Discovery has arrived in the Mirror Universe – and the rules of engagement aren’t pretty…

Up until now, my favourite Mirror Universe story bar the original series’ instalment has been the two-parter on Enterprise, which fully embraced the concept and threw some interesting ideas into the mix, including the fate of the USS Defiant. Discovery has run with that addition and used the benefits of the darker format of the show to show us exactly what those in the Terran Empire are capable of – and if the quality can be maintained next week, then this may supplant the Enterprise tale. The situations into which Burnham in particular are pushed don’t allow the characters or audience to avoid the very dark reality – although there’s still plenty of opportunity for some humour, which director Jonathan Frakes brings out well.

There are multiple great moments in this episode – from Lorca’s accent to masquerade as an engineer to “Captain Killy” – and also some real shocks. I suspected that once L’Rell was aboard Discovery it wouldn’t be long before the truth regarding Tyler came out – but what I wasn’t anticipating was how Tyler would react to someone coming close to learning the secret. There’s been a lot of complaint about Discovery playing into the trope of killing off an LGBT character, but I have a distinct feeling that we’re going to get another Trek staple, which the show has studiously avoided before – the Big Red Reset Button (and no doubt Discovery’s reset button will be bigger than the other series’!) Of course, given the twists we’ve had in this series to date, no doubt there’ll be much more than appears at first blush.

Verdict: One of the best Discovery episodes to date. 9/10

Paul Simpson