STAR TREK: DISCOVERY
SEASON 1, EPISODE 14
SEASON 1, EPISODE 14
The War Without, The War Within
Series: Star Trek: Discovery - (2017 - 2024)Season: 1
Episode #: 14
Original Airdate: February 4th, 2018
Writer(s): Lisa Randolph
Director(s): David Solomon
Guest Stars
Michelle Yeoh as Emperor Philippa Georgiou
Jayne Brook as Vice Admiral Katrina Cornwell
Mary Chieffo as L'Rell
James Frain as Sarek
Michael Ayres as Transport Chief
Emily Coutts as Keyla Detmer
Raven Dauda as Dr. Pollard
Riley Gilchrist as Admiral Shukar
Julianne Grossman as Discovery Computer
Harry Judge as Admiral Gorch
Patrick Kwok-Choon as Rhys
Sara Mitich as Airiam
Melanie Nicholls-King as Admiral Drake
Oyin Oladejo as Joann Owosekun
Ronnie Rowe Jr. as R.A. Bryce
Stardate: Unknown
Synopsis
Emperor Georgiou and Burnham materialize on Discovery's transporter pad, where Saru is waiting. Immediately, Georgiou points her phaser at Saru, seeing nothing but a Kelpian. To her, he's just a member of an enslaved race good for making food out of. Why, then, did Burnham bring her back? After blazing through some after-the-fact-lies, we get to the truth: Burnham couldn't stand to see Georgiou die again. Meanwhile, Tyler is Tyler again, but has Voq's full set of memories, including the memory of everything he did when he was Voq-in-Tyler's body, including murdering Dr. Hugh Culber and choking Burnham. Saru decides to allow Tyler to remain a free man, however with restrictions. Saru suggests to Burnham that what Tyler needs now is a friendly face to connect with again. Burnham, however, refuses to meet with Tyler as the pain of his true identity still stings.
![]()
[ Screencap Index ]
Later, Admiral Cornwell, Sarek, and other Starfleet members beam aboard Discovery, taking command and catching everyone up on the Federation/Klingon war. The Klingons, with an undetectable cloaking device, have been unbeatable, destroying ships, starbases, and plundering planets at will. With no leadership, they've become, as Sarek notes, feudal savages jockeying for power by racing to plunder the Federation and its members. The Admiral meets Emperor Georgiou, who expresses what she wants: to simply go home to her own universe. Cornwall confesses that they don't know how to get her home and can't spare the resources to get her there even if she had them.
Meanwhile as Tyler roams the ships while still coming to grips with all the pain and suffering he has caused, he bumps in Stamets in a corridor. The two confront the horrible, awful truth of Culber's murder, each from their own perspective. After the painful confrontation, Tyler heads to the mess hall where, after some hushed whispers from the crew, he is joined by Tilly, Detmer, and others, who all welcome him back to the ‘human’ race.
Discovery arrives at Starbase 1 - the last sanctuary for the Federation's command, situated on the outskirts of Earth's solar system. Unfortunately, they're too late; all the Federation members are dead, and a Klingon insignia — of a particular house, not of the Klingon Empire — is emblazoned on the conquered starbase. Admiral Cornwell freezes in shock at the sight of the defeated Starbase before Saru orders the Discovery to leave the area at maximum warp.
Back in the brig, Cornwell and L'Rell argue, with the Admiral desperate for a solution that will lead to peace. L'Rell at last gives her one, "conquer us, or we will never relent." Burnham, also desperate to find a solution to ending the war she helped to start, asks the Emperor how she defeated the Klingons. The answer: genocide. In her universe, Emperor Georgiou attacked and eventually destroyed the Klingon home world of Qo'noS, which crippled the Klingon Empire. She suggests a similar, albeit not quite as destructive, course of action in order to defeat the Klingons in this universe. However her true plan is far harsher in reality: to turn Qo'noS into a blackened mass of dust, just as she did in the Terran Empire.
However for the plan to work, Discovery would need to jump to Qo'noS. Unfortunately their supply of spores has been depleted. Fortunately, Stamets has a solution. The engineer suggests terraforming an uninhabited world to become a wild mycelium colony. He puts in plan into action on an uninhabited moon in the Veda system. The once-barren wasteland suddenly teems with mycelial life, thus providing Discovery with a new source of spores for their jump drive technology.
Meanwhile, Burnham finally goes to see Tyler, confronting him about the wrongs he committed while his body was under Voq's control. Tyler again sees through her words and gets to the heart of what she, herself, is in denial about: that she can't handle what it means to love someone as complicated and broken as he is. "This isn't about a lie, this is about you looking for an excuse to end it... because your parents were killed by Klingons, and you fell in love with one." Burnham hears the truth and knows it, and knows at the same time that she's not as strong as the situation requires her to be. By her own admission, she hasn't been, since the Battle of the Binary Stars.
With the spores being collected to power the jump technology, Admiral Cornwell and Sarek activate the next step of their plan: revealing their mission leader, "Captain" Georgiou. But this clearly won't be the reconnaissance mission it's being presented as. This is about survival. This is war.
Trailer
Posters courtesy of Laz Marquez and J.J. Lendl
| What's Past is Prologue (S1:E13) | ~ | Star Trek: Discovery Episode List | ~ | Will You Take My Hand? (S1:E15) | 