Introduction

“An Obol for Charon” is the 4th episode of season 02 of the American television series Star Trek: Discovery, which is set roughly a decade before the events of the original Star Trek series and follows the crew of the USS Discovery as they investigate seven mysterious signals.

The season was produced by CBS Television Studios in association with Secret Hideout and Roddenberry Entertainment, with Alex Kurtzman serving as showrunner.

Sonequa Martin-Green stars as Michael Burnham, along with the returning Doug Jones, Anthony Rapp, Mary Wiseman, and Shazad Latif; they are joined by former recurring guest star Wilson Cruz as well as Anson Mount as original Star Trek captain Christopher Pike. Ethan Peck recurs as another original series character, Spock. These characters and their starship, the USS Enterprise, were included as part of the series’ attempt to explain its connections to the larger Star Trek franchise.

The season was officially ordered in October 2017, and filming took place in Toronto, Canada, from April to December 2018. Gretchen J. Berg and Aaron Harberts, the first season’s showrunners, returned for the second but were fired during production; co-creator Kurtzman replaced them.

The 14-episode season was released from 17 January to 18 April 2019, on CBS All Access. A third season was ordered in February 2019.

Outline

A living, intelligent, planetoid-sized sphere pulls Discovery out of warp and immobilises it.

The crew surmises the Sphere is well-intentioned and has gathered gargantuan amounts of data from all over the galaxy that it does not want to be lost before it dies.

However, the Sphere’s hold on Discovery triggers the Vahar’ai in Commander Saru, a fatal condition to his species the Kelpiens.

The Sphere transmits its information to the crew and dies, releasing Discovery so as not to be caught in the ensuing explosion.

Saru asks Burnham to help prepare for his death by removing his threat ganglia, which sense danger. However, they fall out on their own and leave Saru healthy and living without overwhelming fear.

Meanwhile, the parasite attaches itself to Tilly again, once again accessing her memories to communicate as a hallucination of May.

The parasite claims Discovery has nearly destroyed its ecosystem by using its species’ mycelial network to jump through space with the spore drive. It then consumes Tilly, leaving no trace of her.

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Production & Filming Details

• Director(s): Lee Rose.
• Writer(s): Jordon Nardino, Gretchen J. Berg, and Aaron Harberts.
• Release Date: 07 February 2019.
• Running Time: 50 minutes.
• Country: US.
• Language: English.