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STAR TREK is Back !!

Star Trek Discovery Season 2 poster (all pix and art copyright CBS)

The Second Season of Star Trek Discovery has been on for several weeks already and with the coming of Anson Mount as Captain Christopher Pike of the USS ENTERPRISE, this second season starts to look a whole lot more like what Star Trek looked like in the 1960s. Sure with regards the technology, that was an issue with the series ENTERPRISE and it will always remain an issue but what counts is that the heart of it, in looks, characters and stories, conforms to what Star Trek is, was and shall always be. 

AND WHO IS ALSO BACK ?

Ethan Peck ( grandson of Gregory Peck ) as SPOCK

In the current storyline, Spock plays a pivotal role as well as Captain Pike. Since this is all very, very cl;ose to the time of ORIGINAL STAR TREK, (it has been established as playing 10 years before Classic  Star Trek) Spock is still a young man and his friendship with Captain Kirk is years in the future. (10 Years is in that matter also a very safe distance so that it will be unlikely that we will get to see Kirk or other characters in this era.) Ethan Peck is a very interesting choice as an actor for Spock. Despite the facial hair, he looks the part more than Zachary Quinto did. He also acts that way, despite the lack of the usual logic for as far as we have seen him. 

  Michael Burnham and her step-brother Spock

Storywise, without giving away spoilers, there is also much to like in this season. Not only is there humor, a very serious threat that runs all over the season, very good interpersonal development between and with characters, a wonderful return of one particular cast member and a gigantic feeling of incredible relief and gratification for another cast member. Damn, not giving away spoilers can be hard writing. In my opinion also, you can see that there is a bit of an influence of the JJ Abrams films and their look but I do believe that Discovery has developed a genuine look of its own, this season.

 Acting Captain Saru, Spock, Michael Burnham and Captain Christopher Pike

At the moment of writing this we have not yet seen all of it and it looks to be very interesting where this goes. This renewed interest in Star Trek is now also found in other projects that are in development. It must be said however that Paramount's plans for a STAR TREK 4 film are, for the moment, shelved. Nobody can tell if this will be final or not but let's face it, the first 3 Abrams movies were too expensive to make. So we will have to wait and see if Paramount will allow for more films to be made or not. But there is more in the pipeline.

Captain Jean=Luc Picard, last seen in Star Trek Nemesis

The internet is now also buzzing with news and rumors about the new show that will be made with Jean Luc Picard, former Captain of the Star Trek The Next Generation Enterprise. No title has officially been confirmed so far but this will deal with Picard 10 to 20 years after Nemesis and after a big cataclysmic event that has changed outer space and Starfleet. It has not yet been confirmed but this is probably the destruction of Romulus as described in JJ Abrams' Star Trek (2009). This event has dramatic consequences for a lot of people and Picard, no longer a Captain in Starfleet, has to make his way thru all the mess in order to see if he can make things a little better. Production is slated to begin in April and the episodes will go to air in late fall of this year. And guess who will also be back, directing his former Captain ??

Jonathan Frakes aka "Two Takes Frakes"

Jonathan Frakes has directed many episodes of Star Trek The Next Generation as well as some of the other Star Trek shows of the 1990s. But last year he was also back directing Discovery (as well as directing Seth MacFarlane's The Orville, which in many ways can also be seen as a Trek-ish kind of show) and he will be back for two episodes of Discovery this year and he will direct episodes for the as yet untitled Picard show. Good Luck, Jonathan !!!

But still that is not all!!!

 Michelle Yeoh seen here as Captain Giorgou in the first Season of Discovery

Forgive me for giving away spoilers for last Season, if you had not seen it yet but the performance of Michelle Yeoh as Emperess Giorgou (of the Mirror Universe) was so succesful that, once she had been rescued and taken along into our Universe, it was simply absolutely mandatory that her story be continued. And yes, Michelle Yeoh will star again as Philippa Giorgou, formerly of the Mirror Universe but now Head of Section 31, in her own show. No title or other cast yet has been announced but we can not wait to see it.

That is still not all. An animated comedy show, BELOW DECKS, has been announced as well, to show how the life is in the deepest bowels of the least interesting starship, where crewmembers are just cleaning toilets and filling up the machines to produce foodstuffs all over the ship. No images have yet been made available of this. But still, what can we say? Wow !

It seems up there somebody is smiling at all of this!

Thanks, Gene.

(Picture Gene Roddenberry shot on the set of Star Trek The Next Generation)