Star Trek Reveals First TV Crossover With Kelvin Timeline Movies

Star Trek just revealed the first Kelvin timeline movies crossover into the Star Trek television universe. The Kelvin timeline is the alternate reality where the 2009 Star Trek movie, Star Trek Into Darkness, and Star Trek Beyond take place. That universe was born when the Romulan mining vessel Narada traveled back through time from the post-Star Trek: Nemesis era to the day Captain Kirk was born. Leonard Nimoy’s Spock later followed from the prime timeline. Still, no one from the Kelvin timeline had ever made the trip in the other direction until now. A preview of Star Trek: Discovery‘s next episode, first shown on The Ready Room, reveals crossover from the Kelvin timeline into the Star Trek television shows’ prime timeline was revealed by

The footage reveals the return of David Cronenberg as Kovich, the same Starfleet officer (we think?) who interrogated Phillippa Georgiou after Discovery arrived at Starfleet headquarters. He discusses Georgiou’s deteriorating condition with Dr. Culber. Kovich has answers.

Kovich shows Culber a virtual rendering of Yor, an individual wearing an early Star Trek: The Next Generation-era Starfleet uniform. Kovich explains that Yor is a “time soldier” who traveled forward in time to 2379. What makes him unique is that he also traveled across from an alternate dimension spawned by a Romulan mining vessel’s time incursion.

That’s a pretty clear reference to Narada’s trip through time that led to the most recent Star Trek movies’ timeline. Kovich doesn’t offer details about how or why Yor jumped through time and the multiverse. He’s there for another reason. Yor is the only person he knows of, before Georgiou, who traveled across time and universes. It didn’t agree with him. His physical makeup rejected displacement in time and timeline. It seems the same thing is happening to Georgiou.

However, we still don’t know who Kovich is or why he knows so much about all of this. He presumably works for Starfleet since he seems to have free reign of Starfleet headquarters and interrogated Georgiou upon Discovery‘s arrival. Kovich doesn’t dress like Starfleet. He dresses like David Cronenberg. Kovich also has an unusual amount of information about time travel and alternate universes, even information that should be classified. Is he working for Section 31? Does some form of the Department of Temporal Investigations still exist even after the Temporal Cold War? Maybe this week’s episode of Discovery will provide some answers.

Star Trek: Discovery streams new episodes Thursdays on CBS All Access.