star trek discovery romulan

Who Is Doctor Vellek? TNG Romulan In Star Trek: Discovery Explained

Warning: SPOILERS for Star Trek: Discovery Season 5, Episode 1 - "Red Directive"

• Dr. Vellek's discovery of Progenitors' technology kicks off a galactic treasure hunt in Star Trek: Discovery season 5.
• The Romulan scientist kept the location secure with a paper diary hidden in a puzzle box on his 24th-century ship.
• The Progenitors' technology holds the power to create and destroy, potentially changing the galaxy forever.

In Star Trek: Discovery season 5, episode 1, "Red Directive", the USS Discovery's mission takes Captain Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) to an 800-year-old Romulan starship containing the belongings and the remains of a long-dead Romulan scientist named Doctor Vellek (Michael Copeman). Vellek has been entombed in his ship since the 24th century, when Star Trek: The Next Generation takes place. Dr. Vellek's notes contain key information on the galaxy's greatest treasure: a mysterious, ancient, and very powerful artifact that the United Federation of Planets' mysterious Dr. Kovich (David Cronenberg) prioritizes recovering before it falls into the hands of the villainous Moll (Eve Harlow) and L'ak (Elias Toufexis).

In Star Trek: The Next Generation season 6, episode 20, "The Chase", Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) follows in the footsteps of his recently-deceased archeology mentor, Professor Galen (Norman Lloyd), by picking up a trail that Galen had long been pursuing. Picard forms a tenuous alliance with Klingons and Cardassians pursuing the same mysterious goal , discovering clues that lead to the uninhabited planet Vilmor II. Upon arrival, however, Picard, Lt. Commander Worf (Michael Dorn), and Dr. Beverly Crusher (Gates McFadden), along with Klingon and Cardassian representatives, beam down to find a crew of Romulans that have beaten them there. Star Trek: Discovery season 5's premiere reveals more about one of those Romulans, Dr. Vellek.

Star Trek: Discovery Season 5 Returning Cast & New Character Guide

Who was doctor vellek in star trek: tng’s “the chase”, star trek: discovery reveals the romulan doctor vellek's tng connection..

Doctor Vellek is a Romulan scientist with the crew that has already arrived at Vilmor II in Star Trek: The Next Generation's "The Chase" , establishing how Discovery season 5 connects to TNG . Instead of joining in the collaborative effort with the Federation as the Klingons and Cardassians did, the Romulans simply monitored communications as the USS Enterprise traveled from site to site, unveiling clues at each destination that led to the next. Everyone present is equally privy to the information revealed by a hologram of an Ancient Humanoid (Salome Jens) that their race seeded life throughout the galaxy, so all humanoid species share a common ancestor, which Star Trek: Discovery has dubbed the Progenitors.

Dr. Kovich already knows what's been "classified for centuries" when telling Captain Burnham about Vellek's own discovery of the Progenitors' technology.

The Klingons and Cardassians drop the spirit of cooperation that led them to this point, balking at the idea that they're related in any way. But the Romulans, who essentially copied the Federation's homework to arrive at Vilmor II, contact Captain Picard with hope of an alliance between the Romulans and the Federation. This implies Vellek had been in contact with the Federation while leading the search for the Progenitors' technology in the 24th century , because in Discovery 's 32nd century , Dr. Kovich already knows what's been "classified for centuries" when telling Captain Burnham about Vellek's own discovery of the Progenitors' technology.

Why The Progenitors Technology Is Star Trek: Discovery’s Greatest Treasure

"a few thousand years ago, we'd have called them gods.".

The Progenitors' technology is Star Trek: Discovery 's greatest treasure because it holds the answers to scientific and philosophical questions about the nature of life as we know it, and also has the power to create life essentially from scratch. The site of Progenitor technology could explain the ancient humanoids' motives beyond what was revealed in Star Trek: The Next Generation , fundamentally altering societies at their very core. With that kind of information and the power of creation, the user of Progenitor technology could become the most powerful force in the galaxy , especially if the power to create also holds within it the power to destroy.

The Romulan in Star Trek: Discovery season 5, episode 1 , "Red Directive", Dr. Vellek, understood the importance of keeping information about the Progenitors and their technology as secure as possible. Vellek attempted to keep the location of Progenitor technology out of the wrong hands by keeping a paper diary, which can't be hacked, and hiding that book within a Romulan puzzle box, itself within a cloaked vault aboard his 24th-century Romulan ship. Even then, Dr. Vellek's diary isn't the treasure itself, but a clue that kicks off Star Trek: Discovery 's galactic treasure hunt, destined to change the galaxy irrevocably.

Star Trek Discovery season 5 streams Thursdays on Paramount+. Star Trek: The Next Generation is streaming on Paramount+.

Star Trek: Discovery

Cast Blu del Barrio, Oded Fehr, Anthony Rapp, Sonequa Martin-Green, Doug Jones, Wilson Cruz, Eve Harlow, Mary Wiseman, Callum Keith Rennie

Writers Alex Kurtzman

Where To Watch Paramount+

Star Trek: The Next Generation

Cast Michael Dorn, LeVar Burton, Brent Spiner, Wil Wheaton, Jonathan Frakes, Patrick Stewart, Marina Sirtis, Gates McFadden

Writers Jeri Taylor, Michael Piller, Rick Berman, Brannon Braga, Ronald D. Moore

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Recap/Review: ‘Star Trek: Discovery’ Returns With New Vitality And A Lore-Fueled Quest In “Red Directive”

| April 4, 2024 | By: Anthony Pascale 96 comments so far

“Red Directive”

Star Trek: Discovery Season 5, Episode 1 – Debuted Thursday, April 4, 2024 Written by Michelle Paradise Directed by Olatunde Osunsanmi

A strong season opener resets the series with a new tone and a new sense of adventure.

We’re back!

WARNING: Spoilers below!

“Surprisingly, I’m not dead yet.”

Things kick off in media space res action with Michael Burnham astride an unknown ship at warp telegraphing the pivot goal of this new season: “Never a dull moment.” Flashback to how her night started at a nice reception aboard the Disco celebrating Federation Day . The formal event is not unlike how the last season ended, but it’s been a few months, giving time for Tilly to settle in at the Academy, Stamets to get unsettled over the spore drive program being shut down, Michael to pretend to be over Book’s betrayal, and Saru and T’Rina (Sarina?) to master their cute couple dancing routine. The Kelpien has big news: he has been offered a job as a Federation ambassador, but he is conflicted about leaving Discovery versus spending more lovey-dovey time with the Vulcan prez. Vance kills the light jazz vibe by whisking Burnham away to Kovich’s super double secret “Infinity Room” for a briefing about a 24th-century Romulan science vessel found at the edge of the Beta Quadrant. She is being tasked with securing what Kovich ominously describes as “something vital to the security of the Federation,” brushing away any need to explain more by declaring the mission a “Red Directive”… Episode Title Alert!

Cut to the Rommie derelict with a couple of looters willing to risk a confrontation with the two Starfleet ships coming in hot knowing this must mean there is something “extra shiny” ( really? ) on board. Kovich orders Burham to use “any means necessary,” and she, Rhys, and Owo board, only to find nothing but an extremely dead Romulan and a very empty vault. Space Bonnie and Clyde come out of hiding and neutralize Owo and Rhys with a cool gun that shoots containment bubbles, leaving Michael and the duo with a phaser face-off: She will let them go if they hand over the old box they found. They choose door number 2 by blowing a hole in the floor, which sends Burnham flying (saved by programmable matter insta-space suit). She flies onto their cloaked ship and we’re back at the starting action. The USS Antares catches up; gruff Captain Rayner has a grudge with the thieves and won’t let go of his tractor lock, even though it risks getting everyone killed. Her attempts to stop the ship fail and she convinces Rayner to let go, allowing the baddies to escape within a flurry of 20 decoy warp signature drones. Kovich demands a “brilliant idea” and it’s time for Michael to get ominous: “I know someone who can find them.”  Who could that be?

Saru is wondering if the bridge is big enough for a Vulcan/Kelpien wedding.

“How can we make an excellent deal today?”

It’s Book, of course it’s Book. Michael awkwardly greets her former BF (and now Federation convict) so they switch to “very professional” mode. Rayner briefs them on Moll and L’ak, the former couriers and current MacGuffin possessors. Cleveland sorts out where they would go to unload the vintage knickknacks, so Vance orders the Antares and the Discovery to head to Q’Mau. Before she leaves, Michael enlists Sylvia Tilly to do some database snooping at Fed HQ to get around Kovich’s obtuseness.

The thieves head into a space bazaar to on the desert planet to find Fred the fence, who turns out to be an eccentric OG android . He is particularly interested in the puzzle box, which he opens with ease, speed-reading the old journal of Romulan scribbles and diagrams within. He offers 3 bars of latinum in a take-it-or-get-shot deal. Moll and L’ak choose to get shot, but it’s Fred’s goons who end up dead, and the synth is left with a big hole in his chest. The Federation trio arrives too late, but beam what’s left of Fred up to the ship as they split up to find the baddies. Back at the Academy, Tilly gets caught hacking but Vance saves her; he’s tired of Kovich’s mysteriousness, too. She finds an old garbled recording of a Romulan scientist talking about the secrets he has written into that same journal, dropping clues about “twin moons” and an “ancient technology” that “cannot fall into the wrong hands.” Jolan tru !

Michael, Book, and Rayner head out into the desert for a speeder bike chase, still finding time to bicker while under fire. Moll and L’ak get to their ship and plan to use some tunnels to escape. The trio has a fierce debate over how to counter this move, with Burnham warning Rayner that ordering the Antares to close the tunnel could trigger a town-destroying avalanche. Rayner decides to do it anyway, resulting in no avalanche, so no problem… except the thieves decide to trigger one anyway. Cue rapid-fire science chatter on the Disco to sort out how to save the town: The only solution is to use both ships as giant sand wedges to build a shield wall… that’s a new one. Mission-focused Rayner votes no, but reluctantly backs down, reminded Starfleet is all about saving the innocent and all that goody-goody stuff. With Detmer’s “I’m taking us in, brace!” the ships save the town, complete with exploding consoles, cool effects, triumphant music, and cheering locals. Rayner doesn’t join the jubilation as Moll and L’ak escape again, letting Burnham know he is definitely not her biggest fan. She and Book take a moment to decompress… and officially break up, just in time for Tilly to call: “Is this a bad time?” You think?

So Commander Data was your third cousin?

“I’ve got some answers for you and they are wild.”

Disco returns to space dock and Saru’s love life is headed in the other direction. The day’s events have reminded him of what is most important and he now realizes that his future lies with T’Rina. The stoic Kelpien is taking the ambassador job because she is also his family, “I want to be with you, always.” Aww. President girlfriend is moved (not to tears, she still is a Vulcan), so she does the logical thing, suggesting “we codify our mutual commitment in a more official capacity.” ICYMI, that is a Vulcan proposal. Still, aww. (He accepts, btw.)

In sickbay, Hugh and Paul have been sorting through Fred’s positronic brain, and thankfully Fred has a recording of the Romulan diary. Burnham spots a clue identifying the “twin moons” location, giving her leverage for a confrontation with Kovich who is looking at the wrong planet. She pushes past his obstruction for a mission that has been classified for centuries. Her little bit of blackmail works and he briefs her on what’s really going on. The long-dead Romulan scientist was named Dr. Vellek. He was one of those present when a certain Captain Jean-Luc Picard found a message left by ancient beings who created “every humanoid species in the galaxy.” Vellek found their technology and now “the greatest treasure in the known galaxy” is up for grabs and Moll and L’ak are already a step ahead in finding it… but not if Michael and the Disco can beat them to it. With a wry smile she readies for 9 more episodes of galaxy-trotting questing adventure with… wait for it… “Let’s fly.”

Michael tries to emulate how Picard used to sit in his chair.

Indiana Tones

Now that’s how you do a season premiere. “Red Directive” delivered on the promised pivot in tone for the series, introducing us to this new quest. Like with most Disco season premieres, there was plenty of action, but Olatunde Osunsanmi kept up a balanced pace, ramping things up for the set pieces while slowing things down for some poignant character moments. Surfing this wave ably was Sonequa Martin-Green delivering a standout performance. She helped set the new tone for the season as she added a layer of fun to Burnham, perhaps exemplified best by how she wrapped up the episode, trading in the usual existential dread with a sense of elation as she set out on the first stage of what is literally a treasure hunt. But she was far from alone, assisted by her co-stars, a strong musical score, and striking visual effects. It’s clear they want fans to come away feeling Indiana Jones vibes from the style of action to the music. The desert setting and Michael’s reveal that Kovich was looking at the wrong planet were clear homages but still not too heavy-handed. Speaking of planets, it’s a good start to actually visit a new one (Q’ Mau), which looked great, and there was even a little classic Trek vibe about how all the locals wore variations of the same outfit.

The episode still had a strong sense of Trek’s consistent theme of teamwork and being stronger together, from romantic unions like T’Rina and Saru to reluctant collaborators like Burnham and Rayner, with their ships and crews syncing up to save the day. Callum Keith Rennie is a fantastic addition to the cast, bringing back some of that gruff Lorca energy from season 1—as he came into conflict with pretty much everyone with a welcome layer of snark. The return of Mary Wiseman’s Tilly is also welcome, as she was sorely missed in the second half of season 4, and she can still deliver those fun lines, but the character has also grown through her time away at the Academy. Other character arcs were also reset, notably Cleveland Booker, who is facing the consequences for his actions last season. Some beats do feel like retreads: Paul Stamets still feels lost in a role that has become mostly a technobabble and exposition generator, but maybe there will be some payoff for the bit about collecting old wire? …probably not. Still, that Paul/Hugh moment was a nice bit of fun, as everyone seemed to be playing with the new tone. Even T’Rina is getting in on it, playfully threatening Saru with a mind meld. These 32 nd century Vulcans are picking up some naughty traits from their Romulan cousins.

Indy would have loved to have one of these.

Chasing Canon

The premiere nicely set up our season bad guys, Moll and L’ak, who are atypical villains. The stakes may be historic and galactic, but this pair is just in it for the LOLs and dolla, dolla bills latinum. They are sort of a dark reflection of Michael and Book, former couriers who have taken a different path now that the galaxy is flush with dilithium again, a fresh take for a series that often falls short when it comes to its villains. And this idea of how the galaxy has been changing since the Discovery crew ended “ The Burn ” at the end of season 3 was a nice bit of 32nd century worldbuilding, another area the series has been lax on. Rayner himself is a great example of a relic of the Burn era, no longer fitting in with this new world. There were even some lines about threats from the Breen and Tholians… dare we hope these things will actually be followed up later in the season? It’s always hard to tell what is being telegraphed, but it’s likely there are many bits of foreshadowing in this opening episode. While they were doing all this worldbuilding, would it have killed them to explain what exactly a “Red Directive” is? This may seem nitpicky, but understanding these parameters (like with General Order 7 or The Omega Directive ) helps set the dramatic stakes, which were hinted at with the conflict early on between Michael and Kovich over the use of lethal force.

And finally, Discovery is fully embracing the whole Star Trek of it all with more of links to franchise lore. The scene with Fred the android and all his quirkiness was delightful and hopefully, we will get more of actor J. Adam Brown’s “effervescent” takes on the 32nd century if Stamets can rewire him. Making Rayner a Kellerun is quite the deep cut, and Michelle Paradise tells TrekMovie they plan to build some backstory for the one-off alien race from DS9. Of course, the big thing everyone is going to be talking about is the “appearance” of Jean-Luc Picard, or at least a screencap from the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode “The Chase.” Turning a random background Romulan from that episode into this Dr. Vellek (now played by Michael Copeman) is just the right kind of retconning. Discovery is picking up a fascinating thread that TNG left dangling and unspooling it into a whole season, and I love it. And they really hung a lantern on their mystery box tendencies by literally introducing a puzzle box and then opening it up right away, showing us the canon goodies buried inside. This is a message: We get it, we are trying to do better.

You guys got any more self-sealing stembolts?

Final thoughts

The new tone and style set up what looks to be a more episodic adventure with the next clue and destination already queued up at the end of episode 1. The reduction to 10 episodes (to conform with all the other Paramount+ Trek series) is probably a plus for this show, since it tends to drag in the middle of its serialized seasons. After a two-year absence, Discovery’s return is a bit bittersweet as we know it’s the final season, especially as the show appears to be hitting its stride and picking up some of the best qualities of other modern Trek shows. But for now, we can just enjoy the ride and in this case, fans don’t have to wait for episode 2.

Think he is deactivated enough?

• “Red Directive” was released simultaneously with the second episode of the season (reviewed separately).
• The episode was dedicated “For JP, with love,” honoring J.P. Locherer , a camera operator for the series who passed away in 2022.
• The “Tonic 2161” cocktail celebrating the Federation’s first millennium is still popular in 3190… perhaps because it tastes “ like jumja sticks .”
• There is a new member of the bridge crew named Lt. Naya (Victoria Sawal), apparently replacing Lt. Nilsson.
• The guy Tilly was crushing on is named Lt. Jax (Gregory Calderone).
• Programmable matter bracelets can convert phaser pistols into phaser rifles.
• Andorians make champagne, and Tilly likes it.
• The spore drive program lost out to the Pathway Drive , a prototype propulsion system installed on the USS Voyager-J , first seen in season 3. Burnham was part of the short list of potential captains for the Voyager-J in season 4.
• The Romulan science vessel was the same design used in the TNG episode “The Next Phase.”
• There is at least one tribble running (rolling?) wild through the corridors of the USS Discovery.
• This is the third USS Antares in Trek canon; the last one seen was a Miranda-class in Deep Space Nine .
• Romulan Tan zhekran puzzle boxes were introduced in season 1 of  Picard.
• Tilly asks “I can’t crash all these kids onto an ice moon to teach them that, right, could I?” referencing how she got the cadets to work together in the season 4 episode “ All is Possible .”
• In addition to trying to sell the puzzle box, Moll and L’ak also had 24th-century isolinear chips , PADDS , and a self-sealing stembolt .
• Fred says he hasn’t seen relics like those for 622.7 years, indicating he has been in operation since at least the 26th century. It’s likely he’s even older than that, since his design was akin to Data and the Coppelius androids seen in the early 25th century.
• Fred’s serial number was AS0572Y, with Stamets guessing the “AS” as an homage to 24th century scientist Altan Soong .
• Linguist Trent Pehrson , who constructed the Romulan language for Picard, consulted for this episode.
• Portions of the Q’Mau desert sequence were filmed by a second unit in Brazil’s Lençóis Maranhenses National Park .
• Kovich gave Burnham the key to the Infinity Room, which will probably be important later.

I know I like to say “Let’s fly,” but this is ridiculous.

More to come

Every Friday, the TrekMovie.com All Access Star Trek Podcast  covers the latest news in the Star Trek Universe and discusses the latest episode. The podcast is available on Apple Podcasts ,  Spotify ,  Pocket Casts ,  Stitcher and is part of the TrekMovie Podcast Network.

The fifth and final season of  Discovery debuted with two episodes on Thursday, April 4 exclusively on Paramount+  in the U.S., the UK, Switzerland, South Korea, Latin America, Germany, France, Italy, Australia, and Austria.  Discovery  will also premiere on April 4 on Paramount+ in Canada and will be broadcast on Bell Media’s CTV Sci-Fi Channel in Canada. The rest of the 10-episode final season will be available to stream weekly on Thursdays. Season 5 debuts on SkyShowtime in select European countries on April 5.

Keep up with news about the  Star Trek Universe at TrekMovie.com .

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The episode was fantastic i really enjoyed it and i find it to be the best season opener of Discovery and so far the best season opener of any of the modern Treks.

I loved the callbacks to the TNG episode The Chase and the little Easter eggs planted through the episode and this is how you do nostalgia correctly. You let it come naturally and not shove it into the cracks of a very weak/paper thin story that i felt Picard S3 did.

I loved seeing Tilly again and Admiral Vance again continues to shows that he is not a bad guy like some admirals have been.

I found Raynar to be a bit of a jerk but hopefully his character evolves through the season.

The CGI was as always fantastic and i loved the sequence of both Discovery/Antares being a shield wall against the avalanche.

Liked this one and really enjoyed the promo for the rest of the season.

Did my eyes deceive me or was the derelict in the Nebula in the promo the Enterprise?

Looked like the Enterprise or another Connie emerging from some kind of nebula and a beam was coming from it.

It helps if you view it using a ******.

When Michael and Book approach the green nebula the word Enterprise is visible as is 1701 in the ruin.

It almost looks like it says ISS, but couldn’t make that part out well.

That’s weird cause we know what happened with both the 1701 and 1701-A

I wonder if it’s some sort of portal in time and the Enterprise emerges through and now “hey here’s a chance for the Discovery crew to go home” on the Enterprise before the portal or wormhole closes.

But going back would defeat the fact that Discovery & her crew were wiped out of all records pre-TOS. In the 2nd Short Trek “Calypso”, the Discovery had been abandoned (going on memory I think it was parked in a nebula) 10,000 years with orders to remain until the crew returned. I guess they could have gone back to their time, but they would have to live with new identities and could never contact family or old friends.

welp – seems just like Enterprise they may have finally found the right formula just in time to get canceled.

Enterprise feels slightly less lonely. :/

The first season of Enterprise had some of the greatest episodes of Star Trek, and they werent as self referential. As a stand alone, f.e. Fight or Flight is really great.

Agreed. A lot of great episodes those two first seasons. It’s amazing how much I took that show for granted back then.

A Constitution in the trailer :)

I enjoyed it but it struck me how often the characters were quipping in deadly situations and with seconds to spare. There’s ‘being calm under pressure’ and treating the situation like it’s no biggie. I felt episodes 1 and 2 did more of the latter than the former.

I also noticed how often people entered rooms uninvited (normally due to Insta-transport) and how people have stopped announcing tbemselves when speaking though communicators: they just start taking through them whether the person on the other end is ready or not

These are obviously very nerdy nitpicks but I hadn’t noticed it to such a degree before!

Its a bit of a coincidence, but its not the first time the Romulans were interested in the technology of the Progenitors, because they did the same thing in the PC video game Star Trek: Hidden Evil and Salome Jens reprised her role as the Ancient humanoid aka Xa-Tal from The Chase, however she does get killed by the Romulans who are interested in the destructive powers of a coveted genetic seed

Now THAT was good.

It was truly amazing fun.

In the trailer it was the 1701… must have been A obscured.

I zoomed in. It may be the ISS Enterprise…

Ooh! Yes! That would also explain the sickback set seen in the trailer.

Interesting and possible link in the future (pun intended) to the S31 movie?

Fred reminded me of Data.

I am crossing my fingers that Stamets and Culber revive Fred at some point. He was way too much fun to off so quickly!

If his positronic brain was untouched, then what’s the deal? Fred should be fine. Just fix the hole in his chest. For a synth who has been around for centuries, his apparent demise should not have been quick or easy. Just seems like Fred would have been more durable, more prepared, and simply better than what we saw.

It’s funny cause his looks reminded me of Data but his demeanor reminded me of a Vorta. Like the Izzy Top one.

Is that an Iggy Pop / ZZ Top cover band?

Awesome! Finally one of my favourite NextGen episodes gets a season-long sequel. This is so essential.

Loved poor Fred. There was a German pop song back in the 80s and 90s during Trek’s heydays titled “Fred vom Jupiter” (“Fred from Jupiter”). I had to think of that one, too.

It was so good. I was on the edge of my seat the entire time! I’m curious what’s up with L’ak. His head glimmered when he took off his helmet. Made me think. He kinda has some Romulan features, like the arched up brow bones and the shape of his ear area. He could be a Romulan/Reman hybride. Or maybe he’s from the parallel universe.

Overall a FANTASTIC episode!

I really loved so much about it especially the main twist it’s all built around The Chase, one of my favorite Star Trek episodes. I have known this twist for a few weeks now so was looking forward to the reveal and it did not disappoint. Like so much in Star Trek there are so many stories I wish they follow up and this is a pretty big one lol. The creation of life itself.

But this episode was just a lot of fun. Loved all the action sequences, especially the desert chase (but LDS did it first chasing down the Romulans in Crisis Point 2 ;)) and the opening with Burnham.

The two new villains are also cool and I’m seeing theories that Lak could be a shape shifter or even a Breen. Please bring the Breen back please!! Also loved Fred which I also knew about a head of time and loved how much he looked like Data. And Rayner was great. That dude comes off like a total hardass and I love it lol. Glad he’s going to be the first officer.

And they really used the 32nd century pretty well here. I liked seeing all the proto matter stuff with the weapons. And also cool we’re starting to learn so much more about it.

It still wasn’t perfect though. It’s still Star Trek: Discovering your feelings with all the touchy feely stuff and Book and Michael working through their stuff. I get it, that part was necessary but some of it still lingered too long for me. And the scene with drunk Tilly and her 16 year old crush on some guy was eye rolling. It’s crazy she’s supposed to be a teacher. But whatever.

Overall though it was a great episode and probably my favorite premiere episode for Discovery although Brother is still pretty great and pretty close to a tie. But this one edges it out with the cool Progenitors twist.

Hopefully we’re going to get a great season and it’s pretty strong out the gate. But I remember saying something like this the last three are too. 😂🙄

But I would love this season to be the Enterprise season 4 or Picard season 3 of Discovery and go out with a huge bang. Great start so far though.

I wasn’t Crazy about drunk Tilly either. Hacker Tilly was much better. Also liked that Staments found something to do in this episode now that the spore drive is going to go away. Vance and Kovich were great additions as always. Rayner has promise and I am glad that Rhys and Owo got something to do off the bridge. Saru as diplomat wasn’t my first choice but he would be great in the role.

Overall this was one of the better season starts for Discovery. I was surprised by that because I never felt like The Chase needed a follow up. Let’s hope they can sustain the mystery as the season goes on!

Heya! I never liked the Burnham Book stuff myself but we were warned fairly well on that no matter what becomes of this season Discovery will still be Discovery.

You could give me Saru and T’Rina romance scenes for the whole season because that is something they have really done well. When I think how badly SNW does romances it elevates how good this is.and how romances can be interesting rather than just really annoying. Also Saru is just a wonderful character and by far the best character on Discovery and SNW. Whish we had more like that, Hemmer was probably my second favourite in Nu Trek.

I wonder has anyone figured out what self-sealing stembolts are actually for after 800 years. Aside from O’Brien I don’t think anyone else actually knew.

Well, they were treated in this episode as a relic, and not even a prized one at that (Fred was apparently the only dealer who wants stuff that old). So they aren’t used for anything anymore, except as neat historical artifacts (and maybe to repair super old tech here and there, would laugh if they ended up taking it and using it later this season).

Back during DS9, they were obviously used for bolting objects together, without requiring manual sealing. lol, jk, someone find O’Brien

I know we’ve only seen the first two, but I have a renewed hope for this season.

Wow such an improvement! Really enjoyed Raynar really good character just what this season needed.

So is this the light hearted “action comedy” genre of Star Trek now?

Well that’s what you get when people complain Star Trek is getting too dark

Give me dark over light hearted action or SNW sit com any day. Like the awful reboot movies this is hard to take seriously at times. Pretty depressing road Star Trek is on, not too enthusiastic really and honestly I can see the Academy show being rubbish also. Jeez I know it’s a completely different show but I watched Shogun episode 7 back to back with Discovery season 5 01. I really wish we could have Star Trek that was on that level of just being a great series like Shogun is.

Blame the fact a large section of the fandom championed The Orville and the success of Lower Decks (among some fans, not me, alas) for the MCU quippy comedy tone of Trek now. I felt DS9 got the balance right. It was 85% serious, 15% goofy as hell. Trek is in danger of reversing that ratio. That said, I did enjoy this. It’s not at SNW levels of quippery yet.

Yep that’s why I get so frustrated and you’re right MCU quippy tone really sums it up. I enjoyed this episode on the whole but the light hearted action was not for me. The truth is DS9 just had much better writers than we have now with contemporary Trek. For all Discovery’s failings it is still much better than the TOS reboot movies for me which felt more Marvel than Trek.

It was an exciting episode. I’m looking forward to seeing the rest of the season.

It will be interesting to see if that nebula in the season promo ends up being the final resting place of the ISS Enterprise.

That was awful. Granted, I’ve rarely enjoyed the show (though I loved the fourth season). Still, just one ill-conceived idea after another after another. All seemingly built upon one of the absolute worst ideas TNG ever had! And the second episode was even worse.

Looking forward to being done with this series.

Not a huge fan of Disco – still too emotional and quippy for my tastes. So far these two eps are fine; usually how I feel about the premier of Disco (barring S1).

That said, I take exception to you calling “The Chase” one of TNG’s worst ideas. Reverse evolution and Scottish ghost lovers would like a word. In fact, I think The Chase is one of TNG’s better ideas. Thematically, the idea that no matter our physical differences, we are all actually commonly human is exceptionally Trek. And the final scene between Picard and the Romulan commander is just the perfect cap to that episode – the idea that greater men and women can begrudgingly see the future they can’t accept yet, but maybe they can move toward it.

I’m sorry you didn’t enjoy it, but I think its actually one of those tonally on the spot TNG episodes that delivered what it wanted to – a huge chase, to discover that the great powerful secret was really just a fundamental truth of the human condition that no one wants to accept, except those humanists seeking an optimistic future.

Get ready for what I’m about to say – I enjoyed this episode a lot. There are soem issues, sure.. but overall.. I found it really intriguing, and the call back to The Chase.. I quite liked it. We’ll see if they can deliver on it’ spromise. I have a fear of some reductive reveal, but we’ll see. The only part I found outright cringey was the starships stopping the avalanche. Just felt dumb and certainly not organic. But overall, I’m in for this ride.

Agree about the starships stopping the avalanche. That bit jumped the shark a little for me.

Yeah, felt like an opportunity to show off effects, not anything that made sense.

Just finished watching the premiere… so far so good. Will PVR and watch E2 tomorrow. Cautiously optimistic! We shall see if they can keep it up.

Hey where is everybody?? This place is dead. I expected to be a lot more posts by now since this is the first Trek show we gotten since last year, it’s been off the air for two years, it’s final season and strong critic reviews.

But very few posts so far. Odd.

We were all busy enjoying the episodes!!

That’s the crazy thing. When episodes are great you usually get a ton of posts praising it.

Not this time. Just weird.

Maybe that should be your clue to how most people actually feel

I turned it off after about 5 minutes or so.

It only comes out in the UK today so won’t be watching till later after work.

Actually you’re right. I was a little surprised when I clicked on this thread this afternoon to only see around 20 posts. I come back tonight and it only jumped up by another dozen or so.

To see a comparison I went and saw how many posts did the first episode of Picard season 3 got and that had over 600+ posts. Obviously not all in one day but it probably got over 300 the first day alone though.

Then I looked at SMW season 2 opening episode and while not as big as PIC it still got over 400 posts.

But then I looked at Discovery season 4 opening episode posts and it only had 140 posts from over 2 years ago.

So I think that tells you a lot in terms of interest this show has these days. To be fair it still gets more than the animation shows easily but it has fallen off quite significantly over the years. In fact the first episode of the series, The Vulcan Hello, still has the most posts out of any episode or show here with over 700. That’s when the hype was enormous at the time obviously.

Five seasons later and the premiere looks like it may not even reach 100 posts which IS surprising.

But that may change later with future episodes if word of mouth is really strong. And of course it may not reflect actual viewing patterns but that’s mostly in the dark anyway.

Ok got more curious and looked at Discovery other season premieres.

Brother (season 2): 440 comments.

That Hope is you (season 3): 345 comments.

Kobiyashi Maru (season 4): 140 posts.

There’s been a drop every season, but looks like from season 4 on there was a big drop off. Again it’s hard to say how it reflects overall interest with this being such a smaller board but maybe it should tell us why the show got cancelled IF it does reflect overall interest or trend in fandom, even as a microcosm.

Again will probably never know.

This is exactly what I mean.

I didn’t start posting here until after season 4 of Discovery ended but I been lurking and reading here since the first season and it was certainly a lot more discussion around the show in the earlier seasons. I guess it does partly prove people are less interested in this show compared to the beginning at least. Same on boards similar to this one. Just not a lot of back and forth like the old days. More so on Reddit but even that’s lighter than usual in terms of traffic.

But maybe more people will show up if the season stays popular.

The Picard season 3 threads were fun! That’s what really got me to sign up here because I wanted to talk about that show as much as possible and this place didn’t disappoint during that season. A lot of wide spread discussions every week. I’m sure half those posts for the opening episode were mine though. 😂

To be fair, a lot of those 100+ post articles have been filled with bickering, and that’s simmered down a little. Also, I would guess the episodes people tend to like ironically don’t get talked about much.

Sure there is some of that but this is actually quite low in general. And there are actually threads where it’s gotten into the hundreds of mostly praise like every first season episode of Picard for example.

There seems to be a lack of interest here; especially for a show that’s been off the for so long. But that could be the other issue as well that it’s been off so long some have just moved on.

Lower Decks also didn’t get much engagement here last season. It’s a shame.

Yeah very true. But the animated shows never gets the same kind of attention as the live action shows anywhere except YouTube oddly, especially LDS. But pretty low to moderate in other places.

I don’t really keep track of that sort of thing. Wouldn’t know where to start gauging YouTube comments, that’s usually such a clusterf**k once you get past the first couple popular comments.

I can deal with Reddit and Disqus boards. The main Star Trek Reddit mods aren’t exactly chill, but it keeps things calm. I do think the tone of discord here in recent weeks could have been a tipping point for a good few people. Too many discussions got completely subsumed by what could politely be described as “personal distractions,” (I am not blameless there), and trolling can hit pretty hard here.

“Wouldn’t know where to start gauging YouTube comments, that’s usually such a clusterf**k once you get past the first couple popular comments.’

Yeah YouTube can feel like a swamp at times. But if you stick to the more balanced and more positive sites like Trekyards, Trekculture, etc the comments are more balanced. I stay from the ‘NUTREK IS TOO WOKE’ channels. 🙄

And thankfully those ‘personal distractions’ has now mostly disappeared since a certain someone has been banned.

The irony is all the whiny posts over people being overly negative about this show the last few weeks and yet the negative comments have been pretty subdued so far.. No one is attacking or berating each other and everyone is just giving their opinions and moving on. The views have been fairly balanced on both sides.

Only ONE person took everything so personally and tried to fight with everyone because they didn’t like other opinions.

They should’ve been banned long ago and was just too disruptive. Sorry just being real about it.

You’re not missing the “JUST WAITING FOR THE 35 L-O-U-D VOCAL HATERS HERE WHO REPEATS THEMSELVES 35 TIMES A DAY (ALTHOUGH I REPEAT MYSELF WORSE THAN ANY HERE) TO SAY SOMETHING MEAN ABOUT DISCOVERY SO I CAN GET TRIGGERED ABOUT IT BECAUSE IT’S ALWAYS ABOUT ME!

AND BTW, I SAW THAT POSTER LEGACY SAY SOMETHING MEAN ABOUT DISCOVERY WITH JUST TWO LINES AND I DON’T LIKE IT. .SHE DOESN’T KNOW OR CARE WHO I AM BUT I’M GOING TO MAKE IT MY BUSINESS TO STALK HER HARDER TO GET HER ATTENTION. I’M NOT A BITTER AND CRAZY OLD MAN WITH DEEP PERSONALITY ISSUES I’M JUST REALLY OBSESSED OVER A TV SHOW!!”

PS: “I STILL DON’T LIKE LDS! AND HATE IT’S CANON!!!!!!!!”

I mean look how dull the boards have become? People just discussing things calmly without the resident lunatic turning everything up to an 11. Who doesn’t miss the crazy? 😂

Lol fortunately no, I do not miss that lunacy. I think I speak for everyone here as well. 😉

And what’s more funny Legacy hasn’t even bothered commenting on any of the new episode yet. Looks like she just has no interest in it.

But judging by the lack of posts here she’s clearly not alone it seems.

That is what’s hilarious. The guy was losing his marbles over a new poster here who just gave a couple of opinions about the show but didn’t seem to care that much one way or the other. She seem way more interested in discussing in what she likes about Star Trek instead of what she hates.

But for some bizarre reason he took it as some personal front against him and all things holy and began giving her grief over it. Now the former resident lunatic lost his chance to be beligerant here for the entire season over someone who never had an inkling to talk to him, respectfully asked him to ignore her and makes about 10 posts here a week lol. It’s the final season and now he can only lurk here and locked out of the conversation. Poor baby.

Ok last time I bring it up I just find the whole thing utterly hilarious but also deliciously deserved. 😉

Ok back on topic! Yeah I thought the episode was good. Hopefully more people will post in the next episode.

Ha ha, I got caught up in the “watch it now” article and didn’t know this one was here. There are only 17 comments there so I got confused too.

Yeah it’s weird man. This place is a graveyard but it’s not much better on TrekCre either. Not even a hundred posts. This is definitely not the Picard season 3 crowd lol.

Marked improvement! The production values are hard to beat, and the space chase and ships stopping the landslide were pretty epic. The quest is set up well enough, and I don’t really mind it being a sequel to The Chase.

I do like Rayner, I’m a sucker for any no-nonsense character in this ensemble. Villains have some promise, liked the android, and I’m moderately invested in Saru’s romance still. The more laid back tone is welcome and fits with a version of Burnham we didn’t see nearly enough but know is there from early season 3.

Some expository dialogue was a bit clunky, I still don’t vibe with Tilly at all, and the new intrusive transporters will always be hilarious to me, but honestly nothing crazy to whine about. Hope this bodes well for the future.

Also, question for the people who know this show better: Burnham knew that planet from the diary right away because she’d been there in another episode?

I knew it was going to be a good episode when we finally got to see how CBS Studios did the animated STAR TREK pre-roll for Discovery for the first time. I crossed my fingers for it, I was really hoping they would do it, and they did: Disco materializes in front of the camera before warping off to trace the Starfleet shield. PERFECT!

Do I wish that this vibe had been there in seasons three and four? I do. Am I sad that we only have eight episodes left? I am! Will I savor and enjoy each one of them? I sure will, if they keep up this high level of quality that I saw tonight.

Let’s fly, Discovery!

I forgot Disco has never gotten its own pre-roll.

Lower Decks’ is still my favorite with the koala, but it goes to show how engrained this has gotten for me in such a short span of time – when they did the special one for “The Last Generation” I did an audible, “Aww!”

Why didn’t their mouths fill up with sand during the hover bike race through the desert? Now, I’m asking for a friend but personally that was one of the stupidest things I’ve ever seen.

They had shields. Only explanation I can think of.

Yeah. You see their shield bubble at one point.

This definitely was a great start to the season! A very solid episode overall that was actually fun and action packed with a great tie in to TNG.

I didn’t love this episode as much as others seem to but definitely good. I knew what the twist was ahead of time but didn’t feel spoiled at all. And it’s nice we didn’t have to wait 5+ episodes to know what it was like the last 3 seasons. And the Chase is an amazing story to follow.

That is the thing about Star Trek and TNG in general where they have stumbled upon these amazing discoveries just to totally move on to something else the next week.

That episode just felt like another Tuesday for the crew of the Enterprise and I think when I originally saw it literally was on a Tuesday lol when the show aired in my area.

Anyway it’s great we can get a full on story and being so far into the future makes it more interesting for me.

And I really enjoyed all the 32nd century stuff. We’re finally getting a deeper dive into it and it’s obvious they are setting up for Starfleet Academy.

Also all the new characters were fun to watch and really excited to learn L’ak backstory since the actor confirms he has another TNG connection. Rayner looks like he’s going to be interesting to watch too.

Oh and loved Fred. Some amazing Data vibes. Totally there for it.

I did have some downs, some of the Tilly stuff wasn’t great and the usual Discovery bringing up personal stuff in a crisis showed up but it was kept to a minimum.

But no real complaints. This was great overall and set up the season well with strong action, mystery, humor and FX. I just hope this keeps up which is ALWAYS this shows problem IMO, but we’ll see.

Score: 8/10

A couple of things:

Loved meeting Fred. Aren’t Coppelius class a druids conceived as twins?

Did anybody else spot the two shots of the Constitution-class ship in the trailer for the rest of the season?

I tried to like Disco for four seasons. I canceled my Paramount Plus after the end of the last season of SNW. I watched this ep free on YouTube, curious if there was any improvement. My thought are that the writer strike must have caused the show to pay less for worse writers. That was just awful. Bad writing. And bad acting. And bad directing. I can’t even understand how Burnam is a captain. She’s wrong about everything all the time and so full of herself. If she had listened to Leoben then they would have caught that ship. Tilly is written so poorly. You can be autistic and not be a cartoon. Same with Stamets. How is that guy such a supposedly accomplished actor? It’s like he and the guy who’s his husband are acting in a Cartoon. Over the top, silly, 2 dimensional. The cut of the scenes and action are hap hazard and plot remind me of the last two Star Wars movie. Made up as they went along and McGuffins to drive the plot instead of story and acting and relationships. RIP Disco. I won’t be renewing my membership till something else Star Trek comes back.

I though Season 4 was the worst. Now they proved me wrong. This first episode was barely watchable, all flashes and feelings, but zero Star Trek. What a shame this series had become after the first 2 seasons.

Strange, I didnt enjoy the episode as much, have only seen the first one, yet. My mistake was, I dabbled in the first season last few weeks and must say Lorca is dearly missed. Shroomdrive aside, still stuff in S1 that irks me, but I came around and rewatching is fun. Maybe DSC S5 has to sit a few years until I come around to it as well. As with ENT, at the time somehow terrible, but in hindsight and fresh rewatches comes across very smooth as dutifully executed Berman Era Trek.

Well and The Chase, positive message (TV was different back then) but a throwaway episode. Dont have to explain why almost all actors dressed up as aliens have a head and two arms and two legs in-universe, no need to explain the klingon ridges as with that Augment virus. But whatever, take it as your starting point. Threshold is another Episode, Id like not to be reminded of. Hopefully the Pathway drive remains under that speed limit that will… well you know. Or this might have been Discovery Season 6. Liked parts of S3, liked most of S4. Lets see what happens. .

Kind of a minor thing, I suppose, but after the ship they were chasing does its flippy thing that throws off all those false warp signatures…couldn’t they simply follow the one that they visually saw the ship take? Like..that-a-way…

I vote for a moratorium on desert planets for the next 20 years at least. It’s officially cliche. :D

Scientifically and statistically speaking, there are probably way more frozen, rocky and desert planets than Earthlike ones. I’m surprised that they don’t go to more places with lower / higher gravity and thinner / denser atmospheres, but that’s hard to do in live-action.

I’m impressed they got in that second unit photography in Brazil to help. After years of easy-access to deserts in California, those are now ironically pretty exotic to shoot with a Toronto-based series. It’s only the conversation at the end between Burnham and Book where the AR wall didn’t look so convincing.

I haven’t seen the show since season 1 and I watched the first episode for free on YouTube. I have a few thoughts and questions:

– why is Michael Burnham doing everything as the captain? She’s never on the bridge sending away teams on missions and all of the bridge officers never leave their bridge chairs.

– why is the federation sending a 900-year-old ship on away missions? That would be like us asking Ghengis Kahn’s army to fight against drone warfare.

– if the objective was to prevent the Sith looking girl from Asohka and her boyfriend from leaving the Romulan ship, why didn’t they just blow it up?

– the technology used to spread humanoid DNA throughout the galaxy is probably fairly self evident from a scientific perspective. It’s probably some kind of gene sequencing methodology that was done by the progenitors, which unfolded over millions of years. I don’t see why it’s a mystery or a such a big deal to get a hold of. That’s like trying to find the technology that created the Grand Canyon. It was the Colorado River. I’m not going to chase down two people just because they bottled some of it and ran away.

– The speeder bike scene was when I started tuning out. They were yelling some exposition about an avalanche and I was so bored. None of this was intellectually stimulating or thought provoking in the slightest.

All in all, my rating is D+ for the episode.

To your first points:

The in-universe answer to why Burnham does everything could be explained as that just being the way they did things in the 23rd century. Archer often led away teams, and Kirk led most of his. Maybe Admiral Vance should give her a talking to about how that snot how it’s done anymore, but if Captain Rayner is any indication, things may have reverted a little since The Burn.

Discovery has been given a full refit while being familiar enough for this crew to acclimate. They’ve been pretty generous with how quickly everyone form the 23rd century has adjusted to 900 years of advances, there’s no denying that though.

Not really sure how blowing up the Romulan ship solves the main objective of securing the ship and what’s on it…

Thanks for answering my question. I still wouldn’t ask Ghengis Kahn to break a Pentagon encryption, so I’m not sure why Starfleet is relying on Tilly to do so. Did they all have to go back to school to catch up?

I’m also still not clear about why finding the tech that the progenitors used to spread life is such a big deal. It’s not like our society is in a race to capture the stardust that derived carbon based life. Makes no sense.

I’ve always had an issue with how easily everyone picked up on how to handle 32nd century… everything. Tech, history, politics, social cues… they’re smart, but in the span of what, 3 years? They’re all caught up? it’s one of those things that’s been a frustration as it’s tied into how little all of that has actually been explored on the show – the Federation and its borders have felt very claustrophobic. I don’t even remember anyone but Burnham researching their long-deceased families. For a show that’s all about self-care and exploring feelings, that was kinda glossed over.

As for Genghis Khan being called upon to decrypt something… I’ll go one better – it’s silly to bring back Khan Noonien Singh to basically do the same. Into Darkness had bizarre logic too.

As for the tech… yeah I dunno. Logically you’d think that every society has progressed beyond the tech of the Progenitors in the last few million years. But that was also baked into the motivation of everyone in “The Chase” too. The galaxy is rebuilding, so perhaps its just the allure of a possible shortcut to regaining a technological edge?

The motivation for everyone in “The Chase” was to solve a puzzle, which they did. The prize was finding out the common origin of humanoid species. The progenitor hologram basically stated how they did it, and that was that.

But remember that the Cardassians and Klingons both went into it thinking the prize would be an all powerful technological secret – one thought it was a weapon, the other an unlimited power source. So the same logic applies – modern species thinking long lost technology from millions of years ago would give them a massive advantage over their rivals.

I was glued to my seat. Otherwise I’d have got up and switched it off.

Myself, I was bored. Bored by the stupid action and plot devices that made no sense. Like a paralysis ray that paralyzes your body but not your mouth? Or starships of considerable mass that can fly into the atmosphere and saucerplant into the ground but cause no residual damage anywhwere to the terrain or the city? Or the effects of an apparently unshielded body being on top of a ship travelling at warp? Or getting hit by a chunk of space debris?

I’ve been looking past Disco’s flaws because I like and actors and mnay of the characters. But at this point the flaws are vastly outweighing the good parts.

“Maybe you didn’t notice it, but your brain did.” Mr. Plinkett

I suppose Altan Soong may be the best possibility, but it could have been Adam or Arik. At least they didn’t have Brent Spiner playing him. :-) Although that might have been interesting.

Just got to see this today (Sunday), because I’ve been sick, so I’m late to the party. I hope everyone hasn’t gone home already. :-)

I thought the chase sequences went on way too long and weren’t actually very interesting. I’d rather watch Michael talk about ideas than watch her ride a motorcycle across the sand for a really. long. time.

So, Michael went against orders AGAIN by setting her phaser to stun and trying to talk things out. I mean, normally, I’m all in favor of talking instead of violence, but the one person who knows what’s going on says getting the thingy back is so crucial that phasers should be set to kill. If the one person who knows what’s going on says that, maybe Michael could consider believing him?

But how cool that they’re following up on “The Chase!” I’d be excited about that if I thought the season would mostly be about the ideas, but it’s probably just going to be more explosions and car chases. *sigh*

Something about the closeups in this episode felt clumsy to me. I don’t know enough about filmmaking to use the right language, but they didn’t feel organic; it felt like HERE’S A CLOSEUP NOW. Eric Cheung, you know way more about all this stuff than I do — what’s the right terminology for what I’m trying to say here?

Although there were things I didn’t like about the episode, to me, the entire episode was worth it for the scene of two starships stopping an avalanche by driving their noses into the ground and extending their shields. I’ve never seen a starship DO that before, and that’s so cool! To me, that’s worth WAY more than characters riding on stupid motorcycles. Cool idea, Michelle Paradise!

It made me smile to see the character named “Moll”. In the early 20th century a female companion of a gangster, was called a Moll or Gun Moll.

Two Federation starships crashing into a sandy planet, head first, to cause a barrier to stop a landslide. So idiotic and over the top, just like everything on Discovery.

A Complete History of the Romulans in Star Trek

Since The Original Series, the Romulans have been one of Star Trek's most mysterious villains, but who are they and how do they relate to the Vulcans?

Quick Links

The romulans were created to be star trek 'romans', the timeline of the romulan star empire, the romulan cold war and joining forces against the dominion, the destruction of romulus changed star trek timelines.

Some of the most mysterious villains in Star Trek are the Romulans, whose history with Earth dates back to before the time of Star Trek: The Original Series . The Romulans are depicted as an oppressive group with a militant culture and are arguably even less agreeable than the Klingons. Still, they have united in common cause with the Federation in some instances.

When Star Trek: Discovery advanced the timeline by 900-plus years, the Romulan Star Empire was no more. Their home planet, Romulus, was destroyed. Thanks to Spock's efforts to expose their culture to Vulcan logic, the Romulans found a new home on Ni'var, the renamed Vulcan homeworld. In fact, along with their distant, pointy-eared cousins, the Romulans are part of the Federation in the 32nd Century. Romulans went from unseen enemies in Star Trek 's history to cohabitating with humans' first alien friends, but have plenty of story left to tell.

How Gene Roddenberry Lost Control Over the Star Trek Movies

Before Star Trek returned for its second wave of stories, the creation of the Romulans was a point of contention. In a featurette on The Original Series Blu-ray, writer and franchise legend Dorothy Fontana said freelance writer Paul Schneider invented them by taking inspiration from the ancient Roman Empire. Schneider confirmed this in Captain's Logs: The Unauthorized Complete Trek Voyagers by Edward Gross and Mark A. Altman, calling his creation "an extension of the Roman civilization to the point of space travel." This is the impetus for their militaristic society, drive to conquer and fanatical loyalty to the unseen Emperor.

The Romulans appeared twice in Star Trek: The Original Series and weren't fully fleshed out as adversaries until the time of The Next Generation . Originally, they looked just like Vulcans, but makeup supervisor Michael Westmore added forehead ridges and a different hairstyle. The Romulans were considered to be the villains in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock , but the production opted for the more popular Klingons. They would have taken the place of the S'ona in Star Trek: Insurrection . However, Patrick Stewart objected to their inclusion thinking fans wanted a fresh villain. Ironically, the opposite was true.

The Romulans also appeared as villains in Star Trek: Nemesis , Star Trek (2009) and in Season 1 of Star Trek: Picard . Because they were originally introduced as an "offshoot" of Vulcans, Leonard Nimoy appeared as Spock on The Next Generation to send the character to make peace with them. His final mission was to reintegrate the Vulcan and Romulan cultures as one society. Star Trek: Discovery revealed he succeeded indirectly by the 32nd Century. While there was an Earth-Romulan war, this story hasn't been told yet, likely because humans never saw their enemies in the flesh.

Star Trek: What's the Story Behind Every Enterprise Design?

In the Star Trek universe, it was discovered that most humanoid life could trace its genetic origins to a single star-faring species billions of years in the past. They traveled the universe colonizing many planets, and both Vulcans and Romulans share traces of this DNA. At some point in Vulcan's history, before the populace adopted the logic-based philosophy of Surak, a group of Vulcans went to the stars and eventually settled on Romulus. These beings became Romulans, and possibly Remans, the pale-skinned, scaled "slave caste" of the Romulan Star Empire, at least through the late 24th Century.

By the 22nd Century, the Romulan Star Empire was known by Vulcans, yet they had no contact with their long-distant cousins. In fact, this connection was lost to history among Vulcans, although Romulans retained that information. On Star Trek: Enterprise the NX-01 encountered a planet surrounded by cloaked mines. They briefly exchanged communications with this unknown race, but never identified them for certain. Later, the Romulans sent spies to Vulcan to attempt reunification, but when Captain Archer and T'Pring discovered Surak's teachings, the plans fell apart.

A long-distance Romulan plot also attempted to foster war in the galaxy via cloaked drones, controlled telepathically. This caused Captain Archer to form an alliance with founding members of the Federation , thereby starting the process of its creation. In 2156, Earth and Romulus went to war. The Vulcans, Andorians and Tellarites united again to defeat them in 2160, whereby the neutral zone was established. The treaty was negotiated via long-distance communication. The Romulans were never seen until the USS Enterprise encountered a cloaked vessel attacking Earth colonies near the edge of the neutral zone.

10 Star Trek Time Travel Stories That Changed Canon

Two years after this encounter, Captain Kirk was ordered to violate the Neutral Zone to steal a cloaking device. He succeeded and captured a Romulan commander as well. Later, in Star Trek: The Animated Series , the Romulans tried to steal the Enterprise, but were defeated. By the late 23rd Century, the Romulan Star Empire had an ambassador at Federation headquarters. He was part of the conspiracy to prevent the Klingon Empire and the Federation from signing the Khitomer Peace Treaty. The Romulans remained isolated until the mid-24th Century.

There was a Cold War between the Empire and the Federation with many incidents amounting to 45 appearances in the second-wave series and films. Notable encounters included the attempted defection of Admiral Alidar Jarok. A Romulan spy impersonated the Vulcan ambassador T'Pel. After a test of a new cloaking device failed, the USS Enterprise-D helped the stranded Romulans. The Enterprise conducted two cover missions on Romulus. First, they were sent to retrieve Spock who had decided to preach Surak's teachings to Romulans. They then sent Deanna Troi to help Vice-Proconsul M'Ret defect to the Federation.

The Romulans still engaged in conflict with the Klingons periodically throughout the 24th Century. They also tried to steal an experimental starship, thwarted by the ship's Emergency Medical Hologram and the EMH from the USS Voyager. The Romulans stayed out of the Dominion War, until Captain Sisko aided Garak in framing the Dominion for the death of one of their ambassadors. They remained allies until the war ended.

Star Trek: Discovery's Kenneth Mitchell Was Heroic On and Off Screen

The film Star Trek: Nemesis took place in 2379, when the Remans rose up against the Romulan masters. A clone of Captain Picard named Shinzon became the new praetor. He brought the USS Enterprise-E to Romulus under the ruse of peace talks, but he needed Picard to heal a medical malady. His plan was to launch a war with the aim of destroying Earth. His defeat led to true diplomatic negotiations, aided by Ambassador Spock. In the 2380s, a cosmic accident destroyed Romulus. Spock and a mining vessel captained by Nero were sent to the past and created an alternate timeline, in which Vulcan was destroyed.

Back in the Prime Timeline, Admiral Picard tried to help refugees from the (now so named) Romulan Free State relocate. The Romulan secret order Zhat Vash used synthetic lifeforms to destroy the Utopia Planitia shipyards and the relocation fleet. Years later, the group attacked two synthetic lifeforms -- "children" of Data -- and a retired Picard helped save them and a planet full of their kind from destruction. A group of Romulans also captured a Borg cube, creating the Borg Reclamation project. The Artifact, as it was called, ended up landing on the planet of synthetics, where they presumably took over the effort.

By the 32nd Century, the Romulans and Vulcans successfully reunified. Vulcan was renamed Ni'var, and while there remained cultural tension, the two cultures lived in relative peace. When a cosmic accident caused all the dilithium crystals to explode, which prevented warp travel and killed countless people, Ni'Var retreated from the Federation. With the help of Captains Michael Burnham and Saru, they agreed to rejoin the union. This means the forthcoming series Starfleet Academy could introduce Romulan cadets.

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Star Trek: Discovery’s Season 5 Premiere Easter Egg Explained: Who Are the [Spoiler]?

Keisha hatchett, staff editor.

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Star Trek: Discovery co-showrunner Alex Kurtzman previously told TVLine that the sci-fi drama’s fifth and final season was dependent on a “very significant” Star Trek Easter egg , and we finally know what he meant by that.

The season’s first two episodes, which are now streaming on Paramount+, sent the Discovery crew on one last adventure to find the missing clues spread throughout the galaxy that will lead them to the ancient device used by an ancient species, known as the Progenitors, to create life as we know it.

That Easter egg came into play in the premiere , as outlaws Moll ( Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s Eve Harlow) and L’ak ( Shadowhunters ’ Elias Toufexis) stole a tan zhekran — a traditional Romulan puzzle box; Narek (Harry Treadaway) used one as a thinking aid in Star Trek: Picard Season 1 — from an 800-year-old Romulan science vessel.

The Federation was also heavily invested in finding this mystery box, and Dr. Kovich and Admiral Vance remained tightlipped while briefing Burnham on a secretive mission to retrieve it. Captain Burnham nearly caught Moll and L’ak aboard the science vessel but they escaped to the Dune -like planet Q’mau.

There, the fugitive duo convinced a Synth dealer named Fred to open the box under the guise of selling it along with other timeless treasures, including a self-sealing stem bolt (frequently mentioned throughout Star Trek: Deep Space Nine , though their specific use is unclear) and an old tricorder (a hand-held sensor issued by Starfleet that can be used for scanning, recording and analyzing data). 

Dr. Vellek found the ancient humanoids’ life-creating device and recorded everything he knew about it in that diary. He then hid the device sometime before disappearing 800 years ago, and the diary contains important clues — such as the drawing of two moons — to find it.

Book and Burnham tracked Moll and L’ak to Q’mau, where they came upon Fred’s lifeless body. As they continued pursuing the outlaws, Culber, Stamets and Saru examined Fred aboard Discover y and realized that he was built from one of Dr. Soong’s designs.

Dr. Noonien Soong (Brent Spiner) created several android prototypes, including Data, Lore and B-4 — all portrayed by Spiner throughout TNG’s seven-season run.

L’ak and Mall again evaded Burnham & Co., but not before starting a catastrophic avalanche that forced the Discovery captain and a frustratingly aggressive Captain Raynor ( The Umbrella Academy’s Callum Keith Rennie) to refocus their efforts on saving a nearby settlement.

When the dust settled, Saru, who’d been thinking over an offer to leave Discovery and become a Federation ambassador, accepted the new position to stay close to President T’Rina. That was met with a surprising proposal from T’Rina, who politely suggested they codify their mutual commitment in a more official capacity.

While the Federation mulled his future, Discovery embarked on a trip to Lyrek in search of another clue. The uninhabited planet was used by the Promellians as a burial ground before the species went extinct. (In the TNG episode “Booby Trap,” we learned that early Federation starships were influenced by their design.)

In their exploration of the forest-heavy planet, Burnham and Saru accidentally tripped a complex security system which launched droids that immediately opened fire. Saru leaped into action, though, drawing the killer bots away and buying Tilly enough time to disarm them. He and Burnham then reached their target location, where they uncovered a Romulan revlav, aka a message in a poem.

While all of that was happening, Book reached out to Moll and L’ak about buying the diary, which he knew would be a hot commodity in the galaxy. But his conversation with the fugitives revealed something else. Studying Moll’s image later on, Book figured out why Moll seemed so familiar. Her real name was Malinne and she was the daughter of his mentor Cleveland Book IV, making her the closest thing to family he has left.

But first, Burnham needed to secure a new Number One. She turned to Raynor, who’d been asked by Vance to retire. In offering him Saru’s old role, she was giving him a second chance — one that had been granted to her back in Season 1.

What did you think of the first two episodes of Star Trek: Discovery’s final season? Grade them below, and share your thoughts about the overarching mystery in the comments.

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I like Discovery, a lot, but this was a deep cut for anyone not a big fan of the entire Trekverse. Thanks for the recap and the thorough explanation, I know I needed it

Dr. Kovich: Red Directive – Criticial – stop L’ak and Moll at all costs, time is of the essence… Cap’n Burnham: We’ll black alert and our spore drive will have us at Q’mau in a blink… Cap’n Raynor: we’ll use our ancient tech and be there in an hour. Don’t start without me. … cut to Burnham and Book on Q’mau standing on the outskirts of the city waiting for Raynor, having not even attempted to find Fred’s shop or in any other way look for Moll and L’ak or their ship until Raynor joins them. D’oh!

Kudos to the showrunners for these Trekverse nods to the past series. Loved both episodes! Action packed and all in the feels with Michael and Saru (I heart him and T’Rina) on their last mission together, not to mention their goodbye on Discovery. I love their relationship and will miss their convos. Raynor is going to be a very interesting Number One! Enjoying this last Discovery ride through the cosmos!

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The History Of The Romulans, And Their Place In The Star Trek Universe

"Star Trek" is home to countless alien races, but few have as enduring a presence in the franchise as the Romulans. They're the most persistent adversaries of the Federation, so much so that blue-tinted Romulan Ale remains under trade embargo. This hostility makes it all the more ironic that they resemble humanity's first alien allies, the Vulcans , sharing their pointed ears and arched eyebrows.

The in-universe origin of the Romulans is that they were Vulcans, millennia ago. In that distant past, the Vulcans were a warlike people, far from the cold logicians that fans know. That changed when (in Earth's 4th century), the philosopher Surak taught his people to embrace logic and master their emotions. Not all Vulcans accepted Surak's teachings; "Those Who March Beneath The Raptor's Wings" were eventually exiled from Vulcan. These dissident Vulcans settled on the twin planets Romulus and Remus, evolving into the Romulans and personifying a violent path not taken by their Vulcan cousins.

"Star Trek" is big on allegory — the interstellar powers represent the geopolitics of the 20th century. The Federation is the United States of America, a democracy of many member states. As the Federation's most pressing rival, the Klingon Empire is the Soviet Union. The Romulan Star Empire is China, a "sleeping dragon" superpower.

So, why have the Romulans endured as a crucial part of "Star Trek" history — and what does their role in that history look like?

Romulans in the Original Series

The Romulans were created by writer Paul Schneider, debuting in the season 1 episode "Balance of Terror." The episode features the Enterprise reacting to the destruction of outposts along the Romulan Neutral Zone; the culprit is a Romulan ship armed with a cloaking device. The Romulans flee back home while the Enterprise pursues its invisible quarry in a cat-and-mouse game.

This episode established the Romulan Star Empire had fought humanity in a devastating war a century ago. The war ended with a Neutral Zone established between the two parties' territories. Notably, no human had ever seen a Romulan in this time (or at least, no human who survived to tell about it). That means the Enterprise crew is stunned when they discover their adversaries are identical to Vulcans. The Romulans' exact backstory isn't spelled out, but Spock (Leonard Nimoy) speculates they are a Vulcan offshoot who retained his ancestors' warlike ways.

Schneider modeled the Romulans on the Romans; their twin homeworlds are named for the mythical founders of Rome and they employ ranks like "Centurion." Interviewed for "The Captains' Logs" by authors Edward Gross and Mark Altman , Schneider explained: "I came up with the concept of the Romulans which was an extension of the Roman civilization to the point of space travel, and it turned out quite well."

The Romulans' ship, dubbed a "Bird of Prey" due to the hawk painted on its underbelly, also created an association between the Romulans and birds. By "Star Trek: The Next Generation," their imperial insignia had evolved into a stylized raptor. Their ancestors' moniker, "Those Who March Beneath The Raptor's Wings," was probably extrapolated from this connection too by writer André Bormanis (the name first appears in "Star Trek: Enterprise" episode, "Awakening," written by Bormanis).

Further appearances

"Balance of Terror" is one of the most acclaimed episodes of "Star Trek: The Original Series." It was even semi-remade for the season 1 finale of "Strange New Worlds," titled "A Quality of Mercy." The unnamed Romulan Commander (played by Mark Lenard, who would go on to play Spock's father, Sarek) is an especially well-remembered villain, predating Khan Noonien Singh as the first worthy adversary of Captain Kirk (William Shatner) and the Enterprise. Even with his last words, he retains dignity and honor: "I regret that we meet in this way. You and I are of a kind. In a different reality, I could have called you friend."

Despite this dynamite debut, the Romulans made only two more appearances in "The Original Series." They are the antagonists of the season 2 episode "The Deadly Years," about the Enterprise crew succumbing to premature aging. However, only their ships are seen, not the Romulans themselves. They make a second and final onscreen appearance in season 3's "The Enterprise Incident" ( written by the legendary D.C. Fontana ). In this episode, Spock seduces a Romulan commander (Joanne Linville) while Kirk poses as a Romulan officer to steal her ship's cloaking device.

According to "The Art of Star Trek" by Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens, "Romulans were originally intended to be more of an ongoing threat to the crew of the Enterprise, but the make-up requirements proved too expensive. Klingons were cheaper." Note how, in "Balance of Terror" and "The Enterprise Incident," Romulan extras often wear ear-concealing helmets — an easy way to bypass make-up expenses.

The Romulans had only minor roles in the six theatrical "Star Trek" films featuring the original cast. They were rejected as villains of the third film, "The Search for Spock," again in favor of the Klingons (this is why the Klingons in that film have a cloaked ship called a Bird of Prey).

The Rihannsu

During the 1980s, the Romulans took center-stage in "Rihannsu," a five-novel series written primarily by Diane Duane (Peter Morwood co-authored the second, "The Romulan Way.") Published from 1984 to 2006, the novels invented a culture and language for the Romulans wholesale; they are technically not "Trek" canon but remain acclaimed for their world-building.

"Rihannsu" ("The Declared") is the Romulans' native name for themselves, akin to how German people call their nation "Deutschland," the Japanese call theirs "Nippon," etc. They are driven by "D'era," an expansionist impulse akin to Manifest Destiny, and "Mnhei'sahe" (ruling passion), a complex code of conduct that is foremost a rejection of the Vulcan system of logic.

"Mnhei'sahe" is weighed by one's personal strength and devotion to the Empire. Romulans seek power not for personal benefit per se, but because greater power serves the Empire. Selflessness is an alien concept to the Romulans; do things for the sake of your own Mnhei'sahe and others will benefit in the process. "Mnhei'sahe" spreads its claws even into simple Romulan social interactions, where the ideal outcome is for both parties to depart with their honor intact.

Much of Duane's other additions are inferences based on "Balance of Terror" and "The Enterprise Incident." Akin to Rome, the Romulans are an Oligarchic Republic; a Praetor is elected by the Senate itself, not the people at large. "The Enterprise Incident" showed a Romulan woman with a high military rank. So, "Rihannsu" gave the Romulan society a matriarchial tilt; a Romulan's family lineage is derived from their mother, not their father.

Much of "Rihannsu" is a holdover from the suggestion in "Star Trek: The Original Series" that Romulans were a warrior culture. For instance, their society has a semi-feudal system with a strong emphasis on family affiliation. Canon material would take a different path, showing Romulans as militant but not exactly honorable.

The Next Generation

In "Star Trek: The Next Generation," the Klingons were now good guys (mostly). They also became the go-to warrior race of "Star Trek"; Klingon society took on Viking and Samurai characteristics, where war, personal honor, and feudal affiliation were everything.

The Romulans became less and less the noble Roman-esque adversaries that Schneider had conceived of, with "TNG" instead highlighting their duplicity (with the cloaking devices) and isolationism. Thus, the stereotypical traits of Romulans became paranoia, deception, and xenophobia.

The Romulans were reintroduced in "TNG" season 1 finale, "The Neutral Zone," where it's said they had stayed out of galactic affairs for much of the 24th century. The episode (where several of their colonies are destroyed by the to-be-revealed Borg) awakens them. Creator Gene Roddenberry had initially not wanted to use the Romulans, but poor reception to the Ferengi meant the Federation needed a new adversary. Thus, the Romulans became the most frequent alien antagonist in the series; the Federation and Klingons were united as their enemies. Recurring Romulan villains included Tomalak (Andreas Katsulas) and Sela (Denise Crosby).

The most notable additions to the Romulans in "TNG" included V-shaped forehead ridges (dimorphic evolution from their Vulcan cousins), the D'deridex Class (enormous green warships descended from the Birds-of-Prey from "The Original Series"), and the Tal Shiar, Romulus' secret police.

Romulan highlights in "TNG" include "The Defector" (a Romulan military officer defects to the Federation) and "Reunification" (where Ambassador Spock has begun a push on Romulus for the two peoples to be one again).

The Next Generation (cont'd)

The Romulans weren't as prominent in "Deep Space Nine" as in "The Next Generation," but that series featured them finally uniting with the Federation. While the Federation and Klingons fight a losing war with the expansionist Dominion, the Romulans initially stay on the sidelines.

In the season 6 episode, "In The Pale Moonlight," Captain Sisko (Avery Brooks) and Garak (Andrew Robinson) falsify evidence of the Dominion's plans to invade Romulus and try to sway Senator Vreenak (Stephen McHattie). When their deception is revealed, Garak (with Sisko none the wiser until it's done) pulls a move the Romulans would be proud of: he assassinates Vreenak and frames the Dominion. Thus, the Romulans join the war as allies, and remain so until the series' end.

The Romulans finally got a silver screen spotlight in "Star Trek: Nemesis," the final "TNG" theatrical film. The Romulan Senate is assassinated by a bio-weapon and a new Praetor, Shinzon (Tom Hardy), seizes power. It turns out Shinzon is a failed clone of Picard, the product of an aborted spying operation. The biggest wrinkle "Nemesis" introduces to the Romulans is the Remans. Playing on the pre-established twin planets Romulus and Remus, the grey-skinned Remans are a slave race, toiling as forced laborers and shock troops.

The film skimps on the details of Reman history, so viewers can surmise they evolved on Remus and were subjugated by the Romulans. However, the novel trilogy "Vulcan's Soul" by Josepha Sherman and Susan Shwartz builds on the Remans displaying telepathy like the Vulcans (which the Romulans have always lacked). In this telling, the Remans were Vulcan exiles who refused to give up their telepathy and so were oppressed by the future Romulans; their appearance stems from the poor living conditions on Remus.

Looking to the past

"Star Trek: Enterprise" was a prequel set in the 22nd century, beginning before first contact between humans and Romulans. That event was depicted in the season 2 episode "Minefield," when the Enterprise stumbles into Romulan territory and is disabled by a cloaked minefield. True to canon, only the Romulans' ships are seen in the episode.

The Romulans finally took a larger role in season 4. The three-parter, "The Forge/Awakening/Kir'Shara" was about a Vulcan conspiracy to invade the Andorians. The ending revealed that Vulcan Administrator V'Las (Robert Foxworth) was in league with the Romulans and secretly working towards reunification. A subsequent three-parter, "Babel One/United/The Aenar," featured the Romulans as the explicit villains. A Romulan drone-ship, equipped with a holographic projector and controlled by Admiral Valore (Brian Thompson), attacked ships throughout the Alpha Quadrant to ferment dissent (the story begins with it destroying an Andorian ship while disguised as a Tellarite one, it later destroys a Rigellian freighter while disguised as Enterprise, etc.). However, the attacks only wind up bringing the targeted races together.

"Enterprise" established a firm timeframe for the Earth-Romulan War: 2156 to 2160. Moreover, the war was revealed as the event that brought the Federation together; Humans, Vulcans, Andorians, and Tellarites united in a military alliance against Romulan expansionism and never broke apart. The Romulans' increased presence in season 4 was building up to the war, but unfortunately, "Enterprise" was canceled before subsequent seasons could depict it. Thus, the Earth-Romulan War remains undepicted onscreen, confined to novels "Beneath The Raptor's Wings" and "To Brave The Storm" (both by Michael A. Martin).

The home world destroyed

Romulans were again the villains of a "Star Trek" film in director JJ Abrams' eponymous reboot. In the year 2387, Romulus and Remus are destroyed when their star goes supernova, shattering the Empire. Spock manages to contain the explosion with the substance Red Matter, opening a wormhole that sends him back in time to the 23rd century. Following him is the Romulan mining vessel the Narada, captained by vengeful Captain Nero (Eric Bana) — his name is another allusion to ancient Rome . 

The Narada's presence creates an alternate timeline; Nero and his men destroy Vulcan with Red Matter before being defeated themselves. Nero and the Narada's crew stand out from other Romulans thanks to their shaved heads and tattoos; the admittedly non-canon comic "Star Trek: Countdown" suggests this is part of a mourning ritual. Normally the tattoos would fade, but Nero and his crew burnt them into their skin to ensure they'd never forget the loss of their home.

"Star Trek" returned to the "TNG" era with "Picard" and followed on from this point. It turns out that Starfleet offered to help evacuate Romulus, but after an attack on Mars, reneged on the plan; Picard himself resigned in disgust. The Romulans are far from extinct though. The Empire has collapsed into warring factions, one of which is the Romulan Free State. According to "Star Trek: Discovery," Vulcan/Romulan reunification will have become a reality by the 31st century. The groups remain culturally divided, but they again exist on the same planet, renamed from Vulcan to "Ni'var" (meaning two combined into one).

Romulan worldbuilding

Michael Chabon, showrunner of "Picard" season 1, also shared (via Medium) worldbuilding notes on the Romulans . These presumably influenced his onscreen depiction of them. Chabon writes that the Romulans are such secretive people that there is nothing more intimate to them than the truth; marriages have three participants because there must be third-party verification in everything.

The Romulan government is organized like an espionage network, with multiple competing cells, while Romulans all have four names: the common name (used for familiarity), imperial name (the state-recognized name), open name (for outsiders), and their true name (used only for close intimacy). Chabon suggests that a rumored reason for the Romulans' secrecy is the abundance of camouflaged predators on their adopted homeworld; their cloaked warbirds are modeled on a raptor whose plumage blends into the horizon.

Not all depictions of the Romulans totally align — compare Duane's Rihannsu to Chabon's Romulans. However, they all draw upon "The Original Series" and make inferences from there. "Star Trek" writers and fans aren't much different; they both take canon material and expand on it with some imagination.

"Star Trek" and its spin-offs are streaming on Paramount+.

Picard co-creator reveals why Discovery had to change the Vulcans

Kirsten Beyer, one of Star Trek's most influential writers, breaks-down "Unification III."

The Romulans and Vulcans are sharing a planet. In Star Trek: Discovery Season 3 , Episode 7, "Unification III," the Trek franchise has created a direct-sequel to a beloved two-part episode of The Next Generation in which Ambassador Spock (Leonard Nimoy) was confronted by Jean-Luc Picard.

Back in 1991 (2368 in Trek years), Picard wanted to know what the hell Spock was doing living with the Romulans. And Spock's answer was: I'm trying to get them to reunite with the Vulcans. At the end of "Unification II," Data and Picard left Spock to his secret peace-mission work. Now, several Trek spinoffs later — and in the timeframe of the 32nd Century — we finally get to see what happened

But how and why did the Romulans and Vulcans get to this point? And why was this the moment to pick up the threads left over from a Next Generation episode that aired in 1991? The writer of this Discovery episode is Kirsten Beyer , who, in addition to being a co-producer on Discovery since 2017, is also one of the co-creators of Star Trek: Picard . Here's what she tells Inverse about writing "Unification III," the connections between the warrior nuns from Picard , why we love Vulcan culture, and that very nostalgic flashback to '90s Spock. Spoilers ahead!

When Michael Burnham and the USS Discovery arrive at what used to be called the planet Vulcan, they learn that it now goes by the new name Ni'Var . For scholars of the long and fascinating history of Star Trek fanfic , the word "Ni'Var" won't come as a shock. That's because it's literally as old as Trek fandom itself.

In the 1968 Trek fanzine Spockanalia, fan writer Dorothy Jones invented the word "Ni'Var" to mean "two forms." From that point on, other fanfic picked-up on the concept and used the "two form" concept of Ni'Var in all kinds of Spock and Vulcan-related writing. In 2002, in the Enterprise episode "Shadows of P'Jem," the word Ni'Var was finally made canon with the appearance of a Vulcan ship called the Ni'Var. But the use of Ni'Var to describe the new Vulcan-Romulan homeworld is a much bigger deal.

Beyer, of course, was hyper-aware of the history of the word in fandom when she picked it as the new name of the planet Vulcan for Discovery.

"I just thought it was beautiful, and captured perfectly what would be happening on Vulcan should they truly attempt reunification with the Romulans," she says. "When something that specific and powerful already exists, it feels wrong not to build upon it."

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Burnham and Book watch a holographic recording of Spock from 'The Next Generation.'

Building upon powerful themes that already exist is kind of what "Unification III" is all about. In 2258, when Micahel Burnham last saw Spock (Ethan Peck), he had his entire life ahead of him, a life that fans of Star Trek are very familiar with. By Picard's time in The Next Generation , Spock was a rogue Federation ambassador engaged in "cowboy diplomacy" in an attempt to reunite the pointed-eared brethren of the Vulcans and the Romulans. Now that Burnham has jumped well-beyond Spock's lifetime (including his sideways time travel into the J.J. Abrams movies) Beyer felt this was the moment for Burnham to discover her adoptive brother's legacy.

"It seemed important to answer the question: Had Burnham taken the time yet to find out what became of her brother?" she says. "It made sense that she had not yet done so, and was going to be a powerful moment when she finally did. It was just a wonderful thing that the images existed and could be used to put them in a scene 'together' one last time."

The images Beyer refers to comes to us as a holographic recording of Spock viewed by Burnham. In our world, this footage comes directly from two different scenes in the TNG episode "Unification II," in which Spock relates to Jean-Luc Picard exactly why he believes the "Union of the Vulcan and Romulan people, will not be achieved by politics or diplomacy, but it will be achieved." In the context of TNG at that time, Captain Picard was initially skeptical of Spock's belief that Vulcans and Romulans could live together. But Picard came around, and by the time of Star Trek: Picard , Jean-Luc was actively trying to save the Romulan people from the supernova that would eventually destroy their planet.

In his travels, Picard met the Romulan warrior nuns, known as Qowat Milat. Now, in Discovery , the Qowat Milat return, and Michael's own mother is a member of their order. This crossover from Picard seems like it could have only happened with Beyer's involvement. So because Picard aired earlier in 2020, when was it decided this crossover would happen?

"I had just finished shooting my episode of Picard, where we first met the Qowat Milat, so they were very fresh in my mind when we began work on this story," Beyer says. "When I returned to the Discovery [writers'] room and we started to think about Vulcan’s distant future, it made sense that at some point in the past, some of the Romulan refugees created by the supernova might have decided to attempt to return home. Spock had certainly planted the seeds and it was lovely to think that they might have truly taken root. But, because we had the Qowat Milat now as part of Romulan history, it seemed possible to us that an order like that could have been instrumental in bridging the gap between the Vulcans and the Romulans, where trust would have been so very difficult. To have a group of women who were renowned as candid truth-tellers just seemed incredibly helpful."

Although we never get to see the surface of Ni'Var in "Unification III," several familiar aesthetics from the classic Trek are strewn throughout the episode. When Burnham engages in a huge scientific debate with the representatives from Ni'Var, it's almost like a political version of Kirk and Spock's Vulcan grudge match in "Amok Time." There's a gong. There are flames. Things get real.

Spock with T'Pring in "Amok Time." In Discovery, the aesthetics of this episode come back in a big way.

"For me, the joy of 'Amok Time' is the deep dive into Vulcan culture," Beyer says."It’s simply fantastic. So any time you enter that arena, you have to build from there and remain true to who they are. But of course, the fun is in imagining who they might also become depending upon the circumstances."

In this case, the circumstances are a human trying to plead her case in the name of her famous Vulcan brother. It doesn't go over easily, and the Vulcans treat Burnham differently than viewers might expect. Just because she's Spock's sister, doesn't mean they are just going to bow to her, a point which Beyer though was essential to making the story work. "This became an opportunity for Burnham to face the central question she had been asking herself since she returned to the ship after waiting a year to find them: Where do I truly belong?" Beyer says. And the most important part of that is that you can't fool the new Vulcans about what you want, even when you try to invoke nostalgia for Spock.

After all, as Beyer points out, "Vulcans, as a people, take everything so incredibly seriously."

Star Trek: Discovery Season 3 is streaming now on CBS All Access.

This article was originally published on November 26, 2020

• Science Fiction

This New 'Star Trek: Discovery' Character Is a Deep-Cut 'Deep Space Nine' Reference

Callum Keith Rennie's Captain Rayner is not Vulcan or Romulan after all.

The Big Picture

• Callum Keith Rennie joins Star Trek: Discovery as Kellerun Captain Rayner, revealing the obscure species from Deep Space Nine .
• Rayner's Kellerun backstory is crucial to Rayner's characterization and mission, with the showrunner promising a focus on his personal history.
• Discovery continues the tradition of exploring one-off alien races with new characters, adding depth and diversity to the final season.

Veteran actor Callum Keith Rennie will join the cast of the final season of Star Trek: Discovery as the alien Captain Rayner, and now we know what species he is. Fans have speculated that Rayner's pointed ears mark him as a Vulcan or a Romulan, but a new interview reveals that he is a member of the Kellerun, an obscure species from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine . TrekCore.com has the details from SFX Magazine's feature on Discovery 's upcoming fifth season , which will premiere on Paramount+ early next month.

Rayner's species will apparently be important to his characterization and the mysterious mission he joins the USS Discovery crew for, as they race against time in the show's final bow. Says showrunner Michelle Paradise , "He’s Kellerun, which is a minor planet mentioned in one of the other iterations… we learn more about his personal backstory and how that plays into who he is, and why he is how he is. We learn about that as the season goes on, and the planet he’s from has a lot to do with that." It won't be the first time an important character on Discovery comes from a one-off alien race; Commander Nhan ( Rachael Ancheril ), who debuted in the series' second season, is a Barzan, a race that had up to that point only appeared in the third-season Next Generation episode "The Price".

Who Are the Kellerun?

The Kellerun made their first and (so far) only appearance in "Armageddon Game", which first aired in 1994 as part of Deep Space Nine 's second season. A species with distinctive large, pointed ears, they had been at war for centuries with their neighbors, the T'Lani, in a conflict that utilized the Harvesters, deadly biological weapons. After the two races made peace with each other, Starfleet sent in Deep Space Nine crew members Dr. Julian Bashir ( Alexander Siddig ) and Miles O'Brien ( Colm Meany ) to help dismantle the remaining Harvesters. However, the Kellerun and T'Lani insist that all knowledge pertaining to the Harvesters must be destroyed - which means killing Bashir and O'Brien, too. The two have to make a desperate race for survival as their friends try to save them from the two alien species.

Although the Kellerun did not appear on the series again, the episode established Bashir and O'Brien's friendship, which endured for the rest of the show's run. Canadian actor Callum Keith Rennie is a veteran of science fiction productions, having starred in Battlestar Galactica , Impulse , The X-Files , Jessica Jones , and The Umbrella Academy . Discovery will be his first Star Trek appearance.

Star Trek: Discovery 's fifth and final season will premiere April 4, 2024 on Paramount+ , wehere past seasons are also streaming. Stay tuned to Collider for future updates, and watch the trailer for Discovery 's fifth season below.

Star Trek: Discovery

Taking place almost a decade before Captain Kirk's Enterprise, the USS Discovery charts a course to uncover new worlds and life forms.

Watch on Paramount+

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Star Trek: Discovery Season 5 Episode 1 “Red Directive” Review

Believe it or not, two years have passed since Captain Burnham and the Discovery crew thwarted the galactic threat posed by the DMA. Despite the abundance of Star Trek content since March 2022, we’ve sorely missed Discovery . Season four delivered an enthralling mystery, unique visual storytelling, a compelling guest star, and rich character development for our friends in the 31st century. Now, season five promises another captivating season-long mystery, and “Red Directive” kicks off this journey with stunning visuals and a surprising link to a classic Star Trek episode.

Captain Michael Burnham ( Sonequa Martin-Green ) is having quite the ride when the episode begins, as she is pursuing on foo t a ship traveling through warp. Well, walking on the hull of the ship, anyway, as some thieves seem to have stolen a valuable artifact – although that’s all the information we get before director Olatunde Osunsanmi and writer Michelle Paradise pull the ole’ flashback on us to help inform some context for the explosive opening.

It’s been a few months since the end of season four, and members of Discovery ’s crew are celebrating the legacy of the Federation, which is now getting its wheels spinning again after the destructive events of the Burn. It’s the 1000 th anniversary of the organization’s founding, and it’s a mostly joyous occasion save for Paul Stamets ( Anthony Rapp ) being upset about Starfleet shuttering the spore drive program – indeed, his legacy – as the new Pathway Drive (introduced in season four) has replaced the ancient transportation method.

This is not the last time legacy plays a role in shaping this episode’s story, but more on that to come. Soon enough, Captain Burnham is given important new orders – retrieve the precious cargo of a recently discovered 800-year-old Romulan ship. It’s a mission of utmost importance – a “Red Directive” mission, as Doctor Kovich ( David Cronenberg ) explains.

“What’s on board?” “Something vital to the security of the Federation.” “That doesn’t answer my question.” “I’m aware.” – Burnham and Kovich as Burnham is briefed about the Romulan vessel.

Discovery isn’t the only one heading to the Romulan ship, as two characters of unknown affiliation, Moll ( Eve Harlow ) and L’ak ( Elias Toufexis ) arrive at the ship first and grab the cargo before Burnham, Gen Rhys ( Patrick Kwok-Choon ) and Joann Owosekun ( Oyin Oladejo ) arrive. After finding a long-dead Romulan body near the puzzle box, Burnham pursues the escaping thieves by landing on the hull of their ship just before it jumps to warp.

Thus continues just one of this episode’s striking visual set pieces. Seeing Burnham cling to the hull of a ship at warp is not something we’ve seen in live-action Star Trek , and the sense of speed and intensity is at the forefront of this sequence thanks to Osunsanmi’s signature dexterous camera work. Complicating Burnham’s retrieval of the artifact is the arrival of Captain Rayner ( Callum Keith Rennie ) on the U.S.S. Antares , the other Federation ship assigned to this mission. Rayner is immediately at odds with Burnham on how to capture the fleeing ship. Rayner asserts he has run into Moll and L’ak before and knows they can’t get away, lest the pair escape their pursuers for good. Burnham’s approach is different, in that she thinks the stress of the Antares ’ tractor beam on Moll and L’ak’s ship is too much for her ride to handle – and she’s the one on the hull, after all.

Ultimately, Rayner concedes to Burnham’s plan to let Moll and L’ak get away for now, which means the pair have a chance to pop off some warp-enabled decoys, complicating any future pursuit. Luckily, Burnham knows someone who can help track them: Cleveland Booker ( David Ajala ), apparently the one person in the galaxy who is skilled enough to track the thieves. The man without a homeworld has been doing community service in the wake of his crimes in season four, and he and Burnham, his former lover haven’t talked to each other in the intervening months. Bringing Book into the picture does help Burnham and Rayner track Moll and L’ak to the desert planet Q’mau, where the thieves have decided to sell the Romulan puzzle box.

In a neat twist, the buyer for this artifact turns out to be a synth of the Soong variety. Fred ( J. Adam Brown ), a dealer who “loves the old stuff,” according to Book, shares a similar appearance to our good friend Data, complete with yellow eyes, pale skin, sharply styled hair, and, interestingly, some capacity for emotions. He makes a memorable impression with his verbose vocabulary and analytical skills before Moll and L’ak eliminate him and his cronies for threatening to take the Romulan artifact away.

Burnham and Book find Fred’s body soon after, and sending the synth up to Discovery confirms our assumption: Fred is an android created by someone heavily influenced by Altan Soong, the Soong family member seen in Star Trek: Picard . Stamets, who has legacies on his mind following the spore drive being decommissioned, can’t help but marvel at the legacy the Soong family has passed along all these centuries.

With Moll and L’ak on the run from Burnham, Book, and Rayner again, it’s time for this episode’s longest, visually intense set piece: A desert chase that witnesses Burnham and Rayner’s further disagreement on how to proceed with the mission. There isn’t much time to discuss the matter, though, as Moll and L’ak are about to get away, so Rayner orders his ship to fire on the thieves’ escape route even though it risks causing an avalanche that would endanger thousands of people. While Rayner’s call pays off and an avalanche is avoided, Moll and L’ak cause one anyway, so the crews of the Federation ships must get creative if they want to save an entire settlement.

To stop the impending wave of destructive rock, sand, and debris, we get another awesome sight: Discovery and Antares heading down to the planet and shoving their saucers into the avalanche’s path. The two ships’ shield coverage is enough to stop the destruction; the whole sequence is a sight to behold. We wouldn’t be surprised if the next couple of episodes takes it easy on the action set pieces, as “Red Directive” looks like quite an expensive production.

“Did he just take off again?” “Yeah, kind of reminds me of someone. Trying to put my finger on who.” “I’m holding a phaser, you know that, right?” – Burnham and Book about Rayner.

With the inhabitants of Q’mau saved, Book and Burnham have a hot second to address the awkwardness that has developed between them in between seasons four and five. The pair agree, dishearteningly, that they no longer know how to be around each other, a somber admission for the former lovers. This emotional moment doesn’t hang around too long, though, as Burnham receives word that her crew has determined what was in the Romulan puzzle box, information which is soon confirmed by the ever-mysterious Kovich.

Here’s a great twist for long-time Star Trek fans: The puzzle box’s contents link back to the classic The Next Generation episode “The Chase.” This is the one that saw Captain Picard chase Romulans, Klingons, and Cardassians to the creators of all life in the galaxy, a mysterious humanoid race that is soon termed the Progenitors. Within the puzzle box from the ancient Romulan ship are notes about the Progenitors life-creating methods, written by one of the Romulans who were there at that encounter in “The Chase,” Dr. Vellek ( Michael Copeman ).

The doctor apparently found the Progenitors’ technology – what they used to design life itself. Vellek was marveled at what such a discovery meant, and what the cost was if it fell into the wrong hands. If you had a background character from The Next Generation launching a season-long mystery in 2024 on your bingo card, go play some dom-jot.

So, Burnham is left with a dilemma: Moll and L’ak are after the Progenitors tech, and they have a headstart on Discovery and Antares. The major lingering question we have from this episode is what are Moll and L’ak’s motivations? Who are they working for, and what could be done with the Progenitors’ technology if it falls into the wrong hands? We also wonder if Moll and L’ak’s previous encounters with Rayner will be expanded on in this season, or if that’ll be saved for tie-in media.

There are a couple of other aspects to this episode worth noting. First, Saru (Doug Jones) is dealing with matters of the heart, an unusual situation for the Kelpien. It’s also an unusual situation for his love interest, T’Rina (Tara Rosling), whom he started a romance with last season. Some serious feelings have developed between the pair, as Saru is weighing an offer to become a Federation ambassador against staying in Starfleet and on Discovery .

Thanks to the life-threatening events on Q’mau, Saru’s perspective on romance shifts enough for him to take the Federation gig, since it means he can stay in a relationship with T’Rina. To solidify the arrangement, the Ni’Var ambassador asks Saru to marry her. It’s a big deal, for sure, and a development we didn’t expect after the merely flirtatious romance the two aliens started in season four.

Finally, Tilly is training a group of cadets at Starfleet Command, which makes sense considering her leaving Discovery last season to instruct at Starfleet Academy. However, major awkwardness ensues when it’s hinted Tilly has a bit of a crush on one of her fellow instructors. This particular story thread is just starting to get explored in “Red Directive,” and we are curious where it leads – although we do think it’s the least interesting part of an otherwise gripping episode.

We are quite encouraged about Discovery ’s final season thanks to “Red Directive.” The episode is an action-packed romp that sets up the season to explore how legacies endure, a suitable theme for the final season of the Kurtzman era’s first Star Trek show. Moreover, having the Discovery crew pursue the origin of life itself is as fitting a story for this series – which is named after seeking knowledge – as can be. We’re excited to see where it leads.

Stray Thoughts:

• The opening shot of Moll and L’ak’s ship traveling through warp against the vastness of space. Burnham almost crashing into Discovery before being beamed aboard and immediately taking the captain’s chair. Quite the badass moment for her!The view from the cargo bay as Discovery acrobatically jumps to pick up Book.The tracking shot where Rayner, Book, and Burnham narrowly avoid weapon fire from Moll and L’ak’s ship in the desert. Discovery and Antares crashing into the planet to stop the avalanche.
• The dust floats free of Discovery as the ship arrives at Starfleet Command.
• T’Rina’s dialogue with Saru indicates the Breen and Tholians are still notable threats in the 31 st -century Milky Way.
• The Romulan vessel in this episode appears to be a Romulan scout ship , like the kind seen in The Next Generation.
• Does the already-miraculous instant-transporter technology used in the 31 st century also arrest momentum? Burnham was traveling quickly before being beamed onto the bridge, yet she’s able to go from essentially high-speed falling to walking barely without trouble.
• Discovery appears to have at least one tribble roaming its corridors. Hopefully, it is neutered.
• Fred only having a first name matches the naming style we’ve seen from other androids, like Data and Lore.
• Romulan puzzle boxes, called tan zhekran , were seen before in Star Trek: Picard ’s “ The Impossible Box .”
• This episode, the first of the last season, shares a similar locale – a desert planet – as the first-ever episode of Discovery.
• We have to wonder what was in the puzzle box Fred encountered 622.7 years ago.
• Why did Moll and L’ak wait so long to warp away from the planet after starting the avalanche?
• Elias Toufexis, who plays L’ak, is no stranger to the Star Trek universe, as he voiced Galvan and Hadri in the video game Star Trek: Resurgence (which, by the way, is coming to Steam soon).

New episodes of Star Trek: Discovery stream Thursdays on Paramount+ , this season stars Sonequa Martin-Green (Captain Michael Burnham), Doug Jones (Saru), Anthony Rapp (Paul Stamets), Mary Wiseman (Sylvia Tilly), Wilson Cruz (Dr. Hugh Culber), David Ajala (Cleveland “Book” Booker), Blu del Barrio (Adira) and Callum Keith Rennie (Rayner). Season five also features recurring guest stars Elias Toufexis (L’ak) and Eve Harlow (Moll).

Stay tuned to TrekNews.net for all the latest news on Star Trek: Discovery , Star Trek: Prodigy , Star Trek: Strange New Worlds , Star Trek: Picard , Star Trek: Lower Decks, and more.

Kyle Hadyniak has been a lifelong Star Trek fan, and isn't ashamed to admit that Star Trek V: The Final Frontier and Star Trek: Nemesis are his favorite Star Trek movies. You can follow Kyle on Twitter @khady93 .

April 8, 2024 at 5:54 am

Please note the Romulan ship is a https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Romulan_science_ship , not the Scout as written in the “Stray Thoughts”

Kyle Hadyniak

April 10, 2024 at 9:01 pm

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Why ‘Star Trek: Discovery’ Built Season 5 Around a Classic Episode From a Legacy Series

By Adam B. Vary

Adam B. Vary

Senior Entertainment Writer

• Why ‘Star Trek: Discovery’ Built Season 5 Around a Classic Episode From a Legacy Series 1 week ago
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SPOILER ALERT: This story discusses major plot developments in Season 5, Episode 1 of “ Star Trek : Discovery,” now streaming on Paramount+.

Popular on Variety

Kovich’s explanation evokes the classic “ Star Trek: The Next Generation ” episode “The Chase” from 1993 in which Capt. Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) — along with teams of Romulans, Klingons and Cardassians — learn that all humanoid life in the galaxy was created by a single species that existed billions of years earlier, and seeded thousands of planets with the DNA to pass along their legacy. (Along with presenting a profound vision of the origins of life, the episode also provided an imaginative explanation for why almost all the aliens in “Star Trek” basically look like humans with different kinds of forehead ridges.)

Kovich tells Burnham that the Romulan scientist was part of a team sent to discover exactly how these aliens — whom they call the Progenitors — made this happen; the object they’re seeking winds up being one part of a brand new “chase,” this time in the 32nd century, to find the Progenitors’ technology before it can fall into the wrong hands. 

“I remember watching that episode and at the end of it just being blown away that there was this huge idea where we all come from,” Paradise says. “And then they’re going to have another mission the next week. I found myself wondering, ‘Well, then what? What happened? What do we do with this information? What does it mean?’”

Originally, Paradise says the “Discovery” writers’ room discussed evoking the Progenitors in Season 4, when the Discovery meets an alien species, the 10-C, who live outside of the galaxy and are as radically different from humans as one could imagine. “As we dug deeper into the season itself, we realized that it was too much to try and get in,” Paradise says.

Instead, they made the Progenitors the engine for Season 5. “Burnham and some of our other characters are on this quest for personal meaning,” Paradise says. Searching for the origins of life itself, she adds, “feels like a big thematic idea that fits right in with what we’re exploring over the course of the season, and what our characters are going through.”

That meant that Paradise finally got to help come up with the answers to the questions about “The Chase” that had preoccupied her when she was younger. “We had a lot of fun talking about what might’ve happened when [Picard] called back to headquarters and had to say, ‘Here’s what happened today,’” she says. “We just built the story out from there.”

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Klingons & Breen In Star Trek: Discovery Season 5?

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Will Star Trek: Discovery Season 5 explain the Romulan Supernova?

Before Star Trek: Discovery was around, back in 2009, J.J. Abrams set up several mysteries during the first Kelvin Timeline movie . The imaginatively named Star Trek . The most significant one of these for the ‘Prime’ Star Trek timeline was the Romulan Supernova. But will Star Trek: Discovery Season 5 explain the Romulan Supernova?

In the 2009 film, this event was the catalyst that made its villain, Nero, embark on his quest for revenge against the Federation. Several explanations from various off-screen sources have emerged over the years. But the mystery has remained very much unsolved (and seemingly intentionally avoided) on screen. Even the Romulan-heavy Star Trek: Picard Season 1 avoided addressing or explaining the supernova in any detail. Choosing instead to focus its narrative on the gargantuan rescue operation that Starfleet ended up getting cold feet on.

In the past few months, we’ve gotten some new information about Star Trek: Discovery Season 5 , which hints that the cause of the supernova may finally be established on screen.

The first explanation for the supernova was given in the marketing build-up to the release of Star Trek (2009). The sequence of events leading to Nero’s travel through time to attack the U.S.S. Kelvin was covered through a comic series called Countdown . This 4-issue event was set in the prime timeline eight years after Star Trek: Nemesis . Countdown was based on a story by Star Trek (2009) writers Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman .

Tim Jones and Mike Johnson then wrote it. Johnson publicly stated that he considered Countdown to be canon, but in the years since another Kurtzman production (Picard) has confirmed it is not. As Picard actively contradicts the comic in significant ways (such as the fate of B-4).

Another notable divergence is that the Romulan star wasn’t going supernova in the Countdown comics. Instead, it was the Hobus star. The comics and movie combined laid out a (somewhat nonsensical, even for Star Trek ) plot about how this star going supernova threatened the galaxy to explain how a supernova seemingly travelled across multiple star systems. These events led to Spock using the MacGuffin Red Matter to collapse it into a short-lived black hole, which transported both his (Geordi LaForge-designed) ship and Nero’s back to the 23rd century.

Star Trek Online’s Explanation

The popular Star Trek MMORPG also took a turn explaining the supernova that led to the destruction of Romulus in an episode called Romulan Mystery . This story has seen several revisions over the years regarding structure and gameplay. If you haven’t played the game or don’t intend to play it, a basic summary of the story is in the next paragraph. If you do want to play Star Trek: Online and don’t want to spoil yourself, you can skip ahead. In Romulan Mystery, the supernova also started with the Hobus star. The player travels to the remnants of the Hobus system to find clues about the destruction of Romulus and Remus. The Romulan Republic has a theory and believes that the former praetor is responsible. Republic forces tried to capture the praetor, but she escaped through an Iconian gateway.

Throughout the story, you uncover that the unusual behaviour of the supernova was because it wasn’t a natural event (surprise)! But the effect of an Iconian doomsday weapon that rogue members of the Tal Shiar deployed.

So what about Star Trek Discovery?

As we know, Discovery is now set in the 32nd century. Almost a whole millennia from the events of the other live-action series. This jump to the future has opened up a wealth of possibilities for the show, allowing it to push beyond the established events of other series. The move also allowed Discovery to address the open-ended questions of the era, though. Such as the results of the Vulcan and Romulan reunification movement (also led by Spock) in the much-loved season 3 episode Unification III .

Discovery’s distance in the timeline from the other shows allows it to answer such questions without removing the possibility of them being explored in more depth in 23rd, 24th or 25th-century shows. As Harry Kim said in Star Trek: Voyager’s finale: “It’s not the destination that matters, it’s the journey”. So, with that in mind, let’s look at the clues we’ve had so far that Discovery may tackle the supernova. Be warned, go no further if you operate a zero spoiler policy!

Season Summary

The upcoming fifth season, which will debut in April, finds Captain Burnham and the crew of the U.S.S. Discovery uncovering a mystery that will send them on an epic adventure across the galaxy to find an ancient power whose very existence has been deliberately hidden for centuries. But there are others on the hunt as well… dangerous foes who are desperate to claim the prize for themselves and will stop at nothing to get it. Star Trek: Discovery Season 5 – StarTrek.com

The Red Directive

We started the year with a sneak peek at the episode titles for Discovery’s upcoming 5th and final season. Last week, we got our first episode synopsis for the cryptically titled “ The Red Directive “.

Capt Burnham & the Discovery are sent to retrieve a mysterious 800 year-old Romulan vessel; until the artifact hidden inside is stolen, leading to an epic chase. Meanwhile, Saru is offered the position of a lifetime, and Tilly’s efforts to help pull her into a tangled web of secrecy. Synop for Star Trek: Discovery Episode 5×01 ‘Red Directive’

An 800-year-old ship with an artefact hidden inside? Was Star Trek Online on the money with their story? The title of the episode itself implies a link to Red Matter. We know from the only other directive titled episode The Omega Directive in Voyager’s fourth season that Starfleet has precedent for creating directives to deal with dangerous substances, and from what we saw in Star Trek (2009), Red Matter would certainly warrant one…

Of course, we have to address that this very specifically is a Romulan ship, and one from the 24th Century, no less. It also bears a striking resemblance to one of the few Romulan designs that we’ve seen on screen. The Romulan science ship is seen in Star Trek: The Next Generation ‘s “ The Next Phase “.

Given the limited number of Romulan designs seen in Star Trek , this must be an intentional choice. Also, a tasteful update to the design, if I do say so myself.

Putting the pieces together

So, we have a series arc that sees the Star Trek: Discovery crew uncovering a mystery. This mystery leads to an ancient power whose existence has been hidden for centuries. The mystery just happens to start on a 24th-century Romulan science ship as well.

We’re told that the power has been deliberately hidden. Given that it seems to have been hidden on a Romulan ship (or at least a clue that points towards the power), that would seem to imply that the Romulans were the ones who did this. This would certainly support a Star Trek: Online-type narrative of a rogue Romulan faction causing the supernova.

On top of that, we have the fact that Discovery producer Alex Kurtzman was involved in the original Romulus destruction explanation back in 2009 and that the only other ‘Directive’ named episode dealt with a Starfleet ship dealing with a dangerous substance. Dangerous would certainly be an apt word to describe Red Matter, and it would make sense if the Red Matter were also acquired by the Romulans and hidden with the power they used.

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Star Trek: Discovery Would Really Like You to Know What It's About

Discovery 's final quest continues in "jinaal," giving it an opportunity to yell loudly what the show has always been about, for those in the back.

Star Trek: Discovery has always been about one thing: at the end of it all, the only thing that matters, the only thing that will bring light in dark times, and save the day, is a connection and understanding forged between people, regardless of who they are or what they’ve done. Sometimes, it’s more subtle about reminding us of this than others. This week was definitely one of the others.

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“Jinaal” is quick to get going after last week’s explosive two-episode premiere gave Michael and the crew a TNG -throwback mission to stop the mysterious Moll and L’ok getting their hands on Progenitor tech—and use their leg up on the duo wisely to get on to the Trill homeworld as soon as they can, in the search of the next clue to the Progenitor puzzle. It turns out, they’re actually looking for a person, so much as they are the clue—the titular Jinaal, a host of the Bix symbiont, who worked with the Romulan science team that discovered the technology’s existence eight centuries prior, at the height of the Dominion War .

Bad news: Trill don’t live for 800 years, and Jinaal is very, very dead. Good news: symbionts are much more lasting, and it turns out the Bix symbiont is still around with its host, Kalzara. Better(?) news: after answering a very simple riddle, Kalzara agrees to undergo a Trill ritual known as the Zhian’tara—a process seen in DS9 and Discovery that allows the consciousness of a past joined Trill to be put in another body for a period of time. After Dr. Culber eagerly accepts to be Jinaal’s organic AirBnB, the transfer is done, and Michael and Book are off on Culber-Jinaal’s tail to go find the clue.

If all this sounds like it’s going at an alarming pace, it is and it isn’t. While “Jinaal” certainly gets going very quickly, there is both not much else to the episode and also a big breath and pause, because Discovery gets ready to lay its forever thesis on thick . All of this—all of it, not just the main thrust of the episode but its parallel stories aboard the Discovery with new first officer Commander Rayner, and back at Federation HQ with now-Ambassador Saru—is in service of people facing something, momentarily struggling, and then realizing “oh, this is much more solvable when everyone talks to each other and connects. Hooray!” And like we said, not only does the episode slow itself down to make this point clear, it makes this point plainly and repeatedly for the rest of the episode.

Look, this is not necessarily a bad thing—it’s actually been for the most part very beneficial for Discovery for it to embrace that this idea, an intrinsic aspect of Star Trek ’s hope for the future, is the core of its identity. Star Trek ’s ideal is people from across different species, backgrounds, gender identities, linguistic barriers, adversarial pasts, even across lines of understanding of radically different forms of sentient life, coming together in the face of evil and standing against it as one. Coalescing itself around that idea has given Discovery both a certainty and a confidence in recent seasons that at its most frustrating points, it deeply lacked. But god, sometimes you just gotta chill on it having every character in every storyline of an episode saying that idea to each other back and forth.

We see it on Trill, when it turns out Jinaal is leading Michael and Book into a nest of invisible, barb-shooting giant creatures—a test to see if, when faced with unintentional aggression, they reply in turn or seek to find a peaceful solution so every party gets what they want (hazard a wild guess which one Michael does, and therefore proves herself worthy of inheriting the next clue to the Progenitor tech). We see it back on Discovery , when the irascible Rayner, ordered by Michael to do one-on-one social introductions with the senior crew, treats everyone so brusquely that even Tilly has to snap at him and tell him to stop being a jerk trying to prove himself and actually get to know the people he’s now working with (Rayner’s “this meeting will last with you saying 20 words about yourself, max” attitude does at least let us give some of Discovery ’s awkwardly barely known crewmembers pockets of personality though, that’s nice). And we even see it back at Federation HQ, when Saru’s first day as an ambassador sees him forced to reckon with the political worries of whether or not his engagement to T’Rina will upset her career, after he learns of potential pushback to her husband-to-be from Vulcan purists.

In the end, all of these storylines end the same way: our heroes embrace understanding and seeking connection over aggression and division, and realize their problems are best solved when everyone talks to each other. Michael and Book get the clue (although we learn at the every end of the episode that Trill’s famously tight security of guys in red robes going “I dunno man, I’m just here to ask you a riddle” is in fact not so tight, after Mol sneaks in Guardian disguise to plant some kind of tracking device on Adira), having convinced the creatures and Jinaal alike that their intentions are peaceful. Rayner eventually realizes, after a drink and Tilly’s further prodding, that the only way he’ll get the respect of the Discovery crew that he had with his former one on the Antares will come when he offers himself openly in respect to them. And of course, Saru and T’Rina’s brief disagreement over their protectiveness of each other is quickly resolved when they actually talk to each other and make their feelings clear, instead of making assumptions and debating over it internally.

“Jinaal” then is not a bad episode. It’s breezy, it’s got some fun moments, Wilson Cruz gets to loosen up a little playing host to Jinaal’s consciousness for a while, and while the action here isn’t quite as on the scale of the premiere’s shootouts and chases, it’s still really fun (one of the best things about Discovery ’s jump to the 32nd century has been about how it plays with near-instantaneous, localized beaming, and it’s used greatly here). It just happens to be a distinctly unsubtle one in ways the show has only rarely dipped into being in the past. Nothing particularly advances here beyond the team getting the next bit of the Progenitor puzzle and moving on, there’s no real character work beyond little kernels setting things up to come, nor are Discovery ’s oft-hammered-home themes particularly challenged here: they are just repeated, very, very clearly, across multiple fronts.

Hopefully now that it’s sure everyone’s paying attention, it can hammer home those themes a little more gracefully as the adventure continues.

Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel , Star Wars , and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV , and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who .

Qowat Milat

• View history

Sisters of the Qowat Milat say goodbye to Jean-Luc Picard

The Qowat Milat , formally the Order of the Qowat Milat , were a group of Romulan warrior nuns . They were an all- female group; while a male could train in their ways, he could never truly be one of them. The Qowat Milat were the most feared enemies of the Tal Shiar , and, by extension, the Zhat Vash . ( PIC : " Absolute Candor "; DIS : " Choose to Live ")

• 1 Beliefs and practices
• 3.1 Affiliates
• 4 External link

Beliefs and practices [ ]

The primary teaching of the Qowat Milat was the Way of Absolute Candor , i.e. the total communication of emotion without filter between thought and word; this ran counter to everything that mainstream Romulans held dear. According to Zani , theirs was a "house of truth". Another of their sayings was " a promise is a prison ."

Jean-Luc Picard described the Qowat Milat as " the most skilled single-combat fighters that I have ever seen ". Indeed, they were sometimes mistaken for assassins . They wielded swords known as tan qalanq . When possible, before attacking they offered their opponents a chance to retreat with the phrase, " Please, (my) friend(s), choose to live. " This was an abbreviation of a longer saying: "The path you are on has come to an end. Choose to live." It meant that the person could opt to move onto a new path in their life and live, or stay on their present course and die. ( PIC : " Absolute Candor "; DIS : " Choose to Live ")

The Qowat Milat could not be hired, though their assistance could be requested. A Qowat Milat sister could choose to bind her sword to a singular cause as a qalankhkai , or "freeblade", if she judged the cause worthy. The criterion for worthiness was that the cause be a lost one. This criterion also extended to providing their services as shalankhkai during the T'Kal-in-ket . ( PIC : " Absolute Candor ", " The Impossible Box ", " Nepenthe "; DIS : " Unification III ")

A traditional Qowat Milat gesture of greeting, goodbye, or acknowledgment was to press their palms together, then spread them outward like opening a book. ( PIC : " Absolute Candor ")

History [ ]

In the early 2380s , the Qowat Milat provided invaluable assistance to Admiral Jean-Luc Picard during the Federation effort to rescue Romulans from the impending Romulan supernova . On Vashti alone, they helped to relocate over 250,000 refugees . At this time, they took in an orphan boy, Elnor . Although this was meant to be a temporary arrangement, he would grow up among them. After the Attack on Mars in 2385 led to the withdrawal of Federation support, Qowat Milat qalankhkan contributed to maintaining the peace on Vashti.

In 2399 , Picard traveled to Vashti aboard La Sirena to beg the Qowat Milat's help for his quest to find and protect Soji Asha . At the urging of their leader Zani, Picard made his case to Elnor, who agreed to bind himself to the mission as a qalankhkai . ( PIC : " Absolute Candor ")

Gabrielle Burnham in 32nd century Qowat Milat robes

The Qowat Milat played an essential role in establishing trust between the Vulcans and Romulans in the early days following the reunification of their societies. They continued to facilitate healthy discourse between the two peoples through the Burn into the 32nd century . Only sisters of the Qowat Milat were permitted to act as shalankhkai for the process of T'Kal-in-ket . ( DIS : " Unification III ")

In 3189 , Gabrielle Burnham acted in that role for her daughter Michael Burnham . ( DIS : " Unification III ")

In 3190 , Dr. Burnham, along with her daughter, Lieutenant Sylvia Tilly , and another sister of the order undertook a joint Federation-Ni'Var mission to apprehend J'Vini . ( DIS : " Choose to Live ")

Members [ ]

• Gabrielle Burnham

Affiliates [ ]

External link [ ].

• Qowat Milat at Memory Beta , the wiki for licensed Star Trek works
• 3 Ancient humanoid

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Star Trek: Discovery - Like Old Times

It's perfectly normal going on an away with your ex you haven't seen in months. Not weird at all...

SPOILER WARNING: This clip contains spoilers for Star Trek: Discovery Season 5's premiere episode, "Red Directive"!

In Star Trek: Discovery 's Season 5 premiere episode, " Red Directive ," Captain Burnham and the crew of the U.S.S. Discovery are sent to retrieve a mysterious artifact hidden inside a 800-year-old Romulan vessel.

Star Trek: Discovery Seasons 1-4 are streaming exclusively on Paramount+ in the U.S., the UK, Canada, Switzerland, South Korea, Latin America, Germany, France, Italy, Australia and Austria. Seasons 2 and 3 also are available on the Pluto TV “Star Trek” channel in Switzerland, Germany and Austria. The series streams on Super Drama in Japan, TVNZ in New Zealand, and SkyShowtime in Spain, Portugal, Poland, The Nordics, The Netherlands, and Central and Eastern Europe and also airs on Cosmote TV in Greece. The series is distributed by Paramount Global Content Distribution.

Screen Rant

Star trek: discovery’s tng connection explained - "the chase" & who are the progenitors.

The Progenitors were one of Captain Picard's most profound discoveries in Star Trek: The Next Generation, now Burnham resumes the chase in Discovery.

WARNING: This article contains SPOILERS for Star Trek: Discovery season 5, episodes 1 & 2!

• Star Trek: Discovery season 5 continues the story of the Progenitors discovered by Captain Picard 800 years ago.
• Captain Burnham embarks on a treasure hunt to uncover the Progenitors' technology with potential for peace or conflict.
• The legacy of the Progenitors in Star Trek: Discovery raises questions of power, unity, and morality in the 32nd century.

Star Trek: Discovery season 5 is a surprising sequel to the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "The Chase", continuing the story of the enigmatic Progenitors 800 years after they were discovered by Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart). As Discovery is set 800 years after the TNG era, it can often feel forced when the show tries to marry up these two ends of the Star Trek timeline . However, the magnitude of Picard's discovery about the Progenitors justifies the secret being hidden for centuries, and it could have fascinating implications for the future of Star Trek 's 32nd century.

Star Trek: Discovery season 5, episode 1, "Red Directive" opens with Captain Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) exploring an 800-year-old Romulan scout ship at the behest of Dr. Kovich (David Cronenberg). Kovich was less forthcoming than usual with information about the USS Discovery's "Red Directive" mission , forcing Burnham to seek help from Lt. Sylvia Tilly (Mary Wiseman) in learning more. Tilly uncovered recordings left by the Romulan scientist Dr. Vellek (Michael Copeman), revealing Discovery 's links to Star Trek: The Next Generation 's original Progenitor treasure hunt, led by Captain Picard.

Star Trek: Discovery Season 5 Returning Cast & New Character Guide

Picard’s original progenitor treasure hunt in tng explained.

In Star Trek: The Next Generation season 6, episode 20, "The Chase", Picard's former archeology teacher, Professor Galen (Norman Lloyd) asked the Enterprise captain to join him in solving a 4.5 billion-year-old mystery. Picard initially declined Galen's offer, but circumstances forced him to reconsider when his mentor's shuttle was attacked. Galen left behind files that contained huge blocks of numbers that were indecipherable without further information . Picard had the Enterprise retrace Galen's journey in the hope of finding out more about the archeology professor's strange code.

"The Chase" was directed by Jonathan Frakes, who returned to direct the penultimate episode of Star Trek: Discovery season 5.

Eventually, Dr. Beverly Crusher (Gates McFadden) discovered that the numbers refer to DNA strands of multiple different alien species. The combined strands form a shape that resembles an algorithm, a program implanted in the DNA of multiple species, for reasons unknown . It quickly became clear that Picard was not the only person seeking answers about Galen's mystery, as the Cardassians and Klingons also sought to understand what this ancient program could be. Negotiating a truce between the two factions, Picard and Crusher gained enough information to lead the Enterprise, Cardassians, Klingons, and Romulans to the planet Vilmor II, where they make a monumental discovery.

TNG’s Progenitors Created All Humanoid Life In The Star Trek Universe

The treasure on Vilmor II was knowledge about life itself, delivered via a holographic message left behind by an ancient humanoid species. The sole humanoid species in the universe, these aliens wanted to leave a lasting legacy after their own extinction. And so, 4.5 billion years earlier, the ancient humanoids seeded their DNA across multiple planets in the Star Trek universe , influencing the evolution of countless species. Star Trek: Discovery reveals that since Picard revealed his findings, Starfleet have been calling the ancient humanoid species The Progenitors.

The Ancient Humanoid in Star Trek: The Next Generation was played by Salome Jens, who would go on to play the Female Changeling in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine .

Not unlike the broken treasure map from Star Trek: Discovery season 5, episode 2, "Under the Twin Moons" , the Progenitors' message was broken into fragments and contained within multiple alien species' DNA. The Progenitors' intention was that, upon coming together to piece the fragments together, the disparate alien races would unite under their common origins. Sadly, this wasn't the case in Star Trek: The Next Generation , as the Klingons and Cardassians refused to believe that they could possibly originate from the same species . However, the Romulans were more thoughtful, setting up Discovery 's season 5 premiere.

Star Trek: Discovery's Huge Season 5 TNG Connection Explained By Showrunner

Discovery’s romulan scientist and his tng link explained.

At the end of Star Trek: The Next Generation 's "The Chase", Captain Picard discusses the Progenitors' message with a surprisingly open-minded Romulan commander. The message has had an effect on the Romulan, who tells Picard that he hopes to one day stand alongside humanity as friends. Star Trek: Discovery reveals that one of the members of TNG 's Romulan landing party, Dr. Vellek, continued to research the Progenitors and eventually found where their ancient technology was hidden. However, Vellek was very aware that such technology could be as deadly as it is profound, and went to extraordinary lengths to hide his findings .

Both the crew of the USS Discovery and intergalactic outlaws Moll (Eve Harlow) and L'ak (Elias Toufexis) have access to Vellek's journals. However, both parties have very different intentions for the Romulan scientist's life's work. Captain Burnham hopes that recovering the Progenitors' technology will provide a sense of meaning, while Moll and L'ak are attracted by the price tag . Vellek remained hidden for 800 years, until his corpse was discovered in Star Trek: Discovery season 5, which proves just how desperate he was to keep the location of the Progenitors' technology a secret.

What Does Star Trek: Discovery’s Progenitor Link Mean For Its Final Season?

In Star Trek: The Next Generation , the Progenitors had hoped the truth about humanoid life in the galaxy would bring a new era of peace and understanding . However, rather than become inspired by their commonality, the Klingons and Cardassians instead feud with each other, disgusted that they could be somehow genetically related. 800 years later, and in the wake of the hostilities caused by The Burn, the Progenitors' message could be the very thing that finally unites the galaxy in Star Trek: Discovery 's finale . However, it may not be that simple.

For one thing, Star Trek: Starfleet Academy will continue the story of the 32nd century, and the Progenitors' message of commonality will dramatically reduce any sense of conflict in the universe. More interestingly, Dr. Kovich seems to want to get his hands on the technology, not the message. The Progenitors' technology would allow Starfleet to influence the evolution of other species , power that would set them up among the gods. This feels like too much power for a shifty character like Kovich to possess.

Whoever possesses the Progenitors' tech in Star Trek: Discovery season 5 has the very building blocks of life itself. In the right hands, that could lead to profound discoveries that lead to renewed peace and prosperity for the Federation in the 32nd century. In the wrong hands, enemies of the Federation could use those building blocks for their own nefarious purposes. That's a huge concern as Burnham and the crew of the USS Discovery continue their treasure hunt. Sooner or later, Captain Burnham will have to make a choice about how she deals with the legacy of Star Trek: The Next Generation 's Progenitors.

Star Trek: Discovery streams Thursdays on Paramount+

Star Trek: Discovery

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Star Trek: Discovery is an entry in the legendary Sci-Fi franchise, set ten years before the original Star Trek series events. The show centers around Commander Michael Burnham, assigned to the USS Discovery, where the crew attempts to prevent a Klingon war while traveling through the vast reaches of space.

Star Trek: The Next Generation

Star Trek: The Next Generation is the third installment in the sci-fi franchise and follows the adventures of Captain Jean-Luc Picard and the crew members of the USS Enterprise. Set around one hundred years after the original series, Picard and his crew travel through the galaxy in largely self-contained episodes exploring the crew dynamics and their own political discourse. The series also had several overarching plots that would develop over the course of the isolated episodes, with four films released in tandem with the series to further some of these story elements.