Star Trek: Discovery — "Terra Firma, Part I" recap

Hello all! I hope the end of the year is treating you all as well as can be expected. I started watching The Flight Attendant this week, and it’s a really nice mix of frothy and murder mystery. I’m also continuing my play through of Fire Emblem: Three Houses on the Nintendo Switch, and I’m already plotting what I’m going to do when I play it a second time.

In huge news, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II is releasing on mobile in less than two weeks, and I am VERY EXCITED. I’m planning on taking some time off before the new year, and I know what I’ll spend the bulk of it doing.

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🚨🚨 Spoiler alert: The rest of this email discusses the most recent episode of Star Trek: Discovery, “Terra Firma, Part I” in detail 🚨🚨

Credit: Michael Gibson/CBS

What’s going on with Georgiou? That’s been one of the main character-driven questions of this third season of Discovery, and at last we have some answers (but in classic DISCO fashion, we have many, many more questions).

Unable to figure out exactly what the problem is with Philippa, Dr. Culber turned to Kovich, the man who debriefed her in an earlier episode, and he had some very interesting things to say on the matter — and as a result, the first five minutes of the episode is a whole boatload of exposition. Kovich informs Culber that after the temporal wars (which we know about from Star Trek: Enterprise), the Federation learned that people can get sick from time travel. It hasn’t affected the Discovery crew much because they just jumped forward in time. But if you jump through time and between universes, as Philippa has, the consequences are dire.

Kovich provides a really interesting tidbit here. He tells Hugh about Lieutenant Commander Yore, who traveled through time but also came from an alternate universe that had been created by a temporal incursion from a Romulan mining ship. If you’re a fan of J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek movies, then you know that Kovich is referring to Nero’s ship here, and that our prime universe and the Kelvinverse exist simultaneously — not within the same universe, because we’re talking about a multiverse here, but within the same overall framework. It’s interesting both to have this confirmed and also to see that our prime universe is aware of the existence of that one.

Back to the main plot thread, though: Kovich is convinced that Philippa is headed toward a painful, inescapable death and recommends sedating her and putting her in the brig before she’s aware of her dismal fate. Hugh has another thought, though: He cross references Kovich’s files with the sphere data and finds Georgiou the smallest hope — a literal door to walk through. And this time, Admiral Vance acknowledges that Saru’s priority should be caring for his crew and green lights the mission.

What Philippa finds on that planet in the Gamma Quadrant (WHERE ARE THE FOUNDERS, WHAT IS HAPPENING IN THE GAMMA QUADRANT DURING THIS TIME, IS ODO STILL ALIVE, CAN HE SHOW UP AFTER BEING RECAST BECAUSE HE’S A CHANGELING she screams into the void) is nothing I expected. A human-looking man in a char, inviting Georgiou to step through the door. And, given that it’s her only chance, she takes the step.

Georgiou is not at her best in this episode — she’s angry and scared and lashing out at everyone she can. It’s understandable and almost painful to watch. She’s such a powerful, confident character that seeing her reveal this vulnerability is hard. I never feel like I have to comment on Michelle Yeoh’s acting because it’s Michelle Yeoh, she’s fabulous at everything, but goddamn, the writers have given her some good material this season and she’s been incredible.

Credit: Michael Gibson/CBS

I’m not sure what I expected to be on the other side of the door, but Captain Killy in the Mirror Universe was not it. Once Philippa gets her bearings, she realized she’s on the eve of a fateful event in her history: When Michael joined with Lorca and betrayed her. She sees the opportunity here to relive her past but make different choices based on what’s about to happen. Her goal is clear, and it’s not only preventing the coup: It’s to find out why her beloved daughter betrayed her.

Mirror Universes are generally not my favorite episodes in any sci-fi show. I know they’re fun for the actors, to really do something different, but my investment in shows is usually in character and overarching story, which Mirror Universe episodes don’t often contribute to. But this was an incredibly interesting experience: A character I’ve grown to love revisiting her own Mirror past and taking stock of who she was and who she’s since become. She’s no less powerful, but Philippa is not the same person she was. She doesn’t crave violence just for its own sake, and it seems her time aboard Discovery has shown her that there can be other, more productive ways to deal with things.

Credit: Michael Gibson/CBS

There’s a valid question here about whether all of this is even real — and for that, we need to look more closely at Karl and that door Philippa went through. Karl says that everything Michael and Philippa need to know about that door is on his newspaper. And if you examine it closely, there are some key lines on there that hearken back to The Original Series episode “City on the Edge of Forever,” in which Kirk and Spock travel back in time through a “gateway to other times and dimensions".” (It’s an excellent episode, and worth watching if you haven’t.)

The implication (which is all supposition — I chatted with a friend of mine who helps run the site TrekCore, which is an excellent fansite for all things Trek, and he helped me come to this conclusion. Please check out their review here for more discussion of this) is that Philippa has gone through one of these gateways (and Karl is the guardian — or a guardian? — of forever) and has returned back to her own time and universe to fix things. The question is will she stay there, or will she cross back over to our universe? (It’s important to note that Michelle Yeoh is slated to be the head of her own Section 31-focused Trek show, so that means this may be her exit from Discovery).

Elsewhere, Adira finally decoded the distress signal, and it was from a Kelpien ship sent before the Burn. It’s clear where Discovery is going to head next, to the Verubin Nebula, and I can’t wait to see what’s waiting for them there.