'Star Trek: Discovery Annual' to Reveal How Stamets Discovered the Mycelial Network

IDW Publishing has announced Star Trek: Discovery Annual 2018, a 48-page comic book releasing in March that will put the spotlight on Discovery's Lt. Paul Stamets.

Star Trek: Discovery Annual 2018 is written by Kirsten Beyer and Mike Johnson, the same writing team behind IDW's recently launched Star Trek: Discovery ongoing series, with art by Angel Hernandez. Star Trek: Discovery Annual 2018 will feature multiple stories, including one revealing how Stamets came to discover the mycelial network.

Hernandez also provides Cover A for Star Trek: Discovery Annual 2018, while George Caltsoudas provides Cover B. Both covers can be seen in the attached gallery.

Here's the story's synopsis:

The U.S.S. Discovery is a ship unlike any the galaxy's ever seen, of course, developing tech based on an unstable mycelial network. And it is all in the hands of Lt. Stamets, who's tasked with perfecting it to win the war against the Klingons. Also explored in detail: Who Stamets is and how he, with his old partner, Straal, came to discover the mycelial network, plus a look at how Lt. Stamets met his significant other, Medical Officer Hugh Culber, and came to know fan-favorite Cadet Sylvia Tilly.

Star Trek: Discovery Annual 2018 will cost $7.99.

While Michael Burnham may be the main protagonist of Star Trek: Discovery, and Gabriel Lorca the ship's captain, Stamets and his work in the mycelial network has been the show's backbone from the beginning. It's this network that gives the USS Discovery its unique ability to teleport. However, Stamets is a vital physical component in the ship's continued ability to use its spore drive and that involvement has caused him to unstuck in time, something that actor Anthony Rapp has discussed.

"Filming it was like a wild episode because the notion of a time loop is a really fun and interesting notion," Rapp says. "To be the only one who was aware of what was happening, filming it as an actor was like putting a puzzle together and figuring out, 'Okay, how many loops have I done?'

"You keep trying to make it better and make it work. To do that domino effect, as an actor, it was almost like I was doing it myself."

Look for Star Trek: Discovery Annual 2018 in March. Star Trek: Discovery returns to CBS All Access on January 7, 2017.