‘Star Trek: Discovery’ Sets Course For Its Fifth And Final Season
by Erik Amaya
Our time in 32nd Century is nearing its end.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Star Trek: Discovery will conclude its run with its upcoming fifth season in 2024. The decision was not the initial plan, though, as additional filming will commence to bring the program to a close. The story of Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green), Discovery launched the modern TV era of Star Trek. Developed by Bryan Fuller, it attempted to bring something new to the format by moving the focus away from a command staff on weekly missions to Burnham, a disgraced former first officer whose actions contributed to the start of the Federation-Klingon War referenced in the Original Series. Recruited to work as a specialist aboard the experimental U.S.S. Discovery, she soon befriends a group of cadets and midshipmen whose talents soon prove valuable to Discovery‘s season-long mission.
Across its four extant seasons, Michael redeemed herself and eventually became Discovery‘s captain. The series also left behind its initial TOS prequel status for the 32nd Century, where Michael and the crew found the Federation in shambles. The series also served as a launching pad for the best-regarded series of the new Trek era, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, by introducing Anson Mount as Captain Christopher Pike, Ethan Peck as Spock, and Rebecca Romijn as Una Chin-Riley (aka Number One) in its second season.
The show weathered a phaser strike of controversy in its earliest days from regressive people claiming to be Star Trek fans, Fuller’s hasty departure before a single scene was shot, and the eventual removal of his hand-picked successors in the middle of filming the second season over reports of financial chaos and abuse of the crew. Alex Kurtzman and Michelle Paradise took over, with the former becoming the overall executive in charge of modern Trek.
At one time, Paramount and Kurtzman hoped to launch enough Star Trek shows on the Paramount+ streaming service to ensure a new episode set in the Trek universe would be available every week. But with Discovery ending and Star Trek: Picard streaming its final season right now, it seems that course has been altered for something more contained.