10 Times Star Trek Rewarded Audiences For Sticking With It

Star Trek: Discovery has had some very mixed reviews along the way, though the third season seems to have seen an increase in popularity. Free now from the shackles of canon, thanks to the ship being propelled many centuries into the future, the USS Discovery was able to finally begin telling stories that wouldn't be bogged down with history.

So, naturally, it made a sequel to an episode of the Original Series, and to an episode of the Animated Series. The City on the Edge of Forever and Yesteryear both feature the Guardian of Forever, which is a trippy device that allows people to travel through time. Very few audience members were expecting it to pop back up in Star Trek: Discovery, as the very idea of it was so rooted in the sixties.

Yet pop up it did, first in the form of 'Carl' and a wooden door, before taking on the more familiar shape in the second part of the story. It was a moment worth cheering as, nearly 60 years after its debut, the Guardian returned to Star Trek. What's more, its arrival stuck very much to the laws of canon - it was self-aware, it was a means of time-travel, yet it wasn't an evil being by any means.

This device honoured Harlan Ellison's original idea. Considering his original script for The City..., it's a distinct possibility he would have been a big fan of Star Trek: Discovery.