Star Trek: Discovery is a couple of weeks into Season 3 on CBS All Access, and a lot has changed on the series. This is understandable, of course, following the Season 2 cliffhanger, in which the Discovery crew used the spore drive to jump 930 years into the future. In doing so, the series went from 10 years before the start of the original Star Trek to an era completely untouched by past Trek shows.
It was a big change, though one that Doug Jones, who discussed the new season with Collider, says was helpful to the writers of the show. Jones spoke about the massive time jump in Season 3 and how that impacted the writing of the series in a meaningful way that will allow for further change:
We were playing ten years before the original series in the first two seasons. Now, we’ve jumped way ahead of all of the series. We started having to adhere to canon and to make sure that everything we were doing didn’t affect later series and decisions and canon and storylines that have already been filmed and already played. We had to fit in with that. Now, they’ve jumped ahead to where the writers have freedom to create from the ground up.
Jones continued to say that in Season 3, the Star Trek: Discovery writers have a lot more freedom to shape the world in which their characters are. The writers are able to create more creatures, re-introduce old species, and shift the dynamics between existing civilizations in a way they couldn't in the first 2 seasons. This has already been shown in the first 3 episodes of Season 3, as Michael Burnham and crew learned the Federation essentially dissolved following "The Burn".
One thing Doug Jones didn't mention in the interview is that Star Trek: Discovery did play with Star Trek canon in a few key ways, but its writers were tasked with creating ways to make those new elements make sense with the previously existing canon. The greatest example of this was with the introduction of Spock's adopted sister, whose existence was eventually sworn to secrecy following the events of Season 2.
These are the types of fixes and writing workarounds the Star Trek: Discovery team will have to worry less about in Season 3. Existing in an untouched era may also keep the fans critical of the show off their backs as they're paving their own way as opposed to laying a new track behind previously established canon. Of course, it's always a big ask to get all sci-fi fans on board with just about any show, so perhaps Discovery should just focus on doing the best it can for its story going forward.
Star Trek: Discovery airs on CBS All Access Thursdays at 12:01 a.m. PT. Continue to stick with CinemaBlend for more on the franchise, and for the latest news happening in television and movies.
