Star Trek Discovery - episode 12 - spoilers ahead

I know I am behind schedule. Episode 13 has already dropped and I'm still catching up on episode 12!

The Engage podcast guys had guessed that Lorca might have been mirror universe Lorca and that is the big reveal in this episode. Thus, everything we have seen from him was all to get himself back into the mirror universe. There now remains two questions for the screenwriters to work out in the next few episode: (1) how did he get to the good-guy Federation universe? (2) what are his intentions in the mirror universe?

Certainly, it appears that he wants to seize power in the mirror universe. However, is it merely a power play in which he is the next one up to run the Terran Empire until someone else kills him off or is it that he turns out to be the lesser of numerous evils and becomes the catalyst for future change? Might mirror Lorca have some ties to the rebellion? Or is he purely an evil-hatted character with no redeeming values at all?

We shall see.

As for how he got to the good-guy Federation universe ...... an open question. The ST-TOS episode "Mirror, Mirror" accomplished the feat during a transporter malfunction during an ion-storm. I think DS9 did the feat by transporter as well. So perhaps Lorca had a transporter accident.

The other (perhaps more likely?) is that he has been working with mirror-Stamets and their tinkering around with the spore-network resulted in an unplanned (or perhaps planned?) transfer to the other universe? Lorca may have made the transition counting on Federation-Stamets to eventually (unintentionally) help Lorca figure out a way for Lorca to get back to he plans for the mirror universe.

We shall see.

The Burnham-Georgiou interaction was ..... grim but interesting. Burnham, out of cards to play, goes with the truth and manages to stay alive. However, the deal to hand over the spore drive technology in exchange for help to get the ship and crew back to the other universe may prove to be a deal she will have to find a way out of later on in the game of cat and mouse. Also, will Burnham back Georgiou in a power play against Lorca?

We shall see how that plays out.

Doug Jones continues to amaze with his acting even if he isn't on the screen a lot. Mary Wiseman didn't have too much to do this episode but am sure she will have some key scenes in episodes ahead.

Meanwhile, am totally confused at how the script-writers created Voq-Tyler! If I heard the dialog right, it is Voq's body surgically altered to be human, Tyler's DNA is slapped onto Voq's cells to fool the Federation doctors, and Voq's personality covered over by a fabricated Tyler personality.

What a mess! The script-writers wanted the Voq-Tyler vs. Mirror Voq moment of confrontation so much that crafted this crazy mix and match of body parts, DNA, and personality!

Lastly, we get to see the meeting of minds between Stamets and mirror-Stamets inside the spore network. He finds out the the network is dying and perhaps it is mirror-Stamets' tinkering with it that has caused problems. Of course, it is possible that Stamets using the network isn't good for the network either. After all, presumably they are both using the network because they injected themselves with some Tardegrade DNA. The Tardegrade was fully optimized to travel in the network. A human-Tardegrade hybrid might be "sub-optimal" just like the Men In Blazers duo. So perhaps Stamets guiding Discovery through the network and who knows what crazy stuff mirror-Stamets is doing with the network in combination has made the whole thing sick and wanting to vomit them out.

In terms of character development, Stamets and Culber get some good lines as Culber re-appears much like Obi-Wan Kenobi giving advice to Luke Skywalker. Culber's lines are vaguely like Kenobi, "The Force is an energy field created by all living things. It surrounds us, penetrates us, and binds the galaxy together." Substitute the Force with spores and mycelial network binding the universe(s) together. Wonder if someone is putting a TV show or movie pitch merging the Star Wars and Star Trek universes in some fusion of the force's midi-chlorians and Discovery's spore-mycelium.

Anyway, the Stamets' wake up and are able to return to their respective universes or ..... did they swap?

We shall see how that plays out. I hope the fact that Stamets runs immediately to check on the health of the spore forrest indicates it is the correct Stamets in the correct body. Meanwhile mirror-Stamets dashes out of his interface chair in search of his collaborators to explain the new information he has gathered.

Will mirror Stamets turn out to be working with Lorca? Will his brief interaction with Federation-Stamets change his ways?

We shall see how all the crazy threads play out.

Overall, the serialized story telling is an addictive approach. Each thread has had many good moments. The character development and acting has been strong. The pacing of the episodes and production design have been solid.

The weakest components have been the story devices that didn't really pass the "it sort of makes sense" perspective - not that anything in science fiction really has to make sense - but still sometimes there have been some big asks in terms of suspension of disbelief.

Examples:
(1) The Voq-Tyler set-up was the weakest and I have been harping on that from the start.
(2) The technological premise of the spore drive was also a very huge hand-wave.
(3) Various occasions when things happen that don't seem plausible: leaving valuable technology onboard the Shenzou, the stupid way Landry was killed off, Lorca getting kidnapped, Cornwall walking into a trap, Cornwall being left for dead but not being dead, L'Rell being left for dead but not being dead, failure of the medical teams to really check over Tyler until it is too late, failure of the medical team to really check over Stamets until it is almost too late.