Star Trek Discovery Retrospective: Season 2

Season 2

Picking up from season 1’s cliffhanger ending (the arrival of the USS Enterprise) season 2 immediately jumps into a new world-ending, galaxy spanning threat story arc with the red signals, the red angel suit time travel stuff and later section 31/Control and the sphere data. With so much going on story wise it felt a bit incoherent to me. The dark tone of season 1 was eschewed in favor of a brighter feel and a bit more closeness with established canon. The seemingly fan-service opening of the premiere with the USS Enterprise NCC-1701 under Captain Pike turned out to be a blessing in disguise, as the one good thing to come out of season 2 was Anson Mount as Captain Pike and ultimately Star Trek Strange New Worlds. That said the redesign (and obvious scale-up) of the classic USS Enterprise NCC-1701 to fit the modern Discovery aesthetic was another major point of consternation with the fandom. Me personally I don’t hate it, it’s not the best design for the Constitution class Enterprise by any means, but it is miles -nay- lightyears better than the abomination from the J.J. Abrams movies. Also introduced this season are Rebecca Romijn as Una Chin-Riley "Number One", Ethan Peck as Spock, and recurring characters Leland (Alan van Sprang), Commander Nhan (Rachael Ancheril) and engineer Jett Reno (Tig Notaro), the series (and franchise's) first openly lesbian character. The Voq/Ash Tyler story continues, in a very convoluted deus ex machina Dr. Culber is resurrected via the mycelial network (because someone thought killing him off 2/3 of the way through season 1 was such a good idea…), we meet Burnhams mother Dr. Gabrielle Burnham (Sonja Sohn), and recurring characters Airiam (Hannah Cheesman in season 2, Sara Mitich in season 1), Admiral Cornwell (Jayne Brook) and Mirror Georgiou all play rather large roles. We also get more of Sarek (James Frain) and Amanda (Mia Kirshner) Spock’s parents and Burnham's adopted parents first seen in season 1. I was NEVER a fan of the whole Burnham-Spock/Burnham-Sarek connection. Also, just my opinion, but James Frain as Sarek was…ehh…bland. Flat. Definitely not my favorite casting decision. That said NO ONE can replace the great Marc Lenard as Sarek. Marc Lenard had a certain screen presence in any scene he was in. You not only heard and saw but felt the character in his performance. He commanded any scene he was in. James Frain as Sarek doesn’t have half the screen presence of Marc Lenard. To myself as with many fans the Burnham/Spock Burnham/Sarek family connection just felt too contrived, too “small universe” and too overtly canon breaking. Fans at this point were already hotly debating whether the series even took place in the “prime canon timeline”, the “Kelvin Timeline”, or a different timeline, while the production powers that be pretty had much always held that it was set in prime canon timeline and things like Burnham being Spock’s adopted sister only fueled the debate. Season 2's "If Memory Serves" having the “Previously on Star Trek” recap of The Cage pretty much cemented the series as being set in the prime canon. For better or worse. In “Through the Valley of Shadows” Captain Pike gets a vision of his future, to wit he now knows about his fate: the accident on the training ship, being radiation burned and paralyzed, and ending up in the wheelchair as seen in TOS "The Menagerie parts 1 and 2”. A very interesting choice for sure. At the end of season two the showrunners FINALLY decided to listen to the fans and do what should have been done from jump, that is to set the show in the far far future. So they had the ship travel through a wormhole and end up 930 years in the future (the 32nd century). This did have the advantage of giving the writers and producers the creative freedom of a “blank slate”, a fully unexplored time in which to craft their stories. In an attempt to not totally destroy 50 years of established canon with everything established in the first two seasons, the season finale “Such Sweet Sorrow, part 2” has all knowledge of the USS Discovery, the red angel suit, Control, the Sphere data, the spore drive conveniently classified and those few who know about it are sworn to secrecy on penalty of death for treason. It's all too convenient. One thing that had a major effect on the show in season 2 was the behind the scenes drama. Midway through the season co-showrunners Gretchen Berg and Aaron Harberts were fired for reportedly mistreating the writing staff and creating a hostile work environment. Franchise executive producer Alex Kurtzman stepped in and took over the reins himself for the back half of the season, assisted by producer Michelle Paradise.

Next week: we jump 930 years into the future for season 3