I'm starting to sympathize with the episode writers of STD.
It's almost as though the show's creators sat in a dimly lit room and came up with a lot of disparate plot points and twists and basically assign them on a per episode basis to a staff writer who has to string them together into a coherent script. They pick straws and then the loser gets the byline.
On the positive side, there was some good pacing in this episode. The acting, I think, is as good as it can get given the material the actors have to work with.
But problems continue to abound, as the writers twist and retwist and reretwist the plot so many times they are starting to lose credibility.
The AshVoq nonsense goes further down the rabbit hole and is now inconsistent with the medical data, as interpreted by Dr. Culber in an earlier episode. Contrary to Culber's belief that AshVoq's bones were shortened and that his insides were rearranged, we find out that this was more of a consciousness transfer. Similar to the transfer of a Vulcan Katra--first seen in the third Star Trek movie--L'Rell uses some Klingon hoodoo to transfer Voq's memory essence to the tortured Ash. She ends up helping Ash by doing a Katrectomy this episode, because she can't stand to see Voq suffer.
How she concealed her Katrectomy gloves whilst in captivity is yet another mystery. Worse, it's not clear why she brought them along in the first place, as the Klingon prayer was supposed to awaken Voq. Moreover, where/how was she going to use them, except as a fashion statement or if she anticipated their need as a plot device. As Voq, now, apparently lacks a body to reimplant his Katra into, the gloves would be of little use, even in a pinch. If they really wanted to twist the plot around yet again, she would have exorcised Ash and left Voq inside the body. Just saying.
As sci-fi concepts go, the transfer of consciousness thing is on the verge of patently ridiculous. The only reason it was added to ST III was that it was a way to bring back Spock. It was implausibly lame back then, but at least they just tried to hand wave around it. We have seen a more temporary transfer of consciousness with varied success, usually used by races with much superior technology to the Federation but with--thankfully--little explanation. This episode, though, went all Spock's-Brain on the concept and we have crossed into the realm of laughable. On the bright side, the Voq character was so viscerally obtuse and two dimensional he really needed to go. So, hopefully, (per L'Rells Klingon death roar) Voq is gone for good.
Then again, Katragate has nothing on the Great Empress Caper. This whole subplot really doesn't hang together. It does make sense that there was some betrayal perpetrated by Burnham on Mirror-Giorgiou, but given that Burnham has been in Mirrorland long enough, it is surprising that she didn't bother to look up anything about it from the Mirror-Shenzou's logs while she was biding her time. It is even more surprising that Lorca didn't tell her about it, as--well--he would have known. If Lorca really wanted to succeed in his revenge on the Empress, he needs Burnham to survive to help pop the grand dame. Besides, as we find out, he has a thing for Burnham.
It's not clear why the Empress is inclined to believe that Burnham is from an alternate universe or how the exact scanner needed to determine the unique composition of an alternate-universe object was conveniently present in Giorgiou's chambers. (Apparently, her interior decorator knew it would come in handy...) Given the rashness of the denizens of the mirror universe, I don't buy that Mirror-Giorgiou would be able to wait long enough to find out if Burnham was telling the truth. She would have judged Burnham a liar and offed her post haste. I do get the arrangement to trade micelial travel tech as a life-sustaining bargain for Burnham, but, Mirror-Giorgiou would have to have enough impulse control to make the bargain in the first place.
After the fan-predicted reveals that Ash is Voq and the Empress is Giorgiou, we now complete the trifecta with the great reveal that Lorca is really Mirror-Lorca. Surprise. Sure, it feels so good in the moment, but the writers have once again opened up a whole can of Regulan bloodworms that they are just not prepared to contain.
First off, it's not clear how Lorca as a mirror-universe guy could truly conceal himself in the Federation. (Although, who knows, in the 'new and improved' STD vision of the Federation, where back stabbing, double dealing, and expletives are the norm, it might just work out...) Maybe he used data from the Defiant to figure out how to get to Universe Prime, but then why did he not use the same technology to get back? Why did he need the micelial drive? As above, these mirror-universe people shouldn't be able to control themselves long enough to fit in. (Heck, even Voq couldn't contain himself enough as a Prime-Klingon to be a good spy...) Lorca's intentions at the moment are mysterious (actually a good thing), but what is not clear is that after concocting a ridiculous plot to get to the Empress, the least he could have done was to arrange some way of call in some backup. Did he really intend that his only means of escape from captivity would be a dullard of a guard?
And then there's the whole micelial nonsense. Not only do we get extended dream-like sequences in the miceleal plane--a really frustrating construct in any movie, science fiction or otherwise--but we get to meet mirror-Stamets there. He and real-Stamets can now work together to solve the degradation of the micelial network problem together, in a light-up, Tron-like way. They can also roam about the ship in a Matrix like fashion, eventually joining up with their corporeal selves. Very metaphysical, very weird, and (still) lousy science fiction. (Maybe I'd be on board if they brought in some unicorns. I like unicorns.)
And if that were not bad enough, Culber lives on as a dead guy in Micelia. No, Culber is not just a vision, he is a Sixth-Sense, honest-to-goodness, resident of Micelial Heaven. Yes, Micelial Heaven, a different dimensional plane where we all go to after death. And wherein Stamets can visit Culber at his leisure. He can tell Stamets information that there is no way Stamets could otherwise know. And, I bet, will be instrumental in curing Stamets' yeast infection. So now Stamets can now speak to dead people. Please, please, please give me a break...
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, the writing has done little to flesh out the characters of the story. We are starting to get into the 'Enterprise' problem where most of the characters are just too flat and vanilla to connect to. Only Lorca and Stamets have any real personality. Rather than writing natural dialog and creating relationships where character can come to the fore, the writers are too busy--what else--twisting, retwisting, and reretwisting their plot lines and developing wacky sci-fi concepts.
Sadly, I really do want to like this show, but they are making it awfully hard. Hopefully, we escape the mirror universe after the next episode and get on to some more interesting, character driven territory.
