WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Star Trek: Discovery Season 3, Episode 2, "Far From Home," now streaming on CBS All Access.
In the Season 3 premiere of Star Trek: Discovery, Michael Burnham arrived in the year 3188, successfully completing her mission to stop Control from destroying all life in the universe. However, even through her ship was right behind her in the wormhole, Michael was stranded in the future all by herself, as the Discovery had yet to arrive. Now, in the series' latest episode, "Far From Home," the U.S.S. Discovery arrives in the future a full year later, and the crew has a difficult landing, facing a dangerous new alien life form on a strange planet called The Colony.
In "Far From Home," the U.S.S. Discovery crash lands on The Colony, a partially destroyed planet that has very few inhabitants. The crew only had enough power to land in one piece on a patch of ice, but this leaves the ship immobile, as the crew needs to fully repair the ship to get it back up and running. And, as it turns out, they have to do this in a race against the clock because the ice they have just landed on is parasitic in nature.
Indeed, the ice slowly takes over the Discovery, growing and thickening around the ship. The clock starts ticking, and as soon as nighttime arrives, it will be too late for the crew, since the ice's pressure can crush the Federation starship's hull. One of the planet's inhabitants explains that the ice won't stop there and can even kill people from within.
The dangers of this ice are truly worrisome and, as the episode progresses, we see just how powerful and menacing the ice truly is. As it nears the top of the ship, the ice becomes even more massive, gaining speed as the temperature on The Colony continually drops. So dangerous is this parasite that, even though the crew of the Discovery is able to repair the ship, they are still unable to escape its grasp.
Thankfully, the Discovery is able to escape the parasitic ice with help from another ship's tractor beam. Still, this deadly, parasitic ice isn't exactly a warm welcome for the crew of the Discovery, who have just learned the future is home to plenty of new and unpredictable threats.
Streaming on CBS All Access, Star Trek: Discovery stars Sonequa Martin-Green as Commander Michael Burnham, Doug Jones as Commander Saru, Anthony Rapp as Lt. Commander Paul Stamets, Mary Wiseman as Ensign Sylvia Tilly, Wilson Cruz as Dr. Hugh Culber, David Ajala as Cleveland "Book" Booker, Blu del Barrio as Adira, Ian Alexander as Grey, Tig Notaro as Chief Engineer Reno, Ethan Peck as Spock and Michelle Yeoh as Philippa Georgiou. New episodes of Season 3 air on Thursdays.