Hmmmm.
Not
great.
Let's start with the positive. Some great action sequences, enjoyable character interplay between Lorca, Burnham and Georgiou.
This was my favourite Saru performance to date, and if they are setting him up for Captain, they did it well here. I believed it, I liked it, and I bought the crew following him. His speech in engineering was an old school Trek captain pep talk.
Enjoyed the sequence with the Discovery attacking the Cheron at the end, and I loved seeing the Buran finally. I liked Burnham taking responsibility and having agency to drive the story herself, instead of reacting to other people's stories. I particularly liked her line about 'If you'd have asked, we'd have helped'.
Neutral observations: Prime Lorca likely survived the switch then, if the
Mirror Mirror method was used. I wonder if he is still alive in the MU or whether that was the Lorca who was killed?
The Stargate similarities continue. This whole episode was so familiar to a Stargate fan like me, it was actually a little distracting. The bits on the Flagship were very like one of the several times SG-1 infiltrate a Goa'uld mothership, the gunfights were very SG-1, especially the rolling flash grenade bit, the emperor's personal shield and wrist based transporter, the whole 'reach the controls and drop the shield to allow us to destroy the superweapon' thing (albeit that is also
every sci-fi ever).
The MU continues to make no sense. The same people are there but have radically different fates (Landry is still alive months after her counterpart died) so... how does this translate into the same people in the same places in the future of this universe? I know, I know, don't think about it. But seriously, MU, u mk no sens.
Unfortunately, there's also a 'but'. A big 'but'. And I cannot lie.
Lorca, set him up, for months and months, big reveal! Oh, he's dead. Well, that was worth it. Very much hope that isn't the end of that story, because otherwise that was just a waste of everybody's time.
Speaking of a waste, why bother bringing back Landry for that short cameo? Plus mirror Stamets was essentially just a guy who reads out shield percentages. He didn't actually do much after setting him up at the end of last week. Plus Lorca says he doesn't need him anymore. Really? The guy who probably knows everything about the spore technology powering the ship you're on? And Good God I'd have been confused if I still thought they'd swapped bodies
The emporer helps Burnham destroy her own ship, even after Lorca is defeated. Odd.
Stamets really doesn't seem to give a shit that Hugh died, does he? Doesn't even mention it. If anything, he's cheerier than ever. This was also a particularly weak performance from Rapp, very stilted and poorly directed. *robot voice* "That is great, Cadet. Now please inform the Captain of your finding"
*awkwardly turns away*.
Some clunky exposition, especially from Stamets and Lorca.
Finally, and most importantly, the ending. "Find out where we are.
And when." My heart sank when I heard those words. I was actually expecting them to already be back to the start of the show, so props to them for doing 9 months forward instead, and the scene on the bridge was well done, but it was such an obvious get-out clause for Lorca, Hugh, the war, the spore drive, that it earned epic disappointment points from me.
Overall, I'd give the episode a 6. Enjoyable parts, but some big let downs to temper it.
10/10 from me. I guess time travel will be the solution to win the war
Those sentences don't sit well together, for me. A big temporal reset button as the solution? Even Doctor Who, a show
about time travel avoids that one most of the time. I hope it isn't the ending, but I'm also pretty sure it is. The Federation being so defeated that they don't even answer by automated distress call? There's no way that's staying in the timeline.
