Star Trek Discovery Retrospective: Season 4

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Season 4


Season 4 begins with the crew in slightly better uniforms (now in Trek primary colors instead of the horrendous gray), and yet another apocalyptic, galaxy ending threat, this time the Dark Matter Anomaly (DMA) destroying entire planets, including possibly eventually Nivar and Earth. Following up from the ending of season 3 Michael Burnham is now the captain, with Saru being gone for a while on his homeworld Kaminar with Sukal and later back onboard Discovery as Burnham’s first officer. It was actually kinda cool to see the Galactic Barrier from TOS again after all these years (even though the show made NO effort to make it look like the barrier from its 3 appearances in TOS). Species 10-C being from beyond the barrier was a cool choice. Continuing last season’s rebuilding of the Federation Ni’Var rejoins the Federation after some political maneuvering by Captain Burnham. Grey (Ian Alexander) the previous host of Tal begins appearing to Adira and subsequently gets a synth body (a la Jean-Luc Picard in Star Trek Picard season 1). Also, now-lieutenant Tilly leaves Discovery this season to teach at the newly reopened Starfleet Academy, sowing the seeds for the upcoming Starfleet Academy series. One good recurring character introduced this season is Human/Cardassian/Bajoran Federation president Laira Rillak (Chelah Horsdal). Ultimately though this season was just...meh, with nothing that really stands out. This season also explores the Saru-T'Rina relationship that will come to fruition in season 5, as well as Burnham and Book's relationship. Truth be told, this season felt like the first time Discovery did any real exploring strange new worlds, seeking out new life, etc. At the same time at this point the whole universe ending, galaxy spanning threat trope had gotten really tired (especially with Discovery doing it every season and Star Trek Picard doing it every season). Also this season we get a lot more of Book's backstory and a lot of growth/change for the character, especially after the DMA destroys his homeworld Kwejian. His alliance with rogue scientist Ruan Tarka (Shawn Doyle) further develops his character and affects his relationship with Burnham going forward. Compared to the previous 3 seasons season 4 feels much slower paced, with the first 5 episodes focusing on bringing Ni’Var back into the Federation, Tilly leaving to teach at the academy, Grey Tal getting a synth body, Discovery’s computer AI Zora becoming sentient, etc. before the season finally focuses completely on the threat of the DMA and making contact with Species 10-C. The rebuilding of the Federation underpins the entire season, with the season finale ending with United Earth rejoining the Federation (and a cameo appearance by Georgia state representative Stacey Abrams as the president of United Earth). On the whole I would have to rate this season as mediocre, compared to other seasons of Discover and even Star Trek as a whole. It is important to remember that although the season feels rushed in many regards, it was, like season 3, filmed in 2020, as was the original plan, however the COVID-19 pandemic delayed production and resulted in less time available and the production not finishing until summer 2021. At this point with 3 seasons of Discovery each featuring a potentially galaxy annihilating threat, as well as Star Trek Picard doing similar scale threat stories in both it’s already released first season and coinciding second season, the trope was starting to wear thin with fans, this one included. And how many times can you tell the same type of story with a danger threatening the whole galaxy/universe before said threats start to lose their punch? Fortunately season 5 would put a little less emphasis on the threat and more on the journey in its storyline.

Next week: the last adventure of Discovery: season 5

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