Star Trek Discovery: Every Easter Egg & Hidden Reference From 'That Hope Is You'
It's been a long time, long time, long time...
The last time we saw Michael Burnham and the crew of the USS Discovery they were barreling through the Red Angel's wormhole and jumping 950 years in the blink of an eye. Well, we went the long way around but we finally caught up with Michael on the planet Hima in the year 3188 for Star Trek: Discovery season three.
The third season premiere is a unique entry in the Star Trek canon, following Michael Burnham and new character Cleveland "Book" Booker alone as they explore one part of this new frontier, with the USS Discovery nowhere in sight.
This episode basically clears the table for future storytelling by introducing us to the future-of-the-future, the 32nd century. It's a new era, but familiar elements are still here and there are plenty of nods towards Star Trek's five decade history, as well as some hints to what this extra-futuristic setting has in store for us and our Starfleet heroes.
Grab your extra large space kitty and let's explore the 32nd century and analyze all the easter eggs and hidden references in Star Trek: Discovery's third season opener, "That Hope is You".
18. Main Titles V.3
Like the intro to season two, we're treated to some new imagery in the opening titles starting in "That Hope Is You":
Right out of the gate, the dilithium crystals flying toward the USS Discovery have changed color from green in seasons one and two to red for season three. Dilithium crystals are established in this episode as a rare commodity and a key factor in the catastrophic, Federation-ending event known as "The Burn" and will likely play a big role this season.
After the usual various schematic shots of the Discovery, the generic female face that had previously appeared in the first two seasons has been replaced with an identical shot now featuring Michael Burnham.
The titles also now include exploding diagrams of robots with the new 32nd century Starfleet insignia on their bodies, the Discovery-era phaser now transforms into a futuristic pistol instead of The Original Series-era phaser, and there's a turnaround of Book's ship, the Nautilus. Season two's Section 31 combadge and the three USS Enterprise-specific insignias have also now been replaced with 32nd century Starfleet symbols.
Finally, the opening titles conclude with a new title card which retains the seasons one and two font for the name "Star Trek", but a new smoother text is now in place for the "Discovery" part. Under the episode writer and director credits, a wormhole also now appears.
Like the previous seasons, each of these changes reflects elements of this specific season. While season one's opening titles heavily featured Klingon iconography alongside iconic Starfleet tech, season two used imagery that reflected the Red Angel arc and Section 31 and the Enterprise's involvement in that storyline. It's likely we'll understand these changes even more as the season progresses so stay tuned.