Kurtzman: Discovery: The Finale And The Future
3 min read
In a new interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Discovery‘s showrunner Alex Kurtzman speaks about the finale and the future of Discovery. Plus: Pike show?
If you haven’t seen Such Sweet Sorrow Part 2, go see it and then come back to read this. You’ve been warned.
After two seasons of hanging around the pre-TOS universe, Discovery has made the jump way into the future. With the show being set in the future, the writers are no longer constrained by canon and can play on a brand-new playground. So how far have they jumped into the future?
“We are jumping nine hundred-and-fifty years into the future for Season Three,” said Kurtzman. “We love playing within canon. It’s a delight and a privilege. It’s fun to explore nooks and crannies of the universe that people haven’t fully explored yet. That being said, we felt strongly that we wanted to give ourselves an entirely new energy for season three with a whole new set of problems. We’re farther than any Trek show has ever gone. I also had experience working on the [J.J. Abrams] films where we were stuck with canonical problems. We knew how Kirk had died, and we wondered how we could put him in jeopardy to make it feel real. That’s what led us to go with an alternate timeline; suddenly we could tell the story in a very unpredictable way. That’s the same thought process that went into jumping nine hundred-and-fifty years into the future. We’re now completely free of canon, and we have a whole new universe to explore.”
While Kurtzman said that there would be reference to events in previous Trek series, don’t expect character crossovers. “There will be canonical references to everything that has happened in the various shows; we’re not erasing that,” he said. “But we’re so far past that point that all of that is a very distant memory. We’re very excited to see how you put the elements of Star Trek in an entirely new universe.
“Once Discovery jumps through the wormhole and disappears, the suspense of not knowing what’s on the other side will guide Season Three.”
In the finale, Control was vanquished, or was it? “Control is officially neutralized,” said Kurtzman, “but there will be much bigger problems when they get to the other side of that wormhole.”
And who will be the captain of Discovery going forward? “We will definitely be exploring who inherits that chair,” said Kurtzman. “Obviously, there’s a very loaded look between Saru and Burnham. They’re both qualified in very different ways, and that’s something we’ll explore.”
Leaving behind their own time means being alone in a distant future with none of their families or friends nearby for support. How will that affect the crew? “They’re more a family than they’ve ever been,” said Kurtzman. “They were very, very close in Season Two. But now all they have is each other. Their families are nine hundred-and-fifty years in the past. It will be very interesting to see the consequences of the choice they made. Saru said, ‘We all signed up for this, and we knew what we were doing. We love each other, respect each other, and need each other enough to know we’re going to make this decision as a group, as a family.’ But it doesn’t mean that it won’t come with emotional consequences. That’s something we’ll explore in season three.”
After the temporary addition of Captain Pike and Spock, there has been fan outcry for a Pike series featuring them, with fans even creating and signing a petition in hopes of convincing TPTB. Is there really any chance of a Pike series happening? “The fans have been heard,” said Kurtzman. “Anything is possible in the world of Trek. I would love to bring back that crew more than anything. It was a huge risk for us. One of the most gratifying things is to see how deeply the fans have embraced Pike, Spock, Number One, and the Enterprise. The idea of getting to tell more stories with them would be a delight for all of us.”
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