Its been reported over and over, and possibly disavowed when Fuller departed, that Discovery is based on an incident in Trek's past. So what might that be? My candidate - "disastrous first contact with the Klingons leading to decades of war" per Captain Picard. YES, well aware that Enterprise's own pilot started with the Klingon first contact, but i would argue that Burnham's actions are a version of "first contact", perhaps with the ancient ship Klingons, and seem to have been literally disastrous. Other candidates?
But they said it was something from TOS. So I tend to still think it is connected to McCoy's line about Vulcan being conquered. They probably work with the interpretation that he was being glib, but there were a series of attacks on Vulcan by the Klingons. Maybe payback for the 'Vulcan Hello'?
Axanar. *runs for the hills* This thread makes me wonder about Donatu V as well, but that's already happened as of DSC, so ... Tarsus IV? Nah.
Once scans showed that they trick out their ships with corpses, ships tended to just stay away from them. That or there were First Officers nerve pinching their Captains, not allowing action to be taken at a critical moment.
The attack on Vulcan corresponds with the start of the "70 years of hosilities" Donatu V attack Battle of Axanar Sheliak War Basically anything pewpew in the last 20 years before Discovery is name checked.
That's the name! Was racking my name. Yeah it was a colony or outpost of some sort. Could have easily been on the very edge of federation/Vulcan space. Perfect for an old school Klingon border raid.
All sorts of "incidents" pop up in the double pilot already. Vulcan first contact with Klingons in 2016 might be the event mentioned in "First Contact" that resulted in them adopting the Prime Directive (which we see them promote in the 2150s), also resulting in decades of war between the two star empires (unlike the later human first contact with the Klingons). There's also the start of the war in which young Jim Kirk fought and gained the admiration of Garth. We don't actually get to see either of these things up close or in full in the pilots, but later on we might (and we're very likely to get a good closeup on the war). However, I personally trust the "actual" event is still in the future, and will be described in later first season episodes. Perhaps Vulcan will be conquered? Perhaps we see up close why Spock in this reality abandons his father and joins Starfleet (although that sort of publicity gimmick is more likely to be S2 material). Perhaps it's something utterly underwhelming or generic, and we'll be arguing this even five years from now. But my other bet is that NCC-1031 will break the Tyme Barrier. Oops! Timo Saloniemi
In one of the early interviews Fuller stated that Balance of Terror episode, one of his favorites, would be "a touchstone" for the season's story arc. Now obviously Discovery story arc has nothing to do with that episode. Maybe he just got the idea from watching that episode. The main spaceship of the series runs into a hostile species that have been absent for a while.
Isn't it neat how both the Romulans and Klingons went into hiding at the same time? It almost feels like they wanted to use the Romulans.
For my money, I wish they had. But it would have cost a pretty penny to come up with a spoken Romulan language. All we really have of that is "Jolan tru".
And the one thing people pre-interested in Star Trek at all know about Romulans is that they were a surprise reveal in TOS. Talk about an uphill battle in selling a prequel. One might say Klingons and Romulans both ceasing their assault on Earth for a century is a prerequisite for Earth still existing... One just wonders who became the main baddie for that century, as it's not as if Starfleet would have fallen behind in the rat race for better guns and greater aggression in the meantime. Timo Saloniemi
Marc Okrand actually came up with a Romulan language for Star Trek (2009) but you only hear it in background Narada bridge/radio chatter. The original plan was for the Romulans to speak subtitled Romulan, an idea finally used by the Klingons in Discovery (probably Alex Kurtzman's idea, since he's common to both)