The Cast of ‘Star Trek: Discovery’ Dishes on the State of Your Favorite ‘Ships

Star Trek: Discovery Season 2 premieres tomorrow night on CBS All Access and jumps right in where last season left off: with the crew of the USS Discovery meeting the very famous Captain Christopher Pike (Anson Mount) of the USS Enterprise. What follows is a thrilling adventure that spans the galaxy, and puts our heroes in exceedingly dire circumstances.

But if you’re a super duper nerd for the characters on the good ship ‘Disco, you probably don’t care as much about all that super duper science adventure stuff as you do about the state of the ‘ships. That is, you want to know what’s up with Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) and Ash “Voq” Tyler (Shazad Latif), Stamets (Anthony Rapp) and his lost love Culber (Wilson Cruz), and the rest of Starfleet’s most eligible singles.

When Decider sat down with the cast of Star Trek: Discovery during a press day last fall, Sonequa Martin-Green made it clear that Michael Burnham isn’t quite over everything that went down between her and Ash last season.

“Ash is the first man Burnham has ever been in love with. First love. There wasn’t any time for that on Vulcan and there certainly wasn’t any time for that once I joined Starfleet, as Burnham,” Martin-Green said. “So yes, it was a deep emotional betrayal and that doesn’t just go away. Him deciding to serve L’Rell on Kronos because he’s searching for who he is and where he belongs…that’s a decision that I respect very much so, as Burnham. But it doesn’t mean that everything we’ve been through — it doesn’t mean that our love, the betrayal — goes away.”

Season 2 will follow Ash Tyler as he teams up with L’Rell in an attempt to maintain control over the Klingon Empire. Actors Shazad Latif and Mary Chieffo jokingly compared their characters’ relationship to Essex and Queen Elizabeth, insomuch that Ash is now going to be L’Rell’s right hand man as she acts as Chancellor. Naturally, this leads to some awkwardness as L’Rell conspired to implant her dead lover Voq’s consciousness into Ash’s psyche last season.

Shazad said, “There’s a lot of empathy for L’Rell because she’s trying to see if there’s something [of Voq] still in him, the remnants of him, but it’s still quite painful. They still have to work together.”

“I failed Voq. I came up with the plan. He decided to sacrifice himself. I was like, ‘I promise you, I’ll make it work,’ and then I failed because I underestimated the integrity of the human spirit,” Chieffo said. “But L’Rell did not expect Voq’s memories to stay with him.”

Still, Ash Tyler is not fully rid of his feelings for Michael Burnham, creating what Chieffo called a “love rhombus.”

“Whatever I do with [L’Rell] affects [Michael],” Latif said. “It doesn’t just cut off. There’s a bit of juggling that goes on.”

Chieffo said, “And L’Rell’s aware of it. There’s a lot of sadness.”

But perhaps the saddest romance in Star Trek: Discovery is that of Lt. Paul Stamets and Dr. Hugh Culber’s. The once happy couple was torn asunder last season when Ash, as Voq, murdered Hugh, whom Paul rediscovered in the Mycelium Drive. So…what role will the deceased Hugh play in Season 2?

Wilson Cruz said, “Honestly a clue — a good clue — is that we do find him where we left him. If you go back and watch Season 1, you’ll understand what that means. I think what’s safe for me to say, and what’s really exciting for me this season, is that what happened to this character is not glossed over. There’s no band-aid put on it, we’re not going back in time and acting as if it didn’t happen. There are real consequences to his death and it’s played out.”

“In nature, energy doesn’t die, it transforms,” Anthony Rapp said. “One of the ways in our natural world things are transformed is through Mycelial. They’re part of the recycling: things decay and they’re turned into something else.”

One character who hasn’t had his chance at love yet on Star Trek: Discovery? Saru. Actor Doug Jones told Decider that he had a private conversation with showrunner Alex Kurtzman about the possibility.

“Personally, I would like him to find love because I want every character I play to find love and a sense of belonging in some way, shape, or form,” Jones said. “And with who that would be? I don’t know. Because he’s kind of a loner, as a Kelpian, anyway.”

Jones went on to say that Saru had come a long way since leaving his home planet. “So now a whole new world has opened up to him, so love should open up, too, shouldn’t it?”

It doesn’t sound like Saru’s going to find that love match in Star Trek: Discovery Season 2, but it does sound like there’s hope in the years to come…

Watch Star Trek: Discovery on CBS All Access