David Mack’s Star Trek: Coda — Oblivion’s Gate,the third novel in its trilogy, is the last novel I will ever read under the 20-year Star Trek literary continuity.
And given that I have been a passenger on this journey for two decades, complete with amazing new stories, fascinating characters, themes, and ideas, that’s no small thing. To be honest, I finished Oblivion’s Gate almost three weeks ago, and I just haven’t quite been able to sit down and put down on paper all the ways that I am processing this moment.
If you aren’t a big fan of the books, you might be wondering: what’s all the fuss about? It’s just about a novel. But to those of us who used the books as an important mechanism to keep the spirit of Star Trek alive through a period when we thought the franchise was never going to return to the 24th century and many of the characters that we loved, this is a sad moment.
It meant something to us. It meant a lot to me. And now it’s over.
With Coda, David Mack and his fellow authors – Dayton Ward and James Swallow – have given us an end to the story. It is a definitive, complete, and total ending, coming as part of an utterly gripping narrative that seizes your attention on page one and never lets it go all the way through the end. (Which is saying something, because this must be one of the longest Star Trek novels ever published at 422 pages.)
Along the way, David Mack weaves together a number of themes and ideas from his own works in the Star Trek literary continuity, including: the resurrection of Data (Cold Equations), the fate of the Mirror Universe (Rise Like Lions), the story of Julian Bashir (Section 31: Control), the revelation that Kira is the Hand of the Prophets (Warpath), and the absolute pinnacle of Mack’s Star Trek work — the Destiny trilogy — and the origin of the Borg.
You’ll laugh a bit, and you’ll cry a lot. This story makes you really feel for its characters, and for the sacrifices they must endure for each other. The story is incredibly well told in ways both moving and beautiful, and then it ends — and it’s that end I am really struggling with.
In Oblivion’s Gate, the characters of the Star Trek literary continuity discover that they are not living in the Prime Timeline — the “main universe” that spans all on-screen Star Trek content (excluding the three Chris Pine-led films — and that they are instead living in an unstable timeline.
Their timeline was created by the machinations of the Borg; but not the Collective we’re used to, but the assimilated Earth briefly viewed by the Enterprise-E crew as they chased the time-traveling Borg Sphere back to 21st century Montana in the early moments of Star Trek: First Contact.
The creation of this unstable timeline, the home of all of the book stories of the shared continuity over the last two decades, is what gives the Devidians the idea to begin collapsing entire timelines and feeding on the neural energy of all the dying souls within.
The only solution that can stop the Devidians from moving on to collapse more stable timelines, including the Prime Timeline, is to completely undo the creation of this universe, called “The First Splinter.” That’s right: the entire novelverse timeline isn’t just destroyed, but is completely erased before it can even form, in a choice that even JJ Abrams and the Kelvin Timeline film team declined to make when they rebooted the franchise back in 2009.
With the close of Coda, the authors now definitively state that because of the actions of this tale, the First Splinter timeline ceases to ever be created — and that every single event you’ve read about in those books, and every character moment you’ve followed along the way, explicitly never happened.
All the book original characters you’ve come to care about (Where are my Elias Vaughn fans?), all the relationships you’ve invested in (Picard and Crusher, or Janeway and Chakotay), and all the journeys these characters have been on in stories lasting two decades never happened — and leave no indelible mark on the Star Trek multiverse except through their sacrifice…. and as pages on the shelf of Benny Russell’s apartment.
The authors of Coda clearly want that to be enough. The sacrifice of these characters is the noblest expression of pure intentions you could ever ask for, as not only do they give their lives in service of stopping the Devidians — sometimes in horrific ways — but nobody will ever know that they did it. It’s the purest form of sacrifice, whose nobility is designed to warm you and bolster your resolve despite the grief of the situation.
But it leaves me entirely cold. In the final 50 pages, the book does posit that in other timelines, events very similar to those experienced in the books will have happened — opening the door for “new book” authors to include elements from novel history in future tales.
That’s no comfort to me, knowing now that the specific characters I was invested in — and the ones whose fates I cared about — are gone. And while for some characters there’s some hope that they might appear in tie-in work in the Prime Timeline (James Swallow’s The Dark Veil features Prime Timeline counterparts for several First Splinter Titan characters), for some of those characters that will never be an option.
And given how few books Simon & Schuster are publishing these days, it’s just not practical to assume that more than a handful of characters from The First Splinter will ever make an appearance in the Prime Timeline.
So Jean-Luc Picard is never going to have a son named Rene; Will and Deanna Troi-Riker’s daughter is named Kestra, not Natasha. Those characters, who are both young children, died in this story in pretty horrifying ways. And there’s almost no hope of seeing either character ever appear in any other form in any other work of official Star Trek fiction.
Choosing to kill those children, who have no future outside of the First Splinter, is one whose motivations I think I understand, since it heightens the nobility of the sacrifice. But that’s not how I want my Star Trek books to end. There’s enough horror and misery in this world as it is.
For me, Coda does not end on a hopeful or optimistic note. It ends on a note of horrifying emptiness, that is going to be a constant presence alongside me any time I choose to re-read one of the stories of the Deep Space Nine relaunch, Voyager relaunch, The Next Generation relaunch. Even stories that are almost entirely unconnected from the events of Coda — like Kirstin Beyer’s Voyager relaunch novels, will be haunted by the knowledge that those characters will too be erased from existence.
I sincerely hope that I’m the only person for whom the ending of Oblivion’s Gate does not work — and truly, I want to tip my hat to David Mack, Dayton Ward, and James Swallow for making such a courageous choice, when they could easily have picked a much milder conclusion, allowing this continuity to ‘ride off into the sunset.’
But after weeks of reflecting on it, I can’t help but think I would have much preferred that safer option; something that acknowledges the events of the First Splinter take place in a separate alternate timeline from the Prime Timeline, allowing for their stories to continue off screen — even if it’s just in our imaginations.
At the end of The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and Enterprise, even as the images fade to black and we knew that we’d never follow the characters week-to-week again — as fans, we know those characters’ stories continue, even if we didn’t see them happen. It’s a comfort, even as we mourn that we won’t get to continue to follow their adventures in the same way going forward.
That’s what I wanted for the Star Trek literary continuity. I’m sad I didn’t get that. And that makes the grieving process even worse.
“The Examples” begins with a new revelation about the dark matter anomaly, adds an interesting new personality to the DMA investigative team, and sends Burnham and Book on a dangerous rescue mission which places them both right in the DMA’s path.
After learning that the DMA is apparently an artificial construction, hinted at by its random path through space and then revealed by its ability to jump light years in an instant, I wouldn’t go so far as to say that I’m disappointed… but I do find the anomaly less interesting now than when it was seemingly a force of nature at play.
Reno and Stamets worry about the DMA’s behavior. (Paramount+)
It’s not clear yet whether the DMA is being actively controlled, or even that it’s of recent construction — it’s entirely possible that the anomaly is ancient, set on autopilot, or both — so it’s hard to know for sure that there’s a moustache-twirling villain behind the wheel.
Personally, if it can’t be a natural force then having it be a wanderer of sorts is the next most interesting thing, I suppose; a ‘big bad with a big weapon’ isn’t a particularly original or complex source of drama. If instead the DMA turns out to be something like the planet killer from “The Doomsday Machine” (which was entirely automated), or like V’Ger from Star Trek: The Motion Picture (consciously destructive, but not malicious), I’ll be pleased.
After Admiral Vance (Oded Fehr) rules out some of the more powerful and godlike alien races from Star Trek canon, figuring out who is behind the DMA is going to be no easy task. Despite mild objections from Paul Stamets (Anthony Rapp), the admiral calls in an expert Risian scientist to join the team aboard Discovery, the same prickly and seemingly-arrogant man currently working to develop a new spore drive from Stamets’ research.
Ruan Tarka (Shawn Doyle) arrives to lend his expertise, and while I’m not sure I’d call him arrogant, he is definitely not the easiest guy to work with — but he’s a whole lot of fun to watch. He seems at first to be the fairly tired “lone genius” stereotype that has shown up everywhere in the last decade or two; cranky, abrasive, uncouth, Tarka is like Doctor House in space (or, at least, a more entertaining Mortimer Harren).
Ruan Tarka joins the team. (Paramount+)
It doesn’t take long, though, before something more nuanced starts to peek through the characterization — something that makes him much more interesting. He is confident in his own abilities, yes, but unlike so many other depictions of lone geniuses, Tarka’s self-confidence doesn’t translate into lacking confidence in others.
He may be frustrated with the cautious direction that Stamets and Saru (Doug Jones) want to take their research, but once he wins them over to his plan he is never dismissive of their skills, and doesn’t treat them any less than peers.
Even when there’s conflict of vision, it’s among equals; when Tarka randomly begins wordlessly shouting in Saru’s face, he does so with the hopes that Saru will shout back — and he’s delighted when Saru finally does, much to Jett Reno (Tig Notaro)’s bewilderment.
It’s a subtle difference, but one that is so often missing with this type of character and one that keeps the antagonism from feeling like abuse.
Kovich confronts Culber with the doctor’s resurrection. (Paramount+)
We also learn this week that newly-appointed ship’s counselor Dr. Culber (Wilson Cruz) has been running himself ragged with back-to-back therapy appointments, so much so that Kovich decides to intervene.
It’s not clear from the ten-minute holo-therapy session if Dr. Kovich (David Cronenberg) is himself a trained counselor — or if he’s just filling what on The Next Generation would have been the Guinan role of “wise straight-talker” — but either way, he helps Culber understand just how thoroughly he’s avoided coming to terms with his own experiences of survivor’s guilt.
We haven’t heard a peep about Culber’s murder and subsequent resurrection since he joked about it with Starfleet’s interrogators after the crew arrived to the far future last season, so for all the things Discovery sometimes brushes past without looking back, it’s nice to see that his unlikely resurrection hasn’t been totally forgotten.
As for Kovich, I’m am always happy to see him pop up on the show, but at some point it’d be nice to have some clarity on exactly what his role is within the Starfleet/Federation leadership structure.
Arriving at the asteroids. (Paramount+)
While all that science is happening down in the lab, Discovery is sent to evacuate a small non-Federation asteroid colony located in range of the anomaly’s path. The Radvek Chain, as the colony is known, is peopled by the surprising deep cut Akaali species, an at-the-time pre-warp society seen only in Enterprise’s “Civilization.”
Discovery is quickly on-scene but even so has only three and a half hours to rescue 1200 people before transporters stop working — it’ll be a tight squeeze time wise, but under the supervision of on-site coordinator Lt. Commander Rhys (Patrick Kwok-Choon), the vast majority of the colony gets up to the ship without incident.
Speaking of Rhys, we learn in a rather clunky bit of exposition that he was rescued from a hurricane at the age of five, lending motivation behind his desire to lead the evacuation task force. I’m always glad to learn more about the Discovery crew, but all too often, these bits of character backstory seems to come in the form of information which serves the story, and not out of organic conversation — but what’s strange is that not all the character work is like this.
“I too am a character on this show!” (Paramount+)
For every moment like Rhys announcing he was saved from a hurricane like reading a fact sheet about himself, or Owosekun telling us last year about how she can hold her breath for a very long time due to her upbringing as an abalone diver (ten minutes before we see her need to hold her breath for a very long time), we get moments like Burnham and Book’s casual, charming, and incidental chit-chat about their past adventures together, Reno telling Culber about her lost wife, or Adira handing out random bird facts gleaned from their pasts hosts — all which make them immediately believable as real, complete people.
The difference is dramatic and I wish some of that magic could be extended to other characters, instead of just checking the “learn something about the bridge crew” box while writing the script.
Pretty flashy for an asteroid prison camp. (Paramount+)
Anyhow, back to the show: six prisoners are left behind by the colony’s leadership, the eponymous “Examples,” kept in a heavily-shielded prison which blocks transporters. The local magistrate doesn’t understand why anyone would even want to rescue them; as part of their tradition, prisoners are kept as an example to the general populace of what happens when rules are broken — and apparently that example extends to allowing them to die during a disaster.
Rightfully, Captain Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) insists they be included in the evacuation, and against the magistrate’s wishes she and Book (David Ajala) head down to the facility.
Down on the asteroid, the pair fight and hack their way through a swarm of mobile landmines disguised rather improbably as large beetles. Once inside, they encounter prisoners — all but one of whom have been sentenced to life in prison for extremely petty crimes — who are initially skeptical then grateful for then skeptical again about the rescue.
Very reasonably, they have no interest in being rescued only to be handed back over to the same system that incarcerated them in the first place — and with the destruction of the asteroid chain likely (but not yet entirely certain), they decide they’d rather take their chances on their own. An offer of asylum with the Federation, however, has them changing their mind about escape and agreeing to leave the asteroid.
Felix won’t leave. (Paramount+)
The one exception to the “petty crimes only” rule is a man named Felix (Michael Greyeyes) who, 30 years prior, robbed a man who’d shown him hospitality, and in the course of doing so, killed him. He’s also the one exception to the offer of asylum and rescue — not because he’d rather escape but because he’d rather not live with his guilt any longer.
He sees his death as the ultimate form of penance for a crime that clearly haunts him, though I agree with Book’s complaint that Felix’s death is unnecessary… but also with Burnham’s acknowledgement that Felix’s agency and choices must be respected.
While I appreciate the story’s stance that prisoners are not expendable, and have the same right to rescue as anyone else, the statement is watered down by fact that all but one of the prisoners have committed minor crimes for sympathetic reasons… and that the one serious offender feels — even after 30 years of penance — that he deserves to stay behind and die for it.
I don’t think this is the actual intent of the writers, but by falling back on the notion that mistreatment is only bad if it’s unfair, the implication is that the real problem with the system of “examples” (and leaving people to die) is that it’s disproportionately applied, not that it’s inherently inhumane. To me, the real tragedy here isn’t that Felix dies, but that he feels that he’s unworthy of living and must die to finally pay for his crime.
In one final act of contrition before he’s left behind, Felix gives Burnham a small trinket he’d stolen from the man he killed all those years ago and asks that she keep it. She takes the item and is ultimately able to return it to the daughter of Felix’s victim, who is among the evacuees beamed aboard Discovery.
A wormhole?! At this time of year, at this time of day, in this part of the galaxy, localized entirely within your science lab? (Paramount+)
Meanwhile, in the science lab, Tarka carrying out his plan to construct a tiny scale model of what he thinks is the device at the center of the DMA.
If it works and his suppositions are correct, a small self-contained wormhole should develop around the device. Of course, creating a wormhole inside the hull of a ship is a hell of a risky undertaking, but with Stamets’ own growing enthusiasm and Reno’s assurance that a containment field can be maintained, a very hesitant Saru agrees to proceed with the experiment.
Tarka’s general hypothesis is proven to be correct, but the device needs just a little more power — and then a little more, and then a little more — to keep the wormhole stable. Given the power needs of the device, the correspondingly increasing needs of the containment field, and the power-intensive transporter usage needed to evacuate the colony, Saru has a lot of considerations to balance when deciding if Tarka can have the extra power input he wants.
In the end, Saru relents but with the caveat that he have control of a kill switch to use if he feels Discovery and crew are in danger. After some tense moments, Saru finally pulls the plug when the containment field hits 5% strength. The experiment is over for now, and though Tarka doesn’t get all the data he and Stamets want, the general principle has been proven.
Secrets, secrets, secrets… (Paramount+)
At the end of a long day for both of them, Tarka and Book run into each other in the lounge, Book drinking away his anger over Felix’s death and Tarka celebrating being that much closer to understanding the DMA. Tarka explains that if the comparatively microscopic model needed more power than an entire starship could provide, the real DMA must require an unbelievably immense power source, something on par with a hypergiant star… at minimum.
It’s hard to tell if the ominous turn of this conversation comes from Book not being in a chatty mood (combined with Tarka’s typical intense demeanor), or if something else is going on here. Either way, the scene — and the episode — ends with the clear nudge that Tarka has something to hide. The scar on the back of his neck hints that at some point in his past he was held at an Emerald Chain labor camp, but is he hiding something else as well?
Finally, as the evacuations efforts conclude, Burnham informs a distinctly unhappy magistrate that the five remaining “examples” will not be returning with him to serve out the remainder of their lives in custody. In a standout moment of her burgeoning captaincy — and one that is deeply satisfying to watch — she then reminds him that wherever he ends up now, he’ll be arriving as a refugee… and she hopes for his sake that he finds a more just society than the one he helped create.
Hell yeah.
That look says it all. (Paramount+)
OBSERVATION LOUNGE
This week marks Tig Notaro’s first time in the Discovery opening credits, and the first episode without Mary Wiseman’s name in place.
A quick primer on exactly how big a hypergiant star can be: Eta Carinae, a system in the Carina Nebula containing a hypergiant star, has a mass of up to 125 times that of our sun and is four to five million times brighter. To put that mass into perspective? That nearly 42 million Earths.
Joined by the USS Janeway (!) and another Starfleet vessel, the NSS T’Pau brings the Vulcan — now Ni’Varian — tradition of ring ships into the 32nd century and I couldn’t be happier about it. Love a good ring ship!
Ring ships: still cool. (Paramount+)
Vance makes reference to many powerful races from Star Trek past, including the “surviving members” of the Iconian Empire, the Metrons, and the Nacene.
He also mentions the Q Continuum, noting that it hasn’t been heard from in 600 years — which seems like a pretty significant bit of info to drop ahead of Picard’s second season, (which will be featuring the return of John DeLancie’s Q).
When discussing Tarka’s study of spore drive technology, Stamets notes that he shared information about the JahSepp, the alien species we met in Season 2 which lives inside the mycelial network.
I expect to see a lot of fan fiction spring from Book and Burnham’s reminisces about their year spent as space pirates — who weren’t romantically involved with each other but really wanted to be.
Book brandishes as a neat-looking civilian phaser while on the evacuation mission.
Book’s neat phaser. (Paramount+)
Burnham queries Zora about historical records in the precious Sphere Data archives, one of the few uses of the ancient database since the ship’s arrival in the 32nd century.
Zora, the ship’s AI, has gained enough sentience to begin to understand and experience emotions and has taken to analyzing “microinflections” to determine the mood of the speaker. This is an ethically and functionally iffy application of AI now in the 21st century, so for the sake of the crew I’m hoping there’s been some vast improvement by the 32nd.
The last thing folks on the ship need is their computer deciding they’re lying or unhappy or whatever when they’re not, simply because of a misread of their demeanor. This is likely enough just with variations among humans, but adding in the cultural and physical differences of alien crewmembers? Yeesh.
Burnham is surprised to hear of Zora’s new emotional capacity. (Paramount+)
While I don’t think he’s responsible for the DMA, it’s possible Tarka sees it as an opportunity to enact revenge on someone (or something), either by taking control of it or creating a copy of it for his own use. If it means we get to see more him, then by all means make him the bad guy — Shawn Doyle’s take on the character is far too fun for me to complain — but I do think it would be refreshing for the abrasive eccentric to be an ally.
Not everyone who’s pleasant is necessarily good, and not everyone who’s unpleasant is necessarily bad, and Tarka as a “chaotic good” presence would really liven things up around this ship.
Following a first few glimpses last month, the team behind the in-progress 4K UHD remastering of the Star Trek: The Motion Picture Director’s Edition today shared some new high-resolution captures of some new visual effects work from the 2022 release!
Shared at the official Star Trek website, the updated look behind the scenes now includes not only a look at new imagery from the film, but a surprise as well: the team has located and scanned in original photography plates of images planned for use in the 1979 edition of The Motion Picture, but never used — even in the 2001 Director’s Edition.
Producer David C. Fein writes, “Using scans of original 1979 photography plates-including some intended to be used but were omitted at the time — our team is digitally recombining these elements to present them as they were originally intended, and with a clarity and quality unimagined. I can’t wait for everyone to see it!”
Of note in this image (as spotted by TMP Visual Comparisons on Twitter) is the always-missing planet Earth behind the Enterprise as it leaves drydock; while the planet always appears behind the starship and framing in most orbital scenes, it has always been just “gone” from the departure sequence — this is a nice restoration of the original intent.
Fein provided high-resolution images from the 4K VFX work, including this look at Vulcan’s surface — with the sunlight levels raised from the 2001 edition, much more in line with the lighting from the live-action footage that accompanies it.
The producer notes: “As originally intended, Spock returns to the temple during the day…. This certainly makes sense since you can see him block sunlight from his eyes In a previous shot. The theatrical version had a night sky with moons… and as previously stated in the original show, “Vulcan has no moons!”
2001 DVD2022 remasterSpock (Leonard Nimoy) squints at the bright Vulcan sun overhead.
Fein also shared these images of the Enterprise’s time inside V’Ger, which include newly-rendered visual effects shots for the movie that feature updated color timing and lighting effects. (While the lens flares shown here have already created some to complain on social media, the momentary flash of light will pass nearly instantly when the film is in motion.)
For a comparison of just how much larger the new 4K image is compared to the standard-definition DVD, here’s an inlay showing that original 480p image size within the new UHD framing:
The DVD and 4K picture sizes compared at the same scale.
Finally, Fein also shared this look at the famous “reflection of the Enterprise” visual effects shot that was created originally for the 2001 DVD edition, showing the refit starship reflected in Admiral Kirk’s face while approaching from space.
Curiously, this preview image is somewhat lower-quality than expected — possibly even an upscaled image from the standard-def picture size, but that is speculation — which hopefully means this iconic shot from the Director’s Edition is still “under construction” in their team’s edit bay.
2001 DVD2022 remaster
The remastered Director’s Edition will debut on Paramount+ in 2022, but we have no doubt it will eventually come to 4K UHD Blu-ray and standard Blu-ray disc formats after the P+ exclusivity window closes.
In addition, stick around to listen to Heather’s theory about when the hype machine for Star Trek: Strange New Worlds will officially get started, and Alex’s response to theories about Mary Wiseman’s Star Trek: Discovery status being tied to the possible launch of a Starfleet Academy show.
WeeklyTrek is available to subscribe and download each week on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, YouTube, and Spotify— and we’ll be sharing the details of each new episode right here on TrekCore each week if you’re simply just looking to listen in from the web.
Do you have a wish or theory you’d like to share on the show? Tweet to Alex at @WeeklyTrek, or email us with your thoughts about wishes, theories, or anything else about the latest in Star Trek news!
A fully-realized Borg Queen skull from Star Trek: First Contact was announced today by the company, a massive 35″ replica of the chrome prop seen in the eighth Trek film is set to arrive in early 2022 — giving fans who can afford the small-run collectable their own version of the device Captain Picard destroyed after defeating the Borg invasion of the Enterprise-E.
Packaged with display stand and including electronic lighting, the enormous prop replica is based on the original prop from Star Trek: First Contact which was last on public display at the 2019 Star Trek Las Vegas and San Diego Comic Con conventions as part of the early Star Trek: Picard promotional tour.
The skull prop seen at STLV 2019.
The Factory Entertainment replica will also come with a display plaque signed by the original Borg Queen herself, actress Alice Krige, who played the cybernetic leader in First Contact and the Star Trek: Voyager series finale “Endgame.”
Factory Entertainment shared these photos of their planned product with us; please note these are prototype images and the final Borg Queen skull replica may reflect changes during final development.
Factory Entertainment — Borg Queen Skull Prop Replica
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Prototype image. (Photo: Factory Entertainment)
Prototype image. (Photo: Factory Entertainment)
Prototype image. (Photo: Factory Entertainment)
Prototype image. (Photo: Factory Entertainment)
Prototype image. (Photo: Factory Entertainment)
Prototype image. (Photo: Factory Entertainment)
Here are are the details on the new replica from Factory Entertainment’s website:
In the Star Trek Universe, the Borg Queen is not a single entity, but is one of many. In Star Trek: First Contact, she was memorably portrayed on-screen by Alice Krige. We are proud to present this replica as a Signature Edition, with a plaque personally signed by Ms. Krige.
— The Original Prop: A physical skull prop was created for confrontation scenes at the end of Star Trek: First Contact. Made from resin, it was augmented with LED lights and animatronics. The physical prop was blended seamlessly with CGI to create the final scenes.
— The Replica: Our Borg Queen Skull Signature Edition Replica has been copied directly from the surviving prop in the CBS archives to ensure accuracy.
The main body of the replica is cast from heavyweight polyurethane resin with an electroplated chrome finish. The replica is augmented by various plastic and rubber parts to match the original prop and features an articulated spinal cord. On screen the prop was presented as being heavily damaged by corrosive plasma, so each replica has been hand-weathered to lend a ‘battle damaged’ appearance.
Electronic light features have been incorporated to simulate the special effects seen on screen. These include multiple LEDs and a ‘fade-out’ sequence that replicates the moment that the Borg Queen ceased to function.
—Technical Details: Requires 3x AAA Batteries (not included).
Size without Stand: 35 x 6 x 8″ (889 x 152 x 203mm)
Size with Stand: 37 x 10 x 12″ (939 x 254 304mm)
This is a strictly limited signature edition of just 250 pieces and includes a cast metal hand-signed plaque, a display stand, and certificate of authenticity/prop story booklet.
While the price is certainly going to be a shock to many, for the size and complexity of this replica it’s not entirely unreasonable for this kind of product — but it’s certainly not going to fit into everyone’s budget!
Factory Entertainment’s replica is limited to a run of only 250 pieces, and is now available for preorder at a price of $1499 (with a $50 non-refundable deposit required at the time of preorder) — the company projects it to be shipping by next April’s First Contact Day, which also means that if things move ahead as scheduled, we may get to see one in person at the April 2022 Star Trek convention in Chicago.
Does this Borg Queen skull replica meet your definition of perfection? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!
The newest episode of Star Trek: Discovery’s fourth season beams down this week, and we’ve got a new collection of photos from “The Examples” to share with you today!
This week, the crew of the Discovery rush to evacuate a group of Akaali— a race introduced in the early Star Trek: Enterprise episode “Civilization” — from a settlement set in the path of the gravitational anomaly threatening the quadrant, leading Captain Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) and Book (David Ajala) to beam down to the colony to get the last citizens out of harm’s way.
Meanwhile Paul Stamets (Anthony Rapp) and Saru (Doug Jones) must work with visiting scientist Ruon Tarka (The Expanse’s Shawn Doyle) to unlock the DMA’s secrets, as Jett Reno (Tig Notaro) makes her first appearance of the season.
Here are seventeen new photos from this week’s episode.
STAR TREK: DISCOVERY Episode 405: 'The Examples'
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Culber and Stamets have a conversation. (Paramount+)
Kovich speaks with Culber. (Paramount+)
Kovich on Discovery. (Paramount+)
Kovich on Discovery. (Paramount+)
Saru sees Tarka enter the bridge. (Paramount+)
Ruon Tarka. (Paramount+)
Saru in the science lab. (Paramount+)
Stamets and Saru in the science lab. (Paramount+)
Ruon Tarka. (Paramount+)
Saru and Burnham on the bridge. (Paramount+)
Captain Burnham in tactical gear. (Paramount+)
Saru in command. (Paramount+)
Saru and Linus on the bridge. (Paramount+)
Saru and Linus on the bridge. (Paramount+)
An alien crewmember on the bridge. (Paramount+)
Book in Discovery's lounge. (Paramount+)
Book and Tarka in Discovery's lounge. (Paramount+)
* * * *
And in case you haven’t seen it, here’s a the official preview for this week’s episode.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APiM0ixVscY
THE EXAMPLES — Burnham and Book race to evacuate a group of stranded colonists in the anomaly’s path as one of the Federation’s brightest scientists comes aboard the U.S.S. Discovery to do high-stakes research with Saru and Stamets.
Written by Kyle Jarrow. Directed by Lee Rose.
Star Trek: Discovery returns with “The Examples” on December 16 on Paramount+ in the United States, and on CTV Sci Fi Channel and Crave in Canada. Outside of North America, the series is available on Paramount+ and on Pluto TV in select international locations.
A brand new Star Trek game was just announced tonight, for all of you who have been clamoring for digital action in the final frontier!
Star Trek: Resurgence is scheduled to arrive next spring, a “third-person, choice-driven adventure game” from developer Dramatic Labs — a post-Voyager series set in the year 2380, right after the Star Trek: The Next Generation movies.
Planned to be available on Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, Playstation 4 and Playstation 5 consoles — as well as for PC through the Epic Games Store, Star Trek: Resurgence centers around the crew of the USS Resolute, a Centaur-class Federation starship of the late 24th century.
From the official press release:
Dramatic Labs, a new fully remote independent game developer comprised of veterans from Telltale Games, in collaboration with ViacomCBS Consumer Products, today revealed Star Trek: Resurgence, a new third-person choice-driven adventure game set within the iconic sci-fi universe.
Star Trek: Resurgence is an interactive narrative video game that tells an original story set in the era shortly after the events of Star Trek: The Next Generation. Stationed aboard the U.S.S. RESOLUTE, players will assume the role of two principal characters, First Officer Jara Rydek and Engineering Crewperson Carter Diaz, as they unravel a sinister mystery involving two alien civilizations on the brink of war.
Throughout the game, players will immerse themselves in the Star Trek Universe, interacting with new and returning characters through a variety of dialogue and action gameplay to determine the course of the story.
The seasoned team at Dramatic Labs is composed of industry veterans, including twenty former Telltale developers that have worked on games such as The Walking Dead: The Telltale Series, The Wolf Among Us, Game of Thrones: The Telltale Series, and Batman: The Telltale Series.
Star Trek: Resurgence is scheduled for worldwide release in Spring 2022 for Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, PlayStation®5, PlayStation®4 gaming consoles, and exclusively on the Epic Games Store for PCs.
'Star Trek: Resurgence'
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In addition to today’s announcement and trailer, which features a look at gameplay and what seems to be an appearance of Ambassador Spock (voiced by a Leonard Nimoy sound-alike), the official Star Trek: Resurgence website also adds some additional detail to our opening knowledge about this upcoming game.
From that site’s FAQ page:
Star Trek: Resurgence is a narrative adventure game featuring dialog choices, relationship building, and exploration. Alongside dialog-driven role playing and rich branching storylines, you will also engage with the Star Trek universe in a variety of other gameplay styles, including shuttle piloting, phaser fights, tricorder scanning, stealth, and micro-gameplay mechanics.
Star Trek: Resurgence is set in the year 2380, in the era immediately following the Star Trek: The Next Generation feature films; [the game] features an all new crew on an all new starship, but also includes characters that are fan favorites. Stay tuned for more info!
Direct control of player movement in Star Trek: Resurgence uses a 3rd person “over the shoulder” camera. Dialog-driven role-playing is presented in a playable cinematic format [and the game] follows two principal characters through a single epic story, with gameplay switching between the characters, similar to Telltale’s Game of Thrones or Tales from the Borderlands.
Star Trek: Resurgence is proudly being built using Epic’s Unreal engine and Beanie™, our interactive screenwriting system and narrative engine; [the game] is a single player experience without microtransactions, DLC or other additional monetization models.
More information on this game is likely to come soon, if the Spring 2022 release target is to be believed — so keep your tricorders locked here at TrekCore for more coverage as we get closer to the Star Trek: Resurgence release!
In this week’s new Star Trek: Discovery episode, a lapsed alliance is reformed, frustrated greenhorn cadets find themselves in an even more frustrating crisis, and an original member of the USS Discovery crew takes a first step into a new adventure.
The first captain’s log since Burnham took command catches us up on the latest happenings aboard Discovery, and among the Federation and its allies. Negotiations for Ni’Var to rejoin the Federation are nearly complete as the ship orbits the former Vulcan homeworld — but while the Discovery the crew is enjoying a renewed focus on rest, relaxation, and general wellbeing, the ship’s counselor has a fully-booked calendar.
Book (David Ajala) finds a seat in Dr. Culber’s (Wilson Cruz) office, finally taking Burnham’s advice around his grief over losing Kweijian. At first, the session is a bit stiff and uncomfortable as he resists Culber’s attempt to recreate a Kweijian healing ritual, but once the doctor shares a personal story about his own history experiencing grief and death, Book seems to warm up.
In his attempt to gain Book’s trust, Culber voices something that has always lurked behind Star Trek’s depiction of therapy: the unusual preexisting relationships between therapist and patient. Just as Counselor Troi is good friends, a trusted colleague, and an occasional romantic partner with members of her crewmates aboard the Enterprise, Culber also knows the people who come to see him — well before they sit on his couch.
By sharing something about his own experiences with Book, Culber breaks a general rule of a typical therapy dynamic, but because Culber knows his patient he’s actually leveling the playing field in a way. I would be interested to know what a real life therapist thinks about this, or how mental health professionals in other similarly insular settings handle clients who they may already know.
In the end, though, Culber does seems to break through to Book — while he’s still not excited about the process of therapy, Book is at least willing to continue with it.
Meanwhile, down on Ni’Var, Captains Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) and Saru (Doug Jones) have been asked to replace an indisposed Admiral Vance at a summit where President Rillak (Chelah Horsdal) and President T’Rina (Tara Rosling) are about to bring the logical world back into the Federation fold.
The two captains have been told to simply stay quiet and look official from the sidelines, but the pair immediately sense that something else is going on — just as Ni’Var’s reentry to the Federation is about to be finalized, President T’Rina springs a strict last minute requirement on Rillak: Ni’Var must have an exit clause from this arrangement, allowing them to leave the UFP again without any resistance.
This, Rillak argues, would weaken the Federation and be unfair to other member worlds, none of whom have a similar clause. Neither side is willing to budge and when it appears that the negotiations are about to fall apart, Burnham speaks up. Her words don’t solve the larger problem, but she at least creates time for the two sides to cool off enough to request a recess instead of walking away entirely.
During the break, the captains work their relationships with each leader to find out what’s going on behind the scenes. Saru speaks with T’Rina, and learns about the concerns of her supporters, who feel that the Federation will revert to its pre-Burn ways, and once again become too centralized to recognize the unique needs of its individual member worlds.
Rillak on the other hand feels the Federation cannot withstand the weakening that such a clause with Ni’Var would create, explaining her own stance on the matter to Burnham — and after Discovery’s captain sees each leader bound by their position not to offer a compromise, Burnham offers a compromise of her own, allowing both presidents to save face while still keeping the negotiations moving.
Instead of an exit clause for Ni’Var (or any other member world), Burnham proposes an independent oversight council to serve as mediator for any world which has a concern with its relationship with Federation leadership, tasked with regularly monitoring how the Federation addresses the individual needs and concerns of its members.
As the council’s first act, Burham offers to serve herself as a bridge between the two political bodies, given her unique position as a Starfleet officer raised and schooled in Vulcan society.
After the negotiations, Burnham and Rillak talk again and seem much more confident and trusting in one another than they did at the start of the season, a development that I appreciate and honestly didn’t see coming. The change feels organic to their relationship and true to both characters and their varying perspectives and priorities.
In short? I think I might owe Rillak an apology.
Lieutenant Tilly (Mary Wiseman) is also spending time with Dr. Culber this week, and after she expresses her uncertainty in what direction to take her lately-aimless life, he recommends her for a special assignment — leading a training mission for the recently-reopened Starfleet Academy, with an added benefit of taking a break from all the gravitational anomaly business.
Joined by Ensign Tal (Blu del Barrio), Tilly gets assigned to lead a six-hour shuttle survey mission to a desert moon, a team-building exercise sorely needed as the cadets — who grew up in the post-Burn era — have not yet learned to open up to one another and work together.
Before they get to their destination, the shuttle is hit by a gamma ray burst, and they are sent careening toward an icy moon. The pilot is killed in the shuttle’s crash landing, communications are down, and the wildlife is hostile. With only a few days of rations and no way to signal for help, the group can’t stay in the downed shuttlecraft and it’s up to Tilly to get them to nearby high ground. Sounds simple enough, right?
Well, it probably would be… if Tilly weren’t saddled with the most dysfunctional team in the history of stories about dysfunctional teams. This trope is common enough in fiction and has been used several times before in Star Trek, often to good effect, “All is Possible” has admiral intentions but a seriously flawed execution.
For one thing, the attitude of these cadets is strange, even before the drama begins. I get that despite being at the Academy for “a few months,” these three people don’t know each other as individuals or as cultures, and they don’t really want to know each other. Fine.
But what’s up with them refusing to speak to Lieutenant Tilly, their commanding officer? I know that part of the purpose of this storyline is to underscore just how brittle the Federation’s cultural dynamic is — especially after the Burn screwed up everything on the intergalactic-harmony front — but they’re acting like bored teenagers resentful of a chaperone, instead of people who signed up to be students at a multicultural quasi-military academy.
Broken Federation dynamic aside, they do all know how a school works and that adults will ask them questions which they, as officers-in-training, are expected to answer, right? When they do finally introduce themselves to Tilly, we learn that human cadet Sasha (Amanda Arcuri) had never met an alien before she came to the academy, that Tellarite cadet Gorev (Adrian Walters) hates Orions because of the now-defunct Emerald Chain, and that Orion cadet Harral (Seamus Patterson) is quiet and smart in a way that seems smug and superior.
Adding a bit to the friction, Adira is surprised that they’re being asked to participate as another cadet — instead of as Tilly’s assistant — but they fall in line quickly without further issue. The other three, however, continue to squabble as if their lives depended on it.
Gorev in particular, seems so intent on aggressively shooting down every one of Tilly’s commands (and ideas from everyone else in the group) that I immediately grew suspicious of him, thinking he was deliberately trying to sabotage the rescue — or even that this was all part of the training exercise, a plant who there to deliberately create strife. None of this is the case, which actually makes it worse.
He is simply a deeply unlikeable character who takes out his anger — some of which is understandable, given his prior life experiences — on everyone around him, whether they’re the cause of that anger or not. Frankly, I cannot comprehend how this guy is still a student at the Academy. Does he yell at and mock all of his instructors the way he does Tilly, or is he simply incredibly quick to panic in stressful situations?
In his defense, the makeup appliance worn by the actor is so thick that he is essentially unable to emote other than by yelling — especially out on location shoots — so I suppose that does limit the actor’s performance to a pretty small range.
Regardless of the the tusked cadet’s thinking that absolutely everything is a terrible idea, Tilly does manage to get the team to the top of a distant ridge — the high ground needed to get a signal to a nearby Federation starship — but not without a few detours, as along the way Adira gets trapped in some quickly-expanding ice.
The group has to pull the ensign free by way, essentially, of a game of tug-of-war — and then the team decides to stand around for several long minutes having heart-to-heart discussions while in a hostile environment populated by large hungry creatures. The only way this could have been any more cliche as far as the team-building element is concerned is if they’d had to rescue Adira by doing trust falls.
(Also, if the dangerous creatures are so attracted to Starfleet tech, why was Tilly’s first move to crank up her programmable matter machine?)
The pacing and construction of sequence is my second major problem with this part of the story. The dialogue, the emotional revelations, the purpose of it? That’s all fine. It’s the placement of this drawn-out emotional discussion distracts me from what I should be paying attention to.
Instead of being engrossed in the characters and their growth, I spent the entire scene thinking — once again, as I mentioned two weeks ago — “Guys, how about you do this later?!” Surely the instinct for self preservation is going to be stronger than the need to yell at your buddy, right?
Get to the top of the mountain and then have it out.
In the end, it doesn’t really matter because the ice and the cold and the creatures all decide to politely take a coffee break while Gorev yells at the Harral for being an Orion and Adira explains that actually, his father was a prominent abolitionist who died a political prisoner without living to see the demise of the Syndicate which he’d worked so hard to take down.
(I guess they had time to research all of the cadets’ family histories sometime in the few minutes between being assigned to the mission and the crash?)
With that sorted, the Tellarite looks as sheepish as he can under all that makeup, and all of his complaints about Tilly’s plan disappear as the crew presses on through the tundra… but once they get to the top of the mountain, Tilly and Adira realize that one of them is going to have to go back down to distract the creatures while the other four stay on the ridgeline and call for help.
Tilly volunteers, and she makes enough of a target for the creature to focus on that Adira manages to get the Armstrong on comms safely, beaming everyone out of danger just in time.
Arriving safely back at the academy, Tilly vouches for the young trio, saying they’ll all make great Starfleet officers. (Let’s just say that she has much more confidence in those cadets than I do.)
On the surface, “All Is Possible” seems to walk similar paths to “The Galileo Seven” and Data’s time captaining the Sutherland in “Redemption II,” while the Tellarite cadet’s attitude — so combative as to be suspicious — reminds me of the imposter Bolian cadet in “Allegiance” who was planted in that group to sew trouble among the captives.
Where this week’s episode fails, and those other examples succeed, is that we’re expected here to simply accept the drama as it comes.
“Galileo Seven” and “Redemption” put characters in positions for us to side with or against them; we’re supposed to dislike (or at least disagree) those stories’ antagonists and side with Spock and Data, making their eventual triumphs our own. “Allegiance” expects us to notice and grow skeptical of the cadet’s unusual and unprofessional behavior, and when we’re proven right, it’s as satisfying for us as it is for Captain Picard.
“All Is Possible,” however, seems to want us to just be passive observers of the situation and its characters — because while the characters might find catharsis among themselves, there simply isn’t any there for the viewer.
Tilly’s journey out of her comfort zone culminates in the opportunity to take on a new position: teaching at the new Starfleet Academy, bringing some of that “old world” Federation hope and teamwork to the newest generation of cadets.
After a touching conversation with Burnham in which we learn that Tilly’s promotion to lieutenant was — unexpectedly for her — a completely hollow achievement, part of a drive to succeed in Starfleet’s command track to impress and show up her mother… who now, centuries gone, isn’t a driving force behind Tilly’s motivations any longer.
After a few emotional moments between the best friends, Tilly says goodbye to the rest of the Discovery crew via a montage of hugs and smiles — no time for similar farewell conversations with Saru or Stamets, it seems, or her just-visited counselor, Dr. Culber — Tilly transfers off of of the ship, watching as the Discovery warps off to new adventure without her.
OBSERVATION LOUNGE
“All Is Possible” takes place on Stardate 865661.2.
David Cronenberg returns for the first time this season as Dr. Kovich, first time his character has been named in dialogue.
According to Kovich, none of the cadets have gotten to know each other at all during the four months they’ve been at the Academy. How is that possible when there are only like 16 cadets there? This sounds like an Academy problem, honestly!
32nd century Starfleet cadets have their own distinctive combadge, with the entire backing ‘oval’ removed and a series of bars extending from the right side.
The creature that is hunting the survey party is pretty neat looking — kind of like a ten-food-wide hermit crab that was actually an octopus, and had glowing red magma for blood?
We’ve seen Tilly’s snowglobe collection before, but her “All Is Possible” snowglobe gifted to Adira houses a teeny-tiny Enterprise NX-01 inside — while prop master Mario Moreira revealed on The Ready Room that it was a custom build, it’s very similar to a commercially available Star Trek: Enterprise snowglobe released a few years back.
Freshly re-incorporated, Gray (Ian Alexander) must do regular Trill meditation to stay grounded in his new body — but not before getting a stylish new look.
Dr. Culber’s counseling office is a redress of the Discovery ready room set, with a fancy divider placed behind his chair.
Burnham pronounces Bajor with an emphasis on the second syllable — “Ba-JOR” — just like Captain Picard in “Emissary.”
Can we talk about that horrendous Poltergeist II tequila worm situation that Admiral Vance was supposed to have been dealing with? How huge was this thing if they had to wait for it to gestate before “extracting” it? Good job, Discovery, bringing the body horror to an episode that features David Cronenberg as a guest star.
We learn from T’Rina that disgraced Qowat Milat sister J’Vini has been sentenced to punitive meditation, just like T’Lyn on Lower Decks.
T’Rina knows how Saru likes his tea — with salt, of course — and Burnham is very quick to notice their whole vibe. Those two have an amazing dynamic together, and I have to say I think I ship ’em. More flirty meditation sessions between Saru and T’Rina, please!
As to the question a great many are asking: is Mary Wiseman beaming out of Star Trek: Discovery for good? Well, despite her departure from the USS Discovery, this won’t be the last we’ll see of Wiseman this season; Paramount+ tells us that we’ll see Tilly again before the season’s end, but when?
Even the actor isn’t spilling the beans on that; in an interview with Forbes today, Wiseman confirmed that she’s not going to be gone forever — and that Tilly’s new assignment was a writing decision.
“What I can tell you is that Tilly will be back later this season…
[The change to Starfleet Academy] just felt like an organic outgrowth of the story, that she was in this sweet place of questioning, both her past and her motivations for the path that she was currently on,” said Wiseman. “That’s kind of what this character needed, some time to grow, on her own, as an adult. So it’s kind of a natural extension of that.”
Discovery Season 4 has completed filming, of course, but how her commitment to that production will impact her availability for a still-yet-unannounced fifth season of the show is unknown; that said, with the grueling 10-month filming schedule on Season 4 behind them, it’s possible everybody in the cast is just getting a nice long vacation before the crew heads back to Toronto.
We’ll just have to wait to see how things shake out — even Wiseman herself told Slashfilm that she’s not allowed to say any more about it.
In the meantime, here’s Mary Wiseman on today’s episode of The Ready Room, where she discusses Tilly’s transition to Starfleet Academy, and more.
Like the Data figure this summer, the 12-inch Picard figure comes with a full set of Starfleet accessories, from the character’s uniform, tricorder, and hand phaser to the two-handed phaser rifle and a trio of hand pairs to mix and match for possibility.
Unlike the Data figure, however, Captain Picard comes with a new uniform feature: the grey captain’s vest, worn by Patrick Stewart once the Enterprise-E crew took the fight below decks and to the Borg Queen directly.
It’s packaged nicely with a foam insert to prevent wrinkles or damage in transit, and with a Velcro flap built in to both garments, swapping the Starfleet uniform jacket for the vest is relatively easy to do.
(Perhaps it would be a bit cleaner to have the Velcro release on the back of the jacket and vest, to allow the front of the uniform to keep a well-tailored look.)
The only downside for the removable tops is that each doesn’t fit quite as tightly on the figure as a non-removable tailoring; the cut of the jacket makes the figure seem a little bulky due to the slightly larger size, which also hinders a little of the arm posability as well.
Underneath the jacket, Picard’s maroon undershirt is matched with black suspenders holding up his uniform — identical to the actor’s real costume on set; unfortunately, the red undershirt sleeves still have an issue staying in place when posing the arms of the figure, allowing the unpainted wrist joints to be exposed in a somewhat unsightly way.
It’s probably a difficult thing to manage at this scale, especially when the outer layer of the costuming is removable, but something at the wrist is really needed to keep that inner sleeve in place — especially when holding up a tricorder or phaser — and at minimum, the forearm and wrist joint need to be painted to match the hands to reduce the weirdness there.
The Picard figure also gave a bit of trouble when it came to attaching the various hand choices, requiring a great deal of force to keep the interchangeable hands in place — which made it a bit tricky to pose any accessories in his hands without the hands themselves falling off their wrist pegs.
As for the character likeness — well, that’s always going to be a bit subjective, but the head sculpt definitely has a few angles where you can see Patrick Stewart peeking out. (Certainly more than the preview images back in the late spring seemed to offer.
Here’s a whole bunch of additional photos of Starfleet’s flagship commander, with as much detail as we could capture on the skin detailing, face sculpt, posability, and costuming.
EXO-6's 1:6-Scale STAR TREK: FIRST CONTACT Captain Picard
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EXO-6 has also teased that an Enterprise-E captain’s chair accessory is in the works a few months back, hopefully that product is still viable because it would be a great addition to this Picard figure.
EXO-6’s Captain Janeway is arriving to collectors who ordered back in August, so watch for our review of the first Voyager figure here soon.
The USS Voyager’s holographic doctor set to follow in the early part of 2022, and the company’s their Mirror Spock from the classic Star Trek series are up for preorder now — with Seven of Nine, the Borg Queen, Star Trek: Discovery’s Emperor Georgiou, and more all teased for next year.
If you bought the Enterprise-E’s captain too, let’s hear your thoughts on EXO-6’s work in the comments below!
The newest episode of Star Trek: Discovery’s fourth season beams down this week, and we’ve got a new collection of photos from “All is Possible” share with you today!
Last week, Discovery arrived at planet Ni’Var as research into the dark matter anomaly (or “DMA”) threatening the quadrant continues, and in “All Is Possible,” we remain at the Vulcan homeworld as Captain Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) and Saru (Doug Jones) attend a diplomatic negotiation.
Meanwhile, Lt. Tilly (Mary Wiseman) and Ensign Tal (Blu del Barrio) pitch in back at the newly-reopened Starfleet Academy, leading a group of young cadets on a training mission — where things get complicated for the young officers after their shuttle crashes on a dangerous artic planet.
Here are 23 new photos from this week’s episode.
STAR TREK: DISCOVERY Episode 404: 'All Is Possible'
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Tilly (Mary Wiseman) and Adira (Blu del Barrio) at Starfleet Academy. (Paramount+)
Kovich (David Cronenberg) returns. (Paramount+)
Tilly, Adira and four cadets -- on ice. (Paramount+)
Tilly, Adira and four cadets -- on ice. (Paramount+)
Tilly leads the cadets, with some kind of cable. (Paramount+)
An Orion cadet. (Paramount+)
A Tellarite cadet. (Paramount+)
The doctor is in. (Paramount+)
Tilly and Culber (Wilson Cruz) in a counseling session. (Paramount+)
Tilly and Culber in a counseling session. (Paramount+)
Book (David Ajala) and Culber in a counseling session. (Paramount+)
Book and Culber in a counseling session. (Paramount+)
Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) and Stamets (Anthony Rapp) share lunch. (Paramount+)
Saru (Doug Jones) and Burnham have a meeting. (Paramount+)
President Rillak (Chelah Horsdal) in the ready room. (Paramount+)
Burnham in her dress uniform. (Paramount+)
President T'Rina (Tara Rosling) of Ni'Var. (Paramount+)
Burnham and Saru at the summit. (Paramount+)
In case you haven’t seen it, here’s a clip from this week’s episode which debuted during The Ready Room last Thursday, as Kovich (David Cronenberg) returns for the first time this season, apparently helping out at Starfleet Academy.
ALL IS POSSIBLE — Tilly and Adira lead a team of Starfleet Academy cadets on a training mission that takes a dangerous turn. Meanwhile, Burnham is pulled into tense negotiations on Ni’Var.
Written by Alan McElroy & Eric J. Robbins. Directed by John Ottman.
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In addition to all of the above “All Is Possible” content, Paramount+ has also released this excertp from The Ready Room, featuring Discovery costume designer Gersha Phillips as she details the work and design efforts behind the new uniforms and wardrobe seen this season.
Star Trek: Discovery returns with “All Is Possible” on December 9 on Paramount+ in the United States, and on CTV Sci Fi Channel and Crave in Canada. Outside of North America, the series is available on Paramount+ and on Pluto TV in select international locations.
Star Trek: The First 4 FilmsRemastered for 4K Blu-ray
Star Trek: The Original SeriesBlu-ray Steelbooks
