The final frontier and that galaxy far, far away might be inching closer together. The first four episode titles for Star Trek: Discovery include one episode called “Battle At The Binary Stars,” which will make Star Wars fans think of a little planet called Tatooine.
What Happened
On Monday, CBS revealed the first for episode titles of Star Trek: Discovery. As previously known, the first episode is called “The Vulcan Hello.” The three episodes that follow are called “Battle At The Binary Stars,” “Context Is For Kings,” and “The Butcher’s Knife Cares Not For the Lamb’s Cry.” And while that last one is certainly a mouthful, and could be translated from a Klingon proverb, the second episode’s reference to a binary star system definitely reminds us of Star Wars. In the original film, Luke Skywalker’s home planet of Tatooine is in a binary star system, which resulted in one of the most enduring images from Star Wars: Luke watching two suns set at the same time.
What It Means
There’s obviously zero chance of Star Trek and Star Wars actually crossing over. No one believes this binary star thing in Discovery will end up being the same star system where Tatooine is located. The nerd world couldn’t handle something like that and there’s no reason to believe either franchise is desperate enough to enlist help from the other one. But, because Star Wars made the binary star system thing so famous, it seems somewhat unlikely everyone involved in making Star Trek: Discovery is unaware of that this could be interpreted as a reference to Star Wars.
Arguably, the most famous space battle in any science fiction movie occurs over a planet in a binary star system at the beginning of Star Wars: Episode IV — A New Hope.
What’s Next
So, could Discovery include other Star Wars references? Maybe. It’s not unheard of for Star Trek to reference Star Wars. In The Next Generation episode “Sub Rosa,” Trek designers put a tombstone for “Darth Vader” in a graveyard on an alien planet. Don’t expect Captain Georgiou to say “may the Force be with you,” in the pilot episode of Discovery, but maybe watch out for some easter eggs in the space around these new binary stars.
Star Trek: Discovery hits CBS All Access on September 24.
If you liked this article, check out this video that explains why Klingons look different in Star Trek: Discovery.
