Rebuilding Rob

This week, the final episode of Star Trek: Discovery dropped on Paramount +. As a lifelong Star Trek fan, I have a lot of feelings about this final episode, and about the Discovery series as a whole.

Overall, I would have to say that the series was… A mixed bag. I know they changed show runners in season one and had an absolute laundry list of producers. In fact, I counted 20 names listed as producers in the opening credits during the last several seasons, alone. It took the show a long time to find its footing, but they definitely did in the final few seasons.

Star Trek: Discovery premiered in 2017 as the flagship show of the then-fledgling streaming service CBS All Access. prior to discovery, the latest entries of the Star Trek franchise were the three JJ Abrams produced Star Trek movies, now known collectively as “the kelvin trilogy“ before that, the last new Star Trek television series was Star Trek: Enterprise, which ended it run in 2006.

Having been a fan since the premiere of Star Trek: The Next Generation back in 1987, I was somewhat prepared for a different aesthetic to what I had been used to in Star Trek. What discovery showed us was something I simply was not ready for. To its credit , discovery has had Movie sets, costume, designs, and special effects from day one. Like a lot of fans, I was triggered by the appearance of the Klingons during the first two seasons.

For a lot of Star Trek fans, the changes were too much, too soon. Especially given the fact that discovery was actually set as a prequel to the original Star Trek series. Trekkies are stickers for continuity, so explain their way out of this new aesthetic was going to be puzzling to say the least.

Season two introduced us to the captain Pike-led crew of the USS Enterprise, Captain Kirks immediate predecessor. With this reimagined enterprise, we got something of a throwback to the 1960s aesthetic. We would see more of this in the series. Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. But discovery had a completely different trajectory all of its own. At the end of season two, the crew was blasted into the 32 century; the allowing the show runners a chance to write without being shackled down by decades of existing Star Trek continuity.

Like Star Trek: The Next Generation before it, I feel that …Discovery – or disco if you will… Truly didn’t find its footing until the third season. However, the landscape of television has changed. In this brave new streaming world in which were all living, show runners are no longer shackled to a studio mandate of 27 episodes per season. Discovery, which started with an 18-episode first season, shrunk down to 10 episode season by year 3. For my money, I think the Discovery crew should’ve been catapulted into the 32nd century earlier in the series. Were that to happen however, we may not have ever gotten introduced to the crew of Strange New Worlds, which in my opinion has become the strongest series in this era of “nu Trek”.

The show certainly had its detractors, with some going as far as calling it “too woke”; and odd take for a science fiction that had defined itself by being “woke” for the last 56 years. This particular sect of so-called fans will never admit that they had a problem with an African Woman as the lead character. They are a little less subtle about hiding their homophobia at the inclusion of LGBTQ characters. But how can the creators call it “Star Trek” if they aren’t pushing the proverbial envelope?

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The article “Rob Reviews: Star Trek: Discovery – a series retrospective” first appeared on Rebuilding Rob.