TV Review: ‘Star Trek: Discovery’ Season 5, Episode 4 Manages Fun And Compelling Nostalgia
by Frank Martin
Since this is the final season of Star Trek: Discovery, audiences have already experienced a heavy dose of nostalgia, but it was obvious there was more to come. This episode delved into it a lot, but in a roundabout way. Unlike previous installments, which have been very heavy-handed in trying to culminate character relationships, this episode managed to accomplish the same results by utilizing a fairly unique plot device: time travel. Such stories often unravel very quickly as time travel and nostalgia often appear forced, but this one was able to successfully show the growth Discovery and its characters have undergone since the show’s beginning.
As Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) and the Discovery crew continue to go on the galactic treasure hunt in search of the Progenitors technology, their adversaries managed to trap them using a spider that can control time. It latches on to Discovery and has the ship jump back and forth through time while Burnham, Stamets (Anthony Rapp), and Rayner (Callum Keith Rennie) are unaffected. Using some of the show’s most outlandish science fiction rationale yet, they managed to break the time trap. But in order to accomplish this, they must connect with an earlier version of the ship’s crew and convince them that they are trustworthy travelers from the future.
The pacing of Discovery’s plot moves so swiftly across the seasons that it’s kind of shocking to look back at the beginning of Michael Burnham’s journey and see just how far she’s come. This episode put that front and center by having her literally confront her past self. It’s a great way to round out the entire show in its final season. Not to mention the fact that this episode was able to bring back past characters for a final season cameo. It also accomplished all of this with a twist on a time travel plot device. The episode didn’t do much to move the overall plot of the season forward, but it was still a fun Star Trek entry for this final season.
Star Trek Discovery streams Thursdays on Paramount+.
