Jonathan Frakes And ‘Star Trek: Discovery’ Actors Talk “People Of Earth” And What’s Next For Season 3

(Twitter/Jonathan Frakes)

With three episodes under our belts there are still many questions about season three of Star Trek: Discovery. Some of the actors on the show have been talking to various outlets, and we have curated some of the more interesting answers. There is also a new Ready Room to check out with Jonathan Frakes, which showed an exclusive clip of next week’s episode.

Discovery is staying in the 32nd century

In case you were wondering if Discovery may return home to the 23rd century or head to some other era, Doug Jones (Saru) makes it clear to Collider that they are staying where they are:

[The show] has massively changed. We are boldly going where no Star Trek series has gone before, and that was a permanent jump to the future. 930 years. So not just a couple of years. We went to a whole new era with a new set of rules, new customs, new everything. What this did for the writers, though, we were playing ten years before the original series in the first two seasons. We started having to adhere to canon and making sure everything we were doing didn’t affect later seasons and canon and storylines that they have already filmed. Now we’ve jumped ahead to where the writers have freedom to create from the ground up. That’s exciting, and we’ll explore new worlds and new creatures and, of course, the nostalgia of all the species you know already, we’re going to visit them again but with new relationships to each other than what you know. It’s exciting to see how the galaxy had changed in those 930 years.

Doug Jones as Saru in “People of Earth”

We will visit Book’s world

Season three has introduced the character of Cleveland “Book” Booker, who still remains a bit of a mystery. Actor David Ajala talked to ET about how Book’s backstory will be explored:

Yeah, absolutely. The season is about identity and it’s about people finding their identity or re-establishing understanding their identity in unfamiliar territory. Booker is someone who is having to reassess certain things about his own identity, and that only comes about because of the first meeting with Michael Burnham. Throughout the season, we will see more of his backstory being unraveled. And there are specific episodes where it’s fully Book’s world, going into where he came from, which I am really excited about. There’s one specific episode where take him home.

Sonequa Martin-Green as Burnham and David Ajala as Book in “People of Earth”

Blu del Barrio explains how Adira will come out as as non-binary

When it was first announced that the non-binary actor Blu Del Barrio was joining Discovery, CBS highlighted how they would be playing a non-binary character. However when del Barrio’s Adira was introduced this week, the character was referred to using female gendered pronouns. Speaking to Forbes, del Barrio explained that the character’s coming out journey matches their own:

“I have had a difficult experience my whole life with gender,” they said. “When I got this part, I was still sort of questioning. I knew I wasn’t cisgender, but I wasn’t really out to anyone. I had to come out to myself and to my friends and to my parents.
As much as I was excited to get a non-binary role, my first emotion was just pure joy at getting to play something that would allow me to explore myself further. Right after that came all of the imposter syndrome of, you know, ‘It shouldn’t be me, it should be somebody else who’s been out longer, who knows themself better.’”
Their resolution of that feeling was for Adira and del Barrio to grow in confidence together, as filming progressed. “I wanted Adira’s journey to mirror mine. I didn’t want to do anything that I hadn’t already done,” they said. “I didn’t want Adira to use ‘they’/’them’ pronouns until I was out.”

Blu del Barrio as Adira in “People of Earth”

Writers and Jonathan Frakes talk 32nd century Earth

Director Jonathan Frakes, along with writers Bo Yeon Kim and Erika Lippoldt, joined host Wil Wheaton for this week’s episode of The Ready Room to give their insights into the making of episode 303 (“People of Earth”). The writers first talked about their thought process of how to depict the Earth in the 32nd century.

Lippoldt: You can go down these rabbit holes of trying to figure out what the technology was like, what the cities would be like, and ultimately what we wanted is to show what humanity has become in the future. Really focused on how the attitude of how Earth humans would have changed.

Yeon Kim: Even in a post-Federation world, this is still Earth that went through the Federation. So, these people are much more enlightened than we are. It’s not like how the Federation basically devolved into this xenophobic thinking. We really wanted to tell this story that whatever happened with The Burn… it created a lot of PTSD for people. Being so disconnected from the rest of the planets, Earth started othering others in order to protect itself. The fear was the greatest weakness, that even who went through the Federation couldn’t protect themselves from.

They also talked about how 303 was a “classic Star Trek story” where they wanted to touch on the theme of disconnectedness, leading to the storyline of Earth unknowingly fighting fellow humans. Frakes picked up on that and talked about his favorite scene in the episode is the big reveal of Wen as a human:

During that frankly comic moment when Georgiou kicks his helmet off his head… that’s one of the best moments in the show. And then they carry on and they discover that with your mask off, you are one. All the great Star Trek things. The twist of Georgiou… let’s wrap this thing up, we’re in the fourth act, I know how to move this story along.

Yesterday Frakes also shared this photo from location shooting on “People of Earth”

Watch the Ready Room, including clip from 304

The official after show also has some more behind the scenes footage including Jeff Russo talking about scoring during a pandemic. There’s also a clip of next week’s episode. You can watch it in full below.


Keep up with all the Star Trek: Discovery news, reviews and analysis here at TrekMovie.com.

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It’s good to see some of the thoughts of the writers that led to the choices made in the episodes, and where exactly are their blindspots that lead to the disagreements.

Here, they assert fear is weakness (as in Picard). That’s simply wrong. The moderates’ assessment would be “it depends”. Fear can be a powerful teacher if you choose the right lessons.

As anyone sane in this historic pandemic knows, fear teaches you to wear mask and keep a distance from your fellow humans even though your natural inclination is not to. And the end result is that everyone is safe and healthy. Thanks, fear!

The only guys who regularly ridicule fear and downplay dangers in this regard are those nobody on the Discovery writing team is going to vote for next week. So, once again we see dealing in absolutes and extremes (positively or negatively) rarely leads to a good outcomes, and does not jive with our living reality.

Well, the people who the Discovery crew are likely to vote against are the ones telling us to fear immigrants and BLM, and Antifa, and a million other things that really aren’t that scary. Fear can be the proper response sometimes, but it is often irrational.

Isn’t that my point? Fear is not always bad, and not always good. Most essentially, nuance is important. Thats why some of us still differentiate between *legal* and *illegal* immigrants. Not just something about accidentally forgot some documents… ;)

Btw, some church people in France would definitely disagree about the danger of illegal immigration (again, the qualifier is important). If they were still alive… It all comes down to different life experiences (and that’s a point the episode touched upon). But generally healthy societies are based upon the universal rule of law and not emotion, that leads to anarchy and disaster.

Most undocumented immigrants aren’t particularly scary. They’re just regular people looking for a better life.

That doesnt mean they are above the law! Either the law is universal, or it isn’t. Apart from the very real negatives that have played out and are playing out in places like Europe, it is the moral hazard that is so damaging. Why should anyone bother following the rules if you get further by ignoring them? Isn’t that the very same thing as with rich people being able to get away with, and enriching themselves by breaking the rules that we criticize so much? That is the slippery slope to anarchy, where paradise is destroyed and everyone is worse off (but in particular the vulnerable parts of the population).

The INS and the State Department and Congress spent the last 25 years updating US laws so that even illegal immigrants would have basic human rights accorded to them in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Each change was slow and hard earned progress, and benefited our country at every single step.

The Trump administration took all that away. There are literally no human rights for people who cross borders not fully under the law. Most do it not for economic reasons, but to save their lives from abuse at home. The people who apply for asylum come from all over the world – the atrocities that occur against men, women and children happen all over the world.

The slippery slope we are on is barbarism.

It’s a shame, VS. I can see you’re trying to patiently explain your rational positions, but sadly there’s a group of people out there who believe themselves to be morally superior and happily brand you some form of bigot or heavily imply it.

The Star Trek of old promoted being objective, having a dialogue, respect for the truth and infinite diversity in infinite combinations (even of opinions).

How shameful is it to turn away people who need a safe haven?

Hating immigrants and locking children in cages IS something people need to brand as bigotry. And that’s an objective assessment. Only a bigot would say otherwise.

Yes I am glad the current administration got rid of the cages for Children implemented by the previous administration…

Alan, you’re a low information voter.

I don’t think anybody called him a bigot. We just rationally stated our position.

I wholeheartedly agree with this assessment. Fear of different points of view is one of the biggest threats to humankind these days.

It used to be against the law for black people to be anything other than 3/5 of a person, to own land, to marry a white person.

Saying “they’re not above the law” is an absurd statement when the law itself is absurd.

Your comment about France is ridiculous. Being illegal immigrants has NOTHING to do with what happened. You might as well say they have reason to dislike people with brown hair.

BLM and ANTIFA aren’t scary, but support for cowardly domestic terror organizations by seemingly normative people such as yourself is extremly scaryt. In 2020 BLM orchestrated violent attacks against Jews, Jewish-owned businesses and synagogues in LA, NYC, Chicago and Wisconsin. Get your head out of your woke — and smell the napalm.

I would say that, if we’re really trying to be the best of ourselves rather than the worst, most people who wear masks do so out of concern for others, rather than out of fear for themselves. We all know that a mask does more to protect others from any virus you might be carrying than it does to keep you from breathing it in. Unless you are wearing a legit, medical grade mask, which most people are not. Responding from a place of fear makes us defensive and defensive people lash out and hurt others and sometimes even themselves.

Of course a certain amount of fear is human nature, and responding to that fear with appropriate caution can be smart, but I believe we should all strive not to make decisions that are largely driven by fear. Not only is it weak, it’s harmful. If you’ve never read Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, I highly recommend it as a lesson in the consequences of being dominated by fear.

Are you saying the truisms offered by The Kurtzman Experience don’t even rise to the level of dime-store philosophy? I am stunned.

I’m excited to see where this season goes. Honestly been a great start so far. I also love del barrio’s reasoning behind how they refer to themselves during this episode, ardira’s journey mirroring her own. It makes total sense and is totally authentic.

I didn’t enjoy the last episode the overall season is pretty descent. Book is my favorite new character and I love what themes and ideas they will explore this season.

I also didn’t like the last episode. I get what they were trying to do with the “frontier” western vibe, but I think it fell flat.

Episode 3 was really great though! I can tell I’m gonna like the Adira character and also think Book has been an interesting addition.

It’s descent? How is it descending?

He has consistently used the wrong word for months. To be fair, I don’t think he’s the only one here making that mistake.

Can we find some less ambiguous way to talk about this, in particular since you are slipping half way through the sentence? It is giving me a headache to discern if you talk about one person or a third group of people. Just repeat the name if you must :/

No, we can’t. Not until you get used to.

Didn’t know you speak for the majority on this matter, because you don’t. Nobody outside the beltway cares about this cr@p (pardon my French), and there’s exactly two pronouns that matter for 99.7% of people ;)

Really sometimes I feel like in the looney house here trying to argue that no, pigs can’t fly and the sky is not pink. What can I say? Looking forward to my vacation! :P

People care even less inside the beltway, don’t you know? Hopefully this will change when the garbage is taken out Nov 3rd. And there was nothing ambiguous about Joel’s post. I think we’re being a little passive-aggressive on this cr@ap. And no, that’s not French. That would be merde!

VS, just pointing out that the singular they dates back to at least Shakespeare’s English.

I don’t see why should compel the language to be stuck in a rule made up by Victorian grammars.

TG47, I’m surprised with Chaucer you cite Medieval precedent now (even TOS is a bit closer ;) because appeal to history usually is a conservative strategy.

There’s a reason this was ditched CENTURIES ago and I doubt it has anything to do with Victorian morals. I don’t care about history in this, however I care about what’s more efficient for language, especially the language pertaining to 99.7% of people, for who “they” is plural. I don’t see why they (plural) should be confused and inconvenienced, much less in these trying times, for the little gripes of the very few. After all, we are not talking anything as horrible as persecution and forced therapy here ;)

Let me ask you another question TG47 since we talked about ‘paradise’ so much. Supposed the West represents as much paradise as this humanity has seen until now (and right now): is it worth sacrificing this paradise and the freedom of hundreds of millions for special pronouns, special bathroom rights etc. for thousands that did not seem to matter to this paradise just 5 years ago? And is it worth empowering the real enemies of freedom at the other side of the globe who are celebrating every time the West shoots itself into the foot and “proves” why its model is inferior to guarantee the well-being of the majority?

Because that’s exactly what is happening. This poison called identity politics is needlessly antagonizing millions of people who are perfectly on board with things like universal healthcare, climate change or workers rights (like me), dividing the nation, facilitating the rise of figures like Trump and, ultimately, sealing the end of the West and its model of freedom.

Concerning preserving paradise, I think there was one message worth considering in Picard: Don’t let the perfect become the enemy of the good!

I think you need to sit down somewhere really quiet and think about why you find a pronoun antagonizing. Nobody is confused. Nobody is inconvenienced, except maybe you and a bunch of others who proclaim to be open minded and progressive, yet falter on this insignificant concept.

Adira looks to be a really good character. Very excited to see more! And we will learn tons of things about Earth I’m guessing.

I’m a bit wary since people weren’t all that excited when the awkward Starfleet teen genius was called Wesley Crusher ;)

I’m one of those weird freaks that never had an issue with Wesley. I was just a bit younger than the character when the show started and I really liked the idea of seeing someone so young not only on the show but had a role on the bridge. He was fun to have for me, but I know I’m in the minority.

With Adira I think they could just represent what humans are like in this era, ie, maybe there are a lot of child geniuses through some type of form of genetic engineering or something. Or maybe just being joined with a very old symbiont is another reason (but I don’t know how that would work since they don’t have its memories trom it). But the fact they are working at such a high level government position at that age is pretty unique in itself, but maybe in this era it isn’t? Wesley became an ensign out of circumstance. His situation really was unique.

Obviously we’ll get more soon but Adira could be very unique or they are pretty common to a lot of other people that age.

Tiger2 — you’re not alone.

I never disliked Wesley, and have found the character’s treatment both by fans and writers appalling.

I never had a single issue with Wesley. Yeah he was a little annoying at times, that was the character though. He’s an inquisitive kid on an advanced starship and was interested in how it all worked and was truly proud to be part of Starfleet. But being the only one and a super smart one was easy for people to take pot shots at.

But I also guess the producers learned their lesson because all the other kids we saw after him like Jake Sisko and Naomi Wildman were just normal kids in every sense of the word, which was fine too of course. I guess if they didn’t make Wesley a prodigy he wouldn’t be so hated.

With Adira though, I think they are a very different situation and as I said could even represent a lot of people like this in this era. Either way I’m really excited to learn more about them. I didn’t realize the character was supposed to be so young and I thought was going to be around the age of the actor themselves.

Oh, I’d like them to bring in genetic engineering and cyborg modifications in more heavily for sure, to differentiate this era, its norms and paradigms more strongly from the previous shows, which is now possible. Why would an Earth that has left the Federation not also overturn the Eugenics ban to provide every advantage and defense possible in this galactic emergency?

I also did not have a problem with Wesley at the time but in hindsight to be fair this started the “crew-saving character with lots of powers s/he shouldn’t have realistically” trope in Trek that has found its unfortunate nadir in St. Michael. So now I’m a bit wary of this. It’s lazy unrealistic writing, like deus ex machina.

OK, but none of that has to do with Adair. We barely met them, maybe they WON’T save the ship every week….and you still got Burnham for that. ;D

And I would love to see things like genetic engineering as a thing on Earth again. I always thought the ban on eugenics should’ve been lifted a long time ago. Especially considering I think like every biological and technical advancement in the world, it would just be improved on, especially after several centuries. OK, first time didn’t work out lol, but you really think centuries later would have the same outcome? That would be another interesting angle if Earth started dabbling in genetic engineering again by this point again and create a lot of different dynamics of what we consider human this far into the future.

See why going forward again is just so much more interesting. ;)

I wonder if this is also something that a lot of Trill have to deal with. What if you’re a Trill that has had mainly male hosts up to this point and then you get your first female, especially if it’s someone young and without much training like Ezri. What must that do to their sense of identity and gender? I’m surprised more Trill don’t see themselves as non-binary.

I’m pretty optimistic on season 3. The last episode I wasn’t on board but I still want to see how everything plays out in the end.

My interest in Discovery is faltering but I’m excited about it. Let’s see what happens next!

So nice to the the crew getting more exposure. Look forward to learn more about them.

YES!!

I’m so glad Doug Jones makes it clear once again Discovery is not leaving the 32nd century. This has been said a few times already but now that the show has started and we are seeing just how the show is dealing with the new timeline, it’s pretty clear they are staking this era out for the long term. It keeps me much more invested in the show now.

We can really see this era developed like how TNG did the 24th century and even ENT for the 22nd. I would’ve been fine if they jumped somewhere else by the end of the season but just not back to the 23rd century. God, that would’ve been soooooo boring. You spent all season a thousand years away in this incredibly altered and anything goes era just to go back to the 23rd century and what, get into it again with the Klingons? Or uncover some plot with the Orions? Zzzzzzz

Just save that era for Pike and Spock and what will probably be a revolving door of TOS characters and story lines. That can be a true TOS prequel in every sense of the word. Let Discovery stand on its own creating its own unique canon like the other shows got to do. Going back to the 23rd century would’ve just put it back with the same issues it literally left with.

This is what a lot of fans wanted, it should’ve been this way from the start. But I do think the fish out of water angle is really working in the shows favor, because like them, we’re learning everything along with them, so that makes it fun too.

Obviously, it’s too early to say how interesting they can keep the 32nd century in the long run.Right now, everything is new (to the audience and the characters) and they have the benefit of the fish out of water angle. This will wear off the longer they stay. Also, the longer they stay the harder it will become to justify keeping the crew on the U.S.S. Discovery. This ship is more than 900 years old, after all. The spore drive may give them an advantage at the moment, but assuming they join what’s left of the Federation it makes much more sense to put spore drives into new ships of the era and retire Discovery than to try and upgrade Discovery to 32nd century tech. In any case we should end up with the crew on a ship that looks fundamentally different than it does right now. That’s not a bad thing per se from a story standpoint but it may not be so clever from a brand recognition standpoint.

Honestly I don’t care if they stay on the ship or not. I’m not tied to it like I am other past ships and it still looks a bit ugly and weird to me (but getting use to it). I would have no issues if they transferred them to an actual 32nd century ship. I would probably prefer it. They can just call the new ship Discovery so the title of the show won’t feel awkward. ;)

As far as if the 32nd century, all that matters is they are now in an era they can create new canon any way they want. End of the day, that keeps me more interested as a viewer other than waiting to find out why Burnham’s name was never referenced in the future by Spock or how soon will it be before they change into TOS uniforms. This is what I want, just the chance to have a universe feel completely unexplored again canon wise and not trying to fit in to preconceived story lines.

“They can just call the new ship Discovery so the title of the show won’t feel awkward”

I suppose after the whole redaction of the Discovery affair the name was put on the starship blacklist too ;) So now they are free to reuse it.

I agree with you, losing that ship would improve the show and I doubt Kurtzman is tightly married to it, like the Klingon redesign. It’s just one of many highly questionable decisions of Fuller (we know the original design from the first trailer was even worse) who probably just wanted to spite his former bosses B&B by completely remaking “their” Trek (as I now realized after rereading RDM’s Voyager interview and how he complained how badly Fuller was treated as a junior writer).

Yeah they can dump the ship and just start fresh in this era. I don’t think anyone working on the show is all that tied to it either. Thanks to Calypso we know it sticks around but ALSO thanks to Calypso we know it gets abandoned at some point. I mean they literally tried to abandon it last season. Now they can.

So send it on its way by the end of the season and put them in a ship that will just make sense for this era. I’m guessing few fans will care, especially if we get a cooler, sleeker and less ugly ship out of it. It will be yet another big mistake corrected for the show. ;)

I genuinely hope they DO abandon the Discovery. It’s incredibly outdated and, frankly, it’s a ridiculous ship design. I hope they abandon it this season and find a new ship from that era. They won’t, of course… they’ll have it for the remainder of the show. But they should.

Yeah I agree with you! Even though abandoning the Discovery would be symbolic of the total reboot the show has gotten and just make logical sense being the era the show now takes place in, sadly I don’t see it happening. The ship is just so ugly and awkward looking, I would love that and the uniforms were both left behind to give everything a completely fresh start for this era of storytelling.

And I mean it’s not like its the first time we seen a crew get a new ship since ironically all the Enterprise crews of TOS, TNG and Kelvin all got new ships, they just kept the name Enterprise to carry on the legacy. Maybe the same thing can happen with the Discovery crew and they get a new ship while keeping it the name Discovery to honor them and what that ship did in this period.

And Calypso can still happen as we seen it, because they would just abandon it in the 32nd century somewhere while it waits out its thousand years for Craft to arrive.

“The ship is just so ugly and awkward looking, I would love that and the uniforms were both left behind to give everything a completely fresh start for this era of storytelling.”

Speaking of uniforms, the Earth uniforms are so close to Discovery’s I had trouble discerning in the engineering brawl who was Earth invader and who crew! Setting the whole future fashion argument aside, I think this is just bad from a narrative/direction point of view too.

What is this aversion against other colors than dark blue, brown and black about? If they wanted to stick to their “orange and teal” complimentary color scheme, they should just made them orange ;) Obviously their major intention was to make the Earthers act totally alien for the Discovery crew, and an alien uniform design (and more obviously changed/alien SF cityscape design) would have driven that point home better even.

I won’t lie to you, but when they kept showing that picture of Adira in the Jefferies Tube early on, I assumed they WERE wearing a Discovery uniform lol. I literally thought the uniforms were just slightly updated and they were officially part of the crew now. Not until a month ago when we got more detailed pictures of what they were wearing I realized it was a different uniform altogether.

But it is odd to have a uniform look so close to what the Discovery crew is wearing. As you said they can at least shake up the color a little at least.

Well, we already knew it wasn’t. It’s in the future permanently, per “Calypso.”

We have no idea when Calypso is set. All we know is that Discovery had been abandoned for about a thousand years. At the time we assumed that meant that the episode is set in the 33rd century, now it probably means it is set in the 42nd century, and further time travel may change our understanding of that episode’s setting again.

Is it just me, or has Discovery just become the new Andromeda?

Time-displaced starship with ancient, yet somehow superior tech, trying to reassemble an intergalactic alliance that once was, using a hodgepodge crew…

Oh, let’s add the fact The USS Discovery develops sentience and the Andromeda Ascendant was always sentient.

We’ve hashed this one over here a few times Kevin.

Since Andromeda came out of Roddenberry’s “Dylan Hunt goes forward in time” failed pilots, I’m just as happy to see a real Star Trek series use the concept, especially as Andromeda just wasn’t very well done.

Andromeda was AMAZING for a tiny budget. It was amazing what they did with nothing

Discovery has got off to a good start but, Is it my imagination, or has it just turned into Andromeda? What comes next – Earth: Final Conflict?

Thank you! I am not the only one. Its driving dad and I crazy! Screaming at the TV. The 3rd episode is a left over script from Andromeda. Clearly

Georgiou’s mask moment was not one of the best in the episode, for the simple fact that Georgiou is the show’s least interesting, least enjoyable and most stiffly acted character.

Also, while I get what they’re saying about jumping to the future so as not to violate canon, they’ve ALREADY violated canon this season by indicating that the burn happened before the 31st century, which invalidates a large chunk of the show ENTERPRISE.

Mind you, I’m not saying these things to bash the show. I’m very much in DISCOVERY’s corner and, aside from Georgiou and Tilly, I’ve greatly enjoyed all the characters. But it’s got a lot of flaws, too.

I don’t think we really know when in the 31st century Daniels is from. If he was from the early part of the century, there may have been a dilithium shortage, but the Burn wouldn’t have happened yet. And even if it had happened, he definitely wouldn’t have told Archer about it anyway.

According to Memory-Alpha, Daniels comes from mid-31st century but the Burn didn’t happen until around 15-30 years after that, so it all fits just fine.

Clearly the only reason why the show is in the 32nd century was to get past every single bit of canon of Trek up to that point. I don’t see they would make that kind of effort to make sure Discovery was past all canon just to violate it with the Burn? But they didn’t, that also started past Daniels’ involvement with Enterprise. He probably was still around when it happened though.

Its just highly ironic how everything goes down the drain so shortly after Daniels’ magical timeship era. As I wondered before the start of the season, it is hard to rationalize how regular time travellers could not have seen this coming (I wonder if they ever going to dig into the end of the Temporal Wars and if its related to the Burn in any way too because 15-30 years is an awfully short time to get rid of *both* the time ships and all other warp vessels of the Galaxy!)) Since for this far away time frame a couple more decades dont make a difference, maybe they could havr spaced this out a little more comfortably. I think the 120 years since the Burn were also chosen deliberately to make sure basically no human alive would remember it. But I do think one of the reasons there are Vulcans in an upcoming episode is that they will remember the Federation! As such they could hold the key to recreating it, unless (spoiler!) they already reunited with the Romulans.

I do agree with that a little, it is a little odd this happened when the Federation was so strong they had their own time traveling department but no one knew it would happen just a few decades later. But all you can do is just shrug since it doesn’t violate canon but doesn’t seem all that logical either knowing what we know about the 31st century.

And I also agree they made it over 120 years so no alive, at least human, can really remember it. That said, I imagine they still do have these things called history books that would’ve went into great detail about even if the origin of how it happened is still a mystery.

“I imagine they still do have these things called history books”

Right? Not just books, but sensor technology for all spectrums and particles imaginable, way beyond 24th century technology, to record and analyze the burn. Yet we havent even seen the crew checking visual records? And they couldn’t figure this out in 100 years? There better be a good explanation for this!

Yeah, Michelle Yeoh really stinks up the place. Can’t act worth shit. I’ve seen better performances in high school plays!
And if anyone responds with the usual crap about her being a big draw with the Asian market, all I can say is they must be easily impressed.

I did like that scene but I still want Space Hitler gone. Maybe this will be her last season of the show since we know she is suppose to go to Section 31 eventually.

But I’m a bit confused about your point with the Burn and Enterprise? No it happened AFTER the 31st century already began. Booker even made it clear it happened after the Temporal wars were over and why time travel was banned.

I went and looked up the 31st century in Memory-Alpha (you really got to love that site ;)) and Daniels time traveling back to the 22nd century to meet up with the Enterprise happens around the 3050s but the Burn is listed to have started somewhere between 3068 and 3088 based on what Booker told Burnham. Clearly the writers have done their homework with Enterprise.

So it doesn’t invalidate Enterprise at all. Everything that happened with Daniels and The Temporal Cold War still happened.

I think the reason some people are confused is that Michael explains that there was a dilithium shortage 700 years after Discovery left, which would be in the 30th century. This seems to be more of a precursor to the Burn though.

I see, but that still wasn’t when the Burn itself happened so it doesn’t contradict Enterprise. And TCW had nothing to do with dilithium obviously. As you said it just sounds like a precursor so it contradicts nothing in past (or future??) canon.

I agree that it doesn’t contradict anything. I’m just saying why I think some people are a bit confused.

Ok, understand!

Has anyone considered that one of the things going on in the Temporal War might have been that agents were coming back in time to steal dilithium?

It would be very difficult to safeguard supplies of critical, unreplicatable resources from intertemporal thieves.

Perhaps the dilithium for warp and bedamite (?) necessary for quantum slipstream have gone somewhen else. Discovery may not be the only ship to displace dilithium in time.

That would be a great reason to establish and enforce a ban.

Alternatively, agents from another strand of continuity in the multiverse might have crossed over to steal critical resources that their universes were less rich in.

Certainly, the MU Terrans or Klingons would not hesitate to raid parallel universes, and Discovery’s spore drive isn’t the only way to cross over.

I find both of these possibilities compelling.

And I’m wondering if Georgiou’s fascination with Linus visual range isn’t just the obvious one suggested by innuendo. We know the spectrum of light in the MU and visual range of Errands differs. Perhaps she’s noticed something about the red dilithium…

TG47, please send your resume to Mr. Kurtzman. You are pulling the best ideas since DS9 and the Dominion War. Not kidding.

Glad you are enjoying my musings Jay.

Believe it or not I have a day job. Dropping in here is a good change of speed from that especially in our current work reality.

And by the way, it was “Terrans” not Errands…

I admit that I don’t always have time to fight with the predictive spelling before going back to reality.

Many of these talented people are fans like you, like all of us. Please consider sending a draft. Same to Tiger2, he is the new Michael Okuda. Always revising history, hard to find details, and guide us with accurate information in these comments and conversations.

Wow that is high praise Jay! I appreciate it but no Okuda is a really really smart and creative guy. He has influenced a lot of Trek we now have over the decades. I’m just an obsessed fan who researches everything lol.

But I do try to be accurate with everything obviously.

Very clever. I have been thinking what are they planning to do to validate a Section 31 show. They need a strong valid plot, to validate MU Georgiou to move to a new show.

A) A Mirror Universe crossover (again) is great idea, a deep connection to Discovery and MU Georgiou. That will make her change her heart, where she stands, who now she loves (Prime Michael). These experiences could help her decide which side she is on.

B) Time Travel is awesome. With Section 31 members, Braxton and Daniels (please!) will be crucial to set the stage.

Ira developed something fascinating with Section 31. Adding elements from Daniels and Braxton to the equation, will be really cool to set the new Section 31 show.

“They need a strong valid plot, to validate MU Georgiou to move to a new show.” Missed to say, somehow, at some point, they need to add sub stories to understand MU Georgiou. Her change of heart. From the most dangerous Emperor to an inferior Admiral in this universe, they need to explain more. Why she loves Prime Michael? Why is she not taking over the ship? Why is she not killing anyone? They need to tell the story of her transformation. I really like Season 3 portrayal, much better than Season 1 and 2 so far. And I agree with Tiger2, she did better, but in a new show will be much better.

Still, asap, I think will be good to learn ,more from her…her reasons, her inner thoughts, something before they lauch Section 31, if the show is really moving forward, which I hope.

I have said before, Michelle Yeoh is amazing. But the writers, Bo Yeon Kim and Erika Lippoldt, they need to polish her portrayal. =D

I admit, that never remotely occured to me, but that would be a really great idea and give the Temporal Cold War a whole new angle in the process. I wouldn’t hold my breath to see any of this happen but I think it would be a really interesting idea to explore. But I do hope maybe the Temporal War will at least be discussed again and maybe could still be a tie in into what’s going on.

Of course I said the same thing about season 2 when we learned it was dealing with time travel and that the Red Angel was coming from the far future. I even went so far thinking we may even find out who Future Guy was. Those hopes were completely dashed. ;)

Arguably the best Star Trek episode ever. After Catspaw, of course.

After Catspaw and Sub Rosa. Deal! :D

Frakes is looking frail?

From an art direction standpoint, if they hadn’t so drastically updated the 23rd century, the 32nd century would be more believably advanced. But as it stands now, there is insufficient visual contrast to really make the point. It’s just an illustration of the wisdom of leaving well enough alone.

I get your point regarding technology but there’s absolutely zero reason the new uniforms couldn’t have been *any other * color than blue and look virtually indistinguishable from Discovery’s in the engineering melee in the episode, resulting in the art direction actually having a negative impact on the narrative integrity of the episode . This is just incompetence and shows many of the staff, not just the writers, are not playing their A game (or know how that’s supposed to look like even).

Absolutely agreed. Speaking of uniforms, what is with all the leather, between the Terrans and Section 31 and the UEDF and general scum and villany in both centuries. It looks like a bondage convention. The costuming language of dark and brooding has gotten boring. In the future, when they need an even more villainous ensemble, where can they repair? What’s blacker than black? Dripping in gore and garlands of teeth?

I think the costumes have the same problem as the tech. They already have exhausted their coolest cool with Section 31 in Discovery so we can’t see a post-leather galaxy ;)

Wished the new technology was set for Season 3. I think the new and upcoming AR Wall will help to see the show, 32nd Century look different. I have the same issue. The colors, everything looks like Picard, not like 32nd Century. Even in Enterprise, Daniels had a different look, a sharp contrast with Archer and the 22nd Century.

“From an art direction standpoint, if they hadn’t so drastically updated the 23rd century, the 32nd century would be more believably advanced.”

Yeah that is a good point. I mean there were things in Discovery that looked more advanced than Picard did lol. Another reason why it probably would’ve been smarter to have the show in a much farther advance future from the get go. I think people would’ve felt more impressed with it in season one instead of just pointing out how so much of it looked of whack compared to TOS, but 2020 hindsight and all of that.

I still prefer them in this time period even if the 32nd century doesn’t look as ‘out there’ as others like. But since we now know they will settle here for probably the duration of the show, nothing stops them from kicking it up a few notches whenever they can.

“. I think people would’ve felt more impressed with it in season one instead of just pointing out how so much of it looked of whack compared to TOS, but 2020 hindsight and all of that.”

And hey, they could have even gotten away with all their Klingon redesigns, costumes, interiors, ships, you name it. A millennium can justify almost anything. Even making them look like Space Orcs. Maybe they just played with their genes again ;)

So, this was probably the best of the three so far. It’s well done how in three weeks we have been to 3 planets, and only spent 2 minutes on the ground in earth and next week looks like a 4th planet – Trill. I get it’s a cost thing, and they are doing a great job. Frakes mades this a fantastic episode.

There are however, some real oddities about sending them this far into the future and making it a dystopian future. I’m not sure GR would approve, but that ship has long since sailed. What really stands out to me, that really makes no sense whatsoever, is that they keep talking about Discovery being a museum and the technology being so old, but it appears to be among the most advanced ships we have seen this season. It is capable to taking direct fire from modern weapons. Like would 10th century weapons, including defensive armor even take a single hit from a modern military grade AK47, let a lone a rpg or anything else used today? Granted discovery could only take one or 2 hits. but still.

Also, We are expected to believe that, no one else, in the 800 years leading up to the burn has figured out spore drive tech, or anything else that could replace dilithium? a natural resource with a limited supply? Just because Star Fleet disavowed the Discovery and the tech, that doesn’t mean someone else or some other species didn’t figure it out. I mean even today, we have relied on fossil fuels (a natural resource with a limited supply) for about 150 years and the whole world is frantic about replacing it. Granted the reasons to eliminate reliance on fossil fuels is for environmental reasons, in reality, once the technology develops and becomes cheaper and more accessible then fossil fuels, it will replace fossil fuels, and likely not before.

This suggests that the federation, and the end of capitalism, killed the drive for innovation, but that is a different subject. Perhaps discovery will be responsible for rebuilding the federation by replacing reliance on dilithium with spore drive propulsion on all new ships.

I’m also curious where the Federation is hiding. Seems very un-federation like. Perhaps in fluidic space. The most obvious choice would be Vulcan, but likely not any safer. Also, we have not seen any Vulcans yet. They may turn out to be the main enemy of the new world of Discovery. Perhaps the Federation left Earth because of distrust of the Vulcans who had become so engrained in Earth culture. Or pehaps Earth kicked out all non-terrans. For whatever reason, it would be interesting to make Earth and Vulcan enemies, and would almost justify Burnham saving the universe once again, which we all know she is going to do.

Gene Roddenberry has sent ships to the far future Before.

It was called Andromeda

What does that have to do with Star Trek? Different show, different time, and it was never produced during his lifetime, but scraped together to take advantage of his name.

Anyone else spot that the head raider who turned out to be human was the actor who played ‘The Swede” in “Hell On Wheels” – alongside Anson Mount and Colm Meaney?

Ok! So…. Star Trek…Andromeda??? Anyone else seeing the simularities?

1. A Ship out of time finds itself in a different future where:

2. The Federation has been blown to pieces. The commonwealth was blown to pieces. And both exist as unrecognizable fragments.

3. Dilethium is ruined its hard to go from place to place. The slipstream in Andromeda was broken and was hard to navigate.

4. Star Fleet command went into hiding. Taken Vedra (capital of commonwealth went into hiding and cut itself off.

5. The Eurika Maru fit into the Andromeda hanger, the same way Booker Cleavend’s ship dose.

6. The cast is eerily similar.
A. Tier Anastasi vs. Empress Phillipa G.
B. Rev Ben vs Saru.
C. Trance vs. Tilly
D. Shamus vs. Stamets and Reno.
E. Becca vs. 3rd Season Burnham
F. Dylan Hunt vs. Burnham of season 2 and late season 1.
G. Even that Courier Saru and Tilly met is 100% SIMILAR to that rat faced guy from Andromeda’s 1st season.
H. ROMIE the A.I vs the sphere data!!

7. How could they be so similar??? Isn’t there a Roddenberry on staff to say, whoa…. hang on guys… that’s been don before… They are Both Gene Roddenberry’s Babies…

I an sure there is SO MANY MORE connections.

Episode 3 was 100% a script left on the floor of Andromeda.

8. STD is filmed in Toronto Canada. Andromeda was filmed in Vancouver.