10 Things We Want To See In 'Star Trek: Discovery' Season 2

The first season of Star Trek: Discovery has come and gone. So now it's time to assess the pros and cons of season 1 and figure out how to make the second season even better.

On the whole, I did like this first season; it was a bold, inventive way of approaching the Star Trek franchise and I feel like it completed its mission overall. But there were some weak spots that I hope get addressed as the show evolves. Here are 10 things that I'd like to see in Star Trek: Discovery season 2.

Aside from the giant tardigrade, we only started seeing different aliens other than the standard Klingons and Vulcans more than halfway into the first season. For a Star Trek show, that's a shame.

What I'd love to see next season is a focus on more of the beings that make up the vast and populous universe. Like, what are the Borg doing? Or what about more on the Andorians and Cardassians? Can we get episodes about less common aliens like the Trill? Or maybe the Changelings, shapeshifters whose natural state is a liquid form? It's easy to conceptualize humanoid aliens – it's much more of a challenge to make viewers sympathetic to alien societies we have no earthly reference for.

As I discussed in my recap of the finale, the Orions presented Star Trek: Discovery with a unique chance to flesh out an alien race built on stereotypes. Unfortunately, the show didn't see the opportunity and surprisingly regressed, giving us Orions that were just as stereotypical as they've ever been, if not more so. The second season could fix that by actually giving some serious thought to aliens like the Orions. Not only would it make the Orions fresher characters, but it would also give the writers new opportunities to tell different, more impactful stories through the eyes of a maligned race.

I'm a huge fan of Michelle Yeoh, so having her back on Star Trek: Discovery in any capacity is cool. With that said, I still miss Prime Georgiou; Mirror Georgiou is great, but her presence is only salt in the wound. She's never going to be Prime Georgiou.

Even though Star Trek: Discovery played a long con game with Georgiou, I still wonder about what her life could have been like if we were watching the show we were initially sold in the advertisements. I'm sure a lot of people reacted like me when they saw the first ads for the show – finally, a Star Trek in which women ran things! I was set to plop down and watch Georgiou and Michael's adventures every week. I still feel cheated.

I hope we see at least some flashbacks of Georgiou before the fateful Battle at the Binary Stars. I'd love to know how she mentored Michael, what she thought about her crew and her position as Captain, what drew her to enlist for Starfleet, and what she hoped to accomplish during her time of service. It would be a small salve for the pain of having to remember that, despite all of her accomplishments, honorable character, and skill, Georgiou's fate would be to end up as a Klingon dinner. Georgiou deserves better!

(Sidebar: I'd even accept if the show made the crew go back in time so that the Binary Stars fight never even happened. I miss Georgiou that much.)

Jason Isaacs tweeted a picture of what was presumably his last day on set, with members of the cast holding up a sign reading "Find Prime Lorca." I'm glad to know that we're on the same page, because I also want Prime Lorca found.

Even though I didn't like Lorca in the beginning (and it turns out my instinct about him being evil was right after all!), I grew to care about him to the point where I now miss him, much to my surprise. Much like how I'm glad Yeoh is back in any capacity, I'd love to see Isaacs back in some way, because he's just that fantastic of an actor.

Perhaps, like with Georgiou, we can get some flashbacks of Prime Lorca's life. I'd love to know who that guy was and how he compares to his Mirror counterpart. I'd also love to know if he's alive. From what we've seen with each counterpart, someone has to live and someone has to die. Prime Georgiou, Mirror Stamets, and Mirror Tilly's counterparts, for instance, have all died, leaving only one of each person left in the universe. Since Mirror Lorca died, does that mean Prime Lorca is out there somewhere? Could he be stuck in the Mirror Universe? Writers! You've got to tell us!

While I do love the new direction Star Trek: Discovery is taking the franchise, I can't deny that the Star Trek purist in me is still a little upset we haven't yet had a standard Trek episode. What I love about Star Trek isn't the fights or intergalactic battles; what drew me to Star Trek were the stories of intelligence winning the day and how cooperative teamwork can solve even the toughest problems. Much of that teamwork came into play when the writers on various Star Trek series would shift the focus from the captain to the rest of the crew. We wouldn't have had some of the more clever episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation, such as the classic Sherlock Holmes holodeck episode featuring Data and Geordi LaForge, if the focus wasn't shifted to the margins.

Here's hoping next season gives the rest of Discovery's bridge crew a chance to shine. Despite having limited dialogue and development in season 1, they acted as a constant throughout every wild twist and turn. In a way, they became our comfort blanket. We deserve to know more about them and what they want to get out of their time with Starfleet.

With the amount of growth Saru has undergone, it's a little insulting he still hasn't been made Captain yet. I mean, he's at Georgiou levels of leadership now! So why is the Discovery crew going to Vulcan to pick up a new captain?

I feel like Saru has been robbed by Starfleet of his rightful promotion in the captain's chair. He steered the crew through a mirror universe and helmed the mission that ended the Klingon War, for crying out loud! What more does the first Kelpien in Starfleet have to do to get some respect? Saru had better end next season calling all of the shots on a permanent basis.

Here's a thing that's been a sticking point with a lot of black female TV watchers – it gets annoying to watch genre television show with black ladies as leads, only to see them either get killed or lose a love interest. It's a trope that reinforces the "Strong Black Woman" archetype. Some feel like that's happened once again with Michael's relationship with Ash Tyler.

Michael's relationship still follows a pattern many black women characters have been subjected to: they find a good man, that man turns out to be not so good (or they die), and the woman is left on her own again with little time to show remorse, regret, or any type of sadness.

Personally, I'm fine with where these characters landed in their relationship. I think the romance was handled as well as it could have been given the arc the writers wanted to use, and I think Michael wasn't left completely in a place of "strong black womanhood," so to speak. She's still quite vulnerable, which was shown when Sarek finally gave her the positive reinforcement she's been seeking her entire life. She's also been given a space to show her sadness about Tyler leaving. I'm thinking of that distinct moment where she wishes for what could have been as she holds Tyler's boating knot, crying as he leaves with L'Rell.

With all of that said, I'd love for the series to finally give Michael a love she can call her own. Frankly, Michael deserves it. She's been through hell; it's time she finally got some happiness in her life.

Some of the most enjoyable moments of the series so far involved Michael discovering love with someone else. She was able to discover other facets of herself, like her softer side. Knowing that someone else finds you attractive and worthy does, in fact, help heal a psyche scarred from societal pressures and discrimination. But the wounds get deeper each time you see someone like yourself (even on a television show) get jilted or somehow removed from love. In those first few episodes about Tyler and Michael's relationship, I felt some of my own emotional baggage lift. I'd hate for the next season to show us a clammed-up version of Michael, still shaken from her time with Tyler.

Will the story take us away from Tyler for good? Like with Prime Lorca and the bridge crew, there are a lot of things still left up in the air concerning Tyler, and those loose ends could make for great episodes. Will those opportunities be forgotten? I certainly hope not. Like with everyone on this show, I grew to care about Tyler a great deal, and I'd hate it if we didn't get an update on where he is and what he's doing in his long journey towards finding himself.

Again, an untapped source of storytelling is Michael's life with her parents before the Klingon attack. I'm surprised we didn't see a flashback of her parents at all, especially since she was old enough to remember them. We know they were scientists doing research on Vulcan, but what else? What did they look like? What research were they doing and why was it important for Earth? What was Michael like before she became Sarek's ward, and why did Sarek take her in? So many questions...and not enough answers.

At this point, it's safe to say that one of the biggest issues with Star Trek: Discovery is the amount of storytelling opportunities left to the viewer's imagination. I'd like some definite facts told about these characters next season, because it really doesn't make much sense for us to have a main character whose parents were so integral to her life for the short time they were around, and yet we know next to nothing about them.

Culber dropped the knowledge that anything is possible in the mycelial network. So, are we ever going to see him again? That'd be cool. If he's still in the mycelial network, then perhaps we still can see more of him in the second season. Maybe Culber could even be the Discovery's guide through other alternate universes.

Culber's death has been a big source of contention this season, and I'm still not exactly sure where I fall on the issue. I'm definitely leaning towards the side that feels Culber shouldn't have been killed off. At the very least, Star Trek: Discovery avoided the "bury your gays" trope by allowing Culber to give a proper send-off to his husband. But still, Culber's dead, and another relationship featuring a marginalized voice is ruined.

To be honest, there were some decisions made during Star Trek: Discovery that are some real head scratchers – Tyler turning evil for a split second, Georgiou dying in the second episode, never seeing Michael's parents in flashback form, and Culber dying in order to save Stamets and propel him on his journey. These storytelling decisions were made because there has to be drama and conflict, but at the same time, some of them could have been handled better, especially when it comes to something as sensitive as LGBT representation.

I don't think anybody thought there would be a possibility of us seeing a teen Spock on a Star Trek show, but here we are. Since the Discovery is attempting to make its way to Vulcan, it only makes sense that we will, at some point, see Sarek and Spock interact. But since Michael is older than Spock, it only stands to reason that we'll see a teenage Spock. The possibility of seeing the family dynamics between Sarek, Michael and Spock boggle the mind and I hope the show allows us to see this play out on screen.

Also, teen Spock provides yet another opportunity to address real world issues through a sci-fi lens. Throughout the character's life, Spock has been used by the show and by fans as an allegorical character for biracial, multiracial, and/or multicultural representation on screen. Teen Spock could provide writers a chance to thoughtfully explore the challenges people face when they feel like they don't fit neatly into any racial or ethnic category. If the writers play their cards right, teen Spock could prove to be one of the most layered and dynamic characters of the second season.