Review Text
As we reach the halfway point of this final season of Discovery, the formula for the season has become very clear, for better or worse. It's a formula that allows us to have these episodic adventures each week while also servicing the "treasure hunt" arc. Unfortunately, this allows the series to cycle through one of its biggest perennial problems — Small Universe Syndrome (SUS™). It does this while, paradoxically, taking a stab here at laying some larger-universe bricks.
The show has gone all-in concerning Moll and L'ak as the season's antagonists, and that's part of the problem. They just aren't very interesting characters. "Mirrors" makes a valiant attempt to flesh them out and give them personalities and motivations, but it comes at it from such a limited and flawed starting point that there's just not enough depth here to dig into. It's like trying to mine diamonds from a backyard sandbox.
Discovery, attempting to solve the riddle of the Clue That Led Them To Empty Space, realizes that there's an invisible wormhole right here that reveals itself if they recalibrate the sensors. Not sure how that works, but sure. Trek stuff. The aperture of the wormhole can only fit a shuttle, so an away team will have to go without Discovery.
After Burnham decides she and book should be the ones to follow Moll and L'ak and make contact with them (on the account of Book's personal angle through his late mentor and namesake who was also Moll's father), Rayner objects to the captain leaving the ship and going on the mission, ostensibly because it's too big a risk to have the captain taking shuttles into wormholes, but let's be real — this is the Captain Burnham Show and no one else could possibly go. Besides, this will give Rayner, who's uncomfortable commanding this crew (they keep treating this 30-year veteran like he's never dealt with another person before), a chance to work through his issues.
The wormhole leads to "interdimensional space," where Burnham and Book very soon see Moll-n-L'ak's destroyed ship, followed by, intriguingly, the ISS Enterprise, which somehow made it from the mirror universe into this interdimensional pocket, 900 years from its time period. The presence of the mirror-Enterprise is also SUS™, but it gives us a familiar connection to the past (Burnham winces as she looks at the science station on the bridge where her brother Spock would've sat in the regular universe) and also conveniently allows us to use the standing sets from Strange New Worlds while that show — the last one standing in the once-ever-expanding, now-ever-contracting CBS All Access-nee-Paramount+ Extended Star Trek Universe — was presumably on hiatus.
The theme of "Mirrors" is second chances, and particularly how those second chances (for Moll and L'ak) serve as a reflection of the main characters. In terms of the story being told, the thematic connection works well enough. Tying these characters' plights together with some family connections and relatable struggles (and, yes, even a love story) is something the story does reasonably. Rather than making Moll and L'ak evil villains, the story tries to make them into misguided rogues. Burnham references both herself and Book in her discussions of second chances. Meanwhile, Book's lesson about not being a constant lone wolf and accepting help is one Moll could stand to learn.
"Mirrors" also supplies the backstory of Moll-n-Lak, through some flashbacks that work okay within the story — up to a point. The revelation that L'ak is Breen (finally revealing what they have under those helmets!) is an attempt for this show to do some much-needed world building, and it seems inevitable now that the Breen will become the season's Big Bad. (The backstory stops short of making full sense of itself, only half explaining the "dual face" nature of the Breen, who have some sort of semi-solid shapeshifting ability in their more "accepted" form, but also can become fully solid, in what is deemed by the mainstream as unfavorable. Perhaps this will be fleshed out more in later episodes.) Anyway, we see here how Moll and L'ak met, fell in love, and ended up on the run from the Breen. L'ak is the nephew of the Breen primarch, and he betrayed his uncle, resulting in an "erigah" — an unstoppable Breen blood bounty — that L'ak hopes to cancel by paying his uncle off with the treasure at the end of this treasure hunt.
As much as all of this tries so very hard to build up these characters (and I respect the effort), it just can't make them much more interesting. Moll and L'ak love each other, okay, but the flashbacks here don't do a good job at all of dramatizing it. It's a generic meeting between the cocky courier and the down-on-his-luck royal-family loser, stuck in a dead-end life despite (or, more likely, because of) his family connections. Their love story is both rushed and inert, and takes place over an unspecified amount of time on a single set on the Breen space station. This story really could've used some additional geography to breathe, but it feels too lifeless and static, despite providing some useful information.
In the present, Book and Burnham try to reach out to Moll and L'ak, who are holed up on the Enterprise with no way to escape. Burnham offers them a way out in exchange for the clue they've retrieved. As a mechanical plot, this works decently, and the action, obligatory as it is, at least feels less generic because everyone involved in it has an incentive to look for a way to get out of a fight rather than into one (not that that stops anyone).
L'ak would rather die than be separated from Moll, which I guess is something. Moll's bitterness over her absent father and sad childhood is off-the-shelf material, and it drives her to distrust people to an almost absurd level. At one point, rather than just waiting for Book to think through the dilemma of the locked-down sickbay that has her boyfriend trapped, she impulsively short-circuits some wiring on the bridge, bringing about a far more immediate crisis.
That crisis is solved with a Technobabble Teamwork Brainstorm Session aboard Discovery after Burnham is able to send a coded message as an SOS to Rayner, allowing Burnham and Book to return through the expanded aperture in the Enterprise with the clue. Everyone gets to pat themselves on the back for their ingenuity, while Moll and L'ak escape yet again (this time without the clue), which reveals how this show is happy to repeat patterns until it runs out of episodes.
On the other hand, there's some interesting backstory involving the Enterprise and how it figures into the treasure's clue. It turns out the Enterprise was lost into this anomaly after the Terran Empire was overthrown following mirror-Spock's reformation movement (discussed but far in the past by the time of DS9's "Crossover," which brought the mirror universe back as an ongoing saga after the one-off that was TOS's "Mirror, Mirror"). Before that happened, a crew member, Dr. Cho, had managed to abandon the ship, along with much of the crew, and were able to cross over into the prime universe and join the Federation. She later returned to the ship to stash the clue where it has been sitting for centuries. While the convenience of all the neatly aligned clues flies in the face of common sense, there's something reassuring about the little stories that have comprised them, and the people who went out of their way to hide, but not forever destroy, an ancient puzzle. Call it the galactic Da Vinci Code.
As an adventure with some useful backstory, this is watchable, despite my qualms with the cookie-cutter nature of the characters. Still, I'm losing hope fast that this season is going to be compelling. We follow plot pieces like clockwork, and we get character arcs that are competently told but uninspired. Discovery's season has already reached the plateau of watchable mediocrity, and I am wondering when it will ever transcend itself.
I know this show hasn't given completely up because it still has flashes of personal wonderment, like the closing moments with Culber, who finds himself increasingly overwhelmed by all the bizarre experiences he has had that transcend life and death — and yet finds himself intrigued and ready to embrace the unknown — in a way that, he notes, Stamets does not. There's still room for some of these characters to be amazed. Hopefully there's still room — and time — for us and the writers, as well.
Previous episode: Face the Strange
Next episode: Whistlespeak
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45 comments on this post
voxymandias
Ah, the mid-season filler. I feel badly saying this, but I just didn't care. I want to advance the understanding of the Progenitors' stuff. This pleasant-enough bowl of sawdust ain't that.
Davidw
This was terrible. Flashing lights ridiculous action, shaky cam. Soap opera flashbacks of characters we don't care anything about.
The usual cringe dialogue in exposition like
Burnham: Love is a powerful thing, Do not let it take you down the wrong road. You both have choices.
Book: You always have choices.
And then there's Moll. Looking like a reject from Either from Blade Runner or Farscape. Saying cool lines like:
Moll: "antique piece of sh*t".
And so we learn about Book and Moll and La'ak. All in exposition. All in flashback. I'm thinking it's got to be a pilot for another series, right?
And at the very end Burnham says something about Cho, And how she became a doctor and maybe that's why they got a clue to take them on their quest. Maybe that made sense to somebody I just couldn't pay attention anymore longer. It's everything wrong with Discovery.
Spock Jenkins
So basically they shot this on the SNW sets to save money.
chrispaps
With all the advanced effects and the rich storytelling universe of Star Trek at their disposal, you'd think it was reasonable to expect each episode of Discovery to be engaging. Unfortunately, I often find myself bored and this episode was among the most boring to date. I was struggling to watch to be honest. It's strange given the wonder and possibilities that Star Trek promises. We tune in to escape and explore new worlds and ideas, not to fight off sleep.
Galadriel
Oh, the boring midseason range. This episode was not terrible but bad. It tried to build a backstory for the Honey Bunny team, but did not advance beyond the cheapest cliché. The writing does not impress me, either: What kind of security do they have on a Breen space station that does not detect the fighting or excessive flirting of our Honey Bunny team? No one noticed the dilithium was adulterated and called L’ak out on it (I take the scam was pulled off repeatedly)? And how comes that after so many centuries the Federation does not recognize a Breen when they see him, or why else were we never told his species?
In the beginning of the season, I hoped the antagonists would be interesting. Now I don’t expect that any longer, they are just a clichéd duo of trigger-happy outcasts who will in the end hug with Burnham. I may have seen something like this before. The mad scientist from S4 had more charisma.
Also, the search for clues turns flat and flatter. The first we got on the graveyard planet, and it was somewhat exciting because the red herring hat to identified by some decent reasoning. The second at least had some action with translucent CGI insects. The third we never saw. And the fourth is a vial with some liquid. This better turn out interesting, with some deduction skills on display, but hope dwindles soon.
That does not deserve more that 1½ stars, and perhaps only one.
Karl Zimmerman
After a bit of return to form last week, another week of mediocrity - a week that seems to exist largely for the needs of the arc, rather than because there was a decent story to tell, and which has utterly fallen on its face.
To start with, let's note that it seems the only reason this episode took place on the ISS Enterprise is it gave the Discovery showrunners an excuse to use the SNW set, and save some money. The ship being from the Mirror Universe played absolutely no role in the story whatsoever, and was completely incidental, other than a few bits of monologue delivered by Michael. So that section of the story was a waste.
Also largely a waste was the Discovery-side B (honestly, C) plot with Rayner left in command for the first time. Part of the issue here is it seemed a scene too little. He had some minor tension with the science team on how to reestablish contact with Michael and Book, calmed down a bit, and then we didn't see him again until the end of the third act after the tractor beam came out of the wormhole. Once we see him again, everything is fine, and he just orders the crew to tech the tech to plot the plot.
Michael's slow rekindling with Book worked much better, though of course it's an arc in progress. As is Book's flailing attempts to reach out to Moll. Though neither one of these is the heart of the episode, which brings us to...
This episode lives and dies on the love story of Moll and L'ak. And here, the episode fell flat on its face. The first scene was very cringe, between Moll just belting out exposition for the needs of the audience, to suddenly coming onto a guy who is literally just a Breen in an environmental suit - identical to every other Breen onscreen. I suppose I could headcanon it as being she's initially hitting on him to try and save her skin, and it becomes genuine later. But everything is rushed far too fast. The identical sets and Moll's identical clothing/hair make it first seem like everything is happening in close succession, with only the dialogue letting us know any time has passed. This was all likely to save money, but means the expository dialogue alone is doing the heavy lifting of showing the passage of time (months? Years?). The whole thing of the taboo for Breen to show their "other face" is also underbaked, considering L'ak's uncle thinks nothing when he sees his face uncovered (and he uncovers his own face as well...why if it's a taboo!). Only L'ak's decision at the end of the flashbacks to turn on his people really carried any emotional weight. Frankly, this flashback alone was all that was really needed to make the point. The whole thing just reminded me of in Season 4, when they did a much better job of this with Ruon Tarka and his "special friend."
So, with Moll and L'ak's love story a dud, the episode is a dud, because the remainder of it is a rote plot machinations, incremental movement toward the season MacGuffin, and a couple of nice emotional moments between characters. Can't really hang your hat on these.
Also, shout out to Detmer and Owo for getting "put on a bus" for the next several episodes (if not the whole season) to do a side mission we don't get to see.
Joseph B
I thought the ep was at least "somewhat entertaining".
Best line:
Booker: "Hit it?"
Burnham: "Uh... Feels weird. Let's just Fly!" 😂
Galadriel
@Karl Zimmermann “ The ship being from the Mirror Universe played absolutely no role in the story whatsoever, and was completely incidental”
There is a connection to one of the themes of the season, i.e., “Second Chances” (the ISS crew managed to integrate into the Federation, despite coming from a barbaric universe). It is, however, entirely disconnected from the narrative and thus not very salient.
My understanding of the “face showing” thing was that Breens can show their face in a distorted way (not sure whether the distortions are biological or technical), but not clearly (called “the other face”, 27:40). When the Breen commander showed his face (40:50), the distortion was enabled, so there is no break of taboo.
Clavain
I don't want to say that this episode "ruined" the Breen but it definitely didn't make them more interesting.
The Mirror Universe element was bizarrely underutilized.
I have no feelings about this episode other than boredom and mild irritation. I just wish this story would start going somewhere if it has to be this boring and repetitive.
Norvo
This was a tough one. Tedious, plodding, bereft of anything remotely resembling excitement or urgency.
It's paint by numbers action sequences featuring characters you know won't die because their name is in the opening credits. Of course, the same holds true for all of Trek, that's why Red Shirts are a thing. But at least most of those other shows manage to be, pardon the pun, engaging.
Commander Rayner made the right call to remind Burnham that the Captain's place is on the bridge. But this is Discovery, it goes without saying that the Captain solos away missions with a civilian who's also her ex. Still, it *was* nice to see that the bridge crew finally got to show they know their stuff by coming up with a way to save the day.
But that was a rare highlight in an hour of shrugging and fastforwarding through the bland backstory of Moll and L'ak. It just didn't hold my interest, even the rescue of the ISS Enterprise left me totally cold.
... And why in the world would emergency pods in the Mirror Universe have warp capabilities?
Oh, that's right... For the plot to happen.
Jeffrey's Tube
Not a bad episode, all told. Not a great episode, nor a particularly good episode, but I wouldn't call it one of Discovery's stinkers.
I feel like the show's worst impulses were more restrained than usual. The "therapy" story beats were appropriately placed rather than in the middle of the action when the characters should have been using their limited time to do something else. Michael Burnham had to be the one to get on the shuttle and go into the Space Sphincter to fix everything herself, yes, but Rayner called her out on it and she gave an acceptable explanation why this time it did, indeed, have to be her who goes.
We get some insight into the Breen, a cypher race for nearly three decades now, and while what we learn isn't that all that cool (an adjective I choose purposely, as the original intent with them--never stated onscreen anywhere so far as I know--is they wear those suits because their homeworld is extremely cold) , it works well enough.
Eve Harlow and whoever is playing Lak are better actors than most of the regular cast, so spending time with them rather than, say, Tilly or Adira is preferable in an episode, imo. And five episodes in--halfway through the season!--we finally get some backstory and insight into them, which was sorely needed.
. . .
Some things didn't work much, if at all.
I'm confused by what the Space Sphincter was supposed to be. It doesn't really matter, of course. Just little about it makes sense or is consistent with the science babble they kept spewing, and how the words in that babble have worked on Star Trek to date. The show seems to know this, that it's just doing a word salad, and winks at the audience with Rayner constantly telling the crew to "blah blah blah" it and get to the point.
I'm confused on the timeline of the ISS Enterprise with what we know about Terran history. It does not make any sense. Plus, for one of the refugees to have been part of the Progenitors team, well that's Dominion War era. The Terran Empire had long fallen by then. Unless . . . unless Spock was the Chancellor who was making reforms after Mirror, Mirror, which caused the unrest they were fleeing from (and ultimately the downfall of the Terran Empire--DS9 says this is what happened), and a bunch of refugees stole the Enterprise and tried to cross universes, but got stuck the Space Sphincter, died of old age, had children who they raised in the Transporter Room, and those children eventually escaped out the Sphincter into the Prime universe, where one of them, Cho, became a Vice Admiral and worked on the Progenitor project? Is that what they were saying?
Okay, whatever.
Look, it doesn't really matter. The ISS Enterprise could have been from a divergent timeline. It was in some kind of anomaly anyway. So whatever. It's there, somehow, and these things happen so often in Star Trek that I'm fine with however it's there. Not really bothered.
But I wish they had done something with it. If you're filming on the other series's sets to save money (a time-honored Star Trek tradition), you can at least write towards what you're doing, and do something cool with it.
Rayner having the jitters about taking the conn on Discovery? The man was a 30-year Captain who had his own ship up until like a week ago. No. Sorry, but no.
Mol and Lak's backstory was very predictable with no surprises. Their entire arc will be predictable from here out. It's pretty trite, the kind of thing we've seen a million times before, and won't be very interesting. Whatever.
They manage to escape in a warp pod like that and Discovery can't stop them? Listen, I know the plot needs them to escape right now, but come on. That wasn't even in the slightest way believable. I know it doesn't really matter, but come on, writers, try a LITTLE harder to work on the "how" of it. These things add up and make the difference between the show feeling lazy rather than made with care.
. . .
Boy oh boy, was this episode cheap, or what?
Filmed on SNW's sets. Mol and Lak's entire love story / back story taking place in a cargo bay without even any wardrobe changes. Too cheap to pay Owo and Detmer, who also get shipped off at the end of the episode unseen, presumably to signal to the audience that we won't be seeing them in the next few episodes, either. That's not cool, Discovery. How expensive can they really be? Have Burnham do one less flip kick in an alien's face and fire one less phaser, and let us have Owo and Detmer on the bridge FFS. Pay them, they've earned it.
Also no Saru for the second episode in a row. Budget? Does Doug Jones get paid either way? He wasn't in the opening titles, so maybe not. They saved money on his makeup at least . . .
Budget isn't everything on Star Trek, and some of the show's best episodes have been made as cost-conscious "bottle" episodes. But man oh man, I really hope SNW season 3 isn't anywhere near this cheap.
. . .
So wait, the Vice Admiral Terran, Cho, who escaped the Mirror Universe and Space Sphincter, went back INTO the Space Sphincter to hide a piece of the puzzle they created that leads to the Progenitor tech onto the ISS Enterprise where she (maybe) grew up and was trapped for so long, without worrying that she would trapped again, like Burnham and co nearly were with technology that's 800 years more advanced than Cho had? Okay, whatever. Sure, that was a reasonable thing to do.
. . .
Burnham Cries Counter: Zero.
Norvo
@Jeffreystube
I know it doesn't really matter, but come on, writers, try a LITTLE harder to work on the "how" of it. These things add up and make the difference between the show feeling lazy rather than made with care.
... Exactly. And in the same vein: "Why hexagonal? ... It doesn't matter!"
The Queen
The faults of this episode are typical Discovery faults - indulgent, unnecssary camera work (I mean, two episodes in a row that require an epilepsy alert, and for no script reason?); sophomoric attention to feelings over everything else; sloppy character development; and a throw-it-all-in-there attitude to the plot. I was confused in a few places: why was the MU brought up at all? Are Moll and L'ak from the MU, and if so why does it matter? What happened in the ISS Enterprise's sick bay that trapped Burnham and L'ak? Is the "evolved" face of the Breen a cyborg? I also thought Rayner's implied lack of confidence in himself was not appropriate given his established character so far.
However, there were many things here I enjoyed. I thought it was about time we learned the story of Moll and L'ak, and that the flashbacks were handled well. Sure it was too drawn out and the motivations were trite (I'm a prince but a misfit; I just want one last haul so I can retire to my private paradise), but I believed it. Rayner's handling of the crew and Rennie's acting were well done, especially his offering a reward for the rescue plan rather than grouching at them. This seemed like the kind of step toward - gad, dare I say it - character growth that Rayner would actually take in developing trust with this new crew.
A few other moments that I liked: Book says he "loved" (past tense) Burnham, clarifying that plot point for me. We see a Gorn doll on the abandoned ship, at least I think so; weird as that is, it's kind of interesting; and is Linus playing the piano at the end? But the best part, which actually made me laugh with pleasure, was when Moll and L'ak used the chaotic transporter-beam rescue to escape once again! I really didn't expect that.
Finally, why all the detail on Dr. Cho? Is he or she going to turn out to not be so successfully integrated in the real universe after all? I'd like that.
Maybe I'm just a contrarian, but I enjoyed this much more than last episode. Of course, I hate time travel episodes, so there's that.
Brandon
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Austin
The writers aren’t even subtly hinting that they are inserting their shuttle into our space-sphincter. I would give this 0.5 stars. I don’t mind crazy, or backstory, or unhinged, or not making sense that much. What I really mind is being bored. And I was bored out of my mind. This episode felt like it took 3 hours to end up right where we started, with character flashbacks and exposition that felt unnatural and taught us very little, other than L’ak is Breen, and Moll has always been emo, but used to be flirtier.
But Discovery does this all too often: take really cool concepts -spore drive, 34th century federation, the Breen- and totally squanders them and reduces them to Disney Channel-style lessons to learn about togetherness and making good choices. On top of this, the writers seem to really think we care about Michael and Book rekindling a relationship no one cared about in the first place. And the ending just stretched the imagination far beyond belief. We're supposed to believe that a 1,000 year old vessel could escape the entire federation? Really? The only reason I wouldn’t give this 0 stars is because it wasn’t offensive. I’m only offended that Paramount+ doesn’t offer a 1.5x speed setting.
StarMan
Personal Log. Stardate: Today.
Week 4 of not-watching Discovery continues without incident. Reviews gleaned from JammersReviews on the latest episode seem to confirm that 'mid-season malaise' has been reached right on schedule.
Based on the collective opinion of JammersReviews commentators, there have been a grand total of one episode out of five that qualifies as "actually good".
In conclusion, it appears the decision to not-watch until the penultimate episode has been vindicated. The plot points I am privy to following the one episode I watched are:
- There is a chase (or 'The Chase 2.0') for the Holy Grail / the technological marvel Salmone Jens left behind.
- The Cylon is now the First Officer.
- The Trill and the Robot are no longer together.
All in all, I remain confident that the recap at the beginning of the penultimate episode should be sufficient to fill in all the key points required.
Again, my thanks go out to the resolute souls who manage to endure what I could not.
Chris W
We know the Paramount crew does dial in to fan reaction to some degree. Admittedly, they have to adjust for a certain level of toxicity, but surely they must know by now why Discovery hasn’t worked as well as it could have? Oh, how I would love to be a fly on the wall where the teams research their audience base and how the writers work with the conclusions. I don't sense that the writing & production team worked to try to improve upon past seasons. It's all just more of the same.
Just another inconsequential filler episode. Nothing to see here. Move along.
PROS:
[1] I loved seeing Rayner confront Burnham at the start about captains leading away teams. It’s wonderfully in line with the established Star Trek universe and has always made tactical sense to me. But… (see CON [a])
[2] I continue to love how everyone’s still adapting to Rayner’s style and vice versa. It’s becoming a slapstick comedy in itself and it’s been hilarious, but it's not without substance. I've generally enjoyed storylines involving Rayner more than the others.
[3] Great to finally get some backstory to our villains. Now having seen it, I wish it came sooner; we’re already half-way through the season.
[4] The conversation between doc and Tilly was nice.
CONS:
[a] …Discovery makes Rayner’s call-out on Burnham leading an away mission all about some personal emotion. But I’m glad Rayner gave none. Burnham continues to give bad rationales when countering Rayner.
[b] This treasure hunt is not turning out to being very interesting, especially since we don’t know how Moll and L’ak acquired this third piece.
OTHER THOUGHTS:
[i] Seeing that derelict ship during the opening sequence totally caught me off-guard! I was ramped up for the episode after that! But now that the episode is over, it turns out to not amount to much.
[ii] Why is Burnham sitting in the Captain’s chair of the derelict ship? I should think she would want a seat at an operational console to help physically affect change.
[iii] What’s the production reason for having replaced so many familiar faces like Detmer?
[iv] Who’s Dr. Cho?? Are we supposed to already know her? Michael and Book discuss it like we are. 🤔
[v] I liked that we now know what the Breen look like. It was anti-climactic, though. Makes me think this may have been one of those things we just keep secret for all time 😆 The semi-transparent skin was kinda cool, though
Jeffrey's Tube
You know, I wrote my comment before reading anyone else's comments (and right after watching the episode), and I find it really interesting that we all pretty much hit upon the same issues with this script. If we all find these, you would think a room full of writers would, too. I can only think they honestly don't *really* care. "Passable" is the only bar they're aiming to clear, here, anymore. It's as much effort as they want to give it.
I certainly don't feel like they're inspired. Like Trek is a dream job they're just bursting to write for. After watching this episode, do any of you?
Chris W
@Jeffrey's Tube - "I wrote my comment before reading anyone else's comments (and right after watching the episode), and I find it really interesting that we all pretty much hit upon the same issues with this script"
→ I also try to write up comments before reading everyone else's in the hopes it keeps me impartial and content fresh so discussions will be vibrant. But yeah, I'm feeling we're all on the same page.
Brandon
@Jeffrey's Tube
It's starting to feel more and more like Michelle Paradise has run out of ideas and is merely regurgitating her therapy insights to stay working for another year. The last two seasons, at least, had interesting premises at their core (even if S3's was squandered), but this whole "the journey is the point" seems to be telegraphing in advance that they have no idea how to land this season's Macguffin.
Bryan
Not terrible enough to make fun of. Not good enough to care. Just blandly padding out inconsequential details about unimportant characters en route to yet another piece of the MacGuffin jig-saw puzzle with plenty of meaningless technobabble thrown in.
Next!
Scubanerd
@jammer they said towards the end that owo and possibly detmer I wasn't paying attention were heading up a team to fly enterprise back to starfleet hq. That shot at the end I took to be it heading off
Cletus
Typical vanilla ep. Molak both remain boring antagonists with equally boring backstories. Respect the ambition of trying to flesh out the Breen and bringing in the MU enterprise, but potential of both wasted sadly.
Rayner hasn't been ruined yet, still waiting for the other shoe to drop but so far so good. Culber finally got some good character stuff at end, hopefully those seeds get nice payoff later. The idea at end that each hide location conveys a message/lesson for those to inherit the tech is a bit cheesy but good that there's at least some purposeful and connecting theme by the scientists and not just arbitrary spots.
Jammer
@Scubanerd, Okay, thanks. I must have missed that line while writing other notes.
Mark M
First time commenter, long time reader here.
I found this episode endemic of what drives me crazy about Discovery: there is a complete lack of urgency and so much filler that it's almost painfully boring to watch. For instance, they had the Ticking Clock of 8 minutes, but because we needed Mandatory Emotional Exploration (MEE), Book and Loll had plenty of time to just sit and gab for a few minutes about their father figure, eating almost half their time before they ran down to the sickbay and grabbed the Captain versus, I don't know, maybe calling her on the communicators and asking her to come up or using the ship's intercom or anything that didn't involve filler. Or even bothering to consider "hey, we're gonna die if we don't act fast, but FIRST...". I would never want these people to handle any real crisis because we'd have to sit down first and discuss our childhood or relationship issues before acting on them.
Most of the dialogue in this show feels like someone fed in a YA novel into ChatGPT and said "write an episode with a lot of MEE time, has Burnham be the mandatory savior, tons of stilted unprofessional dialogue, and add at least one pointless action scene, preferably with phases that shoot and make pistol sound effects." Contrast this with Picard where, in the third season where they had to escape on a crippled ship from a nebula, several crew members got together, reasoned out a solution based on professional experience, and executed it.
This is infuriating because all these MEE moments just feel like filler and it's as infuriating as reading the aforementioned DaVinci Code, a book so bad that I almost always see at least one or two copies at every thrift store (I bought one for $1 and felt cheated). I found myself over and over last night especially thinking "OMG, just GET ON WITH IT" as the bad overwrought dialogue kept coming. It even short-changed how this week's clue was found.
I would have given this episode maybe 1.5 stars.
Colin
It is funny that just recently that Kurtzman said there was no room for filler episodes, yet this season seems to be full of it. The writers have taken a story which could have been told in one or two episodes during the Berman era and expanded into a 10-episode story.
Cynic
Pure speculation. I've been thinking about the plot such as it is, Burnham constantly looking at the Progenitor character from "The Chase," time travel elements now included. I have concluded that... The Progenitor tech will be found and contained on Discovery. But aside from the life creation bollocks, the tech allows time travel. To protect from Bad People, Discovery is sent into the far far future using this tech to protect it (allowing Calyspso to happen and consistent with their mission to kick the can on unwanted knowledge into the future) and The Burnham is accidentally or maybe deliberately sent back billions of years where she becomes the Progenitor who creates all life in the ST universe and makes the hologram that says so. What could be more Discovery than that?
StarMan
@Cynic: "The Burnham is accidentally or maybe deliberately sent back billions of years where she becomes the Progenitor who creates all life in the ST universe and makes the hologram that says so. What could be more Discovery than that?"
Oh yes - please. I would so love to see Disco's dozen or so fans defend against such tripe.
Given how weak the season sounds, I'm surprised these reviews have maintained a floor of 2 and a half stars (which is firmly in okay / somewhat good) territory.
Jeffrey's Tube
@ Cynic
Oh god. Stop. Stop it. I'm begging you. Don't put that out into the universe, the universe might hear you, snicker, and do it.
Brandon
"Burnham is accidentally or maybe deliberately sent back billions of years where she becomes the Progenitor who creates all life in the ST universe and makes the hologram that says so. What could be more Discovery than that?"
OMG I can actually see them doing that. LOL
Trek fan
Three stars. This is well paced and it’s nice to finally see some backstory for both the two villains and the Breen, who have always been paper thin characters since first appearing in TNG. In a way, I also appreciated the gratuitous reappearance of the Enterprise, even though it’s clearly a budget saving way of pirating the set from SNW. Overall, I like how Burnham is used here in a way that allows the other players to breathe a bit. I also found Book especially well used here, despite the thin hook for including him in the season. I know I dog on Discovery a lot, and am ready to see it go away, but this one will stick with me as a rare late-series example of all the threads fitting together cleanly: 23rd century origins, 24th century callbacks to the Breen, and the 32nd century courier stuff. The Breen reveal is especially nifty. It’s not a perfect episode, as it feels very much like a middle chapter without anything strong story arc, but I kinda liked this one.
Kyle
@Cynic: I could totally see DISCO ending on that note. But I wonder: Are you possible referencing the Babylon 5 episode where Bab. 4 gdisappears into the past and Capt. Sinclair had to go back 1000 years to fidn it and becomes Valen to make the prophecies that he and others weree reading and working with 1000 years in the future? I can't remmeber the episode title.
Defor
For me, this was the best episode of the season. Finally got to see and learn more about the Breen, and included with that, the backstory of Moll and L'ak presented in a meaningful way. The two actors playing them are pretty good too.
Good use of the mirror universe (rather the interdimensional space between that and the regular universe), as a side tie into bringing the ISS Enterprise into the story. Dialogues between the duo of Burnham and Book with that of Moll and L'ak had me fairly captivated.
3.5 stars for me. I wasn't too keen on the Culber and self-reflection scenes, maybe that story will get fleshed out more in future episodes.
Rahul
Another somewhat problematic episode, just not very ambitious -- but one that does a few things to keep the interest. The Breen were anonymous baddies in DS9 so I do think it is worth fleshing them out to some extent. So many species were just concocted in classic Trek and there's a lot of mileage that you can get from making use of what little background they have. But I'm not buying the romance between Moll & L'Ak -- how does it make sense??
DSC seems to have its themes for its episodes -- maybe here it's making choices or whatever BS is spewed during the epilogue. It's just very superficial and more "tell" than "show". These epilogues are getting tiresome.
Dr. Culber was particularly cringe here with his "I'm fine" like 3 times. Give me a break. And so what exactly is his issue? I guess as DSC winds down, he has to give his little recap of all he's been through. But is it just b/c DSC is winding down or is there something more meaningful to it? Again, this to me seems poorly rationalized by DSC's writers.
I did like Rayner taking charge of the crew -- I think the episode painted him in a positive light as a different style of commander but one who can still get subordinates to run through a wall for him. And finally we get a bit about his species. They have their idioms, which of course Burnham brushed up on.
Moll's story is tiresome, nothing original -- bad dad, mom died early etc. etc. And so Book wants to pay it forward with her. Just hard to care about it.
The whole ISS Enterprise thing -- this isn't really needed I think. Just another opportunity to score some points by revisiting canon. Seems like anybody can serve in Star Fleet if Mirror Universe people do. And one of them was part of the group of scientists to work on this Progenitors' tech? I think that's pushing it...
2.5 stars for "Mirrors" -- I cringed at the title, but it's more typical DSC S5, namely unambitious, plenty of padding, somewhat implausible, but watchable. Nothing really gained by examining how Moll & L'Ak hooked up -- there's just no way these 2 should be so difficult for the Federation to apprehend.
Mal
Holy shit @Cynic, Michael is Mother of Klingons (TM) and everyone else to boot! Will Discovery end with an All Along the Watchtower montage???
https://youtu.be/pHUEYIE_MZA
Almost as good as the Jar Jar Binks as Sith Lord conspiracy theory:
https://www.reddit.com/r/StarWars/comments/3qvj6w/theory_jar_jar_binks_was_a_trained_force_user/
@Kyle, you're thinking of B5 War Without End. Michael is many things (all the things?), but Entilzah Valen, she is not.
van zeSpleen
Mirror starship Enterprise resurfaced - nice surprise.
But mention of Action Saru surviving mirror universe chaos brings us closure, to that episode's final scene between enlightened Saru & somewhat reformed emperor, bleeding to death in his arms. I liked that.
Yanks
@Jammer
"@Scubanerd, Okay, thanks. I must have missed that line while writing other notes."
Here's the quote:
I'm ordering Commanders Owosekun and Detmer
to head a team to fly the Enterprise back to Fed HQ storage.
Looks like everyone makes Commander... when the hell did that happen? No "Harry's" on Discovery... lol
Shouldn't she have put Rhys on that detail? He was the one who loved the Connie, right? Not sure how Owo and Detmer "earned" it.
Nice review Jammer, you - as always - summed everything up nicely.
Are the Breen really the "baddies"? Only because Michael saw the future... So the Breen are in this race too? How could they get anywhere when Discovery has 4 clues?
I guess I'm just not sold. Now that we sort of know a Breen, they don't seem so bad. They weren't all that bad on DS9... kind of dumb.
Interesting take on the Breem faces... different for sure.
I'm glad we got some backstory for L'ak and Moll. I think the actress who is playing Moll is compelling and doing pretty well with what she has. At least we know something of these two going forward.
Tilly didn't make me cringe this week.
It's interesting where they are going with Culber.
Rayner wasn't lost running Discovery, he was stumbling to change his ways to relate to this crew... but yes, it really shouldn't be hard for someone so senior that has been in the chair and doing this for such a long time.
So, one of my favorite characters is done? Owo is gone? Saru is off the ship... I'm running out of folks to root for.
Man, even after Rayner and Michael told us how they did the tracker beam SOS thing, I didn't understand it. I even went back and listened to it again.
2 stars... nothing great, nothing bad... they lost 1/2 a star for sending Owo away.
Jeffrey's Tube
@ Yanks
Everyone on Discovery got one-grade rank bumps after solving/ending the Burn at the end of S3. Since in the 23rd century there was no such thing as a Lieutenant JG, all the Lieutenants counted as full Lieutenants, so Owo, Detmer, Rhys, Bryce, Nilsson etc are all Lt. Commanders now.
(And yeah, it would make more sense for Rhys to go, but I bet he costs less than Owo & Detmer since they've been featured more in the past seasons. Double-edged sword for the actors, that.)
Yanks
@Jeffrey's Tube
"Everyone on Discovery got one-grade rank bumps after solving/ending the Burn at the end of S3. Since in the 23rd century there was no such thing as a Lieutenant JG, all the Lieutenants counted as full Lieutenants, so Owo, Detmer, Rhys, Bryce, Nilsson etc are all Lt. Commanders now."
Roger. Thanks.
(And yeah, it would make more sense for Rhys to go, but I bet he costs less than Owo & Detmer since they've been featured more in the past seasons. Double-edged sword for the actors, that.)
Dave
I thought the progenitors “seeded” the bacterial life on various planets. Not all , but basically ones that evolved humanoid forms.
So have they ret conned this to be “ creating life “ instead of being able to manipulate DNA?
This may be picky , but there is quite a difference in this
Sean
I am no longer watching any nutrek. As a collector I czn buy them just to have them but inhave noninterest in new Star trek. Which is too bad cause I enjoyed shows oike Lost and Fringe and Alias is in my list. I just bought Star trek on blu ray so rewatching that.
Top Hat
I have never really understood what people think such declarations add.
Tim
"The show has gone all-in concerning Moll and L'ak as the season's antagonists, and that's part of the problem. They just aren't very interesting characters."
Yeah, this. The writers desperately want us to care about these characters and I could not care less. It's a stupid premise, basically Discount Bonnie and Clyde, playing far above their station. The real Bonnie and Clyde robbed banks. They didn't smuggle universe altering technology. When TNG did this silliness (Gambit) they didn't try to make us care about any of the pirates.
And at the end, Moll and L'ak steal some pod from ISS Enterprise and make a run for it. Not one person on the bridge suggests going after them. They've been a PITA all season, they're both wanted criminals, should we at least try to catch them?
Nah, the bridge crew read the script and know those characters will be important later.
This is L-A-Z-Y.
JW
….did anyone notice the hidden DS9 nod towards the end of this episode (@ 52:42 min) when Culber is opening up to Tilly in the bar? You can spot Morn (or one of his kind) sitting at the bar with a Ferengi bartender, while a piano plays in the background.
Gary Twinem
This season reminds me of Tom Baker's Key to Time season on Doctor Who 🙂
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