

It was taken from naturalist John Muir.

"And into the forest I go, to lose my mind and find my soul."

- Source

 

In the after trek show last week one the producers (Ted Sullivan) said this episode is Balance of Terror good. Hopefully he is right

 

That's a pretty heady compliment to be just throwing out there. I'll believe when I see it.

 

First proper Star Trek "mid-season finale", in history, if memory serves.

 

Wasn't really a thing back in 2005 or before.

 

It's live! May take a refresh or two to view it as of 8:09 pm EST.

 

It's definitely not the first mid-season break, but I was looking through the other series to see if any feature an episode that could be retroactively seen as a mid-season finale, and there aren't many choices. "Chain of Command" (TNG S6), "Flesh and Blood" (VOY S7), "Cold Front" (ENT S1), and "Kir'Shara" (ENT S4), are the only that could really qualify in my mind.

Of course, none of them were marketed as such. But they all kind of fit in the season finale mode. Except for the lack of a classic Trek-style cliffhanger (there are no long breaks between non-season ending two-parters that I see).

 

Clue to Season 2 premise: exploring parallel universes

 

Interesting! Missed that one. What might be the thematic import, then? Entering the wilderness? Escaping from civilization, and all its rules/norms/structures? Hmm....