Van Sprang Talks Borg/Control Similarities, Writers Tease Tonight’s ‘Star Trek: Discovery’ Episode

Tonight, Star Trek: Discovery returns with the 12th episode of the season, “Through the Valley of Shadows.” To get you ready we have gathered all the bits of Discovery news from around the web.

Get ready for awesome Pike, Zelda, and L’Rell’s new dress in “Through the Valley of Shadows”

Tonight’s episode is co-written by Erika Lippoldt and Bo Yeon Kim. Lippoldt took to Twitter to let fans know the episode includes “some awesome Anson Mount moments,” and more. Her co-writer joined in, saying the episode also features a reference to the Nintendo Legend of Zelda franchise.

Tonight will see the return of Mary Chieffo as Chancellor L’Rell, which has the actress excited, even creating a poem for the occasion.

And in case you missed it, last November Chieffo shared a fun lipsync video shot during the production of tonight’s episode, revealing that L’Rell is a fan of Demi Lovato.

Van Sprang talks Control takeover and Borg similarities

One of the big things that had fans buzzing after last week’s episode was Section 31’s Leland being taken over by the AI Control. In a new interview with SyFy, actor talks about how he is playing this new version:

So, what research do you do? Did you watch 2001: A Space Odyssey? Did you watch The Terminator? Did you watch dare I say it… the Borg on Star Trek: The Next Generation?

[Laughs] Honestly, I didn’t really do much to prepare for it. I was informed and privy to all of that stuff you mentioned. I certainly knew about the Borg. I’m a big Next Generation fan, I’ve seen those since I was in high school, right along with the Terminator. But my take on doing something like that was that there’s a fine line. Is Control a robot that’s becoming a human or a robot pretending to be human? I think it’s the second one, so I tried to make it as natural as possible.

With Leland — as himself — I always tried to make him cool and coy. My eye lines were distant, I’d never give people too much eye contact. But, once he became this A.I., I set my eyes directly on the other cast members. That’s the change I made. This computer is smart enough, that it was trying to portray a human as part of its being. So, I tried to play it a bit more human than just being robotic, like the Terminator or whatever.

Speaking to StarTrek.com, Van Sprang address the Borg question more directly:

A lot of the chatter online compared what happened to Leland to someone being assimilated by the Borg. The line, “Struggle is pointless” certainly echoes “Resistance is futile.” Some fans are surmising that Leland might be the first Borg. What’s your take?

AvS: I think it’s very intriguing. When I first read the script I thought, “Oh, is this the making of the Borg? Is that how it happens?” We’re as much in the dark as anybody else, but as soon as I saw that, I thought, “This is like The Borg.” The Next Generation‘s Borg episode just blew my mind [when I watched it originally], let alone when Picard became Locutus. That’s the first thing I thought of, which kind of tickled me to no end. “Wow, I’m just going to milk this for all it’s worth.”

Alan Van Sprang as Leland/Control

Season 2 finale mix complete as writing continues for season 3

On Tuesday new co-showrunner Michelle Paradise shared a tweet showing a cake celebrating the final mixing session for the second season of Star Trek: Discovery. The season finale – co-written by Paradise with Alex Kurtzman – will be released on April 18th.

Speaking of what’s coming next, the official account for the Star Trek: Discovery writers room – currently working on season three – shared a spoiler of sorts.

Writers for other Trek shows also at work

Speaking of folks typing away, Picard show executive producer and writer Michael Chabon shared this image from producer Alex Kurtzman’s Secret Hideout offices with a mural of Discovery character Michael Burnham watching him as he works.

View this post on Instagram

Michael watching Michael. #michaelburnham #backtowork

A post shared by Michael Chabon (@michael.chabon) on

And Star Trek: Lower Decks executive producer Michael McMahan shared a fun tweet, noting he is hard at work on the upcoming animated comedy.

Cruz credit being fixed

Some fans noted how even though he appeared in last week’s episode, actor Wilson Cruz did not receive any on screen credit. On Twitter the actor noted it was just “human error” and was being fixed.

Behind the scenes

Anson Mount may not be returning for the third season, but he is excited to talk about his work on the second. The actor shared a photo of the USS Discovery bridge set with the simple message “The office.”

Young Burnham actress Arista Arhin shared a photo of herself on set for episode 209 with Trek veteran Jonathan Frakes to celebrate Will Riker Day.

CBS also shared an image of Arhin on set with her older self, Sonequa Martin-Green.

Visual effects artist Timothy Peel shared some details on what it takes to put together shots on set for Discovery, noting that in many shots on the Section 31 ship there are as many as 20 active screens in view of the camera.

More fun from social media

Anson Mount continues to get in on meming himself.

View this post on Instagram

#Pikeachu

A post shared by Anson Mount (@ansonmount) on

How to watch “Through the Valley of Shadows”

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.

“Through the Valley of Shadows” will be released on All Access on Thursday, March 28th, 2019 at 8:30 pm ET/5:30 pm PT. It will air on Space at 8:00 pm ET/5:00 pm PT on the same night. It will be available on Netflix the next morning, Friday, March 29th, 2019.


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

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Well Van Sprang did not exactly say that Control is NOT the origin of the Borg. Well, here’s hoping that is is NOT the Borg!

Just as we were sideswiped with the identity of the Red Angel being the MOTHER of Michael Burnham, maybe Control’s Leland will surprise us and end up being the SECOND COUSIN TWICE REMOVED of the Borg.

I’m with you VZX!

There won’t be much forgiveness on offer in our household if the ret-con the Borg.

I’m not a fan of this being the Borg beginning. But why is it not OK to retcon the Borg but it is OK to retcon so many other things?

A few reasons why the Borg shouldn’t be touched:

1). Voyager had many Borg plot arcs, and we also have First Contact…

2) It’s canon that the Borg have been around in the Delta Quadrant since at least the medieval era on Earth.

3). Best villain species ever. The are outstandingly tough villains, even after Voyager, and are unique to Trek. Our kids argue that Star Wars has nothing to compare with them. They have better tech, and aren’t a bunch of clones. One of them says Janeway is their role model because she wouldn’t let the Borg stop her getting her people home. I have learned not to underestimate how beloved Voyager, Janeway and the Borg are with the middle school set.

4) They are a big part of the brand. Why water them down with a dollar-store Skynet origin story?

5) As previously noted, David Mack’s Destiny trilogy with the Borg origin and end stories is excellent. All 3 books are rated in the top 5 Trek-lit books in the past decade. Yes, it’s beta-canon, but it shouldn’t be touched if they can’t do better. And it definitely shouldn’t be touched just because they need something cool and can’t come up with anything original.

You are preaching to the choir on not touching the Borg. But none of what you said explains why the Borg should not get retconned but so many other things can. Seems hypocritical to me. Personally, I would not care much if the Borg get retconned. It would not be my first choice of course. But I don’t think it will ruin them all that much. All it will do is go against established canon. Which would not be the first time such a thing has been done in Trek.

I agree with all of this too TG47!

The Borg is really so different and unique than anything else seen in Star Trek. As great as the Dominion is, they are just another villain species end of the day. But the Borg is on another level than every species seen. Even though we have about 30 episodes and a movie we still know very little about them and their origins. Don’t destroy that. They expanded them on Voyager, put the ship in Borg space, gave us 7 of 9 but yet no one EVER touched their actual origins even then and they could’ve done it. They knew no matter what, it was still important to keep an air of mystery to them. We don’t need to know how they became the Borg anymore than we need to know how the Q became who they are, where did V’ger and the whale probe came from. Some things are more fun just left up to fans imagination.

But same time if Discovery wants to do a Borg story I have NO problems with that If they just want to do that. It’s not exactly hard now that Section 31 has become a big part of the show (this season the entire story line behind the show) and they have the freakin spore drive! So its really, really easy to now do a Borg story by throwing the ship in the Delta quadrant and classify it later just like they did with the entire mirror universe. This is how Discovery works anyway.

But don’t go this direction with it. You not only demystify one of the best species in Star Trek you make the universe even tinier by giving them a human origin. And sorry Control being part of that origin is just dumb! If you want to use Control a part of the story line, fine, then do something different like making an entire new AI species from it! We still have not seen a fully functional AI society in Star Trek yet, this could be the chance to invent one. This could be a species that evolved several centuries in the future from Control’s origin. In other words do something ORIGINAL instead of constant retcons to other stories and characters.

But I really don’t think they will go that direction. Even they have to see it would be pretty ridiculous. Of course I also said the same thing about theories of Cumberbatch being Khan or Tyler being Voq but those were at least just one offs. This would redefine an entire species. And for the worst.

If it’s the Borg then I am done.

You won’t be missed…(but it’s not the Borg)

“It’s canon that the Borg have been around in the Delta Quadrant since at least the medieval era on Earth.”

Resistance is feudal.

Ha. Nicely done.

Dominion were better villains and stood up to federation on its ideals and encroachment

Dominion are great villains no doubt! And yes they are probably better villains in the traditional sense like Klingons and Romulans are. As we saw in Voyager, you just can’t overuse the Borg or they would lose what makes them so cool and scary in the first place. They are a great villain but they can only be used sporadically to really work.

Which is still funny knowing when Berman and Piller were developing DS9, they actually considered the Borg to be the main villain of that show. I’m still trying to wrap my head around how that would’ve worked lol. Of course they settled on the Cardassians in the end and we later got the Dominion so Trek isn’t hurting for great villains.

The combination of the Dominion and Gul Dukat made for the best villains ever in Star Trek. Why can’t Discovery do something like that?

I just don’t hold the Borg up to that kind of reverence. The one and only one reason they were created was so the Enterprise-D would be forced to fire phasers. Period. They were Star Trek’s Terminator. They were created to be an enemy that REQUIRED space battles. Nothing more. I can appreciate why they are there but as far as good antagonists go… They are pretty low on the list because there is no depth to them. Klingons, Romulans, even the Klingon wanna-bes Cardasians are better antagonists.

Is it a retcon when we nothing about the origin of the Borg?

The only thing that we know is that it’s been implied they have been around for a really long time. Remember, nothing in the novels are canon.

And they are from the Delta Quadrant of maybe even from farer.

Plz don’t make their origin too close to Earth. That is not realistic. And Earth is not the center of the universe.

It is in Star Trek. Humans were needed for the Federation to get formed. Star Fleet Academy is on Earth. The Federation Capitol is on Earth. And a deep running theme throughout the run of TNG was that Humans were the greatest and most wonderful beings in the universe.

Since he talked so openly about the similarities, I guess it’s safe to assume that this is NOT a Borg origin story we’ve been witnessing these past weeks.

Get Smart is the origin of Control!

There ya go! I’ve been waiting for that! Lol!

Missed it by _that_ much!

That’s the 2nd biggest sphere I’ve ever seen!

That would be a bad move on so many levels. For god’s sake, can’t we have some original ideas? The Borg were dreamed up in 1988. How come the supposedly antiquated ye olde Trek we’re told we all now have to ditch and renounce could do that, but the producers in charge now can’t even come close to anything as good?

Who said anyone is ditching old Star Trek? Looking at Discovery, they are going the opposite way and embracing it harder than a baby embraces his bottle.

That’s why so many assume its the Borg now since they have found a way to bring so many elements of past Star Trek into this season. What’s one more?

The allegorical story telling based around visiting other civilisations has been completely ditched in favour of a long arc geared towards endless twists and turns. If that isn’t ditching a big element of old Trek, I don’t know what is.

You’re missing a lot if you don’t see allegorical storytelling. It’s not as on-the-nose as TOS and TNG but it’s there. Also, you’re confusing the mission of the USS Enterprise with the mission of other ships. The only other ship we followed besides Enterprise was Voyager and their first mission was to track down the Maquis ship. And then we know what the Defiant’s mission was. Every ship in the fleet is not to supposed to be there to just have a mission of exploration. They’re literally on assignment to find out what’s going on with these signal bursts.

OK, I understand your point there and I agree. I was mostly talking about the fan service stuff. But they are trying to get back to that a little more this season, certainly more than the first which is one of the (many) issues I had with first season. There was no exploration in it, at all. Thats why it will always be one of the worst seasons for me.

I’d always rather liked the idea that at the end of TMP, the fusion of V’ger/Ilia/Decker threw them back several thousand years and resulted in what evolved into the Borg. Spock had said V’ger was hunting for concepts that AI alone could not grasp… like other dimensions and time travel:

https://youtu.be/jazx5ROWlTs

Completely agree – I loved the idea that TMP was connected, but thought that V’ger left a planet on it’s journey with knowledge that evolved to the Borg – but your theory is also awesome

I always hated the idea.

If you go by what Spock speculates, it’s likely that V’Ger/Ilia/Decker transcended this universe entirely.

Having V’Ger be the birth of the Borg seems so small and petty and not nearly as terrifying as a random biological species coming up with ways to “improve” themselves through technological enhancement, and that the current Borg are a direct result of a basic drive to adapt and improve themselves. What better way to adapt than to assimilate everything and anything?

Why would V’Ger/Ilia/Decker care about exploring something so mundane as a corner of our Galaxy after it had already learned “all that is learnable”?

I don’t meant to go after you, I’ve hated the idea going all the way back to when Roddenberry had a few remaining shreds of relevancy before his death and speculated something very similar about V’Ger and the Borg.

This is from another thread on another part of this site, but re-asked here since, I fear, the other one is buried too far down the list to get to. First, I like watching out for cross-writing from other ‘Trek sources for material in any new ‘Trek story, filmed by Paramount or otherwise. Cross-over sources (such as seeing Kirk’s middle name first in TAS – which itself [ST:TAS] was for a long time not considered “canon” – then in the 6th movie and then hearing someone in Discovery mention he had a Caitian roommate at the Academy)…. and also “The Forge” on Vulcan was in a novel first, then made canon in ST:ENT.

IN THAT LIGHT, I have to wonder if this is, perhaps, a subtle, new type of tie-in with the STAR TREK – SECTION 31 novel “CONTROL” – featuring Deep Space Nine’s Dr. Bashir on the cover. That story, and others along this thread, all feature THE SAME title of the AI which literally controls Section 31 in the novels. (Did the ST:DIS producers team up with author David Mack concerning this parallel thread? It seems so.) There’s a terrifying end to the S-31 novels featuring “CONTROL” as the key…. I won’t spoil it for those who haven’t read the book, but it is EXACTLY what is being shown in the series that this thing is becoming! Interesting isn’t the word for this!

Wow, I sure wish I was on the ST:DIS writing staff as a cross-reference consultant for all things ‘Trek! Now I’m just waiting to hear someone aboard the USS Discovery state “Naval Construction Contract” to denote the call letters which are painted on Federation starship hulls, LOL. That and many other “throw-away” items in ‘Trek lore such as the place in another ST novel where, I think, Capt. April calls the impulse drive Internal Metered Pulse Drive….. with this back-story for that kind of thing (like CONTROL might end up becoming for Section 31): I.M.-pulse power. See? “It’s the little things that make life interesting,” or so some say. Go ahead, writers of ST:DIS ….. use all of those. I dare you — If it’s not violating Hollywood Craft Union rules for writing a series, that is.

Finally, now thanks to ST:DIS, I’m a huge fan of Michelle Yeoh, and am about to embark on a new task to watch all the shows she has appeared in – and will watch to see her growth as an actress and of how she became the BEST person to portray her ‘Trek character. Cheers to the ENTIRE cast and crew of ST:DIS ….. you won me over from the first episode.

FYI: Mack says he had nothing to do with the Discovery version of Control.
https://www.trekbbs.com/threads/section-31-control-by-david-mack-review-thread.286813/page-30#post-12793421

I am almost certain that any similarities that might exist between what I penned in my novel and what the writing team at DSC has cooked up for season two can be explained as a case of parallel development, both of us having started from the same pool of shared narrative assumptions and backstory, and from there having derived similar conclusions.

Rhett Coates, I and several others were hoping that this was lining up with the beta canon Relaunch books about S31 by David Mack…

And it seemed to be going that way until we heard Kurtzman’s Skynet type explanation after the last episode …

Control in the books is much more than threat assessment, and it has a warped understanding of its mission to preserve humanity and later the Federation at all costs.

Sadly, I’m not sure Kurtzman or the writers room have read Mack’s books.

I’ve just been rereading A Time to Kill, and A Time to Heal in the TNG books bridging from Insurrection to Nemesis.

They are still excellent considering they were Mack’s first full length Trek novels. And he’s contracted for a sequel to A time to Heal this year.

Finally, now thanks to ST:DIS, I’m a huge fan of Michelle Yeoh, and am about to embark on a new task to watch all the shows she has appeared in

You go, man! But she was really more of a MOVIE actress before Disco. She was in a Netflix series about the life of Marco Polo though. Unfortunately, that series wasn’t really good.

I loved Marco Polo!

You should check out all the Martial Arts films Michelle Yeoh did, especially her work with Jet Li and the film Wing Chun, directed by Yuen Wo Ping who did the fight choreography for the Matrix films.

” I didn’t really do much to prepare for it. ”
“Is Control a robot that’s becoming a human or a robot pretending to be human? I think it’s the second one”

Wow. no wonder the show sucks so much and feels so directionless

Are you speaking of Alan Van Sprang’s performance specifically? Because I think he’s been very good, and whatever his approach is, it’s working. What problem did you have with his approach in particular?

I know not everyone loves Section 31’s involvement on this show but Leland has become one of my favorite characters. I really like him. I have a feeling he’s done by the end of the season but I would happily keep him around and kill Georgiou instead which comes off more like a cartoon character than a real person. I’m warming up to her but I still can’t take her entirely seriously.

Georgeau is a failed character no matter what they do with her at this point. If she remains a mustache twirller she remains a silly cartoon. If she starts to warm up to the PU and Michael and her heart grows then it’s a ridiculous situation that is impossible to suspend disbelief for. At this point it would be better of Prime Georgeau shows up saying, “I wasn’t quite dead!”.

Yes, because if Van Sprang hadn’t wondered aloud at the ambiguity of how to best portray his character’s makeover, his performance and the show would just be so much better.

(Let me take this opportunity to publicly thank George Lucas and the suits at Disney. Because if it weren’t for STAR WARS, my fandom would definitely be the worst.)

I’ve really enjoyed the Leland character, but thinking about it now, I’ve realized that he acted pretty ambiguously now, and still does after his transformation. What kind of a transformation did he take on? What’s up with this show killing good characters?

Not to worry Michael Hall, the business press is reporting that Discovery had the second highest
streaming demand of any SF series for the month of March.

It will survive.

Just would like Kurtzman and the writers to understand that Discovery is less than 3% of canon at this point, and that most of the fans know the 97% better than they.

On the subject of SW fans, one would have thought that CBS and the Trek PTB would have learned the lesson from SW fans rejection of the plot arc of movies 7-9…

If there has been a decade and a half of authorized books that fans have been reading, anything put on the screen needs to be at least as good or better.

Does it?

I’m really enjoying Alan Van Sprang…

But like a number of the very excellent actors on Discovery he’s clearly had to do his best in spite of ambiguities in the text.

So Section 31 created the Borg after all.

Says you.

JAGT stop trolling LOL

He’s not trolling. You made a blatant statement as a fact when it isn’t. We don’t know yet.

Tiger2 you obviously don’t get the joke. You don’t know yet. Says you.

No offense PS, I don’t think many are getting the joke.

Oh, Mary Chieffo. She’s just awesome! I know a lot of people (partly including myself) are glad that Disco is done with the Klingon storyline, but I’m also glad we haven’t seen the last of L’Rell! Of course, as many others, I think it’s great that Disco doesn’t need to have bloody violence in every single episode anymore, but I for one didn’t even mind “Point of Light” so much, since to me it marked the return to some classic “operatic” Klingon drama, just as it could be found on TNG (standout episode: Reunion) and obviously DS9 (a whole friggin lot of episodes, starting from S4). Sure, that implies violence, but honestly: If it’s just Klingons beating, stabbing, hacking and slashing the bejeezus out of each other, it’s not only par for the course, there’s also some silly fun to be found there.
Also, ain’t that one bada$$ costume she’s wearing there? Classy, classic stuff.

She is the only good thing about the Klingons in Star Trek: Discovery. Her outfit is cool.

She is great. I met her at one of the panels here in LA last year and she couldn’t have been nicer. Hard not to crush on her a bit, to be honest. She’s fun and vivacious and it’s quite a testament to her that she’s the only Klingon performer to pull a strong performance out from under all the prosthetics. I’m all in for an all-Klingon show. I realize I’m in the minority here but I’ve found them more compelling than most of the human characters.

Yeah Chieffo is indeed awesome and I really liked her sparkling new D7 Chancellor Battle Cruiser!!

Btw I was never sold on the idea the Klingons had access to time crystals but tonight’s episode clarified somethings. Obviously the guardians of the crystals have done a good job hiding both their society and existence far from the traditional Klingon leadership who would surely use them for war. It seems only outcasts such as Voq and L’Rell bothered to pay attention to the old legends of Kahless.

Good old T’Kuvma.

I realize the situation is needed to move along the plot the writers created. But I find the entire concept of the time crystals to be cartoony. It just feels like something Thanos sticks to his giant gauntlet. They are out of place in Star Trek. But then, Section 31 feels like it’s run by Tony Stark to begin with…

I’m pretty surprised that the current powers that be over Trek have not “gone Borg” yet. They seem like the type of villain the current writers/producers would be all over. That’s not be being critical, either. Just an observation.

Maybe Star Trek: Discovery will have “gone Borg” in season 3. Who knows what their plans are.

Well, it’s still hard to by into the Control as Skynet thing.

But, I’m very happy not to see this going in the Borg direction in E12. And I hope that it continues to not go there.

The nanites oozing on their own towards Burnham was a cool, we’ll done effect.

Looking forward to discussing in depth once Anthony’s had the time to digest the episode and share his thoughts.

Well, I guess we’re finally going to get to see the bridge of the Enterprise.

Yes the Enterprise on the next episode

SPOILER – Yup I took a look at next week’s trailer (I usually don’t but I could not help myself this time) and I paused a still of the bridge of what I assume is the Enterprise… and it does look pretty cool! No, it is not exactly what you see down in the NY Star Trek Set Tour but at first glance I have to say I really liked what I saw and next week’s episode is definitely must see TV.

Yeah, it didn’t look bad at all. They’ve utilized the raised floor ring around the navigational consoles and captain’s chair along with its rail and steps. The extended viewer on an arm into which Sulu would look was visible in front of Number One. The crew chairs are virtually identical to those on TOS. Just from the single shot, I’m eager to see the rest.

Big improvement. I enjoyed that one immensely.

I grabbed a screenshot
comment image?raw=1

Omigod. I was so looking forward to seeing that bridge reconceptualized for 2019. I so wanted — and expected — to like it, as I’ve generally liked DSC’s production design. That’s just awful, tacky beyond belief. What a disappointment. My inner sixteen year-old is crushed.

You don’t like it? That’s EXACTLY how I saw an updated bridge for 2019 should look like. They made it practically the same bridge, just updated. Compare that to the Kelvin E bridge and it almost looks like a replica. ;)

But this isn’t a surprise. No matter what they do, someone will always be disappointed of course.

I just looked up a screen grab. I didn’t even realize it’s the Enterprise bridge in the trailer since it seems to be a redress of the Discovery bridge from this angle, with the chairs and red railings added.

Personally I like it. Much better than the JJ bridge.

For as much as I wasn’t a JJ basher and still refuse to be, everything about that Enterprise (in ST: Disco) from what we’ve seen from the exterior and interiors is exactly how you modernize a classic. I’ve watched the teaser for next week I don’t know how many times now to catch every detail I could.

Damn. I liked how it looked.

There are a number of good things about it. It was a little dark. But I guess that goes with the universe Discovery created. Quite frankly, if they went with that look for Discovery to begin with a lot of the production issues could have been lessened some.

Absolutely. They nailed the “modernized classic” vibe. The screen grabs look AWESOME.

J_Randomuser, I wouldn’t go so far as to say they “nailed” it. It did lean a lot more towards the Discovery vibe than I would have liked. But they were sorta locked into going that way, unfortunately. But it needed to fit in the Discovery world. Not a modernized TOS world.

I decided to edit my last post. It was a bit too spoily for here.

Overheard in the writer’s room: “I just want some of that antennae action.”

Andorians FTW!

I think everyone picked up on that one.

But are there Andorians in the 28th century? Maybe there they run the show ;)

So do all of you pay 9 bucks to see this show?

I pay $5

I used to pay $6, but i live in Toronto now so now I pay Bell (my cable provider) even more for Space Channel. Btw whether I like it or not, more and more content is going the way of paid streaming. DAZN just secured the exclusive EPL rights up here, so no more games on Canadian terrestrial tv. I cut the cord when I lived in the US, thanks to streaming services like Netflix, NHLTV and CBSAA, Eventually, I will have do the same up here.

Good question boborci. I’m very curious how the direct to consumer thing will work as services bifurcate.

DeanH I never found cable as worthwhile when I was in the US, but have never been without cable or satellite in Canada.

We’re now on Bell Canada’s Fibe which isn’t quite cable, and provides 4k as available and streams anywhere there is unlimited wifi.

It’s not inexpensive, but Space can be part of a bundle. I’m not sure really what its marginal cost is.

Space is not quite the all Trek, all the time station, but with Space running all 5 prior series in reruns Monday to Friday, and a few episodes a day, our kids spread the cost over a lot of content.

And we the parents get Discovery with that. Would we buy a service just for Discovery? Not sure.

Something to think about as a viable financial model for CBS…

CBSAA is apparently now available in Canada as it happens.

I can’t see us going for it, although it sounds as though CBS would like to drive Canadians to it by having the Picard show exclusively on CBSAA.

Wonder how that’s going to work out with BellMedia as their studio landlord for the 2 series produced in Toronto.

…Yes, the Bell Media conglomerate owns controlling interest in Pinewood Studios…and owns Space.ca.

Not sure CBS is fully aware how concentrated the market is here. On the other hand, operating successfully in Canada might provide some good lessons learned for the increasingly concentrated US market.

Dean, cable is still the preferred mode for me and my family. The DVR is the best part of it. I just program and forget. At this point the only live TV I ever watch is sports. And sports are a part of why cutting the cord just isn’t an option for me. I will not get my local teams without cable. Yet. I get everything I need with cable, my netflix disc account and sharing a netflix streaming account with a friend. Only Amazon content doesn’t find it’s way to Netflix eventually. While there are a couple of things there I would be curious to check out, getting Amazon Prime is just not worth it especially when you consider what I am paying already. You have to draw the line somewhere.

Yeah understand because I watch a lot of sports but with TSN and SN now available up here online and NHLTV showing all the rest of the hockey games, it is getting harder and harder to justify cable/terrestrial TV. IndyCar is now only available online and EPL is off terrestrial TV up here, so I can see the cord being cut sooner than later. For now I prefer the DVR too!!

I pay $5.99 a month.

But I’ve kept AA around between season 1 and season 2 without watching more than a handful of other stuff on it. So in many ways I paid a lot more for my Star Trek obsession.

Yes, and worth every dime.

I hate commercials. So, yes. And it’s been worth it.

Yes I do.

I pay 7,99€ on Netflix.

I pay whatever an annual membership averages out to. I feel conflicted about doing it; I wish I could explain to someone that I’m paying them in the hopes they’ll actually figure out how to make a STAR TREK show someday soon. Thus far, not so much.

I already have Netflix in the UK and would have even if it weren’t for Discovery, so it’s really an added bonus. I think it works out at GBP£7.99/month for the HD subscription.

The fact that they also have all the other pre-CBSAA Star Trek shows is also good.

I wish Trek appeared on a channel I already get. Sadly, we are stuck with CBSAA. I envy you in that respect.

Last time I looked in the US Netflix was the outlet for the other Star Trek shows. I don’t know whether that’s changed. I seem to remember Netflix having some ridiculously long contract for them (possibly even 2050?). If by some unanticipated means FTL travel is actually possible after all, that might even be long enough to invent it for real . . .

When I say Trek, I mean NEW Trek. Not reruns.

I was paying $9.99/month for the no-commercial version. Cancelled last month, though. Not at all worth it, imo.

I have been a subscriber since they announced this show. Watch old Mission Impossibles, Hawaii 5-0 and new Magnum PI and gonna start Twilight Zone this weekend. I like it and spend more time there than I do Netflix, but do so enjoy Amazon Prime Videos though.

I pay the $10 for no commercials. And I’m cancelling immediately after watching the finale. CBSAA is a terrible low quality service and Trek is the one and only one reason I even subscribe because I’m such a Trek nerd.

I pay $6 a month. And for that money (and dealing with the commercials) I expect a quality product. If I am not pleased for any reason, then I will voice my concerns. If I bought car but it started to leak, I will complain to the seller. Same thing here.

It’s becoming apparent the end of this season will see Discovery jump way ahead in the future and somehow is forgotten in the prime timeline, which explains the game changing quotes, and why Spock never spoke of his sister. Might also allow the ship/crew to be what Fuller originally envisioned as taking place in several different Star Trek time frames, but do it with the same crew/sets to avoid costs of new ones each season.

Just hope a Pike/Spock show takes over the current time frame.

Well I mean…we know they have the sets…

It could easily be that the Enterprise bridge is partly a redress of Discovery and Shenzhou sets. They’ve done that before.

That’s possible. But it already looks like a much smaller bridge compared to Discovery’s and Shenzhou. Wishful thinking on my part that they go for it.

I hope the Borg make a return soon. Whether Control travels back in time and becomes the Borg, or the Borg appear as bad guys in the Picard show, I want to see them. Its been 16 years since the last Borg episode.

I would love to see the Borg again too, but not in a Control/origin story fashion. It just sounds like bad fan fiction to me. Its so convoluted and fans will probably be able to drive holes though it big enough for a galaxy class starship to fit. If they want the Borg to show up, fine, just bring the Borg in. Enterprise did it, got away with it too and actually did a great job with it. Its probably on many fans top 10 lists of that show’s best episodes. So if they could find a way to do it, so can Discovery. But going that direction would just sour a lot of fans even more, especially as this show still seems to be pretty divided among the fanbase.

And yes my guess is if we don’t see the Borg on Discovery, they will eventually pop up on the Picard show again. Maybe not the first season since it sounds like it will be focused towards the Romulans but second season is possible.

Yes. Borg apearing cool.

But not like this.

The Borg evolved far away from Earth, without human influence.
Don’t make the same mistakes George Lucas did. Don’t make the universe a village everyone is related to everyone and don’t make Earth the center of everything. Besides the Borg are too powerful to be a direct neighbour of Earth. They have to have their origins far, far away.

Who says they have to be? For all we know that AI gets spore drived back in time to the Delta Quadrant. All sorts of weird reasons can be given to make it work. Note, I’m not encouraging it (Also whatever the AI is that decision has obviously been made) I’m just saying it wouldn’t be the worst thing to happen to Discovery. By far.

Anson Mount and Peck have been the absolute stars of the second series. Please, please, please give them a show on the Enterprise.

Agreed, lets have this!!!

I just noticed what is wrong with Leland… no, not the Control/Borg/Terminator-stuff…
Leland was a Trill on the finale of Season 1. What happened to him?!? edit: Or was he just disguised as one?comment image

Or were the writers aware that Trill weren’t around in TOS? I just rewatched “Trials and Tribble-ations” were Jadzia Dax removes her “trill-tatoos”. Why should she do that if Trills were around in TOS? So was Leland being a Trill in his first appearance an error and has been corrected? Or just part of his disguise?

I figured he was just disguised as one. And you are way off in your statement that “Trill weren’t around in TOS”. Emony Dax met Leonard McCoy at Ole Miss when he was a student “he had the hands of a surgeon”

It was a part of his Disguise. Yes Trills were around in TOS, she just removed them to have less suspicion cast on her

if they do the borg thing …. geez… I will dominion them!