Summary
- Star Trek: Discovery avoided time travel back to the 23rd century to focus on creating new and exciting stories for fans to enjoy.
- Going back in time would have jeopardized the delicate pacing and unique narrative development of the show.
- Traveling to the future in the 32nd century allowed Star Trek: Discovery to carve out its own path in the Star Trek timeline.
I'm glad Star Trek: Discovery never used a time travel plot to go back in time. Since it brought back Star Trek after a long absence of the franchise on the small screen, Star Trek: Discovery was under a lot of pressure. Fans wanted the new era of sci-fi TV to be precisely the kind of Star Trek fans had missed since Star Trek: Enterprise ended in 2005. With such high stakes, Star Trek: Discovery had to tread lightly — but still boldly go and eventually pave the way for new Star Trek TV shows and movies.
Star Trek's new show had to achieve the perfect balance of nostalgia and fresh narratives. Since time travel is such a popular science fiction trope, especially in Star Trek, a time jump seemed like a good idea. Commander Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) and Star Trek: Discovery's characters found themselves jumping into the next century at the end of Star Trek: Discovery season 2. Not only am I glad that the time jump wasn't into the past, but I'm also happy that Star Trek: Discovery never ended up featuring a time travel plot that would've sent characters backward in the timeline.
Why Star Trek: Discovery Going Back To The 23rd Century Would Have Been A Mistake
A time travel episode would have shifted Star Trek: Discovery's momentum
From its very first season in 2017, Star Trek: Discovery had a lot to prove. Taking on the mantle of the sole Star Trek TV show at the time was daunting. It had to live up to its famous predecessors, Star Trek: Voyager and Star Trek: Enterprise. Star Trek: Discovery's spore drive set it apart from other Star Trek projects, as did the reintroduction of characters Lieutenant Spock (Ethan Peck) and Captain Christopher Pike (Anson Mount). However, Star Trek: Discovery still had to be careful about changing too much of the already established canon, so delicate pacing was established early on.
I'm glad Star Trek: Discovery 's saga was about creating new stories, not revisiting old ones for nostalgia's sake.
I think that if Star Trek: Discovery had gone back in time, the progress it made would've been promptly destroyed. Star Trek: Discovery was a serialized show, so even a one-off episode about time travel would've ruined the over-arcing plot and careful pacing. Star Trek creatives also undoubtedly wanted to steer clear of tropes and narratives that had been done in nearly every Star Trek TV show until that point. I'm glad Star Trek: Discovery's saga was about creating new stories, not revisiting old ones for nostalgia's sake.
Star Trek: Discovery Reconnected With Star Trek By Focusing On The Future
The 32nd-century time jump paved the way for a new and exciting Star Trek canon
Traveling forward to the 32nd century allowed Star Trek: Discovery to chart its own course in the Star Trek timeline. This was a bold and risky move, but time travel gave Star Trek: Discovery a new lease on life and ensured it didn't get caught in the web of established canon, which is really tricky to do. Star Trek: Discovery needed space to be what it needed to be, and the 32nd century provided that space. Going back, even with a single-episode time travel plot, would've risked the show's precariously balanced development and set it back — literally.
Star Trek: Discovery season 3 did revisit the 23rd century Mirror Universe as a way to write out Michelle Yeoh's Emperor Philippa Georgiou and set up Star Trek: Section 31.
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, the spin-off of Star Trek: Discovery, continues to bring back classic Star Trek in a lot of new and exciting ways. The pressure Star Trek: Discovery had when it started eventually lessened, allowing its later seasons to take even bolder narrative leaps and test the limits of what fans thought Star Trek had to be. I think traveling back in time would have erased the effort Star Trek: Discovery made in its first few seasons to stand apart but still be adjacent to previous Star Trek shows and movies.
