Anthony Rapp and Alex Kurtzman Confirm that the Spore Drive Will Feature in Star Trek: Discovery Season Three
Star Trek: Discovery Season 3
One of the lingering questions at the end of Star Trek: Discovery season two was how Discovery’s spore drive would feature in storylines going forward. The spore drive, a theoretical means of “jumping” from one place to another through a subspace mycelial network, featured heavily in season one, but less so in season two. Now Discovery star Anthony Rapp and Star Trek boss Alex Kurtzman have confirmed that the spore drive will be a feature of season three.
TrekMovie.com was present on the red carpet at PaleyFest New York last weekend, where they interviewed Discovery’s cast and producers. Quoting their piece on Alex Kurtzman: “Kurtzman says the spore drive will remain a big part of the narrative, verifying that the USS Discovery is still the only ship with one, even in the future—and adding that because of that, other people are going to want it.”
Anthony Rapp, who plays Lt. Paul Stamets, the spore drive navigator, gave some additional details as well. When asked whether he will be Chief Engineer now, he said, “Not officially as far as I know, no. I’m Spore Drive Guy. I’m spore drive, mycologist, all around science-y smart person. But not the Chief Engineer.”
He went on to explain why there may have been confusion about the fate of the spore drive after season two. “I think there was a slight misconception among some fans last year with the jahSepp storyline, that the jumping was causing them problems.
“It wasn’t the jumping,” Rapp explained, “it was Culber’s presence in the mycelial network that was causing the real problem, so once that got resolved then the jumping was no longer an issue.”
This article was written for the podcast Daily Star Trek News.
Alison Pitt is the writer, producer, and host of Daily Star Trek News, on the Roddenberry Podcast Network. A veteran Star Trek podcaster, she started her career on the weekly show Priority One: A Roddenberry Star Trek Podcast in 2015. She has appeared on panels at Star Trek Las Vegas, WonderCon, and San Diego Comic Con.
