Well, we are here. The final season of Star Trek: Discovery is upon us and, dare I say it, it is starting off really well! Being pleasantly surprised for nu-Trek isn’t exactly normal as I have been loving the majority of what Paramount has been offering over the last few years, but unfortunately, the series that kicked off this new era has been extremely hit or miss both for newbies and long-time Trekkies. Anyway, the new season is here so let’s get into it!
1. Peace, Job Changes, and Ennui
It is a time for peace, and some boredom, for the newly reborn United Federation of Planets and Starfleet. The two organizations are truly together once again for the first time in decades. Book’s actions in season 4 have him bouncing around the quadrant doing his Federation appointed community service and the crew of the Discovery are at various crossroads. Everyone is seeing a change in their lives coming up very soon. Saru is finding love, Tilly is unsure if she will remain a teacher or get back to exploring the galaxy, Stamets is, per usual, being grumpy and a bit immature about his job and legacy. During the celebration of the 1000th anniversary of the formation of the Federation, Captain Burnham is given a “red directive” mission for her and her crew. A Romulan science vessel that has been missing for 800 years has been found by a Starfleet probe. As the Discovery and the USS Antares race to reach the ship, a duo of violent renegade scavengers get ahead of them. What lies ahead is a fairly action-packed season premiere.
2. Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Blue
This first episode has a nice blending of style and tones from across the franchise, which, poorly executed, would feel disjointed, but thankfully this does not. It feels welcoming and comforting without doing anything that is hollow fan service. It has the action of the Kelvin timeline films and the reinvigorated classic Trek-ness that returned with Strange New Worlds. While this season is still seemingly sticking with the over-arching plot format, there is a sense of episodic Trek here. Even the score feels as if it borrowed some of the flourishes from Michael Giacchino’s score for the Kelvin flicks. And, for an episode titled “Red Directive” and for a show that actually uses red for settings, planets, and alien entities quite a bit in previous seasons (maybe too much), this episode is very blue. And it’s really gorgeous throughout the entire runtime.
3. An Ancient Mystery Resurfaces
The mystery at the center of this episode is classic Star Trek, while never betraying the path that DISCO has carved out for itself. Its connection to Trek of years past is a perfect set up for stories to come, especially with this show’s history of season long, universe endangering entities. It is clear that the creators saw what was working and what wasn’t and attempted to lean on the former to pull fans back in for this final season. The 800 year old Romulan ship, once discovered, seems to be holding a bit of technology that could change the known universe. This could have been something new that clanged against Trek canon, but the writers smartly use this McGuffin to craft a new story while calling back to a past story. Because at this point in DISCO, 800 years in the past is…around the time of Star Trek: The Next Generation. I’ll avoid any further possible spoilers because fans really need to check out the episode for full enjoyment.
4. Troublesome Twosome
The “villains” of this premiere are a duo of violent scavengers are also on the hunt for what the Romulan ship holds. They are formidable enough to out-smart and out-fight two Starfleet ships and crews to get what they want. A human woman named Moll and a male unknown species name L’ak are a really fun and somewhat scary addition to this show and it’s great to get some badass baddies who can hold their own, get what they want, and aren’t arrested or killed by Starfleet at the end of a single episode. It’s also made clear pretty quickly that they aren’t just B-movie villains and there is probably a bit more to them than meets the eye. It makes it easy to look forward to seeing more of them in the future.
Continued below5. A Swan Soong
I’d be remiss to talk about this episode without talking about how cool it was to see another Soong design android in Star Trek. This isn’t a Data brother, it isn’t a nearly zombie-like synth (as seen in Star Trek: Picard). The morally ambiguous android seen here, named Fred, has a little bit of Data and Lore to him. While definitely having a more human presence to him than Data and his brothers ever did. Which makes complete sense being that we are centuries upon centuries removed from that. And whoever designed Fred took what Dr. Soong had started and took it a few steps further. I hope we get to see more synths of this nature as the season goes – or if we get more far future Trek once DISCO ends.
Final Thoughts
Even as someone who enjoyed a lot of what this show has had to offer over the years; I was as frustrated as anyone else with some of the narrative and creative choices it has has made from the start. Especially with obvious and better choices were right there. This is a very strong premiere that balances the mission at hand while playing catch up with new and returning characters. It is the first time in quite a while that I was left truly interested in and happy with what this show is doing. I can only hope and pray that the rest of the final season goes out on a high, leaving Trekkies happy and possibly allow us to re-assess the series as a whole.
