The interstellar voyages of the USS Discovery will continue into another season. Star Trek: Discovery has officially been renewed for a second season, beginning at an unspecified date, possibly in 2019.
On Monday, CBS officially announced that the show will return for a second season. The first chapter of Star Trek: Discovery’s first season is set to end on November 12, while the second chapter — consisting of six more episodes — will begin airing sometime in January 2018. It’s unclear if the second season will be divided up into similar chapters or if it will even air in 2018. However, one thing is almost certainly going to happen: the show will probably gradually become lighter in tone. As time marches forward and the setting of Discovery gets closer to the original series, it stands to reason things will get brighter, both literally and tonally.
Will we eventually even see more classic characters and ships? Maybe. Could Harry Mudd change his fashion sense to reflect how he looked in the original series? Only if we’re very lucky.
For the most part, Discovery has taken place throughout the year 2256, which means a second season will almost certainly happen in 2257. Previously, production designers for the show hinted that the “look” of Starfleet will eventually start to resemble what fans are used to from the original series. Whether this means full-on recreation of 1960’s retro-future tech remains to be seen, but some kind of changes are bound to happen, at least superficially, in season 2.
Producer Alex Kurtzman has also reassured fans that part of the story of the show is specifically about how Starfleet regained its hopefull mojo after a devastating war. He also said that “I wouldn’t necessarily want to bring the Klingon War into season two,” meaning the focus of the second season of Discovery could be wildly different than it is now. And, if there’s not a threat of all-out war looming over the galaxy, then it seems likely that everyone might lighten up a bit.
Ready for the big chair in season 2?
Of course, there’s also the very likely possibility that the second season of Discovery may have a different captain altogether. So far, this season of the show has already usurped everyone’s expectations in terms of the actual storyline. Both of the Captains on the show — Lorca and Georgiou — have ended up with plotlines that may mean there will be a vacancy in the center seat of the USS Discovery. Which paves the way for Burnham to be the captain of the Discovery in the second season. Which, if you think about it for one second, makes a lot of sense and would be fantastic. The first episode began with Georgiou telling Burnham she was ready for her own command. Perhaps, in the second season, she’ll fulfill that destiny.
Star Trek: Discovery is still airing the first chapter of its first season on Sundays at 8:30 p.m. Eastern on CBS All Access.
If you liked this article, check out this video on Inverse’s review of Star Trek: Discovery.
