I remember not liking Lwaxana Troi during the initial run of Star Trek: The Next Generation. She was that annoying comic relief that just kept coming back. Over the seasons, she began to get a back story and seemed less one-dimensional. She was sympathetic, even if just a little.
I bring this up because I see a similar story arc for the Mirror Universe’s Georgiou. I have noticed that Georgiou is written as overly aggressive and not much else. She serves to antagonize at least one character per episode, not unlike Troi. I’m thinking this might be a pivotal episode for the former emperor in that the writers might have more in mind for her.
The episode starts with various captains receiving their respective missions. Saru, as captain of the Discovery, is told to wait around headquarters. Since they have a spore drive and aren’t limited by The Burn, they can pop in on potentially volatile diplomatic talks if the need arises.
It’s an inconvenient time for Cleveland Booker’s ship to pop in, minus Booker. When his cat hails Discovery, they know something’s up. This puts Michael Burnham in a tough spot. Admiral Vance gave Saru orders to stick around, so Discovery can’t go off to save him. However, he was looking for black boxes from Starfleet vessels, which might contain valuable information on how The Burn played out. Thus, Burnham and Georgiou take Book’s ship back to the planet where he’s being held.
She saves Book, gets the black box and makes it back to Discovery without incident. This isn’t to say there won’t be consequences, though. Saru reports the incident to Vance, who reprimands Burnham. Since she saved lives and got valuable information, she won’t be put in the brig, but it doesn’t make Saru look good.
My major complaint with the episode is the obvious one, in that Discovery has a problem which prevents them from addressing another problem, which would further the story line. Burnham, as first officer, shouldn’t have gone. That much is true. But there’s no reason another officer couldn’t have gone. Vance even points out that Saru should have passed the importance of the information up the chain of command. He may have authorized such a mission. He might have even dispatched an actual Starfleet ship to deal with it.
That aspect of the episode seems forced to me. Even having Burnham removed as first officer is more a reminder that she really shouldn’t have been made first officer in the first place. It would make more sense for her to just be the science officer or, simply, the one who gets sent on such a mission when it arises.
You might be wondering what Georgiou has to do with any of this. During the mission, she blacks out. She even falls to the floor at a crucial moment. We get to see flashes of memory, but not enough to really tell what’s going on. This could be major. It could be nothing. I would hope that we’ll at least find out why Georgiou is the way she is. (It’s also suspicious that this started right after she met with Kovach.)
It will be interesting to see who replaces Burnham as first officer. I don’t see it being Tilly. Yes, she’s on the command track. She’ll be captain one day, but I don’t think it will happen just yet. Given that she’s giving sound advice to the captain would indicate that it will happen one day.
For that matter, I don’t see it being any of the main characters. I think everyone is where they need to be. Reno, maybe? I don’t think anyone had her in mind for XO when she was rescued, although it could happen. I’m putting my money on Linus. He basically spent the entire episode popping up in odd places, so I suppose anything is possible.
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