Star Trek: Discovery writer hints at Dr. Hugh Culber facing severe consequences after Trill scientist Jinaal took over his mind and body in Season 5 of the highly popular series.
04.04.2024 - 15:13 / polygon.com
Calling back to a single 30-year-old episode of television is a time-honored Star Trek tradition, one that’s led the franchise to some of its most fascinating detours. And in its two-episode season premiere, Star Trek: Discovery seems to be kicking off an entire season calling back to one particular episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation.
And not just any episode! The 1993 installment of Next Gen in question delivered a revelation so seemingly earth-shaking that it should have rewritten galactic politics on a massive scale. But then, as was the way in the 1990s era of episodic TV, nobody ever mentioned it again.
At least until now.
[Ed. note: This piece contains spoilers for the first two episodes of Star Trek: Discovery season 5.]
Writer Michelle Paradise and director Olatunde Osunsanmi lay out the connection at the end of the first of two episodes released this week, “Red Directive.” Discovery’s mission is to follow a series of ancient clues leading to a cache of ancient technology, and to get there before a couple of professional thieves, Moll (Eve Harlow) and L’ak (Elias Toufexis), do.
The technology, as Doctor Kovich (David Cronenberg) explains, belongs to the so-called Progenitors, a barely understood ancient spacefaring species that “created life as we know it […] every humanoid species in the galaxy.” Presumably such tech holds the key to understanding how the Progenitors did that, and how that power could be used again.
Kovich also calls up a helpful video presentation of the moment the Progenitors were discovered by an assembled group of Federation, Klingon, Romulan, and Cardassian captains, including Jean-Luc Picard. But you don’t have to be a Star Trek lore nerd to know you’re actually just looking at clips from an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation.
Specifically, from the 20th episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation’s sixth season, “The Chase,” in which Picard and crew discover pieces of a computer program hidden inside the DNA of species from dozens of different planets. Questions abound: What does the program do? And what kind of entity could have been so ancient and powerful that it had determined the genetic legacy of most of the known galaxy before sentient life had even evolved here — and then left no trace of its existence except the genetic codes themselves?
In a nutshell, the mysterious death of Captain Picard’s old archeology professor (did you know that if he hadn’t gone into Starfleet, Jean-Luc was studying to be a space archeologist? Well, now you do) sets the captain and the Enterprise on a search for the missing DNA fragments necessary to complete his unfinished work.
The action of the episode becomes a grand chase, as Klingon and Cardassian captains come
Star Trek: Discovery writer hints at Dr. Hugh Culber facing severe consequences after Trill scientist Jinaal took over his mind and body in Season 5 of the highly popular series.
Sega’s arcade hack-and-slash beat-’em-up Golden Axe is being adapted for television. In something of an unexpected twist, that TV series will be an animated comedy. Mike McMahan (Star Trek: Lower Decks, Solar Opposites) and Joe Chandler (American Dad!) will co-write the first episode and executive produce the 10-episode series, Comedy Central announced Wednesday. The announcement came two days after Paramount revealed that season 5 of Lower Decks would be the series’ final installment.
An animated Golden Axe series is in the works at Comedy Central, based on the popular Sega video game series of the same name.
It's a big day of good news and bad news for Star Trek fans, as Paramount giveth and Paramount taketh away. First the good news - Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is coming back for a fourth season. The beloved Star Trek prequel series has been greenlit for season 4 even before the third season has aired.
The “Next-Gen Update” for Fallout 4 will launch for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series, and PC on April 25, publisher Bethesda Softworks and developer Bethesda Game Studios announced.
One Star Trek actor has revealed that the ongoing season of Star Trek: Discovery will explore the backstory of his character, giving fans a deeper look at the character’s journey in the above-mentioned universe.
Paradox have a reputation for updating their games in perpetuity, with both free patches and DLC, even if players would rather they stopped. Star Trek Infinite is bucking that trend, it seems.
Microsoft teased its plans for next-generation Xbox hardware back in February, saying that it was focussed on delivering the “largest technical leap” for a new console generation with the next Xbox. Now, more details about Microsoft's plans for its next console have emerged, reiterating the same claim. An internal email shared with Xbox staff has revealed that Microsoft is “moving full speed ahead” on its next-generation Xbox hardware.
Microsoft is «moving full speed ahead» on its next-generation Xbox console, a senior company official has said. The status update, which also teased one particular aspect of the new Xbox console, was initially shared in an internal memo that promptly ended up leaking online.
Winston «Win» De Lugo shared how William Shatner requested to reconfigure a scene in Star Trek to make him taller.
WhileStar Trek has always been at the apex of the small screen’s science fiction offerings, one fan has taken to social media to highlight one show from another science fiction franchise that they think Paramount could learn a thing or two from.
Xbox has established a new team dedicated to video game preservation and forward compatibility.