‘Star Trek: Discovery’: What We Want in Season 2

Star Trek: Discovery officially has one season in the books, and fans are already looking ahead ot what the next season might bring.

The first season of Star Trek: Discovery began with a bang, kicking off a war between the United Federation of Planets and the Klingon Empire. That war lasted throughout the entire season until the conflict was finally resolved in the show’s season finale.

In the midst of that conflict were several subplots. Michael Burnham dealt with her human nature and her Vulcan upbringing. She fell in love and was betrayed.

The entire Discovery crew went on an odyssey of sorts. A surprising jump to the mirror universe showed what a dark mirror image of the Federation could look like.

What’s worse is their captain turned out to be a part of that warped and twisted mirror image. Captain Gabriel Lorca was actually a would-be usurper of the Terran Empire’s throne who was cast into the prime timeline while trying to escape his own demise. He manipulated the Discovery crew and Starfleet to get himself home and make another attempt at a coup.

There were some diversions along the way, including a time loop scenario where the entire crew, including Lorca, were at the mercy of the scoundrel, Harry Mudd.

The season let us get to know Burnham and the rest of the crew, including the Lt. Paul Stamets, the brilliant mind behind the ship’s experimental spore drive, and Saru, the first of his species in Starfleet.

The first season of Star Trek: Discovery was fun, but now we have the long wait until the Star Trek: Discovery Season Two premiere. Looking ahead, we’ve put together a list of the things we hope to see in the show’s second season, from small improvements to character spotlights and more.

A Non-Human Captain

In a single season, Star Trek: Discovery went through almost as many captains as the entire rest of the franchise has had in total.

We started with Captain Georgiou on the Shenzhou. She died during the Battle at the Binary stars. Then we got to the Discovery, where Captain Gabriel Lorca was in charge. Lorca turned out to be from the mirror universe, so Saru took command of the ship. Once Saru got the ship hope, Admiral Cornwell sat in the captain’s chair onboard Discovery until it was time for the mission to Qo’noS, which is where commanded was handed offer to Georgiou…from the mirror universe.

Once the mission was aborted, the Discovery found itself again without a captain. It was on its way to Vulcan to pick one up when it was interrupted by a distress call from the Enterprise.

We don’t know where things will go from here, but we hope whoever captains the ship is not human. Discovery seems to be all about firsts for the franchise, and having a non-human as the titular ship’s permanent captain would be a nice one to hit. We thought it might be Saru, but if not him, then maybe having the ship en route to Vulcan signals a Vulcan captain?

Bring on the Enterprise Crew

The elephant in the room concerning Star Trek: Discovery’s second season is the USS Enterprise, which showed up in the final season of the first season.

There are two different questions to be asked: what role will the Enterprise play, and will we meet the crew?

The answer to the former, according to the showrunners, is that the Enterprise will help establish Discovery’s place in canon without overshadowing the titular ship.

The answer to the second question is less clear. Spock is really the problem. If this were just Captain Pike and the crew of the Enterprise from “The Cage,” recasting would be no big deal.

But the Star Trek franchise already recast the iconic Vulcan once with Zachary Quinto in the reboot films. Having the fans accept another new Spock may be a challenge.

We say bring on a new Captain Pike and bring on a new Spock. We love Leonard Nimoy’s iconic performance as much as anyone, but a character is always bigger than the actor who portrays them. Let’s see what someone else can add to what Nimoy and Quinto have already established.

More Boldly Going Where No One Has Gone Before

Star Trek: Discovery took a bold direction with its narrative by using the prestige television format and the streaming distribution model to craft an entirely serialized story that did not conform in any way to the established episodic season structure of past Star Trek series.

It’s very exciting to see the show stretch the definition of what a Star Trek series can be. We appreciate the way the form of Star Trek changed, but there are certain aspects of its content we like to see more of going forward.

Primary among them is the discovery and exploration of planets and new civilizations. In the entire first 15 episodes of Star Trek: Discovery, the only proper away team mission came during the trip to Pahvo. And that was great! We’d just like to see more of it.

Discovery will have truly found balance when it learns to work some more of that traditional Star Trek subject matter into its serialized structure. We hope to see steps in that direction in season two.

Get to Know the Bridge Crew

One of the more subtle subplots of Star Trek: Discovery‘s first season was the development of Discovery‘s bridge crew. However, you’d be forgiven for not noticing because the actual members of the bridge crew had very little to say for themselves.

When Discovery started, Lorca would be seen berating them for not being able to function as a unit. Despite Lorca’s unsavory ideals, he was an effective teacher and managed to whip the Discovery bridge crew into fighting shape so that by the end of the season they were blowing up the imperial palace ship and living to tell the tale.

We hope to get more of the story from their perspective next season. Being trained by Lorca should give them an interesting perspective on how to operate on a Starfleet vessel.

Bring Back Harry Mudd

Star Trek: Discovery was a big sweeping wartime drama with a lot of serious characters making serious dramatic decisions.

We were lucky to have Cadet Tilly around to bring some heart and humor to the proceedings, but we were also lucky to have Rainn Wilson playing Harry Mudd for two episodes.

So much of Discovery was laser-focused on the conflict between the United Federation of Planets and the Klingon Empire. That was all fine and good, but it that dedication to long-form storytelling made Harry Mudd’s relatively playful – if homicidal – antics feel like a breath of fresh air.

We hope to see more of Harry Mudd causing trouble for Discovery in future seasons.

More Georgiou and Prime Lorca

Star Trek: Discovery had a lot of fun playing with our expectation via the mirror universe, but the characters who were most involved with that universe are among the show’s most interesting.

Terran Emperor Georgiou was brought to the prime timeline by Michael Burnham and the Discovery. She tried to manipulate Starfleet and tempt Burnham, but ultimately her plans failed. However, the series left a door open for her to return by allowing her to walk away from the aborted mission to destroy Qo’noS.

Lorca’s fate is a bit more complicated. Despite being a bigoted monster from the mirror, Jason Isaacs portrayed Lorca so well that he quickly became a favorite character. He’s dead now, but he could still come back. Maybe his consciousness is spread through the mycelial network and he’s an even bigger threat now than ever?

We’d prefer to actually meet the prime timeline’s Lorca. He’s presumed to have died after being transported to the mirror universe, but it would make for some exciting stories if he popped back up in the prime timeline.

Slow Things Down a Bit

We liked the first season of Star Trek: Discovery quite a bit, but it wasn’t quite perfect. There were several small moments that didn’t quite work as well as they could have and most of that can be contributed to some fast narrative pacing.

The story of the war between the Federation and the Klingons and the trip to the mirror universe were all thrilling, but it moved so quickly that occasionally major moments were undercut or we didn’t have enough to properly ruminate on a major event or get to know a character.

We’d love for season two to slow things down just a bit. Show us what an average day on board Discovery is like. Introduce us to some of the rest of the crew, the department heads. Let us get to know who these characters are when they’re not having a moment of crisis.

We already really like these new characters. Now let us get ot know them better.