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Pre-Release Theories
Pike actually DID see himself die in the vision
What the audience was shown was somewhat of an abridged version because we already know what happens, but In-Universe there were some differences-namely, Pike saw the exact moment his life ended.However, as we know, it won't turn out exactly as he saw-because he confided in Spock about it, which will allow for a change through some application of Exact Words and Loophole Abuse-Pike can't change his own future, but Spock can; which will lead to the events shown in "The Menagerie" (and retroactively explain why it was worth it to Spock to commit mutiny to save Pike.)
Pike will somehow avert You Can't Fight Fate as a result of his vision
This aversion could take one of many forms. It's highly unlikely he'll commit suicide to do so. He could become a Death Seeker in order to seek a Heroic Sacrifice to make sure he actually dies. Or he could do something to prevent his incapacitation in 2266; or an attempt to prevent it could lead to him actually dying.Or, assuming he actually did see himself die—and he could've meant when he said he saw his actual death that he regarded his incapacitation as equivalent to being dead—he could do something that results in his ultimate incapacitation as originally seen in "The Menagerie".
Something happens to Dr. M'Benga's career during the course of the series
In TOS, we know that Dr. McCoy is the Chief Medical Officer of the Enterprise by the mid-2260s, and Dr. M'Benga shows up as one of his subordinate medical officers on occasion. Yet, during the earlier period chronicled by SNW, Dr. M'Benga is still the CMO of the Enterprise. Either M'Benga voluntarily steps down from the CMO position at some point, or Dr. Piper and then McCoy are assigned or promoted over his head for some reason.- Dr. Piper might have what the military refers to as 'time in grade' over M'Benga. What this means is that they could be of equal rank, but Dr. Piper might have been promoted to said rank a year before M'Benga, making him the superior officer. Another theory could be that when Pike does get injured, M'Benga (obviously being a close friend) might take a leave of absence to help care for him, and in the meantime, Piper, then later, McCoy, come aboard as the CMO of the Enterprise. M'Benga might come back, but now he's the lower-ranking doctor.
- The latter may well be the case. In A Quality of Mercy we see that, in the Alternate Timeline where Pike remains Captain of the Enterprise in 2266, M'Benga is still the CMO and there's no sign of McCoy. This does seem to imply that M'Benga's career on the Enterprise as CMO is tied to Pike's own career/fate.
- Perhaps M'Benga finds a way to partially cure his daughter, and steps down as full-time CMO to care for her. Or she goes to live on Earth, and M'Benga transfers to a planetside post, occasionally doing brief tours on the Enterprise.
- Jossed: She Ascends to a Higher Plane of Existence.
Season 1 Theories
Spock and Chapel have an affair
In TOS, they were both engaged to other people, but Chapel was obviously attracted to Spock (more ambiguous if he felt any attraction towards her or not). In SNW, they both become equally attracted to each other, have a fling, and break it off out of guilt.- Played with in The Serene Squall, when Spock and Chapel pretend to be having an affair to convince T'Pring to end her relationship with Spock, thus allowing her to refuse Captain Angel's demands in a way that preserves her reputation.
- Confirmed
La'an Noonien-Singh is an Augment
She's not just a distant descendant of Khan, but an Augment from the same Eugenics War era. Like Khan's group, they set out on a sublight colony ship... which, instead of being found by the Enterprise like the Botany Bay was, it was found by Gorn. Cue all the horrific things that happened to the crew, and La'an being the sole survivor. Like Julian Bashir a century later, she's holding back to not draw attention and doesn't give details on just what is entailed by "colony ship" when talking about her past. Dr. M'Benga may be aware of it and is keeping it a secret as well.- She is indeed descended from Noonien-Singh, and thereby partly "augmented". Which led to tension when she discovered that her best friend and mentor, Una Chin-Riley, was genetically modified.
- Her status is pretty much confirmed 100 percent human, as a) she is a known descendant of Noonien-Singh and b) any form of augmentation would automatically bar her from Federation service and is an automatic court-martial as seen with Una Chin-Riley. So she is not augmented in any fashion or degree.
The timeline in Episode 1 is deliberately erroneous.
Pike shows footage of the 2021 Capitol riot and implies it predates the Eugenics Wars (dated to the 1990s). This is not supposed to be an actual retcon from the writers, but an implication that the Future Imperfect trope is in play. Either the Eugenics Wars are initially thought to have happened later than they actually did (a mistake which gets corrected by the TOS timeframe), or the Capitol Riot is not actually a predecessor to the Second American Civil War, and the footage that Pike used was mistakenly labeled as such.- Given that Pike's goal was to make a point and not necessarily to provide a history lesson, he may have been conflating the various events together.
- It may also be telling that the names of one of the cadets changed from Muliq Al Alcazar in episode 2, to Maat Al-Salah in episode 10.
- Jossed: Season 2 reveals that the Eugenics Wars were shifted from the 1990s to more like the 2030s due to time travel shenanigans.
Spock and Uhura will develop a mentor/protégé relationship.
They have a lot of scenes together in Episode 2, with Spock often offering Uhura advice and encouragement, and they even perform a duet of sorts on the comet. Their Commonality Connection is that they're both "too honest" and they're knowledgeable about the mathematics of music. In the Kelvin timeline, he was her Advanced Phonology instructor, so the showrunners seem to have been inspired by that and are portraying Spock as Uhura's mentor in the prime timeline. It's worth noting that a deleted scene
from TOS shows that he taught her how to play the Vulcan lute, and he mentions the complex mathematics of this instrument. Hemmer will die saving the ship at some point, inspiring Spock to do the same in TWOK
In "Memento Mori", Hemmer comments that the Aenar believe that one can't die until they have fulfilled their purpose. Uhura asks him what his purpose is, to which he replies: "To fix what is broken." It's hard not to see this as foreshadowing — at some point in the future, he'll die in a Heroic Sacrifice to save the ship and her crew, Scotty will be brought in as his replacement, and the incident will be what inspires Spock to pull a similar stunt in the climax of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.- Scotty didn't join the Enterprise until 2265. Also, Pike was known for going through engineers (they either die or transfer off the ship. Proof of this is how in Discovery, the engineer was a man named Louvier and then, three months later in SNW, Hemmer comes aboard, and now Hemmer is dead).
- Confirmed: He dies in "All Those Who Wander"note , and Spock acknowledges the logic of his decision.
M'Hanit was created by the Proto-Humanoids from "The Chase"
In the Star Trek universe, all humanoid life in the galaxy is canonically descended from an ancient race that seeded the primordial oceans of millions of worlds with its own genetic material. Presumably, M'hanit from "Children of the Comet" and the other comets like it were created to continually "nudge" evolution on those planets in a direction that promotes the survival of lifeforms with a humanoid body plan. Samuel Kirk was the jester that Rauth (Pike) would have summoned if M'Benga hadn't declined.
This would fit if it were made an exaggeration of his don't-touch-that moment in "Children of the Comet". The dog from "The Elysian Kingdom" is real.
This can be proven both by how it took part in the dramatic staring contest, and how M'Benga doesn't make any technobabble when scanning it. The Travelers/Supervisors were involved in enforcing Spock's death in all the timelines in which Pike avoided his fate
It seems a little convenient that apparently nothing Pike does can save the cadets, himself, and Spock all in one timeline. Perhaps the Travelers somehow manipulated events to force Spock's death in all the "wrong" timelines so that Pike had to go with the correct one. As a corollary to this that might make them seem a bit less heartless, maybe they also Tricked Out Time and recruited the two cadets who were supposed to die into the organization while faking their deaths, because the Bad Future wasn't their fault, and they had no idea what would happen. The Gorn infants from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds S1E09 "All Those Who Wander" are the Gorn's attempt at creating augments.
Even ignoring Bones's comment from Star Trek Into Darkness about Gorn breeding habits, these baby Gorn are faster and more vicious than the adults seen in their debut in TOS, and are somehow not only fertile within hours of hatching, but are able to inseminate another humanoid simply by projectile vomiting at them. If it wasn't for the 'last man standing' nature of their hatching, this could potentially give them a reproductive rate on a par with tribbles. Season 2 Theories
Kirk comes aboard as second or first officer
It's already been announced that Paul Wesley enters the role of James T. Kirk in the second season of SNW, yet the producers keep clarifying that Captain Pike will remain in charge during the series. It seems likely that Kirk will show up as a mid-level to senior officer, probably a lieutenant commander or commander from the Farragut or another starship, and work his way up to succeeding Pike as The Captain. It's also entirely possible that Number One might earn her own command at some point in the interim, creating a vacancy as the executive officer of Enterprise that allows Kirk to be assigned to the ship.- Something like what could have happened when Picard was taken by the Borg, they bought on Shelby as a Borg specialist, kept the rest of the crew in their specialized positions, made her the XO and bumped up Riker to Captain.
- Played with in "Lost in Translation" where he does beam aboard as the youngest first officer of the Farragut or any other Starfleet ship on record.
- Jossed, but only just. James Kirk is an up-and-coming officer on the USS Farragut, which serves in the same sector as the Enterprise, leading to the two crews working together from time to time. In Subspace Rhapsody he is temporarily assigned to Enterprise so he can shadow Una and prepare for his new duty as the Farragut's First Officer. An alternate-timeline version of himself also appears early in the season as captain of the United Earth Ship Enterprise.
Alternately, Kirk comes aboard as the new Chief of Security
La'an has been Put on a Bus already, leaving a vacancy as both Chief of Security and Second Officer. What we know of Kirk's career background would fit that dual position very neatly.- Jossed when she returns to active duty one episode later in the season two premiere. The next time Kirk appears, he's the Farragut's first officer (or will be soon, as he's been appointed to the position).
Scotty comes aboard as an engineer.
He joins the crew as a lower ranking officer, but works his way up the ranks and becomes Chief Engineer by the time of TOS.- Season 1's finale did feature a brief voice-over from a certain engineer in an alternate timeline...
- Given that Hemmer is dead as of the end of Season 1, the Enterprise does need a new Chief Engineer...
- Scotty doesn't come to the Enterprise until 2265.
- Turns out that he first comes aboard the Enterprise during "Hegemony". What happens next remains to be seen.
Boimler caused Chapel to dump Spock.
After she and Uhura enter the Kherkov vortex, Chapel saw no need to leave Enterprise until Boimler mentions his concern regarding "current" Spock, which causes her to resume out of guilt, which eventually leads to her ill-fated engagement to a professor of archeological medicine. The events of the Season 1 finale altered the timeline.
Pike's round-trip to the alternate 2266 in "A Quality of Mercy" may have altered the Prime Timeline slightly. Pike now knows (or at least believes he knows) that Kirk will be his successor as Captain of the Enterprise, and he's shown to be researching him even when he returns to the present. It's possible that, knowing this, he seeks out Kirk and they end up meeting years before they originally would have (which according to Kirk in "The Menagerie" was when he first took over the Enterprise from Pike). He also learned about Una's fate in the alternate 2266, and that's also something that he'll no doubt be working to change. These changes, significant in themselves, will no doubt lead to other changes, resulting in a Close-Enough Timeline that broadly matches the backstory established by the original series, while serving as a handwave for retcons.- Not necessarily. For all we know, the Pike from TOS had gone through the experience of seeing his time crystal on Boreth (which happens after the events of "The Cage") which would fit in nicely with the events of "The Menagerie", where Pike is reluctant to go to Talos IV as he believes his life is over. Moreover, Pike knows better than to mess around with the timeline and will probably keep an eye on Kirk and will ensure he succeeds him as captain of the Enterprise, which is probably how he got the command all along.
- In "Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow", a Romulan time traveler notes that the timeline has been altered by repeated attempts by time agents to change or fix the past, but that it has proven resilient, keeping key points roughly in place but changing the details. Given that Admiral Pike's mission was to restore the "correct" timeline, this was likely another case of that.
Commander Pelia was intended to be an El-Aurian.
It would atleast have been easier, on the writers and the make-up artists, for her to be written as one of Guinan's people than as an Axanar. Ensigns Boimler and Mariner caused D'Vana Tendi to join Starfleet via a Stable Time Loop
So those two Military Maverick characters are about to be sent back and mention that Tendi is the "Mistress of the Winter Constellations". The Orion captain of the science vessel is taken aback and then flattered that Pike let his team take credit for the discovery of the Portal. He even gives the crew a gift of Orion delaq. This builds bridges between Orion and the Federation and influences Tendi's grandmother to consider science. Tendi hearing about the discovery helped her become the Cultural Rebel and join Starfleet. Doctor M'Benga did not kill Dak'Rah.
The scene is shot to be ambiguous, and both of the witnesses have a vested interest in giving their version of the story. There are at least three possible ways it played out:- The implied version: M'Benga expected Dak'Rah to return, and when the ambassador didn't leave him alone, he took the opportunity to finish what he failed to do before, killing the General.
- Dak'Rah realized his cowardice was about to be revealed, grabbed the knife, and tried to kill M'Benga, with the Doctor killing him in self defense.
- Dak'Rah realized his cowardice was about to be revealed, grabbed the knife, and killed himself to preserve his honor.
The "Improbability Field" was a test by the Q
So Uhura sent music from a musical to create a "musical universe" - but that's like sending a page from a murder mystery and expecting a "murder mystery" universe. Instead either the Q or ''that'' Q saw the experiment and decided to mess with the crew of the Starship Enterprise and see if they could solve the puzzle. Something Q himself would try a century later with Capt. Picard. Just to be contrary, Capt. Batel somehow survives the events of the season finale ("Hegemony")
So between trailer snippets and a preview clip, we know that Capt. Batel and the Cayuga end up running into the Gorn on their "priority one" mission and the ship gets wrecked with the surviving crew marooned. What if she pulls an Ellen Ripley and manages to survive the Xenomorph Xerox peril? It'd be a decent subversion of Tempting Fate and/or Stuffed into the Fridge if she and Pike get to go on their promised shore-leave after all and leave their eventual breakup or separation (because they're not together by "The Menagerie" in TOS) for another day. Batel's career, however, would probably go through a significant rough patch from losing her ship and much of her crew.- Well, she's survived thus far, but she's infected with Gorn eggs and the episode (and, by extension, the season) ends with To Be Continued. Whether she survives the next part remains to be seen.
Season 3 Theories
Somebody, most likely La'an, will die at the beginning of Season 3
There's a lot of characters in danger in the S2 finale and the threat level escalated dramatically with the Gorn established as a dangerous antagonist. We know that the majority of the character survive until the TOS era, but there are some whose fates are still unknown:- La'an has a Dark and Troubled Past with the Gorn and making an Heroic Sacrifice to save a crewmate would be an apt counterpoint to having been unable to save her brother from them in her childhood. The prior episode torpedoed the romance between her and Kirk, which, narratively, puts her in a place where her found family on the Enterprise are her primary emotional driving force and it would make sense for her to sacrifice herself for them. Additionally, Boimler didn't react much to her during his time jump, which may imply that her career is cut short before she made a name for herself.
- Oretgas is still on the Enterprise in A Quality of Mercy so we know that something has to happen between now and then to make way for Sulu to be the pilot in TOS. Boimler also refers to her as a a "war hero" which indicates he knows of her by accomplishments from prior to the series
- Batel is gravely injured and is a recurring character with a close enough emotional connection to the main cast and exposure to the audience that her death would have an impact on the audience. Additionally, if she were to survive and remain with Pike, it makes less sense for Pike to go into retirement on Talos in TOS
- Una is a bit left field, but she's never appeared in any episodes set chronologically after SNW, except in a flashback. In the Crossover Episode with Star Trek: Lower Decks, Boimler is extremely evasive around her, which was explained at the time as him owning a recruitment poster with her on, but could also be to do with foreknowledge of her impending death. In the same episode, Ransom describes her as a First Officer, which may indicate she never makes captain
- Pelia is probably safe, although her replacement has just arrived on the ship
General/Miscellaneous Theories
The Gorn will be the "Borg" of this series
La'an's backstory and the prominence of the Gorn warship in the series trailer both seem to hint at this. There's no fate but what we make for ourselves.
There will be a scene of Christopher Pikes' near feature. With years of training, Christopher Pike will beat the 'No Win Scenario,' and save all the cadets and himself. Almost. Only to find there is/was another cadet to save. Their remains found decades later. Laughing, while about to succumb to wounds, Pike is rescued by an unknown Starfleet Admiral.Dusting off Pike the officer mutters, 'Jean-Luc would be disappointed.' Before Pike can ask his million questions, the Admiral has Pike look after the cadets. Q has a rare expression of sadness. 'Fate can be postponed. But it can't be cheated.' Q snaps his fingers only to find nothing happens. 'I'm dying??' Q snaps his fingers again.
The No Win Scenario
Captain Pike creates 'The No Win Scenario' training exercise.- The timeline doesn't support it. Kirk took the test when he was a cadet (probably shortly before the events of Star Trek: Discovery), and at this point in the timeline he's already a commissioned officer.
- IIRC, didn't spock create the no win scenario, at least that's what the kelvin movies stated
Uhura‘s hairstyle represents a visual timeline.
When Uhura first enters the show, she has a very short hair, almost completely shaved down. In the next episode, her hair is slightly grown out.Celia Rose Gooding is deliberately using this to show how close in time Uhura is to the TOS timeframe. Celia Rose Gooding’s hair will be progressively longer throughout the show until it’s close enough to the style Nichelle Nichols wore on the original Star Trek.- Potentially Jossed in the Season 1 finale A Quality of Mercy where we see Uhura in 2266 during the events of the TOS episode Balance of Terror and Celia Rose Gooding has the same short hair she does wile playing 2259!Uhura. Then again, it is an Alternate Timeline, so maybe in the Prime Timeline she will start gradually growing her hair to resemble Nichelle Nichols'.
Brent Spiner as the 23rd Century ancestor of Dr. Noonien Soong will appear as a mentor to Roger Korby
We've seen a Dr. Soong in every Century so far EXCEPT the 23rd. Brent Spiner willing, gotta keep up the tradition. And given Arik's comments in ENT, the 23rd Century Dr. Soong would be pursuing robotics instead of genetics. "What Are Little Girls Made Of?" established that Korby was a former flame of Chapel and Akiva Goldsman has hinted he will show up at some point. So perhaps Korby starts out as an assistant to Dr. Soong before he strikes out on his own with less successful results. Dr. Boyce will appear in an episode
Dr. Boyce will visit the Enterprise, portrayed as having retired sometime between the events of “The Cage” and the beginning of this show. He will cure an alien plague or have a similar major medical accomplishment. Bones will replace Chapel
McCoy will take Chapel's place while she is away at the fellowship, and possibly longer. Lt. Jenna Mitchell is related to the ill-fated Lt. Cmdr. Gary Mitchell
They have the same surname, and are about the same age, she might turn out to be his sister.- Similarly, she may be related to the similarly ill-fated helmswoman of the U.S.S. Grissom. The actresses bear a resemblence to each other, and the timeline could allow for her to be Mitchell's daughter.
Kirk's lady-swapping will be the Gorn's fault.
His informing La'an about Carol Marcus will unconsciously cause her to give her life for M'Benga, Sam Kirk, and Ortegas, leading him to get too attached to any woman that he might never see again. In a later season of the show, after Star Trek: Lower Decks has ended its run, Pike's crew will find themselves thrown ahead into the early 25th Century.
Hard to say exactly why, whether it be a space anomaly or deliberate action due to the Temporal Cold War or something, but some circumstance in a later season episode will find The Enterprise Crew in the early 2400s, where they will likely face a threat from that era... if Star Trek Legacy ever gets off the ground, possibly an enemy from that era (or one that they are GOING to encounter in their following season) until they eventually are bailed out by a small but tough (maybe Defiant-inspired) starship from that era, who hails them immediately, revealing a somewhat aged old friend: Captain Bradward Boimler!The captain will say something along the lines of "An old friend of ours in the DTI caught wind of your temporal incursion and figured it'd be better if you saw a familar face, and we'd definitely rather you deal with us than those 29th Century guys."
The two ships will carefully take care of whatever problem has come up, and will get The Enterprise back to its proper time. Before parting ways, the older, wiser Boimler will give a goodbye speech, with plenty of nods to their previous encounter, and a clear dorkiness still present in his personality, albeit with much more confidence than before. Naturally, this speech will end with something like "Farewell, old friends, Captain. Oh, and Mr. Spock," at which point he does a perfect (albeit maybe a little over-enthusiastic) Vulcan Salute. "Live long, and prosper."
Spock, amused, will return the salute. "Live long, and prosper... Captain Boimler."
"Subspace Rhapsody" will get a Screen-to-Stage Adaptation
And it will be awesome.For more specific changes:
- The Klingon-Pop will become its own full song rather then be part of "We Are One", due to being hilarious.
