Star Trek: Discovery may be venturing into the great unknown, but we have a pretty good idea of what happens next for Captain Pike and Lieutenant Spock. Discovery's season 2 finale "Such Sweet Sorrow, Part 2" saw the titular starship travel to the far future in an effort to keep the sphere data stored in its systems away from Control, Section 31's runaway artificial intelligence that needs that information to conquer the galaxy. The nature of the mission meant that the Discovery is likely never coming back to the 23rd century, and Pike's crew sticks to a story of the Discovery being destroyed to protect the timeline. This is doubly hard for Spock, as the Discovery's overall mission is deemed to be highly classified, he's essentially forced to never again publicly mention Michael Burnham, his adopted human sister.

There are still plenty of questions about the fate of the Discovery's crew. If the mission was successful, they will have ended up in the 32nd century, a point well beyond what has been seen in mainstream Star Trek fiction. This is truly the great unknown for Star Trek, as there's no guarantee that Starfleet and the Federation still even exist that far into the future.

Related: Star Trek: Discovery Season 2 Ending Explained

While we wait to see what kind of reality the future has in store for the Discovery, though, we largely know what happens to season 2's other major players, Captain Pike and Spock.

Pike is destined to captain the Enterprise for many more years before being promoted to Fleet Captain and ceding command to James Kirk. As he unfortunately saw when he held a Klingon time crystal, Pike will be serving on an old training vessel when a disaster happens, and he'll be critically wounded as he pulls trainees out of harm's way. Unable to speak or move, the disfigured Pike will require the use of a futuristic wheelchair/archaic communication device until Spock orchestrates a plan to deliver him back to Talos IV in the classic TOS episode "The Menagerie." The Talosians restore Pike physically, and he remains on Talos IV to happily spend the rest of his natural life with Vina.

Injured Pike in Star Trek Discovery

Spock, of course, will go on to be one of the most pivotal figures in the history of the Federation. When Pike eventually departs the Enterprise, Spock becomes Kirk's first officer and close friend; the two would serve together off and on for the next three decades on two different ships called Enterprise.

Related: Star Trek: Discovery Season 2 Dropped A Kirk Reference At The Last Minute

Nearly a century after his adventures with Kirk ended, Spock was serving as the Federation's ambassador to Romulus when he undertook what Captain Jean-Luc Picard referred to as "cowboy diplomacy" in an effort to reunite the sibling races of Vulcans and Romulans. Spock was last seen in the Prime Universe attempting to save the galaxy from a supernova, which he was unable to neutralize before the destruction of Romulus. Spock and a vengeful Romulan vessel end up being pulled into a black hole and deposited into the relative past of the 23rd century, creating the Kelvin timeline of the J.J. Abrams films. The Kelvin timeline version of Vulcan would end up destroyed, and the Prime Universe Spock spearheaded the recolonization of the race while his younger self served aboard the Enterprise. It was eventually revealed in Star Trek Beyond that Spock passed away on New Vulcan at the age of 162.

And yet this is likely not the end of the story for either Pike or Spock. There's essentially a ten-year gap between the end of Discovery season 2 and the beginning of The Original Series. Now there's a growing movement among Star Trek fandom demanding a spinoff featuring the Discovery versions of the characters as they have their early, pre-Kirk adventures on the Enterprise.

There's no guarantee that's going to happen - CBS All Access already has a lot of Star Trek shows in the pipeline, in addition to the third season of Star Trek: Discovery  - but it seems obvious that audiences are ready for more of these two iconic characters, even if we already know where their stories ultimately end.

Next: Taking Discovery To The Future Saved Star Trek

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