So I’ve been talking about Star Trek Discovery a lot, and I know that commentary is years late and nobody cares, but its what I am watching so its what I am thinking about so its what I am writing about. And now, seriously, what the fuck is going on with the two part episode Terra Firma? This is a two part episode send off for the character of Terran Empress Philippa Georgiou, presumably so she can go off and star in the Section 31 movie everyone hated. And I will admit, I like the character. She’s fun. Michelle Yeoh is great, and watching her take good actions against her character because of her love for Michael and perhaps grow a bit because of it was interesting. I wasn’t really sure what they were “doing” with the character, but was willing to give them space to do so because she was entertaining. But now that she is off the show, seriously, what?
A quick summary for those not familiar with the show. The Terran Empire is a fascist version of the Federation that exists in the Mirror Universe. We are both told directly and shown that it, and by extension the Empress herself both on her orders, through proxies, and by her own hand practices torture, genocide, human supremacy (as a metaphor for white supremacy), slavery, cannibalism (assuming you extend the definition of cannibalism to include “any sentient species), and honestly probably any form of nastiness you might imagine. Philippa is shown to be an enthusiastic and unquestioning participant in this, although because she is being overthrown by Lorca and mirror Burnham, her closest confidant, on the basis of “making the Terran Empire Great Again” (literally said) we are perhaps given some indication she maybe does not go as far as some in the Terran Empire would like. Philippa is deposed by Lorca, and although Lorca is killed, her flagship is also destroyed and she is captured by prime universe Burnham and proceeds to be shown the ways of the federation and to kinda bond with Burnham, Tilly, and a few other members of the prime universe. Generally speaking, from here on out she helps the good guys, although she still often suggest solutions that are morally repugnant, such as genociding the Klingons.
In the third season, after they have been transported to the future, Philippa starts suffering from flashbacks that also make her glitch like missingNo. Long story short, she and Burnham go to the Guardian of Forever and Philippa is sent back in time and across dimensions and given a second chance at holding on to the Terran Empire. This time she spares mirror Burnham’s life (she had her killed the first time around) and attempts to torture her into submission. She also tries to be slightly less oppressive to the people she is ruling and outlaws cannibalism, but it is pretty clear she is still pursuing fascism - Burnham ultimately betrays her again, and makes clear that she and Lorca want endless conquest and violence, and disdain ruling at all - Georgiou is a fascist, and even now “reformed” still seems to be merely instituting fascism with a lighter hand, but Burnham and Lorca are essentially pillagers, with no philosophy besides power, violence, and destruction. Georgiou does say, to herself, that her goal is to change the Terran Empire into a place with the ideals of the Federation, but we see at most babysteps. Ultimately, she and Burnham kill each other, and as she lays dying, Philippa awakens back at the Guardian of Forever.
The Guardian explains that while those events did really happen - on a character note proving to Philippa that her Burnham was a lost cause, and that prime Burnham is actually the one she loves - the point was not for Philippa to succeed, but to judge whether or not her time in the Federation had changed her. He judges it did, and gives her a chance to start again in a new time and place where the dissonance between her dimension and the prime one is not so great so she won’t have flashback glitches. She is sent wherever and back on Discovery, Burnham and Saru talk about what happened, Burnham says Philippa won’t be back, Saru then says “So she is dead,” which is honestly baffling since she was actually just sent to another timeline, and then they proceed to hold a mini wake for her where everyone says how awesome she was.
Now, let me rewind for a bit. Who is Philippa Georgiou supposed to represent? The Terran Empire is a fascist state, but Lorca is a clearly analogy for Trump, and in 2016, who was Trump trying to “overthrow”? I think there are two obvious answers, Obama and Hillary, and between the two, I’d say Hillary. And if you think of her as Hillary, maybe this passes the smell test? But I don’t honestly think the writers went in thinking Philippa is an analogy for Hillary. While Lorca obviously is supposed to be Trump, I don’t think they were trying for a true, fully fleshed out allegory here, and Philippa is just suppose to be a fun character read on her own but not in any specific, real life framework
Taken as such, then, I think the best way to view her is as Space Hitler, the same way Gul Dukat is. They both were the absolute leaders of a fascist state who did awful things in the past, but who were fleshed out into a more human portrayal where we go to see some of what makes them tick. Gul Dukat, spoilers for DS9, has some time in the spotlight at various times as a similar villain turned ally, but ultimately is driven mad by the death of his daughter and dies an unrepentant villain. Philippa, however, doesn’t, and when she “dies” (emphasis on the fact she is not dead) she is praised and celebrated by the crew. But, let me remind you, this is Space Hitler we are talking about here. She is not a good person. Maybe she deserves another chance, maybe she has begun to change as the Guardian of Forever seems to think, but she still has done countless, awful, horrific crimes. Even on screen she not only ate mirror Sarum but forced prime Burnham to do so, too! Only two seasons ago she was advocating for genocide. She may have been changed, but she has not put in the work necessary for this kind of hero treatment. Star Trek is fundamentally supposed to be a progressive show, and while I think the idea of showcasing “this is how we get better” might have a place, showing her say “Maybe I don’t have to kill my violent bloodthirsty murderer of a daughter, maybe I can torture her into being peaceful” and failing to do so isn’t really the slamdunk heroic awakening you think it is, Discovery. As much as I like the character, it honestly made me a little sick to see what are supposed to be Federation officers praising such an individual. And sure, she did form relationships with these people (although because of Discovery’s serialized nature and demanding narrative, we don’t actually see that much of it - a few quips here and there, and a lot of facial expressions and telling us how much they mean ti one another is all we get, the show does not have time for real character exploration like in episodic Treks) so she is a “friend” - a very hostile, racist friend who murdered honestly probably billions of people. Its honestly just bonkers that this happened on a show that purports to be progressive.
Honestly I kind of think these episodes were straight up a waste of time and a waste of a interesting character, but if they really wanted to write her off the show, they should have cut the funeral. Spend that time fleshing out her reforms in the Terran Empire, and make her seem more obviously serious about them. Maybe have her contact the alien races to sue for peace. Then her death and judgement as worthy by the Guardian of Forever might be more convincing, instead of the shrug and “Fine” it elicited from me as is, and then when she is granted another shot, have Burnham and Saru talk about that and hope she might find atonement for all the awful things she did as Empress. I honestly do not think the writers of these episodes had any progressive message in mind writing them, and thats a big fucking problem in my opinion. Star Trek should always have that in mind, and ideally every episode should have an obvious takeaway. But I do think with those changes, it could serve as a sort of model of what to do with your old racist Trump voting relatives. Reach out to them, as Burnham and Tilly and Saru did, and urge them to change, to do better, to form connections and community with diverse people instead of only with bigots, and then if they put in the work to make amends for those they have harmed, they can be welcomed into solidarity. But Philippa did not put in the work, neither on screen nor by implication, and as Space Hitler, the amount of work she would require is astronomical. But, I could have sighed and moved on then, instead of writing a annoyed blog post about it.
Steve Shives has a video essay about Space Nazis and how to reform them, and noted that Gul Dukat was never reformed, and couldn’t be, as he was unrepentant, but that Damarr ultimately was redeemed, but only through death, and that trying to redeem a Space Nazi in any way but death is a mistake, because of how serious their crimes are if they are a Space Nazi. And honestly, I mostly agree. As written, Philippa here is someone far worse than Gul Dukat being redeemed without being killed, without explicit repentance for her crimes, and without putting in any work to repair the harm she did. It’s just ridiculous. I don’t care how cool Michelle Yeoh is, Star Trek shouldn’t be redeeming Nazis like this. Even my rewrite would still go too far, but at least it would acknowledge she wasn’t here yet. As is I just have to assume these episodes were written without any thought to the overall mission of Star Trek as a venue for progressive storytelling and just to get her off the show and set up for her terrible movie. And that sucks.
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