“Terra Firma, Part 1” is the 9th episode of the 3rd season of the TV show “Star Trek: Discovery” and follows “The Sanctuary“.

Note. This article contains spoilers about “Terra Firma, Part 1”.

Thanks to all the databases accumulated over time, a possible solution is found to avoid the seemingly imminent death of Philippa Georgiou (Michelle Yeoh), and it is on a distant planet. Accompanied by Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green), she arrives at her destination and meets a mysterious being who offers her to go through a portal.

Philippa Georgiou’s health problems have been shown in previous episodes, and now her diagnosis has arrived: the combination of crossing through different universes and her time travel is killing her. There’s a new appearance of Kovich (David Cronenberg), whose pessimistic prognosis is contradicted thanks to the wealth of information accumulated by the crew of the USS Discovery.

The mysterious character who introduces himself simply as Carl (Paul Guilfoyle) offers Philippa Georgiou the chance to pass through a portal, which brings her, at least appearently, back to her universe at the moment when she must face the betrayal of her Michael Burnham.

After the initial part of the episode, some moments are about various crew members, but it’s mostly about Philippa Georgiou and is a classic plot in which a character has to face a key moment in his past. In the first season of “Star Trek: Discovery” we saw a part of the story of the Empress and the various machinations around her. This time her story is developed with her at the center and with the characters in her universe. This offers a chance to see in particular her relationship with her universe’s Michael Burnham.

This is only the first part of a double episode, but it already shows how Philippa Georgiou was influenced by everything that happened to her after she left her universe. She often compares the Federation to her Empire and the two Michael Burnhams, generally to argue that everything in her universe was better. However, when she has to deal with her past, things turn out to be more complex.

It’s impossible to assess an episode of this type from its first half. It’s not clear who Carl is or what is really happening to Philippa Georgiou. The setting in the mirror universe is always intriguing and compensates for the clichés of the classic story of the character facing his past. For “Terra Firma, Part 1”, this must suffice.