Reminder: ‘Star Trek: Discovery’ Episode 12 “Vaulting Ambition” Debuts Tonight

Star Trek: Discovery debuts its 12th episode tonight, the plot thickens in the Mirror Universe as Burnham goes to see the Emperor.

Preview: “Vaulting Ambition”

Star Trek: Discovery – Season 1, Episode 12

Burnham heads to the ISS Charon with a special ‘gift’ for the Emperor. With the help of an unexpected source, Stamets gains clarity while trapped inside the mycelial network. Saru asks for L’Rell’s help.

The episode will be available in the US on CBS All Access at 8:30 pm ET (5:30 PT). In Canada it airs on the Space Channel at 8:00 pm ET (5:00 pm PT).  And it will be available on Netflix outside the USA and Canada on Monday at 8 am BST.

CBS episode preview

 

New Clip from Entertainment Weekly


 

Photos

Writer of “Vaulting Ambition” Tweets “ISS Discovery” dedication plaque

Followed by ‘After Trek’ episode 11

The tenth episode of the Discovery after-show After Trek streams on CBS All Access tonight at 9:30 pm ET. With director of Episode 10 “Despite Yourself” Jonathan Frakes (he had to re-schedule) and actor Anthony Rapp.

After Trek also airs on Space in Canada at midnight ET and will be available on Netflix on Monday.

What say you?

TrekMovie will be posting a full review of “Vaulting Ambition” later. But you don’t have to wait to offer your views in the comments below.

97 Comments
oldest
newest
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments

spoiler

wow lorca is from the MU!!!

Would’ve never guessed lol. This show was meant to be binged

Yep, thats the TV culture now, every show is designed like this, especially sci fi. I get people who say they miss the days of episodic TV like TOS and TNG mostly were but you don’t get this kind of story telling in those shows and what drives social media to endlessly talk about them.

Spoiler…

Another theory confirmed!

best show ever

trifecta of reveals omg

This all makes sense now, MU lorca choose michael and used paul to get back to the MU so he can get back on the emperors ship to finish his coup. There was always hints with the light sensistivity, admiral cornwall phaser to throat in bed. Marks on back and the way he tucked his phaser and looked at his reflection to always not listening to starfleet command.

His goal was to always get back to the MU.

What I want to know now is what the hell happened to the Buran.

I think MU Lorca destroyed it vs letting it get captured by the Klingons in the prime universe

Did Georgiou and Michael eat Saru? lol when she asked Michael to pick she picked Saru then they had dinner and ate Kelpian lol

This episode was even more exciting than the last!

Is one of the two personalities purged now?

I believe L’rell purged Tyler and she is making him Voq again.

She did the Klingon Scream at the end (the death ritual). She killed Voq.

Yes, I stand corrected. So Tyler is alive and Voq is dead.

Other way around, I think. That’s why she performed the Klingon death ritual and called out.

I think you are right

Yea I think she purged Voq. At the end, why let him suffer? The result makes for one tortured character. I can’t wait for Latif to expand on that next season.

Good. He sucked. It sounds like Tyler, or whatever, will be around at least.

I think her intention was to save Voq but she made a mistake and killed Voq and Tyler lives.

Yeah, when Tyler started saying the Klingon prayer in English, that was the cue Voq was gone. Then we had that surprisingly touching flashback of L’Rell and Voq as a farewell. Then the death scream.

Wow!!! That was awesome!!! Had me captivated the entire time. I’m dreading the end of this season and the long wait for #2 but I also can’t wait to see where all of this is leading right now.

That was pretty darned dumb.

You’re a pretty darn dumb a bumb dumb. Lol grow up go away

Clever rebuttal aside, I stand by my comment. I was disappointed after the episode. It was all plot machinations and nothing else. I’ve never been a fan of the mirror universe episodes — the concept is interesting, but the results are often incredibly cartoonish.

Wow this was really good! I really wish they avoided the whole Klingon war thing and just started this arc from the beginning. I’m loving the spore drive thing even more with Stamets delving deeper with it. The MU arc has been great and yes now learning Lorca is from the MU is insane. Yeah people caught that too but I don’t think most people would have and it really makes you rethink every scene we saw with the guy from his first episode. I’m guessing they are going to do a flashback at some point to explain how he made it to prime universe but yeah its just nuts with all the reveals.

I think so, too. The Klingon war has been the weak point of the season, IMHO. My favourite episode is still ‘Magic To Make The Sanest Man Go Mad’.

The Mirror Universe arc has been nothing short of fantastic so far.

Whats funny is when Jonathan Frakes said they were going to the MU is when I really got excited about the show since I loved it in all the other shows. And frankly I wasn’t prepared for how well they would do it on this show but thats the beauty of a serialized show. The Klingon war looks like its basically done now outside of a small wrap up because the producers already said that arc be in over after this season and with just three episodes to go and it looks like the MU arc is only getting bigger than we are probably here until the end of the season.

And yes Sanest Man is my favorite too. Its the only episode I watched twice outside of the pilot. Now I want to rewatch the entire show for Lorca.

Explains how Lorca just did whatever he wanted and how manipulative he was to achieve his goal of returning to the MU. They really planned season 1 really well. So question is where is Prime Lorca? He must have died on the Burham? Will MU lorca remain in the MU?

Yeah it explains a lot but then it still has tons of questions. Like how he got to prime universe and was he able to manipulate his way to get to the Discovery in the first place? Clearly he knew about the spore drive and why he was so desperate to use it and why he didn’t want to lose the ship. This whole time we thought it was about him wanting to win the war and it turns out it was the least thing on his mind.

And yeah where is Prime Lorca? He could’ve killed him but he may still be around.

MU Lorca is in love with MU Burnham, he waited for the right opportunity to find his loss love in the Prime universe to try to find his way back home.

Im guessing MU Lorca found a way to the Prime Universe and killed Prime Lorca and the USS Buran. So he can finish his coup and try to convince Michael to stay and rule the MU with him.

I hope Prime Lorca is still alive and stranded somewhere in the MU, so we can have him in the next season. He’d still be an interesting character, but in a different way…someone who’s had to fight to stay alive in the MU and possibly make some difficult choices to do so (pretty much the way we believed THIS Lorca had to do in our universe). Someone who returns home to find his previous crew is dead, through no real fault of his own. Someone who’ll have to deal with all of this, who’ll have to let down the walls he had to build around himself to survive.

My hope is that MU Lorca has a few more tricks left up his sleeve and will redeem himself in time. Finding a “good” Lorca somewhere doesn’t sound that dramatically interesting. But then the big question would be what to do with good old Lorca in season two that tops this story arc? Have they signed Isaacs for season two?

I am hoping Lorca is back for season 2, but I am guessing they will kill him off in the MU.

Do we know for a fact that MU Lorca is “bad”? The preview on AfterTrek showed a scene with Rekha Sharma, which suggested they were rebelling against the Empire.

MU characters tend to be relative bad compared to prime universe.

This MU Lorca is complicated, he cares for a cause and has a goal in mind.

Everything he does flies in the face of a traditional starfleet captain.

Intercepting a prisoner and offering a position. Leaving behind Mudd in a Klingon Prison ship. Not following Admiral orders. Setting up Corwall to be captured to remain in command of Discovery, his ticket back home to the MU.

Manipulating people to achieve his goals.

Crew always knew Lorca as a war monger too.

I think the Emperor never approved of his love for her daughter and both had a tug of war, the theme in MU is power corrupts.

Lorca wants whats his, the throne and all the woman in the empire.

LOL its crazy! Now thats a twist NO ONE saw coming, that he and Burnham had a relationship before. Of course this guy probably slept with every girl in his universe lol. And everyone sleeps with everyone in this universe.

Yeah I think MU Lorca killed Prime Lorca as well. Next week is going to be interesting but every week has since they entered the MU.

Yeah, one big question is not only why he blew up his own ship in the PU but why the hell would Starfleet ever let him near another command again.

Questions are good right?

Only if there’s a good answer.

Uh yeah lol. Thats what keeps any story interesting.

OMG, that episode was soooooo good.

(spoiler: had a feeling that he was from the MU, and it makes sense why he wanted Burnham so badly.) DAMN. Discovery is getting so hype!

So did mirror Staments enject Tardigrade DNA into himself? I am still at a loss of the Four Years War ever happened or is this Klingon War it?

The Four Years War isn’t canon thought, is it? The Battle of Axanar is canon. I don’t believe they ever even said who the Federation fought at Axanar.

Also, my guess is that the Empire gathered up all of the tardigrades and “stored” them on Discovery.

They don’t have a spore drive as Georgiou reveals.

Here in France, we Star Trek fans call Tilly ‘ Little Tilly’. This is NOT in any way meant in a disparaging fashion, but as a sincere and honest term of endearment

Now that we have seen Voq being purged from the human Tyler/Voq hybrid I wonder if this creates a new cult around human looking Klingons. We have seen from Enterprise that some Klingons are interested in genetic modifications (use of the Augment DNA). I wonder if Voq’s sacrifice will create a cult, Voq was sacrificed for Klingon ideology, so others will do the same. Will this lead to the human looking Klingons that we see in TOS?

There really are no surprises left in Star Trek anymore. Fun to watch but we all saw it coming.

This isn’t anything new. It’s one of the sad things about technology and media access.

It’s not technology or media access, it’s a matter of familiarity. The reveal could have unfolded differently. Season 1 hasn’t had any, “Wow, didn’t see that one coming” moments which is still possible with the internet.

You can say that about any TV show or movie now thinks to the internet. There are no big secrets anymore as try as they might sadly. Everyone knew Cumberbatch was playing Khan even when people like me doubted it. But the internet is so pervasive now and every theory is thrown out there and kept for ages someone is proven right eventually. Think if Cumberbatch was proven to be Gary Mitchell because you had JUST as many people theorizing he was that guy too and then the internet would’ve said ‘see, I knew he was always Gary Mitchell’ all along.

For the record I seriously doubted the idea of Voq being Tyler. I NEVER would’ve considered it if I didn’t read 300 posts about it and even then I DIDN’T believe they turned Voq physically into Tyler. Up until last episode I said they wouldn’t because the idea just sounded too dumb (and I still do) but hey I was proven wrong. VERY wrong.

And don’t forget about ALL the theories out there that were proven wrong about the show in general: Section 31 would be involved, the ship traveled from the future, Burnham herself would be a spy, etc. People get just as many things wrong as right but once the right ones are proven then everyone can pat themselves on the back. So I think not everyone ‘sees it coming’ so much as the fact once someone does find one that happens to be true, it spreads like wild fire because now everyone is in on the possibility. Thank the internet and sites like this.

I agree, but I also think there’s room for twists that aren’t repeatedly hinted at, or are hidden by deliberate misdirection instead of deliberate foreshadowing. I hope season two has more of the former.

I think the twists are repeatedly hinted at to keep us talking. These things are discussed ad infinitum on the various forums/social media and the producers know it. Whatever hints are given launch speculation and thus promote a lasting interest.

We want to know what’s going to happen, as soon as possible.

True, but I think the hints could get us talking about some things while also distracting us from the actual important twists. Along those lines (and I need to get out of the prediction business!), I’m hoping Lorca has one more twist up his sleeve. Maybe he tried to kill the emperor because he believed in the values of the PU?

No I get you but then they would be accused of throwing in red herrings all the time just to trick people which ALSO bugs a lot of people. Ask the makers of LOST.

I’m not saying some of these things can’t be hidden a bit better but in the internet age there is only so much you can do. For the record there was zero hint Culber was getting killed off which was a big twist in itself but they didn’t spend 7 episodes before hinting at it, they just did it.

I think the writers probably want to get people talking as FLB said but they also want people to feel everything they are doing has been planned from the start to feel like its a show with a plan. Like they knew where its all going from the start and not just completely made up as they went. Once again ask the makers of LOST.

But yeah making a TV show is hard. At least with a film, all the surprises come in those two hours. But with a show you have to keep the audience guessing week to week but then you have to throw in clues and hints so people don’t feel like you are cheating that you are just throwing in stuff whenever you feel like it. And now you have people worldwide talking about every frame of every episode every minute of the day somewhere that gets picked up by everyone else. Its just too hard to keep things secret, especially on a weekly basis.

Yeah, I get it, Tiger2. The Culber example is a good one. My hope is that they’ve been distracting us with smaller twists (not red herrings, just smaller plot points) and saving the big one or two for the end. Hence my hope there’s still more to Lorca than just being the big baddie.

I have a feeling Lorca will be more complex than that. Like maybe (for this universe at least) he was the one wronged in some way and why he went to such extremes. I will say while he felt douchier than other Captains I really did feel like he was a guy who cared about the Discovery crew. I don’t think he’s just going to completely turn his back on them, especially if he really cares for Burnham like they been hinting it. Now if he tries to just blow them up without a second thought yeah I would be disappointed too.

I hope so! One thing that really jumped out at me in the last episode was when the MU Captain asked Lorca during the agonizer scene where he’d been all this time, and he said “with friends.” Every word he’s uttered has been significant and I’m hoping that this was no different.

I think we have the biggest jaw droppers still ahead.

this is my wife’s first Trek. She didn’t see any of it coming. We are a small sub group of watchers

SPOILERIFIC:

/
/
/

Around 60 minutes ago: “And liked her. … Somebody better came along.”

So….

Wow.

The is the Star Trek no one could have foreseen. Tarantino has his work cut out for him in the cinematic universe.

Um what

The “somebody better” might be a reference to MU Michael, but it is also likely Landry.

37:53? This no doubt sets a record for the shortest Star Trek episode in the 50 year history of Star Trek.

Agreed wtf. I felt a little empty at the end

Thanks for pointing that out. I had a feeling that this one went by quickly.

I’ll be the first to admit I got the Lorca theory wrong. In retrospect, maybe I’m frustrated because it seemed too obvious. But I’m bummed if they are going the straight “evil Lorca” route. Part of what made him such a great character was his seeming complexity.

I do like where they went with Tyler though–the failure to heal Klingon physiology explains the need for L’Rell’s intervention.

I think there will be complaints that this is “Dark Trek,” and not Trek as we know it. But I’ve seen this kind criticism before, as relates to DS9, which is now the closest parallel to this series, so to speak.

I don’t mind the new features of this series and I welcome it. It has, in some ways, adapted to the 21st Century Zeitgeist. This is what living things do — they adapt.

It may not be the Star Trek we knew.

This is every bit the Star Trek we need.

I don’t have an issue with “Dark Trek.” I was just hoping (and still am) for a more complex Lorca and not the stock villian that seems to be hinted at now.

“I don’t mind the new features of this series and I welcome it.”

What are those new features? Because I’m not seeing them so far.

1) longer character arcs and more character development
2) more emphasis on plot
3) a greater relevance to our current day situation then the last two Trek series
4) human beings that are imperfect and flawed. This leads for more room for growth (see point 1)

But none of those are really “new” features. And of course it’s going to be more relevant for today… because it’s made today.

@Fritz They are new features. Let’s take City On The Edge Of Forever as an example. Kirk lost his great love Edith Keeler yet no mention was ever made of her in future episodes. The characters we saw on other Treks were fully formed and really never changed (with a few exceptions, mainly in DS9). The last two Trek series (VOY and ENT) really had very very few resonances with the reality of the early 21st century . But mainly I like the fact that the characters actually develop in the course of consecutive episodes and are not simply paragons of virtue that exist as common factors across all episodes

I think this Trek will stay pretty divisive for awhile for a lot of reasons. It is certainly the most cynical Trek we gotten. DS9 was cynical too for sure but it still felt uplifting overall. This show feels like no one wants to be there (OK I guess you can say the same about DS9 too lol).

But in time people will either accept it or won’t. Whats funny is, once again, many assumed they never would see DS9 as a true Star Trek show like the others and now you can argue its most fans favorite, even more so than TOS and TNG. Certainly mine but that didn’t happen overnight.

Even Enterprise today is much more loved than it was when it premiered but thats what time does. I think Voyager still has its haters but it was never hated like I feel Discovery is now. It just didn’t live up to its premise for some.

Honestly though I FEEL people who been watching from the first episode probably like it more now than before. Even if they don’t love it I do think people are starting to see the potential the show has and that it is Star Trek, especially when you see it from the MU perspective. But I am starting to wonder when you start with a war and the MU what do you do next season that is ‘big’. Maybe they go into the future? Or maybe get lost in another part of space but I just don’t see them wanting any Voyager comparisons.

Succumbing to the fatalistic zeitgeist is LAZY TREK. This is exactly what TOS did NOT do. At the peak of the Cold War paranoia they put a Russian on the bridge and had stories about cooperation and overcoming differences, not subversion and dark twists.

Actually this is the time to put a Russian on the bridge again and also someone speaking for the “other half” Americans (not blood-thirsty Klingons)! But I guess Discovery’s diversity ends with putting people of different skin colors and sexual orientations on a starship, preaching to the choir and feeling nice and trendy-twisty for an equally tone-deaf audience who thinks bathroom problems of the 0.3% and Russian evilness are the big defining issues of our time. Star Trek: Echo Chamber.

Always listen to me.

I just realized this is the SECOND character in the series where they undermined PTSD and real world relevance for a cheap in-universe plot twist! Discovery is not character-driven, not plot-driven, not idea-driven – it is ultimately twist-driven. The characters so far are just cartoons that are being pushed around to amuse the audience but everything they say and do is meaningless. There’s only one time where this has led to outrage and this is predictably (and hypocritically) the Dr. Culber “gay trope” death, but the situation is exactly the same as with Tyler and Lorca. They even had to cheapen Lorca’s memorable character moment of not wanting to fix his eyes so he cannot unsee the horror of the Buran – just a bald-faced lie. Nothing matters, nothing means anything.

No, I don’t think this season (maybe series) will be looked well upon at all in hindsight.

Michael Burnham will need some therapy after this season. Bf was a Klingon spy, captain from MU and seeing her dead captain and mother figure as emperor.

LOL yeah so true. She has been through a lot. I guess you can say they all have but she had so many more personal connections.

Ya, also she was to spend the rest of her life in jail for mutiny until MU Lorca saved her.

People said “It will explain itself” but after this episode, it’s clear how this series is an amazing achievement. An ENTIRE SEASON is basically a story about a woman who is coming to realize she has been sexually groomed — or a version of her was—. BRAVO to the writers for being more bold than anyone could have guessed. Ripped from the headlines and I don’t think this particular story is what anyone would have guessed. This is why it’s important to have diversity on writing staffs!!!!!!

I kind of agree because I’m not sure yet. And as far as the diversity I agree with you but not sure, but hoping, the main stream agrees. Hell we at least need Hollywood and the press too. If they don’t no one will

The small individual scenes in this episode REALLY stand out with the acting. The company is finally hitting it’s stride

I wish each episode would be 1hr long before any commercials.

So, I found myself wondering tonight:

[b]Are we any closer to understanding what event referenced in canon that prompted the producers to set the series in this timeline?[/b]

Is there some crossover from the MU to the PU that ties to an event in this era? Something in DS9 maybe?

So far I’m still not convinced there was a NEED to set this series as a prequel to TOS.

Perhaps they mean the capture of the Defiant in TOS. Did they say TOS or “PU”?

I believe they were inclusive of all Trek. The Defiant was 13 years later.

Honestly there wasn’t. There still isn’t. I GUESS you can argue they needed this version of the MU for this story line since post DS9 terrans are not as viscous as before but the show would just make so much more sense post-Voyager.

And I thought they said it was the Klingon war that prompted them to do it in this period although there never was a Klingon war during this period, at least according to canon. They just added it which is fine but that could’ve been done at any time. Again DS9 proves that.

Fuller was a fan of Klingons and wanted to do a show prior to Kirk and TOS

Which sadly is turning out to be the weaker part of the show. I kind of wish they didn’t start it with a war theme but did something else that got them to the MU somehow. At least we know that arc will be over soon.

“The Tholian Web” and “Through a Glass, Darkly” (and “Mirror Mirror” more broadly).

It’s that Trouble with Tribblee moment that shows how Klingons could appear to be humans.

lots of feasting too in this new series. Voq and L’rell and crew ate Captain Georgiou. Now Emperor Georgiou and Burnham ate MU Saru lol

LOL would’ve been cooler if the Emperor and Burnham ate MU Voq.

that be crazy lol revenge is a dish best served cold

Lorca will gain control of the Terran empire, and Starfleet and the Klingon empire in the regular universe will have to ally, because the Terran Empire will attempt to conquer the non-mirror universe.

highly doubt it as goes against known canon