A decade prior to the adventures of Captain Kirk and the U.S.S. Enterprise in The Original Series, another starship embarked on fantastic explorations: the U.S.S. Discovery. The exploits of Commander Michael Burnham, as portrayed on Star Trek: Discovery, are chock-full of connections to the Star Trek canon that sharp-eyed fans won’t miss.
Those connections are only growing. In fact, at the end of season one of Discovery, the U.S.S. Discovery meets the U.S.S. Enterprise: a physical representation of the canonical connection between the series' themes, vessels, life-forms and heroes.
Explore the connections between Discovery and “The Original Series” below, ahead of Star Trek: Discovery’s Season 2 premiere, exclusively on CBS All Access.
The pivotal starship in Discovery is the U.S.S. Discovery, originally built as a state-of-the-art science vessel and placed under the command of Captain Gabriel Lorca following the outbreak of the Federation-Klingon War.
Following an incident that sparks an interplanetary war (and lands her a life sentence as a mutineer), the protagonist in Discovery, Burnham, is enlisted as a specialist on the U.S.S. Discovery.
The U.S.S. Discovery
Discovery
Star Trek: Discovery is colliding with “Star Trek: The Original Series” in space and time. Here’s how.
A central character in The Original Series, Spock is a half-human, half-Vulcan from the planet Vulcan. Commander Burnham, a human raised on Vulcan, is revealed in Discovery to be Spock’s adoptive sister. Like Spock, she has had to learn the value of balancing Vulcan logic with human emotion.
Discovery shows familiar places like the Vulcan Learning Center, reintroduces Burnham and Spock’s father, Sarek, and portrays classic Vulcan techniques including mind-melds and nerve pinches.
Showrunners have teased Spock’s inclusion in season two, a prospect sure to delight die-hard Star Trek fans.
Vulcans
Prior to “The Original Series,” the United Federation of Planets was at war with the Klingons, a dark period that hasn’t been depicted until recently. In “Discovery,” Michael Burnham plays a pivotal role in the war as it unfolds, as do the Klingons as classic Star Trek antagonists.
The Klingons — including the warrior/leader T’Kuvma — invoke the name of their messiah, Kahless the Unforgettable, in “Discovery.” Trekkies will recall this godlike figure as central to Klingon culture. Kahless appears in the episode “The Savage Curtain” in “The Original Series” as a re-creation, brought to life alongside Abraham Lincoln and other historical archetypes of good and evil.
Klingons
Familiar Faces
The U.S.S. Discovery enters the Mirror Universe, an alternate reality ruled by the conquest-obsessed Terran Empire, also featured in The Original Series and the Star Trek canon. In Discovery, the starship accidentally trades places with its Mirror counterpart, the I.S.S. Discovery, which is subsequently destroyed by Klingons.
In the iconic episode “Mirror, Mirror” in The Original Series, Captain Kirk and several crew members also find themselves in this alternate reality, in their case after attempting to beam to the Enterprise during an ion storm. They are left to impersonate their own Mirror counterparts before transporting back.
Sarek shows up with a goatee in a nod to Spock’s famous facial hair from The Original Series’ fan-favorite episode “Mirror, Mirror.”
The Mirror Universe
EMPEROR GEORGIOU
COMMANDER BURNHAM
HARRY MUDD
Paul Stamets
T’Kuvma
COMMANDER BURNHAM
First officer spock
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Enterprise
Meets
The U.S.S. Enterprise
At the end of the first season of Discovery, the war with the Klingons is ended and Burnham pardoned with her rank restored. En route to Vulcan, the starship answers a distress signal from — guess who? — the U.S.S. Enterprise. At this point in time, the classic “The Original Series” ship has Captain Christopher Pike in command.
Star Trek fans know Pike from “The Cage,” the original Star Trek pilot, and “The Menagerie, Parts I and II,” all of which feature a planet of dangerous illusions called Talos IV. With Captain Pike in command and the return of Spock, fans can expect season two to reintroduce the Talosians, the first Star Trek villains imagined, and a reunion between siblings Burnham and Spock.
Tune in to the premiere of Star Trek: Discovery season two on January 17 or catch up on season one, only on CBS All Access.
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Vulcans, Klingons and the Federation Starfleet are present in every iteration of Star Trek, and “Discovery” is no exception. But Discovery also brings familiar individual characters into the fold. Sarek, Vulcan ambassador to the Federation and Spock and Burnham’s father, is first seen on The Original Series when a rescue mission ended his 18-year estrangement with Spock.
Discovery also introduces a pre–Original Series Harry Mudd, the intergalactic con man known for fraud, smuggling and other rogue behavior. Portrayed by the inimitable Rainn Wilson, Mudd is first shown in Discovery in Klingon captivity, where he spies for Klingons before escaping and attempting to hijack and sell the U.S.S. Discovery.
In The Original Series, Mudd encounters the Enterprise on two separate occasions, proving himself a dangerous, but highly entertaining nuisance to Kirk and his crew.