STAR TREK: DISCOVERY
Christopher pike’s taking Command as Star trek: DiScovery seeks out more strange new worlds…
The Disco revival is here! Time for a long-range sensor scan on what to expect from season two of
Trek’s latest incarnation.
returnIng show seAson 2 us BroADCAst CBS All Access, 2019 uK BroADCAst Netflix, 2019 Country of orIgIn US
In a universe where information about upcoming movies and tv is usually trapped behind an impregnable forcefield, Star Trek: Discovery really is going where no show has gone before – season two isn’t due until early 2019 and we already have a good idea of what it’s about. to boldly know, and all that…
for starters, we’ll be edging closer to the established Trek canon that sometimes felt galaxies away in Discovery’s wonderfully adventurous first year. “we’ve never been tempted to say, ‘screw it, we’re doing our own thing,’” explains co-creator and new showrunner alex Kurtzman. “however, we are constantly challenging ourselves in the writer’s room with, ‘how can we push really hard against the edges of what canon is without breaking it?’ that means things like coming up with the spore drive, which obviously never existed before Discovery, and why spock never mentioned his sister. so we will be syncing up with canon and we will be answering those questions, and hopefully, by the time you get to the end of the season, you’ll understand why all those things have never been discussed.”
season one ended with Discovery receiving a distress signal from the uss enterprise while en route to pick up a new captain. we now know that Christopher Pike, Kirk’s predecessor on the enterprise bridge, will assume command of the Discovery, leading the crew on a mission to investigate some mysterious alien signals.
“what i love about Pike is that he’s a man who is very kind, who has tremendous authority and yet can still apologise when he’s wrong,” says Kurtzman. “in many ways he’s the opposite of Lorca. and tonally, now we’ve gotten to a place where, even though the stakes are still very high, there’s more downtime, which allows for more humour and allows for a slower, onion-layer pulling-open of character. i feel tonally it’s probably a more buoyant season, even though there are some episodes that are very, very serious and intense.”
WHat’S UP, SPock?
it’s also been confirmed that michael burnham’s adoptive brother spock, who’s somehow connected with those alien signals, will be making an appearance this year; that Pike’s first officer “number one” (a role originated by majel barrett) will be played by rebecca romijn; and that Dr Culber will somehow be back in the show – despite having had his neck snapped by ash tyler. “my neck feels fine!” laughs actor wilson Cruz. “i won’t go into the details of the whys and the hows,” teases Cruz’s on-screen partner anthony rapp (Paul stamets), “but it’s inspired by the real science that the real Paul stamets, a mycologist, has to say about the nature of mycelia and how it interacts with matter in the universe.”
and even though tyler and his Klingon torturer/lover L’rell were left behind on the Klingon homeworld, we will be seeing more of her efforts
we will be syncing up with canon and we will be answering questions
as Chancellor to unite her people and uphold her mentor t’Kuvma’s vision. “[stories] are going to interweave,” says Kurtzman. “each character has their own story. some of those stories function on Discovery and some of those stories function outside Discovery.”
we’ll also be learning more about science officer/second-in-command saru and the preyed-upon Kelpien race. “we do visit my home planet,” reveals Doug Jones, who plays saru. “we’re going to meet some of my family. we’re going to find out where saru comes from, how he became what he is, why the fear and who’s the predator? all those things are going to come into play.”
in fact, filling in holes in the canon seems to be one of the prime directives this year, with season two preceded by four “short treks” – 10-15 minute standalones that will delve deeper into lore, with episodes promised on tilly, saru and harry mudd. that can only mean more clues for the attentive Trek fans who managed to predict both tyler’s Klingon heritage and Lorca’s murky past.
“i think we live in a world now where the entire game of the internet is to try and second guess every choice that everybody makes on any show, and that’s just a given,” concedes Kurtzman. “i think for us, last year, while we started seeing people guessing certain things online, they didn’t guess how we were going to do it. so i don’t think it’s terrible that people speculate and maybe even get close to the truth. because they’re still not going to get the exact truth and they’re still going to be surprised by how we reveal it!”