9 Ups & 1 Down From Star Trek: Discovery 5.8 — Labyrinths

Full disclosure: I was tempted to call this the 'Michael Manoeuvre,' but that's too much alliteration even for me! Visually, this updated version of the Badlands also reminded us of the Briar Patch (or the 'Klach D'kel Brakt,' if you prefer the Klingon name), although personally I'd rather face a dozen Breen dreadnoughts than spend another boring minute bird watching with the Ba'ku!

If history did remember shoving metreon gas down the Son'a's throats as the 'Riker Manoeuvre,' I wouldn't be surprised if it recalls the Captain of the Discovery's epic move at the end of Labyrinths as the 'Burnham Manoeuvre'. No joystick, sorry, "manual steering column" (unless that's Stamets' nickname), this time though, just pure tactics! Burnham can indeed add her name to a list that already included the Picard manoeuvre, and the mysterious 'Janeway Protocol' (as mentioned in the Star Trek: Lower Decks episode Envoys).

In Labyrinths, Burnham is faced with an almost impossible decision — Primarch Ruhn wants the clues to the Progenitors' tech, or he'll destroy the Archive and all the people on it. Burnham has little choice but to acquiesce. Xenoanthropologist-mode activated! She makes Ruhn swear a "tergun [a sacred Breen oath] to spare the Archive and all its inhabitants" before she will send over the clues.

Then came the even riskier bit. "Prepare to vent main shuttlebay and all plasma from both nacelles," Burnham orders. "We're going to vent and jump simultaneously." The crew are sceptical at first, but the gambit pays off, in spectacular style. The Discovery escapes, still smouldering, and the Breen think they have destroyed it. As Burnham says to Rayner:

Someone once told me never turn my back on a Breen.