News comes that Star Trek: Discovery will be reaching the end of that boldly going remit, heading into the ‘undiscovered country’ and finishing with its upcoming fifth season.
“Star Trek: Discovery is a perennial favorite on the service, near and dear to the hearts of legions of Star Trek fans as well as all of us here at Paramount+,” said Tanya Giles, chief programming officer at Paramount Streaming. “The series and its incredible cast and creatives ushered in a new era for Star Trek when it debuted over six years ago, embracing the future of streaming with serialized storytelling, bringing to life deep and complex characters that honor Gene Roddenberry’s legacy of representing diversity and inclusion, and pushing the envelope with award-winning world-building. This final season will see our beloved crew take on a new adventure, and we can’t wait to celebrate the series’ impact on the franchise leading up to its final season early next year.”
“As lifelong fans of Star Trek, it has been an immense honor and privilege to help bring Star Trek: Discovery to the world,” said executive producers and co-showrunners Alex Kurtzman and Michelle Paradise. “The ‘Trek’ universe means so much to so many – including us – and we couldn’t be prouder of everything Discovery has contributed to its legacy, particularly with representation. If just one person sees themselves, or the possibilities for their future, in a new way because of Discovery, then we think we’d have made Gene Roddenberry very proud.”
Despite the enthusiasm and effusive praise accompanying the announcement, the truth is that Star Trek: Discovery was a marmite series which garnered equal consternation and praise. It’s representation of gay and non-binary characters was welcome and self-evident and the VFX were impressive, but it appeared to be a series constantly reinventing itself – less experimental than merely trying to find a comfortable niche. Pacing was often a problem with Sonequa Martin-Green’s main character going through unlikely story-arcs and making teary-eyed speeches on a regular basis. The narrative idea of moving it from its pre-Kirk days to much further into the future opened up possibilities but storylines became repetitive. It did help launch the Star Trek: Strange New Worlds which will return for a second season later this year…
After a trailer for the upcoming season was released in October 2022, it was expected that the series, which has finished shooting and is now in post-production would likely be shown sometime this year, but the news of its cancellation came with the fact that the fifth run won’t now begin until 2024.
The premise of the fifth season’s story -arc will see Burnham and her crew “… uncovering a mystery that will send them on an epic adventure across the galaxy to find an ancient power whose very existence has been deliberately hidden for centuries. But there are others on the hunt as well — dangerous foes who are desperate to claim the prize for themselves and will stop at nothing to get it…”
