WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for this week's episode of Star Trek: Discovery, "The War Without, the War Within," which premiered Sunday on CBS All Access.
Viewers knew from the very beginning that, because of its place within the franchise timeline, Star Trek: Discovery would have to provide an explanation for why the vessel's experimental spore drive -- the Federation's last best hope in the war with the Klingons -- didn't become standard issue within Starfleet. Sure, the wondrous device comes with risks (just ask the tardigrade, Lt. Stamets, and the crew of the U.S.S. Glenn), but surely all of those kinks would be worked out by the time of Enterprise's five-year mission a decade later. Probably, if only the drive didn't bring with it the possibility of not only leaping across the known universe, but into an alternate one.
RELATED: How Discovery's Mirror Universe Went From Fan Service to Social Relevance
In last week's episode, the Discovery crew, minus Captain Lorca and poor Dr. Culber, fought their way out the Mirror Universe, only to realize they'd arrived home nine months into the future, where the Klingon houses are on the cusp of victory. With Starfleet and the Federation virtually decimated, Admiral Katrina Cornwell (Jayne Brook) has no patience for talking: In this week's episode, "The War Without, the War Within," she leads an armed boarding party, which includes Sarek (James Frain), seizes control of Discovery, and demands answers -- about Lorca, and about where the hell the Federation's secret weapon has been all this time.
She gets more than she expected, however, with a story about alternate realities, two versions of Discovery, and Lorca's byzantine scheme to return to his own universe and overthrow its Terran emperor (who, by the way, is now in this universe). But in the process, Cornwell lays the groundwork for how the series intends to handle those story elements that could pose a problem for the continuity of Star Trek: The Original Series, and everything that follows. In the debriefing, she updates Discovery's officers on the state of the war, which has turned decidedly in the Klingons' favor as the 24 individual houses essentially compete for victories against the Federation, with some resorting increasingly to large-scale suicide attacks. Discovery will reenter the battle, she orders, but only after all evidence of its jump to the Mirror Universe is classified and destroyed.
"We cannot risk the knowledge of this alternate universe leaving the confines of Discovery," Cornwell declares, not yet aware that the ship brought back an honored "guest" in the form of Emperor Georgiou.
RELATED: A Guide to Star Trek's Twisted Mirror Universe
"It would be ... too many possibilities," Stamets explains to a disbelieving Michael Burnham. "Indeed," Sarek concurs. "Our people have suffered terrible losses. What would you do if your dead wife, your lost child, your murdered parents might be alive on the other side, and that technology exists for you to see them again? This knowledge must be buried."
Page 2: [valnet-url-page page=2 paginated=0 text='Mirror%20Georgiou%20May%20Be%20the%20Federation%27s%20Best%20Hope']
It's a highly logical determination that would likely save a lot of hardship, to say nothing of franchise continuity. That is, if not for the existence of Emperor Georgiou in the Prime Universe, and the capture by Klingons of Starbase 1 -- "our only remaining sanctuary" -- which presumably is where Discovery's files were to be locked down and destroyed.
Although the emperor wishes nothing more than to be returned to the Mirror Universe, the fall of Starbase 1 forces Burnham, and Cornwell, to resort to more extreme tactics, to match those employed by the Klingons. Georgiou, who defeated the Klingons in her own reality, offers a possible way to end the war: by launching an elaborate large-scale attack on their home world, Qo'noS, which involves Discovery jumping to within a global cave system in order to map the planet's surface.
But with the very existence of the Federation at stake, Starfleet must take another enormous risk, in entrusting the Terran emperor to execute her own plan -- only as Captain Georgiou, whom Discovery's crew is informed was merely presumed dead. In Starfleet's new fiction, she had instead been taken captive, and was only recently freed from a Klingon prison vessel in a daring raid. Of course, we need only look to Ash Tyler/Voq to see how the last "POW" worked out for Discovery.
Or, y'know, Lorca's longer-term charade. But, desperate times and all of that.
In the end, it's likely Georgiou's role in the defeat of the Klingons (the Prime Universe version, that is) will be relegated to the ash bin of Starfleet history, alongside Discovery's spore drive, the true identity of Gabriel Lorca, and Ash Tyler's time as an enemy sleeper agent. However, considering the number of people aware of part, or all, of that ever-growing conspiracy (including the random transporter operator who beamed aboard Emperor Georgiou), there would appear to be few guarantees that those details remain secret. Unless, of course, Discovery and her crew were to ultimately perish in the defense of the Federation ... and for the sake of franchise continuity.
Airing Sundays at 8:30 p.m. ET on CBS All Access, Star Trek: Discovery stars Sonequa Martin-Green, Doug Jones, Anthony Rapp, Shazad Latif, Mary Wiseman, Wilson Cruz and Mary Chieffo.