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Star trek: discovery season 4 cast & new character guide.

Star Trek: Discovery's diverse cast gets even larger in season 4 as Captain Michael Burnham's crew returns along with the Federation's new President.

The cast of Star Trek: Discovery season 4 got even bigger as new faces joined the crew of the titular starship. Set in the 32nd century, Star Trek: Discovery explored the farthest point in the Star Trek timeline. The USS Discovery also had a new leader in Captain Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) , who finally assumed the post that she has waited a thousand years for, which was even more challenging than she imagined. Here's everything you need to know about Star Trek: Discovery's season 4's cast changes, including some important Star Trek: Discovery season 5 updates.

After Burnham solved the mystery of the Burn in Star Trek: Discovery season 3, the United Federation of Planets was resurgent and on the verge of uniting the galaxy once again. However, a new threat in the form of a massive gravimetric anomaly capable of destroying entire worlds threatened the Federation's efforts at peace and prosperity. When Captain Burnham and the USS Discovery launched to investigate the anomaly, they encountered a mystery that put the safety of the entire Federation at stake. In addition, Discovery's various crew members continued adjusting to living in the Federation of the 32nd century and many of them were faced with personal obstacles that could change their destinies in the distant future.

Related: Star Trek: Discovery Season 3 Ending Explained

Star Trek: Discovery already boasts one of the largest and the most diverse cast of any Star Trek series. In Star Trek: Discovery season 4, the entire crew of the USS Discovery returned with the exception of Michelle Yeoh's Emperor Phillipa Georgiou, who left the series in season 3. Moreover, Star Trek: Discovery also welcomed a major new character, Federation President Laira Rillak (Chelah Horsdal), a powerful personality who butted heads with Captain Burnham. Here are all of the returning characters and everyone else joined the cast of Star Trek: Discovery season 4.

Sonequa Martin-Green As Captain Michael Burnham

After Michael Burnham assumed the role of being Captain of Star Trek 's USS Discovery , her leadership skills were truly put to the test. Michael had to juggle the demands of commanding her starship and once again trying to save the galaxy with the pressures placed on her by the new Federation President. Michael's relationship with Book (David Ajala) was another factor that made Burnham's captaincy a challenge. Sonequa Martin-Green also starred in The Wa l king Dead and Space Jam: A New Legacy .

Doug Jones As Captain Saru

Captain Saru left the USS Discovery to Michael Burnham in order to return to his homeworld of Kaminar with Su'Kal (Bill Irwin). In Star Trek: Discovery season 4, Saru was torn between his responsibility to Kaminar and his desire to return to Starfleet and the upgraded USS Discovery . Doug Jones is best known for his roles in The Shape of Water and What We Do In The Shadows.

Anthony Rapp As Commander Paul Stamets

Lt. Paul Stamets pus himself in charge of investigating the gravimetric anomaly threatening the galaxy, but the mystery threatened to consume him. While Stamets had the support of his partner, Dr. Hugh Culber (Wilson Cruz), and their new 'family, Adira Tal (Blu del Barrio) and Gray (Ian Alexander), Paul also had to form a bond with Book, who shares the navigation of Discovery's spore drive. Anthony Rapp is best known for playing Mark Cohen in Rent.

Related: Discovery Season 4 New Uniforms Bring Back Star Trek Tradition

Mary Wiseman As Lt. Sylvia Tilly

Ensign Sylvia Tilly stepped up to become the new First Officer of the USS Discovery, which earned her a promotion to Lieutenant. In Star Trek: Discovery season 4, Tilly, who is Michael's best friend , faced a new personal challenge that made her question her role in Starfleet and her duties aboard the Discovery. Mary Wiseman also appeared in Longmire and Baskets.

Wilson Cruz As Dr. Hugh Culber

Dr. Hugh Culber is the USS Discovery's Chief Medical Officer and also took on a dual role as the ship's Counselor, which placed him in charge of the troubled crew's emotional well-being in Star Trek: Discovery season 4. Notably, Culber also successfully found a way to give Gray's (Ian Alexander) consciousness a synthetic body. Wilson Cruz is best known for his roles in My So-Called Life and Rent.

David Ajala As Cleveland "Book" Booker

Although he isn't part of Starfleet, former courier Cleveland Booker (and his cat, Grudge) joined the crew of the USS Discovery. Along with being Michael Burnham's love interest, Book also shared control of the spore drive with Paul Stamets. In Star Trek: Discovery season 4 , Book suffered an unimaginable loss that changes him forever. David Ajala is best known for his roles in Supergirl and Nightflyers.

Blu Del Barrio As Ensign Adira Tal

Adira joined the crew of Star Trek: Discovery in season 3 and they became the host of the Trill Tal symbiont, making them Adira Tal. In Star Trek: Discovery season 4, Adira stepped into the role of an Ensign and faced the pressures of living up to Starfleet's ideals while also hoping their love interest, Gray, was able to get a physical body. Del Barrio plays Star Trek's first non-binary character and Star Trek: Discovery is their first television role.

Related: How Star Trek Succeeds At Diversity Where Other Sci-Fi Fails

Ian Alexander As Gray Tal

A Trill, Gray is Adira's partner who was bonded to them through the Tal symbiont. Having existed only in Adira's mind, Gray was fortunate that the USS Discovery's Dr. Culber made good on his promise to manifest a physical body for Gray. Ian Alexander plays Star Trek's first transgender character and he also starred in The OA.

Oded Fehr As Admiral Charles Vance

The Commander-in-Chief of Starfleet, Admiral Charles Vance became a believer in Michael Burnham after she and the USS Discovery unlocked the mystery of the Burn and saved the Federation from Osyraa (Janet Kidder) and the Emerald Chain. Oded Fehr is best known for starring in The Mummy and Resident Evil movie franchises.

Chelah Horsdal as Federation President Laira Rillak

President Rillak has taken a special interest in Captain Burnham, but she also has very different ideas about what makes an effective leader. As the new President of the United Federation of Planets , Laira Rillak had an ambitious plan to continue to expand and restore the luster of the Federation. Chelah Horsdal is best known for her roles in The Man in the High Castle and Hell on Wheels .

David Cronenberg As Dr. Kovich

The mysterious Dr. Kovich is a resource of knowledge about the Federation. In Star Trek: Discovery season 4, Kovich took on a new role helping to oversee Starfleet Academy. David Cronenberg is the award-winning director of The Fly , A History of Violence , and Eastern Promises .

Related: Why Director David Cronenberg Acts In Star Trek: Discovery

Tig Notaro As Commander Jett Reno

Lt. Jett Reno continued to apply her genius to the USS Discovery's Engineering section. The acerbic Reno also resumed her crucial task of wittily poking fun at her by-the-book Starfleet crewmates . Tig Notaro is a comedian and actor who has appeared in Army of the Dead and Lucy in the Sky.

Star Trek: Discovery Season 4's Returning Cast

Emily Coutts as Lt. Commander Keyla Detmer: Detmer is the USS Discovery's hotshot pilot. Emily Coutts also appeared in Glowbies and Clarice .

Oyin Oladejo as Lt. Commander Joann Owoswkun: Owosekun is the USS Discovery's Operations officer. Oyin Oladejo has also starred in Endings and Six Guns for Hire .

Patrick Kwok-Choon as Lt. Commander Gen Rhys: Rhys is the USS Discovery's Tactical officer. Patrick Kwok-Choon is best known for his roles in Wynonna Earp and Diggstown .

Related: Strange New Worlds’ Proves Pike Is Better Than Picard In 2 Ways

Ronnie Rowe as Lt. Commander Ronald A. Bryce: Bryce is the USS Discovery's Communications officer. Ronnie Rowe has also appeared in Diggstown and Pretty Hard Cases .

Sara Mitich as Lt. Commander Eva Nilsson: Nilsson is the USS Discovery's spore drive operations officer. Sara Mitich's other roles include Private Eyes and The Expanse .

Tara Rosling as President T'Rina: The President of Ni'Var (formerly Vulcan) , T'Rina hopes to negotiate her homeworld rejoining the Federation. Tara Rosling has appeared in The Handmaid's Tale and The Expanse .

Sonja Sohn as Gabrielle Burnham: Gabrielle is Michael Burnham's mother who joined the Qowat Milat sect of Romulan warrior nuns introduced in Star Trek: Picard . Sonja Sohn is best known for starring in The Wire and Marvel's Luke Cage .

Related: Picard Season 3's TNG Reunion Is Making 1 Big Mistake

Annabelle Wallis as the voice of Zora: The USS Discovery's advanced computer is a sentient AI named Zora. Actor Annabelle Wallis has onscreen roles in The Tudors, Peaky Blinders , and The Mummy .

Star Trek: Discovery Season 4's New Cast And Characters

Shawn Doyle as Ruon Tarka: The mad scientist Ruon Tarka joins the USS Discovery's crew and helps to determine the origins of the DMA. Shawn Doyle was also in Frequency, Ashgrove , and The Comedy Rule .

Osric Chau as Oros: When Tarka was imprisoned, he befriended another scientist named Oros. Osric Chau also had roles in The Flash, Nancy Drew , and the Shudder horror movie Superhost .

Rothaford Gray as Tareckx: Cleveland "Book" Booker's father is named Tareckx. Rothaford Gray has also appeared in Max Payne , Exit Wounds , and Death to Smoochy .

Related: Strange New Worlds’ Uhura Retcon Fixes A TOS Mistake

Ache Hernandez as Kyheem: Book's brother is named Kyheem. Ache Hernandez was also in Private Eyes , Jet t , and Bad Blood.

Luca Doulgeris as Leto: In Star Trek: Discovery season 4, Book returned to his home planet to witness and participate in his nephew Leto's coming-of-age ceremony. Prior to making his Star Trek debut, Luca Doulgeris also appeared in 8-Bit Christmas .

Star Trek: Discovery Season 4’s Cast Changes: Why Sylvia Tilly Left The Ship

As a new Starfleet Lieutenant and First Officer of the USS Discovery, Sylvia Tilly faced new challenges that allowed her to discover her true strengths, but also ultimately led to her leaving the ship in Star Trek: Discovery season 4, episode 4 "All Is Possible." Although it's true that Sylvia Tilly's exit from Star Trek: Discovery greatly alters the show's dynamic, it also allowed Tilly to find her true calling. In the said episode, Tilly saves several uncooperative cadets from dying during a shuttle crash, which led Kovich to offer Tilly a role in Starfleet Academy as an instructor for new recruits. As Tilly came to terms with the fact that this was the change of direction that she was looking for, she said her goodbyes to Burnham before warping away.

Star Trek: Discovery Season 5 Updates: Here’s Everything We Know

Star Trek: Discovery season 5 has been officially greenlit, which means that Sonequa Martin-Green, Anthony Rapp, Wilson Cruz, David Ajala, Doug Jones, and Blu del Barrio will all be reprising their roles on the Starfleet ship and elsewhere in the series. As for the plot of Star Trek: Discovery season 5, the details are still vague. That said, Burnham's promise to "get to work" at exploring the frontier in the ending of Star Trek: Discovery season 4 indicates that the series could return to the beloved sci-fi franchise's roots: actually exploring the 32nd-century galaxy. Although the studio hasn't released many Star Trek: Discovery season 5 updates yet, it would be safe to also assume the return of characters like Ian Alexander's Gray Tal, Tara Rosling's President T'Rina, and Oded Fehr's Admiral Charles Vance, as well as Chelah Horsdal's President Rillak. The next season could even overrun Star Trek: Discovery 's season 4 changes with the possible return of Mary Wiseman's Lieutenant and Starfleet Academy instructor Sylvia Tilly.

Next: Why Discovery’s Season 4 Bridge Crew Was Missing In Episode 5

Star Trek: Discovery is streaming now on Paramount+.

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Review: ‘Star Trek: Discovery’ Passes The Test In Season 4 Premiere “Kobayashi Maru”

| November 18, 2021 | By: Anthony Pascale 135 comments so far

“Kobayashi Maru”

Star Trek: Discovery Season 4, Episode 1 – Debuted Thursday, November 18, 2021 Written by Michelle Paradise & Jenny Lumet & Alex Kurtzman Directed by Olatunde Osunsanmi

SPOILER-FREE REVIEW

Discovery returns with a bang, delivering an action-packed season opener that sets up high stakes and new character arcs for the season.

WARNING: Spoilers below!

“It’s what we do”

Picking up after some time has passed, we find Captain Burnham on a genuine strange new world, taking on the task given to her at the end of season three. This first post-Burn visit to a former Federation world with an offer of free dilithium and peaceful cooperation meets a skeptical audience with the don’t-call-them-butterfly-people, the Alshain. Boyfriend Book is along for his “empathy thing,” but after the locals scan a certain Felis catus lifeform on his ship, a comedy of errors and misunderstanding of Grudge’s regal nature turns this tense reunion into running and phaser gunning, which is sort of second nature for Michael and Book. While he is ready to meet fire with fire, Michael and the team on the Discovery science out a gesture of goodwill by fixing a local dilithium-starved satellite network. After some more fun banter, they are back on the Disco with a more amenable Emperor Lee’U calling, now open to accepting the Federation gifts, no strings attached. Mission accomplished in this cold open full of sci-fi action, alien humor, Treknology, and good old teamwork. Discovery is back and ready to take on the galaxy.

Back at Federation HQ, Captain Burnham’s new calm confidence is on display as she addresses the first Starfleet Academy class since The Burn. The Federation is coming out of hiding with new president Laira Rillak, who announces Starfleet’s return to the mission of exploration. Drilling the point home, she unveils a new spacedock named for Captain Jonathan Archer and a program of new and updated ships with new post-warp technology. But all the nostalgic feels, inspiring speechifying, and admiring of fancy new dress uniforms is cut short by a distress call from a distant space station. Admiral Vance orders the Discovery to check it out, and the President invites herself along, much to the chagrin of a skeptical captain who doesn’t want to give joyrides to politicians looking to “tick a box” for space action on their resume.

“I know you want to go home”

They arrive at Deep Space Beta 6 to find it tumbling out of control. Together the bridge crew comes to life to sort out the problem (a gravitational distortion) and work out a solution requiring programmable matter and some impressive-looking maneuvering. In this, Captain Burnham is a competent conductor, letting the crew play the high notes. After Owo and Detmer affably align the ship, Tilly and the newly minted Ensign Adira—doing an admirable season one stammering Tilly routine—beam over to fix the station with a remarkable amount of technobabble. With gravity literally upside down, the station’s Commander Nalas is understandably a bit prickly, but Lt. Tilly leads the away mission with some diplomacy, and they get the station stabilized…  just in time for a new crisis: giant frozen methane space boulders start tearing the station apart.

Now a desperate rescue mission with a deteriorating shields ticking clock and no working transporters (because reasons), the only way to save the station crew is for someone on Discovery to Top Gun a Worker Bee over to free the escape pod, and Captain Burnham volunteers herself! After explaining to the president that she is contractually obligated to do some space hero stuff in every season opener, Michael heads out. Sure enough, it isn’t long until the worker bee is destroyed, leaving the captain to go full Super Michael as she flies in to free that pod. She also gets an assist from the President who has to talk down a now phaser-toting crazed Commander Nalas into awaiting the fix instead of doing something stupid.

“It is hard to be away”

While all this action is happening on board the Discovery, a couple of key members of the crew are off on their own adventures. Book has left the ship to return to his homeworld–which happens to be close by to the station having the crisis–so he can participate in the Ikhu Zhen, a sort of Kwejian Bar Mitzvah, for his nephew Leto. His brother Kyheem is there and they have a lovely time tapping into the World Root with an ancient ceremony and some hints of Book’s backstory. But something is amiss, as they noticed the birds have all gone a bit crazy, which is never a good sign. As he flies up in his ship to find out what’s going on, Book sees something destroy Kwejian’s moon and then all hell breaks loose, including exploding programmable matter consoles. The more things change…

On Kaminar, Saru is now a counselor and an “esteemed elder” where he guides the insular Kelpiens and Ba’ul with wisdom and an effective 32 nd century PowerPoint presentation, helping them see they are part of a larger galaxy and a “new era.” And in a nice, if not a bit heavy-handed, quiet moment, it is his charge Su’Kal doing the guiding, seeing that Saru is torn between his responsibilities to this cause of The Burn, and his longing for his old friends and ship. But Su’Kal is no longer the fragile man-child found at the end of season one. He has friends and acceptance and is ready to give Saru permission to find his own Great Balance by returning to the Discovery; just don’t forget to call home.

“You cannot defeat the mathematics of loss”

Thanks to the president’s clever pandering to a distraught Nalas, Michael has the time she needs to fix the pod, riding it back to the ship Slim Pickens in Dr. Strangelove-style , with Tilly, Adira, and Nalas left behind to ponder what they are all going to do after this sparks-flying crisis is over. With four minutes of life-saving shields left and five minutes needed to rescue the last survivors, Captain Burnham decides to get bad at math and Rillak is not happy. Cutting it too close, the pod arrives followed by a huge space rock as the ship spores away, leaving the shuttle bay in shambles and Tilly mourning three dead, including Commander Nalas. Once he started talking about going home you knew he wasn’t going to make it.

Highlighting what has rapidly become a complicated relationship, Rillak consoles Burnham while admonishing her at the same time. These two formidable women don’t see eye to eye as the president tells the captain she has failed this particular Kobayashi Maru. Her visit to the ship wasn’t to tick a box, but to see Michael in action… and she has some notes. Apparently, the Prez has been binge-watching the previous seasons, praising Michael’s “undeniable” bravery while pointing out that as captain, her “pathological” savior complex could end up getting her whole crew killed. Still in command of the Discovery, Michael is deemed “not ready” for one of the newer, fancier ships coming out of Archer Spacedock.

But before they have time to wrap things up, a shaken Book shows up, desperate to use the Discovery to find out what happened back home—but his planet isn’t where it should be. In shock, the president and crew find what’s left of Kwejian in another part of the system, and it’s disintegrating before their eyes. “They’re gone. They’re all gone.”

Welcome back

With a good mix of action and emotion, “Kobayashi Maru” met the challenge of catching us up on the new state of things while setting out a whole new set of challenges for our characters as well as the Federation itself. Given that it was written by showrunners Michelle Paradise and Alex Kurtzman (with an assist from Jenny Lumet), it’s no surprise that the heart of this episode was an exploration of Michael Burnham literally being tested in her new role as Captain. The introduction of President Rillak as a sort of foil allowed for an examination of how Michael’s past messiah complex may not be the best fit for the captain’s chair. Ably played by Chelah Horsdal, Rillak can go toe-to-toe with Burnham, now embodied with a new sense of confidence by Sonequa Martin-Green. All of their moments were illuminating, although the choice to have Michael ring up Rillak for another mini-confrontation in the middle of an intense action sequence was dubious.

The episode still found a good amount of time for some character development, or at least for setting a marker for the arcs that will play out this season. With the little time she was given, Mary Wiseman delivered a subtle performance showing that Tilly is still shaken over the confrontation with Osyraa—and losing Commander Nalas didn’t help. Blu del Barrio was delightful stepping in as the overtalking nervous smart ensign, with a quick sidebar with the ghost boyfriend to remind us that getting him a body is a thing. Anthony Rapp’s Stamets was left standing in for Engineer Jett Reno (as Tig Notaro’s time is somewhat limited this season), running around his spore drive lab pretending it was main engineering and talking about Heisenberg Compensators, but he did get a nice subtle moment in when asking about the fate of his adopted child Adira. The visit to Kaminar offered some good insights and Doug Jones showed good range, but the moment with Su’Kal was a bit heavy-handed and rushed, intended to get the character quickly back to the Disco guilt-free. As for everything that happened on Kwejian, it was a heartbreaking counterpoint to the fun had with the superb David Ajala’s Book at the episode start with the Butterfly People.

The production team also continues to up their game, with the visual effects for the space station sequences being a standout. And Gersha Phillips’ costume team must have been working overtime to deliver all the new uniforms and outfits required in this episode, with some great new additions to the canon like the new Starfleet dress uniforms. We can also see how the new AR Wall set is a great tool for the production, literally putting the actors into virtual locations seamlessly. All of this was held together by executive producer/director Olatunde Osunsanmi who now has a gravitational anomaly to let his love for the spinning camera fly.

A new threat for a new era

For the first time, a Discovery season starts with a bit of a time gap, and this allowed for a bit of a reset. In between all the action and character bits, there was quite a bit of worldbuilding going on here, especially with a reenergized Federation. While the speeches may have made this clear, there were subtle touches like the return of Vance’s family and a brief mention of peace with former enemies (likely season three’s big bad, the Emerald Chain). The opening tease with the Alshain also nicely set up how things have changed by introducing a delightfully weird alien species and getting back to some good old-fashioned cultural clashes and subsequent diplomatic resolutions.

The biggest sign of the new state of things came in a density of fan service with the Cardassian/Bajoran/Human president introducing Archer station (with his theme), the USS Voyager-J nestled inside, and her mentioning “the next generation” of ships. Not subtle, but we get it. The Federation is back in business, which helps set up the drama for the new threat in the form of the Gravitational Anomaly. We also get a hint of an environmental message here; even though the Federation now has tapped into the Saudi Arabia of dilithium, it might be time for them to move on to something new. That Pathway Drive sounds pretty interesting—hopefully that isn’t the last we hear of it.

Killing off Book’s family and his whole planet was a bit of a daring choice but established the stakes in a big way. We have a big new mystery, but it’s not one of those “we’re keeping a secret from you” things the show formerly indulged in.

Let’s fly

While there wasn’t much hype in the run-up to this season, “Kobayashi Maru” may still be the best opener of the series yet. Strong performances, an intriguing mystery, and a world-class production add up to a welcome return for this series, showing again why it is the flagship show of the new Star Trek Universe.

Random bits

• It’s been five months since the end of season three, but unclear if it’s still 3189.
• The opening title sequence has a couple of minor changes, including a graphic of the anomaly destroying a planet and a waveform analysis-looking thing.
• Book’s ship has a two-person pod he called “the little guy.”
• The Discovery once again has a tribble on board, because of course it does.
• Before finding the dilithium planet, the Federation had 38 member worlds. Now it has 59.
• Stamets and Culber have been promoted to Commander and Tilly has been promoted to Lieutenant.
• The station crew included a Lurian , the first seen as a member of Starfleet.
• Commander Nalas is an Akoszonam , this is the alien species first seen in Short Treks “Children of Earth.”
• New character Lt. Christopher (Orville Cummings) has temporarily replaced (now Lt. Commander) Bryce, who is consulting on the USS Curry (and appeared at the Academy ceremony).
• All the other bridge crew have also been promoted to Lt. Commander (Detmer, Rhys, Owosekun, and Nilsson).
• Burnham spoke about the Kobayashi Maru scenario as if she had experienced it, even though it doesn’t appear she attended Starfleet Academy, having transferred to the USS Shenzhou after attending the Vulcan Science Academy.
• While never stated, it appears that Rhys is currently the first officer.
• Former Tal host Jovar liked birds.
• With Kwejian destroyed, who will navigate all those new spore ships?
• Technobabble of the week: “polyhedronic quantum data devices” used in a “multiphasic processing unit.”
• Tilly of the week: “You know there are people out there who don’t have to put up with spacetime shenanigans.”

More to come

Every Friday the new 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  CTV Sci-Fi Channel  in Canada, where it’s also available to stream on  Crave .  Discovery  will debut on Paramount+ in  45 countries around the world in 2022 .

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

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I really like the Byzantium arc – the restored Federation with new sources of dilithium heading out into the galaxy. Rediscover the diversity of the Federation races and rekindle the exploration and development of the frontier. In some cases help worlds suffering from the fall of the Federation – like of like General Belisarius returning to Rome and finding it now “the frontier”. I hope there is some of this in the season and not just off screen. Wish the council was more Journey to Babel / Star Trek IV, diverse and different. But that can be part of the arc, returning to an age of differences, diversity and learnings in the face of hardships.

Except the Byzantine “reconquest” of the Italian peninsula did far more lasting damage to the area than the Goths ever did…

I like Venice. That being said, doesn’t “Calypso” pretty much declare the Federation will fall / become the V’darysh?

I feel like I saw a different episode than the reviewer. I have loved Discovery since it started and have championed it to the naysayers. I need to point that out because I am definitely not someone who would be called a hater when it comes to Star Trek; I’ve enjoyed every single show so far. Even Prodigy is very much growing on me, despite my dislike of the pilot. But this was easily the worst season-opener. For me, it fell flat, right across the board. I truly hope the rest of the season gets back to form, because this was nothing but cheesy dialogue, lots of angst, way too many cast reaction shots, and the regurgitated “Oh, no, the universe is in peril and only the Discovery can save it” plot they do every year. What a huge disappointment, and I truly hate to say that. This is the first Discovery episode I’ve considered boring. Without Pike or Saru on the Discovery, it’s actually kind of a boring bridge cast now.

I felt the same way. Same old dilemma, new rubber foreheads. And I realize that Burnham is the star of the show, but even brash beam-down-to-every-planet Kirk made his decisions with the aid of Spock and McCoy… too many unilateral decisions made by Burnham (as usual). I was far more engaged in this week’s “Star Trek: Prodigy”.

Kirk relied on Spock and McCoy. He trusted them equally.

Really? Fair enough. I thought it was the most solid Discovery premiere — and probably episode, period — that I’ve seen yet.

I was leery about the anomaly — and it might prove to be yet another lame big bad — but this was way better than I’d expected (except for yes, all those reaction shots grated almost as much as the fire bursts — Discovery, write for the bridge characters instead of using them as props).

It set the scene for the season without overpromising — and it did it way more efficiently than in previous seasons.

Luckily, there wasn’t much time for Burnham’s breathless “Because we are Starfleet” routine. That Archer thing was pretty shmaltzy, though.

If the show was better I actually would have thought the Archer thing combined with the Enterprise cue to be a nice touch. But that is the problem with the show overall. The main core of the show is so very bad that even something that might otherwise seem like a nice idea comes across as cheap.

I would sum up this episode as “typical Discovery”: some fine work here and there, a lot of utterly forgettable moments, and something that ultimately doesn’t add up to a coherent whole. I loved the dynamic between the president and Burnham, and their final scene was easily the best of the episode. It’s high time someone called out Burnham’s impulsiveness and headstrong command decisions. (Yes, Kirk suffered from the same weakness, but at least he never assaulted his commanding officer and mutinied. And…Hollywood isn’t the same place it waws 50 years ago. Writing is more sophisticated these days.) Does she even have a number one to bounce ideas off of?

If you thought that the JJ movies suffered from FX eclipsing and plot character work, well, this episode featured that on steroids. The visuals are just too busy, too frenetic; you can’t take the time to savor them. (This was something PICARD more or less got right, particularly in “Nepenthe.”) Notably, the final scene between Burnham and the president took place on a conventional set, not one that featured the super-duper AI wall. They’re clearly having fun using it, but it’s becoming the center of attention and waylaying good writing.

The set of characters continues to become duller and duller with each passing season. It appears that Tig Notaro won’t be around much anymore, which was a shame. The wise-cracking Jett Reno was one of Discovery’s most memorable creations. Airiam and the Barzan character are gone; we don’t even know who the first officer is. In their place, we’re getting Adira and their ghost boyfriend. (A *ghost*. On a *science ficition* show.) Owosekun and Dettmer continue to be underused.

Your final paragraph was dead on. The lack of Notaro is a problem. She brought a bit of life to that lifeless ship. I’m guessing that Tilly is still the 1st officer? Regarding Adira, it’s one thing to represent the former Trill manifested as an actual person she speaks to in her head. It’s quite another if their goal is to get Gray to actually physically return in the flesh. Which is where I think they are going, sadly. But I would expect nothing less from this show.

You hone in on something I thought about last season: For ten to fifteen episodes per season the show has too many characters it cannot possibly serve well. So many characters are underutilized and underdeveloped because there are simply too many. That is even true for Burnham. Her character arc last season (from almost fired to become captain of the ship) was hardly plausible because very little time was spent on this development.

Totally agreed. I hated most of the dialog. The tone of the show just feels way off at this point — it feels like a CW show. I loved the beginning of season 2, it felt like Star Trek. Now the crew are way too emotional. And can we have just one scene without music? I enjoyed the Kaminar scenes but everything else…

Me too, Lorna Dune.

I had a lot of eye roll “oh brother” moments watching this but i’ll keep watching the show anyway.

Please Trek Gods, let Strange New Worlds be better than this.

Saru is the only character that is even semi interesting and in this episode even he was dull.

The finale of Season 3 was one of the most poorly written Treks I’ve ever seen; this one, unfortunately, is just as bad. It’s dumbed-down Trek. I liked the Burnham character from Season 1; a serious and believable character. Now she seems as though she’s always high. A huge disappointment.

This is my favorite season premiere of the new era. It surpassed my expectations in almost every category. Absolutely loved this episode!

I felt the same way.

I agree. Each season is better than the last. I can’t wait until next week!

Overall I liked it, but I could really do without the flamethrowers on the bridge making it look like a Ramstein concert.

Flamethrowers are the rocks of the 31st Century :D

There were still rocks on books ship. and yeah, the flamethrowers really took me out of the episode. Like… it looked so fake that I though to myself, they spent so much money on this show and then take really weird shortcuts?

Also… why is everything the Heisenberg compensators?

Though thanks to programable matter, the rocks finally have an explanation for the first time in the franchise.

I thought that also.

DïsköDëthMëtal!

Yeah, they totally jumped the shark on the pyrotechnics. WAY over the top.

I just had to laugh reading this, because while watching it I thought as well, “Rammstein could to a concert on the Discovery Bridge now”. :-) :-) It was really overdone it that sequence and looked funny after a while.

Haha. It was so dumb — especially since they seemed to just be on a timer.

Ah, I see both TrekCore and TrekMovie kicked off their reviews from the first day with new episodes of two different Trek shows since the ‘90s with their Discovery reviews. I was wondering whether one might lead with Prodigy .

I like this review because it didn’t come off as pandering the the will of Paramount+

Haven’t been a fan of this series but I thought it was a decent episode minus some dialogue choices that come off as too silly. This show does seem to keep reusing a lot of the same tropes from previous seasons: running through the forest while being shot at, ships always getting hit with rocks, planets getting destroyed, galaxy ending plots, etc.

I would say DS9 shouldn’t be considered the “dark Star Trek” I would say this series is.

Agreed. I love DS9 so much. Getting to see another Morn species was cool though.

NO SPOILERS – For all fellow Canucks north of the border, I noticed CTV Sci-Fi Channel has picked up the documentary The Centre Seat – 55 Years of Star Trek. It will debut tonight after the season premiere of Discovery and the new episode of Prodigy. I may have to skip the Leaf game haha. Should be a fun evening.

Thanks, from a fellow Canuck.

Thanks, I was wondering if we’d get it here!

To top things off, they started with an episode of DS9 I had never seen before, Accession. It was like getting three brand new Star Trek episodes followed by the documentary.

The Laffs suck. Go Habs! :p LOL

I was wondering if I should hop over to the Raptors game, but glad I passed on that.

Man, they have done you international viewers so wrong.

“This first post-Burn visit to a former Federation world.” — Did they actually say that? They’ve been taking dilithium around for at least five months already, presumably wearing out their gray uniforms we saw at the end of S3. “3189.” –Seems like it should almost be 3190, indeed. Other points: –You don’t have to go to Starfleet Academy to take the Kobayashi Maru. It’s done for those standing for command down the road, or on a command path. I’d suspect Burnham did it at some point during her time on the Shenzhou? In any case, maybe they’re just all familiar with ‘those old scientists’ and how Kirk passed it, in two timelines… –Bryce’s actor Ronnie Rowe is one of the leads in the new series, _The Porter_. They’ve left it possible for him to return, which is cool. I’d rather not see any of the bridge crew get Chuck Cunninghammed. Hoping we’ll start to see them get into more stories…. . Overall, a rather decent season start with a cliffhanger at the end. I don’t agree with reviews elsewhere which compare the Burn’n’Book diplomatic mission to Kirk at the start of Star Trek Into Darkness. Due to the misunderstandings and a bit of slapstick, it has more in common with the start of Star Trek Beyond. The teaser here was unique… there’s the “strange new worlds” everyone gripes we don’t get — the damn season opens with one!!

David, you must old af to make a Chuck Cunningham reference. Bravo!

RE: first post-Burn visit It was stated this was first visit to this world. They of course have visited others during this time, as noted by how many other new members there are in UFP. Sorry if that was unclear

“…Chuck Cunninghammed….” I think you win the internet today.

I so want to be positive, but this episode did nothing for me. Burnham continues to be the savior of everybody and everything. I know there is a counter to that statement in this episode (I’m staying away from spoilers) but despite what the dialogue says, she continues to be lifted up by the narrative in a way that feels constantly contrived and that she’s infallible, even when she does inexplicably risky things. As for the Kobayashi Maru and it’s apparent continued use in Star Fleet Training.. can anyone think of anything similar that is in use today that’s 1000 years old? Also, the name drop of a character from canon that they did just because they think we continually have to harken back? This continues to be Trek Canon’s greatest hits. Apparently 1000 years wasn’t long enough to throw them. Season 1 was weird, but I liked it, Season 2 course corrected, Season 3 went off the rails, and it seems like we’re staying off of them now. I know.. one episode and all, but the formula is there and unchanged. We’ll see. Hopeful this will change.

Religious practices – Catholic and Orthodox liturgy, classical Islam, etc.

No comment on whether a damn computer game is on par with that.

Burnham continues to be the savior of everybody and everything. 

I have a feeling this set up her arc for the season where she is about to make the wrong choice with devastating results and then learns how to make a Tough Choice right.

I find the concept that they implied the Kobyashi Maru was still being used hundreds of years later also makes no sense. It was already getting pretty famous and once everyone knew about it the effectiveness of the test drops to nothing.

I enjoyed this episode reasonably well. I wouldn’t say much more for it than that, but for an episode of Discovery it was pretty good.

On the whole I enjoyed it (after I pirated it). The universe still seems small so I was hoping for a bit more exploring this season but I guess I’ll have to wait for SNW will be doing that. It’s a shame because I think a bit of far future exploring would be really interesting I was also hoping the crew would be a bit more “Starfleet” by now – I still find them a far too casual. Finally the invisible boyfriend has outstayed his welcome now, either get him real or get him gone. Other than those gripes it was a good first EP and better than any of the previous season openers.

The start of the episode was reminiscent of the start of Beyond, to me

Overall, a good episode!

Was Burnham really calling the president while she was still in space… to aks her if she just lied… seems legit…

The worst part of the episode. Made Burnham look like a real prick after the President had just skillfully talked Nallas down.

The President’s response that it didn’t matter because her role was to support Burnham in de-escalating the situation was right on the mark.

The true question is what kind of Captain is Burnham that she was incapable of de-escalation?

In fact, her status as captain and authority to negotiate under crisis conditions was one of the viable reasons for her not to have been the one to take that worker bee.

The President successfully took on that role in her absence, and Burnham’s response was a kind of micro aggression that completely missed the point and demonstrated that she doesn’t understand what her job is.

Every joke landed, every optical effect blew me away. The story is so incredibly interesting. I hope I don’t get phasered for wondering just how much more of our galaxy would be left to explore after 1,000 years (minus The Burn’s 200 or so of non-travel) of space exploration. Maybe a galaxy jump is just what we need at this point (besides, this one’s too small to contain the awesomeness of Trek’s greatest captain, Michael Burnham).

There’s just nothing else like this on TV and we’re lucky to have it. Welcome back, Discovery!

“Every joke landed”. Yuck. The comedy should be left to ‘Lower Decks’, which is smart and funny. ‘Discovery’ is neither of those things.

More jokes have landed on Star Trek Discovery (thanks to Reno) than LDX could ever hope to have. One funny episode out of 20 is not a good ratio.

The opening of the episode with a botched contact reminded me of the last two Kelvinverse opening scenes. As always, the show looks great. Im not as keen on the quick rebuild of the Federation. It would have been interesting to see the Federation winning hearts and minds. The Saru storyline is pointless because we all know he’s not going to stay away for long.

Still, I’ll watch and see where they take this season while anxiously awaiting Strange New Worlds.

Yeah the opening really did feel like a combination of both Beyond and Into Darkness. The botched first contact speech and then of course all the running and jumping off cliffs as the natives tried to kill them.

I also have to agree, I don’t want to see the Federation totally in tact by the season finale. That said they still have a loooong way to go. The Federation had 350 members before the Burn. They are at 58 members now. So that’s still a little off of 300 members and I think this will be a continual story line through the rest of the show’s existence. At least I hope so.

They seem to be lifting things from the KU lately. There is this botched contact and there was the weird warp “tube” on Prodigy.

Overall, I enjoyed the season premiere. There were a few things that didn’t work for me, though:

• The opening diplomacy mission was a bit embarrassing to watch, but at least they turned it around in a rather smart way, which I appreciated.
• The butting of heads between Burnham and Rillak felt heavy-handed at times, especially when Michael questioned her about how she talked Commander Nalas down. I felt like we didn’t need that moment, especially considering the urgency of the situation they were facing.

There were some stand-outs for me that I really loved:

• It’s so nice to see Tilly come into her own more and more. She’s still very much the same Sylvia Tilly, but she keeps a much cooler head and knows when to stand her ground. I love that.
• I loved the “Archer Spacedock” moment. That was a lovely nod to Captain Archer and Enterprise.
• It’s great to see the Federation and Starfleet start to recover from the Burn, but they’re not 100% there yet.
• Book has really grown on me as a character, and I felt his anguish as he saw his homeworld destroyed. To me, that made the stakes more personal this time around, even though it is yet another “anomaly threatens the whole galaxy and Discovery has to fix it” situation. It is grating, but at least they’re not pointing phasers at it and going pew-pew. They have to investigate and research and DISCOVER what it is and where it came from and what they can do to stop it. That’s what bring the Star Trek element for me when it comes to Discovery .

So, yeah, I dunno. Discovery has adjusted course, tinkered here and there, altered the premise but has never been on firm footing since it launched and has never really covered since the missteps behind the scenes those first two seasons.

It set up Brave New Worlds and will likely set up a different series set in this era but Discovery will always feel a bit lost.

This season 4 opener was a mike drop for me! I enjoyed just about everything about this episode, the look, the story, the humor, the action, the uniforms and costumes in general. Also it was just more Star Trekkie to me. But it was Captain Burnham for me mostly. I really thought she just rocked it. I can’t wait for the rest of the season if we are in for more of this. More please more! 

Overall a good episode, if not a great one! I really did love the beginning in so many ways. As many already pointed out, it took a lot of it from the beginning of Beyond which made me smile. I thought the first half was just really good, especially the scene back at Starfleet headquarters and the new cadets. I always love to hear anything about Federation business and politics; especially in this era since we still know very little. The new Federation President looks like she will be interesting and correct me if I’m wrong, but this is first one we seen since Deep Space Nine. And was SO happy when she finally discussed building future spore drives. It was so weird how it was just ignored first season.

The gravitational anomaly stuff was interesting, but still not very excited about it. But seeing Kwejian wiped out was a big shock for sure and had some good emotional stakes. But watching this episode it does show why it was a great idea to move this show to the 32nd century. It really does feel like it’s own show now and it FINALLY has its own mandate which is rebuilding the Federation. No one is talking how out of place it feels like the first two seasons while building its own mythology. And it just so much more interesting because everything is practically new.

Man, I like those dress uniforms way, way better than the duty uniforms.

Disco has great season openers. I’m keeping my expectations in check since S3 was mixed for me. I actually enjoyed the first 2 seasons.

I’m hoping to see more federation ships, especially the Voyager-J. I’m interested in the pathway drive. I’m also hoping to see more world building and learn why some world’s were pulling away from the federation pre-burn. Lots of room for storytelling.

Oh and I’m hoping for that Trek message that reflects our time.

Overall, great review and great episode.

Oh yeah great reminder. I forgot to mention that in my OP too, but I really want to see Voyager J in action this season. I think some fans felt let down (certainly me) last season that they referenced her but we never got to see her do anything. But I think with so much emphasis in the very first episode showing her again in the space dock and then mentioning equipping her with a new drive is foreshadowing they are going to really show her off this season. That would get the fans excited! In fact I have a feeling we may end up seeing TWO Voyagers next year when Prodigy comes back, but I’m getting ahead of myself as usual lol.

Someone even mentioned on another site Saru could end up being it’s Captain by the season finale. I don’t see that happening, but I would love to be wrong. ;)

BTW, did anyone catch the latest Ready Room episode yet? There was one segment that was really interesting. It discussed the new Federation President going over her Cardassian/Bajoran heritage but then gave a brief history going into a lot of detail about the Bajoran and Cardassian conflict from TNG and DS9. If you haven’t seen it, I queued up that part if you want to have a look:

https://youtu.be/r-suqvMtg9M?t=1405

I bring it up because I wonder will this be a regular thing going forward and will give newer fans a perspective into what is happening with Discovery and all the past canon? Since it takes place so far into the future, they can’t just reference things the way other shows can without it feeling so forced at times. They were able to get away with it in Unification III for obvious reasons but it may be harder for others and especially why it’s a monumental moment to even have a Cardaassian and Bajoran President. This is a smart way to tie in events from the 22nd/23rd/24th centuries and how they affect the present day 32nd century. I hope they keep it up!

Of course, it’s also just another way to get new fans to watch the classic shows since the clip literally tells people to stream those specific episodes of DS9 and TNG even giving them the season and episode number. ;)

So, not sure how this could work with Doug Jones continuing as main cast, but what do folks here think of the possibility that Saru is given the captaincy of the Voyager J?

Love that idea! I actually mentioned it myself on this thread responding to someone else. I doubt it will happen, but who knows? And I just don’t think we need another situation of two Captains on the same ship like we got in the TOS movies (but kind of resign to it). And it would be nice to continue the Voyager legacy in a real way.

I swear that I thought of this independently! :)

Plenty of ways it can work; there was Capt. Hernandez in ENT, Worf commanding the Defiant in DS9, and of course Capt. Sulu in TUC.

Well, if all of us are picking up the possibility from the episode, it seems as though it will be something that is explored one way or other this season.

Maybe Discovery will become an anthology show like they planned for TNG if they had left Riker as a Captain. Their plan was one week would have been Enterprise and the next Riker’s ship.

I mostly liked this episode. It did seem like the presidents admonishment of Burnham was pretty much a page of dialogue from Pike to Kirk in Into Darkness. There at least has to be 4 sentences in there that are not changed more than a couple words.

I don’t like the president involved with picking ship crew. With 59 worlds in the Federation, that’s a pretty big job, and why is she picking Captains? I saw some comments yesterday about not liking that she is in uniform, and it’s clear since she has a fairly dramatic suit change, that she is not wearing any uniform– overall I liked the President, but I really liked Vance. I don’t know why we will need another big boss in the show – and I hope that she isn’t made evil, we’ve done badmirals to death in Trek.

Also, I am not seeing it mentioned elsewhere, but does Culber have super strength since coming back, or is he not human? Him lifting the slab off in the shuttle bay seemed to give that he is disproportionally strong.

It does have an air of micromanagement about it, akin to Pres. Johnson personally picking bombing targets in Vietnam. Nonetheless, I think her rationale is that these new captains are going to spend much of their time rebuilding the Federation; they’re as much diplomatic emissaries as anything.

There is the air of pointedly restoring civilian and democratic control over Starfleet in the President’s actions.

Which is something that leaders in democratic societies need to do after protracted crises. All of the captains will have come up through Starfleet under drastically different circumstances.

The civilian authorities will need to ensure that the captains reaching out to new civilizations will represent the Federation and not just themselves.

Can’t say that Burnham and Book represented the best of the Federation in that opening sequence.

I don’t like how Starfleet and the Federation are seemingly merging into one. Seems very autholitarian (especially versus the debate and diversity filled Federation Council seen in Star Trek IV). Maybe that contributed to some member worlds leaving the Federation? I hope they address this as an emergency situation and maybe have an arc about the Federation returning to being a Federation with Starfleet being just the navy as the Burn crisis is over (and maybe have some opposition by the military, bring back some of that old is Starfleet exploration NASA vs. military Navy debate) for drama (answer of course isn’t clear cut, embrace the drama).

Dear directors, could you please stop shaking the camera? Leave the f**** camera still. Thanks!

Agreed. They probably think it creates action and drama, but it’s way overdone.

And lens flairs. Enough with the lens flairs.

Yes. Exactly. It makes the show even more tedious to watch.

🥱 another galaxy wide threat .

And as usual Berhnam (?) is the only one who can save the day. 🤔

Talk about a Mary Sue

Good point about the overdone “galaxy-wide threat.” Just curious though: as you had to be on the interwebs to share your wit and wisdom with us, could you not have opened a new tab and looked up the proper spelling of the character’s name? (It’s Burnham). I think it’s also spelled properly in the article you’re currently commenting on.

Agreed, so predictable. This is why I stopped watching this show halfway through S2. It’s ALL about her. I liked SMG on The Walking Dead, but on DSC, she has too much hubris, imo.

Of course it’s all about her. It’s her show. Always has been and always will be.

The show’s creators have said since before Season 1 that the show would focus on Burnham.

I liked it. The scene with Archer spacedock got me thinking though, it’s too bad they did skip the arc this season and just focus on the rebirth of the Federation. Like a parallel to Enterprise S1 of getting (back) out there.

Also, Saru for captain of the VOY-J.

For me, the best part of the episode. Archer spacedock with his theme playing…..brought a tear to my eye. Ok, not really, but if it was going to happen, that would have been when it did.

I commented this on another article, so I’ll just copy-paste it here:

Given the reveal of a new shipyard with an explicit connection to Star Trek: Enterprise due to it being named after Jonathan Archer (or possibly his father Henry, or both), including the end-credits theme (Archer’s theme) being played, while the Federation president was talking about Starfleet getting back to exploration, I suspect that may all be foreshadowing Saru being given command of a newly-constructed Enterprise (NCC-1701-Z? NCC-1701-AA? NCC-17001? They seem to get through those letters faster than most ships) at the end of the season.

is it just me or is the lighting more akin to a Broadway play than a tentpole series? Especially noticable in the image in the story w/ Burnham and the Prez on the bridge. It looks like that time the Frasier cast join a starship for a Star Trek celebration on stage.

“Star Trek: Discovery” – now on stage at East Bumpkin High School. Tickets available at Jo’s Seed and Feed.

Discovery is Hamilton in Space. Its like they gave the kids at Julliard the keys to the franchise and let them run wild.

I like it but I’m against the complete destruction of planets to serve character development and plot purposes. That’s major extinction, and in real life larger than any one person can adapt to. Narratively this makes Book/Han Solo into… Leia? But to what end? Or is this like Dr Who when Gallifrey was left in a time bottle for a few seasons? In the Kelvin Universe, they totally punted any serious consideration of of the destruction of Vulcan and I am pretty sure they will do that here. It already feels wasted.

Another prediction I’m making now: that “world root” or whatever gets replanted on a new planet (“New Kwejian” or whatever) in the final episode of this season.

Are Kwejian’s inhabitants supposed to be human, or aliens? I’ve never quite understood this point.

Well, exactly. Book’s ethnic characteristics are open to interpretation so we know no reason why Kwejian is interesting.

For example… Vulcan was only interesting because of Leonard Nimoy, and the casting of Book had potential. Now… wasted.

I honestly don’t get the choice to blow up a planet, to kill a culture, ever. Ever.

I wonder if that mention of USS Voyager-J is an example of “Chekov’s (the playwright, not the TOS character) Pistol”. This theatrical axiom holds that if a gun is in the first act, it will be used by the end of the performance. Since we learn from dialog that this Voyager version is in spacedock being equipped with a spore drive, what are the odds we’ll see her in “Black Alert” action before the end of the season?

It very much looks like the show still has the same problem. But to be fair it is such a huge problem that if they address it it would change the ENTIRE show. Which I guess they have no interest in doing but as a fan I would endorse it. That problem is the lack of interesting characters. In fact, these characters are all so very bland that I just have a huge disconnect from them. I mean, Book’s planet is destroyed and my reaction was, “meh.” What happens next? I never cared about his nephew or his personal connections because I just didn’t care about him. And it’s not that there is NO empathy for the characters, really. It’s the overall tone of the show just leads the viewer to not really care. It’s what they have done over 3 seasons. It’s very hard to care at this point.

Case in point… In the beginning when we were watching them work together on the bridge and all that incessant smiling they gave each other was ridiculous. It reminded me of that scene in “Airplane!” of the stewardess singing “River of Jordan” and all the passengers looked at each other and smiled in a cliche sappy way. That was the joke. How lame that sort of thing is. And now Star Trek Discovery just did it FOR REAL. Not as a joke. That sort of thing would be better placed on LDX. It would have been a funny gag.

And yet another issue is that they are 900 years in their future and they are STILL using dilithium and a warp system that they were using 1000 years earlier. It would be as if no one on Earth worked on cars or airplanes and in 2000 we were all still riding horses and sailing ships with wind and oars. And I just find it impossible to buy that after 900 years NO ONE has duplicated the spore drive.

All these things just get in the way of the rest of the show. Sorry. At this point I’m thinking this show needs to change characters, writers and producers and directors to get better.

Certainly weird about the propulsion.

Book’s ship was said to have Quantum Slipstream drive early in season 3, but it’s never brought up again, for ANY ship.

Thank you, ML. Thus justifying my refusal to subscribe to P+ yet again. I stepped out on DSC halfway through S2, and no regrets. I will sign back up to check out SNW, but as you have said in the past, my hopes are dampened given these showrunners’ history. PIC was just ‘ok,’ imo, and now he’s AI, so not terribly interested. At least Prodigy is getting good reviews. I’m in no hurry to see any of it, though. Cheers.

I don’t agree with all of this but yeah the two things that STILL bothers me about this show is the dilithium thing and believing no one has worked on another spore drive in all that time. It would be one thing if the prototype didn’t work or had a lot of bugs with it or something, but it works perfectly lol. The thing hasn’t had one major problem. So why has no one has simply made another one…in 900 years? And what’s MORE frustrating is that the guy who helped d-e-s-i-g-n it, is there on the damn ship. Why not work with him to, I don’t know, MAKE MORE???? It’s absurd in a future where FTL speed was crippled for a century, they don’t have Stamets and a thousand engineers picking his brain to come up more of them the day Discovery arrived. That should’ve been his number one job once he got there.

I just can’t really buy that at all. But it’s a TV show and you have to suspend your disbelief. But with Discovery you’re doing that practically every episode. ;)

I have grown to like the characters for the most part though. Not in love with them like a lot of the other shows yet, but they are at least at the likable phase for me now. But if you feel differently about them like you do the TNG characters, completely understandable.

If you had watched the episode you would’ve known that Starfleet is working on a “next generation spore drive” that will be equippped on new ships constructed in the Archer Spacedock.

Also, all records of the spore drive were erased at the end of Season 2, because:

1) You need to either enslave a sentient creature, or augment a person to operate the drive. 2) Starfleet believed the drive was faulty and as a result the Discovery was destroyed.

Lastly, the spore drive has actually had a major problem – an entire ship and all its crew were lost in an accident (USS Glenn).

They did say that but look… It’s been 900 years! Even if there was no record of it remaining it is ridiculous to think that not one person or scientist in the Federation would have considered the concept. Hell, someone already did! If there was record of having been tried and failed, it is also ridiculous that no one wondered, “why did it fail?” and work on it.

And that doesn’t even speak to the silliness of them still using dilithium powered warp drive. In a near millennium there was NOTHING discovered that was better? I call bul***it on that.

“If you had watched the episode you would’ve known that Starfleet is working on a “next generation spore drive” that will be equippped on new ships constructed in the Archer Spacedock.”

I did watch it Mike. In fact if YOU read my review post I wrote on this thread last Thursday, you would’ve seen I actually said just that here:

 And was SO happy when she finally discussed building future spore drives. It was so weird how it was just ignored first season.

So yes, I directly acknowledged it after the episode aired. My ONLY point was, as I alluded to in the second line, it was still ludicrous it was completely ignored in the first season. And even if I bought the idea no one worked on it because it was considered ‘faulty’ it’s still a weak excuse. A lot of inventions, especially dealing with transportation, people have died trying to create them. People who tried making planes, trains and automobiles have all suffered fatalities due to ‘faulty’ construction. And yet we still have all of those today in abundance. Didn’t people die in the Apollo space program trying to be the first people to the moon? There was a lot of ‘faulty’ problems in that program too but they kept persisting just the same because they felt the goal was worth it.

I don’t see how inventing a teleporting ship to literally anywhere in the galaxy in seconds wouldn’t be an absolute dream for anyone traveling in space in the 23rd century and wouldn’t have worked on it for probably decades even if it didn’t work the first few times around (although we know it DID work).

So yeah I don’t buy it.

But even it that was a reason to stop making more in the 23rd century, its ridiculous to believe by the 32nd century when you have an active one there. You’re talking about ships that hasn’t been warp capable in over a century. And then a 1000 year old ship show up with a piece of technology that can not only get them anywhere in the universe at the flip of a coin, the guy who invented it was also on the same ship.

My only point is they should’ve at least been studying the thing to see if they CAN adapt it and no one even suggested it. Isn’t that why the Emerald Chain highjacked the ship, so they can make more? Why were they thinking ahead but the Federation wasn’t?

Burnham and her boyfriend are the only people on the away mission re-establishing contact with other worlds. Burnham’s boyfriend’s planet is affected by the anomaly. Burnham attempts a recue using a 23rd century robotic-arm vehicle, has time to ask the President if she lied, and is unaffected after a few seconds of explosive decompression in space… The ship, with 31st century deflector dish and shields is under attack from gas in space. The same gas you get as a result of BS. Fitting… Dialog was cheesy. But previous Trek shows took 4 seasons to “find their feet” so this show will get better they say.

Burnham is the captain and was a key person in figuring out the Burn and reigniting the Federation. It makes sense that Starfleet would make her its representative. Book was with her, because he has a special ability that can be quite useful in communicating with alien races.

The Discovery wasn’t under attack by gas, but by huge chunks of ice. After her shields were extended to protect the station, they became weaker. And as we all know, ice is pretty hard.

Burnham still Wonder Woman, Mary Sue-ing across the galaxy.

Only good scenes were with Saru. How can writers/producers not see he was the perfect choice for Captain and leading the show.

Something tells me final scene will be a precursor to the final scene of the season…perhaps something like this:

Season finale excerpt: President: “I misunderestimated you Captain” Burnham: “It’s ok, sometimes my greatness is too hard to recognise, you are forgiven” President: “Thank you Captain”

Crew exchange glances and start crying tears of joy.

What does Mary Sue mean? Are you like five years old or something?

Perhaps you should learn what a Mary Sue is first.

A little research before making a condescending comment like that would go a long way. Here, let me help….

https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Mary%20Sue

I don’t understand why the “Mary Sue” accusation couldn’t be made against Picard or Kirk.

If you don’t understand that I would argue that you don’t understand the concept of the ‘Mary Sue’ to begin with.

Probably because Kirk and Picard are white men, so people expect them to do amazing things. Burnham is a black woman, so if she does something incredible it must be bad writing.

Captain Michael Burnham is NOT a Mary Sue.

She is a Q.

She just doesn’t know it.

My overall take was that this episode was probably 3.5 stars. Nothing majorly good or bad. I liked the intro that reminded me of the Kelvin movies and I liked the story with the new President who didn’t just turn out to be a mindless pompous bureaucrat. Of course the scene with the new Archer space dock was great.

I know that some really detest the idea that for each season, Discovery has had a galactic threat to deal with (understandably that must grow tiresome for some), but that has always been something that serialized Star Trek has relied on, whether it was fighting the Xindi and eventually the spherebuilders or the Dominion. It’s just too bad they have to do this every season. I personally prefer episodic shows, so I am looking forward to SNW and I like Prodigy, but that doesn’t stop me from enjoying Discovery or Picard.

Finally, Discovery has slowly evolved into something that for me is much better than the first 5-6 episodes from S1. Best of all, with FIVE shows now in production, it no longer has to try to be everything to everyone. For example, LDs is never going to be my favorite and that is okay. IMO it is okay that Discovery is never going to be what some fans what it to be – but I do hope the producers keep trying. Maybe S5 can be episodic or they could break it up into 3 or 4 multi-part stories. I bet the cast wouldn’t mind a change of pace.

Why do they continue to show Pike’s chair in the opening credits?

I was thrilled that the president gave Burnham a much-needed talking-to. I think Rillak is absolutely right. I’m reminded of the TOS episode “The Immunity Syndrome,” where Kirk wonders aloud, “Which of my friends do I condemn to death?” Sometimes a captain has to make that kind of choice, and it doesn’t seem that Michael is capable of it. I hope she grows into that over the course of the season.

Kurzman blew up Vulcan during the first reboot movie, and now he wants to blow up Kwejian? Does this guy not like planets or something?

Olatunde Osunsanmi, please, PLEASE lose the spinning camera! The director is supposed to serve the STORY, not be saying, “Look at meeeee!”

This is way off topic, but thought this was the best place to post it!

For any Americans who was looking forward to seeing The Center Seat tonight, looks like you’re out of luck. They pulled the episode. I was sitting down looking forward to watching it at this hour and even had it set to record when I noticed my DVR didn’t record anything. I looked it up and all the episodes tonight are suddenly gone. It looks like the ratings are not doing what History was hoping because they relegated all the episodes to Monday night instead, where you can also catch episode 4. And that’s it! No other viewings for the rest of the week.

So if you wanted to watch the next episode, you now have to wait until Monday. They will show all four episodes in one sitting at least and the rest will be on History Vault from that point on I’m guessing.

I noticed it wasn’t on my DVR Friday night. I looked and noticed it was moved to Monday. Not sure why the move. Can’t imagine it’s viewers as Fridays to this day are not as strong viewing days as Monday’s even today.

Also noticed there was no article about the TAS episode that aired last week on the site. Would have liked to leave comments on it.

Sadly it still looks like only 4 episodes are going to me on THC. But I did notice it is listed on On Demand. I don’t like using that because you can’t FF the commercials. But I guess it’s better than subscribing to the streaming service.

Yeah, but they also got rid of episodes running OTHER days as well. The reruns for the first two episodes were not just on Friday, but also Sundays, Monday and I think Wednesday. It was multiple viewings. Now it’s just regulated to one day.

Or maybe more people were just streaming it on the regular site and didn’t see a need to air it more. That’s possible too. I do think ratings had something to do with it though.

As far as the other episodes, they are actually already on History Vault. I went and had a look and there are five other episodes. I was going to wait for the four to air on TV and then just subscribe for a month to watch the rest. It’s only $5, I’ll live! And the first week is free so if I get through the rest in the week I can just cancel then.

But I’m also guessing if they make more episodes, it will all just go to the History Vault, especially if the ones on THC didn’t do great.

Looks like the burned the other two episodes Monday. They aired after a rerun of part 2.

I’m still getting a kick out of this thing. Liked seeing the Xon footage. In all my years I have only seen stills. Not footage. So it seems they have indeed found SOME new stuff.

I loathe to watch on demand but that seems to be the only way to watch the remaining episodes. Haven’t seen “Trek Goes to the Movies” yet. But will have to psych myself up for sitting through commercials for the rest.

Is it strange that we still don’t know for sure how many episodes there are this season? I know IMDB is hardly a bulletproof source at the best of times, but it has stuck with 11 for weeks.

It’s almost certainly 13 just like season 3. You’re right though it’s unusual for them to not confirm the number.

I feel like they have a missed opportunity to name drop Kirk with the mention of the Kobayashi Maru test.

That was over 900 years ago. He just cheated on the test, he didn’t invent it.

True but Burnham does have a connection to Kirk in a small way. She has never met him, but her brother sure did. His solution was “unique”

Her brother met Kirk after Burnham had departed for the future.

Even if she has had time to review all of Spock’s logs, it doesn’t seem like something she would bring up.

It was dreadful. I love Star Trek, I couldn’t love this. So disappointing.

Agreed. I’ve watched all 3 seasons (and enjoyed most of the first two and a few from the third season). But this ep. was my last. It, together with the awful finale of Season 3, has totally extinguished any enthusiasm I had for Discovery.

A nice nod to James T. Kirk beating the Kobayashi Maru would have been nice. But then again by this time he may not have been the only one to beat it.

I find it ridiculous that test is still a thing 900 years later. Everyone knows about it now. How effective could it possibly be?

I just realized that the opening scene could be interchangeable with one on ‘Lower Decks’. Cartoonish. Using a lot of present-day banter. But on ‘Lower Decks’ it actually would have been entertaining and funny rather than cringe-inducing.

Michael has saved the multiverse, saved Earth, saved Kronos, saved all sentient life in the galaxy, saved the Federation, in addition to lots of other bits of saving, and we’re supposed to take seriously a scene in which she is chastised for having a hero complex. 

Remember to the President, Burnham is a newcomer to the 32nd century and quite honestly despite her 23rd century accomplishments, is probably seen as someone who can easily be chastised. Just imagine meeting someone from the 12th century today – they would been seen as a primitive oddity from another era.

I felt this episode was not that bad. It was interesting that this president was putting Michael in her place. Michael has been way to cocky of a character for me to fully enjoy but seeing the bit of dialogue at the end was surprising and well needed for her character. Hopefully Michael does face failure instead of winning all the time. Without conflict, without character trouble, there isnt much of a character.

There were a few decent moments but the whole of the episode just didn’t land for me. Again, it’s the writing, dialogue, science fantasy instead of science fiction, style over substance. I suspect the cringe parts of the episode were Kurtzman’s contributions as the opening action scene was right out of his bag of tricks.

I work at a game development studio and the level of professionalism in my office could almost be dropped into a starship. lol If I had to work with the likes of Stamets, babbling and mouthing off in a dire situation, I would ask for a transfer or quit. lol

Why can’t the crew behave like professionals anymore?

Definitely, TNG was the management ideal of professionalism.

More, by all accounts, Kurtzman is himself that kind of workplace leader and so is Sonequa.

So, why don’t they want to give what they know is good leadership and workplace behaviour to us onscreen?

Please somebody help me out here: So does the Federation now have the monopoly on dilithium? That should be its own story arc. Who decides who gets dilithium and who doesn’t. If the Klingons are naughty they’re not getting any, but if Ni’Var gets its act together they’re getting some? Basically the Federation is capable to decide who remains in the galactic stone age and who can advance. That’s quite some responsibility to say the least. Maybe this would be more a Picard story.

Logic does not exist in these nu-Trek shows.

Star Trek: Discovery season 4: everything we know

Spoilers ahead

• Release date

Star Trek : Discovery season 4 will warp onto Paramount Plus on November 18, 2021, and a new trailer has dropped as the date gets closer. 

With Michael Burnham now installed as the captain of the ship – the show's fourth commanding officer in as many years – Star Trek: Discovery season 4 will see the crew continuing to explore the distant future of the 32nd century. Having solved the mystery of the so-called “Burn” that had rendered warp travel impossible, and defeated the criminal empire of the Emerald Chain, attentions should now be turning to restoring the Federation to its former glories. Unfortunately, it sounds like a new antagonist is about to get in the way, in the form of a dangerous gravitational anomaly five light years across.  

With Saru, Tilly, Stamets, Culber and all the principal bridge crew back in action, Star Trek: Discovery 4 is set to continue the franchise's ongoing adventures on the final frontier. Here's everything you need to know, but be warned – Spoilers lie ahead for anyone yet to watch the previous seasons.

Release date: Star Trek Discovery season 4 will release on November 18 in the US. The show will roll out on Paramount Plus in the US, and is expected to stream on Netflix elsewhere. 

Story: With Burnham now installed as captain, as mentioned above, the USS Discovery will contend with a massive gravitational anomaly in the 32nd century – the idea is that the crew is dealing with a massive problem to solve this season rather than a specific villain. 

Is there a trailer? Yes. A first teaser for Discovery season 4 debuted in April 2021, and another full trailer dropped in October 2021. 

• Star Trek: Strange New Worlds – what we know
• How to watch Star Trek in order
• What we know about Picard season 2

Star Trek: Discovery season 4 release date

It was confirmed at the Star Trek Day event on September 8 that Star Trek: Discovery season 4 will debut on November 18 in the US. 

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The show will release on Paramount Plus , the rebranded version of CBS All Access. Outside the US we expect that – like the previous seasons – the show will stream on Netflix, where it's usually available within hours of its American debut.

The previous season had barely even started airing when Star Trek: Discovery season 4 got the official greenlight on October 16, 2020. Two weeks later, on November 2, production got underway at the show’s Toronto base, and continued until August 2021 – the end of shooting was confirmed in a tweet from showrunner Michelle Paradise . 

Inevitably, Covid-19 restrictions were a major factor in the shoot. For starters, as dictated by Canadian rules, the cast had to isolate for two weeks before coming to set.

Star Trek: Discovery season 4 also reportedly  took advantage of a pipeline put in place for the previous season, after coronavirus restrictions kicked in. “Our editors, miraculously and heroically, took their editing bays into their living rooms,” Alex Kurtzman, executive producer and overseer of Star Trek’s current raft of TV shows, told IndieWire . “We also scored the entire season [3], mixed the entire season, color-timed the entire season, all from [a] laptop .”

Reports suggest the process was further refined on Star Trek: Discovery season 4, with Space.com revealing that the show will make use of the groundbreaking augmented reality LED screens pioneered by The Mandalorian . Suddenly the fact that travel for location filming was off the table didn't seem quite so much of a problem...

Star Trek: Discovery season 4 trailer

"We are not in this alone." Star Trek: Discovery season four, coming soon ✨ #StarTrekDiscovery #FirstContactDay pic.twitter.com/ZRoI2QRNqp April 5, 2021

A first teaser trailer for Star Trek: Discovery season 4 was unveiled at the First Contact Day virtual event in April 2021 – watch it above. A second, fuller trailer dropped at New York Comic Con 2021, which you can check out below.

Let’s fly ✨ #StarTrekDiscovery #StarTrek https://t.co/NUVqZXAdrS pic.twitter.com/ZqJvodfqft October 9, 2021

Star Trek: Discovery season 4 cast

This is the current roll call for Star Trek: Discovery season 4:

• Sonequa Martin-Green as Captain Michael Burnham
• Doug Jones as Saru
• Anthony Rapp as Lt Cmdr Paul Stamets
• Wilson Cruz as Dr Hugh Culber
• David Ajala as Book
• Mary Wiseman as Ensign Sylvia Tilly
• Blu del Barrio as Adira
• Ian Alexander as Gray
• Oded Fehr as Admiral Charles Vance
• Oyin Oladejo as Lt Joann Owosekun
• Emily Coutts as Lt Keyla Detmer
• Patrick Kwok-Choo as Lt Gen Rhys
• Ronnie Rowe as Lt R.A. Bryce
• Sara Mitich as Lt Nilsson
• David Cronenberg as Kovich

It’s a case of ‘as you were’, with most of the established cast returning for another tour of duty – presumably they’re excited to be wearing new-look, Trek-appropriate primary-colored uniforms that don’t look quite so much like tracksuits.

It goes without saying that Sonequa Martin-Green is back as Captain Michael Burnham, and even though her predecessor in the big chair, Saru, has relocated to his home planet of Kaminar, Doug Jones still has a part to play. “It felt important for all of our characters to find new layers for them, to find new place for them to go, new things for our actors to play, and new ways for the characters to go,” showrunner Michelle Paradise told TVInsider . “[In season 3 we highlighted] that Saru hasn’t had a huge connection to Kaminar since leaving, and in a season that is all about connection – family connection and cultural connection – it seemed like an organic place to explore that theme with him.”

Among the lead cast, Anthony Rapp and Wilson Cruz reprise their roles as Lt Cmdr Paul Stamets and Dr Hugh Culber, while season 3 standout David Ajala is back as the 32nd century’s most famous feline owner, Cleveland ‘Book’ Booker. (Sadly, a Grudge the Cat spin-off is yet to be announced.) And surely Mary Wiseman’s Sylvia Tilly will be looking to make the First Officer role her own.

“[Saru] sees strength in [Tilly] she doesn’t quite see in herself necessarily,” Paradise said in TVInsider. “Then, [we watched] her over the course of the season become more confident in herself to the place where she’s ultimately able to serve as Number One, and having to essentially be acting captain in this crisis situation, where she handles herself beautifully. What does that mean to come is, I’m sure, a question she’ll be asking herself and we’ll be exploring in Season 4.”

The supporting bridge crew will surely be hoping to have a few more stories of their own, continuing their slow evolution from background players to actual characters – now we know that Lt Joann Owosekun (Oyin Oladejo) can hold her breath for 10 minutes, the sky’s the limit. It’ll be interesting to see what – if anything – is in store for Lt Keyla Detmer (Emily Coutts), Lt Gen Rhys (Patrick Kwok-Choon), Lt R.A. Bryce (Ronnie Rowe) and Lt Nilsson (Sara Mitich).

Third season newcomer Blu del Barrio also returns as Adira, human host of the Trill symbiont Tal, along with their boyfriend, Gray (Ian Alexander). Dr Culber’s efforts to give Gray – who can only be seen and heard by Adira – physical form will be a big part of the season, as Gray becomes more and more integrated with the crew. “For season 4 I’ve had a lot more hands-on involvement, like my suggestions for the future of Gray,” Alexander told Inverse . “They already have so much planned. Michelle [Paradise] and Alex [Kurtzman] already have this vision that I’ve very, very excited for everyone to be able to see.”

“Culber does make a promise in our season three finale to Gray that, ‘You will be truly seen,’” Paradise said on a Discovery panel at Outfest (via TrekMovie ). “And we absolutely do pay that off in season four. That storyline and making sure we pay it off is hugely important.” It was confirmed by Wilson Cruz (Dr Culber) at Star Trek Day (via Variety ) that Gray will be gaining a corporeal form in Star Trek: Discovery season 4. 

Anthony Rapp, who plays Stamets, added that Stamets, Culber, Adira and Gray will become a family in Star Trek: Discovery season 4: “Parenting – they’re not children but they are young people – the pressures of how to be available to be a mentor or guide or parent in the face of job responsibilities and sort of crises, that’s an interesting sort of sub-thread through the through the season… There’s more in the ways Paul and Hugh continue to evolve in their relationship. This is certainly explored also in this season.”

And there’ll be at least two familiar faces at Federation headquarters, where Oded Fehr (Admiral Charles Vance) and legendary movie director David Cronenberg (the mysterious Kovich) will be pulling some strings behind the scenes.

Star Trek: Discovery season 4 plot

Star trek: discovery season 4 plot: what can we expect to see.

Michelle Paradise is keeping her cards closer to her chest than The Next Generation crew at one of their regular poker games, though she did admit to TVInsider in January 2021 that the Discovery crew are hanging around in the 32nd century, rather than looking for a way back to their original pre-Kirk-and-Spock timeline. “I don’t expect that,” she said. “All of [the crew] knew going into that at the end of season 2 that this is a one-way trip. Now that they are here, we’re not looking to go back.”

What does that mean for plotlines? “I don’t want to speak specifically to themes, but we do have them!” she joked to ComicBook.com . “I think season 4 will absolutely continue the kinds of things we were doing in season 3, in that we do have very strong themes that we’re exploring. Star Trek: The Original Series explored present-day things via sci-fi. And that’s what we did in season 3, and I think that’s just baked into what Star Trek does.

“Ultimately the thing that really resonates, I think, with people is, what are our characters experiencing? What are they going through? How are they connecting with one another? What are the challenges they’re facing and how do they overcome them individually and then as a family? All of that I think will continue.”

With the Emerald Chain out of the way, it looks like the threat in Star Trek: Discovery season 4 will be rather different this time out. The trailer reveals that the crew is dealing with a gravitational anomaly “five light years across”, rather than a specific human or alien foe – a force that, as Tilly explains, “could go anywhere, and we may not have any kind of warning at all”.

“We’re actually exploring – we’re diving deep into science – in the fourth season, in a kind of new and interesting way,” said Kurtzman in a panel hosted by Deadline (via TrekMovie ). “There have been many kinds of villains over the course of Star Trek. What happens when the villain is not actually any kind of living, breathing entity, but something else? How do you solve that problem?”

Could we be looking at something technological Discovery season 2's hostile AI, Control? Or a lethal inorganic structure like the Crystalline Entity from Star Trek: The Next Generation? ScreenRant has suggested the rather plausible theory that the anomaly could be V’Ger, the rogue space probe from Star Trek: The Motion Picture. In the finale of that movie, V’Ger merged with USS Enterprise first officer Will Decker to attain a new level of consciousness – who knows what it might be capable of nearly a thousand years later...

We can expect Star Trek: Discovery season 4 to follow a similar structure to previous years, with each season based around a self-contained story arc, with just a few loose ends left untied.

“Discovery has that sort of serialized, season-long story baked into its DNA,” Paradise said in an interview with Inverse . “We also wanted to give the show a more episodic feel in season 3. We got to explore a story of the week or a villain of the week – it gives us time to explore some of our characters who we normally wouldn’t have time to explore. That was definitely a choice on our part and will continue on our show.”

What questions does Star Trek: Discovery season 4 need to answer?

With the origins of the so-called ‘Burn’ revealed – who’d have guessed it was caused by a grieving kid with a symbiotic relationship to a planet made of dilithium? – and Osyraa and her Emerald Chain defeated, Star Trek: Discovery season 4 flies into uncharted waters.

Hopefully that means that Discovery and the crew can use the spore drive to truly explore the strange new worlds of the 32nd century – though, given this show’s love of callbacks to earlier series, it’s almost inevitable we’ll meet some familiar faces and species. (The presence in the trailer of a Federation official – possibly the president – who has a mix of human and Cardassian facial features suggests that those long-standing Deep Space Nine foes may be up for a comeback, this time in the Starfleet camp.)

Part of Starfleet's remit will be rebuilding a Federation that's a shadow of what it was 900 years earlier. The trailer suggests that many worlds will have to pull together to defeat a threat that affects Federation and non-Federation “equally” – as Burnham puts it, “We are not in this alone”. 

“The Federation is coming back together but it’s not fully back together,” Kurtzman told the aforementioned Deadline panel. “And so the continued mission of bringing other worlds in and meeting the criteria and standards of what it means to be a member of the Federation but also not to rob other cultures of their identity is something that we’ll explore.”

The biggest ongoing question Star Trek: Discovery season 4 needs to address is the nature of the ‘Sphere Data’, the ancient alien intelligence now integrated with Discovery’s databanks. Protecting it was the reason the ship made the one-way trip to the future in the first place, and it seems to be repaying the favor – first by helping the crew’s mental wellbeing, then by helping Tilly to forcibly eject the Emerald Chain from the ship. It’s a story that seems to be heading towards Short Trek episode ‘Calypso’, set in a distant future where Discovery is run by a sentient computer.

“‘Calypso’ is incredible,” Paradise told ComicBook.com . “And it is now a part of Trek canon , but specifically our show’s canon. It takes place many, many years beyond where our heroes are right now, and at some point, we will absolutely have to match up with that so that Discovery as a whole, including ‘Calypso’, all fits together as a piece.

“Certainly, bringing in that voice in episode four and having – we’ll call her Zora, she doesn't have a name at this point – but having her hide in the DOTs [helper robots on board Discovery] and be part of the story is the beginning of driving toward that. And eventually – who knows when? – we will absolutely have to make sure that we sync up with that.”

And then there’s the small matter of Stamets having issues with the way Burnham left his husband, Dr Culber, in a radiation-filled nebula in the season 3 finale. “I think that’s one they’ll get past in time,” Paradise said in TVLine .

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Richard is a freelance journalist specialising in movies and TV, primarily of the sci-fi and fantasy variety. An early encounter with a certain galaxy far, far away started a lifelong love affair with outer space, and these days Richard's happiest geeking out about Star Wars, Star Trek, Marvel and other long-running pop culture franchises. In a previous life he was editor of legendary sci-fi and fantasy magazine SFX, where he got to interview many of the biggest names in the business – though he'll always have a soft spot for Jeff Goldblum who (somewhat bizarrely) thought Richard's name was Winter.

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The Bridge Crew Heads to The Ready Room | Star Trek: Discovery

The latest installment has arrived.

In this latest installment of The Ready Room, host Wil Wheaton sits down to talk with Emily Coutts, Ronnie Rowe Jr., Oyin Oladejo, Patrick Kwok-Choon, and Sara Mitich.

All this plus two new BTS videos AND an exclusive clip from next week's episode.

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.

Star Trek: Discovery heads into the void and finds cause for alarm

A dangerous nullity, an unneeded confession, and an a.i. with heart make for an awkward episode.

Discovery ’s approach to serialization is (like so much of the show) rarely subtle. This week’s cold open is a good example of how things typically work: just in case we’d completely forgotten the previous five episodes, we get a conversation between Michael and Booker, and then a conversation between Michael and Saru, reminding us of the existence of the DMA and stressing how much they still need information about it before explaining the new mission–going into the subspace rift left behind by the DMA when it travels to a new location. Then we get a montage of everyone getting called to the bridge, because why the hell not, I guess.

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So, yeah, it’s not subtle. Not always bad–I appreciate the show treating every new episode like it might be someone’s first, and there’s something to be said for directness–but not subtle. Still, it can occasionally tease out an idea over multiple episodes before said idea comes to a head; we saw that earlier this season with the build to Tilly’s departure, and we see it in this week’s episode, “Stormy Weather,” with the runner about the ship’s computer (merged with the sphere data) developing an artificial intelligence with its own personality. Throughout season four (and possibly last season, although I can’t remember for sure), there have been a handful of moments designed to suggest that something was going on. The computer voice has changed, and it (she? No gender identity provided) has… opinions. Computers aren’t supposed to have opinions.

If you’re a Trek fan, or even just someone with a passing familiarity of science fiction tropes, these moments should’ve made you nervous. They come to fruition this week, as the AI’s shakey emotional state has actual (if temporary) consequences during a dangerous mission. Zora (the AI’s name) can now experience stress, over-stimulation, confusion, and guilt, and none of those things are reassuring when they’re coming from the machine that makes sure you have air to breathe. (No one wants an existential ventilator.) They’re especially not reassuring when Discovery passes through the rift and finds–nothing. A void. A scary nullity, and one which it will take our heroes considerable resources and courage to escape.

Not a bad set-up, right? It makes dramatic sense for Zora’s personality crisis to hit at the worst possible time, and the visual–or rather, lack of visual–impact here is striking and unsettling. I didn’t love “Stormy Weather,” but as of writing this, I’m unsure exactly why I didn’t love it, beyond the usual complaints about the show’s incredibly heavy-handed approach to emotional beats. I’m a sucker for “ship in distress” storylines, and this one does a reasonable job of keeping the pressure up throughout, something that’s absolutely critical for a Discovery episode. And hell, the fact that Zora getting up stuck in her head about stuff happening at such an awkward moment could be read as at least a slight pushback to the show’s general Let’s All Have Feelings All The Time And That’s Good lifestyle.

It’s just the details that leave me wanting. I made this joke on Twitter, but for a show that’s so relentlessly fixated on foregrounding the internal lives of its ensemble, it’s weird that no one on Discovery besides Saru seems to have matured past mid-adolescence. I’ve been reviewing Voyager on Patreon for a while now, and one of my routine complaints is the ship’s complete lack of an on-duty counselor; here, though, we get nothing but counseling, and yet it seems to do little more than regurgitate the same problems week after week. That might be realistic (in that even good therapy doesn’t “solve” issues so much as it gives you to the tools to manage and work with them over time), but it makes for irritating television, a show where a diverse cast flies through time and space just to find slightly different ways to talk about themselves.

The worst example of this in “Stormy Weather” borders on a self-parody: a member of the bridge crew tries to take too much on herself, Saru orders her to stand down, there’s some minor tension, and then she accepts the order. Later, she tells Saru that the reason she was so upset is due to a personal trauma from her past that makes her desperate to help people. I appreciate that the show is still trying to give its ensemble more to do, but this is absurd–it feels like a direct copy-and-past of the crew-member who talked about how his past is directly connected to the current problem, and it turns the complicated, intricate workings of the human mind into a simple if A then B logic puzzle. It’s healthy and good to treat the feelings of others and yourself with respect, but has no one in the future ever heard of “a time and place for everything?” Some basic professionalism in the face of planet-destroying catastrophes, that’s all I’m asking for.

Speaking of planet-destroying catastrophes, “Weather” gives us another clue as to the possible origins of the DMA, and it’s… well. Booker gets some particles in his brain after a doomed attempt to jump out of the rift–this leads to several conversations with his dead father, and also the discovery that the particles come from the Galactic Barrier, the thing at the edge of the universe. Which means that the DMA comes from outside the galaxy . You know that place that has everything we know in it? Well, it’s just to the left of that.

This is what’s known as escalation inflation. We’ve had the Burn, we’ve had the galaxy  in danger–so what’s bigger than the galaxy ? Something outside the galaxy . I guess it’s impressive, but at a certain point, this exponential approach to the raising of stakes becomes too absurd to actually register in a meaningful way. Discovery expects us to be wowed by the scope of its problems, but in a show that still feels like it has maybe twenty people that matter, tops, it’s hard to get that excited. Part of the reason that “giant eye” visual is so cool is that it managed to instill something that nearly four years of the show has only occasionally stumbled upon: a legitimate sense of awe. But the awe is fleeting, especially when it comes with the knowledge that regardless of whatever else we learn about the DMA this season, the solution is inevitably going to have something to do with “love.”

As for right now: Gray leads Michael down the right track to deal with Zora, the ship escapes the rift by putting every briefly into the transporter buffer (an impressive solution made slightly less impressive by the fact that no one remarks how risky and terrifying it is; I’m sure there’s an in-show explanation for how the computer could hold onto such a staggeringly large volume of data, but I would’ve appreciated at least a quick “wait, seriously?”), and in the end, the AI creates its own family tree featuring the crew of the Discovery. It’s pleasant, I guess, but I don’t think it means much.

Stray observations

• Due to low readership, this is will be the last regular Discovery review–there’ll be a write-up of the finale, and maybe a pre-air when the next season drops, but that’s it. Thank you to everyone who stuck it out for the past few years of what must’ve seemed like increasingly repetitive reviews.

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Following is “Anomaly” (402), as Starfleet, the Federation, and the wider galactic community begin to learn about their new situation.

For the first time in 800+ episodes, Star Trek finally repeats an title — “Anomaly” also served as the name of a third-season Star Trek: Enterprise episode where the NX-01 crew began to learn about the dangers of the Delphic Expanse.

The third and fourth episodes of  Discovery Season 4 are “Choose to Live” (403, airing December 2) and “All is Possible” (404, airing December 4), for which no images or descriptions have yet been publicly released.

(With their introduction last year and their appearance in the Season 4 trailers , it’s likely that “Choose to Live” — Elnor’s catchphrase on Star Trek: Picard — will include the Qowat Milat in some capacity.)

We also got a good view of Adira Tal (Blu del Barrio) and Gray (Ian Alexander) in their Season 4 looks thanks to a social media post by the official Star Trek account early last week:

In addition to all that, Paramount+ also released a pair of behind-the-scenes images today — including another look at the show’s new AR wall in action.

Star Trek: Discovery returns for its fourth season November 18 on Paramount+ in the United States and on CTV Sci Fi Channel in Canada, followed by a return to Netflix in all other international territories.

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Star Trek: Discovery Season 4 Episode 9 Quotes

This is tough for everyone. And we all have different views on what Book's done. But we're here to fix this. And that's what we're going to do. Together. Culber Permalink: This is tough for everyone. And we all have different views on what Book's done. But we're... Added: February 14, 2022

Stop comparing pain, man. Bryce Permalink: Stop comparing pain, man. Added: February 14, 2022

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Star Trek: Discovery Season 4: Release Date, Cast, And More

(Welcome to ...And More , our no-frills, zero B.S. guide to when and where you can watch upcoming movies and shows, and everything else you could possibly stand to know.)

"Star Trek: Discovery" is about to boldly go into its fourth season, as Paramount+ continues to amass more ships in its fleet of streaming "Star Trek" shows . Sonequa Martin-Green, long since recovered from her zombification on "The Walking Dead," is back to captain the flagship, "Discovery," for season 4. Here's what we know about the upcoming episodes.

Star Trek: Discovery Season 4 Release Date and Where You Can Watch It

"Star Trek: Discovery" season 4 flies onto the Paramount+ streaming service on Thursday, November 18, 2021. You can watch it there in the U.S. if you have a subscription.

The international rights to "Star Trek" shows are split between Netflix and Amazon Prime Video. Unfortunately, global "Star Trek" fans don't have the same one-stop shopping option as Stateside viewers. However, in most countries outside the U.S. you can stream "Discovery" on Netflix and "Star Trek: Picard" on Amazon.

What Is Star Trek: Discovery?

Though Paramount+ has expanded its streaming "Star Trek" universe to include four other shows — including "Picard" and the "Discovery" spin-off "Strange New Worlds" — "Star Trek: Discovery" is the show that started it all. It launched back in 2017 when Paramount+ was still calling itself CBS All Access. Trades reported at the time that "Discovery" prompted a record number of signups, and the show has been cruising through space ever since.

The series follows the adventures of the USS Discovery crew, led by Martin-Green's character, Michael Burnham. Season 1 revealed Burnham's backstory as a first officer turned mutineer turned prisoner turned parolee and xeno-anthropologist. She initially served as the science specialist aboard the USS Discovery under the anti-Klingon Starfleet captain, Gabriel Lorca (Jason Isaacs). In "Star Trek: Discovery" season 4, Burnham has moved up to the rank of full captain herself.

Star Trek: Discovery Season 4 Showrunners and Cast

Alex Kurtzman and Michelle Paradise serve as the co-showrunners for "Star Trek: Discovery." We don't have much info yet on who is in the writer's room or directing the episodes for season 4.

In addition to Martin-Green, "Discovery" season 4 stars Doug Jones, Anthony Rapp, Mary Wiseman, and Wilson Cruz, all of whom have been with the show since the beginning.

David Ajala, Blu del Barrio, and Ian Alexander are also returning, along with some high-profile guest stars, including David Cronenberg, Oded Fehr, and Tig Notaro. That's the same Cronenberg who helmed films like "The Dead Zone," "The Fly," "A History of Violence," and "Eastern Promises." He showed off his acting chops in season 3 and will do so again in season 4.

There's also a cat onboard the Discovery, though if certain other non-"Star Trek," space-faring adventures have taught us anything, it's that what looks like a cat in space may in fact be a fearsome creature with a pocket dimension inside its body. Beware space cats.

Star Trek: Discovery Season 4 Trailer

"Five light years across. That's the size of the gravitational anomaly ..." that Captain Burnham and her crew are dealing with in "Star Trek: Discovery" season 4. In season 3, the show grappled with the aftermath of a 900-year time-jump to the future. As a result, "Discovery" is now far removed from other shows on the "Star Trek" timeline and "ready to seek out new life," per the "Trek" mission statement.

You can see the first teaser trailer for "Star Trek: Discovery" season 4 above.

Star Trek: Discovery season 4 episode 12 review: "A welcome reminder that it hasn’t forgotten how to be a Trek show"

GamesRadar+ Verdict

The cleverest episode of the season makes as much progress with the Anomaly and the 10-C as the previous 11 instalments combined – if only the contrived, dramatically convenient actions of self-proclaimed genius Tarka were quite so smart.

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Warning: This Star Trek: Discovery season 4, episode 12 review contains major spoilers – many of them set to stun. Boldly go further at your own risk…

Even in a season as all-over-this place as Discovery’s fourth, an episode titled ‘Species Ten-C’ had to bring the mysterious owners of the Dark Matter Anomaly out of the shadows. And while we never get a proper sighting – arguably a smart move, seeing as they could never realistically live up to the hype – this instalment delivers, granting Captain Burnham and the Disco crew an audience with the creatures who’ve been giving the Federation sleepless nights.

For all its wrong turns and pacing issues this season, this is also a welcome reminder that Discovery hasn’t forgotten how to be a Star Trek show. Indeed, when it comes to seeking out new life and new civilisations, you don’t get a purer distillation of the franchise’s long-standing mission statement than the crew’s attempts to open hailing frequencies with a species so unknowably alien that conventional methods of communication are a dead end. 

Although Burnham misses the opportunity to channel her inner Flash Gordon by yelling, "Book, I love you, but we only have 15 hours to save the Earth", ‘Species Ten-C’ leaves you in little doubt the clock is ticking on Star Trek’s highest stakes first contact mission since V’Ger showed up in The Motion Picture. But attracting the attention of the 10-C isn’t quite as simple as knocking on the door of their hyperfield, an enclosed space so vast that it would stretch all the way from the Sun to Mars if relocated to our Solar System. 

Luckily, the crew have a plan so ingenious you can almost forgive the implausible speed of last week ’s deductions about the hydrocarbons they found on an abandoned world – this is the Trek-does-Arrival storyline the previous episode hinted it could be. Dr Culber and Dr Hirai have translated each of the chemicals into a particular emotion – terror, love, sadness, curiosity, peacefulness – so they can dispatch a delegation of DOT droids to carry a message of “we come in peace in chemical form” to their hosts. 

What follows is effectively a grab bag of ideas from classic science fiction, beautifully choreographed by Olatunde Osunsanmi, who’s established himself as Discovery’s go-to director for its most ambitious episodes. The amorphous tentacles that emerge from the hyperfield to engulf Discovery are scaled-up versions of the pseudopod from The Abyss. There are also echoes of 2001: A Space Odyssey, Interstellar, Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Contact – as well as Arrival – as communication efforts make use of light shows, morphing CG balls and the 10-C’s painstaking reconstruction of the Discovery bridge, built to make the crew feel at home in a hostile environment.

But how do you spark up a chat with a species so technologically advanced that even 32nd century humans seem like monkeys with primitive tools in companion? It’s such a mind-boggling challenge that even the normally unflappable Burnham admits she’s out of the depth, before geeing herself up with an extraordinary scream-off with her BFF, Saru – that it’s "not even close to the weirdest thing that’s happened today" says it all.

The conversations with the 10-C are by some distance the smartest thing we’ve seen in this season, as Federation President Rillak, Ni’Var President T’Rina, Burnham and Saru get down to negotiations via an intriguing mix of chemistry, mathematics and emotions. When Burnham works out how to describe the residents of Discovery by means of the percentages of gases in the atmosphere, it’s a magnificent piece of science fiction storytelling, the sort of moment that could get every science officer in the history of Starfleet punching the air in admiration.

Unfortunately, the big sci-fi ideas are left to do the heavy lifting in an instalment that’s let down by its clunkier character beats. When Burnham assembles the bridge crew in a circle to brainstorm Discovery’s next move, it feels like she’s holding a management seminar in space. And Zora’s presence on the ship becomes more and more implausible – why would any captain allow their ship‘s computer to become distracted by unsubstantiated hunches? Even Data could turn off his emotion chip when things got a little hairy.

But the biggest problem with the episode is Ruon Tarka, who – despite the show’s recent efforts to provide some justification for his actions – is now the sort of moustache-twirling villain who’d be at home in a Roger Moore Bond movie. His desire to traverse universes to get to the man he loves is well documented, but the fact that he’s prepared to risk the deaths of the 10-C, Discovery and much of the Alpha Quadrant – at least Earth scientists will have a month to save themselves, he callously reasons – stretches the limits of credibility even further than Earth ambassador Ndoye’s continued support for his crazy schemes. 

It’s a shame that Tarka has become so two-dimensional, seeing as the scenes between Book and Jett Reno on Book’s ship are highlights of the episode. Okay, Reno isn’t quite as funny as usual, but Tig Notaro proves there’s much more to the character than comic relief, and her clever appeals to Book’s better nature have seemingly brought him back on side. 

If only clever bargaining – and liquorice – were enough to lure Tarka away from the dark side, but come the episode’s end, he’s used a plasma explosion to smash out of the membrane encasing Discovery. Had the character been better developed, the consequences of his unilateral actions less extreme, the season’s endgame might have felt less contrived. Tarka’s actions here, however, suggest that the only reason for his existence is to act as an agent of chaos, stirring things up with the 10-C.

• Picard is also back! Make sure to read our review for Star Trek: Picard season 2 episode 1 as well as its five-star second episode .

New episodes of Star Trek: Discovery season 4 beam onto Paramount Plus on Thursdays in the US and Crave in Canada. UK viewers can watch episodes on Pluto TV .

Richard is a freelancer journalist and editor, and was once a physicist. Rich is the former editor of SFX Magazine, but has since gone freelance, writing for websites and publications including GamesRadar+, SFX, Total Film, and more. He also co-hosts the podcast, Robby the Robot's Waiting, which is focused on sci-fi and fantasy. 

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The 'Star Trek: Discovery' Season 4 premiere is not one of its strongest starts (recap)

Sadly, it's nowhere near as good as the season 3's premiere episode.

Warning: Spoilers decloaking off the port bow!  

It's been just 10 months since Michael Burnham's indecisive yo-yoing between should-she-stay-in-Starfleet and should-she-go on " Star Trek: Discovery ." 

Ten months since we discovered a young Kelpien with self-confidence issues stranded on a planet comprised almost entirely of dilithium accidently caused the deaths of millions of members of almost every spacefaring species in the galaxy.

And while the last season took a nosedive into absurdity in the second half, it did have one of the strongest starts of any new season of any "Star Trek" show. The first episode alone, "Hope Is You, Part 1" was one of the best episodes we've ever seen and it continued for a short while at least, which was wonderful to see. 

Needless to say, we were cautiously optimistic for the fourth season premiere on the streaming service Paramount Plus . And tragically, we have to report that it's an uneven, contrived and somewhat clichéd offering that leaves us feeling disappointed to say the least, but also not significantly invested in any of these characters.  

Here's how to stream Star Trek: Discovery in the U.S. and check out our streaming guide for Star Trek if you're looking to expand your Trek palate.

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This winter, "Star Trek: Discovery" season 4 is going up against … well, just about everything. In just two weeks, " Lost in Space " returns for the third and final season on Netflix. " The Expanse " returns on AmazonPrime Video for its sixth and final season in three weeks. And in a little over a month, " The Book of Boba Fett " airs on Disney Plus. 

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Those three shows represent consistent high-quality, well-written science fiction and with these alternatives on offer, "Discovery" is going to have to work hard to keep up. Sadly however, judging from what we've seen already, it's not going to. If this were the Premiership, "Discovery" would be just one loss away from relegation.  

 It's not a crime to wish for cerebral sci-fi and "The Expanse" — for example — is certainly that. Moreover, it's addictive and it's a page-turner; I absolutely, positively must watch the next episode as soon as humanly possible, because I need to see what happens, because I want to know how the characters survive. This is most definitely not the case with the fourth season opening episode of "Discovery." It feels like it's been deliberately dumbed down and produced for a super-easy-to-satisfy audience. Even " Star Trek: Prodigy " — which is made specifically for children — doesn't underestimate its audience quite as badly as "Discovery" does.

If you recall, the first few episodes of Season 3 of "Discovery" dealt with Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) landing on the planet Hima almost a year before the USS Discovery showed up, as a result of fluctuations in the massive jump undertaken at the end of Season 2. We got an awesome introduction to the city of Mercantile and an equally awesome introduction to Cleveland Booker (David Ajala). Then not long after, the Discovery crashed on a planet known as the Colony and Tilly (Mary Wiseman) and Saru (Doug Jones) found themselves at phaser-point in an alien saloon with a nasty character called Zareh (Jake Weber). 

That was all brilliant, unquestionably some of the Very Best of "Discovery." The disappointing dilithium-destroying-delinquent story arc didn't really start until half way through. But this first episode of Season 4, entitled "Kobayashi Maru" is somewhat unevenly paced. 

It mulls along, quite happily, quietly culture building for just under an hour then, 30 seconds before the end, WHAM! And we're not talking about '80s pop music sensation. Or even '60s diptych pop art. No, instead we're handed a cliffhanger of profoundly out-of-proportion scale that jars spectacularly against the rest of the episode and to be perfectly honest, is far too much of a big deal to be used in the very first episode. It also means that the Another Anomaly story arc has started straight away and that really wasn't necessary. But we'll get to all that later.

Related: 'The Expanse' dials the space drama up in full trailer for Season 6

After a nearly two-minute recap of the events of the last season, we see the USS Discovery spore jumping to a point in space and Booker's ship launches form the shuttle. It performs a seemingly unnecessary disassemble-reassemble maneuver as it flies over Discovery's saucer section, which feels like it's been put there for our entertainment, rather than realism and heads down to the planet below. 

What follows, to all intents and purposes, is a rehash of the beginning of " Star Trek Into Darkness " — so at least the writers room is borrowing from Paramount's own IP this season. While not a first contact situation, this feels almost like a second contact situation, since diplomacy had broken down long ago between the people of Alshain IV and the Federation. Perhaps that's the influence of " Lower Decks ," but more than likely not. This is an attempt to rebuild relations now that using dilithium is no longer dangerous. 

After some not-unamusing cultural misunderstandings, the already-suspicious Alshains open fire on Burnham and Book who flee into the surrounding woodland. It seems the indigenous population have a symbiotic relationship with other lifeforms and are able to utilize butterfly-like creatures in order to fly. And fly they do, while still shooting and somehow still missing the two dimwitted diplomats. 

Related: 'Lost in Space' Season 3 trailer shows the Space Family Robinson in danger

It could've been a fun set piece, but it drags on far too long and as such falls victim to too many clichés. For some unexplained reason, the Alshains are able to follow the undynamic duo for many miles as they flee in a transport pod, but the moment Burnham and Book cower behind a tree stump, they're utterly flummoxed. Clearly, they have no clue what a flanking maneuver is. An implausible plan is hatched, the planet's magnetic field-based sensor-satellite array is reactivated and finally the Alshains can advance up to and beyond the tree stump. 

Before disappearing into the night sky, Book and Burnham beam over the promised dilithium, despite the attempts to utterly annihilate them, because that's what Starfleet does. And naturally, the moment Burnham bounds back onto the bridge of the Discovery, the leader of the Alshains, hails the Crossfield class ship and more or less apologizes. Smiles all round then.

The opening credits haven't changed very much, there's a few new graphics in there including Book's ship and an updated NCC 1031-A, plus the same utterly astounding number of producers. In fact, it feels like there's even more than before; the list of producers, co-producers, executive producers, co-executive producers, consulting producers and supervising producers takes up over half the length of the credits sequence. 

We cut to what looks like a high council meeting of some sort on Kaminar in what is the first example of one of the highlights of this episode: extensive culture building and taking worlds we've seen before and adding a hole new dimension to them, after all it's been just shy of a millennia since we last saw the Kelpien homeworld. Moreover, this is the first season of "Discovery" — and, in fact, the very first "Star Trek" series — to air after filming with the Stagecraft LED virtual wall technology developed by ILM, Pixomondo and others and pioneered for the first season of "The Mandalorian." So we can expect some beautiful VFX set designs and this scene is one of those. 

The dialogue serves largely as exposition as Saru (Doug Jones) explains to the high council how a "burn" will definitely not happen again and that the Kelpien's should look to once more reach out into space. Before long we cut to the USS Discovery and Burnham is anxious about delivering a speech to celebrate the reopening of Starfleet Academy with the President of the United Federation of Planets present. The chemistry between is Book and Burnham is boiling over with potential, yet the dialogue always seems to let them down, as it seldom feels natural . Plus, no normal couple smiles quite that much.

The President, Laira Rillak (Tara Rosling) takes over and talks to those gathered about the gallantry of the Discovery crew, so lots more smiles all round. We learned during the earlier scene on Kaminar that five months have passed since the events of the concluding episode of Season 3, so yes, there probably would still be quite a lot of this sort of thing going, after all, the "Burn" did last approximately 120 years. 

This episode is guilty of a little fan service and that's fine as long as it's kept to a minimum, but to this fan, whose favorite series is "Enterprise," the announcement of the Archer Space Dock, along with a few seconds of the familiar closing theme, was rather nice. After El Presidente's speech, she thanks the Discovery's crew personally and Burnham tiptoes off to talk to now-Lieutenant Tilly. 

Her promotion to first officer last season, from ensign, was controversial to say the least, since from a practical standpoint — and especially one if you've actually served or are serving — she simply didn't have the knowledge, training or experience for such an unprecedented jump in rank. So almost like the producer's felt it necessary to close the lid on this, Burnham reassures Tilly that she was ready.  

Then the emergency transmission comes in for the set piece that will tie everything together. Deep Space Repair Beta Six has lost reactor control thrusters plus gravitational stability is also compromised and it's sending a distress call. However, whatever affected the station also knocked out the subspace relays in the area and they cannot wait for any vessel to reach them at warp so the USS Discovery must go. 

At which point President Rillak insists on joining the mission and immediately sets up a predictable — and somewhat clichéd — "who's in command here" confrontation at the crucial moment, on the bridge of the Discovery, during the rescue mission. Naturally, Burnham objects, but she's ultimately overruled, immediately setting up a nice and prickly relationship. 

Then the strangest thing happens as the USS Discovery makes its spore jump; at about 23:20 in the episode, a new sound effect has been added…and well, it just sounds silly, almost like a comedy whistle that doesn't do anything for the credibility of the spore drive, which needs all the credibility it can get. Hopefully, it will be removed from future episodes, a little like how the producers got trigger happy with the phaser charge-up sound effect in the episode " Project Daedalus " (S02, E09) until the novelty wore off.

Upon reaching the station, an "Interstellar"-style rotation-match maneuver is required in order for the Discovery to mount a rescue. You'd think in the 32nd century they'd simply be able to use the tractor beam, but no adequate reason is provided as to why this isn't possible. Using the transporters is mentioned, but there's too much interference, naturally.

We cut to Kwejian, Book's beautiful homeworld, for some more culture building. He's returned to take part in his nephew Leto's (Luca Doulgeris) coming of age ceremony and it's a nice set piece, although it's now painfully obvious something is going to happen, but the sheer scale of it is still a shock. His nephew is given the traditional amulet containing the sap of the root of a sacred tree and the blood of his family, which is never taken off. However, Book no longer wears his and his brother Kyheem (Ache Hernandez) explains that it's a story that he will share another time . 

At this point we return and remain with the dilemma aboard Deep Space Repair Beta Six. We cut back and forth from the Discovery bridge to Engineering and back to the station where Tilly and Adira (Blu del Barrio) are aboard. The set piece is enjoyable and successfully builds a little tension as one attempt after another to get the survivors off the doomed station fails for a variety of reasons. Naturally though, the President disagrees with almost every decision Burnham makes and the predictable confrontations occur. Meanwhile, the station and the Discovery are both being bombarded by asteroid debris thrown at them by the gravitational distortion, now positively identified as the cause of the damage to the Deep Space outpost.

One thing to note here is that as Tilly and Adira beam from the Discovery bridge to the Repair Beta Six station, their clothes change from standard uniform to a more rugged, away mission outfit and if you look closely, for a second Adira can be seen slightly surprised and checking out their new look after they materialize, so it's evidently deliberate. Are we to assume then, that in the same way beaming technology has replaced stairs — as we saw in the Season 3 penultimate episode "There Is a Tide..." (S03, E12) — it's also replaced dressing yourself? What's next, beaming food into your stomach to save you the time of actually having to eat it..?

There's an unexpected cut to Kaminar where an interesting conversation takes place between Su'Kal and Saru as the young Kelpien can easily see the former starship captain's desire to return to Starfleet, the Discovery and his friends. It's a nice scene, with good dialogue that hints fairly heavily at what's to come.

Through a combined effort of using the escape shuttle, Burnham's emergency EVA, the President's persuasive skills and an excessive amount of technobabble, the survivors barely make it aboard the Discovery just as the space station is destroyed and the Federation starship itself is also struck by a particularly large piece of frozen asteroid. Unfortunately, the captain of Deep Space Repair Beta Six is killed by falling debris on the bridge. 

What follows is the seemingly predictable pep talk from the President to Captain Burnham. However, thankfully, it's not quite what we were expecting. Rillak uses the famous Kobayashi Maru no-win scenario to explain to Burnham that sometimes we might believe we've lost, especially if people have died, but if people have also been saved, then it shouldn't be considered a loss — the lesson is acceptance . And then she reveals the real reason she's aboard; turns out the next generation of starships are under construction that feature what she calls the "pathway drive" and the prototype ship is the USS Voyager NCC-74656-J that we first caught a glimpse of in the episode " Die Trying " (S03, E05) and she's evaluating the shortlist for the center seat. 

However, she says Burnham isn't ready, which puts her nose right out of joint. It seems she cannot adequately accept all potential outcomes of a command decision. "It's a matter of experience really," she says. "Your acts of bravery are irrefutable, but they are also huge swings of the pendulum and in the time of rebuilding, there is a very fine between a pendulum and a wrecking ball," she adds thus fulfilling the required role of a command character that Burnham can square off against.

We cut to the bridge as sensors have detected something strange in the Kwejian system. Book is already there and explains that his ship was struck by something on his return journey. The image is put up on the viewscreen and we see the gasping faces of many of the bridge crew, then Burnham then Book and finally the viewscreen itself. Kwejian, Book's beloved homeworld, once lush, fertile and full of symbiotic plant and animal life — a bit like Pandora in "Avatar" — is now, to all intents and purposes, has been reduced to a burning cinder. 

And that's the end of episode one. It's a surprise that the producers went full Alderaan in the Season 4 premiere episode and such a decided, obviously included for sheer shock value, jars considerably against the rest of the episode. It's extremely unlikely that this scale of end-of-episode cliffhanger will be maintained each week, so why put it right at the beginning? Better to commit planetary genocide later in the season, surely. After the Season 3 premiere episode was all about saving the trance worm, was this a conscious decision to go in the polar opposite direction and kill them all along with everything else..?

 Starfleet commendation ✓  

• The culture building we saw in this episode was awesome, more please
• The underwater Kelpien high council set design was gorgeous 
• Burnham's pod impact scene was nicely filmed 
• Laira Rillak turns out to be at least a bit more interesting than first thought 
• Burnham's savior complex is addressed, so hopefully we'll see less of it 

 Scrubbing the holodecks ✗

• Did Adira really have to be written as the new nervous crewmember? 
• Destroying Kwejian and everything on it…was excessive for episode one 
• The silly sound accompanying the spore jump is as silly as the spore drive 
• There's a real danger of falling into a "clue of the week" routine, yet again  
• So Many Smiles. 

  Rating: 5½ / 10  

The first episode of Season 4 of "Star Trek: Discovery" is available to watch now and subsequent installments will drop every Thursday on Paramount Plus in the U.S. However, in a move that's upset rather a lot of people, "Discovery" has been removed from Netflix in all non-US/Canada regions and will not be available until Paramount Plus launches in wider European regions next year. This will not impact Canada's availability (on CTV Sci Fi / Crave) or the US region. "StarTrek: Picard" and "StarTrek: Lower Decks" will continue to be on Amazon in non-US/Canada territories.

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When Scott's application to the NASA astronaut training program was turned down, he was naturally upset...as any 6-year-old boy would be. He chose instead to write as much as he possibly could about science, technology and space exploration. He graduated from The University of Coventry and received his training on Fleet Street in London. He still hopes to be the first journalist in space.

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'Star Trek: Discovery' Season 5's Captain Rayner Ran His Ship Like a Pirate

Callum Keith Rennie also discusses coming into 'Discovery's final season, getting into prosthetics, and how much he has in common with Rayner.

The Big Picture

• Callum Keith Rennie's Captain Rayner brings conflict and depth to Star Trek: Discovery 's final season.
• Rennie discusses his experience on Star Trek: Discovery , praising the supportive cast and crew, despite the initial challenges of joining an established series for its last season.
• In Season 5, Episode 4 "Face the Strange," Burnham and Rayner must work together within a time bubble to save the universe.

As Captain Michael Burnham ( Sonequa Martin-Green ) embarks on one last adventure with her crew, Star Trek: Discovery Season 5 is bringing a few new characters along for the ride. Chief among those newcomers is the blunt, war-worn Captain Rayner. Played by Battlestar Galactica alum Callum Keith Rennie , Rayner is Burnham's new second in command on the Discovery , taking over after Saru ( Doug Jones ) took a different position at Starfleet.

Having lived through The Burn, Rayner doesn't have time for niceties and butts heads with Burnham almost immediately — so naturally, she takes it upon herself to give him a second chance when Starfleet is ready to cut him loose. Last week's episode saw him, rightfully, put in his place a bit as Tilly ( Mary Wiseman ) attempted to help him connect with the crew, much to his chagrin. In Season 5 Episode 4, "Face the Strange," Rayner and Burnham are thrown into a time bubble, forcing them to work together if they ever want to get back to the correct timeline and prevent the universe from being destroyed.

Ahead of the episode, I sat down with Rennie to dig into Rayner's backstory, what we can expect from him in the rest of the season, and what it will take for Rayner to truly connect with the crew of Discovery . During our conversation, we also discussed Rennie's history with sci-fi, what it was like joining Discovery for the show's final season, and what he's taking away from the whole experience.

Star Trek: Discovery

*Availability in US

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

Rennie is no stranger to science fiction, having had roles in such series as The Umbrella Academy , Jessica Jones, and Battlestar Galactica. As Battlestar Galactica was the series that turned me into a sci-fi fan, and perhaps Rennie's most recognizable role, I had to ask him about being a part of such massive and beloved franchises within the genre. "It's amazing," he said. For Rennie, even though Battlestar was also a reboot of a classic series , the show's success was a lot less predictable than the mainstay that is Star Trek . He explained, "Like, say Battlestar , when I started on that I had no idea where that one was gonna go. Discovery was already very established , but I actually didn't let any of that into my [head], because I went, “That's not gonna help.” So, I didn’t. Now, I'm feeling the world of it. Now, I'm sensing what the world of Discovery is and how many people love it, and how it fits. "

Discovery also isn't his first experience with Star Trek , "I watched the original. That was my thing, and that was it," Rennie told me. While he may have missed some of the series' in between, saying, "There's big chunks of time where I just didn't watch a lot of TV, so I missed all of the other stuff," he'll always make time for The Original Series when he comes across it, "even if the old Star Trek comes on, I'll still watch it because that was my Star Trek . Jim Kirk, and all of that. "

While we've gotten a pretty good sense of who Rayner is in these first four episodes, most of his backstory remains a mystery. Rennie revealed that "some backstory comes up in a few episodes." Part of his gruff exterior will be explained as we'll "get a sense of why he's maybe got a chip on his shoulder and has some unprocessed resentments about a bunch of things that maybe have played out in his work in a negative way."

Rennie Calls 'Star Trek: Discovery's Latest Episode "Amazing"

"Face the Strange," is such a classic Star Trek episode, employing the ever-entertaining sci-fi trope of sticking our main characters in a time loop, both to put an obstacle in their path as well as to bring them face to face with some of their own demons. For Rennie, the episode really put the science in science fiction. "It was like, 'Whoa! What's happening? I don't get it.' There's just so much science stuff and talk, so much jumping about to places and history and stuff." But he had high praise for his fellow castmates as well as the crew behind the camera." Lee [Rose] being the director, you're in great hands. Being in scenes with Sonequa, you know that you're gonna be in it , and it was great. I watched it again last night, and there’s just an amazing amount of stuff in there. It was just an amazing episode. "

In this episode, Burnham and Rayner are tossed back in time to the first season of Discovery , bringing them both face to face with the version of Burnham who's fresh off her own demotion in Starfleet . Throughout the episode, it becomes quite clear that Burnham and Rayner have a lot more in common than either of them might have realized. When asked if this experience might put them more on equal footing, Rennie confirmed that "he's learned an understanding of the crew." He went on to point out that we haven't seen the relationship that Rayner had with his own crew.

He explained: "We're not on the Antares talking about his crew, which I think is an important part that we missed, where you go, 'How did I see my people on my particular ship? And how well did I know them?' No one's asking me how well I knew everybody because I did, but if I've only been there a brief time, you're only gonna have facts." He admits that it is important for Rayner to connect past the surface level. "Through that particular episode, you learn and go, 'Yes, it is good to know what people are up to and where they're from,' because in that particular instance, it saved us. So, I learned a thing, and I give a, 'Yes. Got it. Thank you.'"

Rayner Will Have to Shorten the Distance Between Himself and the Discovery Crew

While it doesn't sound like we'll be getting any flashbacks to Rayner's time on the Antares Rennie believes that he'd spent a similar amount of time with that crew as Michael has with hers. "We didn't get to inhabit that, I get to make it up in my own mind," he said. "But for me, it was more like a pirate ship that I had. " While Rayner comes off as the more stubborn, stick-to-the-mission Captain between him and Burnham, Rennie doesn't think he was quite so strict on his own ship. He said:

"That's the way I perceived it. It wasn't some rigid, completely stoic, boss fest, but a little bit of a wild card ship. We're gonna go into things that nobody else wants to go into, or knows how to deal with, but we would. "

While the walls around Rayner are still pretty high, Rennie explained that we will see him "shorten the distance" he's put between himself and the crew of the Discovery. "There's a great bit, there's an episode where Burnham leaves me again to take control of the ship. There's an interaction with everybody in a certain way because they don't like me yet. [Laughs] And I need some help a little bit, but I've created a distance, and I have to shorten that distance between everybody." He went on to say there are plenty of "fun dynamics" to look forward to and Rayner's insistence on keeping everyone at arm's length will likely come back to bite him.

Star Trek has quite a long list of original alien species created for the franchise, and Rayner just happens to be a Kellerun, a race that hasn't been seen since Deep Space Nine . In classic Trek fashion, Kelleruns appear mostly human with the most visible difference being the shape of the ears. As he follows in the footsteps of the likes of Leonard Nimoy and any actor who has ever played a Vulcan or a Romulan, I asked Rennie about getting into prosthetics for the role. "Those guys are great. Rocky [Faulkner] was great, Nicola [Bendrey] was great." While it was certainly an extra step the process was brief enough that it didn't bother him to come to set a bit earlier than usual. "That was probably an hour, and I really didn't think about that enough to go, 'Oh, that's right. I have to get up earlier.' But I think we got it down to an hour and a bit for just the ears because there’s a lot of stuff on them."

Despite the agonizing wait of sitting in front of a mirror for an hour, Rennie noted that Faulkner and Bendrey made the make-up experience as fun as it could possibly have been. He said: "I don't love just sitting there looking at myself for an hour, but there's music and great company and coffee, and it became a really sweet part of the day, and then another sweet part of the day where I download. " It wasn't his first time getting into prosthetics, but his previous experience had been brief. After playing Rayner across an entire season, Rennie admitted by the end, removing the glue actually started to feel like you'd expect pulling costume glue off your ears to feel. "There was a point near the end where the glue-on, glue-off became quite painful for a while."

The Support of the Cast and the Fans Are Highlights of Rennie's 'Star Trek' Experience

While this is Rennie's first season on the show, it's the final bow for Star Trek: Discovery . When asked what he'd be taking away from this experience, he had nothing but high praise for the cast and crew. As a newcomer on a well-established show, jumping into the fifth season had a bit of a learning curve. "I found that coming into the show was difficult for me because it was unlike a show that I'd been on before. It was already very well established." He went on to say:

"I pat myself on the back because I made it through, and there was this wonderful group energy that helped me do that. The good naturedness of the show was something that I maybe haven't worked on. There was a wholehearted goodness about it, which was quite nice, which overlapped into how people treated each other and mutual respect. Also, I kind of blocked out all Star Treks in my mind, so I'm there not thinking of Star Trek history. I'm just doing scene-to-scene and working on this stuff, and then it finishes, and then I forget that there's an incredible vast following of the show that somehow you are now part of it like that. All of that, this is all relatively new to me."

As a new addition to an already established group, I pointed out that it seemed as though Rennie's experience mirrored that of his characters, and he agreed. "I'm excited for people to see the season. And then, coming into it playing, “I don't want to be liked. It doesn't matter if I'm liked. I'm there to do my job, like Rayner, and I'm doing it. And then there's the after-effect of an incredible fan base that seems to be very supportive ."

You can watch our full conversation in the player above, and catch the latest episode of Star Trek: Discovery now on Paramount+.

'Star Trek: Discovery' Season 5 Review: One Hell of a Final Ride

Watch on Paramount+

Star Trek: Discovery Season 5 Episode 4 Ending Explained

WARNING: Contains SPOILERS for Star Trek: Discovery, season 5, episode 4, "Face the Strange".

• Captain Burnham and Commander Rayner navigate through time to stop the time bug, showcasing their growth and teamwork.
• A Voyager connection reveals the menacing Krenim "time bug" and its catastrophic effects on the USS Discovery's crew and timeline.
• Burnham reflects on her journey as she faces challenges from her past while navigating through alternate futures in "Face the Strange."

Captain Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) and Commander Rayner (Callum Keith Rennie) find themselves hurtling through the USS Discovery's past, present, and future in Star Trek: Discovery season 5, episode 4, "Face the Strange". Written by Sean Cochran and directed by Lee Rose, "Face the Strange" demonstrates how far Burnham and Commander Paul Stamets (Anthony Rapp) have come since Discovery season 1 . It's also a chance for Burnham and her new Number One, Rayner, to finally work as a team, as they literally race against time to get Discovery 's hunt for the Progenitors' treasure back on track.

"Face the Strange" reveals that Moll (Eve Harlow) planted a Krenim " time bug " on Ensign Adira Tal (Blu del Barrio) at the end of Star Trek: Discovery season 5, episode 3 . Having worked its way into the USS Discovery's systems, the time bug traps the crew in their own history, randomly cycling the ship through the past, present, and future, freeing Moll and L'ak to retrieve the next clue . Burnham, Rayner, and Stamets are unaffected and work together to get the USS Discovery back to the 32nd century in time to stop Moll and L'ak from completing the next step in Discovery 's treasure hunt.

Star Trek: Discovery Season 5 Returning Cast & New Character Guide

How burnham, rayner & stamets beat star trek: discovery's time bug explained.

The time bug in Star Trek: Discovery is a particularly nasty piece of temporal technology, which proves hard for Burnham, Rayner, and Stamets to beat. Their first attempt to nullify the device fails, because time inside the surrounding field is moving at a rapid pace. Anything that enters the field to remove the time bug will cease to exist within seconds , forcing Stamets to come up with a far riskier strategy.

the warp bubble is what protects the crews of Star Trek 's starships from the effects of relativity...

The trick to beating the time bug is to reduce the flow of time in the surrounding field , but to do that, the USS Discovery has to break the warp bubble and throw relativity out of sync. As they travel faster than the speed of light, the warp bubble is what protects the crews of Star Trek 's starships from the effects of relativity . Abruptly breaking the warp bubble means that the time bug has less time to readjust to relative time outside the USS Discovery. This would weaken the surrounding field for long enough for Rayner to remove the time bug.

The main issue with Commander Paul Stamets ' plan was that the time-traveling trio were in the worst possible time period when it comes to Burnham's standing aboard the USS Discovery. The time bug's final cycle took Burnham, Rayner and Stamets to an early point in Star Trek: Discovery season 1, when Michael was still seen as a dangerous mutineer. For Stamets' plan to succeed, Burnham had to make her way to the bridge, fight and incapacitate her younger self, then successfully convinced the bridge crew to follow the orders of their future captain .

A line of dialog places these scenes at some point between episodes 3 and 4 of Star Trek: Discovery season 1, as Commander Landry is said to still be alive.

Star Trek: Discovery's Time Bug Is A Voyager Connection

Commander Rayner reveals that the time bug is a " Krenim chronophage " left over from Star Trek 's Temporal Wars . The Krenim are a technologically advanced species first introduced in Star Trek: Voyager 's season 4 two-parter, "Year of Hell." The USS Voyager's first encounter with the Krenim went so badly wrong that it created an alternate timeline that descimated the majority of the ship's crew .

This forced Captain Kathryn Janeway (Kate Mulgrew) to make the ultimate sacrifice to restore history. Hailing from the Delta Quadrant, the Krenim had devastating temporal weapons that were capable of removing entire species from existence. While Star Trek: Discovery 's time bug is much smaller, it can still have a devastating impact on its victims , as shown by what will happen if Moll and L'ak get their hands on the Progenitors' technology.

Voyager Is Why Star Trek Is Replacing Discoverys Spore Drive

Burnham and stamets’ time travel shows how much they've changed on star trek: discovery.

Burnham and Stamets are forced to relive some painful moments from their pasts, but these incidents remind viewers just how far the Star Trek: Discovery characters have come. Stamets hilariously draws on his angrier, snarkier past self from Discovery season 1, which helps him swiftly empty engineering. It's a fun callback to the person that Stamets used to be, before his tardigrade DNA made him more mellow, making him a better husband to Dr. Hugh Culber (Wilson Cruz) and a father figure to Adira. However, Stamets' tartigrade DNA has one drawback; he still experiences the pain of being impaled during the Battle of Control .

Burnham also gets a welcome reminder of how far she's come, courtesy of the Krenim time bug and some words of encouragement from Rayner. Rayner reminds her that she never gave up on her path from prisoner to starship captain , and so she shouldn't give up when faced with their bleak alternate future. Captain Burnham stirring the crew of the USS Discovery on the same day that her younger self came aboard as a prisoner is a strong affirmation of her journey between Star Trek: Discovery seasons 1 and 5.

Burnham's awkwardness around Book seems more rooted in her suppressing her attraction than trying not to change the future

Burnham also gets a chance to reflect on her relationship with Booker (David Ajala), when she meets his past self, fresh out of the shower. Burnham's awkwardness around Book seems more rooted in her suppressing her attraction than trying not to change the future. It's another hint that Burnham and Book's Star Trek: Discovery love story isn't over yet.

Star Trek: Discovery Finally Solves Its Biggest Short Trek Mystery

In the fan-favorite Short Trek , a soldier, Craft (Aldis Hodge) was picked up by the USS Discovery after his escape pod had drifted through space for a month. Craft formed a bond with Zora (Annabelle Wallis) who had been left behind by the USS Discovery a thousand years earlier. For years, fans speculated over where "Calypso" fitted into the Star Trek: Discovery timeline, something that the showrunners promised would come further down the line. Now, Discovery season 5, episode 5 "Face the Strange" provides the answer. "Calypso" takes place in an alternate version of the 42nd century, a thousand years after the Progenitors' technology had fallen into the wrong hands .

Star Trek Needs To Bring Back Short Treks

Burnham and Rayner's jump into the future reveals that Star Trek: Deep Space Nine 's Breen got hold of the Progenitors' technology and used it to destroy Starfleet and the Federation. As the USS Discovery hangs in space, Burnham and Rayner look out at a devastated Federation Headquarters, as Zora pleads with them to change the future. The use of a calypso version of Doris Day's "Que Sera Sera" is Star Trek: Discovery 's subtle confirmation that it's this catastrophe that left Zora abandoned for a thousand years before Star Trek: Short Treks .

Did Star Trek: Discovery Retcon Airiam’s Season 2 Sacrifice?

While convincing the crew of the USS Discovery to help with her plan to return to the 32nd century, Captain Burnham reveals that Lt. Commander Airiam (Hannah Cheeseman) will sacrifice her life to save her crew mates. Airiam accepts Burnham's future knowledge, because she knows that she would sacrifice her life in those circumstances. Airiam's knowledge of her own future is what eventually convinces her to follow Burnham's orders by breaking the warp bubble . In normal circumstances, knowledge given to her by a time-traveling Burnham would mean that Airiam will sacrifice her life in Star Trek: Discovery season 2 because she knows she has to.

However, due to the nature of the Krenim time bug, and Stamets' solution, Burnham telling Airiam about her tragic future doesn't retcon Star Trek: Discovery season 2. By removing the time bug before the next loop, Burnham, Rayner and Stamets negate everything that they did, meaning that, for example, young Burnham won't remember her fight with her future self. This means that Airiam will still make the decision to sacrifice her life in Discovery season 2, independently, not because she was inspired to do so by Captain Burnham .

Rayner Is Finally “Connecting” With USS Discovery's Crew

Callum Keith Rennie's Commander Rayner continues to go from strength to strength in Star Trek: Discovery season 5. Following Burnham's orders to " connect " with the Discovery crew in the previous episode, Rayner demonstrates how much he was paying attention during his brisk one-on-one meetings. Not only does Rayner give Burnham the encouragement she needs not to give up, he and Stamets appear to bond over being " old dogs " who specialize in " gruff candor ".

Why I'm On Rayner's Side In Star Trek: Discovery Season 5

Rayner's most notable connection is with Gen Rhys, whose theory about Moll and L'ak he brusquely dismisses at the start of the episode . Thrown back into time when Rhys was just a lieutenant, Rayner gets through to the young officer by bonding with him over a love of Constitution-class starships. Rayner's connection with Rhys is enough to convince the officer to lower his phaser and let him and Stamets proceed with their plan. Back in the 32nd century, Rayner finally acknowledges the value of Rhys' tactical assessment that Moll and L'ak would just follow Discovery to the next clue .

Rayner also tells Rhys that he's lost his family, teasing more about the new Star Trek: Discovery character's backstory.

Where Have Moll And L’ak Gone In Star Trek: Discovery Season 5, Episode 5?

The Krenim time bug caused the USS Discovery crew to lose six hours to Moll and L'ak in Star Trek: Discovery season 5, episode 4 . Returned to Tzenkethi space in the 32nd century, Lt. Commander Joann Owosekun (Oyin Oladejo) picks up Moll and L'ak's trail, but it quickly stops dead , meaning that they've seemingly disappeared. A starship trail that drops dead just before an episode called "Mirrors" would certainly play into Star Trek: Discovery season 5's Mirror Universe theory . Perhaps the reason that Moll and L'ak's trail stops dead is because they've phased into another reality altogether.

It's possible that Moll and L'ak picked up more than a Romulan puzzle box...

Alternatively, given Star Trek: Discovery season 5's Romulan connection, their ship could have used an interphasic cloak, first seen in the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "The Next Phase". Interphasic cloaking technology effectively turned Lt. Geordi La Forge (LeVar Burton) and Ensign Ro Laren (Michelle Forbes) into ghosts, unable to be seen by their crewmates. It's possible, therefore, that Moll and L'ak picked up more than a Romulan puzzle box in Star Trek: Discovery 's season 5 premiere, meaning that they could have a considerable tactical advantage over Burnham and the crew in the next stage of the treasure hunt.

Star Trek: Discovery streams Thursdays on Paramount+.