Star Trek: Discovery / Season 2

Season 2 of Star Trek: Discovery
Episodes	14th
Country of production	United States
Initial release	Jan 17 to April 18, 2019 on CBS All Access
First publication in German	Jan 18 to April 19, 2019 on Netflix
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This article covers the 14-part second season of the US television series Star Trek: Discovery , which was released in 2019 .

Episodes

No. ( total )	No. ( St. )	German title	Original title	First published in the USA	German-language first publication ( DA-CH )	Director	script
16	1	Brothers	Brother	Jan. 17, 2019	Jan. 18, 2019	Alex Kurtzman	Ted Sullivan , Gretchen J. Berg , Aaron Harberts
A flashback to Burnham's childhood shows how Sarek introduces her to young Spock, who, however, slams the door on her head without a word. In the present, Captain Pike, coming from the Enterprise, takes command of the Discovery to investigate a signal similar to an energy distortion that recently appeared in the Milky Way at the same time as six others, tens of thousands of light-years apart. Stamets plans to leave Discovery permanently because he misses Culber. Once near the starting point of the signal, the Discovery crew discovers a damaged Starfleet medical spaceship on an asteroid that will collide with a pulsar in a few hours . After an away team headed by Pike and Burnham flew through an asteroid field through an asteroid field to the asteroid in question, engineer Reno, who has been artificially keeping several seriously injured people alive since an accident on her ship more than ten months ago. Before the asteroid is vaporized, the away team can bring the injured onto the Discovery and the Discovery crew can take a rock sample from the asteroid, which Tilly suspects to be made of dark matter . Although the mission is now over for Pike, he remains at his post, also because the Enterprise is too badly damaged. Burnham wonders why her adoptive brother Spock, who has been on indefinite leave for some time, avoids contact with her, so he investigates Spock's quarters on the Enterprise, where she discovers puzzling energy signals.
17th	2	New Eden	New Eden	Jan. 24, 2019	Jan. 25, 2019	Jonathan Frakes	Vaun Wilmott , Sean Cochran ; Idea: Akiva Goldsman , Sean Cochran
Burnham discovers certain computer data in Spock's belongings that indicate that he has known something about the seven signals for a long time. Then she reveals to Pike that Spock has been in psychiatric therapy for some time and at his own request. Stamets thinks he saw Culber recently on the mycelial network. To investigate the second signal, the Discovery jumps with the spur drive up to the vicinity of a planet in the beta quadrant, from which a human distress call originates that has been sent for around 200 years and thus comes from a pre-warp period. Burnham and Pike's away team learns that the people on the planet are the descendants of people who fled here before World War III in 2053 and called the colony "New Eden". People believe in a mixture of all major world religions and that the earth no longer exists. Meanwhile, the Discovery bridge crew discovers the danger from the radioactive planetary rings that the planet's surface will soon fall into a nuclear winter , and eliminates the danger at the last minute by exposing the part of the asteroid that was detected at the first signal and its gravitational force. After the away team returns to Discovery, Burnham reveals to Pike that the same angel-like figure appeared to her on the planet as she did on the asteroid. Pike sees the same figure on a video that he took from the planet and that became the reason for the belief of the people there.
18th	3	Point of light	Point of light	Jan. 31, 2019	Feb. 1, 2019	Olatunde Osunsanmi	Andrew Colville
Spock's mother, Amanda, who is also Burnham's adoptive mother, learns that Spock has escaped from the mental hospital and is wanted for the murder of three doctors. She steals his medical records and brings them aboard the Discovery for decryption, noticing a drawing from Spock's childhood that he called the "Red Angel" - the same character Burnham appeared when examining the first signal. Burnham then admits that she emotionally hurt Spock when they were kids to protect him from the Vulcan logic extremists. On Qo'noS, Kol-Sha, leader of one of the Klingon houses, threatens Starfleet Officer Ash Tyler - who used to be the Klingon Voq - and Klingon Chancellor L'Rell for secretly being the parents of a child. Kol-Sha calls on L'Rell to hand over her position. Instead, Tyler and L'Rell kill him with the help of Philippa Georgiou, former ruler of the Terran Empire in the Mirror Universe and now agent of Starfleet Section 31. Together they outsmart Kol-Sha and secure L'Rell's power by making the Sanhedrin believe that Tyler and the kid are dead. Georgiou takes the child to a convent and recruits Tyler as a member of Section 31. Burnham and Stamets use dark matter to remove a parasite from Ensign Tilly who hallucinated an old school friend.
19th	4th	Charon penny	To Obol for Charon	Feb. 7, 2019	Feb. 8, 2019	Lee Rose	Alan B. McElroy , Andrew Colville; Idea: Gretchen J. Berg, Aaron Harberts, Jordon Nardino
Pike receives information about Spock's flight path from the first officer of the Enterprise. As the Discovery follows this route, a living, intelligent, planetoid-sized sphere tears the ship out of warp speed and makes it immobile. The crew suspect that the Sphere has good intentions and has gathered vast amounts of data from across the galaxy that they don't want to lose before it dies. The captivity of the Discovery with the Sphere triggers the Vahar'ai in Saru, an usually fatal period of life in his species, the Kelpians. The Sphere transmits its information to the crew and dies, but not without releasing the Discovery so that it is not affected by the ensuing explosion. Saru enlists Burnham's help in preparing for his death by removing the nerve knots that make him feel dangerous. However, these fail by themselves and allow Saru to continue living healthy and without overwhelming fear. Meanwhile, the parasite takes possession of Tilly again, once more by accessing her memories to communicate as a hallucination of her former school friend May. The parasite claims that Discovery nearly destroyed its ecosystem by using its species' mycelial network to jump in space with spore propulsion. Then he completely consumes Tilly without leaving a trace of her.
20th	5	Old acquaintance	Saints of Imperfection	Feb. 14, 2019	Feb 15, 2019	David M. Barrett	Kirsten Beyer
Stamets and Burnham discover that Tilly has been brought into the mycelial network. Tilly wakes up there in the presence of the parasite embodied by May, who wants her help in stopping a monster that is devastating her world. Discovery discovers the shuttle that Spock used to escape from the psychiatric hospital, but Georgiou is not on board, but rather Georgiou. Section 31's Captain Leland assigns Ash Tyler to Discovery as a liaison officer to ensure Discovery does not interfere with Section 31's own efforts to locate Spock. The Discovery makes an incomplete jump into the mycelia network to give Stamets and Burnham limited time to locate Tilly before the network consumes the ship. Burnham and Stamets discover the monster as Stamets' husband, Hugh Culber, the Discovery's former doctor, who was murdered by Voq during the war. Stamets was connected to the network at the time of Culber's death, causing his energy to be recreated through the spores. Burnham convinces May to use the parasite cocoon that brought Tilly into the network on Discovery to recreate Culber's body in normal space.
21st	6th	Thunder	The Sound of Thunder	Feb. 21, 2019	Feb 22, 2019	Douglas Aarniokoski	Bo Yeon Kim , Erika Lippoldt
Another of the mysterious signals leads the Discovery to the planet Kaminar, the homeworld of Saru. There, the Ba'ul von Pike, who are enemies of the Kelpians, demand to forego Saru because Starfleet has agreed to stay out of the conflict between Ba'ul and Kelpians. Pike refuses, but Saru surrenders to prevent a fight. Meanwhile, Tilly is working with technologically advanced Starfleet Officer Airiam to search the Sphere's intelligence on Kaminar. They learn that the Kelpians, born after the Vahar'ai, were once Kaminar's dominant species and almost wiped out the Ba'ul. These only survived by using their superior technology to select Kelpians before they lose their dangerous nerve knots. Using Ba'ul technology to trigger the Vahar'ai in all of the Kelpians, Pike hopes that once the Kelpians are freed and learn the truth about their past from Siranna, a priestess, the two species will work toward a peaceful solution instead . The Ba'ul take revenge for Starfleet's actions by attempting genocide; but they are stopped by the Red Angel, who, according to Saru's visual perception, is humanoid and wears a highly progressive suit.
22nd	7th	Light and shadow	Light and Shadows	28 Feb 2019	1st Mar 2019	Marta Cunningham	Ted Sullivan; Idea: Ted Sullivan, Vaun Wilmott
Discovery encounters a timing anomaly while investigating a signal from the Red Angel near the planet Kaminar. Pike and Tyler investigate the anomaly in a shuttle and shoot a probe into it. Soon after, they are attacked by the same probe, now upgraded with technology from the future that uses the shuttle's computer system to secretly infect Airiam. You can destroy the shuttle and the probe with the help of Stamets, whose connection to the mycelial network allows him to ignore the timing discrepancies in the anomaly. Meanwhile, Burnham visits the planet Vulcan in search of Spock. By confronting Amanda Grayson, she learns that she is hiding Spock, who is in psychological distress and repeats various sentences and a series of numbers. Spock's father, Sarek, instructs Burnham to believe Starfleet and take Spock to Section 31 for help in healing his brain. The Section's doctors claim they can help him, but Georgiou warns that Spock will not survive the Section's planned use of the memory extractor. Georgiou allows Burnham to attack them, staging an escape in which Burnham and Spock escape from the ship.
23	8th	As far as the memory goes	If memory serves	7th Mar 2019	March 8 2019	TJ Scott	Jay Beattie , Dan Dworkin
The spaceship Enterprise had once visited the planet Talos IV, where Pike and Spock met the Talosians - beings who can create unimaginable illusions. Pike fell in love with Vina, an injured Federation member cared for by the Talosians, but she could not leave the planet and survive while Pike decided to return to the Enterprise. As a result, Starfleet prohibited entry to Talos IV. In the present day, Burnham and Spock secretly travel to Talos IV, where the Talosians heal Spock's brain in exchange for Burnham's memories of their emotional damage to Spock. He reveals that he had a mind-melding with the Red Angel, who is a time traveler and wants to prevent a galactic catastrophe in the future. Stamets tries to reconnect with Culber, who is going through an identity crisis. Culber confronts Tyler, but realizes he's going through a similar crisis. The Discovery resumes Spock and Burnham after the Talosians helped Vina telepathically contact Pike and created illusions of Spock and Burnham opposite Section 31 to act as a distraction. The Discovery is now fleeing from Starfleet.
24	9	Daedalus project	Project Daedalus	14 Mar 2019	15th Mar 2019	Jonathan Frakes	Michelle Paradise
Admiral Cornwell comes unofficially aboard the Discovery to question Spock and brings video footage to show Spock killing the three doctors. Saru discovers that Section 31 has forged the recordings using holograms, and Cornwall sends the Discovery to the headquarters of Section 31, where the "Control" is located, the headquarters of Starfleet's artificial intelligence. Control is behind the forgery and directed Section 31 to track Spock. Burnham, Security Officer Nahn and Airiam beam into headquarters. There they find the staff including the leaders of the section dead after Control switched off the life support systems. Airiam is tasked with restoring Control for the planned benefit of Starfleet, but the virus from the future Airiam is keeping is Control itself, and instead tries to load the Sphere's knowledge of all of the artificial intelligence into Control's database. Airiam asks to be released into space before Control has the knowledge, and Burnham complies before it's too late. Airiam dies reliving her favorite memories from the time before it was technologically advanced.
25th	10	The red angel	The Red Angel	21 Mar 2019	22 Mar 2019	Hanelle M. Culpepper	Anthony Maranville , Chris Silvestri
In preparation for Airiam's funeral, her computer system is cleaned by the Control Virus, along with all of the other control systems in Starfleet. Tilly notices a bionural scan of the Red Angel in Airiam's code that matches Burnham. Captain Leland of Section 31 reveals that the Section built the Red Angel's time travel suit 20 years ago when there was a temporal weapon race against the Klingons, and that Burnham's parents were part of that program, Lelands self-proclaimed back then Carelessness led to the death of the parents. The Discovery is now planning to use Burnham as bait for the Red Angel. The Discovery travels to the planet Essof IV, where there is enough energy to supply the trap with electricity. Burnham lets himself be exposed to the planet's inaccessible atmosphere until the Red Angel appears. Leland's spaceship manages to close the wormhole behind the Red Angel and thus prevent future control AI from following it through, even if Leland is attacked by the control AI that is still active in the ship. The Red Angel is caught in the trap and revives Burnham, who has now died and who recognizes the character as her mother.
26th	11	The time storm	Perpetual Infinity	28 Mar 2019	29 Mar 2019	Maja Vrvilo	Alan B. McElroy, Brandon Schultz
When the Burnhams' laboratory was attacked by Klingons years ago, Michael's mother, Dr. Burnham puts on the time travel suit to travel an hour back in time to warn them of the attack. Instead, she arrived 950 years in the future, where she found all sentient beings destroyed by "Control". By tying herself to a nearby planet, Dr. Burnham about 840 times to change the future, including sending people to their planet Terralysium to test how they can change history. By trying to prevent "Control" from accessing the sphere's data, Dr. Burnham was responsible for crossing paths with Discovery. In the present, the Discovery crew is planning to load the data into the time travel suit and send it to the future, where "Control" cannot access it, while Dr. Burnham remains in the present. However, a Leland obsessed with "Control" intercepts the download started by the Discovery crew. Georgiou and Tyler confront Leland, Tyler is badly injured, but can warn Discovery with the last of his strength. The crew is forced to shorten the broadcast and Dr. Burnham back in the future while the suit is now damaged. Leland, possessed by "Control", escapes with a little more than half of the data in the sphere.
27	12	Valley of shadows	Through the Valley of Shadows	4th Apr 2019	Apr 5, 2019	Douglas Aarniokoski	Bo Yeon Kim, Erika Lippoldt
A new signal, now the fourth of seven, appears over the planet Boreth, a place sacred for Klingons, where there is a Klingon monastery and monks guard the time crystals. Tyler and L'Rell once left their son with the monks to be raised there. Pike visits the monastery to get a time crystal and discovers that the son is now an adult named Tenavik. He explains that life on Boreth is determined by the crystals and that Pike - if he wants a crystal - will not be able to change the future the crystal shows him. Pike sees a future where he is seriously injured in an accident but decides to take the crystal to serve the bigger picture. Meanwhile, Burnham and Spock investigate a Section 31 ship that checked in ten minutes later than usual and find all crew members dead - with one exception, Kamran Gant. This is a former colleague of Burnham who is obsessed with "Control" and is trying to take over Burnham too. Spock can stop "Control" with magnetism, after which he and Burnham flee back to the Discovery. The Section 31 fleet appears quickly, forcing Pike to order the Discovery to self-destruct in order to keep the Sphere data away from Control.
28	13	Such sweet sadness	Find Sweet Sorrow	Apr 11, 2019	April 12, 2019	Olatunde Osunsanmi	Alex Kurtzman, Jenny Lumet , Michelle Paradise
The Discovery flees from the approaching fleet of Section 31, meets with the Enterprise and evacuates everyone there. From the Enterprise, Pike and Saru initiate the Discovery's self-destruct sequence, but the Sphere Data takes control of the Discovery computer systems, preventing the destruction. In addition, the Discovery is now defending itself against torpedo fire from the Enterprise. Burnham suggests using the Time Crystal to send the Discovery into the future, where Control cannot access it. Burnham plans to wear a copy of her mother's time travel suit to guide the ship through time. Pike agrees and takes command of the Enterprise again to let "Control" be distracted. A new signal appears and leads the Discovery and the Enterprise to the planet Xahea, which is ruled by Queen Me Hani Ika Hali Ka Po, a friend of Tilly. As an engineer, Po helps Stamets, Tilly and Reno prepare the suit and time crystal for the trip. Some of the Discovery crew members choose to stay with Burnham, including Georgiou, while Saru is named acting captain by Pike. When the Section 31 fleet arrives, the Discovery and Enterprise prepare for battle while the Time Travel Suit and Time Crystal are completed.
29	14th	Sweet sadness, part 2	Such Sweet Sorrow, Part 2	April 18, 2019	April 19, 2019	Olatunde Osunsanmi	Alex Kurtzman, Jenny Lumet, Michelle Paradise
Tyler manages to get the Klingon fleet to help the Discovery and Enterprise in the space battle, while Siranna arrives with Ba'ul fighters after receiving a goodbye message from Saru. Stamets is seriously injured and treated by Culber. A photon torpedo from Section 31 strikes the saucer section of the Enterprise, but initially without detonating. After Admiral Cornwell hermetically sealed the area around the impact site to protect the ship, the torpedo explodes and kills them. Leland, possessed by "Control", comes aboard the Discovery and is defeated when Georgiou magnetizes the nanites in his body, which destroys Section 31's fleet. In time travel suit, Burnham travels back in time and establishes the five signals that had led her to this point. She then sets a sixth signal so the Discovery can follow her on her journey to the Terralysium of the Future, and promises to set a seventh on her arrival. The Enterprise crew reports to Starfleet that the Discovery was destroyed in battle and is ordered never to speak about the Discovery or its crew again - at Spock's recommendation for the purpose of avoiding another incident like the one Avoid “control”. Tyler is given command of Section 31. Months later, the Enterprise tracks down the seventh signal.

criticism

In the second season, critics praised the portrayal of the captain by Anson Mount . For example, Ralf Döbele said on fernsehserien.de that Mount exudes “authority, warmth and gravitas” with his portrayal. The critic Matthias Halbig praised him in the Schaumburger Nachrichten as a “win for the series” .

In the IT magazine golem.de , the reviewer Tobias Költzsch expressed his satisfaction with the season: Overall, it was "very successful" and rich in facets, twists and turns and surprises. Compared to the first season, there is a more acceptable amount of action sequences, because it takes up less space, and the end of the season seems “much better thought out”, “more orderly and comprehensible”.

However, quite a few critics were not completely satisfied with the season and noted particularly narrative weaknesses. Döbele, for example, said that this season the series "still [...] suffers from a misalignment between emotional character moments and action inferno as well as from pronounced rushing", "not only the consistent character development, but also the proper, meaningful one Structure of individual scenes “would be sacrificed. The creators would have failed to “effectively research” how Michael Burnham's position in the command hierarchy of Starfleet “affects such a young officer”. Instead, they chased Burnham “from one trauma to the next.” “Control”, the artificial intelligence from the future, is afflicted with “numerous logic holes and unclear motivation for the destruction of all life” and gives “the feeling of a pale , modernized imitations of the Borg ”. It is annoying and contradicting the meaning of Star Trek to "demonize artificial intelligence as an enemy in such a simplistic way".

In the IT magazine heise online , Fabian A. Scherschel criticized the plot as "cobbled together so [...] that one could no longer talk about plot holes", emphasized several times "blatant plot weaknesses" and asked with incomprehension, for example: " How does Pike know at the beginning of the season that there are seven light signals when Burnham apparently triggers them at different times, six of which are in the future at the moment of Pike's statement? ”The trick known from Voyager at the end of the second season, the Discovery To “simply move quickly” to “where there is no federation and no disruptive plot consequences”, incomprehensibly makes “all the adventures that have been experienced so far meaningless except for a few interpersonal conflicts within the crew” - that is a point of criticism that also includes, for example in the US entertainment magazine Entertainment Weekly .

In the New York Times, the critic Sopan Deb criticized the fact, also criticized by Scherschel, that the Discovery carried out the time jump into the future at the end of the season, although "Control" or Leland had already been killed by Georgiou at the time. The last episode was "a mixed finale for a mixed series," said Deb. Although an improvement over the first season, the series is still looking for a foundation.

At Entertainment Weekly, critic Darren Franich rated the season with a C- on the US school grade scale and criticized it as worse than the first season and as "overflowing with limp plot parts that took forever to lead to nowhere": During Burnham was looking for her half-brother Spock, it was only about Spock, after his arrival, however, only about the sphere.

Web links

• Season 2 at fernsehserien.de
• Season 2 in the Internet Movie Database

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Ralf Döbele: Why “Star Trek: Discovery” is still not a great series - but it could still be , in: fernsehserien.de from April 19, 2019, accessed on June 9, 2019
2. ↑ Matthias Halbig: "Star Trek: Discovery" - Now let's go to the angels , in: Schaumburger Nachrichten of January 18, 2019, accessed on June 9, 2019
3. ↑ Tobias Költzsch: The old J.-J.-Abrams trick always works , in: golem.de from April 23, 2019, accessed on June 9, 2019
4. ↑ Fabian A. Scherschel: Star Trek Discovery: The plot messed up in the 2nd season , in: heise online from April 24, 2019, accessed on June 9, 2019
5. ↑ ^{a b} Darren Franich: Star Trek: Discovery finale review: A limp season 2 ends with a baffling bang , in: Entertainment Weekly from April 18, 2019, accessed on June 9, 2019, original quote: “overstuffed with limp plot points that took forever to go nowhere "
6. ↑ Sopan Deb: 'Star Trek: Discovery' Season 2, Episode 14: Virtue Signaling , in: The New York Times of April 18, 2019, accessed on June 9, 2019, original quote: "an uneven finale for an uneven show"