‘Star Trek: Discovery’: First Look at Redesigned Talosians

Star Trek‘s first aliens, the Talosians, return in next week’s episode of Star Trek: Discovery and they have a new look.

CBS All Access released a 30-second preview for next week’s Discovery episode, “If Memory Serves.” The preview offers the first look at Discovery‘s redesigned Talosians.

Watch the preview above.

The preview reveals that Spock has seen a vision of the future. Burnham asks the Talosians to use their mental powers to share Spock’s mind with her. Under normal circumstances, Spock could do this with a Vulcan mind meld, but his current mental state may prevent that.

Speaking to ComicBook.com, Discovery‘s Spock actor Ethan Peck hinted at more personal reasons for Spock to return to Talos IV.

“[A]ll I can say is that Spock believes something in Talos will help ground him,” Peck said. “I think he’s fighting to stay present, to stay in reality, where he’s had this very traumatic experience with the Red Angel that’s sort of shown something within himself, to himself that he can’t quite make sense of. And so I think there’s a comfort going there and knowing that it’s like a touchstone almost. That it will bring him back to who he is.”

In last week’s episode, “Light and Shadows,” Cmdr. Burnham left Discovery to visit Vulcan hoping Amanda Grayson knew something about Spock’s location. It turned out Amanda had been hiding Spock in a crypt on Vulcan.

Spock had been repeating a series of numbers over and over again. Amanda revealed that Spock has a learning disability like dyslexia in humans. With this information, Burnham was able to decode the numbers. She then discovered they are the coordinates for the planet Talos IV.

Talos IV is the planet from the original Star Trek pilot, “The Cage,” set three years before Discovery‘s second season. In the episode, the Enterprise investigates a distress call from the planet, which turns out to be a trap. The Talosians, the last survivors of a once-advanced race, take Capt. Pike prisoner.

The Talosians destroyed themselves and their planet in a nuclear war. The survivors used their enhanced mental abilities to create illusions indistinguishable from reality. They became addicted to their own illusions, but also grew bored with their own imaginations. To rectify that problem, they began luring and capturing other species to use as the basis for new illusions to watch.

The Talosians offered to create a paradise-like illusion for Pike to live out his life in. The captain of the Enterprise refused. The Talosians were convinced to release Pike, and the Enterprise departed on good terms.

Later, in the episode “The Menagerie” – set about a decade after Discovery‘s second season – Spock worked with the Talosians to return Pike to Talos IV. An accident had crippled Pike’s body. Returning him to Talos IV allowed him to live out the rest of his life in the Talosian’s mental paradise. Bringing the Talosians into Discovery adds some connective tissue between those two stories.

What do you think of the Talosians’ look in Star Trek: Discovery? Let us know in the comments!

New Star Trek: Discovery episodes become available to stream Thursdays at 8:30 p.m. ET on CBS All Access.