Quite a bit going on in the world of Star Trek.

Firstly, Anson Mount (Crossroads, Smallville, Lost, Inhumans) has been tapped to play Captain Christopher Pike of the U.S.S. Enterprise in the soon-to-film second season of Star Trek: Discovery.

Discovery served up an initial reference to Pike in “Choose Your Pain” when Saru instructed the computer to comb the Starfleet Database for the most-decorated captains. Pike’s name appeared on a list that included Robert April, Jonathan Archer, Matthew Decker and Philippa Georgiou.

And in the disappointing season finale, “Will You Take My Hand?” the crew of the Enterprise was on the way to meet their new captain when they received a distress call. Communications officer R.A. Bryce announced… “Hail’s from Captain Pike, sir.” Michael Burnham quickly connected the dots and commented, “It’s the U.S.S. Enterprise.”

Pike is an iconic Star Trek character, played by Jeffrey Hunter in the first Star Trek: The Original Series pilot, “The Cage,” and then in disfigured form by Sean Kenney in “The Menagerie, Part I and II.” Bruce Greenwood portrayed the Kelvin Timeline Pike in both the awful Star Trek (2009) and appalling Star Trek Into Darkness (2013).

We can only speculate how big the role of Pike is going to be…because lest we forget that Spock is the Science Officer assigned to the Enterprise under Captain Pike. Will the siblings of Sarek meet?

Secondly, it’s rumored that Jonathan Frakes will be helming more episodes in season two. The actor spoke at the recent Lexington Comics and Toy Convention. “I just read the first script of the second season and the outline for the second script and it’s on fire now,” he said.

You might remember the episode titled “Despite Yourself” that Frakes directed, which introduced the Mirror Universe and was also the best episode of season one. It isn’t clear yet if his commitment is restricted to directing only one episode.

Thirdly, a scene that was cut from the season one finale that was shown during the show’s WonderCon panel suggests one direction season two might take.

In this EXCLUSIVE BONUS SCENE from the season 1 finale of #StarTrekDiscovery​, Mirror Georgiou receives a surprise invitation from Leland (@alanvansprang) to join a mysterious organization. *Spoiler Warning* Season 1 now streaming: https://t.co/KoUK3vJfGz pic.twitter.com/BVymEYr6Up

— Star Trek: Discovery (@startrekcbs) March 24, 2018

We see Mirror Georgiou running a club in the Orion market on Qo’noS when she’s approached by a mystery man who she mistakes for a member of Starfleet. He tells her that he’s not, and that his organization is “far more resourceful,” and that he believes Georgiou would be “a valuable asset” to them in their quest for galactic peace. He offers her the chance to “exert some influence over the fate of this galaxy,” rather than slumming it, and leaves her with a mysterious black box. When Georgiou opens it, it contains a black version of the Starfleet delta shield insignia, leaving her with one passing remark: “Welcome to Section 31.”

The mysterious character, Leland, is played by Alan Van Sprang, who remained tight-lipped on his role. “Section 31 is… I can’t say anything about it, literally, it’s a Section that cannot be spoken of,” he laughed during the panel Q&A. Trek fans know that the mysterious group is an autonomous black ops organization, ostensibly designed to protect the security of the Federation without operating by Starfleet rules.

We don’t yet know what role Section 31 will play in Discovery season two, but we’re going to assume that Georgiou and the enigmatic Leland will be a part of the upcoming story.

Showrunner Aaron Harberts also addressed whether or not Star Trek: Discovery takes place in the “prime” timeline, saying, “The idea was always to be in the prime timeline. Obviously there are questions and concerns and things that are different – our technology is different, we have a ship that runs differently… Season 2 is really exciting for us because this is our opportunity to show how Discovery fits into this prime timeline, we’re firmly committed to that. But I do like the idea of seeing other universes from time to time.”

And finally…Variety reports that Alex Kurtzman will helm the season two opener. Kurtzman had a strong hand in bringing Star Trek Discovery to fruition as co-creator of the series, taking a more active handle on the show when original showrunner Bryan Fuller departed during development.

Kurtzman had grand plans for The Mummy (2017) before it flopped; it was intended to be the first in a series of interconnected Universal Monsters movies, with Bride of Frankenstein and The Invisible Man in active development, but the Tom Cruise-fronted film was a bust at the box office and received scathing reviews from critics, so that was the end of that idea.

Star Trek: Discovery season one is available on CBS All Access in the U.S. and Space Channel in Canada. It’s available on Netflix for the rest of Earth.

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