Star Trek: Discovery ended its second season with an enormous shift to its status quo. The show, previously set prior to The Original Series, will now take place 1,000 years into the future of the franchise after the crew of the U.S.S. Discovery flew the ship into a wormhole. Trek has never travelled so far into the future before (except for that Short Treks episode “Calypso” that teased the time jump) and one star of the series has now promised that the results will be unmissable.
Doug Jones, who portrays Kelpien Starfleet officer Cmdr. Saru on Discovery, teased what’s to come in season 3 while chatting with Collider. In fact, he’s confident that what the production team have got in store will blow fans away.
“The story is unfolding at a rapid pace. … Season 3 is going to blow you away. We jumped to the future at the end of Season 2. This is a big deal. We’ve boldly gone where no Star Trek series has gone before. We started before the original series, now we’ve jumped all the way till after Voyager. So we’re gonna see what happens in the future.”
Jones went on to posit some questions that will be explored in the new run, including how the character dynamics will be affected and what will be learned about the fate of the Federation.
“What condition is the Federation in? We don’t know yet. We’re gonna find out when we land. What happens to me and my rank? I’m a Commander, but I’m also acting Captain of the ship because we lost all our captains now. I take the ship and so, do I get to keep the Captain’s chair? Do I have to give it away to another Federation/ Starfleet captain in the future? We’re gonna find out all that when we get there.”
The actor continued by pointing out that the freedom the time jump gives the show allows the writers to create their own canon in contrast to the way the first two seasons had to neatly slot into pre-established continuity.
“There’s absolutely a freedom that we’re all excited about, the writers especially. They adhered to canon beautifully in the timeline before the original series, they got us in a great transition that will go into the original series now seamlessly. Now we jumped ahead and they can add to canon, make the canon and whole new chapter. And that’s very exciting for all of us.”
Images from the season 3 premiere have already given us our first look at the 32nd century, as well as a new addition to the cast played by Supergirl‘s David Ajala. Named Book, the character’s described as possessing “a natural charisma” and “devil-may-care” attitude. The photos also confirm that the wormhole trip will scatter the crew, with Sonequa Martin-Green’s Burnham finding herself on a barren, rocky world.
Star Trek: Discovery will return sometime in 2020 on CBS All Access.
