What's Past Is Prologue

I might be the minority, but I had hard time watching the same kind of shaky camera work that turned me away from series like Black Sails and Vikings. Fortunately, not every episode of ST: Discovery has these annoying camera movements, but they were strong in this one and made my eyes hurt.

The last three episodes have been still an invigorating ride after the tedious Ep4-Ep9. After ST: TNG I don't have any deep thoughts for the newer action oriented one, but it's merely fun to see how they are messing things with mirror universe and evil characterizations even if it doesn't result to logical explanations. I like the fast-paced and a bit rushed storytelling but I wish there were more room for building up the mystery of Captain Lorca who suddenly became the more interesting character in the series.

From the first episode of the original series, through all the others, I've always marveled at the explanations as to why things work or don't. Because this is major episode, I hung in there and I know now that the good guys pretty much ended up on top. But exactly why, I don't know. The whole plot with the spores functioning as weaponry is beyond my simple mind. But it was thrilling and sets up a fact at the end that will have to be addressed

I'm tired of the comparisons to Oroville, Oroville is not Trek, amusing as it is. It's not even similar to TNG, DS9 and Voyager. It's a parallel universe that's not being discussed in Trek at the moment. When Discovery runs into the Oroville or characters from it, let me know. Meanwhile, let Discovery be about Discovery.

"It's harder for an Uncivilized Man to pretend to be Civilized, than it is for a Civilized man to pretend to be uncivilized." - Mr. Spock, "Mirror Mirror"

But when that uncivilized man is Lorca, we find that what is difficult is not impossible, Mirror Lorca finds himself in the Prime 'Verse, and was able to take command of one of two experimental Discovery class ships, and even manipulate Stametz to find ways back to the Mirror 'Verse. When Admiral Cornwell started seeing through it, she was talked into taking over Sarek's dangerous mission, which put her out of the picture. She was Mirror Lorca's biggest threat.

We can go back and watch the previous episodes, and see that something was off with Lorca from the start. It all seemed so logical, but everything Mirror Lorca did, foreshadowed what was to come.

Georgiou, a merciless Emperor facing deposition, although not like Prime Georgiou, is still a competent commander knows her ship, is integrated into it. As vicious as she is, she still has feelings for Michael, which may or may not make her Manipulate-able.

Mirror Stametz work was a perversion of the Spore drive, and is destroying the whole network. Is there a solution to this, which will open a door back to Prime Verse, that won't blow up discovery?

For this to happen, Michael has to work on Mirror Lorca and Georgiou, a three-way conspiracy. And Michael makes a tacit commitment to keep Mirror Georgiou alive.

The Character who wins Most Improved award is Saru, who has become a more than adequate Captain. And this also pushes actor and stuntee Doug Jones into a starring role. I'm very impressed, from Abe Sapien to Saru. Doug has been a multitude of weirdly designed angels and daemons in several Guillermo del Toro films. My favorite being the Angel who saves Hellboy in "Hellboy 2 The Golden Army." I have to admit, although I like the actor and the character, I had issues when he took command and was trying to "score" his performance by comparing to Captains April, Archer and Pike.

Getting back to the Prime Verse is only half the problem, it all depends on when they get back. With only a couple of episodes left, can we really say that the Mirror 'Verse is done with us yet?

This has been the longest incursion into the Mirror Verse of all Trek, and the elongated storyline was quite a welcome thing.

My goodness, the AU plot was a doozy.. Tightly scripted, edge of seat and even occasionally, dare I say, buttock clenchingly tense.

13 episodes led to this point... Like an X marks the spot. If you watch the series again, you can see the signs and the hints... Lorca, the UPPITY Klingons, the Mycelium network...

This epsiode was pure unadulterated Star Trek pulled into the ... ahem... 21st century...

Noble battles of morals against the darkness, selfless acts of bravery... Comeuppance and of course occasional moments technobabble to show that some are cleverer than us...

Not to mention an epic warp to end all warps!!!!

Surely now, for all those naysayers, Ladies and Gentlemen, it would time for all to acknowledge that THIS IS STAR TREK.

If you haven't watched it yet, this is pretty much as good as it gets!!!

What does it mean when an episode is so good it feels like a finale but there are still 2 episodes left?? This episode, similar to the last 1-2 episodes, has done a great job of explaining some of the "canon" complaints of Trek purists. Even though they didn't have a leg to stand on to begin with, some loose ends getting handled are welcome.

DSC is having the best 1st season of any Trek series ever. The story telling is superb, the characters are well written and supremely well acted. Doug Jones is mind boggling with how he can emote wearing his Saru makeup. The man can ACT!

It's nice to see people who initially, and blindly, jumped on the hate bandwagon finally realizing how incredibly wrong they were and admitting they are enjoying DSC. And the remaining purists are now far outnumbered and keeping to the shadows hugging their "great bird of the galaxy" dolls. DSC is here for the long haul!