Star Trek: Discovery Season 1 Episode Guide

We’ve been waiting for Star Trek to return to its home (aka TV) for far too long, and now the franchise is back! Now that Season 1 is ending, we’re retiring this hub as a place you can come and check out all of our reviews from the first season.

Here’s our review of the season finale, and here’s what we think that crazy cliffhanger might mean.

Akiva Goldsman Defends “Darkness” of Star Trek: Discovery

Star Trek: Discovery Season 1 Episode Guide

Click on the blue links for a full review of the Star Trek: Discovery episode…

Star Trek: Discovery Season 1 Episode 1 — The Vulcan Hello

We meet First Officer Michael Burnham and her co-workers and friends aboard the U.S.S. Shenzhou, under Captain Phillipa Georgiou’s command.

Original air date: 9/24/17

Star Trek: Discovery Season 1 Episode 2 — Battle at the Binary Stars

After an unexpected encounter with the Klingons, the U.S.S. Shenzhou attempts to avoid all-out war with the alien species.

Original air date: 9/24/17

Star Trek: Discovery Season 1 Episode 3 — Context is For Kings

Six months following the events of the Battle at Binary Stars, Burnham ends up on the U.S.S. Discovery, captained by the mysterious Captain Lorca.

Original air date: 10/1/17

Star Trek: Discovery Season 1 Episode 4 — The Butcher’s Knife Cares Not For the Lamb’s Cry

Burnham tries to determine the nature of a dangerous creature found on a Klingon ship as the war with the Klingons escalates.

Original air date: 10/8/17

Star Trek: Discovery Season 1 Episode 5 — Choose Your Pain

The crew of the Discovery has some tough choices to make when Captain Lorca is captured by a Klingon ship.

Original air date: 10/15/17

Star Trek: Discovery Season 1 Episode 6 — Lethe

Burnham rushes to save Sarek, while Lorca demonstrates how far he will go to win the war.

Original air date: 10/22/17

Star Trek: Discovery Season 1 Episode 7 — Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad

Harry Mudd traps the Discovery in a time loop in an effort to capture the ship and sell it to the Klingons.

Original air date: 10/29/17

Star Trek: Discovery Season 1 Episode 8 — Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum

Burnham, Tyler, and Saru contemplate peace during an away mission to a strange new world.

Original air date: 11/5/17

Star Trek: Discovery Season 1 Episode 9 — Into the Forest I Go

The Discovery stands as Pahvo’s last hope when the Klingon Ship of Death responds to the Pahvans’ call for peace.

Original air date: 11/12/17

Star Trek: Discovery Season 1 Episode 10 — Despite Yourself

While in unfamiliar territory, the USS Discovery crew is forced to get creative in their next efforts to survive opposing and unprecedented forces and return home.

Original air date: 1/7/18

Star Trek: Discovery Season 1 Episode 11 — The Wolf Inside

Tyler is forced to confront the truth about himself, as Burnham works to get vital information from the resistance.

Original air date: 1/14/18

Star Trek: Discovery Season 1 Episode 12 — Vaulting Ambition

Burnham meets the emperor face-to-face, while Stamets searches for a way out of the mycelial network he’s become trapped inside of. 

Original air date: 1/21/18 

Star Trek: Discovery Season 1 Episode 13 — What’s Past Is Prologue

Michael, Saru, and the rest of the Discovery crew fight to return to their own universe with the help of an unlikely ally.

Original air date: 1/28/18

Star Trek: Discovery Season 1 Episode 14 — The War Without, The War Within

The crew of the Discovery return to the Prime universe to discover the Federation is losing the war with the Klingons.

Original air date: 2/4/18

Star Trek: Discovery Season 1 Episode 15 — Will You Take My Hand?

The Discovery travels to Quo’noS in an attempt to end the war with the Klingons.

Original air date: 2/11/18

Star Trek: Discovery Season 1 Trailers

If you’ve yet to watch Star Trek: Discovery and want to get a taste for the show, here’s the official trailer…

And another…

Star Trek: Discovery Season 1 Release Date

Star Trek: Discovery launched Sunday, September 24th. 

Moving forward, all new episodes of the first season will be available exclusively on CBS All Access every Sunday at 8:30 p.m. ET.

Star Trek: Discovery is All About the Fight For the Federation’s Soul

Star Trek: Discovery Season 1 Timeline

Star Trek: Discovery takes place ten years before the original Star Trek series. Make no mistake, though, this series is set firmly in the original timeline, not that of the new movies.

Star Trek: Discovery Timeline Breakdown

To learn more about the Star Trek: Discovery timeline and the status of Alpha Quadrant at the time of its story, check out this video from YouTube channel Templin Institute.

Star Trek: Discovery Cast

Let’s break down who all these characters are…

Discovery Crew

First Officer Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green)

Sonequa Martin-Green, best known as Sasha Williams in The Walking Deadand Tamara in Once Upon a Time,plays Michael Burnham, a human who was mainly raised on Vulcan by Sarek following the deaths of her parents at the hand of the Klingons.

Cadet Sylvia Tilly (Mary Wiseman)

One of the breakout characters of Discovery has been Cadet Tilly, Burnham’s roommate, friend, and mentee. Tilly is a bit socially awkward, but makes up for it with enthusiasm, ambition, and heart.

Saru (Doug Jones)

Doug Jones (Pan’s Labyrinth) plays Lt. Saru, a science officer. Saru is a new species of alien.

Speaking to EW about his character, Jones teased: 

[Producers] said Saru is the Spock of the series, he’s the Data of the series — and those are beloved characters that I always connect with whenever I would watch the past incarnations of Star Trek.

On Falling Skies, I played an alien species who came to Earth to help the humans fight back the bad aliens who’d taken over, and I was intelligent, well-spoken, had a lot of answers and science-y smart. Saru is all of those things and then some.

Lieutenant Stamets (Anthony Rapp)

Rapp is Lt. Stamets, an astromycologist aboard the Discovery who is vital to the workings of the spore transportation drive.

Discovery is first Star Trek series to feature openly gay characters in a relationship. Rapps’ Rent co-star Wilson Cruz plays his character’s partner, Hugh.

Captain Lorca (Jason Isaacs)

Jason Isaacs plays the role of Captain Lorca, the military-minded captain of the Starship Discovery.

Lieutenant Tyler (Shazad Latif)

Shazad Latif (Penny Dreadful, Toast of London) plays Lieutenant Ash Tyler, a new member of the Discovery crew put in charge of security after escaping from a Klingon prison cell with Lorca. Ash is suspected by much of the internet of secretly being Klingon Voq, on board the Discovery as a spy.

Star Trek: Discovery Cast Talks Season 1 Romance

Dr. Hugh Culber (Wilson Cruz)

Wilson Cruz (Rent) plays medical officer, Dr. Hugh Culber. Culber is also Lt. Stamet’s romantic partner.

Klingons

T’Kuvma (Chris Obi)

Chris Obi (American Gods, Snow White and the Huntsman) plays T’Kuvma, a Klingon seeking to unite the Klingon houses and Kol’s mentor.

L’Rell (Mary Chieffo)

Mary Chieffo portrays L’Rell. A former follower of T’Kuvma and current follower of Voq, she is currently undercover on Kol’s ship, though still seemingly loyal to Voq.

Kol (Kenneth Mitchell)

Kenneth Mitchell (Frequency, The Astronaut Wives Club) plays Klingon commander Kol, protege to T’Kuvma.

Other

Captain Phillipa Georgiou (Michelle Yeoh)

Michelle Yeoh plays Captain Georgiou, the captain of the Starship Shenzhou and Burnham’s mentor.

Michelle Yeoh Will Be Back on Discovery

Sarek (James Frain)

James Frain plays Spock’s Vulcan father, Sarek. The character of Sarek has a long Star Trekhistory, first appearing in The Original Seriesbefore going on to make appearances in four of the Star Trekmovies, Star Trek: The Animated Series, Star Trek: The Next Generation, and in the 2009 Star Trekmovie. 

In Discovery, Sarek is the adopted father of Michael Burnham.

Harry Mudd (Rainn Wilson)

Star Trek: Discoveryis paying homage to The Original Serieswith the return of fan-favorite conman character Harry Mudd. This version of Mudd first appeared in Episode 5 when he was in a Klingon prison cell with Lorca and Tyler.

Amanda Grayson (Mia Kirschner)

Mia Kirschner plays Amanda Grayson, aka Spock’s mom and Burnham’s adopted mother.

Admiral Kat Cornwell (Jayne Brook)

Jayne Brooks plays Admiral Kat Cornwell, a high-ranking member of Starfleet and one of Lorca’s oldest friends.

Star Trek: Discovery Production

Gretchen Berg and Aaron Harberts assumed the role of showrunners after Bryan Fuller stepped away from the show, with Akiva Goldsman getting a “top creative role.”

Alex Kurtzman also executive produces the new show, and had this to say about the process:

Bringing Star Trek back to television means returning it to its roots, and for years those roots flourished under Bryan’s devoted care. His encyclopedic knowledge of Trek canon is surpassed only by his love for Gene Roddenberry’s optimistic future, a vision that continues to guide us as we explore strange new worlds.

Kurtzman was previously one of the masterminds of the recent Star Trek films that were directed by J.J. Abrams. He co-wrote Star Trek (2009) with Roberto Orci, and he also co-wrote Star Trek into Darkness (2013) with Orci and Damon Lindelof. 

Star Trek: Discovery — What Led to Bryan Fuller’s Exit

Nicholas Meyer, the director and uncredited co-screenwriter of The Wrath of Khan, will serve as a consulting producer on Star Trek: Discovery. 

TrekMovie got the word from Trek authority Larry Nemecek that Star Trek: Discovery has added two new writers: Aron Coleite (Heroes) and Joe Menosky (a Trek veteran with episodes of Next Generation, Voyager, and Deep Space Nine to his name).

Other writers include: Ted Sullivan, Erika Lippoldt, Bo Yeon Kim, Craig Sweeney, Sean Cochran, and Tyler Dinucci.

— Jason Isaacs (@jasonsfolly) July 15, 2017

Star Trek: Discovery Filming

The new Star TrekTV series boldly went where no other Star TrekTV series has gone before: Toronto. Discocery is the first live-action Star TrekTV show not to film in Southern California.

Production on season one began on January 24th, 2017 and went through September 2017.