The third in a series of four planned “Short Trek” episodes has now premiered for fans in the US and Canada (sorry Netflix subscribers in the rest of the world). Penned by the Star Trek: Discovery of Bo Yeon Kim and Erika Lippoldt, “The Brightest Star” gives us the first glimpse at his homeworld of Kaminar.

Thus far, each of the “Short Trek” stories have provided us with something different. “Runaway” looked at an aspect of one of Discovery’s main characters in contemporaneous fashion with the show’s timeline; “Calypso” was radically different, taking us to the far future and providing only the lightest of connections back to Discovery; now “The Brightest Star” serves a new purpose: providing us with some important backstory of Discovery’s main alien character, Commander Saru (Doug Jones).

During the first season of Discovery, we were given only hints about Saru’s origins: as a Kelpien, his species are considered to be prey, and have the natural ability to “sense the coming of death,” as the lanky alien phrased it in “The Vulcan Hello.” This new short story gives us significantly more context to Saru’s history, but also asks new questions that it’ll be a lot of fun to get to the bottom of.

While we don’t see them in “The Brightest Star,” the hunters of Saru’s species are at least given a name — the Ba’ul — and we learn in this episode that Kelpiens have developed a whole religion based around their role in what Saru’s priest father Aradar (Robert Verlaque) calls “the great balance.” The Ba’ul seem to be vastly technologically superior to the Kelpiens, maintaining a regular ritual harvesting of Kelpiens that appears to include some kind of transporter technology.

Saru gets his hands on a piece of the Ba’ul technology and over a period of time learns how to activate a transmitter system within. He makes contact with someone out in the universe — in a manner reminiscent of how young Sarjenka reached out to Data back in TNG’s “Pen Pals,” this time seen from the opposite perspective.

To my surprise, that person is none other than Lieutenant Philippa Georgiou (Michelle Yeoh), reprising the role of the long-departed officer killed in the Discovery opening episodes. Georgiou offers Saru the chance to leave Kaminar and journey to the wider expanse of the Alpha Quadrant — an extraordinary opportunity for a member of a pre-warp species — but despite the warnings that he’ll never be able to return (thanks to the Federation’s rules about societal contamination), Saru accepts the invitation to the stars.

It asks a simple but profound question – if you discovered that there was more to life than your current existence, would you agree to explore it even if the condition was you could never return home?

Star Trek’s answer to that question has always been a resounding yes, to always push towards the next frontier. But the story is often told from the perspective of our Starfleet heroes who see the galaxy for what it is and its significantly expanded potential (save for “First Contact” in TNG’s fourth season, where we come to planet Malcor III through the eyes of its own native scientists).

In many ways, Saru’s decision to leave his homeworld behind and join the wider galaxy is his first major act of courage, that lays the foundations for the progressively less fearful approach he takes throughout his arc in the first season of Discovery. That road, which is also explored in the recent Discovery novel — Fear Itself by James Swallow — begins here, and I’m excited to see where it heads when the show returns in full this January.

This could easily have been significantly longer, and both Discovery’s writers and actor Doug Jones himself have promised that we have not seen the last of Saru’s home, telling TrekCore at New York Comic Con that “The Brightest Star” is very much laying the groundwork for a return to Kaminar in Discovery Season Two.

This Discovery short posed a number of questions that I’m hoping we’ll see addressed along the way:

• Who are the Ba’ul, and how did the sacrificial ‘prey’ relationship between Kelpien and Ba’ul develop?
   
• If the Ba’ul are a technologically advanced society, how does Starfleet feel about them using sentient creatures as livestock?
   
• Who was captain of the USS Shenzhou during this period?

 
One last element of this episode that I really enjoyed, was that it provides additional context for the relationship between Saru and Michael Burnham. Even though Burnham is not mentioned at all in this episode, the sibling rivalry that we saw in the earliest episodes of Discovery, as the two characters bickered for attention and approval from Georgiou, is given much more meaning now.

Georgiou was the entry point for Burnham into Starfleet, as we saw in Discovery’s opener, and now we learn that she served a similar role for Saru — but one much more impactful to his life. Both characters have a strong, enduring relationship with Georgiou, and I hope we continue to explore not just the Georgiou-Burnham relationship, but also the Georgiou-Saru relationship in the context of Mirror Georgiou’s appearance in the ongoing series.

Doug Jones provides his usual bravura performance in this episode, and the other Kelpien characters, including Saru’s sister as played by Siranna (Hannah Spear), give additional depth to the species. I was particularly interested that while Saru rejects Kaminar and the religion and rituals that have developed around the Kelpien’s roles as prey, his father Aradar is a priest of the Kelpien religion and responsible for leading the rituals in which Kelpiens are harvested by the Ba’ul.

“The Brightest Star” is the closest we’ve gotten to a ‘prequel’ for next season, and makes me very excited for the show’s return in mid-January. One more “Short Trek” is still on the way, of course, with the Harry Mudd-centered tale “The Escape Artist” due to arrive in the new year.

These are very exciting times for Star Trek — are you excited to head back to Kaminar and see how Saru’s people react to his new life, or did this story set off your threat ganglia? Let us know what you thought of “The Brightest Star” in the comments below!