Hey Valerie & Glenn, another great podcast! Had a couple notes to share...
1) That list of decorated Starfleet captains which Saru peruses was actually chock-full of Trekker trivia goodness. You mentioned Captains Archer, Georgiou and Pike (who could be flying the Enterprise around during STD's timeline, with Spock as his Number One). But also on that list was Robert April, who - according to his one and only appearance in ST: The Animated Series - was the the very first captain of the USS Enterprise (!!!), so his inclusion on this list may be April's first official reference in live action Trek. Also on the list was Matthew Decker, a character whom we see in ST: The Original Series (episode "The Doomsday Machine") as Commodore Decker. And this is particularly interesting in relation to what we hear of Captain Lorca's backstory in this ep of ST: Discovery, because Decker is also a Starfleet captain who will be infamous for leading his own entire crew to their deaths while he alone survives. Btw, Matt Decker is also the grandfather of Will Decker, one of the lead characters of ST: The Motion Picture ;)
2) While it's clear SOMEthing dark and evil is going on with Stamets at the end of this ep, I'm not entirely convinced yet that it's linked to the Mirror Universe. However! When I heard you guys explaining the Mirror Universe for listeners unfamiliar with it, I think what you said was a bit misleading. I'm reading a comic book series set in the ST: TNG Mirror Universe, and the author, Scott Tipton, gave this great explanation of it in his endnotes: "The Mirror Universe isn't the Bizarro World. These characters aren't the opposites of the characters we know, they've just been dramatically reforged by living in a much more unforgiving and dangerous environment. So while it could be tempting to make a stereotypical 'evil twin' character, it's much more gratifying to find ways to keep that character true to what we know about him or her, and then watch in horror at how they've been perverted."
Thanks for the compliment, BionicDave! These are both *amazing* bits of feedback and information. I love Tipton’s explanation of the Mirror Universe, even though it probably means I won’t be getting that Klingon musical episode I’ve been asking for (I wrote so many letters).
This is definitely worth mentioning on air next week as an update to our conversation about Choose Your Pain.
Oh, wow, that's awesome. I had no idea such a service existed. I think you may have just changed my life!
That's a great prediction. I, too, am not keen to see the Enterprise, but we would all want to tune in to see how they manage it.
Yeah, part of me thinks STD has to go there and show us Pike's Enterprise - if anything because that's how the business part of show business works. (i.e. Never avoid using what would be a huge audience draw.) I predict it will be teased for the second half of this first season as incentive to come back in January. While I'd be curious to see it, I don't know if I'd like to see Younger Spock, as I'm already a bit miffed at how Burnham's backstory steps on Spock's backstory of alienation. As for Robert April, I wouldn't mind seeing him! haha I guess he's been used only in a couple Trek novels but I don't know if they are considered canon.
As for Trek comics, here's a tip: there's an app called Hoopla, created to allow users to access lots of their local libraries' digital content, which often includes digital comics. And it's all free and legal! My Hoopla gives me access to tons of free comic book content, including tons of Trek comics, including issues 1-3 of Tipton's "Star Trek: The Next Generation - Mirror Broken" series (how I've been keeping up with it). I'm finding the series fascinating, really well done. It shows how the Mirror Universe Picard gets the "ISS" Enterprise D and assembles his crew of weird TNG Mirror Universe characters. Thumbs up :)
I live across the street from a comics shop which is also one of my main sources of coffee, and I have stared longingly at the TNG Mirror Universe comics but haven't picked them up. I think I'll have to fix that during the mid-season break. But that's a great point -- it's not everyone is backwards, it's everything is harsh. If we do get a Mirror Universe episode, I'm going to use Tipton's explanation, so thanks for making me aware of it.
And I had totally forgotten about Robert April -- thanks for pointing that out. It's definitely time for a TAS rewatch, maybe also during the break. April should be a commodore already at this point, I think, as Pike should have command of the Enterprise. I wonder if we'll actually see him on screen at some point, or either of the Deckers for that matter. While I don't want Discovery to become a parade of minor TOS characters, I think it would be fun to see some of these higher-ranking officers in a meeting from time to time. Who would you most like to see make an appearance?