With the first season of ‘Star Trek: Discovery’ now in the rearview mirror and convention season underway, we can begin to start filling in the gaps of what might have been, both in terms of abandoned story turns and deleted scenes. It was the latter that we were treated to at WonderCon this past weekend, and was it ever a big one!
The scene, variously described as a “bonus scene” or “secret scene”, made its debut at the convention’s ‘Star Trek: Discovery’ panel and was subsequently released online. The scene functions as an epilogue of sorts to the main action of the first season finale, ‘Will You Take My Hand?’, picking up with Emperor Georgiou as she approached on Qo’nos by Leland, a mysterious man with an offer.
You can watch the scene here:
Section 31, perhaps best described as an extremist black ops group within Starfleet Intelligence (and which does not officially exist) as introduced in the later years of ‘Star Trek: Deep Space Nine’ and eventually reappeared toward the end of ‘Enterprise’. Most relevant to ‘Discovery’ is that Section 31’s involvement was an early favorite in fan circles as an explanation for some of the show’s less traditionally ‘Star Trek’ elements, particularly Lorca’s ruthlessness. Of course, the show would ultimately go in a different direction with Lorca, but it’s clear now that Section 31 wasn’t so far from the writers’ minds after all. Indeed, While this isn’t exactly confirmation, it both suggests that Section 31 will be a presence of some sort going forward and gives us an idea of just what Georgiou may be getting up to if and when she returns.
‘Star Trek: Discovery’ is due to begin production of its second season in April. The new season, which will feature returning stars Sonqua Martin-Green, Doug Jones, Mary Wiseman, and Anthony Rapp, is expected to begin airing on CBS All Access in late 2018 or early 2019.
