Spoilers Star Trek: Discovery 5x05 - "Mirrors"

In space?

 

Yes this one really does confuse me. I suppose that they were a bit fooked when they lost all those ships in The Burrrrrn, and obvs Disco was worth keeping as it was chronometrically only 4 or 5 years old in terms of it's serviceability even if it was 800 years out of date, and it did have the jumpy drive as well. I can only assume that technological development starts to plateau or slow a few years after the Berman era.... which logically it would do as part of a cycle, and so 32nd century tech is not as far removed as it would be had development been linear. They have programmable matter controls but they don't have thought-interface, for example )or maybe they did and it din't pan out that well).

But looking at the Terran 1701 and going "That'll buff up alright I reckon" is a bit like the Royal Navy popping down to Portsmouth today and requisitioning the HMS Victory. times 4. And why would you want it as a museum piece - is not THE Enterprise. Unless of course Kovich wants to get his mitts on it.

Anyway, my thoughts on this episode are similar to my thoughts about the timejump episode. Both are lost or missed opportunities and underwhelming - I almost feel clickbaited. It's interesting that Sonequa comments in an interview that she "gets" the fan disappointment but reiterates that they filmed this before they knew DSC was going to be cancelled.

I can appreciate that Jason Isaacs was not going to come back for a cameo in the timejump episode. However bearing in mind that some of the SNW cast might have been a bit more "local", they surely could have given it a whirl? There was an overlap in filming dates in the GTA in mid 2022 for about a month or so between the two series.

 

It's possible Kira and Dukat only saw jelly running out of the suits when they took them, and therefore never saw the living form

Ah yes, when something contradicts, simply don't let that one count. Works both ways
Continuity should not depend on who the showrunner is.
But it's one of these endless circles, so let's decompress the shuttlebay yet again

 

Of course none if this explains why the Enterprise doesn't look like it did on TOS. So at some point Mirror Spock decided to give up the more high tech 60's looking tech and replace it will older more primitive modern day slickness looking tech for some reason. Looks like I am going to have to put the ole head canon to work.

 

I have to say I do like the idea of a species having two faces. It's kinda' neat & unique.

No clue though why it did have to be the Breen instead of a new species, except for memberberries points.
And I have to say - I really don't like Moll's green face make-up. No idea why, it just looks silly to me.

Especially(!) in space. No protection against cosmic radiation. And still filled with oxygen. Literally the worst possible conditions to keep material for a hundred years. Never mind a thousand.

 

I knew someone was going to say this, it was just a matter of who.

Here's my answer, and I already said it up thread. This is the first time we're seeing the Breen as actual characters. On DS9, they were just there to stand around, make funny noises, and have other people react to them.

The Breen are effectively in the same position as a new species because so little was done with them.

The Breen always seemed like this race in the background that was mentioned on TNG an DS9 that was meant to be a major presence, then when they finally got a spotlight on DS9, the series was almost over. Anyone watching DS9 at the time wanted to see more done with them. Then Star Trek went the way of non-stop prequels for a while and the opportunity didn't come up.

So why NOT use them in the 32nd Century? Better late than never. And the Federation of this time should have more rivals than just the defunct Emerald Chain.

 

Problem is the Breen is they are kind of like the Borg. The more you humanize them, the more they become less interesting. DS9 used them just right.

 

come now, things don't just go in museums because they did something/were owned by someone important. Being a type sample survivor is enough.

remember that it wasn't just abandoned. the science team came back in the 24th century to place the clue. During that time thry would have made whatever modifications were needed for long term storage. I suspect that when mol and Lak found it, power was mostly shutdown and the atmosphere vented. The ship would have been set to turn back on when visitors arrived.

 

They did not. They weren't characters, they were non-characters.

Niners are the LAST people I'd expect to see push for less development.

 

We should at least be glad they didn't see this episode to bring back those Picard season 1 robot space tentacles living in that realm of space. Though maybe it would have been fun to see some space tentacles reach and grab the Discovery ship. The closest thing we might get in modern Trek at paying homage to the giant hand grabbing the Enterprise on TOS.

 

Your right. The point is that looking cool and being a kind of a mystery and being a sort of overriding threat that pops up from time to time is what best serves them. Just like the Borg are their best when they are a emotionless hive mind that wants to assimilate you and doesn't care about things like compassion or even hate either. Once you start making them characters then they might as well be Romulans or Cardassians etc.

 

The trekmovie podcast has an interview with the co-writer of Mirrors explaining the Breen.

Basically what I said yesterday with a few more details. Already we know more about the Breen than we ever did.

I skimmed over a few "Breen episodes" of DS9 and confirmed for myself that Weyoun said more about the Breen than they ever did on their own. So this is a quantum leap in the Breen. It only took 800+ years and Discovery to do it!

If we're to put the Breen in Trek history as a second tier power, then not knowing about them makes them feel less real. If I think about them, I think bad costume and ships and not much else. That changed yesterday.

 

So, here's a somewhat odd moment. Towards the end when the Mirror Enterprise is emerging from the subspace aperture, we see on the Disco bridge all anyone can see is a silhouette of a Constitution class ship, at which point Stamets asks "is that the ISS Enterprise?" That's quite the leap to make based on the evidence that was available to him at that moment.

 

I think you're confused. Not having power wasn't why they were stuck. They couldn't get out of the anomoly with the ship intact. They were rescued some other way. Being stuck in a sort of stasis in an interdimensional pocket can explain why the ship might still work. In any case, it's not that far of a reach.

We'll take your "good writing" under advisement when you're writing the scripts.

 

So, the identity of the Breen are revealed.

Why? Was it really necessary to reveal their identity? I know that its been suggested that multiple species make up the Breen. And we do have hundred of years between DS9 and DIS S5 to open the possibility that they’ve simply evolved their appearance over time, and thus also able to bleed now when they weren't supposed to be able to bleed originally. But still, why?

Also, their skulls are transparent, like Gallamites. Are Gallamites and Breen one and the same?

As for the ISS Enterprise, it could have and probably should have been any other Constitution class ship from the mirror universe.

8/10. Last week’s was better.

 

In keeping with their connections to TNG, DS9 and Voyager this season, they used a woefully under-examined, somewhat major alien that could could use fleshing out. Seems like a good deal to me.

Why another ship? Our connection to the Enterprise and what happened to it in the MU between Spock and later with Saru is a lot more meaningful and is more impactful when we heard what happened to the survivors. One could say why use any other ship?

Last week's episode may have been better but this one wasn't too far off.

Go through any season of DS9 or what have you. Lots of dips and peaks, but not on Discovery.

 

Didn't Georgiou and Michael eat Mirror Saru in S1?

 

Actually making them Gallamites would have been more interesting IMO. For starters we have never seen a Gallamite so that would be interesting.

 

Loved the episode and seeing the ISS ENT.

Until...
the plot convenient "Warp Pod" blasted our baddies off to safety.

Where did that come from? We were informed that ALL of the shuttles and escape pods were missing, but yet this was still a viable ship for them to escape? Why didn't all four of them use that to escape the ENT and the wormhole? Why is there no mention of a 23rd or 32nd century "Warp Pod" at Memory Alpha?

The writers wrote themselves into a corner and pulled this piece of "Unobtanium" out of their collective asses.

I was looking forward to how they were going to resolve the problem of Moll and L'ak and maybe have them work with the DSC crew to solve the mystery. Instead we got this BS resolution.

This didn't ruin what was 99% a good episode but is was some very lazy writing at the end.