Star Trek: Discovery showrunner Alex Kurtzman announced at San Diego Comic Con that four new shorts would arrive in 2018. Here are the premiere dates and descriptions!
Update (Sept 20): Ahead of Star Trek: Discovery‘s season 2 premiere, CBS All Access will stream four short “treks” across the universe. The trailer confirms the previously announced episodes and provides the dates fans can expect to see them.
For our take on what we hope these “treks” will add to the Trek universe, check out our analysis below!
‘Star Trek: Short Trek’ premiere dates
October 4, “Runaway”: Onboard the U.S.S. Discovery, Ensign Tilly (Mary Wiseman) encounters an unexpected visitor in need of help. However, this unlikely pair may have more in common than meets the eye.
Written by: Jenny Lumet and Alex Kurtzman
Directed by: Maja Vrvilo
November 8, “Calypso”: After waking up in an unfamiliar sickbay, Craft (Aldis Hodge) finds himself on board a deserted ship, and his only companion and hope for survival is an A.I. computer interface.
Teleplay by: Michael Chabon Story by: Sean Cochran and Michael Chabon
Directed by: Olatunde Osunsanmi
December 6, “The Brightest Star”: Before he was the first Kelpien to join Starfleet, Saru (Doug Jones) lived a simple life on his home planet of Kaminar with his father and sister. Young Saru, full of ingenuity and a level of curiosity uncommon among his people, yearns to find out what lies beyond his village, leading him on an unexpected path.
Written by: Bo Yeon Kim & Erika Lippoldt
Directed by: Douglas Aarniokoski
January 3, “The Escape Artist”: Harry Mudd (Rainn Wilson), back to his old tricks of stealing and double-dealing, finds himself in a precarious position aboard a hostile ship — just in time to try out his latest con.
Written by: Michael McMahan
Directed by: Rainn Wilson
—
Original (July 24): The Discovery and Enterprise meeting may have to wait until early 2019, but new Star Trek footage will arrive this year. In Hall H at this year’s Trek presentation, Alex Kurtzman revealed that four shorts, or Short Treks would arrive in later in 2018.
Each Short Trek will be approximately 15 minutes long and will feature the following topics — Tilly, Saru’s backstory, another appearance by Rainn Wilson’s Harry Mudd, and, now officially confirmed, a new story that will play out adjacent to the Star Trek: Discovery timeline.
While the first three arcs are exciting in their own ways, the fourth has the added element of anonymity — and that is why I am personally looking forward to it the most.
What was most exciting about going into Star Trek: Discovery was the blank slate it presented. Navigating the world through the eyes of a human raised on Vulcan offered an interesting perspective on Star Trek. It was not a show about a Captain and his crew. Nor was it a series shown entirely through the Vulcan logic. Instead it provided a hybrid, challenging both emotional and logical connections to this well-known universe.
And now these Short Treks look to do the same.
Getting to play in the sandbox of Star Trek is not just a dream for the actors on the series. On Instagram, Pulitzer Prize winning writer Michael Chabon shared that his script was shot a few weeks ago. Chabon wrote that while the work itself was filled with talent and brilliance, the most exciting part was sitting aboard Discovery.
His Short Trek is titled, “Calypso.”
Not much is known about the adventure we will see, but the installment will follow Craft, played by Aldis Hodge, who finds himself to be the only human on a deserted ship. The short is directed by Olatunde Osunsanmi, who directed last season’s “What’s Past is Prologue” and “The Butcher’s Knife Cares Not for the Lamb’s Cry.”
Hodge’s Craft may never find his way into the series. But the ship he is on, the coordinates he passes through, the information he discovers during his 15 minutes may provide a callback to something later on in the series. Or it might not.
I’d prefer the latter in the case of this particular “trek.”
But the other three shorts could prove to be a interesting experiment for the Star Trek: Discovery universe. Will they help expand the our understanding of this series’ place in the whole of canon? Or will they dilute what the episodes are hoping to establish? Can they stand alone or are they a necessary part of the canon?
Unless they go the route of taking these shorts too far into unfamiliar territory ala The Office style officer logs, I don’t think they will be a hindrance to the series. In fact, upon hearing that Saru’s backstory would be featured, I was sold.
The Kelpiens are a fascinating species. Little bits of information about them were dropped throughout season 1 as we got to know Saru better. While he keeps things close to chest, his threat ganglia often give away that he is uneasy and senses danger. He says in “The Vulcan Hello,” “We were biologically determined for one purpose and one purpose alone – to sense the coming of death.”
So what did a Kelpien’s journey through Starfleet, as someone who is naturally predisposed to fear, look like? Taken out of the context, the parallels that can be drawn to Saru’s story may prove to be some of the more gripping of the series. Always aware that something dangerous may be lurking just behind them, this Kelpien is the outlier of his people, choosing to push forward.
Though a respected member of his crew and known for his intelligence and level-headedness, Saru’s journey into the Mirror Universe left him face-to-face with his race in servitude and on the menu. Taking a peak into Saru’s past will not only inform future episodes, but make those first season episodes even richer than they already are.
That goes for Tilly’s story as well. Is there something we need to know about her drive to become Captain? Watching Tilly go about her day, documenting her running, perform her science and math were all hit upon in season 1. But what is underneath it all? Hinted that she will work with an “unlikely partner,” perhaps this interaction will crack open a bit more about her.
Since there doesn’t appear to be much time set between the end of the Klingon War and the arrival of the Enterprise, these shorts will either have to all be prequels to season 1, or take place in the very limited space leftover. I’d love to see a pre-war Tilly. One who is not in the midst of seeing her science vessel turned into a ship for battle tactics.
While those two examples can cover some groundwork for the series as a whole, the Harry Mudd story leaves the door open for a bit more humor. The trailer released during Comic Con leaned into the quirky crew dynamic a bit more than the previous season. So why not give Wilson a bit of room to play in a short? After all, Mudd was one of the more comical, yet albeit sinister, foils of season 1, and if it keeps him out of major season 2 plot lines, I’m all for it.
The possibilities for the pre-established characters are seemingly endless. And then there is “Calypso.” The blank slate. I fear putting anything on that canvas for now. Instead, I’m happy to leave it in the able hands of Chabon and Osunsanmi.
This leaves me with one burning question — if some of these shorts are prequels, where is our Culber-Stamets short? Regardless of the announcement that Hugh Culber (Wilson Cruz) would return for season 2 (in what capacity we do not know), wouldn’t it be nice to have 10-15 minutes with the pair? I’m not asking for much. But if more Short Treks are in the works, I will continue to fight the good fight and get those two on screen together again!
Star Trek: Discovery, Short Treks will begin Thursday, October 4 with “Runaway.”
We want to hear your thoughts on this topic!
Write a comment below or submit an article to Hypable.