Star Trek: Discovery ended its first season with one of the more crowded episodes we've seen from the fledgling series. "Will You Take My Hand" wrapped up numerous loose ends before setting a very bold new course for Season 2 in the last few moments. Emperor Georgiou's gained her freedom, the Klingon War is over, Michael Burnham found redemption and, oh, right - the Enterprise showed up.

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The season finale ended with a thrilling shot of the iconic Constitution class ship facing off with the Discovery, the latter of which had just dropped out of warp to answer a distress call from Captain Christopher Pike. Even for a show that hasn't shied away from fan service, this felt like an embarrassment of riches -- and then The Original Series theme ran over the closing credits and we all lost our damn minds. It was an ambitious end to an ambitious season, and while it wasn't an edge-of-our-seats cliffhanger, the appearance of the Enterprise on Discovery opens up a host of exciting narrative possibilities for Season 2.

ENTERPRISE ON DISCOVERY

Discovery's first season takes place over the course of roughly 18 months starting in the year 2256 and ending in 2257. At this point, Christopher Pike's in command of the Enterprise and will remain her captain until his promotion to Commodore in 2265. Pike was actually introduced in Star Trek's un-aired first pilot, "The Cage." NBC nixed the episode for a variety of reasons, not the least of which was the presence of a female first officer (Number One played by Majel Barrett) and a lukewarm reaction to Jeffrey Hunter, the actor who played Pike.

Subsequent rewrites pushed the timeline from 2254 to 2265 and cast William Shatner as the far more adventurous and far less cerebral Captain James Kirk. However, the events of "The Cage" are considered canon, hence Pike's appearance in later episodes of TOS "The Menagerie I & II," the Abrams films Star Trek and Star Trek: Into Darkness (played by Bruce Greenwood) and his mention as one of Starfleet's most highly-decorated captains in Discovery's fifth episode, "Choose Your Pain."

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Now it looks like he'll grace Discovery in the flesh, and the timing is such that the writers have a wide breadth of narrative possibility to play with when it comes to Pike. Speaking to Inverse, Aaron Harbarts could barely contain his excitement at tackling the character.

...any writer, and any fan, would be curious about Christopher Pike... Depending on how you view ‘The Cage,’ you’ve got ‘The Menagerie: Parts 1 and 2,’ and that’s pretty much it for him. So there’s an interesting opportunity that we might have to delve into and flesh out a character who I think is a pretty darn heroic and selfless captain.

It seems obvious that Pike is coming to Discovery -- but how, and why?

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We know next to nothing about Captain Pike during this period in time. The events of "The Cage" took place roughly three years before the events of "Will You Take My Hand," and there are no other canon appearances or mentions of Pike until his tragic demise in 2267. What we do know about Pike that makes him an exciting addition to the show at this point in time is that he's what Aaron Harbarts says he is -- pretty darn heroic.

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He epitomizes the kind of idealism and ethics Starfleet espouses and that Burnham spoke of so eloquently in her pleas to Admiral Cornwell and later her speech at the medal ceremony during the finale. In "The Cage," he's willing to die rather than become a slave at the hands of the Talosians and in "The Menagerie," he suffers debilitating radiation poisoning that leaves him paralyzed and disfigured when he exposes himself in order to drag unconscious crewmen to safety. And while his appearances in the Abrams movies wouldn't be considered part of Discovery's timeline, it's worth noting that in Bruce Greenwood's Christopher Pike serves as a mentor and conscience to Chris Pine's Kirk, furiously lambasting the young captain in Into Darkness when the latter violates the Prime Directive in order to save a race from annihilation. Long story short, the Starfleet captain we're slated to meet next season is the polar opposite of Captain Lorca.

However, the anticipation of seeing Christopher Pike again pales in comparison to that of seeing a certain science officer who's also currently stationed aboard the USS Enterprise: Michael Burnham's foster brother, Spock.

PIKE AND SPOCK ABRAMS DISCOVERY

Spock was Pike's science officer in "The Cage" and remained aboard the Enterprise in that capacity for the duration of Pike's command. The question on everyone's mind last night (especially given the presence of Sarek, Spock's father, on the bridge as the distress signal is received) was, "Will Spock appear in Season 2 of Star Trek: Discovery?" There is, of course, no definitive answer at this point, but we know enough to speculate a little.

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Given the Enterprise is Spock's current assignment, whatever storyline evolves to explain Discovery's intersection with the ship runs the risk of becoming annoyingly anti-climactic if Spock doesn't appear -- especially when we consider Sarek's coincidental presence aboard the Discovery.

Disco takes place during the 18 year period of estrangement between Spock and his father. In the TOS episode, "Journey to Babel," Spock reveals that he and his father had a falling out over Spock's decision to join Starfleet Academy instead of the Vulcan Science Expedition. They reconcile to some degree in that episode, but at the time the Discovery makes contact with the Enterprise, Spock and his father are years away from repairing their rift.

When distress signal is revealed to come from the Enterprise, Sarek and Burnham share a very knowing look, which no doubt speaks to the fact that one of their family members could be in danger. At the very least, the subject of Spock is bound to come up, especially considering that Discovery went out of its way to tie Burnham's storyline to her foster brother's with regards to her denied entry to the Vulcan Science Expedition and because that plays into the reason Spock and his father currently aren't speaking.

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Fans have also been clamoring for some kind of explanation as to why, in the history of Star Trek canon, has Spock never mentioned a human foster sibling. Speaking to TVLine, Aaron Harbarts spoke about the arrival of the Enterprise as an opportunity to explore that question and others relating to Discovery's position in the franchise's canon:

I think one of the biggest things it’s going to allow us to do is start to develop how Discovery fits into canon. One of the big things that’s been polarizing for fans is, 'We’ve never heard about Discovery! How does it fit? She’s related to Spock?' All those things. And what it’ll allow us to do is hit that straight-on. We see it as an exciting opportunity to say, 'This is exactly how Discovery fits into the timeline. This is exactly how we can reconcile the choices we have made.' Because at this period in time, the Discovery and the Enterprise are the crown jewels in the fleet, so they should be face-to-face.

It's far from confirmation that Spock will appear on the show, but, again, it would be HELLA anticlimactic to avoid him while simultaneously structuring a narrative around him. Gretchen Berg addressed these concerns to a degree in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, but also pointed out that concerns about involving Spock on Discovery extend further than his effect on the story:

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We certainly aren't confirming that we're even going to introduce Spock and we certainly are not casting that role, either. We live a lot in memory and flashback. The center of our show is always Michael Burnham. [W]e realize how incredible Leonard Nimoy and Zachary Quinto's performances were and what J.J. Abrams and the original series were able to pull off with that character. Finding another actor that could even come close to what Leonard Nimoy did with the original portrayal, we'd never want to go down that road.

Fans had a hard enough time accepting bald Klingons (and thrust, there are still holdouts). Discovery would run the risk of alienating its audience and significantly diluting the impact of the character by recasting him, and according to Berg, the writers seem well-aware of that. But that still doesn't address the potential glaring absence of the character if the Enterprise sticks around for any length of time in Season 2. The only solution to both problems would be a visit from Zachary Quinto -- a prospect that's way too tempting to ignore.

It's worth noting that Berg stopped short of saying Spock wouldn't appear, but she carefully pointed out they weren't casting the role because there were two other iconic performances they didn't want to touch -- not because they were writing around him. Plus, on January 12th, The Wrap reported that Viacom and CBS are in talks to merge again. The two split in 2005, effectively divorcing Star Trek's cinematic and television universes, and if the new merger is successful, it would make it far easier for the two to cross paths, even if it just means we see Bruce Greenwood and Zachary Quinto in the Prime versions of their Kelvin counterparts.

What do you think? Does the Enterprise's appearance spell the return of Christopher Pike AND Spock to Star Trek television or are we getting ourselves into a tizzy over nothing? Sound off in the comments!


Star Trek: Discovery stars Sonequa Martin-Green, Doug Jones, Jason Isaacs, Anthony Rapp, Shazad Latif, Mary Wiseman, Wilson Cruz and Mary Chieffo. The show is slated to return to CBS All Access in 2019.