Q, in typically circumspect fashion, explains to Picard that he now finds himself in another reality because he has to atone for something. Picard must navigate a xenophobic, authoritarian world to gather the friends who are aware that this timeline isn't the real one... and must reach out to an unlikely ally to learn what specifically went wrong in the past to create this present.
I was completely caught up in this episode and loving every minute of it as I watched it. And in retrospect, after it was over, that's a pretty remarkable thing. The "mirror universe" is a long-running Trek concept that has allowed the franchise to explore the evils of authoritarianism and xenophobia... and if that wasn't already starting to get a little stale after Deep Space Nine's multiple mirror episodes, it was certainly mined to exhaustion by Discovery.
But of course, this isn't exactly the mirror universe. And somehow, there were just enough subtle distinctions in here to get that across. From the original Star Trek episode "Mirror, Mirror," the mirror universe has always been at least as much about camp as it was a "cautionary tale" -- certainly that's what Deep Space Nine and Enterprise did with it. And even as serious as Discovery strives to be, you can't tell me Michelle Yeoh's delicious performance of Mirror Georgiou wasn't fun. But this alternate timeline of Picard, like the xenophobic reality of season one, clearly had a message in mind. Every aspect of the production paid attention to this, from the photography to the sets to the costumes. (My favorite detail: the ridiculously large communicator badges. A perfect encapsulation about how authoritarianism is performative.)
Serious though the message was, this episode was still a lot of fun. The writers did a superb job of nailing each character's specific voice. Different people navigated the alternate reality with varying degrees of ease, and each character was given moments perfectly suited to the actors portraying them: Patrick Stewart was given the "moral compass" moments, Jeri Ryan got to be the most stoic and unflappable, Evan Evagora was given an outstanding fight scene, Alison Pill was given great comic relief, and so on.
The guest stars were excellent in this episode too. Annie Wersching becomes the third actress to portray the Borg Queen, and in just one episode, her incarnation stands out as possibly the most creepy of all. Her unsettling and meaningful glances at Jurati portend something yet to be revealed, and it feels ominous. John de Lancie gave one of his best performances yet as Q. I was actually shocked at the restraint here, at how little he appeared in the episode. Q set this scenario in motion (or did he?), but did not just pop in every few minutes for a few bon mots. Instead, we got a solid 10-minute stretch of him being subtly unhinged, threatening (and threatened?) as we've rarely seen the character. I've been coming around to the belief that Q is a spice best used carefully in the Star Trek dish, and this episode embraced that. (Plus, a fun Patton Oswalt voice-over cameo. He continues to collect geek franchises. Love it.)
Speaking of geeks -- there were all the fun shoutouts here that longtime Trekkers could ever hope for. The "skull gallery" gave us a raft of Deep Space Nine references (among others). We heard about "General Sisko." We were briefly introduced to yet another Soong family member (who looks and sounds like Brent Spiner). Q name-checked the titles of at least two other Star Trek episodes. If I watch "Penance" again, I'll bet I'd pick up on still more Trek franchise "sly winks."
Yeah, I loved it. Perhaps I'd wish for even more differentiation from the mirror universe, but aside from that minor quibble, I thoroughly enjoyed the episode. I give it an A-. I'm very much looking forward to what happens next. (And I guess lucky me for falling a little behind: I now have a couple more episodes to watch!)
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