"Star Trek Discovery," Year Five

I admit I'm a little relieved that "Star Trek Discovery" is over.  I liked the first few seasons, but by the end the show was running on vapors.  It's honestly a little hard to remember that "Discovery" was originally launched to be the flagship of this era of the "Star Trek" franchise.  Jason Isaacs, Michelle Yeoh, and some weird looking Klingons featured heavily in the first season, and the "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds" spun off from the second season with characters who were initially established as part of the "Discovery" universe. I thought the timeskip in the third season worked out fine, but Michael Burnham becoming Captain in seasons four and five signaled the show jumping the shark and running out of ideas.

After spending a season chasing down an unknown alien species, Discovery spends its last year on a treasure hunt to find the technology of the "Progenitors," the beings that may have created and seeded life across the galaxy.  However, they're up against Moll (Eve Harlow) and L'ak (Elias Toufexis), a couple of mercenaries who want the technology for their own purposes.  Tilly's back from the Academy to help finish out the series.  We also get one new crew member, Rayner (Callum Keith Rennie), a disgraced ex-Captain who Burnham decides to give a fresh start.  He's a more old fashioned hardass who clashes with the touchy-feely attitudes of the Discovery crew.  This makes for a briefly interesting dynamic with Burnham, but not much is actually done with it.      

The whole season is very underwhelming.  The stakes are low throughout, and it's difficult to stay invested.  Moll and L'ak are possibly the worst "Star Trek" villains of all time, a pair of sketchy criminal types who somehow stay one step ahead of Discovery for the entire season, despite far fewer resources.  Individual characters don't have any specific issues to work through beyond the same mild relationship troubles.  Saru courting the Vulcan T'Rina (Tara Rosling) is cute and all, but not compelling.  Booker is still around to be Burnham's love interest, but the writers have stopped trying to give him anything else to do.  Each episode is a self-contained, typically "Star Trek" adventure - we get a "time bug" that sends Burnham and Rayner time hopping, and a Prime Directive moral quandary on an alien planet - but none of them particularly noteworthy.  

The problem here is pretty clear, and it's been clear for a while.  Despite all the resources put toward the show, "Discovery" ran out of story to tell and had no good reason to still be on the air.  Few of the characters have ever been well developed enough to carry individual episodes on their own, and in the absence of a stronger central mission, they frequently feel like they're spinning their wheels.  I strongly believe that the show has the potential to be a "Strange New Worlds," but nobody ever put in the effort.  Too much of "Discovery" was action and spectacle first, and character last.  Occasionally there is a decent science fiction concept explored, or some callbacks to other parts of the "Trek" universe - "Enterprise" fans should keep their ears open during the finale - but there are too many shows now that present better alternatives.         

  

I've been a "Discovery" apologist for what feels like most of the show's run, and I still believe that the early seasons are worth a watch.  I hope this isn't the last we'll see of the characters, but after five season's it's time to move on.  

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