Trapped between two black holes, the doorway to the Progenitor’s legacy is wide open. Discovery’s on guarding duty following Burnham chasing Moll inside while the Breen are recovering to take the technology for themselves before a rival faction finds them. With everything to fight for and the chase becoming a race against time, Discovery’s crew enter their final house and a bit to end their five season journey.
Discovery has always been good at delivering a strong beginning and end. This time round the end has far more expectations as the bulk of the episode was finished before Paramount pulled the plug on Discovery’s adventures through time and space. Having a full season finale to bring an end to the final adventure, the production only had a handful of days to write, film and finish an extra twenty minutes to wrap up the series as a whole.
All in the episodes juggling an end they didn’t know was coming at the time, spending most of it’s time wrapping up the Progenitor story with a blend of evolution and enlightenment. Well, with some action thrown in for good measure!
After everything that led to finding the artefact, inside of it was a portal to another dimension. Swept into space and trapped between the black holes, the story swings between whats happening on both sides. On the outside we have some classic Discovery team building. Inside? Well, it’s a bit bigger on the inside…
Following on from Lagrange Point, Discovery led the action portion of the episode as Rayner took command to protect the expanding portal and their Captain trapped inside. It was a weirdly small scale battle for a large scale event, with both Discovery and the Breen dreadnought in bad shape. The overall objective is simple; get closer to the portal – which comes with the usual technical jargon on how difficult it’ll be and how to achieve it. But this is Discovery, and no matter the jargon it’s all about how the crew come together both creatively and emotionally to solve a problem.
While we do get the usual working together to solve the problem scenario, the bulk of the fight with the Breen is with Rayner’s mellowing to become one of the crew. It’s been a rocky road but now everyone’s in a position of trust, they’re all on his side as he splits the mission; Book takes a shuttle to secure the portal, Rayner lets his strategist out as he fends of incoming Breen fighters. Some of that fight is obvious. Dangerous plasma in the air? Yeah, lute them in, blow them up. It’s a Simpsons Did It moment. But for the first time in a while they managed to find a new way to play with the Spore drive which both worked for Rayner as well as give us some cool new visuals.
An obvious highlight being the spore jump. After a season of showing the drive to be redundant due to new technologies, it was nice to go back to the idea of using it in more unique ways. This time round with Rayner suggesting using the drive to make another ship travel far, far away. Add to that, the solution being to split the saucer section and surround the Breen to kick them to the edge of the galaxy was a nice touch in both creativity and in showing Rayner’s restraint as he picks compassion over vengeance. There was a lot of fun in the whole Discovery side of the mission. Even if the Breen seemed too easy to defeat in the end, giving Rayner his full circle moment in command and seeing the crew pull together one last time was a good way to bow out.
In the background, Saru also joined in the fun. And it was quite fun, even though it was a massive squeeze to get him in as a rogue Ambassador with a slightly overarmed shuttle and massive poker face. IT did fit into the plot nicely though. Not just to see Action Saru run to save his friends and possible accidentally release to Nahn he’s become a bit more badass than she realises, but it wouldn’t really be a finale without Saru and he did manage to de-escalate the rival Breen by out-Vulcaning his soon to be wife…
Book being sidelined to hold the portal with a shuttle seemed a little flat overall, even with his blooming relationship with Culber, but it made the most sense. Leave Discovery to do it’s thing while protecting Burnham and did have the benefit of being able to tie in with her story throughout the episode. Combined though? It all came together wonderfully. Everything was evenly paced with great energy to break up the quieter quest of Burnham as she explored the Progenitors world…
Sure, some people don’t like Michael Burnham. And that’s fine. But much like the bulk of Discovery, this is her story. Since the shows inception it was made known that the name of the ship was incidental; the show’s theme was about Discovery, less so of space than of character. None more so that Michael Burnham who’s went from the lowest point in her life, to slowly undoing all the Vulcan training in Sarek’s social experimentation to embracing who she is and what she can become. While the mission was to find the progenitors technology, the weight of that becomes heavier when confronted by it’s power.
Of course, we have to get rid of the stray Breen who’ve wandered in as scouts for Moll, and they’re offed in quick fashion before Burnham and Moll have a scrap of their own. Admittedly that part I found a little dull. I liked the idea that it was a personal connection that got Moll on side to stop fighting and cooperate with Burnham so they can all get what they want. Maybe it was because it was inevitable, maybe it was just that I’m a little bit bored of seeing more of the same in fight choreography in Discovery. But even when Moll inevitably betrayed Burnham and broke pretty much everything, I just didn’t feel the tension in comparison to the rest of the action. Though all in, it was nice that she accepted her plan to get Lak back was futile and didn’t put up a pointless fight to drag anything out.
That said, Burnham breaking through the final test and recovering the Holy Grail was significantly better than I’d expected. With he Indiana Jones comparisons in the run up to the seasons release, I did feel there’d be some Last Crusade vibes in the narrative. Though the revelation of the Grail Knight in this story felt far more impactful and left the mysteries of the universe wide open. The idea that the Progenitors weren’t the creators of the technology, just the last ones to find and use it added a fascinating layer as they passed the responsibility to the next steward per the promise to the scientists who hid it from danger. Burnham proved herself, what she’ll create for the next evolution of the universe rests in her hands.
Being handed the keys to the universe is a tyrants nightmare. The problem was the quest was set by scientists who’d left a trail for someone who could use the power responsibly. And there she was. Given the secret powers of all creation, shown billions of years of galactic history all at once and when she’s reunited with her crew to make the decision what to do with the power bestowed upon her, her answer if the most Star Trek it can get.
In spite of an upswing of overly negative reactions to Discovery being the most diverse cast of characters of any chapter of the franchise so far, it leaned heavy on the things that fans used to truly embrace about the franchise. Even boast about.
Looking back at the history of the show, there was a sense of fandom pride over having uhura be a black officer in the 60’s on a bridge shared with Japanese and Russian officers. Deep Space Nine was heralded for the first on screen kiss between two women in the US, mirroring the (slightly incorrectly recorded as) first interracial kiss between Uhura and Kirk in TOS. In lore terms we’ve seen a Klingon, mortal enemy of the Federation, become a Starfleet officer and hero, seen complex stories of how the universe can overcome the greatest adversity with peace and coming together. And here we are now. Tasked with creating a new perfect universe, Burnham looks around her and she sees billions of years worth of evolution, conflict, pain, suffering and everything in between and yet see’s everything she hoped the creators beyond the Progenitors would have wanted.
A Federation filled with hope, cooperation, peace, diversity and all of them working together to create a better world. Spreading peace throughout the galaxy to become one big galactic family; a perfect mirror of ending on people from all walks of life watching a Vulcan and Kelpian become life partners.
Letting the technology become lost and forgotten seemed an obvious choice. But the reasons for it here were a great reminder of what Star Trek’s about and the peaceful world that it aims to portray as a beacon of hope. And that hope was too strong for her to let go…
It might not have been the intended final mission, but from the moment the portals tossed into a black hole to Burnham and Book dashing off for an adventure together during Saru’s wedding, it seemed the most fitting ending from one of the few shows that had hope and unity at it’s core.
Originally the end was just the beginning. Showrunner Michelle Paradise has since mentioned ideas for a potential sixth season, which was the reason for the post-mission briefing including the surprise revelation that Kovich was really Temporal Agent Daniels who’d helped out Archer and the NX01 crew back in the early days of Starfleet exploration. But there was another theme she managed to touch on after learning there’d be no more Discovery. Calypso.
Jumping ahead 30 years, Discovery’s final scenes were tacked on to bring closure to the show. With he time they had to cobble it together, it was an oddly nice ending. After rekindling their relationship following the Progenitor mission, Burnham and Book grew old together. Now an Admiral, Burnham gets picked up by her son, newly promoted Captain Burnham, to drop her off to a restored 23rd century Discovery for it’s final mission; to send it out into space never to come home.
Sure, the connection was weak. Red Directive. Something about Craft. And of course Zora’s ordered to sit and wait for that Short Trek’s episode to be released to her Federation+ Subscription. But it’s nice to see that in the end, there’s some happiness and inner peace. Adventures continue, life goes on. But in just a few short minutes the visual of her remembering the people within that chapter of her life and the struggles that brought her there – it may have been rushed and tacked on – but for a show that’s been as inspirational as it has ruffled feathers in some fan circles, sometimes all we need to see is a happy ending.
Star Trek Discovery’s Final Season is available to watch weekly on Paramount+. MEmbers of SFC Quadrant 2 are welcome ot join the Discovery SPoilers & Discussion groups for erpisode discussion in line with Europa’s spoiler policy. For more information, visit Starbase Europa on FB or reach out to your CO of DoFA.
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