Anson Mount Reveals ‘Star Trek: Discovery’ Season 2 Has Been Extended To 14 Episodes

The second season of Star Trek: Discovery arrives in just over a month and there are some new developments to report. We also have some reactions to this week’s Short Treks episode and more in our latest roundup of Disco Bits.

Mount says season 2 has been extended

The new Captain Pike, Anson Mount, is visiting the official Star Trek: The Original Series Set Tour, in Ticonderoga, NY this weekend. During his Q&A this afternoon, reported by TrekCore, Mount announced to the crowd that season 2 of Star Trek: Discovery has been expanded to include an additional episode.

Extending the season to 14 episodes is not entirely surprising. Shortly before production began in April, TrekMovie first reported that season two was scheduled to run 13 episodes, however, three months later one of the reasons cited for the dismissal of showrunners Gretchen Berg and Aaron Harberts was “leadership and operational issues” which included overruns, both in budget and timeliness. Over the summer it became clear the production was running behind, which is likely the reason why Jonathan Frakes ended up directing the ninth episode instead of the tenth, as originally planned.

Production on the second season was originally set to wrap in early November, but it has continued, picking up again after the (American) Thanksgiving holiday. The local Toronto TV and film production union website confirmed Discovery (under the codename “Green Harvest”) has been extended by nearly a month, to December 21. With the schedule slippage, CBS has already needed to extend their time at Pinewood Studios, so tacking on another episode would allow CBS to amortize the cost of production over more episodes. Discovery season 1 was expanded mid-production by two episodes for similar reasons.

Filming episode 1 of season 2

More from Mount in Ticonderoga

  • Mount also shared some new tidbits. Including the surprising anecdote that he had been in the running to play Gabriel Lorca in Season 1.
  • A central theme to season 2 will be the mentoring relationship of Pike and Burnham.
  • Mount also praised Jonathan Frakes, saying meeting him was his “geekiest moment” on set.

Writers promise answers about Saru and Kelpiens following “The Brightest Star”

This week’s episode of Star Trek: Short Treks gave us Saru’s backstory with lots of new information about him and the Kelpiens, but it also raised a number of questions, as noted in TrekMovie’s review. Fans have also been talking about these questions on social media and the writers have made it clear they are aware, and are promising to address them. Co-writer Bo Yeon Kim assured fans that these questions “will not go unanswered” and the official Star Trek: Discovery writers’ room account promised they will be “answered in time.”

It is likely these answers are coming in an upcoming episode of the second season of Discovery which will revisit Kaminar. In an interview with TrekMovie at NYCC, Saru actor Doug Jones said that “The Brightest Star” had “breadcrumbs that you’ll find in season 2” noting that there was a “direct tie with hints” between that full season two episode and the Short Treks mini-episode.

In an interview with Syfy, Kim also offered some insight into Saru’s thought process following his desparture from his homeworld and showing why it is such a big deal for him to return in Discovery season two:

“In the first few years of joining Starfleet, Saru had always intended on learning everything he could and returning to Kaminar to help his people,” Kim says. “But over the years, he realized that the Prime Directive exists for a reason, and breaking it would bring about serious repercussions, not just to his Starfleet career but to his people. So that is the weight of Saru’s burden.”

Speaking of “The Brightest Star,” Kim’s writing partner Erika Lippoldt also shared two fun behind-the-scenes photos from the location shoot,  one featuring Doug Jones and his Kelpien co-stars Hannah Spear and Robert Verlaque, and another with Kim trying her hand at being a Kelpien priest.

Season 2 Premiere Sweepstakes

The second season of Discovery arrives on January 17th and CBS will be holding a red carpet premiere in New York City to mark the occasion. They are also running a contest right now for a trip for two to attend the premiere. To enter you must be a subscriber of CBS All Access and get your entry in by this coming Friday, December 14th. More info on entering at CBS.com.

Fan art of the day: “The Brightest Star” poster

Popular artist J.J. Lendl has come up with another Discovery poster, this time for the latest episode of Short Treks.

 


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

Star Trek: Short Treks is available in the USA on CBS All Access. It airs in Canada on Space and streams on CraveTV.

Star Trek: The Original Series Set Tour is an officially licensed recreation of the classic USS Enterprise sets, for more information visit www.startrektour.com.

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

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I can’t even close my eyes these days without receiving news that more Trek is on the way than otherwise anticipated.

I love it. What a time to be alive.

I agree. Discovery has been a mixed bag but I am a true fan. I am excited as well. This does remind me of the mid 1990’s when we had multiple series and movies in the works. This is from an “old school” fan. TOS Rocks!!

Yes, we have terrible movies and a terrible tv show. What an awful time to be a Trek fan.

Ugh.

It seems CBS is getting rid of the stuff people actually want and giving us this instead.

I have to admit, I’m getting VERY excited about season 2 now! And one more episode is always a plus. But next year looks like us Trek fans will have a lot to look forward to!

I know plenty of people are still on the fence about Discovery (me included) but I do have a feeling they are going to turn it around, at least based on the Short Treks and what we do know and seen of second season. Klingons looking like Klingons again is already a big step in the right direction but story wise I feel we are going to get a more traditional type of episodes too. And I really think both new Pike and Spock will be a hit. So fingers crossed! ;)

But 2019 is going to be a busy year for Trek! We got Discovery coming back next month, then more Short Treks again and finally, the biggest event for Trek in awhile and the return of Jean-Luc Picard post Nemesis!!! The 24th century again! That is going to rock fandom! We are finally getting multiple Trek shows all year, every year from this point on! It’s starting to feel like the 90s again lol.

And maybe just MAYBE Paramount will finally announce another Kelvin film sometime next year! Don’t hold your breath or anything but who knows?

The Kelvin timeline along with the movies that have released

and the current situation is simply one big hot and nasty mess.

None of the films were monsteriously successful in any shape

or form. Some have said the new Picard series would be on the

Reliant but wouldn’t it make sense to when he was commanding

the Stargazer instead? 🤔

Obviously I can’t disagree with you that much. I think the Kelvin films have been successful in the sense (the first two at least) they made a profit and introduced Star Trek to a new generation of fans. But yes its also very clear the films were not the box office success Paramount was hoping for and while the first one definitely created a new excitement for Trek, it wasn’t a very sustainable one and where the sequels fell. But I blame that on other factors as well and not just the universe in itself.

But clearly they want to make another one, it just looks like all the factors said above caught up to this franchise so its having a harder time getting green lit. My guess if Beyond at least cleared $400 million another one would’ve been in production a year ago already, just with a smaller budget.

As for your comment about Picard, no offense but neither makes sense. Reliant was destroyed with Khan long ago so no clue who would even think that’s possible lol. Do you mean another ship? And he’s not going to be on the Stargazer because the show takes place 20 years after Nemesis, that ship would’ve been out of commission long ago. And the last thing most people want is yet ANOTHER prequel if that’s what you’re suggesting. And even if that were the case they would probably hire a younger actor to play Picard in his 30s and 40s like Pine was hired to play a younger Kirk.

The Reliant name comes from the fact CBS registered a trademark for “Star Trek: Reliant” over the summer. People are reading into it. As we pointed out in a previous article on TM, companies register trademarks all the time just in case. So it’s possible they’re considering the name for an upcoming project, of course which one is uncertain. It could be the Khan mini-series, it could be the training ship in the rumored Starfleet Academy show, etc. It’s also very possible it never gets used.

A young ensign Picard did serve on an early 24th century vessel named USS Reliant, but of course the new show is about old man Picard, so that doesn’t make much sense.
https://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/USS_Reliant_(24th_century)

Trek does like to re-use famous ship names though.

Thanks Matt, that makes a lot more sense now.

But as you said I think people are reading too much into it. It just sounds like it could be for anything and more than likely for the Khan mini-series but yeah who knows?

Unless this will just be a new Reliant (possible given how many Enterprises there have been) but if they are going to put Picard on another starship more than likely it will just be another Enterprise. Who cares about him manning a ship named Reliant?

Has anybody tossed out the idea that the show will take place in an earlier time when Picard was young, and that we’ll see Stewart some of the time, but when the crew is relating to Jean-Luc, they’ll be seeing the properly aged recast young Picard? Sort of like TAPESTRY, the series. That would cut down the workload on Stewart.

Its possible but I really doubt that outside of a few flashbacks. Every interview and crumb Michael Chabon has said about the new show has emphasized its going to be about the present day for Picard, even making a big deal about the year its set, which no Star Trek show has ever really done before (unless its a time travel story).

And I really think this is going to be an ensemble cast like all the others. It will be Stewart’s show but I imagine new characters will get their own episodes and story arcs. So Stewart won’t be carrying all the weight anymore than Martin-Green is now on Discovery.

I guess the first two comments are supposed to start this off on a good note. I am so sorry CBS chose to allow this show to be produced and wear the Star Trek name. What a terrible, perhaps fatal mistake they have made! Discovery really was a huge disappointment. I am certain Season 2 will be better for this show than Season 1, but in either case, Star trek fans are not going to accept it as Star Trek. The Spock they chose was a huge mistake and disappoints in advance.

All Star Trek fans are accepting Discovery as Star Trek, except for a few sad wankers.

The jury is still out for this ‘sad wanker.’ (However I do find the term hysterical :)

Stsr Trek fan here, respectfully disagreeing. Don’t fall for logical fallacies like No True Scotsman while also making hasty generalizations. You may embarrass yourself.

You do not speak for the fandom therefore you don’t have the right to state “Star Trek fans are not going to accept it as Star Trek”. Not even going to get started on the fact that it’s practically gatekeeping which is never okay under any circumstances.

Why isn’t it okay? People shouldn’t have opinions?

Frankly, if you let a would-be gatekeeper actually stop you at the gate, you must not have been into walking through them in the first place. That’s on you.

You’re right, gate keeping IS ok. That’s why I say that if you don’t like DSC you’re not a fan, and GTFO.

See how that works? Doesn’t sound so okay, does it?

I am a star Trek fan and have been since watching TOS in the late 60s as a child and… I actually do accept Discovery as being Star Trek. I of course admit that SOME fans don’t like Disco, but to say Star Trek fans don’t accept the show is categorically false. It is okay to say SOME fans don’t like the show but to convey that you speak for all fans just diminishes the rest of your message as being irrelevant – when it actually does have some merit.

Every first season of Star Trek besides the original series were weak or trying to find their way.

It’s funny. Almost every Trek fan I know has accepted and is enjoying DSC. The only place i’m finding people like you are online. Sounds like the vocal minority.

You can only make that decision for yourself. You can’t make that decision for other Star Trek fans. Not yours. No gatekeeping. I’m not going to accuse you of not being a True Fan(tm) because you don’t like Discovery, either. That would be hypocritical of me.

As others have pointed out this is borderline gatekeeping. Warning to Overmind One. Opinions are fine, but you don’t get to make declarative statements for all Star Trek fans. Neither does anyone else, so let’s move on. Thread closed.

sorry for my englishe.

is this news good news?

Yes. Good news.

For the time being, at least.

Nope.

It worked out so well last time they issued a surprise extension of the season…

I’m cautiously optimistic, though. I guess. I’m going to give ’em a chance to win me back, but my arms are going to stay crossed for a while.

What makes you think it was a surprise extension? The writers and production people would have had to have known for a while, possible since the July/August break. It still hasn’t been publicly announced – Anson Mount just happened to mention it publicly.

My compliments to the Trekmovie staff! I had read about this on another website yesterday and my first thought was that they added an episode so they could formally conclude and cancel the series because of low ratings, poor response from fans, etc. I suppose I watch too many of those rumor-filled Midnight’s Edge videos on YouTube, ha! But Trekmovie offered a very plausible and rational “business” reason why the season was expanded with analysis and insights that you can’t get anywhere else. That’s why Trekmovie is the best source of news about Star Trek. Great job guys!

Thankfully Midnight’s Edge’s videos tell it as it is.

Cautiously optimistic, mainly because Anson Mount is involved. So glad he didn’t land the part of Lorca, since that means he’d be gone already. Like some others, I am firmly on the fence with this show. Time will tell.

I think you represent the opinion of many. Disco is far from perfect and it is good to read and hear SOME of the naysayers complaints because constructive and relevant critiques can only make the show better. Fortunately there are enough of those who really like Discovery and others like yourself and many other readers of this site who are giving it a chance, to convince CBS to not only keep making Disco but to also sink finances to produce Short Treks, Lower Decks and the Picard series – and that benefits all of us, even those who do nothing but tirelessly rail on Discovery. Now as Tiger2 says above, if we could only light a fire under Paramount to get moving on Star Trek 4&5!!

This is a pretty fair “middle ground post.” I think the big takeaway here is your statement that there ARE enough fans to convince CBS to keep making more. So while it may not have met their initial sky high hopes, it showed enough promise, and did well enough to warrant more. That means it is NOT a failure, much to many people’s chagrin.

That said, the Marvel shows on Netflix that were popular enough to get second seasons, and they even improved in quality, but viewer numbers still plummeted (though their cancellation had as much to do with Disney’s new streaming service as anything).

So pressure is still on DSC to deliver for Season 2.

Yes I agree with all of this completely and have said so myself many times. I do believe DIS probably has enough viewers to be considered successful for AA. But I ALSO believe its not as many as CBS would’ve liked or hoped for (hence why no one has said how many watch the actual show since it has started) and while it has proven people are willing to sign up for Star Trek, there is probably also a fear many are not happy with the show and afraid they won’t come back unless they made dramatic changes for season 2.

And that is the other worry, especially when you are paying for something for the first time on a streaming site my guess 90% wouldn’t even own if said show wasn’t there. And unlike traditional TV where you can just turn on an episode to watch to see if its improving or not, you’re required a commitment for DIS (at least a month) and its easy to shun that commitment if the show is doing nothing for you from the start.

But I said many times CBS has devoted a LOT to this show and they DO want it to be a success so they are going to give it time no matter what. I see three seasons minimum which is obviously good. AFTER that and the show is still not performing as hoped then maybe it will be time to worry, but not anytime soon. This is 100% speculation though, I can be totally wrong.

“I do believe DIS probably has enough viewers to be considered successful for AA. But I ALSO believe its not as many as CBS would’ve liked or hoped for (hence why no one has said how many watch the actual show since it has started)…”

I think you absolutely nailed it.

Thanks!

It doesn’t mean I’m right of course, it’s just based on the little evidence we do have.

We actually don’t know what they’re hopes were for the show specifically. We do know their subscriber targets, which from previous statements, are ahead of where they wanted them to be.

I think the fact that they’ve added episodes both seasons, added the short episodes tied to Discovery, and announced two additional shows is evidence that the show is successful in their eyes.

If the show wasn’t successful, we’d probably see them going to he safest and cheapest route possible.

I still think if CBS really wants to milk trek, they need to talk to me about BEAM ON … doing a DREAM ON type show about somebody who relates to the world through clips from past TREKs. Have been talking this up since the early 90s, but no takers …

MattR, from what CBS has actually reported, it seems their subscriber numbers are FAR below what they were hoping for. They are not “ahead” as you theorized. They are behind if the reports are to be believed.

You don’t think bringing in Pike, Spock and the Enterprise is the ‘safe’ move? It totally is. If CBSAA was on solid footing and did not NEED Trek to bring in what few subscribers they have I’m pretty sure that if they didn’t turn things around the 2nd season it would be gone. As it stands, I agree with Tiger. The show will get 3 seasons minimum no matter what the quality or the subscriber totals are.

Jesus Christ, this show is already dead. It just doesn’t want to admit it.

Huh, cite your source

Boy this has got to be the dumbest thing i’ve read on here, and that says a lot. But it seems the more successful, and better, this show gets, the dumber and dumber its haters get.

Just because you don’t like it doesn’t mean it’s dead.

It’s getting there.

To see Anson Mount in the TOS set makes me imagine what could have been if The Cage had sold instead of being rejected.

That is definitely something to imagine. I liked the cage and always thought that if Jeffrey Hunter would have continued on the show he would have lightened up and maybe could have been as good as Shatner. Makes me wonder if TOS would’ve lasted longer or maybe not as long.

Even if the show was selling enough color TVs to keep it on for s2, I think the less engaging chemistry with Pike and Spock would have kept the show from gelling. Even with Coon writing for it, you still wouldn’t have had the dynamics that Shatner brought, and you might not have the alchemy with Kelley either. If you read Shatner’s take on the first pilot, his takeaway was, ‘we’re all on this spaceship’ and he rejected that in favor of Kirk wearing command like a comfortable old jacket, which in retrospect, was quite brilliant.

Agreed. I really like The Cage, and would have liked to have seen more of Jeff Hunter as Pike, but I just don’t see it working commercially, especially for the era.

You are right about one thing for sure. The chemistry between Shatner, Nimoy and Kelly was extraordinary. My dad who was also a Trek fan believed it took the three of them to really have it.

I’ve always enjoyed “extended universe” stories with Pike, my experience being mainly from comic books. I LOVE The Cage and consider it classic sci-fi like The Day the Earth Stood Still and Forbidden Planet. I can’t get over how Mount favors Hunter! I’m very excited to see Captain Pike and I’m hoping for the best!

As much as I love TOS, I’m more interested in the Pike era. Extended stories like Early Voyages comics and novels would be good for a possible Pike spinoff.

Interesting to see Mount in the transporter room recreation. Is that the set from The Cage or from WNMHGB?

That’s the series transporter room which is part of the normal set tour, plus a newly built for the captain’s weekend “The Cage” style transporter console, which was also used for the helm/navigation console on the bridge to save money.

Well 14 episodes is almost good enough. I keep saying they need to do 16 episodes with story arcs of 8 episodes each and a couple month break in between to make it feel more like we are getting Star Trek all year long.

With the Picard show coming, we basically will be. I imagine that will be 13-15 episodes as well.

I don’t think they go for 14. I think they go for 2 hours season finale.

It scares me to think that the mismanagement of the last season is bleeding into this one. The last two episodes were such a departure from the quality before that they were almost jarring, and I don’t want that to happen again.

And those last two eps were produced by the same pair who produced the first 5 or so of season 2. This show won’t show true stability until season 3 and I suspect someone at CBS was thinking that Kurtzman should have been sole showrunner all along.

There’s an awful lot of your own biased opinions passed off as absolute truths in this post, despite you having almost no knowledge of what is going on behind the scenes beyond the credits you see listed in a given episode.

We don’t know who exactly was responsible for the issues with the finale (it feeling rushed and a little slapped together)– could have been the writer, a producer, a studio exec, or simply the result of a running behind schedule. Heck, the credits aren’t always reflective of actual creative or production input. There could have even have been story problems they had to deal with left over from work done by Bryan Fuller that they found themselves having to tie up and work with. Besides, producers, writers, and creators are often credited when they had no impact on the final product.

Frankly, I think the smartest decision they can make is to not announce an air date until the season is nearly complete. The way Netflix does it.

Re: The finale – the last 5-10 minutes of episode 15 was the only part of ST:D that felt at all like a Star Trek show. The bulk of the 15 episodes was convoluted, cockeyed, sadistic, overly violent even gory material (add to that the near-total lack of logic throughout season one, according to my mathematician-scientist wife). But we both liked Saru, anyway. ;)

I think there is a difference between complex and complicated, and Disco’s problem was that it was both and neither throughout the season.

Let’s look at Ash Tyler to examine both.

Ash’s backstory is complicated, without any real answer to what happened. Is he a skin suit? Was Voq made into him? Did they put Voq’s brain in Tyler? It’s only vaguely hinted at. His relationship with Michael, though, is complex; there are a lot of feelings that went on between them that worked, story-structured wise. They were both outsiders, both welcomed by Lorca, both felt they could trust each other, but then Burnham, whose parents were murdered by Klingons, finds out her BF is a secret Klingon. That’s great drama! That’s complex.

The Spore network is neither. It’s like the Nexus, in that it does what you want it to. It makes you appear anywhere, it makes you travel to other universes, if it disappears, everyone dies, and your dead loved ones are still alive inside of it.

L’rell started as complex, then got complicated, then got made simple. What’s to stop anyone from killing her and taking the iPad of destruction away? Nothing, and S2 needs to address these concerns, because tied up they are not.

From a viewer standpoint, I’d rather those issues never get addressed ever again. In fact, I think it best if STD never revisits anything from season 1 ever again.

I’d rather see ST:D season one be forgotten, then rebooted into another series altogether (with a new name, perhaps), saving only a few characters (Saru and perhaps Burnham), and given an otherwise new crew.

As for the difference between complex vs. complicated, there is also *needless/purposeless* complexity, too much “busy-ness” with characters and storylines, introducing something/somebody, then killing them off for no good reason. A real train wreck.

Sure, there were parts of a few episodes that we liked, and I’ll keep an eye out for season two, but seriously given what’s gone on to date, won’t expect anything resembling a Star Trek show.

Great news! I’m just waiting for someone to find a reason to moan about it lol.

14 episodes? Now it’s not a prime number of episodes!

STAR TREK DISCOVERY IS NOT IN THE PRIME UNIVERSE CONFIRMED!!!

Hmmm… 14 episodes now. When it was 13 episodes I was planning to wait until early February to start my subscription. That way I avoid paying for three weeks of a service I would never use. But now I guess they will get that extra $10 from me as I can start the service on Jan 19 and end it 3 months later on April 19. Clever of them to get that extra month of subscriptions from some.

Same thing I’ll be doing, ML.

When Discovery was announced as a streaming show, I was thrilled with the possibility of having longer episodes, so that plot and characters could “breathe” a little bit more. Instead, not only did we get standard 45 minute shows, some of them (“Battle at the Binary Stars”, “Si Vis Pacem Para Bellum” and “Vaulting Ambition”) were even around 35 minutes long, not counting credits of course, which I found kinda absurd. This “extension” MIGHT suggest a similar situation: come editing time, they find they have enough material to split some ep in two, even if the end result are shorter segments.

I got really excited seeing that image of Mount in the classic bridge. Too bad that won’t be the set in Discovery.

Saru is married to Freddy Krueger?!?!

I knew there was a link between this show and the Nightmare films. Ha, ha!

Well, ST:D S1 was indeed a Nightmare, but… ;)

Yes.

Wow, 14 episodes? Erm…thanks?

It’ll be interesting to see if they keep the TOS set for the Discovery season or if they’ll break continuity again.