After a promising start to Season three of Star Trek Discovery, it looks like episode nine, ‘Terra Firma Pt.1’ has taken a wrong turn into a Georgiou cul-de-sac. *Warning – Spoilers ahead!*
Things looked so bright at the beginning of the season, with the errors of the previous years seemingly put behind us, and a much more assured show in evidence. There have been some interesting ideas presented and it looked like it would be a gripping and enjoyable sequence of episodes. The past couple of episodes though, they have chosen the wrong direction, and then this week completely scored an own goal.
The main focus in Terra Firma, for some reason, is the efforts to cure Georgiou (Michelle Yeoh), with it being revealed that her condition is due to her having travelled both across universes, and also in time. This is more acute because the prime and mirror universes have diverged over time. The mysterious Kovich (David Cronenberg) is of the opinion that no possible solution exists, and Georgiou will just die in horrible agony.
Having the Sphere data and pre-burn databases in the ship’s computer though, Discovery is able to analyse the problem using more information, and comes up with one chance that might work. This sends them to a desolate, uninhabited planet, with just some coordinates to work from. Thus, Michael (Sonequa Martin Green) and Georgiou trudge around the planet for a while until a Q like figure appears, randomly dressed as a 20th Century American for some unknown reason. Lack of imagination by the show I guess. Carl (Paul Guilfoyle – CSI, The Good Fight), who appears out of nowhere with a freestanding door, is your standard ‘Alien who never gives a straight answer’ and is tedious. If they’d actually made him Jim Brass from CSI it would have been more interesting.
Walking through Carl’s door seems to be the big solution to Georgiou’s illness, and is the macguffin that means we get another Mirror Universe episode. Coming through on the other side of the door, she finds herself on Discovery back in her own past, in the middle of an attempted coup.
The best mirror universe stories are always the ones where we get to see the characters we know so well in new situations and with different characteristics. The problem with the Discovery version of all this is that we just don’t know some of these characters well enough for it to be truly effective. While it’s true that we know Georgiou and Michael quite well, we also need to care and like most of the Georgiou narrative, it’s just so boring. Sadly, ‘Terra Firma’ is the first part of a two parter, so we have to endure a second half of this tedium, instead of enjoying an interesting storyline.
Away from the dullness, the more interesting plotlines were getting short shrift. The investigation into the burn, for instance, was beginning to bear fruit and here some intriguing information was teased. This could have been a fantastic storyline to go through, but instead of following that thread, they’ve gone down the Georgiou rabbit hole. It’s like getting your cake and instead of eating it, choosing to eat stale bread.
So much is lining up for Discovery to be amazing, but consistently there are poor choices made in the direction it should go. We still don’t know enough about who some of this crew really are, and you can list at least six that would provide great character episodes. There is too much focus on Michael and Georgiou, and I just don’t care. What is Joann’s (Oyin Oladejo) story, or Rhys’s (Patrick Kwok-Choon), or Nilsson’s (Sara Mitich)? Clearly, the show needs to go back to basics and stop being overly concerned with one or two characters at the expense of more interesting choices.
