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Star Trek: Discovery – The Story So Far
The first half of Star Trek: Discovery‘s season 1 has already flown by at warp speed. The first Star Trek television series in over a decade, Discovery has dazzled fans with visual effects that rival the J.J. Abrams-produced Star Trek feature films. Set in 2256, a decade before the events of the original Star Trek, Discovery has blazed its own unique creative direction while still honoring the mission of exploring strange new worlds and seeking out new civilizations that is the essence of Star Trek.
Discovery‘s first 9 episodes comprise the first half of season one before the series returns with its latter 6 episodes on January 7, 2018. As the series jumps into its hiatus during the holiday season, here is a captain’s log of the characters, conflicts, and voyages of the U.S.S. Discovery so far.
There’s never been a lead Star Trek character like Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green). Infamously known as Starfleet’s first mutineer, Burnham is a human who was raised on Vulcan by Ambassador Sarek (James Frain), the father of Spock. When she was rejected by the Vulcan Expeditionary Group because of her humanity, Sarek sent Burnham to Starfleet, where she served on the U.S.S. Shenzhou for seven years under Captain Phillipa Georgiou (Michelle Yeoh).
Burnham’s metroric rise to become the Shenzhou’s first officer came to a tragic end when she turned on her captain in hopes of preventing a war with the resurgent Klingon Empire. Instead, war commenced and the initial conflict, dubbed the Battle of the Binary Stars, claimed the life of Captain Georgiou and saw the destruction of the Shenzhou. Burnham was court martialed for mutiny and sentenced to life in a Federation penal colony. 6 months into the war, Burnham found herself unexpectedly brought aboard the U.S.S. Discovery.
Burnham now has a chance for redemption by servicing as Discovery’s Science Specialist. She has been instrumental in the perfection of Discovery’s greatest weapon, its mycelial spore displacement drive. Though she has made a few friends – her roommate Cadet Sylvia Tilly (Mary Wiseman) considers Burnham her mentor – and she is valued by her new Captain Gabriel Lorca (Jason Isaacs), Burnham struggles with living life once more aboard a starship and is haunted by her mistakes. She dreads her eventual return to prison to serve out the rest of her sentence once the war is over.
The father of Spock (Leonard Nimoy) and the husband of the human Amanda Grayson (Mia Kirshner), Ambassador Sarek’s fondness for humans has made him a target of Vulcan logic extremists. Sarek nearly died until he was rescued by Burnham and a team from the Discovery. This was thanks to a special bond between Sarek and Burnham: when she was a child, Sarek shared his katra (or Vulcan soul) with Burnham to save her life. Sarek’s katra allows him to communicate with Burnham and share emotions, especially distress, even across the galaxy. At this point in Star Trek history, Sarek exhibits a closeness to his adopted daughter he doesn’t share with his son Spock, who is currently serving aboard the U.S.S. Enterprise under the command of Captain Christopher Pike.
CAPTAIN GEORGIOU AND THE SHENZHOU
The warm-hearted and courageous Captain Phillipa Georgiou mentored Michael Burnham for seven years, grooming her to one day command a ship of her own. Burnham’s mutiny was her attempt to save the life of everyone aboard the Shenzhou when she realized the Klingons were feigning peaceful overtures but actually looking to start a war.
Despite Burnham assaulting her with a Vulcan nerve pinch, Georgiou eventually heeded Burnham’s hunch about the Klingons’ true intentions. Together, they beamed aboard the Klingon Sarcophagus ship to fight their new enemies. The Klingon leader T’Kuvma (Chris Obi) killed Georgiou in battle; Burnham in turn killed T’Kuvma but was beamed back aboard the Shenzhou, leaving Georgiou’s corpse behind to a grisly fate.
Months later, Burnham would receive an inheritance from Georgiou’s last will and testament on board the Discovery; her mentor left Burnham her prized telescope.
The Klingons have been the most controversial aspect of Discovery. The fearsome warrior race has been radically re-imagined to bear little resemblance to the Klingons fans know and love. In Discovery, the Klingons were a divided empire until T’Kuvma, styling himself as successor to the Klingon messiah Kahless the Unforgettable, sought to unify the 24 Great Houses and conquer the Federation.
T’Kuvma’s death at the Battle of the Binary Stars eventually saw Kol (Kenneth Mitchell) assume the leadership of the Empire. With the Klingon sarcophagus ship under his control, Kol now has cloaking technology, which he gave to the Klingon houses who pledged loyalty to him. The ability for Klingon ships to cloak have been a decisive weapon against Starfleet in the war.
Other Klingons of note are L’Rell (Mary Chieffo) of House Mo’Kai, a Klingon dynasty of spies, and Voq (Javid Iqbal), T’Kuvma’s torchbearer. L’Rell and Voq left aboard the derelict wreck of the Shenzhou by Kol, but L’Rell mysteriously reappeared later, serving under Kol. Little does Kol know, L’Rell hopes to defect to the Federation, which she revealed to Starfleet Admiral Cornwell (Jayne Brook), a prisoner of war, after she kills Kol and ends his rule. Instead, Kol saw L’Rell’s ambitions and took her prisoner. As for Voq’s whereabouts, there is a popular theory among fans about him… (See Lt. Ash Tyler’s entry.)
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Star Trek: Discovery – The Story So Far - page 2
The U.S.S. Discovery (NCC-1031) didn’t appear until the third episode but has since become the most important starship in Starfleet. Formerly a science vessel, the Discovery was re-commissioned as a warship, which doesn’t sit well with its crew of starry-eyed explorers. Nevertheless, the Discovery is now Starfleet’s greatest weapon against the Klingons because of the unique technology on board.
Discovery is commanded by Captain Gabriel Lorca, a controversial figure to say the least. Lorca suffers from a painful sensitivity to light, an injury he sustained when he lost his previous command, the U.S.S. Buran, at the start of the war. Now at the helm of the Discovery, Lorca has been granted an unusual amount of power in how he chooses to fight the war. Among his many questionable decisions is commissioning Michael Burnham to serve on his ship.
A hard-driving wartime captain, Lorca collects an arsenal of the most dangerous weapons in the universe, which he studies looking for an edge against the Klingons. Admiral Cornwell, his old friend, discovered Lorca is actually unfit for duty. Lorca lied during his psyche exams after the Buran was lost, a secret he continues to hide from his crew and the rest of Starfleet as he desperately does anything he needs to do to stay in Discovery’s captain’s chair.
As Lorca described Discovery’s spore displacement drive, they’re “inventing a new way to fly.” Invented by Lieutenant Paul Stamets (Anthony Rapp), the spore displacement drive allows the Discovery to travel in the mycelial network, a superhighway that connects the entire universe. When the spore drive is functioning properly, Discovery enters ‘Black Alert’ and can instantaneously jump to any point in the known universe and back again. This experimental technology is incredibly dangerous, however (and is cited by many fans as an example of technology Starfleet shouldn’t have in this era). An accident with an identical spore drive destroyed Discovery’s sister ship, the U.S.S. Glenn.
On board the Glenn was a giant Tardigrade monster, which was later named Ripper by the late Commander Landry (Rekha Sharma), who died trying to attack it. Lorca had the alien beast beamed onto his ship to study as a weapon. Burnham soon discovered the Tardigrade is actually the missing component of the spore drive; when it is plugged into the drive, the Tardigrade served as the ship’s navigator. Unfortunately, the Tardigrade was slowly dying from the constant exposure to the spore drive. After extracting DNA from the Tardigrade, Burnham, Tilly and Stamets released it back into space. In turn, they found a replacement for the spore drive: Paul Stamets himself.
WILL THE REAL PAUL STAMETS PLEASE STAND UP
By fusing the Tardigrade’s DNA with his own (a eugenics experiment which is illegal in the Federation), Stamets was able to interface with the mycelial network in the alien’s place and successfully serve as the Discovery’s new navigator. There were side effects, however. Stamets was rude, ill-tempered and single-minded in his pursuit of science. After exposure to the mycelial network, Stamets came out changed: he became warm, friendly and happy-go-lucky. His crew mates noticed the difference but couldn’t complain about this improvement to Stamets’ personality. Stamets even received implants in his arms from his partner, Dr. Hugh Culber (Wilson Cruz), to better allow him to interface with then spore drive. Stamets eventually reverted back to his tempermental self and confessed the problems he is having to Tilly.
There is also the shocking mirror incident at the conclusion of the fifth episode; the day after he first connected to the spore drive and survived, the mirror image of Stamets was shown to move independently from Stamets himself. This fuels speculation that Stamets has somehow entered or been replaced by his counterpart from the Mirror Universe, which Discovery will visit later this season.
In Discovery‘s fifth episode, Captain Lorca was captured and imprisoned in a Klingon Bird of Prey. His cell mates were the intergalactic criminal Harcourt Fenton Mudd (Rainn Wilson) and Lieutenant Ash Tyler (Shazad Latif). Formerly of the U.S.S. Yaeger, Tyler had been a P.O.W. for seven months after the Battle of the Binary Stars. He claims he only survived because the Klingon captain L’Rell had taken a sexual liking to him. Tyler helped Lorca escape confinement and together they made it back to the Discovery. After checking Tyler’s backstory to his satisfaction, Lorca made Tyler Discovery’s new Chief of Security, replacing the late Captain Landry.
Despite behaving in a heroic manner, such as piloting Burnham’s shuttle on their successful mission to rescue Sarek, Tyler is the subject of one of Discovery‘s biggest fan theories: that Tyler is actually the surgically-altered Klingon Voq and is acting as a spy aboard the Discovery. This is certainly a possibility, as much of Tyler’s backstory and revelations about himself could be interpreted both ways, but it could also be a misdirect. However, Voq also had access to the Shenzhou’s computer files during his exile and could have accumulated enough information to pass as a human Starfleet Officer.
Complicating matters is the burgeoning romantic relationship between Tyler and Burnham.
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Star Trek: Discovery – The Story So Far - page 3
A popular villain from Star Trek: The Original Series, Discovery re-imagined this younger version of Harry Mudd played by Rainn Wilson (The Office) as a more dangerous scoundrel. Mudd harbors a special hatred of Captain Lorca for leaving him behind when he escaped from the Klingon prison ship. Soon, Mudd made a bargain with the Klingons to steal the Discovery and sell it to the enemy empire. Mudd exacted his revenge by using a stolen time crystal to trap the Discovery in a 30 minute causality time loop. Utilizing dozens of repeating 30 minute cycles, Mudd learned step by step how to take over Lorca’s starship, making sure to murder Lorca each time as well.
The crew of the Discovery were having a party and unaware they were trapped in time and gradually losing their ship, until Stamets revealed what was happening. Because of his connection to the mycelial network, Stamets somehow was able to perceive Mudd’s time loops. Stamets was able to convince Burnham what was happening and together with Tyler, Lorca and the rest of Discovery’s crew, they eventually turned the tables on Mudd. After the ship was returned to the timeline, Mudd was captured and released to the custody of his wife Stella and his father-in-law Baron Grimes.
The Discovery’s ability to sneak attack the Klingons thanks to its spore drive turned the tide of the war to Starfleet’s favor, but the Klingons’ proliferation of cloaking technology swung the pendulum back. Cloaked Klingon ships began to lay waste to Starfleet’s ships, so the Discovery was sent on a secret mission to the planet Pahvo. On Pahvo, everything emits a vibrational sound; Starfleet wanted to harness these constant sonic vibrations to develop a sonar that could pierce through Klingon cloaking devices.
Leading the away team on Pahvo, Discovery’s First Officer Saru (Doug Jones), a Kelpian whose species lives in a constant state of fear, made contact with the biological entities on the planet. Dedicated to fostering harmony, the Pahvo healed Saru’s fear and gave him harmony for the first time in his life. In turn, the Pahvans not only learned about Saru’s fears, but also about the war between the Federation and the Klingons. The Pahvans then contacted the Klingon Empire, inviting them to come to Pahvo, where the Discovery was also waiting, thus igniting a direct confrontation between Starfleet’s most important starship and the Klingon Ship of the Dead.
Discovery‘s fall finale ‘Into the Forest I Go’ brought the Klingon conflict to a head and addressed every major storyline of the series thus far. Ordered to jump back to Federation space and leave Pahvo at the mercy of the Klingons, Captain Lorca disobeyed orders and instead demanded his crew innovate a solution to the Klingon cloaking device. Saru and Burnham designed a system requiring Burnham and Tyler to beam on board the Ship of the Dead to plant sensors, while Stamets was asked to risk his own life to navigate the spore drive to make 133 jumps that would allow Discovery to pinpoint the Ship of the Dead’s exact position. (After Stamets discussed the possibility of jumping to parallel realities with Lorca.)
While on board the Klingon ship, Tyler and Burnham discovered Admiral Cornwell is still alive. Tyler confronted L’Rell and went into shock from PTSD. We glimpsed Tyler’s memories of not just sex with L’Rell but also torture and what looked like surgery. With Tyler incapacitated, Burnham proceeded with her mission, eventually confronting Kol in physical combat to buy Discovery time to complete its jumps by revealing herself as the killer of T’Kuvma. While Burnham battled Kol, Discovery finished its spore jumps and was able to break the Ship of the Dead’s cloak. Making sure to retrieve Captain Georgiou’s Starfleet badge, which Kol had taken as a trophy, Burnham was beamed back aboard Discovery, along with Tyler, Cornwell, and L’Rell, who forced herself into the transport and is now a prisoner of war. Discovery destroyed the Ship of the Dead and Kol along with it, striking a decisive blow towards ending the Klingon War.
Due to the massive trauma he has endured in the spore drive, Stamets planned to retire from Starfleet so he could be examined medically by Starfleet’s finest doctors, but not before promising to guide Discovery towards one last jump to Starbase 46. Instead an accident occurred, and Discovery ended up… someplace else that the ship’s sensors couldn’t identify. Discovery is now lost… somewhere.
Star Trek: Discovery Officially Renewed for Season 2
