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Published Mar 18, 2022

Recap: Star Trek: Discovery - Coming Home

The season comes to a stunning conclusion

StarTrek.com

With the Dark Matter Anomaly (DMA) on its way to impact United Earth and Ni’Var, the Federation fleet travels to the planets in an effort to mount an evacuation. Not only is Federation HQ capable of warp, but its individual decks are detachable and able to achieve faster-than-light speeds. Perhaps Miles O’Brien’s hard work to move Deep Space 9 closer to the Bajoran wormhole in “Emissary” inspired future engineers to equip space stations with the latest tech? Joined by Sylvia Tilly and her Starfleet Academy cadets, Admiral Vance sets out to save as many people as possible.

Back inside Species 10-C’s hyperfield, the U.S.S. Discovery-A’ s crew works to free themselves from the 10-C’s orb so they can prevent Ruon Tarka from stealing the DMA’s power source, an action that would destroy the 10-C’s solar system. President T’Rina offers to telepathically connect with their captors, but the experience overwhelms her senses. Apparently, Species 10-C is linked as one, yet unlike the Borg, their union is harmonious. The fact that knowledge about the Borg persists into the 32nd century is quite intriguing.

Aboard Book’s ship, Cleveland “Book” Booker and Jett Reno emphasize to Tarka that, even if he makes it to an alternate reality, the Oros in that universe would not be his Oros . Having failed, the pair employ Grudge’s cat collar, which is equipped with a holodisruptor to prevent holograms from frightening the legendary “Space Catte,” to disable the containment field and knock Tarka unconscious.

The always reliable Paul Stamets figures out a plan to get Discovery out of its orb — however, the strategy will burn out the spore drive and leave them decades away from home, echoing U.S.S. Voyager ’s 24th century jaunt through the Delta Quadrant. The gambit succeeds, freeing the starship to pursue Book’s vessel. Once in range, Reno beams back to Discovery and informs Captain Burnham that Book hasn’t been able to regain control of his ship.

As debris from the DMA begins to reach Earth, General Ndoye suggests employing a shuttle to collide with Book’s ship in order to knock it off course. Burnham prepares to order Lt. Commander Detmer to undertake the potential suicide mission, a dilemma similar to the 24th century bridge officer’s test that Deanna Troi eventually passed in “Thine Own Self.” Ndoye quickly intercedes and volunteers to pilot the shuttle, demonstrating her resolve to save Earth.

In an emotionally-charged exchange, Book finally manages to connect with Tarka, who understands that Oros would never want him to go to these lengths to reach an alternate universe. The revelation occurs moments before Ndoye’s shuttle strikes, saving the 10-C but sending Book’s ship toward the edge of the hyperfield. Discovery beams a wounded Ndoye to safety, but Tarka believes his interdimensional transporter might work once it hits the hyperfield. The Risan elects to save Book by transporting him back to Discovery …

…but Book’s signal is lost as his ship impacts the hyperfield and is destroyed. A grief-stricken Burnham must push her feelings aside to guide Discovery , which becomes ensnared in another orb that brings the vessel into one of 10-C’s gas giants. The 10-C dispatch a small “shuttle orb,” permitting the dignitaries and bridge crew to join the senior staff as they go to the planet and meet the 10-C in person.

In awe of the massive lifeforms, the Federation team conveys that, while they are individual lifeforms, they are united in their search for peace. Burnham details the destruction wrought by the DMA, and in a moment that displays the priceless nature of communication, the 10-C agree to move the DMA away from Earth and Ni’Var. The 10-C then provide a stunning gift, as they share that they had intercepted Book’s transporter signal and beam the courier down, alive and well!

Grateful to be reunited with Michael, Book nevertheless argues that the 10-C must stop utilizing the DMA, even in uninhabited space. Once again highlighting the power of connection, Book convinces the 10-C to halt the DMA for good and lower their hyperfield wall. The crew returns to Discovery , while the 10-C use their wormhole technology one last time and send the starship back to Earth. If only the Caretaker had been as considerate to the U.S.S. Voyager !

As the crew celebrates their victory, two relationships take center stage. Saru and T’Rina openly acknowledge their feelings for one another, while Burnham and Book share a heartfelt goodbye — one they hope to only be temporary — before the courier serves his sentence for his renegade mission by assisting displaced refugees on Europa. Meanwhile, long-range sensors indicate the 10-C are keeping their promise and cleaning up the subspace rifts left by the DMA.

Having overcome The Burn and the DMA threat, the Federation seems to be back on track. Many new worlds have joined, with Burnham explaining that Tellar Prime never left and Andoria is in talks to return. The President of United Earth (played by surprise guest star and acclaimed activist Stacey Abrams) arrives to tell President Rillak that Earth is also ready to rejoin. The Federation is back!

“Coming Home” provides the perfect conclusion to a season that has underlined the need to find connection and hope in the wake of tragedy and unfathomable loss. Although the Federation had come very far in the short time since the mystery of The Burn was solved, the DMA once again tested its resolve and ultimately pushed the citizens of the galaxy even closer together. With these trials behind it, what will the Federation’s next steps be? Who else might join? Will the next generation spore drive be developed? Where will Discovery be sent to explore? Given that Star Trek: Discovery has been renewed for a fifth season, we will surely learn these answers in the near future. Stay tuned as we continue to boldly go…

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Jay Stobie (he/him) is a freelance writer, author, and consultant who has contributed articles to StarTrek.com, Star Trek Explorer, and Star Trek Magazine, as well as to Star Wars Insider and StarWars.com. Learn more about Jay by visiting JayStobie.com or finding him on Twitter, Instagram, and other social media platforms at @StobiesGalaxy.

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.

Coming Home (episode)

• View history

The DMA approaches Earth and Ni'Var. With evacuations underway, Burnham and the team aboard the USS Discovery must find a way to communicate and connect with a species far different from their own before time runs out. ( Season finale )

• 1.2 Act One
• 1.3 Act Two
• 1.4 Act Three
• 1.5 Act Four
• 2.1 Production
• 2.3 Reception
• 3.1 Starring
• 3.2 Guest starring
• 3.3 Co-starring
• 3.4 Uncredited co-stars
• 3.5 References
• 3.6 External links

Summary [ ]

As the DMA continues its course into the Alpha Quadrant , Lieutenant Tilly confers with her cadets at Federation Headquarters , which has gone to warp to oversee the evacuation of United Earth . She explains that each deck of the facility acts as its own lifeboat. Once their decks were filled to capacity, they were to report to their commanding officer and warp to Evacuation Base Gamma , emphasizing that they had to get as many people out as they could, and as quickly as possible. All available officers were overseeing the evac efforts. As of that moment, Tilly tells them, they are no longer cadets, but she then encourages them by expressing her belief that they were ready to act. She dismisses the cadets, and has Gorev and Harral follow her.

Federation HQ over Earth

Federation Headquarters comes out of warp near Luna and flies into Earth orbit, with the fleet arriving as backup. Deck 29 soon reports they are at capacity, and Fleet Admiral Vance grants them permission to undock to proceed to the rendezvous point. One of Vance's aides reports that 17 ships have already left Ni'Var for the rendezvous, and asks if they should be rerouted to Earth. Vance replies that they should stick to the plan, since Ni'Var only has 86 warp-capable ships as it is. Tilly points out that the USS Mitchell will not be at capacity even after evacuating all of Titan , and suggests rerouting the ship to Earth to pick up more refugees. Vance concurs, and so orders it. Harral hesitantly asks how many people can realistically be evacuated. Vance believes that with the four hours remaining before the DMA impacts, they can evacuate all of Titan, but maybe only 450,000 from Earth, and the same from Ni'Var. " That's it? " Gorev asks in disbelief, and the admiral's grim look is his answer. " Please hurry, Michael , " Tilly quietly urges.

Aboard the USS Discovery , still held in Species 10-C 's hyperfield , Captain Burnham asks where Commander Stamets is on getting them out of the membrane orb they were trapped in, and Lieutenant Commander Nilsson reports that he had a number of theories, but nothing concrete. Lieutenant Christopher has received no signals from the 10-C, and Dr. Hirai continues to request they release Discovery . Lieutenant Commander Owosekun shows that Booker's ship , now controlled by Tarka , is gaining speed and heading for the DMA power source , which is encased in a silicon - ellanium alloy much like the DMA controller . Nilsson adds that the alloy was incredibly effective at containing energy, but would not withstand external forces. Burnham realizes Tarka is going to hit the device with a gravimetric beam . President Rillak warns that if the 10-C think they were under attack, they would not come back to talk to them, not in time. Lieutenant Commander Rhys reports the 10-C are dispatching another orb to attempt to capture Booker's ship. Burnham orders Christopher to tell Stamets to "test faster", then has the diplomatic team assembled in the mess hall . When Rillak asks what her plan is, Burnhan replies she is confining them to quarters, and thinks Rillak should be there when she does.

Meanwhile, Tarka is attempting to pilot Booker's ship past the orbs the 10-C are dispatching, and asks Booker himself about his ship's morphing abilities. Imprisoned in a forcefield, Booker refuses to help Tarka any further, which confuses the scientist, as he was doing everything he said they would do, and that nothing had changed. Booker believes that everything has changed, and that the cost of their plan meant that this had to be the last resort. Tarka points out what General Ndoye had told them about the first contact team, thinking they could be dead while Discovery was still trapped. Booker firmly believes they were talking to the 10-C, and that their plan was working. He reminds Tarka of what he had told him about anger being productive , but it was also blinding as well. Tarka throws reason to the wind, shouting that he had waited for ten years , and he was going home to find Oros , end of story. He is able to find the morphing controls, granting him greater agility to avoid the orbs. Booker hopes there is a way out of this; Commander Reno , imprisoned with him, doesn't see a way, but points out the "upside": Once they impacted the hyperfield, they would be vaporized instantly. When Booker asks how that was an upside, Reno says only, " We'll die fast. I hate pain. " The shaking of the ship pushes an object at Booker's feet: Grudge 's collar. " Or maybe we'll survive after all, " he says.

Back on Discovery , Burnham is adamant that the plasma did not just vent itself, and that the entire mission was compromised. Rillak believes there had to be a less public way to find out, as it would erode their trust in one another. Burnham insists she cannot allow whoever was responsible to roam the ship. Seeing them, Ndoye steps forward and confesses her role in the escape. United Earth was running out of time, and they were all gone; there was no clue where the orb was, or even if they were alive; meanwhile, she believed Booker and Tarka would be able to stop the DMA right now. Burnham points out that billions of lives were at stake, but Ndoye protests that Booker had given her his assurance. Burnham asks if that was before or after Tarka took him hostage. Ndoye realizes she has been deceived, confirmed by Rillak telling her that communication had been working, and her belief that they would have withdrawn the DMA. Burnham orders Officer Zena to confine Ndoye to quarters; accepting this, the general assures them that she remains willing and able to serve. As Ndoye leaves, Saru calls over the ship's intercom: They have received a message from the 10-C.

As Burnham and Rillak transport to the captain's ready room , Saru admits he finds their response "bewildering": They have been asking the 10-C to release them from the orb, but the 10-C's reply indicates they already did. Zora confirms that the accuracy of their message was in the ninety-sixth percentile. Hirai speculates that perhaps the 10-C have confused them with Booker and Tarka, as they arrived together. Burnham asks if Zora can communicate that Tarka has gone rogue, but Zora warns it would take a considerable amount of time. T'Rina suggests telepathic communication to convey their desire to protect them. Saru warns that linking with an unknown species was incredibly dangerous, but Rillak points out they had less than four hours to stop the DMA. T'Rina raises a hand to one of the viewports, and outside, the orb glows red: she has made contact. The link causes considerable strain to T'Rina, including a nosebleed , before she finally breaks it and slumps into a chair. She tells the others that the 10-C are confused and terrified; they can't stop Booker's ship, and they no longer trust Discovery . They had to find another way to reach the 10-C, or their worlds were doomed.

Act One [ ]

T'Rina awakens in sickbay with Burnham, Rillak, Saru, and Doctors Culber and Pollard hovering over her. Pollard informs Burnham and Saru that T'Rina's heart rate and blood pressure were still elevated, but her neural activity was returning to normal. Burnham asks T'Rina if there was anything else she could tell them. T'Rina admits the connection was "unusual", as she was not linked to one of the 10-C, but all of them. Rillak asks if they were linked like the Borg , but T'Rina replies it was different, that the 10-C existed in a state of harmony with one another; she thinks they do not understand the concept of individual existence. Rillak hopes they can find a way to make them understand. Just then, Stamets reports he has found a way out of the orb, but it "won't be pretty". Asking the doctors to keep her posted, Burnham transports with Rillak to meet with Stamets. Saru lingers; seeing this, a smiling Culber silently indicates he and Pollard should leave. Alone with T'Rina, Saru apologizes for having to leave, but thinks on what she had said before about avoiding personal closeness; he too had been hesitant to have such a personal relationship since leaving Kaminar . However, he finds that placing such limits did not protect him, so much as "dull the brightness of [his] days". With that, he departs, leaving T'Rina in thought.

Meanwhile, Tarka has brought the ship to the power source; once he has it, he would return Booker and Reno to Discovery , and it would be over in fifteen minutes. Reno points out that another orb could crash them into the hyperfield, but Tarka is confident the 10-C would not risk coming so close to the plasma streams. He then takes a different tack in appealing to Booker, pointing out that Kwejian would be there in his new universe too, and invites Booker to come with him; he could get back his family, Kyheem and Leto . Reno counters that he wouldn't, because the people Booker knew were gone; they might look the same, but they would not be the same. Kyheem, Leto, Reno's wife , and all the others they had lost would still be gone. Booker agrees with her, and tells Tarka to let them out of the forcefield before he does something they will all regret. Tarka says only that it would be over soon, as he returns to work. " It sure as hell will, " Booker says to himself, as he continues to use the collar.

Stamets reports to Burnham and Rillak that he could get them out, and that they should survive; Rillak wonders about the "should", and Stamets answers only that it was the best he could do at that time. Ensign Adira Tal shows the amount of energy Booker's ship used to escape the orb, and given Discovery 's larger size, it would take them a lot more. As of that moment, there was only one process capable of discharging that kind of energy without immediately killing them: the spore drive . Stamets explains that the normal operation of the spore drive converted that energy into momentum to propel them along the mycelial network , but if the ship remained stationary, all that stored energy would have to go somewhere. Rillak asks if that meant the energy would release into the orb and break them out, and Stamets confirms this… but adds that it would also burn out the spore drive in the process, which could only be repaired at spacedock , a journey that would take them decades with conventional warp drive. Seeing no other option, Burnham gives him the go-ahead.

Back on his ship, while Tarka remains focused on his goal, Booker explains the collar to Reno: Grudge hated holograms , and the collar had a built-in disruptor that could disable holograms… or a forcefield projected by holo-emitters . He is able to use the disruptor to open a small opening in the forcefield – "a cat door", as Reno puts it.

At the same time, Stamets reports he is ready to jump. Burnham asks Hirai if any new message has come through; Hirai reports he is still sending a message that they were there to help, but had received no response. Burnham orders black alert . The ship begins its rotation in place; Stamets reports the spore drive is holding, but power throughput is near capacity. Christopher reports minor hull breaches on multiple decks but no injuries; Lieutenant JG Linus shows no changes to the orb. Adira warns that the entire EPS grid was about to overload, but Burnham orders them not to stop it. On the bridge, several consoles overload and explode, as does the reaction cube in engineering . But the shockwave of energy released shatters the orb and frees Discovery . Lieutenant Commander Detmer confirms they were out of the orb, and impulse engines were back online, but warp drive would take some time; Rhys confirms the same for weapons, and Nilsson reports the spore drive is down as expected. Burnham asks if any more orbs were heading their way, and Owosekun reports there were not; the 10-C were just letting them go. Rillak is optimistic that they might turn things around after all. As they clear the gas giant, Burnham orders Detmer to catch up to Booker's ship as quickly as she could; unless they stopped Tarka, the 10-C would not talk to them.

Meanwhile, Booker has escaped the forcefield, and uses the holo-disruptor to breach Tarka's personal shield and knock the scientist out with a single punch. Reno accesses the controls, but finds the ship is locked on autopilot and that they would reach the power source in ten minutes. Booker doesn't see any way to override the system in time, adding that communications were also locked out. He takes his combadge back from Tarka and tells Reno to use it to return to Discovery and tell them what was happening, to tell Burnham that he loved her, and he would understand whatever she needed to do. Aboard Discovery , Owosekun detects the transport signal and identifies it as Reno; Burnham has her beamed to the bridge. Reno warns that Booker's ship would reach the power source in ten minutes, and relays Booker's message to her. Letting it sink in a moment, Burnham then asks for options. Booker's ship was protected by a pattern interrupter , so transporting them off wouldn't work; weapons were still off-line; and they could not use the tractor beam unless the gravimetric beam from Booker's ship was disabled first, otherwise they would destroy the hyperfield themselves. Rillak suggests using Ndoye's military knowledge.

The Mitchell to the rescue

At Federation Headquarters in Earth orbit, Tilly reports near-Earth debris being accelerated at twenty-one hundred kilometers a second by the DMA. Vance has Earth raise its planetary shields , and for transport shuttles to continue the evacuations. One shuttle is nearly smashed by an asteroid before a starship comes in to destroy it: the Mitchell , having arrived from Titan. Vance asks Tilly to remind him to give the captain a commendation if they survive, then asks if the President of United Earth has been evacuated yet. Tilly reports she has not, choosing to wait until the last possible moment while she helps the evacuation. The admiral orders that the evac captain keep a shuttle ready for her when they pull out. Gorev reports deck five of Headquarters is at capacity, and Vance orders them to get out while they could.

On Discovery 's bridge, Ndoye asks if they have considered the obvious solutions, such as the tractor beam, and Burnham confirms they have. The general suggests a targeted hit, using a shuttle on autopilot, but Nilsson warns the gravimetric flux would disrupt navigation; someone would have to pilot the shuttle, and Owosekun adds that she would not be able to transport them out. It was a suicide mission: not only would the pilot of the shuttle possibly not return, but Booker and Tarka would likely die as well. Burnham realizes there was no option, and looks to Detmer, saying they would need a "great pilot". Just as Detmer prepares to take the job, Ndoye volunteers, reminding the captain that she had years of experience as a combat pilot; she had been defending United Earth and its people for twenty years , and her desire to do so was what led her to side with Booker and Tarka. Burnham has Owosekun transport the general to the shuttlebay; before this, she removes her United Earth commbadge and hands it to the captain, asking her to tell the President that she gave her all for Earth if she does not return.

Act Two [ ]

The oncoming debris from the DMA has disabled Federation Headquarters' bridge propulsion systems, leaving them stuck in Earth orbit. The starships USS Pathfinder and USS Tikhov report their shields below ten percent, the USS Credence was departing, and the USS Nog was not at capacity but taking severe damage. The USS Yelchin reports evacuation orders are complete. Vance reluctantly gives the order to cease evacuation efforts, and for all ships to depart Earth and Luna immediately; he would provide them covering fire as long as possible. He then turns to his crew and thanks them for their bravery, before giving the order to abandon ship and report to the Mitchell . Meanwhile, Earth's shields begin to fail, and several asteroids begin impacting on the surface. Tilly commends Gorev and Harral on the work they had done; Gorev wishes they could have done more, and Tilly agrees, but it was time for them to go. Both cadets transport to the Mitchell , but Tilly remains behind with Vance. She points out that those were her cadets out there, and it would be all for nothing if the ships didn't leave. Vance points out that there would be no way for them to transport to safety, and Tilly replies that she knows.

Back on his ship, Booker brings Tarka back to consciousness and asks him to help stop the gravimetric beam. Tarka refuses, saying that he was almost home. Booker tells him that Oros would not be there waiting for him, but Tarka is adamant that Booker doesn't know that for sure. Booker understands the pain of loss, "the hole they leave behind", and admits he finds it difficult to wake up some days without them. Tarka, tears running down his face, knows that Oros would have tried to stop him, just like Booker was doing, and asks why he wasn't there to stop him now. As the computer reports sixty seconds to breaching the casement, Tarka apologetically reveals he used a recursive fractal encryption code , and would not be able to stop it in time. Just then, the computer reports a proximity alert: Ndoye's shuttle, heading straight on a collision course. Neither man move to do anything to stop her as the shuttle crashes into the ship, disabling it. Owosekun is able to transport the general to sickbay, and also detects both Booker and Tarka alive, but is unable to lock onto them.

As his ship is ninety seconds from impact with the hyperfield, Booker tries to find a way to beam them back to Discovery , but Tarka knows there is not enough power. He disables the ship's life support to gain enough power to beam Booker out. Booker insists they both go, but Tarka refuses. Burnham, his life, was in this reality; Tarka's was in Kayalise, or somewhere beyond it. Perhaps he would get the interdimensional transporter he built to work, and see Oros again. Booker does not want to leave him behind to die. Tarka sadly bids him goodbye, and activates the transporter. With thirty seconds before impact, Tarka picks up his interdimensional transporter, and begins to activate it. Owosekun detects Booker's transporter signature, and attempts to beam him to the bridge. Before she can, however, Booker's ship explodes on impact with the hyperfield. Burnham stares in stunned silence for a moment, asking if they were able to get him back. The silence is the only response she receives. Breaking down in grief for her lost lover, Burnham is brought back into the present by Rhys, who reports another orb is coming. Attempting to compose herself, Burnham orders the crew to prepare to re-enter the orb, and finish what they had started.

Act Three [ ]

Another internal explosion on Federation Headquarters disables the last of their weapons, but the ships made it safely away – something Vance decides to celebrate as he hands Tilly a flask of Risian whiskey , a gift from Tarka when Archer Spacedock was completed. She reprogrammed the DOT-23s to reinforce power to the shields so Earth had a little more time. When Vance asks how long, Tilly estimates two hours. " That's more than enough time to get bogged down with life's greatest regrets, right? " Vance jokes, as he toasts with Tilly. Tilly admits she was happy with how her life ended up: she made friends who became her family, and got to see and do incredible things. She recalls a sunset with her first boyfriend, skipping a biology lecture and climbing onto Starfleet Academy 's roof just to see it. Vance expresses amused gratitude that she didn't skip engineering. Tilly adds that some people never truly find their purpose in life, and she was glad she had found hers. Vance agrees with that, but regrets he didn't express it better, adding that he wished he'd spent more time with his daughter . Tilly asks if his daughter knew he loved her, and he confirms she did. She expresses similar feelings about her mother , and knew that a parent's love was the most important thing in their lives.

The 10-C revealed

Back in the hyperfield, the orb containing Discovery is being pulled into the gas giant, where Owosekun detects a massive structure similar to the one they found on the dead 10-C homeworld , with thousands of life signs. Saru then reports a new message from the 10-C: " We now understand your request to leave the orb. You are not one. How many are you? " Hirai adds that the 10-C were asking them to join them, and were sending transport as before. Burnham has them report to the shuttlebay; with time running out, she has the bridge crew join her there as well. The egg-shaped transport delivers the crew and the delegates to the "surface", where they see several 10-C creatures approach them. Stamets reports he is beaming in hydrocarbons onto the orb's surface, but Zora would need to project the light map given the size of the space. Adira transmits the updated language algorhythms to Saru's translation device. Stamets looks up in surprise to see Culber enter, thinking he would be on the surface with the others. After what happened to Booker, however, Culber wanted to be with his family. Saru reports that the 10-C are repeating their earlier message. Rillak suggests telling them that they were each an individual "one", and also one as a whole. Their appearances and experiences differ, but they all sought happiness, freedom, security, and equality. " We want that for our children, just as you do for yours, " Rillak concludes, adding that there was so much that united them. Hirai sees they are sending a reply, and Saru sees it is a question about Booker and Tarka attempting to breach the casement. Burnham responds that they were once connected, part of the whole, but then they separated. The 10-C ask why. Burnham explains that one (Tarka) had lost someone long ago and thought the power source would reunite them; the other (Booker) had lost his homeworld to the 10-C's device, and didn't want anyone else to experience that. " Is that why you are here? " the 10-C ask, and Rillak confirms it, saying that this loss was about to happen again, to all of them. Burnham adds that they experienced the 10-C's fear and pain when they had to leave their homeworld, leaving so many behind, a feeling they were now sharing. Burnham pleads with them to stop the device, or it would destroy their worlds as well. " Do not let history repeat, " Burnham finishes.

Saru looks relieved as he translates the 10-C's reply, while at Federation Headquarters, Vance and Tilly see that the DMA appears to have stopped. Saru reports that the 10-C have agreed to move the DMA away from their worlds. The debris field begins to pull away from Earth. All are relieved (Reno even joking to "Bobcat" Stamets that she has a cocktail in the works for the occasion), but the 10-C detect Burnham's sadness, and ask her why. Burnham admits that of the two who were separated and had died that day, one of them she had loved very deeply; he had been her "one". The 10-C emit a great flash of light, and suddenly Booker is standing before them, confused and disoriented, but alive. Burnham embraces him tightly. He asks if it worked, if Earth and Ni'Var were safe, and Burnham confirms they are; she asks if he was real, and he confirms he is. The crew (including Stamets, Culber, and Adira back on the ship) are overjoyed to hear and see that Booker is alive.

Booker looks up to see the 10-C for himself, and asks to speak to them; Saru will translate for him. He begins by asking how he was there. The 10-C respond that they detected the transporter signal, presuming its importance given the timing, and held it in stasis. He then asks about the DMA. The 10-C confess they did not realize they were higher life-forms, and pledge to scan more broadly and operate in uninhabited space. For Booker, this is not good enough, pointing out the toxic byproducts of the DMA's passage, and insists they have to shut it down for good, which would be the start of making things right. The 10-C are reluctant to do so, as they would not be able to keep the hyperfield intact. Booker replies that hiding behind a wall wouldn't keep them safe, that the void would catch up to them in time. He then begins to explain about the World Root , which connected all life on Kwejian. Wherever they were, whatever village or continent, it reminded the Kwejian people that they were all on the same planet, their fates always interconnected. " Maybe that's the lesson, if there is one, " Booker muses, pointing out that both he and the 10-C had lost so many, but they could not do harm in their names or memories; they had to honor the fallen, all of them, because they were beloved, beautiful. As he speaks, a glowing pattern appears on Booker's forehead, a pattern replicated by the 10-C. The 10-C reply: " We have caused great harm. We are filled with regret and sorrow. We will make this right. "

In Earth orbit, Vance and Tilly stare in astonishment as they realize that Discovery had succeeded, and drain their drinks to the dregs. Aboard Discovery , Burnham orders Rhys to cancel red alert . Around them, the hyperfield dissipates, and the DMA controller appears before them: the 10-C are using its wormhole one last time to send Discovery home.

Act Four [ ]

Discovery arrives in Earth orbit, as the crew mingle in the crew lounge . Saru expresses to Burnham his relief that Earth and Ni'Var were not more severely damaged; Titan had taken it the worst, but Earth had already sent aid. Saru remarks on how they had come a long way. Just then, Tilly and Vance enter the lounge in a joyful reunion. Rillak thanks Vance for his work, and the admiral replies that in this case, both had been where they needed to be. Tilly commends Adira on how well they've adjusted to socializing with the crew, and adds if things got hard, that was what family was for. Meanwhile, Saru joins T'Rina as she looks out over Earth; she had been thinking about Ni'Var, and Saru knows she must be eager to return home. She confirms she is, especially now that she no longer needed to worry about her homeworld's fate. She had also considered what Saru had shared with her in sickbay, having long told herself that balancing duty and personal relationships was not possible. However, she now believed she had been dishonest with herself, and thought it was difficult, but still possible… and worth the effort, for the right individual. Saru confesses that, when he had thought they would not survive, his main regret was that he had not spent more time with her; when he addresses her formally as "Madam President", she gently corrects him, asking him to use her name, as she takes his hand.

In her ready room, Burnham is joined by Rillak, who remarks on how the 10-C were "a hell of a thing". Burnham agrees, thinking about so many other species they hadn't met, how much they had to learn about their "small corner of the universe". She asks the President about her family; Rillak replies that her partner was evacuated with the Luna research team, while the rest remained on Earth, escaping the worst of the damage, and that she would see them soon. Rillak commends Burnham on how far she had come since their first meeting , and how she had felt Burnham had not been ready for the captaincy of the USS Voyager , but now felt she was. Burnham thanks her, but points out she would still refuse it, something Rillak was aware of. As the conversation becomes more serious, Burnham asks about Booker's fate. Booker violated multiple Federation statutes, including launching an isolytic weapon . Burnham makes clear she is not asking for leniency, and Rillak knows this, but she points out that "reasons do matter", as it was the only way justice could be just.

In Burnham's quarters, Grudge purring in her carry case, Booker begins to explain about what his future will be. Burnham asks the Starfleet security officer to give them privacy, and he does so, adding that he would be beamed to his shuttle in five minutes. As penance for his actions, Booker has been assigned to assist the Federation in aiding families displaced by the DMA. He admits he will miss the freedom of his ship, but he will take the work, all things considered. Burnham confesses that she feels unable to say goodbye, and Booker replies with a Kwejian phrase, " Kwakoni Yiquan ", used by hunters with the tightest of bonds, meaning roughly " We've parted a hundred times. May we rejoin to part a hundred more. " Burnham expresses her love, and Booker replies he loved her more, first knowing it during a "terrible scrap" on Tiburon , in freezing conditions. Burnham insists it wasn't cold, but Booker points out that she had been shivering all throughout. Burnham protests that she had been moving to keep warm, but Booker had pointed out at the time that this was what shivering was. He had taken a long look at Burnham at the time and thought to himself, " Alright, Book, what are you gonna do? " As he hands Burnham his long leather coat, he recalls that she had said they would be okay. Then, abruptly, he is gone, transported away.

As Burnham dictates the events in her log, the crew prepare for much-needed shore leave . Adira works with Linus, Detmer, and Owosekun in keeping tabs on the 10-C's promised work to clean up the effects of the DMA; Nilsson, Rhys, and Christopher are preparing to meet with Bryce , assuming Kovich lets him go; Stamets and Culber make plans to visit Earth, leaving Stamets looking forward to mavi not made by a replicator; Saru offers a bloom from one of his plants to T'Rina; and Booker, Grudge in tow, was on his way to a Federation emergency center on Europa . Meanwhile, the Federation continues to reconnect, with Ni'Var back in the fold, Tellar Prime never having actually left, and finally a meeting with the President of United Earth herself. Rillak greets her, and prepares to begin negotiations. The President stops her by saying no negotiations were necessary: she was prepared to have United Earth rejoin the Federation immediately. She also sees Ndoye is recovered from what the general calls a "close call", and half-jokingly asks if that could be her last close call. She then speaks with Burnham in private, noting on how strange it must feel to have come from a time before Earth left the Federation. Burnham is glad to see the Federation begin to be restored, but so many worlds remained to explore, so many people looking for understanding, connection, a better tomorrow. The President sees there is a lot of work ahead, and asks Burnham if she is ready for it; Burnham replies she is, as they rejoin the welcoming committee. The view pans out across the assembled fleet in orbit, ending with a full view of Earth itself.

Background information [ ]

Production [ ].

• 14 March 2022 : Title publicly revealed by Paramount+ . [1]
• Showrunner and episode writer Michelle Paradise indicated the final image of Earth at the end of the episode was "very much inspired by the 'Pale Blue Dot' of Earth" from Carl Sagan 's Cosmos . [2]
• Despite closing certain series arcs, such as Earth's departure and return to the Federation, Paradise indicated "Coming Home" was never written as a possible series finale: "we expected that there would be more." [3]
• On casting Stacy Abrams, Paradise and the writers room realized halfway through breaking season season 4 that they needed someone to represent Earth. Paradise texted the idea to Alex Kurtzman , who responded with exclamation points. After discussing the character with Abrams over Zoom, she requested they "not reveal any plot spoilers to her." [4] Paradise additionally noted that "there was never anyone else in consideration for the role." [5]
• Abrams said, on taking the role, "Whatever the story was, I wanted to be a part of it because watching Michael Burnham come into her power as captain, watching this party-crew reclaim itself — not only in a new era but in a new space that is so reminiscent of what they remembered but so different — that, to me, speaks of why we do the work we do in politics... It’s about giving people hope and giving them a better life and creating this vision of what is possible." [6]
• On working with Abrams, Sonequa Martin-Green said: "She wowed us with her charm, humility, and generosity, and she whipped out some acting chops too! It was an honor for me as a Black woman to stand with her in the story. It's an experience I'll cherish for the rest of my life." [7]

Reception [ ]

• TRR : " Coming Home " discusses the making of, and events in, this episode.

Links and references [ ]

Starring [ ].

• Sonequa Martin-Green as Michael Burnham
• Doug Jones as Saru
• Anthony Rapp as Paul Stamets
• Mary Wiseman as Sylvia Tilly
• Wilson Cruz as Hugh Culber
• Blu del Barrio as Adira Tal
• Tig Notaro as Jett Reno
• David Ajala as Cleveland Booker

Guest starring [ ]

• Oded Fehr as Charles Vance
• Stacey Abrams as President of United Earth
• Shawn Doyle as Dr. Ruon Tarka
• Chelah Horsdal as Laira Rillak
• Tara Rosling as President T'Rina
• Annabelle Wallis as Zora (voice)
• Hiro Kanagawa as Dr. Hirai
• Phumzile Sitole as General Ndoye

Co-starring [ ]

• Emily Coutts as Lt. Cmdr. Keyla Detmer
• Patrick Kwok-Choon as Lt. Cmdr. Gen Rhys
• Oyin Oladejo as Lt. Cmdr. Joann Owosekun
• Sara Mitich as Lt. Cmdr. Nilsson
• Raven Dauda as Cmdr. Tracy Pollard , MD
• Orville Cummings as Lt. Christopher
• David Benjamin Tomlinson as Lt. jg Linus
• Seamus Patterson as Harral
• Adrian Walters as Taahz Gorev
• Michael Chan as FHQ Ops Officer
• Emmanuel John as FHQ Security Officer
• Jean-Paul Najm as FHQ Security Guard
• Fabio Tassone as Book's Ship Computer (voice)

Uncredited co-stars [ ]

• Jayne Dineo as Discovery sciences crewmember
• Leeu as Grudge
• Pamela Mars as Discovery bridge crewmember
• Officer Zena
• Vance's daughter
• Vance's wife

References [ ]

2258 ; 3170 ; 3180 ; alloy ; Andoria ; anger ; Archer Spacedock ; astrodynamics ; autopilot ; Bajoran ; biology ; black alert ; blood pressure ; " Bobcat "; Booker's ship ; Borg ; boyfriend ; Burn, The ; cadet ; captain ; Cardassian ; cat ; cat collar ; cat door ; citizen ; CO ; cocktail ; collision course ; combat pilot ; continent ; Constitution -class ; Credence , USS ; day ; debris ; decade ; deck ; defensive formation omega ; deflector array ; Discovery , USS ; DMA ; DMA controller ; DMA power source ; DOT-23 ; Dresselhaus -type ; Earth ; Eisenberg -class ; ellanium ; emergency center ; energy ; ensign ; EPS grid ; Europa ; Evacuation Base Gamma ; family ; fate ; fear ; Federation ; Federation Headquarters ; Federation statutes ; first contact ; first contact team ; force field ; freedom ; friend ; Friendship -class ; gas giant ; gravimetric beam ; gravimetric flux ; gravitational lensing ; gravitational wave ; Grechko , USS ; heart rate ; history ; holo courier ; holo-emitter ; hostage ; hot and sour soup ; hour ; hull breach ; hunter ; hybrid ; hydrocarbon ; hyperfield ; impulse engine ; individual ; Intrepid -class ; isolytic weapon ; Kaminar ; Kayalise ; Kelpien ; kilometer per second ; Kobayashi Maru scenario ; Kovich ; Kwejian (planet); Kwejian (species); Kwejian language ; Kyheem ; Leto ; lecture ; life sign ; life support ; lifeboat ; light map ; love ; Luna ; Mars -class ; mavi ; memory ; Merian -class ; mess hall ; military tactics ; minute ; mission ; Mitchell , USS ; mycelial network ; name ; navigation ; NCC ; Ni'Var ; nickname ; Nog , USS ; orb ; organism ; Orion ; Oros ; pain ; Pathfinder , USS ; pattern interrupter ; percent ; pickle ; pilot ; pink ; plasma ; plasma stream ; President of the United Federation of Planets ; President of United Earth ; propulsion system ; proximity alert ; quadrant ; recursive fractal encryption key ; red alert ; refugee ; replicator ; Risa ; Risian ; roof ; sandwich ; Saturn -class ; Saurian ; second ; sector ; shield ; shuttlebay ; silicon ; Simms ; Siobhan ; size ; snow ; Sol ; spacedock ; speed ; species ; Species 10-C (aka 10-C ); Species 10-C representatives ; spore drive ; Starfleet ; Starfleet Academy ; Starfleet uniform ; status report ; subspace rift ; suicide mission ; sunset ; telepathy ; Tellar Prime ; Tellarite ; theory ; Tiburon ; Tikhov , USS ; Tilly's mother ; Titan ; toilets ; tractor beam ; transport shuttle ; transporter ; transporter signature ; tricom badge ; UFP-02 ; UFP-02 type ; United Earth ; United Earth Defense Force ship ; universe ; village ; Voyager , USS ; Vulcan ; wall ; warp drive ; weapon system ; whiskey ; World Root ; wormhole ; year ; Yelchin , USS

External links [ ]

• " Coming Home " at the Internet Movie Database
• " Discovering "Coming Home" and "Assimilation" " at MissionLogPodcast.com , a Roddenberry Star Trek podcast
• 2 ISS Enterprise (NCC-1701)

Den of Geek

Star Trek: Discovery Season 4 Episode 13 Review – Coming Home

Star Trek: Discovery wraps up Season 4 with an action-packed finale that ties up many loose ends.

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The following contains Star Trek: Discovery spoilers.

Star Trek Discovery Season 4 Episode 13

Star Trek: Discovery wraps up Season 4 with a fairly satisfactory if not necessarily groundbreaking finale that neatly wraps up most of its outstanding plot points in a bow by the end of the episode. This is a fairly impressive feat, given how much ground we needed to cover in this hour to begin with. Looking back on this season as a whole, it seems rather obvious now that the show would have done well to jettison some of the meandering middle episodes where not much happened in favor of making this finale more of a two-parter. If only to give some of its more obvious twists and contrivances a little more room to breathe. 

Though “Coming Home” threatens our Discovery faves, most of the populations of Earth and Ni’Var, the 10-C themselves, and big chunks of the Milky Way itself with imminent death and/or possible genocide, everything turns out alright in the end. Michael and Saru manage to figure out a way to convey some really complex thoughts and emotional bonds using a translation algorithm based on math, the 10-C turn out to be incredibly emotionally empathetic and are suitably shamed into changing their ore-mining ways by an impassioned speech from Book about the destruction of Kweijan and what its loss has meant. 

Is it kind of cheesy? Absolutely. Does it work anyway? Actually, for the most part, yes.

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It’s true, “Coming Home” is not a particularly complex hour, particularly given some of the more in-depth philosophical and political debates we’ve seen this season. But, there are some great emotional beats and cool visuals that feel so incredibly Star Trek , it’s hard not to simply sit back and enjoy them. From the Federation’s attempt to evacuate as many people from Earth as possible to Tilly’s return (!!!)  in the role of a confident leader and finally getting the chance to see the 10-C and their homeworld for ourselves, there’s a lot to like here. 

It’s true, the 10-C still come off more as glowy giant krill than anything else, but the awe with which the Discovery true reacts to their world and their floaty godlike selves is wonderful. (Plus, on some level, it feels so right that a species who’s so far advanced from us in every conceivable way appears not to have become monstrous, but simply better and more kind.) Tilly returns and gets stuck spending three-fourths of the episode with Admiral Vance, but it turns out that Mary Wiseman and Oded Fehr have wonderful chemistry, and their (admittedly very random) bonding session about purpose and family is lovely. 

Despite the fact that “Coming Home” does its best to make us think someone significant won’t survive the hour, almost everyone manages to make it out just fine. T’Rina’s mind-meld with the 10-C only knocks her out for a day or so. Detmer’s willingness to sacrifice herself to stop Tarka turns out to not be necessary. General Odoye purposefully crashes her ship into Book’s and survives. Tilly decides to stay behind with Admiral Vance on the sure-to-be-destroyed headquarters to help give her cadets the chance to escape, but they’re both saved at the last minute when the DMA debris begins to recede. Even Book himself is somehow miraculously rescued by the 10-C, even though they don’t entirely understand the concept of individual existence. 

Star Trek: Discovery Needs More of Saru and T’Rina’s Sweet Flirtations

Star Trek: Picard – Time Jump and Episode 3 Ending Explained

It’s unlikely that any of us are truly surprised by any of these twists— Discovery is not the sort of show that often takes the sort of risks killing major characters involves—but there are moments where everyone’s miraculous survival does feel a bit convenient (even if Sonequa Martin-Green truly does do her level best to sell us the idea that at least Michael believes Book is really dead).  Look, I’m not saying I wanted any of these characters to shuffle off this mortal coil, but it’s an outcome that feels like a poor payoff to the stakes the back half of the season was insisting were legitimate. 

The only true casualty is Tarka who ultimately sacrifices himself to save Book and gets a sort of mild redemption attempt, where he finally realizes that his alien bestie is most likely not waiting for him in a parallel universe, but is probably just dead and has been for some time. I realize I’ve had a much harsher read of this character and his arc than most, but 

“Coming Home” also feels remarkably closed-ended for a season finale, leaving few hints as to what we can expect from the show’s fifth season. At one point, it appeared as though the destruction of the spore drive might mean that next year’s outing would involve the crew heading home from the Galactic Barrier the long way round. But, nope. The 10-C uses their final DMA-caused wormhole to transport them all back. The Federation is expanding once more. Book, having committed some light but mostly understandable treason is sentenced to help refugee families who’ve been displaced by the DMA’s path of destruction. He and Michael are forced to part, but neither seems terribly daunted by going galactically long-distance for a while. Tilly gets to hug it out with her former crewmates before ostensibly heading back to her cadets. Culber and Hugh finally get a vacation. And it turns out that Stacey Abrams is the President of Earth.

One of the few developments that seem likely to have any real impact on whatever next season’s story happens to be is the fact that Saru and T’Rina finally admit they’re into each other and want to give their adorably weird interspecies love a try. (Saru makes an emotional confession! T’Rina finally tells him to stop calling her Madame President! They hold hands!) How they’re going to make it work while she’s got a planet to run and he has to serve as Michael’s 24/7 emotional sounding board is up in the air, but watching them try is going to be amazing. Vulcan/Kelpian inter-species wedding ceremony when?

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Lacy Baugher

Lacy Baugher is a digital producer by day, but a television enthusiast pretty much all the time. Her writing has been featured in Paste Magazine, Collider,…

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Review: ‘Star Trek: Discovery’ Ties It All Up In Season 4 Finale “Coming Home”

| March 17, 2022 | By: Anthony Pascale 225 comments so far

“Coming Home”

Star Trek: Discovery Season 4, Episode 13 – Debuted Thursday, March 17, 2022 Written by Michelle Paradise Directed by Olatunde Osunsanmi

Discovery gently sticks the landing in a season finale that neatly ties up the plot and character arcs for the season.

WARNING: Spoilers below!

“This will all be over soon.”

Earth and Ni’Var’s ticking clocks are down to four hours and even warping Federation HQ in (yeah, it can do that) is only going to save a fraction, and that’s with Tilly doing the math! The Disco is still trapped inside a 10-C orb and Tarka is running around pissing off the superbeings more. Before Burnham can lock up the delegates, Ndoye confesses she was the saboteur, only to find out her stunt ended what may have been their last chance at peace. Oops. Unable to quickly convey the nuances of this deteriorating situation, T’Rina tries a mind-meld with our old friend Cloudy and it sends her to sickbay in pain, but she did work out they are a hivemind who just don’t get what’s going on with these little carbon units in their little ships. “We must find another way to reach them, or I fear that our worlds are already doomed.” No pressure.

Tarka is phaser-focused on his DMA power play that could kill them all, ignoring emotional appeals from Book and Reno, and even trying to talk his dubious prisoners to the dark side with promises of family reunions in a new universe. But an escape plan begins to form, thanks in part to Grudge, of course. Speaking of dangerous plans, Stamets and Adira have worked out they can break free, all they need to do is burn out the spore drive, stranding them decades away from home at old-fashioned warp. What do they have to lose at this point? “Do it.” And if you thought they had pushed the limits of the spark and flame generators before, director Olatunde Osunsanmi asks you to hold his Romulan Ale.

“We can’t let the pain do this to us. ”

Freed from their orb and oddly ignored by 10-C Discovery heads to intercept Tarka who has begun his attack on the DMA. Thanks to Grudge’s distaste for holograms, his cat collar is used to break out of Tarka’s prison and right through his little defense field, with Book knocking him cold. With no way to stop Tarka’s programming Book sends Reno to the Discovery with a simple but heartbreaking message to tell Michael he loves her, and to do what it takes to stop his ship. And what it takes is a shuttle suicide run to Book’s ship, and it looks like Michael is going to send Detmer in. “I’m ready, captain.” Just as you prepare to pour one out for Keyla, Ndoye volunteers to make things right. Checking in on the stakes back home, Vance has ordered the end of the evacuation. There is nothing left to do as he and Tilly stay to go down with the ship station, drink Risan whiskey, and trade life stories and regrets.

Looking for a way to reach Tarka, Book finally pulls the Oros card. Would he really want this? After everything, this is what finally lands. The self-aware super-scientist pleas, “He’d have stopped me, why isn’t he here to stop me?” Sadly, now accepting he is in the wrong, he can’t even stop himself. It’s all automated… but here comes Ndoye. Boom. The DMA attack is over, amazingly the general was beamed away, and Book and Tarka are alive too… for now. With seconds left Ruon uses what power is left to send Book to back to Michael. “Your life is in this world.” He spends his last moments thinking of Oros, clutching their dimensional transporter in desperate hope. As Booker starts to materialize on the Discovery, his ship ends… taking the signal with it. Cleveland. Is. Gone. Michael breaks. “Captain, another orb is coming.” Somehow, Captain Burham returns, in command. “Let’s go finish this.”

“Our fates always interconnected.”

10-C sent another pod to take folks down to the surface, and the Captain invites the whole bridge crew along for emotional support. Revealed in all their glory, the DMA-makers are as big as you might imagine, graceful and floating, with light show faces, and a forest of tendrils for arms. Thanks to a well-timed language algorithm update, they can finally have a real conversation. Now is President Rillak’s time to shine, finding that common ground where all these individual (yet also one) beings, just want “happiness, freedom, security, equality” It takes a bit more nuance to explain Tarka’s actions, with Michael stepping up to make the case against the DMA. Calling back to her visit to their doomed homeworld, she finds that connection. “Don’t let history repeat.” Their response takes translator Saru’s breath away… they will move the DMA away, and just in time as an ecstatic Tilly and Vance were running out of booze.

Everyone on both sides of the galaxy can now breathe easier, but Michael is returning to her feelings of loss. The great aliens are curious and she explains. Turns out they forgot to mention they stored a certain transporter signal, one with a certain Cleveland “That’s right, I’m still alive MF” Booker. After everyone checks to see if this is really happing the Kwejian wastes no time to finally face the race that wiped out his planet. No, steering the toxic DMA to empty space is not good enough. The empath makes the case and the connection, hiding behind this big, (not so) beautiful wall isn’t worth any price. Honor the ones you have lost by finding ways to connect. Turns out it’s a big day for the 10-C, they shut it all down, vowing to “make this right.” See, all it took was a little old-fashioned face-to-face, take that texting generation.

“We can overcome any challenge as long as we do it together.”

With all their problems solved, the 10-C decide it’s time to go, sending the Disco back to Earth to party like it’s 3190. So it’s flaming cocktails and heartfelt hugs all around, and little moments for everyone, including Reno delighting Stamets’ found family by revealing her nickname for him — “bobcat,” T’Rina expressing her Vulcan feelings to Saru, and Vance and Rillak just respecting the hell out of each other. The president has come full circle on Michael since they first met, saying Burnham is ready for command of the fancy new USS Voyager, knowing she would never take it. As for Book, the prez isn’t going to throw the tablet at him, he is “sentenced” to helping DMA refugees. It was hard for Michael to say goodbye, so he gave her his cool coat, and with “Kwakoni Yiquan” he and Grudge were gone.

Captain Burnham’s voice guides us through an extended coda of moments and montages, reminding us of the season’s themes of “uncertainty” and “connection” as everyone prepares for some free time back on Earth and beyond. Speaking of Earth, the President comes up for a visit, and some stunt casting, announcing they are ready to rejoin the Federation. Huzzah! Others are as well, so the journey that began with the Burn is now complete, but Captain Burnham still looks out to see are “countless worlds out there to be explored.” And presumably, some of them will be in season five.

Certainly a finale

After some considerably mixed results on previous season finales, Discovery played it a bit safe with this one. It checked all the boxes it needed, with just enough action, tying up loose plot ends, delivering on thematic arcs, and just a sprinkling of humor to add some flavor. But too often the episode felt like it was just avoiding any big swings. And the finale was another example of how Discovery doesn’t seem to trust its own audience enough to just show, always feeling the need to tell, with too much extended exposition, and an overly long voiceover to wrap things up. While gratuitous violence is not needed, does it help sell the stakes when in the end everyone made it out, including Ndoye who offered up her life as a form of penance? Even Tarka has a chance with his transporter. Don’t actions have consequences?

Where “Coming Home” mostly excelled is with the character beats, tying up many arcs in satisfying little moments like with Saru and T’Rina, or heart-wrenching scenes, like Tarka’s epiphany. And of course, the big one, with the grieving Book, both learning and teaching a lesson to the big bad 10-C — syncing up their glowing light-shows with his own was a nice touch. It’s no surprise that the MVP through all of this was the focal character of Michael Burnham, who herself came full circle from season opener “Kobayashi Maru,” going through her own no-win scenario by ordering the destruction of Book’s ship, with her love on board. Sonequa Martin-Green proved herself as she showed her pain at his (presumed) death, and ability to rally and be Captain.

The return of Tilly was a delight, and even with the character now carrying more responsibility and seriousness, Mary Wiseman’s effortless enthusiasm and lightness sold the mostly expository scenes set to set up the stakes, only highlighting how much her absence has left a hole in this show that has to be filled, either through her return in season five or with a new character and equally talented performer.

10-C you later

“Coming Home” also did the job when it comes to wrapping things up on the big DMA threat and the mystery of the 10-C, although we never did actually find out what they call themselves before they sent everyone home. Maybe the 32nd century equivalent of a California-class will drop by to get those details. In the end, 10-C may be the series’ most successful new addition to Trek canon, the creation of a genuinely alien species forced the show and its characters to go beyond their normal rules and technologies. They also looked great, with some subtle visual effects.

Welcome back

In some ways, this season finale feels like it could have worked as a series finale, and perhaps it was built that way in case there was no renewal. It certainly feels like it wraps up the big arc that began when the show rebooted itself with a jump into the 32nd century and a fractured Federation. Vance’s heroic defense leading to Earth to rejoin the Federation was of sort of the last piece to say the UFP is back in business, with a few stragglers to pick up, with Andoria the only one of the original five not yet back. It was a nice touch that the stubborn Tellarites were the only founding member that never left. Stunt casting aside, the final ceremony was moving, especially the closing shot and that pale blue dot . This opens up the possibility that season five (and beyond) will start to explore outside the Federation and maybe some strange new worlds… the show of that name doesn’t have the monopoly on that core Star Trek mission.

Final thoughts

Combined with last week’s “Species 10-C,” these two episodes watched together form a more satisfying feature-length finale. Although the first half could have used some of the latter’s character beats, and the second half could have used some of the former’s smart sci-fi concepts. “Coming Home” may not leave you hanging, but it doesn’t leave you wondering. It answers all the questions for you, but at its best, Star Trek should challenge you too, giving you some questions to take with you, especially as you wait until the next season.

Random bits

• This is the eighth Discovery  writing credit for executive producer and co-showrunner Michelle Paradise, who also co-wrote the season premiere.
• Executive producer Olatunde Osunsanmi continues to have the most Discovery directing credits with his twelfth time behind the camera. He has been the producing director for the series since season one.
• General Ndoye’s first name was revealed to be Diatta.
• The episode ended with the message “For April, with Love.” This was a dedication to April Nocifora , a long-time Star Trek producer who lost her battle to cancer in December.
• In addition to Book’s ship, the USS Discovery lost one shuttle, but there were no mentioned crew deaths, although one bridge officer was at least injured by a major console explosion.
• The previously mentioned USS Mitchell, named in honor of Discovery guest star Ken Mitchell , was seen for the first time.
• Other ships mentioned included the USS Yelchin, named for late Star Trek actor Anton Yelchin, USS Credence, and USS Greco.
• Book and Michael reminisce about a mission on Tiburon , a Beta Quadrant planet first mentioned in the TOS episode “ The Savage Curtain .”
• Not only can Federation HQ warp, but each deck can also detach as a lifeboat and warp too. Neat.
• For the first time on Discovery , the Borg are mentioned, indicating they could still be active in the 32nd century.
• The President of Earth was played by the prominent political figure Stacey Abrams, who is an avowed Star Trek fan .

More to come

Every Friday, the TrekMovie.com All Access Star Trek Podcast  covers the latest news in the Star Trek Universe and discusses the latest episode. The podcast is available on Apple Podcasts ,  Spotify ,  Pocket Casts ,  Stitcher and is part of the TrekMovie Podcast Network.

New episodes of  Star Trek: Discovery premiere on Thursdays on Paramount+ in the U.S. and on Fridays where Paramount+ is available around the world. In Canada, it airs on CTV Sci-Fi Channel on Thursdays, and streams on Crave on Fridays. Starting November 26, Discovery also streams on Pluto TV in select countries in Europe and is available as a digital download in additional international territories .

Keep up with all the news and reviews from the new Star Trek Universe on TV at TrekMovie.com .

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A strong finale to a strong season of a series I’ve hated up to now. So a pretty excellent turn of events from where I’m sitting.

The bit where Burnham orders Detmer to her (thankfully unfulfilled) death was a big highpoint for me. The way everyone played it made it feel as if it was really going to happen, and it therefore carried (at least for me) an emotional weight that was earned and meaningful.

Well done, show! I hope season five is as good.

Funny. I felt it was a strong finale of a boring season of a series I liked at the beginning but became bored somewhere in season 3… But as the romans said:

De gustibus non disputandum est. :-)

Interesting. Well, hey, at least you liked the finale.

I can’t get enough of that quote, and I never took a day of Latin. :-)

Dave that is my sentiment exactly. It seems the formula is Episodes 1 and 2 and 11 and 12 are good, and everthing else since Season 3 is kind of filler.

This season finale was wonderfully satisfying expression of the best of Star Trek. Exploration, a truly.alien life form, coping with an inexplicable threat, life and death, confusion and misunderstanding, solidarity and empathy are some the themes that this finale manifested. While some enjoy nitpicking the inevitable inconsistencies in a highly serialised production, I enjoyed the sheer trekiness of the this finale. We’ll done!

Agreed. I was really drawn in by it and enjoyed every moment. Seeing something new and alien was wonderful and I loved the interactions of the characters. As you say some will nitpick but there is always a percentage of people who will find fault with anything. I’m now 51, third generation Trekkie, like my Dad, my uncle and grandfather who watched it from the late 1960’s onwards and have all passed into the Great Beyond. I am so damn thankful we still have Star Trek stories to enjoy, the they did all these years later. Well done indeed.

Disappointing season, but Disco is the first ST show to lose me.

And that stunt casting was unforgivable. Couldn’t find someone who didn’t contest their own election loss for years? Would Trump have been an appropriate guest? Nope.

Crazy people can be ST fans, but shouldn’t be on the show.

You mean the election that was officially overseen by her opponent, who was responsible for the counting and certification and determining which polls would be open and staffed? That election?

The one where a Federal court ordered them to save the backup data and they just deleted it anyway?

Yeah man, crazy.

Sound like you think election integrity is a problem in the USA? But I thought Biden’s election was the fairest of all time? Should be completed believed.

Here are two suggestions: in Canada we minimize cheating by making people show ID, and we use carefully monitored scrutineers instead of easily manipulated computerized voting machines.

How about we agree that the election process needs some work, and move on?

I still don’t like politically based stunt casting

Ah yes, Stacey Abrams is the crazy one… right. Not you. Not you at all. Definitely not you.

Soooo…. Is it OK or not OK to claim an election was “stolen”?

It’s okay if you don’t try to overthrow the government. Abrams had the election stolen from her, said so, and moved on.

She brought no evidence of wrong doing. She’s no different than Trump in that regard. Just grabbing at straws the same as he did.

Well her party never moved on. She was introduced 2 years later as the Governor of Georgia. And she didn’t contradict them so I’d say she is complicit in that.

But since no one tried to overthrow the government then Trump saying so too is OK then. Gotha.

And for the record, IMHO Trump should have let it go after the legal challenges weren’t heard.

It is a little silly to call her the governor, since she is clearly not governing the state even if she did win the election. But Abrams has never called for violence, unlike some former presidents who I can name. Between all the obvious voter suppression, and the fact that her opponent was running the election, it is pretty clear that there was wrong doing. There is no way to tell whether that wrong doing is what cost her the election though.

Yeah, I’m certain Trump and his fans would have been just fine with Biden’s people counting the votes. Instead, in the closely contests it was usually a Republican Secretary of State, who nevertheless usually had the integrity to call the result in favor of a candidate they didn’t want. And they’re in the process of being replaced for their trouble.

Except she did not win the election. If she did, she would be Governor today. Also, no former President has ever called for violence. However I am aware of a current Vice President who worked to get violent rioters bailed out. Also, if you get to say there was wrong doing in that election then others also get to say there was wrong doing in others. It doesn’t only work for people you agree with. For example, between the media burying stories that hurt their candidate, last minute allegedly illegal election law changes in some states and unusual statistical oddities I think it very clear there was wrong doing. But the fact is the votes that were cast were counted and the election went the way of the votes. It’s long over and people need to learn from it and move on. Even Al Gore eventually moved on.

It’s funny, several on the Right, both civilian and politician claim there was widespread voter fraud (there wasn’t), the election chief for the former administration said it was the most secure election ever, and somehow despite votes being cast on the same ballot, it’s only ever mentioned that the votes made for President, are the ones that were somehow fraudulent. And since they were on the same ballot as the other elections, for both State and Federal offices, wouldn’t those elections also be fraudulent?

Nope. It’s only for a certain office in a certain house, of a certain color. All other officers, no election fraud of any kind since it’s never mentioned…

I agree in that there is a vocal group from one side who seem to think that only their side has the right to call out what they see to be election improprieties. And it is only when their side loses. When they win, no matter what is going on, it’s always the “most secure election ever”. That side sounds a lot like Weyoun in this little snippet from Tears of the Prophits:

WEYOUN: Pah wraiths and Prophets. All this talk of gods strikes me as nothing more than superstitious nonsense. DAMAR: You believe that the Founders are gods, don’t you? WEYOUN: That’s different. DAMAR: In what way? WEYOUN: The Founders are gods.

When they win, no matter what is going on, it’s always the “most secure election ever”

A Democrat won. A Republican election chief, said it was the most secure election ever. A Republican President, fired him immediately after because it went contrary to his claims of the “big lie”

You do the math.

Except, the Democrat didn’t win. She lost. And complained she was cheated. Like a certain former President we all know. Now do the math.

Depends on the circumstances, naturallment. Unfortunately, nuance is not something taught at Trump U.

In other words… Only when it goes against someone of “my” party do we get to talk about it. If my party won and the other side claims wrong doing then it’s not OK.

Grow up. Did I hurt your feelings?

She is a controversial, active politician playing the President of a United Earth on one of the most socially conscious shows out there. There are no accidents, and the message this sends is clear. Star Trek has crossed into direct political advocacy. Star Trek used to be a show that built bridges between opposing thoughts. It used to force us into critical thought by asking questions. Modern Star Trek wants to tell us what to think. It’s quite sad. A bit of a side note – I’d have preferred an actor…but if you’re going for stunt casting, you know who would’ve been a great choice? Michelle Obama. I don’t think anyone would expect any current or former right leaning person to be considered, but getting a former or non active politico like her would have been much more effective at conveying a message than an actively engaged politician. This was an incredibly divisive choice for that role, and just shows that if you’re at any point to the right on the political spectrum, this show’s creatives care nothing about your patronage of their show. I know many of you will bash me for this, but this is reality. There is no place for diversity of thought in Trek anymore.

Space pew pew show activism make me feel bad. Must be something wrong with space pew pew show.

Anyone who refers to Trek as a ‘pew pew space show’ clearly does not understand Star Trek on any level.

Why does show about diversity not showcase the unifying views of today’s republican party? Derp.

LOL, you win the internets for the day with that, my friend.

(Perhaps if Mitt Romney had been given the role of her VP there would be less agita amongst the MAGA contingent, but I doubt it.)

“I know many of you will bash me for this” I love near moments of clarity

Rom literally quoted Marx and won major concessions from Quark. Star Trek has always been direct in its politics.

Lol Funny. Ferengi quoting Marx while a Federation Captain Kirk quotes the US Constitution fighting Kohms while Picard has to destroy a collective.

You’re ignoring the core part of what I said. Trek at its best has taken on political issues, and posed questions and left up to the viewer to decide what to do. Having characters offer up quotes of political figures from the past is not the same as advocacy. Trek, at it’s best, was never preachy either. That’s not the case with Kurtzmann, and this is as big of step into passing over social commentary and getting directly into political candidate advocacy. Never has Trek’s political stance been as meta as it was in this season finale. Here’s another possibility. Have Earth’s leadership get off the shuttle, and you see a ‘council’ or something step off. Want to go meta with that? Put Stacey Abrams up there and some other politician from the right. Send the message through that scene that shows the audience that two people from radically different ideologies can come together under the flag of a UNITED Earth. Something that sells that message without having any character say a word. That would have been Phenomenal with a capital P.

If the right wants to be welcome on star trek perhaps they should produce a politian who actually embodies its values. You want in, earn it by being the kind of people someone can look up to.

Not thinking the other side is worthy is exactly why you do it.

Agreed. The best Trek was when it fairly offered up alternative takes on situations where both arguments had valid points as well as flaws. I think you made an excellent point that if it was some sort of council with two stunt casts (a recognizable person from the other side) would have sent a far more unifying message.

It’s the kind of thing that would have posed questions. Use divisive people to send the message and serve the story. A hopeful future is attainable. Otherwise, it’s just political advocacy, and incredibly shallow for a show that has been as intelligent and cerebral as Trek (prior to the Kurtzmann regime)

You probably thought Gul Dukat had a good point.

Trek has ALWAYS been preachy. “Let That Be Your Last Battlefield” is laughably preachy. “The Omega Glory” is cringe-worthy peachy. “The Drumhead” is movingly preachy. “Detained” is on-your-nose preachy. Need I go on?

They have from time to time and those episodes have traditionally been among the worst of the franchise. But it certainly didn’t happen often enough to enable and “always been” in front of the comment. And even when they used a sledge hammer to make their point they still stopped short of casting active divisive politicians into their drama.

Crossed into direct political advocacy? Have you ever seen the show. The characters all live in a socialist utopia. Star Trek has always engaged in political advocacy.

Ah, but you changed what I said. I said “direct political candidate advocacy” there is a huge difference in presenting a political point of view, and propping up a failed candidate running for re-election. Trek has not entered into that realm before.

Yes, because the concept of a ‘United Earth’ is, like, totally controversial now.

It certainly feels out of reach, and Trek is now furthering divisions and cementing itself as a niche show for democrats only. That wasn’t the case until Kurtzman and company took it over.

I like Star Trek’s view of humanity’s future. But it seems jarring to put any current politician on the show. I think Gene Roddenberry would be very upset.

Gene would’ve been upset about Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, Deep Space Nine, and a whole slew of Trek films and shows that were made either after his death, or in his twilight years.

Doesn’t mean he’d be right.

Nope. Putting current politicians on Star Trek should be a big red line. Period.

Abrams has actual, legitimate reasons to contest her election loss. And yet, she never tried to orchestrate a coup.

maybe she should have

And neither did anyone else.

Please tell me what coup there was? Did it have institutional backing? Did this group of yahoos really think they were going to take over the government? You do realize that after your alleged “coup” congress was up and running again within hours. Anyone who thinks that either has no idea what an actual coup is or has an agenda. Again, if you want to see what an actual coup looks like then check out what happened in Myanmar a month later. What happened in DC was little more than an ugly event perpetuated by a number of dimwits. Geez…

What happened in DC was little more than an ugly event perpetuated by a number of dimwits. Geez…

Actively egged on by and advocated for by then President Trump. That fact that Trump spent months after the election actively trying to overturn (whether by lawsuits or direct calls to Governors – i.e. Georgia) the results shows there absolutely was institutional backing, even if only by one man (and we all know it was by a lot more than just Trump).

And just because the coup was unsuccessful doesn’t mean it wasn’t a coup. What it does mean is that the checks and balances in this country are strong enough to withstand an attempted coup.

If you would take the time to actually listen to what Trump said you would realize in no way whatsover did he “egg them on” or anything close to it. But people who confuse the event for an “insurrection” tend to close their eyes and ears to the actual facts surrounding that event anyway.

Pray tell what institutional backing did they have? If they did that backing didn’t help them in any way shape or form. Were the yahoos lied too?

It cannot be stressed enough how foolish it is to call those events a “coup”. It was supported by statistically no one.

I read the entirety of his speech (I couldn’t bring myself to listening to 70 min of his inane ramblings), and he absolutely unequivocally egged on his supports to attempt to overturn the election. If you can’t see that you are either willfully ignorant or just delusional.

The institutional backing was Trump himself. Even a small coup is still a coup.

I got news for you ML31:

“ Did this group of yahoos really think they were going to take over the government?”

A group of yahoos, is precisely the people who overthrew their own government, when they opposed “taxation without representation”. I believe we now call them the Founding Fathers.

And they had institutional backing. They created an army. They created their own association. All things that did NOT happen on 1/6.

Sorry. Try harder.

You are either a fool or a liar if you think this. If it’s the former, you’ll need to find someone other than to educate you. If it’s the latter, conversation with you can serve no useful purpose.

Sorry but no. Anyone who insists it was some sort of insurrection or coup just has no idea what those things really are. Either that or they know that spreading the lie advances their agenda. I stop short of calling them fools but there may be some of them who actually buy into it as well. Mainly it’s either ignorance or agenda.

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/09/five-ways-donald-trump-tried-coup/620157/

One day some of you will have to wake up the reality how corrupt and immoral person Trump is even if you voted for him.

In the meantime just keep closing your eyes and ears and pretend otherwise. It’s been working this long I guess.

All I can say is first The Atlantic is not exactly a reliable source. Next, none of their reasons support their conclusions at all. Which also supports how unreliable a source they are.

If Trump is corrupt and immoral then nothing major has stuck to him to support it. All it has been on that front has been lies and hearsays. And he’s been proved right in all the conspiracies against him so far. Go figure.

Look, I was as much of a never-Trumper as one could get in 2016. But after I saw the results I changed my tune on the man. Not on his personality. Which was arrogant and bombastic and he just came across as a pure A-hole. Still does. But I cannot argue with the results. I was stunned at how effective a President he was. I was very wrong on him in 2016. I’d rather have an effective President who’s an A-Hole than an ineffective one who’s a nice guy. Sorry.

LOL dude, no offense, but this is the only argument you can make. It’s not ‘credible enough’ and yet you seem to believe everything Trump tells you, a guy who has said the election was stolen from him without any credible evidence. Kind of hypocritical, right?

Trump IS corrupt and immoral. Just because he hasn’t been found guilty…yet doesn’t take away from that reality.

Lots of Presidents gets ‘results’. Obama got plenty for his base. My guess is you still didn’t vote for him. And he didn’t lie out of his mouth every second of the day or use Twitter like a teenager who is angry at the world.

No. The fact that the organization is not a non-partisan source does enter into this but the argument is their reasons do not support their conclusions. Do you believe everything the legacy media tells you even though they have been proved wrong on so many things they have claimed against Trump? I believe in evidence and reason. So I’d appreciate it if you didn’t make ridiculous absolute comments like that. And there is evidence the election wasn’t on the level. None of it was thrown out. It just wasn’t heard for standing. Which is not judging the level of evidence. I do believe he legitimately lost. But he’s not wrong when he speaks of weird anomalies going on. I just don’t think those things are what cost him the election.

You don’t know how corrupt or immoral Trump is. That is just a guess on your part because there is no proof. Maybe there is just as much foggy evidence as there was that he had the election stolen from him and because you hate him so you choose to believe THAT but not the other. Let’s try and be realistic here. I would argue there is a whole lot more linking Biden to immorality and corruptness than there ever was for Trump. Does anyone not think it’s likely that the “Big Guy” was Joe?

I guess “results” depends on one’s personal definition. But things sure did improve across the board during Trump’s administration than Obama’s, that’s for sure. BTW… I liked Obama a lot more in his first term than his 2nd. His 2nd he became amazingly divisive and a lot more deceitful. But you have to give him credit for one thing… He warned us all not to “Underestimate Biden’s ability to f**k things up.”

Lol there is tons of evidence to show how corrupt and immoral Trump is. This is a guy who ran a fake university and had to settle his claims before he became President.

He was busted for trying to pay off a porn star with campaign money he had an affair with and then tried to cover it up which his own lawyer actually went to prison for. How much more proof do you need with that lol. Is that NOT corrupt and immoral enough l for you? Did he need to kill her too? My guess even then you would still excuse his behavior.

My god he tried to overturn an election man. He tried on January 6 and months before that. He was impeached the FIRST time trying to blackmail a country to start an investigation on his opponent. Trump is as corrupt as they come and it’s sickening people like you try to shrug it off like it’s no big deal or worse it never happened even with all the proof out there.

You’re just a Trump supporter who will and HAS denied every misdeed and action Trump has caused. Look at this board. You could be Trump’s press secretary lol. What’s more funny is his last press secretary has come out and said Trump is in fact corrupt and immoral working with him and she was hired to speak for the guy.

Should I not listen to people in his own administration who says that either? Or just listen to sad deniers and Uber-fans like you? Because it’s a long line of those people too.

Trump is a disgusting and disgraceful POS who only cares about himself! It’s sick this doofus was ever President of anything much less a country.

Oh, sorry. I see the confusion. You must have not been watching the news on January 6 2020. Trump told his supporters to storm the Capitol to stop the votes from being certified. It was crazy.

Trump never said that. I bet you believe the “drinking bleach” BS too.

How sad. Rethink your sources.

Perhaps not in those exact words, but the implication was more than clear. I suggest you read the transcript of his entire speech: https://apnews.com/article/election-2020-joe-biden-donald-trump-capitol-siege-media-e79eb5164613d6718e9f4502eb471f27

On more than one occasion does he mentions “fighting like hell,” “walking down Pennsylvania Ave to the Capitol,” and urging Mike Pence to “do the right thing.”

Anyone at that rally knew exactly what Trump wanted them to do.

As for the bleach thing, no he didn’t straight up say people should drink bleach, but his comments where nonetheless completely eye-roll worthy:

A question that probably some of you are thinking of if you’re totally into that world, which I find to be very interesting. So, supposedly we hit the body with a tremendous, whether it’s ultraviolet or just very powerful light, and I think you said that hasn’t been checked, but you’re going to test it. And then I said supposing you brought the light inside the body, which you can do either through the skin or in some other way. (To Bryan) And I think you said you’re going to test that, too. Sounds interesting, right? And then I see the disinfectant, where it knocks it out in one minute. And is there a way we can do something like that, by injection inside or almost a cleaning, because you see it gets in the lungs and it does a tremendous number on the lungs, so it’d be interesting to check that, so that you’re going to have to use medical doctors with, but it sounds interesting to me. So, we’ll see, but the whole concept of the light, the way it kills it in one minute. That’s pretty powerful.

Exactly. “not in those exact words”. Which means, he didn’t do it nor did he seriously imply it. It’s just lame stuff people love to still try and attribute to him. “Fighting like hell” is hyperbole EVERY politician says! It doesn’t literally mean grab a stick and vandalize your nearest federal building. That’s a tremendous stretch. Everyone knew what Trump ways saying. To peaceably march to the capitol and make your voices heard. Those were his words. It’s mindboggling to most clear thinking folks it could mean anything otherwise. “Doing the right thing” was not egging people on. He was just hoping Pence wouldn’t certify the election. Those words, again, are words used by politicians and even people in court.

And at least you admit he never suggested drinking bleach. That sets you apart from the majority of his bashers. I admit often his comments are eye-rolling. The fact is he does speak his own language somewhat. He shouldn’t be doing that as President but he did. I was never a fan but his stronger supporters liked it. I didn’t like it because it was those kinds of comments that people loved to latch on to and presume what he was meaning even when it was obvious that was not what he meant. That is a flaw of his. It’s been said he’s a hammer in search of a nail verbally. Sometimes he doesn’t strike a nail. But a lot of times he hits it square.

I wrote this above, but I’ll repeat it here, if you truly don’t think that Trump’s words didn’t egg on his supporters you are either delusional or willfully ignorant.

And Trump is the first president in modern history to implore his VP to not certify an election that he unequivocally lost.

He knows it did. He will just defend the POS Trump until he’s blue in the face anyway. As Trump would say, SAD!

Trump belongs in prison for causing that. He waited 3 hours to call anyone as it went on while his fat ass sat in front of the TV watching it. People died that day because of this moron and his nut wing base.

If Trump caused that then Bernie Sanders needs to be rotting in jail for causing James Hodgkinson to open fire on the Congressional baseball game. He was a left win activist who claimed Bernie Sanders urged the action.

Well, you are wrong and his own words prove you wrong. He NEVER egged anyone on to storm the capital. Not even close. Not even inferring it. He said to “peaceably march to the Capitol and make our voices heard.” Anyone who reads that as “Go to the Capitol, ransack the building and take over the Government” are the delusional or willfully ignorant ones.

And yes. Trump did want Pence to do that. Sure. Wrong move. Not good. But that doesn’t = telling people to storm the building. Presidents have often made mistakes. Trump isn’t perfect. He does let his ego get in the way of things. But come on… That’s the best you got?

I’m leaning toward delusional at this point. If you were willfully ignorant you’d display at least display some level of irony in your statements.

I bet you believe all those people at the Capitol on Jan 6, 2021 where just peaceful protestors?

Nope. I do not. That is what the media called those involved in all those riots the last two years. What happened on 1/6 was definitely NOT peaceful. It was horrid. That said I also found the riots of the year before to be much worse. But that doesn’t mean 1/6 was fine. It absolutely was NOT.

Discovery has been “woke” from the get go. But casting Abrams was definitely a “In case you didn’t know, here’s the side we’re on” moment. They certainly know how controversial she is and don’t care.

And of course… If some other failed gubernatorial candidate was a fan and wanted to be on the show, Larry Elder for example…. I’m sure everyone would be totally fine with him coming on for a cameo. Right?

I’ve noticed a correlation between Trump supporters and Disco haters. Always fascinating how representation triggers you all. I often wonder what show you think you’re watching.

Now, now — I hated the first three seasons of the show and could not be termed a Trump supporter in any form or fashion. There are plenty of legitimate reasons to dislike those first three seasons; I know it’s convenient for some of you to think that it can only be due to racism, sexism, or homophobia, but that’s a failure of imagination on your part. (Which is not to say that anti-Discovery sentiment doesn’t have a lot of those elements; it does, sadly.)

For my part, I didn’t care for the Stacey Abrams cameo, at least partially because of the fact that it meant I was going to encounter lots of idiotic comments about it. I like her personally, though, and I think it’s cool for her that she got to do it; I’m just not sure it was the wisest use of that space the show could have made. It’s both on the nose and cheesy. Which, to be fair, Star Trek often is, so I can’t argue that it was all *that* out of place.

First, I was replying to CarsonH, who obviously is a Trump supporter. Secondly, I said I noticed a correlation. I did not say that ALL Disco haters are Trump supporters, only they tend to be from observing your online behavior.

Hate to break it to you, but Star Trek is a PROGRESSIVE show.

Your beef with the show is that is precisely because it addresses racism, sexism and homophobia, ie. woke, through the lens of sci-fi. Star Trek has already been that show. I suspect you are just here for the military rankings and the explosions.

Are you referring to CarsonH again? Because Bryant’s take is entirely reasonable to me.

There is nothing in CarsonH’s post to suggest “Trump supporter”.

It is not unreasonable to NOT want to see politicians show up on a Trek show. No matter what side one is on politically. It’s an ironic thing to do when they were preaching being unified when that action is a divisive one itself.

I have to agree. When the now King of Jordan cameoed on Voyager, it was as a crewman, not a space emperor. The audacity of presenting an active politician as president of Earth is not a good look IMO, and I say that as someone who likes Abrams and is happy her inner fan girl got to act in Star Trek. It’s such an overt and typically clumsy political statement that brings real world political divisions to the forefront again. I’m not saying they don’t have a right to offer a middle finger to their Conservative critics if that’s their choice, and it’s ballsy to do it this way, but it was also childish as hell.

And to be fair I myself would not want to see someone from the opposite side of Abrams showing up as the President of Earth. It’s really bad form. I agree that if she really wanted to be on the show she should have been a crewman of some other background character.

It just seems like something that’s beneath Star Trek, debasing itself in our very real and worldly elections so blatantly. She’s the president of the frickin’ Earth! I don’t blame her for being flattered and living out her dream in more ways than one, but it’s kinda tacky to take on that part. Even SNL never has political candidates in skits where they are already holding the office they aspired to.

Nope, quite the opposite. But you go on believing whatever you need to to get you through the day, I guess.

I agree! Complete disappointment. Please let us enjoy our shows without Political BS.

So as a U.K. citizen I had no idea who this actor was (playing President of Earth).

I googled as I thought the acting was off and something didn’t feel right for such a great moment of Earth coming back into the federation.

As it turns out – this person is a governor and fan – but does that make it the right choice for the role.

For me, the episode at this point took a huge nose dive and failed to connect with international audiences.

Sorry for those who enjoyed her performance but for me it was a swing and miss moment.

Me too! I expected to see a well known Star Trek character as special guest or someone earlier seen in Disco being promoted, because the scene looked like it was meant to be special. Just like Kirk or Spock appearing in TMP the first time on the bridge. Then I was confused because I had no clue who that was. So, for international viewers that scene had no meaning.

An AWWWEEESome Season Finale. I so enjoyed the “surprising” Stacey Abrams as President of Earth. Well Done. On to Next year.

Breathtaking. I can’t believe they’ve been able to top themselves year over year.

Another very disappointing season finale… again. I will say that it was a very welcomed surprise cameo of Stacey Abrams.

I tried. I really tried. I’m sure some will consider me a “hater,” but I haven’t stuck with this to hate. I’ve been hoping. But there was about enough story for a two-parter here, and they made a whole season of it. (This is not a problem unique to this series, of course.) Tarka did pretty much the same thing in every episode, most of the characters are undifferentiated, and while Reno is at least interestingly acerbic among a group where they seem to be competing over who can be most sincere, her glib cracks while the fate of humanity is allegedly hanging in the balance finally wore me out. The resolution with 10-C basically boiled down to “Please don’t kill us, we don’t like being killed” and 10-C responding “Oh, so sorry, didn’t realize I was doing it.”

Also, I’m sorry to report that April Nocifora recently lost her battle with cancer.

Also, I’m sorry to report that April Nocifora recently lost her battle with cancer.

Where are you seeing that? All of her online profiles (LinkedIn, Instagram, etc.) are still active with no mention of her passing.

Truly a beautiful end! My heart stopped when Michael ordered Detmer to pilot the shuttle. And I cried with SMG on the loss of Book and cried again when they hugged! And overjoyed on the conclusion of the 10-C storyline. This is Star Trek. This is what hope looks like. Well Done Discovery! You’ve earned a whole season on Risa!

As I wrote at the beginning of this season, Booker’s arc could have been a really interesting way into talking about genocide. Simply, they failed.

More accurately, they failed to develop the topic you would prefer.

Did you even think about what he went through and what that says about genocide survivors? And how casually and simply his actions were depicted? Yes you did think about that, but obviously you don’t even realize it.

Here’s what I actually think about. The US Holocaust Memorial Museum defines genocide as “an internationally recognized crime where acts are committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group.” Since Species10-C’s destruction was unwitting, it was not genocidal.

The legal definition of genocide has nothing to do with the story of survivors, and how that much death impacts their life. Book certainly didn’t know or believe it was unwitting.

Fair enough, but you’ve changed your initial criticism about the writers overlooking genocide to their not choosing to explore deeply survivor guilt or trauma. They chose instead to explore the dangers of ill-informed and precipitous reactions, which is reasonable enough since it sets up Trek’s primary ethic. So I repeat my first observation that your objection seems to be their “failure” to tell the story you wanted. Peace!

Haters got to hate

I’m hardly a hater. There’s episodes I’ve liked. But re-identifying what they introduced in the first and second episodes as sad trope that has infused a lot of media.

I’d argue that Book has more in common with disaster survivors than survivors of genocide; more like a guy whose entire city got wiped out by a tsunami or something.

Good point! Not what I thought, but makes a bit of sense. In that case, it would have been good to see other survivors, or know about them. Even some of their opinions.

I do think there’s an entire other direction the season could have taken in which the show was more about that, or indeed about the genocide parallels you mention. That might have even been a better direction, who knows? But I liked what they did, more or less; it got bogged down with some of the mechanics of Tarka’s plot, but I’ll take it over a crying Kelpien any day of the week.

LOL, I liked that – he’s just a Q waiting to happen. :)

I’m curious how people here grade Discover after four seasons.

This is where I stand, breaking down seasons by major plot threads and overall quality:

Season 1 The Klingon war: F Lorca stealing the Discovery: F Emperor Georgiou in the Mirror Universe: C Overall grade for the season : D

Season 2: Captain Pike, Spock, Number One, and the Enterprise: B+ The Red Angel mystery: C+ Skynet in Space threatening to destroy all life: D Overall grade for the season : C

Season 3: Burnham and Book’s meeting and love story: B Discovery adjusts to the future: B- Emperor Georgiou returns to the Mirror Universe: C The mystery of The Burn: C- Overall grade for the season : C

Season 4: The mystery of the what the DMA is: B The search for Species 10C and how to communicate with them: B Tarka tries to kill billions of people to fix his love life: D People, ships, cats, aliens, etc. stop the episodes to share their feelings: D Overall grade for the season: C

I don’t have a ranking system like that but, I have them ranked as best to worst. I’ll share mine:

1. DS9 2. TOS/TAS 3. Disco 4. VOY 5. LD 6. TNG 7. ENT

Pic/Prod are the 2 I haven’t ranked yet.

1. DS9 2. TNG 3. ENT 4. TOS/TAS 5. VOY 6. LD 7. Prod. 8. Pic 9. Dsc

thats probably my picks 🤔

Oh I like lists!

1. TNG/DS9 2. VOY 3. TOS 4. ENT 5. LD 6. PRO 7. TAS 8. PIC 9. DIS

1. DS9 2. VOY 3. DIS 4. LD 5. TNG 6. TOS 7. PIC 8. ENT.

I will reserve judgement for Prodigy until the end of the first series but it’s goodZ

Also…. TNG might seem low to some. All of 1 – 5 are much loved by me and it was tricky putting them in rank order.

• DISC (S1 = B, S2 = C, S3 = D, S4 = F)

TOS TNG VOY ENT TAS DS9

I can’t — or won’t — rank any of the others until they’re finished. But I’ll grade DSC seasons: 1=D, 2=C, 3=C, 4=B. And hey, why not: PIC1=F, LWR1=A, LWR2=A.

DS9 TNG VOY TOS ENT PRO LDS DIS PIC TAS

Both PRO and PIC can change by the end of their current seasons.

My grades: C, B, C, C for Seasons 1-4. I’ll keep watching and have high hopes for Strange New Worlds.

For me, Season 1 was highly flawed but it showed promise. I had hoped it would improve with Season 2. Season 2 did show improvement but unfortunately most of that came with Pike and Spock. So when they left for Season 3, the show went right back to its old ways. That’s when I stopped watching.

From what little i’ve seen of Season 4, it doesn’t seem its improved. That said, i’m very glad there’s a lot of people enjoying it. I am always happy to see a Star Trek show thriving.

Without commonly agreed upon criteria, this survey won’t yield reliable or verifiable results. As an exercise in comparing subjective opinions, why not? Since I prefer creativity, being surprised, encountering interesting ideas, a vision that promotes our common humanity, I rate all Trek series high despite flaws and clunkers in all of them.

It is not a survey; I was just curious how others felt about Discovery’s overall quality after four seasons.

Season 2: Captain Pike, Spock, Number One, and the Enterprise: C+ The Red Angel mystery: F Skynet in Space threatening to destroy all life: F Overall grade for the season : D-

Season 3: Burnham and Book’s meeting and love story: F Discovery adjusts to the future: B Emperor Georgiou returns to the Mirror Universe: F The mystery of The Burn: F Overall grade for the season : D-

Didn’t bother to watch season 4 after that 😁

Why are you even here? 🤔

Anyway, mine is:

Season 1, Part 1: B Season 1, Part 2: B+ Season 2, Part 1: A- Season 2, Part 2: A Season 3, Part 1: A- Season 3, Part 2: B Season 4, Part 1: B- Season 4: Part 2: B+

Also, here’s the show ranking:

1. Voyager 2. Lower Decks 3. Discovery 4. Deep Space 9 (The Orville would go here.) 5. Prodigy 6. Picard 7. TNG 8. Enterprise 9. TOS 10. TAS

Man, respect to your opinions I guess, but you reveal your age with this one. TNG is SEVENTH?! The fact that you have Voyager and the new stuff all above everything else — and TOS / TAS at the very bottom — tells me you’re probably born in the ’90s.

Frankly, I get the hate for TOS. Awful show. Really hoping Season 2 of SNW gives us Kirk as Captain and they just completely overwrite it.

Enterprise is eighth on their list though. So I don’t think it has anything to with ‘new’ stuff but just their overall opinion on the shows.

You weren’t being overbearing about it but yeah fans will just have wildly different views from others, especially as younger people become fans and all the new shows being added today. We’re not a monolith.

And I think it’s cool Voyager is first on their list even if it’s not on mine!

But I’ll fight anyone if DS9 is last on their list though! 😆

Tarka trying to kill billions isn’t something the show was saying was a good thing. So, I think it’s one thing to give Tarka a D for that, but the grade for the show would be different, since they didn’t endorse his actions.

DSC season grades:

1: B (standouts: Choose Your Pain, Lethe, Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Bad) 2: B (standouts: The Sound of Thunder, If Memory Serves, Through the Valley of Shadows) 3: A- (standouts: Forget Me Not, Unification III, There is a Tide…) 4: A (standouts: But to Connect…, Rosetta, Coming Home)

Series rankings:

DS9 TNG PIC DSC PRO TOS/TAS LDS STS ENT VOY

I’m impressed you can remember the names of Disco episodes. Without being put onscreen in the episode, it’s hard for me to recall many of them, but I’ve also never rewatched an episode.

Contrast that to my being able to tell you the name of an episode of Berman Trek, even Voyager and maybe Enterprise, just by hearing any random 30 seconds of it. The nerdiest party trick I could have.

Even though DS9’s my favorite, it took years for those episode titles to bore into my brain. I suppose because I mostly watched those episodes in first run, then maybe once or twice since, until years later when I’d do full rewatches and read the Companion. TOS and TNG were much more stuck in my head because I started watching in 1991, when TOS reruns played over and over and TNG was just getting into syndication, so it was a nightly at 7pm habit for me, plus I had the companions for both shows, as well as the Nitpicker’s guides.

For the new shows, I’ve actually been writing reviews of them since the first episode of Discovery. So, that often means rewatching it one or two times. Plus, it usually takes my partner months before she’ll want to watch them with me, so I’ll rewatch them again, then.

Though, I’ll admit that I did have to look up “The Sound of Thunder,” for the title.

I can’t do that for the Berman shows save for some of Enterprise. But I CAN do that for all the TOS and TAS shows.

I must admit, after panning episodes 9-11, the two part season finale was pretty satisfying Star Trek and good science fiction. In fact, I think these last two episodes probably saved the season. Overall I would give Discovery S4 a B-. It would have been a B+ if they didnt drag things out with useless filler for three episodes before the last two episodes! IMHO, the show has FINALLY found its niche. For a whole lot of reasons, Discovery will never be everyone’s cup of tea – in fact I am more likely to gravitate to Picard and SNW, but I must agree with others that taking the show to the 32nd century was a very good move! And even though I am much more intrigued with other shows like SNW, I am still curious about Discovery S5!

That was suppose to be Earth but it sure didn’t look like Earth based on the land mass we see them zoom out to at the end. Unless Africa and Europe combined in those 900 years.

As a professional cartographer I feel I can say this with experience. Their scale was WAY off.

Didn’t TNG mention something about draining the Mediterranean?

Wait…. T’Rina had the ability to communicate telepathically with the 10-C all along? Why didn’t they try this the moment they arrived to the hyperfield like 4 episodes ago??? 🤦🏻‍♂️🤦🏻‍♂️🤦🏻‍♂️

I also thought that was very odd.

It’s probably a last resort kind of thing. That kind of thing has been shown to be pretty dangerous with unknown life, as with Spock in The Motion Picture.

Do you mean apart from the fact that Booker got locked out of his OWN ship and an irrelevant non-federation officer was able to bypass Disco’s security codes …also this whole story was hardly 3 episodes worthy?

For all the problems Star Trek Discovery has had… Bad writing. Bad characters. Unearned emotion. Bad production design. Mediocre actors. One complaint I have never made of it was ‘boring’. Well… Give it enough time and… Yes. This episode was monumentally dull. Star Trek Discovery going for all the terrible adjectives they can, it seems.

PS… Something that was bugging me throughout. Why is it “United” Earth? Why not just Earth? Kirk never called it “United Earth.” Nor did Picard. Presumably Earth has been united in some way in their time. So why the change? Wouldn’t it make more sense to call it “United Na’var”? Since Vulcans and Romulans have ACTUALLY united?

“United Earth” has been the name of Earth’s government since TOS (e.g., United Earth Space Probe Agency).

But that is the agency. Not the planet. No one has ever referred to Earth as “United Earth”.

From Memory Alpha:

“United Earth was first referenced in TOS: “The Corbomite Maneuver”, when Captain Kirk refers to the USS Enterprise as a “United Earth ship”, upon hailing the Fesarius.”

That was referencing the Space Agency. UESPA. But that is not the name of the planet. It was always called just plain old Earth.

Earth is still the name of the planet. United Earth is the name of the planet’s government.

No different from how the Klingons are the Klingon Empire, but their homeworld is Kronos.

I find little difference in saying the President of Earth vs the President of United Earth. The first is better because it implies all the planet has agreed to a government with this position as the top executive. If you are saying President of “United Earth” it implies the Earth is not entirely united. That perhaps only 70% of the states are behind this so they cannot claim the entire Earth. Only those who opted into this “United” Earth thing.

See? I can infer too.

Possibly United Earth succeeded the United Nations after World War III? We have a Secretary General of the United Nations, not a Secretary General of Nations, or Secretary General of Earth.

Possibly. But I think how it was presented implied the Earth was 100% unified. Which again calls out my original question.

Bad production design?! If there is one thing that DISCO is good at- its look and feel are amazing. It’s almost cinematic

The USS Discovery was from Pike’s time frame yet it looked like it was 80 years after Picard.

I know they underwent a “refit” when they moved to their future. Yet that “refit” didn’t change the interior sets all that much at all. So it was still bad PD.

It’s always been United Earth. Aside from UESPA, there were references to United Earth in Enterprise. It was literally the government that birthed Starfleet. They even had a United Earth emblem in the episode “Home,” which itself was based on a design on a cup in “Where No Man Has Gone Before.”

No one on Enterprise referred to Earth as “United Earth”. UESPA is an organization. Not the planet.

[Spoilers for Enterprise]

In the episode where Admiral Forrest is killed on Vulcan, it begins with a shot of Earth’s embassy on Vulcan clearly labeled “United Earth Embassy.”

Since that is the one and only time it might be inferred to mean that could be the new name for the entire planet, it stands to reason that given all the many other times the planet was just called “Earth” that the name merely references the fact that the embassy is planetary rather than composing of representatives from individual states.

It’s not the name of the entire planet, it’s the name of the governing body of the planet. It’s rarely been used or heard of in previous Treks (save for maybe ENT) because Earth and the Federation have almost always been synonymous.

I have never thought Earth and the Federation was synonymous in any way shape or form. It’s like saying France is synonymous with NATO. It’s not. The Federation is the United Federation of Planets. Not just one planet.

Good for you for never thinking of Earth and the Federation as synonymous, but even within Trek lore, Earth and the Federation (up until the 31st Century after the burn) were often times portrayed as one in the same. In The Undiscovered Country Gorkin’s daughter straight up accuses the Federation of being a homo sapiens’ only club.

That comment doesn’t mean Earth and the Federation are synonymous. Not at all. It’s propaganda one side plays to their citizens to demonize the other side. I always felt that was kinda obvious. And I don’t recall any instance where the UFP and the Earth were one in the same.

In the season 4 episode “The Forge,” it begins with a shot of Earth’s embassy on Vulcan clearly labeled “United Earth Embassy.”

Aside from the United Earth embassy on Vulcan (which literally says “UNITED EARTH EMBASSY” in big bold letters right on the front) in the Forge trilogy, and Minister Nathan Samuels speaking on behalf of United Earth in “Demons”/”Terra Prime,” in TOS “The Corbomite Maneuver” and “Tomorrow is Yesterday” specifically reference “United Earth” in dialogue. In TNG “Encounter at Farpoint” references United Earth.

Even if the specific name was never said spoken dialogue in ENT, it’s clearly the name for that government.

Yeah, no. It was never clearly the name of the government. UESPA was just an inter-state agency. That’s all that can be reasonably inferred from the name.

This season was, at best, 5-6 episodes of story spread across 13.

If they were going to do 13 episodes, there were potentially interesting aspects that could have been explored about this. (e.g., how does the DMA change the balance of power in the Alpha/Beta Quadrants in a galaxy still recovering from The Burn? How do people and the Star Trek governments react to the potential of sudden unpredictable destruction that they have no ability to predict or control?)

But the show isn’t really interested in exploring those type of questions except on a surface level. It wants more Book-Burnham drama and relationship issues among the characters. The entire Book-Tarka was done badly, and only added in to give Michael personal stakes.

Sounds like it was nauseating; more emotional sludge from Michelle Paradise, possibly the worst Trek writer ever.

You clearly didn’t watch it so this is just trolling.

The author flat out said it wasn’t watched and formed the opinion based on what people were writing about it. Not really trolling.

Referring to Michelle Paradise as “possibly the worst Trek writer ever,” while simultaneously admitting to having not watched at least this episode is, at best, borderline trolling.

I’ll concede borderline trolling at worst.

It may not have been the most exciting season finale of Star Trek Discovery, but at least it tied everything up in a neat little bow. I’m glad Tarka is gone. Book and Ndoye got off way too easily for their crimes, but I’ll admit that I’m glad Book is still alive. I also loved that President Rillak mentioned the Borg, which means they are still out there in the 32nd century and will hopefully appear on Discovery. Also kudos to Earth for rejoining the federation and to T’Rina who will undoubtedly be melding with more than Saru’s mind.

I was actually pleasantly surprised by Book’s punishment, as I was afraid he’d get off scot free for finally stopping Tarka. It also shows a certain amount of enlightenment that the Federation has when it comes to crime and punishment.

On the flip side, I think Ndoye got off way to easily. As a government official she straight up committed treason. I’m not saying she should be locked away for life or anything, but at least a demotion was in order.

After a boring season due to its slooooooooow pace and a lot of fillers, a satisfying finale, including episode 12 and half of episode 11. These 3 episodes would have made an excellent tv-feature film and saved the season. Finally something in the spirit of Trek, encountering (close) a very alien species (of the 3rd) kind. I did have some TMP vibes what I would love to see in a Star Trek movie, and of course a lot of vibes from Arrival. I hope season 5 will be very different the way they tell the plot. Please no more 2 hours stretched to 13 episodes!! They could have also spared the last 5 minutes when it came too emotional. Beside that, a nice was to conclude the season. I was very pleased and emotionally moved, but it was a bit too long at the end. The special appearence of earth president left me clueless. I was expecting to see a legacy character as a very special guest. Maybe the Holo-Doc? Daniels from ENT? Or Kovich becoming earth president? Maybe that apperance meant something for american viewers, but as an international viewer from outside I didn’t get that scene.

Yeah, the Earth President was a real life American politician that is friends with the production and had done voting videos with some of the cast.

No, I am not trying to make this incendiary. Just stating a fact the producers themselves admitted in an interview I read on another site.

Many Americans viewers understood it perfectly well. And found it amazingly ironic considering the message of being unified that was being hammered over our heads.

Yes, many of us American viewers did understand it quite well, and found the message to be quite hopefully and unifying.

And not ironic at all coming from someone who has fostered quite a bit of division?

If you consider championing voting rights as divisive, then it certainly is ironic, though not for the reasons you think.

No one is against voting rights. That is not the reason she is divisive. She is divisive because she has been championing divisive policies. And among the voting issues she wishes to end are things that the majority of the country, including a majority of her own ethnicity, are in favor of.

One thing in the plot bothered me: After the Romulus-catastrophe, haven’t they learned how to make it possible to evacuate a planet in case the same happens again?

They probably did but the Federation was functionally hobbled by the Burn and the scarcity of dilithium. They probably didn’t the resources to mount a planetary evacuation (let alone TWO) so soon after finding the dilithium planet.

There is simply no realistic way of evacuating several billion people in a short period of time. Let’s assume a population of 10 billion. Let’s be generous and assume you can cram 50,000 people onto one ship. That means you need 200,000 ships each carrying 50,000 people. But, first you would need to get them off-planet onto those ships. That takes time. If you don’t have 200,000 ships you would need to shuttle people somewhere else, offload them there and then return for the next round. If I remember correctly, there was less than a day between knowing the DMA was headed for Earth and Nivar and its arrival. That simply doesn’t work.

After my posting I remembered the Burn which crippled the fleet and came the conclusion that they didn’t have enough time and resources to rebuilt it. On the other hand, being so far away in the future, you would expect to find so advanced and fantastic technology that would make possible to evacuate so many people. whole planet. What happened to wormholes, transwarp-beaming and so on? And to that technology we saw in PIC season 1?

Aw. And they all lived happily ever after. Is this the last episode of the show? I hope so.

Also, how did they go from only being able to communicate single ideas through numerical equations in the last episode, to just chatting away as normal to the 10-C at the end of this episode? Did I miss something? How did that happen?

I’m loathe to defend this train wreck but while that was a complaint I had in the last episode the fact is this is a show and they just cannot spend lots of time working out the means of communication. That is something that would just take a ton of time. Time they didn’t have because of the stakes they created and as dull as the finale was it would have been a lot duller if they spent lots of time working on the communication issues. They touched on the complexity of it. Made a number of assumptions that ended up being correct. And on they went.

Aaaaaand they fell at the last hurdle.

Back to explosions, back to crying and drawn out over emotional scenes and outbursts, back to Tilly and her annoying quirks/ditherings. Most of this feels pointless. I actually liked most of this season, as it did have some resemblance now and then to Star Trek (plus, actually like the new fleet they developed for the 32nd Century/there’s actual cohesion in the designs). But they reverted to the same old shlock at the end. Ah well, Discovery, at least you stayed true to yourself.

Hmm I found that a bit boring. Loved the overall idea. Working out the motivations, learning to communicate – that felt very Star Trek to me, almost V’Ger like but really t he last three episodes felt like one episode padded out.

I’ve kind of come to the conclusion that Discovery is never going to be the Star Trek series I really enjoy. I’ve given it a chance but it’s not one I’ll rewatch. I find it far too emotional, sometimes an episode can be motoring along and then we get a sudden screeching halt to explore how someone is feeling in that moment and that isn’t for me. Honestly it feels like a ship full of Barclays at times.

Season review: some really good Star Trek moments hidden among the crying and hugging. Overall: Meh

It wasn’t perfect, but I think this is probably the strongest finale they’ve had. A very Star Trek-y end and wrapped things up mostly satisfyingly.

I think the species 10-C worked great, a bit of V’ger TMP new life and new civilizations!!! Easily the best part of the show, an alien race allowed to be different! The Federation revival though I think has been a huge missed opportunity. Turns out everyone left the UFP and there was absolutely nothing to learn or fix. For writers that try to come up with insane mirror evil UFPs, they had the chance to do a more realistic actual UFP in need of reform and tolerating diversity and discussions on sovereignty and never really built an arc around it. Did the UFP go too authoritarian that everyone left due to all the wars? Was it necessary? Were all the races just made too lazy to explore space by holodecks? Were they tired of fighting wars? Are they now anti-exploration and feel they need to focus on themselves (how many people complain about NASA money not being used to help the poor despite technology shifting everything forward). I think had this Federation debate being going on while 10-C was doing its thing would have been a more exciting season. A little sad they didn’t have more “we must work together!” during the crisis. Reminds me of the missed opportunity that was Enterprise honestly.

I understand your point. I think the idea that suddenly, with no reason, Earth… Check that… “United Earth” (I guess that’s the official name of the planet in the 32nd century for some unknown reason) suddenly wants to join the UFP again? No talks, no vetting, no nothing? Just, we are ready to reenter the fold right here right now? Makes no sense whatsoever.

The way I see it, the Earth was about to be destroyed by some alien mining equipment. The Federation swooped in and saved them. The Feds even began helping with the evacuation when things weren’t looking so good. So out of an abundance of gratitude, the Earth decided to rejoin the Federation in this post burn galaxy.

And that shows an amazing lack of professionalism, foresight or common sense. If someone you once knew and aren’t on good terms with any longer pushes you out of the way of an oncoming car do you suddenly decide to buddy up with that person again? It could cause you to rethink your position but you shouldn’t be inviting them to dinner that night or having beers at ballgames again as if nothing has happened.

United Earth is not the name of the planet. It’s the name of the government of the planet.

Then why does everyone call it Earth up until now? Since this government obviously does not include the entire planet then it seems like the President of “United” Earth is overstepping when saying Earth is ready to join the Federation. That would mean only the governments that have opted into the “United” Earth government are good with it. What, do the others have no say in the fate of their planet? Does United Earth rule over even those who are not a part of it? Something feels wrong with all that.

Where are you getting that the United Earth government doesn’t include all of Earth? That’s like saying the United States of America doesn’t include all of States.

Not so. But even the United Nations doesn’t include everyone. If it did include all it seems reasonable that they would just say “Earth” rather than “United Earth”. It’s 3 fewer syllables, that’s the name of the planet and if it does include every single state then it encompasses everyone on Earth. So again, no need. Especially so since no one in Star Trek has ever referred to the planet as “United Earth”.

Earth has been referred to as United Earth in the past, as pointed out by a plethora of people above. You’re really just looking for a reason to criticize at this point, and really weird one at that.

No, it hasn’t been. As pointed out above, that was not the name of the planet but rather an inter-state agency. I just asked a question why on this show they made a point to call the Earth “United” Earth. As if the planet’s name officially changed for some reason. It’s a legitimate question and one that has yet to be satisfactorily answered.

I just found it an odd change. Weird that the question triggers you like that.

The name of Earth didn’t change, whenever anyone refers to United Earth its the government of Earth.

And, FYI, not sure where you’re getting that I’m triggered, just a bit confused by your stance on this completely unimportant issue.

Just feels like a missed opportunity. You have this ship from the past finding the Federation in tatters, people lamenting the lost dream. Then they find the Federation and turns out, nope, it’s all good (?!?!). Just some crazy United Earth, Romulan-Vulcans and Andorian members leaving for no reason. I don’t see why you wouldn’t have some arc where Michael and the Discovery crew have to bring back some forgotten Federation ideals, some which could come into conflict with the “new Federation” which sees these 23rd century types as naive barbarians. Maybe the new Federation President is trying to reform but the CinC Starfleet thinks she is naive and will lead to weakness (a reverse TUC) and all she can trust is Discovery being outside the Fleet? And by the end they learn to compromise. Maybe Section 31 had to take control when the galaxy was falling apart? I’m just surprised that the Federation fell, but it was all uh, good? Could have been some drama there with lessons learned with some real political analogs and controversies to explore (and setting up some action). I really feel that oversimplification has hurt discourse in society for instance that you don’t even need to have it where there is a right and a wrong side, but shades of grey. I think it’s fair you could have it where after the Borg, Temporal Wars, Dominion War the Federation becomes this monolithic command economy on a war footing where no one really wants to explore the Universe anymore. I mean look at today – people get upset about the space race because shouldn’t the money goto the poor. We’ve also had it so cozy and know our world, the Royal and US Navies aren’t really in the exploration game at all. Accusations of imperialism, etc. Indeed in some ways TNG seemed to have it where the Federation expected all aliens to become as enlightened as the humans on Earth, holodecks. Even Picard in Insurrection was lamenting all he was finding out there was war. In the defence of the UFP/Starfleet at the type, they were almost conquered by the Borg, Dominion, Klingon wars, temporal wars that made no sense, etc. It had to be all hands on deck and they really tried their hardest to keep some exploration going that no one seemed to care about anymore. You can see a difference between the UFP of TOS and TNG, in TOS the UFP is more NATO with the humans (US) being heavily active in Starfleet but the Andorians and Tellerites fighting with the Vulcans, etc. A more “diverse” group with more internal sovereignty. In Star Trek IV you have the Vulcan ambassador coming up to fight with the Council as they entertain talking with the Klingons. Just seems more “loose”. Always thought of it was Andorian being “good Klingons”, the Vulcans being the pacifists, the Tellerites being more commercial and the humans in between able to compromise with all. But what if the Alpha Centuarians want to join but they are a matriarchal society, are they allowed in? In TNG and Discovery you see a more monolithic entity where basically all the planets are pretty in tune and what the President says goes. Then the burn and resource shortages and you see the break up of the Federation when they start deciding how to deal with the scarcity and then it all falls apart. Hell, maybe the UFP decided to buy dilithium from the Klingons instead of Earth to encourage them to join which they then turned around and used for war or something so Earth decided to cut everyone off. Resource conflicts that exposed the need for appreciating diversity. Maybe the UFP came in and decided to nationalize all the dilithium and to put it all into the Starfleet due to the fear of war and Earth and Andorians thought that was too much? I’m not saying the new Federation should have been evil but maybe have parts of it out of control to put back into place. Also you would think the independent worlds like Earth, Andor, Ni’Var, all the small colonies would pay more of a price with wars, economic conflicts, a price to pay for not exploring resulting in shortages, etc. This was touched on at first, but the whole concept seemed to fade. You then can have some Roman style politics in the rebirth where in the end some 23rd century values get relearned. Maybe have it where Starfleet didn’t want them to go exploring when they should have been running away and they relearn the concept. I don’t know, the Federation rebirth I thought was going to be more Foundation/Dune keeping things exciting instead of a race to normalcy.

I partly agree. I do think Discovery should have spent a lot more time in rebuilding the Federation. We saw that briefly at the end of last season and the beginning of this one before the DMA story took over. We also were given hints throughout last season (and also a bit of this season) that the Federation pre-Burn was not on the best of terms with all of it’s members (specifically Ni’Var and Alshain IV – the planet with the butterfly people from the first episode of Season 4). Unfortunately, albeit not entirely surprising, the show runners definitely bit off more than they could chew with what a post-Burn Federation would look like.

At the same time (and to play my own devil’s advocate), it would make sense that if some/most planets left the Federation simply because of an inability to travel, when that ability came back they’d be more than happy to return.

I would say this is by far Discovery’s best season finale, and the season felt more coherent, even if the run-up to the finale was too thin to carry the full season. The big difference with this season is that they obviously knew where they were going from the beginning, that wasn’t the case at all with previous seasons (at least it appears that way). I doubt Season 3 writing began with them knowing that the burn was caused by the scream of a child. This season had a fairly satisfying arc, even if it was hardly suspenseful or engaging. You can also see where the season’s budget went, it’s all in this episode and the VFX looked (and sounded) brilliant. The return of Tilly again reminded me why this series can’t afford to lose their strongest cast members, she brings so much charisma to a show that is otherwise drab. Her absence doomed the season for me in ways I didn’t expect. Anyway, great finale alongside a phenomenal run of episodes for Picard…good times for Star Trek fans.

And although I adore Stacey Abrams and the way her moment meant the reunification of Earth and the Federation, the moment was a little cringeworthy, perhaps a little too saccharine for me.

BTW, I freaking love the 32nd century ships, more please!

What I don’t get about Earth leaving the Federation in Star Trek Discovery as it pertains to Starfleet is that Starfleet is the military and exploration arm of the United Earth that predates the Federation.

Therefore, shouldn’t Starfleet have left the Federation with the United Earth when they left?

Shouldn’t ALL those Starfleet vessels belong to the United Earth?

Starfleet’s legacy starts with Earth, but every indication seems to be that it becomes a Federation institution after the founding of the Federation, and is the primary defense, diplomatic, and exploration force for all member states.

Every captain says some variation of it during their hails: “This is Captain James T. Kirk of the Federation starship Enterprise…”

I think the 13 episode long arcs need to go. I don’t mind a few 2 to 4 episode arcs, but I would like to see discovery become a little more episodic. There should be a lot to explore in the 32nd century and you can throw a few smaller arcs here and there. This was the first season I actually fell asleep during an episode… I think it was episode nine or 10, I can’t remember.

The same happened me too on episode 10! I fell asleep… One problem of the “modern” episodes long arc is keeping the old way of watching it. Most modern shows can be binged watched. But not Disco unless you wait 13 weeks. That wouldn’t improve the plot but maybe it would have been less boring.

I thought the episode was terrible. No especially hard choices had to be made. A few sentences were enough to persuade 10C to completely change their way of life. Impossible situations were simply resolved. Even an apparent death lasted no more than 10 minutes.

Every situation is easy if there are no tough calls to be made. Most of Michael’s lines this episode and season were variations of “Tell the team I want this problem solved” — you really need a captain to tell you that?

A wonderful finale to one of the best seasons of Discovery yet. While I was initially unsettled by the inclusion of Stacy Abrams, because, as others have mentioned, and has clearly transpired in the comment section, it super charged a debate that’s largely separate from the story and meaning of the entire episode/season, I applaud the Discovery production for having made the choice nonetheless. What I do find more disappointing is not only the comments of others, but the author: ANTHONY PASCALE’s derogatorily classifying a cameo that lasted barely two minutes as “stunt casting”.

On other matters, I personally enjoyed the decision for the final closing image of the planet earth to not represented by the standard north-south view on the America’s. Bravo to the Discovery production for continuing to make their own choices this season. Continue the tradition of holding a mirror to society, with all forms of advocacy no matter how uncomfortable it makes some people, myself included.

I love Discovery and really enjoyed the ending to season 4. At times it reminded me of the sense of wonder that they were even trying for in Star Trek: The Motion Picture, but were never quite able to get to successfully. I even thought I heard snippets of the TMP soundtrack at times.

HOWEVER, I will say this…where the heck are the straight white men on this show? Was there some sort of revolution at some point in the future and now they’ve been turned into slaves or something? I have no problem with diversity in Star Trek, I loved DS9 and Voyager, but on DS9 you had characters like O’Brien and Bashir and Voyager you had Tom Paris and Harry Kim, but here you don’t even have a lowly ensign on Disco that is a straight white male.

I kind of lost of when they said “President of Earth” and it was yet another woman who stepped off of that ship…again I have no problem with women in power, but what are the odds that all of the leaders we see are women, with the one exception of Admiral Vance.

It’s a correction for perceived over-representation in the past, I get the sense that Paradise feels it’s her duty to showcase diversity forcefully. So we get Kovich and Vance representing that demographic in the recurring guest cast.

Still, apart from Enterprise and TOS, the specific demo you are looking for isn’t the majority of any of the other casts. I maintain she’s over-correcting and while some casting decisions are laudable, others come across as pandering that does a disservice to the minorities being represented. Representation is the start of everything, but if you don’t back that up with meaningful characterization, then it eventually becomes insulting.

I find the show disappointing same thing every episode just put a large C on Michaels chest ad a cape for super captain able to save the day when no one else can show is extremely predictable the best ending would be that in the beginning when Michael is being transported to prison and the shuttle has an issue that Michael is injured and is in a coma dreaming it all

I liked season 1. Hit and miss, trying new things.. but I enjoyed it. I really loved season 2. It checked all my ST boxes. Can’t wait for ST strange new worlds.

Season 3 and 4 are so dull, boring and mostly so cheesy. Good episodes here and there but overall not exciting one bit.

Im a long time st Fan but Disco has lost me. Besides Saru I don’t care about any of them. The line are cheesy, the crying, the long looks they give each other. There continuel emotion dilemas. The applause and tears each time they suceed a mission ! ST always had that little look and smile but disco is over the top.

Even the direction and SFX. Its so fast all the time… I don’t even find the space shots look that good. And the flame throwers on the bridge for each action scene. Balls of fire shooting out from every vent. my god tell the fire guy to take it easy!

Sorry for ranting. I was hoping for something better after season 3. Im a bit disapointed. Hope Strange new worlds delivers. At least the 3 main characters are very likable and interesting.

Seems that I’m not the only one who feels sees it that way. I understand the problems most had with S1 and 2 and why they felt a need to change it (and jump into the future). But it were not the plots, not the pace, not the characters. I liked season 1 and mostly S2 a lot.The characters were great, strong and INTERESTING in S1 and S2. Lorca was a badass, Tyler was interesting, Pike was very strong and most-trek-like, even Mirror-Giorgiu was interesting, even she was was very controversial. All these interesting characters left or were reduced drastically like Saru, Culber and Stamets. At least the final 2,5 episodes saved the season and the last episode felt like a series finale. That’s the opposite of Enterprise. Great season 4 but disappointing (and not real) series finale. If they really continue with season 5, please make a kind of reboot like S3, but not so soft. They should get the producers of the new season of PIC. I see Disco Season 3 and 4 as a different, ANOTHER series as Season 1 and 2 just like I do with Picard Season 1. If I would rank al Star Trek shows, I would split each Disco and Pic and rank them on very different spots.

I’m sorry, but it’s NOT okay with me for any politician to be on Star Trek. As much as I like Stacey Abrams, I do not approve of mixing real-life politicians into the series. It’s just distasteful and distracting. I would feel the same way if they put Trump on the show. It’s just a big NEVER! from me. I think Gene Roddenberry would be rolling in his grave.

It may not have been completely clean, but I think Discovery finally stuck the landing.

The finale itself was mostly satisfying, tying up the various threads from throughout the season and making good on the writers’ promise that the 10-C would be unlike anything we’ve seen in past Trek’s. While the overall conclusion was a bit simple and rushed (the 10-C so easily not just stopping the DMA, but completely abandoning their protective hyper-field), it absolutely made sense within the concept of the story being told. I really, really appreciated the fact that while there was a good amount of action in this episode, none of it devolved into incoherence! If anything, many of the action scenes were integral to the story being told – i.e. pretty much all of the scenes with the Federation trying to evacuate Earth. I especially loved the opening shot of Federation HQ warping to Earth; it took me a moment to figure out what I was looking (at first I thought it had something to do with the 10-C trying to capture Book’s ship), but once I realized it was the entire Federation HQ I may have thrown my fist in the air a little bit ;) The F/X crew definitely worked overtime as this was the first time got a really good look at a number of 32nd Century ships and I’m all for starship porn :)

On the flip side, I really wish we had spent more time (a lot more time) on developing the 10-C – learning more about their history, why they suddenly needed to develop the DMA (I can’t imagine it such a massive anomaly has been floating around the galaxy for a thousands years going unnoticed), etc. In the same vein, I would loved to have seen more time in developing communication b/w the Federation and the 10-C as I found that aspect of “Species 10-C” to be absolutely fascinating.

This brings me to a larger frustration with the season as a whole. While the story that was told was a good and interesting story, it was told at a frustrating pace. I think we easily could have had two episodes just dealing with communication with the 10-C, but instead we had multiple episodes with the Discovery spinning it’s wheels trying to stop Book. The episode right before the mid-season hiatus “…But to Connect” was a big highlight in how it dealt with diplomacy and showing a ton more about the state of the various alien species in the 32nd century, but it was all too fleeting. I’ve read many a complaint that 13 episodes was just too many, resulting in a number of filler episodes, but I disagree. I think 13 episodes could have been a perfect amount had the focus of the story telling been adjusted as there was certainly enough storytelling potential surrounding the DMA and the 10-C (especially when it came to communication). Fortunately, the pacing issues didn’t become a real problem until after the hiatus, and even then they weren’t enough to ruin the season for me.

Speaking of frustrations, I get the writer’s want to try and develop the bridge crew, but my g0d are they doing it in the worst way imaginable. Instead of having storylines centered around these characters, we instead get some truly cringe-worthy reaction shots of them smiling, hugging and crying. If we knew these characters more maybe these shots we be meaningful, but as it stands every time they happen I can’t help but roll my eyes.

Finally, and to end on a positive note, I’m actually really excited for what season 5 can bring. DISCO has gone through a ton of changes (seriously, Season 1 and Season 4 feel like they’re from two different shows), and in someways, given the soft reboot that was Season 3, Season 3 was almost a Season 1, with Season 4 being akin to a Season 2. Given Trek’s past track record, Season 3 tends to be when the shows really find themselves, so 🤞 that DISCO can follow suit in it’s own roundabout way ;)

I’m still waiting on an explanation of how giant floating jellyfish? created such advanced technology that they are a type 2 civilization

@ THX – Thankyou! Yes, this was one of my first thoughts too. I’m keen to know a possible explanation other than something unsatisfactory like they ‘willed it’ into existence over the years as their ‘minds grew’.

I wouldn’t worry about it too much, I highly doubt we’ll ever see them again. They are a ”one and done” species. Can’t see them recurring like the Borg, Romulans, Klingons etc.

I haven’t seen recurring the Borg and Klingons in Disco in the 32th century either.

I meant over the entire franchise. We’ve seen Borg etc plenty of times across multiple series. Species 10C(stupid name) we’ll never again see in another show, sure maybe they’ll get mentioned, but actually seen and interact with? Nope, forget get. That’s how these writers roll.

To all of those who don’t like it when Michael (or any of the crew for that matter cries), there was a great interview on “Fresh Air” recently with Marie Yovanovitch, the former ambassador to Ukraine who was unceremoniously fired by the Trump administration. During the interview she speaks about crying “hot, angry tears” upon learning she is being removed from her position, and feeling betrayed by the State department. She asked point blank if she felt embarrassed for crying in such a way, her response is brilliant (the bolding is mine):

I’m sure I was mildly embarrassed, but there were so many other emotions going on: anger, disbelief, worry about what this would mean for our Ukraine policy, for our diplomacy, our standing. There were so many other emotions going on. That embarrassment was down at the bottom of the heap. But the reason I wrote that passage is that women feel that it’s unprofessional to cry, and I’m not saying that it’s the best reaction. But when men shout, that’s kind of accepted as a strong man expressing his views. When women cry, which is often the same emotion just expressed in a different way, that’s unprofessional. I wrote that passage because I wanted women to know that it’s OK, that sometimes you have to just own your emotions and keep on going with it.

That was hard to watch.

I really enjoyed this season. They were trying to do something different, and for the most part it worked. I’ve read a few comments that the concept was too drawn out, well there was a lot of great character building which would not have been there if this story was just a two part episode. Saru and the Vulcan leaders relationship for example – which was a highlight of the season, had time to grow naturally when mixed in with the season long story. also the whole sense of going “out there” into the unknown and encountering something truly alien was well done, and that is something that has been missing from all of these new Trek shows. As for the finale – it’s probably the best one they have done, but that’s not saying much as they have all been disappointing to me. Thankfully there was no over the top action scene like last season with the truly stupid rollercoaster elevators. They didn’t totally derail like the Picard finale either. That’s all good. Where they failed was in not showing any real tragedy. I’m sorry, but Book’s “death” was well done and emotional. It would have served as a huge moment for Burnam to have actually had her Kobayashi Maru moment.That was all ruined by bringing Book back at the end.

There’s a youtube video ripping into Stacey Abrams’ appearance and the new Kirk casting that says that Trek “has gone straight to hell” and calls him “Lame LGBTQ Jerk” — a very awkward play on James T Kirk if I do say so.

The video has nearly 60K views in a day. Sad state of affairs, how angry fans have gotten over a simple TV show.

It’s sad how a franchise about tolerance has a lot of intolerant “fans”.

I’ve never been as disappointed after watching 50+ years of Trek as when the Discovery team cast a controversial political leader in such a pivotal role as President. This was an unnecessary casting stunt that draws the viewer out of the Star Trek reality and right into current politics. Terrible distraction to what was a wonderful story. Please producers – never again – leave acting to actors.

Agreed, and I was glad to hear that Anthony and Laurie agree with us.

Phenomenal theme, great setting. However, the emotional decisions by a Captain trusted to command a starship was a bit ridiculous. No where in other in a fictional universe or reality would that be tolerated.

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To make it a “big” finale, the show chose to try and balance way too many story points: stopping Tarka’s mission, making real contact with Species 10-C and convincing them to turn off the DMA, the DMA’s impact on Earth (and Starfleet’s efforts to evacuate the planet), Book coming to terms with the destruction of Kwejian, General Ndoye’s betrayal of Discovery’s efforts, Burnham’s crumbling relationship with Book, Burnham’s evolving dynamic with President Rillak, and Saru’s attraction to President T’Rina.

It’s actually more successful than you might think in juggling all those plot lines — in a gripping hour that largely pays off a lot of these stories in a satisfying way — but I can’t help but feel like the decision to hold so much for the finale ultimately detracted from the overall season, and did not give everything quite the breathing room it could have had to really pop.

There are a couple of convenient leaps to accelerate the story that may not have been necessary if the DMA story had been doled out in a more evenly-balanced manner, but overall, the season ended stronger than I hoped (given my frustrations with episodes like “The Galactic Barrier.” )

The episode picks up outside the galaxy with Tarka (Shawn Doyle) in control of Book’s ship, preparing to destroy the DMA by taking control of its power source. I was pleased that Tarka’s role within the episode was resolved quickly, even though — after how obstinate and inflexible he had been in previous episodes — it felt like the speed of his turn towards abandoning his plan was a little abrupt.

But I am okay with that; the character had largely outlived his usefulness, despite a good performance — and I enjoyed the decision to shroud his ultimate fate in the same mystery as his partner Oros. That was a poetic choice that I appreciated.

As for  Book (David Ajala) seemingly dying after his transporter beam failed to deliver him back to  Discovery’s  bridge… well, a nice effort by the writers, but four years of this series have conditioned us to expect character departures to come with a much greater focus.

So while there was a a solid reactionary performance from Captain Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) — who gets understandably emotional for a moment, before pulling herself back into command mode — it was hard to see how that would be the end for ol’ Cleveland Booker.

After stopping Tarka, the main meat of the episode was in Discovery’s continued attempts to start a dialogue with Species 10-C. After establishing the enormous aliens that humanoid species don’t exist in a hive mind the way they do, Burnham and crew set about working to convince them to back down.

The scenes with direct dialogue between Species 10-C and the Discovery delegation are tense, as both parties begin to explain their perspectives on the universe to one another, but this is the part of the story that really could have used a larger focus.

It’s wonderful to see the climax of the series revolve not around some kind of fight, but between two parties who are completely alien to one another learning to communicate and share their needs. But if I have one criticism of the sequence, it’s that the hard-to-overcome communication barriers established last week get ratcheted down as the need to speed up the plot ratchets up.

Last week, the two parties were struggling to communicate basic mathematical concepts and how they perceive and process the universe, by the time they get into the meat of the discussion in “Coming Home,” the Federation group is trading words and concepts like love without much difficulty — punctuated by lengthy, easily-translated speeches from the rematerialized Book, Burnham, and Rillak (Chelah Horsdal).

Beyond that, though, it’s been really gratifying to see  Discovery chose to explore something truly alien this season. Species 10-C was an entirely new concept for Star Trek , as promised by Michelle Paradise, and Star Trek is better off for it. I hope all the shows will continue to thoughtfully balance revisiting familiar Star Trek species, locales, and ideas with forging new ground in this manner.

It was also nice to see Sylvia Tilly (Mary Wiseman) again, returning for the first time since her departure from  Discovery back in “All is Possible.” Still partnered with a group of Starfleet cadets (including the Tellarite and Orion from “All is Possible”) as part of her new assignment, Tilly’s scenes with Admiral Vance (Oded Fehr) were a standout, as the two officers coordinate Starfleet’s limited evacuation of Earth.

The special effects work in this episode was top notch — especially the Starfleet ships coming to lead Earth’s evacuation efforts, led by Starfleet Command’s base warping into orbit (!). While it seems likely Vance will continue as a regular guest star next year, there’s still no word how often we’ll see Tilly in Season 5, but producer/director Olatunde Osunsanmi said in a new interview Tilly will be back in some capacity.

Once the 10-C call off the DMA and graciously send Discovery back to Earth via wormhole, we find that Book’s sentence for taking Tarka’s side and chasing after the 10-C isn’t prison, but what is essentially a “community service” assignment: helping other people displaced from their homes following encounters with the DMA.

It’s good to see he wasn’t let off scot-free, even though it may seem like a light “punishment” compared to incarceration; Rillak makes clear that she wants true justice for the situation, and with Reno’s reporting that Tarka was making all the bad decisions in this last part of the story, an assignment to a Starfleet-supervised relief-worked position seems pretty fair.

It appears clear that David Ajala won’t be a  Star Trek: Discovery regular next season — revealing the truth behind Cleveland Booker’s name last week was a pretty big hint that his run on the show was nearing an end — but as Burnham says in her closing monologue, we’ll see him again, someday.

HAIL TO THE CHIEF

After Federation forces came to its rescue during the DMA disaster, “Coming Home” concludes with United Earth choosing to come back into the fold — and as the President of Earth disembarks from a shuttlecraft,  Discovery brings us the franchise’s first modern-era major cameo — like the several well-known , real-world faces who have made their way into the franchise in eras past.

When that shuttle door opens, who do we see? No, it’s not that President of Earth , but former Georgia Senate Minority Leader, two-time candidate for the Governor of Georgia (including her current campaign ), groundbreaking voting-rights champion , progressive hero — and most importantly, a true, longtime Star Trek fan: Stacey Abrams.

Of all the current series, Discovery has always been the one that was the most willing to engage directly with modern politics. The casting of Stacey Abrams as the president of a United Earth — especially as the planet emerges from a period of aggressive isolationism to rejoin the galactic community — certainly sends a strong signal about Discovery’s political point of view.

It happens to be a point of view that I support, so I’m fine with it, but I am sure there will be A WHOLE LOT of opinions about it (both in favor and against). Personally, it’s always a thrill for me to see any longtime Star Trek fan realize their dream of actually getting to be part of   Star Trek , and from that standpoint alone it, must have been the coolest experience imaginable for her. I’m certainly jealous!

Sonequa-Martin Green and Discovery showrunner Michelle Paradise shared some thoughts on Abrams’ appearance with Deadline today; Paradise noted that they “knew that she was a fan of the show and of Trek in general, and for us, there was no one better to be that President.”

I think that’s where we should all choose to focus our energy — in congratulating a fan for being able to touch some small part of the franchise in a real way, while hopefully not getting into too much of a scuffle over Is This What Star Trek Has Become?! along the way.

(Comments section below, I’m looking at you!)

OTHER OBSERVATIONS

• T’Rina (Tara Rosling) and Saru (Doug Jones)? All in.  
• President T’Rina’s telepathic outreach to Species 10-C isn’t without precedent; Spock himself performed a long-distance mind-meld in “One of Our Planets is Missing,” reaching out from his seat on the  Enterprise bridge to make contact with a living cloud.  
• After learning that Species 10-C exist in a hive-mind state, President Rillak asks T’Rina if they are like the Borg — the first reference to the cybernetic species in  Discovery .  
• Will the  Voyager -J  ever  get a new captain?  
• Burnham and Book discuss a chilly night on Tiburon , the home of the big-eared Dr. Sevrin from “The Way to Eden.”  
• Book’s ship is destroyed, and with it, the first new spore drive prototype. While Stamets (Anthony Rapp) notes that Discovery ‘s burned out drive can apparently be repaired, one must wonder how far back the loss of the prototype — and of Tarka with it — will set back the Federation’s efforts on replicating the technology.  
• Missing from the already-stuffed finale are updates on how Gray (Ian Alexander) is doing back on Trill, and on what kind of secret project Kovich (David Cronenberg) is managing at Starfleet Headquarters; so far we don’t yet know if the two will return next season.

Discovery wraps up its fourth season with one final captain’s log from Burnham, which mirrors and builds upon her similar log entry from the end of Season 3. Both are similar in that they discuss how the resolution of the season’s arc has revitalized the Federation, driven everyone closer together, and set sights for a more hopeful future.

Where last year’s ending felt like the start of the renewal process, though, this time it feels like the Federation has finally come full circle as Earth pledges its intention to rejoin the alliance, and the Discovery story can now truly move forward once more.

While the Discovery crew heads off to much-needed vacations — aside from the slight time-jump after the Season 3 finale, they haven’t really had a day off since the series began! — Star Trek: Discovery  ends its year with a pretty blank canvas for where to go from here.

I hope that Season 5 brings us a new narrative structure, interesting new concepts, and more of a chance for Star Trek: Discovery’s characters to shine through. See you soon,  Discovery!

Star Trek: Discovery will return for a 10-episode fifth season sometime in 2023; as of this writing no production-start date has been announced.

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Star Trek: Discovery returns this week with the 13th and final episode of season four, titled “Coming Home”. The finale will premiere on Thursday, March 17th alongside a new episode of Star Trek: Picard on the Paramount+ streaming service.

“Coming Home” is written by Michelle Paradise and directed by Olatunde Osunsanmi .

We’ve got seven new photos and a video preview from the episode below.

In the season four finale, the DMA approaches Earth and Ni’Var. With evacuations underway, Burnham and the team aboard the  U.S.S. Discovery  must find a way to communicate and connect with a species far different from their own before time runs out.

We’ll update this article as soon as the trailer becomes available.

The fourth season of Star Trek: Discovery stars Sonequa Martin-Green (Captain Michael Burnham), David Ajala (Cleveland “Book” Booker), Doug Jones (Commander Saru), Anthony Rapp (Lt. Commander Paul Stamets), Wilson Cruz (Dr. Hugh Culber), Mary Wiseman (Sylvia Tilly), Blu Del Barrio (Adira), and Ian Alexander (Grey).

Star Trek: Discovery streams on Paramount+ in the U.S. and on Bell Media’s CTV Sci-Fi Channel and streams on Crave in Canada. Internationally, the series is available on Paramount+ and on Pluto TV in select markets .

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March 16, 2022 at 7:22 am

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Stacey abrams explains her ‘star trek: discovery’ season 4 finale cameo.

Abrams, who appeared in the final moments of "Coming Home" as the United Earth president, said the storylines in 'Discovery' speak to "why we do the work we do in politics."

By Abbey White

Abbey White

Associate Editor & News Writer

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In the season four finale of Star Trek: Discovery , “Coming Home,” voting rights advocate and Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams makes an out-of-this-world cameo.

In only her second TV appearance following a guest spot on ABC’s Black-ish , Abrams made her Star Trek franchise debut as the United Earth president. Abrams, who has been vocal about being a fan of the shows, said in a behind-the-scenes video posted to her Twitter on Saturday that she wanted to be a part of the show, regardless of the role.

“Whatever the story was, I wanted to be a part of it because watching Michael Burnham come into her power as captain, watching this party-crew reclaim itself — not only in a new era but in a new space that is so reminiscent of what they remembered but so different — that, to me, speaks of why we do the work we do in politics,” she said. “It’s about giving people hope and giving them a better life and creating this vision of what is possible.”

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During the three-minute clip, which also featured brief interviews with star Sonequa Martin-Green, showrunner Michelle Paradise and the episode’s director and series EP Olatunde Osunsanmi, Abrams discusses the experience of prepping for the role in terms of hair, makeup and costuming. Abrams also explained that her love for the franchise is based on the fact “that it is not one thing.”

“It is so many different shows, and it’s so many different vantage points. It has this idealized notion of what can be but a very grounded understanding of how hard the work will be to get there,” she said. “What has been so remarkable about every iteration of the show is that they take that same construct, but they do it so differently and so well that you never get bored with the journey.”

There's a lot of work to do. Are you ready for that? https://t.co/zW1iluAW2z #StarTrek #StarTrekDiscovery #UnitedEarth #OneGeorgia pic.twitter.com/vgcZPtoVRd — Stacey Abrams (@staceyabrams) March 19, 2022

In an interview with Yahoo! Entertainment , Paradise explained how the team hid Abrams’ cameo from the public, noting that a few “precautions” were taken, though nothing drastic.

“We did take precautions on the day. Not listing her name specifically on the call sheet — normally, a performer’s name will be listed on the call sheet next to their character name. We didn’t do that in case any paperwork happened to get out,” she said. “We weren’t doing CIA-level things, but it was very important to all of us that we keep that lock[ed] down so the audience could experience that reveal in the moment.”

Paradise, who also wrote the season four finale, said that after reaching out to Abrams’ team, she agreed to a Zoom call with her and co-creator and EP Alex Kurtzman, where they pitched her the role.

“It was pretty overwhelming, I’ll be honest. Alex and I were both really taken aback,” Paradise recalled. “She was so kind and thoughtful, and just great. We were both absolutely thrilled to get to talk to her and pitch her the idea. Once she said she wanted to do it, we pinched ourselves a bit.”

As for whether Abrams might appear again, Paradise told Yahoo! that she’s “confident” Abrams will be busy with other things but that “it would be an absolute thrill to be able to do that again on any level.”

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Star Trek: Discovery Cannot Help the Indulgence of a Happy Ending

And considering the hell it went through to get there, perhaps it's worth allowing the indulgence..

When appraising a piece of fiction, it’s often necessary to consider the context in which it was created. Sometimes a piece of work can stand on its strengths alone to convey meaning and theme—but sometimes context is necessary to allow certain understandings and conveniences. And Star Trek: Discovery ’s latest finale is, perhaps more than most, certainly hoping that you’ll allow it some context this season. After all, it is for kings .

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“Coming Home,” the 13th and final episode of Star Trek: Discovery season four, is, like basically every Discovery season finale before it, an explosive, emotionally exhaustive endeavo r. Spilt into two evenly chaotic halves—a madcap dash by the Discovery to try and stop Tarka from destroying the DMA, wiping out the ship and the mysterious Ten-C, and leaving toxic pollution in its wake to destroy the currently threatened worlds of Ni’Var and Earth ; and then an emotional cooldown as Burnham and her staff return to First Contact talks with the Ten-C in a last ditch attempt to salvage relations —it’s an hour that is a complete and utter rollercoaster. With its e pic scenes of disaster and destruction, special surprise cameos (Tilly’s back, y ay! Tilly looks like she’s almost about to die all the time helping Admiral Vance stop debris from destroying Earth, oh no!), shocking deaths that turn out to be even more shocking not-deaths, and teary- eyed moments of sacrifice and joy, there is a lot going on.

And, to be honest , there’s not actually much to it—and when there is, if you think about it a little too long, it doesn’t entirely make sense. “Coming Home” so cleanly splitting its time between the suddenly incredibly high stakes forged from last week’s mostly quiet and thoughtful episode, and then giving itself a lot of time to deal with the emotional aftermath is both a good thing and a puzzling one, especially when the episode simply has to completely slam the breaks on its momentum half way through. But it also just means there’s some weird hiccups: Tarka’s plan to destroy the DMA gets almost immediately thrown out the window because Book finally manages to convince him what a terrible idea it is, and that Tarka is blinded by grief over his lost friend (perhaps, as it’s heavily implied even, more than friend). Except, all that emotional catharsis and the complete turnaround on Tarka’s character ( from being willing to do whatever it takes to stop the DMA to being incredibly regretful) happens in about five minutes. It’s also cut between the Discovery crew freaking out—and planning their own noble sacrifices, when first Commander Detmer and then United Earth’s General Ndoye offer to smash a shuttle into Book’s ship to stop it from reaching the DMA —and the drama back near Earth, as Vance and Starfleet race to evacuate the planet before debris hits. I t’s just... brushed over really, really quickly.

This is further compounded moments later, when Ndoye does smash a shuttle into Book’s ship, stopping it and saving the day. She gets beamed out, which is nice, but kind of undercuts the threat that was laid out just scenes before this, that she was absolving herself of betraying the Discovery to aid Book and Tarka by taking on a suicide mission. But it works, and you don’t have time to think about it as you’re immediately presented with what appears to be the big actual tragedy of the episode: Owoshekun attempts to beam Book out of the exploding ship, after Tarka gives him the sole chance left to teleport from disaster, only to lose his transport pattern as the vessel detonates... making Michael watch her partner seemingly blink out of existence just as she got him back.

It’s all very sad and Sonequa Martin-Green gets a fascinating moment of grief to play with; Michael comes so close to just buckling in front of the bridge crew before calmly composing herself and walking back to her c aptain’s chair to give orders. But as first contact talks re convene with the Ten-C and the day is saved, basically about 10 minutes later—and a s Michael explains to the aliens the concept of individuality among their species, and that one of the people who tried to destroy the DMA was someone she loved—the Ten-C magically apparate Book back to life, explaining that they’d interrupted the transporter signal and held his pattern in reserve as it seemed... important. Except Michael and the rest of the crew are in the middle of explaining to the Ten-C the difference between their individuality and the Ten-C’s collective mind . How on earth would they recogniz e the important of Book’s signal? Why would they keep it, if they had been sown into chaos by the damage Tarka did and were in the middle of cutting ties off with the F irst C ontact team? And yet, in spite of all this, it’s a beautiful scene, everything works out great and everyone gets what they wanted, and peace and understanding is achieved. And asking if that victory is worth not thinking about all the little slips and weirdly contrived resolutions for a happy ending is basically all that “Coming Home” is, for better or worse.

It is a hell of a victory, though. The Ten-C stop the DMA just as Vance and Tilly are about to sacrifice Federation HQ to defend the last remaining vessels of evacuees, and even agree to aid in the clean-up process where the anomaly had left toxic waste in its wake elsewhere. The Discovery , having heavily damaged the spore drive trying to stop Tarka, gets wormholed back to base for victory celebrations instead of having to take a Voyager -lengthed warp trip. And yes, perhaps most importantly of all: everyone gets to go take a well earned shore leave break, including Saru, who finally begins romantically courting President T’Rina.

The fact that Discovery takes its time to process all this in the back half of “Coming Home” is wonderful, instead of it just being some endcap montage in the final moments of the episode. It’s a well deserved victory lap, and it’s been so rare to see this series let its heroes pause and acknowledge the good work they’ve done that it’s actually a delight to see . And, it all ties into the themes that Discovery has reve led in all season: this is the power that comes from people coming together and seeking connection and understanding, that unity and co-operation can overcome even the most disastrous of circumstances. That even trying to help others is as noble in failure as it is in success. It’s worth taking the time to celebrate that message, even if it gets saccharine enough to thematically—and lovingly—wallop you over the head with it for a good 30 minutes. There’s no tease here, no big set up for whatever threat’s next, no cliffhanger: it’s just putting a period on this message, with the promise that the good work and process of collaboration has to keep on turning for it to really work.

And that’s where understanding the context of how Discovery ’s fourth season was made comes in to play. From the get- go , showrunners and cast alike have spoken about how this season was a reflection of our own reality in the last few years—a show about the pandemic without being about the pandemic. The season was shot under intense covid-19 protocols to keep cast and crew safe, trying to deliver a season of TV under extremely abnormal circumstances. It’s a commendable effort, and deliberately, optimistically blunt about what it’ s trying to say. Hell, the last shot of the episode is Earth, as we’re reminded that the future is made by people working together and keeping on working together for the good of all. But one that leads to a certain amount of letting a few things slide. Is “Coming Home” a little too cheesy for its own good? Perhaps. Does it ask you to let a lot of logical coherence slip by so you can be dazzled by its emotionality? Almost certainly. Does it feel more like a victory lap for things Discovery has said a lot of times already, without diving all that much deeply into them, leaving it feeling like a bit of a hollow echo ? Definitely.

But are you allowing to let those things pass you by to allow the show this one bit of feel-good saccharine storytelling? Well, that depends. If you are, “Coming Home” provides a loving finale for a season of challenges for Discovery . If not... well, as Michael and a very special guest star—Georgia politician and diehard Star Trek fan Stacey Abrams, playing the P resident of United Earth—attest to at the end of the episode, the good work must continue. Maybe they’ll sell you on it next time, if you’ll allow them the indulgence.

Wondering where our RSS feed went? You can pick the new up one here .

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Coming Home

In the season four finale, the DMA approaches Earth and Ni'Var. With evacuations underway, Burnham and the team aboard the U.S.S. Discovery must find a way to communicate and connect with a species far different from their own before time runs out.

Annabelle Wallis

Tara Rosling

Chelah Horsdal

Shawn Doyle

Phumzile Sitole

Hiro Kanagawa

Stacey Abrams

Emily Coutts

Cast appearances.

Anthony Rapp

Sonequa Martin-Green

Mary Wiseman

Wilson Cruz

David Ajala

Blu del Barrio

Episode Discussion

@jepafo wrote: Nope, not famous (not even infamous). Nope, not appropriate for ANY current politician to appear. Is called an 'in-kind' political donation and will always be perceived as supporting that person/party (So yes, it was saying vote for that party). Can also be perceived as strongly suggesting all Star Trek politicians are corrupt.

lol k. Laughable.

@bebop-cola wrote: There weren't any current politics. It was a famous person that is also a known Trek fan. No one on the show said VOTE DEMOCRAT. My guess is if it was someone like Rand Paul or someone on the far right you'd be fine with it though, right?

Nope, not famous (not even infamous). Nope, not appropriate for ANY current politician to appear. Is called an 'in-kind' political donation and will always be perceived as supporting that person/party (So yes, it was saying vote for that party). Can also be perceived as strongly suggesting all Star Trek politicians are corrupt.

Maybe Tom Lister Jr . should have played the part.

@jepafo wrote: I expect (current) politics to stay out of my sci-fi. enjoy your melting!

There weren't any current politics. It was a famous person that is also a known Trek fan. No one on the show said VOTE DEMOCRAT. My guess is if it was someone like Rand Paul or someone on the far right you'd be fine with it though, right?

@bebop-cola wrote: Why, b/c Stacey Abrams? Did you expect them to put a Republican in there? They're not stupid. She's also a known Trek superfan which is why she was offered the part at all. Enjoy your manufactured outrage.

I expect (current) politics to stay out of my sci-fi. enjoy your melting!

@jepafo wrote: the last fifteen minutes... talk about a political statement.... I shut it off . If I could give it a negative star rating I would. Before that wasn't so bad; well they spent as much time dealing with their feelings as they did solving the problem.

Why, b/c Stacey Abrams? Did you expect them to put a Republican in there? They're not stupid. She's also a known Trek superfan which is why she was offered the part at all. Enjoy your manufactured outrage.

@RandyFrancese wrote: Wow could this show get more Woke or PC? The first couple of seasons it was good, went down hill from there.I wont be watching season 5 if there is one.

the last fifteen minutes... talk about a political statement.... I shut it off . If I could give it a negative star rating I would. Before that wasn't so bad; well they spent as much time dealing with their feelings as they did solving the problem.

Wow could this show get more Woke or PC? The first couple of seasons it was good, went down hill from there.I wont be watching season 5 if there is one.

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Recap / Star Trek: Discovery S4E13 "Coming Home"

Edit locked.

• Abandon Ship : With Federation HQ unable to move and the debris from the DMA getting closer, Admiral Vance orders the rescue efforts stopped and HQ evacuated while he stays behind to provide covering fire. Tilly ends up staying behind as well to help protect her students with him.
• Attack Pattern Alpha : Vance orders defensive formation Omega.
• Bittersweet Ending : While Earth and Ni'Var are damaged from the DMA's effects, they make it out of the worst of it and the crew of the Discovery are able to reach Species 10-C to stop the DMA. However, for his part in the worsening of the situation, Book is tried for his crimes, putting him on forced humanitarian aid for the foreseeable future. On the plus side, the Federation’s actions have spurred other planets into returning into the fold, with former founders Andoria and United Earth in talks, the latter wanting to return immediately.
• Book Ends : The beginning and end of the seasons have Rillak and Burnham discussing the idea of the latter joining the Voyager -J’s project. Unlike last time, Rillak tells Burnham she is more than ready, though Burnham still turns it down.
• The Bus Came Back : Tilly returns for the first time since "All is Possible".
• Call-Back : Reno still calls Stamets " Bobcat ".
• The Cameo : Former Georgia House of Representatives Minority Leader Stacey Abrams appears near the end as the President of United Earth.
• Cool Starship : Federation HQ is a warp-capable starship in spite of its design, and every deck is capable of separating into an autonomous lifeboat in its own right.
• Crippling Overspecialization : The 10-C are completely incapable of stopping Tarka once he escapes, because the orbs are their only means of dealing with potential intruders. Engaging militarily with other beings isn't something they ever considered doing.
• Death Equals Redemption : Guilty over having essentially ruined first contact, Gen. Ndoye offers to pilot a kamikaze shuttle run that will disable Book's ship, knowing full well that it's a one-way trip. Subverted in that they are able to transport her out at the last second.
• Disney Death : It seems that Book may have escaped from his destroyed ship, but whatever power it had wasn't enough. Fortunately, the 10-C intercept his transporter signal and rematerialize him once his importance is explained.
• Explosive Instrumentation : Consoles explode all over the bridge of Discovery when they overload their spore drive, with at least one Red Shirt caught in the blast (survival uncertain).
• Gunship Rescue : The USS Mitchell arrives at Earth just in time to intercept an asteroid that was about to destroy an evacuation shuttle.
• Heroic RRoD : To escape the orb Discovery is trapped in, Stamets reveals a plan to overload the Spore Drive to destroy it. It works, but it completely obliterates the spore chamber and renders the drive inoperable until they can put in to spacedock— a trip which, on conventional warp drive, will take decades.
• Adm. Vance elects to stay behind and use (what remains of) Starfleet HQ to buy Earth as much time as possible. Tilly chooses to join him.
• Detmer volunteers to fly the suicide mission... only to be diverted when Ndoye does it instead. Ndoye is then beamed away at the instant of impact, leaving her severely wounded but treatable.
• Tarka diverts all remaining power from Book's ship to beam Book out before they impact the hyperfield. He then uses his universal transporter, figuring a long shot is better than just dying. Whether it worked is left ambiguous.
• Homeworld Evacuation : The DMA threat forces the evacuations of Earth, Titan, and Ni'Var. Unfortunately, there's nowhere near enough capacity to save even a small fraction of each planet's population. Fortunately, Burnham and Book convince Species 10-C to stop the DMA, saving the aforementioned planets.
• Just in Time : Double Subverted . Tarka transports Book to Discovery moments before his ship impacts the hyperfield, but Book fails to materialize. The 10-C then reveal they intercepted the transport, materializing Book once Burnham explains his importance.
• My God, What Have I Done? : Ndoye realizes she made a big mistake when she is told that her venting the plasma last episode could have jeopardized everything.
• The destruction of the spore drive presents the possibility of Discovery needing to make her way home via warp drive, much like another famous Starfleet ship.
• The Needs of the Many : Knowing they need to stop Tarka and Book, the decision is made to send someone out in a shuttle to ram Book’s ship. Detmer stands and nominates herself, much to Owo’s horror, but Ndoye steps in instead.
• No Ontological Inertia : When the DMA is deactivated, all the debris it sent flying at Earth and Ni'Var immediately reverses course, as if being drawn into a massive gravity well as opposed to being propelled by one; though it's likely that Species 10-C deliberately engineered this to prevent any further damage.
• Poor Communication Kills : As it turns out, Species 10-C has no concept of individualism, something that T'Rina comes to realize after her mind meld with the 10-C, so the contradictory actions of Discovery and Book's ship confuddle them. Once everything is settled, the diplomats and the bridge crew come down to their home and help explain everything.
• Psychic Nosebleed : T'Rina gets one when she telepathically contacts the 10-C.
• Replacement Goldfish : Tarka attempts to invoke this with Book, telling him he can come with him to Kayalise, where Kwejian will still exist and his family will be alive. However, Reno immediately points out that they won't be his Kwejian or his family, nor will her wife be there. Book agrees with her.
• The Reveal : Species 10-C is finally revealed... and they are giant creatures.
• Rousseau Was Right : The 10-C agree to stop using the DMA once they understand the harm it causes.
• Suicide Mission : With no weapons and no other means of stopping Tarka, Ndoye suggests ramming Book's ship with a shuttle to disable it. However, the shuttle will have to be flown manually due to interference that will throw off the autopilot, and transporters are at best spotty close to the DMA's power source. The task at first seems to require Detmer's skills, but Ndoye offers herself because she has plenty of experience and will gladly sacrifice herself to save Earth. Luckily, Discovery manages to pull her out, injured but alive.
• Trash the Set : The Spore Drive room goes up in a wonderful ball of flame and glass when the ship escapes from the orb, and the bridge of Book's ship gets heavily trashed before the entire ship goes up.
• Uncertain Doom : Did Tarka die or did he manage to arrive in the alternate universe?
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93-Year-Old William Shatner ‘Might Consider’ Returning as Captain Kirk in New ‘Star Trek’ Project Through De-Aging: ‘It Takes Years Off of Your Face’

By Zack Sharf

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William Shatner recently told Canadian Press that he wouldn’t rule out returning as Captain Kirk in a new “ Star Trek ” project if the script impressed him. While the actor’s age might pose an issue as Shatner turned 93 years old in March, that’s nothing a bit of de-aging technology couldn’t fix.

“It’s an intriguing idea,” Shatner said about returning as Kirk. “It’s almost impossible. But if was a great role and so well-written and if there were a reason to be there not just to make a cameo appearance, but if there were a genuine reason for the character appearing, I might consider it.”

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“[It] takes years off of your face, so that in a film you can look 10, 20, 30, 50 years younger than you are,” Shatner said.

Another issue around Shatner’s “Star Trek” return is Kirk’s death in the 1994 film “Star Trek Generations,” which is the last time Shatner appeared in the iconic franchise. He’s already brainstormed a plot device that could serve as a workaround and have his version of Kirk come back to life.

“A company that wants to freeze my body and my brain for the future might be a way of going about it,” Shatner said. “‘We’ve got Captain Kirk’s brain frozen here.’ There’s a scenario. ‘Let’s see if we can bring back a little bit of this, a little salt, a little pepper. Oh, look at that. Here comes Captain Kirk!’”

Variety exclusively reported in March that Steve Yockey, creator of the Max series “The Flight Attendant,” had signed on to write the script for “Star Trek 4.” The movie is being designed as the final installment for Pine and the cast. Several attempts to get a fourth “Star Trek” movie off the ground with this cast have failed over the years. One version of the project was to be directed by Matt Shakman (“WandaVision”) and written by Lindsey Beer (“Sierra Burgess Is a Loser”) and Geneva Robertson-Dworet (“Captain Marvel”). Shakman left the project to direct Marvel’s “The Fantastic Four” instead.

Other “Star Trek” projects remain in development at Paramount as well. The studio is working with screenwriter Seth Grahame-Smith (“Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter”) and director by Toby Haynes (“Black Mirror: USS Callister”) on an origin story movie, while a project with screenwriter Kalinda Vazquez (“Fear the Walking Dead”) that was first announced in 2021 also remains in development.

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William Shatner Wants to Return to 'Star Trek,' But There's a Catch

Shatner hasn't starred in a 'Star Trek' story since 2006.

The Big Picture

• William Shatner expressed interest in returning as Captain Kirk, desiring a substantial role, not just a cameo.
• Shatner considers de-aging technology as a route to reprise his iconic role.
• AI technology in the entertainment industry continues to stir debate about job-cutting implications.

At 93 years young, beloved science fiction icon William Shatner has expressed interest in returning to the Star Trek franchise. Shatner's galaxy-renowned role as Captain James 'Tiberius' Kirk of the U.S.S. Enterprise has inspired countless stories in the Star Trek universe, but it's been quite a while since Shatner himself has been a part of any of those stories. However, in a recent interview with The Canadian Press , it seems William Shatner is willing to consider a grand return, even if it means going the de-aging route to bring Kirk back on screen.

While promoting his new documentary, You Can Call Me Bill , Shatner said in his Canadian Press interview that he found the idea of returning as Captain Kirk to be "intriguing". Shatner did also go on to say that, if he does return to his most iconic role, he doesn't want it to be a mere cameo. It's certainly the most positive Shatner has been about returning to the franchise in a long time, as the former lead has been openly critical of the franchise's modern direction in the past. He wants to be an active participant in a potential new story that feels warranted, which is further reiterated in the following statement:

“It’s almost impossible but it was a great role and so well-written and if there were a reason to be there not just to make a cameo appearance, but if there were a genuine reason for the character appearing, I might consider it.”

How Can William Shatner Return as Captain Kirk After 'Star Trek: Generations'?

Some may be wondering how the 94-year-old actor could return as Captain Kirk in a future Star Trek project, given how Shatner's character was seemingly killed off in Star Trek: Generations . As to that question, it seems Shatner has thought that through as well. Following the actor's spokesperson deal with AI specialist company Otoy, Shatner recommended that de-aging could be the answer , as the technology has the potential to make anyone "look 10, 20, 30, 50 years younger." It's an in-character response from the actor, given that Shatner has a history of being more open with the prospects of AI than others in the industry.

De-aging, deep faking, and AI continue to be contentious aspects of the entertainment industry. Not only is the technology still in its early days with even the most experienced filmmakers studying to harness it ( looking at you, The Irishman ), but the potential for job-cutting is one of the reasons the recent industry-wide strikes took place.

Shatner allowing the use of AI technology to bring back a beloved iconic character wouldn't be the first instance of that in the sci-fi world either, as Star Trek 's long-time rival franchise Star Wars recently got the exclusive rights to recreate James Earl Jones ' voice as Darth Vader for future projects. Shatner's last appearance as Captain Kirk was in the 2006 video game, Star Trek: Tactical Assault . His last on-screen appearance was Star Trek: Generations , and there's no doubt a large group of Trekkies who would love to see Shatner return to the role.

Whether we see Shatner return to Star Trek or not, you can get a new glimpse of the actor through the acclaimed documentary You Can Call Me Bill , which is now available to rent or buy on Prime Video . Watch the trailer below.

You Can Call Me Bill

Watch on Prime Video

'Here Comes Captain Kirk!': William Shatner Open to Star Trek Return

William Shatner admits he's open to a Star Trek return and pitches a possible scenario to make it happen.

William Shatner hasn't completely closed the door on returning as James T. Kirk in the Star Trek franchise. He's admitted that he would come back as the character, but it would have to be done in a meaningful way.

Shatner spoke about the possibility of revisiting Kirk in a new interview with the Canadian Press to promote his new documentary, You Can Call Me Bill . He said it intrigued him to think about reprising the role of Kirk, but he wouldn't want to come back for a brief cameo that didn't have a well-written reason behind it. Shatner also commented on how modern technology could de-age him by decades, which would lend to all kinds of possibilities for how a Kirk return could happen. The actor even shared a pitch for how the Kirk character could be resurrected in a Star Trek show .

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“It’s an intriguing idea,” Shatner said. "It’s almost impossible but it was a great role and so well-written and if there were a reason to be there not just to make a cameo appearance, but if there were a genuine reason for the character appearing, I might consider it .”

Shatner added that Otoy, a tech company for which he has signed on to become a spokesperson, could take " years off of your face , so that in a film you can look 10, 20, 30, 50 years younger than you are."

“A company that wants to freeze my body and my brain for the future might be a way of going about it,” the actor also said about how to bring back Kirk. " ‘We’ve got Captain Kirk’s brain frozen here.’ There’s a scenario. ‘Let’s see if we can bring back a little bit of this, a little salt, a little pepper. Oh, look at that. Here comes Captain Kirk!’”

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William shatner's last appearance in star trek was in 1994.

Shatner last played the role of Kirk in the 1994 film Star Trek Generations . In the movie --- SPOILER ALERT --- Kirk dies in the end and is buried by Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart). Shatner has recently shared his regrets about the way he portrayed his characters's final moments in the death scene. That regret could be one reason why he's feeling open to returning to Star Trek , possibly to give him a send-off that he feels happier with.

Shatner's new documentary, You Can Call Me Bill , drops digitally and on VOD on Tuesday.

Source: Canadian Press

The Star Trek universe encompasses multiple series, each offering a unique lens through which to experience the wonders and perils of space travel. Join Captain Kirk and his crew on the Original Series' voyages of discovery, encounter the utopian vision of the Federation in The Next Generation, or delve into the darker corners of galactic politics in Deep Space Nine. No matter your preference, there's a Star Trek adventure waiting to ignite your imagination.