The fifth season of Star Trek: Discovery wasn’t intended to be the series’ last, though viewers wouldn’t know it from the first four episodes. If this is the story that these characters finish with, then it’s off to a fitting start. The past two seasons have an episodic feel, despite the narrative throughline that’s been present since the show’s inception. Season 5 leans into serialization, as the ship and its crew engage in a race across the galaxy as they try to solve a cosmic riddle. It’s a classic Star Trek premise that’s full of plenty of subtle connections to the larger universe. However, it also works completely on its own as a thrilling sci-fi adventure.
Fans of the universe that Gene Roddenberry created 60 years ago can be simultaneously loyal and fickle. Every new iteration of Star Trek is met with skepticism and disdain, but the shows always find their way. Thus, it’s fitting that Discovery‘s final season is about exactly that: a Star Trek crew that’s dismissed as unworthy, that rises to the challenge and stands shoulder-to-shoulder with the best that Starfleet has to offer. The storytellers make it clear that they remember where these characters have come from. The ways in which Star Trek: Discovery looks back and acknowledges its origins are exactly what a show should do when it’s saying goodbye. Discovery‘s very first season had a genius twist, which explained why this crew was so different from those that fans were used to seeing. The final season is a celebration of everything about Star Trek that its fans adore. Paramount+’s business troubles may be to blame for Discovery‘s ending. Finishing strong — like Star Trek: Enterprise or Star Trek: Picard — is precisely what makes fans want more of these characters. Death is not the end for the characters and cancelation is rarely the end for Star Trek shows.
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One trap that genre stories can fall into is the danger of becoming too formulaic. Roddenberry knew this when forming the series that kicked off Star Trek‘s second wave. Roddenberry wanted it to be as different as possible from The Original Series. Star Trek: Discovery has followed The Next Generation‘s example. This is why Discovery seems to embrace all the things that were verboten in that second-wave era. The Starfleet officers weren’t all perfect heroes. The design of everything, from starships to uniforms, was very different.
Discovery takes cues from Deep Space Nine through its decision to embrace serialization and darker themes. To some, this means that Discovery doesn’t “feel like Star Trek.” This is not a claim that can be made about Season 5. Dwelling too much on nostalgia and sentiment is another trap, but one that Discovery deftly avoids. There are plenty of connections to the past in these first four episodes, but they’re simply to weave dangling story threads into a mostly original tapestry. Season 5’s mission is a treasure hunt, but instead of gold-pressed latinum, the prize has larger galactic consequences.
Unlike the Dark Matter Anomaly of last season, the destruction is not underway. The mission is as high stakes as it can get, but it’s also lighthearted and fun. Nothing ruins a Star Trek party like mass casualties. The mission that the USS Discovery takes on highlights the best of a Starfleet crew. There are sci-fi problems to solve, a ticking clock, a relationship that builds between the crew, and a pair of villains who are up to the challenge of taking them on. In other words: classic Star Trek stuff.
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The villains in Star Trek: Discovery Season 5 are original characters, including a brand-new alien species with L’ak, played by Elias Toufexis. He’s joined by genre series mainstay, Eve Harlow, who plays Malinne Ravel — also knwon as “Moll.” They are two people who live on the edge of Federation society, yet they still play by the galaxy’s rules that have been present since the “Burn,” when warp travel was all-but impossible. While definitely not sweethearts, these antagonists aren’t evil like the Control AI or the denizens of the Mirror Universe. They simply see the Federation as just another tyrannical despot who is trying to control the lives of people who should be free. Their worst sin is that they are selfish, but in the Star Trek future, this could be a mortal mistake.
While these characters are new to fans and Captain Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green), they’re well-known by Discovery‘s new addition, Callum Keith Rennie as Captain Rayner. He’s a grizzled Starfleet veteran who has survived on the edge of space when there was no Starfleet backup. The Federation has fallen so far in the 32nd Century that the TOS-era misfits of the USS Discovery are part of an idealistic tradition that no longer exists. Season 5 shows that not only has the crew stepped up to that challenge, but their example has made Starfleet more recognizable as the organization that’s embodied by Kirk, Picard and, of course, Christopher Pike. What makes Discovery unique is that viewers get to see how these heroes have become this way. Perhaps this is what gives Season 5 its feeling of finality. The show acknowledges that part of this journey is over.
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The heart of any Star Trek series is the crew at its center, and Discovery‘s reached an appropriate final form. Discovery‘s crew are skilled in their positions, comfortable with each other, and capable operators who can turn a failure into success. Other series have proven that such a cast can carry multiple seasons of television. Yet fans take this journey with the characters. It’s fitting that audiences get one adventure with them when they’re at their absolute best, and then it’s “second star to the right, and straight on until morning.” It’s the kind of ending that makes a Star Trek: Discovery movie seem like the next logical step.
Of course, the characters also aren’t done growing and changing. All the ongoing love stories in Star Trek: Discovery progress. What’s happening with these relationships might be the source of more tension for fans than finding the space-McGuffin. Saru (Doug Jones) and T’Rina (Tara Rosling) build off their emotional (for a Vulcan, anyway) final scene last season. Stamets (Anthony Rapp) and Culber (Wilson Cruz) also have relationship drama to deal with, too. Only this time, it’s between their adopted child, Adira (Blu del Barrio), and Gray (Ian Alexander). There is also Michael Burnham and Cleveland Booker (David Ajala), whose relationship was all but destroyed in Season 4. The Discovery trailer reveals that they will see each other again, but that’s all that this preview tease has spoiled.
Beyond the romantic conflict, the crew itself is more united than ever, almost to the point of fitting into Star Trek‘s “Roddenberry box.” The type of interpersonal conflict in Discovery‘s early seasons wasn’t allowed in the 24th Century. These elements finally seem gone in the 32nd. There are Federation politics at play (Even a utopia isn’t perfect). Still, these disagreements feel sufficiently more evolved than those seen in DS9 or Picard. Season 5 is Star Trek: Discovery at its best in every sense of the word. It’s enough to make even skeptical viewers want more of this version of the show.
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One last incongruity about Star Trek is that it’s always an expensive series, but the storytelling pushes this budget. For 18 years, the set designers of second-wave Star Trek have used the same papier mâché cave set, albeit slightly redressed. Discovery heralds the third wave with its massive, cinematic effects. There are scenes in the first four episodes that do seem to stretch the visual effects team, but only because the standard that they’ve set for themselves is so high. Yet, as is always the case with classic Star Trek, the story, performances, and action carry viewers over this uncanny valley.
The special effects makeup team is excellent, as always. They adapt iconic species with modern looks and deliver new and interesting aliens, most of all, L’ak. The score for Star Trek: Discovery is also fantastic. Jeff Russo does some of his best work in this farewell season. He’s always creating new themes, while he also blends them with classic ones. Here, Russo reaches a unique synthesis in Season 5. Music is crucial to Star Trek — just ask Enterprise — and Russo, quite literally, hits all the right notes. The start of the final season of Star Trek: Discovery is enough to make viewers even more reluctant to say goodbye.
Star Trek: Discovery Season 5 debuts with two episodes on April 4, 2024, on Paramount+.
Star Trek: Discovery Season 5
The fifth and final season of the American television series Star Trek: Discovery follows the crew of the starship Discovery in the 32nd century, more than 900 years after Star Trek: The Original Series, on a galactic adventure to find a mysterious power that has been hidden for centuries and which other dangerous groups are also searching for.
- Release Date
- September 24, 2017
- Cast
- Sonequa Martin-Green , Doug Jones , Anthony Rapp , Emily Coutts , Mary Wiseman , Oyin Oladejo
- Main Genre
- Sci-Fi
- Seasons
- 5
Pros
- Balances Star Trek universe references with fresh, original story.
- Characters achieve the growth they’ve been seeking all series.
- Light-hearted, fun adventure with high enough stakes to matter.
Cons
- Some emotional moments are hurried to serve the pacing.
- Visual effects pushed to the limit.
- Not as much character conflict as some Discovery fans may be used to.
