Spoilers Star Trek: Discovery 1x13 - "What's Past Is Prologue"

[Amaris]

The emporer helps Burnham destroy her own ship, even after Lorca is defeated. Odd.

I've got this one: Georgiou says after the scene where she gives Burnham access to lower the force fields, right before Lorca's soldiers break down the door, that the crew has chosen Lorca (they still don't know he's dead), and that they have seen her neck. She knows her days as Emperor are over as soon as they enter the throne room, so she plans on going out by taking a bunch of them with her. Of course, Michael interrupts this plan.

 

[Lakenheath 72]

I have heard the trailer again. The Federation has lost 20% of its territory and one-third of its fleet. How can it be said the Klingons won the war?

We have been told repeatedely in this series that the pillars of the Federation - their values - is what makes them strong. Yet, based on the trailer, and the clip, and the reaction of the Discovery crew, it feels like the Federation is crumbling already. What the hell?

I was expecting a scene where the emperor goes down in glory, killing her enemies while Michael escapes to her ship. Instead, I witness yet another scene of Michael doing what she thinks is best, for herself, and not thinking about the other person's feelings or values. I dislike Michael strongly.

I would rather watch a show with Saru as captain and Michael nowhere in the picture - she is such a terrible character.

Lorca was a fucking dumbass. As someone who lived in a violent culture, I would expect him, first, to finish killing the emperor, or, at least, securing her so she was not a threat, and, then, have a conversation with Michael. Presenting his back to an enemy, who still possessed a weapon, again, what the hell? This is, for me, an example of where we see the wizard behind the curtain - we see the mechanisms of the script and the plot.

I will stay to the end. I do not know if I will stick around for the second season.

 

[φ of π]

She was beamed away before she was able to reach her Captain's body... she didn't want the same thing to happen with the Emperor. Hence the last-second rash decision to bring her along.

 

[Agony_Boothb]

That was awesome, but they really need to work on the pacing and allow scenes to breath, tonight was breakneck speed. The show needs to slow it's roll a bit. Overall I enjoyed it. 8/10

 

[Rhodan]

6/10
Once again, Discovery proves that no matter how good, it is the most pulpy, schlocky and comic book- like ST series.

- It seemed to me as disappointing finale for four-episode arc and Lorca´s arc in general. In the end he came to being wanna-be emperor, who is fighting for a center of evilness as in cheap videogame.

- But I guess it´s fine becouse center of evilness was also threat to all the life everywhere (I was really afraid) and it´s also plot device how to get Discovery back into PU.

- Dialogue was pretty so-so, like this entire arc.

- Was it just me, or was there quite a big continuity error about Burnham and Georgiou standing absolutely differently than how they were transported?

- Still, action and twist with emperor were kinda satisfying (although I still have no sympathy for her). With Mirror Georgiou, L´Rell and Voq/Tyler abord, there is now a lot of ambiguity on the ship. Unfortunaly, I´m not sure if writers will ever be able to use this potential.

- And this is just my impression, but in the past we´ve seen posible inspiration by Errand of Mercy, Mirror,mirror (obviously) and with advancing Klingons, I´m feeling vibes of Yesterday´s Enterprise...

 

[cultcross]

Lorca was a fucking dumbass. As someone who lived in a violent culture, I would expect him, first, to finish killing the emperor, or, at least, securing her so she was not a threat,

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[cultcross]

It occurs that, if the whole idea was to set up a way in which mirror Georgiou replaces Mirror Lorca on the show, and I'm not saying it is yet, then the original plan of sprinkling the Shenzhou flashbacks through the series run might have helped make it seem less jarring.

It also occurs that the Discovery brig is going to be a hell of a party. L'rell, Tyler, and mirror Georgiou all just sat around chatting. Like Waiting for Godot, but evil.

 

[Romulan_spy]

It is now. That's how canon works.

Maybe so but if they do establish that the Feds were almost completely conquered by the Klingons and don't reset it, I won't be happy at all.

 

[Agony_Boothb]

I was kinda hoping that MU Landry would also be killed by a tardigrade. Landry is about to kill Burnham and the the tardigrade jumps in lands on landry, crushing her to death. The tardigrade looks at the remains of landry sheepishly backs away slowly like 'oh my god, i'm so sorry..' and then jumps away again

 

[Rhodan]

Oh and I forgot... We´ve finally heard how Lorca got himself in PU. And it sounded almost like an afterthought.

 

[Timo]

9/10.

Lorca does the best moustache-twirling I've seen done without an actual moustache. The execution of Stamets was hilarious... Not to mention the exact right way to expose the all-important hatch. And they even foreshadowed the gravitic pull of the sphere.

A palace coup where one of the combatants is the palace itself! This is how we do it, kids. I had zero problem with the Boss Fight - it really went by the numbers, pretty numbers at that. How do two unarmed underdogs under heavy guard get the fight going? Well, getting bombarded by a starship at point blank range does help. No, the goons didn't attack one by one. No, the gun-toting folks in the knifefight did not forget their superior firepower. No, the furiously kicking and clawing little woman did not triumph over the burly, armored man in a hand-to-hand. No, the Evil Henchman #1 did not stay and fight a losing fight with the Good Henchman #1 but went to get the reinforcements. And yes, the fight was resolved by a dramatic conceit, of Lorca being unwilling to finish off Burnham.

Having the hero crew figure out how to save the multiverse was reasonable for once, as this is supposed to be the think tank of Starfleet. Having Kirk's crew do it would have been less plausible. And yes, the stakes were ridiculously high, but at least that preempted the obvious reset button of the mushroom network dying and erasing the spore drive from polluting the canon...

The only surprising thing there was Burnham saving Georgiou (I loved her insulted expression), but that didn't detract from the excitement much.

The nitpicker in me worries about one minor detail only: why is the Discovery far away from the Palace now, having to travel at warp for a long time even before being told to stall by staying at warp? Last we saw her, she was right next to the Palace (or at least to the Shenzhou and the rebel world, and the Palace was just lightminutes away from there and never warped to another location as far as we could tell). Would Saru have warped away right after retrieving Tyler, thus risking being spotted? I mean, somehow he managed Not to Be Seen long enough to get Tyler - why not keep that good thing going?

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Donker]

So doing a comparison of the maps, Discovery actually moved the Alpha-Beta line over next to Deep Space K-7 and the Briar Patch. (I actually agree with this move because it's stated the Federation is in the Alpha Quadrant, but if you actually look at the map, it's mostly Beta)
https://orig00.deviantart.net/b4fd/f/2014/260/9/0/star_trek_map_1_by_drofdemonology-d7zk1lb.jpg

From comparisons of looking at this map, the map we saw earlier in Discovery and the map we saw this episode, I can pretty safetly conclude that the entire Beta Quadrant has fallen to the Klingons and they're probably at the doorstep of Andoria , Sirus, possibly even Sol.

Sorry no way this is Prime Timeline without some funky universe reset.

 

[lawman]

Here's a stray thought. Early in this episode, as Lorca was freeing his supporters (wait, didn't the Emperor say last week that they'd almost all been executed? but never mind that), he exposited he'd been gone for "one year, 212 days" in the Prime Universe. That's almost exactly a year and seven months. Isn't that a lot longer ago than we'd previously been led to believe since the destruction of the Buran?

 

[cultcross]

Maybe so but if they do establish that the Feds were almost completely conquered by the Klingons and don't reset it, I won't be happy at all.

Well they've painted themselves into something of a corner - either they reset it and get a groan from one side who despise reset buttons, or they don't, and get a groan from the canon folk. Given that they've said over and over again things along the line of 'wait and see, it'll all fit together', I'm guessing it's reset.

It's annoying because it will mean I watch episode 14 assuming nothing is 'really' happening until proven otherwise, so it might as well be in the MU again. As the wise man said, Our reality is the only one of consequence. It isn't impossible to do a truly great episode that will obviously be reset (Yesterday's Enterprise is the classic example) but it is a lot harder to do a merely good one. Episodes 14 and 15 will either be classics for the new era, or limp as overcooked noodles.

Here's a stray thought. Early in this episode, as Lorca was freeing his supporters (wait, didn't the Emperor say last week that they'd almost all been executed? but never mind that), he exposited he'd been gone for "one year, 212 days" in the Prime Universe. That's almost exactly a year and seven months. Isn't that a lot longer ago than we'd previously been lead to believe since the destruction of the Buran?

Doesn't mean that's when Lorca switched over, he could have been on the Buran for a long time before that - he may even have brought about its destruction in order to get a post on Discovery with the spore drive.

 

[Timo]

Here's a stray thought. Early in this episode, as Lorca was freeing his supporters (wait, didn't the Emperor say last week that they'd almost all been executed?

No doubt they were. We only see an affordable handful, after all. And "Lorca's supporters" is supposed to be a vast group, far larger than the crew complement of ISS Buran; MU Landry believes there are still lots remaining outside the Palace.

He exposited he'd been gone for "one year, 212 days" in the Prime Universe. That's almost exactly a year and seven months. Isn't that a lot longer ago than we'd previously been lead to believe since the destruction of the Buran?

It must be, because the USS Buran was explicitly lost to Klingons, and Lorca claimed he blew up his crew so that they would not have to suffer Klingon cruelty. Yet Klingons were supposed to have been relatively quiet before the Battle of the Binaries. So even if Starfleet would consider the loss of the ship "quiet", it wouldn't buy Lorca's ideas about Klingon cruelty as a credible excuse, not until the Klingons re-demonstrated their true cruelty.

But Lorca could have gone to the past before the USS Buran was lost, as said. Or he may have been saying "One year - strike that, 212 days to be accurate". Seven months of Lorca aboard the Discovery would suffice for our dramatic needs nicely enough.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Rhodan]

I guess lot of people have and will have problem with overal Lorca´s ending, simply becouse he was character who for the first 10 episodes seemed like an inteligent individual, who, as we have now seen, was able to infiltrate totaly different culture, but for his final (?) episode was reduced, just like most people in MU, to stupid maniac with riffle who happens to think by other organ than brain.

 

[Commander Richard]

ooh, can I steal this poster for my FB/twitter? Will give you credit

Sure.

 

[Captain Shaw]

When will villains learn has soon as you get the person you are trying to kill.
KILL THEM.

 

[guyute03]

Gave it a 9. Wow. Didn't see most of that coming.

Spoiler: Spoilers

- no episode teaser, just a recap
- Lorca's chest armor is badass
- torpedoes + ion storm is how Buran destroyed, lorca sent to prime U
- Lorca uses bioweapon.
- I hate Lorca.
- Saru captain's log!
- Imperial Palace ship is powered by draining the Spore Network
- "Make the Empire glorious again"
- If I didn't know better Lorca's troops's gun's laser sights lighting up was a Borg reference
- Mirror Landy is awful. Surprise.
- Captain Saru & a 'Lower Decks' moment in Engineering
- I hate Lorca.
- "I don't accept No-Win scenarios" !!!!! - Stamets
- I hate Lorca.
- Georgiou fighting Lorca is awesome
- Lorca is human space garbage.
- I hate Lorca. Not sure if I mentioned that.
- Lorca dies magnificently, and in pain. Good.
- Mirror Georgiou saves Burnham, lets her escape!
- "Warp speed, now"
- Beautiful visual effects this episode
- They get home, 9 months in the future!
- WTF

 

[ralfy]

Definitely 6 out of 10 again due to poor writing, including characters who lack common sense and very clunky scenes (from the introduction of what happened to Lorca to those involving not giving up and navigating through the maze).