Check Out 8 New Photos From “If Memory Serves” – ‘Star Trek: Discovery’ Season 2, Episode 8

This afternoon CBS released eight new images from “If Memory Serves,” the eighth episode of the second season of Star Trek: Discovery.

[SPOILERS BELOW]

Synopsis

Spock and Burnham head to Talos IV, where the process of healing Spock forces the siblings to confront their troubled past. Stamets desperately tries to reconnect with an increasingly disconnected Hugh, while Tyler struggles to shed the crew’s suspicions of him due to his past as Voq.

New photos

“If Memory Serves” — Ep#208 — Pictured (l-r): Doug Jones as Saru; Ethan Peck as Spock; Sonequa Martin-Green as Burnham; Anson Mount as Captain Pike (CBS)

“If Memory Serves” — Ep#208 — Pictured (l-r): Hannah Cheesman as Airiam 2.5; Doug Jones as Saru (CBS)

“If Memory Serves” — Ep#208 — Pictured (l-r): Ethan Peck as Spock; Sonequa Martin-Green as Burnham (CBS)

“If Memory Serves” — Ep#208 — Pictured (l-r): Doug Jones as Saru; Shazad Latif as Tyler; Anson Mount (CBS)

“If Memory Serves” — Ep#208 — Pictured (l-r): Wilson Cruz as Culber; Shazad Latif as Tyler (CBS)

“If Memory Serves” — Ep#208 — Pictured (l-r): Wilson Cruz as Culber; Anthony Rapp as Stamets (CBS)

“If Memory Serves” — Ep#208 — Anthony Rapp as Stamets; Wilson Cruz as Culber (CBS)

“If Memory Serves” — Ep#208 — Pictured (l-r): Patrick Kwok-Choon as Rhys; Anthony Rapp as Stamets; Doug Jones as Saru; Mary Wiseman as Tilly (CBS)

Trailer and analysis

Earlier CBS released the trailer for “Light and Shadows” exclusively on the official Star Trek site. TrekMovie analyzed the trailer over the weekend, check out the article for a breakdown of the exciting footage.

Episode trailer from Netflix on Instagram (viewable globally).

https://www.instagram.com/p/BupQU1Enk-Z/?utm_source=ig_share_sheet&igshid=oy9nbedeu44f

How to watch “If Memory Serves”

Star Trek: Discovery is available exclusively in the USA on CBS All Access. It airs in Canada on Space and streams on CraveTV. It is available on Netflix everywhere else.

“If Memory Serves” will be released on All Access on Thursday, March 7th, 2019 at 8:30pm ET/5:30pm PT. It will air on Space at 8:00pm ET/5:00pm PT on the same night. It will be available on Netflix the next morning, Friday, March 8th, 2019.


Keep up with all the Star Trek: Discovery news at TrekMovie.

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Not that it’ll make up for the disappointment of not getting the Disco take on the Enterprise bridge, but I’m still looking forward to seeing Talos IV re-imagined with a modern budget and visual FX. Should be a real hoot.

Michael Hall Alex Kurtzman will ruin the Enterprise bridge like he did to the Klingons. I don’t want to see that. At least Talos IV looks the part.

Actually, it was Alex Kurtzman who “fixed” the Klingons. Bryan Fuller was the one who “ruined” them.
And strictly speaking, both of those assessments are utter rubbish.

Giving them hair didn’t fix them. They were never broken to begin with.

Well many disagree with that, including me. And giving them hair made a HUGE difference, at least in their appearance and they no longer look like orcs at least. Sadly they still feel pretty boring and unneeded as I felt in episode 3 but hopefully I will like them more in their next outing.

“They were never broken to begin with.”

That was true before STD. Yet Fuller wanted to fix what was not broken. The season 2 guys have tried to repair the damage. Thumbs up for that. But sadly, there may be too many things that are just too difficult to repair.

Fuller worked on Trek before, he knows what was needed for Disco. Sucks that he can’t seem to hang on to a job. Wish he was still running the show.

Fuller was only guilty of trying something new, a decision that went down like a lead balloon once it turned out most Trek fans really just want the same old, same old. He wasn’t wrong trying to do that much (he certainly wasn’t wrong that there has never been much consistency between Klingons from one incarnation of the show to the next) and while I’m certainly enjoying Season 2 well enough and feel it’s a little more confident, I’ll confess I do miss the sense of seeing something outside the norm of the usual Trek. A missed opportunity, in my opinion, but clearly an opinion in the minority.

There is nothing wrong with trying something new. I, myself, was looking forward to a new take on things. You can do something new with Trek and still keep it Trek. DS9 was something new and still felt like Star Trek. Fuller wanted to reinvent Trek and then tell us all it was still the same prime Trek. You can’t completely change everything, tell fans you haven’t changed anything and expect everyone to love what you produced. Many are going to feel cheated and lied to.

And for the record, the Klingon look, apart from minor tweaking, has remained the same from TMP onward. Until Discovery…

He never said he didn’t change anything though. He freely admits he reinvented the Klingon designs for Discovery. He just hoped the fans would take the same visual leap as he did, by updating some of the classic elements and yeah, it was clearly a leap too far for many fans. Speaking for myself, I mostly loved the new look. Tired of seeing the exact same Klingon costumes recycled again and again since STIII.

Ehh, I dunno. As I get older, I could care less about sticking to canon, particularly if it means sticking rigidly to it gets in the way of telling a good story. I’d rather the show is as good as it can be, and if it steps on what came before, all the better. Season 1 didn’t really pull off the story part effectively, but I still admire the efforts to retool everything for the 21st century. Again: I know I’m in the minority here with those opinions.

He said it was prime universe. Which means no major changes should have been made. Only a few tweaks here and there for current audiences. Instead, they changed the look and feel of EVERYTHING. That’s jarring to most fans who were expecting something else. But, as you say, give me some juicy story and intriguing characters and I can look past all that other change you did. But then, they gave us wooden characters and tried to go all Game of Thrones on us. OK, going with the ‘gotcha’ moments could still work. But then they gave us tired and worn out ideas. Nothing new. First, by setting it when they did, we knew the spore drive would ultimately fail. Then they gave us a twist many fans called episodes before it happened. And then the final insult, the MU captain. Which, for me at least, was an unforgivable error. (In fact, when some here suggested that as a possibility I dismissed it as being so amazingly dumb there was no way that was it. I gave the writers too much credit.) I think they thought they were being clever but it was really foolish. Everything they did regarding the MU was completely mismanaged from the dumb plot twists to just being there too long. I do applaud them for trying something different. I really do. But they achieved a failure of epic proportions. Had they come up with a better story line the problems of the Klingon and general Star Fleet look would have been lessened. But make no mistake… It would still be an issue. Larger for some than others but still an issue.

I 100% disagree with you. Star Trek needs to change or people will stop watching.

I can’t disagree with most of that ML31. And its proof that fans can really watch something and get two very different reactions out of it.

Many fans do think Discovery had one of the best first seasons than any other Trek show. But then people like us look at it and think the complete opposite when you lay down the problems as you did. In fact, watching and enjoying season 2 now has oddly made me hate season 1 more than before because its a reminder of where season 1 went so wrong and all the things it lacked. Its not to say it still didn’t have a few good episodes but the season as a whole was just bad to me, especially with all those melodramatic plot twists. They felt like something that belongs in soap operas, not Star Trek.

Ehh. They made some bad calls for sure, but worse than season 1 of TNG…? I don’t think so. There’s nothing here that can’t be salvaged. The characters are decent, they just need a good sandbox to play in, something they haven’t been given yet.

I didn’t mind the Lorca MU twist, although I’ll concede I’d rather have just had a captain who was a mean bastard without the twist. It’s no less cheesy than anything from TOS that came before. The MU is an inherently stupid (but sometimes entertaining) concept in ANY incarnation of Trek so I’ve given Discovery’s take on it a free pass.

I’m curious, blackmocco… What were cheezy concepts from TOS? I’m not saying they didn’t have any. Just wondering what you felt they were since you specifically brought up TOS.

My point is not to be disparaging – TOS is the Trek I grew up on and love the most of all – but only that a sci-fi show from 1966 is going to have some goofy loose plots, most of which would be torn apart if presented to an audience in 2019.

As for examples, where to begin? Practically every episode has something ludicrous either as a main plot or as a solution to a problem. It’s difficult for me sometimes to hear people obsess negatively about a Discovery plot point and wonder how they can give a free pass, for example, to the transporter splitting Kirk into two opposite sides of his psyche roaming the ship simultaneously or hell, even the original Mirror, Mirror which tells us that in an alternate universe that has clearly evolved in a completely different fashion than Kirk’s that every single crew member we know and love is alive and well and stationed in the EXACT same position on the alternate Enterprise. But y’know, eeeeeeviiil…! (Do I need to even mention the likes of Spock’s Brain or Turnabout Intruder? And yes, while those examples are not exactly TOS’s high points, they’re still part of everyone’s precious canon, whether we like it or not)

Again, I don’t say this to start a debate about how these things could actually be plausible (they’re not) or that these things ruin my enjoyment of the show (they don’t), merely to point out that Discovery is set in the same universe as the other shows, therefore I’m willing to accept that even in a Star Trek show in 2019, goofy plots are just baked into the cake. They always have been. 2019’s audience might be too cynical to accept Lorca as an interloper from an alternate universe but I’m pretty sure 1966’s audience wouldn’t have cared less. Neither do I.

I asked and you answered. Not looking to debate this. Thank you. I now have a better idea of where you are coming from when you said “cheezy”.

No worries. Enjoying the conversation.

I grew up with TOS too but yeah the show is very flawed looking at it with today’s eyes obviously. Half the series had some pretty bad episodes IMO but nostalgia has a way of forgiving them a little more. TOS is a great show but its my third favorite behind TNG and DS9. And I admit, its harder to watch TOS for me than all the other shows and watches it the least outside of Discovery. It just feels too dated now.

It’s not nostalgia for me. The ratio of sub par to OK-good episodes in TOS is actually pretty good. I went back and checked and in my estimation 43 of the 79 episodes fell into the decent to very good episode category. Now 35 of those episodes were from the first two seasons but still… Those first two seasons were awfully high quality overall. Even my 2nd favorite series, DS9, doesn’t have that high a ratio I don’t think. I’d have to go back and confirm, however. And I KNOW TNG doesn’t even come close to such a high rate.

Yeah, I’d say TOS has a pretty good batting average for the first two seasons (probably the only incarnation of the show that can say that with a straight face), and there’s an important reason why: solid, (mostly) well-written characters brought to life by a likable and relatable cast. You get that part right, that’ll get you through any number of cheap sets, crummy looking aliens and wacky plots. Discovery’s still got some serious work to do on that front, but it’s getting there.

Well that’s about half lol. That’s what I’m saying, half are decent to great, the other half are average to awful. It’s not horrible of course but since TOS has such a small ration of episodes in general it just doesn’t have the same repeatability for me as the other shows do because they just have a lot more likable episodes in general. For me at least.

And as I also said TOS has just felt more dated for me in general, especially the last decade or so. I still watch it. I watched This Side of Paradise just yesterday and still a good episode. I just watch it a little less than the others, that’s all.

Going on the first two seasons alone its 35 of 55. Which is phenomenally high. Especially for a 26-29 episode season. My point is that the other series’s produced way more episodes and only a handful were really memorable. I just looked at TNG’s season 4. Considered to be in the series best days. Now many of those episodes I haven’t seen since airing so I’m going on very old memories, but they had 26 episodes. 4 were good. 7 were mediocre. And 15 were just bad. That’s 11 of 26 being mediocre to good. So they had a mediocre-good to bad ratio of 42%. In one of their “best” seasons. Compared to TOS’s worst season ratio of 33%. If we include season 3 of TNG, which had a better ratio, for those two prime seasons TNG had a mediocre+ to bad ratio of 52%. TOS had a ratio of 64% in it’s prime.

Let’s eliminate the mediocre eps and stick with the really good ones. This will be a rather small number for all shows. TOS had a 44% ratio for the first two seasons. But that 3rd season really dings the overall number down to 37%. For the two seasons of TNG I checked (seasons 3 & 4) it’s 21%. And I think I was being generous there, to be honest.

But yes, this is all VERY subjective. But the good to bad ratio is one of the reasons why I have always preferred TOS to TNG. Again, not that I don’t appreciate TNG for what it did for the franchise. I truly do.

As you said, this is all subjective. I mean you think TOS is between 35 to 55. For me, its in the 40s if I’m being honest. You made it clear you many times you hate TNG so obviously you are going to find less episodes to like than I am. For me its the opposite, it’s probably around 90-100 episodes I can watch over and over again. There are about 60 stinkers though, I mean episodes I just refuse to watch again (although I rewatched one of them lately, Code of Honor. Its been so long but yeah never again lol) But out of a 170+ episodes that’s not bad.

DS9 is probably the highest ratio for me overall but because so much of it becomes serialized its less episodic stuff to watch on a whim (but the overwhelming majority are standalone episodes barring the last two seasons and bits of seasons 3 and 4). But I would say easily over 100 episodes of DS9 I can rewatch. Compare that to TOS and its just a lot less.

Enterprise actually has about the same amount of episodes as TOS does for me in the quality realm (although I watch a bit less since so much of third season is serialized so I skip most of the Xindi ones unless I’m doing a straight watch through).

Voyager probably has the lowest ratio overall but it’s still pretty high, around 70-80 episodes. Unlike TNG I don’t think its as many stinkers but mostly just bad although most I can rewatch them at least.

All in all these are all pretty good, its why I’m a fan. I enjoy most than not. But I clearly enjoy the 24th century shows the most. And since that IS the most content wise, its just a lot more repeatable.

I didn’t say it was the worst season ever but it was still bad to me. And for me, the only season worse than Discovery first season was TNG and ENT’s first. But I didn’t mind the Lorca twist either and the MU is what saved the season for me in a way because there weren’t any real Klingon stories on those which is what I really hated overall.

But same time, things can change pretty quickly. I’m truly enjoying Discovery right now! And while I thought season 1 was one of the worst, season 2 may end up as one of the best in the franchise. Trust me when I say I did not see that coming lol. But I really do think the changes made a huge difference and I give them a lot of credit listening to the fan criticisms and making the changes this early. Hopefully the rest of the season will stay just as good.

I’d expect the show will just keep getting better as we go along, each season learning from the last. TNG treaded water for two seasons until season 3 suddenly felt like a mild reboot, giving the show a kick in the ass and the characters something solid to do.

Yeah every show improved later on, I never had any doubt this one wouldn’t as well IF they heard the criticisms and made the changes, which to every show credit has always done to a degree. The question was how much would they change? But every show from TNG to ENT all got better, usually a lot better. DIS improving so quickly is a great sign it can become a great show. Now I’m not going to jump the gun, the show still has problems for sure. And if they take away Pike after this season, who is honestly one of the best things about the season, then it will be a question mark of how well season 3 will turn out. But I have faith now they are on the right path, especially if the second half of this season is good.

Not worried. I was worried about them replacing Isaacs/Lorca and they gave us Mount/Pike. Reckon they know what they need to do in the future.

I feel the same way. The show needs to take more risks and needs to stop worrying about the fans so much.

Yes Fuller was trying to do something new with it, which I applauded. The problem was he just went too far with some of it to the point it barely felt like Star Trek. You can do something new but not to the point you lose its core values in the process and that was the problem for a lot of fans so they course corrected.

But yes Star Trek has done different things in the past like DS9. That show was nothing like TOS or TNG when it came out and was very different dynamic. And yes a lot of people didn’t think it felt like Star Trek either when it premiered. So they course corrected on some things while still keeping it a fundamentally different show than the others. In fact it became more different once the Dominion war officially started but it still kept important elements of Star Trek in it, just a much more cynical view than the others. And today its loved by most of the fanbase, the same fanbase that considered it the black sheep of the franchise when it premiered.

Discovery can certainly pull off a DS9 but it has to be a balance, one I don’t think season one had much of.

And I have to be honest… With fewer episodes each season the opportunity for Discovery to pull off what DS9 did are smaller.

@JAGT Fullers net negative involvement goes to show that wanting Trek alumni write the new shows CAN be a pyrric victory, if they just felt constrained to toe the party line before and have different things in mind for new Trek (which we can’t be sure of)

Alex Kurtzman DESTROYED Star Trek. Not just the Klingons and the canon, but the entire Star Trek universe. Strictly speaking, he is not making Star Trek at all. He has slapped the name on some generic space-based action/fantasy soap opera.

Yeah, yeah, Star Trek is dead, it will never be good again, screw Discovery, screw the Picard show, who’s gonna watch that rubbish anyway? Also CBS is close to bankruptcy thanks to Discovery and the whole show is only kept alive to further the leftist Illuminati’s SJW agenda or something like that.
It’s incredibly tiring. I mean there’s really just one question to ask: If Star Trek has been “ruined” by Kurtzman, Fuller or Abrams for that matter, then why is it prospering?

Wow, everything wrong with fandom today in a single post.

Replying to JAGT
“Actually, it was Alex Kurtzman who “fixed” the Klingons. Bryan Fuller was the one who “ruined” them.”
I heard that Fuller was pushing to keep the show completely canonical and eventually had to walk because the studio wouldn’t relent.

And I heard that Fuller wanted bald, ridged (hence, strictly speaking, “canon-violating”) Klingons for the show and that the redesign was decided in the very early stages of pre-production. So accounts seem to differ on that.

Y’know, it’s kinda sad that you don’t even have to wander from this very website to get the truth behind the Klingon redesign. But hey, you “heard” it somewhere. I’m sure that’s way more accurate than from the people actually involved with the show.

https://trekmovie.com/2017/08/03/stlv17-designers-explain-why-star-trek-discovery-klingons-are-bald-and-more/

Thanks for the link. I read that as Fuller wanted to diversify the houses, not redesign the species.
When Fuller’s pilot script inevitably leaks, we’ll finally get the truth.

That is how I read it too, DPrescot.

I could find a hundred of these from summer of 2017 but this pretty much plays it out…

https://www.slashfilm.com/bryan-fuller-redesigned-the-star-trek-discovery-klingons/

“The other Bryan Fuller contribution that remains is his redesign of the Klingons. “One of the things he really, really wanted to do was shake up the design of the Klingons,” Herberts said. “One of the first things that he ever pitched to us when we were deciding whether or not to come on the show was his aesthetic for the Klingons and how important it was that they be aesthete, that they not be the thugs of the universe, that they be sexy and vital and different from what had come before.”

The Klingons are different from each other as well, said producer Heather Kadin. “Some have white skin, some have dark skin,” Kadin said.

Creature designers Neville Page and Glenn Hetrick designed Star Trek: Discovery’s Klingons to Fuller’s specifications.

“They drilled down in such a deep way to redundant pieces of anatomy, to the different plates on the head,” Herberts said. “We were in discussions that got so deep into biology and into sculpture. From the time that Neville brought in the 3D printout into the writers’ room of the Klingon, that design really hasn’t changed. The Klingon ship, the flagship of the Klingons, which you’ll see in some of the stills, that design, again, very important to Bryan, very hands-on, worked with Mark Worthington for months and months to get it right. We think that it’s unique, and we saw no reason to change his vision for those Klingons.”

Yes I remember reading Fuller pushed for the new Klingon design. Ironic since he was the one person the gatekeepers were happy about being there. Each time DSC gets new showrunners – the show seems to improve.

Talos IV might “look the part”, but Discovery should not be anywhere near Talos IV. The Enterprise was the only ship which went there, not Discovery. After the events of The Cage, Starfleet quarantined the planet. Pike is the Captain of the USS Enterprise, and he never stepped foor on any Discovery fake ship. I hate this dumb show.

Starfleet quarantined the planet at some point after the events of the Cage (2254) and before the events of the Menagerie (2267). Discovery season two is set in 2257, ten years before the Menagerie.

It’s quite possible that it was the events of “If Memory Serves” led to the quarantine order.

Exactly

Yes I don’t understand why people seem to miss this point? General Order 7 didn’t come from the Cage, but the Menagerie, so they have literally an entire decade to play around with that. Its not even a retcon, there is nothing in canon that states when that rule was passed down so most likely Discovery will fill that in.

I don’t love prequels because it constantly rehash old stuff like this but this is one instance where it seems to be doing it right and giving us an untold angle to old canon without needing to retcon it in order to do it.

Prequels are not inherently a bad thing. It’s just that, I think, they need the right situation in order to flourish. But yes, more often than not they like to explain away things that never really needed to be explained.

Yes but in this situation I think its fine to explain how and when that order came down since it was so vague why they even had such an order in the first place. If I’m being honest, going back to Talos IV is not something they NEEDED to do, but now that they have, it is a good idea to build on its story since we know so little about it.

It’s a big difference between something like that which adds some fun canon to say the Klingons who have been in 100+ episodes for decades now but for some reason think we still need to know even more about them. At this point I’m pretty Klingon out, I don’t need to know what year they became enemies with the Romulans outside of a line of dialogue somewhere.

For me, the only near TOS prequel I might really care about is to see how Kirk became a Captain so quickly. We only got bits and pieces. (And the KU film but I’d like to see the Prime story) Plenty has been revealed about Spock’s past that it feels like anything else is just extraneous. Beyond that, the time of Enterprise I was also curious about. The days of exploration before the formation of the UFP. But if we never got either of those, I’m fine. It’s not like I’m Jonsing for those stories. That said, my favorite era to explore would be post TUC. But that’s just me I guess.

Are we sure Discovery goes to Talos IV? All we’ve seen is Burnham’s shuttle going there. It is possible the Admiralty never finds out, so history doesn’t record the second visit to Talos IV (but Spock knows.)

I’m sure TALOS IV will look like “Planet Canada”.

Spock Jenkins every Star Trek planet is “Planet California”. Canada is a great country. I’m from cold and snow infested Minnesota and I want live in California some day.

That’s a bunch of carp, ProfSpock. Most TREK planets are soundstage worlds, not out in nature at all.

Bingo! Star Trek has traditionally done most of its alien worlds on soundstages, with varying results.

I always like to cite ST TWOK production designer Joe Jennings, you said (with respect to Genesis) it was bad science fiction to postulate a virgin new environment and then go out and shoot in a real polluted world with undeniable signs of human presence. HOWEVER … I do have to admit that shooting ST III in Hawaii for Genesis and Red Rock Valley for Vulcan still might have been kinda cool, if they were careful about how they shot.

From the image in the trailer, it looks like the shuttle landed in the Taols IV quarry.

Hey, at least the quarry provides honest grey stone unlike the spray-paint foam they had to go with for The Cage. Once the illusion was gone, Talos IV was supposed to be grim rock.

So, far in Discovery we’ve seen the Lake, the Escarpment, and bluffs near Toronto. I’m enjoying it. It’s good to have some new scenery for the planets other than the hills behind Paramount studios and the soundstage that the TNG cast called ‘Planet Hell’.

Tamara Deverell has floated the idea of going further afield for future locations, even out of country. So, we may see even more variations in future seasons.

Dial it back… I’m not ripping on the location. I was just making a little good fun. BTW… If more shows start shooting in Toronto it will become like Vancouver. Where every location gets familiar.

Well, that’s pretty cynical. But I was referring to the underground ‘zoo’ sets in any case.

Don’t worry, you will see the bridge this season.

We won’t see the bridge. I doubt it.

The set designer already mentioned that we won’t be seeing it. Which broke my inner 14 year-old’s heart. :-(

They lie sometimes……

No offense, but I don’t think we should take interviews as statutory declarations ;-). Sometimes creative decisions shift midway into a project. It’s not like they’re committing perjury :D

We will see the bridge in episodes 13 and 14 at least. The crew will abandon the USS Discovery for some reason and join the USS Enterprise temporary.

I’m not sure how they’ll do the Enterprise bridge. I’d guess it’ll look like a nice more colorful version of the Shenzhou bridge. However, I’m guessing it will be a new set since the Shenzhou bridge was already repurposed for the S31 ship and the Disco bridge is far too large. On the other hand, it can’t be cost efficient to build a whole new set just for what I presume is 1 or 2 episodes. Maybe they’ll make a CGI set?

At least the chair will look right. Assuming they make it match what they did in the opening credits!

What happened to the Klingon bridge set?

When I think about all the money wasted on the Section 31 ship… (sigh)

I can’t wait for the section 31 show. It’s going to be so awesome.

Then lucky you as you seem to be the kind of fan they made the show for.

LUCKY ME ! 😁

Now they just need to bring back Lorca.

I assume we will see the enterprise bridge in the season finale.

The aliens on Talos IV look like the original. The Klingons look like trash on Discovery. Picard show will fix that. Talos IV will save the future

You’ve forgotten what the Talosians look like. There are similarities with the throbbing veins but overall, from the front at least, there are also significant differences. The Talosians from The Cage/The Menagerie certainly didn’t have that prominent bone ridge going down the forehead to the nose, and their heads were somewhat rounder. I don’t mind the look and accept that TPTB feel it needs to be updated.

As for the Klingons, yup these tortoise heads are by far my least favorite iterations.

TonyD they look the part.

They look like an updated version. No different than the updated and better looking Klingons. Those 90s Klingons looked pretty lame.

I want a Star Trek show that explains how the Federation actually works. The Federation is a interesting concept but a utopian post scarcity society is impossible. The only real world example of the Federation is the European Union. We live in the day and age of Donald Trump, Brexit, China as a world power, Russia wants to go to war with everyone, and a nuclear war with North Korea. The Federation is what the United Nations should be. The United Nations can’t do anything today. World War 3 will happen in 2 years. The Federation is my favorite fictional organization.

Rough day?

Phil are you crazy?

Set aside the Federation and Star Trek, but the notion that technological innovation could result in something resembling post-scarcity is possible, if one makes projections based on current tech trends. Of course, it needn’t be permanent and humans could muck it up, or natural disaster etc. could interfere. Also, a post-scarcity economy doesn’t mean a utopia. Two different things.

Vice Admiral Nakamura scarcity will aways exist. Replicators are impossible. At least we have 3D printers.

“The only real world example of the Federation is the European Union.”

If that is true, it completely legitimises the attitude of the Klingons, Romulans, Cardassians, Dominion, etc. towards the Federation…

“The Federation is what the United Nations should be.”

I take it you’ve never watched The Expanse…

David Alexander Harrison I do watch The Expanse. The UN and Mars are at war. I read the books.

@ProfessorSpock I think post-scarcity in terms of technology (power generation, production, wealth distribution) is actually the “easy” part. Changing human scarcity-thinking which is much responsible for the ills you cited, is a whole different story! It’s embedded into our evolutionary programming.

Vulcan Soul the European Union is q great example of a Federation.

If we talk about “a” federation in the sense of the political concept, yes. It doesn’t have much more in common with “the” Federation though than the US. For once, the EU is not at all opposed to interventionism which is in stark contrast to Starfleets non-interventionist Prime Directive (and other policies; the Klingon succession conflict was deemed an “internal Klingon affair” during TNG). Also confer the TNG writer bible from 1987 in which it is explicitely stated “we are not space meddlers” (p11).

I love that Saru is basically like “let them fight.” Granted, if you could come face to face with the person who snapped your neck, getting in a few good punches definitely wouldn’t be a bad thing.

Yes, rather impossible to take the whole scenario seriously, even in the context of a fantastical franchise. But, spaceships.

It’s actually really easy to take the scenario seriously. The fight just grounds this in reality to be honest.

Whatever that thing is that is masquerading as Culber, it has to continue with the charade. So, the fight.

Maybe Spock & Mike can bond over boot talk! (Or reboot talk?)

Spock and Burnham bond at Talos IV

I sure hope they’ll have the singing plants on Talos IV.

Agreed, it’ll be an unforced error–sadly, something not totally unknown on Discovery–if they don’t.

And the smiling Spock that went along with them!

Spock smiling was noted specifically in the initial trailers for this season.

Talos IV can fix Spock

Is it just me or does Wilson Cruz look more buff this season than previously? Maybe it’s the costumes but he looks as if he’s picked up his training regimen.

We always saw him in his doctor uniform.

Have a look at his Twitter feed. He looks like a Marvel superhero.

Hasn’t Cruz been pretty darn buff the entire time? But of course it’s possible that he hit the gym some more between seasons. After all, “New Culber” (or “Nugh Culber” – ouch…) is supposed to be in absolutely peak physical condition.

Star Trek: Discovery: Boots-r-Us!!

Airiam looks different again. Did she do something with her hair?

It’s still regulation, Admiral

Self expression doesn’t seem to be one of your problems!

Wonderful stuff, that Romulan Ale.

Uh oh, the Disco crew better watch out! Airiam’s got a shifty look on her, um, face… plates.

Since this episode is going to depict Talos IV, will Starfleet execute us for watching it? Asking for a friend.

I have to say these preview pictures are always non-descript to the max since they closely focus on the main cast and the occasional guest actor (yeah, Spock. We know), with little of the surroundings or events in the episode shining through. If their purpose is to keep the mystery, then job well done; if they mean to interest (new) people in watching these episodes, not so much!

Maybe Vina will end up being the red angel, or at least a green one?

The pictures of Stamets and Culber definitely feel like Stamets is trying to ‘wake up’ Culber by using his memories as stimuli.

Which would explain the episode’s title.

So what will Talos IV accomplish? Can Spock solve the Red Angel mystery goose chase.

Also it didn’t matter who was announced for the DSC staff – Joe Menosky, Rod Roddenberry, Nicholas Meyer, Bryan Fuller – whoever.. The Gatekeepers would be like
” *snort snort* SO ?! what Star Trek related thing have they done since TNG ?! ”

Ohhhhhhhhh you’d rather have someone who knows NOTHING about Star Trek like say…Oh Stuart Baird ? :)

I rather have someone new that has no Star Trek baggage to bring in new ideas. I don’t want the same old same old. I still think the Picard show is a mistake.

On that I don’t entirely disagree. I have no desire to watch JL Picard again at all. But, I think it obvious that opinion is in the minority and I strongly suspect that CBSAA subscribers will increase quite a bit once that Picard show is ready to stream. In that sense, how much of a mistake could it possibly be?

@ML31 I get why CBS is doing it. They would be fools not to, I still don’t like it though. I just hope it doesn’t become a TNG reunion show.

It doesn’t sound like it will though. But yes obviously some will show up. If you have TOS characters showing up on Discovery, then clearly TNG era characters will show up on this show, especially with Picard there. Discovery will probably introduce other TOS characters next season as I imagine the Picard show will have characters from not just TNG, but probably DS9 and VOY as well, although probably in later seasons.

But it sounds like its going to be a completely different show entirely . Most people seem more happy they are doing a post-Nemesis show more than anything. But anyone we know shows up is just more icing on the cake.

I hope it is different.

And its funny most of those people were either pushed out or quit. I guess Rod Roddenberry is still there but I haven’t seen the guy’s name ever mentioned in an interview since the show has literally started so my guess is influence is in name only.

Name only. Not unlike how Gene got a title on all of the TOS movies even though creatively he was ousted after TMP.

Matt, In addition to his credit as a co-creator in the opening credits, I’ve noticed Bryan Fuller is listed as an executive consultant in the closing credits. Do you know if that is also “name only” or if he is actually still playing a role as an advisor to the production team?

Likely contractual. It’s possible he may have been consulted with about Burnham’s character arc or something similar. He created Burnham, and was a big proponent of the character. Fuller hasn’t been actively involved with the production since he left it in late-2016.

Good, he can concentrate on getting the gang back together for a Pushing Daisies revival. 8-)

I think Rod just shows up to put the Roddenberry stamp of Approval on everything.