Star Trek: Discovery season 3 arrives soon on CBS All Access, and the further adventures of the Discovery crew in the far-flung future have been teased in a new trailer. Picking up after the dramatic events of the season 2 finale, Star Trek: Discovery season 3 finds Michael Burnham and the other core characters in the year 3188, where the Federation as they once knew it no longer exists.
The jump forward in time puts Star Trek: Discovery in truly uncharted territory, as no other Star Trek show or movie has ever been set this far in the future. The Discovery was forced to time travel in order to keep important data away from an extremely dangerous rogue A.I. called Control. Burnham guided the Discovery into the future through the use of the Red Angel suit, a piece of tech developed by her parents, which her mother had previously used to make changes to the timeline and try to prevent Control from causing an apocalypse.
In the Star Trek: Discovery season 3 trailer, Burnham learns that their sacrifice was worth it: the barren future that her mother travelled to has been replaced by one where life still exists. However, that doesn't mean that the last 930 years have been a peaceful time. Let's break down the biggest story and character reveals from the Star Trek: Discovery season 3 trailer.
#20 A Rough Landing For The Discovery
The original plan was for the Discovery to jump 930 years into the future and land on the planet Terralysium, which had been Gabrielle Burnham's base of operations. However, last year Sonequa Martin-Green confirmed that the ship does not land on Terralysium as planned. In the Star Trek: Discovery season 3 trailer we also see that the ship makes a pretty rough landing when it does arrive in the future, and it looks like Michael Burnham is immediately separated from the Discovery. It's likely that the first episode of season 3 will follow Burnham as she tries to get some idea of where they've landed, and searches for a way back to her lost crewmates. The trailer does at least confirm, however, that they successfully landed in the year 3188.
#19 Multiple Life Signs Detected
There's a reason why Burnham gets so excited when the Red Angel suit informs her that multiple life signs have been detected in the planet. The entire purpose of the Discovery jumping forward into the future was to thwart control and prevent the apocalyptic future that Burnham's mother found. If the crew of the Discovery had arrived in a future that was similarly empty of life, then their sacrifice of leaving their entire world and their families and friends behind would have been for nothing. Fortunately, it appears that they were successful in changing the timeline - but this future has its problems as well.
#18 First Contact
The first person that Burnham meets in the future is Cleveland "Book" Booker (played by series newcomer David Ajala), who immediately picks up on the fact that she's "not from around here." There are multiple scenes of Burnham and Book wandering around this initial planet (shot in the striking landscape of Iceland), which raises the question of what exactly Book is doing out there by himself. Perhaps Michael crash-landing in the Red Angel suit set off a few alarms, and Book was the person sent to investigate.
#17 "The Burn"
Book tells Burnham that the Federation is "mostly" gone due to a devastating event called The Burn. Based on information from the Star Trek Day panel, we know that The Burn was a cataclysmic event that struck the Federation from outside (as opposed to some kind of internal civil war). Whatever it was, it appears to have destroyed Starfleet and split the Federation's member worlds apart, leaving the galaxy in chaos.
#16 Burnham's New Hairdo
Burnham's hair undergoes another change in Star Trek: Discovery season 3, with most scenes in the trailer showing her wearing long braids. Raised by Vulcans, Burnham was shown in flashbacks to initially have had a (rather unflattering) rigidly straight and sharp Vulcan hairstyle. This became a slightly looser style by the start of Star Trek: Discovery season 1, and after her mutiny and appointment to the Discovery she began wearing her hair with short, natural curls. If the braids are her natural hair then that would indicate a significant time jump (even beyond the initial 930 year leap) towards the start of season 3... but it's more likely that she just got a weave. A new look for a new millennium!
#15 An Evolved Kelpien?
Star Trek: Discovery season 2's visit to the Kelpien homeworld, Kaminar, revealed that Saru's species undergo fairly rapid evolution and actually develop into a more predatory form after a certain age. Jumping forward almost a millennia, it seems that the Kelpiens may have evolved into another form after the Discovery's intervention on Kaminar. This character, who says that he always believed in the continued existence of the Federation, looks as though he could be a Kelpien that has evolved into a more human-like form, or perhaps the result of breeding between humans and Kelpiens. His ears look similar to Saru's and he has a line splitting his nose, though it's not as pronounced as we've seen in Kelpiens previously.
#14 Welcome To The Future
One of the most exciting things about Star Trek jumping forward into the 32nd century will be the advancements in technology that can be expected. After all, if the other Star Trek series are set just a few centuries in the future and have fully functional spaceships and transporters, what other new developments have there been since then? This shot shows Burnham, Saru and Adira on what appears to be a "modern" Federation ship, and the Discovery crew members look very much in awe of their surroundings.
#13 The New Federation Flag
Book says that the Federation has only "mostly" been destroyed, and it appears that this updated version of the Federation flag shows what's left of it: just six member worlds. Based on the characters we see in the trailer, these members could include humans, Vulcans, Andorians, Kelpiens and Trills. In another clip from the trailer, Philippa Georgiou is told that she doesn't have any authority, which indicates that the Federation has lost a great deal of power and influence without the strength of Starfleet to support it. But so long as it still exists in some form, the Discovery's mission and mandate remains intact.
#12 Don't Tell Georgiou What She Can't Do
The Mirror Universe's version of Philippa Georgiou became an uneasy ally in Star Trek: Discovery season 2. In the season 3 trailer she's shown exploring a planet with Burnham, indicating that she does at least stay on the same side as the Discovery's crew for part of the story. Whether she'll remain so, or whether she'll use the opportunities of this new world to make a power grab, remains to be seen. However, this enjoyable clip illustrates the dangers of telling a former emperor that she has no authority.
#11 The Vulcans Live Long (& Prosper?)
In this shot we see Saru being greeted by a Vulcan character. The planet visible through the window doesn't resemble either the planet that the Discovery initially lands on or the planet Vulcan, but instead has an iridescent green coloring. The Vulcans were one of the original four founding members of the Federation of Planets, so it would make sense that they would be one of the species whose membership survived The Burn. This scene could be the Vulcans welcoming Discovery back into the fold.
#10 First Look at Blu del Barrio as Adira
Non-binary actor Blu del Barrio will be making their debut in Star Trek: Discovery season 3 as a crew member called Adira. The show has already featured the first gay married couple in Star Trek history, Stamets and Culber, and Adira will find themselves forming a connection to those two established characters. However, this trailer also shows them sharing a moment with the Trill character Gray, the first transgender character in a Star Trek series. Trills have indirectly touched on the idea of gender fluidity before, since characters like Jadzia Dax consist of a host body that coexists with a being called a symbiont. The symbionts move from one host to another, collecting memories and experience throughout their many lives, and therefore are not attached to any particular gender. Del Barrio has said that Adira does not initially share their gender identity with the Discovery crew, so bonding with Stamets, Culber and Gray could be part of their journey towards coming out.
#9 First Look At Ian Alexander As Gray
Actor Ian Alexander is currently best known for his roles in the Netflix series The OA and video game sequel The Last Of Us Part II. In Star Trek: Discovery he'll play Gray, a Trill who has spent his life planning and training to become a host for a symbiont (only a few members of the species receive this honor). Upon becoming a host he will receive a second name that marks him as a joined Trill; for example, Jadzia Dax's name is a combination of the host (Jadzia) and her symbiont (Dax). This shot of Gray bonding with Adira suggests that the two could form a friendship or even a romantic bond - though that may be complicated by the addition of another consciousness into Gray's body and the personality change that follows.
#8 A Dip In The Trill Pool
This shot shows Gray lying in a Trill symbiont pool, where the symbionts live when they are outside of their host bodies. Jadzia Dax was seen using one of these pools in the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode "Equilibrium." In this scene, Gray could be communicating with the symbiont he will eventually be a host for, or he could already be joined and his symbiont could be communicating with other organisms of its species. For fans of Jadzia Dax, it will definitely be interesting to have another Trill character at the heart of a Star Trek series.
#7 Futuristic Tech
There are a couple of notable pieces of new tech in the Star Trek: Discovery season 3 trailer. First there's some kind of weapon that Book uses to create an energy wave that blasts away enemy combatants - which Burnham is very impressed by. Later in the trailer we see Adira doing something technical involving this apparently programmable metal, which is perhaps made out of nanites. The fact that the next shot is of Burnham attaching her new comms badge to her uniform indicates that this could be how comms badges are made in the 32nd century.
#6 Tilly Gets In Touch With Nature
Discovery engineer Sylvia Tilly has spent a lot of time bonding with the spores that power the ship's unique engine, and it looks like she'll continue to get in touch with nature in Star Trek: Discovery season 3. The crew are shown approaching an enormous tree, and Tilly emotionally embraces its trunk. It could be that this tree is actually some kind of sentient alien organism, but another possible reason for Tilly's reaction to it could be its age. Some trees are known to have lived for thousands of years, so if this scene is on Earth then this could be a tree that was important to Tilly in her childhood, and which has withstood the test of time.
#5 New Millennium, New Badge
The Starfleet delta insignia used for communication badges in Star Trek has an iconic shape, but apparently at some point in the last 930 years it has been given a revamp. Both Saru and Burnham are shown wearing a new oval badge that's a similar shape to the one worn by the Bajorans in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, but with a different design. The new comms badges still form a delta shape, but within a more rounded frame.
#4 Captain Saru
One of the big questions hanging over Star Trek: Discovery season 3 is that of who will be the ship's new captain, now that Captain Pike has been left behind in the past. This shot of Saru sporting a captain's uniform (the difference is the gold stripes that extend over the shoulders) suggest that he will finally get to take command - though since fate seems to keep intervening in Saru's quest for leadership, he may not hold the position for long. After all, the Discovery has gotten into the habit of changing captains.
#3 The Andorians Survive
Andorians, the blue-skinned species that hails from the moon Andoria, are seen at multiple points in the Star Trek: Discovery season 3 trailer, with a particular focus on this character. The Andorians were one of the founding homeworlds of the Federation of Planets, so it makes sense that they would be one of the six remaining members in 3188.
#2 A New Romance For Burnham
Michael Burnham was forced to leave her former love interest, Ash Tyler, back in the past when the Discovery made the jump to the future. However, it looks like it won't take her very long to find a new man in the future. She and Book are seen bonding throughout the Star Trek: Discovery season 3 trailer, and in this shot they close in for a kiss. Romance is never free of complications, however, and Burnham may not be ready to let Ash go just yet.
#1 New Season, New Logo
The trailer ends with a reveal of Star Trek: Discovery season 3's new logo. The most marked difference from the previous is that whereas "Star Trek" used to dominate, now the word "Discovery" is much larger and the franchise name is relatively small. This reflects how the show has left much of its ties to other Star Trek movies and shows behind in the past and is now exploring truly uncharted territory.