Review: Star Trek Discovery – Terra Firma Pt.2 s03e10

This week’s Star Trek Discovery saw the second half, and thankfully the end of this season’s Mirror Universe story, with Terra Firma Pt.2.  *Warning: Spoilers Ahead!*

Much like the last episode, the plot this week was hampered by a few key problems that Discovery hasn’t quite solved when it comes to the mirror universe.  The best versions of this type of show occur when we really have a handle on who all the characters are, and care about them, so seeing the alter-egos of each of our favourites is a delight.  Sadly, many of the main players remain paper thin in their development even in the normal universe, so it just leads to even thinner alternates.  Blessed though they are with this talented cast, Discovery hasn’t managed to successfully pull off this kind of episode, where other Trek shows flourished.

This is especially evident with the Georgiou (Michelle Yeoh) and Michael (Sonequa Martin Green) relationship, as ‘Evil Burnham’ is tissue thin, with no discernible depth.  Over the past few years the writers have managed to give Georgiou some development, and she has progressed into a more layered character.  The issue has always been though, that she isn’t that interesting, and despite the excellence of Michelle Yeoh, has just been a bit of a tedious thorn in the side.  With the big twist in Terra Firma Pt.2 most likely setting up the beginning of the Section 31 show, it clears the way for Discovery to return to what it should be doing.  In a stand alone show, away from Discovery, they can then properly utilise this character.

Before that happens though we have to wade through the muddle that is Terra Firma Pt.2, which essentially is a rather predictable plot with Georgiou trying to root out traitors who want to kill her.  There’s nothing that interesting in this storyline though, except some minor details about evil-Burnham’s upbringing, and a more substantially intriguing relationship with Mirror-Saru (Doug Jones), along with the other Kelpian’s.

The most interesting aspect of the whole thing is that Carl (Paul Guilfoyle – CSI) isn’t a Q, but in fact the Guardian of Forever from the TOS episode “The City on the Edge of Forever”.  This is a nice call back, but not enough to save the episode.  There is also a small amount of progress with the ‘Signal’ storyline, but here too it is compromised.  We all too briefly get into it, and what success they do have is due to a macguffin that Book (David Ajala) just happens to own.  It short changes what is a far more interesting thread than anything else that happens, and what should be the focus.

Hopefully, with Georgiou out of the way and ‘Mirror Universe’ ticked off the list for this season, we can get back to what this show should be doing.  There is so much promise in the current setup and this could be the making of Discovery if they get it right.  They just need to stop going down these little trails and do the Trek stories in front of them.