star trek discovery 3 season

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Star Trek: Discovery

Ten years before Kirk, Spock, and the Enterprise, the USS Discovery discovers new worlds and lifeforms as one Starfleet officer learns to understand all things alien. Ten years before Kirk, Spock, and the Enterprise, the USS Discovery discovers new worlds and lifeforms as one Starfleet officer learns to understand all things alien. Ten years before Kirk, Spock, and the Enterprise, the USS Discovery discovers new worlds and lifeforms as one Starfleet officer learns to understand all things alien.

• Bryan Fuller
• Alex Kurtzman
• Sonequa Martin-Green
• Anthony Rapp
• 4.5K User reviews
• 104 Critic reviews
• 21 wins & 87 nominations total

Episodes 65

Photos 1468

• Michael Burnham …

• Lt. Cmdr. Paul Stamets …

• Sylvia Tilly …

• Lt. Keyla Detmer …

• Dr. Hugh Culber

• Lt. Gen Rhys …

• Lt. Joann Owosekun …

• Lt. R.A. Bryce …

• Lt. Nilsson …

• Cleveland Booker

• Lt. J.G. Linus …

• Discovery Computer …

• Ash Tyler …

• All cast & crew
• Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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• Trivia The Starfleet vessels seen in the first season, including the Discovery, the Shenzou and the redesigned Enterprise, were all designed by production artist John Eaves. Eaves' work with Star Trek spans three decades. Probably his most notable contribution was the design of the Enterprise-E for Star Trek: First Contact (1996) .
• Goofs With Michael being the adoptive sister of Spock, the series has many flashbacks to their childhood and upbringing on Vulcan. Spock's Vulcan half-brother, Sybok, does not appear nor is mention during these scenes. In Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989) , Spock says that he and Sybok grew up together. However, since it's never stated when Sybok joined Sarek's home - only that he did so following his mother's death - or when he was exiled from the family, it's not impossible Sybok moved in after Burnham, and left before she graduated (the two extremes of the flashbacks). Also, since Sybok was never mentioned before Star Trek V, it seems reasonable the family never spoke of him again after his estrangement.
• Alternate versions The serif-font legends and subtitles in the "broadcast" episodes are absent from the DVD versions, where they are replaced with the standard DVD subtitles.
• Connections Featured in MsMojo: Top 10 Female Lead TV Shows You Should Be Watching in 2017 (2017)

User reviews 4.5K

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• Mar 12, 2024

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• September 24, 2017 (United States)
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• Pinewood Toronto Studios, Port Lands, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
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DIS Season 3

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Season 3 poster

This page contains information specifically pertaining to the third season of Star Trek: Discovery , whose episode premieres were consecutively streamed on CBS All Access for the USA and broadcast on Space / Z for Canada from 15 October 2020 through 7 January 2021 , with the rest of the world following suit with one day delay through streaming service Netflix .

• 4.1 Main cast
• 4.2 Special guest star
• 4.3.1 Uncredited
• 6 External links

Episodes [ ]

Summary [ ], background information [ ].

• On 27 February 2019 , it was announced that the series had been renewed for a third season. [1]
• On 18 March 2019 , it was announced that Season 2 series regular Anson Mount ( Christopher Pike ) and guest star Rebecca Romijn ( Una Chin-Riley ) would not be returning for Season 3. [2]
• On 20 July 2019 , it was announced that David Ajala (Cleveland Booker) had joined the cast.
• As of 5 May 2020 , Composer Jeff Russo was working on writing the fourth episode of this season and spotting through episode 8. [3]
• As part of a celebratory series of virtual panels on "Star Trek Day" this year (i.e., 8 September 2020 ), it was announced that this season would introduce a new font for the show's title. [4]
• On 14 October 2020 , it was announced that the opening titles for this season, as had been the case for those used in the second season, would feature new animations. [5] Robots featured in the opening credits sequence for this season are identified in the Netflix audio description track as "maintenance robots".
• The third season, consisting of thirteen episodes, premiered on 15 October 2020 , following the ten-week run of Star Trek: Lower Decks .
• The premise of this season has similarities to the unproduced concepts Star Trek: Federation and Star Trek: Final Frontier . In the former, the Federation, circa the year 3000, had collapsed to a handful of worlds, and a single ship represented Starfleet's original values. In the latter, the Federation was fractured after an attack in the 2460s by unknown parties with Omega molecules caused vast areas of the galaxy to be considered impassable, and the crew of the latest starship Enterprise , circa the 2520s, had to remind Starfleet of the higher ideals which that organization, and the Federation, were founded on.
• In effect, the premise has even more in common with another Gene Roddenberry production, Andromeda (2000–2005), a science fiction television series in which the namesake starship is transported into the future to find the intergalactic civilization from which it was derived has collapsed, after which the crew embarks on the mission to restore said civilization.
• Both review critics and fans have concurrently pointed out that the season three plotline constituted a reboot of sorts, as indeed announced by the series producers after season two, and that it was reminiscent of the "orphaned ship and crew" premise of Star Trek: Voyager , thereby becoming a " Voyager 2.0" as one Discovery sympathizing reviewer had put it. [6]
• A series of " Star Trek Logs " are being released on Instagram throughout the season. These short videos consist of in-universe personal log recordings from the main cast, posted after each new episode. [7]
• Principal photography was reported as finished on 19 December 2019 with the last scenes filmed at Kingston Penitentiary, Ontario, Canada. [8]
• However, two months later, on 24 February 2020 , season three was again reported finishing up principal photography. [9] This was indicative of extensive reshoots, something that by now had become commonplace for the series, as the two previous seasons have been reported to have undergone extensive reshoots as well. Considering the sense of finality of the season finale (underscored by the closing Gene Roddenberry quote in the episode), it has given rise to internet rumors that the series had run its course, the announcement of a renewal for a fourth season notwithstanding. [10] Furthermore, season three did not end with a cliffhanger, contrary to the two previous seasons.

The season was nominated for a 2021 GLAAD Media Award on 28 January 2021 . [11] After having already been nominated twice for the preceding seasons, the award was this time won by the franchise on 8 April 2021 . [12]

The CAFTCAD "Special Effects Costume Building"-category award was a tied win with the first season of Odd Squad Mobile Unit . [13] Keith Lau was a three-time nominee out of six in his individual "Costume Illustration" award category – besides Discovery , for Altered Carbon and Snowpiercer as well – , but did not manage to secure a win (neither did his Discovery colleague Ciara Brennan for that matter, against whom Keith was competing too), and had to make do with the three shared awards he (and Brennan) did win. That Discovery did well at the Canadian CAFTCADs was hardly a surprise, considering its six nominations in fifteen categories, nine of which Discovery was not even eligible for. [14] It is indicative of the (economic) importance Discovery represents for the Canadian motion picture industry, as it is entirely produced in that country.

The episode " Su'Kal " became only – "only" because the preceding Berman-era Star Trek had done exceptionally well in the underlying award category during its run – the second episode of Kurtzman-era Star Trek after the second season episode " Such Sweet Sorrow, Part 2 " to receive a visual effects (VFX) Emmy Award nomination on 13 July 2021 , [15] which was won this time around on 12 September 2021 .

The Johnny-come-latelies in the award season were the 2021 Saturn Awards (covering the years 2019 and 2020) which were only awarded on 26 October 2021, having been postponed for nearly two years due to the Covid-19 pandemic . Still, it did not prevent Discovery to win two of its three nominations, in the process beating out franchise sibling Star Trek: Picard (whose 2019 first season was nominated for the same award) in the most prestigious television category, "Best Science Fiction Television Series". [16]

Having won seven out of the twenty-seven award nominations, the third season achieved a success rate of 26%, an 1% improvement over the preceding season, though it should be noted that the previous single CAFTCAD award was this year split up into five further separate award categories.

Credits [ ]

Main cast [ ].

• Sonequa Martin-Green as Michael Burnham
• Doug Jones as Saru ("Far From Home"–"Su'Kal"; "That Hope Is You, Part 2")
• Anthony Rapp as Paul Stamets ("Far From Home"–"That Hope Is You, Part 2")
• Mary Wiseman as Sylvia Tilly ("Far From Home"–"That Hope Is You, Part 2")
• Wilson Cruz as Hugh Culber ("Far From Home", "Forget Me Not"–"Scavengers", "Terra Firma, Part 1"–"Su'Kal", "That Hope Is You, Part 2")
• Rachael Ancheril as D. Nhan ("Far From Home", "Forget Me Not"–"Die Trying")
• David Ajala as Cleveland "Book" Booker ("That Hope Is You, Part 1", "People of Earth", "Scavengers"–"That Hope Is You, Part 2")

Special guest star [ ]

Uncredited [ ].

• Tracy-Mae Chambers – Prop Sculptor
• Leslie Chung – VFX Supervisor: Crafty Apes (Emmy Award winner)
• Ivan Kondrup Jensen – VFX Supervisor: Ghost VFX (Emmy Award winner) [18]
• Kristen Prahl – VFX Producer: Ghost VFX (Emmy Award winner)
• Toni Pykalaniemi – VFX Supervisor: DNEG TV (Emmy Award winner)

See also [ ]

• DIS Season 3 performers
• Star Trek: Discovery Logs , social media companion videos to market season 3
• DIS Season 3 Blu-ray
• DIS Season 3 DVD

External links [ ]

• Star Trek: Discovery season 3 at Memory Beta , the wiki for licensed Star Trek works
• Star Trek Discovery Season 3 episode reviews  at Ex Astris Scientia
• 1 Daniels (Crewman)
• 3 Calypso (episode)

Star Trek: Discovery season 3: release date revealed, trailer, cast and more

Star Trek: Discovery season 3 is almost here

The Star Trek : Discovery season 3 release date is imminent. With today's star date locked in on CBS All Access and Netflix, we couldn't be more ready to head further into the future than any other Trekkie has travelled before. And, once the weekly episodes are all out, it seems there's more Discovery to look forward to afterwards: writing on season 4 looks like it's already underway.

But let's stick to Star Trek: Discovery season 3 for now, and we know quite a bit. We will be taken farther into the future than any time in the history of the show, the 32nd century. Season 2 was rightly criticized for its convoluted story and heavy exposition, but this jump into the unknown is an exciting, welcome reset.

Our remaining questions will only be answered by the series itself now, so we're counting down the hours with you until we're back with Burnham, Saru, and co. Until then, here's what we know about Star Trek: Discovery season 3, the early footage released so far, and the cast we'll be joining on our next set of intergalactic adventures.

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Star Trek: Discovery season 3 release date: October 15

The Star Trek: Discovery season 3 is Thursday, October 15, 2020 on CBS All Access. Today, in other words. International viewers will need to wait a day later to watch it on Netflix. The 13 episodes will roll out weekly until January 7, 2021.

The wait is over – we can finally announce the #StarTrekDiscovery Season 3 premiere date! Prepare to jump into an unknown future Thursday, October 15th on @CBSAllAccess 🖖🏻 pic.twitter.com/nrZhqy0rc8 July 27, 2020

It seems as if writing on a fourth season of Discovery has started, too, even though CBS hasn't formally ordered one yet. In a chat with Gold Derby , Kurtzman mentioned that, despite the challenges presented by Covid-19, "we have actually been able to get quite ahead in scripts for upcoming seasons of Discovery". This at least does mean season 4 is in the planning stage, but given the popularity of the show it's likely CBS will renew it once again.

Star Trek: Discovery season 3 trailer: watch the opening title sequence

Here is your first look at the opening title sequence from #StarTrekDiscovery Season 3. Stream it tomorrow, only on @cbsallaccess. Star Trek on CBS All Access A photo posted by @startrekcbs on Oct 14, 2020 at 6:00am PDT

With Star Trek: Discovery season 3 almost here, we can now see the title sequence, and it's got a few noticeable changes. We can see Michael's longer, braided hair, for a start - when we saw this in the first trailer it suggested the crew reside in this future timeline a long time.

We also see what looks like a 32nd century Starfleet pistols and badges, DOT-7 robots, a red dilithium crystal, Booker's ship, and the wormhole that took our motley crew to their new destination.

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As part of Star Trek Day 2020, we got a second glimpse at Discovery season 3, and it shows a galaxy gone wrong . As expected, the Federation isn't faring well this far into the future: it "mostly collapsed" after an event known as "The Burn". That's about the extent of the new plot details we've been given, but the trailer suggests the show has rediscovered its heart and sense of fun. 

Let the video above play on after the trailer to watch a panel with Kurtzman, Paradise, and, David Ajala (Nightflyers) who plays new character Cleveland Booker. As reported by Variety at San Diego Comic-Con 2019, Kurtzman said Booker or ‘Book’ "is going to be a character that breaks the rules a little bit."

#StarTrekDiscovery takes fans 930 years into the future at #NYCC #StarTrekNYCC https://t.co/6WRTcSa4d0 pic.twitter.com/c1hnkYmGC5 October 5, 2019

Above is the first official Star Trek: Discovery season 3 trailer. In it we get our first look at the crew of the Discovery exploring the 32nd century, but we also see a United Federation of Planets Flag with only six stars - is the Federation no more in this time period? Could they be the 'ghosts' Book refers to in the trailer?

It also looks like Burnham is spending a long time in her search to find "that domino that tipped over and started all of this." Early in the trailer we see Burnham change her hair and appearance, suggesting that her adventures may take months, or even years.

Star Trek: Discovery season 3 cast: here's who's confirmed

Here are the key cast members we know so far:

• Michael Burnham: Sonequa Martin-Green
• Saru: Doug Jones 
• Sylvia Tilly: Mary Wiseman
• Dr Hugh Culber: Wilson Cruz
• Lt. Joann Owosekun: Oyin Oladejo
• Keyla Detmer: Emily Coutts
• Paul Stamets: Anthony Rapp 
• Emperor Georgiou: Michelle Yeoh
• Blu del Barrio: Adira
• Ian Alexander: Gray
• David Ajala: Cleveland Booker
• Tig Notaro: Jett Reno
• Rachael Ancherii: Nhan
• Sara Mitich: Nilsson
• Patrick Kwok-Choon: Gen Rhys
• Ronnie Rowe: RA Bryce
• Maulik Pancholy: Dr Nambue
• Terry Serpico: Admiral Anderson
• Sam Vartholomeos: Connor

It might be worth forgetting Captain Pike and Spock, as they languish in the present. "Our bridge crew is so capable," Kurtzman told The Hollywood Reporter . "We're going to be using all of them much, much more. Especially because this crew has forfeited their lives for each other."

The show has also cast its first non-binary and transgender characters. Blu del Barrio  will play Adira and Ian Alexander will be Gray - you may remember the latter as Lev from The Last of Us Part 2 . While Gray's character is being kept hush hush, Barrio said (via GLAAD ) Adira is "a wonderfully complex character." They're "an introvert, but they keep a few people close to their chest".

Star Trek: Discovery season 3's story is set way in the future

So, how far did the Discovery go? At SDCC 2019, Kurtzman said: "Obviously we made a pretty radical jump into the future at the end of season two – we're going almost 1000 years into the future in season three, which is crazy. Further than any Trek series has ever gone before." 930 years to the as-yet-unexplored 32nd century, to be specific.

Kurtzman also mentioned at the panel that he’s excited by the prospect of getting to "honor canon but shake it up hugely." For Sonequa Martin-Green, speaking to Syfy Wire , this is an opportunity for the show to boldly go where no one has gone before, properly . Visiting new planets, timelines, and sectors is "the perfect way to define us, because we are new yet familiar."

But who will be the captain? Before we had Lorca, and then Pike, but currently the chair is vacant for season 3. And while Burnham and Saru are hot favourites, at the virtual SDCC 2020 panel, a fan question asked Mary Wiseman whether Tilly was in a place to take up the mantle. "I think so. There are some pretty big speed bumps in season 2 on that road. But that's always her pie-in-the-sky, reaching the zenith of leadership within Starfleet." Wiseman said. While the team lurched into the future is "on the edge of the unknown", Tilly was the captain of the ISS Discovery in the Mirror Universe, so it could happen.

Can Discovery bounce back?

The first season of Star Trek: Discovery proved a promising start to the prequel series, but it rather lost its way in season 2. Viewers waded through reams of exposition and technical jargon, and it mostly failed to capitalize on the engrossing, galaxy-consuming war of season 1. Hopefully this new Frontier will be the fresh start the series needs in Star Trek: Discovery season 3, without having to lean on familiar characters.

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Harry Shepherd is a Guides Editor for PC Gamer at Future. He is a writer and editor with more than two years experience specialising in SEO and guides. 

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Season 3 – Star Trek: Discovery

Where to watch, star trek: discovery — season 3.

Watch Star Trek: Discovery — Season 3 with a subscription on Paramount+, or buy it on Fandango at Home, Prime Video.

What to Know

With less canonical baggage and a welcome dose of character development, Discovery continues to forge its own path and is narratively all the better for it.

Critics Reviews

Audience reviews, cast & crew.

Sonequa Martin-Green

Michael Burnham

Anthony Rapp

Paul Stamets

Mary Wiseman

Sylvia Tilly

Wilson Cruz

Dr. Hugh Culber

Michelle Yeoh

Philippa Georgiou

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Star Trek: Discovery Proved Burnham’s Starship Is Better Than USS Enterprise In 1 Big Way

Star trek's next show needs rayner & discovery's finale is proof, 12 amazing characters discovery gave star trek.

Here's who makes up all of the  Star Trek: Discovery season 3 cast and characters. The flagship CBS All-Access Star Trek series executive produced by Alex Kurtzman and Michelle Paradise is boldly going the furthest the franchise has ever gone, with Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) and the U.S.S. Discovery warping to the 32nd century.

Star Trek: Discovery season 3 is in uncharted territory and when the Starfleet time travelers land in 3188, they will find an uncertain future where the United Federation of Planets has collapsed because of a cataclysm called The Burn . While the crew of the U.S.S. Discovery makes the jump to the distant future intact, they are also going to meet new allies such as the roguish Cleveland "Book" Booker (David Ajala). In addition, Star Trek: Discovery is making franchise history by introducing its first non-binary and transgender actors, Blu de Barrio as Adira and Ian Alexander as Grey, respectively.

Related: Star Trek: How Time Travel Works In Each TV Show And Movie

With the final frontier of the 32nd century a wide-open book, Star Trek: Discovery will truly live up to its title in season 3. Here's who followed Michael Burnham across time and who else the crew of the Discovery will meet 930 years in the future.

Sonequa Martin-Green as Commander Michael Burnham - Michael led the Discovery to the 32nd century but she now must adjust to the huge personal cost of her choice. Martin-Green previously starred in The Walking Dead .

Doug Jones as Commander Saru - The Discovery 's Kelpien Acting Captain has to hold the crew together and choose whether to pursue the starship's Captaincy. Jones has starred in The Shape of Water , Hellboy , and What We Do in the Shadows .

Michelle Yeoh as Philippa Georgiou - The Mirror Universe's devious former Emperor also went to the future, far removed from her previous post in Section 31. Yeoh starred in Tomorrow Never Dies , Crazy Rich Asians , and Last Christmas .

Mary Wiseman as Ensign Sylvia Tilly - The irrepressible Tilly has to adjust to what the 32nd century means for her and her dream to become Captain one day. Wiseman also appeared in Baskets and Marriage Story .

Anthony Rapp as Lt. Paul Stamets - Stamets is in a coma when he arrived in the 32nd century and he is vital as the human navigator for Discovery 's spore drive. Rapp is best known for starring in Rent and in A Beautiful Mind.

Wilson Cruz as Dr. Hugh Culber - Dr. Culber is Discovery 's Chief Medical Officer and he's recommitted to his relationship with Stamets. Cruz is best known for starring in My So-Called Life and 13 Reasons Why .

Tig Notaro as Lt. Jett Reno - The acerbic Jett Reno is now permanently aboard Discovery as an engineer. Notaro is an actor and comedian who starred in One Mississippi and Transparent.

David Ajala as Cleveland "Book" Booker - Book is a 32nd-century courier who owns a cat named Grudge and becomes a close ally of Michael Burnham. Ajala starred in Supergirl and Nightflyers .

Blu del Barrio as Adira - Adira is a 32nd-century human who joins the crew of the Discovery . Blu de Barrio is Star Trek 's first non-binary actor and Star Trek: Discovery is her first acting credit.

Ian Alexander as Gray - Gray is a Trill who is Adira's closest friend in the universe. Alexander is Star Trek' s first transgender actor who previously starred in The OA .

Emily Coutts as Lt. Keyla Detmer - Detmer is a member of the bridge crew and she's Discovery 's hotshot helmsman. Coutts also appeared in Crimson Peak and Designated Survivor.

Ronnie Rowe Jr. as Lt. R.A. Bryce - Bryce is a member of the bridge crew and he's Discovery 's communications officer. Rowe appeared in The Expanse and A Simple Favor .

Oyin Oladejo as Lt. Joann Owosekun - Owosekun is a member of the bridge crew and she is Discovery' s operations officer. Oladejo also starred in Endings .

Patrick Kwok-Choon as Lt. Gen Rhys - Rhys is a member of the bridge crew and he's Discovery 's tactical officer. Kwok-Choon also appeared in Wynonna Earp and Dark Matter .

Sarah Mitich as Lt. Nilsson - Nilsson replaced the late Lt. Ariam as spore drive operations officer. Mitich also appeared in The Expanse and Murdoch Mysteries .

Rachael Ancheril as Commander Nhan - Nhan transferred from the U.S.S. Enterprise and became Discovery 's Chief of Security. Ancheril also stars in Nurses and Killjoys .

Raven Dauda as Dr. Tracy Pollard - Dr. Pollard is Discovery 's physician alongside Dr. Culber. Dauda appeared in Orphan Black and Murder at 1600 .

David Benjamin Tomlinson as Lt. Linus - Linus is the Saurian officer in Discovery' s Science division. Tomlinson appeared in Designated Survivor and Miracle .

Adil Hussain as Aditya Sahil - Sahil is a Federation liaison keeping the dream of Starfleet alive. Hussein is an acclaimed Indian actor best known to international audiences for starring in The Life of Pi .

Next: Every Classic Star Trek Race In Discovery's Season 3 Future

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Star Trek: Discovery – Season 3 episode guide

Season 3, it can be argued, is where Star Trek: Discovery probably should have begun: After all, both Deep Space Nine  and  Voyager  wasted little time to explore whoe new quadrants of the galaxy – in Voyager's case, about 20 minutes – so why take so long to get to treading truly new ground for the Star Trek franchise? On the other hand, without Discovery, why'd never have gotten Strange New Worlds nor the introduction of Captain/Emperor Philippa Georgiou and thus the upcoming Section 31…

Discovery season 3 is set an exciting 900 years beyond The Original Series in the wild 32 nd century. Sure, Star Trek has given us glimpses into the furthest temporal reaches of its universe before: The Enterprise-J was seen by Captain Archer in Enterprise season 3 , Voyager’s EMH benefitted from 29 th -century holographic emitter technology and Lower Decks showed us a historical perspective on a certain TNG/DS9 Starfleet member.

But not for decades (in real-time) has Star Trek presented us with such a fascinating array of new technologies, starships and the like: The programmable matter and personal transporters are as interesting to 20s audiences as were holodecks and badge communicators in the 80s. Beyond this, we get nearly a millennium’s worth of sociopolitical change, from Vulcans and Romulans living together to the return of rampant capitalism (and not the cute, vice-based sort favored by the Ferengi, either).

Best of all, in a bleak future with the Federation on its knees, the Discovery crew ultimately comes to represent the optimism of the past, in a meta sense that of The Original Series (as well as, to some extent, The Next Generation and Voyager), as a force for good in a galaxy gone mad. For the first time, a Discovery season has Trek fans wanting more of a new vision…

Star Trek: Discovery episode guide – Season 3

• That Hope Is You, part 1 . Michael Burnham emerges from the season 2-concluding wormhole into the year 3188 (approximate stardate 864711), collides with a courier ship piloted by one Cleveland “Book” Booker, crash lands on an alien planet, gets dosed with some serious ecstasy-like truth-telling drugs, kciks butt in a number of firefights, helps save a member of an endangered interplanetary species and finally finds at least one representative of the Federation. Needless to say, this is perhaps the single most action-packed episode in all of ST lore. ****
• Far From Home . The Discovery emerges from the season 2-concluding wormhole and lands in generally intact condition on the surface of a mostly uninhabited planet. The crew gets to work on repairing bodily injuries and damage to the ship while racing against the onslaught of parasitic ice which is slowly encasing the ship as the external temperature drops with night’s approach. Saru and Ensign Tilly venture out to a nearby mining settlement wherein they attempt to exchange dilithium for spare parts. Zareh, an exploitative courier, seeks to steal Discovery’s dilithium but Georgiou comes to the rescue, kicking ass and taking names. Burnham and Book show up to free Discovery from the gnarly ice. ****
• People of Earth . Discovery’s precious dilithium is stashed aboard Book’s ship, which in turn is stasthed aboard Discovery. After picking up a signal from one Admiral Senna Tal from Earth, Discovery sets course for the familiar planet. Upon arrival, the crew learns that the now very paranoid and militant Earth is no longer home to Starfleet HQ and that Admiral Tal was a Trill whose implant survived in not exactly ideal circumstances within the Earthling Adira. ***
• Forget Me Not . In an effort to communicate with and/or access the memories of the Tal symbiote, Discovery travels to the Trill homeworld. There, Adira is shunned by most but eventually wins over one “guardian” to assist in the process. ***
• Die Trying . Tal’s memories get Discovery to the hidden Starfleet HQ. Starfleet Commander-in-Chief Adm. Charles Vance is quite skeptical about the crew’s story or abilities to function 900 years into their future. Saru and the Discovery crew earns trust when they help solve a blight by retrieving resources from a seed archive that only their ship’s spore drive can reach. ***
• Scavengers . Discovery gets an upgrade to 32 nd -century technology but is nevertheless stuck in spacedock. Burnham, meanwhile, receives a 3-week-old message saying that he’d retrieved a black box from a Starfleet ship annihilated in The Burn. Burnham and Georgiou take Book’s ship to rescue him, much to Vance’s dismay. ***
• Unification III . A titular and spiritual sequel to the TNG season 5 episodes guest-starring Spock (We even get a Nimoy sample from part II!) that also nicely ties in events key to Star Trek (2009) and Picard. This particular reunification may refer to either internal politics of the planet Ni’Var (née Vulcan), to whom Burnham et al appeal in hopes of solving the mystery of The Burn, or the possibility of Ni’Var rejoining the Federation. In either case, this episode has some great alien-cultural stuff as well as some courtroom drama. ****
• The Sanctuary . Discovery travels to Book’s home planet of Kwejian, which is under biological attak perpetuated by the Emerald Chain, a capitalistic power headed up by Orions and Andorians. Under orders not to engage the Federation enemy, Discovery cannot help but interfere to save a civilization. ***
• Terra Firma, part 1 . Georgiou is slowly being torn apart due to her travels across universes and through time. Discovery’s computer advises she travel to Dannus V, an apparently uninhabited planet, for assistance. Once on the surface, Michael and Georgiou have a Beckettesque experience with a guy named Carl, who entreats Georgiou to enter his freestanding doorway, which leads into her own familiar Mirror Universe. ***
• Terra Firma, part 2 . As did Kirk back in the day and Burnham a couple seasons ago, Georgiou finds herself attempting to change the mindlessly bloodthirsty ways of the Terran Empire. She gets limited results, but does manage to escape with her life back into the Prime Universe and, soon thereafter, to a spacetime in which she can safely exist, i.e. the series Star Trek: Section 31…. ***
• Su’Kal . Discovery finds a derelict Kelpian starship within a radioactive nebula which may also have been the original source of The Burn. Indeed, an entire planet is hidden within, housing the ship which is home to the titular character, a Kelpian whose entire education has been supplied by holograms. Book goes in for a rescue mission but Saru and Dr. Culber refuse to leave Su’Kal; Adira, who has stowed away on Book’s ship, joins them on the surface while Burnham is beamed aboard. Unfortunately, Book arrives back at Discovery just in time to see it disappear, now in command of Emerald Syndicate leader Osyraa and her new lackey Zareh.  ***
• There Is a Tide . Using Discovery as cover, Osyraa gains entrance to Federation HQ, where she … proposes a peace treaty to Vance. Meanwhile, the Discovery crew gets to work at overthrowing the pirate takeover of the ship. ****
• That Hope Is You, part 2 . Silly title aside, this episode puts Discovery viewers at the edge of their seat from the go and keeps them there until the new captain takes over. The on-board crew manages to halt the Discovery while in warp and Burnahm takes out Osyraa. With Book’s emphatic assistance, Discovery returns to the nebula, where Saru, Culber and Adira manage to convince Su’Kal to overcome his fear and leave the ship he’s always called home. Saru returns to Kaminar, but the rest of the Discovery is tasked with the mission of reassembling the Federation through dilithium supply. And they get neat new uniforms, too…

Now, as the woman said, let’s fly!

Den of Geek

Star Trek: Discovery Season 3 Finale Ending Explained

The Star Trek: Discovery Season 3 finale was an action-packed hour of TV. Here's everything that went down in the ep, and what it might mean moving forward.

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This Star Trek: Discovery review contains major spoilers for the end of Season 3.

What a ride! The third season of Star Trek: Discovery was easily its most consistent and, dare I say, best yet? From the get-go, the series’ decision to vault its characters into the far future for its third outing proved itself a smart one, as the crew of the Discovery set about exploring this strange, new reality. The hour-long finale was a solid ending for the season, answering some questions we’ve had since the season premiere. In that way, “That Hope is You, Part 2” really was the perfect bookend to the premiere that started this far-future arc. That being said, the episode also set up some fascinating plot and character arcs for Season 4. Let’s break down all that happened in the Star Trek: Discovery Season 3 finale, and what it means for the bright future of this show.

We Finally Know What Caused The Burn

The big reveal in the Season 3 finale is the confirmation that it was a scared Su’Kal who caused The Burn when he was a small child. With Saru’s support and encouragement, Su’Kal faced the memory of the event: the death of his mother, when he was small. With her death, Su’Kal was all alone on the KSF Khi’eth, on a dilithium planet in an isolated nebula. His mother made Su’Kal promise not to turn off the holo until the Federation came. She couldn’t know that the Federation wouldn’t come for another 125 years.

Su’Kal is a polyploid, aka someone whose genetics were altered based on the environment around him. Because Su’Kal was born on a planet filled with dilithium, it gave him a unique connection to the element. The sonic scream he emitted upon losing his mother sent a shockwave through subspace that caused the Burn. Now that he is no longer in the nebula, it is unlikely a similar event will happen again. “I’d like to help repair what is broken, if I can,” Su’Kal tells Saru, when he learns the truth. Perhaps this isn’t the last we’ve seen of the Kelpien.

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The Bridge Crew Saves the Day

This was another excellent episode for Team Bridge Crew, who use their relative freedom on an occupied Discovery to sabotage the ship’s nacelle, dropping the ship out of warp and allowing the Federation and its allies to catch up. The Bridge Crew does so believing that it will be a suicide mission, as Osyraa has cut off life support to the lower decks of the ship, and they only have one oxygen tank amongst them. It’s Joann, who apparently has very impressive lung capacity, who manages to complete the mission (with an assist from one of those little DOT-23 droids), taking the oxygen tank and leaving her friends to die (per their request). “I love you all,” she tells them, which would have been solid last words. However, once Michael regains control of the ship, she is able to restore life support to the lower decks before her friends/co-workers die. So that’s good.

Are Keyla and Joann Together?

These two have always been depicted as especially close, and the season finale had me wondering yet again if these two might be romantically linked. “You’re alive.” “So are you.” This is their conversation post-nacelle explosion. There are other people there who are also unexpectedly alive. We see them embracing shortly after. I don’t support the cultural reenforcement of romantic relationships as more important than platonic ones, but I do wonder what the nature of this relationship is. Generally, I hope both characters—and their dynamic—get more screen time in Season 4.

Michael Kills Osyrra

Of course dropping the ship out of warp is only part of the solution. The Discovery crew also has to regain control of the ship. This is Michael’s mission. With some help from Book, and via a very cool sequence in the backend of the turbolift, Michael is able to make it to the ship’s data core. She manages to get rid of Osyraa’s goons, but Osyraa gets the upper hand in the fight, literally pushing Michael into the data core. It looks like it might be the end for Michael (though I doubt any viewer actually believed it would be), until shots fire from within the core, taking Osyraa out once and for all.

Michael emerges from the ship itself, telling the Season 3 antagonist: “Unlike you, I never quit.” As a post-murder tagline, it’s not a great one—especially because Osyraa didn’t really seem to be quitting so much as losing in this moment—but the imagery that accompanies it, of Michael literally merging with Discovery to take Osyraa out, is thematically-rich. This has been a season of Discovery really evolving as a character in their own right, and it was nice to see the ship itself have a hand in the crew regaining control of the ship.

Book Can Pilot the Spore Drive

In one of the most game-changing moments of the season, the Discovery crew figures out that, because of ability to communicate empathically with plants and animals, Book can pilot the spore drive. They bet the farm on the conclusion, too, jettisoning the warp core while within Osyraa’s ship Viridian. Book is eventually able to figure out how to jump, but they barely make it away in time. While this was a cool moment in the episode, it is a much cooler reveal for what it might mean moving forward. Book has expressed an interest in joining Starfleet, but it hasn’t been clear what his role in the fleet or on the Discovery might be. His ability to pilot the spore drive certainly makes him invaluable to the Discovery and to the Federation as a whole.

Yeah, Stamets is Still Pissed at Michael

One of the minor, unresolved character threads left lingering at the end of Season 3 is Stamets’ anger towards Michael for forcibly removing him from the Discovery in the season’s penultimate episode. Frankly, Michael made the right choice. If Stamets had remained on the ship, then Osyraa could have forced him to use the spore drive and the Federation never would have been able to catch up. That being said, I can’t say I wouldn’t be pissed at Michael if I were in Stamets’ shoes. By physically forcing Stamets off the ship, she took the choice to stay and try to save his friends and family away from him. But them’s the breaks when you volunteer to be the universe’s sole spore drive pilot.

Gray Gets a Corporeal Form, Then Loses It Again

One of the chief joys of the Season 3 finale was seeing Gray gain corporeal form while in the holo-program, allowing people other than Adira the opportunity to see and interact with him. (Hugh takes the chance to give Gray a big hug!) The holo gave Gray the form of a Vulcan (if you were wondering, Adira is Xahean here), but, for Gray, it just matters that he can be seen. When faced with the dismantling of the holo, Gray tells Adira and Hugh that he doesn’t want to go back to before. “It’s not enough,” he says. “I’m stuck. Tal’s stuck.” Hugh promises that they will find a way to make sure Gray is seen, but when the episode ends, Gray is still invisible to all but Adira again.

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Burnham Becomes Captain of the Discovery

Discovery churns through at least one captain per season and the ship ends the season with a different captain than it started with: Michael has replaced Saru as captain (at least for now). Saru has taken a leave of absence to help Su’Kal settle into his life on Kaminar. It’s unclear for how long. When Michael brings up waiting until his return to decide anything permanently, Admiral Vance pushes back, with Saru’s blessing. So will Michael be Discovery captain forever and ever? Frankly, the show seems to have left enough room for the writers’ room to make that decision later, as they are breaking Season 4.

The Federation is Back on Its Feet

The season finale was a happy ending, not only for the Discovery but for the entire Federation. With Osyraa dead, the source of the Burn discovered, and the Discovery equipped with two spore drive pilots, the future is looking promising. As Michael’s closing voiceover tells us, the Discovery is poised to bring dilithium to the worlds of the Federation that have been cut off since the Burn. With this new source, they will be able to properly rejoin the Federation. With this new mission outlined in the finale’s closing minutes, Season 4 seems to already have a new plot structure, one even more based on discovery and diplomacy than Season 3.

We also learned that Trill decided to rejoin the Federation, and the Ni’Var have opened lines of communication with the Federation back up. The fact that the Ni’Var responded to Michael’s request for help earlier in the episode, effectively coming to the Federation’s aid when they needed it the most, says a lot about their potential willingness to become part of the organization again.

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What does the closing quote mean.

Star Trek: Discovery Season 3 ends with a tribute to Gene Roddenberry, and to his original vision for Star Trek , exemplified through the following quote: “In a very real sense, we are all aliens on a strange planet. We spend most of our lives reaching out and trying to communicate. If during our whole lifetime, we could reach out and really communicate with just two people, we are indeed very fortunate.”

Why did the series decide to end the season this way? As showrunner Michelle Paradise told Comicbook.com : “It emerged closer to the end of the post process as we were finishing post for the season and just recognizing that this was going to be airing at this particular time. And we just felt like it would be appropriate to have something from him. I mean, Gene Roddenberry, we’re only here because of what he did and because of the show that he created and there’s the baseline, the template that he established. And so it felt appropriate to have something from him, a quote from him at the end of our season. And that was one that resonated with us.”

Kayti Burt | @kaytiburt

Kayti is a pop culture writer, editor, and full-time nerd who comes from a working class background. A member of the Television Critics Association, she specializes…

Star Trek: Discovery season 3 teaser trailer and everything we know

The final frontier is the future on Star Trek: Discovery season 3

Star Trek: Discovery season 3 is boldly going where no Star Trek series has gone before — into the future. 

When Discovery returns to CBS All Access for its third season, it will pick up where season 2 left off, with the U.S.S. Discovery jumping over 900 years into the future. That’s the farthest forward in time that any Trek series has been set, and means that the show will be breaking new canonical ground. 

The huge time jump sparked a ton of questions that season 3 will have to address. Does the United Federation of Planets still exist? What’s the state of the universe? What kinds of new friends and enemies will the Discovery crew find in the future? 

Here’s everything we know about Star Trek: Discovery season 3, including its release date, cast, plot and more.

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Star Trek: Discovery season 3 release date: When is it coming out?  

Star Trek: Discovery season 3 does not yet have a solid release date, but it's set to stream on CBS All Access sometime in 2020.

Filming for season 3 began in July 2019, and production concluded in mid-January 2020.

This... pic.twitter.com/uQ9noB65PV January 17, 2020

Editing, visual effects and other post-production work will require at least several months to complete.  And with CBS All Access airing new episodes of Star Trek: Picard until late March, the earliest that Star Trek: Discovery season 3 could debut is April 2020. 

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Is there a Star Trek: Discovery season 3 trailer? 

A teaser trailer for Star Trek: Discovery season 3 was unveiled at New York Comic-Con in October 2019. 

Star Trek: Discovery season 3 cast: Who’s in it? 

The finale of Star Trek: Discovery season 2 was a major shake-up for the series. It sent the Discovery and its crew over 900 years into the future. 

Everybody on the ship when it time-traveled is almost certain to return for season 3. That includes cast members Sonequa Martin-Green as Cmdr. Michael Burnham, Doug Jones as Cmdr. Saru, Anthony Rapp as Lt. Cmdr. Paul Stamets, Mary Wiseman as Ensign Sylvia Tilly and Wilson Cruz as Dr. Hugh Culber. 

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Also on board and likely to reprise their roles are Michelle Yeoh as Operative Philippa Georgiou, Tig Notaro as Cmdr. Jett Reno, Rachael Ancheril as Cmdr. Nhan, Emily Coutts as Lt. Keyla Detmer, Ronnie Rowe as Lt. R.A. Bryce, Oyin Oladejo as Lt. Joann Owosekun and Patrick Kwok-Choon as Lt. Gen Rhys. 

At San Diego Comic-Con in July 2019, Star Trek: Discovery season 3 announced a major new cast member, David Ajala, who will play Cleveland “Book” Booker. The show's official description describes him as “smart and capable” with “a natural charisma and devil-may-care attitude that tends to get him into trouble as often as it gets him out.” 

Ajala's co-star Martin-Green welcomed him to the cast in this video:

Indian actor Adil Hussain is also joining the cast, as an unnamed character who is seen talking to Burnham in a stark white office in the season 3 teaser trailer. 

Since the Discovery went into the future, it’s unclear if we’ll see anyone who wasn’t on the ship at the time. That includes Capt. Christopher Pike (Anson Mount), Lt. Spock (Ethan Peck), Sarek (James Frain) and Ash Tyler (Shazad Latif).

Star Trek: Discovery season 3 plot: What to expect 

Discovery’s aforementioned 900-plus-year leap into the future occurred as part of a plan to defeat Control, an evil AI that would have wiped out all life in the universe, had it become sentient. 

That time jump will take Discovery far from established canon. As Star Trek: Discovery co-creator Alex Kurtzman told The Hollywood Reporter , there is “an entirely new energy for season three with a whole new set of problems.”

Co-showrunner Michelle Paradise told TrekMovie : “We’re going 930 years into the future, so we’re taking expectations and alliances and enemies and all of those things and putting them in a blender and mixing it all up and seeing what’s going to happen. It’s going to be very interesting, I think.”

Paradise revealed that the Federation still exists in the future but is going through “a bit of a rough patch.”

The Discovery’s spore drive will continue to be a factor, since it’s still the only ship with one even in the future. Other people will want the technology, making the Discovery a target.

While not much else is known about Star Trek: Discovery season 3, Kurtzman did drop one plot tidbit. “We are going to Trill this year,” he said at Paleyfest. As Trek fans will recall, the Trill were first introduced in Star Trek: The Next Generation. More was revealed about the alien species in Deep Space Nine, through the character of Dax. 

Star Trek: Discovery season 3 set photos: What we’ve seen so far  

Star Trek: Discovery season 3 does not have any photos from the set so far. Check back for updates.

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Kelly is the streaming channel editor for Tom’s Guide, so basically, she watches TV for a living. Previously, she was a freelance entertainment writer for Yahoo, Vulture, TV Guide and other outlets. When she’s not watching TV and movies for work, she’s watching them for fun, seeing live music, writing songs, knitting and gardening.

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‘Star Trek: Discovery’ is over. Now Alex Kurtzman readies for ‘Starfleet Academy’ and ‘Section 31’

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In “Star Trek” terms, and in the real world of “Star Trek” television, Alex Kurtzman, who oversees the 21st century franchise, might be described as the Federation president, from whose offices various series depart on their individual missions. Indeed, to hear him speak of it, the whole enterprise — honestly, no pun intended — seems to run very much on the series’ ethos of individual initiative and group consensus.

The first series to be launched, “ Star Trek: Discovery, ” has come to an end as of Thursday after five seasons on Paramount+. Others in the fleet include the concluded “ Picard, ” which brought “The Next Generation” into a new generation; the ongoing “ Strange New Worlds, ” which precedes the action of what’s now called “The Original Series,” from which it takes its spirit and several characters; “Lower Decks,” a comedy set among Starfleet service workers; and “Prodigy,” in which a collection of teenage aliens go joyriding in a starship. On the horizon are “Starfleet Academy,” with Holly Hunter set to star, and a TV feature, “ Section 31, ” with Michelle Yeoh back as Philippa Georgiou.

I spoke with Kurtzman, whose “Trek” trek began as a writer on the quantum-canonical reboot movies “ Star Trek ” (2009) and “ Star Trek: Into Darkness ” (2013), at Secret Hideout, his appropriately unmarked Santa Monica headquarters. Metro trains glide by his front door unaware. We began the conversation, edited for length and clarity here, with a discussion of his “Trek” universe.

Alex Kurtzman: I liken them to different colors in the rainbow. It makes no sense to me to make one show that’s for everybody; it makes a lot of sense to make a lot of shows individually tailored to a sect of the “Star Trek” audience. It’s a misnomer that there’s a one-size-fits-all Trekkie. And rather than make one show that’s going to please everybody — and will almost certainly please nobody — let’s make an adult drama, an animated comedy, a kids’ comedy, an adventure show and on and on. There’s something quite beautiful about that; it allows each of the stories to bloom in its own unique way.

Do you get pushback from the fans?

Absolutely. In some ways that’s the point. One of the things I learned early on is that to be in love with “Star Trek” is to engage in healthy debate. There is no more vocal fan base. Some people tell you that their favorite is “The Original Series,” some say their favorite is “Voyager” and some say their favorite is “Discovery.” Yet they all come together and talk about what makes something singularly “Trek” — [creator] Gene Roddenberry‘s extraordinarily optimistic vision of the future when all that divides us [gets placed] in the rearview mirror and we get to move on and discover things. Like all great science fiction, you get to pick your allegory to the real world and come up with the science fiction equivalent. And everybody who watches understands what we’re talking about — racism or the Middle East or whatever.

What specific objections did you find to “Discovery”?

I think people felt it was too dark. We really listen to our fans in the writers’ room — everybody will have read a different article or review over the weekend, and we talk about what feels relevant and what feels less relevant. And then we engage in a healthy democratic debate about why and begin to apply that; it seeps into the decisions we make. Season 1 of “Discovery” was always intended to be a journey from darkness into light, and ultimately reinforce Roddenberry’s vision. I think people were just stunned by something that felt darker than any “Trek” had before. But doing a dark “Star Trek” really wasn’t our goal. The show is a mirror that holds itself up to the times, and we were in 2017 — we saw the nation fracture hugely right after the election, and it’s only gotten worse since then. We were interpreting that through science fiction. There were people who appreciated that and others for whom it was just not “Star Trek.” And the result, in Season 2, Capt. [Christopher] Pike showed up, Number One showed up, Spock showed up, and we began to bring in what felt to people more like the “Star Trek” they understood.

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You’re ending the series after five seasons. Was that always a plan?

You know, we were surprised we didn’t continue, and yet it feels now that it was right. One of the things that happened very quickly as streaming took off was that it radically changed watch patterns for viewers. Shows that used to go 10, 12 seasons, people would tap out after two — like, “I got what I want” — so for any show to go five seasons, it’s a miracle. In ways I don’t think we could have predicted, the season from the beginning feels like it’s the last; it just has a sense of finality. The studio was wonderful in that they recognized we needed to put a button on it, we needed a period on the end of the sentence, and so they allowed us to go back, which we did right before the strike, and [film] the coda that wraps up the series.

“Discovery” is a riot of love stories, among both heroes and villains.

There’s certainly a history of that in “Star Trek.” Whether or not characters were engaged in direct relationships, there was always a subtext of the love between them. I believe that’s why we love the bridge crew, because it’s really a love story, everyone’s in a love story, and they all care for each other and fight like family members. But ultimately they’re there to help each other and explore the universe together. If there’s some weird problem, and the answer’s not immediately apparent, each of them brings a different skill set and therefore a different perspective; they clash in their debate on how to proceed and then find some miraculous solution that none of them would have thought of at the outset.

One of the beautiful things about the shows is that you get to spend a long time with them, as opposed to a two-hour movie where you have to get in and out quickly and then wait a couple of years before the next one comes along. To be able to be on their weekly adventures, it affords the storytelling level of depth and complexity a two-hour movie just can’t achieve in that way.

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It’s astonishing how much matter you got into these things. Some storylines that only lasted an episode I remembered as seasonal arcs.

The sheer tonnage of story and character we were able to pack into “Discovery” every episode was kind of incredible. The thing to keep in mind is that “Discovery” was made as streaming was exploding, so what I think you’re also seeing there is a lot of writers who were trained in the network world with an A, B and C story applying it suddenly to a very different kind of storytelling in a much more cinematic medium. And when you have that kind of scope it starts to become really, really big. Sometimes that works really, really well and sometimes it was too much. And we were figuring it out; it was a bunch of people with flashlights in the dark, looking for how to interpret “Star Trek” now, since it had been 12 years since it had been on a television screen.

Are you able to course-correct within a season?

Sure. You get people you really trust in the room. Aaron Baiers, who runs Secret Hideout, is one of my most important early-warning systems; he isn’t necessarily in the room when we’re breaking stories, but he’s the first person who’ll read an outline and he’s the first person who’ll read a script. What I value so much about his perspective is that he’s coming in cold, he’s just like, “I’m the viewer, and I understand this or I don’t understand it, I feel this or I don’t feel it.” The studio executives are very similar. They love “Star Trek,” they’re all die-hard fans and have very strong feelings about what is appropriate. It then goes through a series of artists in every facet, from props to visual effects to production design, and they’re bringing their interpretations and opinions to the story.

Did “Strange New Worlds” come out of the fact that everybody loved seeing Christopher Pike in “Discovery?”

I really have to credit Akiva Goldsman with this. He knew that I was going to bring Pike into the premiere of the second season of “Discovery,” and said, “You know, there’s an incredible show about Capt. Pike and the Enterprise before Kirk takes over; there’s seven years of great storytelling there” — or five years, depending on when you come into the storyline. I said, “We have to cast a successful Pike first, so let’s see if that works. Let’s figure out who’s Number One, and who Spock is,” which are wildly tall orders. I hadn’t seen Anson Mount in other things before [he was cast as Pike], and when he sent in his taped audition it was that wonderful moment where you go, “That’s exactly the person we’re looking for.” Everybody loves Pike because he’s the kind of leader you want, definitive and clear but open to everyone’s perspective and humanistic in his response. And then we had the incredibly tall order of having Ethan [Peck] step into Leonard [Nimoy’s] and [Zachary Quinto’s] shoes.

He’s great.

He’s amazing, just a delight of a human being. And Rebecca Romijn‘s energy, what she brings to Number One is such a contemporary take on a character that was kind of a cipher in “The Original Series.” But she brings a kind of joy, a comedy, a bearing, a gravitas to the character that feels very modern. Thank God the fans responded the way they did and sent that petition [calling for a “Legacy” series], because everybody at CBS got the message very quickly. Jenny Lumet and Akiva and I wrote a pilot, and we were off to the races. Typically it takes fans a minute to adjust to what you’re doing, especially with beloved legacy characters, but the response to “Strange New World” from a critical perspective and fan perspective and just a viewership perspective was so immediate, it really did help us understand what was satisfying fans.

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What can you tell me about “Starfleet Academy?” Is it going to be Earth-based or space-based?

I’m going to say, without giving anything away, both. Right now we’re in the middle of answering the question what does San Francisco, where the academy is, look like in the 32nd century. Our primary set is the biggest we’ve ever built.

So you’re setting this —

In the “Discovery” era. There’s a specific reason for that. As the father of a 17-year-old boy, I see what my son is feeling as he looks at the world and to his future. I see the uncertainty; I see all the things we took for granted as given are not certainties for him. I see him recognizing he’s inheriting an enormous mess to clean up and it’s going to be on his generation to figure out how to do that, and that’s a lot to ask of a kid. My thinking was, if we set “Starfleet Academy” in the halcyon days of the Federation where everything was fine, it’s not going to speak to what kids are going through right now.

It’ll be a nice fantasy, but it’s not really going to be authentic. What’ll be authentic is to set it in the timeline where this is the first class back after over 100 years, and they are coming into a world that is only beginning to recover from a cataclysm — which was the Burn, as established on “Star Trek: Discovery,” where the Federation was greatly diminished. So they’re the first who’ll inherit, who’ll re-inherit, the task of exploration as a primary goal, because there just wasn’t room for that during the Burn — everybody was playing defense. It’s an incredibly optimistic show, an incredibly fun show; it’s a very funny show, and it’s a very emotional show. I think these kids, in different ways, are going to represent what a lot of kids are feeling now.

And I’m very, very , very excited that Holly Hunter is the lead of the show. Honestly, when we were working on the scripts, we wrote it for Holly thinking she’d never do it. And we sent them to her, and to our absolute delight and shock she loved them and signed on right away.

And then you’ve got the “Section 31” movie.

“Section 31” is Michelle Yeoh’s return as Georgiou. A very, very different feeling for “Star Trek.” I will always be so grateful to her, because on the heels of her nomination and then her Oscar win , she just doubled down on coming back to “Star Trek.” She could have easily walked away from it; she had a lot of other opportunities. But she remained steadfast and totally committed. We just wrapped that up and are starting to edit now.

Are you looking past “Starfleet” and “Section 31” to future projects?

There’s always notions and there are a couple of surprises coming up, but I really try to live in the shows that are in front of me in the moment because they’re so all-consuming. I’m directing the first two episodes of “Starfleet Academy,” so right now my brain is just wholly inside that world. But you can tell “Star Trek” stories forever; there’s always more. There’s something in the DNA of its construction that allows you to keep opening different doors. Some of that is science fiction, some of it has to do with the combination of science fiction and the organic embracing of all these other genres that lets you explore new territories. I don’t think it’s ever going to end. I think it’s going to go on for a long, long time. The real question for “Star Trek” is how do you keep innovating, how do you deliver both what people expect and something totally fresh at the same time. Because I think that is actually what people want from “Star Trek.” They want what’s familiar delivered in a way that doesn’t feel familiar.

With all our showrunners — Terry Matalas on “Picard,” the Hagemans on “Prodigy,” Mike McMahan on “Lower Decks,” Michelle Paradise, who has been singlehandedly running “Discovery” for the last two years, and then Akiva and Henry Alonso Myers on “Strange New Worlds” — my feeling is that the best way to protect and preserve “Star Trek” is not to impose my own vision on it but [find people] who meet the criteria of loving “Star Trek,” wanting to do new things with it, understanding how incredibly hard it is to do. And then I’m going to let you do your job. I’ll come in and tell you what I think every once in a while, and I’ll help get the boat off the dock, but once I hand the show over to a creative it has to be their show. And that means you’re going to get a different take every time, and as long as those takes all feel like they can marry into the same rainbow, to get back to the metaphor, that’s the way to keep “Star Trek” fresh.

I take great comfort because “Star Trek” really only belongs to Gene Roddenberry and the fans. We don’t own it. We carry it, we try to evolve it and then we hand it off to the next people. And hopefully they will love it as much as we do.

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Star Trek Discovery - Season 3

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After following Commander Michael Burnham into a wormhole, the U.S.S. Discovery lands in an unrecognizable world 1,000 years in the future. With Starfleet and the Federation on the brink of collapse due to a catastrophic event known as The Burn, the Discovery crew, with the help of new and mysterious allies Book (David Ajala) and Adira (Blu del Barrio), must uncover what caused The Burn and restore hope to the galaxy.

Includes Over 2 Hours of Special Features

“ The future of the Star Trek franchise is now, and we’re loving it.” - Yahoo

Special Features

• Deleted Scenes
• Writer’s Log: Michelle Paradise
• Star Trek: Discovery: The Voyage of Season 3
• Being Michael Burnham
• Kenneth Mitchell: To Boldly Go
• Bridge Building
• Gag Reel and more!

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Episodic stills, product description.

Debuting in 2017, this exciting entry in the ever-popular sci-fi franchise takes place approximately 10 years before the original "Star Trek" series. Imprisoned for mutiny, disgraced Starfleet officer Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) gets a chance at redemption when she's recruited to join the crew of the U.S.S. Discovery on an important interstellar mission. Doug Jones, Shazad Latif, Anthony Rapp, Mary Wiseman, Jason Isaacs also star.13 episodes on 4 discs. 11 hrs. Widescreen; Soundtrack: English.

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• MPAA rating ‏ : ‎ NR (Not Rated)
• Product Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.43 x 6.81 x 0.75 inches; 5.64 ounces
• Media Format ‏ : ‎ Subtitled
• Run time ‏ : ‎ 11 hours and 7 minutes
• Release date ‏ : ‎ July 20, 2021
• Actors ‏ : ‎ Anthony Rapp, Sonequa Martin-Green, Doug Jones, Mary Wiseman
• Studio ‏ : ‎ Paramount Pictures Home Entertainment
• ASIN ‏ : ‎ B092469RKM
• Country of Origin ‏ : ‎ USA
• Number of discs ‏ : ‎ 4
• #874 in Action & Adventure Blu-ray Discs

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Inside the ‘Star Trek: Discovery’ Series Finale: The Last-Minute Coda, the Surprise Easter Eggs, and What Season 6 Would Have Been About (EXCLUSIVE)

SPOILER WARNING: This story includes descriptions of major plot developments on the series finale of “ Star Trek : Discovery,” currently streaming on Paramount+ .

Watching the fifth and final season of “ Star Trek: Discovery ” has been an exercise in the uncanny. Paramount+ didn’t announce that the show was ending until after the Season 5 finale had wrapped filming — no one involved with the show knew it would be its concluding voyage when they were making it. And yet, the season has unfolded with a pervasive feeling of culmination. 

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“I think there’s more to it than just, ‘Oh, it was a coinkydink!’” the actor says with a laugh, before explaining that she’s thinking more about subtext than direct intent. “I’ve gotta give Michelle her flowers. She has always asked the deeper questions of this story and these characters. Those questions of meaning and purpose led to questions of origin and legacy, and, yes, that is quite culminating.”

Martin-Green and Paradise spoke exclusively with Variety about filming the finale and the coda, including the surprising revelation about the origins of one of “Discovery’s” most memorable characters and what Paradise’s plans for Season 6 would have been.

“It’s the Most Complicated Thing I’ve Ever Seen”

Once the “Discovery” writers’ room decided the season would be organized around a search for the Progenitor’s technology, they also knew that, eventually, Burnham would find it. So then they had to figure out what it would be.

“That was a discussion that evolved over the course of weeks and months,” Paradise says. Rather than focus on communicating the intricate details of how the technology works, they turned their attention to delivering a visual experience commensurate with the enormity and complexity of something that could seed life across the entire galaxy.

“We wanted a sense of a smaller exterior and an infinite interior to help with that sense of power greater than us,” Paradise says. Inspired in part by a drawing by MC Escher, the production created an environment surrounded by towering windows into a seemingly endless procession of alien planets, in which it’s just as easy to walk on the walls as on the floor. That made for a daunting challenge for the show’s producing director, Olatunde “Tunde” Osunsanmi: As Burnham battles with the season’s main antagonist, Mol (Eve Harlow), inside this volume, they fall through different windows into another world, and the laws of gravity keep shifting between their feet.

“It’s the most complicated thing I’ve ever seen, directorially,” Paradise says. “Tunde had a map, in terms of: What did the background look like? And when the cameras this way, what’s over there? It was it was incredibly complex to design and shoot.”

Two of those planets — one in perpetual darkness and rainstorms, another consumed by constant fire — were shot on different parking areas on the Pinewood Toronto studio lot.

“The fire planet was so bright that the fire department got called from someone who had seen the fire,” Paradise says. “It should not be possible to pull those kinds of things off in a television show, even on a bigger budget show, with the time limitations that you have. And yet, every episode of every season, we’re still coming in on time and on budget. The rain planet and the fire planet we shot, I believe, one day after the other.”

Martin-Green jumps in: “Michelle, I think that was actually the same day!”

“It Felt Lifted”

The last time a “Star Trek” captain talked to a being that could be (erroneously) considered God, it was William Shatner’s James T. Kirk in 1989’s “Star Trek: The Final Frontier.” The encounter did not go well.

“I had my own journey with the central storyline of Season 5, just as a believer,” Martin-Green says. “I felt a similar way that Burnham did. They’re in this sort of liminal mind space, and it almost felt that way to me. It felt lifted. It really did feel like she and I were the only two people in this moment.”

It’s in this conversation that Burnham learns that while the Progenitors did create all “humanoid” alien species in the galaxy in their image, they did not create the technology that allowed them to do so. They found it, fully formed, created by beings utterly unknown to them. The revelation was something that Martin-Green discussed with Paradise early on in the planning of Season 5, allowing “Discovery” to leave perhaps the most profound question one could ask — what, or who, came first in the cosmos? — unanswered.

“The progenitor is not be the be all end all of it,” Paradise says. “We’re not saying this is God with a capital ‘G.’”

“There’s Just This Air of Mystery About Him”

Starting on Season 3 of “Discovery,” renowned filmmaker David Cronenberg began moonlighting in a recurring role as Dr. Kovich, a shadowy Federation operative whose backstory has been heretofore undisclosed on the show.

“I love the way he plays Kovich,” Paradise says of Cronenberg. “There’s just this air of mystery about him. We’ve always wanted to know more.” When planning Season 5, one of the writers pitched revealing Kovich’s true identity in the (then-season) finale by harkening back to the “Star Trek” show that preceded “Discovery”: “Enterprise,” which ran on UPN from 2001 to 2005.

In the final episode, when Burnham debriefs her experiences with Kovich, she presses him to tell her who he really is. He reintroduces himself as Agent Daniels, a character first introduced on “Enterprise” as a young man (played by Matt Winston) and a Federation operative in the temporal cold war. 

This is, to be sure, a deep cut even for “Star Trek” fans. (Neither Cronenberg nor Martin-Green, for example, understood the reference.) But Paradise says they were laying the groundwork for the reveal from the beginning of the season. “If you watch Season 5 with that in mind, you can see the a little things that we’ve played with along the way,” she says, including Kovich/Daniels’ penchant for anachonistic throwbacks like real paper and neckties.

“I didn’t know that that was going be there,” Martin-Green says. “My whole childhood came back to me.”

“We Always Knew That We Wanted to Somehow Tie That Back Up”

Originally, Season 5 of “Discovery” ends with Burnham and Book talking on the beach outside the wedding of Saru (Doug Jones) and T’Rina (Tara Rosling) before transporting away to their next adventure. But Paradise understood that the episode needed something more conclusive once it became the series finale. The question was what.

There were some significant guardrails around what they could accomplish. The production team had only eight weeks from when Paramout+ and CBS Studios signed off on the epilogue to when they had to shoot it. Fortunately, the bridge set hadn’t been struck yet (though several standing sets already had been). And the budget allowed only for three days of production.

Then there was “Calypso.” 

To fill up the long stretches between the first three seasons of “Discovery,” CBS Studios and Paramount+ greenlit a series of 10 stand-alone episodes, dubbed “Short Treks,” that covered a wide variety of storylines and topics. The second “Short Trek” — titled “Calypso” and co-written by novelist Michael Chabon — first streamed between Season 1 and 2 in November 2018. It focuses on a single character named Craft (Aldis Hodge), who is rescued by the USS Discovery after the starship — and its now-sentient computer system, Zora (Annabelle Wallis) — has sat totally vacant for 1,000 years in the same fixed point in space. How the Discovery got there, and why it was empty for so long, were left to the viewer’s imagination. 

Still, for a show that had only just started its run, “Calypso” had already made a bold promise for “Discovery’s” endgame — one the producers had every intention of keeping.

“We always knew that we wanted to somehow tie that back up,” says Paradise, who joined the writers’ room in Season 2, and became showrunner starting with Season 3. “We never wanted ‘Calypso’ to be the dangling Chad.”

So much so, in fact, that, as the show began winding down production on Season 5, Paradise had started planning to make “Calypso” the central narrative engine for Season 6. 

“The story, nascent as it was, was eventually going to be tying that thread up and connecting ‘Discovery’ back with ‘Calypso,’” she says.

Once having a sixth season was no longer an option, Paradise knew that resolving the “Calypso” question was non-negotiable. “OK, well, we’re not going to have a season to do that,” she says. “So how do we do that elegantly in this very short period of time?”

“I Feel Like It Ends the Way It Needed to End”

Resolving “Calypso” provided the storytelling foundation for the epilogue, but everything else was about giving its characters one final goodbye.

“We want to know what’s happening to Burnham, first and foremost,” Paradise says. “And we knew we wanted to see the cast again.”

For the latter, Paradise and Jarrow devised a conceit that an older Burnham, seated in the captain’s chair on Discovery, imagines herself surrounded by her crew 30 years prior, so she (and the audience) could connect with them one final time. For the former, the makeup team designed prosthetics to age up Martin-Green and Ajala by 30 years — “I think they were tested as they were running on to the set,” Paradise says with a laugh — to illustrate Burnham and Book’s long and happy marriage together.

Most crucially, Paradise cut a few lines of Burnham’s dialogue with Book from the original Season 5 finale and moved it to a conversation she has with her son in the coda. The scene — which evokes the episode’s title, “Life Itself” — serves as both a culminating statement of purpose for “Discovery” and the overarching compassion and humanity of “Star Trek” as a whole.

To reassure her son about his first command of a starship, Burnham recalls when the ancient Progenitor asked what was most meaningful to her. “Do you know how you would answer that question now?” he asks.

“Yeah, just being here,” Burnham replies. “You know, sometimes life itself is meaning enough, how we choose to spend the time that we have, who we spend it with: You, Book, and the family I found in Starfleet, on Discovery.”

Martin-Green relished the opportunity to revisit the character she’s played for seven years when she’s reached the pinnacle of her life and career. “You just get to see this manifestation of legacy in this beautiful way,” she says. “I will also say that I look a lot like my mom, and that was that was also a gift, to be able to see her.”

Shooting the goodbye with the rest of her cast was emotional, unsurprisingly, but it led Martin-Green to an unexpected understanding. “It actually was so charged that it was probably easier that it was only those three days that we knew it was the end, and not the entirety of season,” she says.

Similarly, Paradise says she’s “not sure” what more she would’ve done had there been more time to shoot the coda. “I truly don’t feel like we missed out on something by not having one more day,” she says. “I feel like it ends the way it needed to end.”

Still, getting everything done in just three days was no small feat, either. “I mean, we worked ’round the clock,” Martin-Green says with a deep laugh. “We were delirious by the end — but man, what a way to end it.”

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Michelle Paradise and Sonequa Martin-Green Head to The Ready Room

Unpack Star Trek: Discovery's series finale!

SPOILER WARNING: Discussions for the Star Trek: Discovery Season 5 series finale episode, "Life, Itself"!

Break down Star Trek: Discovery 's series finale, " Life, Itself " with Michael Burnham herself, Sonequa Martin-Green, and executive producer/co-showrunner Michelle Paradise along with host Wil Wheaton on a special installment of The Ready Room !

Plus, go behind-the-scenes on the finale's Infinity Tunnel, designing Burnham and Moll's epic fight, and we pay tribute to Discovery 's impact on Star Trek and the legacy it leaves.

Star Trek: Discovery Seasons 1-4 are streaming exclusively on Paramount+ in the U.S., the UK, Canada, Switzerland, South Korea, Latin America, Germany, France, Italy, Australia and Austria. Seasons 2 and 3 also are available on the Pluto TV “Star Trek” channel in Switzerland, Germany and Austria. The series streams on Super Drama in Japan, TVNZ in New Zealand, and SkyShowtime in Spain, Portugal, Poland, The Nordics, The Netherlands, and Central and Eastern Europe and also airs on Cosmote TV in Greece. The series is distributed by Paramount Global Content Distribution.

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'Star Trek: Discovery' ends as an underappreciated TV pioneer

Eric Deggans

Sonequa Martin-Green as Michael Burnham. Michael Gibson/Paramount+ hide caption

First, an admission: Though this column will offer a lot of discussion and defense of Star Trek: Discovery as a pivotal show, it won’t spend much time talking up the series’ current, final season or its finale episode, “Life, Itself,” dropping Thursday on Paramount+.

That’s because, for this critic, the last few seasons of Discovery have been a bit bogged down by the stuff that has always made it a tough sell as a Trek series: overly ambitious, serialized storylines that aren’t compelling; new characters and environments that don’t impress; plot twists which can be maddening in their lack of logic; big storytelling swings which can be confusing and predictable at once.

'Star Trek: Picard' soars by embracing the legacy of 'The Next Generation'

The show’s finale features the culmination of a sprawling scavenger hunt which found the crew of the starship Discovery bounding all over the place, searching for clues leading to a powerful technology pioneered by an alien race which created humanoid life throughout the galaxy. Their goal was to grab the technology before another race, ruthless and aggressive, could beat them to it, laying waste to everything.

It's no spoiler to reveal that Discovery ’s heroes avoid that nightmarish scenario, wrapping its fifth and final season with a conclusion centered on Sonequa Martin-Green’s ever-resourceful Capt. Michael Burnham and fond resolutions for a multitude of supporting characters (there’s even a space wedding!)

Still, this good-enough ending belies Discovery ’s status as a pioneering show which helped Paramount+ build a new vision for Star Trek in modern television – breaking ground that more creatively successful series like Star Trek: Picard and Star Trek: Strange New Worlds would follow years later.

And it all began with a singular character: Michael Burnham.

A take on Star Trek for modern TV

Discovery debuted in 2017 on CBS All Access — the streaming service which would become Paramount+ — facing a serious challenge.

As the first new Trek series in a dozen years, it had to chart a path which offered a new vision of the franchise without going too far — carving out a new corner in the universe of Capt. Kirk and Mr. Spock not long after the release of Star Trek Beyond , the third feature film produced by J. J. Abrams featuring rebooted versions of those classic characters.

Producers set Discovery ’s story 10 years before the days of Kirk and Spock (originally depicted on NBC for three seasons starting way back in 1966). The new series wouldn’t be centered on a starship captain, but its second in command: Burnham, a Black woman who also happened to be the hitherto unknown adopted daughter of Vulcan ambassador Sarek, Spock’s father (she would get promoted to captain of Discovery much later).

A Black human woman who was raised among the emotionally controlling, super-intellectual Vulcans? Who Trek fans had never heard of over nearly 60 years? Before I actually saw any episodes, my own feelings ranged from cautiously intrigued to cynically pessimistic.

But then I saw the first episode, which had an amazing early scene: Martin-Green as Burnham and Michelle Yeoh as Discovery Capt. Philippa Georgiou walking across an alien planet – two women of color marking the first step forward for Star Trek on a new platform.

People once sidelined in typical science fiction stories were now centerstage — a thrilling, historic moment.

Michelle Yeoh as Captain Philippa Georgiou and Sonequa Martin-Green as First Officer Michael Burnham in the very first episode of Star Trek: Discovery. Jan Thijs/CBS hide caption

And it got better from there. Back in the day, Trek writers often felt hamstrung by creator Gene Roddenberry’s insistence that, in the future depicted by the show, humans were beyond social ills like greed, prejudice, sexism, war, money and personal friction. The writers chafed, wondering: How in the world do you build compelling stories on a starship where interpersonal human conflict doesn’t exist?

But Discovery found a workaround, putting Burnham in a position where logic led her to mutiny against her captain, attempting a strategy which ultimately failed — leaving humans in open combat with the legendarily warlike Klingons. Discovery also featured a long storyline which played out over an entire season, unlike many earlier Trek shows which tried to offer a new adventure every week.

'First, Last And Always, I Am A Fan': Michael Chabon Steers Latest 'Star Trek'

The show’s first season had plenty of action, with Harry Potter alum Jason Isaacs emerging as a compelling and unique starship captain (saying more would be a spoiler; log onto Paramount+ and check out the first season). Fans saw a new vision for Trek technology, leveraging sleek, visceral special effects and action sequences worthy of a big budget movie, with design elements cribbed from several of the franchise’s films.

Later in its run, Discovery would debut Ethan Peck as Spock and Anson Mount as Christopher Pike, classic Trek characters who eventually got their own acclaimed series in Strange New Worlds . So far, five other Trek series have emerged on Paramount+ from ideas initially incubated on Discovery – including a critically acclaimed season of Picard which reunited the cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation .

Not bad for a series one TV critic eventually called among “the worst in the [ Trek ] franchise’s history.”

Discovery’s unappreciated legacy

Unfortunately, Discovery has taken some turns which didn’t work out quite so well. At the end of Discovery ’s second season, the starship jumped ahead in time nine centuries – perhaps to remove it from Strange New World ’s timeline? – placing it in an environment only distantly connected to classic Trek .

And while Discovery initially seemed cautious about referencing classic Trek in its stories, later series like Strange New Worlds and Picard learned the value of diving into the near-60-year-old franchise’s legacy – regularly tapping the show’s longtime appeal, rather than twisting into knots to avoid it.

There are likely fans of Discovery who would disagree with this analysis. But I think it helps explain why the series has never quite gotten its due in the world of Star Trek , initially shaded by skeptical fans and later overshadowed by more beloved products.

Now is the perfect time to pay tribute to a show which actually accomplished quite a lot – helping prove that Roddenberry’s brainchild still has a lot of narrative juice left in the 21st Century.

When is the 'Star Trek: Discovery' Season 5 finale? Release date, cast, where to watch

Warning: May contain spoilers .

U.S.S. Discovery's final mission is almost at its end, with the last episode of "Star Trek: Discovery" Season 5 scheduled to release this Thursday.

The fifth and final season of the hit TV series had followed Captain Burnham and the crew of the U.S.S. Discovery uncover a mystery that sent them on "an epic adventure across the galaxy to find an ancient power whose very existence has been deliberately hidden for centuries," according to Paramount+.

"Star Trek: Discovery" debuted in 2017 and is the seventh in the Star Trek series. Here's what to know about Season 5 of "Star Trek: Discovery," and when the final episode will be dropping.

When is 'Star Trek: Discovery' Season 5 finale?

The final episode of "Star Trek: Discovery" Season 5 will release on Paramount+ on Thursday, May 30. Paramount+ did not specify what time the episode will be available on its platform.

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Nine episodes of Season 5, and Seasons 1 to 4 are available to stream on Paramount+.

'Star Trek: Discovery' on Paramount+: Subscribe

Will 'Star Trek: Discovery' have another season?

No. Paramount+ had earlier announced that Season 5 will be the last in the "Star Trek: Discovery" series.

'Star Trek: Discovery' Season 5 cast

Season 5 of "Star Trek: Discovery" brings back new and old faces along with recurring guest stars. Cast members include:

• Sonequa Martin-Green as Captain Michael Burnham
• Doug Jones as Saru
• Anthony Rapp as Paul Stamets
• Mary Wiseman as Sylvia Tilly
• Wilson Cruz as Dr. Hugh Culber
• David Ajala as Cleveland “Book” Booker
• Blu del Barrio as Adira
• Callum Keith Rennie as Rayner
• Elias Toufexis as L’ak
• Eve Harlow as Moll

'Star Trek: Discovery' Season 5 trailer

Paramount+ dropped the official trailer for Season 5 on Feb. 23.

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Saman Shafiq is a trending news reporter for USA TODAY. Reach her at [email protected] and follow her on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter @saman_shafiq7.

Here's What 'Star Trek: Discovery' Season 6 Was Going To Be About

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The Big Picture

• Star Trek: Discovery's showrunner Michelle Paradise planned to connect the series finale with the Short Trek episode "Calypso".
• The finale resolves the story of "Calypso" by sending an aged Michael Burnham on a mission to leave the abandoned USS Discovery where it will be discovered in "Calypso".
• Despite the end of Discovery, Star Trek fans can look forward to upcoming projects like Section 31, Strange New Worlds, Starfleet Academy, Lower Decks, and Prodigy.

With the airing of its series finale this week, Star Trek: Discovery has completed its five-season mission. But before the decision was made to end the show this year, its creators had a plan for a sixth season. In a new interview with Variety , showrunner Michelle Paradise reveals what those plans were - and how they fit them into the finale.

Between seasons of Discovery , Paramount+ ( then known as CBS All Access ) streamed a number of Star Trek shorts, collectively known as Short Treks . One of them, "Calypso", was set in the far future - even further than the 32nd-century timeframe of Discovery 's last three seasons - and took place on a long-abandoned USS Discovery . Says Paradise, "We always knew that we wanted to somehow tie that back up. We never wanted 'Calypso’ to be the dangling chad." She notes that the plan "was eventually going to be tying that thread up and connecting Discovery back with ‘Calypso'." However, with Discovery ending at season 5, and the production team having been given the time and budget to film addition material to turn the season finale into a series finale, the decision was made to resolve "Calypso" in this week's conclusion, " Life, Itself ".

How Does the 'Discovery' Finale Tie Into 'Calypso'?

In "Calypso", Aldis Hodge plays Craft, a man who finds himself on the Discovery , which has been abandoned for centuries. He explores the ship, and befriends its artificially-intelligent computer, Zora (voiced by Annabelle Wallis ). He seeks to return to his wife and child, but Zora is unable to disobey her orders to remain in place. Ultimately, he takes a warp-capable shuttlecraft from the ship, although both he and Zora are unsure if it will still work after centuries of inactivity. In the final coda of "Life, Itself", an aged Michael Burnham ( Sonequa Martin-Green ) is sent on a special mission from Starfleet - she is to take the now-retired Discovery , which has been stripped of its 32nd-century upgrades (to better resemble its appearance in "Calypso", which was filmed during Discovery 's earlier seasons) to a particular region of space and abandon it there - where it will be discovered by Craft centuries hence.

Although Star Trek: Discovery has now warped off into the sunset, Star Trek fans have a number of projects to look forward to. Star Trek: Section 31 , a new streaming-original film starring Michelle Yeoh , has recently wrapped filming, as has the third season of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds . The new series Star Trek: Starfleet Academy is set to film later this year, and new seasons of the animated series Star Trek: Lower Decks and Star Trek: Prodigy are expected to arrive later this year.

Watch on Paramount+

All five seasons of Star Trek: Discovery are now available to stream on Paramount+ . Stay tuned to Collider for future updates.

Star Trek: Discovery

Taking place almost a decade before Captain Kirk's Enterprise, the USS Discovery charts a course to uncover new worlds and life forms.