Star Trek Discovery Retrospective: Season 5

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Season 5


Season 5 ties back into the TNG episode "The Chase" and is basically as the producers described it an "Indiana Jones in space" treasure hunt type story with the USS Discovery and crew following the clue trail puzzle to find the progenitors (the ancient aliens from TNG The Chase who seeded all humanoid life in the galaxy) technology. The whole concept of trying to find the power to create life "the power of creation/the power of god" is not an uninteresting one. One plus of the season is that we finally after all these years get to explore (and actually see the true appearance of) the Breen, a species first seen in Deep Space 9 nearly 30 years earlier. Also introduced this season is the character of Captain/Commander Rayner (Callum Keith Rennie). Rayner is a bit of a different type of character than what the show has given us so far, and actually in hindsight a refreshing change. Initially more of a foil to Burnham, the character actually has an interesting arc and has become somewhat popular with the fans. Although it does blatantly rip-off Voyager’s “Shattered” ship broken across time, revisiting the series past via time travel premise “Face the Strange” does help build the Burnham/Rayner relationship. The following episode “Mirrors” brings back the mirror universe (sort of) with the action set on the I.S.S. Enterprise from TOS “Mirror, Mirror” (in Discovery/Strange New Worlds form, due to the reuse of Strange New World’s’ sets). Although it is nice to get a little more mirror universe lore, all the same it could have just as well been any mirror universe I.S.S. starship, not necessarily the Enterprise. A bigger, more consequential change this season is Saru leaving Discovery to become an ambassador (and continue his relationship with T’Rina). The absence of Saru for a large part of the season (as Doug Jones was filming a movie), as well as the conspicuous absences of recurring regular characters Detmer and Owosekun make it obvious that this was never intended to be the final season. The season on the whole doesn't feel like a final season, as much as just another season of a show. Indeed, at the time of filming the season the cast and crew did not know that they were being cancelled. After the decision was announced (when post production was almost complete), Paramount was nice enough to grant them the time and money for reshoots to wrap up the series properly. This resulted in the 15-20 minute coda section at the end of the finale "Life, Itself" to wrap up Burnham's story and USS Discovery's story (USS Discovery being abandoned, Zora the AI, tying in with the Short Trek Calypso produced between seasons 1 and 2). Since Discovery's ending it has been revealed by showrunner Michelle Paradise that the whole Zora AI evolving and Discovery being returned to its original 23rd century configuration and abandoned for 1000 years was to have been part of the season 6 storyline. I was wondering about this. I was actually thinking that had they had a season 6, especially if they had known in advance that it would be the last one, the whole storyline would have built up to this. Doing so would have given the ending with Discovery and Zora being abandoned for 1000 years a lot more weight and meaning as an ending. As it is it's just kind of added on to the end of the finale. Which is ok, it’s fine, but it doesn't have the emotion it could have had.

Next week: a short take on the Short Treks

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