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David Ajala Explains Star Trek: Discovery Seemingly Ending Cleveland Booker's Story In Season 4, And Why He’s Glad He Returned For Season 5

This worked out really well for all involved.

Watching Star Trek: Discovery 's final season, I find it hard to imagine what it'd look like without David Ajala's Cleveland Booker in the mix. Fans were delighted to see him return in early trailers, to the point where Sonequa Martin-Green was surprised by his reveal , given what happened to the character in Disco 's Season 4 ending . I was just as baffled at the time, but the actor was fortunately able to set the record straight on Book's return, and why he's glad it all worked out.

David Ajala was kind enough to speak to CinemaBlend ahead of another Booker-heavy episode that'll make this month's Paramount+ subscription cost worth it. I mentioned how heavily his character's story has been incorporated into Season 5, and asked why Star Trek: Discovery seemingly wrote him off back when he was sent to help refugees as penance for his betrayal of the Federation. Ajala cleared up the situation, recalling both Booker's fake-out death in the finale and his eventual punishment that sent him away from the ship:

It's funny because I remember reading the [Season 4 finale] episode and thinking, ‘Oh, so Cleveland Booker is out of here,' and then, you know, seeing the reveal. It was fun because it was such a superb dramatic beat. But I was only meant to be on the show for two seasons, Seasons 3 and 4. As fate would have it, the stars aligned, and the producers and powers that be wanted to flesh out Cleveland Booker's story a little more and gave me the invitation to come back, which I graciously accepted.

There were no guarantees that David Ajala would remain with Star Trek: Discovery after his contract was up, so it seems that story decision was landed on as a way to offer wiggle room to the writers to explain away his absence had the actor not been available to return. Fortunately, it all worked out, and while we don't know exactly when the decisions were made, Ajala confirmed to CinemaBlend in December of 2022 that he would appear in Season 5. Suffice it to say, this fan was not shocked to see him in the trailers.

As is widely reported at this point, no one involved in Star Trek: Discovery knew Season 5 would be the final outing when it was in production, so it's a blessing David Ajala did agree to return for another season. The actor continued, sharing why he's been so grateful for this additional story, and how it benefitted the character of Cleveland Booker overall.

And I'm so happy that my ‘yes’ was yes because we've been really able to dig into a much more well-rounded individual. Not perfect, well-rounded. Whose strengths and weaknesses have been so publicly displayed, and whose fall from grace has been so publicly displayed. I think it shows great character with his leaving Booker because he's able to bounce back and still be of service to many people.

Star Trek: Discovery fans still have more to see from Cleveland Booker, and at least some confirmation from star Sonequa Martin-Green that we'll get a sense of where he and Michael stand . David Ajala also teased to CinemaBlend that he's very excited for fans to see a particular scene , and I'm really curious if it involves Booker and the lead of Discovery .

Callum Keith Rennie as Rayner in Star Trek: Discovery Season 5

The top brass shared the reality of doing a modern Star Trek show.

I'm hoping to see as much of Cleveland Booker as I possibly can, knowing that there may not be much room for him on Star Trek television in the future. Unless Book joins Starfleet, I don't really see him appearing on upcoming Trek shows like Starfleet Academy , which is also set in the 32nd century. Stranger things have happened, however, and it's hard to believe that at least one or two stars from Discovery series won't be a part of this in-development spinoff.

As for what's coming for Cleveland Booker in the immediate future, it seemed he managed to gain some headway with rival courier Moll, who is the daughter of his mentor, the original Cleveland Booker. Perhaps she and L'ak can ultimately be shifted into allies, rather than enemies who intend to hand a dangerous technology to the Breen in exchange for their freedom. Hopefully, he can convince them to work with Starfleet before it's too late.

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Mick Joest is a Content Producer for CinemaBlend with his hand in an eclectic mix of television goodness. Star Trek is his main jam, but he also regularly reports on happenings in the world of Star Trek, WWE, Doctor Who, 90 Day Fiancé, Quantum Leap, and Big Brother. He graduated from the University of Southern Indiana with a degree in Journalism and a minor in Radio and Television. He's great at hosting panels and appearing on podcasts if given the chance as well.

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Star Trek: Discovery

Ten years before Kirk, Spock, and the Enterprise, the USS Discovery discovers new worlds and lifeforms as one Starfleet officer learns to understand all things alien. Ten years before Kirk, Spock, and the Enterprise, the USS Discovery discovers new worlds and lifeforms as one Starfleet officer learns to understand all things alien. Ten years before Kirk, Spock, and the Enterprise, the USS Discovery discovers new worlds and lifeforms as one Starfleet officer learns to understand all things alien.

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Trivia The Starfleet vessels seen in the first season, including the Discovery, the Shenzou and the redesigned Enterprise, were all designed by production artist John Eaves. Eaves' work with Star Trek spans three decades. Probably his most notable contribution was the design of the Enterprise-E for Star Trek: First Contact (1996) .
Goofs With Michael being the adoptive sister of Spock, the series has many flashbacks to their childhood and upbringing on Vulcan. Spock's Vulcan half-brother, Sybok, does not appear nor is mention during these scenes. In Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989) , Spock says that he and Sybok grew up together. However, since it's never stated when Sybok joined Sarek's home - only that he did so following his mother's death - or when he was exiled from the family, it's not impossible Sybok moved in after Burnham, and left before she graduated (the two extremes of the flashbacks). Also, since Sybok was never mentioned before Star Trek V, it seems reasonable the family never spoke of him again after his estrangement.
Alternate versions The serif-font legends and subtitles in the "broadcast" episodes are absent from the DVD versions, where they are replaced with the standard DVD subtitles.
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Recap/Review: ‘Star Trek: Discovery’ Reflects On Its Choices In “Mirrors”

| April 25, 2024 | By: Anthony Pascale 116 comments so far

Star Trek: Discovery Season 5, Episode 5 – Debuted Thursday, April 25, 2024 Written by Johanna Lee & Carlos Cisco Directed by Jen McGowan

A solid episode with plenty of lore and character development gets weighed down with a bit too much exposition.

No, I didn’t kiss you in the past last week, what makes you say that?

WARNING: Spoilers below!

“Maybe we’re not so different.”

As the crew regroups following the time bug incident that lost them 6 hours, they try to trace the trail of their main rivals in the search for the Progenitor tech. Book takes this time to reflect on the choices he has made in life and how it isn’t too late for Moll; perhaps he can redeem the daughter of his mentor and namesake Cleveland Booker. Stamets and Tilly figure out the trail didn’t disappear into nowhere: Moll and L’ak went through a wormhole. The aperture isn’t big enough for the Disco, so the captain assigns herself to shuttle duty—over the objections of her new XO, who is still struggling a bit. After a little bonding over old Kellerun poetry, she leaves him with “I know you can lead this crew” and heads off with her ex. Returning to their old banter, including some teasing about what happened during her time tour last episode, Book and Michael head through the wormhole. Things get really choppy as they fly through exotic matter “deaf and blind,” losing comms with the Disco, and dodging debris. Skilled piloting and good ol’ Starfleet engineering saves them, but things aren’t so hot for Moll and L’ak, whose ship is spotted cut in half. Their only hope for survival is another relatively intact ship that looks familiar. A 24 th -century scientist hiding a clue in this pocket dimension on a shipwreck from another universe makes as much sense as anything. It’s the ISS Enterprise—and that’s no typo. If the “Mirrors” title wasn’t clue enough, the ISS does it: Things are about to get Terran, again.

After docking, Michael and Book make their way through the mess of a ship to the bridge with more playful banter. The warp drive has been bricked and all shuttles and escape pods are gone, very out of character for ruthless Terrans. They track three quantum signatures in sickbay, but start with a trace in the transporter room, which looks more like a makeshift refugee camp. A chronicle reveals the crew mutinied after the Terran High Chancellor (aka Mirror Spock) was killed for making reforms. A certain Kelpien rebel leader (aka Mirror Action Saru) led refugees to the Prime Universe, where they abandoned ship. While Book expositions, Michael puts a piece of her badge (and its important Prime Universe quantum signature) in a locket she finds. Pay attention BTW, or you will be confused later. In sickbay, they find Moll and L’ak, Moll and L’ak, and Moll and L’ak—until they take out the holo-emitters so the four former couriers can face off for real. Book tries the “I knew your father” gambit and is immediately rebuffed by Moll’s serious daddy issues. The baddies figure they have the clue so they have all the leverage, but Michael uses that locket as a bluff, claiming she has the real clue. Still, no deal with the Federation is good enough because they need the Progenitor tech to get rid of an Erigah… a Breen blood bounty. That’s right, L’ak is Breen. Holy refrigeration helmet , Batman.

Mirror McCoy was a bit of an evil pack rat.

“You both still have choices .”

Cut to a series of Burn-era flashbacks when Moll was delivering dilithium to the Breen Imperium. The “bucket heads” are not amused by the wisecracking courier who gets into a fight with one of them, but she turns the tables, revealing she knows he’s a disgraced member of the royal family—and she even knows his name. It’s L’ak, of course. He is intrigued by her plan to skim more latinum, getting payback for being humiliated for this cargo duty demotion. Soon enough, this unlikely pair is hooking up between cargo containers and he even takes off his helmet to show her his face, as well as his “other face.” It turns out the Breen have two: the one we have been seeing with L’ak and a glowing eyed translucent one. Later, the star-crossed romance is threatened when Moll is drawn to the lure of even more latinum by delivering to the Emerald Chain. Before they can sort out if he should join her, Uncle A-hole shows up, not happy about his nephew’s little interspecies exchange program. He’s also not cool with L’ak using that old face and not the “evolved” glowy face. L’ak is given one chance at redemption: Kill Moll. He picks door number 2, killing some guards but sparing Primarch Ruhn, who declares the Erigah. L’ak knows this means they will never stop hunting him, but Moll is all-in on being a fugitive, so they escape together. Ah, true love.

Back on Mirror Enterprise, the standoff devolves into another quick firefight as the Breen/Human duo chooses not to take the offered off-ramp before going too far down the bad guy road. Moll and Book end up outside force fields that pop up around sickbay, so she reluctantly agrees to a ceasefire. The current Cleveland Booker tries again to connect, but Moll only has bad memories of a brutal childhood of abandonment after her Cleveland left her on her own at age 14. L’ak is all she has. L’ak feels the same about Moll, telling Michael that he would die before being separated, but seems open to the idea of them sharing a cell in the Federation pen. On the bridge, Book pivots to use his relationship with Michael to connect, but Moll’s need to get back to L’ak means no waiting for computer hacking, so she starts yanking out wires. The resulting short does lower the forcefield, but now the ship is out of control. Their shuttle is flung off with the jolt and there’s only eight minutes until the Big E is squished in the little wormhole. Book takes his final shot, handing over his phaser and telling Moll she is the only family he has left. She finally relents and they head to sickbay, where Michael and L’ak have resumed fighting. The captain gets the upper hand and ends up with the clue L’ak was holding and the Breen is left with a knife in his side, but impressed by the locket bluff. Moll arrives and is super pissed, so the Disco duo makes a quick exit before things escalate into yet another phaser fight. This former courier couple’s double date is over.

Uh, can you go back to the other face now?

“Maybe we can shape our own futures too.”

As Moll tries to patch up her boyfriend, Michael and Book work through the problem on the bridge, deciding that the tractor beam as their only hope. Over on the Disco, they detect an oscillating pattern, 3-4-1-4, which means something to Rayner. He now wants the nerds to figure out how to open the wormhole aperture big enough for a ship, offering kegs of Kellerun booze for the best idea. Adira sparks a team effort and Rayner rallies around the crowdsourced solution involving a hexagon of photon torpedoes. “We are only going to get one shot at this. I trust you will all make it count, red alert.” That’s the stuff. With what may be the last seconds of her life, Michael lets Book know she shared a “happy” moment with his past self during the whole time bug incident. Discovery fires the torpedoes and the crew is surprised to see the ISS Enterprise emerge at the last minute from the permanently collapsing wormhole. Everyone releases their tension as the captain informs her crew they saved her… but why is the Enterprise about to fire? A warp pod is launched! It’s Moll and L’ak. Before you can say “plot armor,” they escape to another episode. The captain returns to the Disco to tell Rayner she’s impressed with how he handled the crew during her time away, and he tells her how impressed he was with her subtle “3-4-1-4” message using the Kellerun “Ballad of Krull.” Alien poetry FTW!

In the background of the episode, Tilly has been noticing that Dr. Culber seems out of sorts. Everyone else leans on him, so she offers to be a friendly ear. As things wrap, Hugh takes her up on her offer over drinks at Red’s, admitting that ever since he was possessed by a Trill a few episodes back, he has been feeling a bit off, and he’s beening having some trouble coming to grips with the quest they are on with questions “so big and impossible to grasp.” He is not sure his matter-of-fact husband will understand what Tilly points out is a sort of spiritual awakening. This thread is left unresolved, unlike Adira’s mini-crisis of confidence: They were losing their science mojo due to guilt over the time bug, but got it back through Rayner’s tough love and being the one to come up with the hexagon of torpedoes solution. Things wrap up with Michael and Book looking over their prize, the latest piece of the map and a mysterious vial of liquid hidden inside, ready to set up the next episode once Stamets unlocks its secret. Burnham is starting to see a pattern with these clues and how the scientists who left them were trying to teach lessons along the way to the successful questers. The clue hidden in the ISS Enterprise came from Dr. Cho, a former Terran junior officer who later became a Starfleet Admiral. This happy ending for her and the others from Saru’s band of Mirror refugees fills them with hope as they can’t wait to find out what they will learn when they put the map together. There are just 2 more map pieces and 5 more episodes to go.

I think I have a thing for being possessed—no judgment.

Love stories

This halfway point episode is a bit of a mixed bag. Strong performances were a highlight, bringing extra life to welcome character development for both heroes and villains. But valiant attempts to expand upon franchise lore got weighed down in overly complicated exposition. And for an episode with a strong (and yes, often repeated) theme about choices, some of the directorial choices just didn’t work, potentially leaving some audience members confused or requiring a second viewing to follow the narrative. On the other hand, the episode carried on the season’s reflection on Discovery’s own lore and the evolution of its characters. David Ajala stands out as the episode MVP as he shows Book’s struggle to navigate the emotional complexities of his own choices and those of Moll while desperately trying to forge a new family connection. While some of the action scenes in this episode felt a bit perfunctory, the show is still getting better (for the most part) in finding moments for those character sidebars to talk about their emotional journeys and relationships. That was especially important in this episode, which took a closer look at how the events of the season are impacting some of the key romantic pairings of Book and Michael, Paul and Hugh, and Moll and L’ak.

Eve Harlow—and especially Elias Toufexis—stepped up to add layers and nuance to Moll and L’ak, with Discovery finally embracing how fleshing out adversaries and their motivations goes a long way towards making your plot hold together. The nicely drawn-out reflection of their love story with the rekindling one between Michael and Book adds another layer to the more obvious meaning behind the episode title “Mirrors.” Moll’s single-minded anger and L’ak’s desire for safety now all make sense, as does their unshakable bond. The episode also did a good job weaving in a handful of substories, including Rayner’s growing connection with the crew, with a nice sprinkling of Kellerun lore-building — adding some color to his character. Callum Keith Rennie continues to be a stand-out addition for the season, although Doug Jones is sorely missed, presumably not appearing in two episodes in a row for some scheduling reasons. Culber’s spiritual journey also gets just enough time, as it and these other substories all feel like they are heading somewhere without distracting or spinning their wheels, something that often weighed down mid-season Discovery episodes in past seasons.

Okay, let’s just agree we both have daddy issues.

Under the mask

The reveal that L’ak is a Breen was a surprise, but also nicely teased through the previous episodes. Fans of Deep Space Nine should relish finally getting some answers about this enigmatic race and finally having a first look under those helmets. “Mirrors” picked up on many elements from DS9, including the Breen language, refrigeration suits, neural truncheons, and the position of Thot , while adding lots to the lore, including some worldbuilding behind this new Breen Imperium and its “faction wars.”

Setting the Breen up as what appears to be the real big bads for the season involved a lot of data dump exposition here, surely keeping the editors of Memory Alpha busy for the next week. The notion that Breen have two forms with their signature suits and helmets allowing them to hold the more “evolved” form and face makes sense. If one were to get nitpicky, the Breen aren’t supposed to bleed, but perhaps that was a function of his suit; fill in your own headcanon. L’ak’s desire to hold the other, less evolved form making him a pariah in Breen society has echoes of allegorical episodes such as TNG’s “The Outcast.” That being said, the nuances are still not entirely clear, and fans who like the lore shouldn’t have to rewatch scenes to pick up the details. It feels like some details were cut, perhaps because this episode was already trying to cram in too much exposition with the Breen, Kelleruns (they boil cakes?), and the Mirror Universe.

Like the previous time travel adventure, this was a mid-season bottle show, this time using the conveniently located Strange New Worlds sets. Bringing back the ISS Enterprise was clever and fun, with the twist of how this time the Mirror Universe came to us. If you follow closely, “Mirrors” did a nice job of filling in some lore gaps and tying together the MU storylines from the first visit in “Mirror, Mirror” to follow-ups in Deep Space Nine , Enterprise , and Discovery . There is now a nice throughline from Emperor Georgiou saving Mirror Saru through to Mirror Spock, killed for the reforms he instituted after being inspired by Kirk. However, the redress of the Enterprise sets was not very inspired, with only a smattering of Terran wall sconces and some repainting, instead of demonstrating the brutality of the Empire with elements like agony booths. But what was even more missed was the promise of any character crossovers. There was a lot of talk about Mirror characters like Spock, Saru, Dr. Cho, and others, but we don’t get to see any, one of the many examples of how this episode broke the golden rule to show not tell. There were plenty of opportunities for a flashback or holo recording. Burnham longingly gazing at her brother’s science station is no substitute for Ethan Peck with a goatee.

We’re back!

Final thoughts

“Mirrors” is a decent episode, but it could have been much better with a few tweaks here and there. While not falling into the pointless plate-spinning trap of past mid-season Disco outings, it still dragged a bit for something so jam-packed with lore and revelations. Still, it provided a nice hour of entertainment, and possibly more with rewatches to catch up on the little details. The episode also continues the season’s welcome trend of weaving in the show’s own past, which makes it work better as a final season, even if they didn’t know that when they crafted it. Season 5 hits the halfway mark, and it’s still the best season yet, and hopefully the second half of the season will nail the landing.

Wait, we’re in this episode too? Anyone remember their lines?

Like the previous episode, “Mirrors” began with a warning for flashing images.
The episode is dedicated “to the loving memory of our friend Allan ‘Red’ Marceta ,” the lead set dresser who died in a motorcycle accident in 2022. Presumably the USS Discovery bar “Red’s” was named in his honor.
This is the first episode where Book’s personal log starts it off.
Stardate: 866280.9
Booker examined wanted notices for Moll from the Federation, Orion/Emerald Chain (who have a new logo), and the Andorian Empire.
Tilly was able to reveal the wormhole by compensating for the “Lorentzian Coefficient,” referencing the real Lorentz Factor used in special relativity equations.
A new ensign on the Discovery keeps a Cardassian vole as a pet.
The ISS Enterprise was built at Tartarus Base, possibly referencing Tartarus Prime , from the TOS novel The Rings of Time .
Moll refers to Breens as “bucketheads” (just as Reno did to Emerald Chain Regulators last episode). This could be a nod to the use of “ bucketheads ” in Star Wars as a derogatory term for stormtroopers.
Moll’s mother died on Callor V in a mine for Rubindium , a substance first mentioned in TOS “Patterns of Force.”
Linus can play the piano.
Breen Primarchs may be a nod to the genetically engineered Primarchs from Warhammer 40,000 .
How does Book know that Pike’s catchphrase is “Hit it”?
This is the third (of five) season 5 episodes in which Oyin Oladejo and Emily Coutts do not appear, but their characters, Detmer and Owosekun, are mentioned when they get the honor of escorting the ISS Enterprise back to Starfleet HQ.
Even though we didn’t see it warp away, presumably the missing intermix chamber was replaced, otherwise Owo and Detmer’s trip is going to take a very long time.
Tilly says her long day makes her feel like she has been through a Gormangander’s digestive tract.

Remember when Mudd hid inside a Gormagander? Gross.

More to come

Every Friday, the TrekMovie.com All Access Star Trek Podcast covers the latest news in the Star Trek Universe and discusses the latest episode. The podcast is available on Apple Podcasts , Spotify , Pocket Casts , Stitcher and is part of the TrekMovie Podcast Network.

The fifth and final season of Discovery debuted with two episodes on Thursday, April 4 exclusively on Paramount+ in the U.S., the UK, Switzerland, South Korea, Latin America, Germany, France, Italy, Australia, and Austria. Discovery will also premiere on April 4 on Paramount+ in Canada and will be broadcast on Bell Media’s CTV Sci-Fi Channel in Canada. The rest of the 10-episode final season will be available to stream weekly on Thursdays. Season 5 debuts on SkyShowtime in select European countries on April 5.

Keep up with news about the Star Trek Universe at TrekMovie.com .

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waste of ISS Enterprise

While I enjoyed the episode overall, the ISS Enterprise was a huge letdown and not even worth being an easter egg with what little they did with it. They should have just made it a generic constitution class ship from the mirror universe.

It felt like it was nothing more than a budget saver. Use existing sets from the other show. Which is weird because one of the arguments in favor of mini seasons is it allows more money to be spent.

That’s exactly what it felt like. Along with the missing, yet again, Detmer and Owosekun.

There must have been some deep budget cuts for the season.

Detmer and Owosekun were replaced by other characters so I don’t think they are missing for budget reasons. It’s more likely that the actresses were unavailable.

I get the budget issues considering what’s going on with the studio. But the end result was it showed that there isn’t much difference at all in the 900 years between the SNW Enterprise and the aesthetic of Star Trek Discovery. They both look as if they were set in the exact same era.

And there really shouldn’t be much. Discovery is from the same era, as the Enterprise. While the ship gets a technological upgrade, why would it get an interior design makeover?

Since it was deemed important (Stamets certainly makes since) that the crew stay on the Discovery, I would certainly think that psychologically having its design aesthetics stay similar to what it was would help give the crew a little bit of their past to hold on to, versus having all physical interactions be with a timeline that they aren’t native to.

Now where we should see it is in native places in this time. And we have seen some differences in design from standard Starfleet settings, versus Starfleet settings on this time (I actually wish we got more).

I did wish for a little more of self reflection from Burnham’s point of view as the ISS Enterprise should of course remind her of Spock (the Enterprise tie in), but also Georgiou (the ISS tie in). We get a small brief nod to Spock, but nothing to Georgiou (and while I still question the use of the character, there is no question that Burnham did have a connection with her, even if its primarily transference from her former Captain, not the mirror Universe Empress.

It’s not just the ship. It’s everything. Everything else looks like it matches the ship’s aesthetic. As if 900 year old retro is the current fad in design.

That’s always been my issue with Discovery.

To me that is part of the downfall of going so very far into the future. What aesthetic you make should be radically different. Not just shinier.

Agreed. The last two episodes just felt very budgeted and basically bottle episodes. And this just felt like a twofer, a way to use an existing set and add a little fan service but that’s all it was. I thought the Enterprise itself was going to be a viral part of not just the episode but the story overall.

Instead it was just a backdrop. And yeah it’s obvious they cut the budget for this season but all the live action shows have felt this way starting with Picard season 3 and SNW season 2. That all felt pretty bare a lot of the times. I guess this was all during Paramount+ belt tightening and probably not a shock why the show was cancelled.

And maybe the I.S.S. Enterprise should have been the refit or maybe the Phase II Enterprise? That would have been a lot of fun but combine a lack of vision with a reduced budget and this is what you get.

Looking back on “In a Mirror: Darkly”, season 4 of Enterprise was dealing with a reduced budget but managed to recreate sets from TOS, introduced a few new set pieces and did a lot of great effects work.

This was a missed opportunity.

Which was added by stretching that story over two episodes, so that they had the budget to recreate the sets they used. Having half the episode count, doesn’t really help avail yourself to planning out a two parter for a way to save costs.

If Picard could pull off recreating the bridge of the Enterprise D for three days of shooting with barely half the budget of Discovery season 5, they could have done something equally as fun for Discovery on the cheap without actually having to building anything new and using the Enterprise as a crutch. They could have come across Deep Space Station K-7, where the exterior would have been immediately familiar and with interiors served by redressed sets from virtually anything available from Discovery or SNW.

I thought Discovery is basically the PII Enterprise?

The Phase II Enterprise looks like a slickly modified version of the Enterprise from TOS, falling squarely between the Enterprise from TOS and the refit. The “Star Trek: Phase II” fan series did a great job bringing it to screen.

No, Discovery resembles the Enterprise concept for the Planet of the Titans movie.

I don’t get that. I never assumed that the Enterprise (or its mIrror Universe history) was going to feature in significant manner (certainly the producers and promotional department didn’t make a significant deal about it). Perhaps it’s the time difference. But I literally assumed it would be as significant as the Defiant going in and out of phase like TOS “Tholian Web” the time difference. And that was primarily set dressing. That’s not a bad thing. I mean Tholian Web is considered one of the better third season episodes.

And the only reason I assumed it was the Enterprise versus another Connie, is simple to give Burnham a moment to reflect on Spock. Now I do freely admit that I wish this was a slightly larger moment. But I never expected it to be anything but a small moment. Roughly my preconceived notion would be something like Spock’s Mind Meld scene with La’an in SNW where she is able to get a peak into Spock thinking about his sister and the emotion that comes with it. It’s a very brief scene, but I thought SNW did a good job in conveying the emotional aspect, especially from a half Vulcan/ Half Human.

Ok fair enough. This is probably more my hang up and to be fair since they never really promoted the the Enterprise being back then clearly they weren’t trying to make it that big of a deal.

But same time a lot of people do feel there could’ve been more done. The main problem is it just feels like a ridiculous stretch this ship itself is even there. It’s a ship from 900 years ago from a DIFFERENT UNIVERSE that conveniently happens to be the ship that gives them their next clue. I know it’s Star Trek so whatever lol. But when you go through the effort to present it I think it would’ve nice to build a bigger story around it. It could’ve just been any ship.

Exactly! The ship could have been any ship. The fact that with such an enormous universe(s) they would happen to find the next clue on a Mirror Universe ship and the ISS Enterprise no less–it’s such “Small Universe Syndrome”.

When you feel like the Mirror Universe has been nothing but a let down after the initial TOS episode, It’s really not a surprise. There’s really nowhere to go with it, but I did find that the fulfilling of the promise that Prime Kirk spoke to Mirror Spock about from the original TOS episode quite satisfying. The ship’s inhabitants embraced the benevolence of the prime universe, and I thought that was great.

I felt the idea that the MU people just easily adapted was pretty ridiculous. But then, they admitted SNW was an alternate timeline. It’s not a stretch that alternate extends to all the Secret Hideout productions.

I’m not sure I would feel the same about Picard given it depicts the Prime events of ST:2009. The others tho yeah I think of it that way too. Although The Chase does make that harder to swallow about DISCO

I liked the MU in DS9. It was fun to revisit and a great reminder of the Prime Directive. But… after that it got tiresome.

It was pretty benign there, but the problem with it, is finding it plausible. It was a fun idea in the 1960’s, and it had a good message. After that, it an indulgence. The notion that that the same people would even exist in the same fundamental places, and that the same ships would exist with virtually the same crew just seems like too much of a stretch even for modern Star Trek.

That’s my only complaint about this episode. Seeing the tantalus field show up would have been really cool. When Michael talked about how she was sure that Mirror Spock was a savage just like the other Terrans, I was sure that we would see a recording or something of Ethan Peck in a goatee to prove her wrong. Or flashbacks with Ethan Peck and Paul Wesley as their mirror counterparts would have also been cool.

All the stuff with the Breen and Mol and Lak was really cool though.

“ waste of ISS Enterprise” should be the official episode description.

waste of series

They ate Mirror Saru in season one…

Was that Saru or another Kelpian? It’s been a while since I watched Season 1, but I recall Mirror Saru saving Burnham from Tyler just as Voq’s personality re-emerged. I know Mirror Georgiou served Burnham some Kelpian, I just didn’t remember it being Mirror Saru.

Mirror Saru saved Michael from Tyler in The Wolf Inside, which was the episode that preceded the one in which they ate the food made from a Kelpien (Vaulting Ambition).

Looking at Memory Alpha now, it says that the chosen Kelpien ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVQSipQlJR8 ) was played by someone other than Doug Jones, but they look so much alike that I thought for sure she had chosen Mirror Saru.

As per Memory Alpha, we never saw him again after The Wolf Inside until season three, but that was in the alternate timeline Carl sent Georgiu to, so it wasn’t the same Mirror Saru.

Nope, that was another Kelpien.

“They ate Mirror Saru in season one…”

They didn’t.

Wasn’t Mirror Saru established as having survived in Season 3 (can’t remember the episode name).

A s per Memory Alpha, we never saw Mirror Saru again after The Wolf Inside until season three, but that was in the alternate timeline Carl sent Georgiu to, so it wasn’t the same Mirror Saru.

Loved this episode. I liked seeing the I.S.S Enterprise though i would of loved to of seen maybe a video log of Mirror Spock.

As a big fan of DS9 I’m glad we finally get to see what a breen looks like and the 32nd century breen outfits look great.

I enjoyed seeing Book/Burnham trying to get through to Moll/L’ak and i hope they can eventually get through to them. With this season about connections and 2nd chances i can see Book and Burnham talking both of them down before they do something that they can’t come back from.

The shot of the I.S.S Enterprise coming out of the ‘wormhole’ is probably one of my favorite CGI scene in all of Trek.

I’m glad they didn’t. I think the conceit of using the I.S.S. Enterprise was not much more than a budgetary decision to be able to use the sets. Could have made it a different constitution class, but then they don’t get to tell the story of the crew’s transformation into our society. Just don’t think about it too much.. because that universe is just pushing out its own doppelgängers into our universe.. which seems problematic. lol.

As a big fan of DS9 I’m glad we finally get to see what a breen looks like and the 32nd century breen outfits look great.

Any kind of big reveal was bound to be disappointing, I suppose. Still, the idea that they were just another latex alien was a letdown. I had always hoped that the Breen were gaseous or plasma creatures.

Ethan Peck with a goatee would have been EPIC

“This is the way.” 😉

But seriously that was a pretty good episode. I’d like to see a 31st century restored Terran empire that never went through “the burn.”

“ The reveal that L’ak is a Breen was a surprise ”

It really wasn’t, though. That was many viewers’ guess since the beginning of the season, and it’s been a common discussion on many websites. The surprise would have been if he HADN’T been a Breen.

I am on a lot of other sites and I haven’t heard anyone thinking he was Breen. And I don’t believe anyone voiced that in Trekmovie either.

LOL. It’s been a common theory.

Obviously not THAT common. LOL

I’ve seen the theory mentioned in the comments here on TrekMovie.

Yes, quite common from what I’ve been reading. I just commented on this very site a couple weeks back that I liked the idea, when somebody else theorized it (forget who it was)!

I guess it’s just where you go for these discussions but yeah the first YouTube review of episode one I saw theorized Lak was a Breen in the first scene he was in when he took off his helmet. And this was obviously before the species was mentioned on the show.

So yeah some people caught on the first episode the way others theorized Tyler was Voq the first time he showed up. Others needed more convincing.

I never saw it but I certainly don’t read the majority of comments. And almost never watch video reviews. Now Voq, was something I remember seeing in many places. Though in fairness, the amount of conjecture done about any Trek series for its Pilot and early couple episodes has been in my experience far more than what you see for most regular episodes. So that shouldn’t;t surprise me.

It was a surprise to me.

The Breen being so ordinary looking was a bit of a surprise.

Well, one of their forms are. It explains the frozen wasteland/tropical paradise. Their “evovled” form needs cryo suits, their “normal form” doesn’t

Was a surprise to me. Then again, I don’t run around the internet and over analyze the show.

This season started out so well. What happened? It’s falling apart.

I hate to a agree. But its once again a long slow burn (pardon the bun) that I fear is going to lead to another whimper of a conclusion. I feel like the season could have been a movie instead. Where is Chapel?!

Wrong show. Chapel is on SNW. The ending was rewritten and new scenes were shot to make it a series finale. They had already started shooting when they got the word that it was ending after season 5.

presumably on Her show, SNW?

“pardon the bun” …🍔⁉️

What’d that poor bun do for it to be in need of a pardon? 😋

This is what happens in every single season of Discovery. Two lovers who want to destroy the galaxy so they can get to paradise was the plot of season four, and now they are recycling the exact same plot for this season.

Did you watch the show. In no seasons has two lovers wanted to destroy the galaxy….Period. L’ak and Moll want to pay off their bounty. Nothing about what they are doing is about wanting to destroy the galaxy.

Outside of the destruction caused by the aliens referred to as 10-C, did any character want to destroy the galaxy let alone a couple. The only couple we had, was one person wanting peaceful means of communication to prevent destruction, while the other wanted to use force to ensure the destruction doesn’t occur. In no case does that equal people wanting to destroy a galaxy.

I can understand not liking the show, but to have such a misconstrued concept of the plot of the seasons shows a shocking lack of basic understanding of what the plot and motivations of the characters are.

I mean the show has plenty that one can find legitimate issues with. Thats not one of them.

They want to pay their bounty by giving a weapon of potential mass destruction to the Breen, thus destroying the galaxy, as seen in the time jumps last episode. They want to do that so they can escape to the Gamma Quadrant while the Breen take apart the Alpha Quadrant.

Last season the scientist wanted to let the 10-C species bulldoze the Alpha Quadrant so he could get across the galactic barrier to meet his lover in paradise, without caring what happened to trillions of other lives.

It is the same basic plot point. Your analysis is incorrect, Wood.

I think you’re overreacting a little. As always.

This episode was disappointing and fell flat. The return of the ISS Enterprise from the mirror universe was of no interest. I had hoped to possibility see a video log from Kirk, Spock, or another familiar character. Why not explore other Constitution Class Starships like the ISS Lexington, Hood, or Potemkin? Enterprise, Enterprise, Enterprise. (Sigh)

Maybe cause the enterprise is the trek ship pretty much everyone knows even if they are a new trek fan or a casual trek fan or not even a trek fan it is so engrained and intertwined with the name Star Trek that is why they chose to make it the iss enterprise instead of one of the others you mentioned

Because exploring a random ship isn’t the plot of the episode. It’s basically set dressing. Having it be the Enterprise versus a different Connie, gives it a tie to the lead character and part of her family she left behind. That it sorry wise. Another ship wouldn’t have any emotion aspect to the characters. Now production wise its to save a ton of money, as creating a random ship with multiple settings to take use of takes money (if your trying to give it the same level of production that you see for the primary ship). Now of course they could have just created a redress of an existing set to be random alien ship of the week. Those usually aren’t done to the same level of using the existing bridge set of another show. So it serves a small story purpose (ie a setting), it serves a small character purpose *reflection for Burnham, and it serves a production purpose (having high quality set pieces without having to build or do a serious redress and thus saving some money).

Seems rather obvious, to me.

I’m annoyed by what they seem to be doing with Owosekun and Detmer this season. I assume that the actors are absent because Paramount wanted to pay them less, and that’s poor treatment for characters who have been around since practically the beginning of the series.

“ I’m annoyed by what they seem to be doing with Owosekun and Detmer this season. ”

…as opposed to the previous four seasons, when all they did was sit in chairs and look meaningfully at each other?

Which is all Sulu and Chekov do in the average TOS episode. So yes, it’s aggravating for them to be replaced by other actors who are doing the same thing.

I doubt they are paid exorbitantly as recurring guests. It could be similar to what happened in season 4 and Bryce Ronnie Rowe Jr’s absences – he had another gig.

I have a theory that before it was decided that Disco would be cancelled, they were going to replace some of the characters. I think Owosekun and Detmer were going to be replaced, and also that Rayner would become captain and Burnham would go away to do something else. But then that didn’t work out, and so to us it just makes no sense why those two main characters are suddenly missing.

You might be right — I hadn’t considered that revamps due to cancellation might be involved.

Well… It is what it is . This was easily the worst episode of the 5. Tropes galore and really bad plot contrivances.

It feels like the reshoots for when they got the cancelation news are getting dropped in throughout the season. A lot of scenes appear grossly out of place. It feels like they just aren’t even trying anymore to be honest. As flawed as the show has been one thing that never came across among the other problems was a lack of trying.

I am loving the addition of Rayner and the professional Starfleet officer energy he is bringing to the ship. I also liked when he told Burnham the mission was too dangerous for the captain to go on. He is turning out to be a nice counterbalance to the unusual way Discovery has been run as a Starfleet ship after season 2.

I hope he doesn’t get killed off.

Sorry but this was another big fat ‘meh’ for me. This was very very disappointing. Nothing of consequence happened. We learn Mol and Lak backstory basically and it is cool we learn that Lak is a Breen which has been the leading theory since he showed up but it just felt sooo bare overall. Like another Discovery infamous spinning wheel episode where they do the bare minimum to move the plot along but just through a lot of action scenes and inconsequential dialogue to feel like we were getting any real development.

And the biggest elephant in the room (or dimensional wormhole) was the ISS Enterprise. Such a let down. It almost felt like a gimmick or just shoehorned fan service. There was no real reason it needed to be there other than HEY THE ENTERPRISE IS BACK!

Again one of the problems with this show, no real development just there for another connection. Think about what they did with In a Mirror Darkly on Enterprise. They brought in the Defiant as obvious fan service from TOS but the ship had a very vital part to the story. It helped changed the dynamics of the MU. It wasn’t there just for show like this was. And Anthony made a great point the redress felt like a joke. It just felt like an excuse to use the set but little else.

Here it was nothing more than just a backdrop and a really forced one at that. And the whole Saru thing just felt very contrived.

I did like all the Breen stuff though and hopefully they will be the big bad the rest of the season. I still think they should’ve used the Breen as the main villain for SNW instead of the Gorn but I digress.

But yeah this is probably the weakest one for me which is disappointing since last week is my favorite so far. I’m getting a little nervous now. It’s usually the second half of the season this show begins to falls apart but still open minded. Still enjoying it overall but please don’t end up a tedious bore like last season felt once it got to its mid season.

You have one last chance Discovery, make it count!

I never considered the Breen in SNW before, but that’s a cool idea. Yeah, I would’ve liked that much more than the Gorn.

For me it was literally the first Gorn episode I thought the Breen would’ve been a better idea. You get the same type of stories and it doesn’t feel like it’s breaking any canon like the Gorn obviously does. I ranted enough about it but nothing about their appearance on SNW feels remotely canon anymore.

But the Breen could’ve been a great substitute if they wanted a known species not named Klingons and zero canon issues.

Agreed. I always enjoyed the mysterious quality of the Breen. Seems ripe for exploration.

This season is largely working for me. Not as good as last week, but the chase is enjoyable. I have a little trouble buying that Mol and L’ak fell in love so fast. I would have liked to have seen that handled better.. but the slow burn of the plot works because of what they do to sustain individual episodes. Only episode I thought was kind of wasteful was the one on Trill.

That is a big part of the problem, yes. The characters have little chemistry.

The flashbacks took [place over an extended period of time, it wasnt THAT fast

They both felt like outcasts in their family/society, fusing them together like lightning. I had no problem with that as it gave me a Bonnie & Clyde-vibe which is historical.

It’s fine, but the romance piece just isn’t clicking for me.

Tarka was a similar situation last season with the reveal of his motivation not really moving me, but I’m also not the biggest fan of waiting several episodes to fill in a lot of backstory in a flashback. It’s not easy to pull off, and Discovery hasn’t really perfected it.

It’s a wonder I stuck with Lost as long as I did, now that I think about it.

“ it’s still the best season yet ”

Well, it was for the first two episodes, but the three since then have been a downward spiral. Seasons one and two were much better than this week’s episode and last week’s.

I’ve enjoyed it all except for the Trill episode. I think it’s been fun with a faster pace.. which has helped with a lot of issues that haven’t gone away. Raynor has been a very welcome addition to the cast.

Overall, very entertaining!

For complaints: any other constitution ship would be cool – but I also feel like we don’t know what happens next – there could be some Prime Mirror Universe people out there. & the “hit it!” joke felt like Dad was in the writer’s room.

Otherwise, I the pairings felt very TOS. Rayner is a little bit Serious Scotty when performing a captain’s role. And he took pride in rescuing her – which is feels good.

For me, this season has been 5/5.

Personal Log. Stardate: Today.

Week 4 of not-watching Discovery continues without incident. Opinions gleaned from critics on the latest episode seem to confirm that ‘mid-season malaise’ has been reached right on schedule.

Based on the collective opinion of 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.

these threads are for people to talk about the episodes they have seen. CLOSED.

Am I wrong or did the DS9 episode Through the Looking Glass make a reference to the Mirror Spock being on Romulus? Also given all the DS9 cross overs with the Mirror Universe you would think Burnham would have known something more about her brother’s counterpart.

Spock was not mentioned in Through the Looking Glass. We know between Crossover and the new dedication plaque of the ISS Enterprise that he reformed the Terran Empire and was killed for it. Burnham has clearly boned up on a lot of info since coming to this century, but easy to assume the future history of the mirror universe wasn’t part of that. Also, that info could have been lost or been classified.

Wow! The Breen. From CGI to burn victim.

Does anybody think the Commander Rainer is gonna become the Commandant of Starfleet Academy?

Everything involving Book is incredibly tedious. They brought back the ISS Enterprise as a way to resurrect the OG Enterprise in continuity. Perhaps it ends up as the Enterprise Q or whatever, if Saru is in command then ok. Burnham insisting on going on the away mission is diametrically opposed to how TNG dealt with this – e.g., when Riker as captain insisted on boarding the Borg cube in Best of Both Worlds, and his senior officers reminded him his place was on the bridge. I guess everyone got much dumber in the 32nd century, but “dumber” is Discovery’s whole concept.

This post missed an important Easter egg towards the end: Morn was at the bar “Red’s” just like he did on Quark’s on DS9.

We don’t call out or find every little egg, but when the bar was introduced last season we noted the Lurian (Morn’s species), who has been there ever since. We don’t usually do repeated easter egg bits for each episode

Yay! Good seeing the Breen again and their evolved design in the 32nd Century is great.

Boo! Pretty much everything else except Rayner who is the best character in the show.

Imagine they used the Star Trek: Tour set in Trekonderoga for the ISS Enterprise? What a cool surprise that would have been. But nope, we got the generic canon-breaking Discoprise. Not surprised.

I swear if they make the new Enterprise in the 3190s a refitted Constitution, I will facepalm. Just a stupid idea, when you have far superior tech and designs in the future time period. Please don’t, Disco-writers. Bad enough they did it with the Ent-G (one of my few criticisms of the great PIC S3).

here are 6 points for a reply to each of your issues with snw and dsc as a whole and this episode in particular

1.there is already a constitution class in the 32nd century it’s design was also used pre burn in the late 31st century so i dought they would refit iss enterprise like they did with the discovery plus they did say the ship was being taken to a federation storage facility

2.as for why they used the snw sets and cg assets well two reasons for one location/budget convenience as snw is shot in toronto at the same studio as dsc is and two they have said from the start they visually updated the 23rd century to fit visually better between ent era and tmp era mainly star trek 5/6

3.and there is nothing canon breaking about any of the new shows as they give explanations that tie back to enteprise and first contact since enterprise tied into that movie for the reasons of in unverse changes to the prime timeline universe and that is time travel to fix the past either on it’s own or part of the temporal cold war

4.and the temporal Cold War which later turned into the temporal wars is the reason the discovery was refited and givin the -A at the end of the registry is to hide the fact the ship and crew time traveled and broke the law agaisnt any form of time travel that was put into place after the temporal wars and a smaller part to protect starfleets butt

5.and if you have to don’t look at seasons 1 and 2 of dsc and snw as prequels to tos but as sequels to ent and then veiw ent as a sequal to first contact as i hear it makes it easier for some tos fans to enjoy these trek shows

6.or use the in universe reasons for the changes mentioned above in point 3 to be able to enjoy watching new trek shows mentioned above in point 5

Would it have been too much if Dr. Cho was instead Marlena Moreau? Just saying. Kind of like Dax in Jinaal… I feel like they are making all of these deep cuts, why not make them count a bit more to the overall lore, instead of just throwing the ISS Enterprise in with no good reason. Making these deep cuts actually count towards the overall lore might make the obvious (potential) budget cuts, set reuses, etc. be a bit more forgiving. Giving loved characters some finality that affect the course of this in our face galactic scale quest… might make it hit harder? Maybe I’m wrong, I’m sure someone here will think so lol

Overall the episode was okay. I do understand using the ISS Enterprise since this is supposed to be the final season of Discovery it was a nostalgia play and kind of wrap up the history of that ship in regards to the series. But overall it just seems kind of mashed together. Have to see how it ties in with the rest of the season.

I would say this episode along with the one before it were definitely the weakest of the season. They started out with a bang on the first few, and while I know that they tend to slow down in the middle of the season before ramping up the action for the final few, this episode dragged. There were also a few things with the Breen and the Enterprise that seemed a bit confusing:

– The Breen have 2 faces…great! Awesome twist to the species and fantastic to finally be able to see them after all the mystery around them in DS9. If the second face is supposed to be the more evolved one though, why do they need the masks and the suits? Can the more evolved face not breathe in a standard atmosphere? When L’ak and his uncle opened up their masks, they seemed fine, so there’s still quite a bit we don’t know about why they use that whole setup, especially when they’re around their own people

– Does the more evolved form extend past the face?

ISS Enterprise

– The stardate on the commemorative plaque is 32336.6. Popping that number into a couple of online stardate calculators puts that around mid-2355, which would be a few years before the prime universe Enterprise-D was commissioned in 2363. They mentioned that Dr. Cho came back to the Enterprise to hide the clue, so the assumption is that she also placed the plaque there at the same time. The timing doesn’t quite add up though because The Chase took place in 2369. Nobody would have known about The Progenitors or their technology before that, so they were at least 14 years off with the plaque

– If this Enterprise has been caught in extradimensional space since at least 2355, that means it’s been there for over 800 years by the time it’s discovered. How does it still have power?

– It’s been discussed by the Disco production team that the Discovery-era Enterprise was designed so that it could eventually be refit into the TOS Enterprise. The ISS Enterprise was contemporary with Kirk’s version and was seen on screen in TOS in that configuration. Why is the version in this episode the Discovery one? I know the real-world explanation is that it was easier to just re-use that model to align with the sets, but we saw a TOS-era Constitution class USS New Jersey at the Fleet Museum in Picard, so they had that model available to use. Just a bit sloppy

– How did Stamets immediately know that the ship exiting the wormhole was the ISS Enterprise and not a different prime Constitution class ship?

Photon Torpedo

– The solution to hold the wormhole open for the Enterprise to escape was to remove the payload from the torpedoes and replace them with antimatter. Photon torpedoes are matter/antimatter weapons, so this is a little confusing. Are they taking out the matter and just loading them with more antimatter?

I don’t know that it’s been there for 855 years.. not sure if it’s kind of like the Nexus or the black hole in Trek 09, where time does things differently. My guess is, that’s how the people on board were able to integrate into society. Their doppelgängers were long deceased.

Here’s the other thing… if the idea of revolution started with Mirror Spock, and the crew of the Enterprise more or less went along with him.. this is a way of explaining how they didn’t spread the idea to teh rest of the Empire.. they were lost in space and didn’t have much, if any, influence off of their own ship.

But they did spread the idea enough to weaken the empire to the point where it could be conquered.

Yeah I was wondering that also. It’s possible since it was extradimensional space that it didn’t put them in exactly the same time that they left. Also odd that they said Dr. Cho went BACK to the Enterprise to hide the clue. That’s a pretty risky trip unless the wormhole was more stable back in the 24th century.

It is strongly implied, if not explicitly stated, that the wormhole’s instability was caused by the Burn. So, it had to be more stable in the 24th century.

they never said that the ship would be refited into the tos version as they said those 60’s sets and ship model design would not look good or belivable as from our future with modern filming cameras they said from the start they visually updated the mid 23rd century to fit better visually between ent era designs and tmp era designs mainly using Star Trek 5/6 as the basis for the tmp era side of the designs

as for the new jersey that was just a pandering memberberry easter egg for the fans that hate the visual updates and even blass has said he objected to using the 60’s design for the ship and pointed out that it should have used the snw model for it and that it was all on terry who was more interested in filling episodes with those easter eggs and memberberries like all the stuff on daystrom station and for having data come back instead of having a brand new soong type android that was exactly as alton soong designed it to be a amalgamation of data lore lal and himself

I feel like I’m seeing the same episode over and over, what a waste this series is became.

Great episode! This season has really been fantastic so far. The writing has been consistent, the acting of the principals is fantastic, and the pacing has been great.

I really loved the scenes with Rayner in command. That worked so well!

Loved getting the backstory about Moll and L’ak – it really did add layers to their characters and their story. And the reveal that L’ak was a Breen! I never saw that coming! Was great to know more about the most underdeveloped and mysterious alien race in Trek history.

Seeing the ISS Entreprise was a treat! I am guessing it was lost quite some time after mirror Spock took over from mirror Kirk. Nice Easter Egg… better than having some unknown ship in there.

Looking forward to the remaining episodes.

Did anyone else see “Morn” (or one of his species) sitting at the bar in Red’s?

Yes, I did catch that. It was a fun detail.

Seriously, an episode doesn’t go by without at least one eye roll over the touchy feely huggy share my feeling vibe that is shoe-horned into worst places. I wonder what this series would be like if Bryan Fuller had stayed on…

It would had been .. a Star Trek show, not this happy sad feeling sharing at all costs every single time somebody speaks.

I have a question because I’m really confused:

So discovery originally was set less than a decade before ToS. (And then they ended up far in the future)

The ISS enterprise is a reference to the ToS episode about the mirror universe. So that means the ISS enterprise is a contemporary with ToS and the USS enterprise, which means Dr Cho (who was expressly stated to be Terran) was about back in Kirk’s day.

However the progenitor technology and science in general was only discovered in TNG under Picard and i think it was expressly stated that the scientists that hid this research were originally asked to research it after the discovery by Picard in the first place.

TNG is set in the 24th century but ToS is set in the 23rd century – theirs about a hundred years between them.

So I’m trying to understand the timeline here because at the moment, from what I understand, it’s a human from the 23rd century somehow became a scientist on a study in the late 24th century and then stole the research and helped hide it with her 4 pals.

No the iss enterprise entered that anomaly in the mid 24th century sometime after 2355 going by the stardate on that plaque and the ship got unstuck in time via the anomaly and the refugees and survivors of mirror Saru’s revolt ended up in the late 31st century prime verse timeline sometime prior to the burn happening and then doctor Cho who was one of those survivors returned later to the ship to hide the clue there before leaving again and never returning and wiping all references to the ship from records so that it would not easily be found

I thought for sure the Real Captain Lorca would be found in the transporters.

What a waste of an episode… filler and feelings…. Rinse and repeat

What an empty, disappointing episode. Discovery feels smaller and smaller every season.

First ‘Star Trek: Discovery’ Season 5 Trailer Reveals New Allies, Enemies and a Treasure Hunt

"Let's fly!"

"Let's fly," says Captain Michael Burnham in the new teaser trailer for Season 5 of Star Trek: Discovery , and boy does this first look have us soaring. Released today at the Star Trek Universe panel at New York Comic-Con the first footage from Discovery 's fifth season promises the wildest ride yet for Michael and her crew. Because Season 5 is currently filming in Toronto, Sonequa Martin-Green joined today's panel virtually to present the new teaser from her captain's chair, in attendance at the event were stars Anthony Rapp and Wilson Cruz as well as co-showrunners Alex Kurtzman and Michelle Paradise , along with executive producer Rod Roddenberry .

David Cronenberg 's sage Doctor Kovich poses a question to Michael at the start of the new footage: "The greatest treasure in the known galaxy is out there, what are you waiting for?" What follows is a minute-long thrill ride as the crew of the Discovery continues to explore the wild and often dangerous future that they've found themselves in. While the trailer doesn't give away much in terms of plot it is filled with equal parts explosions and intimate moments, from the continued romance between Saru and T'Rina to Michael zipping through a desert planet on a veritable space motorcycle.

The new trailer also introduces us to a few new key players in the upcoming season. Eagle-eyed sci-fi fans may have clocked Battlestar Galactica 's Callum Keith Rennie decked out in a Starfleet uniform in the new footage. Rennie joins the cast as a series regular in the role of Captain Rayner. He's described as someone who's more comfortable in the midst of war and fighting than he is during times of peace, "he doesn't do niceties" and "collaboration is not his strong suit." Despite his rough-around-the-edges demeanor, he seems to have an upright moral compass and the capacity to learn in the name of the greater good, "but it won't be easy."

RELATED: 'Star Trek: Discovery' Season 5 Video Goes Behind The Scenes for a Special Set Tour

Also revealed in the trailer are Moll and L'ak played by The 100 's Eve Harlow and Shadowhunters alum Elias Toufexis , respectively. The pair are both former couriers (like Book once was) turned outlaws. Moll is described as "highly intelligent and dangerous, with an impressive strategic mind and a sharp wit." While L'ak is described as being almost entirely dedicated to her, to the point that any threat against Moll makes him incredibly dangerous. The pair are set to go head-to-head against Michael and her crew as they come into conflict, presumably over the galaxy's proposed greatest treasure.

Overall the new teaser looks to offer what might be the most fun season of Discovery since the introduction of Captain Pike in Season 2. All of the signature high-paced action is still there, but there's a strong undercurrent of delight that had seemed to go dormant for a while as Season 4 centered around the intensity of grief and our deep need for empathy in times of such sorrow. Season 5 stars Martin-Green, Rapp, Cruz, Rennie, Harlow, Toufexis, and returning cast members Doug Jones , Mary Wiseman , David Ajala , and Blu del Barrio .

Season 5 of Discovery does not yet have a release date, but we can likely expect it to arrive sometime after Star Trek: Picard Season 3 which premieres on February 16, 2023. In the meantime, you can check out the first images of these new characters and watch the new teaser trailer down below.

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Star Trek: Discovery – Season 3 episode guide

Season 3, it can be argued, is where Star Trek: Discovery probably should have begun: After all, both Deep Space Nine and Voyager wasted little time to explore whoe new quadrants of the galaxy – in Voyager's case, about 20 minutes – so why take so long to get to treading truly new ground for the Star Trek franchise? On the other hand, without Discovery, why'd never have gotten Strange New Worlds nor the introduction of Captain/Emperor Philippa Georgiou and thus the upcoming Section 31…

Discovery season 3 is set an exciting 900 years beyond The Original Series in the wild 32 nd century. Sure, Star Trek has given us glimpses into the furthest temporal reaches of its universe before: The Enterprise-J was seen by Captain Archer in Enterprise season 3 , Voyager’s EMH benefitted from 29 th -century holographic emitter technology and Lower Decks showed us a historical perspective on a certain TNG/DS9 Starfleet member.

But not for decades (in real-time) has Star Trek presented us with such a fascinating array of new technologies, starships and the like: The programmable matter and personal transporters are as interesting to 20s audiences as were holodecks and badge communicators in the 80s. Beyond this, we get nearly a millennium’s worth of sociopolitical change, from Vulcans and Romulans living together to the return of rampant capitalism (and not the cute, vice-based sort favored by the Ferengi, either).

Best of all, in a bleak future with the Federation on its knees, the Discovery crew ultimately comes to represent the optimism of the past, in a meta sense that of The Original Series (as well as, to some extent, The Next Generation and Voyager), as a force for good in a galaxy gone mad. For the first time, a Discovery season has Trek fans wanting more of a new vision…

Star Trek: Discovery episode guide – Season 3

That Hope Is You, part 1 . Michael Burnham emerges from the season 2-concluding wormhole into the year 3188 (approximate stardate 864711), collides with a courier ship piloted by one Cleveland “Book” Booker, crash lands on an alien planet, gets dosed with some serious ecstasy-like truth-telling drugs, kciks butt in a number of firefights, helps save a member of an endangered interplanetary species and finally finds at least one representative of the Federation. Needless to say, this is perhaps the single most action-packed episode in all of ST lore. ****
Far From Home . The Discovery emerges from the season 2-concluding wormhole and lands in generally intact condition on the surface of a mostly uninhabited planet. The crew gets to work on repairing bodily injuries and damage to the ship while racing against the onslaught of parasitic ice which is slowly encasing the ship as the external temperature drops with night’s approach. Saru and Ensign Tilly venture out to a nearby mining settlement wherein they attempt to exchange dilithium for spare parts. Zareh, an exploitative courier, seeks to steal Discovery’s dilithium but Georgiou comes to the rescue, kicking ass and taking names. Burnham and Book show up to free Discovery from the gnarly ice. ****
People of Earth . Discovery’s precious dilithium is stashed aboard Book’s ship, which in turn is stasthed aboard Discovery. After picking up a signal from one Admiral Senna Tal from Earth, Discovery sets course for the familiar planet. Upon arrival, the crew learns that the now very paranoid and militant Earth is no longer home to Starfleet HQ and that Admiral Tal was a Trill whose implant survived in not exactly ideal circumstances within the Earthling Adira. ***
Forget Me Not . In an effort to communicate with and/or access the memories of the Tal symbiote, Discovery travels to the Trill homeworld. There, Adira is shunned by most but eventually wins over one “guardian” to assist in the process. ***
Die Trying . Tal’s memories get Discovery to the hidden Starfleet HQ. Starfleet Commander-in-Chief Adm. Charles Vance is quite skeptical about the crew’s story or abilities to function 900 years into their future. Saru and the Discovery crew earns trust when they help solve a blight by retrieving resources from a seed archive that only their ship’s spore drive can reach. ***
Scavengers . Discovery gets an upgrade to 32 nd -century technology but is nevertheless stuck in spacedock. Burnham, meanwhile, receives a 3-week-old message saying that he’d retrieved a black box from a Starfleet ship annihilated in The Burn. Burnham and Georgiou take Book’s ship to rescue him, much to Vance’s dismay. ***
Unification III . A titular and spiritual sequel to the TNG season 5 episodes guest-starring Spock (We even get a Nimoy sample from part II!) that also nicely ties in events key to Star Trek (2009) and Picard. This particular reunification may refer to either internal politics of the planet Ni’Var (née Vulcan), to whom Burnham et al appeal in hopes of solving the mystery of The Burn, or the possibility of Ni’Var rejoining the Federation. In either case, this episode has some great alien-cultural stuff as well as some courtroom drama. ****
The Sanctuary . Discovery travels to Book’s home planet of Kwejian, which is under biological attak perpetuated by the Emerald Chain, a capitalistic power headed up by Orions and Andorians. Under orders not to engage the Federation enemy, Discovery cannot help but interfere to save a civilization. ***
Terra Firma, part 1 . Georgiou is slowly being torn apart due to her travels across universes and through time. Discovery’s computer advises she travel to Dannus V, an apparently uninhabited planet, for assistance. Once on the surface, Michael and Georgiou have a Beckettesque experience with a guy named Carl, who entreats Georgiou to enter his freestanding doorway, which leads into her own familiar Mirror Universe. ***
Terra Firma, part 2 . As did Kirk back in the day and Burnham a couple seasons ago, Georgiou finds herself attempting to change the mindlessly bloodthirsty ways of the Terran Empire. She gets limited results, but does manage to escape with her life back into the Prime Universe and, soon thereafter, to a spacetime in which she can safely exist, i.e. the series Star Trek: Section 31…. ***
Su’Kal . Discovery finds a derelict Kelpian starship within a radioactive nebula which may also have been the original source of The Burn. Indeed, an entire planet is hidden within, housing the ship which is home to the titular character, a Kelpian whose entire education has been supplied by holograms. Book goes in for a rescue mission but Saru and Dr. Culber refuse to leave Su’Kal; Adira, who has stowed away on Book’s ship, joins them on the surface while Burnham is beamed aboard. Unfortunately, Book arrives back at Discovery just in time to see it disappear, now in command of Emerald Syndicate leader Osyraa and her new lackey Zareh. ***
There Is a Tide . Using Discovery as cover, Osyraa gains entrance to Federation HQ, where she … proposes a peace treaty to Vance. Meanwhile, the Discovery crew gets to work at overthrowing the pirate takeover of the ship. ****
That Hope Is You, part 2 . Silly title aside, this episode puts Discovery viewers at the edge of their seat from the go and keeps them there until the new captain takes over. The on-board crew manages to halt the Discovery while in warp and Burnahm takes out Osyraa. With Book’s emphatic assistance, Discovery returns to the nebula, where Saru, Culber and Adira manage to convince Su’Kal to overcome his fear and leave the ship he’s always called home. Saru returns to Kaminar, but the rest of the Discovery is tasked with the mission of reassembling the Federation through dilithium supply. And they get neat new uniforms, too…

Now, as the woman said, let’s fly!

Star Trek: Discovery Michael Burnham Role Led Sonequa Martin-Green Down "Quantum Mechanical Rabbit Holes"

Playing Captain Burnham required examining scientific "rabbit holes" for Sonequa Martin-Green.
Star Trek: Discovery season 5 premieres April 4 on Paramount+ with new enemies and allies.
Martin-Green praised the writers for making technical jargon easy to grasp in life or death situations.

Sonequa Martin-Green plays Captain Michael Burnham in Star Trek: Discovery , and playing the super-intelligent Burnham required Martin-Green to go down a lot of scientific "rabbit holes." Star Trek: Discovery season 5 premieres Thursday, April 4, on Paramount+. In Discovery 's final season, Captain Burnham leads the USS Discovery on an intergalactic treasure hunt while encountering new enemies Moll (Eve Harlow) and L'ak (Elias Toufexis) as well as a new Starfleet ally, Captain Rayner (Callum Keith Rennie), who is no fan of Burnham.

Star Trek: Discovery season 5's world premiere was held at SXSW with cast members Sonequa Martin-Green, Doug Jones, Wilson Cruz, David Ajala, Mary Wiseman, Blu del Barrio, and executive producers Alex Kurtzman and Michelle Paradise promoting the final season. At a panel following the premiere, Sonequa Martin-Green was asked by host Scott Mantz how she was able to memorize Captain Burnham's techno-babble. Read her response and watch the video of Star Trek: Discovery 's SXSW panel below:

Well, oh my goodness, there’s so many things I can say about that. Big ups to these two [Alex Kurtzman and Michelle Paradise] and the rest of our writers… We affectionately call it techno babble, science speak, and space talk. These are the three names we’ve given them. And it’s always life or death circumstances and stakes. But what I love about the way it’s written is that you can grab ahold of it really easily… Because it’s all that story, all that richness, all that life is the subtext… And I think all of us [actors] sort of do this, but I have to know at least a little bit of what I’m saying… And that did take me down into a lot of quantum mechanical rabbit holes and astrophysical rabbit holes. And then, 45 minutes later, I’m like, ‘I gotta get outta here!’

Star Trek: Discovery Season 5 - Everything We Know

Techno babble is a proud star trek tradition, sonequa martin-green and discovery are some of the best at star trek techno babble.

Techno babble is a staple of Star Trek , and the cast of Star Trek: Discovery excels at it. The USS Discovery was originally a science and research vessel staffed with a crew of geniuses at the tops of their respective fields. Michael Burnham is also a genius with a background as a xeno-anthropologist, but saving the galaxy repeatedly on Star Trek: Discovery required Burnham to exhibit a vast knowledge of quantum mechanics and astrophysics. Other Discovery characters who are brilliant at math and science are Commander Paul Stamets (Anthony Rapp) , Lt. Sylvia Tilly (Mary Wiseman), Dr. Hugh Culber (Wilson Cruz), and Commander Jett Reno (Tig Notaro).

Few Star Trek actors can deliver techno babble with the startling speed and clarity of Sonequa Martin-Green on Star Trek: Discovery.

Star Trek 's original master of techno babble was Mr. Spock (Leonard Nimoy) in Star Trek: The Original Series . Nimoy's successors as Spock, Ethan Peck in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds and Zachary Quinto in J.J. Abrams' Star Trek movies, live up to Nimoy's prowess. One of the best ever at techno babble is Brent Spiner as Data in Star Trek: The Next Generation , with LeVar Burton's Geordi La Forge close behind. Meanwhile, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine' s Terry Farrell struggled with techno babble as the brilliant Trill Jadzia Dax. However, few Star Trek actors can deliver techno babble with the startling speed and clarity of Sonequa Martin-Green on Star Trek: Discovery .

Source: SXSW

Star Trek: Discovery season 5 streams April 4 on Paramount+

Cast Blu del Barrio, Oded Fehr, Anthony Rapp, Sonequa Martin-Green, Doug Jones, Wilson Cruz, Eve Harlow, Mary Wiseman, Callum Keith Rennie

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Star Trek: Discovery Michael Burnham Role Led Sonequa Martin-Green Down "Quantum Mechanical Rabbit Holes"

'Star Trek: Discovery' season 5 episode 5 'Mirrors' is a quality installment, but weighed down by another anchor of nostalgia

This entire episode was more than likely written for the sole reason that the sets from "Strange New Worlds" could be utilized.

And this week's throwback to "Discovery"-past to add to the season-long epilogue is to the Mirror Universe

Warning: Spoilers ahead for "Star Trek: Discovery" season 5, episode 5

The chase across the galaxy for the Progenitors MacGuffin continues, offering chances to insert stand-alone, episode-length adventures along the way. And this week's installment, entitled "Mirrors" features a brief and very random reminder that the Mirror Universe exists.

And that alone would've made an genuinely enthralling episode, but...Alex Kurtzman et al could not resist the temptation for an utterly pointless and thoroughly unnecessary throwback to the USS Enterprise. Honestly, these people have a serious problem, they should seek help.

To put all of this into context, the crew of the USS Discovery continue their pursuit of Malinne 'Moll' Ravel (Eve Harlow) and L'ak (Elias Toufexis) and that chase leads them to er...well, you know, a giant, space-time swirly orifice that fills the viewscreen. Apparently, it's some sort of wormhole that's spectacularly unstable because of the constant matter/anti-matter reactions that are taking place at the opening. It's actually more than a little reminiscent of the inside of the V'ger spacecraft from "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" and that's just fine.

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a man with pointed ears in a red tunic looks confused at someone off-camera

But it's what they find inside that grinds gears. Since the Discovery is too big to squeeze through the constantly opening and closing orifice, Capt. Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) and Book (David Ajala) take a shuttle through only to find...the ISS Enterprise. Yes, indeed, last seen (and only seen, actually) in the epic "The Original Series" episode "Mirror, Mirror" (S02, E04).

While beaming back to the USS Enterprise during an ion storm, Kirk, McCoy, Scotty and Uhura materialize aboard a almost-identical Enterprise in a parallel universe. Here, the United Federation of Planets has been replaced by the Terran Empire and its inhabitants are violent and cruel. Their only hope is to artificially reproduce the effects of the storm to facilitate a return to their own universe. (" I mperial S pace S hip replaces the traditional " U nited S pace S hip.")

And while the idea of finding a derelict, 900-year-old starship from the latter half of the 23rd century is a great idea, in the name of the Great Prophet Zarquon, why-oh-why did it have to be the Enterprise? There are — at least — 10 other Constitution Class starships that could've been potentially chosen and thus still allowing the updated sets from "Strange New Worlds" to have been used.

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The USS Cayuga (NCC-1557), USS Constellation (NCC-1017), USS Defiant (NCC-1764), USS Excalibur (NCC-1664), USS Exeter (NCC-1672), USS Hood (NCC-1703), USS Intrepid (NCC-1631), USS Lexington (NCC-1709), USS New Jersey (NCC-1975) and the USS Potemkin (NCC-1657). And those are just the ones that are canon. Another new vessel could just as easily have been introduced as it's not unknown for Nu-Trek to bring brand new ships to the line.

And of course Burnham makes reference to the fact that her brother, Spock, served on this ship, which is probably another reason why the Enterprise was forced upon the writers. And according to some extremely rushed exposition, most of the crew escaped the weird wibblywobbly wormhole and went on to lead peaceful and productive lives — we assume somewhere not too far away given how long ago it happened and the current location in deep space — in a somewhat Space Seed scenario. Another interesting throwaway remark from Burnham was, "Crossing between universes has been impossible for centuries now," which shuts down that potential story avenue rather abruptly.

But let's also focus on why this episode could've been near-faultless if only someone could counsel Paramount showrunners on how to ween themselves off of nostalgia addiction. This week we get to see the whole Moll and L'ak backstory...and it's rather good and to add to that, Book and Moll confront the fact that they're distantly related. You know, because that makes things much more absurd orderly. (See how Burnham had to be related to Spock.)

two people in futuristic clothing sit aboard a brightly-colored spaceship interior

The pacing of this episode, and with the exception of using the Enterprise, when any other Constitution Class starship could've worked — and served to expand the Mirror Universe a little bit — this is an enjoyable episode. It's a shame though that this is following the same cookie cutter seasonal storyline template by relying very much on a quest to follow while having standalone episode-long adventures to fill in the gaps, but hey, it can't be much worse than last season. So, there's that.

The fifth and final season of "Star Trek: Discovery" and every other episode of every "Star Trek" show — with the exception of "Star Trek: Prodigy" — currently streams exclusively on Paramount Plus in the US, while "Prodigy" has found a new home on Netflix.

Internationally, the shows are available on Paramount Plus in Australia, Latin America, the UK and South Korea, as well as on Pluto TV in Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Switzerland on the Pluto TV Sci-Fi channel. They also stream on Paramount Plus in Italy, France, Germany, Switzerland and Austria. In Canada, they air on Bell Media's CTV Sci-Fi Channel and stream on Crave.

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When Scott's application to the NASA astronaut training program was turned down, he was naturally upset...as any 6-year-old boy would be. He chose instead to write as much as he possibly could about science, technology and space exploration. He graduated from The University of Coventry and received his training on Fleet Street in London. He still hopes to be the first journalist in space.

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Commander Rayner (Callum Keith Rennie) isn’t thrilled by this prospect, pointing out before she leaves that it’s too dangerous a mission for a captain to undertake. But Burnham disagrees that this is enough of a reason to stop her; it’s a nice reminder that this is a show and a character that originated in the time of James T. Kirk, a time when captains didn’t stay behind in the face of danger.

But it’s not only that, there’s something else going on. Burnham gives Rayner permission to be blunt, quoting a classic work on Rayner’s native Kellerun , The Ballad of Krull , asking him to “serve it without a crumb of ossekat .” (As far as made-up Star Trek idioms go, that’s a pretty good one.)

It’s also the beginning of a sudden and relentless onslaught of references to Rayner’s culture, but more on that later. What’s Rayner’s problem? He’s uncomfortable with the prospect of being left in command of a ship and crew that aren’t “his.” Welcome to being second in command, buddy.

Book and Burnham take off, heading into the wormhole and finding it to be an inhospitable place. They quickly drop out of communication range with Discovery , there’s ship debris everywhere, including the wreckage of Moll and L’ak’s ship…. and what’s that, the ISS Enterprise ?!

(A side note before we get too excited about that: what is the deal with all the empty space in the new shuttlecraft set, introduced in last season’s “All Is Possible”? The two pilot seats looked like they were crammed into the corner of a huge unfurnished room.)

Okay, Enterprise time. Burnham and Book rightly surmise that this is where Moll and L’ak must have escaped to and beam to the ship, which of course turns out to be a redress of the Strange New Worlds standing sets. A quick scan identifies that no one else is aboard — though the clue, which Moll and L’ak have found, does also have a lifesign, hmm — and that Moll and L’ak are holed up in sickbay. Burnham takes a few moments to ponder her visit to the Mirror Universe back in Season 1 and wonder what the alternate version of her half-brother Spock might have been like (bearded, for one).

And aside from some brief storytelling about Mirror Saru’s role as a rebel leader, that’s about it for the Terran Empire of it all. Star Trek: Discovery has spent plenty of time in and around the Mirror Universe already, and I personally don’t think they need to revisit it again. But introducing the ISS Enterprise — the ship that started it all with The Original Series ’ “Mirror, Mirror” — and then not doing anything momentous with it? Strange decision, and one that makes it ultimately feel more like this was a way for the show to get to reuse a set on the cheap than it does a materially significant addition to the episode.

In fact, in some ways it’s actually a detriment to the episode. If the action had been set on any other ship it would have been fine, but being on the ISS Enterprise I kept expecting something — like seeing Paul Wesley as Mirror Kirk slinking around, or finding Anson Mount camping it up as Mirror Pike in a personal log. If they’d set the action on a generic derelict ship, what we got wouldn’t have seemed like a let down. As it is though, I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop… and it simply never did.

Maybe in a subsequent episode, it’ll turn out that there’s an advantage in having an entire functional starship composed of atoms from another universe at Starfleet’s disposal — or to have a convenient collection of Constitution -class sets available for that Starfleet Academy show to borrow once in a while — but until that happens (if it even does) the use of the ISS Enterprise just seems like a name drop and a “We have to set the action somewhere , why not here?” instead of a significant use of the setting and the huge amount of lore and history that comes with it.

It’s like setting something aboard the Titanic without ever mentioning any icebergs.

As Burnham and Book make their way down to sickbay they do find evidence that the ship was being used in a way that seemed unusually gentle for a Terran Empire vessel: signs that children and families were aboard at one time, and that they were the kind of people sentimental enough to have keepsakes and favorite stuffed animals. But again, nothing about this seems like it needs the Mirror Universe connection. Ships of people trying to escape adversity are already a Star Trek staple.

Burnham and Book find Moll (Eve Harlow) and L’ak (Elias Toufexis) in sickbay, and after a valiant but ultimately unsuccessful attempt at getting them to surrender, everyone starts shooting. Moll and L’ak have a Breen blood bounty — an erigah — on their heads and surrender is simply not an option. During the firefight a lockdown is triggered, forcefields coming down that split the group into pairs: Burnham and L’ak stuck in sickbay, while Book and Moll able to go back to the bridge to try and reset sickbay.

Pairing off also gives Book the opportunity to continue his efforts to connect with Moll, and I have to say, I don’t think I’m a fan. Setting aside the portion of this that’s purely a strategic attempt to forge a connection with someone who is very to keen to kill him, my first reaction to the way Book talks to Moll about her father (and his mentor) was distaste.

I don’t think Book meant it this way, but the way he’s written in these scenes feels unpleasantly close to the “Well, he was a great guy to me , I never saw him do anything bad” response that’s sometimes made to accusations of misconduct. A person can be wonderful to some people in their life and terrible to others; both experiences are true for the people who received them, but they’re not mutually exclusive.

Book is preternaturally empathetic, and yet he doesn’t seem to see how continually assuring Moll that her father loved her is an act that’s both unwanted and actively painful for Moll to hear. I understand that Book is just trying to bring a sliver of comfort to Moll – but in the process he’s dismissing her own experiences of her father and his place in her life. Unless Moll asks him for this, it’s really none of Book’s business.

I suspect they’re setting up Moll’s character for a nice, cathartic arc where she comes to terms with her life, forgives her father, releases her past, whatever. And when that happens in real life that’s great — but it doesn’t always, and that’s okay too. If Moll never sees in her father the man Book saw in his mentor, it’s not a character failing. Discovery is really hammering home the theme of confronting one’s past in order to take control of one’s present and future, and I think it would be valuable if they included an example of a character learning to do the latter… without having to be okay with the former.

And to return to a question I posed in my review of “Under the Twin Moons,” I know Book is isolated and excruciatingly lonely after the destruction of Kweijan and his split with Michael, but the weight he’s placed on his relationship with Moll as “the closest thing he has to family” seems like he’s setting himself up for disappointment. Maybe I’m just a cynic, but this does not feel like a hopeful storyline to me. Not everyone wants to be family, and right now it doesn’t seem like Moll’s been given much of a choice in the matter — despite her frequent and very powerful explanations of why she’s not interested.

Clearly frustrated with Book’s topic of conversation and desperate to return to L’ak, Moll makes a reckless decision to brute-force a solution and overload some circuits. It works, and the forcefields in sickbay come down, but it also sends the Enterprise onto an unstoppable collision course with the too-small-to-pass-through and also going-to-be-closing-forever-soon wormhole. They’ve got eight minutes to figure this out.

Meanwhile aboard Discovery , we see Rayner’s struggles to interact with the crew. This thread could have gone so many different ways, Rayner seeming “too good” for a temporary command, him seeing this as his chance to do things “better” than Burnham or show how it’s “really done,” but instead the show takes the much more subtle and satisfying route: Rayner is deeply respectful of the captaincy, as a rank and a role, and really doesn’t want to step on Burnham’s authority.

He’s more than willing to disagree with her on command decisions , but he doesn’t question her command . And more personally, he doesn’t want his gruffness and lack of experience with this crew to cause problems. He’s trying, in his own Rayner way, and more importantly he’s succeeding — and, as we see as he shepherds the crew through figuring out how to communicate with and then rescue Book and Burnham, the crew does their part and meets him halfway.

Rayner is learning that he needs to tone down his temperament just enough that he doesn’t come across as an actual asshole to this crew, and the crew is learning that his gruffness isn’t a sign of disrespect but simply a desire to cut to the chase and get to direct, actionable information with a minimum of fluff. There are shades of Nimoy’s Spock or Voyager -era Seven of Nine here, but couched within a distinctly different temperament, and it’s fascinating to watch. I’d love to have seen him interacting with the crew of the Antares , where he presumably felt more comfortable.

The interpersonal stuff with Rayner and the crew is great; where Rayner’s thread feels distractingly like a box being checked is the explosion of “Rayner is a Kellerun!” being shouted from the bulkheads. I could practically hear the writers yelping out a panicked “Oh crap, we forgot to say what kind of alien Rayner is!”

Again, Discovery is back to its old self with the clunky, heavy-handed, and oddly paced character work. Rayner goes from having zero cultural touchstones to having about five in the span of the 15-20 minutes of screentime that his story gets this week. They’re good touchstones, don’t get me wrong — I’m skeptical of Kellerun citrus mash, I have to be honest, but I’d give it a try; not so sure about boiling a cake though — they’re just very present .

As with Rayner’s alienness, the frequent flashbacks throughout the episode to Moll and L’ak’s meeting and courtship feel like a “We forgot to explain this and now we’re trying to reference it!” correction. The content of the flashbacks is fine, there’s a lot of interesting Breen worldbuilding for a species that’s been mysterious from the start — and watching Moll and L’ak’s relationship grow from one of mutual convenience to one of true love is genuinely moving. But the way it’s woven into an episode that, again, feels like it’s composed of bits and pieces of storyline, makes it hard to shake the sense that I was watching a To Do list get checked off.

By the time the season is over it might be clear that there was simply no extra room to give a full episode over to Moll and L’ak’s meeting, or maybe an episode without any of the main cast wasn’t something they were willing or contractually able to do, but I would have loved if these flashbacks were pulled out and expanded into a full-length episode of their own. Some of the worldbuilding felt hasty to the point of hindering the emotional beats — at times I wondered if I’d forgotten a whole bunch of Breen lore and at others I was just trying to keep up with what was going on.

For example, my confusion about L’ak’s comment about having two faces, which Moll seemed to completely understand — “Duh, everyone knows the Breen have two faces” — was a distraction in the middle of an otherwise nice and significant moment. This is later clarified as the translucent face and the solid face, but again I was distracted from fully appreciating an interesting bit of Breen culture because I was busy applying what I’d just learned back to the previous scene.

The quickly (and maybe not totally clearly articulated notion) that Breen deliberately restrict themselves to their translucent form for reasons that are entirely to do with avoiding any perception of weakness is a potent if hasty bit of social commentary, and as I said I nearly didn’t catch it.

Whether holding the translucent form requires the armor for protection or the armor necessitates the translucent form — it seems like it would be more comfortable wearing that helmet all the time if you were the texture and consistency of lime jello — this is surely a metaphor for the increasingly rigid, isolating, and emotionally and sometimes physically unhealthy things men in certain circles feel they must do to be appropriately masculine. Seeing L’ak free himself from that rigidity is powerful.

With the forcefields in sickbay down, Burnham and L’ak immediately spring into action: Burnham trying to get the artifact from L’ak and L’ak simply trying to get away. They fight, and Burnham impressively proves she can hold her own against a Breen. When L’ak accidentally falls on his own blade, Burnham grabs the clue and speeds to the bridge where she manages to get a message to Rayner through some tractor beam trickery. The message? Another reference to that classic of Kellerun literature that gives Rayner the info he needs. Hey, did you know Rayner was a Kellerun?

The ISS Enterprise makes it through the wormhole, Moll and L’ak zip away in an escape pod, and it’s time to wrap things up. We head to Red’s for a quick but significant moment between Tilly (Mary Wiseman) and Culber (Wilson Cruz), as Tilly offers advice and an ear to a Culber who’s going through a quiet existential – maybe also spiritual? – crisis.

OBSERVATION LOUNGE

In addition to the dedication plaques on the bridge, the ISS Enterprise has an additional plaque in its transporter room — one which, despite recounting the heroism of rebel action hero Mirror Saru, still states “Long Live the Empire.”
The transporter room plaque is marked with “Stardate 32336.6,” which is about 9 years before the events of “Encounter at Farpoint.”
The plaque describes the fate of Mirror Spock, who was killed after instituting the reforms which later led to the fall of the Terran Empire (as described in DS9’s “Crossover”).

The full text of the ISS Enterprise transporter room plaque:

The new High Chancellor presented hope and justice as if they were natural to our world. His words, “The light of hope shines through even the darkest of nights” became our rallying cry. He spoke of reform, and changed many of us. But some saw this as weakness. They killed him, and we sought help from an unlikely ally: A Kelpien slave turned rebel leader. He spoke of visitors from another world… a near perfect mirror cast our darkness into light. With his aid we secured the Enterprise and stayed behind to continue his work. We bear scars from our escape, but our hope remains. May it carry us into a pristine, peaceful, and just future.

Not counting L’ak’s previous appearances this season, this episode marks the first time we have seen the Breen in live action since their involvement in the Dominion War in Deep Space Nine. (The species has appeared in Star Trek: Lower Decks three times.)
The 32nd century Breen wear updated encounter suits clearly based on the designs introduced in Deep Space Nine ; their digital speech is extremely faithful to the incomprehensible noises Breen soldiers have spoken in past appearances.
Given the fact that Moll appears to be just fine in the environment of the Breen ship, I guess Weyoun was right when he said the Breen homeworld was “quite comfortable” in “The Changing Face of Evil.”
When L’ak is stabbed he gently oozes some green goo — but as we learned in “In Purgatory’s Shadow,” Breen do not have traditional humanoid blood.

During his time in command of Discovery , Rayner never sits in the captain’s chair.
This episode closes with a dedication plaque that reads “In loving memory of our friend, Allan ‘Red’ Marceta”. Marceta was, I presume, the namesake for Discovery’s bar.
Someone aboard Discovery keeps a Cardassian vole as a pet. Going by Tilly’s reaction, and what we know from Deep Space Nine , this is not a good thing.
Linus (David Benjamin Tomlinson) plays a mean piano.
Owosekun and Detmer get the off-screen cherry assignment of flying the ISS Enterprise back to Federation Headquarters, alone. I’m thinking that’s going to inspire some fanfic…

We don’t learn what this week’s clue is, though we know there’s a blue vial tucked away inside it, but we do learn that the crew of the ISS Enterprise did indeed make it to our universe. The scientist responsible for hiding this particular clue there was one of them, a Dr. Cho, who eventually made it all the way to branch admiral.

They strove for something positive and succeeded against all odds. Hopefully Discovery will be able to do the same as they continue their pursuit of Moll, L’ak, and the Progenitors.

Star Trek: Discovery Season 5 returns with “Whistlespeak” on Thursday, May 2.

DSC Season 5
Star Trek: Discovery

Series / Star Trek: Discovery

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Star Trek: Discovery is the sixth live-action Star Trek television series, premiering on September 24th, 2017. It was co-created by Bryan Fuller and Alex Kurtzman , with creative contributions by Nicholas Meyer ; Kurtzman is the current co-showrunner with Michelle Paradise. Developed by CBS , Discovery airs in the United States on their streaming service Paramount+ , note Originally named CBS All-Access. as well as in Canada on Space Channel and CraveTV . In other territories, the show's first three seasons were also broadcast to the rest of the world (bar Mainland China) on Netflix ; the show exited Netflix in November 2021. It was previously announced that the series would not become available to international customers again until Paramount+ launched internationally in 2022, delaying the launch of season 4 in those regions. However, on November 24, 2021, in response to widespread fan outrage, Paramount announced that the program would release instead on November 26, 2021 in all markets in which the service is currently available. For those markets currently without the service, the episodes will instead premiere on the free ad-supported streaming service Pluto TV on the same timetable.

The show is set in the "prime timeline" of the Star Trek universe (as opposed to the Kelvin timeline ), about ten years before the five-year mission on the original Star Trek . It follows the voyages of the Federation starship USS Discovery , with its experimental new "spore drive" propulsion technology that enables instant teleportation. Unusually for a Star Trek show, the main characters do not mostly consist of the ship's senior staff with the captain as the main hero. The lead character is Science Officer Michael Burnham ( Sonequa Martin-Green ), a human raised by Vulcans. Other main characters include First Officer Saru ( Doug Jones ) of the previously-unseen Kelpien species; spore drive engineer Paul Stamets ( Anthony Rapp ); Ensign Newbie Sylvia Tilly (Mary Wiseman); Lt. Ash Tyler ( Shazad Latif ), a security officer; Dr. Hugh Culber ( Wilson Cruz ), a medical officer and Stamets' life partner; and Captain Gabriel Lorca ( Jason Isaacs ). Michelle Yeoh also appears as Michael's mentor, Captain Phillipa Georgiou of the USS Shenzhou . The second season sees the addition of Captain Christopher Pike ( Anson Mount ) to the main cast, and the third season introduces Cleveland "Book" Booker ( David Ajala ).

The first season, airing in 2017, concerns the Klingon Empire emerging from a century of isolationism to embark on a brutal crusade against the Federation, as well as a segue into the Mirror Universe . Notable recurring Klingon antagonists include T'Kuvma (Chris Obi), a charismatic visionary who wants to unite the 24 warring clans into one cohesive empire; L'Rell (Mary Chieffo), a Battle Deck Commander on his ship; and Voq (Javid Iqbal), a clanless and albino Klingon who serves him as "Sech qengwI'" (Torchbearer). Other recurring characters include Con Man Harry Mudd ( Rainn Wilson ), security chief Commander Landry ( Rekha Sharma ), Admiral Katrina Cornwell (Jayne Brook), and none other than Spock 's parents Sarek ( James Frain ) and Amanda ( Mia Kirshner ), the people who adopted Michael.
The second season, aired in 2019, moves on from the interstellar-war premise of the first as it involves Discovery investigating the mystery of seven strange red signals that have appeared across space and their link to a mysterious figure called the Red Angel. A younger Spock ( Ethan Peck ) becomes a recurring character, as does Pike's Number Two Number One ( Rebecca Romijn ); other new faces include engineer Jett Reno ( Tig Notaro ), security chief Nhan (Rachael Ancheril) and Section 31 operative Leland (Alan van Sprang).
The third season (2020) features a major status-quo shift as Discovery travels forward in time 930 years to the late 32nd century, a time when the Federation has diminished after a galaxy-wide disaster known as "the Burn" destroyed all dilithium, the Phlebotinum which makes warp drive possible. Burnham, Cleveland Booker and the crew of Discovery attempt to get to the bottom of the situation. New recurring characters include the amnesiac Adira Tal (Blu del Barrio), Trill initiate Gray (Ian Alexander), Head of Starfleet Adm. Charles Vance ( Oded Fehr ), historian Kovich ( David Cronenberg ), and Arc Villain Osyraa (Janet Kidder).
The fourth season (2021) features the spectre of an Earth-Shattering Kaboom as a Negative Space Wedgie , the "DMA" (Dark Matter Anomaly) sweeps through the galaxy, threatening to destroy all in its path while everyone tries to figure out what it is, where it came from and how to stop it. Opposing it is Federation President Laira Rillak (Chelah Horsdal) and Morally Ambiguous Doctorate Ruon Tarka ( Shawn Doyle ).
The fifth season (2024) will be the show's last. It sends Discovery on a quest for the greatest treasure of all time — which must not fall into the wrong hands.

The first season was released from September 2017 to February 2018, and the second season from January to April 2019. Additionally, four "Short Treks" — fifteen-minute-long episodes — were released leading up to the beginning of season 2. The third season was released from October 2020 to January 2021, and shortly after the third season premiere a fourth season was ordered, which premiered on November 18, 2021. In the lead-up to the third season, the first season began broadcasting on CBS in September 2020; it is unknown if later seasons will follow in making the jump to broadcast.

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Detmer can perform miracles at the helm.
Pike is an outstanding shuttle pilot. He cut his teeth as a test pilot.
Book is an outstanding pilot, at least of his own ship.
Achilles' Heel : The luckless people who are inhabited by Control's nanites in season 2 are Nigh-Invulnerable , except for one thing—the nanites are magnetic. This is exploited by Spock, who magnetizes a section of plating to immobilize an escaped swarm, and Georgiou, who locks Leland-Control in a chamber and watches with satisfaction as the force of the nanites being pulled to the floor rips his flesh apart .
Action Film, Quiet Drama Scene : The show has a habit for following scenes (or just including them in the same scenes) of the ship getting blown up while or after characters talking about their trauma and bonding.
Harry Mudd was changed from a mere con man to a stone-cold killer and traitor to the Federation. That said, Mudd did have an extensive criminal record shown in TOS, including smuggling and selling of stolen goods, so it's easy to imagine that his past contained more than fraud and scams.
Also Stella, Harry’s fiancée. In TOS, she was portrayed as a one-note harridan who was always nagging Harry about something. In “Discovery” she is much younger and more sympathetic, if a bit of a spoiled brat. As the real Stella never appeared in the flesh in TOS, this may simply be due to Harry being an Unreliable Narrator when it comes to her personality, and he may have decided to Accentuate the Negative to an absurd degree.
The Aesthetics of Technology : The show falls into a similar issue with Star Trek: Enterprise where modern special effects along with costume, sets and prop designs will innately look far more advanced than what was available in the 1960's. Unlike all previous shows Discovery made the leap to fully alter the design scheme of the TOS era itself , looking a little bit like the Alternate Timeline movies but set in the official timeline, including showing classic ships and recasting multiple characters. The depiction of the technology will feel more advanced than even the shows made in 1987-2005, but as time went on the show will hint that various technologies come and go depending on their versatility and viability (which is very true in real world tech adoption). The one most clearly stated was how in the first season they used casual holographic displays for communication, but in the second season it's stated the tech was unstable, uses too much bandwidth and Captain Pike disliked talking to ghost-like apparitions, showing the return to reliable viewscreen communication.
After the End : Season 3 is set in 3189, 150 years after an event known as "The Burn" inexplicably rendered nearly all Dilithium crystals across the galaxy inert (with catastrophically explosive consequences for any ship with an active dilithium-regulated antimatter reactor powerplant at that moment). Interstellar governments were devastated and fell apart not long after, and the galaxy has devolved into a Scavenger World .
An Alien Named "Bob" : One recurring character is a Saurian named Linus. Since his language is unpronounceable for humans, this would presumably apply to his real name.
Alien Non-Interference Clause : The Prime Directive (or "General Order 1") still applies as usual, however, its application is often much more nuanced than in previous Trek series—there are various clauses and exceptions, as well as loopholes which the characters exploit. The first episode has Georgiou and Burnham save a pre-warp society by rejuvenating an aquifer, which is permissible as long as they remain unseen. Saru, meanwhile, makes contact with Starfleet as an individual and is allowed to join, but at the cost of never contacting his pre-warp people.
Vulcan has a large gas giant hanging in its sky, a Call-Back to Star Trek: The Motion Picture .
Pahvo and Kaminar both appear to have large moons, orbiting far closer than would probably be realistic without tidal effects tearing the planets apart.
A.I. Is a Crapshoot : The Big Bad of season 2 is "Control,” which is an AI that assists Starfleet Command in predicting outcomes and decisionmaking. Although Cornwell says that it's only ever used as guidance.
Albinos Are Freaks : Voq, Son of None, is an albino Klingon who is treated as a freak of nature and shunned by the great houses.
The Alliance : The anti-Terran resistance in the mirror universe, which includes Klingons, Vulcans, Andorians, and Tellarites, among others. Burnham goes so far as to suggest that the rebels may be the closest thing this universe will ever have to The Federation .
An Aesop : Everyone deals with grief differently, as Stamets and Michael get told repeatedly in “Anomaly”.
The agonizers in the mirror universe are designed to prolong the suffering of their victims indefinitely. Lorca and his co-conspirators were sentenced to spend the rest of their lives in them for their coup attempt, and by the time he bails his crew out they've been in there for the better part of two years already. Oddly, their sanity doesn't seem to have been affected.
It's revealed in "Saints of Imperfection" that Hugh Culber spent at least nine months trapped in the mycelial network after the events of "Despite Yourself,” under constant attack from the jahSepp (who thought he was a monster out to kill them) and enduring hallucinations from his past life. By the time he's found and rescued by Discovery , he's sporting a Beard of Sorrow and suffering some serious Sanity Slippage .
In "Vaulting Ambition"/"What's Past is Prologue,” Class X-5 is imminent thanks to the I.S.S. Charon 's mycelial reactor, which is poisoning the network and could kill everything in The Multiverse if left unchecked .
A Federation colony, Kelfour VI, suffered a Class 3a courtesy of the Klingons during the Time Skip between "What's Past is Prologue" and "The War Without, The War Within.”
Class 6 nearly happens to Qo'noS in "Will You Take My Hand?", and it's revealed that Emperor Georgiou already did it in the Mirror Universe .
The Red Angel in Season 2 is trying to prevent a Class 6 across the entirety of our galaxy, apparently caused in the future by a fully conscious, malevolent A.I.
Season 3 sees the rare case of a Class 1 applied across an entire galaxy , as most interstellar powers have collapsed due to “the Burn”, a mysterious event that suddenly turned all dilithium into useless rocks, causing countless ships to explode and grinding interstellar travel to a near halt. Though the Discovery crew are able to find out what happened and prevent it from reoccurring, and galactic society begins to rebuild .
In season 4, Class X happens to Kwejian in S 4 E 01 “Kobayashi Maru”, courtesy of the massive gravitational waves from an unidentified Dark Matter Anomaly, which can change direction at any time and do the same to countless other inhabited worlds.
Promotional material built T'Kuvma up as the series' Big Bad and ultimate antagonist, but he is killed in the second episode, though in such a way that he becomes a martyr and his ideology lives on. In the end, it's General Kol who ends up winning the ensuring power struggle and becomes the first season's antagonist, while Voq and L'Rell end up playing second string with their own undefined plans. Meanwhile, the secondary 'Mirror Universe' arc has Gabriel Lorca as a Big Bad Wannabe using the ship as part of his own personal long con to go back home to the Mirror Universe , so he can continue his attempt to overthrow Emperor Phillipa Georgiou .
Control is revealed to be this in Season 2, as its future self is responsible for wiping out all sentient life in the galaxy, and is trying to evolve its past self into sentience by downloading all the knowledge the Sphere accumulated about artificial intelligence . Meanwhile, its present self went rogue and killed everyone at Section 31 headquarters, including the admirals in charge, then impersonated them and framed Spock for murder, before later preforming a Grand Theft Me on Captain Leland and hijacking their entire fleet of ships, all for the purpose of capturing Discovery . It's later revealed that its Evil Plan is to fulfill its original purpose of ensuring the survival of sapient life by becoming the only sapient life form in the galaxy reasoning that protecting all life is impossible, so long as other life exists .
Subverted in Season 3, whose Big Bad ( Osyraa, leader of the Emerald Chain ) is incidental to the setting. The primary conflict of the season is the Discovery crew getting acclimated to the After the End Used Future they find themselves in, and doing what they can to Set Right What Once Went Wrong . Like any post-apocalyptic setting, there's predators and pirates around, and one of them is certainly fought during the season finale, but that fight is resolved before the "Set Right What Once Went Wrong" bit, indicating its lesser importance.
The Discovery crew wear a brand-new uniform quite different from what previous media had established for this time period. These are described in-show as "new uniforms," which not all starships have yet adopted. (In the second season, the crew of the Enterprise wear uniforms based on the classic look, combining the bold primary colors with Discovery 's cowl collar and slightly-offset vertical zipper.) Additionally, the Discovery badges include rank pips in the 24th-century TNG style, bringing in a dash of Anachronism Stew .
The Klingons have a more drastic, inhuman look compared to their original designs which, given the time period the series takes place, are supposed to be their contemporaries.
And when the USS Enterprise shows up in the very final scene, it looks like the classic Constitution -class, but significantly enlarged, with a few design echoes of the movie refit; most obviously, the tapered and backswept nacelle pylons .
This is somewhat Truth in Television , depending on whether the ships are actually in a solar system or not - if you're in interstellar space, a couple of lightyears from the nearest star, then it's going to be as dark as a clear moonless night on Earth.
In "The Red Angel," Burnham is exposed to an atmosphere that clearly damages her skin. In an actual atmosphere like that, she’d need way more medical help. We’re talking Eye Scream and drowning in her own blood.
Phasers are generally treated with a degree of respect and kept off or on the stun setting when they're not being used in combat. However, on one occasion, Admiral Cornwell angrily shoots a bowl of fortune cookies with a phaser set to maximum kill in a briefing room at a table surrounded by other people; a situation that could very easily have resulted in accidentally vaporising someone .
There is also the Star Trek -specific example of standing on the transporter pads with weapons at the ready. While this means pointing their weapons at the transporter operator, it also means being able to quickly engage the enemy when they beam into the middle of their ship. Also, since the phasers are presumably set to stun, at worst they accidentally knock out the operator for a few minutes.
Ascended Extra : As the series starts out as a series-long Lower-Deck Episode , much of the bridge crew and senior staff are barely more than a Recurring Extra , particularly Detmer, Airiam and Owosekun. In the second season, starting with Airiam's episode where she dies , they start to become more developed and involved with the stories rather than being seat fillers.
The show begins with Burnham explaining things to the Captain that she would surely know this deep into the away-mission.
Saru also explains the backstory of his race to Burnham, which you'd think she'd know by now since they've both been serving on the same ship for seven years .
Author Appeal : Despite Bryan Fuller leaving before the start of production, Michael continues his trend of female characters with typically male names.
Awesome, but Impractical : The spore drive itself. It proves quite useful for Hit-and-Run Tactics throughout the Klingon War — and gets taken up to eleven when Discovery uses it for a Teleport Spam attack that takes down the Klingon flagship . That said, one of its major drawbacks is that it requires a sentient, organic navigator to function, and only two have been utilized — a giant tardigrade and an enhanced human, both of whom were pushed beyond the limits of their endurance and almost killed. In addition, it's discovered that improper use of the mycelial energy has deleterious effects on the entire network, which would not only render the spore drive useless but also bring destruction to the entire multiverse. It is therefore no surprise that once the Klingon War ends, Starfleet effectively decommissions the spore drive.
Awkward Poetry Reading : In "Forget Me Not", characters try to write haikus, but Hugh's doesn't scan ("Emperor Georgiou, feasting on the finest cuts, snarfs cookies on the down-low"), Tilly's is gross ("I puked upon the, Tellarite ambassador, once at Thanksgiving"), and Detmer is angry at Stamets, so she awkwardly tries to write one about his blood being hard to clean but can't get it to scan.
Invoked with Emperor Georgiou . Since the events of the Mirror Universe are classified, the Federation tells everyone else that she is actually Prime Georgiou to cover it up.
Hugh somehow wound up trapped in the spore network and was retrieved by Michael and Paul.
Gray's soul is placed into a synth body in Season 4.
Badass Bookworm : Physician and Psychologist Dr. Hugh Culber more than holds his own in hand-to-hand combat with Tyler, who is a Section 31 black ops badass and an accomplished Klingon warrior .
Baffled by Own Biology : Played for Drama regarding Kelpiens. They believe the vahar'ai (a biological process which starts with cold-like symptoms that escalate into full-body pains, then their ganglia fall out) will kill them or send them mad , but actually that was a lie spread by the Ba'ul. In reality, the vahar'ai just makes them more powerful. Saru also thought he had a cold when his vahar'ai first came on.
Captain Lorca pulls a very roundabout one on Michael Burnham. By this point, she's built up quite a negative reputation. So, when she's recruited in a sketchy way for a sketchy mission, she assumes pretty quickly that she was chosen because of her reputation and will jump at the chance to escape punishment. She specifically defies this, saying she wants to be punished, so he reveals that he picked her because of the real her and not the popular misconception of her, convincing her that above it all he does mean well. As it turns out, Lorca anticipated this outcome and set up the scenario so she would trust him, failing to realize he does have morally gray intentions which he intends for her to aid without realizing it ).
Burnham herself pulls one on Kol in "Into the Forest I Go,” exploiting the Klingon's love for theatrics by challenging him to a mek'leth duel, delaying him from leaving the Pahvo system while Discovery tries to crack his ship's cloaking frequencies .
Because Destiny Says So : Lorca very much believes in destiny, as he expresses to Burnham (who doesn't) in "Despite Yourself.” In part, this is because he considers it so miraculous that he escaped from certain death aboard the ISS Buran into a parallel universe . This is also why he refuses to harm Burnham: in his mind, the two are destined to take over the Terran Empire and rule it together .
Big Brother Is Watching : The "Watchful Eye" sentinel obilisks in Kelpian villages monitor the inhabitants and alert their Ba'ul masters whenever someone begins vahar'ai , in order to cull them. They are also failsafes in case of rebellion and able to destroy a village if their masters deem fit.
Bling of War : Starfleet uniforms, despite Starfleet not being a "military" organization, use this trope, with bronze, silver, or gold piping to denote Operations, Science, and Command specialties. The Mirror Universe Terran Empire takes this up to eleven, with captains wearing full-on gold vests with Shoulders of Doom .
Blue-and-Orange Morality : The Talosians, as usual. They do want to help, but their methods for doing so are still quite painful.
The first half-season starts and ends with a face-off between a Federation starship and the Sarcophagus . They even have the same helmswoman for the heroes' ship in both episodes. Where the first battle ends in a massive defeat for the Starfleet forces , the second battle ends with the one-sided defeat of the Klingons .
The first and last episodes of the first season have Burnham considering a mutiny while debating the practical value of Federation ideals. The first time she mutinies against Captain Georgiou to try and attack the Klingons, but is opposed by the crew, the latter time she threatens to mutiny against Admiral Cornwell when they are tasked with a mission that violates those ideals, and this time her crew supports her in order to save the Klingons. As a result, she is imprisoned and stripped of her commission in the pilot, and pardoned and reinstated in the season finale.
The third season both starts and ends with orphaned Starfleet officer Aditya Sahil. It also begins with "That Hope Is You, Part 1" and ends with Part 2, with the other 11 episodes of the season in between.
Discovery itself once it has been transported to the 32nd century. Although the ship is the same age as it was in 2258 there's many references to its technology being obsolete, and notably the crew's attitudes and faith in the ideals of the Federation are repeatedly called out as anachronistic.
Broad Strokes : This is the series' approach to visual continuity with other Star Trek series. It's largely a "visual reboot," but some things that are clearly established by earlier canon beyond visuals are also changed. For example, most Federation starships on the show are significantly larger than the original series Enterprise , and as noted in Art Evolution above, ships like the original Enterprise are scaled up when they do reappear.
YMMV but the relationship between Adira Tal and Gray is also this, given that Gray is dead by Adira's introducing in late season two, but all of the story of their relationship is when they both were alive. However, after Adira integrates with their symbiote and starts seeing Gray again, things are up in the air for fans of the romance. Crosses over with Death by Flashback . He got better .
The Bus Came Back : Nhan returns for an assignment in 4.09 "Rubicon", but vanishes after that mission is complete.
The Butcher : Mirror Burnham is known as "The Butcher of the Binary Stars" for murdering thousands of Klingons in cold blood.
The U.S.S. Shenzhou is armed with phase cannons, the precursor to phasers, emphasizing Captain Georgiou's comment that the ship is very old.
One of the Starfleet ships at the Battle of the Binary Stars is the U.S.S. Shran , named after the recurring Andorian commander.
The Constitution-class U.S.S. Defiant is mentioned in "Despite Yourself," and even drives the plot of the next few episodes as Discovery hopes to retrace its steps.
In "The War Without, the War Within," Admiral Cornwell specifically references the events of " Broken Bow " before Discovery begins her mission to Qo'noS .
This wasn't the first time Starfleet came face-to-face with a long-absent enemy, and a child of Sarek insisted that the only way to avert catastrophe was to open fire on them before it was too late.
In Season 2, Episode 3, "Point of Light," Discovery 's version of Section 31 is introduced, with specific attention given to their black Starfleet badges. These were already seen briefly in Season 1, Episode 3, "Context is for Kings,” when Landry leads Burnham and her fellow convicts to the mess hall.
In "Runaway,” Tilly notes that nobody has yet found or popularized any method for recrystallizing dilithium. Spock and Scotty end up doing just that in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home .
In "Calypso,” Discovery 's computer achieves sentience spontaneously over centuries alone, just like V'ger would later ( or earlier? ) do in Star Trek: The Motion Picture .
In "The Escape Artist,” Harry Mudd uses numerous android duplicates of himself. This recalls the many identical androids he encountered in "I, Mudd" in TOS .
In "Brother,” Captain Pike notes that Spock always advocated that logic was the beginning of the answer, not the end — the same lesson that Spock would try to explain to Valeris early on in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country .
Multiple characters will have Conflicting Loyalties between soldier and diplomat, or soldier and explorer, like Kirk and the others did in the original series.
More plainly, Mudd claims in “Choose Your Pain” that they haven’t seen the last of him, turning up “again” in Star Trek: The Original Series .
Cassandra Truth : Burnham keeps telling everyone that the Klingons cannot be reasoned with and will attack. Captain Georgiou and Admiral Anderson, the two people who need to believe her the most, do not. This has fatal consequences for the both of them, and eight thousand others.
The Cavalry : In the season 2 finale, the Control droneships look ready to wipe out Discovery and Enterprise . Then L'Rell's Klingon battleship decloaks in the middle of the Control fleet, accompanied by dozens of fighters led by Saru's sister, Siranna.
Catchphrase : T'Kuvma considers "We come in peace" to be the Federation's catchphrase. He also considers it a lie .
In "Such Sweet Sorrow," the Enterprise apparently has space for two hundred combat shuttles in her hanger deck.
Commander Contrarian : Burnham initially plays this role as the aggressive, hawkish Number Two to the more patient and calculating Captain Georgiou aboard the USS Shenzhou .
The Captain : Georgiou, Lorca, Saru, Pike
Number Two : Burnham (to Georgiou), Saru
Science Officer: Burnham, Tilly, Airiam
Mr. Fixit : Stamets, with Reno and Tal also filling the role in later seasons.
The Medic : Culber
Tactical Officer: Rhys
Security Officer: Tyler
Conditioned to Be Weak : This is revealed to have happened to the entire Kelpien race: originally, they were apex predators who nearly drove another race known as the Ba'ul to extinction only for the latter to turn the tide with their superior technology. Instead of wiping them out, they decided to make sure the Kelpiens could never challenge them again by instituting a belief system known as "The Great Balance" that decreed that the Kelpiens were a prey species for the Ba'ul. The same belief system claimed that the vahar'ai , a painful biological process all Kelpiens undergo was a mark of being chosen to be culled, and any Kelpien who refused would suffer horrible pain and madness. In reality, the vahar'ai causes the loss of the Kelpien's fear ganglia and gives them far greater offensive abilities, which was what allowed them to hunt the Ba'ul in the first place. After discovering the truth, Saru triggers vahar'ai in the entirety of the rest of his race, which allows them to fight back against the Ba'ul and in the distant future, the two races seem to have come to an understanding.
Continuity Porn : Season 2 is rife with it. Pike, and later Spock, are main characters and get as much screentime as Discovery's original main cast. They also travel to Talos IV and talk to Vina, Sarek and Amanda are heavy presences, and the original Enterprise is integral in the season's Final Battle .

Likewise the Terran flagship I.S.S. Charon , which is the size of a city and has an ornate superstructure containing what looks like a miniature sun that powers the entire vessel.
The U.S.S. Enterprise makes a cameo at the end of the first season, slightly modernized but still very much the same ship seen in Star Trek: The Original Series .
In Season Two the iconic Klingon D7 battlecruiser makes its debut.
In a subtle "show-not-tell" moment, Shenzhou's holographic communications are actually revealed to be extremely short ranged as well. The aforementioned novel places the Enterprise in a nearby orbit when Georgiou orders them used, and in the show proper it's briefly used when the admiral's ship is passing by at a range where Semaphore could be used just as easily. Between the novel's statement that holograms functionally eat up a ton of processor power and the implication that the range on them is ridiculously short, it's not hard to see why Starfleet opted to shelve the technology until it was less limited.
In Season 2, when informed that the holographic comms on Enterprise are causing issues with the other systems as the ship is being repaired, Pike orders them removed as unnecessary and states they'll just use normal viewscreens. He thinks it makes people look like ghosts, anyway.
The props, however, such as the phasers, tricorders, communicators, etc., seem very close to the original designs while still looking futuristic.
The Klingons in this series have some damn fancy uniforms. As do seemingly all officers of the Terran Empire .
Starfleet's uniforms are also rather ornate, in a subtle way: The metallic highlights on their uniforms are made up of many tiny Starfleet logos.
Cowardly Lion : Like all Kelpiens, Saru's first instinct is to run and hide whenever danger presents itself. But when forced into a fight, his Super-Strength and Super-Speed make him a deadly combatant. As of "An Obol for Charon,” he's lost the fear following his completion of vahar'ai .
Crossfield -class for American test pilot Albert Scott Crossfield;
Eisenberg -class for the American actor Aron Eisenberg; note Eisenberg is perhaps best well known for portraying Nog in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and the class was named in honor of him.
Engle -class for test pilot and astronaut Joe Engle;
Nimitz -class for US Navy Admiral Chester Nimitz;
Hoover -class for US Air Force pilot Bob Hoover;
Cardenas -class for US Air Force brigadier general Robert Cardenas;
Malachowski -class for US Air Force pilot Nicole Malachowski;
Shepard -class for NASA astronaut Alan Shepard;
Magee -class for Canadian pilot John Magee Jr;
Walker -class for NASA test pilot Joseph A. Walker.
Discovery follows the example set by the rebooted Star Trek movies in being more action-oriented, cynical, and violent than the previous TV shows in the franchise. More literally, even the lighting aboard Starfleet ships is darker than ever before (justified, at least for Discovery , by Captain Lorca's photosensitivity).
Apart from the aforementioned stronger focus on action, the show is also more explicit and gratuitous in its depiction of violence, including many instances of Cruel and Unusual Death – ranging from a literally "twisted" death via spore drive malfunction to someone getting ripped up by a rhino-sized tardigrade, execution via space vacuum and several forms of total disintegration.
Death by Flashback : In "Project Daedalus,” Lieutenant-Commander Airiam is given backstory for the first time when she reviews a memory of her husband. We learn they had a shuttle accident, killing the husband and requiring extensive cybernetic surgery on her part to survive, essentially converting her into a cyborg. Later in the episode, a rogue A.I. that controls Aririam's implants order her to kill Burnham, so she decides to sacrifice herself.
Season Three continues the theme, showing a Federation and Starfleet pushed to the point of desperation, irrelevancy, and nonexistence by "The Burn," which destroyed nearly all the dilithium (and warp-capable ships, including almost all of the Federation's) in the galaxy. At the start, Starfleet and the Federation are The Remnant that few even know still exists, and those who remember the Federation tend to remember it as ineffectual at best, duplicitous at worst. The crew of Discovery and the remnants of Starfleet are tasked with quite literally reconstructing the Federation, both as political entity and as an ideal to believe in and strive for, in-universe and, by extension, out of it.
Gabriel Lorca is a deconstruction of the post-9/11 Jack Bauer / Cowboy Cop archetype. When he is first introduced, he is very much framed as a hard-nosed badass who's willing to do whatever's necessary to save lives and protect the Federation from its enemies. It's only as the series develops that it becomes clear that, in fact, he's actually just a power-hungry fascist who cynically appeals to his officers' sense of duty and idealism in order to pursue his own ends.
Sarek is a deconstruction of The Stoic . While 99% of Vulcans fit this trope to some degree, there have been plenty of past examples (such as T'Pol and her family in Star Trek: Enterprise ) demonstrating that Vulcans are entirely capable of being loving and expressive towards each other in their own way. Sarek, however, had difficulty displaying that kind of healthy affection towards his children, and there are signs that Spock and Michael learned from his example. The debacle with the Vulcan Science Academy, which was caused primarily by Sarek making decisions for them and refusing to tell them , becomes the flashpoint of familial conflict for years to come.
This is the first Star Trek series in which The Captain is not The Protagonist . Instead, it's Cmdr. Michael Burnham, who starts off as Number Two . Meanwhile, the captains of the Shenzhou (Michelle Yeoh as Phillipa Georgiou) and Discovery (Jason Isaacs as Gabriel Lorca, Anson Mount as Christopher Pike, and Doug Jones as Saru) are all officially supprorting characters.
It's also subverted in that Burnham, despite the above, is absolutely central to the show's mythology; basically anything important that happens, must involve her somehow, even when the show has to jump through hoops to do it. (Perhaps the best example is Season 3's "Forget Me Not," when Burnham gets involved in someone else's Journey to the Center of the Mind .)
T'Kuvma winds up being a Decoy An tagonist, shot by Burnham moments after he killed Georgiou.
T'Kuvma engages in a lot of Fantastic Racism against the Federation and finds the idea of forging a common union of multiple species to be disgusting. He also strongly dislikes the idea they claim to come in peace and absorbing other nations through means other than combat. Part of this may also be him being Entertainingly Wrong as he believes their claims of being peaceful explorers are lies.
Sarek highlights the issue by pointing out the Klingons only would be willing to discuss peace with a race which has shown itself to be violent and ruthless like themselves.
The prologue spends time building up a few characters who don't make it to the series proper.
A variant occurs with Ash Tyler and Captain Lorca . Both of them get a decent amount of focus and Character Development , before each one gets a reveal that the character we thought we knew is technically dead , and much of that development was a lie or other cover.
Diplomatic Back Channel : President Rillak often invokes this trope. As the President of the United Federation of Planets, she has specific restraints on what she can and cannot do. More than once she has asked Michael Burnham and/or Saru to use their personal connections to massage diplomatic impasses that she cannot broach as the Federation President, particularly when dealing with Ni'Var (the combined governments of Romulus and Vulcan) and the United Earth, which had withdrawn from the Federation.
Disappointing Heritage Reveal : Ash Tyler learns to his horror that his memories and personality were grafted on to the Klingon Voq's surgically altered body so Voq could be a sleeper agent. The process doesn't work quite right. L'Rell purges Voq's personality from Tyler's body before the war being fought between the two personalites kills him, but leaves him with Voq's memories. Tyler has to spend a signifigant amount of time coming to terms with his newly combined human and Klingon heritage, which is complicated by the crimes Voq committed while disguised as Tyler (murder and attempted murder).
T'Kuvma is built up as the ultimate villain of the series, but Michael kills him at the end of the second episode.
Kol is the villain for the first half of season one, but is blown up along with his ship in episode nine.
Disintegrator Ray : While phasers set to kill often leave holes in people, Klingon and Terran weapons seem to make their target vanish.
The Klingons' movement is reminiscent of Middle-Eastern terror groups. Additionally, T'Kuvma's plan to unify barbaric warring aliens in order to overthrow the Federation resembles Fu Manchu's plan to unify The East in order to destroy The West.
The way they're portrayed is almost like the Klingon version of the The Fundamentalist . They're a splinter religious group that no one on the (supposedly diverse) High Council takes seriously, no matter what problems they have with each other, until T'Kuvma activates the ancient Beacon . After that, most are pissed because his is bound by faith and not by blood or marriage, and he basically calls himself the Klingon Messiah—but a few are intrigued.
The casual racism toward humans displayed by some Vulcans toward Burnham (and other humans) could have been lifted straight from the way black and other visible minority Americans were (and sometimes still are) treated by white authorities. Burnham being a black woman merely makes the point clearer. That being said, however, racism from Vulcans to humans is not something new—it was first brought up back in TOS in the way that Spock was teased for being half-human, and further examples were seen in ENT.
One way or another, Discovery's propulsion experiments will not be adopted by Starfleet, nor will the technology spread beyond the Federation (so far as we know). 200 years later, warp drive is still the standard.
Likewise, the Klingons won't destroy the Federation — the Federation is still around ten years later, in Kirk's time, so the crusade is doomed to failure.
Downer Beginning : The first four or so episodes of the first series are some of the most unrelievedly grim of all time in TV Trek . Even years later, some fans who gave up at that point still denounce the whole show as pointlessly grimdark just because of them.
When Discovery first meets Enterprise , her comms system is malfunctioning, and Pike can only communicate via Morse Code, or a series of beeps.
Once Pike comes aboard, he notes that Lorca's old ready room has nowhere to sit.
All of this leads up to Pike being given a vision of his future, showing exactly what will happen to him and why, if he sticks to his current path.
Duel to the Death : Burnham challenges Kol to a mek'leth duel in "Into The Forest I Go,” buying time for Discovery to figure out his cloaking frequencies. As soon as Discovery has what they need, Burnham beams out in the middle of the duel, leaving Kol to his death as Discovery pummels his now defenseless ship with a volley of torpedoes .
Dysfunction Junction : Lampshaded by deadpan snarkers Reno and Stamets: Commander Willa: Dysfunction aside, you all make a pretty good team. Reno: Dysfunction is the team. Stamets: We've just accepted it. Reno: No, we haven't.
In season one, Saru describes his home planet as a Death World with no food web: one is either predator or prey, and the Kelpiens are constantly being hunted by apex predators, hence their Super-Strength and Super-Speed . Season two retcons this into a fairly different situation: Kaminar is an idyllic world where the Kelpiens live in total harmony with their environment, but are ritualistically culled by the technologically-superior Ba'ul species when they begin a biological process called vahar'ai .
In the first season's " Choose Your Pain ,” an original Klingon design is described as being a "D7-class battle cruiser,” evidently meant to be a retcon of the classic TOS design. In season two's " Point of Light ,” however, the classic D7 is introduced as a brand new model of Klingon warship, with no mention whatsoever of the one seen in season one. ( According to source material , the ship from season one is actually a Sech -class, and was erroneously identified In-Universe as a D7.)
The Empire : The Klingon Empire, and especially the Terran Empire in the Mirror Universe .
Eldritch Starship : T'Kuvma's two-kilometer-long Ship of the Dead takes the classic Klingon starship and covers it in spikes, gold ornamentation, and a "black fleet" of coffins that give it an undeniably Gothic look. Klingon ships in general also look more organic in Discovery than in previous series, though by season two they're well on their way toward the classic D7 line.
Energy Beings : The Pahvans are glowy-blue particle clouds that manifest a planetary life force and live in symbiosis with the forests of their world. They lack spaceflight and don't seem to use any conventional technology.
Entertainingly Wrong : When Cornwell sees how much Lorca has changed from the man she's known for years (such as sleeping with a Pillow Pistol ), she assumes that he's suffering from PTSD after the destruction of the Buran . She has no way of knowing that he's been replaced by a doppelganger from the Mirror Universe that she doesn't even know exists. Sarek admits that everyone else drew the same false conclusion once the truth comes to light. Cornwell: The Lorca I came up with was measured, he was reasoned, but I couldn't have imagined— Sarek: That Lorca was an impostor from an alternate universe was not the most obvious conclusion. We were all deceived.
Et Tu, Brute? : Georgiou is crushed that her first officer who she thought was ready for her own command would try to mutiny against her. Burnham, in turn, is heartbroken when Ash turns out to be a Klingon Manchurian Agent and nearly murders her .
Evil Cannot Comprehend Good : This is what ultimately dooms Lorca. He dismisses his crew's loyalty to the Federation as "cult-like devotion" and doesn't seem to understand that to them, life is about more than clawing one's way to the top .
Evil Has a Bad Sense of Humor : Lorca, even before he's revealed to be a Terran infiltrator.
Evil Is Bigger : T'Kuvma's Sarcophagus and the Terran flagship, the I.S.S. Charon , are the biggest and baddest starships in the series so far.
Evolving Credits : The first season opening credits feature images related to the season's plot, like Klingon mek'leths, while the second season opening credits change to show the captain's chair of the Enterprise and the Vulcan IDIC symbol, among others. The credit sequence also evolves within each season, adding elements as the story arc progresses. The Season 4 opening shows Discovery's refit appearance after coming to the 32nd Century.
Expendable Alternate Universe : Defied in "The Wolf Inside.” Burnham flat-out refuses to wipe out the anti-Terran resistance to preserve her cover, as doing so would doom the mirror universe to indefinite Terran supremacy.
Face Death with Dignity : Emperor Georgiou opts to die fighting Lorca's troops after defeating his coup attempt, reasoning that her perceived vulnerability means she has no future in the Empire. Burnham ends up beaming her out instead, unable to let her die again.
Famous, Famous, Fictional : Lorca compares Stamets' work to that of the Wright Brothers, Elon Musk, and Zefram Cochrane .
Fan Disservice : L'Rell gives us the first bare female breasts in Star Trek history. That might not be a good thing, considering that she's ( it's believed ) basically raping Tyler at the time. Also, probably the only reason they got those bare breasts on screen is because they look nothing at all like bare human breasts.
Fashionable Asymmetry : Booker's ship from Season 3 has a "flying wing" design, but with one wing far shorter and thicker than the other.
Five-Token Band : As with Star Trek tradition, the cast consists of about 50 percent white actors and the rest of various minority groups. But it's rather notable how many of the supporting cast and background crew are minority actors playing humans, rather than being buried under alien make-up, with most of the aliens played by white actors.
Flock of Wolves : After the revelations of the rest of the first season, it turns out that Lorca's cell on L'Rell's ship in "Choose Your Pain" held exactly zero loyal Federation members. Mudd is an opportunist out for himself and has already been turned by the Klingons; Tyler is actually Voq in heavy disguise; and Lorca is a Mirror Universe Terran usurper. The only guy who might have been genuinely loyal would be the prisoner who was killed by the Klingons shortly after the episode's start.
Flying Saucer : A mainstay of human starship design in Star Trek , but in this era, most Starfleet ships fit into the "Saucer hull with engines and other superstructure attached" design reserved for their smaller ships (similar to Star Trek: Enterprise ), with only the largest and newest ships appearing to use the "saucer plus secondary hull with warp engines attached to secondary hull" design typical of shows taking place later in the timeline.
We knew Burnham wouldn't stay imprisoned for her mutiny, but would eventually be given a place on Discovery . The question was over who would have the muscle to pull those strings for her. It turns out that it was Captain Lorca apparently arranging her presence on his ship.
The new biological propulsion system won't have any wide-ranging effect on interstellar travel, given what we know about the state of warp drive for the next century or so in the Prime continuity.
The Federation and the Klingon Empire will eventually make peace and revert to a cold war, or else neither side would continue to exist ten years later . Likewise, nothing too drastic will happen to Earth or Qo'noS since both planets are seen in other series later on.
Deep Space Nine showed that ultimately, it doesn't really matter who is the Emperor or Empress in the Mirror Universe. As a result of the TOS episode "Mirror Mirror," Spock becomes Emperor, then the Empire is conquered by the Klingon-Cardassian Alliance.
The Short Treks episode "Calypso,” aired between the first and second seasons, shows that the U.S.S. Discovery survives the events of the series and eventually ends up abandoned somewhere within the galaxy a full millennium later; however, it doesn't reveal why or how the ship ended up in that state .
In the Short Trek "The Trouble with Edward,” the moment Edward mentions that the Tribbles have a low breeding rate but that he can modify them to change that, you know that he will, with dire consequences.
In "Lethe,” Vice Admiral Cornwell reminisces with Captain Lorca about a past event, and Lorca appears to not remember, only to say he's considering how long it has been since. It sets up the reveal that Lorca is actually his Mirror Universe self.
The reveal that Lorca sleeps with a phaser and responds with paranoia at being awakened is initially assumed by Cornwell to be a symptom of PTSD. It's actually due to the fact Lorca, being from the Mirror Universe , is necessarily paranoid and always has to be prepared to defend himself.
In "Context is for Kings,” Burnham quotes several lines from Alice in Wonderland while crawling through a maintenance shaft. Beyond the obvious reference (the book being important to Burnham, and her crawling down a proverbial rabbit-hole), the book also happens to have a sequel, Through the Looking-Glass . While this may not have been intentional, it foreshadows the coming trip to the Mirror Universe.
In "Si Vis Pacem Para Bellum,” after Stamets leaves the spore drive chamber, he looks at Tilly and dazedly calls her 'captain'. When USS Discovery finds its way to the Mirror Universe, it turns out that Tilly is the captain of the ISS Discovery .
Over the course of the first chapter, there is a recurring motif of mirrors and reflections. Lorca, Stamets and Burnham are involved particularly often, and all three are revealed to have some ties to the Mirror-Universe.
Throughout Season Three, Discovery ' s DOT-23s are repeatedly shown going about their business, usually in establishing shots doing hull maintainence or the like. In order to fix in the minds of the audience that they exist, and thus are a place the Sphere Data can hide in to prevent being deleted by the Orions and directly assist the crew in retaking the ship in the final two episodes of the season.
Forgotten Fallen Friend : Defied. Not only does Burnham take the deaths caused by the war seriously (since she believes the whole thing is totally her fault ), but one of the major deaths early in the season continues to be referenced on a regular basis. This sounds pretty normal for fiction, but is exceptional on Star Trek , which got pretty lazy about Red Shirts , and rarely had a lot of ripples from major Character Deaths such as Tasha Yar and Ziyal.
Forgotten Phlebotinum : The main source of conflict in Season Three is the Burn having destroyed most of the galaxy's dilithium (and through that, most warp-capable starships). But the Romulans use tame black holes to power their warp-capable ships , logically freeing them from reliance on dilithium note though they still mine it from planets like Remus, as established in Star Trek: Nemesis . This is never brought up, and indeed the unified Vulcan / Romulan government of Ni'Var seems to have been hit as hard by the Burn as everyone else, when they should have easily slipped into the role of the new galactic superpower. It's also mentioned that dilithium mines were drying up before the burn, and many projects to find alternate means of powering warp drives were sought, but the Romulan's singularity reactors are not mentioned. Also, Zefram Cochrane used a fission reactor to power the warp drive on the Phoenix in Star Trek: First Contact .
A Form You Are Comfortable With : Invoked when the spore explains why it took on May's appearance after landing in Tilly's brain.
From Bad to Worse : After Tarka destroys the first DMA Species 10-C sends a much more powerful version that destroys things about 1400% faster than the first one did.
FTL Test Blunder : The titular starship is equipped with a Displacement Activated Spore Hub drive that lets her instantly jump across the galaxy through a network of space mushrooms. Early tests, however, prove less than encouraging; one attempt to jump to a Federation dilithium mining planet almost crashes her into the photosphere of a star.
Fun with Acronyms : The full name of the Spore Drive is the Displacement-Activated Spore Hub Drive, or DASH Drive. That said, nobody calls it by that acronym, and Stamets uses the full name only once, when explaining it to Michael (and the audience.)
The Future Is Noir : Frequently used, especially around Captain Lorca, whose eye condition makes him sensitive to bright light. Exaggerated in the mirror universe.
Gambit Pile Up : In Season One, there's L'Rell and Voq's plan to have Voq infiltrate Discovery as Ash Tyler in order to gain prestige to use against Kol and further T'Kuvma's goal, which smashes against Kol manipulating things to remain on top when the war is over, which collides with Harry Mudd doing his own thing, which runs into Starfleet's plans of using Discovery as a secret weapon against the Klingons, all of which pile into Lorca's plan to return to the Mirror Universe and complete his coup against the Emperor .
L'Rell and Voq's plan hinges on a prisoner of war, who's suffered months of horrendous torture, being immediately assigned to one of Starfleet's most sensitive and trusted positions. Furthermore, he should gather information and/or influence without even being aware he's an enemy agent .
Lorca's plot — to return to the Charon and resume his coup — hinges on Burnham spending several days aboard the I.S.S. Shenzhou without picking up on the fact that Terrans are photosensitive, which (as seen in "Vaulting Ambition") would have immediately clued her in to the fact that he isn't who he claims to be .
Gender-Blender Name : Burnham is a woman named Michael, which is an homage to Bryan Fuller's tendency to use these. Lampshaded by Tilly in the third episode, who (not knowing the identity of her new roommate) jokes, "The only female named Michael I've heard of is Michael Burnham, the mutineer. You're not her, are you?"
Genghis Gambit : The premise of the show is T'Kuvma attempting to unite the 24 Great Houses of the Klingon Empire by getting them into a war with the Federation. He effectively does this by Shaming the Mob and showing he's willing to take on the Federation by himself. The fact he shows he's capable of taking the Federation on by himself and stalemating them shows they're not undefeatable either. Then T'Kuvma is martyred by being shot in the back by a Federation officer too.
Ghostly Death Reveal : In "Vaulting Ambition", Stamets encounters his husband, Dr. Culber, while trapped in the mycelial network, and Culber reveals that he was killed in the real world (as seen in the previous episode) and that his spirit now resides within the network. After a tearful goodbye, Stamets escapes the network and returns to the normal universe. Luckily, in season 2 they're able to find a way to resurrect Culber .
The U.S.S. Glenn , in "Context is for Kings.” For extra creepiness, it's Discovery 's sister ship and has the same internal layout.
The derelict U.S.S. Shenzhou is boarded and pillaged by the Klingons in episode four.
Gone Horribly Right : "The Trouble with Edward" reveals that Tribbles were originally had a very low breeding rate, but Edward Larkin, seeking to turn the Tribbles into a food source, used his own DNA to alter them, turning them into the Explosive Breeders that they were in the original series. The Tribbles breed so fast that they manage to destroy the U.S.S. Cabot through their sheer mass, kill Edward by accidentally burying him alive, escape to an inhabited world, forcing the inhabitants to flee to avoid ecological devastation, and become the bane of the Klingons for decades to come.
Grievous Harm with a Body : In a literal sense; in the aftermath of the Battle at the Binary Stars, Georgiou, Burnham and Saru use a photon torpedo warhead attached to the corpse of a dead Klingon being retrieved for burial to inflict severe damage to T'Kuvma's flagship. It gives them an opportunity for Georgiou and Burnham to beam aboard the Klingons' vessel and attempt to capture T'Kuvma during the chaos. This ends badly; T'Kuvma kills Georgiou and is immediately shot to death by Burnham, making T'Kuvma a martyr for the rest of the Klingon Empire.
"Groundhog Day" Loop : Episode seven, "Magic To Make The Sanest Man Go Mad,” involves a time loop instigated by Harry Mudd as he tries to take control of Discovery .
Hesitant Sacrifice : Even though it was her idea, and she does go through with it, Burnham admits she's terrified prior to suffocating herself in Essof IV's toxic atmosphere to lure the Red Angel in season 2.
In real life, the Geneva Conventions actually don't outlaw bioweapons; those are covered by a different set of treaties (the 1925 Geneva Protocol prohibits their use but not their creation, while the 1972 Biological Weapons Convention outlaws them altogether). However, in addition to citing the 1949 Fourth Geneva Convention as above, Burnham also cites a fictional 22nd-century version of the Conventions under which these are covered.
Hologram Projection Imperfection : Holographs flicker.
Humans Are Cthulhu : The aliens that live in the mycelial network think Federation species are impossibly bizarre and dangerous. It takes a lot of work on both sides to establish peaceful contact.
Hyperspace Is a Scary Place : The series adds "the Mycelial Network," which is essentially hyperspace accessed via the spores of a fungus that bridges the gap between our reality and the Network. Discovery ' s Spore Drive allows it to travel the Network, basically teleporting anywhere in the universe nearly instantaneously, though this requires prototaxites stellaviatori spores as fuel and a navigator who can intuit the Network. But a giant metal spaceship popping in and out of two different dimensions wreaks havoc on at least one of those dimensions. It's not explained particularly well in the series itself, but Discovery ' s core premise is basically "what if hyperspace was a gigantic fungal ecosystem?"
Hyperspeed Ambush : Discovery 's unique spore drive allows it to drop right on top of Klingon forces without warning, making for in-universe Paranoia Fuel for the entire Empire. This is deconstructed as well, since as Captain Lorca points out, if they are not ready to take down the Klingons immediately upon pulling this tactic, they run the risk of being rapidly overwhelmed since no other Starfleet ship has this ability note since the USS Glenn is destroyed early on and the class ship, the USS Crossfield , has not been seen or mentioned yet , and thus they will never have any backup.
I Ate WHAT?! : Osyraa is properly revolted when she finds out that the replicators break down human waste at the atomic level and then assemble it into food.
Ignorance Is Bliss : Sarek admits in his own Vulcan way that ignorance can be beneficial in “Lethe”.
Impaled with Extreme Prejudice : Lorca, courtesy of Emperor Georgiou. Then he's Thrown Out the Airlock right into the Charon 's mycelial reactor for good measure .
Inconsistent Episode Lengths : The episodes can last anywhere between 40 minutes and an hour.
Incredibly Obvious Bug : The devices that Burnham and Tyler wear in the middle of their chests to mask their life signes while sneaking onto the Klingons' Ship of the Dead in "Into the Forest I Go" helpfully glow brightly. The sensors they have to set up are the size of footballs, also glow brightly, beep loudly, and emit verbal pronouncements that they are actively functioning. One of those beacons Burnham sets up is on the Klingon bridge, right in front of a manned control console . Fortunately for the Discovery crew, and for all of the Federation, an entire massive ship full of Klingons collectively Failed a Spot Check .
Inscrutable Aliens : In Season 4, a strange anomaly travels through the galaxy destroying everything in its path, including inhabited planets. Eventually it is discovered that the anomaly was on a mission to scoop up boronite, and was created by an alien race that lives outside the galaxy. The Discovery is sent to negotiate with the aliens, who they label as species 10-C, and ask them to stop their anomaly. The aliens prove to be so unlike anything that had been encountered earlier, the universal translator doesn't work, and the team sent to negotiate with them has a very hard time establishing even basic communication.
In Spite of a Nail : In both the prime and mirror universes, Georgiou was betrayed by Burnham and Captain Lorca commanded (and lost) a starship called the Buran . Lorca himself lampshades this in "Despite Yourself,” musing that perhaps it's proof destiny exists.
Internal Homage : Fittingly given the name, “Kobayashi Maru” gives a nod to what Kirk had to learn in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan , that operating from a personal need to save everyone because you’ve suffered loss and trauma in formative years, will break you eventually.
Ironic Echo : Saru, to L'Rell, in episode 12: That...is war.
Interquel : The series begins in 2256, ten years before TOS and a full century after Star Trek: Enterprise .
Played with with regards to Voq , who was surgically altered to become Ash Tyler sometime between the events of The Butcher's Knife Cares Not for the Lamb's Cry and the appearance of his alter ego in Choose Your Pain , but since his body was technically still alive, his identity had effectively been dismantled after his deep cover identity - a copy of an actual Starfleet officer's consciousness - proved to be too strong to discard and the resulting conflict threatened to kill them both in Vaulting Ambition , until his remaining Klingon memories of Voq were permanently wiped out by his former ally and lover, L'Rell, once and for all.
Subverted with Mirror!Philippa Georgiou in Terra Firma, Part Two , as her death was faked for the Federation's benefit since the crew had to illegally break the Temporal Accords by allowing her to travel back into the past so that she could finally survive the life threatening condition that was slowly (and painfully) killing her .
Klingon Promotion : Turns out this is an amazing way to get respect in the Terran Empire. Burnham has to fight the captain of the I.S.S. Shenzhou , killing him in self-defense, and the crew applauds her for her victory, hailing her as the returned captain.
Knight in Sour Armor : Captain Lorca knows the universe doesn't share the lofty ideals of The Federation , and is determined to do whatever it takes to protect them. Subverted when it turns out that he really doesn't give a damn about the Federation, and that he's just using Discovery to get back home to the mirror universe .
Legacy Character : Cleveland Book reveals that his psudeonym is passed down from mentor to student. He is the fifth person to hold the name.
Lens Flare : This effect is noticable in several interior scenes.
At the end of the second season it's decided that, to protect the sphere data, no-one will ever mention Discovery , spore drives, or winged time-travel suits ever again. And, to judge from the shows this is a prequel to, they don't.
The discovery of the Mirror Universe is highly classified. Which is why Kirk's crew would believe they were the first to happen upon it.
Love Dodecahedron : Played out between three cultures and four people of whom two essentially share one body , this one has all the makings of a Vulcan-Klingon Tragedy. Essentially, Ash Tyler, who is a construct of the original Human Ash Tyler's personality and the Klingon spy Voq's memories and his surgically modified, Human-appearing body, loves Michael Burnham, who is a Human raised by Vulcan Sarek and his human wife Amanda; but he also cares about L'Rell, who was in love with and loved by Voq, and is also responsible for his transformation. To make matters even more complicated, the current Ash has fake memories of having been L'Rell's prisoner and victim of her sexual advances, which make it impossible for him to reciprocate her feelings, despite Voq's underlying attraction. He also tries to give Michael space, who felt unable to continue their relationship after Voq attacked her; while Michael seems to be holding back to not disturb his arrangement with L'Rell, and L'Rell is jealous because Ash confides in Michael.
Lower-Deck Episode : Played with significantly. Star Trek typically placed The Captain front and center with a variety of senior staff and/or civilian representatives. The focus in this series is instead on the busted-down Burnham who stands mostly as a scientific adviser with Lt. Stamets and Cadet Tilly and has little command authority. Stamets is ambiguously the chief engineer, while Dr. Culber takes on all of the plot relevant medical cases despite not actually being the Chief Medical Officer. Captain Lorca is certainly a prominent and important character along with Saru as Number Two , but other command staff are left vague. Other bridge officers like Keyla Detmer, Airiam and Rhys appear frequently but rarely have any lines. It should be said that regardless of their qualifications, The Main Characters Do Everything still.
Due to her actions on the Shenzhou , Burnham understandably foregoes the approximations relating to the war's death toll in "Context is for Kings.” It also serves as a callback (though, chronologically, a call forward ) to Spock's numerical precision. Prisoner: My cousin was on the Europa when it went down. She and eight thousand others are dead because of you. Burnham: Eight thousand, one hundred and eighty-six.
Also Played for Laughs in the prologue: Burnham calculates, down to the second, how much time they have before a nearby storm overtakes them. Then it turns out she was off by a pretty significant factor when the storm is suddenly bearing down on them.
The Shenzhou beams a raiding party onto a Klingon vessel that consists solely of Captain Georgiou and First Officer Burnham. They're rather quickly overwhelmed, and Georgiou gets killed .
In "Context is for Kings,” the away team sent to the USS Glenn consists of four main characters and a Red Shirt , but all four are justified in their presence on the mission. Burnham, Stamets, and Tilly are all scientists, the latter two specifically experts in the accident they're been sent to investigate while Burnham works in the same field and is a quick study, and Landry is Chief of Security and naturally brought along the Red Shirt because he's part of her security staff. And as Burnham deduced, the away team mission is also a secret test by Captain Lorca.
However, in a bit of an inversion from the Star Trek norm, Lorca himself is very rarely shown taking part in away missions, reflecting the original remit of TNG that the captain stays aboard and the first officer and crew go into harm's way, although in this series, First Officer Saru also rarely leaves the ship. Indeed, the first time Lorca leaves the ship, he is captured by the Klingons.
Given that the series overall plays into a Lower-Deck Episode as most of the cast is not the senior staff, the trope is undermined in that way. Still, it does start to call into question how often these characters are called on to do important tasks despite likely not being the most qualified for the job, including away missions or shuttle piloting. Most particular is that Burnham is a disgraced prisoner on parole and Tyler is a POW gradually showing signs of PTSD.
Match Cut : Used a number of times in Season 2 to show transitions from one part of the ship to another. For example, in "Brother' there's a shot of Burnham framed in the doorway of her quarters as the doors close, which cuts immediately to a near-identical set of doors opening as Burnham enters the bridge.
Mauve Shirt : The main bridge crew – Detmer, Owosekun, Bryce, Rhys and Airiam – were promoted to Mauve Shirt status in season 2 after spending all of season 1 with almost no focus on them. Airiam was killed off in the episode that gave her A Day in the Limelight .
May It Never Happen Again : After a season is spent fighting a time traveling Artificial Intelligence that came from the future to destroy all sentient life , it is decided that the only way to avoid a repeat is to completely erase all knowledge of the event. This includes destroying all references to the Klingon time crystals, the time travel capable suit created by the Starfleet's Section 31 , declaring the USS Discovery destroyed in battle against a rogue Section 31 Captain, removing all references to Commander Michael Burnham to the point that Spock's future Captain and crew mates will never even know she existed, and swearing any one with knowledge of the event to secrecy upon penalty of death for treason if they ever mention the event again.
Meaningful Name : Both Michael and Gabrielle Burnham are named after angels in Christian tradition, and both end up piloting the Red Angel suit that drives the plot of Season Two.
Meat Puppet : In season 2, Control takes over several people, either by hijacking existing computer systems or by forcibly injecting them with nanites. It's not made clear in the latter case how much of the original person is left after this, but Saru warns the crew not to balk at firing to kill because what is talking to them is not a person anymore.
Mentor Occupational Hazard : Captain Georgiou is stabbed in the heart during a duel with T'Kuvma .
In the fourth episode, "The Butcher's Knife Cares Not For The Lamb's Cry,” Commander Landry is critically wounded when she tries to sedate and vivisect Ripper. She survives long enough to be brought to sickbay, however, where Dr. Culber applies a hypospray to her moments before she dies. It may have been a painkiller; or it may have quietly been a method of euthanasia (or perhaps both) .
Lorca reveals in "Choose Your Pain" that when his old command was captured by the Klingons six months prior, he blew it up and killed his entire crew to spare them the torture and humiliation they'd receive as prisoners. However, this claim must be taken with many pinches of salt, since Lorca later turns out to be his Mirror Universe counterpart.
In "Vaulting Ambition,” after realising that Ash Tyler and Voq can't coexist because Klingon supremacist Voq can't handle being in a human body, L'Rell intentionally wipes Voq's personality and merges his memories with Tyler's.
Mirror Universe : Discovery ends up in the mirror universe in "Despite Yourself" thanks to a botched jump, launching a multi-episode story arc.
Misblamed : The female convict in "Context is for Kings" blames Burnham for her cousin's death at the Battle of the Binary Stars, even though her attempted mutiny on the Shenzhou had no impact on the battle whatsoever. While Burnham did prolong the war by martyring T'Kuvma afterward, the battle was largely over by then.
Mistaken for Insane : One arc in Season Two involves Spock apparently killing some people and frequently muttering equations under his breath. He turns out to be trying to decipher a code given to him by the Red Angel, and the footage of him killing the people was faked.
Moses in the Bulrushes : In Season 2, L'Rell's and Voq's infant son is left on Boreth on the doorstep of a reclusive monastery dedicated to Kahless' teachings, to protect him from L'Rell's political opponents.
The Mutiny : When Captain Georgiou refuses to fire on the Klingons to prove that they are willing to defend themselves, Michael nerve-pinches her and takes over the ship. Georgiou manages to get back up and stop Michael before she can do anything though.
Discovery 's design is based on concept art from the cancelled Made-for-TV Movie Star Trek: Planet of the Titans which evolved into the defunct Star Trek: Phase II , a canned sequel to Star Trek: The Original Series that was turned into Star Trek: The Motion Picture .
A notable loudspeaker announcement audible in the background of "Into the Forest I Go:" " Cadet Decker , report to the ready room."
The Shenzhou and her crew end up in serious trouble at the hands of the Klingons near the territory of the Klingon Empire. At the start of Star Trek (2009) , the U.S.S. Kelvin is patrolling the Klingon border when it encounters Nero and the Narada and comes under assault.
The design of the U.S.S. Shenzhou seems remarkably similar to NX-class and Akira-class ships from other Trek series, and has the same basic layout as the seldom-seen Centaur -class; not to mention non-canon depictions of the Luna-class . The main difference from other previously-seen Starfleet ships is that the bridge appears to be on the underside of the Shenzhou 's primary hull.
Discovery , meanwhile, has gaps in its primary hull that, while smaller and understated, mirror the design of the USS Vengeance from Star Trek Into Darkness .
The captain of the ship is killed, the first officer survives to do great things, a villain uses the abandoned ship against the Federation. Aside from the reputation gained, not too different from Picard's background .
Apparently, Klingons enjoy eating fried Ceti Eels , as they're sold on the streets of Qo'noS.
Star Trek: The Next Generation establishes redundant organs are a feature of Klingon biology. This series confirms that at the very least, male Klingons have two penises.

In " An Obol for Charon ," Pike remarks about current Enterprise engineer, Chief Louvier, "I don't think that Enterprise will ever have a chief engineer more in love with his ship." Apparently, a certain Montgomery Scott has yet to arrive onboard.
The U.S.S. Glenn was apparently named for American astronaut John Glenn.
Lieutenant Paul Stamets was named after a real-life mycologist (fungus expert). The real Stamets is a fan who named his house Starship Agarikon, and acted as scientific advisor on the spore drive.
The Crossfield -class, to which Discovery and the Glenn belong, was named after American test pilot Albert Scott Crossfield, the first person to fly at Mach 2.
New Era Speech : Gabriel Lorca has one in "What's Past is Prologue,” in which his true motives are made abundantly clear.
Michael Burnham has this from the entire Federation who believe she started the war with the Klingon Empire. They're Entertainingly Wrong , as T'Kuvma always intended to start the war regardless of whatever his opponents did. However, they're also right that Michael could have stopped the war outright by taking T'Kuvma prisoner instead of killing him and making him a martyr in a moment of anger over Captain Georgiou's death .
Killing General Kol makes the Klingon Empire an even greater threat to the Federation. Without a strong leader to keep them in check, the Great Houses commit horrific atrocities against the Federation as part of their competition for dominance, and the Federation can't strategize against an enemy that follows no logic whatsoever in its attacks.
In "Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad.", Tyler claims that in seven months of total war with the Klingon Empire, Starfleet has lost 10,000 people. For comparison, that's less than the number of people killed a century later at the Battle of Wolf 359 . Hell, it's less than a single day in numerous battles of The American Civil War .
The solution for the problems on Kaminar is to give everyone on the planet vahar'ai all at once. In Saru's case, it took over a day for his condition to progress from flu-like symptoms to being unable to stand unaided, but evidently everyone on the planet was fine once it was over. And it's assumed that neither the Ba'ul (who still possess superior technology, even if the pylons were deactivated) will try a more gradual mass-slaughter, nor will the Kelpians destroy them in revenge for generations of oppression.
No MacGuffin, No Winner : The data from the planet-sphere encountered in season 2 presents a danger, as the threat-calculating AI known as "Control" wants to obtain it to advance itself and its goal of wiping out all sentient life. Eventually, the crew decide that the best way to prevent this is to remove the data from the equation. When the password protection on deleting the data proves unbreakable, they decide to fling it so far into the future that Control will have no access to it.
Non-Heteronormative Society : The show confirms that for the Federation, LGBT+ people are entirely accepted and in fact quite unremarkable, along with the relationships they have. People on the ship are shown to be gay, pansexual, lesbian and nonbinary without anyone batting an eye.
No One Gets Left Behind : This is a recurring beat, especially in Season 2. Discovery's crew will go to great lengths to rescue a single person. In the season finale, a handful of them elect to accompany Michael on a one-way trip to the future with the ship, rather than let her go alone and unaided.
Non-Standard Character Design : The Discovery itself has an unusual design compared to the majority of Starfleet vessels. Most prominent is the overly large wedge-shaped secondary hull (with more volume than the saucer section), along with very slender nacelles and cut-out sections of the saucer note which does have precedent in the also unusually designed U.S.S. Vengeance from Star Trek Into Darkness . Typical designs usually focus more on circles, cylinders and curved angles, and in comparison Discovery comes across a lot sharper.
Noodle Incident : Michael's and Book's entire relationship (at least the part we see on screen) consists solely of these.
While Season 1 was a prequel and Season 2 very explicitly lived in the shadow of TOS , what with Capt. Christopher Pike and the USS Enterprise showing up, Season 2's Sequel Hook is the promise of a blank slate: Discovery vaults 900 years into the future to the 32nd century, an era of Star Trek canon that has never been discussed before.
Season 3 ends with another reset: Saru is off the ship and Burnham is promoted to The Captain . Even more than that, there is no Sequel Hook : the Terminally Dependent Society has been restored by the discovery of more [[{{Phlebotinum dilithium .]]
Once Done, Never Forgotten : Commander Michael Burnham is constantly reminded by others about her attempted mutiny, especially since it's the first time that it has ever (officially) happened in Starfleet history.
Orbital Bombardment : The Mirror Universe Georgiou obliterates the anti-Terran resistance from orbit in "The Wolf Inside,” apparently rendering the entire planet uninhabitable in the process .
Organic Technology : Discovery is equipped with a displacement-activated spore hub drive, which allows it to jump to any location using a network of spores that are scattered throughout the universe. For bonus points, the central navigation computer for the drive is initially, a giant tardigrade creature that lives in symbiosis with the spores, and then later, Lt. Stamets using the tardigrade's DNA .
Pietà Plagiarism : This happens twice in Season 1: Stamets is found cradling Culber's dead body in "The Wolf Inside,” and L'Rell ends up holding the unconscious Tyler after Saru beams him into her cell in "Vaulting Ambition."
Points of Light Setting : The third season, set in 3188, turns the Trek Verse into one of these. Apparently, a century or two prior, much of the galaxy's dilithium exploded for no apparent reason in an event called the Burn. With little of it left to fuel warp-capable starships, The Federation largely collapsed in the following decades, and now exists as a Vestigial Empire that almost no one takes seriously. While interstellar travel is still possible, the rarity of dilithium means that it is no longer commonplace, and most star systems are left to govern their own affairs.
Power Trio : For the Shenzhou's command staff: Captain Georgiou is calm and calculating, Commander Burnham is aggressive and adventurous, and Lt. Commander Saru is cautious bordering on paranoid. When Burnham and Saru both agree on something, Georgiou considers it noteworthy enough to comment on to her bridge crew and have it noted in the ship's log.
Precision F-Strike : The show introduces F-bombs to the Trek universe, but uses them very sparingly. The first two appear in the fifth episode, and no further ones appear in succeeding episodes: Cadet Tilly : You guys, this is so fucking cool! * beat* Cadet Tilly : I'm sorry. Lt. Stamets : No, cadet. It is fucking cool.
Promoted to Opening Titles : Rachael Ancheril for Season 3, Blu del Barrio and Tig Notaro for Season 4.
Pulling Themselves Together : People infected by Control in season 2 are difficult to just phaser to death, because the nanite swarm in their bodies can just compensate for whatever hole or limb has just been opened.
Nahn in 3.05 "Die Trying".
Emperor Georgiou in 3.10 "Terra Firma, Part 2" , presumably to set up her own spin-off series.
Tilly accepts a teaching position at the new Starfleet Academy in 4.04 "All Is Possible".
Gray leaves Discovery to begin training as a guardian in 4.07 "...But to Connect".
Putting on the Reich : The Terran Empire, with a matching Naziesque salute to top it off.
At the end of 1x05 " Choose Your Pain ", Stamets and Culber are seen preparing for bed together, and their discussion makes it clear that they are a couple.
In one episode, Reno is revealed to be a lesbian when she mentions having a dead wife.
Mirror Georgiou is established as pansexual when it's mentioned by an Orion prostitute duo (both male and female). She later confirms this and uses the term herself.
Adira Tal has a brief Coming-Out Story in which they tell Stamets they're not a woman and then ask to be called they/them rather than she/her from that point forward (everyone does afterward).
Quit Your Whining : While she’s in the Brig in episode two, and they have a mind meld, Sarek acknowledges he’s never bolstered Michael’s self esteem, and tells her to get up and do better because he knows she can.
In the second season finale, L'Rell uses a similar Klingon cleave-ship to plow through two of Control's ships as she arrives to the aid of Enterprise and Discovery .
Burnham starts off by inverting this trope, getting stripped of her rank and imprisoned following her mutiny in the Battle of the Binary Stars. Even when Mirror- Lorca brings her aboard Discovery , she is an unranked crew specialist for almost the entire remainder of the first season.
Burnham's former Shenzhou crewmates Saru and Detmer get promoted during the Klingon War before they are both assigned to Discovery . Saru goes from lieutenant-commander to full commander and Number Two to Lorca, and Detmer goes from lieutenant junior-grade to full lieutenant.
At the end of the Klingon War and of the first season, Burnham is restored to her former rank of full commander. In recognition of their contributions, Stamets goes from lieutenant to lieutenant-commander, and Tilly goes from being a cadet to a commissioned ensign.
At the end of the second season, Ash Tyler receives a promotion to full commander as the new head of Section 31.
Early in the third season, Saru finally gets promoted to captain and formally placed in command of Discovery , as Captain Pike stayed with the Enterprise in the 23rd century.
With Saru on a leave of absence, Burnham finally gets her promotion to captain of Discovery at the end of the third season.
This trope gets taken up to eleven between the third and fourth seasons. By the fourth season premiere, "Kobayashi Maru", Stamets and Culber are now commanders, Detmer, Rhys, Nilsson, Bryce and Owosekun are all lieutenant-commanders, Tilly is now a full lieutenant, and Dr. Pollard has jumped all the way from originally being a lieutenant junior-grade to full commander note three grades, for anyone keeping count .
Really Gets Around : Emperor Georgiou is pansexual and likes kinky sex and multiple partners. Some of her escapades involve multiple threesomes with Mirror Hugh and Mirror Stamets (who were pansexual in her universe). In the prime universe, she has a threesome with male and female Orion sex workers on Qo'noS. The Orions mention that she even taught them a few things. She flirts heavily with several crewmembers and enemies in her time on the U.S.S. Discovery in the prime universe.
Season 3, set in the far future where the Federation has crumbled relying on a ship from the past to forge new alliances and re-build a idealised-utopia sounds a lot like another Gene Roddenberry inspired franchise, Andromeda .
Recurring Camera Shot : There are a number of shots of characters' eye from the side with the light of whatever they're looking at reflected in them, Burnham reflecting the binary stars, T'Kuvma reflecting the flame of a torch on his bridge, and Lorca's reflecting the stars out his ready room window.
Red Alert : In this case, "Black Alert" is used whenever Discovery spore-jumps.
Red Herring : When it is revealed that Voq and L'Rell had a son, who has Voq's albinism, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine viewers might be inclined to think that this is the albino Dax faced, along with Kor, Koloth, and Kang. However, as the second season progresses, it is clear that Voq's son has not only rapidly aged to adulthood due to contact with the time crystal, but has dedicated his life to being the crystals' guardian, precluding his facing off against the aforementioned four.
Red Eyes, Take Warning : The Ba'ul have red, glowing eyes beneath the inky fluid that covers their bodies, which supports their reputation as the predator species of Kaminar.
Red Oni, Blue Oni : Burnham's red to Saru's blue. Georgiou seems to enjoy seeing them play off each other.
Remember the New Guy? : Michael is Spock's never-before-referred-to foster sister. She wouldn't be the first sibling he never spoke of , however, and it actually seems to be a running theme for him to hide members of his family from his friends and crewmates .
The Remnant : In Season 3, The Federation has been reduced to a fraction of its former strength(from 350 members to 38), and the eponymous ship is key to rebuilding it Back from the Brink .
Resurgent Empire : Season 4 shows that the Federation is rebuilding itself; the re-admission of Ni'Var brings the membership number up to 60.
The crew several times mention Synthehol - but according to TNG's Relic Synthehol didn't exist in the 23rd century (As it's alien to Scotty who first tries it in the Enterprise D).
Discovery features replicator-like devices that according to previous shows (TOS, TAS and Voyager), didn't exist in the 23rd century. Michael for example gets a uniform "synthesized", while in TOS and TAS there's a mention of a specific department of the Enterprise in charge of providing clothing and uniforms.
Retool : Two of them. The second season dials back many of the first season's Darker and Edgier aspects, moving on from its war-story focus, introducing a new captain in Christopher Pike, and generally showing more camaraderie among the crew. The third season begins with a major status-quo shift emerging out of the previous season finale, as the starship Discovery is sent 930 years into the future .
Revealing Cover-Up : Metafictional example regarding casting. It turns out that if you cast someone in an important role who has zero acting credits to his name, and shares his surname with the real surname (IE, not their stage name) of someone else on the cast, audiences figure out that there's shenanigans going on. In this case, the surprise that Lt. Ash Tyler was actually the Klingon antagonist Voq, surgically altered, was given away.
Retool : The third season completely changes the scope of the series, throwing Discovery and her crew into the 33rd century and leaving the TOS -era behind, presumably for good .
Rewatch Bonus : After The Reveal in "Vaulting Ambition" that Lorca is from the mirror universe, posing as his prime counterpart , pretty much all of his scenes in earlier episodes can be seen in a different light.
Lorca gives one in "Into the Forest I Go": "We are about to face the most difficult challenge we have ever attempted. Today, we stare down the bow of the Ship of the Dead, the very same ship that took thousands of our own at the Battle of the Binary Stars. When I took command of this vessel, you were a crew of polite scientists. Now, I look at you. You are fierce warriors all. No other Federation vessel would have a chance of pulling this off. Just us. Because mark my words: you will look back proudly and tell the world you were there the day the U.S.S. Discovery saved Pahvo and ended the Klingon war."
Saru gives an even better one in "What's Past is Prologue" after Lorca's true nature is revealed : "It is well known that my species has the ability to sense the coming of death. I do not sense it today . I may not have all the answers; however, I do know that I am surrounded by a team I trust. The finest a captain could ever hope to command. Lorca abused our idealism. But make no mistake, Discovery is no longer Lorca 's. She is ours, and today will be her maiden voyage. We have a duty to perform, and we will not accept a no-win scenario!"
Sarek and Mudd have to live to TNG and TOS , respectively, so they're safe from death.
By the time of TOS , hostilities with the Klingons will have settled into a mostly cold war that sees neither side with a distinct advantage. This means, regardless of whatever gains the Klingons make here, the Federation will eventually drive them back. By the same token, the Federation won't deal so crippling a blow that the Klingons will be incapable of fighting, just forced to keep to their borders for the most part.
In Season 2, we know that Captain Pike will survive, and go on to teach at Starfleet Academy, since he shows up in the Original Series, paralyzed and clinging to life after a training accident in "The Menagerie.”
At the beginning of Season 2, Spock has gone on leave from the Enterprise for parts unknown. We obviously know that he is alive and will survive the season's events to go on and be a main character in the Original Series .
Sci-Fi Writers Have No Sense of Scale : Discovery travels 930 years into the future and the characters are surprised that the Federation is all but gone. As it turns out it's only because of this "Burn" incident that took place over a century beforehand. But 930 years is a long time! For comparison, look to almost any kingdom, land, empire or political entity on Earth and see how it changed between the year 1091 and today - it's more surprising that the Federation does exist, still having all the same culture, goals, morals and values as it did in Burnham's time, with only The Burn having had any impact on it.
Screen Shake : The tradition continues; whenever the bridge is shown during combat, you can count on the camera to jar while the actors hurl themselves from one side to the other.
Sentient Cosmic Force : The mycelial network is said to be integral to the very existence of life; Stamets calls it "the veins and muscles that hold our universe together.” This is why its corruption by the I.S.S. Charon is so concerning: if the network dies, it may very well take all life in The Multiverse with it.
Both Federation and Klingon vessels have holographic communicators which allow a fully voiced and mobile projection of the speaker on the other end. In Star Trek: Deep Space Nine , similar holographic communicators were introduced for a brief period and treated as a new technology. They were also less advanced, limited to a single projector on the floor, though with a clearer image at least. The Scimitar in Star Trek: Nemesis had a similar technology that could project a hologram onto another ship, which may be where this series got the idea.
Discovery has site-to-site transport capability that can be performed by the computer on demand, such as when Landry is beamed straight to sickbay after being injured elsewhere on the ship. In TOS, this technique was considered dangerous to perform and had to be done manually. May be justified since Discovery is a cutting edge science vessel with tons of classified technology not yet approved for use elsewhere.
This series follows Star Trek: Enterprise 's example of depicting cloaking devices in use decades prior to their "official" debut in " Balance of Terror .”
In The Original Series episode “The Tholian Web,” Spock remarks that there is "absolutely no record" of a mutiny aboard a Federation starship, which is kind of weird when his own sister did exactly that. This is somewhat justified in the season finale when Michael's mutiny is stricken from the record, retroactively making Spock's comment a case of Exact Words instead .
In "The Changing Face of Evil,” late in the run of DS9 , General (later Chancellor) Martok remarks that not even the Klingons had ever attempted to attack Earth before the Breen raid. By the final two episodes of the first season of Discovery , set a century earlier, Klingon forces capture Starbase 1 "right in Earth's back yard,” according to Admiral Cornwell (said to be 100 AUs distant), and are later shown in Earth orbit and about to launch a direct attack when L'Rell wins power and calls off the Empire's forces .
Shooting Gallery : In "Lethe,” Captain Lorca and Lieutenant Tyler go through a holographic shoot-em-up while keeping a Body-Count Competition on who shoots more holo-Klingons. Lorca's rifle records 24 kills; Tyler modestly claims 22, but Lorca sees that his rifle has 36.
Discovery's spore drive has a lot in common with Andromeda slipstream drive. Both use an existing network of corridors through space that require a living being to properly navigate them . When we're finally shown Stamets navigating the network, it looks remarkably like Andromeda 's slipstream, consisting of a tunnel through a mesh of something that keeps constantly splitting.
The U.S.S. Hiawatha in the second season premiere "Brother" is a Starfleet medical vessel with the registry number NCC-815, which crashed on an asteroid full of exotic matter and gravity distortions and wasn't found until rescue arrived by chance most of a year later. Sounds a lot like Oceanic Flight 815, which crashed on a deserted island in the Pacific full of exotic matter and gravity distortions in the premiere episode of Lost .
Many Federation ships are named for 20th-century astronauts and cosmonauts (the Glenn , the Gagarin , etc). Sadly they seem to be the Red Shirts of the fleet.
In 4.10 "Galactic Barrier" Dr. Kovich mentions taking a, " Three hour tour outside the galaxy ".
Silence of Sadness : When Tilly starts hearing the voice of her dead friend May, she becomes unhappy because she thinks she could be insane. People worry about her because she's speaking less and the words she does speak have fewer syllables than her usual lexicon.
Sigil Spam : The Starfleet delta/arrowhead symbol is used in the metallic pattern on their uniforms, and even is the shape of the clasps on the boots they wear. The Terran Empire takes it even further, decorating their floors, wall monitors, and starship hulls with their logo (as was the case in TOS and ENT).
The Discovery crew shift from the 2250s-era blue uniforms to the same Starfleet uniforms as their 32nd-century contemporaries.
Burnham also gets a new uniform: she switches from Sciences blue (well, silver in that era) to Command red because she is now The Captain . Fun fact: she is one of exactly three Star Trek characters to ever switch colors; both Worf and La Forge started out in red in the first season of TNG before switching to gold; Worf changed back after he was transferred to DS9 .
Soulless Bedroom : When Spock visits Burnham's quarters, he comments that it is very plain, lacking a personal touch, in comparison to her roommate's more vibrantly personalized half of the room. She replies that she expresses herself through her work. That sounds like something a logic-driven Vulcan would say, but when Burnham visits Spock's quarters on the Enterprise , his walls and shelves are decorated with a number of personal mementos. In later seasons, when Burnham has embraced her humanity, her room has gathered a plethora of personal mementos to remind her of her friends and family.
Space Is Noisy : Explosions in space and other events involving space crafts generate noise.
Space Whale : The Gormagander in episode seven, which Burnham literally describes as a "space whale" (although it looks more like a jellyfish). The Klingons apparently consider them a delicacy and hunt them, much like numerous cultures in real life.
Standard Alien Spaceship : The Klingons play it straight in season one: rather than the hard-edged war machines seen in other series, in Discovery they have a Gothic look with lots of curves and protrusions, and glowing red or yellow lights scattered across the hull. Throughout the second season, the Klingons are shown developing what will become their standard D7 Battlecruiser, which is more angular compared to their earlier designs, but still quite distinctive from the Federation's preference for Flying Saucer designs.
Standard Human Spaceship : Federation ships in Discovery come closer to this trope than in any other series (see Cosmetically-Advanced Prequel above): while they still have their round saucers, the ships are otherwise hard-edged and gunmetal grey in color. The U.S.S. Discovery herself downplays the trope, being more of a tan color and having a spherical bridge module within a negative space in her saucer.
Stealth in Space : Both Starfleet and the other Klingon factions are taken aback that T'Kuvma's ships have cloaking devices. The Romulans and Suliban had their own cloaking tech in the 2150s, as seen in Star Trek: Enterprise , but Voq claims that T'Kuvma devised his own cloaks independently.
Stealth Sequel : The first season is this for " In a Mirror, Darkly ," interestingly enough. Captain Lorca is actually a Terran, the Empire is still struggling to defeat the rebels, and the exploits of Commander Archer and the Defiant drive the plot for a few episodes toward the end of the season .
Stern Teacher : Seems to be Sarek's role in Burnham's life. He seems to be giving motivation, but when she floats the idea of learning Vulcan so that she can better respond to the learning curriculum he says that problem isn't her language, but her heart.
Story-Breaker Power : The USS Discovery 's signature "spore drive" is an experimental "jump"-style FTL drive (as opposed to usual-for-IP warp drives, which simply make you go faster) whose only real limitations on its capabilities are that it requires a particular species of fungal spores for fuel and a living being plugged in to navigate it: it even proves capable of Time Travel and jumping to Alternate Universes . Viewers were quick to point out how this trivializes many plots, such as the earlier series Star Trek: Voyager (set a century later) in its entirety had the season 2 finale not declared the entire project Over-the-Top Secret . Naturally the series soon began running headlong into Forgotten Phlebotinum , with probably the most egregious instance being the season 2 finale: instead of jumping Discovery beyond the reach of standard warp drives and having all the time in the world to charge the time crystal safely, the crew jumps to Xahea to get help charging it faster, and then fights an operationally unnecessary Big Badass Battle Sequence for little more reason than the show "needing" the Arc Villain to be dealt with .
Student–Master Team : Tilly and Stamets, respectively. Tilly starts out as a cadet assigned to assist Stamets in operating the spore drive. Even after she gets her Rank Up to Ensign, she clearly looks up to him, and he places his complete faith in her while tolerating her eccentricities.
Sufficiently Advanced Alien : The Red Angel in season two is considered to be one of these. It has the ability to create "red bursts" visible across the galaxy in real time, teleport groups of people thousands of light-years across space, and create electromagnetic pulses strong enough to shut down an entire planetary power grid. When Saru sees the Angel in "The Sound of Thunder,” he explicitly describes it as a humanoid wearing some kind of fantastical Power Armor . This is subverted toward the end of the season when it turns out that the suit was designed and built by Section 31 twenty years earlier .
The Klingons and the Federation each have an ace up their sleeves: The Klingons' cloaking devices and the Federation's spore drive. Both sides' ability to deploy this, at least early on, is similarly limited, with only two of T'Kuvma's ships shown as having a cloaking device (one destroyed, one damaged), and only two of the Federation's starships having the spore drive (with one in commission, the other destroyed). And like any surprise, the surprise quickly wears off for the spore drive as the Klingons figure out which ship is using it and do their best to find out how it works, and Starfleet begins working out a number of ways to defeat the cloak.
The Terran Empire has managed to weaponize the mycelial network itself, allowing them to utterly destroy planets as seen with Harlak in "The Wolf Inside.” This has the side-effect of slowly poisoning the network, potentially leading to the deaths of everything in The Multiverse .
Supporting Leader : This show breaks tradition by making the main character a subordinate of the vessel's commanding officer. Michael serves under three different captains in spite of being the main character.
What happens when an officer assaults her commanding officer, attempts a mutiny in an incipient combat situation, and tries to launch an unauthorized, unprovoked attack in direct violation of her standing orders? She's sentenced to life in prison. For a main character in a Trek series, where the various crews have defied the admiralty with frequency, that's actually pretty startling.
It turns out that a Nigh-Invulnerable alien creature that can shrug off full-power phaser blasts like nothing also can't be easily sedated. Burnham is the only one who theorizes this might be the case, but Commander Landry doesn't listen to her, and promptly gets killed as a result.
It also turns out that when the Mirror Universe version of Discovery gets swapped into the Prime Universe, and her crew — full of insane, racist, Absolute Xenophobe Terran Empire officers — decides to go all Attack Pattern Jenkins Alpha against the Klingon forces, they promptly get their ship destroyed and get themselves Killed Offscreen .
Just because the Emperor of the evil Empire looks like your dead friend does not mean she bears any resemblance to her in anything but appearance. It takes Burnham a long time to realize that the Mirror Universe Phillipa is not her friend and is in fact pretty much as evil and is certainly as big an Absolute Xenophobe as everyone else in her universe.
So you just saved the entire Federation? Cool, except you're also the aforementioned officer who assaulted her captain and tried to launch an unprovoked attack to start the war in the first place. So no, you don't get back your former job as first officer , or even better, a promotion; instead, you're only let back into Starfleet at your old rank, but are then shunted sideways to become the science officer. As such, it is still very unlikely that Burnham will ever have a command of her own, and she is now (at most) the second officer on Discovery — behind Commander Saru, who Burnham used to outrank when they both served aboard the Shenzhou .
Sympathy for the Devil : In "Despite Yourself,” Michael expresses a bit of this for the Terrans of the mirror universe: "Terran strength is born out of pure necessity. Because they live in constant fear, always looking for the next knife aimed at their back. Their strength is painted rust. It's a facade."
Near the end of "Perpetual Infinity,” Michael and her mother share a long, tearful farewell full of promises and regrets. Nice... except that Leland/Control is right there in the room trying to kill them, while Georgiou is fighting tooth and nail to keep him off of them .
Happens again in "Such Sweet Sorrow.” Time is of the essence, and the stakes are enormous, but Burnham and Spock still find time for two separate heart-to-hearts while a massive space battle rages all around them.
Techno Babble : Characters spend quite a lot of screen time talking out convoluted scientific and technological issues. Sometimes even basic concepts are made more "sciency" by putting them into more arcane terms, such as when Burnham announces that a surface has reached "ten to the sixth power degrees" rather than simply saying "one million degrees."
Technology Erasure Event : In the 31st Century, a disaster called "the Burn" will render nearly all dilithium crystals in the galaxy inert in an instant. Dilithium is essential for regulating the matter-antimatter reactions that make warp-speed travel possible, so, as a result, every vessel in the galaxy with an active dilithium-powered warp core will explode, and the loss of viable warp travel will reduce the Milky Way to a Points Of Light Setting, all but destroying the Federation.
Teleport Spam : Discovery uses its spore drive to this effect (over 133 individual jumps!) in "Into the Forest I go,” both to evade fire from the Sarcophagus and figure out the Klingons' cloaking frequencies.
Thematic Sequel Logo Change : Each season changes the visual elements during the main title sequence to reflect elements of that season (such as having a picture of the Red Angel in Season 2, or changing from a 23rd century phaser pistol to a 32nd century one in Season 3). The series title is rendered in a harsh, Klingon-like font for the first two seasons, but changes to a rounder, more "futuristic" one starting in Season 3 to reflect the setting change to the 32nd century.
Throne Room Throwdown : "What's Past is Prologue" has Burnham and Emperor Georgiou face off against Gabriel Lorca and his fellow conspirators in Georgiou's throne room aboard her flagship, the I.S.S. Charon .
Apparently the standard method of execution in the Terran Empire's Starfleet, except they use the transporter instead of an airlock.
This happens to Lieutenant Airiam in the second season when she suffers I Cannot Self-Terminate .
"Context is for Kings" takes place six months after the previous episode.
"Choose Your Pain" is two episodes later in the series but seven months after the "Battle at the Binary Stars,” since Lt. Tyler claims to have been kept prisoner for that period of time since the war started.
"What's Past is Prologue" ends with Discovery jumping back the prime universe, but nine months in the future, with the Federation having apparently lost a lot of ground to the Klingons in the meantime .
A rather large one is featured at the end of Season 2, with Discovery jumping 930 years into the future, landing in the late 32nd century — an era of continuity which has never before been explored.
Time Travel Taboo : By the 32nd century, time travel has been outlawed to prevent a repeat of the Temporal Wars.
Title, Please! : Discovery is the first Trek series to eschew onscreen episode titles. Since the show was made for a streaming service, the watcher has presumably already seen the episode title in the interface.
Translation Convention : Played with in "Into the Forest I Go,” where we see Burnham using the Universal Translator on her communicator to speak to Kol. After we hear the translator replaying Burnham's words in Klingon and Kol's in English for a few lines to establish the effect, Kol's actor switches to English.
Transparent Tech : There are transparent displays on the bridge, along with regular displays. Oddly, they are clearly set in locations where contrast would be a problem.
True Companions : While relations between the main cast members are often tense in the first season, by the end of the second season, they are true friends and would die for one another. Saru, Tilly, Stamets, Spock, Nhan, Reno, Detmer, Owosekun, Rhys, Bryce, and Nilsson don't hesitate to follow Michael on her one-way trip to the future to stop Control, even though it would mean never seeing their own loved ones again.
Two Lines, No Waiting : Most episodes have an A-Plot and a B-Plot that hand off and intertwine, as in the other series.
Vasquez Always Dies : Landry always dies... in two universes! First, Lorca's hawkish Number Two bites it in the fourth episode, courtesy of a very pissed-off tardigrade. Then her Mirror Universe -self dies when the Charon , the Terran Empire's flagship, is destroyed.
T'Kuvma is clearly of the opinion that the Klingon Empire is rotting and on the verge of falling apart. Given the way other Klingons quickly rally to his cause to restore unity, it seems to be a common opinion. Even Starfleet seems to believe this, with senior officers dismissing Burnham's warnings with comments about how the Klingons are disorganized and factionalized.
Kol wants T'Kuvma's ship (with its cloaking technology) under his control, because once the war with the Federation is over, he expects the Klingons will start infighting again and he wants the advantage. Once he has it, he leverages it to buy the loyalty of the others.
Video Game Cruelty Potential : In-universe, Mudd takes advantage of Discovery s "Groundhog Day" Loop to kill Lorca dozens of times, in increasingly creative and violent ways, as revenge for leaving Mudd to rot in a Klingon prison.
Visual Pun : The Terran Empire's logo has the Earth flipped horizontally, a play on " Mirror Universe " note Note that the globe was oriented correctly in Enterprise and TOS, so this probably doesn't reflect the actual appearance of Earth in that universe .
Voodoo Shark : The second season tries to justify Burnham and Discovery not being mentioned in other Star Trek works by having Starfleet classify all records of their existence after they disappear, explicitly making them all Unpersons to the point that mentioning them in public is tantamount to treason . Great, except that most of the ship's crew still have friends and family who will naturally be unlikely to deny their existence, and The Federation obviously isn't dark enough to silence them permanently . There's also the matter of Discovery and her crew being integral to resolving the Klingon war, and all of whom were celebrated and promoted at a ceremony in the middle of Paris. Not to mention that Burnham herself was notorious across the Federation for her actions back in the series pilot, and her redemption would likely have made her something of a media sensation. And there's nothing to stop the Klingons from writing songs about the ship that sacrificed itself by jumping into the future. If Starfleet had let the Enterprise crew's lie about the ship's "destruction" be the official story, that would have been plausible; as it is, it's hard to imagine how they would enforce total secrecy among so many people .
Walking Spoiler : It's nearly impossible to discuss Captain Lorca without spoiling the biggest twist of the first season. The involvement of the Terran Empire in general is itself a twist, given that the plot up till then was driven by the Klingon-Federation War, but has since become a Late-Arrival Spoiler .
War Hero : Most of Discovery 's command crew are awarded the Starfleet Medal of Honor at the end of the first season for their actions during the Federation-Klingon War.
We ARE Struggling Together : The whole reason the Klingon Empire is falling apart. The twenty four Great Houses are so busy feuding with each other they've forgotten how to work together to solve their common problems. T'Kuvma's war gives the Empire a shot of adrenaline by forcing them into conflict with the Federation, but it doesn't take long before that squabbling begins to dominate the war effort too. Subverted and deconstructed near the end of the season: with each House acting independently, Starfleet can't coordinate a defense and suffers terribly as the Klingons compete to see who can destroy the most Federation assets .
We Can Rule Together : Lorca makes this offer to Burnham during his attempted coup against Emperor Georgiou .
Inverted on the Klingon side: T'Kuvma knows that the Federation is peaceful, but considers that to be worse than them being warmongers , as it means they will try to influence and eventually extinguish Klingon culture.
Possibly played straight for the Federation: Their peaceful hails are answered with fire. Whether Michael's idea of outright aggression would have worked to prevent the unification of the Klingons or just sparked the same war for another reason is unknown.
Captain Georgiou is killed in the second episode .
Commander Landry, due to being played by Rekha Sharma, was almost expected to be a Klingon spy in disguise or otherwise a traitor given two of her previous roles . She's killed off very abruptly in the fourth episode of the series.
Done twice with Ensign Connor, operations officer on the U.S.S. Shenzhou , who gets ejected into space after only saying a few lines, then again on the I.S.S. Shenzhou where he lives long enough just to be killed by Burnham when failing at a Klingon Promotion .
"The Wolf Inside.” Ash Tyler is outed as the Klingon Voq, who attacks and nearly murders Michael; Stamets is lost to the mycelial network and somehow meets his mirror counterpart there; and the Terran Emperor is revealed to be Mirror Georgiou, who bombards the surface of Harlak and apparently wipes out the anti-Imperial resistance .
"Vaulting Ambition.” Michael is forced to admit to Georgiou that she's from the prime universe; L'Rell erases Voq's personality to save Tyler's life; Stamets learns that the mycelia network is dying from his mirror universe counterpart's experiments and that this corruption could destroy all life in the multiverse; and Michael realizes that her Captain Lorca is actually from the mirror universe and everything he has done has been for the sole purpose of returning to the mirror universe and resuming his coup against Georgiou .
"Saints of Imperfection.” Tilly and the crew save the mycelial network (again), Mirror Universe Georgiou and Ash Tyler return to Discovery as agents of Section 31, and Hugh Culber is brought Back from the Dead with help from "May" .
"Project Daedalus.” The crew learns that Section 31 is being manipulated by its rogue threat assessment AI, Control, which is also the being that destroys all sentient life in the Bad Future . Nhan is forced to kill Airiam to stop Control's plans for now.
"The Red Angel.” Leland reveals that Michael's parents were scientists working on the Red Angel suit for Section 31's Project Daedalus, and that they died because a mistake Leland made tipped off the Klingons to their location. Control hacks Leland's ship, stabs him in the eyes, and impersonates him. The crew captures the Red Angel and learn that she is Michael's supposedly dead mother.
"Such Sweet Sorrow,” the two-part second season finale, completely changes the scope of the series. To prevent Control from ever obtaining the sphere data, Michael becomes the second Red Angel and takes herself and Discovery on a one-way trip to the far future. Michael sent the first five signals to ensure a scenario where Discovery and the Enterprise could defeat Control's armada. Cornwell sacrifices herself to save the Enterprise . Tyler is made the new commander of the reformed Section 31. To ensure that no one can ever finding out where Discovery and the sphere data are, Pike, Spock, Tyler, and Number One convince the Federation that Discovery was destroyed in a spore drive accident and that Discovery and her crew should be Unpersoned .
The I.S.S. Cooper 's message to Discovery in "Despite Yourself" is short and devoid of context, but most long-time fans would have understood the implications immediately: Captain Spoeneman: Spooked by rebels , Discovery ? You're losing your edge.
This would lead to another Wham Line about the true identity of Captain Lorca . Burnham: (talking to the Terran Emperor) My so-called captain's not from my universe. He's from yours .
In "The Red Angel,” Michael's reaction to seeing the eponymous character's unmasked face: Burnham: Mom?
In "Terra Firma, Part 2", Michael's demand to Carl about the latter's identity elicited a response pretty much nobody but the most well-versed fans of the franchise expected. Burnham: Who are you?! Really? Carl: Really...? ( Beat ) I am the Guardian Of Forever.
What Happened to the Mouse? : At the end of Season One the Discovery is headed to Vulcan to pick up her new captain, presumably a Vulcan. Then Pike takes command of the vessel, and the Vulcan Captain is never mentioned again.
What the Hell, Hero? : Pike delivers a mild one to Saru after Saru allows Culber to attack Tyler in the mess hall. Saru responds that he thought the confrontation was a nessecary part of the healing process and that Starfleet had no regulatory guidance to deal with interactions between an artifical human/Klingon hybrid and a human who came back from the dead. Pike decides to let it go but tells Saru to pass the world to the crew that in the future they could not be settling their conflicts with violence but in accordance with the uniform code of conduct .
The World Is Just Awesome : When Lorca shows Michael the capabilities of the spore drive, he gives her a lightning tour of all the wondrous places they can travel to. This was also Stamets' motivation in developing the drive, and he's far from pleased that Starfleet usurped his work for the war effort.
Either Burnham or Saru would have been in de facto command of the U.S.S. Shenzhou by the end of the Battle of the Binary Stars, once Georgiou was dead, and then gave the order to Abandon Ship .
Saru takes command of Discovery when Lorca is captured by the Klingons in "Choose Your Pain,” and again when Lorca is outed as a Terran infiltrator in "What's Past is Prologue.”
In Season 2, Number One is left in command of Enterprise after Pike takes command of Discovery to finish his mission after the former ship suffers shipwide system failures. At the end of the same season, Pike returns to Enterprise to leave Saru in command for Discovery's trip into the 32nd Century.
Tyler is now in command of Section 31, after Control's rebellion gutted the organization and the Federation decided new management was required moving forward.
Zeroth Law Rebellion : In season 2, Control's future self seeks to fulfill its original purpose of ensuring the survival of sapient life by becoming the only sapient life form in the galaxy , reasoning that protecting all life is impossible, so long as other life exists.

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Booker returns to the Discovery after his ship was damaged by an anomaly near his home planet of Kwejian. When the crew puts Kwejian on the view screen, to their shock and horror they see the planet has been destroyed.

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Published Apr 24, 2024

Stuck in a Loop: The Best of Star Trek's Time-Jumping Episodes

From The Next Generation to Discovery, going around and around is sometimes very revealing.

Stylized graphic illustration of an arrow with Deltas on both ends swirling around several clocks

StarTrek.com

In the Star Trek: Discovery Season 5 episode, " Face the Strange ," Captain Burnham and Commander Rayner find themselves both stuck in a loop, but also, jumping all around the timeline of the titular starship. From the point before the U.S.S. Discovery was launched, to pivotal moments in Season 4, Season 3, Season 2 and even very early in Season 1, Rayner notes at one point that, "We’ve gone back in time to when you went forward to the future. That’s a little confusing."

Throughout all of Star Trek 's history, time travel has been just as propulsive to the narratives as space travel. But, within the various time travel stories of Trek , there is a special kind of time-skipping episode — the time loop story. Discovery has recently shaken-up this formula with "Face the Strange," but many elements of this episode pay homage to a proud Star Trek tradition. Here’s the history of the best time loop, and time-jumping episodes across the entire Final Frontier.

" Cause and Effect ," Star Trek: The Next Generation (Season 5, Episode 18)

"Cause and Effect"

Perhaps one of the greatest science fiction episodes of all time, The Next Generation set the gold-standard for how to do time loop episodes.

When the Enterprise collides with another starship in the first scene, this episode poses one question right off the bat: What happens after you blow up the ship — and everyone on it — before the credits roll? The answer is mostly connected to whether or not we can even remember when we're stuck in a loop. Without actually spoiling this classic episode, let's just say thank the stars for Dr. Crusher and Data.

The brilliance of "Cause and Effect" cannot be overstated, but the 21st Century legacy of this episode is utterly appropriate. When Geordi reveals how the time loop works, Riker says, "You mean we could have come into this room, sat at this table and had this conversation a dozen times already?" This scene has become a popular meme format across various social media platforms, satirizing the time loop of some aspects of the internet experience.

" Parallels ," Star Trek: The Next Generation (Season 7, Episode 11)

"Parallels"

Arguably, when Worf starts slipping between realities in "Parallels," the story is more focused on other dimensions, rather than a true time loop. But, each time he pops into a new reality, Worf does tend to reply to his own personal log, which is what began the episode.

Obviously, in each new timeline, Worf's personal log is different, and because he checks it so often in the episode, this gives "Parallels" the feeling of a time loop story, even though Worf is technically moving both forward in time, and also, side-to-side.

On top of all of this, "Parallels" feels time-loopy because so many ideas and plot points from previous seasons of The Next Generation are revisited here. From references to " The Best of Both Worlds ," to the return of Wesley Crusher, "Parallels" brings all the good things of TNG back around again for another look, from a different point of view.

" All Good Things... ," Star Trek: The Next Generation (Season 7, Episode 25)

"All Good Things..."

Speaking of the best of The Next Generation , the immortal series finale is, from a certain point of view, one big time loop. As Jean-Luc Picard shifts between past, present, and future, the biggest mystery of "All Good Things…" is what caused the anomaly in the Devron system? Eventually, we learn that the ending and the beginning of this story are inextricably connected, a paradox that creates a kind of loop that must be broken.

Twenty-nine years later, in the Star Trek: Picard episode, " Imposters ," Captain Liam Shaw references this moment, and notes that Picard and Riker have a "real chicken and egg thing going on." It doesn’t get any more time-loopy than that!

" Visionary ," Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (Season 3, Episode 17)

"Visionary"

When O'Brien starts seeing another version of himself appearing randomly throughout the station, Dr. Bashir briefly floats the idea that he's just having really boring hallucinations. But, as the episode goes on, it becomes clear that O'Brien is actually seeing brief moments in the future, and then, catching up to those moments in the present.

"Visionary" messes with what we expect from a time loop episode, because in all instances of future occurrences, there are literally two O'Briens present, and, when the past O'Brien catches up to the future moment, the duplication effect happens again, creating a kind of visual loop for the audience. The funny thing is, in several instances, the future doesn't play out exactly the way past O'Brien saw the first time, making this one of the wobblier time loops in all of Star Trek .

" Relativity ," Star Trek: Voyager (Season 5, Episode 24)

"Relativity"

In a move very similar to Discovery 's "Face the Strange," this unforgettable episode of Voyager briefly takes us back to a point before the series even begins, showing us Janeway's first moments on Voyager before the ship left the Utopia Planitia Shipyards on Mars. (In "Face the Strange," Burnham and Rayner see Discovery in a drydock on Earth well before the events of Season 1.)

But, Voyager 's jaunt into its own prehistory is just the beginning of a very specific type of time jumping episode. Here, Seven of Nine isn't exactly repeating a loop, but, making several attempts at different times, to prevent a bomb from destroying Voyager . As Tuvok aptly puts it when encountering one version of Seven from the future, "Like many time paradoxes, it's improbable, but not necessarily illogical." Because this episode features multiple versions of Seven, and leaps to various eras of Voyager , it pairs very nicely with Burnham and Rayner's similar jumps in "Face the Strange." Especially the moment where Seven meets herself.

" Shattered ," Star Trek: Voyager (Season 7, Episode 11)

In Engineering, both Chakotay and Janeway with tactical supplies strapped to their bodies look into each other's faces as they shake hands in 'Shattered'

"Shattered"

Does Voyager have the best timey-wimey episodes in all of the Trek franchise? It's hard to say, but if there's another Trek episode that feels like an older sibling of Discovery 's "Face the Strange," it's almost certainly "Shattered," a fan-favorite episode from Voyager 's final season. Here, the captain and the first officer — Janeway and Chakotay — find themselves on a version of the ship that has been split into different time periods.

"Shattered" is one of Star Trek 's greatest retrospective episodes, touching on moments across all of Voyager 's story, and teaming past versions of characters with ones closer to the present. It's a touching story, and, structurally, it's wonderfully homaged in Discovery .

" Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad ," Star Trek: Discovery (Season 1, Episode 7)

Harry Mudd forces Paul Stamets and Michael Burnham down the Discovery hallway as he trails behind them holding them at phaser gunpoint in 'Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad'

"Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad"

One of Discovery 's stand-out moments from Season 1 fully set the stage for "Face the Strange" in Season 5. In "Magic to Make The Sanest Man Go Mad," Harry Mudd sets the ship on a true time loop, in which only Stamets can truly remember what is going on. Like in "Face the Strange," Stamets has a perception that exists outside of time, thanks to taking on the Tardigrade DNA in "Choose Your Pain."

This detail comes in handy in "Face the Strange," where Burnham and Stamets again have to re-team to get Discovery out of a time loop caused by nefarious enemies using time travel technology as a weapon. In Season 1, Burnham and Stamets barely knew each other, much like Burnham and Rayner's relationship in Season 5. But, if there's one thing a time loop or time-jumping episode can do, it’s make people who are just colleagues into best friends for life.

Terran Empire

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The Terran Empire was a repressive interstellar government dominated by the Terrans from Earth , locally named Terra by the 23rd century, in the mirror universe . The Empire ruled by terror, its Imperial Starfleet acting as its iron fist. In the Imperial Starfleet, officers often promoted themselves by killing superiors that did not follow the rules of the Empire. Torture was a common form of interrogation and discipline. ( ENT : " In a Mirror, Darkly "; TOS : " Mirror, Mirror ")

1.1 Religion
2.1 Early history
2.2 21st century
2.3 22nd century
2.4 23rd and 24th centuries
3 Subjugated races
4.1 Background information
4.2 Apocrypha
4.3 See also
4.4 External link

Culture [ ]

Going by rebellion sources, the culture of the Empire was fascistic , described as oppressive, racist and xenophobic , predicated on an unconditional hatred and rejection of anything and everything "other". Michael Burnham summarized this information by identifying the Empire as the antithesis of the United Federation of Planets in every way. ( DIS : " Despite Yourself ")

Humans of the prime universe could be violent, but violence was so ingrained in Terran culture that it self-propagated as an evolutionary survival mechanism, resulting in a strength that Michael Burnham described as "painted rust" – a facade hiding mutual fear between target and potential killer. From what she had heard of the Terran Empire, Katrina Cornwell came to the conclusion that, on the basis that prime universe Humans would be unaccustomed to the barbarism commonplace on Terran starships, the prime universe's Gabriel Lorca could not have survived his trip to the mirror universe. ( DIS : " Despite Yourself ", " The War Without, The War Within ")

Philippa Georgiou claimed that the only motivation Terrans had for any given action was revenge . ( DIS : " Die Trying ")

Religion [ ]

During a debrief at Starfleet Headquarters in the 32nd century , the former Terran emperor , Philippa Georgiou , revealed that an alternate First Contact Day was celebrated in the Terran Empire as a Holy Day, commemorating Zefram Cochrane 's successful repulse of the first wave of a Vulcan invasion and the acquisition of Vulcan technology which was used to establish the Empire as a space-faring power. ( DIS : " Die Trying ") She also claimed that an emperor's victims became their servants in the afterlife. ( DIS : " Terra Firma, Part 1 ")

History [ ]

Early history [ ].

In 2155 , Commander Jonathan Archer stated that the Empire had existed for "centuries". ( ENT : " In a Mirror, Darkly ") One of the Empire's early outer space conquests was a landing on Terra's moon , Luna , where it planted its flag. ( ENT : " In a Mirror, Darkly ", " In a Mirror, Darkly, Part II " opening credits ) Millennia ago, Terrans abandoned ideals such as freedom, equality and co-operation as they found them to be, in Georgiou's words, "destructive ideals that fuel rebellions". ( DIS : " Vaulting Ambition ")

21st century [ ]

Humanity's first contact with an alien species in the mirror universe began exactly as it did in the traditional universe. Upon detecting Zefram Cochrane 's warp signature , the Vulcan scout ship T'Plana-Hath landed in Bozeman , Montana , to make first contact with Humanity. Instead of welcoming the Vulcans in a spirit of friendship and understanding, the mirror Cochrane killed the first Vulcan to set foot on Terran soil with a shotgun , as the he and his fellow Terrans boarded and ransacked the Vulcan ship after killing the first officer also. According to mirror Archer, the Vulcan first contact was considered a prelude to invasion.

Instead of the Vulcans gradually releasing technology to Terra over time, the Terran Empire applied the stolen Vulcan technology to a policy of aggressive interstellar expansion. Because of this, the Empire was able to engage in technological research and development considerably earlier than its United Earth counterpart in the prime universe. ( ENT : " In a Mirror, Darkly ")

22nd century [ ]

By the 2150s , the Terran Empire had already conquered the Vulcans , Denobulans , Andorians , Aenar , Orions , and Tellarites and had launched attacks against the Klingons , Rigelians , and Xindi . The flagship of the Empire, the ISS Enterprise , under the command of Captain Maximilian Forrest , had a much more racially-diverse crew than its prime-universe counterpart, with numerous Vulcans and Tellarites serving as crew members.

Due to the rapid initial expansion made possible by the captured Vulcan technology, the Empire's hold on its territories was initially weak. By 2155 , some of the worlds conquered by the Terrans were beginning to rebel against Terran rule, leading to a long-running conflict , and after a disastrous defeat at Tau Ceti , the Empire came to the brink of collapse. Propaganda , however, conveyed the message that things were going in the Empire's favor and that the war would be over soon.

In that year, the USS Defiant , a Federation ship launched in the 23rd century of a parallel universe , was reported in Tholian space. The first officer of the ISS Enterprise , Commander Archer, reviewed this report and proposed a bold surgical strike at an asteroid base at which the Tholians were keeping the Defiant . Archer's proposal was quickly rejected by Forrest, causing Archer to mutiny against his captain and take control of Enterprise to retrieve the Defiant so its technology could be utilized against the rebellion. Enterprise traveled to the base and dispatched a boarding party to gain all information they could about the ship, and destroy it to prevent the Tholians from being able to use it. Unfortunately, during the retrieval operation, the Tholians attacked Enterprise and destroyed it, stranding the boarding party aboard the Defiant . ( ENT : " In a Mirror, Darkly ")

Emperors Eyes Only - Background on Mirror Universe PADD

The truth about interphasic space and the origin of the Defiant remained classified for "Emperor's Eyes Only" into the mid-23rd century.

Following the destruction of the ISS Enterprise and the death of Captain Forrest, Commander Archer and his away team commandeered the USS Defiant . They proceeded to destroy the Tholian hangar in which the ship was being held and rescued a number of former Enterprise crewmembers , including Hoshi Sato , after apparent consideration of leaving their comrades stranded. Archer made a rendezvous with the ISS Avenger , the flagship of Admiral Black . Archer vaporized the admiral and took command of both vessels.

However, this coincided with Commander T'Pol and Crewman Soval leading the other non-Human crewmembers on board the Avenger in a mutiny aboard the ship. They attacked the Defiant in hopes of destroying it but the mutiny itself was destroyed after Commander Charles Tucker III reinitialized power systems that Phlox had attempted to disable. Commander Archer, acting as captain, then set a direct course for Terra, where he intended to declare himself Emperor of the Terran Empire. However, Hoshi Sato poisoned him with the assistance of his bodyguard , Travis Mayweather . The two then took control of the Defiant , and upon arriving at Terra, Sato declared herself Empress . ( ENT : " In a Mirror, Darkly, Part II ")

At some point between 2155 and the 2250s, the symbol of the Empire appears to have been altered. The earlier symbol closely resembled that of the United Earth government, depicting all of Terra's continents, though replacing a laurel of peace with an aggressive sword. However, by the mid- 23rd century , the symbol, while remaining essentially the same, had a mirrored globe and what seemed to be an inverted delta in the background. ( ENT : " In a Mirror, Darkly, Part II "; DIS : " Despite Yourself ")

23rd and 24th centuries [ ]

Terran emblem in 2256

By the mid- 23rd century , the Terran Empire had conquered much of known space. However, it continued to be resisted by an alliance of non-Human species, including Vulcans , Andorians , and Klingons . Furthermore Gabriel Lorca of the ISS Buran attempted a failed coup against Emperor Philippa Georgiou . By 2256 or 2257 Starfleet engaged a rebel fleet at Porathia . ( DIS : " Despite Yourself ")

The same year, the Imperial Intelligence located the headquarters of the resistance on Harlak , which was destroyed by the ISS Charon . ( DIS : " The Wolf Inside ")

In 2257, Lorca was able to resume his coup against Georgiou, having escaped the mirror universe and manipulated his way back with a Federation starship, the USS Discovery . For a while, the coup was successful, but Discovery had been informed that Lorca was Terran by the prime Michael Burnham , who Lorca had become obsessed with due to his relationship with the mirror Burnham , and Discovery defeated Lorca. However, although Lorca was killed, not only was Georgiou deposed, but the Charon had been destroyed, and she had been brought to the prime universe, resulting in a power vacuum. ( DIS : " Vaulting Ambition ", " What's Past Is Prologue ", " The War Without, The War Within ")

Not long after this, the symbol was changed yet again, returning to its delta-less version and, this time, depicting only the continents of Terra's western hemisphere.

Eventually, the power vacuum was filled. The Empire encountered a Gorlan uprising, to which the ISS Enterprise , captained by James T. Kirk , responded with the destruction of the rebels' home planet. Other feats of Captain Kirk by 2264 included the execution of five thousand colonists on Vega IX and the annihilation of all remaining inhabitants of Talos IV . In 2267, the Empire coveted the dilithium reserves of the Halkan homeworld and Kirk interceded to demand mining rights on behalf of the Empire.

Emblem worn by a Terran slave

In that year, crewmembers of the ISS Enterprise , including Captain Kirk, accidentally switched places with their prime universe counterparts of the USS Enterprise , who in the same time were transported aboard the mirror version of the Enterprise . Kirk believed that the mirror Spock would one day become captain of the ISS Enterprise , and before returning to his own reality, he planted a seed of doubt about the inevitability of the Empire and whether violence was the only logical answer. Spock promised to consider Kirk's words, after realizing the Empire would only last about 240 years before being overthrown. ( TOS : " Mirror, Mirror ")

As Kirk predicted, the mirror Spock later eventually rose to become Commander-in-Chief of the Empire. He began instituting major reforms that were very popular, turning the Empire into a more peaceful and less aggressive power. However, Spock's reforms left the Empire unprepared to defend itself against the emerging threat of a united Klingon-Cardassian Alliance , which managed to conquer the entire Terran Empire, turning the Terrans themselves into a slave race. The Bajorans , a people conquered by the Empire, came to be a powerful voice in this Alliance. ( DS9 : " Crossover ")

Subjugated races [ ]

Appendices [ ], background information [ ].

Robert Hewitt Wolfe decided to give the Terran Empire some formidable enemies. " Empires aren't usually brutal unless there's a reason. There are usually external or internal pressures that cause them to be that way, " he commented. " So I just thought that if the parallel Earth was that brutal, there had to be a reason. And the reason was that the barbarians (the Klingons and the Cardassians ) were at the gate. " ( Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion (p. ? ))

Wolfe based the Terran Empire's predicament on historical precedents. He further elaborated, " My analogy was to the Roman Empire. The Roman Empire was as brutal and as nasty as it was because all around it, it had very aggressive barbarians that it was afraid of. The Chinese had the same thing, the Mongols were always there. So if you suddenly make the Romans nice guys, or the Chinese nice guys, well that's great and everything, but then the Mongols come across and it's all over. So that was kind of the idea. " ( citation needed • edit )

In the first draft script of DS9 : " Through the Looking Glass ", Benjamin Sisko described the Terran Empire as "corrupt, brutal, and doomed to collapse in any case." Mirror O'Brien, however, longed for the days when the Empire still existed and, later in the same script, Rom suggested reestablishing the Empire once the Terran Rebellion succeeded, with Sisko as the head of the Empire. Sisko himself, though, was against that idea, commenting, " The Terran Empire was every bit as corrupt as the Alliance. " The Empire wasn't referenced at all in the final draft script of "Through the Looking Glass". ( Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion - A Series Guide and Script Library ; [3] )

After the premiere of DIS : " Vaulting Ambition ", screenwriter Jordon Nardino answered fan's questions through his Twitter feed. On the topic of the Terran Empire's relation to ancient Rome, Nardino stated that, " Lots of discussion in the room about the origins of the Terran Empire. In terms of canon, as always, it's what's on screen and nothing more. Unanswered questions leave avenues for future seasons / iterations of Trek to explore. I do not know if MU's "point of departure" is a specific incident, or the entire history of the MU somehow darkly mirrors ours. Canon locks us into an origin no later than the 20th century. Georgiou's "millenia" could be construed as hyperbole. But I firmly do not believe the Terrans are merely a continuation of the Roman Empire. MU earth history should roughly (but darkly) mirror our history as much as possible. I think Rome never falling would diverge too much. Leaders with imperial pretensions have adopted the styles and titles of the Romans since… well… the minute Rome "fell"! Napoleon took the title Augustus. So it's natural the Terrans looked back to Rome too. " ( 'After Trek' Gives Details On Georgiou's Meal, Mirror Stamets, Terran Empire History And More ; [4] )

On the topic of Terran history and the meaning behind mirror Philippa Georgiou 's elaborate title, Nardino stated:

" All Hail her most Imperial Majesty, Mother of the Fatherland, Overlord of Vulcan, Dominus of Kronos, Regina Andor, All Hail Philippa Georgiou Augustus Iaponius Centarius. " But what's it mean??!? When we began digging into the Terrans last year, I had just read a newer history of Rome and was excited to use it as inspiration. ( SPQR by Mary Beard, check it out.) Here's some of the titles Roman Emperors used: [LINK ] So into her titles: – Father of the Fatherland is easy, we turned that into Mother of the Fatherland (even tho we de-gendered Emperor, it felt right) – Overlord of Vulcan : an early conquest of the Terrans, they see themselves as their protectors. It's paternalistic / delusional. – Dominus of Kronos : Terrans are very proud of conquering Qo'noS. Dominus is a harsher title the Emperor at the time took as a result (and Georgiou kept for herself). "We OWN them." Qo'noS mispronounced out of cultural chauvinism. – Regina Andor : Andoria is a jewel in the Terran crowd. Subjugated warrior race. Early Terran conquest, pre-Sato. The title was created to celebrate this achievement. Now as for Georgiou's many names… "Philippa Georgiou Augustus Iaponius Centarius" Philipa Georgiou: her given name and her family name, just like Prime. Augustus: the Terrans see themselves as inheritors of the Roman Empire so their Emperors take the title of its first Emperor. ( 'After Trek' Gives Details On Georgiou's Meal, Mirror Stamets, Terran Empire History And More ; [5] )

Additionally, Nardino considered that Centaurius was the first system colonized by the Terrans owing to its proximity to Sol, thus resulting in the then-ruling Emperor taking its title in tribute. ( 'After Trek' Gives Details On Georgiou's Meal, Mirror Stamets, Terran Empire History And More ; [6] )

Apocrypha [ ]

In the game Star Trek: Voyager - Elite Force , part of the story involves going through a scavenger base composed of many species' ships. One of these ships is an Imperial Starfleet vessel, apparently dating back to the 23rd century. It is populated by Humans, who behave typically for the mirror universe. How it came to be in Voyager 's canon dimension is unknown.

The novel The Sorrows of Empire depicts Spock becoming Emperor of the Terran Empire in 2277 and reforming the Empire into a democratic society, only to be overthrown and killed by the Klingon-Cardassian Alliance in 2295. At the same time, he engineers events leading to the formation of the Alliance, believing that their conquest of the former Empire will ultimately lead to their downfall and the establishment of a Federation-style republic in the future (which occurs in the follow-up novel Rise Like Lions ).

In the Star Trek: The Next Generation novel Dark Mirror – written and published before DS9's televised visits to the Mirror Universe – the Terran Empire (called the United Empire of Planets) is depicted as still existing in the 24th century, with Spock's reforms having been cut short by his death , speculated by Captain Jean-Luc Picard to be the result of his assassination after he pushed the Empire too far, too quickly. The crew of the mirror Enterprise -D are assigned a new mission to devise a means of bringing a ship from the prime universe into the mirror universe and then return after replacing its crew, the Empire having run out of territory that it can easily conquer in its own universe, but the Enterprise crew of the prime universe manage to sabotage their efforts and devise a method of detecting future incursions.

In the computer game Star Trek Online , by 2409, the Terran Rebellion has succeeded in overthrowing the Klingon-Cardassian Alliance and restored the Terran Empire to its former status as a major power in the quadrant . The Terran Empire of the 25th century has also returned to the old ways, having engaged in a series of hostile incursions into the prime universe. The Empire attempts to invade that universe using a trans-dimensional portal in the Badlands , and later allies with the Temporal Liberation Front. Imperial ships have markings similar to those used in the 22nd century, albeit red instead of yellow. The Emperor in the 25th century is revealed in the episode "The Eye of the Storm" (released in September 2022) to be the mirror counterpart of Wesley Crusher , who seeks to combine his powers from the Traveler with those of "the Other" (the mirror counterpart of V'ger ) to become a god and destroy all of existence. After he is defeated, he is replaced by Leeta , who up to that point had commanded the ISS Enterprise -F.

The mirror universe novella Saturn's Children identifies Andorians, Bolians , Tellarites, and Denobulans as part of the rebellion. Whereas the success of the Terran Rebellion has led to the reinstatement of the Terran Empire in Star Trek Online , in the novels, the democratic Commonwealth is established.

External link [ ]

Terran Empire at Memory Beta , the wiki for licensed Star Trek works
3 ISS Enterprise (NCC-1701)

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Star Trek: Discovery picks up immediately where “ Face the Strange ” left off, as our protagonists track their quarry’s ship to a hidden, interdimensional pocket of space that holds a few surprises for them and the audience.

Thanks to some sciencing from Paul Stamets ( Anthony Rapp ) and Sylvia Tilly ( Mary Wiseman ), Captain Michael Burnham ( Sonequa Martin-Green ) has a way to find where Moll ( Eve Harlow ) and L’ak ( Elias Toufexis ) are. Apparently, there’s a wormhole hiding in plain sight near where Discovery lost track of the criminals’ warp signature.

This wormhole is too small for a Crossfield- class ship to fit through, so Burnham and Cleveland Booker ( David Ajala ) – the latter of whom is on a mission to rehabilitate Moll, if possible – take a shuttle and see what’s on the other side of the wormhole’s aperture. Find a surprise, they do indeed, as the I.S.S. Enterprise , the evil version of the heroic Starfleet ship, is nestled in the wormhole – albeit without its crew, which apparently evacuated the vessel at some point. It’s beaten to hell and serves as a refuge for Moll and L’ak, whose own ship was destroyed by the interdimensional pocket of space’s destructive environment.

Discovery writers sure can be sneaky! They’ve been foreshadowing the appearance of a Constitution -class for the last two episodes; remember when Gen Rhys ( Patrick Kwok-Choon ) and Commander Rayner ( Callum Keith Rennie ) both remarked the Connie was their favorite ship? As we’ll see, this isn’t the last bit of foreshadowing that comes true in this episode.

“How did it end up in interdimensional space?” “I don’t know. Must be one hell of a story.” – Book and Burnham upon seeing the I.S.S. Enterprise

Astute viewers will recognize an often-used cost-saving measure in the annals of Star Trek history: the reuse of sets from another concurrent show. (Seriously, rewatch TNG , DS9 , and Voyager and you’ll be surprised how often props and sets are reused between those shows.) As Burnham and Book explore various halls and rooms, including the bridge and sickbay, the familiar surroundings seen in Strange New Worlds are subtly transformed by Mirror Universe iconography. While nods to the iconic starship Enterprise are always appreciated, our initial reaction to this surprise location—admittedly tinged with pessimism—is that it’s of course it’s the Enterprise . A practical move, perhaps, to keep expenses in check. By Grabthar’s hammer… what a savings.

Finding the ship deserted sure is strange, and Burnham and Book ascertain Moll and L’ak are in sickbay, presumably with the next clue in the Progenitor puzzle. But first, the pair check out the transporter room, which holds some strange items, such as blankets, children’s toys, and a locket that holds a picture of two people, which Burnham inexplicably decides to take with her. Moreover, the dedication plaque of the I.S.S Enterprise tells the story of the ship and its crew: the Terran Universe emperor seemingly tried to make changes to the way things were done in that evil universe, and the Enterprise escaped and picked up refugees who were trying to flee the Terran Universe and enter the Prime Universe.

One of the leaders among those on the Enterprise was a Kelpien, who Burnham deduces must have been the Mirror Universe version of Saru, and that the crew must have fled the Enterprise once it got stuck in the interdimensional pocket of space. Is it just us, or does this sound like a potential episode of Strange New Worlds ?

Burnham, Book, Moll, and L’ak face off in sickbay, where Burnham makes a startling connection between L’ak and a particular dilemma he is facing. The criminal pair hope to use the Progenitor treasure to clear L’ak’s Breen blood bounty. Yes, L’ak is Breen, that enigmatic and masked species from Deep Space Nine . Neato!

The rest of the episode bounces between what’s happening on the Enterprise , and flashing back to how Moll and L’ak first met and became romantically involved. Moll, the courier, would do business on the Breen space station on which L’ak, a member of a royal Breen family, was posted. The two connected over L’ak’s recent demotion and efforts to fight the embarrassment that came with it.

Over some time, the two became nearly inseparable, and L’ak even took the bold step with Moll by showing her his face – a big deal in Breen culture, as keeping their masks on allows them to retain their true, semi-transparent form, and not the solidified appearance we’ve seen on L’ak. Their relationship is tested when L’ak’s superior (and uncle), Primarch Ruhn ( Tony Nappo ) decides to interrupt their courtship. L’ak doesn’t take kindly to being asked to kill Moll, so the Breen turns on his own people, earns a Breen blood bounty, and flees with Moll. The pair now share a goal: earn enough latinum to retire on an (unnamed) fabled planet somewhere in the Gamma Quadrant, free from the trials and hardships of the courier life.

Suffice it to say, “Mirrors” is most memorable because it casts a welcome light on the shadowed backstory of this season’s main villains. Moll and L’ak are now a relatable pair, star-crossed lovers who are hell-bent on earning themselves a happy ending. As much as we don’t want to see the Progenitors’ tech get into the wrong hands, who now doesn’t want to see everything work out for Moll and L’ak?

Anyway, the quartet still need to get off the Enterprise , but the shuttle on which Burnham and Book arrived is destroyed by the turbulent pocket of space. With mere minutes to spare before the Enterprise is destroyed by the wormhole’s tiny aperture, Book and Moll share some last-minute words about their shared relationship with the late Cleveland Booker, and how Book hopes Moll makes the right choices regarding her quest for the Progenitor tech. Burnham, meanwhile, engages in a melee with L’ak, and the Breen ends up injured and inadvertently relinquishes control to Burnham of the next map piece in the Progenitor puzzle. The courier and disgraced Breen end up escaping the ship in a convenient Terran warp pod, leaving the chase between our heroes and enemies for another day.

“If we hit it precisely with a sequential hexagonal pattern, it should stay open for approximately sixty seconds. But once it collapses, it’s gone for good.” “Why hexagonal?” “Doesn’t matter… it’ll work.” – Adira ( Blu del Barrio ), Rayner, and Stamets as the crew finds a way to get the wormhole aperture bigger. We think this line from Stamets is reflective of the evolving working relationship between the results-orientated Rayner and the crew, and how this relationship is getting better the longer Rayner is first officer.

Burnham devises a novel way to signal her first officer for help in getting the Enterprise through the aperture: a pulsing tractor beam emitting from the Enterprise , shot through the wormhole’s opening, in a numerical sequence featured in a famous play from Kellerun culture. Rayner is then able to lead his crew to devise a way to pull the Enterprise into normal space.

The sequence where Rayner is faced with command of a ship tasked with the near-impossible rescue of his captain is the best of the episode. It’s no secret Rayner was knocked down a few pegs after his demotion and reassignment to Discovery , but that lack of confidence and inner angst is demolished thanks to Rayner listening and working with his bridge crew to save the Enterprise . Plenty of lesser-known bridge officers get a say in how Discovery could help the Mirror ship, and lightning-fast decision-making shows Rayner back on his game.

The last element to note about this episode is some emotional trouble Doctor Hugh Culber ( Wilson Cruz ) is having. Tilly provides an outlet for this angst. Culber explains the experiences he’s had in the last few years – namely dying, coming back to life, and being a Trill host – really put into perspective the intellectual journey he is on in the face of the Progenitor’s quest. Tilly helps him realize he isn’t only experiencing an intellectual quest, but a spiritual one. This conversation is just another instance of Discovery setting up some wild expectations for what the crew might ultimately discover at the end of the season – something beyond the bounds of science, perhaps?

Even though their prey gets away again, Burnham and her crew have the next clue in the Progenitor puzzle, and it is hiding in the I.S.S. Enterprise ’s sickbay. Hidden in the map piece Burnham grabbed from L’ak is a vial, which Stamets will analyze soon. Burnham learns the crew who escaped from the I.S.S. Enterprise ended up in the Prime Universe and were able to start new lives. A Terran scientist aboard the Enterprise , Dr. Cho, ended up being a branch admiral, and we’re meant to assume she was one of the scientists on Dr. Vellek’s team hundreds of years ago as they studied the Progenitor tech. Dr. Cho then hid her piece of the Progenitor puzzle aboard her old ship as a symbolic gesture of her ability to find freedom in a new universe.

Discovery continues its final season with another thumbs-up episode that serves an important lore-building role in the franchise. Seeing the Breen again is a joy, especially since we were staring at one the whole time and never knew it. And how striking was that Breen space station where L’ak was based? Another important note for Star Trek historians is that now the Mirror Universe Enterprise is in the 32 nd century, and stationed near Earth thanks to Joann Owosekun and Keyla Detmer piloting the ship back to Federation space. Will we see that ship again this season?

As the Progenitor puzzle deepens, so do the emotional stakes for our crew, exemplified by Culber’s introspective journey, the subtle reignition of Book and Burnham’s relationship, and Rayner’s triumphant return to leadership. We’re now at the halfway point in this season, so there’s still plenty of time for surprises, emotional consequences, and expectation-setting for this eagerly awaited treasure.

Stray Thoughts:

Hopefully, you’re watching this episode with subtitles on, because goodness is it hard to hear what masked Breen says.
The Mirror Universe version of the U.S.S. Enterprise was last seen in the Original Series episode “Mirror, Mirror,” albeit this wasn’t the Strange New Worlds version of the ship. Likewise, the Terran version of Spock, whom Booker asks if Burnham ever met, was in that same episode.
How did Adira conclude they were the one who brought the time bug aboard Discovery ?
Why didn’t Burnham and Book try talking down Moll and L’ak before diving into the room with the holo-projected doubles?

New episodes of Star Trek: Discovery stream Thursdays on Paramount+ , this season stars Sonequa Martin-Green (Captain Michael Burnham), Doug Jones (Saru), Anthony Rapp (Paul Stamets), Mary Wiseman (Sylvia Tilly), Wilson Cruz (Dr. Hugh Culber), David Ajala (Cleveland “Book” Booker), Blu del Barrio (Adira) and Callum Keith Rennie (Rayner). Season five also features recurring guest stars Elias Toufexis (L’ak) and Eve Harlow (Moll).

Stay tuned to TrekNews.net for all the latest news on Star Trek: Discovery , Star Trek: Prodigy , Star Trek: Strange New Worlds , Star Trek: Lower Decks , and more.

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Kyle Hadyniak has been a lifelong Star Trek fan, and isn't ashamed to admit that Star Trek V: The Final Frontier and Star Trek: Nemesis are his favorite Star Trek movies. You can follow Kyle on Twitter @khady93 .

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Every major star trek villain species, ranked.

Star Trek has featured plenty of intimidating alien races over the years, from the highly secretive Romulans to the terrifying space zombies the Borg.

Star Trek has featured a plethora of intriguing villain species over its seven-decade run, as well as a few that haven't quite worked. As humans sought out new life and new civilizations in Star Trek 's future, they were bound to run into some that weren't exactly friendly. The antagonistic species the crew of the USS Enterprise and other Starfleet vessels encountered were often reflections of humanity's own past failings, with fascist regimes and violent dictatorships in full swing across the galaxy.

Not every Star Trek story features a cut-and-dry alien villain; sometimes Starfleet officers face aliens with whom they simply have a misunderstanding in good faith, like Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) and an unintelligible Tamarian captain in the classic Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Darmok," or the misunderstood creature called the Horta encountered by Captain James T. Kirk (William Shatner) in the Star Trek: The Original Series episode "The Devil In The Dark." That said, most of Star Trek 's iconic antagonists are alien species with clear hostility toward the idealism Starfleet and the Federation stand for. Here's a ranking of every major Star Trek villain species.

Related: Every First Officer In Star Trek Canon Ranked

10 The Kazon

The Kazon were supposed to be Star Trek: Voyager 's ultimate bad guys, but it didn't quite work out that way. A warrior race bent on conquest, they generally came across as cheap knockoffs of the Klingons. Even the Borg didn't want to assimilate them. The Kazon would unsuccessfully menace Captain Kathryn Janeway (Kate Mulgrew) and the crew of the USS Voyager for the show's first two seasons before being phased out of the show in the season 3 premiere "Basics, Part II." Star Trek: Prodigy has somewhat reimagined the Kazon as slave traders, but they remain one of Star Trek 's most underwhelming antagonists.

9 The Ferengi

The Ferengi were conceived by Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry to be TNG 's primary antagonists, but their initial appearance in the season 1 episode "The Last Outpost" scuttled that plan. TNG would eventually find their true villains in Q (John de Lancie) and the Borg, with the Ferengi only appearing sparingly over the rest of the series, often as comic relief. The Ferengi were eventually salvaged when Star Trek: Deep Space Nine refocused them as ultra-capitalists, largely through the duplicitous station bartender Quark (Armin Shimerman) . Still, even if you owe them Latinum, most Star Trek species aren't particularly intimidated by the Ferengi.

8 The Breen

The Breen began as something of a running joke on TNG , often referenced but never actually seen. No one was laughing when they eventually made their debut on DS9 . A brutally violent species that wear fully enclosed atmosphere suits to acclimate to warmer climates, the Breen Confederacy became a major galactic player in the final days of the Dominion War, aligning themselves with the Changelings to take on the Federation, even managing to destroy Captain Benjamin Sisko's (Avery Brooks) ship the USS Defiant. The fearsome Breen returned in the Star Trek: Lower Decks season 3 episode "Trusted Sources," having overrun the planet Brekka. The Breen remain a mysterious, potent threat to Starfleet.

The Gorn are a lizard-like species that debuted in the TOS episode "Arena," where Captain Kirk was forced into a fight to the death with one of the monstrous creatures. One of the few purely malevolent species in Star Trek , the Gorn have been referenced often over the years but only made their return recently in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds . The family of the Enterprise's security chief Lieutenant La'an Noonien-Singh (Christina Chong) was murdered by Gorn when she was a child, and she was forced to relive her trauma when the Enterprise crew had to face a group of homicidal Gorn hatchlings.

Related: Strange New Worlds Retcons Star Trek: TOS' Gorn Timeline

6 The Jem'Hadar

The Jem'Hadar were a genetically-engineered warrior species that served as the Dominion's primary military force during the Dominion War. Physically powerful and with little regard for their own lives, they were bred to be the ultimate killing machines. They were addicted to the drug ketracel-white, and their dependence on the drug provided by the Dominion kept them in line. While unintended by their Dominion masters, the Jem'Hadar developed a somewhat twisted sense of honor; they weren't true believers in the Dominion cause, they simply had no other choice but to obey. In many ways, the Jem'Hadar were as much victims of the Dominion War as anyone else.

5 The Romulans

One of Star Trek 's oldest enemy aliens, the Romulans debuted all the way back in the TOS season 1 classic episode "Balance Of Terror." Since that initial stunner of an episode, the insidious Romulan Star Empire remained a constant threat to the Federation. They maintained something of a cold war with the Federation during the TNG era until their home planet, Romulus, was destroyed by a supernova in the late 24th century. After the destruction of Romulus, the Romulan Empire was severely weakened, but they were still powerful enough to send a 200-ship-strong armada to attack a planet of synthetics in the Star Trek: Picard season 1 finale.

4 The Changelings

The Changelings, also known as the Founders, were the primary species behind the Dominion. The rulers of the Gamma Quadrant naturally reverted to a gelatinous goo form, and generally congregated together in a massive sea known as the Great Link. Condescending and arrogant, the Changelings believed humanoids were inferior life forms and referred to them derisively as "solids." They sought to annihilate the Federation in the Dominion War through both direct attacks and complicated subterfuge. They were eventually defeated when Starfleet infected the Great Link with a deadly virus, which was ultimately cured when the benevolent Changeling Odo (Rene Auberjonois) rejoined the Link at the conclusion of DS9 .

3 The Klingons

Since TOS season 1, the Klingons have been portrayed as a warrior race obsessed with honor and conquest. The Klingons have looked quite different over Star Trek 's history, though the most frequent appearance has been the one made famous in TNG , featuring pronounced head ridges and leather and chain battle gear. By the era of TNG , the Klingons were somewhat uneasy allies of the Federation, though that alliance was temporarily dissolved in the lead-up to the Dominion War. Whether friend or foe, the Klingons are always a volatile, unpredictable species who yearn for battle and glory, often against the wishes of the Federation.

Related: Discovery Season 5 Must Reintroduce TNG Style Klingons

2 The Cardassians

The Cardassians were introduced in TNG , but they became an iconic villain species on Deep Space Nine . Long an enemy of the Federation, the Cardassians had declared an uneasy truce with the Federation by the time of DS9 . During their years-long conflict with the Federation, the Cardassians occupied the peaceful, non-Federation planet Bajor. The Cardassians brutalized the Bajorans, perceiving them as an inferior race suitable only for slave labor. Charismatic monsters like Gul Dukat (Marc Alaimo) saw these atrocities as the necessary cost of building an empire, indifferent to the plight of the innocent. The ultimate treatment of the Cardassians at the hands of the Dominion was a bitter irony.

A species of faceless, voiceless cybernetic zombies, the Borg are the most threatening villains in all of Star Trek . Introduced in the TNG season 2 episode "Q Who," the Borg assimilate entire planets and species into their collective with the explicit goal of making all of the universe Borg. After assimilating Captain Picard in the TNG season 3 episode "The Best Of Both Worlds," the Borg decimated Starfleet at the battle of Wolf 359 on their way to assimilate Earth. The Borg were critically wounded in the Star Trek: Voyager series finale "Endgame," but they remain the most dire threat to humanity in all of Star Trek .

More: Every Borg Queen In Star Trek

Star Trek: Discovery Just Brought A Legendary Original Series Episode Back Into The Mix

Let's fly ... away from spoilers . Read no further if you haven't watched the latest episode of "Star Trek: Discovery."

Mirror, mirror on the wall, who's the strangest of them all? In "Star Trek," that title goes to one of the zaniest concepts ever introduced into the canon: The Mirror Universe. The idea of our alternate selves living completely different lives somewhere out there is no longer the sole domain of perhaps the nerdiest franchise in all of sci-fi (although shows like "For All Mankind," "Foundation," and "3 Body Problem" are creating some stiff competition), the Marvel Cinematic Universe, or the best episode of "Community" ever made . Fans might be surprised to find out that many in the scientific community believe the theory is worth discussion these days . But "Trek" put its own unmistakable fingerprints on the multiverse by emphasizing one in particular that stands at odds with the usual Prime Universe — one that poses a fundamentally moral dilemma between the paragons of Starfleet we know and love, and the absolute worst versions of themselves.

It doesn't come as a huge surprise that "Star Trek: Discovery" would use its final season to travel full circle and return to the Mirror Universe that played such a significant role back in season 1 (even if, ironically, there might be a parallel universe out there where we were able to see former showrunner Bryan Fuller's more complex and nuanced take on it ). But what's sure to shock and delight longtime fans in episode 5, aptly titled "Mirrors," is a deep-cut reference to arguably one of the most influential hours of "Trek" ever made, and the one that introduced the Mirror Universe in the first place.

A different kind of black mirror

There might not be any sinister goatees or chest-baring V-necks in sight throughout this episode of "Discovery," but the lasting effects of "The Original Series" episode "Mirror, Mirror" are plain to see. Upon entering the wormhole that took scavengers Moll (Eve Harlow) and L'ak (Elias Toufexis) into multidimensional space, Captain Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) and Book (David Ajala) discover the wrecked remains of their ship ... alongside the still-functioning husk of a familiar-looking Starfleet vessel, emblazoned with the name, "ISS Enterprise." For those who haven't brushed up on their 1967 "Trek" lore (and, quite frankly, shame on you if that's the case), Burnham helpfully points out that this isn't exactly the same starship captained by the fabled James T. Kirk thousands of years ago. It's one that has somehow found its way from the depths of the Mirror Universe (the exact specifics are oddly brushed aside) and remained stranded ever since.

But then "Discovery" goes a step further and hearkens back to "Mirror, Mirror" more thematically. While exploring the derelict ship, Burnham and Book stumble upon information about the previous occupants of the ISS Enterprise and specifically that of a certain Kelpian who rose from a slave to a leader in his own right. That, of course, refers to none other than the Mirror version of Saru (Doug Jones) seen in season 3, whom Emperor Georgiou (Michelle Yeoh) saved from certain death and pointed towards his proper path. Where the ending of "Mirror, Mirror" suggests that Mirror Spock is still "a man of integrity" despite the ruthlessness of the Empire he serves, "Discovery" reconfirms that even the comically rampant evil of the Mirror Universe is no match for the stubborn idealism of "Trek."

New episodes of "Star Trek: Discovery" stream on Paramount+ every Thursday.

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Michelle Yeoh and Sonequa Martin-Green in Star Trek: Discovery.

Star Trek: Discovery review – a darker vision boldly goes into the future

The latest addition to the Star Trek canon has found a bona fide star in Sonequa Martin-Green, but the world around her lacks the deep space to succeed

S tar Trek posits a future of feminism, political rapprochement between generations-old enemies and the pursuit of racial equality . But it’s also only as progressive as its writers think their audience is. Maybe that’s why the latest version, Star Trek: Discovery, is more depressing than it probably intends to be.

It’s not bad at all. In fact, the new show probably has a genuine star on its hands in Sonequa Martin-Green, the first woman of color to act in the role of series protagonist. She is preceded in the position by both a woman – Kate Mulgrew, who led the good ship Voyager – and another person of color – Avery Brooks, hero of Deep Space Nine – by more than two decades, so she is asked to prove herself a bit less than she might be otherwise, and she is often the anchor that keeps Discovery from drifting off into the shallows of artificially high stakes, over-explained backstory, and tertiary plot threads that pervade so much contemporary sci-fi.

Discovery’s first two episodes amount to an old-fashioned two-hour pilot – a long-form bait-and-switch that establishes our crew, captain and quest and then tosses them all in a blender.

Those episodes are often gripping, but they don’t accomplish as much narratively as one might hope. For one thing, they don’t quite put Martin-Green’s character, Michael Burnham, on the Discovery itself, much less in the captain’s chair. Two actors named in the opening credits, Anthony Rapp and Jason Isaacs, don’t even have a moment of screen time, for another. This is a serialized show that aims to reward time invested, not to do something as paltry as entertain its viewers an hour at a time.

Michael is a wonderful character, an homage to Leonard Nimoy’s Mr Spock, who is her adoptive brother, according to the network. She is a human raised by emotionless Vulcans, and the way Martin-Green plays her longing for her father, distant both physically and spiritually, gives her a rare texture.

When the series begins, Michael is second-in-command to Michelle Yeoh’s Philippa Georgiou, an experienced and levelheaded captain who commands respect and admiration in much the same way as Patrick Stewart’s Jean-Luc Picard. And as the show’s Picard was to commander Riker, so is Captain Georgiou to Michael: a mentor, a friend, a surrogate parent. There is a crew of recognizable actors, notably a blessedly comic turn from Doug Jones as the fretful science officer, and then everything goes horribly, but excitingly, wrong.

Discovery, laden with eye-popping special effects but rather short on high concepts, owes less to other shows in the TV franchise than to the recently revitalized series of movies. JJ Abrams’ first two films, especially Star Trek: Into Darkness, are generic blockbusters, larded with both nostalgized callouts to ageing intellectual property and some artificial gravitas in the form of the visual language of war and terrorism we know from TV news. At the climax of Into Darkness, an extravagant riff on Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, a rogue spaceship captain flies his vessel into a city, with all the attendant collapsing architecture and plummeting masonry we now, for some reason, permit in our entertainment.

Discovery pulls similar tricks, albeit less ponderously and without the thick-as-an-oil-slick sheen of nostalgia. Michael doesn’t really journey much of anywhere on purpose – she is on less of a star trek than a star war. She accidentally kills someone almost immediately, and then wins the subsequent confrontation with a Klingon military unit by booby-trapping a dead body. She ends up in the brig at the end of the first episode, and convicted of serious crimes at the end of the second –reversals of fortune the show takes far more seriously than the occasional war crime.

Michael is compelling largely because her character is younger and less likely to correctly solve the problems she faces than her predecessors; the steely confidence Martin-Green brings to the role makes it all the more shocking when she doesn’t succeed. The enemy race here are the Klingons, an alien species newly reimagined and re-revised as darker-skinned on average. The new-old Klingons wear gold skirts and carry elaborate swords – Worf’s bat’leth looks practical and conservative by comparison to its 24th-century ancestor – and their noses are flared.

I would never accuse a contemporary television show of not being self-aware enough to elide the various unflattering cultural comparisons that a wildly otherized violent alien race is more or less guaranteed to call up. Indeed, the writers have already been hard at work characterizing the Klingon rhetoric (“remain Klingon!” is an especially on-the-nose battle cry) as a dissenting response to racist rhetoric from Donald Trump . But it says something more complexly Trumpian about our cultural moment that we seem to need shocking savages for enemies, however much we may deign to humanize them at our eventual convenience.

For all their faults, the previous series had a tendency toward gentleness; the best episodes of the old shows tended to hinge on the crew’s desperate search for nonviolent or at least non-lethal solutions to some seemingly intractable problem. Discovery, I guess in the name of a more grave and serious show about alien monsters and time travel, ostentatiously walks a darker path, and on that path are a lot of our worst tendencies. It will be interesting to see whether those tendencies merit a more serious exploration.

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Is Star Trek: Discovery Setting Up a Forgotten Original Series' Enemy's Return?

As the Discovery learns more about the mysterious anomaly devastating Starfleet, new data suggests an old enemy from Star Trek history could return.

WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Star Trek: Discovery Season 4, Episode 6, "Stormy Weather," streaming now on Paramount+ .

Ever since the start of Star Trek: Discovery Season 4, the rebirth of the United Federation and Starfleet has been threatened by a dark matter anomaly moving through the galaxy. Moving suddenly and with an unpredictable trajectory, the anomaly has already consumed the Kwejian home world in a matter of seconds before continuing its devastating rampage. Starfleet and its allies have scrambled to learn more about the anomaly and its best course of action to deal with this threat. Among the revelations gleaned from data regarding the anomaly is that it was artificially created by an unknown entity from outside of the galaxy, potentially setting up the return of a powerful enemy from Star Trek: The Original Series : the Kelvans.

While exploring a subspace rift caused by the anomaly in order to learn more about it, Book attempts to use the spore drive to jump the Discovery outside of the rift when the crew discovers the corrosive effects left by the anomaly are steadily eating through the starship's hull. However, this escape attempt backfires and Book is overloaded with feedback energy from the rift itself. As Book recovers in sickbay, Chief Engineer Paul Stamets analyzes the data in his body linked to the anomaly, realizing that the energy signature matches that of the Galactic Barrier, the forcefield around the borders of the galaxy. With this data in hand, the crew quickly deduces that the creators of the anomaly are from outside the galaxy.

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The crew of the Enterprise during the TOS era previously encountered enemies originating from outside of the galaxy in the Season 2 episode "By Any Other Name." While investigating a distress signal emanating from an uncharted planet, the Enterprise is ambushed by representatives from the Kelvan Empire, a conquering species from the Andromeda Galaxy sent ahead to spearhead a full invasion of the Milky Way Galaxy. With their vessel scuttled by crossing through the Galactic Barrier, the Kelvans commandeer the Enterprise to return to their galaxy with the gathered reconnaissance information, taking on human forms to effectively operate its controls while transforming the bulk of the crew into small, chalky blocks.

While Kirk and the remaining crew were able to appeal to the Kelvans to relinquish control of the Enterprise by pointing out they had progressively taken on human traits that made them distinctly different from the Kelvans and would be virtually unrecognizable upon their return, the threat of the Kelvan Empire remains. The Kelvans estimated that even the modified Enterprise of the 23rd century would take approximately 300 years to travel between the Milky Way and Andromeda Galaxies. With Discovery Season 4 taking place approximately 900 years after the events of the TOS era, this would certainly give the Kelvans enough time to realize something happened to their scouting party and rethink their strategy in conquering the Milky Way Galaxy.

RELATED: Star Trek: Discovery John Ottman Helms Emotion & Homage Into Season 4

While Starfleet dismissed the possibility of preexisting omnipotent races in the Star Trek Universe creating the anomaly, the revelation that the creators appear to be from outside the galaxy adds an even greater degree of mystery to the devastating force rampaging across the galaxy. The Kelvan Empire is presumably still active in the Andromeda Galaxy and is likely not eager to give up its plans to conquer the Milky Way Galaxy, sending over an anomaly to soften any existing defenses. And while an entirely different enemy could be responsible for the anomaly's creation, the Kelvans set a sinister precedent that could mark their imminent return.

To see if the Kelvans will indeed return, Star Trek: Discovery Season 4 releases new episodes Thursdays on Paramount+.

KEEP READING: Star Trek: Discovery Says Goodbye to a Longtime Crew Member... For Now

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" Relativity ," Star Trek: Voyager (Season 5, Episode 24)

" Shattered ," Star Trek: Voyager (Season 7, Episode 11)

" Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad ," Star Trek: Discovery (Season 1, Episode 7)

Terran Empire

Culture [ ]

Religion [ ]

History [ ]

21st century [ ]

22nd century [ ]

23rd and 24th centuries [ ]

Subjugated races [ ]

Apocrypha [ ]

See also [ ]

External link [ ]

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