Sonequa Martin-Green stars as Michael Burnham, first officer of the Discovery, along with the returning Doug Jones, Anthony Rapp, Mary Wiseman, and Shazad Latif.

Many critics found it to be an improvement on the first season, praising its lighter tone, cast (especially Mount and guest star Tig Notaro), and high production value.

Burnham proposes that the time crystal be used to take Discovery itself to the future where Control cannot get to it, and plans to wear a copy of her mother's suit to lead the ship there.

A new signal appears, leading Discovery and Enterprise to the planet Xahea which is ruled by Tilly's friend Queen Me Hani Ika Hali Ka Po.

[39][40] CBS Interactive President Marc DeBevoise cited the increased subscriptions for All Access since the series' debut, as well as critical acclaim and fan interest, when announcing the renewal.

[42] With the change in showrunner came news that Goldsman had not returned as executive producer for the second season, after serving as Kurtzman's "right-hand man" on the first, because he had a "management style and personality that clashed with the writing staff".

[24] Star Anson Mount revealed in December that the season had been extended to 14 episodes to amortize the cost of production delays following the showrunner change.

"[46] Something that Kurtzman felt the best Star Trek series had was examinations of the real world at the time of their creation, and so this season would address "building walls around ourselves, literally, to keep people out" and how that can "chip away at our essential understanding of Starfleet doctrine, and what it means to assume diversity".

[48] The writers wanted to tell a new story with Spock that would show him become closer to the Nimoy and Quinto versions over time, visually signified by having the character shave his beard at the end of the season to look more like them.

Kurtzman said this solution was chosen after months of work with the writers, which included considerations of the future of the series; he compared the decision to the film Star Trek (2009) starting a new timeline to avoid established continuity.

[48] The season stars the returning Sonequa Martin-Green as Burnham,[3] Doug Jones as Saru,[4] Anthony Rapp as Paul Stamets,[5] Mary Wiseman as Sylvia Tilly,[5] and Shazad Latif as Voq / Ash Tyler.

Kurtzman compared the actor to both Nimoy and Quinto and stated that he believed Peck "would, like them, effortlessly embody Spock's greatest qualities, beyond obvious logic: empathy, intuition, compassion, confusion, and yearning".

[19] Several other recurring guests also return from the first season, including James Frain as Sarek,[20] Mia Kirshner as Amanda Grayson,[10] Mary Chieffo as L'Rell,[21] and Jayne Brook as Katrina Cornwell.

[62] Other returners include Emily Coutts as Keyla Detmer,[5] Patrick Kwok-Choon as Gen Rhys,[16] Oyin Oladejo as Joann Owosekun,[16] Ronnie Rowe Jr. as R. A. Bryce,[16] Ali Momen as Kamran Gant,[23] and Julianne Grossman as the voice of Discovery's computer.

The mistake was pointed out by John Van Citters, the vice president of Star Trek brand management at CBS Studios, and the solution was to add stripes to the sleeves of the uniforms.

The Red Angel suit was inspired by Scarlett Johansson's costume from the film Ghost in the Shell (2017), with Discovery's prop master Mario Moreira contributing to the design.

The engineering set from the first season was also renovated for the second, with production designer Tamara Deverell explaining that the cinematography department had issues with the large amount of light coming from the spore chamber in contrast to the rest of the room.

CBS ultimately confirmed that they were free to reuse Jefferies' design in Star Trek: Discovery, but stood by the changes made by Eaves and Schneider as creative improvements that took advantage of modern visual effects.

[73] Elaborating on this, Kurtzman explained that the original designs for the Enterprise would look out of place in the series due to the far more advanced modern technology being used to produce the show.

[53][44] Kurtzman hoped that if the series was projected in a theater it would appear indistinguishable from a feature film, and chose to use anamorphic lenses for the season to "immediately [convey] a sense of scope and scale".

Addressing the fact that Star Trek was originally inspired by naval tradition, Kurtzman said that the season would be leaning further into that than the first did, especially in the way that they filmed the bridge scenes and a funeral sequence.

[79] Completely digital sets created for the season include Discovery's hangar and the mycelial network, with the actors performing in front of green screen for these.

All music composed by Jeff Russo:[83] The season was promoted at San Diego Comic-Con in July 2018, with Notaro moderating a panel that featured Kurtzman, Martin-Green, Jones, Latif, Wiseman, Rapp, Cruz, Chieffo, Mount, and executive producer Heather Kadin.

[14] After the season had completed airing, an exhibition for the series was held at the Paley Center for Media in Beverly Hills, California from May 8 to July 7, 2019, titled Star Trek: Discovery – Fight for the Future.

[90][91] The episode "The Sound of Thunder" was made available to stream for free on CBS.com, StarTrek.com, and PlutoTV for a week beginning June 17, 2020, as part of a CBS All Access event titled #StarTrekUnited.

[93] On November 2, 2021, a home media box set collecting the first three seasons of Discovery was released, with more than eight hours of special features including behind-the-scenes featurettes, deleted and extended scenes, audio commentaries, and gag reels.

[98] Vox's Emily VanDerWerff also called the premiere fun, attributing that to Mount as well as the season's central mystery, new cast members like Notaro, and the more episodic style of storytelling.

Hoffman was also positive about the efforts made in the season finale to align the series with the existing Star Trek canon, and praised the decision to have the Discovery travel to the future believing that was "where they should have been in the first place".

He described the changes made in the finale episode to line up with continuity as an "annoyingly clever retcon", and also highlighted the season's cinematic visuals and music which he compared to the Star Wars films.

He felt the serialized story was too stretched out, said Burnham's character did not receive interesting development, and described the efforts made at the end of the season to tie-into existing continuity as "dumb".