Two weeks without a Star Trek Discovery update? That is unfortunate, especially given the quality of last night’s mid-season finale. Perhaps I’m still basking in the warm glow of its joys, but I’m having trouble remembering a better episode of Trek, especially if I constrain myself to the more action-oriented episodes.
Last week’s cliffhanger set us up nicely. The crew of the Discovery are orbiting a planet of newly discovered sentient life. The Klingons are on their way to destroy the life on that planet. Burnham states the stakes pretty firmly. If Discovery leaves the planet, the sentient beings on the planet will be annihiliated. Here we begin.
Fearing the loss of the Discovery to their foe, Starfleet orders Lorca to return to Starbase 46, an order he appears to obey, but defies as soon a the Admiral is off the blower. Plan B involves hanging around, waiting for the Klingon flagship, and attempting to eke out the secrets of the cloaking technology. This puts the entire ship at stake, naturally, but few more so than Tyler, Burnham and Stamets.
Tyler and Burnham have to secrete themselves onto the Klingon flagship to place some sensors. Stamets, the navigator of the spore drive, has to make 133 jumps in quick succession, something that everyone knows is a risky idea by the time he has asked to do it. The cat is well and truly out of the bag regarding his condition this week.
I don’t want to spoil the end of the episode, but a lot of things get tied up very satisfactorily. It has both kinds of classic Star Trek scrap, ship to ship battles and intergalactic fisticuffs, and it’s all in service of the narrative.
Theory Trek wise, there’s more evidence that Voq = Tyler this week, which will end up being the worst kept secret in Trek if true. They tried. Another interesting theory doing the rounds is that the whole of Discovery is set in the Mirror Universe. Something to reflect on until January, perhaps. There is no more Trek until then. It’s just as well that the mid season finale will live long in the memory.
