12 Questions Raised By The ‘Star Trek: Discovery’ Season One Finale

Star Trek: Discovery season 1 finale

Star Trek Discovery capped off its freshman season this past Sunday in an episode that answered a lot of the questions posed through the season (click here to read TrekMovie’s review of the episode, and here for our podcast about it). The finale also raised a number of new questions that we’re eager to see answered in season two.

Red alert! The questions below will contain lots of spoilers for folks who have not watched the finale episode of the season, so proceed at your own risk.

How long will the big “E” stick around?

Perhaps the biggest surprise of the finale was the arrival of the of the USS Enterprise (no bloody A, B, C, or D!), reimagined in the Star Trek: Discovery style. The arrival of the ship was more than a cameo and Discovery’s producers have indicated that the Enterprise will play a role in season two, but not a dominant one. It’s possible the ship could just beam over Discovery’s new captain and be on its way, but the more intriguing possibility is that there will be more dealing with whatever was behind the finale’s cliffhanging priority one distress call.  For now producers are not confirming if we will ever see the interior of the ship. Given Alex Kurtzman’s comments, if we see inside, we expect some kind of updated look that will pay homage to the original. And, if we see any of the crew, we won’t be surprised to see them wearing the standard Starfleet uniforms everyone else is wearing on Discovery too.

The USS Enterprise, as seen on Star Trek: Discovery

To boldly revisit where many have gone before …

Will we see Pike or Spock?

The finale established that the garbled distress call from the Enterprise came from Captain Pike, who commanded the ship before Kirk. If the Enterprise is sticking around, there is a good possibility they will be recasting Pike, originally played by Jeffrey Hunter in the Star Trek pilot “The Cage.” As the timing of the finale is only a few years after “The Cage,” it is quite possible a number of the other characters seen in that episode are on board and could show up on Discovery. One intriguing possibility is Dr. Boyce (originally played by John Hoyt) as we know the Discovery is down a doctor. And even if a character wasn’t seen in “The Cage,” there is no reason they couldn’t be on board, opening up the possibility of seeing any number of canon characters. Certainly the most intriguing notion is Mr. Spock. Based on canon, and knowing exchanges between Sarek and Michael Burnham, Star Trek’s most famous Vulcan is also on that ship. However, show producers have indicated they are not looking to recast such a major and iconic role. 

Sir, those officers seem to be out of uniform.

Who will be sitting in the Captain’s chair?

Season one of Discovery ends with the ship en route to Vulcan to pick up their new Captain, with Saru in charge as acting captain. While there’s a bit of a fan movement to promote Saru to actual captain, it seems unlikely that the writers would set us up for an introduction only to pull it back. So, who this new captain? Online speculation has advanced a number of possibilities, including T’Pol (she’d be a spry 170 years old). Of course, just because the captain is on Vulcan, doesn’t mean the new captain is a Vulcan. A laundry list of minor characters are being speculated by fans, including Pike’s “Number One,” or even Pike himself. Then again, it could also be a brand-new character. Lorca (Jason Isaacs) proved to be a popular character with big shoes to fill, so we are hoping they continue that trend and come up with someone new.

Jason Isaacs barefoot - Star Trek: Discovery

Probably not this guy.

Now redeemed, what’s next for Michael Burnham?

The focal character for Star Trek: Discovery is Michael Burnham, and more than anything, the arc of the first season was about her redemption. The finale neatly book-ended her fall from grace in the season opener to being able to forgive herself for the betrayal of her captain. She was also reinstated with her rank as Commander and assigned as science officer for the Discovery. With the finale tying things up for Burnham, it opens up the question of what will the focus of her arc be for the second season, and beyond? The pilot opened with the possibility for her to get her own command, so is her ambition back? And if so, that could bring Burnham back into some conflict with her old friend and sometimes rival, Saru. The finale also saw Michael say goodbye to her first love. So, will she keep an ember burning for the Klingon/Human Tyler, or will someone new catch her eye? Maybe the new captain? The slate is blank for Michael now.

You won the war, now what are you going to do? Go to Disneyland?

What is the status (and future) of the spore drive?

Over the course of the first season, effectively using Discovery’s revolutionary Displacement Activated Spore Hub drive required either the ethically dubious use of a Tardigrade or a tardigrade-infused human, risking their mind to mycelial oblivion. So, the final moments of the finale had the ship returning to the use of old-fashioned warp drive. However, newly promoted Lt. Commander Stamets indicated that Starfleet is seeking a technological spore drive interface. Earlier episodes in the season seemed to be leading up to drive being determined to be too risky to use, but the finale indicates Starfleet is not ready to shelve it. And if the ship is in a jam, there doesn’t seem to be any reason for them to not take the risk and plug Stamets back in. In fact, co-showrunner Gretchen J. Berg said on After Trek, “you don’t own a Maserati and keep it in the garage.” So, the question remains then, why didn’t spore drive technology become widespread in the 23rd century and beyond? 

They still know how to make spores, you know.

Without spore navigation, what is Stamets going to do with himself?

If Stamets’ days as the plug-and-play human interface for the spore drive are over, what will be his role on the ship? The Discovery is still a science ship, but Stamets’ spore “kiddos” are no longer driving it, so he’s going to have some time on his hands. There are 300 science labs on board, some of which were guarded when we first saw them, so there’s probably more weird science for Paul to get into. One strong possibility that would keep Paul playing with his space fungus is him trying to reconnect with his lost love, Hugh Culber, who was last seen hanging out in the mycelial network.

Stamets in the spore drive - Star Trek: Discovery

And will he remove those implants or keep them as a souvenir?

How will Discovery‘s war with the Klingons transition to the cold war we know?

The ending of the Klingon-Federation war in the finale felt a little too quick and simple. Just because L’Rell has a bomb doesn’t mean the 24 great houses are going to stay unified and happy to put the war behind them. Producers have said that they are moving on from the war story, but have also indicated that L’Rell and Tyler (formerly Voq) will play a part in the second season. We know that by the time of The Original Series, tensions with the Klingon Empire remain high with the Federation so it is unlikely there is much detente, and it is unclear if there will be an official armistice or treaty ending the war. The chances that L’Rell and her bomb can stop all her fellow Klingons from causing trouble for the Federation is low, so expect some flare ups in the second season. Side note: Do L’Rell and Tyler have to sleep in shifts if possession of that detonator is all that’s holding the Empire together?

L’Rell’s got her suit back, and a bomb, but is it enough?

And what does this mean for Tyler and L’Rell?

Speaking of Tyler, the finale showed him sort of re-embrace his origins as Voq, at least to some extent. He decided to stay with L’Rell to help her and to bridge the gap with the Federation. His transformation into a human may make it hard for him to continue his role as the “Torchbearer” of Klingon ideals and honor, as he could just become an object of scorn. Voq was already that before his transformation, and then failed in his mission anyway, so his chances of getting his status elevated now that he’s a human seem slim. And then there is Tyler’s extremely complicated love life. Will L’Rell and Tyler resume their romantic relationship? Will T’Lell become a thing? (Sorry, is that Ty’Rell?). Even though the Klingon War story line was not entirely satisfying, these two characters and actors stood out and hopefully they will be explored further in season two.

Tyler and L'Rell in the Star Trek: Discovery season one finale

Reunited, but will it feel so good?

How can Starfleet — and Cornwell — rebuild with integrity?

Starfleet just fought a devastating war against the Klingons, losing one third of their ships and 20% of their territory, and in response, they came THIS close to committing genocide. How will Starfleet rebuild itself both physically and morally? Admiral Cornwell ordered the destruction of an entire planet, which is Terran Emperor-level bad guy stuff. Yes, she was fairly easily persuaded to shift gears, but will there be any repercussions for her and others – including Sarek – who were complicit in the ordering a war crime?  These acts are not the kinds of things we expect from the Federation or Starfleet and hopefully the fallout from these decisions will not be just swept away.

Cornwell’s got some ‘splainin to do.

How will the Sarek family deal with this ‘reunion?’

We know from the TOS episode “Journey to Babel” that Spock and his father had not spoken to each other for eighteen years, and season one of Discovery ends just about halfway through that period. But Sarek is aboard the Discovery at the end of season one. How will they avoid speaking to each other, especially with Spock’s sister Michael aboard?  Then again, let’s not forget that the Sarek-Spock feud was all about Spock’s choice to join Starfleet and Sarek’s disapproval of his choice. Having Sarek arrive on a starship full of glowing approval for Michael Burnham’s career choice is sure to reopen old wounds. (Shhh…don’t tell your brother about the genocide thing!). 

Sarek in Star Trek: Discovery season one finale

Tell Captain Pike I’m not here.

What is Georgiou’s next move?

As former Terran Emperor Georgiou slinked off into the shadows a free woman, bound only by her non-existent conscience, what will she be up to in season two?  We’ve seen Georgiou’s brutality; she spent her life devoted to building her own personal power and imposing her will on the rest of her universe. Why would she stop now? Will she team up with Orion pirates? Rebuild an empire? Will she do it all in that fabulous feathered cape? You don’t bring Michelle Yeoh back to life without a game plan and even though nothing has been said, it is a good bet she will be back in season two and probably causing some trouble.

Emperor Georgiou in Star Trek: Discovery season one finale

If you love someone, it doesn’t always mean you should set them free …

What is the mission of the USS Discovery now?

Since it was introduced in episode three, the USS Discovery was a ship tasked to help win the war with the Klingons. With the war now over, what will the mission of the ship be? There was no indication in the finale as to where the ship was headed after it picked up the new captain on Vulcan. The ship was originally designed to be a science vessel, so perhaps it could be returning to its roots? Michael Burnham’s speech to Starfleet did talk about returning to “exploring strange new worlds,” something core to Starfleet and Star Trek since the beginning. The producers of the show have also talked about how the second season will look at the “collision of science and spirituality” which sounds pretty intriguing. We are hoping that we can get back to meeting some strange new life forms and new civilizations, and maybe not shooting at them.  

Time for this disco to get back to the science party.

One thing’s for sure, the writers and producers of Star Trek: Discovery season two have a lot to think about. We are optimistic that they’ll find creative solutions to some of these questions, and will surprise us with a bunch more as well.

 


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

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

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It’s the mirror universe Enterprise! What a twist!

Great idea! They never explained what the distress call was about. So, maybe it is from MU. And maybe they’ll cut a deal to find and get Emperor Georgiou back in exchange for a prisoner on board–Prime Lorca!

Please yes, let’s get the Big Bad Terran Emperor out of the prime universe.

And I especially like your bit about Lorca ;^)

@Toni Arrington — he didn’t really mean it. But nice save. Good idea actually.

Yes!

The last question pretty much sums the series as a whole: What exactly is Discovery about?

Primarily luring in subscribers for CBS All-Access.

Yup. Just like TOS was primarily for luring people in to watch soap, dog food and car commercials. (Cut the annoying attempted snark, please.)

Don’t forget that TOS was also used to sell color televisions.

I remember when we had colour televisions, now we live in age of 4K televisions where practically every colour is some shade of dark colours like black/grey/brown etc 😔

Just imagine the pitch black shows we will be able to watch when we finally get 16k televisions 😜

Isabella, don’t forget the New Ubiquitous Blue Light that shades every actor’s face, making them look rather … dead

Every series ever commissioned is an attempt to lure viewers/subscribers to a network/streaming service.

He’s right, though. Discovery was created specifically to sell subscriptions to a streaming service. No CBS All Access, no Star Trek Discovery.

Cut the annoying attempted fascism, Luke.

Agreed. The many-streams-with-diff-subscription-costs model is hard to stomach, though. And we still get shows the same length as those shows on commercial networks. Jaysus, if you’re going to make us pay, at least give us 60 minutes of show!

Michael Burnham. Did you watch it?

I agree.
It Is Michaels story.

On the surface, yes and her story was to be one of redemption but she went from mutineer in episode 1 to being reinstated and giving speeches at Starfleet Command by the end of the season 1. As a serialized drama that road to redemption should have been over the course of the series, not a single season.

Discovery was also about the Klingon War, the spore drive and the Mirror Universe but those three elements of the series were resolved by the end of the season.

Yes, it was rushed. Burnham’s arc should have gone over two seasons. She could have got a pardon at the end of this season with a provisional promotion to LT.

As for the three elements being resolved, it seems they were, but like bad orange juice, they can always come up in future.

As for spore DASH drive, if we lose it, what of Stamets? I liked having a human face on the drive of the ship.

I keep wondering if somehow Discovery is not just going elsewhere, but elsewhen.

Elsewhen… Hmmm…

Agreed as usual Marja, it would’ve been better if they gave her arc until season 2 to finish. But that said I’m not really that bothered by it. But I’m curious since they restated her will she still be a first officer? I guess not since Saru still is but will her aim is to still get to the Captain’s chair or will she just stay as the science officer from here on out?

“As a serialized drama that road to redemption should have been over the course of the series, not a single season “

This.

If someone asked you what Star Trek Deep Space Nine was about would you say that it was about Benjamin Sisko? A show about a single father who lost his wife in battle to the Borg and is given command of a space station near a wormhole? That’s DS9 on the surface but doesn’t even come close to describing what the show was about.

So, what exactly is Discovery about?

Sounds about right actually.

It’s about how there are no shortcuts on the path to righteousness and it’s about how Alex Kurtzman had a preexisting deal with CBS. And it’s about how Specialist Michael Burnham seeks redemption for being the most boring human being in the Quadrant. And it’s about talking to your dead boyfriend using tardigrade DNA and fungus. And it’s about defeating a Klingon sleeper agent with the Power of Love. It’s a show about the endless possibilities and the wonder of magic.

If the Discovery novels are canon, then has it not already been established that the TOS uniforms were originally only for the 12 Constitution class ships, before spreading to the rest of the fleet?

The show is not beholden to anything in the novels. Anything in a novel can be ignored.

In this case though it would make a lot of sense to use it.

except all of the times we saw those uniforms worn on starbases

They also used those hideous jumpsuits on starbases.

Its 2018…the sweatshirts and jumpsuits don’t need to come back any more than McCoy’s salt shaker medical instruments and the 60’s era crude ship models/compositing techniques. While I expect there to be some genuine faithfulness to the spirit of the original series, it would be ridiculous to limit yourself to what was possible 50 years ago and what an entirely different group of people imagined, in an entirely different environment. There was even a great deal of inconsistency between season 1 and 3 of the original series.

At this point, I’m pretty convinced the new Captain of Discovery is Number One. This would open the door for Spock to become Pike’s second in command. I don’t think it was specifically addressed in other Trek series, but that would explain Spock’s extreme actions (mutiny) on behalf of Pike in ‘The Menagerie’. I would have to think he would have spent several years as second in command to become that close to his former commanding officer.

@Locutus, that’s not a bad idea. However, the captain is supposedly on Vulcan waiting for them.

Y’know, I loved many of Bill Theiss’s designs, especially Leslie Parrish’s dress in “Who Mourns for Adonis” … but those jumpsuits. were. awful. All of them.

Ten years later during TOS.

What does it matter. Canon was thrown out the airlock at the first minute of episode one

Enough with this cannon bull shit already! for the love of GOD

Seconded, Ari.
Lawdy, yes.

PREACH!

I wish that the producers would once and for all say “This is Prime, we have not lied to anyone. We have simply updated the dated visuals”.

People need to move on!

Ugh, don’t remind me. The early TOS costumes were awful, except the women’s tunics, and the colors … blugh.

As far as “canon,” the books’ authors coordinate with Gretchen J. Berg who’s on the Discovery” staff, and are supposed to keep things within canonical lines, but the delicate tightrope walk completely spoiled “Desperate Hours” for me. Trying to meld ’60s appearances with Disco just did. not. work. for me.

The Spore Drive is on hold Most likely till the 25th Century when they are using the Bio Neural Gel Packs to help control the Ship through The Net Work and the Enterprise will be in a couple of Episodes and they will bring in Prime Lorca that was abandon by Mirror Lorca

What….?

Why would the spore drive be on hold for another two centuries?

While I do consider myself a fan of the series, I did think that, just as in the JJ-Abrams films (as well as many other past episodes of TREK), the Finale was a bit lacking in exploring much of the aftermath of DISCOVERY’s return – everyone seemed so happy? Kinda like when the TOS-crew would huddle around the Captain’s chair for some laughs at the end of an episode – even if dozens of people may have perished during that hour? Considering how many people have died during nearly a year of war with the Klingons – and completely overlooking what personal-ramifications each crew-member must be experiencing in their personal-lives – only the Crew’s glee over their promotions seemed evident? I mean, wasn’t it established that Starfleet had thought the DISCOVERY destroyed? Imagine what happened to the crew’s family’s & personal relationships during those 9-months? Consequently, the ending, to me, just seemed a bit hollow – and quite unsophisticated for a modern TV-drama? Especially for a series which promotes itself as a bit more of a gritty, realistic TREK? Don’t recall too many happy dinners during the Finales of GOT or HOC?

I agree. For a show whose writers insist is about relationships and interpersonal drama, they really missed the boat there.

Having Stamets bounce back so quickly from Culber’s death was a slap in the face. While I really liked his angry confrontation with Tyler, that should not be all. He should be mourning. I did like the touch with Hugh’s posthumous medal and the black ribbon.

As you say, the ramifications of a nine-month war with such terrible losses should be evident throughout Starfleet.

Yeah the finale was ‘meh’ for me because it just felt WAY too rushed. They wanted a happy ending where everyone is redeemed, the ‘war’ is over and off to the next adventure. It just didn’t feel right. They should’ve at least made the episode a bit longer and maybe even gave us a small time jump like six months to a year or something to see the Federation restoring itself.

But it is what it is and I’m pretty happy the war is done since it was so boring.

I’m sure someone else has highlighted this before, but I just noticed it. The acronym for the Displacement Activated Spore Hub is DASH. Pretty fitting.

Yep, it was referred to as such early on in publicity or something, but then people resorted to “spore drive”

I’d really like for Zach Quinta & Bruce Greenwood to play Spock and Pike.

Bruce Greenwood for captain!

No thanks. Seen enough angry spock.

YES!!!!!

Or Zachary Quinto, even.

I’d add the black badges to the list of questions.

that was a leftover from Bryan Fuller. He wanted the ship to be section 31. I don’t think they will ever address it

Yeah, consider that being a placeholder.

Rats.
That would have been SO much better than the Mirror Lorca plot. Real Lorca making questionable, “expedient” choices to serve the ends of winning the war. Would definitely reflect a lot of present-day realities.

Marja, I do believe that Sisko and Archer begaved that way when push came to shove. The difference there was we were introduced to them before we saw that side of them. If Lorca was the same guy except he wa Prime, we would have been introduced to him in that mode instead of traditional Star Fleet captain mode.

@Spiked Canon — at this point considering the use of “Black Alert”, it would be easy to say they are merely the spore drive security team with clearance to work in the spore drive area, setting them apart from regular security teams.

Is helmsman Jose Tyler on Pike’s Enterprise a relative of Ash Tyler?

No.

Ash had no living family after his mother death, and he never met his father

To be fair, Amanda said that Spock and Sarek hadn’t spoken to each other “as father and son” for 18 years.

Was about to point that out. I rewatched Journey to Babel the other day and was paying special attention to the wording. Whatever their interaction will be, if Spock and Sarek talk, it will be frosty. (Or handwaved as Amanda not understanding the Vulcan way.) has

My predictions for Season 2:

– Mirror Georgiou teams up with Harry Mudd, cooking up some new nefarious schemes. Then she finds out that Captain “Killy” of the ISS Discovery is still alive as a prisoner of the Klingons, and decide to bust her out of Rura Penthe.

– On Qo’noS, Voq/Tyler notices that all the ridge-less “Augment virus”-infected Klingons are in this time forced to live in ghettos under miserable conditions, sorta like lepers. Being a fellow Klingon who looks like a human (albeit with a different origin story) he empathizes and decides to fight for their rights.

– Tilly finds the late Lorca’s abandoned tribble and decides to keep it as a pet. This ends of course in the usual exponential population growth related catastrophe on the Discovery. After getting rid of all the tribbles again, Tilly gives away the last remaining specimen – to a man named Cyrano Jones.

I love all of these.

I concur :)

Birds of Prey, every one of these would make great story arcs!

Love to see all of these

Honestly, I hope that Tyler or what’s left of him makes it back to the discovery and he carries on with his career, don’t mind if him and burnham fix the romance but it’s not a must for me. Would also lie saru as captain. And I want bridge crew rotated on away missions. Season two I rather they take closer look at saru and Tyler and not as much on burnham.

I agree to most of your comments. However, Tyler and Burnham are important. Their relations was forged out of emotional mayhem at every level. A xenoanthropologist and a klingon, two people who are in love. So much to learn from each other.

Love the idea about Saru.

@BOP — I hope they don’t touch the augment issue, and we never see a ridgeless Kligon. As far as I’m concerned, the Klingons all look the same in every episode of Trek ever produced. I’ll apply Odo’s comment in “Trials and Tribulations” to meaning their fashion sense, and having nothing to do with their physical appearance. The ENT retcon I will deem to apply solely to a limited number of Klingons who are all reverted to their normal appearance either by serum or surgery long before the TOS era.

I’ve always been happy to attribute different looks to different artists, so the ‘knobbliness’ of foreheads, Klingon or Romulan, to me, has always been down to the production. The Trials and Tribbleations joke I took as just that, not some ‘serious, get-your-knickers-in-a-twist-over-a-comedy-episode’ retcon.

David Mack’s book says Pike and crew are wearing the new uniform design seen only on Connie ships.

“collision of science and spirituality” + (USS) Stamets = One strong possibility that would keep Paul playing with his space fungus is him trying to reconnect with his lost love, Hugh Culber, who was last seen hanging out in the mycelial network.

I fear it will be a cop-out. The Enterprise is on auto-pilot, with the crew being stranded on a planet somewhere. All we’ll see is the Enterprise from the outside; no interior sets, cast or classic uniforms.
I sincerely hope that I am wrong!

Georgiou will be the next female “Wrath of Georgiou”

“There is also grace, for what greater source of peace exists than to love our enemy?” No, Team Disco, Vulcans are not Jesus. You must’ve gotten confused watching Star Trek V, but Sybok is an exception. As for your infernal Katra Skype, no, Vulcans are not Jedi either. Yeah, Star Trek III was a bit much, but they just did that to bring back Leonard Nimoy, so they got some leeway. But if you wanted to give Burnham a childhood flashback to Sybok, no one is stopping you. In fact, I double dare you to. Give us a Young Bad Boy Sybok episode, and you will have reestablished your steet cred …

They’re saying on reddit that the captain will be Captain Flan, granddaughter of Commander Shran, and Flan will be played by Ashley Judd or Brent Spiner.

Really? Although somewhat interesting, I’d rather see Pike’s Number One as captain. What if she’s the actress that voices the computer now – because canon and sticking with it and all :P j/k Seriously though, I’d rather see more of Number One’s career, and focus on this time period than a descendant of Shran.

I think Krokus was being facetious.

As usual.

These are great questions, they make me realize how little I care for this series.

They swapped great scripts and plots for breaking all sorts of canon, with terrible planet destroying fascist politics, all masked with you go girl feminism.

Bleh. Crap.

Then don’t watch. Feminism clearly scares you.

Is the show ever going to explain why the federation is a military dictatorship in discovery yet they are a democracy in TOS?

In times of war does the federation cease to be a democracy?

You mean like the beacon of liberty becoming a veritable police state where Big Brother (or his supercomputers) catalogue everything you do, launches wars for no apparent reason, uses the power of regulation and taxation to stifle free speech, etc because a handful of sand Orions flew planes into buildings?

If only we can make that sort of turn-around in such a short time!

Robo,
BINGO!

If season two is going to be about the “collision of science and spirituality”, does this mean that discovery is going to simply remain being a really poor inferior rip off of deep space nine for the rest of its run?

All that money and all that time they got to make discovery season 1 and all we got was crummy poorly recycled ideas and plots from DS9 bar the new idea of the spore drive.

Wow I didn’t even think of DS9 with that quote but yeah good catch. And the show does feel way more like DS9 than any other show. I hope in time they get to that level of story telling. And remember DS9 wasn’t great story telling in its first season either (but had some quality episodes and the groundwork was there). I thought the first season of Discovery was just OK at the end but I do feel like all of the Trek shows it has the potential to be strong.

But the difference between DS9 season 1 and discovery 1 was DS9’s stories while some of them were not great. They all had internal consistency with beginnings, middles and endings and a point to their story. The same was true for even the worse of voyager to a lesser extent.
Unlike discovery which seems to be randomly written with little to no internal consistency and next to no narrative and structural purpose.

And even with DS9’s uneven first season it evolved into the best iteration of Star Trek imho. And there were elements of DS9 season 1 that lasted all the way into the final season (station-based shows, bajoran politics, religion, gul dukat, actual character development etc.) And DS9 seemed to have a longer plan over the whole series (apparently they had Damar’s whole arc planned out *waaaay* in advance – i think that’s quoted on memory alpha iirc). Disco season 1 was definitely up and down (and binge watching several episodes one after another didn’t help either – they all just merged into one). The Mudd episode with the time loop and the one on the spore planet stood out. The rest didn’t do much for me story-wise. Maybe season 2 will improve. But a “collision of science and spirituality” sounds like a philosophy for the Borg. I think we’re gonna get bionic zombies next season.

DS9 was a good show but it was hardly the best iteration of Star Trek.

It was a good show but one which was totally devoid of new ideas and plots. It constantly had to rely on the same endlessly reused characters.
If there had been no tng elements/Babylon 5 and world war 2 for the show to rely on, the writers would have been so screwed for its plot.

Well I don’t agree about it not being the best but that’s personal preference on my part! Your point about its reliance on tng elements is a little like the argument that the story of Rogue One outside the context of the Star Wars universe is a little thin and doesn’t stand up on its own, but I see where you’re coming from (it was a tng spinoff essentially when all said and done). Plus for me, DS9 had enough original elements for it to tell great stories. And the expansion and development of some of the tng elements (namely the Ferengi and the cardassians who were both 1 dimensional at best on tng) are some of my favourite parts of DS9. But each to their own I suppose (c.f. IDIC haha!). Apparently some people liked the new Enterprise design (but they’ve been fairly quiet about it lol)

Make that 13 questions:

How did STD get a second season?

Meh

So, the mirror universe thing…Discoveries crew is aware that the USS Defiant in their future will drift into the mirror universe. Sooooo, will they warn the Defiants crew????

@A Trekkie — I actually have a problem with that, there was no reason to even bring up the Defiant. However, by the time the Defiant disappears in TOS, they have officially discovered time travel, and understand the implications of it in real practice. Therefore, since all of the MU encounter was classified, they could simply chose not to reveal that bit of information when the time came, to preserve the timeline. Indeed, Kirk’s report of his encounter in the MU could also add to that determination — in other words, if they changed the timeline, then they might have lost the Discovery and the Klingon war, as well as Kirk, if the MU doesn’t evolve exactly as it did.

I’m convinced that the Discovery did, in fact, return to it’s original universe, but I’m still not convinced that it’s our original Star Trek universe. All the tech I’ve see so far is far beyond Next Generation tech that it seems that they went backwards by the time our Kirk’s Enterprise showed up on the scene. How do you explain the spore drive, the holographic communication and ALL the other advanced tech, science and aliens that we have witnessed?

It’s just the 2018 view of the 23rd century vs. the 1960’s look. What if Star Trek were from the ’50’s and had people breathing on Mars like some movies of the time? If we already have people Facetiming today, don’t you think by the 2250’s they should have better tech than what we imagined in the ’60’s or ’90’s. I get what you’re saying, but it needed a revision to be futuristic today.

You just go with it Doug. I don’t disagree with you but here we are. They have to create a show for 2018, so I get that. But that was the beauty of making TNG in an advance period. But to be honest I rather they just have all the advance tech and futuristic look they have instead of trying to take it back to the 60s of big buttons and dated sets. Also why I suspect the Enterprise interior will look hardly anything like the original.

The way I’ve started looking at this now is that since “space seed” (at least) Star Trek has existed in a parallel universe to ours (because the eugenics wars obviously didn’t happen in real life and Khan never blasted off in his rocket ship). So for me it doesn’t matter that TOS technology looks “dated” because it’s not a projection of our future *now*. It’s a projection of the future from the 60s. I would have understood (not to mention preferred!) that had they faithfully recreated the TOS aesthetic for disco. But, based on reactions to the “visual reboot” since disco started, it seems the vast majority would have pathologically *hated* disco looking like that and presumably hate TOS for it as well (maybe some people are embarrassed by TOS like Shatner was – see “the captains” documentary). The advice given here to just “go with it” seems to be the best way to reconcile it in your head. And I much prefer “go with it” to “get over it” (the latter I find particularly standoffish and not very “Star Trek”). It’s a shame that the visual reboot was necessary. Maybe they’ll explain it one day but I doubt it. It’s what’s needed to make Star Trek “cool” I guess (or at least credible in today’s TV world). Maybe if disco does really well it’ll spawn a spinoff that follows the established aesthetics more closely – so for that reason alone I hope it does really really well like TNG did!

Questions, questions. According to Professor James Whitbrook, Disco Trek raised questions it didn’t want to answer: ”…the show’s back-half provided an easy way out from all the fascinating potential, thanks to the introduction of the Mirror Universe. Was Stamets slowly being driven mad by a Federation pushing his dangerous scientific research too far? No, he was just getting visions of the Mirror Universe adventures to come. Was Lorca a dangerous, morally grey maverick in Starfleet that reflected an unpleasant aspect the of the organization most people chose to ignore? No, he was a comically evil Mirror sleeper agent looking for a way to get back home and—literally, he says this—‘Make the Empire Glorious Again.’ Even when Admiral Cornwell is set to betray Starfleet’s ideals going into the final episode by starting a mission to literally blow up the Klingon homeworld from the inside, she uses the Mirror version of Phillipa Georgiou, the horrifyingly cruel ruler of the Terran Empire, as her avatar. Because if you want your audience to explicitly know that a plan is bad and evil, make sure it’s enacted by someone who regularly walks around executing people on a whim and eating sentient aliens for dinner, just to get the point across in case they missed it the first time.
 And when the show couldn’t find a Mirror Universe answer to the Prime Universe problem of Ash—or rather the Klingon Voq in disguise as Ash, as the long-predicted reveal turned out to be—it simply shrugged the story away. In what was basically an aside to the Mirror shenanigans swirling all around the second half of the show, Ash rapidly converted back to being himself, but with the memories of Voq still residing within, and everything was somehow okay. And then by the end of the season finale, Ash left with Voq’s commander L’Rell, to sweep the inconvenience of having a Human-Klingon hybrid hanging around Starfleet under the interstellar rug. All that remains is Michael, who took the biggest journey but even then, her hardest challenge this season—having to overcome the awful decision she made in the season premiere, at the cost of her commission, her future, and her beloved mentor—got a Mirror Universe solution. Her decision to save the Mirror version of her beloved captain Georgiou from death in the Mirror Universe has ramifications that spiral wildly out of Michael’s control, not least because Emperor Georgiou is evil as hell. But unlike the events surrounding Prime Georgiou’s death, which saw Michael have to live and attempt to overcome an overwhelmingly grave consequence, Mirror Georgiou gave Michael something to fight directly, and literally confront—and let escape!—to earn her redemption in the eyes of the Federation. Sure, she started a bloodbath of a war with the Klingons that cost the lives of hundreds upon thousands of people, but hey! She stopped Admiral Cornwell from making a terrible mistake with help from a universe of alternate space fascists, and that’s okay as long as we forget the first bit, right? The Mirror Universe will define Star Trek: Discovery’s first season far more keenly than anything like Burnham’s mutineer status, or the continuity-boggling spore drive ever will. It offered both easy fan cred when the show needed it the most—at the cost of introducing an almost impenetrable layer of continuity for new viewers—and the easiest way out of the tough questions the series had asked of itself in its first half. There’s long been a comparison among Trek fans bettween what Discovery has tried to do with examining the ideals of a peaceful utopia in wartime and what Deep Space Nine did with that idea 25 years ago. On a surface level, they’re very similar premises: An overwhelming warrior race (Discovery’s Klingons, DS9’s Dominion) puts the Federation on the retreat, and to find any way of avoiding complete and total annihilation, the Federation is forced to wrestle with the idea that it may have to sacrifice some of its most sacred ideals in the process. But where DS9 took that conflict and made it personal, introspective, and most importantly consequential for its characters and institutions, Discovery deflected any self-examination it tried to attempt, and instead found itself a whole universe of evil doppelgangers to act as scapegoats… Benjamin Sisko had to live with the consequences of his actions—and, chillingly, was okay with doing so—even if they ultimately lead to peace. By the end of Discovery’s first season, no one of any particular importance has had to do the same. Everything that challenged the Federation in its darkest hours in Discovery can be blamed on Mirror Lorca, on Mirror Georgiou—who gets to run away with her freedom—or on the very existence of the Mirror Universe itself. Anyone but Starfleet and the crew of the Discovery. When Starfleet gathers at the climax of… Read more »

Your perspective is right on.

Very valid criticisms, Krokus.

They didn’t have a mirror opposite of Ash/Voq, not precisely; they had a peaceful Voq, presumably opposite a Terran Tyler whom we never see. Kind of the same, inverted, and with two bodies instead of one.

I disliked the “cheats” regarding PTSD. It is NOT a twisty plot device. It is a serious issue and the writers should treat it as such instead of glancing away into a “plot twist.”

And I cannot say enough how much I hated the intriguing shifty Lorca turning into Mirror Lorca. Jason Isaacs did a great job with it, but the writers really ruined a good opportunity to explore the shades of evil we “law-abiding folk” engage in, in times of war. FEH!

That was an excellent appraisal of season 1. A
Promising season undone by cheap shortcuts.

Everything said in that quote I found to be spot on.

I am hoping that in season 2, we see the main characters dealing with some of the trauma of much of what they endured in season 1. There must be some breathing space for them to process, deal, heal and move on from that. Otherwise, they will be one-dimensional and cardboard cutouts, and the story-lines they have been given deserve much more than that.

At some point, one of Discovery’s producers implied that viewers might recognize an engineer on Disco. This may have been said on After Trek? Anyone else remember? My first logical thought was that this would be Scotty. Now that the Enterprise has arrived this could mean, if so, that Scotty might transfer to the E to fix their distress call problem. Maybe?

@IDJ — no they said Stamets wasn’t the chief engineer, nor was his laboratory Main Engineering.

WHERE IS PRIME LORCA?!?

That’s my question. And I want it answered. In the person of Jason Isaacs, actor.

My question for season 2 based on *that* finale scene has to do with the nature of the distress call from the Enterprise. Has her crew started to demonstrate symptoms of an infection where mechanical protrusions erupt from beneath their skin? Will they have to dig up the research from Dr Phlox or maybe find Phlox himself (remember Denobulans are long-lived – I’d love a cameo from John Billingsley in disco!) to treat the crew and stop their transformation into bionic zombies? Maybe the “nanoprobes” have altered the design of the Enterprise herself, using the only starfleet ship they’ve seen at this point as a referent – the NX-01 (explaining the obvious visual references to *that* Enterprise in the disco Enterprise and why the exterior of the ship looks different)? Will battling this cyber enemy (whose spirituality of seeking perfection links with their desire to assimilate science and technology) span season 2? I’m so looking forward to seeing how the disco team might reimagine and visually update the Borg. Can’t wait to see where they go from here.

Did I really hear a TIE-Fighter sound during Lorca’s death scene or was that a dream?
I imagined the new captain would be T’Pol. Hot chicks are canon!

What I really would like to see would be Discovery exploring some existing phenomena in space, like a black hole or a pulsar or exploring a tidally locked planet or even encounter Omuamua. Less soap more science fiction would be nice. They have the budget to make it look really cool.

Anyone else feel like Burnham says “You have to…” and “You need to…” so much that she comes off just intensely pushy that she is right and everyone else is wrong (even though that’s usually been the case). It makes her so unlikable the way her dialogue is handled. But she could really benefit from better writing, avoiding those lines.

She’s a horrible lead character. Poorly written is a poorly scripted storyline with bad acting. So yeah, unlikable is a fair description.

I can’t imagine why tyler would go back to L’rell. While Tyler is on her planet he will have a hard time. One of the executive directors has hinted that Tyler is going to question his decision to help L’rell as torchbearer in season 2. Voq was never embraced as the torchbearer he was always treated as an outsider only T’kuvma and L’rell cared about him. looking as a human will not help him any better.

Tyler really loves Burnham as indicated when he gave her the tether. I’ve got a feeling that they will keep a torch burning for each other no matter where they are.

Being that Tyler is my favorite person on the show, i guess i should just be happy that he survived the season 1 and will be back in two, that being said the writers need to go, i mean how does it make sense that he decides to go back with a woman that raped and torture on him, at least in his own mind. btw anyone who can shed light in this? because i am honestly confused, in the wolf inside episode, just before Tylers reveal ash tells burnham something to the affect that “you are the one that i wanna be human for” was that Voq speaking? i mean did voq the actual klingon fall in love with burnham after he awoke? i am confuses

“And, if we see any of the crew, we won’t be surprised to see them wearing the standard Starfleet uniforms everyone else is wearing on Discovery too.”

I will, I expect them to be wearing an updated verson of the blue/grey Cage era uniforms. And if you look at the above picture of Burnham at the medal ceremony above, you can see people in those uniforms – a Tellarite, Andorian and someone behind Burnham, and on the rows behind. I expect these to be newer ‘post-war’ uniforms.

I thought Michael Burnham would be the new captain….with a Vulcan ceremony to come. Second guess- Prime Lorca! Third- Pike.