Star Trek Discovery Retrospective: Season 3

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Season 3


Because of the major setting change (an over 900 year time jump into an unexplored 32nd century future) Season 3 seems like a "soft reboot" of sorts, starting with Burnham arriving in 3188, a year ahead of Discovery and meeting courier Cleveland Booker "Book" (David Ajala) and establishing their relationship and the downfallen state of the Federation/ Starfleet in the aftermath of the galactic scale cataclysm known as the Burn (in which all dilithium when inert and many ships were destroyed. The scarcity of dilithium this season is a pretty blunt analogy for nonrenewable resources and fossil fuel scarcity. Interesting choices to be sure. Season 3 also establishes Ni’Var (Vulcan + Romulans, going back to the Spock connection), with a whole episode “Unification III” devoted to following up on TNGs “Unification” part 1 and 2 Vulcan/Romulan reunification storyline. The main story arc of the season focuses on the Burn (for what that was worth), and United Earth and Vulcan (Ni’Var) being separate from the Federation. The reveal about the cause of the Burn (the emotional outburst of a Kelpian child) was disappointing to put it mildly (also very anticlimactic). The Emerald Chain stuff just seemed unnecessary. They did finally replace the horrible, blue and metallic season 1-3 uniforms with new grey uniforms in the season finale (which honestly weren't any better, and which were just as quickly replaced as they were basically the same color as the USS Discovery sets). A minor nit to pick about the uniforms: Admiral Vance made a big deal about keeping Discovery’s time traveling origin a secret, even from other Starfleet personnel, even going so far as making up a cover story and changing the ship’s registry to NCC-1031-A, yet the Discovery crew continue wearing their same 930 year old uniforms all season. The series itself also got a rebrand of sorts with the introduction of a new simpler sleeker title logo and credits font used in this and subsequent seasons. The revolving captain’s chair spins again, as Saru is now the captain in this season. Ok. The season also introduces the characters of Adira Tal (Blu del Barrio), a human joined to a Trill Symbiont and the franchise’s first nonbinary character and Grey (Ian Alexander) the franchise’s first transgender character, and recurring characters Admiral Vance (Oded Fehr), Dr. Kovich (David Cronenberg) and T’Rina the president of Ni’Var (Tra Rosling). An entire two-part episode “Terra Firma, Parts 1 and 2” is spent on Emperor Georgiou’s (Michelle Yeoh's) sendoff back into the past via the Guardian of Forever to set up for the upcoming Star Trek Section 31 streaming movie. I for one question whether this really needed a whole 2-parter. The 32nd century setting is a neat new setting to explore for trek, but overall the season fails to deliver as far as the truth behind the Burn being disappointing and the threat of the Emerald Chain being underwhelming, one dimensional and honestly uninteresting villians. That said, the season does have a strong theme of connectedness vs disconnectedness (or one might say feeling disconnected and finding connections). The crew of Discovery feeling disconnected when they arrive in the 32nd century and having to rely on their connections to each other, the Federation being disconnected from many of its planets/former members until Discovery’s spore drive and ultimately the destruction of the Emerald Chain and s new source of dilithium bring them a new hope of connectedness, Sukal being disconnected from the outside world until he is rescued by the crew of Discovery, and Burnham feeling disconnected and changed by her experience coming into the future and being by herself for a year, and finding herself and her home on Discovery (and also her connection to Book). In the real world, between season 2 and 3 the COVID-19 pandemic had happened, delaying writing and production on season 3. This does not however make a satisfactory excuse for some of the seasons lazy writing choices. The different feel and writing this season can also be attributed in big part to having a different showrunner, Michelle Paradise, who had been promoted from producer after season 2 and named showrunner (the position she would hold for the rest of the series).

Next week: we explore the 32nd century more in season 4

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