Development On November 2, 2015,
CBS announced a new
Star Trek television series to premiere in January 2017, "on the heels" of the
original series' 50th anniversary in 2016. In February 2016,
Bryan Fuller was announced as the new series'
showrunner, but was asked by CBS to step down at the end of October.
Gretchen J. Berg and Aaron Harberts replaced him as showrunners. In September 2017, CBS revealed that the series' third episode would be titled "Context Is for Kings". It was directed by producer
Akiva Goldsman.
Writing The teleplay for the episode was written by Berg, Harberts, and
Craig Sweeny, based on a story by Fuller, Berg, and Harberts. The writers structured the season so that the first two episodes would act as a prologue, with the third episode beginning the series' actual story arc and being considered by them to be more equivalent to a traditional
pilot than the show's first episode is. Actor
Jason Isaacs noted that a series would not traditionally be able to use that structure, but that
Discovery is able to do so because of its streaming format though
CBS All Access. Harberts described the episode as one of "secrets and mysteries" and introducing a version of
Starfleet that is at war. The episode also re-introduces protagonist
Michael Burnham as resigned to her fate as a lifelong prisoner following her mutiny in the prologue. The story begins six months after the prologue, inspired by film sequels that begin with significant events having transpired since the previous installment such as
Terminator 2: Judgment Day. Burnham's character arc for the episode takes her from not caring about her fate, to being willing to sign up for something new as part of the
Discoverys mission. The writers were interested in exploring Burnham's upbringing as the foster child of
Amanda Grayson and
Sarek, exploring how the human Grayson would have wanted to counter some of Burnham's "logical"
Vulcan teachings, and similarly would have wanted to expand the views of her son
Spock by teaching him that "logic doesn't dictate everything". This led to the introduction of
Lewis Carroll's ''
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' as a book that Grayson read to them as children and which Burnham now carries with her as a
talisman to "center herself". The book also thematically connected to the series with its use of mushrooms, tying into the series' scientific exploration of fungi and spores. Grayson's interest in the works of Lewis Carroll and Spock's awareness of ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
were both previously established in the Star Trek: The Animated Series'' episode "
Once Upon a Planet". It was also important to the writers to justify the presence of Cadet Sylvia Tilly, whose optimistic outlook is at odds with the rest of the crew of the
Discovery and the tone of the series, by having her prove herself during the character's first away mission. This came in the moment where Tilly spots, and calls out, a Klingon on the derelict starship
Glenn, showing the character to be as capable as the other characters. The monstrous creature introduced on the
Glenn was described by Harberts as "vital" to the series, stating that it would be reappearing in future episodes, and that it would serve as a metaphor for Burnham and her character journey in the show.
Casting The series stars
Sonequa Martin-Green as Burnham,
Doug Jones as Saru,
Shazad Latif as Ash Tyler,
Anthony Rapp as Paul Stamets,
Mary Wiseman as Tilly, and Isaacs as Gabriel Lorca; Latif does not appear in this episode. Additionally, guest star
Rekha Sharma was cast as
Discoverys security officer Commander Landry at the end of April 2017. The creature introduced in the episode, referred to as a "tardigrade" after the real-life
micro-animal of
the same name, is portrayed in-part by a puppet. It was originally intended to be a full-time member of the
Discoverys crew, named Ephraim for the zoologist
Johann August Ephraim Goeze who discovered the real species. However, this was deemed to be impractical.
Filming and design Filming for scenes set on the
Glenn took place on the sets previously used for USS
Shenzhou in the prologue episodes. Changes made to the sets for filming in this episode include the adding of "scratched walls, flickering lights, dangling wires, busted doors". The set was decorated with blood and ten corpses, including an actor in Klingon prosthetics portraying a dead member of that species. Another Klingon actor was connected to a pulley system with a special harness and pulled out of shot, to simulate being dragged away by the creature, something that was filmed multiple times to get "just right". To film the following chase sequence, the actors were followed through the set by a cameraman on a
Segway. Those same sets were later redressed to portray the
Discovery. The shuttle bay of the
Discovery is completely computer-generated, and is the most expensive set in the series due to the visual effects requirements. Goldsman felt that each episode of the series has its "own tonal components that are driven by script", and that this episode is "mysterious and threatening because I felt Burnham’s circumstance was mysterious and threatening". Goldsman embraced this tone, and incorporated elements of the
horror genre. He noted that the producers generally wanted the series to be watchable for families, but they also had the freedom to push boundaries with the streaming format of the series, and so some of the horror elements included in the episode would not be appropriate for young children, such as the corpses of the
Glenns crew, which were described as "swirled up bodies" and were designed in
Adobe Photoshop. They attempted to indicate this to parents who may be showing the series to children by giving it a "TV-MA" rating, even though the majority of the episode, and the series as a whole, was not intended to require that higher rating. Lorca is first introduced eating
fortune cookies, part of his family backstory and one of the comforts that he is allowed in his ready room. Isaacs had to eat hundreds of fortune cookies in the course of filming the scene, and said he did not want to repeat that experience. Isaacs did note the symbolism of Lorca wanting Burnham to read her fortune, "but she doesn't want to do it. The point is that she's gonna create her own fortune by making the right decision by the end of the episode." Saru offering blueberries to Burnham in the episode was a tribute to Fuller who "would walk through the offices of
Star Trek, and he would offer you a blueberry." ==Release==