As con season continues, we’re hearing tid-bits of info about what to expect in season two of Star Trek: Discovery.

We’ve already learnt that Jonathan Frakes will be directing at least one episode and that Anson Mount (Smallville, Lost, Inhumans) has been cast to play Captain Christopher Pike of the U.S.S. Enterprise.

And according to Frakes, who was speaking at El Paso Comic Con, the legendary Spock will make an appearance in the second episode of the upcoming season, which is the one Frakes is thought to be directing.

He said that it would not be the adult Spock, however, who at the time of Discovery is a young science officer on board the Enterprise living a peaceful pre-Kirk life, but instead a younger version of the character. This version will appear in flashbacks, where he’ll appear alongside his younger, adopted sister and Discovery protagonist, Michael Burnham.

Spock has been a contentious figure so far in the series, his presence a bit of issue since Burnham is related to the major character, he has yet to appear and is only obliquely referred to in the first season, leading Discovery fans to wonder how long the show would dance around the connection. It seems now we know. In fact, many fans – this one included – wonder why Burnham had to be related to Sarek at all.

In other Trek news, show designer John Eaves took to Facebook to talk about why Star Trek: Discovery’s version of the Enterprise had to be modified for legal reasons. You may remember, in the finale of Star Trek: Discovery we caught a glimpse of the flagship of the Federation: the Enterprise NCC 1701, 10 years before the original Star Trek television show.

“Back in April of 2017 the task of the Enterprise making an appearance came to be and work was to start right away,” Eaves explained (with some of the grammar modified for readability). “The task started with the guideline that the Enterprise for Discovery had to be 25% different, otherwise production would have most likely been able to use the original design from the 60s. But that couldn’t happen so we took Jefferies’ original concepts and with great care tried to be as faithful as possible. We had the advantage of a 10-year gap in Trek history to retro the ship a bit with elements that could be removed and replaced somewhere in the time frame of Discovery and the original series.”

That guideline, apparently, came from legal, as Eaves went on to explain in a comment below the main post.

“After Enterprise, properties of Star Trek ownership changed hands and was divided,, so what was able to cross TV shows up to that point changed and a lot of the crossover was no longer allowed,” he said. “That is why when JJ [Abrams]’s movie came along everything had to be different. The alternate universe concept was what really made that movie happen in a way as to not cross the new boundaries and give Trek a new footing to continue.”

Trek Movie has a great comparison of the two designs.

Finally, Zachary Quinto has confirmed to the New York Observer that Paramount plans to make “at least one” more Star Trek film set in the Kelvin timeline. Unfortunately.

“Which ones are going to happen, which ones might happen first? I can’t really say, I don’t know honestly. I know there are lots of conversations being had about it. I know there are plans afoot to do at least one if not more movies.”

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