'Star Trek: Discovery' Season 3 Episode 4 Preview: Is the key to fixing the Burn in the Mycelial Network?
The crew of the Discovery has finally been reunited, after Michael Burnham's (Sonequa Martin-Green) year alone in the future with Book (David Ajala). As we saw in the last episode, she's had a hard time adjusting to life back aboard the Discovery, thinking her life as a Starfleet officer was long gone. She may not have the time to reacquaint herself with life aboard a Starfleet vessel, however, as the Discovery has a seemingly impossible mission – understand what happened in the burn, and restore faster-than-light travel to a broken universe, restoring the Federation in the process.
While the crew is no closer to understanding how the Burn happened, a trip to Earth last episode led them to a former Federation officer...sort of. A teenage inspector for the United Earth Defence Force, Adira (Blu del Barrio), is revealed to be bonded with a Trill symbiote. This symbiote has all the memories of every Starfleet officer it's ever bonded with, going back centuries, and Adira might be the key to not only restoring the Federation but towards understanding how the Burn happened and reversing its effects.
In the meantime, the Discovery crew appears to be researching alternative methods of faster-than-light travel. With its unique spore drive technology, the Discovery remains the one ship in all the known universe capable of that kind of travel without dependence on the increasingly rare dilithium crystals. If they're able to replicate that technology successfully - something they've so far failed to do for three seasons – then the universe, as a whole, can move on from needing dilithium for warp travel.
The trailer for the next episode shows Burnham taking a trip straight to the Mycelial Network – possibly to get a better understanding of it, and understand more about how it works. Interestingly enough, the same trailer also appears to show Adira entering the Network herself, and discovering something of significant importance while there. Could the Mycelial Network hold the keys to all the answers that the Discovery is looking for? Or does will it lead the crew towards another direction entirely?
You can watch a trailer for the episode 'Forget Me Not' here.
This episode of 'Star Trek: Discovery' airs November 5, on CBS All Access.