‘Star Trek: Discovery’ Cast Talks Character Arcs And Possibly More Kelpiens In Season 3

The Star Trek: Discovery portion of the Comic-Con@Home panel was mostly spent with a virtual table read of the season two finale; however, some news on season three has also emerged thanks to a Q&A with the actors headed up by showrunner Michelle Paradise.

More Kelpiens?

At the end of season 2, the Discovery jumped 900 years into the future to find that the Federation isn’t quite what it used to be. Executive Producer Akiva Goldsman described the world they find as “post-Federation.”

Doug Jones was asked about Saru’s decision to 900 years into the future with the crew of the USS Discovery, and pointed out that “now he’s had to leave his homeworld twice.” He talked about how the Kelpiens and the Ba’ul can now “absorb each other’s cultures and technology,” and that the Kelpiens have joined a “post-warp society.”

When asked by Paradise if there’s hope for more Kelpiens in the Federation, he answered, “With every hope jumping ahead, that Kelpiens will have place at the table in the Federation for sure.” This might mean we’ll see more Kelpiens in season 3, now that so many centuries have gone by.

Doug Jones, Star Trek: Discovery at Comic-Con at Home 2020

Wilson Cruz excited about the “new Culber”

Anthony Rapp (Paul Stamets) says season three of Discovery “really blends the personal/family nature of the show, also the family—and not just the literal family like our coupledom, but also the family of the ship. It really explores family in wonderful new says… That’s one of the major thing that gets developed.in season 3.”

Cruz talked more about the changes in his character of Doctor Culber, specifically.

He knows that he’s different, he knows that he’s looking at his work different, he feels different about his place in the world and what his purpose is… and so the relationship is different in that way too. It’s  more on an equal footing.

I’m excited about the new responsibility that I take on in terms of my work and mental health. I love the new Culber. He’s more three-dimensional in my head.

This ties in with other hints we’ve had that Culber is going to take on something of a ship’s counselor role in season three—and his crew is definitely going to need it.

Wilson Cruz at comic-Con at Home

What’s Georgiou up to in the future?

Emperor Georgiou also joined the Discovery crew in their leap to the future. Michelle Yeoh talked about her relentless drive for power with some relish:

She is one that always finds her way into adapting, because she is a survivor with many skills, and a formidable ally or an enemy. So she goes in there being very pissed off, but then I’m sure very quickly she’ll find a way around. Power is something that’s inherently… that she has. She doesn’t even seek it. She just has it.

Michelle Yeoh at Comic Con at Home

Is Tilly still hoping to be a captain?

Paradise asked Mary Wiseman to address if Sylvia Tilly is still on a path to command, even with the leap into the future.

I think so, I think there are some pretty big speed bumps in season 2 on that road but I think that’s always her pie in the sky, is reaching the zenith of leadership within Starfleet. You’ll get to see more about that journey in season 3. But we’re also really on the edge of the unknown, so I think all of our ideas about what the future holds and who we are and who we want to be are going to be transformed.

Mary Wiseman at Comic Con at Home 2020

What are Michael Burnham’s hopes for the future?

Sonequa Martin-Green answered Michelle Paradise’s question about what Burnham is hoping to find now that she’s 930 years in the future.

First, salvation of sorts. We, the crew of Star Trek: Discovery, in the finale are deciding to sacrifice everything that we have for the future. So there’s the obvious hope that that works, that the plan works. Even logistically that we land where we’re supposed to, that we defeat Control, that we save the world, save the universe. So there’s the inherent hope of that. And then I think there’s also hope of continuing to discover myself as Burnham. That’ll always be there, That hope of unveiling, continual unveiling and finding that perfect sweet sweet balance between all the forces that wage within me.

“Maybe you’ll explore that in season 3. We don’t know,” quipped Paradise.

Sonequa Martin-Green at Comic Con at Home 2020

Season 3 still coming in 2020

There was no discussion about when season three of Discovery will be released during the entire Star Trek Universe panel. The only nod to a release came as the Discovery portion ended and there was a short graphic saying season 3 was coming in 2020.

Additional highlights: Olatunde Osunsanmi, Mary Chieffo

EP and director Olatunde Osunsanmi talked about the “emotionally cathartic” moment of Spock stepping onto the Enterprise bridge clean-shaven for the first time and taking his station and Mary Chieffo, along with the rest of the cast, spoke about the aspirational legacy of the Star Trek franchise.

You can watch the entire panel here:

More from Comic-Con@Home

There is a lot of news coming out of the virtual Comic-Con, CLICK HERE to keep up with all of TrekMovie’s CC@Home coverage.


And keep up with all the news and reviews from the new Star Trek Universe on TV at TrekMovie.com.

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Wake me up in the year 3000.

I really do need the release date as a matter of some urgency! I’m really missing DSC!

Seriously, they couldn’t even show a clip??

How far behind ARE they on getting this released? I had expected we at least would get an air date of some kind today. They are the ones that released a promo that said ‘coming soon’ back in April. Did something change or did just mean as broadly as possible?

I guess the Coronavirus really delayed this show on a level no one saw coming. I seriously doubt LDS was going to be released first considering we didn’t get any real footage until just two weeks ago.

For now, I think they are just going to promote Lower Decks. Maybe later, after (Lower Decks) is released, they will begin giving us something new about Discovery.

Yeah I guess, it’s just weird. They produced a teaser trailer for season 3 last year a few months before Picard was starting. But maybe you’re right and they will do something after LDS start.

They have been releasing a bit or a promo every 4-8 weeks. For all shows. Everything is in slow motion. With all the waiting, I hope we can see an upgrade, for all the shows.

Tiger2, I’m more and more convinced that the timeline and schedule that Secret Hideout worked out with CBS got pushed aside when ViacomCBS new merged senior management came into the picture in January.

One of the possible downsides to Trek being promoted as one of ViacomCBS’ flagship properties is that it will be a key strategic piece with a lot of attention right from the top.

We saw with Voyager that this wasn’t always for the good of the series. The good news though is that ViacomCBS management and the impact of Covid taken together seem to be slowing things down.

Up to now, we’ve seen a lot of incoherence that can be attributed to starting production before the scripts were cooked or from rushing final vfx. If the management is making all the EPs take a step back, reduce the amount of telling us what we should be seeing as opposed to letting us just see it, this could be all to the good.

Well said, TG47. Totally true. Lots of changes since they started with Discovery.

That’s weird, I responded to this earlier but looks like its gone.

Well what I said before is I agree with you. It’s probably an issue with the corporate change over. And DIS has had plenty of issues since it started. ;)

Still, we’re fans, we just want to see SOMETHING! And even if they didn’t want to show us any new footage, it would’ve been nice to tease the season a bit and tell us a little more about it. Star Trek didn’t use to be this secretive about every thing.

There would be some surprises but producers/writers use to talk in-depth about what we would see in the coming seasons from TNG through ENT.

But ever since Abrams showed up with his mystery box, now everything is constantly in the dark. I guess not to spoil all the crazy needless twists people are going to moan about later. ;)

Tiger, the added irony is that marketing has never been CHEAPER and EASIER in history than since the advent of social media (and where do people spend lots and lots of time since the lockdowns?) Nobody is asking for them to launch expensive magazine and newspaper ads (who still reads those anyway?) Clearly something is afoot and this seems to be more business decision than any sort of ‘marketing genius’ (“Let us expand our audience by not showing ANYTHING” – Yeah right ;)

So true. And that is irony about Star Trek as a franchise, thanks to the conventions it not only found a way to ‘advertise’ the show in less traditional means it’s also what kept the interest of the franchise going when Star Trek was dead after TOS was cancelled.

Today of course it’s a different story. Traditional advertising is just needed less and less. Even when they make traditional trailers for movies and TV shows they bother less and less now running traditional and expensive TV spots when they can just throw it up on Youtube for free, their own social media sites or just on All Access itself. They probably get way more eyeballs doing it that way as well because everyone knows to just go to Youtube or Twitter for stuff like that.

So this is clearly an (odd) business decision. So many people were hoping to see another trailer from a show that’s not only been off the air for a year but they keep saying will run sometime this year….although we still don’t have a date. I have seen people say they are probably doing this to keep the focus on LDS but I never understand this argument. Are people going to suddenly not watch that show because they got a 2 minute trailer of another show months away? But honestly maybe that is it because the lack of any real news at this point is beyond odd.

This reminds me of back in 2016 how they managed to bungle the 50th anniversary of Star Trek by literally not advertising anything about it and throwing Star Trek Beyond under the bus. That film could have made lots more money if the ad guys focused on the 50th anniversary and advertised the shit out of it.

It actually just comes down to post production getting bogged down and schedules being adjusted due to the pandemic. Release of content has always been strategic but moreso now as there are fewer hours of original content to fill schedules and to provide to subscribers. Discovery isn’t the only series which has either had its premiere delayed or pushed back until a much later date.

No I get that and has said as much in the past. But they can still TALK about it. I think what was frustrating for so many is this is the first time we’ve had not just the entire cast and show runners ‘together’ literally since last year at NYCC, the entire season is already shot. So why not just, you know, tell us something about the next season? It’s become so ridiculously secretive that they practically made a joke about it on the LDS panel by bleeping everyone out.

We understand they want to keep things secret but since you haven’t released literally NOTHING since the first trailer last year and the show has been off literally over a year now maybe it would be smart to just reveal a few things to get the PR machine running again if you can’t even show a few clips at this point.

As I said old Star Trek was not done like this at all. If you look back in past interviews, everyone from Berman to Behr they use to talk about entire story lines/episodes about what we were going to see in upcoming seasons of TNG, DS9, etc. I guess because these shows are more serialized today they feel they can’t really give anything away without ruining the season I guess? I don’t know but it’s become TOO secretive. No one is asking who is going to die, but can at least talk about the basics a bit.

“We understand they want to keep things secret but since you haven’t released literally NOTHING since the first trailer last year and the show has been off literally over a year now maybe it would be smart to just reveal a few things to get the PR machine running again if you can’t even show a few clips at this point.”

I think on some level they dont understand Trek fans, who obsess about minutiae. They dont have to release anything pertaining to the “main mystery”; they can talk and show things completely tangential, like an indepth feature on the new Enterprise uniform design last season (which had the very same problem, though now the gap is even bigger!) For example they could have the prop master talk about those fancy in-arm weapons they designed. Is that too much asked?

Or they may simply save the money as they know we will watch anyway. Even us “grumbling haters” ;)

I’m thinking Tiger2 that the advance hype and spinning out the story for Picard may not have been a plus.

Their market research may be telling them that some of the backlash comes from overpromising and underdelivering on some of the story points that the EPs stressed in their media calls : the XBorg as victims, Romulans as refugees.

If as DennyC says, there is tighter control because there is less new product coming, so be it.

I’m really like the next season to live up to the hype.

I’d hoped underdelivering AND underpromising is not the solution they picked ;) “Baking smaller buns” may be a good idea regarding the regularly escalating “Save the universe” plots, but not regarding quality per se!

I hear ya’. They could have at least shared something since the entire season is in the can.

Lower Decks is getting the most attention from CBS and that’s nice. Covid has ruined everything. Star Trek is in a state of flux.

I share your disappointment, Tiger. If Kurtzman should be fired, as one congenial post above demands, then for his marketing failures. Or, as I posited before, CBS is in REALLY dire straits and economically can’t afford to even launch a modest social media campaign promoting the new shows/season properly…

Even with shooting wrapped, post production pretty much came to a halt. Very few people have new cuts of original scripted productions landing on their desks (and there aren’t a heck of a lot of scripts, either).

I can see the Discovery season 3 climax now: Tilly vs. Georgiou in spectacular hand to hand combat to determine who gets to become Empress of Federation 2.0.

Yea, a classic Star Wars plot! Oh wait….

“Tilly vs. Georgiou in spectacular hand to hand combat to determine who gets to become Empress of Federation 2.0.”

This is a really tough one! A classic ethical dilemma the likes not seen since Kobayashi Maru! Are they going to go with the WoC or the Body Positive, and which faction are they going to offend then?I imagine a classic Trekkian solution: Georgiou has an arc indulging in daily morning buffets and takes the crown in the finale, at 100lbs more positive, satisfying all and offending no one ;)

It is easier to shot with Kelpians since they wear a mask. (Sorry, I couldnt resist😉)

What about Gabrielle Burnham?

I’m wondering how she could have survived given that she and her protective time suit traveled separately.

Sigh.

Why? I’ve enjoyed nearly all the Trek he’s produced. And no other person in the history of the franchise has driven the creation of more diverse Trek content. 6 Star Trek series in production or pre-production at once? I never thought I’d see that in my lifetime. LONG LIVE KURTZMAN!

Hahahahahhaha.

Oh wait, you were serious.

He can have a long life – no objection. But he should consider a new job. Perhaps order the pizza for the crew?

The Kelpiens were the weakest aspect of seasons 1 and 2, in my opinion.

I love how they went from simple farmers hiding in fear to suddenly taking the stars in small ships. That’s either really impressive or just plain dumb.

It’s the latter….the latter.

Absolutely.

I’m convinced that the time tsunami that the Enterprise escaped must have had an impact on Kaminar.

It was heading right at Kaminar, and the planet was at minimum caught in its wash.

What was months for Starfleet was years on the planet.

The Kelpians and B’aul had time to sort things out and develop a defence for the time when they resynched with the broader Prime Universe.

I just wish the writers had given us that tidbit.

Another good candidate for a Siranna focused Short Trek.

Why, so a few dozen dysfunctional but loud idiots can smirk in satisfaction? No.

No, so Star Trek will be good again.

Seems perfectly fine to me, this era is so far proving to be more entertaining and bringing more diverse content than the Berman era ever tried to (given Berman and Braga’s lack of ambition)

Since the current shows are quite popular with a large portion of fandom, it’s not necessary.

I don’t care when Star Trek: Discovery season 3 is coming out. At least Lower Decks is coming sooner. I’m fine with that trade-off.

Facepalm

Time travel – the crutch of the terrible writer.