Star Trek: Discovery‘s sophomore run has been better received than its highly controversial first season, but some fans are still irked by how the CBS All Access show continues to play fast and loose with established continuity. In season 2, for instance, Ethan Peck has played a very different version of Spock who’s deepened his relationship with foster sister Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green), someone who’s never been mentioned in any previous media.
While speaking with The AV Club, showrunner Alex Kurtzman promised the fans that the production team is fully aware of their concerns and teased that the upcoming season 2 finale will tie up many of the loose ends that make it seem like Discovery doesn’t fit in with established canon. However, he also hinted that this will be achieved in some unexpected ways.
“The first thing I will promise you is that we are totally aware of that and you will see us sync back around to where you expect to be, but not necessarily in the way that you expect it. And I think that that, that is one of the things, for me, that has always been the defining trait of Star Trek, is ‘How do you deliver the thing that you expect, that fans love, but how do you keep it fresh by always reinventing it just enough without breaking it?’ You have to keep making those bold choices to keep it relevant. And obviously when you do that you will always make controversial choices.”
The first half of the two-part finale, “Such Sweet Sorrow,” already started to move the pieces to their traditional places on the board. For instance, Anson Mount’s Captain Pike returned to the U.S.S. Enterprise in the episode, as per his career history in The Original Series. Likewise, Burnham has hatched a plan to use the time crystal to take the Discovery itself into the far future. If this plays out in the finale, it’ll explain why we’ve never heard of the Starfleet vessel before as well as why it was seen abandoned in the Short Trek “Calypso.”
No doubt the episode will also feature a few things we haven’t learned about yet as well. After all, following the finale, a third season of Star Trek: Discovery is already confirmed, though fans are still holding out hope for that Captain Pike spinoff.