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Star Trek: Bridge Crew

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Star Trek: Bridge Crew Review - The Final Frontier of VR

In front of me to my left sits Tal Blevins , Editor-in-Chief of UploadVR. But in this moment he isn’t my boss; he’s my subordinate. Currently he’s my acting Helmsman aboard the U.S.S. Aegis and is in charge of steering our ship through deep, dark space. Then I’ve got Ian Hamilton , Senior Editor, taking over duties as the ship’s Tactical Officer to the right — he’s in charge of phasers and torpedoes. Off to the far right at the Engineer’s station is Joe Durbin , Staff Writer at UploadVR, allotting power to various systems, repairing damaged sectors, and handling transports. I’m perched atop the Captain’s chair, barking orders and mashing the Red Alert button anytime someone oversteps their bounds. It’s a thankless job, but someone’s got to do it and that’s what Star Trek: Bridge Crew is really all about.

After what felt like years of waiting (despite the game only being announced less than a year ago) we are now officially at launch week for Star Trek: Bridge Crew from Ubisoft and Red Storm Entertainment, one of the most impatiently anticipated VR games yet.

In the most basic sense playing Star Trek: Bridge Crew is a lot like playing a button pressing and loading bar watching simulator in VR. The entire game is designed to simulate the experience of sitting on the bridge of a ship ripped right out of the Star Trek mythos as you work together as a crew to complete missions. The developers did an admirable job of wrapping it all up in a glossy package that looks and feels like something more, but ultimately the game can be boiled down to flipping switches, twisting knobs, and pushing buttons.

You’re not gonna beam down from the ship on the Away Team to explore foreign worlds. You won’t venture into the Holodeck to push the boundaries of your imagination. You won’t have deep, philosophical conversations about the vastness of space or the intricacies of humanity. In this way, Star Trek: Bridge Crew is a very singularly focused, specialized, and limited experience. It simulates the moment-to-moment interactions of a bridge crew, as the title suggests, and that’s really it. But thankfully that can still be a ton of fun.

Your ship is split into four roles: Helm, Tactical, Engineer, and Captain. Each role functions independently but also relies on the other roles in order to perform at maximum capability. The best crew will communicate constantly and work as a team to achieve a shared objective. A single chair disobeying orders or not pulling their own weight can tank an entire operation.

The Helmsman is in control of steering the ship, the Tactical chair handles the ship’s combat munitions such as phasers and torpedoes, the Engineer manages the ship’s power allotment, and finally the Captain is the conductor of it all, issuing orders, monitoring systems, and plotting the ship’s journey.

When you’ve got a full complement of crew members aboard the ship (that means you and three other live human players) it’s one of the most collaborative and engaging things you can do in VR. If you don’t have three friends with VR then you can always jump into a quick match to meet and find new people online. When playing with friends your banter will feed directly into the team’s degree of entertainment and it rarely feels like you’re following orders or flying a virtual spaceship — it’s just like you’re hanging out with your buddies in space.

That being said the game is still entirely playable either on your own or with a smaller crew size. If you’re alone then you take the role as captain and issue orders to your A.I. teammates instructing them to do things like pursue a target, engage, raise shields, or anything else you’d need to do. There’s a lot of actions, objectives, and orders to juggle so playing solo can be an incredibly stressful and overwhelming way of experiencing the game. You can take over any role you want at any time for more nuanced moments. So if you can handle everything at once successfully, it’s immensely rewarding.

The best way to play is with four people total, but playing with three is fine as well. Leaving the Captain’s chair empty (or just taking over that spot as needed) is very easy to do and frankly isn’t missed very much in most cases. But you’re gonna usually want someone at the Helm and Tactical spots pretty much at all times if possible.

In terms of content Star Trek: Bridge Crew has a lot on offer. There’s the base campaign which consists of about six total missions that each take about 30-45 minutes to complete, give or take. The whole structured campaign will take most people around 3-4 hours to complete with a full crew.

After that you’ve got the Ongoing Voyages mode which has a handful of different mission types to choose from such as Defend, Rescue, and otheres. When you select a mission the details such as number and type of enemies, locations, and objectives will all be randomly generated to help avoid repetition. In this mode you can also opt to pilot the Original Enterprise from the very first Star Trek series. It’s an incredibly authentic recreation of the iconic 60s-style sci-fi ship, but is far from being the most intuitive of the bunch.

Star Trek: Bridge Crew also presents a wealth of options when it come to how you’d like to play the game. Each platform features full cross-platform multiplayer so regardless of whether you have a PlayStation VR, Oculus Rift, or HTC Vive, you can play with any and everyone that has the game. Furthermore, you can play either with a gamepad or with you chosen platform’s motion controllers. In essentially all cases I recommend playing with motion controllers if at all possible.

Using the DualShock 4 on PSVR or an Xbox One Controller (or any other PC gamepad) for Rift and Vive is certainly playable, but it’s far from ideal. Since you can’t control each hand’s movement independently you instead cycle through selection options using the two analog sticks and press either L2 or R2 to make selections. It takes a lot of practice to get used to and just never feels like a capable replacement for the Vive wands or Touch controllers. I had a lot of tracking issues with the PS Move controllers , but this was mostly a hardware issue and not a knock on the game itself.

And if you’re looking for the absolute best way to play Star Trek: Bridge Crew then that is undoubtedly with the Oculus Rift and Touch. Since the game takes advantage of the controllers’ capacitive touch features it recognizes when you are pointing with your fingers so it feels much more natural to reach out with your finger while pulling a trigger than it is to pull the Vive or PSVR triggers independently to make selections. The added variety of digit movement makes gameplay feel smoother and dramatically improves the sense of presence. Since the game is a seated, front-facing experience only you don’t even miss out on the Vive’s roomscale features in the first place.

In a lot of ways Star Trek: Bridge Crew absolutely nails what it means to be part of the Star Trek universe. Never before has a game been able to believably put players on the bridge in such a directly immersive way. From hailing other ships, battling Klingons, and graduating from the Starfleet Academy, to helming the Original Enterprise as captain , it’s like a dream come true for many fans.

But with that being said, it misses the mark in a lot of areas as well. Star Trek, at least as a TV show, has never really been about the action scenes or intense set piece moments. It’s a brand that represents the good in humanity and focuses on a future of growth and prosperity. Rather than establishing a clear line between good and evil (such as the Jedi and Sith in Star Wars) Star Trek is instead full of moral grey areas posing hard questions and impossible scenarios.

In that regard, Star Trek: Bridge Crew feels entirely hollow. The campaign’s narrative is less compelling than even the most juvenile fan fiction and none of the characters are worth remembering. Even though you won’t find yourself pondering your existence in the world as a human, Star Trek: Bridge Crew will still have you building memories and embarking on amazing adventures, you just have to supply the crew and personality yourself.

Star Trek: Bridge Crew is a triumphant recreation of what it means to be on the bridge of an Enterprise-caliber ship from the classic sci-fi universe. If you play with friends then you’re bound to have an amazing time full of laughs, stress, and action. Playing alone is tough, but doable The bulk of your time will likely be spent with the randomized Ongoing Voyages mode since the campaign is brief and shallow. If you’re searching for a game that captures the esoteric and cerebral nature of Star Trek, though, then you’ll be a bit disappointed. Otherwise, live long and prosper with Star Trek: Bridge Crew!

Star Trek: Bridge Crew is set to release for Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, and PSVR on May 30th. Read our Content Review Guidelines for more information on how we arrived at this score.

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Review: Star Trek: Bridge Crew

Job Simulator: Starfleet Edition

If there’s any quintessential Star Trek fantasy, it’s probably of being on the bridge of one of the series’ iconic starships. Be it the Enterprise , Defiant , or  Voyager , Star Trek  has long defined itself through command decks and the people sitting on them. 

Star Trek: Bridge Crew  promised to use VR tech to put players in that fantasy, but after repeated delays, can Ubisoft and Red Storm bring that 23rd-century Federation experience to life?

Star Trek: Bridge Crew  (PlayStation VR [Reviewed], Oculus Rift, HTC Vive) Developer: Red Storm Entertainment Publisher: Ubisoft Released: May 30, 2017 MSRP: $49.99

I’m not going to bury the lede here: Star Trek: Bridge Crew accomplishes this feat rather brilliantly. At this point, it might be my favorite VR experience to date.

That said, I am compelled to qualify my statement, in that that brilliance comes more despite the limitations of the game than because of it. Indeed, while what Red Storm has developed can be solid platform for some choice Trek interactions, the content in the software itself come across as a bit thin.

If nothing else, the game does exactly what it says on the box: It places up to four players in the position of being members of a Star Trek starship’s bridge crew. Each player, wearing one of the three major VR headsets (I played on a PSVR), takes one of the stations aboard the bridge of a ship, and uses either a pair of motion controllers or a gamepad to manipulate the controls for that station. Together, the players will cooperate to accomplish the missions and run the ship.

Each bridge station has a distinct function and unique capabilities. Helm officers pilot the starship, plotting courses to different navigation points, aligning the vessel on impulse or warp vectors, and managing the throttle. Tactical officers can scan objects in the local vicinity, locating life signs, ferreting out navigational hazards, and isolating enemies’ subsystems. They can raise and lower the ship’s shields, as well as use phasers and photon torpedoes to destroy or disable enemy ships. Engineers allocate power to ship systems, increasing or decreasing their effectiveness. They can temporarily reroute power to different systems for a quick boost, as well as direct repair teams to contain damage sustained in combat.

Shared between these three stations are controls for the ship’s transporter, as well as a “System Intrusion” hacking mechanic that allows the crew to get a leg up on enemy ships in combat. The fourth station, the Captain’s coordinates the other three stations’ efforts, by alerting the crew to mission objectives, answering incoming communications, and manipulating the main viewscreen. Captains are also the only players who can take control of AI crew stations, in case the session is short a station or two.

These interactions, in and of themselves, are fairly simple ones. Ultimately, they boil down to three different ways to interact with a control panel, after all.  But it’s more than that, though. The genius of Star Trek: Bridge Crew – lies in the fact that no one person on the crew has everything they need to do their job.

The Captain knows the objective and how to complete the mission, but needs the other three stations working in order to actually get anything done. A helmsman can maneuver the ship and set course to the objective, but needs the Engineer to allocate power to his systems and prime the warp engines for travel. The Tactical officer can engage targets and destroy threats, but will need both the Helm and Engineer to keep the ship in effective range and ensure there’s enough power. The Engineer can greatly increase the effectiveness of the other stations, but needs to balance their demands as well as keep the ship in good working order. 

Staying on top of all of this under pressure to accomplish mission objectives like rescuing castaways while under fire, or scanning crucial anomalies and escaping before a star explodes, requires communication. Bridge Crew  isn’t a game for the shy, and everyone on a crew will need to speak up to get the job done.

But the best part is that the nature of this required cooperation tends to prompt people to, for lack of a batter word, act professionally. Rather than trash-talk or racial epithets or insults (the usual language of pick-up game voice chat) the vast majority of random crewmates I played did their jobs, and in doing so ended up sounding just like one might imagine an actual Star Trek  bridge crew might, issuing reports on their status, making (polite) requests, and even cracking up a bit during the more stressful missions. Even little things, like the way it’s easier to say “Helm”, or “Captain” or “Tactical” than it is to read someone’s absurd nickname tends to have people address each other like they might if they were actual crew members on a ship. This natural “role-playing” feels profound and frankly magical when combined with the sense of presence one gets from using VR headsets and motion controllers.

Of course, I might be a somewhat biased observer, being a hardcore Trek  nerd who’s been dreaming of this sort of experience since childhood. I’d wager that many of the people I interacted with were in the same boat. I also can’t imagine what it might be like trying to get over a language barrier (the Asia-region servers weren’t especially populated at the time of review). And yet, I can still recognize that while Bridge Crew is the closest I’ve come yet to realizing that longtime Trekker fantasy, it’s not quite all there yet.

The campaign is something of a disappointment, for one. Lasting between 3 and 5 hours, the handful of story missions available tell the tale of the U.S.S. Aegis , a new starship from the rebooted continuity (AKA “The Kelvin Timeline”) sent to explore a region of space in search of a new homeworld for the Vulcans. Unfortunately, most of the drama just doesn’t land, and the actual missions merely function as an in-depth tutorial for the different stations. 

This puts the onus for the game’s longevity on its “Ongoing Missions” mode, a procedurally generated set of challenges and randomized missions designed to test a crew’s coordination. These work, but it’s clear that something is missing without the benefit of a bespoke, scripted campaign. 

Further, Bridge Crew ‘s (natural) emphasis on limiting action to the bridge and ship itself expose a somewhat uncomfortable truth, that contradicts the opening statement of my review: As it turns out,  Star Trek  is a lot more than the bridges of its famous starships. 

The crew can’t get together in a conference room to figure out that the mysterious signal that’s giving them horrible visions of atrocities is, in fact, a psychic memorial planted by a long-dead alien race. They can’t get the engineer can’t modify the navigational deflector to mimic cosmic string vibrations and draw off a dangerous herd of two-dimensional space beasts. They can’t infiltrate a malfunctioning holodeck game program and seduce its boss character to end its feud with a race of holographic aliens.

By the way, all of the above are actual plot points from Star Trek episodes. Suffice it to say that much the drama, adventure, and hijinks of the last fifty years feels absent when people are confined to their seats and left to simply do their jobs. In a way, playing Star Trek: Bridge Crew  feels sort of like being part of a crew that is not  starring in its own Star Trek  show, they’re just there, doing their jobs while other , more photogenic officers, go and get themselves into trouble.

One could, of course, try to do this in a more single-player setting. Bridge Crew  supports the use of AI crewmates, with the player using the captain’s chair and issuing orders with a radial menu, but the resulting game is oddly silent and quite difficult, as the AI is a bit dim and will require babysitting. It’s like trying to play Overcooked  alone: You can do it, but it’s clear that it’s not the best or most enjoyable way to play.

Of course, this assessment is somewhat unfair. The game is Star Trek: Bridge Crew , not Star Trek: Story Simulator. And yet even 2001’s Star Trek Bridge Commander  had a more substantial and diverse story campaign, one with a classic Next Generation  plotline. I guess I’m trying to say I wish the campaign was stronger and more fitting of how lovely the game feels to play, especially with other people. That’s why I referred to Bridge Crew  as a “platform” for Star Trek , since its actual content doesn’t quite live up to its design.

But what a platform, though!  Star Trek: Bridge Crew  is a brilliant VR experience, and pushes the technology to emphasize social interaction and cooperation in a way only a handful of other titles have been able to realize. Beyond that, it’s fine slice of Star Trek  fan service, as well. There’s plenty more new life and new civilization to find in  Star Trek: Bridge Crew , and I’m hoping that it’ll be able to boldly go and realize the rest of its potential.

[This review is based on a retail build of the game provided by the publisher.]

Star Trek: Bridge Crew Review

• First Released May 30, 2017 released

Too many Kirks.

By Justin Clark on June 22, 2017 at 8:53AM PDT

For better and worse, Star Trek: Bridge Crew is exactly what's advertised--it's a virtual-reality simulation of operating a Federation starship. For the first few moments, the sheer thrill of taking the Captain's chair in VR, looking around you to see crew members all working away at their stations, and issuing your first commands is all wonderful and novel. But the second you start yearning for new life, new civilizations, and to boldly go where no one has gone before, you find a game nowhere near that ambitious.

Set in the J.J. Abrams Trek universe, Bridge Crew's single-player campaign centers around the U.S.S. Aegis--which, after a brief training mission, sets forth on its task to help the Vulcans find a new home. This mission takes the Aegis into a Klingon-controlled territory, the Trench, and into the heart of a potentially ugly interstellar incident. You can fill one of four roles aboard the ship: the Captain issues orders to every other department from the holographic menu built into the player’s chair, the Helm puts you in the driver's seat, Tactical handles shields and weaponry, and Engineering determines how much power gets shifted to the ship's vital systems.

The single-player campaign is brief, but it acts as an extended tutorial on the ins and outs of running a starship. From the Captain's chair, you receive orders from Starfleet and issue the commands that lead the Aegis ever forward. However, particularly in single-player, those commands aren't as simple as just telling your crew to move forward at quarter impulse or fire phasers. Instead, they’re a piece-by-piece process that must be followed and timed just right, with every crew member involved performing their duties with precision. In single-player, even something as simple as warping involves opening a menu, setting the correct course, telling engineering to power up the warp drive, having the helm align the ship towards the target location, and finally issuing the order to perform the warp. The process becomes second nature over time, especially with a proper VR controller like the Playstation Move to navigate the menu-heavy UI.

You also have the ability to temporarily switch to another position to take manual control over the ship's various functions and levers in single-player, but it's a lot to manage and not nearly the simple power trip you might expect. A.I.-controlled crew members have a nasty habit of being complete knuckleheads who don't know how to properly and strategically fly around obstacles when pursuing a target.

Bridge Crew is somewhat more immersive in multiplayer, where you can speak directly to your crew and coordinate actions by voice, but you need to meet certain requirements for it to go smoothly: four trustworthy crew members, all of whom know their roles inside and out, and who can pull it together long enough to take the game even marginally seriously enough to get through the trickier missions. The situation is helped by the fact that, thankfully, the game supports Cross-Play between PSVR, Rift, and Vive users, meaning there’s typically no shortage of players to fill all four roles. However, since voice chat goes through all sorts of different protocols via the uPlay service, consistent communication remains a problem. Even then, that's assuming you're not stuck with someone who won't stop quoting Galaxy Quest instead of remembering to keep your ship in low-detection mode in Klingon territory.

It didn’t happen often in my time with Bridge Crew, but sometimes the stars did, in fact, align with the right kind of crew: cheerful without being overly silly, strong in their roles, intuitive enough to question an order without the bridge descending into chaos, and being just plain fun, amiable companions. And once that miracle is accomplished, you're left to contend with Bridge Crew as a game. And that game is, ultimately, a fairly milquetoast space shooter.

The big issue really comes down to the fact that experiencing the minutiae of running a Starfleet ship is such a thin, pedantic aspect of what makes Star Trek a fascinating universe to play around in. It's always been strong character work and far-reaching sci-fi ideas and allegory that have elevated the dry space-navy material. There isn't nearly enough of the former here. The single-player campaign has a story, one that's even a decent jumping-off point from the Abrams films (albeit one that's deeply reminiscent of Mass Effect: Andromeda), but you aren’t making the truly hard decisions that define the best Starfleet captains, nor are you able to interact with your crew or even the ship outside of the bridge room in any meaningful way.

Even Trek’s infamous no-win Kobayashi Maru scenario--playable here as part of the game's introductory chapter--ends up as little more than a mindless shootout while attempting to transport the doomed vessel’s crew. The remainder of the campaign never really rises above that, content to be a game of traveling between systems, scanning areas and artifacts, transporting life forms, and fending off Klingon Birds of Prey from time to time. It's a game that crucially needs more interesting challenges that can't be solved with phasers.

It's still somewhat thrilling to inhabit the captain's chair on the bridge of a starship--at the bare minimum, Star Trek: Bridge Crew accomplishes that mission. When the game is at its best, the spirit of cooperation between various asymmetrical elements is encouraging--even special. In every other regard, however, Bridge Crew is forgettable the second you pull out of VR.

• Leave Blank
• Four distinct and delightfully intricate gameplay roles
• Stellar virtual re-creation of the old-school Star Trek bridge
• Cross-Play between platforms is a blessing
• Online co-op experience can be wonderful with the right crew
• Single-player story is woefully lacking in nuance
• Shoddy co-op voice communication

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Justin Clark

• @justinofclark

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Star Trek™: Bridge Crew

Star Trek™: Bridge Crew, playable in both VR and non-VR, will immerse you in the Star Trek universe. In co-op, form a crew of four players to serve in the roles of Captain, Helm, Tactical or Engineer. Make strategic decisions and coordinate actions with your crew.

Last Updated: 5/25/2024

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• Steam Deck (Playable)

About Star Trek™: Bridge Crew

Star Trek™: Bridge Crew is a RPG, Simulation, and Casual game developed by Ubisoft . On 5/30/2017, it was released on the Steam Store by Ubisoft .

It can be played and ran on Windows systems. At the moment, it is possible to play Star Trek™: Bridge Crew on the Steam Deck but some functionality may not be fully supported.

According to Steam’s category system, Star Trek™: Bridge Crew supports the following features:

• Tracked Controller Support
• Partial Controller Support
• Steam Trading Cards
• Single-player
• Multi-player
• Online Co-op
• VR Supported

From the Steam community, Star Trek™: Bridge Crew has been tagged with the following user tags:

• Multiplayer
• Singleplayer

Media & Sceenshots

Watch the featured video for Star Trek™: Bridge Crew and see the latest screenshots from the Steam Store.

Star Trek™: Bridge Crew DLC

Star Trek™: Bridge Crew has 1 downloadable add-on available for purchase on Steam which is Star Trek™: Bridge Crew – The Next Generation .

Related Packages

Star Trek™: Bridge Crew is referenced by 1 package in the Steam Store. A package (or sub) is simply an item that can be purchased on Steam.

Supported Languages and Localizations

Star Trek™: Bridge Crew is available in 3 different languages with varying levels of support for the in-game interface, audio, and fully translated subtitles.

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Find a new game to play just like Star Trek™: Bridge Crew through our curated lists. Steambase uses Steam's User Tag and Genre system (and other game stats) to curate a list of the best and most loved games similar to Star Trek™: Bridge Crew.

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Frequently asked questions, is star trek™: bridge crew still good in 2024, who created star trek™: bridge crew, can you play star trek™: bridge crew on steam deck, can you play star trek™: bridge crew on windows, can you play star trek™: bridge crew on mac, can you play star trek™: bridge crew on linux, soures & references.

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Star Trek™: Bridge Crew data has been sourced from:

• Valve Corporation. (2024, May 25). Star Trek™: Bridge Crew on Steam . Steam Store .
• Valve Corporation. (2024, May 25). Star Trek™: Bridge Crew . Steam Community Hub .
• Ubisoft. (2023, July 17). Star Trek™: Bridge Crew . Star Trek™: Bridge Crew .

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Impressions of Star Trek: Bridge Crew

How does this virtual reality space exploration game fare?

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There are few places in the universe more appealing to me than the captain's seat of a Federation starship. This hallowed chair is the locus of so many of my desires for exploration, adventure and the thrill of command.

Star Trek: Bridge Crew is the latest in a long line of attempts to bring Gene Roddenberry's sci-fi universe to gaming. Many have attempted to twirl standard shooting or strategy games around this most revered of fantasy worlds. Few have given us a first-person view of the famous bridge, so to speak.

In Ubisoft's Bridge Crew , out today, I'm in command of the USS Aegis during the period depicted in recent Paramount movies. The Aegis is pretty much the same as the Enterprise, but I can also take control of the actual Enterprise, as an advanced level bonus.

My mission is to figure out a new home for dislocated Vulcans. This soon brings me into contact with the hostile Klingon Empire.

Bridge Crew is designed for cooperative endeavor, with four players taking on the roles of the captain, a weapons operative, the steering seat and an engineer who fixes things. I initially played it on my own (on PlayStation VR), switching into particular roles whenever necessary and leaving the vaguely competent AI in charge at other times. This is eminently do-able and a good way to learn each role before playing in public.

I also played in co-op mode, where it’s easy to find teammates who’ll take on individual roles. Among the teams I encountered, there was a good sense of shared experiences. In the campaign, we follow orders and journey from one location to another. Truly, some of the scenery is majestic. I gaze upon supernova, ring planets, space stations and tortured moons. When the Aegis is in full flight, the universe whizzes by, a fabulous alleyway of purple, crimson and golden wonders.

But a game is not a collection of picture postcards, and this is where Bridge Crew fails to impress. Its missions are variations on going to a place, checking out the situation, and resolving some problem through combat, extraction or stealth.

All of those resolutions are executed from a seated position, no matter which role you play. Whichever role I’m playing, I look down upon my own body (I can choose between a woman or a man) and I use my hands to press seat buttons, control panels and electronic menus. Some of the roles are more fun that others. I like helm the best and engineering the least.

This game comes with a lot of menus and panels. It turns out that mastery of a Federation ship really comes down to knowing which buttons to press, and when. Most of the action is slow and steady. There’s something submerged about the pace of this game. I often found it dull.

All of Bridge Crew ’s different strategies are draped across the crew's abilities, which are accessed via those menus and effected at the appropriate time. This gives the campaign a feeling of being one long, linear tutorial mission in which the crew explores the powers at our disposal and the ways in which they are connected to successful mission completion. A collection of subsequent random missions fail to add much in the way of flair and variety.

The Star Trek universe ought to be about exploring "strange new worlds” and seeking out "new life and new civilizations." But Bridge Crew offers no weird aliens or cool planetscapes. It doesn't even let me explore the space ship.

Instead, it offers up a chair from which I can undertake a series of coldly mechanical technical tasks.

There are some bright moments. I like the feeling of controlling a Federation ship. I get a kick out of skimming through space. There are moments when the action grabs my attention and lures me into a feeling of immersion.

And there's certainly some fun to be had here for co-op players, working together to extract ourselves from sticky situations. But the camaraderie is mostly coming from us, with the game offering little more than the most elemental tabletop from where we interact. If it weren’t for a shared love of all things Star Trek, I suspect a lot of people would find this game pretty dull stuff.

There's just not enough good stuff to make Bridge Crew anything other than a simple piece of interactive task management grafted onto a stingy representation of a beloved fictional universe.

Despite its grand vistas, Star Trek: Bridge Crew comes across more like a sterile demo than a full virtual reality simulation of space combat and exploration. The magic that’s here is just a faint echo from the deep space of our own shared fandom.

Update: An earlier version of this story was confined to my impressions of the single-player campaign. Now that the game has been released, I’ve had a chance to play co-op and have updated the story.

Star Trek: Bridge Crew Puts You and Your Friends in the Heart of a Starship

As officers of the Federation, every action and decision you make together will determine the fate of your ship and crew. Available for play with VR headsets and without, the Virtual Reality mode developed for Star Trek: Bridge Crew offers a true-to-life level of immersion in the Star Trek universe.

The Next Generation DLC

The voyage continues! Tackle missions aboard the USS Aegis or the original bridge of the USS Enterprise!

Game Overview

A new playable ship: the enterprise d.

The Enterprise D can be used in any of the existing Ongoing Voyages modes, plus the two new modes. Players appear in authentic TNG uniforms when on this bridge, and experience the full audiovisual treatment to make everything look and sound like the TNG show.

New Avatar Option: Android

You can choose and customize any of several Android avatars.

New Enemies: The Romulans and The Borg

The Romulans are deadly and devious, making heavy use of surprise attacks. And the infamous Borg Cube poses a nearly unstoppable threat.

A New Player Role: Operations

On the Enterprise D, instead of Chief Engineer, you play as Operations. The signature feature of Operations is assigning NPC crew members to jobs throughout the ship. How Ops assigns crews at any given moment modifies the ship’s capabilities.

New Ongoing Voyages Mode: Patrol

Investigate activity throughout the Trench, flying to your choice of star systems and encountering random events and challenges along the way. Can be played with any of the three playable ships.

New Ongoing Voyages Mode: Resistance

A Borg Cube is tracking your ship, and you must locate a series of prototype defenses in order to survive your final encounter with it. At every step, the Borg are tracking you and trying to disrupt your efforts. Resistance is a tough challenge mode for dedicated players! Can be played with any of the three playable ships.

New Ship Capabilities

To counter Romulan stealth tactics, the Enterprise D can deploy Proximity Torpedoes; a well-coordinated Bridge Crew can use them like depth charges to neutralize a cloaked enemy. And to hold out against deadly singular threats like the Borg, the Enterprise D also features Shield Modulation and Precision-Fire Phasers.

Latest News

Select your platform, select your version, select your edition, star trek: bridge crew.

Star Trek™: Bridge Crew puts you and your friends in the heart of a starship. As officers of the Federation, every action and decision you make together will determine the fate of your ship and crew. Available for play with VR headsets and without, the Virtual Reality mode developed for Star Trek: Bridge Crew offers a true-to-life level of immersion in the Star Trek universe.

Release Date:

May 30 , 2017

VR / Simulation / Strategy

Red Storm Entertainment

Star Trek Bridge Crew is Available on:

VR / PC / PlayStation 4

Star Trek Bridge Crew is rated:

TM & © 2016 CBS Studios Inc. © 2016 Paramount Pictures Corp. STAR TREK and related marks and logos are trademarks of CBS Studios Inc. All Rights Reserved. Game Software © 2016 Ubisoft Entertainment. All Rights Reserved. Ubisoft and the Ubisoft logo are trademarks of Ubisoft Entertainment in the U.S. and/or other countries.

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About This Content

System requirements.

• OS *: Windows 7 x64
• Processor: Intel Core i5-4590
• Memory: 8 GB RAM
• Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti, AMD Radeon RX 570
• Network: Broadband Internet connection
• Storage: 8 GB available space
• Additional Notes: Resolution: 2160 x 1200 @90Hz; Video Preset: Msaa 2x, all video options ON; VSync:Off
• OS: Windows 10 (64-bit versions only)
• Processor: Intel Core i5-4590 / AMD Ryzen 1500X
• Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 / GTX 1060 6GB, AMD Radeon R9 290X / RX 480

TM & © 2016 CBS Studios Inc. © 2016 Paramount Pictures Corp. STAR TREK and related marks and logos are trademarks of CBS Studios Inc. All Rights Reserved. Game software © 2016 Ubisoft Entertainment. All Rights Reserved. Ubisoft and the Ubisoft logo are trademarks of Ubisoft Entertainment in the US and/or other countries.

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Published May 31, 2024

RECAP | Star Trek: Discovery 510 - 'Life, Itself'

The Discovery's last dance.

SPOILER WARNING: This article contains story details and plot points for Star Trek: Discovery.

StarTrek.com

After chasing clues across the galaxy, taking on a Red Directive mission, it all comes down to the final challenge. Unfortunately for Captain Burnham and the Discovery crew because Breen forces are on their tail.

In the series finale episode of Star Trek: Discovery , " Life Itself ," trapped inside a mysterious alien portal that defies familiar rules of time, space, and gravity, Captain Burnham must fight Moll – and the environment itself – in order to locate the Progenitors' technology and secure it for the Federation. Meanwhile, Book puts himself in harm's way to help Burnham survive and Rayner leads the U.S.S. Discovery in an epic winner-takes-all battle against Breen forces.

• Michael Burnham
• Moll (Malinne Ravel)
• Sylvia Tilly
• Lorna Jemison
• William Christopher
• Charles Vance
• Cleveland "Book" Booker
• Paul Stamets
• Dr. Hugh Culber
• Keyla Detmer
• Joann Owosekun

• Infinity Tunnel
• U.S.S. Discovery -A
• Federation HQ
• Pathway-Drive Shuttle
• Discovery Shuttle
• Inner Sanctum
• Sanctuary Four

As the Progenitors ' portal hovers between two black holes, echoing voices stir Captain Michael Burnham back to consciousness within its interior. Burnham stands, taking in the marvelous sight that surrounds her. An open corridor extends as far as the eye can see, and the illuminated path is outlined by views into other worlds. The captain calls out to the U.S.S. Discovery -A, but her appeals go unanswered. Burnham begins to describe the experience in the event that anyone can hear her. Her tricorder picks up an energy signature, and she heads off toward a bright light which she assumes contains the Progenitors' technology.

"Life, Itself"

Although the captain notes she has yet to encounter Moll or any of the Breen who preceded her into the portal, she draws her phaser just to be safe. A scan for lifesigns yields inconclusive readings, and Burnham kneels to pluck a lush green leaf from a plant. She describes the gateways to other vistas as windows, theorizing that this location was a lab where the Progenitors tested lifeforms in different environments or a hub for them to seed the humanoid form throughout the galaxy. Burnham takes in a mountainous view through a window below her before turning to a stormy setting displayed beside the path. Stowing her weapon, she watches as a leaf is slowly pulled toward a clear, fluid-like barrier. The leaf floats through, so the captain reaches her hand out to test the permeable wall… and is immediately pulled into a rain-soaked maelstrom.

Captain Burnham crashes to the ground, bracing herself against the wind and spotting a dead Breen soldier with a green body fluid leaking from its helmet. She shelters behind a large boulder and spies the window she fell through resting far above her. Burnham marches on, an air of surprise about her as another Breen soldier rushes at her from the darkness. Her offer to help the Breen goes ignored, and she is tackled to the ground. As the two engage in a desperate hand-to-hand battle, hurricane wind speeds nearly sweep them both away. Burnham and the Breen clutch to the nearest boulder, their bodies flailing in the gusts. The Breen continues to fight, and the captain's phaser is knocked away. However, she manages to dislodge her opponent from the rock, sending the Breen tumbling into the distance.

The wind subsides, but Burnham prepares herself to harness the next burst. As speeds increase once again, the captain launches herself into the air and is carried back up to the window she fell from. Pulling herself back onto the path, she has only a moment to rest before a third Breen readies themself to charge at her. An energy blast radiates out and strikes the Breen down, and Burnham turns to find Moll floating down from another window. Blood streams from a gash on Moll's leg, and the captain observes that someone nicked her femoral vein. Moll considers it a fair trade, as she had bashed that Breen's helmet in. Moll trains her Breen weapon on Burnham, but the captain materializes a dermal regenerator from her kit. She tosses it to Moll, who uses it to close up her wound.

Since Captain Burnham followed the entire clue trail, Moll reasons that her adversary knows how to navigate the portal. Burnham admits she may have learned something, but offers a condition — she won't help Moll as her prisoner and asks her to drop her weapon. The captain reminds Moll that working together is the only way she'll get L'ak back, a reality which prompts the courier to lower her weapon. Pleased with the compromise, the two set out to locate the Progenitors' technology and begin walking down the portal's path.

Meanwhile, the U.S.S. Discovery -A is rocked by debris from the black holes as it approaches the portal. On the Bridge, Lieutenant Sylvia Tilly tells Commander Rayner that there's still no sign of Captain Burnham from within the artificial gateway. Seated in the captain's chair and surrounded by the Bridge crew — Commander Lorna Jemison; Lieutenant Commanders Gen Rhys and Asha; and Lieutenants Gallo, Naya, Christopher, and Linus — the first officer listens to status reports. Gravitational fields are causing too much interference for a transporter lock on the portal, so Discovery must get within tractor beam range. The Breen Dreadnaught is still dealing with the damage the Starfleet vessel inflicted on it, but Primarch Tahal's fleet will arrive in 60 minutes. Rhys relays that the Dreadnaught has sent out at least 40 fighters, and the incoming vessels come in with their weapons hot.

At Federation Headquarters, Admiral Charles Vance updates Ambassador Saru and Commander Nhan on Discovery 's condition. Hoping to prevent Tahal from learning about the Progenitors' power, Saru believes his strategy will convince the primarch to turn her fleet around. Vance questions Saru's decision to disable his shuttle's photon torpedoes, but the ambassador is certain that diplomacy can not succeed if both parties threaten violence. Nhan remarks that the admiral doesn't need to order her to accompany Saru, as she volunteers for the mission. The crew of Discovery is family to both Saru and Nhan, and the shuttle's pathway drive has been calibrated. They are ready to go, and Vance emphasizes that the Federation is counting on them.

Within the Progenitors' portal, Moll complains that — regardless of how far they walk — they don't seem to be getting any closer to the end of the tunnel. Burnham states that nothing in nature is truly infinite, then turns the conversation toward the Progenitors' tech. She assures Moll that the Federation will help her bring L'ak back, but only after it learns how to safely use it. Moll responds that she doesn't trust the Federation or the Breen, though at least the Imperium has a vested interest in her getting what she wants. Burnham counters by conveying the devastation she witnessed in an alternate future where the Breen obtained the power — the captain defiantly proclaims that there’s no way she's letting the Breen anywhere near it.

Moll is doubtful, and Burnham strikes out at the courier during the unguarded moment. As Moll struggles to regain her composure, the captain propels herself up to a window on the tunnel "wall." Moll pursues her, and the variable gravity between environments allows them to grapple for the Breen weapon while being suspended in midair. The weapon discharges and falls away, leaving Moll to kick Burnham through a gateway and into a vibrant, purple-hued forest. Their intense fight continues until they both return through a window and land back on the path. The courier knees Burnham, sending the captain rolling into an ash-strewn environment with flames leaping about. Their unrelenting battle rages on. 

In the space outside the portal, the Breen fighters swarm around Discovery as the Dreadnaught closes in on the Starfleet ship. On the Bridge, Cleveland "Book" Booker joins Rayner and the senior staff as they brace themselves for a torpedo impact. The deck shakes and shields drop to 60 percent. Naya registers a region of high-energy plasma orbiting one of the black holes, meaning one spark too many will cause the whole thing to blow. Asha alters the vessel's course, but the situation is dire. The first officer reflects back to the avalanche on Q'Mau, where Captain Burnham was quick to notice that the mission had changed. If they keep up with this strategy, the Breen will get the captain and the Progenitors' tech. Rayner announces a change of plans — they'll take out the fighters first and come back for the portal. The crew exchanges skeptical looks, and Book asks for a shuttle so that he can handle the portal. The Kwejian is adamant that he can succeed, so Rayner grants the request and orders Engineering to find a way for Book to not get irradiated to death.

Book beams down to Engineering, where Commander Paul Stamets and Ensign Adira Tal present him with a device to attach to his shuttle's deflector array. It will boost the craft's built-in radiation protection, but at a certain point, Book just won't survive. Adira attempts to reassure him by divulging that it will increase the absorption capacity of the shields against high-velocity subatomic particles for at least an hour. Dr. Hugh Culber hurries in with a hypospray, injecting Book with a treatment to counteract radiation sickness. The doctor also shocks those around him when he pronounces that he's going to accompany Book on the perilous endeavor. Dread fills Stamets' face, but Culber insists that he somehow knows Book is going to need him on this mission. Ever since his zhian’tara with Jinaal, Culber has been trying to figure out what the change inside of him means. This may not give him the answers, but it might . Stamets reluctantly relents, kissing his partner farewell. Culber attests to Adira that he'll be okay.

Still clashing within the portal, fatigue grabs hold of Burnham and Moll. Out of breath, they pause for a moment. The captain insists that this brawl will only result in them becoming trapped and dying in the tunnel. Burnham resolves to get them out, gazing at Moll before admitting that she also knows what it’s like to lose somebody who means everything to her. Pain crosses Moll's expression, and Burnham confides that she was lucky to get that person back. Because of this, the captain promises that she will do everything within her power to help Moll and L'ak. Moll is hesitant to trust the Federation, but Burnham insists she just needs to trust her . The captain gives the courier her word. Moll considers the offer, ultimately opting to accept it.

Before Burnham will disclose how they can get through this situation, she has Moll relinquish the blade she has stashed in her right boot. Moll tosses it away, but she declines to remove the pattern buffer that's affixed to her wrist. If she had any weapons in there, she insists she would have used them already. The self-conscious manner in which Moll eyes the buffer allows a sudden realization to dawn upon Burnham — L'ak's body is being stored within it. The captain understands Moll's stance on the issue, permitting her former foe to keep the buffer as she starts to lead the way along the tunnel’s path.

As displays flicker on Discovery ’s Bridge, Book's shuttle successfully exits the ship and gets clear of the Breen fighters. Rayner is determined to switch from defense to offense. When Tilly puts forth a crazy idea, he states that she doesn't need to qualify it — just spit it out. Since there are too many fighters to pick off one by one, Tilly thinks there's a way to utilize the plasma region against the Breen. Naya chimes in excitedly, noting that they could ignite the plasma and take out all the fighters at once. The timing would need to be perfect, but in this "us or them” scenario, the plan seems viable.

While walking along the tunnel within the Progenitors' portal, Captain Burnham explains that every step of the trail required her to think like the individual who hid each clue. They must do the same here and think like the Progenitors. Moll points out that they went extinct four billion years ago, but the captain observes that gravity and space function differently inside the portal. This suggests that the Progenitors existed beyond the dimensions that humans do, so they have to look past three dimensions and find what’s beyond what they can see. Burnham's inquisitive nature permits her to spot negative space along the edge of each light illuminating their path. There's a shadow, but nothing to create it. The captain initially believed it to be an optical illusion, but she presses her hand through and pulls the barrier to the side. An astounding sight emerges, as they are greeted by a large field of yellow flowers extending to a distant horizon. They glance at each other and step through. 

As Primarch Tahal's fleet of three Breen Dreadnaughts warps through deep space, Saru and Nhan's shuttle employs its groundbreaking pathway drive to swiftly catch up to the starships. They take a position within the fleet's formation, prompting the Dreadnaughts to arm their weapons. Saru opens a channel to Tahal, introducing himself as an Ambassador from the United Federation of Planets and highlighting the fact that his shuttle's weapons are not armed. After a long pause, Tahal grants his request for a conversation. The Breen primarch's helmeted visage appears as a hologram above the shuttle's controls, and she greets him by asking him if he's insane. Saru responds that, to the best of his knowledge, he is not. Since Tahal refused President Laira Rillak's invitations to communicate, Saru's actions were necessary. The ambassador agrees that the Federation doesn't typically have a role to play in a confrontation between Breen primarchs, but the engagement between a Starfleet vessel and another Breen Dreadnaught has changed the circumstances. Tahal's arrival would risk escalating that conflict into a war with the Federation, so Saru suggests it would be prudent for her to return her attention to the Imperium's throne.

Incredulous, Tahal wonders why Saru and Discovery would each engage with vastly superior Dreadnaughts. Something of great interest must be located near the black holes. Saru claims that, while Tahal speaks of "maybes and mights," he offers certainty — if she reverses course, the Federation will establish a formal trade route from Tahal's border to the L'Tar Nebula. Sole access to this route would bolster her claim to the throne, but the primarch declines and ends the transmission. Saru eases Nhan’s visible concern by cryptically asserting that Tahal supplied them with all the information they need. Now he must determine how to use it.

Captain Burnham and Moll wade through the field of flowers they uncovered within the Progenitors' portal toward a place where three paths converge in a circular platform. Burnham realizes they are standing on the technology — it's the entire place. Moll questions the strange placement of a nearby pile of rocks, but the captain believes it is a monument to the 24th Century scientist who was killed here. They step up to the center disc, and a translucent interface coalesces in its center. As nine triangular pieces appear on its surface, Burnham must stop the courier from immediately shifting them around. Taking a breath, Burnham relays that she was given a phrase when she found the last clue — "Build the shape of the one between the many." Assuming the triangles are "the many," Moll suggests they use them to build one large triangle with the many. Doubtful, the captain stresses that the message said between the many, not with. Given the precise manner in which the scientists offered cultural context, honored differences, and stoked self-reflection with every clue, Burnham does not believe this is a translation error.

The captain proposes that they need to get this power back to the Federation before they try to use it, but her train of thought is interrupted by a static-filled communication from Book. She can make out that the Kwejian is coming to retrieve them, but as she opens her tricorder and tries to amplify his signal, Moll moves in from behind and knocks her unconscious. Burnham's body collapses into the flowers below, leaving Moll to activate her wrist-mounted pattern buffer and materialize L’ak’s body on the platform. She kneels beside him, vowing to figure out this technology and bring him back from the dead. Moll walks to the interface and rearranges the nine pieces into a single large triangle. Brilliant light radiates around her, but she grimaces as energy cascades over her hands and locks them to the surface. Moll screams, and three powerful pulses strike the edges of the field.

With sparks erupting around Discovery 's Bridge, Rayner receives a report from Book's shuttle — something is happening to the portal. Using the black hole as some sort of power source, the portal draws in matter and energy around itself. If one black hole loses mass, it would throw the entire area into gravitational chaos. Citing Book's "gravity problem," Rayner asks the Kwejian to try to secure the gateway. At that moment, Asha detects that the last of the Breen fighters have followed them into the plasma region. Rhys launches a spread of photon torpedoes which lash out and set the plasma ablaze. Several tense seconds pass, but the tactical officer joyously states that every enemy ship was destroyed. His exuberance fades when he sees that the Breen Dreadnaught is back in commission and will beat Discovery to Book and the portal. Interstellar debris prevents them from jumping ahead of them, so Rayner orders the helm to set an intercept course with the Dreadnaught.

Aboard the shuttle, Book and Culber hear about Discovery 's "Dreadnaught problem." With the cockpit bathed in light from the spectacle before it, the doctor notes that whatever process the portal just initiated is pulling it toward the black hole — if it crosses the event horizon, it'll be gone for good. Book engages a tractor beam, but it fails to lock on. The portal repels the beam, mystifying Book. A smile slowly spreads across Culber's face, and he tells the Kwejian to synchronize to the aperture's subspace resonance frequency — 5.1732. Although there are tens of thousands of frequencies and Culber admits his experience on such matters is limited — "I'm a doctor, not a physicist" — he implores Book to trust him. Believing in his friend, Book follows Culber's direction and lets out a jubilant cry as the tractor beam successfully grabs hold of the portal. Needing all available power to keep the portal steady, the shuttle is unable to pull away from the black holes. Aware that Michael is inside the gateway, Book declares that he's not letting go.

Saru and Nhan confer aboard their own shuttle, where Primarch Tahal has provided a grim ultimatum — leave within 30 seconds or be destroyed. Saru takes a belligerent posture and opens a channel to Tahal. The ambassador chastises the primarch for being as cowardly as the Federation's admirals believed her to be. The insult provokes an angry response from Tahal, but Saru threatens that his death would merely ensure that she would never take the Imperium's throne. Adopting a menacing tone, Saru emphasizes his Kelpien heritage — he's a predator who has studied Tahal like prey. Federation Intelligence had suspected that the primarch maintained bases in the L'Tar Nebula, and her refusal to accept a trade route in that area served to confirm their existence.

The ambassador professes that he has the ear of numerous planets in that region who are preparing to attack Tahal's bases without mercy. Although they would lose thousands of lives, Tahal's forces would be weakened enough so that the other primarchs could strike. Turning her fleet around would prevent such an outcome, but she suspects that Saru is bluffing. His resolve soars, and he commands that she look into his eyes and let him know if she sees even the slightest glimmer of doubt. Concluding that Saru is insane, Tahal closes the channel and has her vessels change their course. Impressed by Saru's clever performance, Nhan intends to avoid playing him in Ferengi rummy. The Kelpien shakes his head and exhales, sensing that Tahal won't leave this matter alone. The shuttle drops out of warp and cloaks so that it can monitor the situation — Discovery may yet need their assistance.

As Moll remains affixed to the portal's interface, a transmission from Book rouses Captain Burnham from her unconscious state. Composing herself, Burnham is alerted by the contents of Book’s message — something the portal is doing is causing gravitational chaos. The captain moves toward Moll, risking her own life to grasp the courier's shoulders and free her hands from the surface. An injured Moll crumbles to the floor, and Burnham hurries back to the interface in an effort to help Moll and her friends outside of the aperture. Hoping to stop whatever the portal is doing, she reflects on the phrase she learned from the mindscape. Every clue has prepared her for this last test, so the captain pauses to center herself and meditate on the phrase. Repeating "the one between the many" to herself, her eyes spring open as she recalls the negative space shadow behind the light.

Inspired by this revelation, she shifts the small triangles around to form an outline of an empty triangle on the interface's surface. The negative space between them glows with a magnificent light, but Burnham quickly finds herself surrounded by a tranquil night sky peppered with falling star-like streaks. The captain turns to see a figure approaching, astounded to observe a Progenitor greeting her with a warm smile. The Progenitor has been waiting for her. While the Progenitor's species went extinct billions of years ago, her mind occupies this liminal spacetime adjacent to her own. It is her duty to share instructions on how to operate this technology, and it will take Burnham some time to learn. The captain interjects, asking if what the portal is doing to her spacetime can be stopped. By activating the interface without engaging the safety protocol, Moll endangered Burnham's friends.

The Progenitor assures Burnham that Moll will likely survive and her crew will have time, as time functions differently in this space — in the captain's present moment, the technology is merely gathering the power it requires to perform its function of designing and creating life. Burnham inquires as to whether the tech can be used to restore life. The Progenitor replies that, while a new being can replace a lost one and be genetically identical to the original, it would lack its memories and fundamental essence. The Progenitor comments that the speed and scale of creation are adjustable, causing the captain to realize that someone could use the technology to engineer an army. The Progenitor points out that a brick is just a brick — it can create a home or destroy a body. This is why the Progenitors chose only to seed life, as demonstrated by the vistas in the tunnel that brought Burnham here.

Captain Burnham is taken aback by the Progenitor's next confession — her species did not create those worlds, they found them here. The Progenitors did not build the portal, but they theorized that whoever constructed it could have been the ones who created them. Or perhaps it goes even further back, a cycle of creators and creations countless times over. The portal predates them all. As Burnham lets this startling disclosure set in, the Progenitor guides her toward something she’d like to show her....

In the cockpit of Book's shuttle, warnings and alerts blare to inform him that shields are at five percent. Book presses a control to silence the computer, resolving to hold on until Discovery gets there or the shuttle falls apart. He urges Culber to beam to safety, citing the doctor's family. While Culber will go if he has to, he will stay as long as he can. The two consider the doctor's insight into grabbing the portal, and Culber credits his actions to a memory belonging to Jinaal . The scientists ran into the same problem when they sought to build a structure around it. Even though Culber doesn't have access to Jinaal’s memories, he was nevertheless aware of that piece of information and knew that he had to accompany Book. Culber laughs at his failed attempt to find an answer that doesn't exist, but that truth no longer drives him crazy. Despite his progress still being a process, the doctor wonders if there is something that is kind of beautiful about the mystery. Book ponders Culber's words, and the two share a friendly fist bump of solidarity.

As the shuttle desperately continues to cling to the portal, the Breen Dreadnaught closes in on its position. The Discovery -A swoops in on a course that will take them between the shuttle and the Dreadnaught in approximately five minutes. On Discovery 's Bridge, Rayner takes a call from Ambassador Saru. While Primarch Tahal and her fleet had reversed course, she left behind a cloaked scout vessel to investigate the conflict at the black holes. They must prevent that ship from learning about the Progenitors' power. Unable to destroy the Dreadnaught or let the scout report to Tahal, Rayner elects to take both pieces off the field of battle. The first officer directs his attention to Tilly, asking her if disabling all of the spore drive's safeguards would permit them to jump something that's not Discovery . The lieutenant replies, "Absolutely not… maybe."

Stamets and Adira react in a similar manner from Engineering, declaring it to be impossible… unless, in theory, they quantum entangled the spores and separated them by distance. If Discovery jumped, the spores would behave as they always do and jump whatever was between them. In need of two poles to extend the entanglement field between, Tilly submits that they separate the saucer from the secondary hull and place them on either side of the Dreadnaught. On the Bridge, Rayner approves and orders them to do it within three minutes — well, two and a half, but who’s counting?

Stamets questions where they should jump the Breen to. Sweat covering his brow, Rayner closes his eyes to concentrate on the inquiry — they'll send the Breen to the Galactic Barrier. It'll take them a couple of decades to get back, but they'll live. That's more than the Breen gave to Rayner's family on Kellerun. The first officer opens a shipwide channel, announcing the risky plan and proclaiming that he appreciates the trust the crew had placed in him. Rayner takes his place in the captain’s chair, and the bridge officers ready themselves at their stations. Rayner contacts Saru, requesting that the ambassador lure Tahal's scout into the vicinity of the Dreadnaught. As Discovery goes to Black Alert, Nhan decloaks Saru's shuttle and opens fire on the scout to draw its attention.

Captain Burnham takes in the majestic view within the portal, and the Progenitor informs her that she is only the second being to make it to her. Dr. Derex was the other, though she did not believe that civilization was ready for the technology at the time of her visit. The Progenitor agreed to wait, so long as the Betazoid scientist built a path to better prepare the next visitor for the responsibility. Now that Burnham is here, she will become the technology's steward. In awe of the scope of such a task, the captain remarks that no single being should control such power. Having discussed the path with Dr. Derex, the Progenitor believes that Burnham's ability to travel it has demonstrated that she has learned its lessons and faced her darkest sides. Speaking in a whisper, the captain affirms that she is far from perfect — she is afraid and lost at times. The Progenitor acknowledges that every sentient being, herself included, is all of those things, yet some strive to be the best of themselves. She sees that effort in Burnham.

The captain presses on with her argument, conveying that this isn't just about her. Right now, a battle is waging in space — the Discovery is seen separating its saucer from its secondary hull as the scout ship fires upon Saru's shuttle on its approach to the Dreadnaught. Burnham's crew is risking their lives to protect the portal and this technology, yet how can she or any other individual know how to use this power to bring peace and not more conflict? The Progenitor considers it a question that only a steward can answer. Captain Burnham must ask herself what is most meaningful to her.

The Progenitor presents several options: the advancement of science — Stamets and Adira prepare Discovery 's spore drive; a devotion to duty — Saru and Nhan weather the scout's relentless weapons fire; through connection and love — Book holds his shuttle's course; in the beauty of the unknowable — Culber stares in wonder at the sight before him; in family and community — Discovery 's bridge officers crew their stations; or in the capacity for change — Rayner delivers the command to jump. Outside the portal, Discovery 's saucer and secondary hull rotate on either side of the Breen Dreadnaught, the spore drive's signature blue energy spinning the enemy ship until it vanishes toward the Galactic Barrier. Triumph rings out across Discovery and the two Starfleet shuttles.

Back within the starry portal, the Progenitor observes that there is strength in the face of great challenges. She found her meaning in embracing difference. The Progenitors were alone in the cosmos — a single sentient culture whose wish was to create a diversity of beings in the galaxy with richness and variation. Captain Burnham struggles to decide what is most meaningful to her, requiring time to think it over and needing to know that her friends are safe. The Progenitor agrees to return the captain to her present moment, advising her that all she needs to do in order to stop the technology is remove her hands from the interface. It's that simple, as the important things always are. The Progenitor divulges that they will finish Burnham's training when — or if — she rejoins her in the portal. Having faith that Burnham will choose wisely, the Progenitor places her hands on the captain's temples. Visions flash before Burnham's eyes, bestowing a view of planets being born, life forming, and civilizations rising. 

A tear streams down Captain Burnham's cheek as the overwhelming experience concludes. She finds herself back at the interface, now among the field of flowers once more. She moves to help Moll up, and the courier asks her a heartbreaking question — can she save L'ak? The captain answers with the harsh truth, explaining that nothing here can bring him back. Burnham returns L'ak's body to Moll’s pattern buffer and helps Moll to her feet. They walk away from the interface, which disappears upon their exit.

As Book's shuttle maintains its grip on the portal, the Kwejian realizes that the gravitational disruptions have stopped. He's now picking up two lifesigns within the aperture, excitedly beaming Burnham and Moll aboard. Keeping Moll upright, the captain hands the courier over into Dr. Culber's care. Discovery is beaten up but okay, so Burnham breathes a sigh of relief and takes a seat next to Book at the helm. Having heard Book's messages in the portal, she thanks him for holding on. He replies with a grin and says, "Always." Rayner opens a channel, letting the shuttle know that Discovery is on its way and will secure the portal in its Shuttlebay.

Captain Burnham transports to her Ready Room, where she finds Rayner and Saru already waiting for her. Burnham and Saru share a friendly hug, and the captain suspects that "Action Saru" came out today. Saru sheepishly notes that he may have, inspiring a laugh as Stamets and Adira enter the room. Having reviewed the data from Burnham's tricorder, the enthusiastic astromycologist comments that it is not hyperbole to say that this is the greatest scientific discovery of their lifetime. Burnham's somber reaction perplexes those gathered, and she relays that she met one of the Progenitors in the portal and saw the last four billion years. Witnessing all the incredibly complex events that had to happen for each one of them to be alive was powerful. She realized that the galaxy already has infinite diversity in infinite combinations — there’s no need for this technology anymore.

However, Burnham is not implying they should leave the portal here. Believing it to be too powerful for one person or one culture to have access, or control, the captain thinks they must let it go. Always attuned to his duties, Rayner opines that they have orders. Stamets desperately clings to his wish to study and understand the portal, but Saru interjects — this is not about the astromycologist's legacy. Captain Burnham silences the discussion, citing the Progenitor's trust in her to make this decision. She will talk to Admiral Vance and President Rillak, but she knows they'll agree that this is the right thing to do. Saru and Rayner, as well as a reluctant Stamets, opt to place their faith in their captain. As Burnham exits with Saru and Rayner, Stamets stares silently out the Ready Room's viewports. Adira approaches him carefully, claiming that Stamets has learned a lot from the amazing mission. Maybe that's enough. Moved by the ensign's efforts to comfort him, Paul reaches up to Adira's cheek and asks them when they got so wise. 

Some time after the Ready Room meeting, Captain Burnham takes to the ship's comm system and commends the crew on a job well done. The portal is released from the Shuttlebay, Discovery 's tractor beams guiding it toward one of the black holes. Burnham is proud of her team for safeguarding this technology by placing it beyond the event horizon. They trust that what the Progenitors created for them is enough… and those that came before and developed this power must have the ability to recreate it should they still exist. A flash signals the portal's final journey through the black hole, and the Federation starship maneuvers away from the coordinates.

Discovery jumps back to Federation HQ, where a small fleet of vessels are assembled around the space station. Book heads down to the ship's Sickbay, finding Nhan watching over Moll in a biobed. The courier seems more open to his friendliness, joking that she found out her room in the brig has a window. Book shifts the conversation to a more serious matter, recalling that losing everything left him wondering how he'd find his way again. But he did, and he hopes that Moll will too. He promises that he'll always be here if she needs him, offering that she might even stop hating the name Cleveland Booker one day. She laughs, telling him not to count on it. Book moves to the door to join Nhan, who says that her orders are to bring Moll to Dr. Kovich after she completes her sentence.

"The Examples"

Captain Burnham beams over to Kovich's ornate office in Federation HQ, finding him scribbling a note at his desk. As she takes a seat, Kovich advises her that the Red Directive has officially been closed. All records will be classified, and no one will know the technology existed — a protocol which Burnham is very familiar with. The captain mentions Moll, and Kovich acknowledges that the courier is a capable individual who could prove to be useful. He states that Moll will be given a choice, prompting Burnham to produce the small device Kovich used to call her to the Infinity Room. While Kovich has lived many years and many lives, he's met few people who’ve impressed and aggravated him as much as Captain Burnham. She smirks at his analysis, and he urges her to keep the Infinity device — just in case.

Burnham's eyes turn to the collection of items adorning the wall behind Kovich's desk — a bottle of Chateau Picard, a VISOR worn by Geordi La Forge, and a baseball favored by Benjamin Sisko. The captain guesses that Kovich is actually a codename, but the doctor professes that his real name is a bit of a Red Directive in and of itself. Burnham stands and extends her hand in greeting, introducing herself as Captain Michael Burnham, U.S.S. Discovery . Kovich reciprocates, identifying himself as Agent Daniels, U.S.S. Enterprise … and other places.* Their cordial handshake radiates with respect.

Several weeks later, Discovery 's crew joins Admiral Vance, President Rillak, Lieutenant Jax, and other officials to Ambassador Saru and President T'Rina's elegant beachside wedding. At the event's reception, Duvin announces the newlyweds' arrival to the cheerful crowd. As applause engulfs the room, Saru and T'Rina thank their loved ones for attending. Wearing her dress uniform, Captain Burnham congratulates them on a beautiful ceremony. The celebration makes Saru think of the Progenitors and their shared ancestor — they are all connected in the most fundamental ways.  

Vance makes his way up to convey his own felicitations, and Burnham retreats to find Rayner chatting with Tilly. The lieutenant sees that Rayner has grown so much since he became Discovery 's first officer, and his relationship with Burnham reminds her of her relationship with Adira — but with ages reversed and more crabbiness. The dynamics between Burnham and Rayner, as well as their one-on-one connection, inspired Tilly to realize that those traits are what Starfleet Academy has been missing. Her plan to start a mentorship program at the Academy earns her a high five from Burnham and approval from Rayner, although the Kellerun teases her for calling him crabby.

Captain Burnham maneuvers through the crowd, welcoming other members of her crew before noticing that Book has just made a late entrance to the party. The Kwejian claims he had a run-in with some Talaxian pirates on his way back, and the captain voices how impressed she is by Book's dapper clothing. Book states that he planted the world root clipping he obtained from the Eternal Gallery and Archive in Sanctuary Four, the same place they took Molly the trance worm years ago.

Rather than participate in the wedding festivities right away, Book requests time alone with the captain. They take their conversation to the water's edge, where the distant sun hovers just above the horizon. Book expresses his thanks, as the mission helped him find his way and gave him renewed hope. As of yesterday, his sentence had been commuted. He and Grudge are figuring out what’s next for them, and the future is still a bit of a scary word. Burnham gazes out over the ocean, eventually confessing that the future is also a scary word for her. She considers herself to be lucky and grateful that Book is here and alive. They stand before one another, and Michael takes the bold step of proclaiming that she "never stopped." Book smiles in understanding, declaring, "You love me." The captain nods, and the two look into each other's eyes as they exchange "I love yous."

Book adds that his love for Michael possibly extends all the way to the moment they met, leading the captain to comment that he was "annoying as hell" back then. Book playfully notes that she still loved him, and they kiss passionately under the sunlight. The Kwejian asks whether they can just do this? Just the two of them, no matter what. Michael responds with a jovial sneer and adds, "And Grudge." Book agrees with her reasoning, aware that Grudge might claw the captain's leg to bits in her sleep. "You, me, and Grudge it is," whispers Michael, and they share another kiss until a sound from the captain's Infinity device interrupts them. Kovich has impeccable timing and another mission. Burnham looks at Book with hope, inviting him to join her on the adventure. Book believes it could be fun and that Saru would understand, then draws attention to their fancy attire by commenting that it never hurts to look good wherever you go. They join hands and resolve to see what the future holds, taking several steps down the beach before beaming away.

Some years later, a rustic room overlooking Sanctuary Four's red-leaved forests is serenaded by birdsong. A quiet fire crackles in the fireplace, and both Book's Tuli wood box and Burnham's Infinity device rest on a bedside table. Michael Burnham arises from her slumber and puts on her slippers, her slightly graying hair indicating that a significant amount of time has passed since Saru and T'Rina's wedding. As she enjoys the view of nature, an elder Book walks up with a mug of foamy coffee. He presents her with their first honeycomb from their very own Gexara bees. He places it in her drink but is disappointed when it sinks to the bottom. Michael is not bothered by the wax in her beverage, suggesting that the honey flavor could make it tasty. She takes a sip, quickly realizing that the blend is not as appealing as she had anticipated. Book wraps his arm around Michael's shoulder, offering to come with her on her "big day." She politely declines, feeling as if she should go alone. Book jokes that the rejection stemmed from the fact that he put wax in her coffee, and she agrees in the same jocular tone.

Now fully dressed, Michael carries lumber through the courtyard outside of her home. A Starfleet insignia is emblazoned on the ground, and she secures the post to a section of the fence. An incoming transmission calls out to her, and a voice tells Admiral Burnham that her shuttle is arriving momentarily. A four-legged hoofed creature meanders up to the barrier, and Michael apprises "Alice" that the area is fenced for a reason. As Burnham turns back toward the house and waits by the Starfleet logo, the arrival of a shuttle sends Alice running back into the forest. The Federation craft hovers over the yard, and a uniformed officer transports down. Michael is pleasantly surprised to see the face of her son Leto, who she believed would be on his way to Crepuscula by now. Book exits the house to join the reunion, pronouncing that there will be no hugging without him.

Freshly promoted to the rank of captain, Michael and Book's son brushes his shoulder off and insists that he's trying to "up his swagger a bit." Michael describes Leto as his father's son, and Book advises him to "Go get our swagger on in outer space, young man." Michael says that she will see Book in a couple of days, responding to his acknowledgment of "Aye, aye, Admiral" by reminding him that there's only one "aye." Michael taps her chest, causing her admiral's uniform to replace her casual clothing. As Book smiles upon Michael and their son, the two officers beam up to the shuttle. The craft flies low over the foliage, passing over a family of trance worms before jumping into deep space.

En route to their destination, Captain Burnham tells his mother that Tilly — now the longest tenured Starfleet Academy instructor ever — says hi. He ran into her while he was meeting with Admiral Vance at Federation Headquarters. As the shuttle continues on its journey, Michael senses her son is a bit nervous about getting his own command. He concedes that he's been thinking about what to say in his first speech to his crew. Vaguely referencing the still-classified incident with the Progenitor, Michael says that someone once asked what was most meaningful to her. She had always sought it in her missions, counseling her son that the captain's pips can bring pressure — they're supposed to. At the end of the day, every member of his crew will have to find their own sense of meaning. Leto is interested in how his mother would answer that question now, and Michael answers that sometimes life itself is meaning enough. How they choose to spend the time that they have and who they spend it with — her son, Book, and the family she found in Starfleet — are what is most important. Michael promises her son that his crew will become a family one day, and he interprets this as a way of saying he's got this. Michael confirms that Leto can handle this, and they bump fists over the shuttle's controls.

The shuttle drops to sublight speed, allowing Captain Leto and Admiral Michael Burnham to take in a miraculous view of Starfleet Headquarters. There are now three stations resembling the old Federation HQ, numerous starships surround the facilities, and the U.S.S. Discovery -A sits in drydock. As the shuttle closes in on the vessel, DOT-23s can be seen removing the “A” from the ship's hull registry. Remarking that this is the "last dance," Michael is glad that she is the person leading Discovery on its final mission and will have a chance to say goodbye.

Now alone aboard the ship, Admiral Burnham steps onto its shadowy Bridge. The lights and displays spring to life, and Zora welcomes her back. Michael notes that it's been too long as the words, "Resetting For Mission Protocols," flash across the screens. Discovery 's interior has been reconfigured to its original 23rd Century form, and the admiral relays that she'll be taking the ship to a set of coordinates in deep space. Michael and the crew will then leave, and Zora's assignment will be to wait.** This is a Red Directive, so the admiral doesn't know much about the mission. However, she did hear a word in passing — "Craft." Unsure if that is a person or a vessel, Michael opines that she's going to miss Zora, as her wait will likely be longer than the admiral's lifetime.

Zora has mixed feelings about that truth, but Michael points out that everything ends some day. There will be a new beginning when Zora returns, and she can look up the crew's descendents and meet the next generation of her extended family. The admiral refers to their time together as a "hell of a journey," allowing Zora to respond that the Federation has so many wonderful possibilities ahead because of Burnham and her crew. The admiral corrects her, stating that it is because of all of them. With the ship nearly ready for departure, Burnham gleefully takes a seat in the captain's chair. The station feels like home, and the distant echoes of her crew’s voices spring to her mind. She has a vision of herself turning to find Saru and taking the Kelpien's hand, suddenly rejuvenated to the age when she served as Discovery 's captain. Awash in affection and embraces, an otherworldly glow casts light upon a gathering of her closest friends — Tilly, Rayner, Stamets, Culber, Adira, Rhys, Linus, Commander Jett Reno, and Lieutenant Commanders Joann Owosekun, Keyla Detmer, and R.A. Bryce

"Life, Itself'

Admiral Burnham's focus returns to the present day, the fond memories flooding her senses. She settles in for the mission, and Zora assures the admiral that she is also ready. For the last time, Michael Burnham delivers her signature command from the center seat — "Let's fly." Its exterior now reset to its previous 23rd Century condition, the U.S.S. Discovery departs drydock amidst an honor guard consisting of a massive formation of shuttles and an armada of Starfleet vessels. Upon reaching open space, its spore drive activates. Blue energy envelops Discovery , and it spins at an increasingly rapid rate until it jumps away to its final destination. Headquarters and the assembled fleet remain in its wake as a monument to the Federation's rebirth and a testament to the contributions of Michael Burnham, the U.S.S. Discovery , and its crew.

* " Cold Front " — The temporal agent, Daniels, was first introduced in Star Trek: Enterprise 's first season. From the 31st Century, he would frequent the 22nd Century to assist Captain Archer and his crew whenever forces attempted to rewrite history.

** " Calypso " — In this Star Trek: Short Treks short, after waking up in an unfamiliar sickbay, Craft finds himself to be on board a deserted ship, the U.S.S. Discovery , his only companion and hope for survival, an A.I. computer interface, Zora.

• Written by Kyle Jarrow & Michelle Paradise
• Directed by Olatunde Osunsanmi

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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.